Shipyard joins ranks of canners

Breaking news out of Maine: Shipyard's coming in cans!

Without question, cans are no longer a novelty or trend, but are here to stay.

Hat tip to my Dad, Shipyard's number one booster.

The big little guys

When the Brewers Association -- the craft beer industry's trade group -- put out its annual list of the largest craft breweries, a lot of familiar names topped the list. What was interesting was the fact that 36 of the top 50 are still small and independent craft breweries, a number that will surely continue to dwindle as the macrobreweries continue to add surging craft brewers to their portfolio.

Rank	Brewing Company	City	State
1	Boston Beer Co. (Sam Adams)	Boston	MA
2	Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.	Chico	CA
3	New Belgium Brewing Co.	Fort Collins	CO
4	The Gambrinus Company (Shiner)	San Antonio	TX
5	Deschutes Brewery	Bend	OR
6	Matt Brewing Co. (Saranac)	Utica	NY
7	Bell's Brewery, Inc.	Galesburg	MI
8	Harpoon Brewery	Boston	MA
9	Lagunitas Brewing Co.	Petaluma	CA
10	Boulevard Brewing Co.	Kansas City	MO
11	Stone Brewing Co.	Escondido	CA
12	Dogfish Head Craft Brewery	Milton	DE
13	Brooklyn Brewery	Brooklyn	NY
14	Alaskan Brewing & Bottling Co.	Juneau	AK
15	Long Trail Brewing Co.	Burlington	VT
16	Shipyard Brewing Co.	Portland	ME
17	Abita Brewing Co.	Abita Springs	LA
18	Great Lakes Brewing Co.	Cleveland	OH
19	New Glarus Brewing Co.	New Glarus	WI
20	Full Sail Brewing Co.	Hood River	OR

Breaking news: Full Sail in Massachusetts!

I had a hunch this was coming and today I found out for sure: Full Sail brewery of Hood River, Oregon is now available in Massachusetts!

This is a big deal. I have been clamoring for years to get some of those fine Oregon brews (beyond Rogue and Widmer) out to New England, and now it has happened! All we have to do now is get Deschutes and Hopworks...

Full Sail is an excellent brewer. Their Session, Amber, and Pale Ale are all top-notch, balanced, drinkable beers. The IPA is nice and flavorful, if not quite a full tilt West Coast IPA. Their Chris's Summer D-Lite is still the best Berliner Weisse I have ever had (but I don't expect to see it out this way any time soon...) Regardless, Full Sail has a great track record and really knows what they are doing.

For more details, check out the writeup from one of my favorite Massachusetts beer bloggers, Beer Nut: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/features/x893358815/The-Beer-Nut-Full-Sail-ahead-in-Massachusetts

So keep an eye out for Full Sail so you can enjoy a Pale Ale along with me!

Happenings in Brookline

So there have been some developments at The Publick House in Brookline since my last visit. Some of you may be aware that Publick House also operates a Provisions Store and sister restaurant on the other end of the block. However, The Roadhouse, a BBQ joint has been replaced by American Craft, more geared towards "artisinal" food. A quick peak indicated a more modern decor but similar taplist to what I would find at The Publick House. Not making it in to Brookline as much as I would like, it is going to be hard to pass on the original when the quality is so high. Could make a nice mini-pub crawl though...

Mayflower Autumn Wheat Ale, Score: 7
dark and bitter, so an unusual wheat to say the least. nice fall beer though.

Pretty Things Hedgerow Bitter, Score: 6
very coarse grassiness. not my favorite.

Victory Saison Du Buff, Score: 5
so as dan explains it to me, victory, dogfish head, and stone all took the same recipie and then brewed the beer seperately. so that is interesting. the whole "sage, rosemary, and thyme" was a little too gimmicky for me. between the spices and hoppiness, this didn't work in practice either.

Wachusetts Larry, Score: 8
very piney and sweet. not exactly sessionable, but not unapproachable either. solid doublle ipa.

Massachusetts News Roundup

Buzzards Bay to Close

Some sad (if not unexpected) news from Yankee Brew News:

"The South Coast of Massachusetts has lost its local beer brand. Buzzards Bay Brewing of Westport has stopped production on its Buzzards Bay line of ales and lagers. Owner Bill Russell made the decision due to declining sales and difficulties with distribution. The growing competition from national beer brands in the marketplace had become too much for the small brewery...

The brewers and staff at Buzzards Bay will still brew, however, for both Cisco Brewers of Nantucket and Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project of Cambridge, as well as partner with Irish brewer Strangford Lough. The major development in the works in a new line of beers named Just Beer, which will be self-distributed.

The beers in the Just Beer line are American-style ales brewed with a negative carbon footprint... They are currently only available on draft in the South Coast market. 'Twenty-two ounce bombers of these carbon-negative brews will be released sometime in the upcoming months,' [brewer Bill] Russell said."

Nano Breweries Opening in Western Mass

Western Mass has lucked into not one, but two micro-micro-breweries in the process of opening. The first is Element Brewery in Miners Falls, MA. They bill themselves as "the fusion of art, science, and beer." Interesting. They should have opened by now (as long as the final few papers are signed in time...)

Another town called Bernardston already has a nano brewery of its own: Lefty's Brewing. The list of beers seemed pretty conventional, and skewed to the darker side of the spectrum... not a bad thing. It is on tap and bombers are already on sale at sereral locations in the area. Wonder how long it will take these brewers to make it to the Boston area?

Sam Adams Obtains License to Sell Beers from Brewery

From The Globe:

"Until now they could not buy beer there [at the brewery], even though about half the visitors wanted to, Sullivan said. Instead, they were given a card with walking directions to nearby liquor stores.

That will change next week, when Boston Beer begins selling limited- edition Samuel Adams brews in its gift shop. The company received a license from the state in August, but it delayed the start of sales to coincide with the release of its new Barrel-Aged Collection.

“Our goal is to sell beers that are harder to find - the limited-edition beers and the beers we’re experimenting with - at the brewery,’’ Sullivan said. “We’re not going to be selling Octoberfest at the brewery.’’

The three beers that make up the Barrel-Aged Collection - New World Tripel, American Kriek, and Stony Brook Red - are certainly going to qualify as hard to find. Boston Beer will only distribute them in 750-milliliter bottles, the size of a wine bottle, in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Denver, where Koch first won the Great American Beer Festival in 1985. The bottles, priced at $9.95, won’t be sold in six-packs.

Unlike the traditional brewing process, which involves metal tanks, barrel-aging includes an additional fermenting period in wooden barrels that each hold about 4,000 gallons. The barrel-aged beers are then blended with other beers. The company hopes the resulting hybrid brews will help it win over drinkers of wine and hard liquor."

Jury Room Bar Closing

I got a sad email today; The Jury Room in Quincy is closing. I don't think the owner would mind if I include the email below:

After a year and a half of trying to get people to drink beer other than bud light, I'm throwing in the towel. My last day of biz will be oct. 17th (sat) between now and then i am blowing my entire beer inventory out at dirt cheap prices. Starting on weds any beer on my list (85 types) are all 3 bucks. Yes, even the Chimay Blue.

Let your readers know if you would like or just drop by yourself. The next 2 Weds. nights I'm doing a beer tasting starting at 8. My name is Clint, stop by and say Hi! Later, Clint Smith Soon to be ex owner, Jury Room Bar.....

This was, without question, one of the best beer bars on the South Shore. I must have gone here 3 or 4 times in its short existence -- the first trip was a little rocky (check the archives...) but I had much better luck on successive visits.

Overall though, I really liked how they attracted a young audience and stayed committed to offering craft beer. Great effort, Clint, and you will definitely be missed. I plan on being there tomorrow for the Chimay Blue!

Largest American Brewers

This is kind of old news, but the full truth of it all just hit me the other day. So when InBev of Belgium bought Budweiser, something interesting happened. Sam Adams became the largest American-owned brewer in America. Yes, Sam Adams! Now, Jim Koch and I have had our share of disagreements, but in the beginning, Jim was one of the little guys taking on the big guys. And even today, Sam is still a craft brewer. And by association, that means a craft brewer is now the #1 American brewer! It seems like a victory for all craft brewers. (Go ahead and disagree in the comment section, Mr. Cedrone.)

So after Bud you have Miller and Coors, which are operated by South African Brewers from the UK and South Africa, and Molson out of Canada, respectively. Pabst -- while an awesome macro -- does not actually own a brewery and only contracts. And it gets even better after Sam. You have Yuengling, Sierra Nevada, and New Belgium! Truly, a new day has dawned. Let's put off that messy distinction between craft breweries and macro-craftbreweries for another day, shall we? The whole list can be found here.

Top 10
1. Anheuser-Busch InBev, Belgium
2. MillerCoors Brewing Co., Britain/South Africa/Canada
3. Pabst Brewing Co., Contract MillerCoors
4. Boston Beer Co. (Sam Adams), MA
5. D. G. Yuengling and Son Inc., PA
6. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., CA
7. Craft Brewers Alliance, Inc. (Redhook), OR
8. New Belgium Brewing Co., CO
9. High Falls Brewing Co. (Dundee, Genesee, etc.), NY
10. Spoetzl Brewery (Shiner), TX

New Microbrewery Gets Smooth Start in Canton

My friend Mark recently emailed me this article about Blue Hills Brewery in Canton. Now this isn't the first I have heard of Blue Hills (I have rated their Xtra Pale Ale a 6 and their IPA an 8) but I never got the full story on the brewery until now. Best news is, tours are available by contacting them through their (very sharp looking) website: http://www.bluehillsbrewery.com/ I'll be reporting back on the tour before too long. In the meantime, welcome to the neighborhood, Blue Hills!

New Microbrewery Gets Smooth Start in Canton
Boston Globe, Emily Simon

Latvia or Massachusetts.

Andris Veidis and Peter Augis chose the latter, and the result is the Blue Hills Brewery in Canton, which was established nine months ago and produced its first draft on Jan. 15.

Named after the nearby slopes, the company is the newest addition to Greater Boston's vibrant microbrewery scene. But if European history had been a little different, the partners today could be brewing on the other side of the Atlantic.

Augis and Veidis, who live in Westwood and Canton, respectively, are of Latvian descent and met in the early 1990s through the area's Latvian community.

Veidis has been brewing since 1994. He cut his teeth as an intern at the Harpoon Brewery in Boston, then worked in a Worcester brewery before enrolling in a professional brewers program at the University of California, Davis. He later worked for brewpubs throughout the Northeast and helped set up Boston Beer Works on Canal Street in Boston.

Augis has a background in architecture and construction, and in addition to overseeing the brewery operations and managing sales, he creates the tap handles for the Blue Hills line.

In 2002, the pair began discussing the possibility of a brewpub in Latvia with their friend Marty Grots. They hoped to take advantage of the nation's inexpensive real estate, but after Latvia joined the European Union in 2004, land prices began to skyrocket.

Veidis wrote up a business plan for a microbrewery in Greater Boston and began looking for space. The group signed a lease on the Canton property last May. In addition to Augis, Veidis, and Grots, there are two other partners: Veidis's father and 2-year-old son.

"We haven't told my son he owns a stake yet," said Veidis. "But when we do, he'll probably be the coolest kid in school."

The brewery occupies a small warehouse that used to house a yoga studio. Downward dog and "om" have given way to "bottoms up" and "burrrp."

The floor space is filled with brewing equipment, and there's a small gift area in the front, with hardwood floors and a mahogany bar in the shape of a pilsner glass designed and built by Augis.
The facility can brew up to 20 barrels (31 gallons each) at a time. From start to finish, the process takes about three weeks, and Veidis brews once a week. By midsummer, he plans to boost the rate to twice a week, and hopes to produce 1,500 to 2,000 barrels over the course of the year.

Blue Hills's products are Xtra Pale Ale and an India Pale Ale. Additional ales are under development, and the partners plan to unveil a Hefeweizen in late May and an Irish red by mid-June. They also hope eventually to brew a lager, most likely a pilsner.

For now, though, they're focused on ales and settling into a community that has welcomed them with open arms.

On move-in day neighboring contractors provided forklifts and trucks. The brewery works with local firms for printing and gives excess grain to a farmer in Sharon. And nearly all of the brewing equipment is composed of recycled or repurposed materials.

"We're a real neighborly operation," Augis said. "We try to be involved in the community and work with local purveyors whenever possible."

Now that's good karma.

Maine Beer Trail

Here is an interesting press release that made it into my inbox today:

The Maine Restaurant Association and Maine Brewers’ Guild Team Up to Create the Maine Beer Trail

PORTLAND, MAINE – (May 11, 2009) – The Maine Restaurant Association and the Maine Brewers’ Guild announce the Maine Beer Trail. This new trail spotlights the high quality and creative diversity of fresh, hand-crafted, Maine-made beer. The purpose of the Trail is to attract visitors to Maine to enjoy the vibrant micro and craft brewing industry found throughout the state.

The Maine Beer Trail brochure provides a simple guide to more than a dozen of the state’s breweries and brew pubs. Brochures can be downloaded from the Maine Brewers’ Guild website http://www.mainebrewersguild.org/BeerTrailWeb.pdf and will be available at Maine Visitor Centers and participating breweries and brew pubs.

Maine is widely known for its award-winning craft beer. According to the Brewers Association, Maine ranks fourth in the nation for the number of breweries per capita, with one brewery for every 42,000 residents. Maine is home to New England’s first microbrewery, D.L. Geary Brewing, which was established in 1986. Gritty McDuff’s opened its doors in 1988 and became the first brew pub to open in Maine since prohibition. Since 1986, Maine has been at the forefront of the craft brew movement and the industry has grown to include dozens of breweries and brew pubs statewide.

This seems like a great idea. I created my own Maine Beer Trail on GoogleMaps for a beer trip with friends this past February, but we didn't make it to any 14 stops! Hopefully, this map will allow Maine's breweries to garner a bigger share of those tourist dollars. Would be nice to see a few more of the little guys on the next version of the list though...

Beer Wars Live

So a couple of weeks ago I had to go to the one-night event that was Beer Wars Live. This was to be a movie about the struggle for market share between the marcobreweries and the microbreweries, and interestingly, they decided to make this a one-night event, live across the country. As a result, you had a lot of Beer Advocates headed to the theaters with their own stash in tow (mine was a Dogfish Head Immort Ale that I had aged for 1 year -- excellent!)

I hesitate to even post about the movie since I am guessing most of my readers have not seen the movie yet and there is plenty of criticism of the movie on the other beer blogs. Nevertheless.

-- The producer of the movie was a woman named Anat Baron, whose experience in the "beer industry" was with a three year stint running Mike's Hard Lemonade. Not a good start. I think she was a real distraction to a lot of people, making the movie about Anat Baron and thrusting herself unnecessarily into the plot at every turn.

-- A focus of the movie was on the personal stories of two craft brewers heading in different directions, one succeeding wildly and the other struggling. Sam Caglione of Dogfish head played the first role spectacularly. But for some unknown reason (the need for a woman heroine?) the second was played by Rhonda Kallman, formerly of Sam Adams and now selling a gimmicky caffienated beer called MoonShot. Now for the audience of Beer Advocates who filled these movie theaters, this was a total joke. Rhonda was not a brewer, but a marketer, and a marketer of a horrible product at that. Anat would like us to feel sympathetic for Rhonda who was failing miserably, totally missing the point that Rhonda treats beer like a commodity just like the macrobrewers that this movie was railing against! I think this poorly conceived subplot ruined the movie for many serious beer people.

-- And then there was the live panel discussion that they aired immediately at the end of the movie. A neat idea, but it was pretty chaotic. Ben Stein was selected as moderator of the panel to seemingly everyone's dismay... and quickly revealed his disdain for small craft brewers. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea that anyone would enjoy making beer for any other reason than getting rich. The most memorable exchance was when Stein played a clip of Todd Alstrom of BeerAdvocate tearing apart the Moonshot product. Very called for, but without time to explain and the proper context, I think that Beer Advocates came off as lunatics to most people.

I offer these criticism's not to pile on Baron (I do appreciate what she was trying to do) but in the hope that the craft beer enthusiasts will continue to try to put their best foot forward. Even with these shortcomings, I would say the movie was probably a net gain for the craft beer movement, but it certainly wasn't the movie I would have written. In particular, it would have been nice for them to make more time for more craft brewers outside of the northeast (Deschutes, Oskar Blues, Jolly Pumpkin...) Hopefully someone in the film industry is taking note of all of this interest and criticism and we will be talking about the next beer movie soon...

Bottom-line: do check out the Beer Wars movie when you get the chance. And if you have seen it, please do weigh in on the comments section.

The future of Cadillac Mountain Stout

One of the advantages of blogging about beer is that a lot of people will think of you when they think about beer, and pass along any interesting beer related news/information. My latest thanks go to my Aunt Edie for passing along an interesting article in Maine's Bangor Daily News about possibly my very favorite beer: Cadillac Mountain Stout.

MDI brewery buys cross-town competitor
By Bill Trotter, Bangor Daily News, April 20, 2009

BAR HARBOR, Maine — A brewing firm that has grown steadily since its start 18 years ago in the alcove of a local restaurant just got a little bigger.

Founded in 1991, Atlantic Brewing Co. now has two production facilities in Maine and distributes its beers to multiple locations on the East Coast. And earlier this month, with its purchase of cross-town competitor Bar Harbor Brewing Co., Atlantic has added a few other well-known Maine beers to its roster of brews.

Doug Maffucci, who co-owns Atlantic Brewing with his wife, Barbara Patten, said Saturday that the purchase makes sense for his company. Bar Harbor Brewing, which was founded in the village of Otter Creek a year before he started his beer business, has established some award-winning beers that have attracted a strong following, he said...

Maffucci said he found out last fall that Bar Harbor Brewing was again for sale and that he didn’t want to see it sold to a larger company from away that wasn’t interested in maintaining the Fosters’ legacy.

“It’s good beer. It’s great beer,” Maffucci said. “I was afraid the brand was going to die, which would have been silly.”

The Atlantic Brewing owner said he wasn’t sure how his brewers would react to the prospect of taking over what had been a competing product and keeping it going, but it turned out not to be an issue. Brewers James Taylor and Jon Hill were eager to learn how to make the Bar Harbor Brewing brands, he said.

“They were super-excited about it,” Maffucci said. “They’re totally into it.”

Maffucci said he intends to resume making Bar Harbor Brewing’s three main beers, which have been out of production since October, and he hopes to keep them close to their original recipes. His company already has started making them and hopes to have Cadillac Mountain Stout, Thunder Hole Ale and Harbor Lighthouse Ale available in stores by the beginning of May. He said he also plans to make them available in draught, which none of the previous owners ever did.

As for Bar Harbor’s other beers, which include blueberry, peach and ginger-flavored ales, he said he would take a wait-and-see approach. Atlantic Brewing already has its own ginger- and blueberry-flavored beers, he said, though his blueberry ale and the one the Fosters developed are different enough that they might be able to co-exist. He said Atlantic’s nine existing beers would stay as they are.

Maffucci plans to continue making and marketing the additional beers as Bar Harbor Brewing Co. products. To help with the transition, Maffucci has hired Bar Harbor Brewing brewer Dave Kilgour to continue making the beers...

He said all beers would be produced at facilities in Town Hill or in Portland. Since 2001, Atlantic Brewing has had space at Shipyard Brewing Co. in Portland, where it brews its own beer. Atlantic contracts with Shipyard to bottle some beer for out-of-state distribution...

Bar Harbor had just cracked into my Top 10 list of favorite brewers with their authentic English style ales and world-class American stout. To lose such a treasure would have been a real loss for Maine's craft beer community, so this is very welcome news. Honestly, I haven't exactly been blown away by Atlantic Brewing Co. but they are a solid brewer that appear to be taking the challenge of continuing to brew Cadillac Mountain Stout seriously.

So here is to wishing Doug and Barbara the best of luck! Thank you for saving this personal favorite (and even putting it on tap!) The new batches should be hitting stores shortly, so please go do yourself a favor and buy some of this exquisite beer next time you see it. You won't be disappointed.

Beer Wars -- This Thursday!

Thanks to Beer Advocate, this email came to my attention today.

Greetings!

Just a last minute reminder that ... Beer Wars Live hits 440 theaters this Thursday, April 16; 8pm ET.

This is a ONE NIGHT ONLY event featuring the never seen before documentary Beer Wars followed by a live panel moderated by Ben Stein w/ Charlie Papazian, Greg Koch, Maureen Ogle, Rhonda Kallman, Sam Calagione, and Todd Alström; all featured in the film.

For more info/trailers:
http://beerwarsmovie.com/

For theater listings and to buy your advance tickets (recommended):
http://fathomevents.com/upcoming/details/Beer_Wars.html

We have no idea if the film is going to be good or bad, or what it's really about (craft vs. marco? 3-tier system? who's behind that brands we drink? all of the above?), but this level of exposure could be huge for craft beer and we urge everyone to spread the word, see the film, discuss, and decide for themselves.

Cheers!

Respect Beer.

Jason & Todd (Alström Bros)

From watching the trailer at least it did appear that this movie would be pursuing the micro versus macro angle, which I think could be pretty awesome (if somewhat late-in-coming...) Anyways, I reserved my ticket for Thursday night and would encourage you all to do the same (and save yourself the agony of what is sure to be a Boston Bruins collapse at the hands of the hated Montreal Canadians.) Discussion to follow (about the movie, not the Bruins.)

Rock Bottom hits, er, rock bottom

Well, I suppose I should begin with apologies for the title of this post. This was a piece of beer news that I had meant to pass along last week. Rock Bottom Brewery in Quincy closed its doors last weekend due to poor sales. As some of you may have remembered from my previous post on macrobreweries, I wasn't exactly Rock Bottom's biggest fan. But nevertheless. (It is worth noting that their brewpub in Boston's theater district remains open and is still "one of the company's highest performing restaurants.")

Of course, it goes without saying that it is a bad thing anytime you see 50 jobs lost. What I am curious about is whether this is a harbinger of things to come with the current recession: will craft beer drinkers pass by the Allagash showcase for an 18-pack of PBR? My guess is no, not unless you do lose your job. The craft beer market is growing too quickly right now and I think that just like movies, beer is a relatively cheap form of entertainment and therefore recession-proof.

One of my favorite beer bloggers, Jeff Alworth, of Beervana, came out with a poll on exactly this. While I do think the poll is inaccurate, it is nevertheless interesting that over half of the poll takers said their drinking habits had already changed. Here's to hoping that this was just a case of an inferior macrobrewery failing to make the grade in an increasingly competitive beer market.