This is an example written by a former student of mine, Bobby Gary, from his paper entitled, “Why Have Microbreweries Become Such a Popular Trend? A Look Into Craft Beer and Local Breweries.”  Here we see Bobby’s main claim and one subclaim in which Bobby explains one reason why the main claim is true. In the subclaim, Bobby uses the claim, reason, evidence formula to clearly unpack the argument.

Main Claim: I believe microbreweries have been gaining popularity because people are proud of the areas they come from and will support small, local businesses, people enjoy specific tastes and the varieties that microbreweries offer, people appreciate the history and stories behind the creation of local microbreweries, and social media gives an advantage to microbreweries in regards to advertising and marketing capabilities.

Subclaim:  People drink microbrews because there is a story and history behind the creation of each individual microbrewery that gives them their own personality . Microbreweries really came to the forefront during prohibition. Because local people did not have access to traditional beers during this time, they had to improvise, and created their own locally brewed beers. David Choi, a Business Professor at Loyola Marymount University, and Martin Stack, a Management Professor at Rockhurst University (2005), say that hundreds of microbrews were created and opened using new ingredients that were available to them, because the normal ingredients were banned at the time (p. 81). Today, microbreweries are typically individually owned and operated and have a leniency to create the flavors and styles that the brew masters feel like creating. This is a luxury compared to the megabreweries that must follow the styles and specific taste that have made them so popular. Owning microbreweries captures the very essence of neolocalism and their owners, like their fans, created these new styles to break away from the traditional. A great example of this is Samuel Adams founder and owner Jim Koch. Jim had a career in management consulting, but always had a passion for beer and decided to quit his job to try to recreate his great-great grandfather’s recipe. This is the recipe that is known today as the world famous Boston Lager. In April of 1985, Jim and his partner Rhonda Kallman went around selling the Boston lager Jim had created in his kitchen. They went from bar to bar to sell their batch personally, and to gain the local support for a product that was brewed in the city of Boston. Using a familiar Bostonian’s name and image of Sam Adams on the bottle, the beer was a success with the locals not just visually, but for its full-body richness in taste. In one year the company had expanded their product from Massachusetts to Connecticut and had 500 barrels of the product. Today Sam Adams is sold in all 50 states and over 20 countries internationally. The fact that a microbrewery has expanded to this level is against business and marketing odds and is a great story that people enjoy and can respect.

Of course all beer companies started out as microbreweries. The larger companies were founded by men who were creating a business and name for themselves. Adolph Coors, founder of Coors brewing Company, was an immigrant from Prussia who created the Golden brewing company in 1874. Adolphus Busch of Anheuser-Busch was German born and invested in his father-in-law Eberhard Anheuser’s Bavarian brewing company. Budweiser was introduced in 1876 and has continued to be a staple beer in the industry to this day. Even though these were microbreweries at the time, their success since then has elevated them into megabreweries that are known worldwide, and they have multiple brewing sites across the country.

The fact that three major brewing companies have dominated the market is a common denominator found by microbreweries as to why they created their own unique taste. These megabreweries have gotten so large overtime and have lost touch with the local sense and the local people, and people have forgotten their personal stories that once distinguished them from all the other brands.