Pa. beer rules force Iron Hill to retool Mug Club

A popular brewpub customer rewards program is being forced to end, thanks to beer industry regulators in the Keystone State.

The 11,000 members of Iron Hill's Mug Club got an email on Monday informing them that decisions by alcoholic beverage regulators meant the brewery-restaurant chain would have to end the 10-year-old customer loyalty program at its nine locations.

At issue, among other things, is the awarding of points to club members upon purchases of beer.

That practice is being stopped immediately for beer, but will continue for food. Under the program, those points would accrue, and credits (i.e. 25 bucks off your next Iron Hill tab) were awarded at certain thresholds.

Monday's email, signed by co-owner Kevin Finn, says the mug club is being revised to meet regulators' concerns. Iron Hill is exploring its options and expects to offer a replacement program this fall.

"Whether we agree with these decisions or not, or why after 10 years the Mug Club has become an issue, is not up to us to decide," Kevin says in the email. "What is important is finding a solution quickly and doing what’s best for our most loyal customers. We want to comply with all the laws and regulations in the states we operate, but our primary focus is providing guests handcrafted beer, creative food and attentive service."

Kevin also outlined other key changes being put in place while Iron Hill recasts the program:

    •    We will no longer accept new members during this transition.
    •    Current members due for renewal will have their memberships extended until the new club is active.
    •    Current members will receive 500 points immediately. This is our gift for past loyalty and patience during this transition.
    •    Members can continue to drink from the Mug Club mug, but must pay the same price as non-club members, an additional 50 cents over the current price of a pint. The free 8 ounces of beer that Mug Club members received was another major issue for the regulators.
Customers who signed up for the club paid a fee and were given a dated souvenir 24-ounce ceramic mug to take home and were served their beer orders in the same types of mugs during visits to Iron Hill.

Thankfully, it wasn't a heavy hand from New Jersey regulators that forced the changes. But since Pennsylvania's Liquor Control Board threw the cold water on the party, Iron Hill is checking rules for the Garden State and Delaware, the state where it was founded and has its home office.

"Officially, it is currently the PA LCB, where we received a letter," co-owner Mark Edelson says by email, responding to some questions about the club changes. "Since all states have liquor laws that prohibit some types of 'enticements,' we are verifying what the other states say. But regardless, 70 percent of our Mug Club is in Pennsylvania, and the logistics of running different deals in different states would lead to a nightmare trying to keep things straight, especially as it pertains to awarding points and checking points online."

Mark continues: "Specifically in Pennsylvania, the regs clearly state that you cannot serve a larger portion of beer without a proportional increase in price. Thus, filling the mug at the pint price is specifically illegal.

"Awarding redeemable points for the purchase of alcohol is considered an 'enticement' to purchase alcohol and is therefore illegal. Although redemption of an earned award on alcohol is NOT illegal.

"Charging a fee for joining the club in which you can get discounts not afforded the general public is also considered and "enticement" and is therefore illegal."

Iron Hill has six locations in Pennsylvania, two in Delaware and one here in New Jersey, in Maple Shade. A 10th location is projected to open in Voorhees in Camden County around the end of this year or the start of 2013.

Next stop, governor's desk

Vote tally, 39-0

Greater freedoms for New Jersey craft brewers, and the subsequent benefits for their followers – beer drinkers, now come down to a tough-talking, über Springsteen fan who has in the past shown support for homebrewing and craft beer.

Just exactly how Governor Chris Christie will act on the legislation handed off to him on Monday remains, of course, to be seen.

But the Garden State Craft Brewers Association, the industry organization that backed the bills, is optimistic that the governor will sign the bill, endorsing changes to the rules that brewers say have hemmed them in since 1995, the headwaters of the beer renaissance that has seen New Jersey brewery ranks since swell to two dozen.

Still, as the legislation enters this final phase, the opposition that has trailed it upon its introduction earlier this year isn't going away. The powerful New Jersey Restaurant Association is likely to seek the governor's ear and appeal to him to veto the bill, renewing its complaints that the proposed regulatory changes fly in the face of the three-tier system governing alcoholic beverages.

The association contends the changes would diminish the value – think six and seven figures – of licenses that bars and restaurants hold to serve beer, wine and liquor.

So, supporters of craft beers brewed in the Garden State will just have to stay tuned. But there are some significant things to consider.

Coming on the heels of Saturday's 16th annual guild beer festival aboard the USS New Jersey, Monday's Senate action sent the craft brewing bill to Governor Christie with a 39-0 vote; last Thursday (June 21), the Assembly gave its stamp of approval, 64-13.

Those wide vote margins should play to the guild's favor with the governor's office. And the economics of giving the state's craft brewers a freer hand command attention as well.

For instance, as with the opening of its Maple Shade location three years ago, Iron Hill brewpub projects it will create 100 jobs when it opens its second New Jersey pub in Voorhees around the end of this year. (Iron Hill has nine locations spread among Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.)

Under the current craft brewing regulations, brewpubs are cut off after two establishments (and thus Voorhees would theoretically cap the number of jobs Iron Hill could create in the state). But the measure (A1277/S641) passed last week and Monday would allow brewpubs to operate up to 10 establishments and sell their beers through distributors.

Outside Senate chamber, after the vote

(The legislation also would allow production breweries to retail beer to tour patrons for consumption on and off-site. Right now, the most you can buy upon touring a New Jersey craft brewery is two six packs or two growlers. If the governor signs the bill, that would retail limit would become a 15-gallon keg.)

Additionally, and this is perhaps a reflection of the continued vibrant national market for craft beer, some of the Garden State's newest breweries, specifically ones launched last (Cape May Brewing, Carton and Kane Brewing), have added assistant brewers, sales staff or tasting room employees on their payrolls, all before crossing the threshold of being in business a full year.

Meanwhile, Flying Fish Brewing is on the verge of launching its new $7 million automated brewery in its new home of Somerdale. (Last October, Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno paid a visit to Flying Fish.)

So with that those circumstances as a backdrop, all eyes turn to the governor, an outgoing guy known for batting down critics, tough talk at town hall forums he's held across the state, and his preference for taking in a Bruce Springsteen concert over prepping for a campaign debate.

To his credit, the governor signed legislation in January to dump a 20-year-old state regulation that obligated homebrewers to obtain a permit to make beer in their backyards and garages. In May 2011, he also signed a proclamation declaring the second week of that month Craft Beer Week in New Jersey, to coincide with a national observance.

Again, stay tuned. A new era of craft brewing in the Garden State is closer to reality than it has ever been.

Guild bill passes Assembly, 64-13

Tote board from Assembly vote

With a favorable Assembly vote in their pockets, New Jersey's craft brewers are now turning their attention to a Monday state Senate session and scheduled vote on companion legislation that would give those brewers more leeway in marketing their ales and lagers to Garden State beer enthusiasts.

Lawmakers in the Assembly on Thursday voted 64-13, with one abstention, to pass legislation to modernize New Jersey's craft brewing regulations, a long-sought change to the rules under which the state's combined two dozen production breweries and brewpubs do business.

Members of the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild, which developed the legislation with the help of lobbyists from the Kaufman Zita Group, are optimistic for passage in the upper chamber. (As many Jersey beer drinkers know, the guild is umbrella group that represents most, but not all, of the state's craft breweries.)

The Senate version of the bill has key bipartisan sponsorship from Republican Sen. Tom Kean Jr. of Union County (home to Trap Rock brewpub and Climax Brewing) and Democrat Sen. Donald Norcross of Camden County (home to Flying Fish Brewing and the planned Iron Hill Voorhees location). If passed by the Senate, the legislation would go to Governor Chris Christie for his consideration.

However, even with the tailwind that the legislation is now enjoying, the guild is renewing an action alert, again asking beer enthusiasts across the state to call or email their senators and urge them to vote yes on the bill. (The guild has posted a link to the state League of Municipalities so beer drinkers to find their legislators.) The state's restaurant association has been a staunch opponent to changing the brewery rules, complaining the proposed rewrite would erode the three-tier system under which alcoholic beverages are produced and sold.

Heading into Thursday's session, the guild had expected votes in both the Senate and Assembly. However, the legislation did not make it onto the Senate's list of bills to be considered for a vote.

And, when the bill came up for a vote in the Assembly, it wasn't without some surprises: Assemblyman Anthony M. Bucco, an early sponsor of the bill, was among a bloc of Republicans voting no that also included Assemblymen Alex DeCroce and Jay Webber, whose legislative district includes Butler, the host town of High Point Brewing.

(If you've ever been to a Ramstein beer open house, then you know that High Point Brewing enjoys a lot of support from local elected officials, including some who have swung the mallet during the ceremonial oak barrel tappings.)

Bucco and DeCroce were joined in dissent by  Republicans from the Shore area: Monmouth County Assembly members Sean Kean, David Rible, Amy Handlin, Caroline Casagrande, and Mary Pat Angelini; and Ocean County Assembly members Brian Rumpf and Diane Gove.

In fact, Republicans accounted for all of Thursday's 13 no votes and the lone abstention, from Assemblyman Ronald Dancer. (Despite opposition from that particular group of Republicans, the bill did pass the Assembly with bipartisan backing.)

And like DeCroce, Assemblywomen Angelini and Casagrande voted against craft breweries in their districts: Carton Brewing (Atlantic Highlands) and Kane Brewing (Ocean Township) and Basil T's in Red Bank; while Assemblywoman Donna Simon's dissent was a vote against newly licensed Flounder Brewing in Hillsborough.

Metaphorically speaking, the Assembly's vote, and recent affirmative Senate committee votes on the bill, represent a tectonic shift in Trenton's attitudes toward craft brewing, a small, but now-growing, industry the Legislature had largely ignored and even rebuffed when it came to the industry's prior pleas for a rule rewrite that would make the Garden State competitive with its neighbors Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania.

Until lately, the most craft brewing ever got from Trenton, after lawmakers authorized small-batch brewing back in the mid-1990s, was a millstone of a rule hung around the industry's neck: a regulatory change a few years ago that made it difficult for production brewers to cut loose distributors they had entered into agreements with.

But as craft beer and the craft brewing industry raised its profile nationally over the past few years, the legislative climate in New Jersey has grew more favorable. The measure just approved by the Assembly, and to be taken up by the Senate on Monday, would allow brewpub owners to operate up to 10 establishments and to sell their beers through wholesalers – essentially enabling beer drinkers to get those brews at places other than the pubs.

Right now, the only place you can get an Avenel Amber is at J.J. Bitting in Woodbridge; the same thing goes for Ironbound Ale (Iron Hill in Maple Shade) and Leatherneck Stout (Tun Tavern in Atlantic City). As many beer drinkers know, if you enjoy those brews, you must go to those brewpubs to get them.

For production brewers, meanwhile, the legislation would allow retail beer sales to tour patrons for consumption on and off premise, a change that means going beyond the sip-size samples and two-six pack/two growler limit that have been the customary practice in the Garden State for practically all of the 17 years that craft brewing has been going in New Jersey. (For instance, the legislation would allow people to buy a keg – 15.5 gallons – from the brewery.)

The legislation's sponsor, Assemblyman Craig J. Coughlin, a Middlesex County Democrat, sized up the proposed regulatory changes as some key help to small businesses, and as a way to bring New Jersey in line with the national craft beer trend – a $7 billion industry that finds craft beers enjoying unprecedented popularity. (For whatever it's worth, Middlesex County is home to three brewpubs – Harvest Moon in New Brunswick, J.J. Bitting, and Uno Chicago Grill in Metuchen.)

"Like much of the rest of the country, New Jersey is experiencing a craft beer brewing renaissance," Assemblyman Coughlin says. "The appeal of these regional beers is making microbreweries and brewpubs tourist destinations. To help these small businesses capitalize on their newfound popularity, we need to update the state's antiquated laws regarding microbrewing."

Said co-sponsor Patrick J. Diegnan, another Middlesex County Democrat: "By making these changes to our brewing laws, we can help better promote New Jersey's existing breweries and attract new brewers looking to make their mark on the world of craft beer. This is good for economic development, job creation and our state's tourist industry."

Guild legislation gets 2 more OKs in Trenton

Legislation that would give New Jersey craft brewers a freer hand when doing business on Monday cleared two more committees, passing the state Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee without comment, but again encountering opposition from the state's restaurant association before a corresponding Assembly panel.

Though less vociferously than during Senate and Assembly committee hearings held in March and earlier this month, the restaurant association cited the three-tier system in renewing its complaints against the legislation.

The three-tier system was put in place after the repeal of Prohibition, requiring producers to sell through wholesalers, who sell to retailers, who in turn sell to consumers. The system was set up to prevent abuses and ensure competition, but critics say it has had a countereffect in the era of craft brewing, with small producers being denied access to markets.

(Washington State is the only state in the country where producers can sell directly to retailers. The three-tier system also gets blamed by critics for adding to the cost of beverages bought by consumers.)

The bills (S642 and A1277) put forth by the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild, the umbrella organization that represents most of New Jersey's small-batch brewers, would allow brewpubs to own up to 10 establishments (the current limit is two) and sell beer through wholesalers, and allow production breweries to sell beer to tour patrons for on- and off-site consumption.

The restaurant association maintains the legislation turns production breweries into bars and package goods stores. The organization has complained that allowing brewpubs to exceed two establishments is also an erosion of the tier system.

Nonetheless, the bills were advanced by both appropriations committees with a dozen votes from each panel, clearing the way for votes by the full Assembly and Senate. When those votes could take place isn't immediately known.

Monday's vote was largely housekeeping on the part of the Legislature since the bills would also raise the ceiling for the amount of beer that brewpubs and production brewers can make, and that has a bearing on the state budgeting process and potential revenues (i.e. fees and taxes).


The vote was also the second time this month that the legislation got a thumbs-up from lawmakers. Ten days ago, members of the Assembly's Law and Public Safety panel gave the bill the green light. A similar committee in the Senate approved the bill in March.

A talk with Iron Hill's Mark Edelson

"Where we'd like to be long term," says Mark Eldeson, one of the founders of Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, "is opening one a year for the next couple of years. We'd like to double our size in 10 years. That's what it's going to take."

The subject is Iron Hill's plans for another restaurant/brewery, it's 10th, this time in Voorhees, 10 miles south of the brewpub company's first New Jersey location in Maple Shade.

It's a Monday night in early June, and Mark's ensconced at the corner of the bar. A pair crutches propped up behind him lead your eyes to the left foot he injured during a recent soccer-coaching mishap. A healthy-size crowd swarms the bar area around him, turning out for the brewpub's release of Spéciale Belge, a smoky amber ale brewed in Belgium last March by Brasserie DuPont's Olivier Dedeycker, with Iron Hill's Maple Shade brewer, Chris LaPierre, and Marlton homebrewer Vince Masciandaro, lending a hand to the makers of the storied Saison DuPont for the one-off Belge brew.

The beer christened Philly Beer Week 2012, on the preceding Friday, at the 10-day event's Opening Tap ceremonies. But having it on tap at Chris' home base still makes for a marquee night among local beer enthusiasts.

After sampling a pint of Spéciale Belge at the bar and greeting some well-wishers, Mark retreats to a quieter back dining area to talk about that 10th brewery-restaurant, to open toward the end of this year (or early 2013) in the Voorhees Town Center, the former Echelon Mall partially razed and reborn as a cityscape – a wide thoroughfare lined with trees, street lamps and retail shops topped with townhouses.

Mark and partners Kevin Finn and Kevin Davies, all three New Jersey guys, founded Iron Hill in Delaware the mid-1990s. The three have turned the brand into a vibrant tri-state enterprise, a standout name in the beer worlds of Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

Announced in late May, the Voorhees location will be the third to open since Maple Shade started pouring beer in 2009. Iron Hill's ninth location opened in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia back in January. (Some folks will remember the continued efforts by Iron Hill open in New Jersey and that the Maple Shade location came about when prospects dimmed for a site in Barrington in Camden County.)

Followers of Iron Hill, Mark says, will find the Voorhees brewpub familiar: the signature murals by artist Jeff Schaller; the menu of appetizers, bar pies, sandwiches and dinners; the flight of house beers – pale ale, porter, and Vienna lager – backed up with Belgian ales and other creative and seasonal brews that have earned the company national recognition.

On those topics and more, Mark fielded a half-hour's worth of questions, offering some insight to what drives Iron Hill and how the über-hot craft beer market these days poses some special challenges for brewpubs.

Beer-Stained Letter: Talk a little bit about how you arrived at Voorhees for your 10th location.
Mark Edelson: Most of the stuff we've looked at in New Jersey has been South Jersey, obviously in that Philadelphia sphere. We dabbled in Monmouth County and northern counties ... I think we want to get a foothold in one area of New Jersey first, so South Jersey is (pauses) ... We have such name recognition within the Philadelphia area. Before we opened here in Maple Shade, we had a ton of name recognition, which I think we wouldn't have had in northern New Jersey. We want to continue to bolster that ...

We actually had the Barrington deal going before we even set foot in Maple Shade. That just slogged on forever, and this deal came up. We're always looking for stuff and just waiting for deals to break loose that make sense. We were looking at the Voorhees deal for a while – same thing it started to break loose and made sense.

BSL: What were some of the considerations for it and the proximity to Maple Shade?
ME: We look at it in terms of Is it too close to existing locations? We do a lot of ZIP code survey, so we pretty much know statistically where our customers are coming from. Although New Jersey has been fantastic for us, the radius of this location, Maple Shade, is very tight. Voorhees being not that far away, we don't think we're going to rob any of the business from Maple Shade.

When we first were considering South Jersey, all the naysayers were talking about how, both South Jersey and this particular site (Maple Shade), being off the (main track) ... It wasn't on (Route) 73; it was in flex space ... It was Who would ever find this? and How could we do well here? because there was a restaurant that did so-so here for a couple of years.

And you know what, we stuck with the numbers and the demographics, and they came right through for us. People didn't blink at finding us here. I think we'll find a similar experience in Voorhees as well.

BSL: The building you're going into in Voorhees, a little background about that.
ME: It used to be called the Echelon Mall ... It's now called the Voorhees Town Center. It was completely renovated. They renovated the old Echelon Mall. They razed about half of it, and built was its now called kind of a town center concept, where you have kind of a main street of retail. This one is mixed use, so there's condos ...  It's nice; it's new space. The demographics there are terrific. We've got Haddonfield, Voorhees itself ... We are right off the PATCO line. It makes it a lot easier for people to come in and out of Philadelphia to visit us, at least Center City people, which could be great.

BSL: With craft beer, the market continues to be really hot. Which model, brewpub or production brewery, appears to be more to the forefront of the growth trend?
ME: We're in the restaurant business, and we really wax and wane with how restaurants are doing. Of course, having craft beer as something other restaurants can't deliver right on site, that's our niche; that's the differentiator for us, having an onsite brewery and all the great beers we have.

Other great restaurants near us won't necessarily have a great restaurant and great brewery in it as well. Craft (beer) doing well helps us. But I can't say we track exactly with craft beer, we track more with the restaurant industry. But having craft doing so well right now is really helping us on the brewery side. 

BSL: In terms of bringing a brewery online, to give people a general idea of what it costs, what are we talking about in terms of expense?
ME: These days it takes us – with all the costs involved – $350,000-$400,000 to install, to get it all in there, and then the cost of operating. Some of the fights that we have politically here in New Jersey, that brewpubs have an edge over everybody because they make their beer so cheaply. That's such a myth. Anybody that's in the business will tell you, you plunk down 400 grand, that depreciation is rather expensive, and then when you really look at the costs, if you're really paying a (brewer) well and using the right ingredients and stuff like that, and then at the end of the day, it's costing you as much as it would to bring it in in keg, the craft beer.

Our belief is, it's not a cost issue, again it's a component that we can deliver. It's great beer that we control. It's a part of what we do, the onsite, the fresh, all of that, because we sell way more beer than a standard restaurant will sell; 22 to 25 percent of our sales are beer. We do 75 percent food, so there's no doubt we sell a lot of food. We're like most restaurants, but the beer component of other restaurants is much smaller, at least half, and then you've got liquor and wine in there as well. And we sell a fair amount of liquor and wine.

BSL: So then what's Iron Hill known more for, the beer or the food?
ME: Depends on who you ask. There are customers who join our mug club who never drink beer. Our mug club is our loyalty club; the moniker mug club is because we give out a mug. It's really a loyalty club ... I would say we've been wildly successful with our beer, especially in national awards, and whatnot. I think you can make the case that in a lot of circles, certainly, we're very famous for our beer. But certainly with our customers who live close by, it's the food. They love the beer, but they're not going to go out and drink beer every night. But they are going to go out and eat every night. Our business is driven by the kitchen. There's no doubt about it, and the beer thrives because of a thriving kitchen. I don't know that if we didn't have a great kitchen that the beer would drag the kitchen along.

I think that's where you run into issues in the industry that people aren't focused enough on the food. People in the beer business shouldn't get into the restaurant business. You need to be focused on both aspects. And people in the restaurant business shouldn't get into the beer business ... They think it's this moneymaker, and they lose heart and they pay a guy bare minimum and don't give him the money to order the ingredients he wants. And then you're not making great beer, you know. You're making adequate beer ... At the end of the day, people are going to come to us because we're a really good restaurant, and then they're going to realize how good the beer is, and they're going to drink a lot of the beer.

BSL: In the three years the Maple Shade location has been open, there have been some really unique beers to come out of here, and they've been driven by the customer base. It's safe to say you'll be looking for the same out of Voorhees?
ME: It's interesting, because when the brewer goes in, he's got to weigh what he likes personally vs. what the customers like, or what he thinks the customers want. That's always a debate we have. There's always a personal bias – even I have a personal bias. The advantage of being in a brewpub situation is that your customers, you can look 'em right in the eye. They'll tell you want they want.

Chris LaPierre with Vince Masciandaro

Right now, everyone wants hoppy beers. Everybody does, no matter where you go; that's all they want to hear is about hoppy beers. I swear, if you put IPA behind half our brands, they'd double the sales, without blinking. That's just how crazy it is. And the new varieties of hops coming out, it's an interesting dynamic. And admittedly, we've been slow to that punch. We want to brew a great variety of beers, and we want to be balanced with that. We have a hard time keeping up with keeping so many hoppy beers on tap. You just don't want to come in and have six hoppy beers on ... we want to introduce people to our whole palette of flavors. So that's what the brewer has to balance.

BSL: Being an Iron Hill location, people can expect the flagship beers like Ironbound Ale, Pig Iron Porter ...
ME: Sure ...
BSL: ... and that component of Belgian styles.
ME: And there's five of those, and tonight we've got 17 beers on tap. Generally, Chris carries 14 to 15 beers on tap. For a brewpub, that's difficult ... We used to be the eight-beer brewpub. We realized that that is not the future, that with all the beer bars popping up that can put 30 beers on that are outstanding and world-class by picking up the phone and ordering it, then we better do something new. We made some changes in our philosophies and our approach to it and some equipment changes that allow the brewer to sustain a bigger variety ... We've gotten some comments from some customers here in New Jersey that they love, as a brewpub, how many beers we have on tap, because of the variety they walked in to ...

BSL: So reading that scenario correctly ...
ME: It's hard for us to compete. They (beer bars) could kick our ass.
BSL:  So breweries at the pub level should all be taking notice, should be thinking along that line?
ME: Absolutely. You walk into a brewpub and there's six beers on, people are going to walk out these days. Gordon Biersch, their big thing is five great German beers. And they're digging their heels in on that. I gotta tell you, I disagree with that. That is not what people want. They respect the quality of those beers, but people (say) I've had this one. It's great beer and all, but give me something more. They've got one new seasonal; the brewer's allowed one seasonal. We're the opposite – we've got five and the brewer is allowed seven or nine more. But you know, it drives (our brewers') energy and creative juices, too.

Guild bill clears NJ Assembly panel

Iron Hill's Mark (on crutches) after hearing

Garden State craft brewers won another round in Trenton when a bill to modernize the rules under which they operate cleared a second key legislative panel on Thursday.

The Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee advanced the bill, A-1277, by an 8-2 vote, handing the state's craft brewing industry the prospect of the measure landing on Gov. Chris Christie's desk before the end of year, or possibly even before the Legislature takes a summer break at the start of next month.

A Senate version of the measure cleared a corresponding committee in that chamber in March by a unanimous vote.

Despite that, it's not a straight shot toward getting the bill posted for votes by the full Senate and Assembly. The legislation must now go through an appropriations committee (a circumstance tied to the fact the bill would increase production ceilings for craft brewers). However, based on the current momentum – and despite dissent by two lawmakers – the bill is unlikely to get held up, supporters say.

The two Assembly committee members who voted against the bill on Thursday, Republicans Sean Kean and David Rible of Monmouth County predicated their reservations on fears that new freedoms the bill would grant brewers would come at the expense of taverns and restaurants with bars. (Incidentally, Monmouth County is home to three craft breweries, though not in the Kean and Rible's 30th district. But East Coast Beer is, and the folks behind the Beach Haus brand are planning a brewery in New Jersey. Still, there is this: Distributor Ritchie & Page, which acquired Bud purveyor Crown Beer a while back, operates out of the 30th district.)

The lawmakers' dissent drew from arguments laid out to the committee by lobbyists for the tavern and restaurant groups, who complained the bill would undercut the value of bar owners' licenses at a time when some owners are struggling in the economic downturn. Additionally, the lobbyists said, the bill attempts to side-step long-established rules and practices for the state's alcoholic beverage industry.

That aside, Thursday's committee action indeed represents sea change for craft brewing in New Jersey.

Since the mid-1990s, when craft brewing was first sanctioned by the Legislature, the state's small-batch brewers have been hemmed in by regulations that left them at a disadvantage compared with brewers in neighboring states.

That's a reason Iron Hill brewpub, founded by a trio of New Jerseyans, got its start in Delaware and likely why Triumph Brewing in Princeton, an early pioneer of craft brewing in the Garden State, opted to expand in Pennsylvania rather than in New Jersey.

Other long-time craft brewers in the state could be counted on to utter the refrain that if they had known New Jersey would prove to be so difficult for doing business, they would have looked across the Delaware River to start their breweries.

Over the years, attempts to make the rules more business-friendly often had trouble finding a sympathetic ear in Trenton.

But this time, efforts to level the playing field – spearheaded and shaped by the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild, the trade group that represents most but not all of the state's microbrewers and brewpubs – have gained traction as craft brewing's profile and fortunes have risen across the country. (Nationally, craft brewing is a $7 billion a year industry.)

Essentially the legislation would put New Jersey on par with Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Production brewers would be allowed to retail kegs (half barrels, quarters and sixtels) directly to the public and serve more than just small samples during tours, for which the breweries could charge. Currently, production brewers are limited to selling only two six-packs or two growlers to tour guests and often provide the beer samples for free. However, under the bill – and unlike in Pennsylvania – production breweries would not be allowed to serve food, a concession made for the sake of bars and restaurants.

For brewpubs, the bill would boost the number of locations that can be held by a single owner from two to 10, and allow brewpubs to distribute their beer through wholesalers. That means beer drinkers would be able to get their favorite Gaslight or Trap Rock beers at a packaged goods stores, instead of exclusively at those brewpubs, as is the case now.

Until last month, New Jersey only had one brewpub owner that ever maxed out the licensing, Basil T's in Red Bank, which owned a second location in Toms River before spinning it off several years ago. (The Toms River location kept the Basil's name until changing it to Artisan's a couple years ago.)

In May, Iron Hill brewpub, which owns a location in Maple Shade in Burlington County, announced it had signed a lease for a second store in Voorhees in Camden County, with a projected opening around the end of the year.

Before the Assembly committee, Mark Edelson, one of Iron Hill's founders, pointed out that unless the law is changed, the Voorhees location means Iron Hill, which owns eight other locations spread among Delaware and Pennsylvania, would be legally finished investing in New Jersey.

Assembly panel to hear guild measure*

The call list

Legislation put forth by the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild that the organization says would level the playing field under which New Jersey's small-batch breweries operate continues to wend its way through Trenton.

And as summer nears, the prospects for Jersey-brewed craft beer are growing sunnier: Some of the opposition to the legislation has softened or gone away.

Despite that, the path isn't completely clear for New Jersey's craft brewers.

State lawmakers on Thursday are expected to take up the measure, A-1277, that would enable the state's beer drinkers to buy their favorite brewpub beers at packaged goods stores and buy beer directly from production brewers for on- and off-premise consumption. The Assembly's Law and Public Safety Committee is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m.

Essentially, the legislation would put New Jersey on par with its neighbors Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania, where brewers enjoy a freer hand as far as dealing directly with consumers and operating brewpubs.

For example, those states allow brewpubs to also be production breweries and sell beer through distributors. Think Sly Fox and Victory Brewing in Pennsylvania and Dogfish Head in Delaware. Production breweries in those states can also sell their tour guests full pints of beer.

New Jersey, however, restricts brewpubs to selling their beer only at their locations, and limits brewpub owners to owning only two establishments. Production brewers are now limited to giving guests who tour their brewery small samples; the current rules also restrict production breweries to selling up to two six-packs or two growlers to the public. Additionally, brewpubs cannot hold production licenses, and production brewers cannot also own brewpubs.

That's why, backers of the legislation say, New Jersey's behind-the-times regulatory climate could continue to cost the state business, tax revenues and jobs: If the rules are friendlier across the Delaware and Hudson, why open up in the Garden State?

As it did successfully back in March, when the legislation was heard by a Senate committee, the Craft Brewers Guild issued an action alert, calling on craft beer enthusiasts to reach out to members of Assembly committee and urge them to vote in favor of the bill. (See the accompanying chart of the committee members. Note the email addresses are not clickable.)

“By Wednesday, June 6th, please contact members of the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee to let them know you support the legislation as a craft beer consumer and ask them to vote yes on the bill,” the guild's action alert says.

If the committee approves the measure, it would advance to the full Assembly. (The Assembly speaker would decide if and when to post the measure for a full vote. The same thing applies in the Senate; the Senate president decides on when a full vote would be held.) If the measure is approved by both houses of the Legislature, it would then go to Gov. Chris Christie for his consideration.

Christie has shown some support for craft beer and the state's craft brewing industry, issuing a proclamation last year to acknowledge American Craft Beer Week, and this year signing a bill that freed homebrewers from an obligation to get a permit to make beer in their backyard.

The guild's action alert doesn't come without some concerns.

The Senate version of the measure cleared that chamber's Law and Public committee with a unanimous vote on March 5, but not before a parade of opponents – lobbyists for alcoholic beverage retailers, restaurants and the state's beer wholesaler organization – appealed to the panel to vote it down.

The wholesaler organization has since been appeased by some craft brewer give-backs (i.e. no self-distribution for brewpubs) and is no longer standing in the way. Meanwhile the industry group that represents alcoholic beverage retailers in New Jersey has also softened its opposition, forgoing objections it made in March.

However, the state's restaurant association continues to oppose the legislation, specifically allowing production breweries to sell pints to people who stop by for tours. It's quite likely the restaurant group will renew its opposition before the Assembly committee. But it's unlikely the guild is going to give up that part of the legislation.

During the March 5 Senate committee hearing, opponents complained the measure would further what they call an erosion of the three-tier system, the regulatory system for alcoholic beverages that inserts a layer – i.e. wholesalers – between brewers (distillers and vintners, too) and consumers as a way to prevent producers from directly marketing to consumers and controlling markets.

Guild members pointed out that the three-tier system was designed to prevent large producers from muscling out smaller ones, thereby lessening competition. 

In the decades since the 1933 demise of Prohibition – the three-tier system was born out of repeal of the 18th Amendment to the US Constitution – the wholesale network has come to favor the big producers (think of the mega brewers) at the expense of smaller ones.

In the era of craft brewing, guild members say, that circumstance has translated into unfairly choking off small producers' access to markets.

Additionally, the guild argued that exceptions to the three-tier system have been made throughout the country as a way to restore some kind of a balance in the marketplace.

*Edits made to update original post.

A touch of high tech in brewing

Flying Fish, New Jersey's largest craft brewer and one of its oldest, is on pace to say goodbye to its foundig location in CherryHill in a month's time.

Elsewhere, by that July 1 date's arrival, the folks at the state's smallest and one of its newest craft breweries, Flounder Brewing, expect to have some test brews under their belt.

One of the interesting things about these evens its the fact that at both breweries, computerized touchscreen displays will be used to control the process of making beer.

For several weeks now, the custom German-made BrauKon 50-barrel brewhouse and complement of 150-barrel fermenters (not to mention other tanks) have been in place at Flying Fish's new home in Somerdale.

It's an almost-there, just a little further moment.

Yet there are plenty more signs that Cherry Hill, where Flying Fish began making beer in 1996, is fading from the landscape and Somerdale is looming larger in the picture: installation of packaging equipment is getting a lot of attention these days at the new location; the solar panels that will help power the new Flying Fish brewery are also being installed; and several weeks ago, Flying Fish closed the door to brewery tours at the Cherry Hill site.

Also, the month of May saw Flying Fish put the new brewhouse through the paces with some test batches of Extra Pale Ale, Hopfish IPA and Farmhouse Summer Ale. (Folks at Flying Fish report the better efficiency between the new brewing set-up vs. the old is rather dramatic; that will translate into less grain used per batch, which of course will save money in raw materials.)

Setting that brewing process in motion – from grain into (and out of) the mash tun to regulating fermenter temperatures, for instance – is an illuminated touchscreen control panel tucked beneath brewhouse framework.

Featuring computer icons of all the components the brewing process – the grain silos, mash tun, lauter tun, kettle, fermenter tanks, etc. – the display panel is driven by software into which the recipes, parameters and procedures for Flying Fish's lineup of ales (and down the road, head brewer Casey Hughes says there will be lagers) have been programmed, shifting the task of creating beer from the sometimes physically laborious to the feather touch of tapping glass.

But wait it gets better.

The system can be operated remotely, too. Imagine sitting at your favorite bar with a pint of Exit 8 in front of you, logging in via an iPhone to check the temperature of beer in the fermenters or the status of other tanks.

And in case you get the impression that high tech takes the hands out of hand-crafted, then guess again. The human touch starts with formulating the recipes and continues with some taste bud and olfactory follow-up on the beers produced, to ensure what was brewed turned out the way it was intended.

The automated set-up that Flying Fish-Somerdale has graduated to puts the South Jersey brewery in league with the likes of Pennsylvania brewers Troegs, Sly Fox and Victory. It's also move toward ensuring the kind of consistency the beer-drinking public would expect.

But such automation isn't always the province of becoming a bigger brewery. In a world where technology can change faster than a bar's tap handle lineup during seasonal beer releases, touchscreen control panels are available to breweries of all sizes.

Just go 60 miles north of Somerdale to Hillsborough, where the budding Flounder Brewing has a touchscreen to operate its 1-barrel Blichmann set-up. (The brewery last week got the official blessing from town officials to occupy the building; state regulators gave the green light to Flounder's license back in early March. There are still some odds and ends to take care of, but the folks at Flounder expect to begin brewing some test batches in June.)

It was engineering mistake that led Flounder to include in its game plan a $9,000 touchscreen controller made by Brewmation, a Hopewell Junction, N.Y., company. The size of the brewery's natural gas line was found to be a quarter-inch too small, a BTU drop that meant either upgrading – and incurring a potentially lengthy delay – or switch to electric, which the brewery did.

Jeremy Lees, who owns the start-up with his two brothers, a brother-in-law and a cousin, says the mistake proved to be fortuitous. All of the Flounder principals will be leading the lives of brewery owners with the full-time jobs they had before getting into commercial brewing. Anything that will ensure consistency from batch to batch is a plus, Jeremy says, not to mention that down the road, they could add remote log-in capability to their set-up to control some of the beer-making process from those day jobs – or wherever – via a smart phone.

Closeup of Flounder touchscreen

Not unlike Flying Fish.

Brewmation has been making the touchscreen controller since 2010; the company has been making control panels for craft breweries for almost 10 years, with units installed at the New York enterprises of Rockaway Brewing and Good Nature Brewing, says Kevin Weaver, a longtime homebrewer and one of the electrical engineer minds behind Brewmation. (Kevin also has his own 7-barrel brewery in the works.)

On the hot side, you need an electric set-up to be wired into the Brewmation controller (it doesn't support natural gas rigs), but it's universal on the fermentation side. (The units cost $9,000 to $12,000.)

Even for small-size breweries, the steps in brewing "screamed out to be automated," Kevin says. "That's how the whole thing started."

A Belgian sour brew from Climax

Okily-dokily, there are some new brews coming out of Roselle Park ...

Wait, that's the wrong Flanders.

Not Ned.

The Flanders coming from Climax Brewing is a brown ale, a tart-but-malty 8% ABV offering that owner Dave Hoffmann is sending out the door in 22-ounce bomber bottles as a new label in its signature series of beers.

The Flanders brown comes on the heels of a Russian imperial stout (Tuxedo)
that hit taps and store shelves in the bomber-22s this spring and will make a return in the fall. Also coming is a rebranding this summer of Climax's hefeweizen, a beer the brewery has produced for practically all of its 16 years in business.

If you know Dave, and especially his beer preferences, then a sour beer may come as a pretty big shocker. His stock in trade has always been balanced beers that hail from more familiar European traditions – ESB, helles, nut brown ale, and an English IPA, to name a few.

But when you hear the name Dave gave the beer, Incompetent Scholar, you may not be surprised that Climax is widening its style reach.

Featuring a braying jackass on the label – created by Toms River illustrator/commercial artist Gregg Hinlicky, the guy who has turned out all of Climax Brewing's label art – the name is joke-riff on beer fetishists, those geeks who like to hump the leg of beer styles (especially the less conventional styles) and prattle on about them, waxing horrific about looks, aroma, Brussels lace, effervescence, and so forth.

But there's no satire to the beer itself (but there is some pride on Dave's part, following the logic that a good brewer can make any kind of beer).  Dosed with German Select hops, the beer's meant to be, and is, an inviting Belgian brew that intentionally understates the pucker factor (read: wild yeast or pedio-infects, no; acidulated malt, yes) and side-steps the use of candi sugar.

"It's got that nice malty taste going on; there's still some caramel malts. I didn't put candi sugar in it because I freakin' hate candi sugar," Dave says. "I don't want people getting hangovers from my beer. This one you won't get a hangover from ... the alcohol comes from the malt.

"It's slightly sour, slightly tart, but it's pleasant, nice and easy to drink," Dave says.

Speaking of the hefeweizen, Dave is honoring his longtime affiliation with Gregg Hinlicky by renaming the brew, Hysterical Hefe Weizen Ale, and giving it a label that features Gregg's visage in a self-portrait caricature.

Gregg's name may be unfamiliar to a lot of folks, but some of his work shouldn't be. He did the murals for Basil T's brewpub in Red Bank and some other shops in that Monmouth County bayshore town, plus Artisan's brewpub in Toms River (which used to be a second Basil's location). He was also among the select commercial artists to illustrate Joe Camel (a mural of Joe once graced Eighth Avenue and 42 Street in Manhattan).

A longtime craft beer enthusiast, Gregg has painted portraits of brewers, including Garrett Oliver of Brooklyn Brewery and the Trogner brothers (of Tröegs fame), not to mention Dave and several others.

And now Gregg's celebrated in a beer label.

Beach Haus Kick Back Ale due in early May

The folks who bring you the contract-brewed Beach Haus Classic American Pilsner and Beach Haus Winter Rental black lager are exploring having their own brewery in New Jersey.

Big news, yes, but hang on for a second because there are some asterisks that go along with that information. Not to mention the fact that word of it shouldn't dwarf news that East Coast Beer is on the cusp of bringing a third beer to market, an American amber ale ale that will be Point Pleasant company's second year-round label and its hoppiest brew to date.

Previewed to the festival crowds in February and March, Kick Back Ale is scheduled to be bottled and kegged May 7th at Genesee Brewing (East Coast's contractor in Rochester, New York) and hit stores after the 11th. (In development for a while, Kick Back was actually supposed to be introduced last year, but Winter Rental was pushed ahead of it as a fall seasonal.)

At around 5.5% ABV, the brew is a sit and chill with friends kind of beer, says John Merklin, who  with his friend, Brian Ciriaco, launched Beach Haus pilsner in 2010 as their year-round flagship label.

"Beach Haus Classic American Pilsner and Beach Haus Winter Rental, they were kinda like the yin and yang to one another – one certainly more sunshine, spring/summerish feel (and) Winter Rental being part of the whole fall/winter motif," says Merk, as friends call him. "This (Kick Back) was just a departure of any season whatsoever, any single day or single event. It's just the everyday backyard setting, which is the first place of leisure for most folks."

Square Melon Communications, the Westfield promotions and graphic design house that has done all of the Beach Haus labeling, turned in some inviting companion artwork this time: an emblematic backyard stockade fence with a pair of kicked-off work boot slung over the pickets, while sunrays (setting or rising, you can make a case for either amid the hues) filtering through.

Label aside, the Beach Haus brand has made its name with beers that are accessible to folks who still hang around the Budweiser tent, but the brews also hit the spot with craft beer enthusiasts. Kick Back follows that arc, and Merk describes the flavor profile as hoppy but balanced.

"It's an American amber ale, so you're definitely going to get some good hop presence. It certainly will be our hoppiest beer," Merk says. "To style, it's going to have a really rich aroma, (which) will also have equal part as far as the maltiness. Besides the color, what keeps it from being an IPA is the fact that it's a little less on the hoppy side. That equal part in maltiness really balances it out."

Now about that Beach Haus brewery in New Jersey (and those asterisks). For starters, Merk says, things in that regard are embryonic and that farming out their beers to another company to brew remains part of the Beach Haus business model. But having a local brewery was also part of the company plan that came together five years ago. Additionally, Merk says having a brewery will "give us a little added flexibility in terms of introducing new styles and new brands ... getting more beers out to market in a more timely fashion."

"We're in the early phases of looking at properties and working out financing," he says. "It's far from a done deal, but we're taking action on it probably a year or two earlier than we had initially thought.

"It's always been part of the entire picture, the long-term picture. It's something very interesting to us. Not to get away from contract brewing, I'm certain we will always contract brew. We're very happy with our relationship (with Genesee). We've actually made some really outstanding beers we feel have had a lot of success."

Here's another asterisk about the Beach Haus, something else to consider when you think of contract brewing ...

The fact that Beach Haus beers are contract brewed shouldn't be misconstrued as Merk, Brian and Tom Przyborowski, East Coast's beer-development point man, just writing a check for a brewing and kicking back while Genesee does all the work. All three Beach Haus brews have been pilot-brewed by the trio first, the recipes refined, then handed off to Rochester. And then, the trio will put their hands on whatever tasks Genesee allows.

"The best way to put it is we do every non-union job they let us, which is quite a bit. Everything starts as a brew in my garage, not just a single event," Merk says. "For instance with Kick Back Ale, we went through four different iterations – and it was 18 months worth of development, all in my garage – before we even took the first trip to Rochester."

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4-barrel brewhouse for Cape May

New Cape May brewhouse

It looks like Flying Fish isn't the only New Jersey craft brewery that's getting bigger.

Cape May Brewing is living larger these days. Not quite like the new brewhouse and that bunch of 150-barrel fermenters installed at Flying Fish's new digs in Somerdale, but it's nonetheless a healthy jump in size for New Jersey's southernmost beer-making enterprise.

For just shy of a year, Cape May Brewing has been making a splash in its corner of South Jersey, with a range of beers produced in batch sizes of a barrel and half or less. The brewery and its beers have been well-received; check out one of their Saturday afternoon open houses to find out for yourself. (See their Facebook page for hours.)


In light of that reception, owners Chris Henke and Ryan and Robert Krill saw that it was time to grow again.

This time, the jump is a big departure from the capacity tweak they made around last fall, when they stepped up from their tiny initial brew set-up (a trio of repurposed half-barrel kegs) to a 1.5-barrel system that Chris, an engineer, created.

Even with last year's size change, Cape May was staying quite busy, with Chris brewing four times a week.

Now, buoyed by a $68,000 economic development loan from their host town (Lower Township), Cape May Brewing is now stepping up to a 4-barrel Pub Brewing system acquired last November from a Maryland brewpub. The brewery is backing that up with a half dozen 15-barrel fermenters.

To make room for all of this, Chris, Ryan and Robert have taken over two adjacent units in the business park-like building on the Cape May County Airport property where the brewery launched last summer.

But wait, there's more.

Cape May is retiring its start-up Cornelius kegs more common among homebrewers, switching to sixtels and half barrels, for which the brewery is adding a kegger and a keg washer. (It pays to have an engineer on board: Chris is building the keg washer.) Supportive draft accounts accommodated the Corny kegs, but the new industry-grade ones will give Cape May a wider reach.

Meanhwile, the floor drains have been dug and concrete was expected to be poured this week. Ryan forecasts Cape May Brewing version 2.0 will be up and running in June.

Floor drain work

Licensed in May 2011, Cape May's draft beers began hitting the taps at its first account, Cabanas, a nearby oceanfront bar, a couple of months later.

Since then, the brewery has produced a dozen different styles, including a wheat beer, a stout, a honey porter, a brown ale, and a flagship IPA that took a first place in judging at last month's Atlantic City beer festival.

In the pipeline now are a saison and a kölsch, plus a re-release of their cranberry wheat.

"We started out on a shoestring budget, but we're getting more sophisticated as we go. Our licensing happened quickly, our popularity happened quickly, and now our expansion is happening quickly," Ryan says.

Craft beer billboard hits, the Top 50

Click to enlarge

Ahead of the Craft Brewers Conference (May 2-5 in San Diego), the Brewers Association has been doing an industry data dump (like this and this).

The latest one is the chart at left (we added the background of a new Flying Fish fermenter).

The list of Top 50 craft brewers (by sales) is populated with a lot of names you'd expect, and the compass points in directions you'd likewise guess to be there,  i.e. California and Colorado.

Regionally, you'll find F.X. Matt (No. 6), Dogfish Head (No. 12), Brooklyn Brewery (No. 13), Victory (No. 27) and Blue Point (No. 34).

There is another ranking worth noting, Alaska Brewing at No. 14.  (And what follows isn't commentary on their beer.)

Alaska has less than a third of the population of Brooklyn (a borough), and about a 12th of that of New Jersey (an East Coast state); it's median income is $64,000, compared with $70,000 for the Garden State.

Yet, it's a bigger craft beer producer.  Draw your own conclusions.

But ...

Keep those phone calls and emails pouring in to lawmakers in Trenton. The legislation to change the regulations is still pending. 

Brewers Association cites export growth

Click to enlarge map

Canada continues to have a big thirst for US craft beer, remaining the largest export country for America's  craft brewers, who saw the volume of beer sent to international markets surge 86 percent last year, the Brewers Association says.

Craft beer exports last year topped 110,000 barrels, for an estimated $23.4 million in revenue, a tiny fraction of $7 billion industry but nearly double the export dollar figure for 2010, according to statistics the Brewers Association released Tuesday. The statistics are based on the results of a recent industry survey.

Given that it's the US's northern neighbor, Canada is a natural market, one readily accessible, as far as transporting beer goes. The Brewers Association, the national nonprofit trade group for US craft brewers, says the volume of exports to Canada approached 28,000 barrels in 2011, a 127 percent increase fed by surging demand in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

On the heels of Canada were the trans-Atlantic markets of United Kingdom and Sweden. The Brewers Association says exports to both countries totaled just over 13,000 barrels.

While Canada is the largest single-country market for US craft brewers, western Europe clocks in as the largest regional export market, with shipments surging 52 percent last year and now approaching about 52,000 barrels.

Exports to markets out of the country remain a bridge too far for New Jersey craft brewers (and a daunting project for any brewer sending unpasteurized beer, which craft beer is, to far away markets). This is for a lot of reasons. Perhaps most notably is New Jersey breweries relatively small size, and there being not much in the way of payoff potential in trying to take on exports.

In addition, many Garden State brewers are too busy working to keep up with core markets at home and in the New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware region (and some other mid-Atlantic states), and do not wish to impede supply.

That's something Dogfish Head in Delaware encountered as it sent beer to the UK and Canada but had to pull back last year to protect domestic supply. (For whatever it's worth, the Brewers Association's news release about skyrocketing export growth isn't tempered with a mention of circumstances such as that.) 

Still, brewers like Stone (San Diego), Great Divide (Denver) and Odell Brewing (Fort Collins, Colorado) have developed overseas markets; Boston Beer as well.

Eight years ago, with the assistance of federal funding, the Brewers Association launched a program to help US craft brewers carve out such export markets. Since that program's start, the Brewers Association says, US craft beer exports have risen sharply.

"The growth in international sales is remarkable in light of the lingering global economic recession. Despite decreasing purchasing power, consumer demand for American craft beers has remained strong and importers have continued to expand their portfolios of American craft beer brands, even in emerging markets, like Brazil and India," says Bob Pease, the Brewers Association's chief operating officer.

 

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More tanks arrive at Flying FIsh

Click to enlarge image/diagram

Construction of the new Flying Fish brewery in Somerdale is really starting to come together.

There's still boatloads to do, after all, it's a quite an undertaking to set up an automated brewery that will triple the size of the one that has been producing 15,000 barrels of beer annually for a while now.

But on Monday, some more key pieces to the puzzle began falling into place. The brewery took delivery of six more tanks (fermenters and bright beer) from fabricators Paul Mueller Company of Springfield, Missouri.

The tanks arrived in pairs on flatbed trucks, and then, one by one, each was hoisted up to the roof and lowered through a hatch (specially created this purpose) and into the building.

From there, each tank was moved a few feet by forklift to make room for the next one. The tanks will be set on the concrete pad adjacent to the brewhouse over the balance of this week.

The work that took place Monday was the same process that played out back in February when the first round of fermenters and other tanks arrived from Mueller. The brewhouse equipment, custom made in Germany, arrived back in late January.

So when is all of this stuff going to be pressed into service to make beer? Well, that's a question best answered by the folks at Flying Fish (they say test brewing could start in May). But whenever that day comes, to quote Dr. Emmet Brown, "you're gonna see some serious shit."

Here are the photos from Monday.

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Tun Farmhouse IPA in da house

Brewer Tim Kelly filters Tun's fest beer

American craft brewers love to ignore beer style guidelines and crash styles into each other. In the process, the unconventional has led to some conventions, like American IPAs – bold, strapping beers that have more hops than a hopyard and left their British IPA ancestors behind years ago.

Call 'em West Coast or American IPA, hophead tonic, or whatever. Just don't call 'em unconventional, because these days they're ubiquitous and true signatures of US craft brewing.

For the Atlantic City beer festival, Tun Tavern brewpub brewer Tim Kelly was looking to create a beer that bucked convention and spoke to fusion of styles. What he came up, a Farmhouse IPA, may sound like something Flying Dog Brewery (Frederick, Maryland) did with last year's In de Wildeman tribute beer.

Aside from the style, there's only a minor bit of overlap (a specialty grain – rye), so there's no copying here (but you have admit, Flying Dog is good company to be keeping). Tim made sure to cut his own path with the Tun's version, using oats and crystal rye in the grist, along with some sour mash, plus raw apple blossom and goldenrod honeys in the kettle.

Simcoe, Cascade dry-hopping

"I often sit around at night and think, 'What can I do different?' The idea of a farmhouse IPA struck me. After I thought of it, I went online and looked around to see if anyone else had done it. I  came across only one; it was actually Flying Dog," Tim said Wednesday as he filtered the 4-plus barrels of the 6% ABV IPA brewed for the festival that starts Friday night at the neighboring Convention Center. "I tried to do some layers of things, so it's not a one-dimensional hopped beer, so there's some character to it."

With the brewing, the hops started off with Nugget, moved into Saaz, finished with Styrian Goldings, with a dash of Chinook in the whirlpool. Tim dry-hopped with a touch of Cascade added to Simcoe. (The beer was fermented with a saison yeast.)

"Simcoe tends to be not as citrusy as the Cascade. It's a little more like apricot flavor," Tim says.

The result: a bit of a bizarro IPA at 65 IBUs, he says, "not the American citrus hop, but something different, sweeter, you know earthy, funky, spicy."

FOOTNOTES: The Farmhouse IPA marks the third time the Tun has produced a beer specifically for the Atlantic City festival, and it's probably the only beer pouring at the festival that was made specifically for the event. (That's something brewpub's have more flexibility with than production breweries.) The beer also goes on tap at the Tun on Friday. It was produced in about a half-batch size, so it may not last long (plus, there's a maibock waiting in the wings.)

This year's brew, like the two prior – a dunkelweizen in 2010 and Belgian tripel last year – were made as part of a promotion with The Press of Atlantic City newspaper and its weekend entertainment guide, At The Shore. Mark Haynie, New Jersey columnist for Mid-Atlantic Brewing News and a beer columnist for At The Shore, helped brew the beer.

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