Teamwork: Beer and Baseball

If there ever was a team sport it would be baseball. No one individual can win a ball game for the Yankees, not even Babe Ruth on steroids.

The same is so if one wants to be a brewer. Like the one who throws pop-ups to oneself -- or hits balls and chases them - you don't know how your play fairs against others when you livc in your own little league, in a vacuum.

Individuals can home-brew beer and drink it, all in their own personal privacy. Until they venture out to a homebrew club -- or submit their beer to a taste test by people other than family and friends -- they may never realize the flaws, thus never improving their practices.

Brewers are subject to public judgments and their taste buds. Good beer sells well. Bad beer loses a customer for life, not to mention being a recipe for negative word of mouth advertising.

Plus, it takes a team to brew beer well. From keg washing to mashing to bottling as well as serving and distributing, a brewery is a symphony of concerted effort. No one man (or woman) could do it all.

Historically an employer of a local workforce, breweries support not only their own workers, they buy from local farmers and suppliers of equipment, as well as hire merchandisers and transportation teamsters.

Baseball and beer brewing are team-based activities. I have noted their connection previously in this space ethereal. They are also done best in the experience of the public.