Abita Brewing Company

The Abita Brewing Company is a brewery in Abita Springs, Louisiana, USA, 30 miles (50 km) north of New Orleans. Abita was formed by Jim Patton and Rush Cumming in 1986, in downtown Abita Springs - now the Abita Brew Pub.

Production

In 1986 the company produced 1,500 barrels of beer. In 2011, Abita brewed over 130,000 barrels of beer and 5,000 barrels of root beer. The Abita Brewing Company produces seven year-round flagship brews (Abita Amber, Golden, Light, Turbodog, Purple Haze, Jockamo I.P.A. and Restoration Pale Ale), five seasonal beers, three Harvest brews, four Big Beers, a draft-only series of Select beers and a root beer all from a state-of-the-art brewing complex.

Distribution

Abita's flagship beers are sold in 46 US states and Puerto Rico. Abita Brewing Company was the 15th largest Craft Brewery and the 24th largest brewery of any category in the United States ranked by volume sold in 2010.

In February 2012, the company began distribution of three of its flagship brews in cans: Amber, Purple Haze and Jockamo I.P.A.

Brewery

A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of beer has taken place since at least 2500 BC; in ancient Mesopotamia, brewers derived social sanction and divine protection from the goddess Ninkasi. Brewing was initially a cottage industry, with production taking place at home; by the ninth century monasteries and farms would produce beer on a larger scale, selling the excess; and by the eleventh and twelfth centuries larger, dedicated breweries with eight to ten workers were being built.

The diversity of size in breweries is matched by the diversity of processes, degrees of automation, and kinds of beer produced in breweries. A brewery is typically divided into distinct sections, with each section reserved for one part of the brewing process.

History

Beer may have been known in Neolithic Europe and was mainly brewed on a domestic scale. In some form, it can be traced back almost 5000 years to Mesopotamian writings describing daily rations of beer and bread to workers. Before the rise of production breweries, the production of beer took place at home and was the domain of women, as baking and brewing were seen as "women's work".