Happy Thursday. Gotta make this brief; field trip today with a bagful of nickels.
Few things on this earth move to the top of the in-box faster than a communique with “beer” in the subject line with the possible exception of missives from that Nigerian king.
That dude’s gonna make me wealthy.
Until then, I’ll keep mining email for informational nuggets buried in what can best be described as a “mountain of garbage.”
And yesterday, before the first cup of coffee could begin working it’s magic, a Eureka moment popped up.
N.C. beer industry creates 75,082 jobs and $12.8 billion economic impact.
Um. What?
When it comes to beer, most days I’m concerned with two numbers and two numbers only: ABV and IBU.
People are also reading…
(The first indicates how strong it is and the second, as the wife puts it, whether it’ll taste like someone squeezed a skunk into the bottle. If you know, you know.)
But economic impact?
A stroll through any self-respecting medium-sized city downtown will tell even the obvious that Beer is Big Business.
Asheville has long styled itself as “Beer City” and hawks merchandise to that effect. An entire subset of the tourism industry has sprung up around craft beer; Uber drivers can recite chapter and verse how many breweries the town has on offer.
Locally, Foothills in Winston-Salem and Red Oak in Greensboro were pioneers. Growth, built through sweat and being among the first to recognize a growing wave, followed.
Smaller, equally ambitious others followed. Wise Man, built in a cleverly repurposed building on X Street in downtown Winston-Salem, comes highly recommended.
Viewed through that prism, it makes perfect sense that the Beer Industry would hire lobbyists (and PR types) to compile the stats and tout their work.
To wit:
The biennial Beer Serves America report finds that the U.S. beer industry supports nearly 2.4 million jobs and contributes more than $409 billion to the economy.
The jobs include brewers, agricultural workers, retail employees, distribution and manufacturing jobs.
The beer industry, per the report, pays more than $132 billion in wages and $63.8 billion in taxes.
In North Carolina, the report claims responsibility for more than 75,000 jobs and putting some $12.8 billion into the state’s economy.
Not bad.
One other key stat not included in the Beer Serves America report is worth mentioning.
Per something called BeerInfo.com — consider the source — the average American adult downs 28.2 gallons of beer each year. That's an average of 10 ounces a day or roughly a six-pack per week.
I have friends who call that “Wednesday.”
Broken down further, North Carolina clocks in 35th among the states at 27.1 gallons per year trailing Florida at 27.4 gallons and just ahead of Michigan at 26.8 gallons.
The leader, by a large margin, is North Dakota at a whopping 45.8 gallons per year. Clearly, there’s not much to do.
Just a little something to ponder next time you’re overwhelmed by the choices in the beer aisle.
Drink up, drink local and take care of the bartender.
Memorial Day schedule
WINSTON-SALEM — It should be obvious, but in the event you've been putting off pressing city business, but helpful communications folks want you to know that the Winston-Salem City Hall will be closed Monday.
Memorial Day. Duh.
Cops and firefighters obviously will be working and a skeleton crew at the Hanes Mill Road Solid Waste Facility (the Dump) will shut things down at 3 p.m.
Garbage collection will follow the normal schedule for the week. Yard waste and recycling collection will be pushed back by one day. Friday’s collection will be on Saturday.
In Greensboro, city offices will also be closed. Garbage collections will be postponed one day; other collections will be on a regular schedule.
