Ship shape

The ship’s still there, but the hopheads have shipped out.

Until next year.

But we hope no one has to wait that long.

If you went to the Garden State Craft Brewers’ 11th take on their beer festival, you know it was a perfect day for a party: sunny, practically no humidity, plenty of food and – most import – a great cross-section of brews to sample.

And resample.

Like that rauch beer from Triumph. Or Cricket Hill’s maibock.

Those are just a couple of reasons the guild should have another festival this year, say in the fall. (Late September/October anyone? It’s been done, you know. And, say in a different location, like farther up north, for parity’s sake. Yeah, it’s the North Jersey/South Jersey thing. Bombard them with email, we say. Demand your fall festival.)

Save the credential check; we know a maibock isn’t such a reach. Pizzeria Uno, too, had a nice one in tow at the festival, and without trying too hard, we can think of other brewpubs in Jersey that served bock under the sign of the bull.

What we’re saying is that tying up fermenter and other tank space for lagering when you’re a small brewery speaks to some measure of faith in your beer and your public and that what you’re doing is worth the trouble.

And a festival is a great platform to underscore that spirit, that you cover the basics beyond the alphabet soup of ales (ESB & IPA), and can step off the beaten path, like with that rauch beer, or even get funky like that hefeweiss flavored with hibiscus that the Tun Tavern had in a growler.

And if the more cosmic-related arguments aren’t enough, then consider the practical.

Craft beer’s enjoying a bounce right now, says the Brewers Association. Sales growth, double digits, an industry segment to watch, yada et cetera yada …

So strike while the iron’s hot (or make hay while the sun shines, whatever cliché you’re into).

Plus, we’d swear that the crowd at the stern of the USS New Jersey last Saturday skewed toward the younger demographic. Not overwhelmingly, but enough that we took notice. Enough that if you mentioned Buffalo Springfield … well, you get the picture.

Now stir in this variable: We’re talking the gadget/instant message culture. Word of mouth seems to spread at light speed in that world. Word of ur kickin’ beer isn’t 2 B past ^.

But, giving credit where credit is due, that younger crowd plying the decks of battleship last weekend was really into beer.

Take the guy who told us that at home he’d probably be cracking open a Miller Lite. He rattled off a list of brews aboard ship he thought were worth his mug.

We’re thinking that after Saturday, he’s had his last pils-E-ner.


Footnote:

As you can see, the video is up. It's also viewable here at blip.tv, and here at YouTube. Blip has better image quality – we originally had the blip file posted on the blog, but subbed in YouTube, the more widely known site, and finally swapped in Current.tv, which became available much later. (By the by, HomerJDoh works for Beer-Stained Letter.)

If you're unfamiliar with Current.tv, it's the site and cable television channel that Joel Hyatt (of Hyatt Legal Services fame; you have our word on that) and Al Gore (yes, that Al 'Inconvenient Truth' guy) created in 2005. There's some fantastic, very credible and intellectually challenging – even moving – work on Current.tv. Check it out.

The video is also viewable on iTunes – just in time for iPhone!

Thanks to everyone who availed themselves of an interview. Thanks to Flying Fish for some key support; thanks to the brewers guild and the battleship folks.

And thanks to yeast for making beer.

PS: We usually don't do this, but since we got an email from a beer fan in Illinois recently ... DVD copies of the video are available at no charge; just send us an email and we'll oblige.

PPS: Contest! A prize (to be determined eventually; heads up, though, it won't be beer) to whoever can create the most words from these six letters: ESB and IPA. Entries by email throughout July.

Have fun.

Figuratively speaking

Sluggish growth for the big domestic brewers, double digit growth in craft beer. That’s from the Brewers Association earlier this spring, which took a look at supermarket sales from 2005 to 2006 in a snapshot of the nation’s craft beer industry.

The breakdown, according to the trade group, goes like this: 2.4% growth for the big brewers (personified here as Bud C. Miller), while craft beer saw a nearly 18% percent surge in sales. Craft beer is the alcoholic beverage industry’s segment to watch, boasts the Brewers Association.

Given that news, and with Garden State craft beer’s showcase festival coming up June 23rd, we wanted to see where New Jersey’s microbrewers and brewpubs were situated in the industry nationwide, and what the landscape, numerically speaking, looks like for the state’s craft beer business.

The Brewers Association was kind enough to pull together some production stats for us (a million thanks to BA director Paul Gatza, who took the time during a busy spring schedule to whip up the Excel files).

If you’re into figures, then you’ll be well-armed in case there’s a pop quiz at the 11th Annual Garden State Craft Brewers Festival aboard the USS New Jersey. (These numbers probably aren’t going to help you charm the ladies, and spouting them could just get you sucked into a beer geek debate or two.)

So sit back, pour a cold one and crunch some pretzels or Planters, while we crunch the numbers, with visual aids, too! (Some quick points: The stats are drawn from figures reported to the BA by member breweries and brewpubs. New Jersey-specific figures are for the years 2001-06. Also, click on the charts to enlarge them.)

• Top state producer of craft beer: California. That's probably no surprise to anyone who really follows the industry. Golden State craft brewers brewed up 1.3 million barrels (bbls) last year. Rounding out the top five: Ohio, Colorado, Oregon and our foamy neighbor to the north, New York.

California reigns as production king with nearly a half-million barrel advantage over Ohio (859,098 bbls). North Dakota finished last at 550 bbls.

In case you’re wondering (as we were and hence pursued this project), New Jersey came in 29th with 26,384 bbls. (That’s a 2.3% increase from ’05, by the way.) Our neighbors west and south are running laps around us: Delaware (20th) cranks out nearly twice as much craft beer as New Jersey, while Pennsylvania (14th) brews almost 4 1/2 times as much.

• Most disappointing stat (for some reason, this bugged us): Alaska, which in terms of population density has less than one person per square kilometer, compared to our nearly 300 people per square kilometer, is apparently more into craft beer than we are. Alaskan craft brewers made nearly 121,000 bbls last year (for 12th place). Maybe we’re crying in our beer for nothing, but geez we’re on the East Coast, anchored by the metropolitan poles of New York and Philadelphia. Sigh, even Montana finished better than we did, at 64,306 bbls to rank 17th.

We’re not, by any stretch, laying blame on the good New Jersey brewing folks who put the better beer beside our jazzed up steaks, barbecue and hot-off-the-grill dogs and burgers. Jersey is a tough place for any business to be in business. Get into an enterprise that comes with some added regulatory pressure (à la the alcoholic beverage industry) and you can put an exponent on the degree of difficulty. More on this issue at some point soon.

Moving on … Jersey-specific stats

• The Garden State’s top craft brewer is again Flying Fish. The Cherry Hill brewer is closing in on the 10,000 bbl mark (9,785 bbls, a 3.4% percent increase) and dominated the state’s craft beer production for the period observed. River Horse Brewing in Lambertville continues as the place horse (4,750 bbls), while taking show is High Point and its wheat beers. (See the charts for the production trends and the 2005-06 year-to-year micro results.)

• In the subset category of brewpubs, Triumph (Princeton) is tops at 1,310 bbls, followed by Harvest Moon (New Brunswick), 850 bbls. (See the chart for the top six brewpubs.)

• Gone but not forgotten: Heavyweight Brewing. The purveyor of the ever-interesting Perkuno’s Hammer (imperial porter) opted to pack things in last August, with an eye toward popping up on the PA side of the Delaware River in some form. But as beer scribe Lew Bryson has recounted on his blog (with some reminiscing) the Hammer was taken in as a foster child by Victory Brewing in PA.

• Worth mentioning: High Point – aka Ramstein – in Butler and Climax Brewing in Roselle Park were rated among the top 50 craft beers based on user reviews on BeerAdvocate.com (see the June 2007 issue of their hard copy mag). Also, Philadelphia's the City Paper gave top accolades to Flying Fish's Farmhouse Summer Ale in its rating of summer brews.

The Brewers Association is upbeat for 2007’s industry prospects, forecasting the nation's 1,400 craft brewers and brewpubs will top the $500 million sales mark. All stats aside, we’re going to pour another brew in support and follow the BA's lead.

Cheers.

Samuel Smith goes to Washington

We’re coloring outside the lines with that headline, using a British ale to personify America’s microbrewers. But thanks to Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart, it’s a turn of phrase that’s too good not to use.

We’re referring to the news that U.S. craft beer now has a seat, or a voice at least, at that banquet of issue-oriented discourse known as Congress. (Yeah, we know, our lofty prose is giving Congress the benefit of the doubt, a huge one at that. But now’s not a time to be cynical.)

The new deal

Two weeks ago (May 15th), 34 members of the House of Representatives, from both sides of the political aisle, caucused on the subject of the craft brewing industry, gathering on Capitol Hill for a confabulation that went something like: “You like beer?” “Yeah, I like beer …” “Me, too …” “What kind?” “The tastier, the better …”

OK, we’re taking license again. But the like-minded reps of the lower chamber – the people’s chamber – did resolve that a prime objective of the House Small Brewers Caucus would be awareness of and education about the niche industry that has returned flavor and creativity to the art of brewing beer in America.

A statement put out last week by the Brewers Association, the craft beer industry’s trade group, describes the mission as providing an interactive opportunity for learning the ins and outs of small business (in this case, running a microbrewery is the small business), the brewing process, and the quality and value of brewing activities.

So what does all this mean? That craft brewers have won recognition for their economic and cultural contributions.

The big picture

The obvious benefits from the industry are some jobs created here, some federal and state taxes or fees paid there. But seriously, the contribution is much bigger, and less matter-of-fact.

For one thing, the craft beer industry is a cultural bridge, and its brewers ambassadors.

Take, for example, the beer styles served up by those small brewers. It’s their global imagination that sends you on a journey, figuratively and literally. Many an American beer enthusiast who has sipped a Belgian ale here has traveled there in search of the genuine article that inspired his local craft brewer. Ditto for the chap in the heartland who signed up with CAMRA and found himself filling a pint to the line as a volunteer at the Great British Beer Festival.

Consider, too, the symbiotic relationship between craft breweries and their communities: Locally grown or produced foods served at restaurants that feature locally made beers. It’s a similar kind of relationship that pairs the Garden State’s annual craft beer festival with the USS New Jersey, retired from decades of decorated battleship service now pulling duty as a floating naval museum. (This year's festival – for a third year – is being held on the New Jersey's decks.)

Politics and beer

It’s worth pointing out that the craft beer industry’s new buddy in Congress is a caucus, not a subcommittee or committee, both of which are much higher on the ladder that is congressional business. But from a practical standpoint, having an organized body to turn to is something to crow about, not to mention a bulwark to keep you from getting stomped on in a competition-crazy world.

Says Charlie Papazian, of the Brewers Association (in the organization’s statement): “There is a very real danger that the voice of the small members of the brewing community may not be heard over that of its larger brethren, so a group of legislators bound by a common interest in the history, tradition and excitement that are hallmarks of today’s small brewers, should help ensure our issues get fair consideration.”

For the smallest of the small, the ones whose involvement with the federal government may be limited to just getting a license and label approval, the caucus may not mean much, says Rick Reed of Cricket Hill Brewing Company. It’s a bigger deal for the brewers who conduct business across state lines. Rick cautions it’s state government that can be the heavier hand.

And in a not-too-business-friendly climate like New Jersey, that’s a whole other story.

FOOTNOTE: There are no representatives from the New Jersey House delegation on the small brewers caucus. (We're not surprised by that.) However, the Garden State's neighbors north and west – New York and Pennsylvania – each have three members.

If you're the lobbying kind, maybe a letter or email to Rep. Jim Saxton will spark an interest; Flying Fish, the state's largest craft brewer, is located in Cherry Hill, and that's a marquee town in Saxton's sprawling South Jersey district. You can probably skip putting pressure on North Jersey reps, since there's a Budweiser facility in Newark, and hence the distinct possibility your suggestions would fall on deaf ears.