Patrick and Jeff return to Patrick's favorite topic: Beeronomics! They first talk about the evolution of U.S. breweries from over 4000 in the 19th century to 80 in the late 1970s to over 5000 today. Then they interview Nicole Fry, Managing Partner for First Beverage Group, about the spate of mergers and acquisitions and what makes a brewery an acquisition target. Finally they discuss scarcity in beer and Patrick opines on why it might be in a brewery's best interest to keep a popular beer scarce.