Two guys walk into a liquor store ...

It's one of those well-stocked discounters you typically find along a Jersey divided highway like Route 1 or 73, or say just off Route 287, like in Boonton or somewhere.

The two guys are in their mid-20s. They plant themselves in front of the cold box for a few minutes, eying the various craft brews on the shelves, mulling a selection. They touch a sixpack, stop, then reach for another.

They plainly can't make up their minds. Too much to choose from. Life is good in a world of plenty.

This actually happened, Friday in Southern Ocean County, a place in New Jersey that's not exactly at the fore of the craft beer renaissance. Yet the selection is healthy, well beyond Guinness and Sam Adams.

But the point is, similar scenarios play out over and over these days at liquor stores where the staff is seasoned in the new world order of beer: Southern Tier, Southampton, Founders, Climax, Cricket Hill, Brooklyn, Dogfish Head, Victory, Troegs, Sly Fox, Otter Creek and Wolaver's, Rogues, Terrapin, Flying Fish, Ramstein, River Horse, Lost Abbey, Bear Republic, Ommegang, Yards ...

So, when the Brewers Association put out mid-year figures this week that said dollar sales for craft brewed beer jumped 12 percent in the first half of 2010, compared to 9 percent growth during that same period last year, and that the volume of craft brewed beer sold grew 9 percent from January through June of this year, compared to 5 percent growth in the first half of 2009, well, that was cause to celebrate.

And honestly, it's a moment to stop and think of those two 20-somethings who hovered over craft beer section at the liquor store, trying to make up their minds in that world of plenty (and 10-dollar sixpacks).

As a generation, a demographic, they have enjoyed a tremendously wide selection of brews since the day they could legally drink beer. As such they're the ones helping to power the uptick in sales, eschewing brand loyalty, their parents' beer, and following curiosity amid the vast sea of choice. (OK, so it's also said that in a down economy, people drink more. That figures into things, too.)

Anyone who took up homebrewing back in the early 1990s and kicked Bud, even Heineken, to the curb, remembers having to put up with explaining the new beer he was drinking to his old guard friends who reckoned beer was a straw-colored, everyman beverage that shouldn't be too fancy. (And god forbid that new brew had a settling of yeast in the bottom of the unopened bottle. That didn't translate at all.) Blame it on the fact that, for baby boomers, Bud, Miller and Coors were, by and large, the benchmarks for beer. Not homebrews, nor microbrews.

So, coming back to the original premise: The surge in craft beer sales and volume reflects a handing off of the baton to another generation of beer drinkers, a younger set that enjoys something its older brethen with need for flavor had to wait 20 years for.

Interest in better beer, variety ... It has become the rule, rather than the exception.

FOOTNOTE:
The U.S. now boasts 1,625 breweries — an increase of 100 additional breweries since July of 2009 — and the highest number in 100 years. A century ago in 1910, consolidation and the run-up to Prohibition had reduced the number of breweries to 1,498. (Source: Brewers Association)

Artisan's Oktoberfest and Ramstein kegs

On a hot summer afternoon on the last day of July, brewer Dave Hoffmann was turning out a fall seasonal beer at Artisan's Brewery and related this item:

The Toms River brewpub's 2010 Oktoberfest is set for Friday, Oct. 8. (That date is a correction from what we previously posted. Beer writer Kurt Epps, who also serves as emcee for the event, wasn't available for the original Oct. 1 date, so Artisans moved things to the 8th.)

Artisan's (now into its eight month removed from its former name Basil T's) draws a big crowd with this multi-course beer dinner, of which, as you can guess, the house-brewed fall Märzen (which Dave was working on) is the centerpiece.

Dave says he's putting Artisan's Oktoberfest beer on tap on Sept. 18, the same day that the 2010 Oktoberfest kicks off in Munich. (In the past, he has waited a week or so.) This year, by the way, marks the bicentennial of Germany's Oktoberfest, which as we all know originated as the commemoration of the nuptials of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.

Meanwhile, up in Butler, the folks at High Point Brewing are gearing up for the debut of the 2010 edition of their Ramstein Oktoberfest. The 2009 version of the brew scored the top rating from BeerAdvocate, and it's annually been a hot-ticket seasonal for the brewery.

As is its tradition with the Oktoberfest brew, High Point will tap a ceremonial oak keg during its September open house and brewery tour. That's set for 2-4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 11. By the way, next Saturday's August open house (2-4 p.m. Aug. 14) will feature an imperial pilsner that's worth the trip to Butler. Bring your growlers.

Also, last month High Point signed on with keg-supplier MicroStar to gain greater control of its draft beer operations. It's a key business step and probably best explained this way: Say you own a brewery and you own all your of kegs, and you have to wait for returns to fill new ones. There isn't always a happy balance to what goes out and what comes back for cleaning and filling, so signing on with a supplier ensures kegs are available to get beer to the marketplace and keep business on track.

High Point relies heavily on its draft beer side, since the brewery puts only three of its many beers in 12-ounce bottles (Blonde, Classic Wheat and Winter Wheat), even though it has plans to begin bottling some seasonal brews. Consider, too, that the brewery's business was up 30 percent last year. Given those factors you can see why striking a deal MicroStar matters.

Cheers.

That new Iron Hill tank

Call it a birthday present to the brewery and another canvas for the artistes who work there.

Even before Iron Hill was throwing that one-year anniversary party last month in Maple Shade, the folks there were doing something for the next year and beyond, as well as giving the two guys who create the beer – head brewer Chris LaPierre and assistant brewer Jeff Ramirez – more leeway to practice their craft.

A 30-barrel fermenter was installed on the penultimate day of June, muscling up the brewpub's capacity by about 25 percent. (Iron Hill opened with six single fermenters and a double; the new addition gives them two doubles.)

More tank space, yes, but Chris sizes things up a little differently.

"I don't really look at it as a boost in capacity though. It would certainly boost our capacity if our goal were to crank out as much beer as possible," Chris said via email today. "It's more about making it a little easier on Jeff and I to keep up, and more so about making it possible to brew more specialty lagers and slow-fermenting beers."

Like a brace of brews fresh to Iron Hill's Maple Shade digs: The Cannibal (Belgian golden ale) and Saison (Blegian farmhouse), both national gold medal winners for Iron Hill that need two months' fermenter time. "That's why we haven't brewed The Cannibal or Saison in this location until now," Chris says. "The new tank is what made those beers possible."

In the run-up to the 2010 Great American Beer Festival (Sept. 16-18 in Denver), The Cannibal and Saisaon will get tapped next Wednesday along with two other brews, Caprice (American Belgian ale) and Hopfenweizen (Bavarian wheat), all of which figure into Iron Hill's GABF entries for this year.

Contests aside, you might think it's the sign of a red-hot business to be expanding before the first anniversary. But, again, there's a business logic at play here.

"We usually undersize our breweries by a bit when we first open, figuring it's easier and more financially sound to buy and install a new tank if things are busy, than to sell and remove one if its not," Chris points out. "Also its much better for morale to install a new one than take one out!"

Turtle Stone Brewing, Update

Location, location, location.

It's a holy grail for businesses, and it's also what Turtle Stone Brewing, the South Jersey brewery on the drawing boards, is working to get its arms around right now on its way toward joining the ranks of New Jersey brewing enterprises.

Some recap:
Turtle Stone is the brainchild of Ben Battiata and Becky Pedersen of Cumberland County. The two have acquired a refurbished brewhouse and some fermenters in a dash to bring their vision of a second production brewery in South Jersey closer to reality. (Flying Fish in Cherry Hill is the other production brewer.)

In a perfect world, we'd be drinking Turtle Stone's stout and honey blonde ale right now (an earlier target launch date was last spring; but that fell out of reach after a site in Vineland that Ben and Becky had their eyes on was sold before they could get a jump on it). But remember: location, location, location.

Ben says the site they have been flirting with in Vineland's industrial park the past several months may not be the best fit in the long run, when you consider growth.

Specifically, the site isn't a clean match for the brewing equipment, posing the issue of having to do a lot of interior work to bring things up to par, only to potentially outgrow the space sooner than later.

So Ben and Becky are making sure they've done the best possible site search, and that now includes possibilities in downtown Vineland (nearby Millville was also in the mix, we seem to recall). Ben says he'd like to be able to buy a building to house the brewery; the banks they've gone to for financing have expressed a preference for that, too.

So for now, their pub system brewhouse is still in storage in Oregon, while the accompanying 15-barrel fermenter and bright tanks wait in Vineland at that industrial park site that has long loomed in the picture. (Also, the brewery's business logo is getting an overhaul, Ben says.)

And their eyes are on the fall.

Ben's optimistic more pieces to the mosaic will be added, and that their vision of a brewery will not only emerge clearer, but take several more steps closer to becoming the next New Jersey brewing enterprise.

NJ Beer in bottles

New Jersey Beer Company is extending its reach, 12 ounces at a time.

Since mid-July, the North Bergen brewery, New Jersey's newest production brewery and the first since Cricket Hill opened in 2002, has been bottling the beers it launched with during the spring.

Those brews would be Hudson Pale Ale, Garden State Stout and 1787 Abbey Single.

Founder Matt Steinberg says the new bottler from Applied Bottling (in British Columbia) is small, cranking out about 15 cases an hour, which means such packaging operations get done frequently to build inventory supply.

And extend, of course, New Jersey Beer Company's market reach.

"The biggest thing that bottles open up is the off-premise markets, but we won't see evidence of that for a few more weeks," Matt says. "It also enables retailers to take a chance on our beers more easily because it doesn't involve taking another beer off tap to put ours on."

Like a lot of brewers, Matt's preference is for draft beer. But marketing trumps that, and thus, six packs. "You absolutely must have it to sell the quantities of beer that we'd like to sell," Matt says. "However, I'd certainly rather package, sell, and drink draft beer."

Iron Hill first anniversary fete

Some scenes from Iron Hill-Maple Shade's first anniversary party/mug club event.

Mug club gigs at Iron Hill are great to begin with, but throw in an anniversary and you bump things up considerably.

Some special shout-outs to:

• Suzanne Woods from Sly Fox Brewing across the Delaware, and many thanks to her for the brand-spanking new advance can of SF Oktoberfest. Yes, we're getting closer to that time of year.

• Evan Fritz and family (that's future mug clubber James, 9 months old, in the pic at left). Evan coordinated the Big Brew Homebrew Day back in May that was held behind Iron Hill's building.

• Mark Haynie, New Jersey columnist for Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. Always good to run into another champion of New Jersey beer.

• Brian Pylant, who walked point on judging for the Iron Brewer contest sponsored by Iron Hill. Brian loves to talk beer and if you check our archives, say back to March 2008, you'll see Brian doing just that in the video from Triumph's real ale festival that closed out the inaugural Philly Beer Week.

• John Ahrens, of the Brewery Collectibles Club of America. John notes there's a BCCA canvention (yes, canvention) set for Sept. 8-12 in Valley Forge, Pa.

• Bob Ritchie, whose Indian name is Runs with Beer, or so his T-shirt says. Bob's a supporter of the blog, and it's always a great pleasure to meet those who take the time to check out the posts here and offer tips/ideas for posts.

• Tiffany Warrick, a server at Iron Hill who supplied the photo of the freshly done ice sculpture, beautifully cut by IH kitchen staffer Richard Glodowski. Richard carves ice as a side gig, and his work was certainly a showpiece for the day; Tiffany's a can-do table host and made a clutch save with the photo she offered.

• Iron Hill co-founders Kevin Finn and Mark Edelson, and brewers Chris LaPierre and Jeff Ramirez (all picture in photo at top), four people who make IH beer possible.

Cheers.

Portrait of Prohibition

For a while now, Victory Brewing across the Delaware River has trumpeted April 7th as a festive occasion, a moment to dance upon the grave of Prohibition and its crash 77 years ago.

Lo these many years hence, and amid the national craft beer craze, the folks over in Downington, Pa., have turned the demise of Prohibition into what is ultimately, after all is said and done, an annual marketing campaign, served with a shot of history, some special-occasion throwback-recipe beers, and release parties at bars whose locations are kept secret (sort of), à la speakeasies. "All citizens are urged to honor the day with a Victory beer" goes Victory Brewing's sloganeering.

April 7, 1933, of course, is the date upon which legal – albeit weak (3.2% alcohol by weight) – beer returned to the steins and mugs of US citizens. And it was the break from the starting gate toward ratification that December of the 21st Amendment, which essentially took a Sharpie and wrote Oops in giant, fat letters across the 18th Amendment, that action itself an unprecedented event.

Call it the Volstead Act, the Noble Experiment or the Terrible 13. But, really, whatever you call Prohibiton (1920-1933), just don't call it over and done with, since it left a lasting imprint upon American culture.

If you want to gain that understanding, peel back the many layers to what made America go dry and really dig into an issue that was seismic (yet has often been distilled into jejune retellings), then check out Daniel Okrent's Last Call, The Rise and Fall of Prohibition.

A fresh, in-depth account of the era, Last Call is a perfect book for craft beer enthusiasts, the kind of folks whose thirst for better beers runs parallel with their appetite for knowledge, their need to delve deeper.

Okrent graciously fielded some quick questions via email this week for a Q&A here.

BSL: Why do we as a culture harbor an oversimplified, even romanticized view (i.e., gangsters and speakeasies) of Prohibition? Is it truly because of the cinematic retellings and because, as history, it’s served to us in a shot glass when to really understand it, it calls for a pitcher?

DO: What most Americans know about Prohibition was delivered in abbreviated, romanticized, and dumbed-down packages – i.e., in Hollywood films and television shows. The Untouchables bears as much a relationship to the reality of Prohibition as The Flintstones has to the reality of the Stone Age.

BSL: We were once truly a country of irresponsible drinkers ... how does that shape our attitudes toward legal drinking today?

DO: I'm not sure it does; our historical memory is awfully weak. In 1830, the average American over 15 years of age drank the equivalent of 90 fifths of 80 proof liquor annually; today, we drink barely a third of that. Comparing the two eras is almost impossible.

BSL: Prohibition’s effects go far beyond the three-tier system of legal booze under which we enjoy a cocktail nowadays. Given that, what’s the most dramatic or central thing from it that continues to touch Americans' lives today?

DO: It's probably something as simple as the mixed drink. During Prohibition, the quality of illegal liquor was so dubious that it became necessary to dilute the goods with tonic, orange juice, ginger ale – anything that would mask the wretched taste of the booze itself. The other: men and women drinking together. The pre-Prohibition saloon was a men-only sanctum; the Prohibition era speakeasy was open to all comers, and really introduced mixed-sex social drinking to much of America.

BSL: Does Prohibition represent the pinnacle of government interference? And if that’s true, then why don’t we hear it used (or see it widely used) as an example to argue against government interference. For instance, you don’t really hear Republicans ripping on Democrats right now, saying their ideas will be as meddlesome, troublesome and ultimately fail like Prohibition did.

DO: I can't think of a greater intrusion into the lives of the average Americans than Prohibition. But you don't hear politicians citing it today because it was so extreme, and such a failure. Its current political relevance appears most vividly in the arguments over marijuana legalization, such as the ballot measure Californians will be voting on in November.

BSL: Does today’s Tea Party movement and the forces that surround it mirror any elements of the Prohibition movement? Are we witnessing similar political skirmishes and class wars and encountering similar personalities driving the debate?

DO: There's some similarity, primarily in the us-against-them nature of the political battles – they're not just about specific issues, but really about who is going to control the country. On the other hand, the Prohibitionists succeeded because, unlike the Tea Party, they confined themselves to a single issue. The closest analog today would be the National Rifle Association, which doesn't care what a politician thinks on any issue except gun control. And I believe that unrelenting focus is why the NRA is the most successful, in their own terms, of today's political organizations.

About Daniel Okrent
A writer, editor and baseball historian, Okrent is credited as the originator of Rotisserie League Baseball. He's the author of Nine Innings; The Way We Were: New England Then, New England Now; Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center; and the collection of his New York Times columns as Public Editor #1, a look back at his stint as the Times' first ombudsman, when he was called upon to help repair the newspaper's credibility following the Jayson Blair plagiarism/fabrication scandal that bubbled up at the Times during the spring of 2003.

Iron Hill Maple Shade, a year later

Iron Hill will mark the first-year anniversary of its Maple Shade brewpub on Saturday with a fitting soiree that runs from 1 to 5 p.m.

That's brewer Chris LaPierre in the video above, shot June 26th during the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild festival. Below is what Chris put out in his email notice to Iron Hill devotees and mug club members about Saturday's happenings:

As usual we'll show our appreciation with a complimentary buffet from 2-3 p.m. and raffling off a slew of prizes at 4 p.m. As for the beer, (can't forget the beer!) we've got a lot of special stuff saved up for you. ... we'll be tapping our Anniversary Ale (Sour Cherry Belgian Dubbel), Christmas in July (our Winter Warmer that's been aging in a used Bourbon barrel since the holidays), and vintage kegs of English Strong Ale and Flemish Red. I've even got a special cask for you (I haven't yet decided whether to tap the last firkin of Dark Situation or the last pin of our Bourbon Quad).

Follow this link to see what it was like on that inaugural day of business when Iron Hill opened its first location in New Jersey and became the first new brewing enterprise in the Garden State since Krogh's up in Sparta jumped into the game in 1999 with a 5-barrel system.

Iron Hill's reputation with its eight locations (spread among Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey) is one of great beer. But its backstory is about three Jersey guys who had to leave the Garden State to pursue their vision just to be able to return to their home state with that vision. (Are you listening Gov. Christie? IH's saga concerning high-cost, commerce-unfriendly New Jersey is not unique.)

But the expansion has been rewarding.

The Maple Shade location has become one of Iron Hill's busiest (are you sorry you spurned them like you did, Sagemore plaza in Marlton?), drawing a lot of beer enthusiasts from throughout the South Jersey region. And that's happened despite the rather confounding interchanges with Routes 73 and 41 that lead to the brewpub.

Iron Hill's success says something else about South Jersey: That it truly was looking for another player in its beer scene.

And South Jersey scored big time.

Centennials in 2010

Plenty of cones on the Centennial bines that are doing well this season. (Photo taken this morning.)

But alas, for third-year plants, this summer has seen one mound woefully stunted and another sort of sputtering. The remaining two mounds have fairly robust bines and a decent amount of cones.

Also, this year marks the first appearance of some unwanted visitors – Japanese beetles. The folks at Rutgers said a couple of years ago that if your plants don't have pests, just wait, the bugs will find them.

And so they have.

There's stone in that beer

Here's a video project that arose from Homebrew Day back in May.

While doing an interview for the Big Brew video of the Barley Legal Homebrewers gathered behind Iron Hill brewpub in Maple Shade, Maris Kukainis of Cherry Hill mentioned he planned to do a stone beer as an homage to his Latvian heritage.

Enough said. We'll be there.

If you're familiar with this age-old European process (the late great Beer Hunter Michael Jackson did a segment on the style whilst in Germany) and its origins, then you understand why it's intriguing.

The super-hot stones, when immersed in the wort, push the liquid over the hump into a rolling boil. The technique was relied upon back when some breweries used wooden kettles, which were unsuited for a direct flame. Hence, a work-around, one that imparted signature caramel and smoky flavors into the beer. (Check out the video below, by the Woodbridge-area homebrewer group WHALES. Club members used a wooden barrel as a kettle for their take on the style.)

To a soundtrack of Latvian folk tunes playing on an iPod, Maris brewed his version of stone beer using river stones heated over a hardwood fire. He bittered it with Styrian hops and the hop-predecessor mugwort, and tossed in some crushed juniper berries for good measure.

On a third dunk of hot stones, the wort was boiling, and the air around kettle filled with a combination maltiness and smokiness. (The stones retrieved from the wort wore a veneer of caramelized sugar.)

Maris split the kettle volume into two batches for primary fermentation. We have a follow-up call in to him to check on the fruits of his labors from that day in mid-May.

Cheers.

East Coast Brewing, Part 3

By now, the folks at East Coast Brewing had hoped their contract-brewed pre-Prohibition lager would be on store shelves.

But John Merklin and Brian Ciriaco have found the industry regulators to be a little fussy.

So the launch of their Beach Haus brand pilsner has been pushed to next month. You could hear the frustration in John's voice this afternoon as he spoke from the company headquarters in Point Pleasant. Beach Haus' launch was supposed to happen in June.

Federal regulators, he says, raised some flags about the corporate name (the feds wanted it clearer that East Coast will be contract brewing) and squawked about some fine print and other minor details regarding the label for the pilsner, the prototypes of which – made on a 15-gallon hobby system – tasted reminiscent of a Vienna lager, certainly deeper in character and heartier than your typical pils. (For the curious, the beer will be brewed with Mount Hood and Horizon hops – 42 IBUs – and weigh in at 5.5% ABV.)

So the upshot is this: John and Brian say they've addressed regulators' concerns and have a July 26th brew date set with Genesee Cream Ale-maker High Falls Brewing in Rochester, N.Y., with whom the two Jersey shore guys (they live in Ocean County) struck a contract-brew deal. (In a world not foiled by regulators, that brew date would probably be the top news here.)

If all goes to plan, John says, Beach Haus pils will launch around mid-August.

In the meantime, he and Brian have been developing some ales to eventually roll out under the Beach Haus banner.

And as for their pils, well, the two will tell you that August is still certainly beach weather.

Beer events, east and west

Saturday plays host to a pair of beer events: the 2010 edition of the only beer festival in New Jersey to feature exclusively Jersey-made beers, and the first mug club dinner for the rebranded Artisan's brewpub in Toms River.

Once again aboard the USS New Jersey at the Camden waterfront, the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild holds its 14th annual festival, from 1 to 5 p.m. (Call 866-877-6262, ext. 107 for ticket availability; price is $40. The event is rain or shine, and there's parking available at the garage opposite the aquarium, but be prepared to pay.)

New blood
The guild festival features only Jersey-made beers, and the profile Jersey beer is rising. Last year saw the addition of Iron Hill to the lineup, and this year will see another new brewer – New Jersey Beer Company. Plus, Trap Rock Brewery and Restaurant in Berkeley Heights has rejoined the guild, so look for brewer Charlie Schroeder's beers to be served as well.

Check out past festivals here, here and here.

A quick heads-up about the weather ...

Saturday is going to be scorcher in the low to mid-90s, with some upwardly creeping humidity.

Plus, it gets hot on the deck of the ship. So the rules of drinking beer in the heat apply: keep a bottle of water handy, and not just for rinsing your sampler glass. Stay hydrated. (It could be worse. Last year, it rained nearly the whole time.)

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the state in Toms River, Artisan's Brewery & Italian Grill holds its 2010 mug club dinner, featuring a flight of brews from Dave Hoffmann and a buffet prepared by Chef Steve Farley. (Things kick off about 6 p.m.)

Last year, Steve served some killer fried chicken à la the lemon-brined chicken recipe made famous by Thomas Keller and his Napa Valley, California, restaurant Ad Hoc. Steve also plated some great Italian sausage sans the casing. You can expect another satisfying spread on this year's buffet.

Beer-wise, Dave has an über-banana hefe-weizen on tap. You can catch the banana aroma from 20 paces on this brew. It's quite tasty, and it's joined by a dunkel weizen on tap. Backing up those are a red ale and West Coast IPA.

The 2010 mug club dinner marks a change for Peter and Pete Gregorakis (pictured).

Back in January, the brothers rebranded their brewpub Artisan's, retiring the old name, Basil T's, and putting to rest some of the confusion that ensued after the Original Basil T's in Red Bank spun off the Toms River location many, many years ago.

Today's date in Exit-speak

The glass of beer that is June is half empty, and, as a year, 2010 is nearly likewise.

My how time flies ...

More about the Exits in a day or two.

Exit 6 under glass

It's in the bottles now and conditioning. It's just not in your hands. Yet.

Craft Beer Week and J.J. Bitting

New Jersey's lone voice on a congressional panel committed to craft beer paid a call on J.J. Bitting brewpub on Monday, presenting owner Mike Cerami with an autographed copy of the American Craft Beer Week resolution passed by the House of Representatives last week.

Rep. Leonard Lance also sampled a flight of Bitting beers – including a raspberry wheat, Scottish ale, bock and India pale ale – declaring the IPA to be his favorite of the lot created by brewmaster James Moss. The Republican from Hunterdon County also took a tour of the Bitting brewhouse.

"It's incredibly important that we have these types of businesses across America to promote Main Streets. Main Streets have to engage in ingenuity in order to prosper. The high quality product that is manufactured here is an example of that ingenuity," Lance said after touring the brewery.

Lance's 7th District stretches from one side of New Jersey to the other (it covers 54 towns), and is home to four brewpubs (Bittings; Pizzeria Uno just south of Bitting along Route 1; Trap Rock in Berkeley Heights; and Ship Inn in Milford) and a production brewery (Climax Brewing in Roselle Park).

To be sure, Rep. Lance's visit to Bitting was about constituent service. Woodbridge is one of the larger towns in his district and the place where he catches the train to Washington. Plus, Lance's House seat is up for re-election this November.

But, what all Garden State craft beer enthusiasts should know about Lance is that he is the only member of New Jersey's congressional delegation to hold a seat on the House Small Brewers Caucus, which was formed in 2007 with a commitment to supporting small breweries, and focusing on business and regulatory issues, among other objectives. Lance is among several lawmakers to sponsor legislation to lower the federal per-barrel tax small-batch brewers pay on the beer they make.

Over its three years of existence, no other member of the Garden State's congressional delegation with a brewery in his or her district had stepped up to join the caucus and lend support to the state's 15-year-old craft beer industry until Lance did last year. (Lance is a first-term congressman, elected in 2008).

Meanwhile, neighboring Pennsylvania and New York each have four congressional reps on the caucus, some who got in on the ground floor.

New Jersey should have more representation on the panel. Hey, Reps. Frank Pallone and John Adler, we're looking at you. Your districts are home to a combined four craft breweries – three pub brewers and the state's biggest craft brewer, Flying Fish in Cherry Hill. And, of course, the breweries themselves should be pressing their representatives to join the caucus.

Beer is one of the few products that is taxed on its very creation, and craft beer is very much about commerce, local economies, cultural heritages and preservation. The early-20th century brick building that houses the Bitting brewpub had a former life as a grain and coal company.

Craft beer is also a growing industry, even in New Jersey where for a decade there was no new blood, until last summer and this spring (Iron Hill brewpub opened in Maple Shade in July 2009, while New Jersey Beer Company just began production brewing in North Bergen).

And that's why it matters having a voice in DC.

Now if only legislators in Trenton would get the picture.

Craft Beer Week at Iron Hill

The penultimate day of American Craft Beer Week (May 17-23) at Iron Hill Maple Shade was all about numbers.

The brewpub's Monky business (as in monks, not apes) mug club day on Saturday featured a flight of Belgian brews – single, dubbel, tripel, American tripel, and a round of quads, including bourbon barrel-aged and brett-styled versions.

On top of that, head brewer Chris LaPierre treated the crowd to some 4-year-old Flemish Brown and an early sample of Iron Hill Maple Shade No. 100.

Chris describes the brewpub's 100th batch – a milestone reached in just 10 months – this way: "It's 100 pounds of eight different malts, eight signifying that we’re the eight Iron Hill location. There's also 100 pounds of corn, being in South Jersey, it's kind of corn country. It has 100 IBUs' worth of hops – we used Centennial hops, also for the number 100. There's 100 ounces of finishing hops at the end of the boil and dry hops, and we boiled it at 100 degrees Celsius."

The last part is a joke, obviously, since 100 degrees C is the metric system boiling point for water.

Batch 100 will clock in about 6.5% ABV. Chris says it sort of defies a style category. "If I had to, I'd probably call it an IPA. It's golden to maybe a little bit of light amber ... really, really hoppy, about the alcohol of an IPA. But it's also got rye in there, wheat, corn, a lot of stuff you wouldn't normally find in an IPA."

Look for it early next month.

New Jersey dominates in AHA video contest

This just in: Jersey beer folks dominate in the American Homebrewers Association YouTube video contest.

Woodbridge Homebrewers Ale & Lager Enthusiasts Society won for most-watched video from the May 1st Big Brew Homebrew Day observance.

Beer-Stained Letter (that would be us) got second place in the Spirit of Big Brew category, and the Society of Oshkosh Brewers got the coveted first place in Spirit of Big Brew. Congrats to them.

Special thanks go to the Barley Legal Homebrewers, who share credit in the second place finish.

Here are the links:
• Oshkosh Brewers
• WHALES
• Beer-Stained Letter

Not a Jersey stunt, yet still craft beer

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.

New beer in NJ for Craft Beer Week

American Craft Beer Week begins Monday, but there's an event Saturday that's a fitting gateway in the Garden State to what the stewards of the May 17-23 observance call the Mother of All Beer Weeks.

The Copper Mine Pub in North Arlington will help launch New Jersey Beer Company's entry into the market place, pouring the inaugural trio of beers from the brand-spanking-new brewery in North Bergen in Hudson County.

"We didn't plan it this way, but I can't think of a better time. What better way to celebrate American Craft Beer Week than by opening a brewery?" says Matt Steinberg, the founder and president of NJ Beer Company.

Matt has spent the better part of this spring working like a dog, overcoming some obstacles and minor delays here and there, to get up and running. So Saturday will indeed be a momentous occasion. (NJ Beer will do a roll-out the following weekend at the Iron Monkey in Jersey City.)

Brewery folks will be on hand as Copper Mine pours NJ Beer's freshly made flagships: Hudson Pale Ale, Garden State Stout and 1787 Abbey Single, paired with some appetizers, mini-entrees and a dessert closer, provided courtesy of a friend of the brewery.

NJ Beer began actual brewing on April 24th, and as of today, it has brewed 100 barrels of beer. Matt's happy with how the beer has turned out. "I really couldn't be more excited get them out there. They're exactly the way the way they should be," he says.

NJ Beer also has a fall seasonal in the pipeline, but Matt is keeping details of the beer under wraps for now. It's in "the lab being perfected," he says.

Right now, NJ Beer's brews are draft only. But the brewery's bottling line is expected to arrive from Canada around the end of the month.

This year, Craft Beer Week sees the ranks of Jersey brewers grow by three: NJ Beer, Port 44 Brew Pub in Newark and Iron Hill down in Maple Shade, which has been doing phenomenally well since opening not quite a year ago.

Port 44 is still serving brews under guest taps, while it awaits final brewing licensing from the state. It's been frustrating trying to cut through the red tape, but Port 44's owner, John Feeley, says a meeting with their legal folks today gave reason to be optimistic.

Bureaucratic waters can be choppy, but if things tilt Port 44's way, the pub could be pouring its house-made ales around mid-June. Cross your fingers for them. Just as NJ Beer has brought brewing back to Hudson County, Port 44 represents a connection to the past for Newark, which was once a major player in the brewing industry before things dwindled to just the existence of Budweiser.

(In fact, once Port 44 gets its license and begins to make beer, the brewpub will be the only American-owned brewery in Newark. As we know, Budweiser is in the hands of Brazilian-Belgian conglomerate InBev.)

About American Craft Beer Week
The observance was organized by the Colorado-based Brewers Association to celebrate small and independent craft brewers and highlight what Americans enjoy about craft beer.

A House of Representatives resolution, H.R. 1297, was introduced in April to recognize and support the goals and ideals of American Craft Beer Week, not to mention support the role that small and independent craft brewers play through community citizenry; the economic contributions (i.e. the 100,000 jobs in the industry); and a resurgence in the brewing industry unseen since before Prohibition.