Identifying American Beer Geographies: A Multiscale Core-Cluster Analysis of U.S. Breweries

Abstract

The recent growth in the U.S. brewing industry is remarkable, and the prevailing number of breweries has not been seen since the late nineteenth century. Several studies have shown that beer-producing facilities are spatially uneven across the United States. These previous studies used spatial units, however, such as metropolitan statistical areas, that might bias conclusions. Using a multiscale core-cluster approach, we explicitly identify where significant agglomerations of brewers are located. Our approach offers two refinements to standard cluster detection methods. First, instead of using fixed spatial boundaries, our method allows us to measure the concentration of brewery point locations across a spectrum of spatial scales. Additionally, our approach enables us to account for important underlying factors that influence the location of beer production. We use point data for all U.S. breweries in 2014. Our results show that the localization of beer production is significant and strongest at small spatial scales and diminishes rapidly with increasing distance, after controlling for population. We map the results to show the spatial variation in brewery agglomeration across the United States.