Beer Minute: Sly Fox, Terrapin, homebrewing

Pennsylvania brewer Sly Fox is taking one of its offerings beyond its own taps and onto the store shelves. Grisette Working Class Ale, a spicy, unfiltered Belgian-style brew that scrapes the ceiling of session beer (5.6% ABV), debuted in 12-ounce cans at Sly Fox's Pottstown, Pa., tasting room and at its Phoenixville location this week. An off-the-beaten-path beer for U.S. brewers, as a style Grisette was to Belgian miners what Saison is to Belgian farmhands. The name is derived from the gray dresses worn by the working-class women who served the beer. In Sly Fox's world, Grisette has existed as an exclusive draft offering at the brewery's pubs and some select accounts. Sly Fox promises wider distribution down the road in all of its markets.

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Georgia brewer Terrapin (where Jesse Ferguson of Carton Brewing in Atlantic Highlands trained for a time) is adding to its year-round beer lineup – a session ale that will also be Terrapin's first brew in 12-ounce cans. RecreationAle (4.5% ABV) is described as a hoppy go-anywhere brew, thus a fine fit with the canned packaging (not to mention good marketing). Due out in early June in 12-packs (the beer plans were actually announced back during the winter), RecreationAle (hopped with Bravo, Centennial, Zythos, Amarillo and Galaxy) will be the second year-round beer added to Terrapin's lineup this year. Tree Hugger, a special draft release from 2012, was added to the Athens, Ga., brewery's year-rounds back in March.

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Homebrewing is legal now in all 50 states, with Alabama bringing up the rear. But despite that celebratory change from early May, the American Homebrewers Associations says there were still some Prohibition-era yokes remaining on homebrewers that needed lifting. Lawmakers in Missouri and Illinois recently passed bills to allow homebrewers to take their beers off the premises where they were made, as in legally take their beers to homebrew club meetings, enter them in contests or serve them at festivals. Governors of both states are expected to sign the bills. Homebrewers in those states were probably ignoring those transport restrictions anyway, like their brethren in New Jersey did before Trenton tossed the Garden State's homebrewing permit requirement and transport restrictions last year.

– The Beer Minute is a quick-read round-up of notable events or news about breweries from elsewhere that distribute in New Jersey.