NJ craft brewers guild fest is Saturday

The Garden State Craft Brewers Guild returns to the battleship USS New Jersey for the 17th incarnation of the organization's festival.

As followers of the home-state brews know, this event at the Camden waterfront is the only beer festival in the state to exclusively feature Jersey-brewed beers. 

This year, the guild has added a VIP session ($55, tickets are limited) stocked with a dozen cask-conditioned ales, in adition to the regular admission ticket ($45).

Also being served is a guild-collaboration beer that harkens back to Ballantine India Pale Ale.

Admission includes a tour of the battleship (find tickets here). Music again is the Cabin Dogs. 

Last year saw the lineup of breweries at the festival increase by five, reflecting the growth in the state's craft beer industry. You won't find any new brewery additions this go-round; none of those in development were licensed in time. Nonetheless, if you're going to the festival, keep your ears open because you're likely to hear about new breweries in development.

It's a shirt!
The Welcome to Brew Jersey image that graces this blog (and was created by the blog's owner) is now a shirt. The design was donated to the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild, which will have Welcome to Brew Jersey shirts on sale at the battleship festival. 

Make the guild fest a rally point

Philly Beer Week kicks off tonight with an opening-tap shindig at the Independence Visitors Center.

For folks in South Jersey, and even for beer fans north of I-195, PBW is a big attraction. Be that as it may, let's still think there's no place like home.

And with that, here's a reminder that the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild festival is only two weeks away.

Yes, it's at the Camden waterfront, aboard the USS New Jersey battleship museum again, and, yes, that has been a thorn for some North Jersey beer drinkers. (We've always supported the idea of having two festivals – spring/summer and fall, one in South Jersey, the other in North Jersey).

But there is something in the air this year that makes showing support for the home-state brewers all the more important: legislation in Trenton to level the playing field for New Jersey brewers and modernize the rules under which they make and sell beer.

Senate bill S2870, and its Assembly counterpart, A3969, would put the state's 15-year-old craft beer industry on par with that of Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania, not to mention pretty much the rest of the country.

Imagine being able to buy your favorite beer from your favorite brewpub at a Canal's, Liquor Outlet or Total Wine. Imagine a BYOB restaurant selling you a six-pack of your favorite locally made beer, instead of you having to bring it in tow.

That's some of what the legislation would allow. (The Assembly version, by the way, has picked up two new sponsors: Jon M. Bramnick, a Republican from Westfield, and Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., a Democrat from South Plainfield.)

So let this video of last year's Garden State Craft Brewers festival, together with this year's upcoming festival, be a rallying point and a reminder that change is in the air.

The Big Picture

Here’s video from last month's Garden State Craft Brewers Festival. To those who inquired more than once about its completion date, sorry for the delay. And to those who paused from their sampling or pouring to do an interview, many thanks.

If you went to the festival, you know the weather pretty much sucked. But thankfully the rain, while poncho-worthy, was intermittent. The guild puts the festival attendance at 630, and the event marked the New Jersey debut of Iron Hill Brewery. (IH co-founder Mark Edelson and head brewer Chris Lapierre took time do interviews for the video.)

A word about the guild fests
We’ll take this moment to repeat an oft-said point (on this blog, at least): Having the festival in Camden, or South Jersey if you want to track it regionally, is fine if there will be at least a second festival, specifically in North Jersey. You could toss in a third for the middle part of the state, since New Jersey is actually and distinctly of three regions, as far as its cultural stylings go.

A single festival in South Jersey becomes forgettable in the long run, and North Jersey folks can be hard-pressed to drum up the desire to travel the distance (a shout-out to Tom Eagan of the Destination Beer blog, who did come down from Jersey City on the 20th and made an admirable daytrip of things). And for argument’s sake, if there were but a single festival in North Jersey, the shoe of disdain would be on South Jersey’s foot.

So two festivals becomes important. At some point, it's about branding, and brand awareness. And by branding, we mean broadly speaking the New Jersey brand, the big picture, collectively the great beers made by the pub and craft brewers inside the state’s borders.

Since the guild’s festival is the only one that’s granted the dispensation to have the beer poured by the people who made it (therefore brewers can really talk to the consumers), it becomes important again to capitalize on that opportunity for face time with the beer-consuming public and remind those folks not just about your beer, but your very existence (you can’t do tastings at the package stores in this state). Because there’s a flood of beer on the store shelves from across the country and around the world, almost too much to choose from, sort of Alvin Toffler-ish/Future Shock-like, when you consider that back in the 1980s, the choices were dramatically narrower. The home team is in peril of being overshadowed by the plethora of labels now. (Yet once upon a time, Jersey had a plethora of labels brewed within its borders.)

It’s good for the consumer, the veritable panorama of choices, but not so hot for the concept of buying local being the new organic.

And that, in the end, is the big picture.

Craft Brewers Guild Festival on Saturday

The Garden State Craft Brewers Guild 13th Annual Beer Festival, as it's billed on the organization's Web site, is Saturday (1-5 p.m.) in Camden aboard the USS New Jersey. (Note to the guild: Not to be a pain, but it's time to update the festival announcements on the Web site. It proclaims 16 breweries, but there are only 14 members listed under the guild membership tab. Even when you toss in soon-to-open Iron Hill Brewery, which is expected to debut its beers in New Jersey aboard the ship on Saturday, that only makes 15. Plus, Krogh's in Sparta rarely pours at this festival.)

Also, it's a little unfortunate that the guild's site doesn't indicate a festival for the fall. But some guild members say there is the intention to repeat a fall festival, like the one in Newark last October. One of the observations that arose after that festival was attendance suffered because the planning came together late and there wasn't sufficient time to get word out.

Alas.

Hopefully on Saturday (which unfortunately is forecast to be rainy) the guild will have handouts about a fall festival, as was done last year. Still, it would beneficial to have a little buzz about it going on the Web site now, even if the planning has not totally gelled.

Anyway, here's what the 11th and 12th festivals in Camden looked like.

IF YOU GO:

• Tickets are 40 bucks and appear to still be available.
• Parking is available for 10 bucks at the garage across from Adventure Aquarium. Shuttle buses from the garage run regularly to and from the ship.
• Food concessions are on the ship. It's the usual fare, but at the past couple of festivals the vendor has been better than some you'll find at similar events.

On the radar

Stormy seas

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guild's got game

Where can you find practically all of what New Jersey brews on one stage? At the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild's annual festival, of course.

Yeah, that’s just a way of bringing up the fact that the 12th incarnation of the festival is scheduled for this Saturday (June 21st), once again at the Camden waterfront aboard the floating military maritime museum that is the USS New Jersey.

If you’re a newbie to the festival here are the quick facts:

• Breweries: Basil T’s of Red Bank, Cricket Hill, Flying Fish, Gaslight, Harvest Moon, High Point, JJ Bitting, Krogh’s, Long Valley, Pizzeria Uno, River Horse, Ship Inn, Triumph and Tun Tavern. (FYI: Krogh's, the brewpub in bucolic Sparta, NJ, is listed on the marquee, and they're a Guild member. But generally speaking, they have not ventured this far south to the festival, meaning it's possible they will be a no-show. We hope not.)

• It’s a rain-or-shine event from noon to 4 p.m. at the fantail of the battleship. Admission is 40 bucks and you get the customary souvenir taster glass and a self-guided tour of the ship, and it looks like online ticket sales have closed. The USS New Jersey’s website says tickets are still available at the box office, but it’s best to call ahead at this point. Here's the number: 856-966-1652 ext. 108.

• Music by the Cabin Dogs, who have sort of a residency with this event. The Dogs are pretty good, so give ’em a listen.

• Parking: Public parking (for a fee) is available over by Adventure Aquarium, with shuttle buses running from the garage to the battleship.

• Yes, there will be food vendors. Last year the food was a marked improvement from the year before. Ditto for the access to it. We’re expecting it to be at least the same this year.

•Weather: Nice for a festival, upper 80s. Let's hope the humidity stays reasonable.

NJ beer world, one year later

Some highlights of the New Jersey beer landscape since last year’s festival:

• Flying Fish in Cherry Hill topped 10,000 barrels in production, 10,511, according to figures we obtained from the Brewers Association in Colorado. (The top 5 NJ brewers are: Flying Fish, River Horse, Triumph, High Point and Cricket Hill.)
• High Point Brewing in Butler earned a spot at No. 7 in Beer Advocate’s rating of the top 25 breweries in the USA. High Point also picked up a top-10 accolade for its Oktoberfest beer from Draft Magazine. (Take it from us, High Point makes a killer Oktoberfest, and that beer will be coming around again very soon.)
• River Horse Brewing in Lambertville is closing in on the first anniversary of new owners. Chris Walsh and Glenn Bernabeo scored a hit with a new Belgian Double Wit a few months back that was part of a brewmasters reserve series they started. RH is promising to roll out more new beers and has struck a deal with Lion Brewery in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to contract brew RH’s Penn Brook Lager (more on this soon).
• J.J. Bitting in Woodbridge successfully launched the Central Jersey Beer Festival last September and is planning a repeat event this year. That festival has room to grow, and we hope it does.