Is Florida Headed For A Craft Beer Boom?

    While Florida may be a latecomer to the craft beer scene, recent proliferation of small breweries around the state indicate a rapidly growing craft beer economy. If mature craft brewing economies in western states are to be any indication of things to come, Florida could be headed for a craft beer boom. According to a project report from University of Florida, sponsored by the Florida Brewers Guild, if compared to capita-per-brewery data from mature craft brewing states such as Colorado, Oregon, Washington and California, Florida’s population could support as many as 550 craft breweries. This number is roughly ten times the number of breweries the state had at the time of the UF report in 2014.

    Due to the large influx of breweries around the state, concerns have been raised over the affects this growing industry has on the communities they occupy. Specifically, a common narrative has arisen that alludes to the idea that breweries contribute to gentrification and displacement. With new breweries popping up around the state, should locals be worried about being pushed out when a brewery moves in across the street?

    While previous studies have found anecdotal evidence that breweries contribute to gentrification, recent research conducted at Cornell in 2018, based on geocoded brewery locations around the country, and relying on census tract demographic and employment data, found quite the opposite. The study concluded, as others have in recent years, that craft breweries actually contribute to neighborhood revitalization and preservation by occupying areas of industrial decline, or inhabiting historically distinct buildings in communities that would otherwise be destroyed for development. While detractors maintain the narrative that craft breweries are just well marketed gentrification, the study at Cornell could find no causal evidence to support this claim. Many other scholars agree.

Bottles of Coppertail Brewing Company’s “Free Dive IPA” line the shelves of a local Florida grocery store

In her article, cultural heritage, sustainable development, and the impacts of craft breweries in Pennsylvania, Allison E. Feeney, a professor at Shippensburg University wrote, “revival of old warehouses and industrial buildings...is renovating and promoting new life in areas that would otherwise be in decline.” Her research of breweries in pennsylvania coincides with the research conducted at Cornell which indicates that, contrary to the popular narrative, craft breweries actually help to strengthen diversity, preserve community history, revitalize areas in decline and foster neolocalism. 3 Daughters brewery in St. Pete would appear to be a prime example.

    Occupying a large metal warehouse at 222 22nd Street, 3 Daughters brewery opened its garage doors in 2012. Between 2014 and 2017 the taxable assessed property value of the once unoccupied industrial building rose by over sixty percent thanks to the brewery’s improvements and commercial add-ons. The rousing success of 3 daughters is not unique. Local breweries around the St. Pete area have been flourishing with little adverse impact on their surrounding communities. According to USFSP anthropologist Dr. John Arthur, this is due to their culture of support and community involvement.

“What is special about the brewing industry in the Tampa Bay region and Florida is the brewers support each other, so everyone has a chance to learn and be successful. I don't know of any other business sector that has built a culture that is so supportive,” Dr. Arthur said.