If residents support incentives, they do not always agree that alcohol will improve a community, said Chris Andrus, a co-founder of Mitten Brewing Company in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Though breweries are plentiful, none were on the city’s west side, a blue-collar former furniture-making center, when Mr. Andrus and his partner, Max Trierweiler, sought to open one in a dormant 1891 firehouse. Neighbors who were worried that another bar would hurt the struggling area spoke out at zoning meetings, he said.

But opponents may have come around since the brewery opened in 2012. Mitten closes earlier than bars in the area, Mr. Andrus said, “and we attract a lot of families.” The brewery, which is profitable, seems to have also attracted investment in the neighborhood. Across the street is a gin distillery, in a former clothing store, and another corner has a barbecue joint, in a former hamburger stand. Other breweries have also arrived in the area.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, property values are also on the rise. Mitten’s 6,000-square-foot firehouse, which cost $220,000, is worth about $600,000, Mr. Andrus said, which is “largely because of us.”

Whether craft breweries are a fad or will endure may come down to drinkers’ tastes, but evidence suggests passion for the product is high.

On that January day in Middletown, Bob Helligrass and Jaime Loughridge, friends from the Albany area, sat eating lunch at Tapped, a bistro next to Equilibrium that opened around the same time.

Before buying India pale ales at Equilibrium, the pair had also hit up the two-year-old Hudson Valley Brewery in Beacon, N.Y., to buy some of its beverages, while also snagging a meal along the way. “Breweries,” Mr. Helligrass said, “have benefits all down the line.”