Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Craft Beer Up 9%, Leads All Adult Beverages for 2nd Consecutive Year

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We’d been hearing the rumors for a couple of weeks now but today the Brewers Association made it official. They announced today that the craft beer industry is showing excellent growth for the second consecutive year. This on the heels of Anheuser-Busch’s announcement of 4th quarter revenue having fallen 54.7% (before taxes) on February 1. Unnamed sources had previously told me the 9% figure was primarily in regional players and there was uncertainty how the smaller local brewers had fared. It appears now that these brewpubs and local brewers had another good year, as well, at least based on these numbers. This is excellent news for the industry and further signs that it has truly become a mature, stable industry.

From the press release:

Boulder, CO — February 16, 2005 – America’s craft brewers sold 9.0 percent more barrels of beer in 2005 versus 2004 making craft beer the fastest growing segment of the US beverage alcohol industry for the second consecutive year, according to the Brewers Association, the Boulder, CO-based trade association for US craft brewers.

“Craft beer volume growth far exceeded that of large brewers, wine and spirits in 2005,” said Paul Gatza, Director of the Brewers Association. “And even though imported beer grew nicely in 2005, craft beer grew at a faster rate.”

The Brewers Association estimates 2005 sales by craft brewers at 7,112,886 31-gallon barrels up from an adjusted total of 6,526,809 barrels in 2004, an increase of 586,077 barrels or 8.1 million case-equivalents.

Compared to craft beer volume growth of 9.0 percent, spirits volume increased at 3.3 percent in 2005 and wine volume was up 2.9 percent. The import segment of the beer industry rose 7.2 percent in 2005 while non-craft domestic beer volume declined slightly for the year. This establishes craft beer as the fastest growing segment of the US beverage alcohol business for the second year in a row.

“Consumer enjoyment of the flavor and diversity of craft beer continues to fuel healthy, steady growth in this segment,” said Ray Daniels, Director of Craft Beer Marketing for the Brewers Association. “Small brewers lead the entire industry by offering flavorful, interesting beers.”

The craft beer segment includes more than 1300 small, traditional and independent breweries which produce primarily all-malt beers. It includes both brewpubs which sell beer primarily at their own pub or restaurant and packaging breweries that distribute beer in kegs, cans and bottles to a wide range of retail outlets. The Brewers Association has tabulated industry growth data for these breweries annually since 1985.

One year ago, the Brewers Association reported craft segment growth of 7.2 percent for 2004, a year in which wine (2.7%), spirits (3.1%), imported beer (1.4%) and non-craft domestic beer (0.5%) all reported substantially smaller growth rates.

“The strong growth by craft beer in 2005 is especially impressive because it comes on top of strong performance in 2004,” said Gatza. For each of the last two years, craft beer growth has been stronger than in any year since 1996. He also noted that 2005 is the third year craft beer growth rates were stronger than those for imports. “Craft beer clearly leads the beer industry in consumer appeal.”

Not to rain on the parade just as the marching band strikes up the first tune (Roll Out the Barrel, no doubt), but I do feel compelled to point out that while this is great news and worth celebrating, by the numbers the craft beer industry is still just a drop in the kettle compared to overall domestic beer production.

I mention this simply to remind myself — and everyone else — that while we may have won a nice victory, the war still rages on. Anheuser-Busch has already been showing concern about the craft beer industry, despite our small overall numbers. Big corporations cannot accept any erosion of their market share or profits, so even our small gains they consider a taking from them. And believe me, this is not just about their pathetic “Here’s to Beer” campaign. There have been recent persistent rumors that A-B is approaching (or in some cases having their distributors approach) a large number of regional and local breweries about acquiring them. Let that sink in. Bud is looking to buy up a bunch of breweries, and is starting perhaps with the biggest and most influential. That would be a catastrophic event for the fledgling craft beer industry. (I know I just suggested it was mature and stable, but not as compared to the giant 100-plus-year old corporations.) If they are successful in waving carrots in front of enough beleaguered, overworked brewery owners then the jig could well and truly be up. And A-B has bigger, deeper carrots than all of the craft beer industry combined (I confess I made that last statistic up, but intuitively it feels right).

I’m reminded at this point of New Belgium Brewing co-founder Kim Jordan’s impassioned keynote speech at the New Orleans Craft Brewers Convention several years ago where she argued for solidarity among the industry to reach the lofty goal of 10% of the market. And while I may have concerns about New Belgium’s own business practices in this regard, I think her words resonate just as strongly today. This is exactly what we need to do. We need to close ranks right now. For those of you who are fans of American football, think about all of the post-victory locker room speeches. It doesn’t matter what team, the coach makes the exact same speech. Enjoy this moment, your win, but don’t rest on your laurels. Take tomorrow off, but then it’s back to work the next. This is just one victory, there’s another battle next week. And that’s true here, too. Let’s enjoy this moment. I for one will open a special beer tonight. But let’s also remember the war is hardly over and there is much to do. But for now, congratulations to all the brewers and breweries.

Valentine’s Day Rejection: It’s Delicious

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Russian River Brewing’s Valentine’s Day seasonal beer is called Rejection, a name so perfect for the holiday that I thought I’d go there today with my sweetheart (in this case with my daughter Alice) and try a pint.

When I arrived, Vinnie and his assistant brewer, Travis, were in the middle of a bottling day, the third in a row of four scheduled. So after a brief chat, we excused ourselves and with Natalie, Vinnie’s partner in all things, Alice and I went back to the brewpub for a little lunch. While Alice gnawed on her yummy pizza, Natalie and I talked about this and that. I had only visited the brewpub once other than on its opening day almost three years ago. The place still looks great; open, airy and inviting.

Since I specifically came for the Rejection, I ordered a pint of it, which came in a tulip glass. It’s a Belgian-style black ale, and is surprisingly mild given its name and the fact that roasted malt is used. But in fact Vinnie uses de-bittered black malt. This is a special malt that uses an evaporative process that makes it much less astringent than your average black malt.

This is the second year Russian River has brewed Rejection. The name came from Tomme Arthur, brewmaster at Pizza Port Solana Beach in San Diego who had an epiphany a few weeks before Valentine’s Day last year and rang up Vinnie to give him the idea. Vinnie looked around to see what he had around the brewery and rejection was born. This year’s, with slightly more planning time, uses a different yeast but is otherwise the same as the original. It’s 6.1% abv but tastes lighter than that.

Rejection has dark black color with a generous tan head and light nose with malty sweetmess. Clean, malty flavors with mildly sweet notes that are never cloying. There are delightfully subtle undertones of jam and plums. It has a wonderful mouthfeel and a very clean finish. If this is what rejection tastes like, give me more.

Russian River owner/brewer Vinnie Cilurzo with his assistant Travis and Brian Hunt, owner/brewer of nearby Moonlight Brewing who had stopped by for a visit today.

Lisa Morrison Weighs in on Beer & Chocolate

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My good friend Lisa Morrison, who’s the Oregon correspondent for the Celebrator Beer News, among much else, has an article out just in time for Valentine’s Day about beer & chocolate. Syndicated through her Liquid Solutions column (for which she won one of the first Beer Journalism Awards given by the Brewers Association beginning in 2004) the article, entitled Seduce Your Sweetie with Chocolate … and Beer is showing up all over the internet.

Lisa Morrison (on right) at the Concordia Ale House in Portland, Oregon. This was taken during last year’s Oregon Brewers Festival. The rest of the people in the photo, from left are: me, Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator and Lisa’s husband Mark.

Marin Brewing Up a Quadruple

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Arne Johnson, brewmaster at Marin Brewing Co. in Larkspur, California (and the winner of this year’s Bistro Double IPA Festival), told me on Saturday that he’s brewed his first quadruple and that it’s in the tank now. He anticipates it will be available at the pub in about six weeks. That would be the week of March 26, the last week of the month. Mark your calendars, it should be worth waiting for.

Stampede Light: Because Beer Just Isn’t Healthy Enough

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Stampede Light, the brainchild of Lawrence Schwartz of Dallas, Texas, is a light beer enhanced with extra vitamins, besides the many already naturally occurring in beer. Created last year with the help of light beer guru Joe Owades (Owades passed away in December of 2005), is marketing itself as the first “vitamin” beer, whatever that means. It seems to play on the perception that most people hold, which is that beer is unhealthful. While it may be that the product churned out by the big breweries — which is loaded with many of several dozen chemicals approved by the FDA for use in beer production — is not as healthy as beer ought to be, most craft beer is made using all-natural ingredients and use very few, if any, chemical additives. Beer made in this traditional way returns beer to a time when it was considered “liquid bread” and preferable to water, since it had more nutritional value and avoided any problems with sanitation that were common in centuries past. But the perception of beer as unhealthy is a very recent phenomenon, fueled by prohibitionists, neo-prohibitionists like MADD and others, and ironically by the big breweries themselves with their questionable propaganda techniques that show their type of beer in a less than flattering light.

In recent years, all types of foods and beverages have been enhanced with herbs, patent-like medicines and the like all in an effort to market them as “health foods” or “smart foods” that are better for you than the originals. Most marketing is, of course, utter nonsense, thinly disguised propaganda whose sole mission is to separate you from your money. And to say that the science of propaganda has become more sophisticated and effective in recent decades is an understatement of immense proportions. We live in an age where propaganda is used to sell everything from toilet paper to the latest war without most people even realizing that it is indeed propaganda.

So I suppose it was inevitable that a new age “enhanced” beer would come to light, so to speak. As reported on a local television station in central Florida, WKMG Channel 6, “Schwartz said the federal government told him that he cannot claim the beer is good for drinkers and can’t list vitamins on the labels because it would be an implied health claim.” Curiously, the website also lists the calories in a bottle of Stampede Light at 112, which is actually slightly higher than Bud Light. Slashfood also had a piece today about Stampede Light, in which they also mention that regular beer already had several alphabet vitamins as well as niacin.

Here are small sampling of more places to read about beer’s health benefits:

Stampede Light’s approach appears to be aimed at young, health-conscious 20-30-somethings who don’t know much about what beer tastes like nor its history. Photos on the website’s gallery show attractive men and women in clubs or on the street with a bottle in their hand. (apparently you can’t be ugly and drink this beer, or perhaps the beer itself will make you more attractive?) Mercifully, the beer is currently only available in north Texas, around the Dallas area. Enough with the new light beers, already.

Photo Gallery: 6th annual Bistro Double IPA Festival

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The 6th annual Double IPA Festival was February 11 at the Bistro in Hayward, California. It looked to be their biggest crowd yet for the popular event that highlights Double IPAs, one of the newest beer styles. A healthy percentage of the local beer cognoscenti was on hand to support the event and the extremely hoppy Double or Imperial IPA style.

 

A sign above the bar announces the beginning of Beerapalooza and the Double IPA Festival.

Inside the Bistro at peak festival time.

Bistro co-owner Cynthia Kralj shows off the festival t-shirts.

Rodger Davis of Drake’s and Arne Johnson of Marin Brewing enjoy a beer out front in the warm sunshine.

Shaun O’Sullivan of 21st Amendment and me, also outside along the side wall.

Bistro co-owner Vic Kralj and Dave Keene, owner of the Toronado. (Note Cathedral Hotel beer chef Bruce Paton accidently lurking over Dave’s shoulder.)

Shaun O’Sullivan gracefully accepting his third place award on behalf of 21st Amendment.

Arne Johnson accepting the first place award on behalf of Marin Brewing.

Vic presents the People’s Choice Award to Natalie and Vinnie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing.

Natalie toasts the crowd.

The winners who were present for the award ceremony, from left: Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo, Shaun O’Sullivan and Arne Johnson.

Marin Takes Top Honors at Double IPA Festival

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Marin Brewing was chosen best in show at the 6th annual Double IPA Festival today at the Bistro in Hayward, California. The full winner list is below.

 
 

 
 

Judging at the Bistro Double IPA Festival

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Today was the 6th annual Double IPA Festival at the Bistro in Hayward, California. I was happy to be one of the judges sequestered in the basement trying to choose the best of over forty Double IPAs. it took us about three or so hours to complete our task. Happily, we had a steady stream of vistors. It was a labor of love for all of us there, because extreme beers are some of our favorites. Though they are certainly a challenge to judge. In the end we only knew the numbers of the beers that took the top three spots. We had to wait until 5 pm (about three hours) with everyone else to find out who the winners were. Luckily, there was more beer, food and friends to make the wait more bearable.

The judges in the cellar, clockwise from bottom left: Kenny Gross, me, Barry Marshall, Dave Keene, Tom Dalldorf, Grant Johnston, Josh Charlton, Paul Marshall and Mike Long.

And from the other side, clockwise from bottom left: Grant Johnston, Josh Charlton, Paul Marshall and Mike Long, Kenny Gross, me, Barry Marshall and Dave Keene

Dame Judy Ashworth, Queen of the Micros, paid us a visit.

Vicky, our hard-working beer steward between Tom Dalldorf and Grant Johnston.

Tom talks with Lagunitas owner Tony Magee, who warms up before doing a set of blues guitar on stage.

Shaun O’Sullivan cracks up Dave Keene and Grant Johnston during a subterranean visit.

Laurelwood Launches New Blog for New Brewery Project

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Laurelwood Public House and Brewery in Portland, Oregon has announced that they will be building a new brewery and moving a few blocks from their present location in the Hollywood at 1728 NE 40th Avenue. Last summer, Laurelwood owners Mike DeKalb and Cathy Woo-DeKalb purchased the former Sylvia’s Restaurant and Dinner Theater about a dozen blocks away at 5115 NE Sandy Boulevard. The equipment has now arrived at the new site and a New Brewery Project blog has been launched to follow the construction of the brewery. Check out their blog and follow along as they build the new facility. It should be a fun and educational experience to watch a day-to-day account of a brewery being built from scratch. Great idea, guys. Best of luck to Christian, Chad and Paul.

Zlaty Bazant to be Brewed in Russia

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Zlaty Bazant, or Golden Pheasant in English, is one of the best-selling beers in its native Slovakia, as well as other parts of Europe. One of several breweries bought recently by Heineken, it was anounced today that it would be brewed in Russia, where it’s also very popular. In the past twelve months, Heineken has purchased five breweries in Russia.

From the Russian News Service:

Heineken starts the production of Zlaty Bazant beer in Russia. The beer will be bottled at Heineken’s subsidiary – OOO Heineken Brewery in Saint Petersburg.

Zlaty Bazant is one of the most famous brands of foreign beer on the Russian market which is marketed on the RF territory over 35 years.

Over the year Heineken Group has purchased five breweries in Russia: “Volga” (Nixhny Novgord), “Shikhan” (Sterlitamak), “Sobol” (Novosibirsk), “Patra” (Ekaterinburg) and “Stapan Razin” (Saint Petersburg) as well has signed an agreement on the acquisition of Baikal Brewery Company from Renova and Ivan Taranov Breweries.