Most people don’t tie beer back to the founding days of this country and our growth as a nation, but if you look back through history beer has played an integral role in our growth from immigration to urbanization.
In the 1800’s more than 1 million German immigrants came to the United States, the majority of which were beer drinkers and made a major impact on the type of beer that consumers requested influencing the producers to adjust their offerings. They also brought with them new brewing methods, new brewing yeast and introduced the lager to American society.
Another interesting note is that in some respects the beer industry has come full circle. In the early days beer was produced in small batches at homebrews. There were typically multiple homebrews in every major city. As industrialization took over in the 20th century large breweries became the norm producing alcoholic beverages for most of the country, but now with the surge in craft beers the trend of the small local brewery that services a city or small region has returned and brought with it more variety and flavors than ever before. Cheers!
Source: NPR, July 2017