American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
The beer biz never sleeps at American Craft Beer. And here’s some more of what’s been happening in the beer world, while you were drinking your way through a long Thanksgiving weekend.
Whistling Dixie (New Orleans, LA) – Dixie Beer was once a name that meant something down south. It was a relatively influential and popular brand back in the day, in states like Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
And now the once-proud brand is reportedly in the hands of Saints owner Tom Benson, who has restored the beer’s original formula and launched a major marketing push to hopefully return Dixie Beer to its previous glory – and then some.
Founded in New Orleans more than a century ago, Dixie Beer’s fortunes have waxed and waned over the years. It not only survived Prohibition, but in the 1950s it owned almost as much as 30 percent of the city’s local beer market. But it struggled over the years to compete with national heavyweights such as Pabst, Miller and Budweiser and the impact of Hurricane Katrina sunk the brand…until now.
Currently contract-brewed in Memphis, Tennessee, the once ‘workingman’s lager’ is making its return with a marketing push attempting to straddle that ‘craft’ meets Pabst line. And we’ll be watching Dixie Beer closely to see if they can make that transition fly.
Last Words To Drink By (Fort Lauderdale, FL) – “So much wasted time.” David Cassidy (1950 -2017)
Is Alaska’s Craft Beer Industry Recession-Proof (Juneau, AK) – Although overall beer consumption in Alaska continues to decline, Alaskans’ consumption of craft beer has increased a mind-blowing 35 percent since 2013, according to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
Alaska has been suffering from an extended local recession, the result of the declining state oil revenues that the state’s economy is so dependent on. Yet at the same time, craft beer produced annually in the 40th state has doubled between 2007 and 2017!
Brewery and brewpub employment in Alaska has also grown dramatically over the last decade – a combined total of 1,261 employees in 2017 alone, according to the Labor and Workforce report.
