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 & 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.

NJ beer has a friend in DC

His name is Rep. Leonard Lance.

The 7th District Republican congressman left the following comment today to an August post:

Hello,
I wanted to let you know that I recently toured Climax in Roselle Park to announce my membership to the House Small Brewers Caucus.

I am proud to be the only member of the New Jersey congressional delegation on the Small Brewers Caucus.

In an effort to reducing the tax burden on New Jersey’s brewers, I am a cosponsor of HR 836, the “Brewers Excise and Economic Relief (BEER) Act of 2009,” which effectively returns the federal beer excise tax back to its pre-1991 level of $9 per barrel.

This legislation would reduce the tax burden for all brewers and specifically reduces the small brewer rate by 50% to $3.50 a barrel.

Rest assured I will continue to support and promote New Jersey's small domestic producers in order to keep this American industry thriving. These are good jobs in our local communities that protect a fine American craftsmanship.

Best personal wishes,
Leonard Lance
Member of Congress

Climax Brewing owner Dave Hoffmann says Lance came by on Monday. And while he's grateful for Lance's outreach, Dave says he explained to the congressman that the heaviest hand of government yoking Jersey brewers comes from Trenton, not Washington.

Still, what Lance is doing is significant – lend New Jersey craft brewers a voice in Washington. And consider this: The caucus will turn 3 years old this year. Since its founding, no member of Jersey's House delegation bothered to take an interest in the state's craft beer industry until Rep. Lance, who has a distinguished track record of putting New Jersey first, stepped up.

For that he deserves points. Let's hope the seven other Jersey representatives on the Hill who have breweries in their districts follow Lance's lead.