Happy Independents Day!

In an annual tradition, today we salute all those independent breweries out there toiling to make the best beer they can in an increasingly difficult environment. Among the independents you will find every kind of beer brewed and process practiced: they include fierce defenders of tradition as well as restless experimenters, tinkerers making obscure styles on bespoke systems, or regional powers whose flagships have become national classics. We tend to focus on America’s small breweries, which at their most aged extend back less than a half-century, but scattered across the world you find breweries that have been keeping the faith for centuries. Most of what is interesting about beer was invented by, or kept alive by, an independent brewery.

There’s a second meaning to “independent” that has only come into focus in the past few years: independent as in “separated from the whole” and “alone.” Each one of these independent breweries is on their own. They are flying without a safety net, and for the most part, without a blueprint. Should they go into debt to finance a new taproom? Should they put their sales and marketing behind older flagship beers or develop new brands? Should they make a THC drink? Should they try to expand into new markets or strengthen their positions at home? There are no right answers—sometimes decisions that work for one brewery fail for another. Independents must chose a course, and they live and die by the decisions they make.

For this year’s edition of my annual celebration of these breweries, I have posted photos and links from posts I’ve written about some of these breweries, locally and internationally. Select one at random or read them all—in each case, they illustrate what it means to be independent.