Even after the COVID dust has settled, consumers continue to choose online shopping to meet their needs. Zippia reports that as of 2022, 14.8% of retail sales in the US are online. We are lucky enough to live in a country where you can spend your money how and where you see fit, but here are a few good reasons to support local whenever possible.
According to the Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs, small businesses make up a whopping 99.7% of U.S. businesses and 64% of the new jobs created annually. In fact, 74% of small business employees report job satisfaction. While smaller companies may not have the HR resources of their mega-counterparts, flexibility, individually tailored benefits, and more human connection sets a solid foundation for these high marks.
When money is spent on locally owned business, a much larger percentage of that amount is spent locally as well. As much as 64% stays right in that community, versus only about 32% spent at a chain, and 0% spent online.
Local businesses sponsor kid’s sports teams, events we love so much (and missed this year), as well as the nonprofit groups working hard to give back to the community. Without the support of small business, many would not have the revenue stream to survive.
And finally, unique small businesses drive traffic to small town Main Street from all over, creating tourism and tax revenue that is used to enhance local infrastructure and services.
As the temperature continues to drop and thoughts turn to holiday wish lists, keep local in mind. There are so many amazing shops and boutiques in Geneva to find beautiful and unique gifts for everyone on your list. We are thankful to live in a community which supports its local business!
Author: Rebecca Moore
Cooking with beer: Beef & Beer Sliders
For many, the 4th of July means gatherings with family and friends. In this week’s installment of Cooking with Beer, we have a delicious recipe that can feed a hungry group. This is one of my favorite type of meals to make: throw some ingredients into a slow cooker, set and forget!
The recipe doesn’t specify a certain type of beer, so whatever beer you enjoy drinking can work. I would suggest our Downtown Honey Brown. The honey sweetness of the beer will complement the barbeque sauce perfectly.
Beef and Beer Sliders
Ingredients:
3 lb beef roast chuck, bottom round or brisket works
salt and pepper for seasoning
2 teaspoon garlic powder
12 ounces Downtown Honey Brown – the rest of the growler is for the cook 😉
½ cup BBQ sauce
12 to 16 mini slider rolls or potato rolls
optional: serve with extra BBQ sauce cheese, pickles, hot peppers or crispy onions
Click here for full recipe and instructions
All of our handcrafted beers are available in liter growlers to go. Pick some up this weekend for your Independence Day festivities!
Cooking with beer: Chocolate Porter Cake
For the next installment in our Cooking (ahem, Baking) with Beer series, we’re heading to the dark (and sweet) side. We’re using our Doc’s Porter to make a delicious chocolate cake. This recipe comes from Midwest Living magazine.
Ingredients:
Nonstick cooking spray
1 cup butter
1 cup Doc’s Porter*
⅔ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup sour cream
2 eggs
1 recipe Chocolate Ganache Frosting (recipe included in link)
1 ounce white baking bar, melted
For complete instructions, click here!
All of our beers, including seasonals and barrel-aged brews, are available for carryout in liter growlers.
Cooking with beer: Beer Mussels
At Stockholm’s, we love pairing beer with food. But we also love to cook with it! As a little nod to American Craft Beer Week, we thought we’d start a series called “Cooking with Beer”. Every other week, we’ll share a recipe using one of our craft brews.
We’re starting out with one of my favorites, and it’s a perfect dish for summertime al fresco dining. This recipe comes from Leonel, our master chef who’s been with us since day one. We’ve featured it on our specials menu before, and it may make another appearance this summer.
Beer Mussels
1 Tablespoon butter
1 lb mussels
3/4 c State Street Pilsner
2 slices bacon
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ shallot
2 sprigs thyme
1 Tablespoon parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ c. chicken stock
salt & pepper
Immediately before you cook the mussels, you need to clean them. Working with one mussel at a time, rinse the shell under cool running water and scrub it gently to remove any debris. Make sure to keep the bowl of mussels on the counter as you don’t want it to fill with water.
Next, cook the bacon in a large heavy bottom pot with a tight-fitting lid. Remove bacon once cooked and set aside. In that same pot with bacon fat, melt the butter. Sauté garlic and shallots until softened and fragrant, taking care not to burn the garlic. Lightly season with salt and pepper (bacon and chicken stock will impart salt as well, so feel free to skip the salt here.)
Return bacon to pot and add the State Street Pilsner and bring to boil. Add the mussels and cover with the lid. After 3-4 minutes, remove the lid to stir. Add Dijon, thyme, parsley, and chicken stock. Let the mixture reduce by half. Discard any mussels that have not opened and serve with toasted crostini. Enjoy!
The State Street Pilsner used in this recipe, as well as all of our craft brews including seasonals and barrel-aged brews, are available in liter growlers to take home. Enjoy them on your patio, use them in recipes, or give as a fun and unique gift!
Beer: the briefest of histories
As all great and wonderful things usually are, beer was, for all intents and purposes, a purely serendipitous discovery. According to ancient.eu, the process of brewing beer dates back to 10,000 B.C.E. when agriculture first developed in the Mesopotamian River Valley. Some scholars contend that beer was discovered accidentally when grains intended for bread-making fermented, producing a sour (and intoxicating) beverage. It quickly became a staple in their society. In fact, poems, myths, and paintings were made to celebrate it. They depict people and gods drinking beer through a straw, a new invention at that time, which worked to filter out the chunks of bread and herbs that were ever-present in the beer brewed at that time.
At Stockholm’s, while we brew our beer in an Old World tradition, we’re talking more 19th century. And while our beers are unfiltered, there is certainly no straw required to enjoy our full balanced flavor. We offer fourteen handcrafted beers, rotating seasonals, a barrel brew, a Small Batch Root Beer, and a hard root beer all year long. Can’t decide what to try? Have a voyage – five 4 ounce samples of your choosing. You’re bound to find a new favorite. Skoal!
Green beer
Is your craft beer green? No, I’m not talking about food coloring in your Solo cup on St. Patrick’s Day. How environmentally friendly is your beer? Climate change, carbon footprints, and sustainability are hot (and rather controversial) topics. And the question is invariably the same: What are WE doing about it?
Beer is big business. Statista.com states about 141.55 billion barrels of beer were sold in 2022; while beerinstitute.org declares about 62% of beer volume produced in the United States is packaged in aluminum cans. According to The Aluminum Association, Americans throw away roughly $700 Million of recyclable aluminum cans each year. And Science.HowStuffWorks.com estimates only about 25% of glass containers used by consumers in 2018 were actually recycled. That’s a lot of unnecessary waste in landfills. (Fun fact: Believe it or not, Germany outpaces the rest of the world when it comes to recycling, with nearly 66% of the country’s solid waste being recycled annually.)
At Stockholm’s, it is important for us to be responsible stewards of our environment. The beer we brew is delivered through a draft system, and our beer to go is bottled in reusable glass growlers. This eliminates the need for single use bottles or cans. Draft beer flavor also typically keeps longer as there is less probability of variations in temperature, light, pressure, etc. that can alter or ruin the brew. Draft beer can be susceptible to taste contamination if the lines aren’t properly cleaned and maintained. Lucky for us, Mike Seaman, a draft systems professional, expertly cleans our beer lines regularly. Together with his parents Ed and Sue, Mike owns and operates The Homebrew Shop and Broken Brix Winery and Cidery St. Charles. You can find their hard cider at Stockholm’s, as well!
So if you’re looking for an easy and delicious way to reduce your carbon footprint, just drink our beer. It’s a great way to be green, just in time for St. Paddy’s!
