Do you need an IPA? Or do you just want one?

Following up on the comments on my recent post about Neshaminy Brewing -- generated by the statement "...the IPA that every noob craft drinker insists that a brewer make..." -- I posted the following on Facebook:

Brewers, beer sellers (wholesale and retail), beer drinkers: a question for you. Does a craft brewer NEED to have an IPA in their lineup? Given that there are literally thousands of IPAs already on the market, can you make it without one? As a drinker, do you want every local brewery to do an IPA?

The conversation, to say the least, has been brisk. There's clearly a lot of pressure on brewers to make an IPA -- it's a constant request for those who start out without one -- and Greg Ouelette, the brewer at Martha's Exchange in Nashua, NH, noted that while he always has one on offer, when he replaced it with "a nice pale ale," it sold slower than the IPA on before it and the IPA he put on after it.

Some mention that what they'd really like to see is a good crisp lager (which brought up the inevitable "pilsner is harder to make than throwing a ton of hops in another IPA" argument), while others have noted that maybe saison/farmhouse is the next 'must have' style, moving up already. Might be something to that, God knows it's been true in Philly for a few years already.

So...what do you think? Does a brewer need to offer an IPA year-round? What does it mean if they don't? Does your opinion change if the IPA is a 'me-too,' or if it's something quite different? What if it's a Belgian, white, red, black, green, or blue IPA? (What if it's one of those but the brewer wises up and calls it something else?)

Let's open up the whole damn can of worms here. I love drinking IPA -- and was terribly disappointed when an IPA growler sample I recently got from a new brewpub smelled like burnt rubber and cowshit -- but I like drinking a lot of different beers. I applaud a brewer who wants to make something other than what everyone else is making; really, really, really love to see that, and making just another IPA is just...boring. But I can't wait to try Pretty Things' new Meadowlark IPA, which sounds quite tasty. But I was also excited by Susquehanna Brewing's Goldencold Lager, one of the best American-brewed hellesbiers I've had.

• Does a brewer run the risk of losing attention by not doing an IPA? (Or does it matter more what the beers they DO make are?) 
• Is the lust for IPA simple-minded and similar to the lust for hot sauce? (Or is it more an effect of the newer strains of hops that add great citrus/pine/floral/tropical fruit flavors and aromas to beers, or maybe of new technologies that allow fresher hop flavors at the tap?)
• Will IPAs peak and fall -- as raspberry beers did in the 90s -- or are they going to take over the category? (And if they're good IPAs...what does that mean to you? What's it mean to the brewers?)
• Is style consolidation inevitable? (Or are we seeing style diversification with all the Belgian, white, red, black, etc. "IPA" styles expanding in the market?)

Discussion is encouraged. For myself, I think IPAs are frickin' great. I think the [insert descriptor here] IPAs are to be judged on individual merit, but the nomenclature is silly. And I love a wide, wide variety of beers, and would be unhappy if that were crimped by the popularity of IPA. 

RIP, Bob Ryan

I just found out that Bob Ryan, the former owner of Ryan's Beverage (now North Wales Beer) in North Wales, died about a month ago. His passing was probably not noted by many, but Bob had a very significant impact on my life: he bought my first piece of beer writing.

I was working at a small pharma company in Fort Washington at the time, late in 1993. My friend Tom Lawler walked into my office and tossed a piece of paper on my desk; it was a one-page, one-side newsletter from Ryan's Beverage (Tom lived about four blocks from there at the time). "You can do better than this," he said. I looked at it, and he was right, I could. So I did. I ran up a two-sided newsletter on a cheap desktop publishing suite I had (DOS-based, can you believe it?), a story on Saranac and Matt Brewing, put a snazzy masthead on it, and gave it to Tom. I had a cover letter that said, essentially, I'd like to do this for you. If you like this one, it's free; if you'd like more, I'll do them for $25.

Bob liked it. I wrote newsletters for Ryan's for seven years, and their craft and import business grew. I'll take a little credit for that, but mostly it was Bob's hustle (and the energy of his wife, Connie). Bob was always smiling, always thinking, and made the most of his little sidestreet space. I got up there fairly often; did tastings, did book signings once Pennsylvania Breweries came out, helped out with beer selection occasionally.

Finally, the newsletter got to be more work than it was worth for me as I got busier with better-paying gigs, and I had to tell Bob I couldn't do it anymore. That was after the shakeout in 1996, and the business was tougher. Eventually, Bob came to me and asked advice on what to do. I gave him the best thoughts I could, but he wound up selling (to a guy from my local beer store!). I heard from him occasionally after that, but with him out of the business...

Then this morning I got an email from Connie; she'd seen my name on LinkedIn, and wanted to let me know that Bob passed away last month, from Parkinson's. It's a sad moment. Bob, more than any other one person, is responsible for what I do now, for how I got here, for all the great experiences I've had, and for all the help I've been able to give to craft beer and rye whiskey.

Cheers, Bob! I hope you're getting a chance to rest.

Yes, there is a Philly Rum Week!

I like beer, you know that. I like whiskey, you know that, too. But I also like rum, more than any other spirit after whiskey, and a few friends in Da Biz know it...which is how I found out about National Rum Day -- August 16, next Thursday -- Philly Rum Week -- all next week -- and Duke's Surf Bar.

First, some caveats. Philly Rum Week is in no way like Philly Beer Week. It ain't as big. It ain't as compellingly natural. And no rum distillers or limited release rums will be coming to town -- it is a spirit, after all, so that would require cooperation from the brain-shot PLCB...which ain't happening.

Second, National Rum Day is just barely organized. There is no umbrella website, for instance, and most of the stuff Da Google comes up with is from last year's National Rum Day. It's just some rum bars and rum makers sending out press releases (like the people at Cruzan, who sent me the picture above, and are sending me a sample of the aged white, because I asked, because it's, like, one of my favorite rum brands (along with Rhum Clement, who haven't sent me samples...) and I haven't had that one), and having events.

Finally, I hate "pop-up" bars and restaurants and such. So precious, so "I knew about this," so exclusive -- in the 'non-inclusive' sense of the word. That's why I never write about them, or food trucks. I know, that makes me a curmudgeon, but that's how it is. Yeesh.

Okay? Got all that? Well, forget it, because Philly Rum Week is silly and fun and I'm into it; why would you expect National Rum Day to be organized; and Duke's Surf Bar is totally a tiki bar pop-up at Rum Bar, and I'm all over that. It's rum, even I'm going to lighten up and have some fun with it.

So next Thursday, I'll be at Rum Bar -- er, Duke's Surf Bar for some tiki drinks served up by my mixologist buddy Katie Loeb of Han Dynasty (she's going full-bore tiki for the night), then I'll be sliding my way over to Cuba Libre (where they apparently don't even know it is National Rum Day, but who cares?) for some more rummy fun, after which I'll probably wind up the night at the Khyber or Triumph or Eulogy...cuz, you know...I like beer.

And I am definitely taking the train this time!

Cider Explodes in U.S. Market

Updated: I forgot to add in the analysis...sorry!
 
I've been noting an explosion in small -- and not-so-small -- cidermakers, and it's reflecting a huge category growth. According to a story in today's Shanken News Daily, cider sales in the U.S. rose by 23% last year (that's 5.7 million cases sold in 2011...and for those of you who, like me, are used to thinking in barrels, it's about 414,000 bbls.). Pretty amazing, and probably explains why A-B and Boston Beer both rolled out ciders this year (Michelob Ultra Light Cider and Angry Orchard, respectively). It's amazing what cider can do when it gets proper distribution, too: they report that Crispin cider, after being bought by MillerCoors' Tenth & Blake craft/import unit in February, has been growing at about 300% per month since the purchase. That's frickin' amazing.

Anyway you slice it, the 800 pound gorilla is Vermont Hard Cider, which makes Woodchuck and Wyders, and imports Strongbow and Woodpecker. From the SND story:

“We didn’t have much competition in the cider category for almost 20 years,” says Bret Williams, president and CEO of Vermont Hard Cider Co., the U.S. market’s leading cider player. “It’s a very unique time ['very unique', it makes the editor in me shudder...], with more brands coming into the mix. But competition is good for the category. It’s building awareness and bringing in new consumers.”

Vermont Hard Cider’s top brand is the Woodchuck label ($8.99-$9.99 a six-pack), which last year grew 32.8% to surpass the 2-million-case mark [with Strongbow, that's half the market]. The brand—which includes a range of seasonals and private reserve offerings—is trending at more than 28% growth for the first half of 2012, according to Williams, and is expected to hit 3 million cases by year-end. Vermont Hard Cider is breaking ground next month on an expansion project at its Middlebury, Vermont production facility that will grow capacity from 4 million cases to 10 million cases annually. Vermont Hard Cider is also investing heavily in innovation, recently launching Woodchuck in a 12-ounce can format. In addition, the company has started production on an aged cider matured in Bourbon barrels, set to roll out later this year.

Kinda sounds like craft beer, don't it? You'd almost expect them to be announcing plans to open a second facility in North Carolina or something... Anyway, there's also flavors coming -- Crispin's Fox Barrel pear cider is kinda tasty -- and you'll likely see more draft options, breaking out of the single handle most places offer. 

Vermont Hard Cider’s Williams says the on-premise will be a key battleground as cider continues to expand. “On-premise accounts won’t have several ciders on tap—they’ll only have one,” he says, adding that he sees cider ultimately gaining upwards of a 10% share of the U.S. beer market. “In the past 20-plus years, I’ve never been more bullish on the category.”

What's driving it? Couple things. First, it's simply taste. Cidermakers are making better-tasting cider, just like the craft brewers made better-tasting beer. They're making more interesting ciders, robust, dry, flavored with other fruits and spices, big ciders and session ciders, and like craft beer, variety sells. Woodchuck's making seasonals, and they sell. Secondly, you've got sales to people who just flat-out don't like beer, and never will -- they're out there, just like the folks that don't like wine or whiskey -- or can't drink it: cider is increasingly picked as a natural choice for the growing number of diagnosed celiacs, who cannot digest the gluten in beer, and are actually harmed by it. Cider tastes good, it's fizzy and you drink it cold, and it has about the same ABV as beer; a very acceptable substitute for some.

Is this growth bad news for craft beer? No! Getting people to choose different things is good for craft. Which brings up a much bigger question: is the rise of really large craft brewers -- Boston Beer, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Boulevard -- bad news for craft beer? That's a topic for another day. For now, let's have a glass of cider.

The Grey Lodge: Sweet & Sour 16th

One of my earliest Grey Lodge pix, circa 1996.

A significant note from Scoats just showed up in my email. Now...I was at Victory before it opened. I was at Stoudt's way back in the late 1980s. I was at Memphis Taproom the day it opened. But...me and Scoats and the Grey Lodge, we have a special relationship. Although I live in another county, 16 miles away...I usually tell people that my local pub is The Grey Lodge.

Maybe it's because it's out in the Northeast, maybe it's because of the beer selection, maybe it's the constant change. But a lot of it is that when Scoats took over the place, he never dumped the regulars, never made anyone feel unwelcome. Which is why you'll still see guys sitting at the bar on Friday the Firkinteenth...drinking a bottle of Miller Lite. And that makes some people's heads explode -- it caught me off guard at first -- but I've realized that I love it. These are people, this is a bar that gets the idea that it's about the bar and the people first and always, and a great selection of beer (and whiskey!) can only help that, not be more important.

Groundhog Day, note the t-shirt date...

So I'm happy to put up this note about the Grey Lodge's 16th Anniversary Sweet and Sour 16 Party, this Saturday. I may or may not make it -- I have to sing early Sunday morning up in Lancaster -- but I will be there on Saturday at some time. It's family. Happy Anniversary, Scoats!

Ah, the good old days...

Hello Lew,

The Grey Lodge will celebrate its 16th Anniversary this Saturday, the 11th, from 5pm to 10pm. We don't celebrate our anniversary too often, but when we do, we try to do it epicly. This time around, it's just one day but the beer list is truly epic. Since we don't seem to anything normal-like, our Sweet 16 will be a Sweet and Sour 16, with all sour beers on tap. We'll have a greatest hits of canned beer too.
- 10 sour beers on tap, ranging from very accessible to truly extreme. Several of these beers we have been holding onto for years.
- big prize for the oldest Grey Lodge T-shirt
- prizes for any vintage Grey Lodge shirt
- free cake!

Full details at http://greylodge.com/sweet16.html

Thanks!

P.S. Thanks for your support and encouragement over the years. It has meant a lot.

To me, too, Scoats. Me too!

Groundhog Day 2012

Booze along the Delaware

Not the Eye of Sauron; that's Monongahela Rye red!

I got out into the crushing heat back in mid-July (the Jetta's thermometer was reading 106F at one point) to visit Mountain Laurel Spirits down in Bristol. That sounds a bit more fancy than it is; what I mean is that I drove back in the Grundy Commons industrial park (a very cool re-use of a 100+year old industrial space by the canal in this riverside town) and hung out with founders (and entire workforce) Herman Mihalich and John Cooper for a hot 90 minutes...the distillery isn't air-conditioned!

They'd invited me down because they were dumping some barrels, and wanted to let me get a taste and see what I thought. I was curious to see what they'd done -- with help from Michigan State University's Artisan Distilling program -- on coaxing good wood character out of small (15 gallon) oak barrels in 6 months. It's been a subject of some controversy in craft distilling, but I've been impressed with what these guys have been doing so far -- their white whiskey is one of the better ones on the market, IMO -- so I was optimistic.

We tasted from six different barrels, four of them that were going into the vat you see Herman dipping from above. Those four were significantly different; one of them extra-spicy, one quite sweet, and one distinctly floral. The two others were tasting particularly delicious, and they're considering a small release -- distillery sales only -- of single barrel stuff. I encouraged them to do so; that's how you make a name.

Did I mention it was bleeding hot? That's when we decided it was time for a cooler drink (although as Davey Crockett said, rye whiskey will keep you cool in the summer and warm in the winter), and Coop made up a couple whiskey sours. Wow. They were delicious and tart and WHAM. Just the thing. You need to own this drink, I told them: too many people think of whiskey sours as 'granny drinks,' and they're anything but. We drank some more. Then I left. It was really hot.

NCBC's brewhouse (heat is not visible in this picture)

In very little time, I was at Neshaminy Creek Brewing, the new brewery in Croydon that I'd been hearing about, but hadn't yet had a chance to try. It was hot there, too. The crew all strung in as I was wandering about the brewhouse (which was hot), and after we'd talked about their lagering tanks and how they were planning to keep brewing lagers along with the IPA that every noob craft drinker insists that a brewer make...we decided it was really hot, so we went in the somewhat air-conditioned tasting room to get a couple beers.

First up was the Trauger Pilsner. At 4.4%, it makes a nice session drinker, and is just about good to go: not overly hoppy, a nice malt character, but a slight greenness, an off-flavor. An early batch, so I suspect that will clean up soon. The County Line IPA -- yes, of course they have one! -- was good, hoppy but not overdone, which probably means they'll be bumping up Da Hops on this soon as the geekerie squeals in dismay (so get some now before it's scorchingly bitter). And then there was the Tribute Tripel, which I thought was the best beer I tasted: not heavy, a good orange creamsicle kind of character from the yeast, and didn't taste like 9.3% at all. One to look for.

Whew. It was hot. So I said good-bye, and headed home.

Heaven Hill's Larceny

Time for honesty: usually when I get samples, even whiskey samples, they generally sit on my kitchen table for at least a couple days. The boxes are annoyingly wrapped, I've a tendency to procrastinate (I hear a whisper of chuckles from my editors), and, well, they'll still be there tomorrow.

But today, when I got this box from Heaven Hill...I was pretty sure what it was, so I opened it as soon as I got home. Sure enough, it's the new Larceny. Here's the description: "Larceny is a true small batch Bourbon produced from dumps of 100 or fewer barrels that have been selected from the 4^th, 5^th and 6^th floors of Heaven Hill’s open rick warehouses in Nelson County, Kentucky. Larceny is drawn from barrels that have aged from 6 to 12 years at this high storage, and is bottled at a full-bodied 92 proof, or 46% alcohol by volume."

But the key -- heh, heh -- point is that Larceny comes from the wheated bourbon that Craig and Parker have been making since Heaven Hill bought the Old Fitzgerald brand back in 1999, and Larceny references the story of John Fitzgerald. Or at least, one of the stories. It's the story that Fitzgerald was a treasury agent who had the keys to distilleries' bonded warehouses...and used them to pilfer whiskey -- the best whiskey, as he apparently had plenty of time to taste them. 

Enough talk. Let's drink! Well, it smells like Heaven Hill: hot sweet corn, light cinnamon notes, an edgy oak note. Mmmm, tasty. This is what I love about Parker's booze: it's always stuffed full of flavor, from the cheapest bottle of Heaven Hill white label all the way up through Evan Williams, Elijah Craig 12 Year Old, all the way on up to the Parker's Heritage bottlings. This is no exception, and it's sharp and lively with it. Imagine a hot sheet of whiskey glass snapping in your mouth and flashing to liquid; it's that quick and light. It's not sweet, it's spicy, oaky, shot with cornbread and a drying heat. The finish is encouraging, a warm tingle through the whole mouth.

I could see drinking this all night -- with a small application of water and a certain amount of pretzels or nuts -- with a group of friends, talking till it's gone. And at $25 suggested price, it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a spare.

Small Batch Budweiser

That's right, I said "Small Batch Budweiser." I just got a press release from Anheuser-Busch about "Project 12," a "friendly competition" in which brewmasters at A-B's twelve American facilities (rumors continue to float that one will actually be closing sometime in the near future, possibly the Newark, NJ brewery) brewed beers "using the proprietary yeast directly descended from the original Budweiser yeast culture used by Adolphus Busch in 1876 and still used by Budweiser today."

“The key to this project was the common yeast – which is a very important and often under-appreciated contributor to the flavor and aroma of beer,” said Jane Killebrew-Galeski, director of brewing, quality and innovation for Anheuser-Busch. “We are proud of all these beers – the variety and the quality – but we want consumer feedback. So, we’re looking forward to what we hear when we sample this summer. Our objective is to allow our brewmasters to show some creativity, but the beers must fit the hallmarks the Budweiser brand is respected for, such as quality and consistency, and have a very crisp and clean taste.”

Okay, it's Bud that isn't Bud. But they stayed fairly close to the farm. Each beer is a lager "using all-natural ingredients." Six were selected to be part of a national sampling program to pare it down to three that will be released in a sampler pack this fall.

The beers are named for the ZIP code of the breweries. Here's what they made, briefly.

• Budweiser Small Batch 91406 (Los Angeles):  A deep-amber lager with 6 percent ABV that uses four different types of hops.
  
• 63118 (St. Louis):  A deep-gold 5 percent ABV American lager that uses the same types of hops (Hallertau and Tettnang) commonly used at the St. Louis brewery during  the 19th century. 
• 43229 (Ohio): A light-amber lager using eight different types of hops with 6 percent ABV. 
• 23185 (Virginia): A light-amber all-malt bourbon cask lager aged on bourbon staves and vanilla beans and with an ABV of 5.5 percent.
  
• 13027 (New York): A bright-golden lager brewed with six imported and domestic hops and with an ABV of 7 percent.
  
• 80524 (Colorado): A deep-gold, filtered wheat beer with 5.2 percent ABV using lemon peel, orange peel and coriander.

Why do we care? "The six sampler beers also will be sampled during “Budweiser Made in America” over Labor Day weekend in Philadelphia. The two-day music festival benefits United Way." I never knew we were a big Budweiser town. Wait, we're not. So is it about our music scene? Probably not. Is it about our being the birthplace of America? Maybe... Is it about getting a lot of attention for Budweiser in a town where Yuengling Lager is kicking their ass? Maybe... To be clear, I'm not really sure what that's about.

But I don't see this being anymore of a wavemaking, attention-getting breakthrough for Budweiser than any of the other projects A-B has tried. People just don't seem to want craft beer called Budweiser (which Shocktop is not), no matter what is wrapped around it, and I don't expect this to be any different. I'd be happy to try some of these, and I suspect they'll probably be good (except maybe that bourbon cask thing...I'm suspicious, but maybe they learned something from Goose Island). But I don't see this being anything significant.

Miley Cyrus a Victory fan?

"Another Uncle Teddy, by Jove!"

Recognize this line?

"So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

It may look like a smudge; it's a tattoo.

That's right: it's part of the Teddy Roosevelt quote from "The Man in the Arena" prominently displayed at Victory Brewing. And now? It's prominently displayed on Miley Cyrus's left arm. Really. And before you give me crap for reading the Inky's "SideShow" gossip column, let me remind you that there are times when you're so bored in a waiting area that you'll read everything in the paper; and that I was, at least, reading the paper; and that you never know what you'll find. Like this unexpected common affinity between Miley Cyrus and Bill Covaleski, for instance.

DuClaw expands to Pennsylvania

I've been a big fan of DuClaw beers for a long time; this brewpub-originated beer started in Bel Air, Maryland, and has expanded to a small chain of pubs in the Baltimore area, fed by a production brewery. But you had to go there to get it. 

Well, I just got a press release from DuClaw that says they're expanding into Pennsylvania. 

DuClaw Brewing Company will host a launch party on Sunday, July 22, at Al’s of Hampden in Enola, PA, to celebrate with the brewery’s new Pennsylvania fans. The DuClaw crew will be on hand to answer questions, introduce guests to rare beers from their lineup and give away free prizes. Top sellers HellRazer IPA and EuForia Toffee Nut Brown Ale, perennial favorite Venom Pale Ale, the brewery’s unique Belgian Spiced Ale, Mysterium, and Serum xxIPA will be available at launch in 12 oz. bottle six packs and o\n draft, with several special edition brews and one-offs in both 22 oz. bottles and on draft to follow.

Known for their impressive variety and ever-rotating roster of seasonal brews, DuClaw Brewing Company will continually add exciting new additions to the line-up of beers available in Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Juniata, Lancaster, Lebanon, Mifflin, Perry, and York counties through Westy’s Beer Distributors.

Yeah, yeah, I know: nowhere near Philly. Just stay cool. This is actually a good thing: it proves DuClaw is savvy enough to not grant whole-state distribution privileges to one wholesaler. We'll get our chance. And meanwhile, I can get DuClaw in south-central PA. Which is nice.