Going out for a Pint: Exploring the Relationship between Craft Brewery Locations and Neighborhood Walkability

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between neighborhood walkability and craft brewery locations. Craft breweries are emerging as Third Places across the United States as a part of a broader neolocalism movement. Walkable places can also reflect neolocalism, attracting people and amenities who share similar values. It is reasonable, then, to expect a relationship to exist between craft brewery locations and neighborhood walkability. Using the city of San Diego as a case study, craft breweries are mapped within San Diego neighborhoods. Walk Scores are used as a measure of walkability and correlation coefficients computed to test the existence of a relationship. Three correlations are computed with relation to Walk Scores: one each for microbrewery locations, brewpub locations, and all craft breweries (microbreweries and brewpubs combined). Results indicate that there is a positive correlation between neighborhood Walk Scores and brewpub locations, but not microbreweries or all craft breweries. Brewpubs, by definition, sell the majority of their beer on-site, which may necessitate location criteria such as walkability that are not as necessary for microbreweries. This research is, to date, the first that explores the relationship between craft breweries and walkability.

Key Words:

• Craft breweries
• Third Places
• walkability
• neighborhood amenities
• Walk Score

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Dr. Oleg Smirnov for providing input to a previous iteration of this paper. Also thanks to two anonymous reviewers for the insightful comments and suggestions.

Notes

1 The quotes from Watson and Kiraly can be found in Morrell (2016).

2 The same study found that the value of commercial properties was not impacted by proximity to a craft brewery.

3 According to one industry expert, a keg of beer sold to a distributor may generate $110 in revenue. The same keg sold in the brewery’s taproom can generated between $800 and $900 in revenue Morrell (2016).

4 A barrel of beer equals 31 US gallons.

5 Results of Kendalls’s tau-b and Pearson correlations were also checked and did not change the outcome.

6 The output from this analysis are not shown, but are available from the corresponding author.