Friday’s ad is another one from the United States Brewers Foundation, from 1951. This a series of ads they did in 1951 using a Q&A format aimed at highlighting different positive aspects of beer and the brewing industry.
Q
Are most American breweries “large” or “small” businesses?
A
Small, individually — although the Brewing Industry as a whole ranks 13th in America.
Interestingly, the way the defined “small breweries” was not barrels brewed or the amount sold, but by the number of employees. They defined a small brewery as one with less than 500 workers, saying the average was less than 200. Using that metric, 409 of the 440-then active breweries they defined as being small. I wonder how that would work out today? I suspect only 2 of the more than 3,000 breweries open today have anything close to 500 employees.
