Today in 1862, US Patent 34943 A was issued, an invention of Charles Chinnock, for his “Beer Measure.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
I have invented a new and improved can and measure for liquids liable to froth or foam when drawn or measured and also to separate the froth or foam from the liquid when pouring into other vessel or vessels.
Some very interesting analysis from the NBWA, and their economist Lester Jones, about the number of breweries in America. Lester’s analysis uses slightly different metrics from the TTB and doesn’t define craft breweries as narrowly as the BA, and also the TTB doesn’t distinguish exactly what mat beverages are being made, if they’re licensed as a brewery then they’re included in the data. Those difference in calculating show the NBWA’s number for how many breweries there in America is 4,824, or over 550 more. But even more remarkable is that based on the number of “permitted breweries on record” at the TTB by the end of last year, that number could swell beyond 6,000, which seems absolutely crazy. The number is California alone, at 788, is just shy of 800. Sheesh!
Here’s the entire analysis below since the whole summary is worth reading:
Each year, the NBWA requests data from the TTB on tax paid withdraw volumes by size of brewery. Once again, this year’s TTB data provides some interesting brewing industry insights into the dynamics of the U.S. brewing industry. This data also is helpful for us to supplement the Brewers Association data on overall independent craft beer growth and brewery count. According to the BA, craft brewer volumes grew by 13 percent to 24.5 million barrels in 2015. The BA also reported 4,269 total operating breweries for 2015. As with all statistics, how the numbers are collected and reported can vary across organizations. In our industry, the numbers also change quickly.
As of April 2016, the U.S. domestic brewing industry had 4,824 reporting breweries according to the TTB. As with the BA’s brewery count of 4,269, this number is expected to change as additional new brewers are counted that may not yet have been fully recognized and/or reported by either the TTB or the BA data. The data presented below is for all types of malt beverage manufacturers and recognizes only the individual facility, not the ownership or control group.
Highlights from the 2015 TTB brewery count data include:
In what’s becoming almost routine news, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced this morning the acquisition of Devils Backbone Brewing of Roseland, Virginia.
Here’s the press release:
Today, Anheuser-Busch announced an agreement to acquire Devils Backbone Brewing Company, the leading and fastest-growing craft brewery in the state of Virginia. Devils Backbone will be the latest partner to join the diverse portfolio of craft breweries within The High End, the company’s business unit comprising unique craft and import brands.
“I am extremely pleased to announce the partnership of Devils Backbone Brewing Company with Anheuser-Busch. While we are joining a creative group of craft breweries in the division, Devils Backbone will retain a high level of autonomy and continue its own authentic DNA within The High End framework,” said Steve Crandall, co-founder and CEO of Devils Backbone Brewing Company. “The existing management team plans to stay on board for many years, while continuing to innovate and bring locally crafted Virginia beer to the nation.”
In 2008, founders Steve and Heidi Crandall opened the doors to Devils Backbone Brewing Company in the Virginia Heartland, after being inspired by a ski trip to northern Italy in 1991 where they had their first taste of Germanic style beer. After success with the first brewpub, Basecamp, the decision was made to break ground on the Outpost facility, in Lexington, Virginia. Originally projected to produce 10,000 barrels of beer in its first ten years, the Outpost produced almost 45,000 barrels in its first three. Steve credits much of this early success to the excellent network of distributors within his system, which is weighted heavily towards Anheuser-Busch.
“I congratulate Steve and Heidi Crandall and the entire Devils Backbone team as they partner with Anheuser-Busch,” said Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. “Through the strength of Anheuser-Busch’s network of distributors, Devils Backbone’s award-winning craft beer will soon be available throughout the country and beyond. I want to thank Devils Backbone for their immense contribution to Virginia’s world-class craft beer industry, and I look forward to the additional exposure for Virginia as a leading state for craft beer lovers.”
Today, the Outpost Brewery & Taproom in Lexington serves as the primary production brewery while the Basecamp Brewpub & Meadows in Roseland, serves as a visitor destination. Devils Backbone takes full advantage of the scenic 100-acre Basecamp property surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, offering a variety of opportunities for guests to enjoy the outdoors. In 2015, the two locations hosted more than 500,000 guests.
“Devils Backbone has captivated beer drinkers in Virginia since opening its doors eight years ago,” said Felipe Szpigel, President, The High End. “From the beginning, they have shown creativity and talent with the great beers they brew, and they’ve been able to use the authentic offerings at Basecamp Brewpub & Meadows to cultivate a fun, outdoor lifestyle that resonates with everyone. Pair these qualities with dynamic leadership and a dream to do something bigger, and you have the recipe for an even more promising future.”
While best known for its flagship Vienna Lager, which accounted for nearly 60% of Devils Backbone volume in 2015, the portfolio also includes other award-winning year-round favorites like Eight Point IPA and Schwartz Bier. Developing beers with personality and individual integrity of flavor has helped enable Devils Backbone to win four National titles: 2014 Great American Beer Festival Mid-Size Brewery & Brew Team, 2013 Small Brewing Company & Small Brewing Company Brew Team, 2012 Small Brewpub & Small Brewpub Brewer, 2010 World Beer Cup Champion Brewery, and the Virginia Craft Brewers Fest Best of Show medals in 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.
First Beverage Group acted as financial advisor to Devils Backbone Brewing Company. Anheuser-Busch’s partnership with Devils Backbone is expected to close in the second quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
I somehow missed this news, which seems to have come out without too much fanfare a few days ago. Maybe we’re becoming desensitized to brewery M&A? Certainly Twitter wasn’t abuzz with the news. Flying Fish Brewing, one of New Jersey’s earliest small brewers, was bought by the Lynett and Haggerty families, who own Times-Shamrock Communications. They own a dozen newspapers and eleven radio stations. On April 8, they announced that they’d bought a controlling interest in the Somerdale, New Jersey brewery, though the deal was quietly done a month earlier, on March 11.
Flying Fish was founded in 1995 by Gene Muller. They started in Cherry Hill, but moved to larger quarters in Sommerville four years ago.
According to the Scranton Times-Tribune (one of the papers owned by the family), this is how it went down.
The family’s expertise in marketing, events and promotions will help the brewery continue to grow and expand its footprint, said Bobby Lynett, manager of L&H Brewing Partners, the entity that now holds a majority interest in Flying Fish. They declined to disclose the cost of their acquisition.
“Flying Fish is a nice brewery with good people and a great product,” said Mr. Lynett, a publisher of The Times-Tribune. “We want to help it grow.”
Flying Fish currently employs 33 people who produce about 24,000 barrels of beer each year.
Gene Muller, founder of Flying Fish, said he began looking for new partners when some initial investors began to cash out on their investment in the company. He joked that the Scranton family emerged as a good fit “because they are Irish.”
Mr. Muller, 61, believes Flying Fish will benefit from events and other business interests of the Lynett-Haggerty families, whom he refers to as “The Scranton Guys.”
“There are obvious synergies,” he said. “We saw an opportunity to inject some enthusiasm into the company and take care of our initial investors. The Scranton Guys are part of a 100-year-old company. They understand the long-term horizon.”
The capital for L&H Brewing Partners came from some individual family members and Elk Lake Capital, set up by the family to invest in non-media companies to add diversity to the family’s holdings beyond Times-Shamrock’s media holdings of newspapers, radio stations and outdoor advertising. Elk Lake already owns a land-surveying company and water-testing company.
At a Philly Beer Week event celebrating the Class of '96: Greg Koch, Mark Edelson, Bill Covaleski, Tom Kehoe, Gene Muller & Sam Calagione.
Today in 1951, US Patent 2547988 A was issued, an invention of Hilton B. Levy, Arthur L. Schade and James S. Wallerstein, for his “Process For Improving the Foam of Fermented Malt Beverages and Product Obtained Thereby” for beer bottles. There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
The present invention relates to fermented malt beverages and more particularly to beverages of this type characterized by the capacity for forming a. stable, that is, a long-lived foam.
It is accordingly the general object of the present invention to provide fermented malt beverages Whose foam-head is longer-lasting in character than the foam-head produced by the normal components of these beverages as at present manufactured.
It is a further object of the invention to improve a persistent or enduring foam which he lasting qualities of the foam-head of fermented beverages by adding to such beverages at any suitable time in the course ,of their manufacture, but preferably after the fermenting and initial or coarse filtering, but prior to the storage period, a small quantity of a soluble non-toxic carboxy-methyl cellulose, preferably in the form of its alkali metal salt, such as the sodium and potassium salts.
We have now discovered that the foam of beer may be prolonged in a simple and economical manner by the addition to the beer of, small amounts of a water-soluble, heat-stable form of carboxy-methyl cellulose, as, for example, the
sodium salt of such material. This is commonly called cellulose gum, and, is a completely harmless and edible material. When solutions of, for example, sodium carboxy-methyl cellulose are added to beer in a concentration of 5 to 200 parts per million, the duration of the foam is greatly increased and a persistent froth is produced which endures for as much as several hours. Preparations of the sodium carboxy-methyl cellulose are particularly valuable when they are of a high viscosity type, and they increase the foam duration period many times.
Today was only a little wet in Hayward for the 19th annual IPA Festival at the Bistro. It was perfect beer-drinking weather once we emerged from judging in the basement all morning. This year’s big winner was Today Was a Good Day IPA, from Pizza Port Carlsbad, which was chosen best in show, out of 64 IPA offerings. The full list of winners is below.
Perfect Beer Drinking Weather.
This is my ninth annual annotated list of the Top 50, skipping two years ago because the BA provided that information then, so here again you can see who moved up and down, who was new to the list and who dropped off. So here is this year’s list again annotated with how they changed compared to last year.
Not too much movement this year, except for a few small shufflings. The top is virtually unchanged, with only numbers 10 and 11 switching places. And apart from those two small changes, the top 13 were all the same as 2014. The biggest jump came from Ballast Point, which leapt up 20 spots, while Shipyard slipped the furthest, dropping six slots. Only two new breweries made the list; Green Flash Brewing and Narragansett Brewing. Off the list was World Brew/Winery Exchange, a California contract label brewer making private label beers for retailers, and Bear Republic Brewing.
If you want to see the previous annotated lists for comparison, here is 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006.
The Brewers Association just announced the top 50 craft breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2015, which is listed below here. I should also mention that this represents “craft breweries” according to the BA’s membership definition, and not necessarily how most of us would define them, as there’s no universally agreed upon way to differentiate the two. For the eighth year, they’ve also released a list of the top 50 breweries, which includes all breweries. Here is this year’s craft brewery list:
Here is this year’s press release. The last couple of years, the BA has helpfully annotated the list, saving me lots of time, since I’ve been annotating the list for the last eight years, but they’ve abandoned that practice this time around. So for the eighth consecutive year, I’ll also posted an annotated list, showing the changes in each brewery’s rank from year to year, but it will take me some time to put together so I’ll have that again later today.
The BA, this year, did create a map showing the relative location of each of the breweries that made the list.
The Brewers Association has also just announced the top 50 breweries in the U.S. based on sales, by volume, for 2015. This includes all breweries, regardless of size or other parameters. Here is the new list:
Here is this year’s press release.
If you’re a regular reader, you’ve probably noticed that this year’s project is posting “Historic Beer Birthdays” with as much information as I can find about each person. It’s been a lot of fun, especially getting to know more about a lot of the early brewers and breweries that make up the history of our brewing industry. One especially fun find was this piece of breweriana which I found when looking into Frederick J. Poth (whose birthday was March 20, 1840). His father, Frederick A. Poth (born March 15, 1840) founded the F. A. Poth & Sons’ Brewery, and his other son Harry A. Poth (July 11, 1881) also worked for the family business. It was one of the largest breweries in Philadelphia in its heyday.
Around 1892, they had a local printer, Avil Printing Co., create a lavish Souvenir Album of 20 pages, with 26 illustrations done by A. M. J. Mueller. The prints are Chromolithographs, a popular process at the time. The booklet presumably would have been given to bars, wholesalers and maybe even consumers as a promotional item, but as these things go, this one is pretty awesome, and gives a great glimpse into the inner workings of a turn of the century American brewery.
Here’s its description from “The Library Company of Philadelphia,” founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731.
Album containing 26 lithographic illustrations documenting the Philadelphia brewing complex at the northwest corner of Thirty-first and Jefferson Streets, including exterior and interior views of individual buildings within the complex and detailed scenes of laborers operating equipment and transporting the finished product to and from railroad stations. Shows exterior and interior views of the office building, boiler house, stable, and malt house; exterior views only of pitching house, pitching yard, and shipping department; interior views of private offices, beer stube, refrigerating machines and engine room, brew house, fermenting room, beer storage, racking room, wash house, and kiln house; and modes of transport including a delivery wagon loaded with barrels of beer approaching the F.A. Poth depot at Trenton, New Jersey. Includes a “bottled by” list on the last page with names and addresses next to two F.A. Poth bottles of beer. Under the list: “100,836 barrels were sold between January 1, 1890 and January 1, 1891.”
Established in 1865 by Frederick August Poth at the northeast corner of Third and Green Streets, and moved to Thirty-first and Jefferson Streets in 1871. Incorporated in 1877, and later renamed F.A. Poth & Sons, Incorporated.
This is the hardbound cover.
Opening the book, you’re greeted by the title page.
General View of [the] Plant.
Office Building & Beer Strube.
Main Office.
Private Offices.
Boiler House & Interior.
Refrigerating Machines & Engine Room.
Interior Brew House.
Fermenting Room.
Beer Storage.
Beer Storage.
Racking Room & Wash House.
Pitching House & Pitching Yard.
Shipping House & Refrigerator Car.
Stable & Interior.
Malt House.
Interior Malt House.
Kiln House.
Depot at Trenton, N.J.
