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Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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The Top 20 Microbreweries?

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This is one of the strangest lists of the top anything in the beer world for quite some time. Matador Trips, which bills itself as providing “trip ideas for travelers,” had one of their frequent contributors, Eric Warren, create a list of what they’re calling the “Top 20 Microbreweries in America.” It’s as head-scratching a list as ever I’ve seen. I know these things are almost pure opinion and that reasonable people can differ widely. I come up with my own Top 10 lists most weeks, so I know what a chore it can be. But they should, I feel, have some grounding in reality, and should at least try to maintain some internal consistency, adjust for personal bias (or at least cop to it) and be a reflection of the actual trends or reality (and if not at least be able to support the choices).

So imagine my surprise after nearly 20 years of paying very close attention to the world of beer, that the top two microbreweries in all the land I’ve barely even heard of. I’m sure they’re fine places, and I by no means wish to disparage them, but apart from the locals (and Stan, who’s been everywhere) how many people would have placed these two so high on a list of this title? How many are actually “microbreweries?” At least a few on his list are “brewpubs,” not that there’s anything wrong with that. Boundary Bay Brewing is, for example, currently the largest brewpub in America. Barrio Brewing, the #2 micro, opened in 2007 and doesn’t bottle or can their beer. Another one on the list, the Novare Res Bier Cafe doesn’t even appear to brew beer, but is instead an apparently decent beer bar in Maine. Really, he couldn’t fine one more actual brewery to round out the list?

I’m trying not to be too much of a dick here, but if you’re going to use the term “microbreweries,” it seems reasonable that you should know or find out what it means to be a microbrewery. A Microbrewery has a specific definition, but even beyond that there are some odd choices and glaring omissions that almost anybody paying attention would undoubtedly notice. The author gives no formula or idea of how he made his choices. Dartboard, perhaps? I should point out that Warren has lived in Montana for 25 years and is currently in Maine, so that may at least give some of his choices context.

Here’s the list. You probably know where I stand. What’s your take? Good list, or worthless?

 
The Top 20 Microbreweries in America, According to Matador Trips

  1. Kettlehouse Brewing, Missoula, Montana
  2. Barrio Brewing, Tucson, Arizona
  3. Full Sail Brewing, Hood River, Oregon
  4. Second Street Brewery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
  5. Clipper City Brewing, Baltimore, Maryland
  6. Free State Brewing, Lawrence, Kansas
  7. Uncle Billy’s Brew & Que Smokehouse & Brewery, Austin, Texas
  8. Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, New York
  9. Sleeping Giant Brewery/Lewis and Clark Brewing, Helena, Montana
  10. Deschutes Brewery & Public House, Bend, Oregon
  11. Ale Asylum, Madison, Wisconsin
  12. Boundary Bay Brewery, Bellingham, Washington
  13. Asheville Pizza & Brewing, Asheville, North Carolina
  14. Moab Brewery, Moab, Utah
  15. AleSmith Brewing, San Diego, California
  16. Long Trail Brewing, Bridgewater Corners, Vermont
  17. Twisp River Pub, Twisp, Washington
  18. Novare Res Bier Cafe, Portland, Maine
  19. Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats, Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
  20. New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins, Colorado

 

Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Beer Books

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For my 14th Top 10 list I’m a book state of mind. I’ve been trying to finish two book proposals since last year and a third book came up recently that I have to finish in about six weeks. Then earlier this week, a colleague sent me yet another invitation to pitch a book that a specific publisher wants to do. So I took a look through my own library of beer books and decided to pick my ten favorites. I also decided to not include guidebooks (sorry, Lew), fiction or homebrewing books (sorry, Charlie) in the list. That essentially leaves reference books and history, which is what I tend to gravitate toward. Some I felt I had to include because of their influence on me once upon a time, even if they’ve become dated over time. So by top ten, I simply mean the ones I like best or find most useful on a regular basis, and not including several popular type of beer books. And of course, I don’t own every beer book, though I do have quite a few. So the list is hardly scientific. You probably won’t agree with my choices, but that’s okay. I’d love to hear your choices. Anyway, here’s List #14:
 

Top 10 Beer Books
 

The Essentials of Beer Styles by Fred Eckhardt. It’s hard to believe that Fred’s little book is only 20 years old, but it cataloged beer styles in a brand new way, one that’s been picked up by everybody since, from the BA to the BJCP.
Great Beers of Belgium by Michael Jackson. Most of us have a soft spot for the beers of Belgium, and Michael’s book bring them to life in a way no other book has managed.
Ambitious Brew by Maureen Ogle. From the Golden Age to the Silver Age, Maureen’s thoroughly researched history eschewed mythology for fact and remains one of the few records of the early days of craft beer.
Tasting Beer by Randy Mosher. A brand new book, Randy’s book was one that needed to be written, to replace Evaluating Beer, a book with much good information but disjointed and hard to use because of the format and multiple authors. Tasting Beer pulls it all together in one easy-to-use book.
Amber, Gold & Black by Martyn Cornell. Martyn’s pdf-only book takes on many sacred cows of the beer canon and shows us their true history.
Drink by Iain Gaitley. Gaitley’s thick, dense book is not just about beer, but it has so much new, interesting and informative material in one place that it’s a delight on every page.
The Brewmaster’s Table by Garrett Oliver. There are plenty of good beer and food books, but Garrett’s broke new ground and changed how we view the relationship of food to beer forever.
Brewed In America by Stanley Baron. Originally published in 1962, it’s still the standard, rich with information, though the language is a little dry.
New World Guide To Beer by Michael Jackson. The 1977, or original, edition was the first beer book I ever bought. I still consult the latest edition from time to time and often just enjoy paging through it.
Michael Jackson’s Beer Companion by Michael Jackson. Hands down my favorite beer book. It’s not just informative and rich with stories, but I love the language of it. A masterpiece of reference books.

 

As usual, it was pretty hard to keep the list to ten, and a great many wonderful books didn’t fit on the shelf. Here’s a few more that almost made the list:

The Beer Bistro Cookbook by Stephen Beaumont & Brian Morin; The Best of American Beer & Food by Lucy Saunders; Brew Like A Monk by Stan Hieronymus ; The Encyclopedia of World Beer by Benjamin Myers & Graham Lees; The English Pub by Michael Jackson; Good Man’s Weakness by Charles McCabe (admittedly a work of fiction and essays, but read it and you’ll see why it’s on this list); Grape vs. Grain by Charles Bamforth; He Said Beer, She Said Wine by Sam Calagione & Marnie Old; One Hundred Years of Brewing: A Complete History of the Progress Made in the Art, Science and Industry of Brewing During the Nineteenth Century; Origin & History of Beer & Brewing by John P. Arnold; Premium Beer Drinker’s Guide by Stephen Beaumont; and Ultimate Beer by Michael Jackson

Let me know your favorite beer books, and why.

 

Also, if you have any ideas for future Top 10 lists you’d like to see, drop me a line.
 

Help Free the Hops

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We live in an enlightened age of beer — The Silver Age — which is perhaps the best time ever for beer in America in terms of diversity, quality and innovation. If, however, you’re one of the unfortunate souls living today in Alabama, only 1/3 of the beers made in the world are legally allowed to be sold there. The Yellowhammer State is determined to keep its beers yellow and fizzy. Only beer under 6% abv is legal there and only in packages holding 16 oz. or less. As you might expect, wine has no size restrictions and can be up to 24% and spirits have no restrictions whatsoever. Hypocrisy is no stranger to Alabama.

There are other odd restrictions, too, such as homebrewing is still illegal, one of only four holdout states (along with Kentucky, Mississippi and Oklahoma). For a more complete picture of the antiquated restrictions in Alabama, visit Free the Hops.

Free the Hops is a grassroots organization that started in 2004 that’s trying to drag Alabama’s beer laws into the 21st Century and, sadly, they’re meeting with a lot of resistance from … well, let’s say folks who would rather keep the status quo, don’t really understand what’s happening in the rest of the world, and would rather Alabamians stopped drinking altogether.

Despite these hurdles, and with the support of 61 businesses in the state, they’ve managed to get their “Gourmet Bill” through the house and the state senate is poised to vote on it later this week. As you might imagine, such effort needs money. To raise some funds for the fight, Free the Hops is conducting a raffle of rare beers at only $4 per raffle ticket, 3 for $10 or 5 for $15. There’s a special raffle website where you can buy raffle tickets online using credit cards or PayPal. It couldn’t be easier and it’s for a very worthy cause. I just bought five tickets. Who’s next? Let’s help Alabama to enjoy more of the wonderful beers we take for granted.

 

Top Beer Brandz

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Advertising Age had an interesting piece today entitled Recession Doesn’t Dent Total Value of Top 100 Brands, which is based on Millward Brown Optimor’s annual BrandZ Report. Each year MB Optimor releases their list of “the world’s most valuable brands measured by their dollar value.” As they put it, “strong brands have the power to create business value. They impact much more than revenues and profit margins. Strong brands create competitive advantages by commanding a price premium and decrease the cost of entry into new markets and categories. They reduce business risk and help attract and retain talented staff.”

According to AdAge, despite the recession the top spots have not changed very much, nor has the overall total of the Top 100. The new rankings won’t be officially released until Wednesday, but here’s the Top 10. The number in parentheses is their rank last year.

  1. Google (1)
  2. Microsoft (3)
  3. Coca-Cola (4)
  4. IBM (6)
  5. McDonald’s (8)
  6. Apple (7)
  7. ChinaMobile (5)
  8. General Electric (2)
  9. Vodafone (11)
  10. Marlboro (10)

Some more analysis from the AdAge article:

All told, the value of the top 100 brands, which ranges from the ubiquitous search engine at the top to Lowes at the bottom, was about $2 trillion and didn’t suffer the decline one might expect in a recessionary environment.

There was, however, more volatility in the top 100 this year than in the past, with 15 brands dropping out. They were mostly car brands, such as Chevrolet, Ford and Volkswagen, and financial ones such as AXA, AIG and, of course, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia. They were replaced by brands such as Nintendo and Pampers.

Toward the end of the piece, finally they revealed what happened in the big beer world.

The beer category was dominated by Anheuser-Busch InBev. Bud Light was the largest brand, followed by Budweiser, and Stella Artois came in fourth behind Heineken. Miller Lite came in seventh, growing only 2% compared with double-digit growth for the A-B InBev brands.

So this is what we know so far about the 2009 rankings:

  1. Bud Light
  2. Budweiser
  3. Heineken
  4. Stella Artois
  5. ?
  6. ?
  7. Miller Lite

 

Here’s Millward Brown Optimor’s explanation of how they calculate their rankings.

 
Here’s the beer brand rankings from last year, 2008.

  1. Budweiser
  2. Bud Light
  3. Heineken
  4. Corona
  5. Stella Artois
  6. Guinness
  7. Miller Lite
  8. Skol
  9. Amstel
  10. Beck’s
  11. Cruzcampo
  12. Kronenbourg 1664
  13. Coors Light
  14. Labatt’s
  15. Baltika
  16. Carlsberg
  17. Brahma
  18. Miller Genuine Draft (MGD)
  19. Foster’s
  20. Molson

In the Top 100 of all companies for last year, Budweiser (including both Bud & Bud Light) ranked 70th and was the only beer brand to make the overall list.

Tune in later in the week to find out the new rankings for 2009.

 

Draft Beer Manual Published

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One of the most interesting things announced at the Craft Brewers Conference in Boston last week was the Draught Beer Quality Manual published by the Technical Committee of the Brewers Association, in collaboration with all of the large brewers, as well. As a result of working with virtually the entire industry, the manual should become the industry standard for all things concerning draft beer. The committee was headed by Ken Grossman, of Sierra Nevada Brewing, who is known for his attention to detail and thoroughness. Everyone I know who’s looked at the manual so far has nothing but high praise for it. If you own or work in a bar or any other place that serves draught beer, or are simply interested in the subject, you should get a copy of the manual. Happily, it’s available free of charge online at DraughtQuality.org as a Wiki and the entire thing can be downloaded as a pdf, also free of charge. It includes just about everything you ever wanted to know about draught beer.

 

Beer In Art #25: Copley’s Portrait Of Samuel Adams

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art-beer
Given that I’ve been in Boston for the last week, it only seems fitting to feature a portrait of one of Beantown’s own. So this week’s work is a portrait of Samuel Adams painted by John Singleton Copley.

Copley-sam_adams-lg

The painting hangs in Boston’s Museum of Fine Art, and I had a change to see the original on Saturday. It was smaller than I expected at 49 1/2 x 39 1/2 in. and is believed to have been painted around 1772. Its first owner, after the artist, was none other than John Hancock. His wife later gave it to Adams’ grandson and in 1876 it was given to the City of Boston. In the painting, he’s pointing at the Massachusetts Charter, which Adams believed was a constitution that protected peoples’ rights.

Copely was one of the most famous early American painters, especially of portraits. He also did paintings of John Hancock, John Adams and Paul Revere, as well.

Whether or not Adams was in fact a brewer is open to some debate. Stanley Baron’s Brewing in America suggests that he may have been involved in his father’s malting business, making him a Malster. In the footnote in the Wikipedia entry on Samuel Adams, it tells the following story.

Baron, Brewed in America, 74–75; Alexander, Revolutionary Politician, 231. However, Stoll (Samuel Adams, 275n16) notes that James Koch, founder of Boston Beer Company, reports having seen a receipt for hops signed by Adams, which indicates that Adams may have done some brewing.

It seems to me we might rarely hear of Sam Adams’ connection to the world of beer were it not for the Boston Beer Co. Historically, it doesn’t seem like that was a driving force in his life. There’s a statue of Adams at Faneuil Hall, often referred to as the “cradle of liberty.”

sam-statue

Below the statue, this is all it says:

sam-statue-detail

No mention of his brewing, though to be fair this is a historical site. But I still think absent Jim Koch, our history would likely not include his background in beer, whatever it really was. It’s certainly been a powerful and very successful association.

If you want to learn more about the artist, you can start with his Wikipedia page. There’s also information at Art Archive, the ArtCyclopedia, and the National Gallery of Art. Also, the John Singleton Copely Virtual Gallery purports to have a complete gallery of his works.

Roadhouse Craft Beer

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The last night of the Craft Brewer Conference in Boston, I went out to dinner with some friends, including Greg Koch (from Stone Brewing), Tom McCormick (from the CSBA) and Nancy Johnson (from the Brewers Association) and several new friends.

The Roadhouse Craft Beer & BBQ is a sister restaurant to the wonderful Publick House, just a block away in the Boston suburb of Brookline.

The gang at our table. Yes, I had frites, you can read the review, of course.

The evening was actually an event for Shorts Brewing in Bellaire, Michigan. Of those I tried, I most enjoyed the Rich’s Rye IPA, made with a generous 40% rye malt, though the Huma-Lupa-Licious IPA was quite nice, too.

Tom McCormick and Nancy Johnson, begging for a new birthday photo (since I’ve been using the same one since New Orleans).

Next door to the Roadhouse was the Publick House’s bottle shop.

While waiting for our cab back to downtown, Todd Alstrom and Greg Koch engaged in what I learned was a time-honored tradition where they punch one another in the arm, a contest I should hasten to point out Greg never wins. Here, Greg waits in anticipation of the blow to come.

Todd kept his perfect record that night, too.

 

Cantillon At Deep Ellum

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While I’ve been in Boston, I haven’t gotten out and away from the hotel and trade show as much as I might have liked, mostly just due to being busy and having to keep with my writing. But last night I finally got a chance to get over to Allston and see Deep Ellum, a great beer bar I’d heard a lot about. Dan Shelton, from Shelton Brothers, was having an event and brought several brewers with him from Belgium, two of whom I’d met on my last trip to Brussels.

Deep Ellum was as advertised, a very cool bar, small in size but with a great selection of both draft and bottled beer, a good menu and a beautiful space, including a great back patio.

I shared a cab over with Justin Crosley, from the Brewing Network, and we managed to get a seat inside before the crowds really started rolling in. We had a good vantage point to see the stream of new arrivees.

Which included Jeff O’Neil, from Ithaca Brewing, who while a mild-mannered brewer was underneath wearing the Bulletin supporter costume whereupon he turned into a superhero.

As it happened, I was enjoying his “Brute,” a delicious wild ale with a plate of fries. You can see my full review of the fries at Frites.

I loved this black and white painting hanging on on Deep Ellum’s wall.

Out back I finally found Jean Van Roy (on right, from Cantillon), Yvan De Baets (center, who plans to open Brasserie De La Senne by the end of the year) and I believe Bernard (on left, also from De La Senne). Did I mention how wonderful the Cantillon Vigneronne was on draft?

 

I Am A Craft Brewer

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Well, not me personally, obviously, I’m just a writer and supporter of craft beer. But that’s the name of the very cool video created by Greg Koch, co-founder of Stone Brewing, which he used for the Keynote Speech at the Craft Brewers Conference yesterday morning. This shows the best in craft beer and why I love and support it so readily. Enjoy.

Here’s how Greg himself describes the effort:

“I Am A Craft Brewer” is a collaborative video representing the camaraderie, character and integrity of the American Craft Brewing movement. Created by Greg Koch, CEO of the Stone Brewing Co. and Chris & Jared of Redtail Media…and more than 35 amazing craft brewers from all over the country. The video was shown to a packed audience of 1700 craft brewers and industry members at the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference as an introduction to Greg’s Keynote Speech entitled “Be Remarkable: Collaboration Ethics Camaraderie Passion.” As is tradition for the CBC Keynote, a toast to the audience was offered. This time, the beers offered for the toast were all collaboratively brewed craft beers including Isabella Proximus, Collaboration Not Litigation, AleSmith/Mikkeller/Stone Belgian Style Triple, Jolly Pumpkin/Nøgne-Ø/Stone Special Holiday Ale, and 2009 Symposium Ale “Audacity of Hops.”

 

I Am A Craft Brewer from I Am A Craft Brewer on Vimeo.

 

A Rose By Any Other Name

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On the drive to Los Angeles last Wednesday to see the premiere of Beer Wars, I also took the opportunity to visit some friends along the way. My second stop on the way down was in Goleta, near Santa Barbara, to see Eric Rose’s Hollister Brewing, which opened less than a year ago. Rose used to be the brewmaster at Santa Barbara Brewing for many years, but left to open his new place with his father.

 

I sat at the bar and had a nice, long conversation with Eric about this and that, while sampling a number of his fine beers. I tried the H.I.P.A. (made with hemp seeds), Pigman Pale Ale, Table 42 Red, the Fairview Farmhouse Ale and the Barleywhine.

Father and son brewpub owners, Marshall and Eric Rose.

 

For more photos from my visit to Hollister Brewing, visit the photo gallery.