Beer Wars: The ongoing discussion

If you missed the one-night screening of Beer Wars last month, then perhaps you’d be interested to know the DVD version is coming soon.

That’s from Anat Baron, the director/writer/producer of the film, which trains a spotlight on how craft brewers ply the choppy waters of the U.S. brewing industry and its three-tier system. Anat graciously gave some of her time for a Q&A conducted via email. Her answers arrived on Sunday.

Q: You said you hoped to set into motion a discussion on the topic of small/craft/artisanal brewers and the muscle tactics used by the mega brewers. Do you feel Beers Wars has accomplished that? And if so, how do we sustain that discussion and steer it toward producing change?
A: I don't think that we've reached a wide enough audience. So far, most of the people who saw the film were already craft beer lovers, and so most of the story was familiar to them. I made the film in the hopes of attracting a more mainstream audience. Not necessarily mainstream beer drinkers but people who care about consumerism, capitalism and the future of this country. I know that sounds very grandiose, but to me what's happening in the beer industry is similar to what's going on in many other industries. How do we get a bigger audience? The old-fashioned way: through word of mouth. People telling other people to watch this film. That it will make them think about the choices that they make. The more people see it and talk about it, the bigger the buzz. And then we can start a meaningful discussion. In the mainstream media.

Q: The film met with some harsh criticism in some circles, and you defended your work on the Web site. Do you think those critics missed the point, getting hung up on presentation, and failed to appreciate that, given the current arrangement with the big brewers and three-tier system, there isn't a remote chance of leveling the playing field without some Herculean efforts/major changes?
A: When you make a film, you expect criticism. What surprised me was that most people missed the point. They wanted me to make THEIR version of Beer Wars. I chose to make this film with the characters I did in order to make a point. If other people want to see brewers like Ken Grossman or Fritz Maytag as central characters, they can make their own film. THIS film is about the challenges that the small brewers face, and it uses two characters to show them. The three-tier system continues to be the biggest obstacle to growth for small brewers. The dependence of most distributors on their big brewer “partners” creates a playing field that is completely lopsided. Yes, things are “better” than they were in late 2005 when I stated filming, but they are in no way closer to level. I think the question is WHEN will we change (not abolish, change) the three-tier system, not IF. And all change begins with a few voices that keep getting louder.

Q: Are you satisfied that Beer Wars is part of the record on this topic, something any individual or group can point to as a reference?
A: I certainly hope so. I made the film so there would be a reference point. Anyone could watch it and understand the issues. And hopefully begin to think about what it means not only to them personally but to American business overall.

Q: Some people have asked when the DVD release will be. Looks like it is indeed in the works, is that correct? And for those who have seen the film already, what can they expect on the DVD?
A: Yes, (the) DVD is in production. I am rushing it out because so many theaters had technical issues on April 16th that I wanted to make things right. The DVD will include the film, the panel discussion and some deleted scenes. We hope to start shipping in early June.

Q: Will the film be screened again? And can you say what it cost to pull off the April 16th presentation?
A: We have a theatrical run in June at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Houston and San Antonio. And more to be announced. As to the cost of the April 16th event, I signed a confidentiality agreement, so all I can say is that there was a significant investment to get the word out.

Q: Michael Moore made Pets or Meat as a short-film follow-up to Roger & Me. Do you plan to revisit Beer Wars with some kind of follow-up down the road?
A: I think that the story is ripe for some sort of “sequel.” I'm not sure if it'll be a film but at least a TV or Web follow-up.

Q: Have you stayed in touch with Rhonda Kallman and Sam Calagione (the two brewers/beer companies spotlighted in Beer Wars) since the film was screened?
A: Yes, we have spoken on several occasions and plan to keep in touch going forward. I actually spoke to both of them this past week.

Q: We watched the film in a sparsely filled theater in southern New Jersey (the scant audience is indicative of craft beer’s struggles in the Garden State, plus we have a Bud brewery in Newark). Do you have attendance figures, either hard counts or anecdotal, to show where the film drew the best crowds?
A: The film and event screened in (most of) the 440 theaters spread out across cities and suburbs in most states. We did better in big cities like Boston, New York (and) San Francisco than suburban multiplexes.

Helles-raiser

Some news out of Climax Brewing …

We caught up with Dave Hoffmann on Saturday as he was filtering the maibock that’s going on tap this week at Basil T’s in Toms River, where Dave is the hired-gun brewer.

First things first. We got a preview taste of that Perle-hopped maibock (we had the not quite carbonated, but still quite good, version); the beer’s malty and rich (6.7% ABV), with some signature toasty and caramel notes that don’t overwhelm.

Dave’s been tweaking this recipe here and there for a while but feels like this rendition, with a lighter munich malt than past versions, nails it. So much so that Dave’s thinking about doing a maibock next year under his Hoffmann lager label for his Climax brewery.

And speaking of Climax – and that news tidbit – Dave says his Hoffmann Helles is now a year-round beer.

The beer has always done well for Climax, and Dave says that for a while he’d been thinking about moving it from the seasonal lineup to the flagship brew list. What sealed the deal was a March beer feature (à la the NCAA tourney’s final four) in the Star-Ledger in which the helles was hailed a winner. Dave says he’s been super-busy since then, working to keep the helles in kegs and on store shelves in the signature half-gallon jugs he uses for bottling. He’s had to put his four original 10-barrel fermenters back into service (despite the 10-barrel capacity, he maxes them out at 8 barrels for production purposes).

It’s good to be busy.

After the Cricket Cookout, Part 2

Here's the video from the Cricket Cookout held May 1st in the parking lot of Cricket Hill Brewery.

If you recall this video, intended as the launch of the web-based Culinary Pursuit Show, is a production from Roj Prasad of Web Epoch Interactive (that's Roj doing the cooking). Roj's company handle's Cricket Hill's Web site.

But all that is boilerplate. What should be on your plate is great food paired with great beer, which is the message Roj wants to drive home.

Peering through the bent-back tulips

Scouting around today, and looking over the flowerbed to our westward neighbors, we learn Philly Beer Week is going, metaphorically speaking, from bock to saison.

That is to say, the 2010 incarnation of PBW is moving from March to June. The keeper of Philadelphia beer news, Don Russell, offers an explanation for the calendar switch on the blog he keeps a layer below his JoeSixpack site.

Speaking of Philly, it came in third in Beer City USA poll results.

What New Jersey homebrewers make,Trenton says don't take off site

Here’s an interesting item: Washington State just revamped its law regarding homebrewing to allow up to 20 gallons of home-brewed beer to be taken out of the home. (Washington’s bill was signed into law on May 6th).

It’s interesting, because here in New Jersey, as written, our regulations restrict consumption of homebrew to the premises where it was made. That’s spelled out on the application for a homebrewing permit the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control says you must have to make beer in your back yard. Lots of homebrewers breaking that rule, we've seen (and shared in their hard work).

And here’s something odd about this permit application: It asks you where you were born, not when you were born (it does, however, ask how old you are, but notice it doesn’t require you to prove your age, as in providing supporting documentation). What does your birthplace have to do with anything? Nothing.

We’ve said it before, this permit is pointless, and in some ways, it’s just an attempt at being an impediment to homebrewing, not to mention a way of taxing home-made beer, although the statute does exempt homebrewers from the state alcoholic beverage tax for beer. Most of the homebrewers we’ve spoken to don’t bother with this permit. Who can blame them? At the end of the day, when you’ve brewed 5 gallons, or even 15 gallons, you’ve put in about six hours of work and have to wait a month or so to drink it. Oh yeah, that needs the state to put its foot on things to keep it from getting out of hand.

Trenton has no clue. It’s almost like the state had a knee-jerk moment when it allowed homebrewing (which the federal government gave the green light 31 years ago): Oh gosh, we must require a permit. The original fee, back in 1995, was 3 bucks. Now it’s 15. Wonder if Trenton tops $1,000 annually in collection of permit fees?

The American Homebrewers Association says it can’t say for certain, but no other state comes to mind, not even Washington, as far as requiring homebrewers to have a permit to enjoy their hobby.

Just New Jersey. Go figure.

Craft beer week

American Craft Beer Week began on Monday ... the appreciation of better beer.

If you recall, we prevailed – unsuccessfully, unfortunately – upon Gov. Corzine's office for a proclamation for a New Jersey Craft Beer Week to coincide with the seven-day observance authorized by Congress.

Make no mistake, it was a longshot for one voice. So it comes as no surprise that you can take a spin over to the governor's Web site and not see a link to a press release (FYI: Former Gov. Whitman declared July beer month in New Jersey back in 2000, so Corzine wouldn't exactly have been breaking ground here, just effortlessly being a friend to a state industry, if he had signed a proclamation). The Garden State Craft Brewers Guild should have stepped up with a lobby campaign (to be fair, we're guessing the guild didn't try, and we won't mind being corrected if it did) to get a state observance.

You may think we're making something out of nothing, but Craft Beer Week represents a chance for solidarity and marketing. Neither sound all that compelling, but they are important and represent, we argue, the underpinnings of keeping a message about Jersey-brewed beer before the public.

And that, too, is important, especially since the guild, by and large, holds just a couple (sometimes) of festivals a year under its banner. That's hardly much reinforcement in the public's mind that New Jersey has some great beer made within its borders.

Meanwhile, promoters in Atlantic City hold the state's biggest (but hardly the best) beer festival, and the High Street Grill in Mount Holly is on course for a second 2009 festival, set for this month. Neither are Jersey-beer centric (although Jersey beers have been on those fests' lineups). Quite the contrary, since those fests pull in beers (via distributors) from across the country and around the world, they're sort of eating the guild's lunch, stealing its thunder (pick a metaphor).

That may sound like protectionist talk, but think about it. Someone's brand is getting built up with some exposure. Shouldn't it be the home team's?

Our suggestion: Print advertising rates are probably very negotiable right now (revenues are that soft) at the bigger newspapers. So the guild should begin a regular ad campaign promoting Jersey-brewed beer, à la the campaign used by the state Agriculture Department (the well-known Jersey Fresh produce slogan) ... Think Jersey, drink Jersey, perhaps?

After the Cricket Cookout

Some scenes from the Cricket Cookout last Friday at Cricket Hill Brewing, courtesy of Roj Prasad of the Culinary Pursuit blog. Pictured on the Viking are five birds done up beer can style. Looking pretty good, we say.

Here and there

Homebrew Day ... Big Brew ...

We missed it Saturday. Somewhat intentionally, given there has been too much to get done lately.

Originally, our plan was to do a video piece about that ridiculous (and insidious) $15 annual permit the state says you have to have to brew at home. But, alas, too much to do, not enough time to fit everything in. (But that damned permit remains on the list of things to give video treatment to.)

At the top of the to-do list this wet weekend was putting up a new trellis for our Centennial hops, which have come back quite strong from last season. We were late getting to the trellis work, but the 4 x 4’s are up now, as are the lines for the bines to climb.

Odds & Ends
Here’s a sweep of somethings we’ve been trying to mention lately but have – sigh, again – been strapped for time.

• Brian Boak (Boak's Beer) sent these photos of his fermenter’s delivery to Butler at High Point Brewing last month. We’re fairly certain it has beer in it by now. Or maybe in bottles (gotta pay for that stainless steel, you know).

• Flying Fish makes New York magazine’s Approval Matrix. It’s at the bottom right of that Web page, a mention of the Exit series beers.

We have to admit, our eye was immediately drawn to Rachael Ray being on the judging panel at the Tribeca Film Festival (guess she only judged 30-minute films), and that capsule of Rick Perry’s dimwit secession talk. (Hey Rick, remember the Alamo? Texas already had a crack at going it alone. Didn’t work out.)

We’ve suggested that a bottle or two of Exit 4 be sent to the governor’s office, with label samples. The aim is to get it in the NJ State Museum, which is, if memory serves, where a lot of unsolicited items sent to the governor’s office end up, since the governor can’t actually accept them.

We also suggested sending a bottle to the Colbert Report. It’s easy to picture Stephen tossing it into one of his roundups between the show’s opening and the closer, the guest interview.

Lastly, that beer fest we mentioned was in planning stages for this month (thereabout) at the Turtleback Zoo in West Orange ... it was postponed for a variety of reasons, and may come to fruition sometime in the fall.

However, High Street Grill in Mount Holly has a spring festival set for May 30th, a follow-up to their successful winter beer festival.

And of course, the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild is doing lucky 13 – the 13th incarnation of its annual festival, that is – on the 20th of June aboard the USS New Jersey at the Camden waterfront. (More on this later.)

Culinary pursuits … and beer, of course

A reason to swing by Cricket Hill on Friday: good beer and good food, and cooking with good beer. Toss in music, too. This should be a great time (starts around 5 p.m.).

Some explanation first …

This isn’t an official Cricket Hill function, but rather the Fairfield brewery has made its parking lot available for the Cricket Cookout. The event is the brainchild of longtime Cricket Hill Brewing friend and Web entrepreneur Roj Prasad, who in addition to running his business, Web Epoch Interactive and handling the brewery's Web site, is a serious devotee to grilling and cooking. Roj also has a blog on the topic, Culinary Pursuit, where you’ll find restaurant reviews, cooking tips and some recaps of Roj’s own kitchen adventures.

But Roj wants to take his cooking passion to a new platform. That’s where the Cricket Cookout comes in, as the launch vehicle for a show also called Culinary Pursuit. With a video crew taping him Friday for a production that will go on YouTube, Roj will be cooking up plenty of chicken, using Cricket Hill beers – Col. Blides Cask Ale, American Ale, Hopnotic IPA, Paymaster Porter and East Coast Lager. Look for the birds to come out succulent, via rotisserie or beer can style. (There will also be some wings, shish kebabs and shrimp on the barbie.)

Roj plans to turn the camera on other cooks, too, and hopes to attract the interest of giants in the game, such as the Food Channel, to reach a wider audience. He’s lined up some sponsors for his event, including Viking, which has ponied up a pair of 53-inch grills (Roj calls ’em the Rolls Royce of grills).

It's all in the pursuit of good food paired with good beer.

Heard at Shad Fest '09

Something newsy that came out of River Horse during Shad Fest ...

Co-owner Chris Walsh says RH fired off a letter to the state legislators who represent that chunk of Hunderton County that includes Lambertville.

The thrust of the letter, sent earlier this month, was an appeal to improve the business climate for brewers. You can pretty much frame that as a comparison to what freedoms brewers in Pennsylvania enjoy vs. New Jersey, namely that they can pull pints and sell cases and kegs, essentially acting as their own distributors within their premises, while of course here in the Garden State retail sales are capped at two six-packs or two growlers per person per visit to the brewery.

It’s worth noting that while Pennsylvania breweries like Sly Fox, Stoudt’s and Victory can do that, they also put a lot of beer on the shelves in New Jersey. Sum that up as they enjoy multiple points of sale at home and successfully compete for shelf space in New Jersey with our brewers, whom the state chokes off such opportunities. So asking Trenton to level the playing field seems only fair.

None of this is new. For a long while, it’s been a sore spot for Jersey brewers, who’ve pointed to the freedoms that Garden State wineries enjoy, which sort of match what Pennsylvania brewers can do in their state. Greg Zaccardi at High Point Brewing in Butler has for some time argued this position and is in the process of putting pen to paper like River Horse has done. Meanwhile, folks at Cricket Hill haven’t been shy about discussing this topic. Just ask Rick Reed.

For River Horse’s part, it’s encouraging that the 23rd District lawmakers said they would take a look at the beer/brewer regulations. Let’s hope they agree that an update is in order, one that should be done with business growth in mind, and respond with some legislation.

Let’s not forget what our cash-strapped state can come away with here – more revenue. Is it going to be a king’s ransom? Of course not, but New Jersey’s balance sheet is drowning in red ink, and it has been of little financial help to its towns and public schools for some time, as it tries to even out expenses vs income. So the state isn’t exactly in much of a position to be turning down an income source that’s both renewable and can be grown without having to jack up tax rates (like what's been proposed for liquor and wine taxes, and income taxes on wealthy people).

And part of that potential source, like we’ve been carping for a while, is the 7-cent sales tax, something everyone pays, so it’s not a regressive tax (like property taxes); it’s something that's evenly distributed. But there’s a wider picture, a trickle-down effect here, again as we’ve been saying a lot this year: Let the brewers sell more retail, beyond the minimum. The state will collect more in sales tax; breweries will move more beer, and if they move more beer, they’ll brew more beer, and the state collects more from the $3.72-per-barrel alcoholic beverage that tax brewers pay.

No one loses here. Not even the distributors or retail outlets because the breweries must rely on them to widen their reach and develop markets. Buying beer at the brewery is a convenience for the hordes of people who enjoy brewhouse tours each year, or have developed supportive relationships with the beer-makers and like to stop by.

And not to forget brewpubs ... They, as we’re saying yet again, should enjoy the opportunity to sign on with distributors and put their beer on the store shelves, provided they want to go to the investment expense to position themselves so. Conversely, production brewers should be allowed to also obtain brewpub licenses, and seek retail consumption licenses from their host municipalities (which can be a six- or seven-figure expense).

By the by, if you support the state’s craft brewers, you don’t have to wait on their efforts to make this case. You can write your own district lawmakers and pitch the argument.

It’s all about helping to trim the state’s bottom line and make the business climate fairer for the folks who make good beer for you.

Go fish

What we really mean to say is, take a trip to Shad Fest, but go for the beer.

Lambertville is pulling out the stops again Saturday and Sunday (noon to 5 p.m.) for the annual shad fest, and River Horse Brewing will tempt you with their Summer Blonde ale this time of year. Or if you want to go large, try their new Double Honey Weizenbock (brewed for Philly Beer Week back in March) and Double Wit Belgian ale, now in its second year as a seasonal (and new to being on shelves as a four pack).

The weather is supposed to be summerlike, in the 80s, so you can’t go wrong with the lighter, blonde brew. River Horse also has a quenching, unfiltered lager (they had it on tap back in the fall during their Oktoberfest, so maybe again in the spring). You’ll find them pouring a range of brews in the back lot of the brewery, and it’s pay as you go so you can get a full pint (just buy the glass).

There's a lot of local support for the brewery, and RH can draw a crowd with its brews. But they’ve scored some extra space this year, so you’ll have plenty of elbow room to enjoy the beer and food. We confess, the shad chowder really isn’t something to write home about, but there’s plenty of selection in the cuisine concession.

The great thing about going to Lambertville, as we’ve said boatloads of times, is you can explore the best of two beer worlds, since over the bridge (within walking distance) in New Hope is Triumph Brewing.

Pictured below is Triumph’s beer board pulled from their Web site. It looks a little sparse for them, but as of this writing, it could have been updated. With 80-degree weather, go for the kellerbier if you wander over.

Jack in the green

Color the Union Jack green for Earth Day (April 22nd).

And by that we note, and echo from their Web site, things that the British-themed Ship Inn is doing to step up to the Earth and eco-friendly plate …

These are all things the Ship has done over the past two years there in Milford. Not a bad list.

• Switching to grass-fed beef and hormone-free/antibiotic-free chicken
• Locally roasted, organic, fair-trade coffee
• Sustainable, wild-caught fish
• Composting vegetable and brewery refuse
• Installation of energy efficient windows
• Consolidation of refrigeration for less energy usage
• Spent brewery grain goes to local cows
• Addition of more vegetarian items to the menu

And the future of the Ship holds:

• Procuring organic grain for our brewing
• Purchasing locally pastured meats and locally grown vegetables
• Adding a bicycle rack

After Beer Wars

Simple observation: All you really need to know about Beer Wars is that it’s an articulation of why you should support your local craft brewery – brewpub or bottler. Because they offer selection and styles relevant to the times. And because the mega brewers would love to crush them all, in the manner of The Godfather (“It’s just business...”) and by any means necessary.

But if you need more …

Synopsis
Beer Wars speeds through the rise of the big brewers after Prohibition and the demise of America’s brewing heritage, and how Bud, Coors and Miller warred with each other even before they met the likes of Samuel Adams and Sam Calagione.

Along parallel tracks, the film highlights Sam C’s success with his Dogfish Head brewery and the struggles of Rhonda Kallman, who spun herself off from the Sam Adams brand she helped build with Boston Beer founder Jim Koch to pursue her vision of Moonshot Beer, a caffeine-jacked brew she developed (and apparently has contract-brewed) as her own brand.

Sam C grows and lands on the behemoth brewers’ anti-competition radar; Rhonda wearily struggles for financing to keep her enterprise afloat, as she chases shelf space and tap handles, trapped in a frustrating cash-strapped cycle that makes attracting investors next to impossible.

From location to location, you follow the protagonists, and you're shown who the friends of the big brewers are (count Congress among them); you witness the National Beer Wholesalers Association preach the Gospel of Middleman and how we must believe that, 76 years on, the layer between brewer and consumer is still a swinging deal for everyone because it earned its stripes in the crucible of Prohibition’s crash. (We’d argue that the middle layer is vestigial.)

While Sam grows in both size and popularity, Rhonda continues to falter. And the mega brewers get more defensive over their market position. And so it goes.

Review
Beer Wars isn’t a seamlessly done film. (Read an unkind, but accurate enough, review here.) It has some dodgy production values (soft-focus images that lost crispness because they were scaled up when they shouldn't have been) and uneven pacing that made you think the film was winding up, only to discover a particular summation was really a transition to another section.

Plus, it pretty much preaches to the choir, i.e. you probably went to see it because you’re into craft beer and didn’t think too much of the mega brewers’ dominance to begin with. (So is the film just a call to arms, a rally for the base?)

But all of that aside, Beer Wars does put under one tent the key elements of the longtime rant about bland beer made by overgrown giants who hold most of the cards. Writer/director Anat Baron deserves credit for committing that to something craft beer folks can point to, and she manages to tie human emotions to it all, even though her first-person documentary style at times comes across as too genial and fluffy. This is, after all, war.

Still, the film will recharge your disdain for the giant brewers who dumb-down beer (triple-hopped Miller Lite anyone?), and the wholesaler system that was forced down everyone’s throats to make the legality of alcohol under the 21st Amendment palatable after a bitter temperance movement that was rife with bootlegging and bootless government policy.

Underdeveloped
One point that the film didn’t even begin to pound nearly enough was the revelation that AB has sued Dogfish Head over the use of the words punkin and chicory in its names for a fall seasonal and a stout. There was no exploration of this, just a passing mention. Sadly, that's a blown opportunity to show how Goliath can throw sand in David’s eyes and make him cry uncle by forcing him to lawyer-up and waste precious capital defending a frivolous legal challenge.

Yet in the long run, we’re not griping about Beer Wars. It may keep the discussion going, even if it is just among the party faithful. Plus, we’re in New Jersey, where there’s a giant brewery in Newark and, in general, an unfriendly climate for craft brewers, à la arcane and arbitrary regulations.

NOTE: The photos are from the live-feed panel discussion moderated by Ben Stein that followed the film.

NJ Craft Beer Week, a movement (we hope)

We gave a heads-up to the Brewers Association about writing Gov. Corzine's office seeking a proclamation of New Jersey Craft Beer Week to coincide with American Craft Beer Week (May 11-17).

The kind Colorado folks at BA were genuinely interested and asked us to kept them posted and let them know if it happens.

To that, we say: Cool. And we say make it a movement. If you read this blog, cut and paste the letter we wrote (or write your own) into whatever word processor program you use, print it out and mail it to:

The Honorable Jon S. Corzine Governor,
State of New Jersey,
Office of the Governor,
PO Box 001 Trenton, NJ 08625-0001

While you're at it, print out the federal proclamation and fire that off with the letter to bolster the argument.

Meanwhile, craft beer week wasn't lost on Colbert last year. (Alas, there's a commercial before the clip.)

Beer Wars reminder

It's 8 p.m. Eastern Time this Thursday, at a theater near you, or close enough. A one-night event.

The image below lists the Jersey theaters. FYI, the Hamilton location is the one near Trenton.

A view from the brewhouse

These are shots from the brewing day Steve Moen and Mike Wentzel had late last month at Krogh’s. That’s Steve at right.

Steve says in a note to us that Turnpike Pale Ale, the best-in-show beer from the 2008 New Jersey State Fair hombrew contest, will be on tap in Sparta in about a month, once Krogh’s can open up a tap handle.

Meanwhile, we caught up with Brian Boak of Boak’s Beer/Boak Beverages at the High Point Brewing open house on Saturday. (FYI, High Point has this seriously good schwarzbier, Project Z, on tap in the visitors area. It's totally worth your growler, just like their maibock, a rich and malty brew with a solid hop balance. Call to check on availability of Project Z.)

This is a shot of the 15-barrel fermenter Brian popped for that will be installed at High Point. It was in transit when this photo was shot.

If you recall, Brian has a business relationship with High Point, which brews his line of Belgian-style beers and an imperial stout. This fermenter is a pretty big deal for Boak’s Beer, representing dedicated tank space for the brews that Brian has found a market for in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Over the past year or so, Brian has had to rely on what tank space would come open around the regular lineup of Ramstein beers and High Point’s other contract brewing obligations.

So consider this fermenter, which at the end of last week made it from China to Michigan where it sat en route to New Jersey, to be the first ring in the tree that is Boak’s growth. Brian expects the tank to be installed within the next 10 days. From there, it’ll be filled with a wheat beer accented with lemongrass that'll wind up in a bunch of new kegs Brian also bought, and ultimately bar taps, perhaps one near you.

Craft Beer Week ... an action moment

Next month plays host to American Craft Beer Week. It's May 11-17, to be exact. Think of it as Philly Beer Week for the whole country, or something like that, only it's a much older awareness effort than PBW.

And we recall, through the mists of time, that former Governor Whitman proclaimed July as a beer month in New Jersey, around the time she was heading into the stretch run of her second term. Alas, it would seem that stirring these embers and keeping the flame alive for the sake of craft beer has fallen by the wayside in our state.

It's a pity, since the Brewers Association in Colorado spoon-feeds the information and a lot of the accompanying rah-rah collateral material to organizations (or bars, it would appear) that want to jump on the beer wagon. It makes you wonder what the Garden State Craft Brewer's Guild is doing. Or not doing. There's not an iota of mention on the calendar over at njbeer.org. (And not to beat up on the guild, but geez, there's crap dating back to January on the news page of the Web site, the postcard link doesn't work and the promised Frequently Asked Questions page has been in the larva stage for months now.)

Anyway, without getting into the whole saw about burgeoning growth in the craft beer segment of the brewing industry, like the BA does, we fired off a letter to Governor Corzine's office, asking that May 11-17 also be designated New Jersey Craft Beer Week, to coincide with American Craft Beer Week. We sent it conventional mail and through the governor's Web site.

Here's the letter:

Governor Corzine,
May 11-17 is American Craft Beer Week, a designation bestowed by Congress (House Resolution 753) upon the efforts of the nation’s small-batch brewers/entrepreneurs, who make excellent beers that capture the heritage and modern culture of one of the oldest beverages on Earth.

The congressional resolution also serves to raise awareness of the community of microbrewers and restaurant/pub brewers. And amid our current national recession, it would be fitting that American Craft Beer Week also serve as a reminder of the contribution that those brewers make to their local and state economies, with jobs, tax revenues and licensing fees.

New Jersey itself has a long brewing heritage, and some claims to beer fame. For instance, canned beer was developed at the Gottfried Krueger Brewery in Newark and went on the market just two years after the end of Prohibition. Moreover, President Roosevelt chose New Jersey as the site of a speech to rally plans for pulling the nation out of the Depression, referencing the resumption of legal beer as a component of the economic recovery efforts.

Today, the 18 craft brewers that call New Jersey home carry on with that entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, making world-class beers that have earned national accolades and enjoy wide appeal here in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. It would be appropriate – and is requested by this correspondence – that May 11-17 be declared New Jersey Craft Beer Week to coincide with American Craft Beer Week and honor the accomplishments of New Jersey’s small-batch brewers and their contributions to consumers' enjoyment, the brewing industry, their local economies and the state’s economy.

We also added another section, for good measure, just a sampling of details about Jersey brewers, things that many of us know, but points that someone outside the loop may find interesting and useful. Besides, it would be decent fodder for a press release from the governor's office, should there actually be a proclamation ...

Some facts about New Jersey craft brewers:

• The Tun Tavern in Atlantic City pays homage to the now-gone Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, where the United States Marine Corps was formed in 1775. Every November 10th, the Tun holds a birthday celebration for the Corps, drawing active duty and retired Marines from across the country.
• JJ Bitting Brewing is housed in an early 20th century brick building (circa 1915) that once was home to the JJ Bitting Coal and Grain Company. The brewery/restaurant effectively preserves a piece of American railroad history by making that building its home.
• High Point Brewing, which brands its beers with the name Ramstein, pays tribute to both New Jersey’s highest elevation, and the American-German spirit of cooperation that is Ramstein Air Base in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz.
• Flying Fish Brewing is New Jersey’s second-largest brewery, coming behind mega-brewer Anheuser-Busch (now Anheuser Busch-InBev), and this year is producing a series of beers saluting the culture of humor and community that bonds New Jerseyans with their world-renowned New Jersey Turnpike.
• Along the Delaware River, River Horse Brewing makes its home in the old Original Trenton Cracker factory building in Lambertville.
• Boston-based Pizzeria Uno has but one brewpub across its chain of restaurants in the US. It’s located along Route 1 in Edison.

Should anyone want to follow suit and push the idea to Corzine's office, just cut and paste the letter and mail it to (but hurry, time's running short):

The Honorable Jon S. Corzine Governor, State of New Jersey Office of the Governor, PO Box 001 Trenton, NJ 08625-0001

Or cut and paste it into the correspondence part of the governor's Web site, but that's a bit of a pain in the ass, with drop-down menus etc. (we used the small business category, by the way).

Odds of getting a response? Who knows? But Corzine's treasurer did stick his foot in his mouth last month in regard to beer drinkers (tempest in a beer stein, in the end, actually), and maybe the governor could use something to settle the foam.

Cheers.

PS: And yes, we know, Uno Chicago Grill, but the corporate HQ, we discovered, is Boston, hundreds of miles from where Uno originated. What a wicked pissuh!

OK, maibock for real this time

Saturday’s open house at High Point definitely will be the 2009 debut of Ramstein Maibock.

We jumped the gun last month, saying it would be on the bill of High Point’s March open house, alongside the Ice Storm eisbock and Double Platinum Blonde. An oops on our part.

But this time, it’s definitely a go, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the brewery in Butler, with Councilman Robert Fox doing the honors of tapping the ceremonial wooden barrel.

Speaking of the Ramstein Maibock, it walked away with top ranking in Ale Street News’ tasting of springtime bocks. And take a look at that list, it bested some German-made bocks that were part of the tasting.

Ale Street gives it 4 1/2 stars; we give it our highest rating: 5 growlers.

And speaking of open houses, the photos here are from the March event, the first High Point open house for 2009.

April 7th, a date that lives

Prohibition, the national experiment, goes belly up … Legal beer finally. Happy day.

A year ago, on the 75th anniversary of April 7th, 1933, some folks were stepping all over the date to point out that in 1933, it wasn’t the final spade of dirt to bury Prohibition, that April 7th was a mere stepping stone.

Prohibition’s actual repeal wouldn’t come until Dec. 5, 1933, when Utah ratified the 21st Amendment, securing a sufficient majority of states doing so. Because government is a process.

Seems like the purists were arguing (and hawking a book) that repeal wasn’t big enough to embrace both dates, that April 7th was stealing Dec. 5th’s thunder.

Maybe that's an extreme reading of their point, but anyway, thanks for the clarification. And 76 years later, who gives a crap about splitting hairs, unless you're on Jeopardy! or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

April 7th did mean 3.2% (alcohol by weight) beer was legal, and that certainly helped put one foot of the Volstead Act on a banana peel (the other was already in the grave). It's enough to be happy about.

The rest is history.

Have a beer.

Beer and roaming in Las Vegas

The cabdriver kept apologizing for the unforgiving choke points in afternoon rush-hour traffic en route to the Draft House, ground zero for the beers made under the Big Dog’s Brewing Company brand.

As we rode along, the driver held up his end of the beer conversation: Bud’s no longer in American hands, he says he heard, shaking his head at the fact that some European outfit snapped it up; the Draft House is a Packers bar, he adds (as in Green Bay; the brewpub’s founders originally hail from Wisconsin; brats and cheesy things on the menu); good beer there, he says, and best of all, about 5 miles from his home.

The driver knew plenty about the place, but had one question: Why the special trip to a brewpub 10 miles off the Strip, where there was no shortage of beer, food and gambling?

Answer: The Draft House has a Jersey connection we needed to check out … that and the release of the brewpub’s Belgian Wit seasonal. It seems that Miss America isn’t the only one who fled Absecon Island for the desert palms and bright lights of Las Vegas; it’s just that she’s far better known, of course, than Dave Otto, the guy behind the stouts, IPAs and pale ales from Big Dog’s.

Dave’s been in Vegas longer than Miss A, heading out there about a dozen years ago, when Bill Clinton hadn’t yet regretted giving Monica Lewinsky a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass and Ray Rhodes was still coaching the Eagles. In beer terms, Flying Fish was still swimming up stream then, releasing its Abbey Dubbel for the first time; the now late, mutton-chopped Michael Jackson made a beer hunter stop at the Cherry Hill brewery; and the Tun Tavern existed only as a venerated piece of Marine Corps history, not a place for fresh beer in the shadow of Atlantic City Boardwalk casino glitz.

Indeed, craft beer and the beer renaissance in general were starting to take firm hold in the Mid-Atlantic back then. And Dave, originally from Cinnaminson, did his pubcrawls at Philly bars, while Home Sweet Homebrew provided him with malt, hops and other homebrewer supplies. (He still remembers, Nugget, that colossal-sized cat that used to keep George and Nancy company at the Sansom Street shop.) Back then, Dave was also kicking around Ventnor and the Atlantic City scene, parking cars at the Showboat and Tropicana, and driving a limo for a company with ties to Trump casinos. Not much of a job, nor direction, he says, recalling those days. He did what anyone does when life starts to seem like four walls: seek a sunnier vista. So he headed west, looking for a place to go to school and study history.

Welcome to fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada.

Dave applied to a few schools, but it was UNLV that accepted him; so did Holy Cow Casino Café & Brewery, the first throw of the beer dice for Big Dog’s Brewing and Sin City’s first microbrewery. Dave worked as an assistant brewer at Holy Cow on the Las Vegas strip, turning his homebrewer knowledge into pro brewer skills while on the job.

Holy Cow closed in 2002, and its owners shifted brewing operations to their Draft House property, where fermenters, conditioning tanks and the brew kettle are housed beside the barn-shaped building and its spacious bar area, video poker and dining tables. (Big Dog’s has two other locations: Big Dog’s Bar and Grill and Big Dog’s Casino Café.) Dave took over as brewmaster a year and a half later. Besides the brewhouse, these days you’ll also find him mingling with the crowds and beer geeks that turn out for the tasting parties for new beer releases (the first round is on the house, by the way, with a complimentary appetizer), or writing about beer for Southwest Brewing News.

Dave still has family in New Jersey, and except for the White House Sub Shop, and maybe the Baltimore Grille, he’s not one to get wistful over Atlantic City. Vegas is, after all, his roll of the dice.

Looks like it came up 7. Yep, a natural.

•••••••••••

Brews we had at the Draft House (served in nonic pint glasses, with 20-ounce imperial pours and 16-ounce pours; slip a $20 into a video poker machine at the bar, your beer is comped):

• Black Lab Stout (5.5% ABV): Well-balanced, smooth and tasty, poured under nitrogen, a good starter if you’re looking for a session brew but wanting to go beyond the pale. And of course, a black Lab is the iconic brand image of Big Dog’s Brewing.
• Holy Cow! Original Pale Ale (5.3% ABV): Clean aroma and lots of hops, but not overboard with bitterness. Very much the American version of pale ale, will remind you of the first time you had a West Coast-style beer.
• Sled Dog Winter Stout, aged in Jim Beam bourbon barrels (9% ABV): Vanilla signatures abound in a quite good imperial stout. Nice brew to come back to after the hop-centric Holy Cow. Just a hint of alcohol in the flavor, tucked in behind the roasty notes.
• Belgian Wit (4.8% ABV; in wheat glass): Nice and hazy from wheat and oats, orangey and refreshing to sip. Saaz hops, coriander and curacao. Our only regret with this brew is we had to chug it and dash, so we could keep to a schedule.