North Dakota Beer by Nelson Alicia Underlee;

Author:Nelson, Alicia Underlee;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

BREWPUBS, HOMEBREW

AND NORTH DAKOTA BARLEY

Brewing Craft Beer in a Big Beer State, 1979–2008

Beer culture is a part of the world of food and drink. It’s not just a commodity in

cans and bottles, but has a value as an agricultural product with good ingredients.

—Michael Jackson

Dakota Malting and Brewing Company was just one of the many independent breweries across the country that closed in the 1960s and 1970s. The beer companies that thrived and expanded in this era were the ones that could efficiently package, market and distribute beer on a national scale. As the national breweries grew, regional breweries struggled to compete. The number of independent breweries continued to decrease throughout the twentieth century. As the 1970s drew to a close, only forty-four breweries remained in the United States.

Because each brewery held such a large share of the market, North Dakota passed strong franchise laws to protect the wholesalers that distributed beer in the state. Because wholesalers were small, family-run businesses that distributed just a handful of beers made by a few breweries, it would have been devastating if even one brewery signed with a competitor. These franchise laws tied a brewery to a distributor for the life of the company, an agreement that often outlived the original signers. Franchise laws also made it illegal for a brewery to bypass in-state wholesalers and distribute beer itself. Wholesalers became synonymous with the beers they sold, and drinkers were loyal to their beer and their bar.

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