CRAFTING BUSINESS WITH Breweries

Farmers have a long list of potential markets for their produce — restaurants, wholesalers, farmers markets, and retail produce outlets are just a few common selling options. However, a novel market is emerging, offering a new source of revenue: local breweries and cideries.

An Expanding Craft

Local breweries seem to be popping up everywhere nowadays, but this wasn’t always true. Although more than 4,000 breweries existed in the United States in the early 1870s, this number steadily declined over the next century until breweries in the country had all but disappeared.

A main contributing factor was the National Prohibition Act. In effect from 1920 into the early ’30s, Prohibition forced breweries to stop producing alcohol except for near beers (that is, beer containing little to no alcohol). The damage done to breweries lasted until the early