Space, Place, and Culture: An Applied Geography of Craft Beer

Abstract

Welcome to this special issue of Papers in Applied Geography. The idea for this special issue has its genesis in a workshop on the craft brewing industry that was held at the Gran Sasso Science Institute in L'Aquila, Italy in July 2018. The goal of the workshop was to bring together young scholars from all over the world that were working on the craft brewing industry in their respective countries. As we listened to the presentations and eventually read the papers that were submitted to this special issue, we were struck by the global reach of the craft beer revolution. It is no longer just a North American or European phenomenon. The papers in this special issue examine different aspects of the craft brewing industry in Argentina, Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, and the United States; broadly speaking, the themes covered include craft beer as a cultural and neolocalist phenomenon, the role of craft breweries in neighborhood revitalization, and craft breweries as neighborhood amenities.

Keywords:

• Craft breweries
• urban geography
• neighborhood revitalization
• neolocalism
• craft beer culture

Notes

1 We recognize that craft brewery and microbrewery are defined differently in different countries. In this guest editorial, we use the term craft brewery as a universal term to denote a brewery that produces small volumes of beer and is independently, and in most cases, locally owned.