The end to the 2 six-pack maximum?

Two South Jersey lawmakers are pitching the idea of letting Garden State production brewers retail directly to the public from the confines of their breweries.

For a long time now, those brewers have been allowed to sell a maximum of two six-packs or two growlers directly to individuals who stop by their breweries for tours.

But it looks like bill A3520, apparently eases that two six-pack/growler limit and forgoes requirements that retail sales occur during brewery tours. That is to say, there isn't language specifying maximums or occasions in the measure sponsored by Democratic Assemblywomen Celeste Riley (Cumberland County) and Pamela Lampitt (Camden County).

If that is the case, then the legislation addresses a concern among several Garden State production brewers who have long wished they could sell a case of beer (or more) to people who stop by their breweries.

What wouldn't change under the bill is where you can drink the beer you've just bought: you can't crack open a cold one at the brewery. The measure doesn't turn the breweries' sampling/tasting rooms into bars.

(The bill was introduced in late November and referred to the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee; Assemblywoman Riley is also the sponsor of a bill to create a farm brewery license.)

Craft Beer Week & Senator Joe Vitale

The silence has been deafening.

OK, that's a little melodramatic. But more than a month ago – March 29th, in fact – this blog teamed with PubScout blogger Kurt Epps in some outreach to a Trenton lawmaker in the hopes of winning a state proclamation or resolution designating May 17-23 as American Craft Beer Week in New Jersey.

Such a designation would have echoed the congressional endorsement of Craft Beer Week and trained an additional spotlight on the craft brewing industry in New Jersey.

No such luck.

Not only did we strike out, but state Sen. Joseph Vitale didn't even acknowledge the email asking to discuss the idea with him. Nor did he acknowledge a reminder last month that the date of the May observance was approaching.

Some background: We prevailed upon Sen. Vitale because he has more craft beer producers – J.J. Bitting, Harvest Moon and Pizzeria Uno brewpubs – in his district of Middlesex County than any other lawmaker in Trenton. He also serves on the Senate's economic growth committee.

Alas, not a peep from Senator Joe in response to our emails. (For the record when his office was contacted via telephone, email was cited as the preferred method of reaching out to him.)

There are a host of things wrong with this, and some of them have nothing to do with craft beer.

Topping the list is that PubScout Kurt hails from the Middlesex County town of Perth Amboy, and as such, Senator Joe's name has appeared on the ballot in Kurt's voting booth every four years since the late 1990s.

That's a long way of saying Kurt is a constituent and that his representative in the upper chamber of the New Jersey Legislature – Senator Vitale – ignored a constituent who called the district office, then complied with the office's wishes of how to be contacted.

Hmm. Maybe that email business is just a device the senator's office uses to blow off people whom he's elected to represent. Whatever.

Now let's take the economic growth angle, and bear in mind we still haven't predicated things on beer yet.

Anyway you look at it, Harvest Moon in New Brunswick, JJ Bitting in Woodbridge and Pizzeria Uno in Metuchen are businesses and are part of their local economies. Since they collect sales taxes, they're part of the state economy, too. Those businesses – all constituents like Kurt – were ignored as well, albeit in a roundabout way. (For the record, it was pointed out in the email to Senator Vitale that his district includes those brewpubs, but the three were not specifically named. And those brewpubs were not contacted and asked to sign on to the outreach effort.)

Now we get to the beer part.

As we know (and perhaps Senator Vitale does not), New Jersey has a craft beer industry, and in fact, it's growing: three additions to the family over the past 10 months. That puts our headcount at 20 craft breweries in the form of brewpubs and production brewers. And they pay a per-gallon state tax just to brew beer, and that tax is just the headwaters of the levies on beer.

But wait, there's more.

Nationally, craft beer is a $7 billion a year industry, according to the Brewers Association, the industry's trade group. And that figure was $6 billion last year, reflecting, you guessed it, some economic growth à la the kind you would think a lawmaker would be concerned with as a member of a legislative panel called an economic growth committee.

Let's take that economic growth thing a step further, since at least one New Jersey craft brewer was approached last year about exporting to Europe. Imagine a senate committee that helps New Jersey businesses develop overseas markets. Seems rather hard to pull off if that panel has deaf ears.

But maybe we're overplaying the significance of American Craft Beer Week. Nope, not a chance. Especially when you consider that $7 billion; it's a pretty significant rallying point, and the observance is a way to highlight and get behind the industry's economic and cultural contributions.

And it's not too much to ask elected officials to support an industry and its potential (not to mention being responsive to constituents). The House of Representatives has done so by endorsing craft beer week and creating a caucus on small breweries back in 2007.

Rep. Leonard Lance of Hunterdon County is a member of the House Small Brewers Caucus, joining the caucus after learning his congressional district included five New Jersey craft brewers. Lance, a former state senator who was elected to Congress in 2008, even paid a visit to his craft brewer constituents a few months back.

At the end of the day, this is about commerce. Craft beer is bona fide and growing industry across the country, generating tax revenues and jobs. New Jersey has a small piece of that industry. But it could be bigger.

And it seems like Trenton – where these days red ink inundates the ledgers – lawmakers would embrace revenue-generating industries.

Anyway, it's American Craft Beer Week. Support craft brewers. Maybe someday Trenton will.

A thawing of the ice?

Looks like some regulatory ice is melting for New Jersey brewers.

Earlier this month, a measure that would allow beer samplings (liquor, too) at packaged goods stores (and bars) easily cleared the state Assembly. The state Senate approved it last summer. With bipartisan support, it's hard to imagine the legislation not being signed into law by the governor. (It may well have been signed already. With the transition from Jon Corzine to Chris Christie this week, action by the governor's office hasn't been in sync with updates on the state Web site.)

Groups tracking the legislation have said the change could take effect as early as May. However, it's important to note that legislation in New Jersey usually takes effect four months after signing. Such is the minutiae details of the Statehouse.

How it works
It goes like this: Tastings could be conducted twice a month at packaged good stores and bars (the plenary retail consumption and retail distribution licensees), with patrons being allowed four 3-ounce samples. Beer to be sampled must be from the stores' stock (which probably translates to those stores wanting brewers to donate the beer).

Obvious restrictions also apply, meaning no minors and no samples after hours. There are some well-duh restrictions, too: Tastings must be done on the licensees' premises (it's not like they're going to come to your house to give you samples).

If we're reading the bill correctly, breweries would be allowed to assist in the samplings, but distributors would not. Looks like breweries (designated "manufacturers" in the bill) wouldn't be relegated to standing there and just smiling. The language of the legislation doesn't specify they can't pour, as are the rules at all of the beer festivals except the annual Garden State Craft Brewers Guild festival, which enjoys special dispensation for that event.

Two schools of thought
So how big of a deal is this? Depends on whom you ask.

Some brewery owners are doing a happy dance at the thought of a rule change, seeing it as a chance to fan out to points of purchase, engage customers and give them the Pepsi challenge – putting their beers up against the plethora of brews from around the country and world that wind up on the shelves. (OK, we embellish there. It would not be side-by-side tasting.)

Garden State brewers are very confident about their beers, and point out Jersey-made brands lack not quality but the exposure that mainstream marketing can bring. Reaching out to the retail customers, they say, can go a long way toward turning around that exposure problem. And if nothing else, the added marketing dimension is better than the current system in which store patrons cannot try before buying.

On the flip side, though, waits a numbers dilemma. And the likes of Budweiser.

Some brewers wonder if there is sufficient bang for the buck and the labor involved. If they have to give away two cases of beer to hundreds of packaged goods stores for sampling two times a month, things could get pricey, not to mention cut into inventory. And practically every production craft brewer in the state right now is running at capacity and could stand to expand. On top of that, not all folks showing up at liquor stores are there to buy beer.

Meanwhile, there's Bud. And Miller. And Coors. Any one of the monster-sized beer producers can outspend the little guys and go after customers with samples from their portfolios of imports and craft brews produced under labels not widely known to be under their banners. (That Spaten Optimator or Bass ale you just drank is in the AB-InBev stable.)

Nonetheless, most Jersey brewers are up for the opportunity to greet the beer-drinking public where they buy. Sometimes underdogs win. So stay tuned.

An egregious miscarriagement of taxitude*

Higher state taxes on spirits and wine? Passed on by restaurants to the consumer? Faint ...

There's been a bit of backlash by consumers with QWERTY access, teeing off on restaurants, posting complaints about the threat to pass on a 25 percent increase in those taxes.

It's pretty much misplaced blame to do that. Here's why:

Restaurants don't stay in business by losing money; nor can they eat every rise in their overhead. Last year, anything made with flour cost more because of stupid government policy skewed toward corn as the raw material for ethanol (more corn planted, less of wheat and barley); delivery charges went up when crude oil prices (futures prices, that is) hit the moon; and the list goes on.

The places you dine at were doing what they could last year to manage those headaches. And their migraine has lingered into this year with a downturn in business that they're struggling to make up. (Consider this: You should support your favorite restaurants if you can. The patrons they stand to lose aren't just someone else; they are you, too, if you're staying away in protest.)

So when New Jersey, meaning the Corzine administration, popped the cork on this tax increase and poured everyone a round of pay-more, well anyone who had just finished a snifter of Courvoisier on March 10th could have envisioned restaurants being stuck with few options.

And if you're a beer drinker, don't think you're getting an automatic pass at the tap just because beer was left off Corzine's tax menu. To keep from scaring away patrons, restaurants and bar owners could spread the pain across the pricing board – pints of beer, entrees, appetizers – and not just jack up the tab for a shot of Applejack. (It makes for good, kneejerk rabble rousing for industry groups to insinuate that prices by the drink will rise in proportion to the tax increase.)

But the point remains: Don't blame the restaurant owners for trying to stay in business. Blame the Legislature and a succession of governors on both sides of the political aisle for missteps and miscues, and a legacy of avoiding doing what's right.



* From The Simpsons, 9th season, episode 20, The Trouble With Trillions

Amethyst disappointment

Looks like Trenton is setting up roadblocks to discussion about the minimum legal drinking age.

Check out this Star-Ledger story. Senate President Dick Codey is calling out New Jersey college and university presidents on beer, wine and spirits, asking them to say just what their institutions' policies are regarding the beverages. Additionally, the Legislature plans hearings this fall on underage drinking on campus.

(Here’s a thought for lawmakers: How about taking another crack a runaway property taxes, and keep working on that until you fix it, that and the fact New Jersey is hopelessly broke and willing to hock our toll roads and bill our small towns for state police patrols to pay the bills.)

Codey’s action comes in response to the "Amethyst Initiative," a movement of college and university presidents asking for a discussion on the minimum legal drinking age, which as we all know, has been 21 across the country for the last quarter century, ever since the federal government blackmailed states into adopting it or lose highway funding.

AI does not call for the drinking age to be lowered. It seeks a discussion on the issue. College and university presidents who back AI have taken the position that telling and expecting the under 21s to not drink isn’t reallying pulling the oars when it comes to actually thwarting underage drinking. (There's also an argument that other countries akin to the US that have lower drinking ages don't seem to have our problems.)

Nearly 130 college and university presidents have signed AI. Here, Drew U, Montclair State U and Stevens Institute of Technology are the sole higher education institutions to back it. The rest of the state’s college and university chiefs have balked. (Predictably, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers has gone apoplectic about AI.)

Given the fact that AI calls for a discussion, we think Codey (who by the way, doesn't drink beer, wine or spirits) has adopted a panic response (if the Ledger quoted him correctly), connecting discussion of the issue to lowering the drinking age.

C’mon, Dick. You really think it’s that slippery of a slope? And to shoot down the idea of discussion – we’re talking discussion, airing things out, sussing pros and cons – isn’t very democratic. It’s also kind of nanny state, Trenton knows best (not).

Meanwhile, the state has built another wall to talking about the issue: NJ21, a bunch of state agencies and nonprofits dog-piling on the topic with a giant over-our-dead-bodies attitude toward touching the drinking age. But again, AI doesn’t say lower it; it says let’s talk about the minimum drinking age.

(And Dick, if you or your staff read this, and think we’ve just endorsed a lowered age, you’ve missed again. We never turned that card up.)

Stormy seas

State cutbacks are churning up some waves for the USS New Jersey, and quite possibly for fans of Garden State craft beers, who've made the trek to the battleship for the annual beer festival.

The news is this: Our perpetually cash-strapped state – overextended and underfunded – has had to slash the subsidy for the ship, which now serves as a martime museum docked at Camden's waterfront. (Read more here.)

That means layoffs for the staff that runs the ship, which exhibits the vessel's rather large history as the most-decorated battleship in the US Navy.

The USS New Jersey has provided free space for the June beer festival staged by the Garden State Craft Brewer's Guild for the past three years (twice on the ship's fantail and once along its dock). So what becomes of the relationship that has spared the guild some festival overhead?

Well, there's no word right now on what it means for next summer, presuming the guild wants to return to the ship's decks. (The festival used to move around the state somewhat, but found a mooring at the ship, so to speak, largely based on the free event space the Big J provided.)

However, an October Garden State guild festival at the Newark Bears minor league baseball stadium is still in the works. (More on that soon.)