Craft breweries are fermenting change, addressing local ills while serving local ales

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Colleen C. Myles, Texas State University

(THE CONVERSATION) Some scholars say beer and wine – and fermentation in general – helped develop civilization and shaped culture and landscapes over millennia.

Today, craft breweries, which are by definition small and independent and thus focus their production on innovative, small-scale methods rather than industrialized, mass-produced ones, are still playing that role.

They are increasingly prominent players in America’s social and environmental landscape, helping to produce what some people call fermented landscapes. They serve as community partners, and sometimes community leaders, to make change happen.

And you thought you were just going out for a beer.

Brewing change

In a 2023 study I conducted with colleagues Delorean Wiley, Walter Furness and Katherine Sturdivant, we found that craft breweries involve themselves in social and political change in three major areas: the environment, community and individual well-being,...