Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Green Valley Brewing at the Natural Foods Expo

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I got an interesting e-mail this morning from a brewer I know who also makes organic beers. He’s just returned from the Natural Products Expo West, which was held this weekend in Anaheim, California. A quick search of the expo’s website reveals that Green Valley Brewing Co., Anheuser-Busch’s dba for Wild Hop Lager, was indeed there at booth #4580. This is the blurb about the company listed there:

Wild Hop lager is a proud supporter of the Organic Farming Research Foundation. The certified organic co-ops our ingredients are harvested from use holistic farming practices and follow strict guidelines to harvest pure, flavorful barley.

Again, there was nothing to indicate that this is an Anheuser-Busch product. More curious, though, is my friend’s e-mail mentioned that there was another beer booth, this one located outisde the beverage tent, with an organic pale ale from a brewery by the name of Crooked River Brewing Co. of New Hampshire. The beer is named Stone Mill Pale Ale, which evokes a natural, almost folksy, mental picture. Unfortunately, it’s also made in Fairfield, California. And while I have even less information about this brewery, it is definitely another Anheuser-Busch product masquerading as a small brewery from the Granite state.

The only information I have is from the Natural Foods Expo, which is as follows:

Stone Mill Pale Ale is brewed from certified USDA organic barley malt, hops, yeast and water. Our ingredients are hand selected from the lush, organic co-ops of Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

So it appears that they really are attempting to pass both products off as eco-friendly, which in fact they may be. I can’t honestly say they’re not; the USDA did certify the beer, after all. But I can say that the average consumer of organic products, depending on their own personal reasons for buying organic, might want to know that the organic beer they’re buying, which looks like it’s from a small, concerned, organic brewery, is actually the product of the largest brewery in the world, a huge multi-national corporation. And I personally believe that is information they ought to have so they can make an informed decision about what beer to drink.

Boston Beer to Build Brewery?

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Boston Beer Co., the makers of Samuel Adams beer, bought a brewery about ten years ago. It was a somewhat well-known one, the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio. They were a large regional player probably most famous for their Little Kings brand and the Christian Moerlein line. Like many breweries in the past two or so decades they also kept themselves afloat by doing contract work, most notably for Whitbread and Sam Adams. Then in 1997 Jim Koch, perhaps having grown tired of constantly being criticized for being a “just a contract” brewer and not owning a one, purchased it. After recently investing heavily in upgrades, the company expects to brew roughly two-thirds of Sam Adams beer there. ProBrewer reported today that they’re now considering building yet another brewery, this time from scratch with the ultimate goal of brewing all their own beer themselves.

From the ProBrewer report:

Boston Beer said in the report that it’s evaluating its long-term production strategy and could decide to make all of its own beer. Until it bought the Hudepohl-Schoenling brewery 10 years ago, almost all of its beer had been made under contract since the company’s founding in 1984.

Back then, there was idle brewing capacity in the industry from smaller regional breweries. In recent years, many of those regional breweries that had excess capacity have seen increased sales due to the popularity of the craft beer segment, and there’s less capacity available for contract brewing.

If Boston Beer decides to make all of its own beer and build a new brewery, it would likely require an investment of $70 million to $90 million and yield improved operating and freight costs, it said. Company officials told analysts during a conference call this week that the evaluation of its production strategy was ongoing and that they hadn’t developed full economic estimates yet.

CEO Martin Roper said freight costs, beer freshness, and quality control as some of the factors that they’re looking at.

Brooklyn Brewery Profiled in Time Magazine

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The February 13, 2006 edition of Time Magazine features a one-page article profiling Steve Hindy and Tom Potter’s Brooklyn Brewery, along with their book Beer School, which was published last September. I’ve known Steve Hindy for a few years and he’s a forthcoming, passionate brewery owner who’s very active in a variety of trade organizations. Steve is, for example, on the Board of Directors of the Brewers Association. And his brewmaster, Garrett Oliver, certainly makes some wonderful beers. So it’s great to see some rare positive press for a craft brewer in the mainstream media. Steve was a journalist before he got in the beer biz, so I’m looking forward to reading his book, Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery, which is about his and co-founder Tom Potter’s trials and tribulations with the brewery.

Victory Brewing Reports Growth Milestone

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In contrast to Anheuser-Busch’s woes (see previous post), Victory Brewing Co. of Downingtown, Pennsylvania (near Philadaelphia) reported yesterday that as of January 27th they had produced more beer than during their entire first year of production. Congratulations to Bill and Ron, who provided the following press release.

Victory Brewing announced today a significant benchmark reached in their growth as a thriving craft brewery. On Friday, January 27, Victory’s 2006 production exceeded their total first year production. This event signifies a milestone for the near tenth anniversary of Victory Brewing operations. In 1996, Victory’s first year, total number of barrels produced equaled 2,550. That production amount was met and exceeded Friday, January 27, showing the more than 13 time growth in barrel production achieved in the ten years of company existence.

“This milestone shows how far we’ve come as a company and an industry [microbrewing industry]. It proves what Ron and I believed when we started Victory ten years ago, that Americans would grow to cherish full flavor beer,” said Bill Covaleski, Brewmaster and President of Victory Brewing Company.

The growth trend at Victory Brewing is part of a much larger market segment trend as U.S. craft breweries continue to steal market share away from large industrial brewers. In 2005, U.S. craft brewer sales increased by an estimated 7.1%, while domestic large brewers saw sales dip by 2%. This increase marks the 35th straight year that U.S. craft brewers have been able to increase market share.

Another Tempest in a Teapot: Legacy Brewing

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Every few years one of these pointless beer label scandals comes around again, as if to remind us how Puritanical our American society really is. Off the top of my head there’s been Bad Frog Beer, Polygamy Porter, Wanker and Nude Beer, to name but a few. During their fifteen minutes, the press lavished them with free publicity and pandered to a vocal minority determined to force their own morality on the rest of us. Usually some fake debte is trotted out asking questions on the order of “is it too offensive,” “too obscene” and my personal favorite, “what about the children?”

The latest fake controversy comes from my hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania. The beer is question in from Legacy Brewing, but the last time I visited them it was called Fancy Pants and before that it was Neversink Brewing. This time the offending label is Hedonism Ale because it features — gasp — hedonism. Ot at least an artist’s rendition of hedonism. The artwork is not in the least bit tittilating; it reveals everything but shows nothing.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I like it. I think artist Deric Hettinger’s label drawing nicely conveys the idea of hedonism. And it’s different enough from most beer labels that controversy aside, it would stand out on a beer shelf. But it’s beer. It’s made specifically for adults. You know, people who can probably deal with a little hedonism, or at least should be mature enough to handle things like adults. So when beer distributors themselves complain, I have to laugh at the hypocrisy. Out loud. As reported in the online local news site, Lancaster Online (which covers the county directly southwest of Berks, where Legacy Brewing is located), Bob Dano, owner of Engleside Beverage Mart on South Prince Street sent his back, saying “[m]y wife thought it was obscene and so did I.” Well, golly Bob. Did you know you work in a beer distributor and sell beer to adults. If the state and the Feds approved the label, get over yourself. But wait, there’s more. What about the children? Who’s looking out for the children? Don’t worry, Apal Shah is on the case (pun intended). He’s still selling the beer, but he’s literally wrapping each case up in a brown paper wrapper. You can’t buy publicity like that at any price.

“It’s not proper for my store,” said Beer Ink (another yahoo beverage store, this one on Centerville Road) owner Apal Shah. “We have lots of small kids coming in here with their parents. I don’t want them seeing those pictures.” Small kids at the beer store? With their parents? Oh, the humanity! Are you kidding? Your objection is that children might see vaguely representational drawings of people touching one another. Do you think they’ll rush right out and try what they saw in the pictures. And then you’ll be somehow responsble? Will the parents who brought their kids in your store in the first place think it was your fault because you didn’t make a beer store safe for the kiddies? Hey Apal, your sign says “think you are old enough for this beer?” Isn’t everyone at the beer store old enough? My understanding of PLCB regulations is that you have to be of legal drinking age to shop in a beer store. Unless, of course, you’re fool enough to take your kids with you on a beer run. You never know what sort of hedonistic sights they might inadvertently see, ruining their innocence forever. Why they’d have to run home, bar the door and only watch clean, wholesome television. My point here is simply that kids are exposed to far worse — from the prude’s point of view — in an average hour of TV watching. And I’m not even talking about the programming, what’s affectionately known as “filler” by TV execs. Just look at sixty minute’s worth of television commercials and then look at this beer label. What’s the first thing you notice? That only a complete buffoon would have an objection to it, especially on the grounds that have been reported.

But since Legacy Brewing has thoughtfully provided a link to every story that has reported on the controversy, I’m pretty sure they’re on to the game. As PR people are fond of saying, there’s no such thing as good publicity or bad publicty, only publicity. So while I can’t necessarily blame Legacy for creating the controversy, I suspect that they had some idea of how some of their customers might react. After all, there are certainly no shortage of uptight, narrow-minded conservative types in the Reading area. Believe me, I grew up there. Religious intolerance is rampant in the Commonwealth I knew. They’ve got Arlen Spector and Rick Santorum. I defy you to find a state where both U.S. Senators are as conservative as these two chuckleheads. In Pennsylvania you can only buy wine and liquor from the state, in state stores, many of which in 2006 are still closed on Sunday because of traditional religiously-based blue laws. So the Legacy folks had to know what they were doing. They may not have been able to predict with absolute accuracy what would happen, but they must have known they were stirring the pot.

Anyway, the real test is how the beer tastes. Wanker and Nude Beer are mercifully no longer with us while Bad Frog isn’t really taken seriously by any beer enthusiast I know. Polygamy Porter is, at least, a decent Porter. So when the controversy ebbed, the beer could still flow. And that’s as it should be. If Hedonism Ale is a good beer, it should still be around when I make my next pilgrimage to Pennsylvania to see the family. And if that’s the case, I can’t wait to try a pint.