More on craft beer and super-premium spirits sales

I've been talking about how craft beer and high-end spirits sales continue to buck the economy...and I've been getting a string of comments from my favorite grammar-ignorant punctuation-avoidant anonymous poster crying me false, saying that sales aren't that good, and will soon (when? After ten years?!) crash back to normal. Well...sorry, "Punkin Head," but there's more good news, this time from an interview with Midwest supermarket chain Hy-Vee's vp of wine and spirits, Jay Wilson in Shanken News Daily. Check it out...

Sales of beverage alcohol at the 245-unit Hy-Vee Inc. supermarket chain throughout the Midwest approached $500 million at the end of its fiscal year on September 30, according to Jay Wilson, vice president of wine & spirits. Total sales at the employee-owned chain were at $7 billion for the period. Hy-Vee is opening 3 new stores this year, and will have 248 units in the following eight states by year-end: Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. Its beverage alcohol departments range from 6,000 square feet down to a single 40-foot aisle. Wine and spirits each account for 30% of sales, with beer at 40%. The chain has made a commitment to educating its sales staff and has become a destination for wine, spirits and beer drinkers seeking selection and good value. So far, over 350 employees have received certification recognized by The Society of Wine Educators. 
[Edited here...]
SND: How has the slow economy of the past few years affected your business?
Wilson: While the on-premise accounts have been hurt, people are still buying alcoholic beverages to take home. So they’re coming to us instead of going out.
SND: When Market Watch interviewed you in 2008, beverage alcohol sales at Hy-Vee were $350 million. How have you done in the years since?
Wilson: We just finished our fiscal year on September 30, and we’re very close to half a billion dollars in beverage alcohol sales.
SND: How do you account for that growth? What’s driving it?
Wilson: Craft beer is up 35% and we have really embraced this market. We’re putting 44 feet of nothing but craft in an open-air cold case. We’ve also got some big growth categories in spirits. Vodka is the leading category for us, while Irish whiskey is showing about a 45% trend up over the last three years for us. Additionally, rum is a very big and growing category for us.
SND: Are you seeing any return to super-premium spirits?
Wilson: We’re seeing people going back to them. And there are some people who never left them. But we’re definitely seeing solid growth there.

Note: despite craft enthusiasts' fears that supermarkets will ignore crafts for the "big bucks" of mainstream beer, Hy-Vee clearly sees the benefit of craft's bigger margins.

Ball's in your court, "Punkin." 

Looking for "The Drink That Satisfies"

I'm not huge on sweet drinks; I'm a beer and whiskey man, and generally a lush bourbon or a Speyside, a good barleywine is about as sweet as I go. But when I do want a little sweet something, usually late on a winter's evening, as often as not the bottle I reach for is Drambuie, the Scottish liqueur. The herbs and honey and whisky make a wonderful warming sensation (and it's great in a hot cup of Earl Grey tea, too).

That's why when I was asked if I wanted to be a judge in a Drambuie cocktail competition, I said "Sure!" Best of all, you can join me. It's called "Nail or Fail," a reference to the classic Rusty Nail cocktail, it's at Ladder 15 on Sansom St., and it starts at 7 PM on Monday the 18th. The winner will be announced at 10 PM.

If you've never had Drambuie -- or any drink like it -- you ought to take the opportunity. I've developed a new appreciation for the sweet drinks, as in, you don't need to just drink them as is -- wow, they're sweet! -- or in coffee/tea -- though that is good -- you can drink them in cocktails (I've been enjoying the hell out of the Frisco cocktail: 2 oz. of good bourbon, 1/4 oz. of Benedictine, stirred with ice, strained, and a twist of lemon peel) or cut/contrast them (I was on a Kahlua press trip in Mexico in February (story coming in January in Massachusetts Beverage Business) and learned that Kahlua on ice with a big wedge of lime is awesome). So I'm looking forward to seeing what some pros can do with Drambuie.

The Bartender's Gin Compendium

One of the people in Louisville with John and I this past weekend was Gary Regan. Gary's a good friend, and a wonderful story-teller, a nice guy and a great champion of cocktails and the folks who make them. We had a very good time with him Saturday night at the bar at Proof, as he bantered with the bartenders there (and ogled, openly, one of the very nice ladies behind the bar; it's an odd part of his charm).

Gary gave John and I each a copy of his new book, The bartender's GIN compendium (that's a link to buy the book, only available on-line...I think), which, you'll note in the picture to the left, is attributed to "gaz regan." "Gaz," he explained, is the nickname of practically everyone in the UK named "Gary," and his friends there all call him Gaz. We, he said, could call him that, or continue to call him Gary, whichever we were comfortable with. Gary, then.

Anyway, I don't know nearly enough about gin, so I started reading the book when I woke up way too early on Sunday morning, continued to read it in the airport and on the flight home, and just finished it. It took me back 30 years to when I was just starting to drink and wanted to learn everything about booze...which eventually left me with some odd bits of knowledge about pisco and advocaat, a desire for cocktails no one then seemed to know how to make -- I certainly couldn't, and still can't, to my shame -- and the decision that what I really liked to drink was beer, so I'd just learn about that. (And thanks to Michael Jackson and a lot of other good people, I did, and then John Hansell came along and I learned about whiskey, too.)

GIN brought back that fascination, that sense that there was so much out there that was possible to enjoy. I learned a lot about gin, and what a great time to do it. Gin is resurgent, much like my beloved whiskeys. Much was made of the ascendency of "white spirits" like vodka, white rum, and gin over the past 40 years, but gin was the weak sister of the bunch, overshadowed by the others. If my wife hadn't been such a summer devotee of gin and tonics, I'd never have seen gin at all. My mother claims to be allergic to the stuff, getting a pounding headache after only a drink or two of it, so I assumed I'd be the same, and never gave it a chance.

Now gin's exploding -- in a small way -- in a new profusion of brands that tweak the definition. There are distilleries small and large making new gins, older gins -- Plymouth, Old Tom, and genever -- are getting more attention and new iterations, and of course, bartenders -- cocktailians, as Gary says -- are making lots more of both classic gin cocktails and new inventions. The time seemed right for a book.

What about the book? It runs the history of gin, borrowing from other sources -- at times you get the feeling that David Wondrich just didn't have time to write a gin book, so Gary did it for him; though with those two as thick as thieves, it's hard to separate the ideas at times -- then into descriptions of the major botanicals, and then into the meat of the book: descriptions of dry gins, Plymouth gin, Old Toms, and genevers, followed by a thick sheaf of excellent cocktail recipes and mixing suggestions.

The descriptions may be problematic for some. Gary relied on the distillers to write most of this. At first I wasn't that comfortable with this, particularly since the distillers sponsored the book, to the tune of payments for the inclusion of logos and bottle-shots. But...I mean, we know this because Gary tells us so, right up front, including what distillers paid for and supplied, and what they didn't. He did, after all, self-publish the book, and so he's kind of in the position of being the editor and publisher: are magazines that accept advertising independent or not? I decided that being forewarned -- and Gary certainly forewarns you! -- was forearmed, and took all of that with a grain of salt.

That said, I like having the distillers talk about their gins, particularly when Gary invites them to "Tell us why you think your gin stands apart from all the others" and asks if there are "Any other idiosyncrasies that you'd like to tell us about?" Some marketonic stuff, but also some very interesting details and perspectives, too.

About the self-publishing: there were times when my editor's eye twitched: typos, duplicate phrases, grammar (really, not just Englishisms). There were times the layout betrayed the flow. And the black&white snapshots look like black&white snapshots. Grainy ones.

Bitch, bitch, bitch. It was never enough to keep me from enjoying this book a lot, partly thanks to something I haven't even gotten to mentioning yet: Gary's voice. He's young and old, self-deprecating and full of great stories about great times, making clever asides that he doesn't even bother to parenthesize. The 'recipe' for Gin and Tonic, for example: "I seem to have lost the recipe for this one, so I'm hoping you'll be able to figure it out for yourself. If memory serves it works well with a wedge of lime as a garnish." Yes, indeed.

Add a lot of great gin quotes from literature -- which helps to hammer home just what a place gin has in English-speaking literature -- and some razzle-dazzle, and the regulations for what gin is, and an appreciated cocked snook at vodka... you'll understand why I advise you to buy this book and start drinking gin.

Kennett Square Fermentation Festival

Long story, but...I meant to post this in early October, and there was a Blogger screw-up, and it didn't happen. Sorry. This sounded like fun.

The Kennett Square Fermentation Festival is not what you think. The Brewfest is this Saturday, and it's long sold-out, and that's what most of you know about. The Fermentation Festival is this Friday, and it's not just beer (although beer will be there, thanks to Victory and Twin Lakes, and Home Sweet Homebrew), it's yogurt, and kimchi, and cider, and salsa (live, 'probiotic' salsa), and Root. No tickets, pay-as-you-go (bring cash and checkbook, most vendors won't take credit cards), and plenty of music, too. Looks like a lot of fun, and if I wasn't already booked up for tomorrow -- pheresis in the morning, singing in the evening (and maybe over to Earth, Bread + Brewery afterwards for that anniversary evening) -- I'd be seriously thinking about visiting.

Root -- The Launch

Back in May, almost three months ago, I went to the launch of Root, a project of Art In The Age of Mechanical Reproduction, a Philadelphia museum/shop/movement/institution that defies easy description. Here, go read about it.

Okay? Well, now get your head around the idea that these people not only make and sell shirts, soap, and useful accessories, they make spirits, specifically Root, an herbal liqueur that hearkens back to the origins of root beer, a tincture of bark, roots, herbs. Root itself is certified organic, and is not, as they say at the site, a flavored vodka or sweet liqueur. I'd heard about Root through brewery historian Rich Wagner, who'd worked with AITA on a display of brewery machinery and labels, and I was very curious to try it.

When I arrived at the launch, I was greeted with a glass of Root Birch, a highball of Root and birch beer (not root beer; birch beer). My notes: "The Root blends almost completely into the birch beer, intensifying the stuff that makes birch beer different (and prickly)." This was my favorite of the Root cocktails; I apologize that it was the simplest, but it was just so companionable -- and very Pennsylvania.

Nic Jarrett, a mixologist from APO Bar + Lounge (formerly Apothecary), was working a small but high-quality bar at the back, making three cocktails: Forbidden Root, Scots Connexion, and Root Miner. I tried the Forbidden Root*: "It's sweet, tangy, twisted, and most definitely herbal. The white grapefruit juice comes through, but doesn't overwhelm." Next I tried the Scots Connexion**: "Grapefruit peel/oils give a fresh peppery top to the cocktail, and the drink peels away from that, tires squealing; a very authoritative drink. Not soothing like a dessert, but affirming like a bracing wind."

By now the whiskey man in me was coming to the fore: I skipped Root Miner (a Martinez variation) and went for straight Root in a snifter. "The roots of the drink are clear in the smell -- root beer, birch/wintergreen, tea, anise, and a surge of bitterness. I've smelled pieces of this in bourbon. It's a sin to put this in a cocktail [I'm willing to make an exception for that birch beer highball, though!]. It's alive, it's vital and virile, but high-and-lightly sweet, like a fresh leaf of mint, with a lovely lingering finish on the back palate. I'd love to pour a shot of this over shaved ice."

I liked the stuff. I've been seeing it on some backbars in Philly, and it's in the State Store System. Try some first -- try the better cocktail bars in Philly -- and see if it's not a lot better than slamming shots of Jägermeister. And...I apologize for taking this long to post.


*Forbidden Root
3/4 oz. ROOT
3/4 oz. TRU vodka (Root was contracted at this distillery)
1 oz. fresh squeezed white grapefruit juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1/4 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 oz. Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
dash of Angostura
Shaken and strained into a cocktail glass.

**Scots Connexion
1 1/2 oz. Famous Grouse blended scotch whisky
1 oz. ROOT
dash Peychaud’s bitters
Stirred over cracked ice and strained into a chilled, Vieux Carre absinthe-rinsed rocks glass. Garnished with a flamed grapefruit twist.

Many more recipes here.

Calvados tasting at Chick's Cafe

I don't plug many individual events at bars and restaurants; that's on purpose, because I want my plugs to have some kind of impact when I do make them. This one came in my e-mail today, and it's happening tomorrow, and I'm thinking hard about how to get to it.

I love apples, and apple booze, and have had discussions about apple booze (and the sad state of American ignorance with regards to it) with the bartender at Chick's, Katie Loeb, and this looks... I mean, how often do you get to meet a calvados distiller?


Meet Jerome Dupont, a 4th generation Calvados distiller from Normandy, France.
March 27th (tomorrow) 5-7 PM

Chick's Cafe and Wine Bar (614 S. 7th St.) will be hosting a Calvados (Apple Brandy) happy hour this Friday March 27th from 5-7PM. Come meet Jerome Dupont, 4th generation Calvados producer from Domaine Familial Louis Dupont. Sidecars $9 Flights of aged Calvados $12.


Wow. I gotta figure how to get to this.

Genever returns to the bar

Ever had genever? You've probably had gin, but it's likely you haven't had genever. The Dutch/Belgian version of gin, the earliest form of commercial gin, has not been popular in America for centuries -- a damned shame, cuz genever is good stuff. It's grainy, it's got more body than gin, it's not as piney as gin, and mostly, you drink it straight up, and you know...I like that.

That's me on the left, liking it, having a Belgian genever at 't Dreupelkot in Ghent last spring. They serve it so full, right up to the very brim, that you kind of have to take that first sip right off the bar, and then pick up the glass. That's their genever menu on the bar beside the glass; you can see how many genevers they have...and that's just one side of the menu.

I don't remember if they had Bols Genever or not. 't Dreupelkot is the kind of place that might not have Bols because it's too ubiquitous (and too Dutch...). Bols claims to be the oldest spirit brand in the world, though they've kind of hidden their genever light under a basket in the U.S.; I knew Bols as a bottler of blue curaçao, the bright blue, orange-flavored liqueur that was an ingredient in a drink we called "Tidi-Bols," along with a depth charge-sized slug of vodka and 7-Up to top up. Anything to get drunk, back in those hazy post-college days.

But Bols has been making genever since 1820, and they've brought it back to the U.S. recently, with a big launch in New York and San Francisco. They're pushing it as a cocktail ingredient, and I'm sure it's a good one. But I hear people put bourbon in cocktails, too, and that's never impressed me much either. Okay, maybe a little. But I'd rather just drink the stuff.

I remember talking with Steve Beaumont at Dreupelkot, as we sipped genevers and watched people "eat" advocaat, a kind of booze pudding made from brandy, eggs, sugar, and flavorings. The bar had a crazy rainbow of flavored advocaats, and you get a little cup and eat it with a utensil that looks something like the plastic coffee stirrers you get at McDonald's. We were both thinking that a genever and advocaat bar would be a can't-miss proposition in Manhattan...which probably proves how many genevers we'd had. Still...genever and booze pudding? I think we might have been right. With this Bols launch, maybe we'll find out.

The Session: It's not beer, and it's not organic, either

Call me unconventional (please, I love it when you do that), but when I read Chris O'Brien's proposal for The Session this month -- "Simply publish a post related to organic beer. " -- I decided to do just that...by posting about a non-organic vodka.

I did a few stories about organic beers in the past year, and mostly what I found is that there's a ton of disagreement about what "organic" means, as Chris points out:

Only beers verified by independent certifiers as meeting the legal organic standards are allowed to bear the USDA Certified Organic logo... Lots of brewers use Certified Organic malt and/or hops but have not had their facilities and processes certified. Legally and in practical fact these beers are not organic and are prohibited from being marketed as organic. But for this Session, it’s up to you to decide what to count as organic. Feel free to comment on beers that someone just tells you are organic, but be aware that just because someone has good intentions and seems trustworthy doesn’t mean that their beer is in fact organic.

I decided to take Chris at his word and sidestep the whole thing -- even though I have some organic beers available, like Pinkus, and Wolaver's, and Peak, that are eminently drinkable and worthy of praise -- to post about something "related to organic beer," a different concept that's been done rather well by McCormick Distilling, a huge outfit in Missouri that you probably haven't heard of before. The only brands they own that I'm really familiar with are Tequila Rose and Wiser's Canadian. But McCormick Vodka is the third-biggest selling domestic vodka in America...so they're doing something right.

This new brand looks right, too: 360 Vodka. 360 is not organic. It's sustainable, it's eco-friendly, it's really pretty neat. The distilling process uses an advanced still that re-captures much of the waste energy (200% more energy efficiently than conventional stills, they claim). The grain is locally grown to cut down on transport energy use. The labels are made from New Leaf paper: 100% post-consumer recycled waste paper (chlorine-free processing), the bottle is 85% recycled glass, 70% post-consumer, the glue on the label is soy-based. The bottle, as you can see in the picture, is a flip-top...and each bottle comes with an attached postage-paid mailer (attached by biodegradable fiber twine) and instructions on how to remove the bail and cap and send it back to McCormick, where they'll wash and re-use them. The sturdy case is all recycled paperstock, with no glue, and as you can see, it looks like a filebox...which is exactly what they advise you to use it for.

It's all pretty impressive, and when I talked to McCormick president Ed Pechar a couple weeks ago for a story, he was quite enthusiastic about it. The more they talked about the idea, he said, the more ideas people came up with. He was quite proud of the still, the most advanced technology they could find (something that's getting a lot of attention from distillers and brewers, by the way: energy-efficiency is going to account for a lot of plant upgrades in the next ten years). The buildings that hold the distillery have been designed to have a minimal carbon footprint, the website even runs on wind-generated power.

"It's not organic," Pechar told me, emphatically. "It is green, and sustainable, and local, and low-impact. Those are things we can do something about."

I'm not saying that organic is not obtainable, or a fantasy, or elitist: I'm actually cooking soup with mostly organic ingredients right now, and we get produce from an organic CSA. But low-impact and sustainable production, green production, is another, important angle.

Of course, the drink is important too. 360 has a clean aroma profile (yes, I know: it's vodka, it's supposed to. I'm a pro, and I used to really like sipping vodka: all vodkas are not equal, and they have distinct aromas if you pay attention), without any of the solvent aromas of cheap crap or the sweet tinge of doctored vodka. It sips smooth, no burn, with a nice, plush texture, and no off-flavors or aromas in the finish. This really is nice...for vodka, I mean: it is what it is. But I like this idea, and the execution is nicely done.

A-B continues to test the waters...of life

Just got this from Brew Blog, a beer news blog put out by Miller Brewing. Anyone ever had Soju? Is it significantly different from vodka?

A-B Distributing Korean Liquor

Anheuser-Busch last year started distributing Ku Soju, a Korean liquor, in seven test markets, according to the company’s annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The spirit is marketed by California-based Ku Soju Inc.
A-B -- which has expressed concern about beer’s declining share of the alcohol beverage category -- has been dabbling in the spirits space for some time now. It has been testing a liqueur called Jekyll & Hyde, which is now available in 56 test markets.
The distribution deal with Ku Soju appears to be another move.
In a sign of A-B’s push into nonalcohol beverages, the SEC filing noted that A-B is distributing Icelandic Glacial Spring Water (owned by Icelandic Water Holdings) in 16 test markets.
To learn more about soju, a vodka-like spirit, check out this wikipedia definition.