Employees at Fredericksburg Distributing Co. get pallets of beer ready for delivery to area stores. The fermented beverage is a big business in the region, according to a newly released economic impact analysis by the industry. mwm

Beer sales and jobs are an economic boon for region, ranking it No. 1 in Virginia in beer-related spending and earnings.

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Date published: 3/8/2005

Give us your farmers of malts and barleys, your can manufacturers, your brewers, your truck drivers, your wholesalers, your retailers, your bartenders.

Give us your college keg parties, your thirsty Marines and sailors yearning for a beer.

A new industry study shows that the 1st Congressional District, which includes most of the Fredericksburg area, spends and pockets more brew-related money than any other part of Virginia.

Could this conspicuous consumption be because our part of the state is more red, white and blue-collar American than others? Have the heavily populated, highly educated and affluent counties in Northern Virginia lost ground by sipping too much chardonnay?

"Up north you would have more wine drinkers, I would think," said John Goolrick, a Fredericksburg aide to 1st District Rep. Jo Ann Davis.

But the 1st District has a lot going for it in terms of beer business, Goolrick said.

"It might be because the 1st has so many military posts and younger people who usually prefer beer," he said.

There are many colleges in the district and college students have been known to drink a beer or two, he added.

The 1st District covers Fredericksburg, Fauquier, Stafford, King George, Essex counties, parts of Spotsylvania and Caroline counties and extends southeast to Williamsburg and Hampton.

It also is home to the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Williamsburg, which has the capacity to produce 10 million barrels of beer a year.

According to the Beer Industry Economic Impact Study by New York-based John Dunham and Associates, the nation's most populous state, California, is No. 1 in beer economics. Virginia, 12th in population, ranked 15th among the 50 states in beer business in 2004.

The study was paid for and released by two lobbying groups, the Alexandria-based National Beer Wholesalers Association and the Beer Institute in Washington. Using a formula called the "multiplier effect," it factors in the jobs, wages and taxes created by brewers, wholesalers and retailers--even related industries such as farming and trucking--to serve up the following economic-impact numbers for the beer business:

Date published: 3/8/2005