The Case of Barking Beer
With microbreweries proliferating, a correlation between owning dogs and drinking beer becomes more apparent but why does that matter?
Growing up my dad would share a sip of beer with my brother and I. When we reached a beer drinking age, the dog got the sip, we got bottles. Drinking is a social past-time. Memories and associations made drinking, of joviality, family, and friends, put beer at the center of cultures the world over. More and more, the family of drinkers extends to include canine members, especially in the craft beer crowd.
Scanning search engines quickly reveals sixty plus breweries make dog references in their names. Four black dog breweries stand against two white dog breweries. Yellow dog plays dead, chases tails, and shakes paws. The bad dog bites tires in Sooke on Vancouver Island while the other bad dogs brew in Salem, Oregon.
Island Dog brew on Mayne, Dog Island on the shores of Slave Lake. Lagunitas proclaim “doggone goodness.” Flying Dog from Maryland want to infuse beer with bud. Brewdog, one of the fastest growing craft breweries of the UK but also worldwide, has come to symbolize gentrification in London. Good boy, bottom sniffer, snuffle dog, and bowser beer make beer … for dogs.
Craft beer revolutionizes drinking. Drinking and socializing, and now dogs and craft brews, often go hand in hand. As industrial beer sales stall and fall, the production patterns of old decay. Waves of artisanal brewmasters actively, have and continue to, disrupt the capitalist trajectory of monopolization. Hoyne of Victoria BC stand by: “We may be small but at least we are not big.”
Exceptions to the artisanal scale include craft breweries with rapid expansions such as Brewdog and buyouts like Heineken owning Lagunitas. The taste of mainstream beer, you know the water-downed-industrial-piss-lager, has evolved to include bitterness, fruitiness, and even sourness. The style of production and consumption is changing, appearing to become more individualized and less industrialized. Craft industries blossom with customers fatigued from the depersonalized, normative road.
Familiarity lies at the core of how we relate to the world. However, the path less travelled also has its appeals. As societal interactions become less personal, consumers crave a personalized experience. Dogs provide this. They will get happy, just because its you! I have heard people claim that they love their dogs (or cats) more than they love other people. Marketing with our fuzzy friends seems to work. Pioneers of craft beer, Deschutes and Spinnaker’s even provide craft dog treats at their breweries.
But why does this matter? For one, who doesn’t like noticing a pattern. More importantly, understanding how we relate to the world can help us make sense of it. I love dogs and I love beer but I think feeding your dog beer goes a bit far. Its kind of like feeding your cat tuna. Oh wait, we do that too. “Human grade” meat for pets and even superfood containing pet foods are on the rise.
George Okin, a UCLA Geographer, crunched some numbers on American pets. He found that if all the dogs of the USA formed a nation, picture that, their meat consumption would rank the fifth highest of all nations. American cats and dogs consume a third of the USA’s animal-derived calories. My high school Geography teacher told me that the average African’s ecological footprint was dwarfed by that of the mean North American cat or dog.
Do Geographers hate pets? No! As Okin emphasizes, this is not an attack on your furry friends. Just a friendly reminder to seriously consider whether you need a pet, can feed your pet and most importantly how you will go about doing so. Cheers!
