Bar Tending & Beerspectives
by Matt Martinkovic
Brewsearch & Development -
Nik's Wunderbar - Whitehouse Station NJ
If you come to Nik's Wunderbar you probably love craft beer, but did you ever stop to think
just why that is?  Well, as I see it, here are a few reasons to love beer:

Beer is great for the economy. More than two million Americans earn their livelihoods thanks
to beer—farming grains and other ingredients, working in retail outlets that sell beer, actually
brewing beer, and so on—bringing in a total of $79 billion in wages and benefits annually.
Brewers, importers, and distributors also payup $5.3 billion in taxes each year.

Beer variety and quality have never been better. As of 2014, there were 3,418 craft
brewers in the U.S., an increase of nearly 20% over the year before. Craft beer production
rose 42% last year, and for the first time ever, craft brews accounted for more than
10% of all beer sales in America.

Beer, even good craft beer, is relatively cheap.  You can afford one after just five minutes of
work. Using median hourly wages and local beer prices around the world, analysts found out
that Americans have to work the least amount of time to cover the cost of a cold brew. The
data indicates that the average worker on earth had to toil for 20 minutes in order to earn
enough money to pay for a beer.  In the U.S., where wages are much higher, employees must
suffer through only five minutes of work before earning enough to cover the cost of a brew.

Some especially great beer is made by monks. Try as you may, your homebrew probably
won’t be quite as tasty as the brews lovingly crafted by the original hipster entrepreneurs,
monks. The monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Mass., are renowned for brewing
Spencer Trappist Ale, is the only Trappist brewery in the USA. .

The underdogs are gaining ground on the corporate giants. When Budweiser aired an
incredibly defensive Super Bowl commercial that proclaimed itself “Proudly a Macro Beer” and
mocked hipsters and the craft beer trend in general, the move was viewed as somewhat
desperate. After all, Budweiser sales have steadily declined for decades, and Anheuser-
Busch InBev has tried multiple strategies to try to revamp the stale image of Bud and its other
mass-produced brands. The corporate beer giants have also been buying up craft beer
labels and creating their own faux craft “crafty” brands to compete with the legions of small,
independent brewers around the country.

There’s beer for all tastes. At the same time that craft brews have soared, a few old-school
beer brands have seen sales rise largely thanks to nostalgia. Coors Banquet and Miller Lite
have used old-school packaging—stubby bottles and the 1970s logo, respectively—to
successfully boost sales. And drinkers drawn to the old-fashioned packaging seem to enjoy
the brew inside. Not everyone likes dark, hoppy brews, and true beer lovers should only care
about what they’re drinking, not what someone else likes to drink.

So there you have it - my top 6 reasons to love beer!

Hope to see you soon at Nik's Wunderbar.

================

Cheers,

Matt
And don't forget my friends at the  Northside Lounge,
100 Brooks Boulevard, Manville, NJ 08835     908-722-7712
Matt Martinkovic is not only a recognized beer authority but a well known ecological writer whose
work has appeared in the The American Midland Naturalist (University of Notre Dame) among other
industry publications.  He also has been an agricultural consultant on, of course, the growing of hops.
Reasons To Love Beer
To all my readers and friends, please stop in and say hello to me at my new home, the great
Nik's Wunderbar,    It's an exclusive Bavarian beer hall and beer garden focusing on
German dishes and German brews. The staff wears traditional Bavarian dress too!  When you come in
be sure to sign up for my free newsletter.  And tell them you saw it here on BeerNexus!
454 Route 22 West Whitehouse Station, NJ 08888
For Matt's latest Wunderbar Newsletter click HERE