Beer Reflections in Geography: An Analysis of Craft Beer Styles in the Midwest

Abstract

The craft beer movement of the past few decades has seen an explosion of interest from consumers, with hundreds of different styles of beer available for enjoyment. Growing alongside the industry has been a wealth of knowledge on the origins of beer and where craft breweries are located. Missing from the discussion though is research on if and how styles of craft beer exhibit patterns of geographic dispersion. To address this, the number and types of beer styles produced by craft breweries in the Midwest were collected, with the ten most common styles being compared against socioeconomic variables associated with craft beer. These associations demonstrated significant positive correlations between specific beer styles and several socioeconomic traits. The ten most common styles at multiple geographic scales were also assessed and mapped to search for patterns of dispersion in the Midwest. 

Among the examined styles, the fruited sour ale had the strongest and greatest number of correlations with the socioeconomic variables used, which included measures of education, age, and income. Not far behind though were the hazy India Pale Ale and American lager styles of beer. Regarding the variables, income, the proportion of people with a bachelor’s degree, and the proportion of people considered young Millennials had the most correlation with the beer styles examined in this study. These results demonstrated that specific socioeconomic variables likely influence the dispersion of craft beer styles on the landscape, despite craft brewers’ ability to brew any style they desire. Knowing this, we can more confidently say that the prevalence of craft beer styles is a product of geography while adding to the literature on the subject.