What it showed was this: While places like Seattle and Denver and Brooklyn and Delaware can claim impressive craft brewing scenes, and a weirdly large number of people nationwide now speak of hop fetishes and beer crushes, Bend is a per capita powerhouse. With 80,000 people surrounded by not much of anything — with no Interstate, no university, and the closest major city 160 miles away across steep and snowy mountains — beer has had room to make a difference.The NYT fancifully suggests the beer saved Bend. Since unemployment remains 11%, I believe they mean to say it saved Bend's soul.
And it has.
“Deschutes County breweries and brew pubs reported 450 jobs in 2010,” Carolyn B. Eagan, a state economist, wrote last fall. “That is 15 percent of all of the brewing employment in the state. For a county that had 4 percent (one of every 25 jobs) of the state’s total employment that year, one out of seven jobs in Oregon brewing is quite impressive.”
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Jeff - as a born and raised oregonian this post warms my soul. After moving to the midwest in late 2008, I can tell you that 11%unemployment is paltry for such a remote area of a relatively underrepresented state population-wise, especially in terms of per capita craft beer drinking in portland alone.
What I can tell you from a ton of experience is that bend more than any other city I have ever seen can owe all of its notoriety to beer. When I have people ask me how it is that a brewery like deschutes is the 5th largest in the country, yet we never see it in Indiana, it is a pretty simple response:
Deschutes is ubiquitous in the northwest. Like Brooklyn Lager is to NYC, Pyramid Hefe to Seattle, Anchor Steam to SF, going into any grocery worth a damn and not finding a mirror pond sixer is out of the question. True, Bend is not a thriving economy. But when I explain to people in the Indiana/Michigan/Chicago area that Bend hosts the 5th largest brewery in the country, and that they are a full 5 hour drive from ANYTHING in Oregon,let alone one of the longest, most dangerous drives you can imagine to take 5 hours, it makes peoples jaws drop.
Is Bend a metropolis? No. Can you directly relate the success of their breweries to putting them on the map, especially getting them into the NYT? I'd say absolutely.
I understand your desire to occasionally be the devils advocate for oregon. I constantly use my upbringing as a validation of my knowledge in the midwest. However I think this is an area where you may be a tiny bit jaded.
Where else can you find a brewery outside of New Glarus in the top 30 that seems like a shocking place for a top 30 brewery to be from?
B
Ben,
Totally not jaded. You raise related but different issues. My basic point is that beer is not saving Bend economically. Even in a small community like Bend, 450 jobs constitutes a tiny percentage.
My point about it saving Bend's soul is a nod to the things you cite. I think the NYT--and a couple of days later, the Oregonian did a very similar story--was trying to point out how important beer is to Central Oregon. Using jobs is just a silly way to make the point.
Whenever I hear someone go on a tear about how great Asheville, NC is for beer I smile and say--sure, but they're no Bend. In terms of beer volume, beer quality, and brewery-to-body ratios, no city in the world can match it.
True, they are two different issues. 11% unemployment is bad. And 450 jobs in a town of 80,000 is certainly not saving an economy.
But ponder this: What would Bend look like if there were no breweries at all? What if Deschutes had opened in Eugene instead? Likely still a viable tourist community for the spectacular range of hiking, rafting, skiing, climbing, biking, etc destinations that surround it, but not really a destination itself.
It's semantic, sure. Beer didn't "save Bend." It didn't save its economy. It didn't even save its soul. But it put them squarely on the national map, and I find that pretty cool. I find it very cool how often I get asked here in northern Indiana where someone can find Mirror Pond or Black Butte, or the die-hards asking if I can get them a bottle of Abyss.
And sorry to call you jaded, I think there are few people out there who sing the praises of Oregon more than you, and I very much appreciate that.
Ben
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