Life's Pleasures Quote by Sherwood Boehlert

A politician quoting craft beer growth isn’t just making small talk about hops; he’s laundering an economic argument through a consumer trend that feels cheerful, local, and bipartisan. The numbers do the heavy lifting. “Second straight year” frames craft beer as a durable shift, not a fad. “Fastest growing segment” is a competitive superlative designed to cut through policy noise and land as a headline. Then comes the clincher: 9 percent, “nearly triple” wine and spirits. That comparison quietly deputizes craft beer as the responsible upstart, the part of alcohol that looks like manufacturing and entrepreneurship rather than vice.

The intent is likely constituency politics with a frothy veneer: signal support for small businesses, regional producers, and Main Street jobs without having to say “subsidy,” “tax treatment,” or “regulatory relief” out loud. Craft brewing, especially in the mid-2000s, was becoming a proxy for localism and “made here” pride. A politician can celebrate it while also aligning with chambers of commerce, agricultural suppliers, and tourism boards. It’s economic development rhetoric in a pint glass.

The subtext is also cultural triangulation. Wine can read as upscale; spirits can read as hard. Craft beer reads as approachable but discerning, a way to flatter consumers as savvy rather than indulgent. In 2005, as “craft” was expanding from food into lifestyle branding, these stats functioned as permission: the market is voting, and it’s voting for the artisanal. Boehlert is tapping that momentum to argue, implicitly, that policy should follow the crowd.