When I moved to Seattle in 2012, the craft beer scene was well established, but in the years since, it has really boomed. Small breweries have popped up all over town. They open shop around the corner from competitors. They cram into spaces so small, you couldn’t park a car in them. But, on any random weekend afternoon, they’re all busy—really busy. We’re talking lines out the door.

It seems like every new brewery is a big success. I mean, people like beer. And in a densely populated city, one that’s growing by 1000+ people every week, each new brewery immediately becomes a new neighborhood hot spot. Maybe one day Seattle will get oversaturated with craft beer, but it doesn’t seem likely anytime soon. Back to beer in a minute.

I recently read a Business Insider article in which the author presents the idea that Millennials, as a generation, are “psychologically scarred” by their experience having come of age during The Great Recession. And, that because of their experience, Millennials have unique consumer preferences that sometimes have severely negative impacts on well-established American companies and industries. You’ve probably heard it all before. But what caught my attention was that the author comes to the conclusion that Millennials aren’t responsible for their industry-killing ways, but that it’s actually their Baby Boomer parents who created the conditions they grew out of.

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