Brewery Class of 1988
In the forty-plus years since the first small, post-Prohibition brewery was built in the United States, the burgeoning microbrewing industry saw some pretty incredible growth and expansion in those early days.
In 1984, just a year after the closure of the aforementioned first microbrewery, many new breweries opened up across the U.S., but just as importantly, seven states joined the craft beer club (Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Virginia, Tennessee, and Washington). A notable year, for sure, it’s just a shame that about 85% of those upstarts are no longer in operation.
Just two years later, seven more states got their first microbreweries, including Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Utah. In terms of longevity, the new breweries in these states fared better, with about 70% of those early brewers still brewing beer today.
Looking back over the last four decades, there is one year that stands out among them all for bringing some truly excellent craft breweries into new states of Florida, Maryland, Ohio, and Vermont -and beyond. Even more impressive is the list of breweries that opened that year that weren’t necessarily the first in their home states, but that flourished and grew to the extent that their beer was marketed and sold in many states outside their own.
One year was arguably the single best year in American craft beer history, not only for the specific breweries that were launched in that year, but also for the impressive endurance of that class of brewers. In 1988, Rogue Brewery in Ashland, Oregon, Vermont Pub & Brewery in Burlington, Vermont, Great Lakes in Cleveland, Ohio, Brooklyn Brewing in Brooklyn, New York, Goose Island in Chicago, Deschutes in Bend, Oregon, and Wynkoop in Denver, all made their debuts. It’s a testament to their product and their brand that they are all still operating in full vigor today.
Most of these marquee names became well-known across the U.S., and some of them even have cachet in foreign countries. The downside to that reality is that not all of these originals are still viewed as craft brewers, thanks to their ownership by large corporate entities. Nevertheless, they have persevered, and they are still around to stoke our collective memories of earlier, more innocent and optimistic days in the craft beer world.