Miami Valley's small breweries then and now
Infographic: "The Illusion of Choice," by Jeff Desjardins, visualcapitalist.com. © Copyright 2019 Timothy R. Gaffney A 2016 infographic titled “ The Illusion of Choice ,” by Jeff Desjardins at the Visual Capitalist , shows how a handful of megabrewers own most of the myriad brands you find on supermarket shelves. In my research for Dayton Beer , I learned this trend was much older and deeper than I’d ever considered, and I saw how it transformed the brewing scene in the Miami Valley. Well before Prohibition smashed the brewing industry a century ago, the trend in the beer business was one of mergers and takeovers. For example, by the late 19th century, English investment groups were on the hunt for hometown American breweries they could buy up and consolidate for greater profits. That’s how Springfield’s two local breweries became one company, the Springfield Breweries, in 1890. The turn of the 20th Century found local brewers in cities natio...