Barrels and tanks at the Sam Adams brewery in Jamaica Plain.Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Boston is known for many things: its history, culture, educational institutions, world-class medical facilities, and championship sports teams.
However, one of its lesser-known accomplishments was when Boston became famous worldwide for its breweries.
More than a century ago, Northeastern University historian Malcolm Purington said Boston was the center of dozens of beer-makers.
"Around 1900, there were 30 different breweries," he said. "And 25 of them were located within one mile of Roxbury Crossing."
Established by German immigrants and supported by the availability of a fresh-water source, Stony Brook, the breweries in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury were churning out rivers of beer. However, Boston's passion for beer began even earlier.
Purington said back in the 1700s, famous Bostonian Samuel Adams helped grow Boston's love for beer as he became one of the leaders of the opposition to the British Parliament's efforts to tax the British American colonies without their consent.
"He was starting to get people riled up and advocating them to drink beer because it was an American-made product," Purington said.
Ultimately, Purington said one of the big reasons behind the slide of the industry was tribalism.
"During World War 1, when Germans were the bad side, that's when we started seeing a real push for prohibition focusing on the German ancestry of all these brewers," he said.
While Boston still has a thriving craft beer industry today, the new tariffs on Canada create a new challenge along with tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.