I celebrated a birthday just shy of two weeks ago. (Don’t worry, I’m not fishing for well-wishes.) It happened to be a few days after 24/7 Wall Street’s study on the drunkest and driest cities in America hit the internet, and while the hubbub has died down a bit, I still have a couple thoughts.
The biggest take-away from the study, locally anyway, was that 12 of the 20 drunkest “cities” (often actually metropolitan areas) were in Wisconsin. This is a song we’ve heard sung before, in a couple different keys: Wisconsin has 2.7 times more bars than grocery stores, Wisconsin has the nation’s third-highest number of bars per capita. There are a lot of valid arguments for this statistical spike, from “the immigrants who initially settled in the Midwest came from European nations with brewing heritage” to “historically agricultural communities value leisure after a hard day’s work,” to “hey, it gets cold up here.”
Ultimately, it all boils down to a simple truth: Wisconsin, and the upper Midwest in general, just has a drinking culture. I think the above reasons are legitimate, but they’re hardly the active reason for how we value drinking today.
One of the things I’ve heard both as a beer writer for Isthmus and a beer commentator in general is that beer writing fundamentally celebrates intoxication and unhealthy lifestyle habits. It should go without saying that I couldn’t disagree more.
Look at events like Isthmus’ Beer and Cheese Fest, or the Great Taste of the Midwest. While both offer unlimited consumption, there is an expectation of decorum during the events, and substantial availability of both designated driver tickets and safe-ride programs. There’s food offered at both, and water as well. You can make a claim that the craft beer world celebrates privilege — those of us who can buy a ticket and drink for hours and trust that we’ll get home safely and legally are lucky indeed — but to say that those events promote irresponsible behavior is a reach.
That is not to say there aren’t entities that promote unhealthy relationships with alcohol in Wisconsin, and in the United States in general. There’s stilll sexism in beer advertising. Social media accounts belonging to the drinking culture brand Drink Wisconsinbly post videos at the expense of clumsily drunk people, and repost visuals like a bar marquee that reads “Alcohol removes stress and bras n panties.”
Coincidentally, that marquee belonged to Dieter’s Ale Haus of Appleton, the top-ranking city on 24/7 Wall Street’s list. (Madison placed fourth.) The Fox River Valley is my hometown area, and I was disappointed to see Appleton take that ignominious gold medal. Appleton’s civic leaders were, too, and at the same time took issue with the self-reporting aspect of the data that informed the study.
Don’t you think there’s a percentage of the population that would shy away from admitting to a survey that it drinks to excess, even anonymously? For instance in the study’s driest city, Provo, Utah?
Compare that to Wisconsin, where it’s very easy to imagine a proud, “oh, you bet I drink” kind of response. And that’s where I think the core of the problem lies. Pride. I love Wisconsin, and I love the best parts of our drinking culture because I appreciate the craft and the product — but I don’t high-five over how much I put away last night.
For my birthday, I had a beer during a round of mini-golf with my wife. I had another one later, with dinner. Later that night, we drove up to Plover to pick up some bottles I pre-ordered at O’so’s taproom. We enjoyed our day, and we occasionally did so with a beer in our hands, but we never took it too far.
Undeniably, many people do. People high-five inebriation, and not just in Wisconsin. But combined with the availability of alcohol in Wisconsin versus so many other states, that kind of pride hurts as much as it helps. Appleton Mayor Tim Hanna might have protested a bit too much with his comment, “If anything, we should be reported the most honest city.” Honesty includes accepting that drinking isn’t harmless, pride isn’t riskless, and that Wisconsin might have a good tolerance for its alcohol — but also too high a tolerance for misuse.
