And Another Brewer Leaves Philadelphia

My Lord, was the end of Philly Beer Week the starting gun for the brewer exodus in Philadelphia? Hot on the heels of the announcement below about Michael Fava, I get the news that Colin Farrell and Jack McCracken are leaving/have left Tired Hands...and not ten minutes later I learn from Terry Hawbaker that he's leaving Farmer's Cabinet.

I'm going to work for Al at Pizza Boy (Al's of Hampden, outside Harrisburg) in August so I should have beer ready for September. I'm very excited to hit the ground running at Al's... we've already received a new 10 bbl. fermenter just for a souring tank, so look for more Berliners and Gose soon. As you know I enjoy my crazy, weird and wild brews but I'm really digging the thought of brewing a wide range of beer again! 

So there you have it. Who the hell is next?

Philly news...from Maine

Taken by Suzanne "Beerlass" Woods

As some of you probably already know, Nodding Head brewer Mike Fava is leaving the City of Brotherly Love for the pleasant living of Maine; he's taken a job at Oxbow Brewing, in Newcastle. Here's the press release.

Oxbow Brewing Company is proud to announce they have hired Mike Fava, a young brewer from Philadelphia's most award winning brewery, Nodding Head Brewery. Medals from the GABF and World Beer Cup were awarded to Nodding Head for sour beers during Fava's years at the brewery. In early July Fava will join Oxbow Head Brewer Tim Adams in the brewery as the company begins increasing production of its highly sought farmhouse ales to keep up with increasing demand.

According to Geoff Masland, Director of Business Operations, Oxbow’s search began and ended with Fava, the one brewer they considered a perfect fit. “We have doubled our fermentation capacity as we head into our second year in business, and we couldn’t be more excited to have Mike on board as we increase production. I’ve never met a brewer with a more solid portfolio of beers and proficiency at age 30. Adding Mike’s wisdom and technical virtuosity to Tim’s raw talent and creative vision will produce astonishing results.”

Fava has spent his career in Philadelphia, establishing a big presence in the city’s internationally respected beer community. Most recently Fava has worked at Nodding Head Brewery, where he’s brewed an extensive line up of beers since 2008. Before that he was at Dock Street Brewery where he worked nearly 4 years and played a vital roll in resurrecting the brand and building a new brew pub. Oxbow can’t wait for an extra set of experienced hands, as the brewery handles it's own production, sales, self-distribution, creative design, and is beghinning to grow experimental ingredients in its gardens and small orchard, with a hop yard under way.

Best of luck, Fava! And get some of that beer down here...

Pennsylvania Breweries launches at Victory tomorrow!

Tomorrow -- Tuesday, October 5th --is the official launch party for Pennsylvania Breweries 4th edition at Victory Brewing in Downingtown. If you haven't made plans, join us -- and if you've made other plans, you might want to break them!

Because this is more than just a book signing and Bryson Blabfest! We're going to start at 6:00 with some convivial drinking, then have an hour-long panel discussion about Pennsylvania brewing and beer, featuring brewers from Victory, Nodding Head, Tröegs, Sly Fox, Weyerbacher, and Stoudt's (with me doing Ted Koppel moderation duties); that will include a Q&A session with the audience (that's you, right?). Then at 7:30 I'll start signing books till my hand falls off (and we'll probably wind up having another beer or two in the bar).

It's a ticketed event: $35 gets you a copy of the book, two beers, and a big old hors d'oeuvre selection. And the pleasure of each other's company, of course, hob-nobbing with Ron Barchet, Carol Stoudt, the Trogners, Curt Decker, Brian O'Reilly, and my stunningly personable self. Come on out to Downingtown and join us!

Good stuff from Uncle Jack

Jack Curtin has two newsy notes of great interest to Philly-area beer fans (and if they aren't of great interest to you, I have to question your depth of fandom...). Here he has the word on Scoats's latest, the opening of Hop Angel Brauhaus (the old Blue Ox, across from Rieker's Deli, and you will love that, my friends); and here, a less-happy note, is a quote from ex-Triumph brewer Patrick Jones on why he's an ex-Triumph brewer, what he's planning (or not), and a tip of the hat to another well-regarded ex-brewer.

Word to people with money and brains: a well-trained, multiple-medal winning brewer like Jones will not be on the sidewalk forever. Get your brewery plan together and snap this guy up. Or maybe...Gordon Biersch will finally get their heads out of their collective butt and come to Philly, and Patrick can re-enter that fold. Or even better, my grand Yuengling Philadelphia Brewpub scheme could come to fruition... Dreaming, I'm dreaming. I should go back to bed.

Down the other leg of the Trousers of Time

Picked this up from Uncle Jack's site,and it's everything he says it is and a bag of crisps. A goofy, cheap-video look at what happened around here in 1996: Dogfish Head, Iron Hill, Flying Fish, Yards, and Victory opened, and pressed on when other places didn't (Independence, Red Bell, Brandywine, Valley Forge, etc.). But don't for a moment think it's serious; it's not. It's goofy and fun and effin' brilliant. Fire it up, have a laugh, and be glad these guys didn't give up.

New York news...

For those of you who are lucky enough to have enjoyed Hutch Kugeman's brews at Great Adirondack in Lake Placid...you're about to be joined by a multitude. Hutch is leaving Great Adirondack (no worries; his former assistant Paul Fryman is returning from Snake River Brewing to take over) to become head brewer at Ithaca Beer Company, effective this weekend. Congratulations to Hutch and Ithaca: this is great for all involved. Looking forward to more success from all parties!

Brewing water, Fracking, and the Great Lakes

I hope the brewers who read this blog know about this already, but if you don't: you've still got time to register and attend the Great Lakes Water Conservation Workshop next week (Friday, the 26th) in Rochester, NY. Water is the biggest ingredient in beer, after all, and water rates in the Great Lakes region are going up by as much as 25%. It would be smart to learn about ways to cut back your usage. This isn't a lecture, either -- you bad bad brewers, you must stop using water! -- it's smart stuff from brewers like you (from places like Great Lakes Brewing (Cleveland) and Custom Brew Crafters (Rochester area)) that talks real processes, real equipment, and real ROI numbers. Saving water means saving money.

If you Pennsylvania brewers are thinking that the Great Lakes don't affect you, you might want to consider the effects of the hydrofracturing that's going to be taking place in the Marcellus Shale. It's not just making millionaires in the mountains; it's potentially affecting water supplies across the state. Don't get caught short: there's a special afternoon session on the consequences of 'fracking.'

Rochester isn't far -- I travel there often from southeastern PA, and it's only about 5 1/2 hours -- and this is something that really does concern you. Get ahead of this problem so you don't have to catch up to it later on.

I've turned off the comments on this one; we were wandering off topic and getting loud. 

Tomme Arthur at Memphis

Just got an e-mail from Memphis Taproom: they're hosting Port Brewing's Tomme Arthur on February 22nd from 6-8: beers will include "Mongo Double IPA, Older Viscosity, Hop 15, Wipeout IPA, Gift of the Magi ('08) and Carnivale in addition to some super limited edition surprises. Everything will be priced to move, and bald folks with glasses get an additional $1 off Port Brewing and Lost Abbey drafts." Gotta like that discount, looking at Brendan and Tomme...

Is This Unique?

Full Pint Brewing is getting closer to opening -- being allowed to open -- by going over the local zoning board's heads to get the zoning interpretation changed, rather than getting an individual variance. So I'm going to go ahead and put them in PA Breweries 4...the only non-open brewery that's going in. Not an easy decision, but these guys have the money, the brewery, the building, and most importantly, four experienced brewers who have also run successful businesses (and they were still smart enough to bring in an experienced business partner, Mark Kegg -- and if you can't see the Sign From God in that name, give it up).

Full Pint is, I believe, unique. You have four brewers who are currently brewing beers at two different brewpubs (40 miles apart) that are also two completely separate businesses, joining together to form a production brewery -- a third independent business -- that will keg and bottle 8 beers: four new ones and two from each of the the two brewpubs (with the full cooperation of the owners of the two brewpubs, of course). The brewers who made -- and still make! -- the beers at the brewpubs will be brewing them at Full Pint.

So...here's my question. Is that unique? I mean, this takes collaboration to a new level. This isn't contract brewing, per se. Do you know of any breweries where the partners are brewers at other breweries, and the beers they're making are beers from those other breweries? I can barely parse it! The closest thing I can think of is Port/Lost Abbey, but that's one brewery and one (brand of) brewpub. Anyone know of anything like this?

It's Official: Lappy has arrived in Maple Shade

Of course, you all know that Chris Lapierre is brewing at the new Iron Hill Maple Shade. But now the local paper knows it. Nice piece on one of the nicest guys in the biz, right here.

Busy week

Sorry I've been absent, it's been a busy week.

Monday afternoon Cathy and I trained up to NYC for WhiskyFest prep; we had dinner with the Malt Advocate staff at Union Square Cafe (great food; pretty lame beer list, guys) and then went down to dba for beers.

Tuesday we had breakfast with Thomas's godfather (he works in Manhattan) and got some stuff at M&M World on Times Square; helped set up WhiskyFest, and then from 3 to 10:30, it was presenting the world's best whiskeys at the Marriott Marquis (I made sure to sample some more this time, and I'll tell you about them when I get a moment, including the new Swedish Mackmyra), followed by Unibroue and whiskies in the magazine suite.

Wednesday we came home, reassured Penderyn that we really did still love him, and after some quick phone interviews, I went down to the Philadelphia Whiskey Festival. My first time, beautiful venue...but it ain't WhiskyFest, brother.

Thursday I worked pretty much non-stop on my Ale Street column and my next Massachusetts Beverage Biz story (had a singing rehearsal in the evening).

Friday I finished the MBB story at 12:45 and left at 1:40 for The Lion, where I got a tour, and attended the regional MBAA meeting (they've invited me a number of times, this was the first one I could make; hell, I might join); heard Dave Edgar from HopUnion talk on the hop outlook (good, mostly; more later) and a presentation on filtration pads, all in The Lion's newly refurbished taproom -- looking good! Then I slipped west for a couple short ones at One Guy -- damn, Berwick really likes the place!

Today...I've got my errands done, and I'm headed for Iron Hill Newark for the Black & Tan Cask event, then going out for dinner with friends tonight.

Whew... I hope to post something more substantial on all this soon. I thought November was going to be a bit slower!

Brewer Matrimony

Saturday, Cathy and I went up to Stoudt's for the wedding celebration of Whitney Thompson and Larry Horwitz, who are, besides being our friends, brewers at Tröegs and Iron Hill North Wales, respectively. We had a great time -- other than the experiences Jack and I had with numb bartenders, first at Union Barrel Works and then at the Holiday Inn -- and Jack has done a surprisingly jovial job of recounting the evening at his blog. Go have a look. It was a fun time, and I did love the drinks card at the party: long and loving descriptions of the Tröegs and Iron Hill beers available, followed by one line at the bottom:

"Wines -- Red, White, and Pink."

How's it feel to be the trivialized ones for a change, grape punks?

Just when you thought it was safe to have a beer...

Hops shortage? Piff. Malt increases? Whoopee. Transportation costs? Hey, happens to everyone.

Major caustic shortage.

That should get your attention. Due to "facility failures beyond their control," the largest producers of caustics in North America are immediately cutting allocation to 15% of contract to all existing customers (more info on that here). Every brewer I know of uses caustic to clean their steel. Like the hops problem, big users (municipal water treatment plants...) are already locking down existing supplies.

One more disaster to cope with.

Jay Misson

I just learned that Jay Misson, head brewer for the Triumph brewpubs, died this morning. I'm terribly saddened and diminished by this, as is the beer community in Philly and New Jersey.

The beer community may not realize just how diminished they are. Jay was a thread running back to the very beginning of craft brewing in this area, and typically, it was a lager thread. After learning homebrewing as a high school science project in 1978, Misson came home from college and answered an ad for a brewer at Vernon Valley, the pioneering brewery within Action Park waterpark in northern New Jersey. Here's what I wrote about that in an Ale Street News profile of Jay:

Misson started working for German brewmaster Stefan Muhs, who had managed to install a classically traditional German lager brewhouse in the Action Park waterpark in Vernon Valley, a strange marriage of teenage thrills and thoroughly sophisticated beer. "We were putting out half-liter swingtops of unfiltered, organic-ingredient lagers, brewed to strict Reinheitsgebot standards," Misson recalled. It was a 30 hectoliter brewhouse, with open wooden fermenters, wooden casks, and an open, tower-style wort chiller.

"Everything was done the hard way, the Reinheitsgebot way," Misson said with a wry grin. "It was a great place to learn, because you HAD to be clean, especially with that open chiller. We grew up all our yeast from slants, we even made our own culture medium, and we cultured lactic acid to acidify the malt."

I tasted those beers twice: once at an early Brickskeller tasting of American craft beers with Michael Jackson, who lavished praise on them, and once at Action Park in the late 1980s. Both times I was impressed, though the Action Park beers were served ice-cold, something Jay was never happy about.

Jay remained a lager chauvinist, and wound up at Gordon-Biersch, training brewers. That's where he met Patrick Jones, who he would bring along back to New Jersey to brew for Triumph, first in New Hope and now in Philly.

Jay was always quick to pour a beer, quick to rhapsodize about a German style, and quick to quash any talk of lager being in any way inferior to or less complex than ale. He also loved having a good time, a big man, outsized in humor, knowledge, and passion. As I said to his wife Kelly today (they married in October of 2005; Misson got a call at the wedding to let him know Triumph had won four GABF medals), Jay was just such a big guy, it was like he didn't fit into this life.

Kelly said he'd had a great day yesterday, caught an enormous bluefish. If he had some good lager beer with it, and been with her, I can't think of any way Jay would have enjoyed his last day on earth any better. Oh, damn, but I am going to miss the man. Lift many beers to him, because that's how he would have wanted it. But please...lagers:

I told Jay about something (Hyde Park Brewing's) John Eccles told me once. "Ales!" John said. "I could teach a chimp to make ales. You have to know what you’re doing to make lagers." I asked Misson if John had heard him say that (when Jay was training him at Mountain Valley brewpub).
"No, he didn’t get that quote from me," Misson laughed, a big laugh. Then he smiled. "But the attitude – yeah, that he got from me."

Attitude, and lagers. One more quote:

I was relaxing after the meal with head brewer Jay Misson and part-owner Brian Fitting; Fitting was telling me how they kept getting inquiries about bottling their beer. “They just don’t get it,” said Misson, waving a dismissive hand. “It’s a brewpub. We make beer here, people drink it here. That’s what we do. That’s all we do.”

Passionate to the last. Fare well, Jay, auf wiederseh'n.

Brewers Deserve to Get Paid -- and they are

I posted this back in January, complaining that brewers should be paid for beer at festivals. I won't repeat the reasons, go read them.

Apparently, it's working. I got an e-mail from a local fest organizer recently, telling me that they were getting a poor brewer response for their fest, and asking me if I could help. Yeah, I said, I can help: pay for the beer. You should, it's the right thing to do. Then tell the brewers you're paying for beer; I'll bet you get some immediate responses when they find out you're showing them some respect.

I figured I'd never hear from them again, but lo and behold, I get an e-mail the next day: the guy took my e-mail to a committee meeting that night, read it to them, explained the problem, and they voted to raise the ticket price $5 and pay the brewers a "beer honorarium" that should cover their wholesale cost. All right!

Then I just found out Wednesday that another local fest is now paying for beer. And I got two e-mails from brewers thanking me for talking the first fest into paying for beer. As Hannibal Smith (George Peppard) used to say on The A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Kennett Square Brewfest does "the right thing"

Kennett Square Brewfest is not taking free beer from brewers any more...kinda. Uncle Jack the Homeboy got it up first, as it rightly so: he is Da Kennett Square Boy. KSB is paying brewers an honorarium for bringing beer to the fest (they're also cutting down on the number of tickets sold, so less crowding, hurrah, hurrah).

I got an e-mail on this today from Jeff Norman, one of the organizers of the Kennett Square Brewfest who I've been harrassing about the beer festival taking free beer from brewers for a beer festival. For the record, Jeff's been working on this, and he's been hampered by the non-profit status of the group and the "community" image (which pisses me off; the "community" can't be seen to be making money off selling beer? They're doing it, aren't they? It's better because they're selling beer someone gave to them? But don't get me started...). But this is another feather in the cap for Kennett Square's beer festival. They're Doing The Right Thing. Here's to other festivals getting the right idea, and brewers holding them to it.

Speaking of which...as I noted over at Uncle Jack's site, The Cystic Fibrosis benefit beerfest in Harrisburg (largely done by Tröegs) is also doing this, and providing hotel rooms to brewers as well. Nicely done.

Brewers deserve to get paid

Don't worry, this isn't a screed about beer prices being too low. It's about beer prices being non-existent. I'm talking about brewers being asked -- forced -- to donate beer to beer festivals.

Folks, if you're unaware of this, it happens all the time. There are parts of the country where beer festivals do regularly pay brewers for the beer that they pour, but there are also places where that's not how the game is played. Brewers are invited to festivals, some of which are for charities, some of which are not (and as one brewer I'm friends with says, "Just because it's your charity doesn't mean it's my charity."), and then told how much beer they're going to be bringing and not getting paid for. People are paying for tickets, people are paying for food, people are paying for breweriana, t-shirts, pint glasses, and everything else, but the brewers aren't getting paid for their beer.

Why do they do this? The festival promoters know that for the larger brewers -- craft and not-so-craft -- it's a write-off, a promotional expense they're more than happy to pay. I know it's the case for large spirits companies: they're happy to bring booze to festivals because sampling is the most effective way to sell a good product.

And let's be deadly honest: larger breweries often give free beer to retail accounts. It's illegal in the U.S., but it happens every week: bars order three kegs and get four, they take a competitor off-tap and get X number of free kegs. I've talked to brewers who've seen it, I've talked to retailers who've had it offered. It doesn't get prosecuted because no retailer is going to rat it out...and kill the goose that lays the golden kegs. Is this news to anyone? The same kind of spending drives free beer at festivals.

Smaller brewers are working on much smaller margins and overall budgets, and four half-barrels means some real money to them. Why do they do it? They feel they have to. And festival promoters -- charitable and profitable alike -- will tell them about the "exposure" they're getting. As Jerry Bailey, the former prez of Old Dominion once told me, "exposure" is a bad word when you're talking about getting caught outside. I've had people ask me to do events for free because it would be "great exposure!" Hey, you know what? I'm so damned exposed already that I'm naked and shivering, I don't need more of it!

What really torques me about this is how many times there is entertainment at these events, and they're getting paid! No one ever suggests to the band or DJ that playing at the beer festival will be great exposure so they should do it for free. Because they wouldn't do it.

There are responsible festivals. Jim Anderson's events in Philadelphia were always paid-beer events. The Alström Brothers have told me that their BeerAdvocate events are all paid-beer events. There are also some fests that are put in a tough position by screwy local laws, where buying the beer would jeopardize or cancel their permit: the better fests of this type compensate by throwing the brewers free room and board. But some fests don't even give the brewers free parking, fergodssake.

You know what? There are a LOT of festivals out there these days. Beer festivals are popular. Wanna bet you and I now know one big reason why? Low overhead. Do yourself and your local brewer a favor: start asking questions the next time, before you buy tix for a beer festival. "Is the beer at this fest paid for?" "What's the charity? What percentage of the take do they get?"

And if you're a brewer? Look, if you like the charity, or if the venue's a really cool place you like visiting, or if the festival really is right smack-dab in the middle of your target audience (and they haven't already all tasted your beer), okay, you're an adult, make your decision. But think about that "naked and shivering" line. How "exposed" do you want to be? If they're not going to respect you...why respect them?

A Triumph

Tuesday April 17th saw a beautiful moment at Triumph Center City Philly, and I'm not talking about the screaming metal monkey to the left. The brewers of the three Triumph brewpubs -- Princeton, New Hope, the new Center City spot, and 'executive brewer' Jay Misson -- held a brewers reception, inviting brewers from the region to come to the newly opened brewpub. It was a nice idea, and it was great to see everyone come out.






Brewers came from as far away as Troegs and Appalachian in Harrisburg, Stewart's in Delaware, and Anheuser-Busch in Newark, NJ. (Really: these guys are all in the Master Brewers Association of America, and Jay's just become the president of the local chapter -- see how happy he is in the picture to the left? -- and everyone came out for their colleague's new operation.)

As you can see, Jay, like me, spent most of the evening drinking Patrick Jones's excellent kellerbier. It rocked as only an unfiltered pils can rock: aromatic, a touch sulfury, and utterly refreshing, the lager equivalent of cask ale. I also tried the dunkel (which, honestly, I thought needed a bit of work; it was a little sharp, not as glass-smooth as I like a dunkel to be), the porter (very nice beer, hoppy but not obtrusive with it), and the Chico pale ale (yup: Cascades, clean, good drinker, no issues here).

Had good chats with Scott and Lee from Legacy, Casey and Robin from Flying Fish (hadn't seen her in a couple years, nice to get caught up), Brugger from Troegs, Whitney from Appalachian (good to meet the new brewer; very pleasant young woman with a microbiology background, love to see that from a brewer), Suzanne from Sly Fox, Ric from Stewart's, the King of the Philadelphia Craft Beer Scene (don't worry, folks, we shook hands, and smiled, and I went across the street to Eulogy afterwards and had a nice glass of draft Allagash Curieux), and with Triumph partner/founder Adam Rechnitz (who pointed out the screaming metal monkey to me).

I know I'm missing people, and I apologize. It's so infrequent that all of the beer folks in the area get together in a non-work setting that isn't after an exhausting day at a fest. You see how much everyone enjoyed it in this picture out on the street afterwards. Get yourself down to Triumph; the parking's not as bad as you might think (well...on Friday and Saturday nights, but take SEPTA!), I parked on-street for a buck, only three blocks away, and the walk did me good. Thanks to Triumph and Jay Misson for this very gracious "hello" to the craft beer scene.