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Employees at Fredericksburg Distributing Co. get pallets |
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:
$162 billion for the entire United States. That includes nearly 1.8 million jobs paying more than $54 billion in wages. Federal, state and local tax revenues related to the beer industry were estimated at more than $30 billion.
$3.78 billion in Virginia. That includes 39,532 jobs, $1.21 billion in wages and more than $721 million in federal, state and local taxes generated and paid.
$646.8 million in the 1st District, including 4,322 jobs and almost $152.7 million in wages.
Beer wholesalers association President David Rehr said that beyond "providing a refreshing beverage enjoyed by 90 million adults," the beer industry is a key player in keeping America's economy afloat. The study takes into account beer-related jobs some might not think about, such as farmers and truckers.
The results come at a time when industry analysts say beer is facing an image crisis. Wine and spirits are gaining in market share due to a loss of suds' sex appeal to young consumers.
But Michelle Semones, a spokeswoman for the beer wholesalers lobby in Alexandria, predicted the industry's impact will grow as it targets women.
Semones said women are being attracted to new products such as Budweiser Select, a light beer that is supposed to have no bad aftertaste. Anheuser-Busch also has a new "energy drink" beer, which combines alcohol and caffeine, that it is marketing to that all-important 21- to 35-year age group "out at clubs and dancing, who want to be alert," she said.
"We're seeing more and more innovation aimed at new demographics," Semones said.
Jeff Fitzpatrick, who runs the Blue & Gray Brewery at Bowman Center in Spotsylvania County, said Virginia's beer business should grow if a state trend toward trying "home-grown" local microbrews continues.
That growth may be reflected by the increase in size of the St. Patrick's Day Parade Blue & Gray hosts at Bowman Center Saturday at noon. As always, there will be lots of beer sold in Fredericksburg and throughout the 1st District on March 17, which is St. Patrick's Day.
But Fitzpatrick said there's nothing unusual about this area's thirst for beer.
"There's a tremendous market for beer everywhere in the country, everywhere in the world."
To reach MICHAEL ZITZ: 540/374-5408 mikez@freelancestar.com
