Place‐Making Through Beer‐Drinking: A Case Study of Montana's Craft Breweries

Abstract

Montana's craft brewing industry has grown astronomically in the last few decades and has spawned many breweries with local names and themes. Using Montana's craft breweries as a case study, this paper demonstrates that craft breweries play a significant role in contemporary place‐making. First, brewery and beer names are analyzed to extract several place‐based themes, and it is argued that these perpetuate a particular New West identity for the state. Then, through the lens of tourism and the quest for “authenticity,” surveys of brewery visitors are used to identify the various attractions that drinking craft beer and visiting breweries offer their patrons. Besides the taste of the beer, the local nature of breweries and their community focus prove to be an important draw for brewery visitors and provide the chance to experience the community in a more authentic way, and thus, offer an opportunity to make a meaningful connection with place. This research proves that craft breweries have become an important venue for place‐making, not only in Montana, but in other cities and states with a significant craft‐brewing industry

Key words:

• place‐making
• craft breweries
• neolocalism
• New West
• Montana

Notes

1. I use “microbrewery” and “craft brewery” interchangeably here, but the terms do have distinct definitions. A microbrewery is defined as brewery that produces no more than 15,000 barrels per year and sells 75 percent of its beer off‐site (Brewers Association 2015d), while a craft brewery is a more general term for a small and independent brewery. Most of Montana's breweries are microbreweries, and all but one are craft breweries. (Big Sky Brewing Company is better described as a regional brewery.)

2. “Slow elk” is a local phrase describing cows (Big Sky 2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ann M. Fletchall

Dr. Ann M. Fletchall is a visiting assistant professor in the department of History, Political Science, and Geography at Mississippi University for Women, Columbus, Mississippi 39701; [[email protected]].