The Beers' Mini, Episode 6, recorded August 5th, 2015.

Drink locals bullshit. Shit.

Hey Patreon people, John Rubio here.

And the other day, I was at a bar, and I ordered a ballast point in Grunion.

And there was another guy at the bar, and I asked him if he'd ever had it before thinking I could turn him on to something new and he asked me is it local and I told him no it's made in San Diego it's a good beer you should try it and he goes I you know I only drink local beer. I like to support my local brewery.

And that's something I hear a lot, you know, the whole drink local thing. And it didn't ever really sit with me that well. So I actually made a concerted effort to think about it. Because drink

local, yeah, you hear it all the time. It's a rallying cry in the craft beer industry that calls for

the community to buy and enjoy local

beer instead of beer made elsewhere. And on the face of it, buying locally brewed beer is good.

I mean, it supports the local economy in a bunch of different ways. You know, people that work at

the brewery and distributors and retailers, they all get their cut. I mean, even more than that get

their cut. And it's certainly good for the local

community. Local beer also has a higher probability of being fresh, and as a result, closer to the

brewer's intent. And buying more of it means that more money stays within the community. More

beer gets cycled through the local sales channels, and all that is great. But there are reasons

why drinking locally is an overall concept is sort of bullshit.

First of all, what does local mean anyway?

I mean, most of the ingredients of those beers, equipment they're brewed with, vehicles

they were transported on, and taps they're served from, were probably made in other parts

of the country or the world.

I mean, it's not the same as the farm to table or the local eating movement in that way. It's just something

that for most breweries is assembled at the brewery and not really locally sourced in most

...