On the road to other things - beer and economic development

I got to admit that I am not much of a beer drinker. Also, I feel the need to say that I meant to write something a lot more substantive than this post today. Then I am taking a break from some early morning work and reading headlines and I see this one from Australia. I will get to the other post I meant to write today later today.

Wineries have these tour things, why not breweries? Sounds like they do it in Australia. So I goggled Indiana breweries. Here is what I found:

1. Indianabreweries.com has a page for tours but nothing listed (most of its pages are blank).
2. Beerexpedition.com has a page here but no date when it was compiled.
3. Beer-lover.com has information here in a table form.
4. Indianabeer.com has a map (even if it does look like Barley Island is in Indianapolis and not Noblesville) and a calendar of events.
5. The Brewers of Indiana Guild has a newsletter page here.
6. Micro Labels has a listing here.

If all this seems a bit silly, well it is until you see something like this:

NINE G Brewing Company in South Bend, Indiana is available for immediate sale. Almost $600,000 has been invested in NINE G Brewing Company. This investment does not include brand development, customer base value or sweat equity

That is the capital investment. Nothing in the rest of the announcement about revenue. For those of you reading this and thinking about tax bases - think about the property taxes, the sales taxes, the income taxes, and the alcoholic beverage taxes generated by these businesses.

We might not think much of tourism. Tourism does not come with large buildings which generate property taxes. Tourism does not result in durable goods like cars. On the other hand, we do not make auto parts here and a whole bunch of those factories are gone. My practical Midwestern skepticism does not like the idea of a local economy based just on tourism. Well, other than French Lick and that is a unique situation.

I also hate the build it and they will come mentality of Mitch Daniels You can build anything and think that but the results may differ drastically from the intended consequences. Howard Hughes thought the Spruce Goose would fly and it did - just not very far.

With all that said, I do think we ought to consider tourism as an ingredient of our economic development. Think about these breweries, think of their ability to contribute to the local economy, and think how the contribute to their localities if people come from outside their localities to visit them. That's where tourism comes into play - as the bonus to locally generated income. Setting up a tour of Indiana breweries would bring out-0f-towners with their dollars with benefits to the local economy.