Bristol University Press
4 The Paths to Becoming a Craft Brewer and Craft Beer Consumer
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Nathaniel G. Chapman
Abstract
This chapter examines how, given the historical realities that have built the current structure of the craft beer industry in the United States, we today see a structure that is itself racialized, gendered, and exclusionary. The systematic erasure of black and brown practices of brewing and drinking in early America; the creation and solidification of pubs and taverns, and the subsequent establishment and legal consecration of such spaces as 'white' establishments; the construction and solidification of the three-tiered distribution system that defined the oligopolistic beer structure that launched the big beer families; and all the way through the signing of the Homebrewers Act in 1978 — all these things have contributed to and solidified this structure. It is worth interrogating how it is that individuals have gotten and contemporarily get into the positions within the three-tiered system itself. The structure itself is one thing; the bodies within that structure are another, having the potential to either challenge the structural realities and/or to build the culture and symbolic violence that continues to actively exclude people of color. The chapter then lays out the social structure of becoming a brewer, a beer representative/distributor, and a consumer — the three parts of the three-tiered distribution system.
Abstract
This chapter examines how, given the historical realities that have built the current structure of the craft beer industry in the United States, we today see a structure that is itself racialized, gendered, and exclusionary. The systematic erasure of black and brown practices of brewing and drinking in early America; the creation and solidification of pubs and taverns, and the subsequent establishment and legal consecration of such spaces as 'white' establishments; the construction and solidification of the three-tiered distribution system that defined the oligopolistic beer structure that launched the big beer families; and all the way through the signing of the Homebrewers Act in 1978 — all these things have contributed to and solidified this structure. It is worth interrogating how it is that individuals have gotten and contemporarily get into the positions within the three-tiered system itself. The structure itself is one thing; the bodies within that structure are another, having the potential to either challenge the structural realities and/or to build the culture and symbolic violence that continues to actively exclude people of color. The chapter then lays out the social structure of becoming a brewer, a beer representative/distributor, and a consumer — the three parts of the three-tiered distribution system.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- About the Authors viii
- Acknowledgments ix
- Foreword xi
- Series Editor Preface xv
- Brewing Up Race 1
- Racism, Brewing, and Drinking in US History 27
- The Making of the (White) Craft Beer Industry 49
- The Paths to Becoming a Craft Brewer and Craft Beer Consumer 75
- Exposure, Marketing, and Access: Malt Liquor and the Racialization of Taste 103
- Gentrification and the Making of Craft Beer White Spaces 131
- #WeAreCraftBeer: Contemporary Movements to Change the Whiteness of Craft Beer 155
- Respondents to the Semi-Structured Interviews 181
- Interview Protocol 183
- References 185
- Index 203
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- About the Authors viii
- Acknowledgments ix
- Foreword xi
- Series Editor Preface xv
- Brewing Up Race 1
- Racism, Brewing, and Drinking in US History 27
- The Making of the (White) Craft Beer Industry 49
- The Paths to Becoming a Craft Brewer and Craft Beer Consumer 75
- Exposure, Marketing, and Access: Malt Liquor and the Racialization of Taste 103
- Gentrification and the Making of Craft Beer White Spaces 131
- #WeAreCraftBeer: Contemporary Movements to Change the Whiteness of Craft Beer 155
- Respondents to the Semi-Structured Interviews 181
- Interview Protocol 183
- References 185
- Index 203
