Stone TBA

Those who know me well, know me in my unguarded moments, know me from my unpublished as well as published works...know that I'm skeptical of the vaunted impact of homebrewers on American craft brewing. Fritz Maytag wasn't a homebrewer, Bert Grant wasn't a homebrewer, Jim Koch may have brewed some batches at home, but all directed at his commercial product. Oh, I'll give you Ken Grossman, and Charlie Papazian, and -- here in Philly -- the influence of homebrew pioneers like George and Nancy from Home Sweet Homebrew. But I can't help thinking the industry is outgrowing the connection, and that homebrewers are mostly responsible for this bizarre fascination with stuffing hops into beers in every way possible...

And then I get a glass of something like this Stone/Fat Head's/Bear Republic collaboration project: TBA. I know this beer has homebrewing DNA (I know one of the homebrewers who was involved in the early origins of the 'style'), and I have a glass poured and waiting by the keyboard, and...wow, I can smell Columbus from here and it's grabbing me...

Poor little unsuspecting broonale...

Texas Brown Ale. The source of American Brown Ale, one of the earliest examples of the American habit of sneaking up on an unsuspecting English ale type, sapping it with a weighted floating hydrometer, dragging it into a dark basement, and ramming it full of hops until it shrieks with pine and citrus aromas... And it turns out to be a killer success. 

Why? Because it's a variant on our beloved hopsamatic, an IPA with sweet body, a sweet brown ale with a knife-sharp keel of steely hops. It is a beer that pleases, teases, and -- no, 'squeezes' would rhyme, but this beer slaps, there's no way around it. Excellent aroma, with the brown sugar and molasses swirling up through all the pine and citrus hops; good body, and again, sweet and bitter battle through. It fights to the last sip, and the finish stays bitter.

All right, homebrewers. You win this round. This is a beer with impact, and a beer that goes back to the beginnings of craft brewing, and at the earliest...it's a homebrew.

Hone your craft with The Balvenie

Don't normally pass along stuff like this, but... this looked kind of cool, and a good opportunity for any Philly craftspeople. Please pass this along to anyone who might qualify: William Grant & Sons is very serious about supporting the arts and craftspeople, this is for real. Not to mention...the distillery is gorgeous, and the whisky is delish. See the link at the end of this press release to apply.

THE BALVENIE SEEKS CRAFTSMEN AND ARTISANS IN PHILADELPHIA FOR ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME “RARE CRAFT FELLOWSHIP”

The Balvenie Single Malt Scotch Whisky announced today the launch of the Balvenie Rare Craft Fellowship – a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for American craftsmen across the country to a money-can’t-buy trip to Scotland to spend time at the legendary distillery and apprentice under another local craftsman of their choosing.  In addition, the recipient will be granted a $5,000 stipend towards materials, and four runners up will receive a $2,000 grant and a trip to New York to showcase their work. The Balvenie is seeking craftsmen in Philadelphia to apply to partake in this extraordinary celebration of the nation’s craftsmanship.

Craftsmen selected to participate in this unprecedented Fellowship will be discovered over the course of the 2012 Balvenie Rare Craft Roadshow, when the Balvenie Brand Ambassador Nicholas Pollacchi will hit the road in a custom hand built Morgan sports car in search of the workshops, lofts, studios and stores where the American craft revival is taking place and celebrating the craftsmen who are leading that revival. The Rare Craft Roadshow will be coming to Philadelphia on April 2 and 3, where Nicholas will meet with a selection of local artisans, all of whom will be in the running for the ultimate award!

The two-week fellowship in Scotland will feature a week at the historic Balvenie distillery, where they will learn more about the traditional crafts of whisky making. They will also have the rare opportunity to work with legendary malt master David Stewart to select whiskies for a very special “Craftsman Edition” of the Balvenie, to launch in 2013. The four runners-up will also each be offered the exclusive chance to exhibit their work to buyers and collectors in New York in the fall at The Balvenie Whisky Den, a pop up space in downtown Manhattan dedicated to traditional crafts.

           Craftsmen in the Philadelphia area, as well as those who wish to nominate someone, are encouraged to sign up immediately at http://www.thebalvenie.com/roadshow for this rare and singular opportunity.

Designing your own Tramp Stamp

The Old Eagle Tavern is doing an event with Massachusetts's Clown Shoes Brewery on March 29th that you need to get to work on right now. Clown Shoes is known for their Tramp Stamp "Belgian" IPA, and Old Eagle is having a 'tramp stamp competition.' Design your own tramp stamp tattoo (or ass antlers, if you prefer, and let me tell you, this post is taking me places I never thought the blog would go...) design and get them in by March 25th: email digitals to info@oldeagletavern.com , or drop them off at the Tavern (on 8.5X11 (or smaller) paper, not folded, and "must be camera ready"). Remember to include your name, email, and phone. Phone number, that is; no bribing with electronics. The "stamps" should incorporate beer, or Clown Shoes, or the Old Eagle, or something like that, eh?

An example for ya.

Winners will be awarded on March 29th at 7 PM at the Old Eagle. The two winners will be chosen by (1) the Clown Shoes people; and (2) 'likes' on the Old Eagle Facebook page, and will get gift baskets of beer stuff (good stuff, too). Finally, and the real reason I posted this -- other than an excuse to say 'ass antlers' -- there will be temporary tattoos available of the winners! I encourage you not to think about me putting one on. Oops, too late!

My Pliny Diary!!

Dear Beer Diary,

The last couple days have just been crazy for me! As everyone who is everyone in Philadelphia knows, a famously bitter man is in town, and we all want to meet him! That's right, I'm talking about Pliny the Younger, the awesomely-rated triple IPA from Russian River! You know? The beer that no one else gets but us on the East coast? Wow! Wow! I can hardly write this down, Diary, I'm so excited that I got some Pliny -- not one, not two, not three, but FOUR WHOLE GLASSES! (6 ounce pours, of course, let's be reasonable.)

Well, Diary, it all started Monday evening when the wife and I headed down I-95 to Philadelphia and the City Tap House, where we had been invited to come by and try one of chef Ralph Kane's new "suppers" (Disclosure time, Diary and readers: City Tap House paid for this dinner.), a series of daily one-plate specials. Monday night's sounded so Southern and robusto: chicken-fried sirloin, sharp cheddar biscuits, herb grits, sautéed spinach, with smoked Tasso ham gravy. We found parking easily on Walnut Street and took the elevator up to the restaurant. It was busy in the big bar, but we were seated right away in the dining room.

Diary, I knew Pliny was in town, but I didn't know he was at City Tap House until the waitress came over to ask if we wanted anything to drink, and I said I'd have to look at the menu, and she said "Andy Farrell wanted to know if you wanted the last two glasses of Pliny the Younger." We sure did!! Andy is the manager, and I've done some events with him in the past, and it was just so nice of him to notice and make that offer! Two glasses of hoppy nectar came, a deep orange-gold in color, and didn't Cathy and I just love them to pieces? (I'm doing a review of PtY for a magazine, so...can't really say anything here other than while Pliny may not live up to the hype -- and what beer could? -- it's quite the pleasant smack in the chops, and yes, worth a trip to town.)

After that, did we even notice the meal? Yes we did, though when the waitress came back and asked us what we wanted, we said, we're here for the Supper...she said, You'll split that, then? That seemed odd, but we figured she knew what she was talking about, and did she ever: the 'supper' came on one big plate, and it was a great pile of stuff! A man at the next table also got it, just for himself (his date got the tartufo pizza), and my hat's off to him, Diary: he finished it and mopped up the gravy! The sirloin was tasty and tender in a crackling coating of crisp breading, the gravy was smoky and flavorful, the grits were dense and delicious, the spinach was silky. The only disappointment was the biscuit; just barely warm, a bit tough, and for being called "sharp cheddar," it didn't really come through on the cheesiness. Still, 4 out of 5, Diary! I had a Southampton Burton Pale Ale with dinner, and it was quite nice, flavorful but not intrusive, and a good beer with the food.

Did your Pliny Day have a fire-breathing dino? Didn't think so.

That was just a warm-up for the next day: My Pliny Day, Diary! (More disclosure: I paid for all the beers and food mentioned after this (with two exceptions, noted below). Just so you know.) I went down early to Resurrection Ale House, where they had sent out an email to people on their list that they'd have Pliny the Younger on Tuesday, first 50 respondents would get a glass -- I was Respondent Number 4, Diary! I was actually too early; they started at 11:30, and I thought it was 11:00. Still, they let me in, and within 5 minutes had decided that they might as well pour mine (and one for the other early bird who came in the same time I did; sorry, I'm blanking on your name, a brewer at Iron Hill North Wales...Craig?), and in less than 16 hours, I was faced with another glass of PtY!!!! 

It was still great, and when I was done, I decided to run the Russian River Hop Trifecta, and got a glass of Pliny the Elder, followed by a glass of Blind Pig. Were they hoppy? Yes they were! Were they as hoppy as Pliny the Younger? Well...yes and no. PtE actually tasted more bitter than the Younger, and I think it was because of the lower malt body; it was a different balance. But I have to say...Blind Pig, which is normally a real hop zipper-ripper, tasted...just kinda hoppy after those two monsters! Wowzer! After that, I calmed down a lot with a small glass of Birrifica Seson, a saison from that acclaimed Italian brewery. It was very nice, herbal, complex, and Brendan Hartranft and I agreed we'd have to try some more Italian beers soon!

At this point, Diary, I needed a little down time! So even though the food at Resurrection is very good, I decided to walk up the street to Grace Tavern, which I have come to believe has one of the very best burgers in the city, and had one of those burgers for lunch, and it was yummy! I also had a tastily tart glass of Petrus Aged Pale Ale, and a great conversation with Philly Brewing man-about-town Chris Morris, who gifted me with a newly-bottled Fleur de Lehigh, one of my favorite spring beers. When I suddenly realized it was almost 1:45, I paid up, and ran for the Jetta: I had another date with Mister Pliny the Younger!

SPTR: the one, the only

Fifteen minutes later I was parked and walking to the South Philly Tap Room! They were tapping their keg of PtY at 2:00, and I got in just ahead of time -- "Lock that door!" someone joked as I walked in (do you think they wished I'd stayed away, dear Diary?!) -- and was happy to find my friend Christine Gumpper there, who offered me a seat at her table of friends, so I got to meet Derek and Dave, too! And just like that...it was Pliny Time again! We got PtY all around, and what do you think, Diary? It was just as astonishingly the third time around! Wow! The bar was buzzing with excitement. Then Kathryn (the bar manager) came by and dropped off another Pliny for me! Wow, Diary! Damn, it feels good to be a beerwrita!

I finished up my beer day -- not quite, but you'll see -- with a small glass of Allagash Saison Mihm, and it was delicate, sweet, spicy, and altogether soothing after the excitement of My Day With Pliny the Younger!!!! And you know the funny/sad thing, dear Diary? I was so excited about Pliny the Younger that I completely forgot that Kathryn had put on one of the very last kegs of the Sierra Nevada Exportation Sour Baltic Porter that I'd helped to make, a truly exceptional and one-off beer that was great, and delicious, and unique, and innovative (and aged in wine barrels for a year at Russian River...). How funny! How sad.

I had to have a coffee to get me home, and a cup of Rwandan at Brew Ultimo did me just right. But just to show that a beer-lover's totally great day isn't always over...when I came home and grilled up some bockwurst, with caramelized onions and steamed broccoli for our family dinner, I decided to settle in with a sample pounder of Narragansett Cream Ale, their new year-round brew...and it was excellent, just a bit sweet, just a bit bitter, and 100% refreshing. It was a great day in Philly with Pliny the Younger, but it was good to be home!

 ********************************

Is Pliny the Younger all about the hype, "dear Diary"? Definitely not, it's a markedly good beer, and truly well-balanced for its size and hoppiness. Is it something people get crazy about? Sure, and Kate the Great, and Dark Lord, and all the other limited release beers people travel miles to get; sure they are. Is it bad that they do this? No, I don't think so. I wanted to ride that wave for a day and see what it was like. It was fun being in the East Coast city that gets the Younger, and it was fun being part of the excitement, and seeing how pumped everyone was.

But I really do feel stupid for missing that Exportation tapping, and it makes me wonder what other beers get lost in the super-hype shuffle, the beers that are completely under the radar because they don't get the geekerie as excited. Honestly, I get as excited about the idea of going to Uerige and having glasses of fresh altbier, or going to Bell's and sucking down fresh Porter, or going to Victory and draining what's left in the Dark Lager tank. I'm not one of those "all beer is good!" loonies, no fear. But don't forget to be excited about the good beers we have, and can get, wherever you are. Have one today.


A clarification: it's been suggested to me that I'm being overly mean-spirited here to the people on beer rating forums and others who get really excited about Pliny the Younger. Not my intention at all: I was actually making fun of myself, because after writing about not getting excited about Dark Intrigue, and not standing in line for beer...when that email to Resurrection's mailing list came out, I knee-jerked and responded to it just like anyone else. Guess I'm a geek at heart. 

American Beer Blogger: the latest

We had the pilot episode of American Beer Blogger in the can Thursday, or so we thought. I went to Green Leaf Studios in Easton, watched the show with the guys, and took a copy home; watched it again, and then watched it again with Cathy and Nora...and, okay, it maybe dragged a leetle bit in spots, but I was reasonably happy with it. Then just before I went for dinner with Cathy -- to Farm and Fisherman in Philly, and it was totally excellent: best damned egg I've ever eaten -- Rudy calls from the studio: PBS saw the pilot, and wanted "more beer in it."

Huh. We'd worked on having it not just be about the beer, because Stoudt's excels at making it about everything: the restaurant, the entertainment, bread baking, cheese making, their Stoudtburg village next door...it's all pretty cool (and the cheese is fricking awesome). But PBS is calling the shots at this point, and I could hardly argue with them wanting more beer in it, so I crammed an email full of as much info as I could get down in five minutes about what makes Stoudt's beers work, and what makes them different, and yeast, and hops, and malt; told Rudy that if he needed it, I could do voiceover work at the studio on Saturday, and ran out the door.

And I wound up doing voiceover this morning. It went well; I did my familiar take on the difference between ales and lagers (a hot jungle vs. a cold pine forest), the different malts in three of Stoudt's ales, and talked some more about hops. Meanwhile, John had re-edited the show, and there was now a LOT more beer in it, including some stuff from the first shooting we did back in May talking to Eddie Stoudt about bitterness in beer which was some of my favorite footage we did, and I was glad to see it back in. I actually like it better now: it's tighter, more focused on beer, and doesn't drag at all. Thanks, PBS.

This Thursday, at 10 PM (Eastern) and again at 10:30 PM, the show will air on WLVT. The station wants to know if people are interested in the show, and the only way to do that is to call them during or shortly after the show at 800.360.0039, or email them after the show. Tell them you liked American Beer Blogger, thank them for running it, and add something different of your own: why you love beer, where you live, your favorite craft brewer, that you're not my cousin, or something like that so they know you're not just reading from a script. Because I only want you to do this if you really like the show. If you don't, for some reason, don't call just to be a good person!


Okay. Here we go. The little beer show that could...no major sponsor, no contest or challenge, no big commercial network, no stars...just beer, the Stoudts, me, and you. Cross your fingers.

Leap Day in Philly? How about Allagash-a-go-go?

If you haven't heard about the 'new' Trestle Inn (11th and Callowhill), it's a retro go-go bar with a big whiskey selection; worth checking out. Yes, "go-go bar," with dancers in boots and Barbarella-style outfits, not noodie stuff. Weird, I know, but there you are.

Tonight they prove they're not just another pretty...face, or just a whiskey bar: they're hosting Our Girl Suzy Woods for an Allagash Tap Takeover, featuring Bourbon Barrel Black (Belgian-style stout aged in Jim Beam barrels), Odyssey, Saison Mihm (Belgian farmhouse-style ale brewed with local (to Allagash!) honey), and three others (including Allagash White, which we recommend as your cool-down beer after your Allagash workout).

I know I don't post a lot of events, even though I do get a lot of releases on them, but I'm feeling particularly good about Allagash and Rob Tod today, after coming across this video yesterday. Check out Rob talking about me and Curieux and Ommegang and dill starting around 39:45.


Anyway, I'd go to The Trestle tonight, but I've got a once-in-four-years chance to celebrate a good friend's birthday tonight, and that's where I'll be!

Weyerbacher: real growth, right now

I promised information on the Weyerbacher expansion yesterday, and then got wrapped up in the whole seasonal thing (and doing my taxes...), so today I'm going to refer you to Uncle Jack's post at The Beer Yard for the details. Here's the basics: its a $1.1 million, 7500 sq. ft. addition, a 40% increase in space that will give Weyerbacher the ability to triple their capacity to 30,000 bbls. a year. They need it: they did 9,729 bbls. in 2011, growth of 34%, which was $3.6 million in sales. Brewery founder and president Dan Weirback also told me that they're already up 51% in January and February over last year. The space won't be completed till the fall, but they're going to be cramming four 80-barrel tanks in next month; "We need them now," Dan said.

Maybe more to the point, and what got Easton mayor Sal Panto out to the groundbreaking yesterday, Weyerbacher now has sixteen full-time employees (up from six in 2006). A million dollar project means more jobs, a significant number in a town of about 25,000, and the mayor showing up signifies that Weyerbacher, like most craft breweries, is recognized as a solid citizen, a benefit to the community. "We’ve always found Easton to be cooperative and favorable," Dan said. "We’ve never asked for special favors." Now watch the shoveling:


As Jack mentioned, and Dan confirmed, there will be -- finally! -- a tasting room. Don't expect anything ambitious on menu, this is going to be more along the lines of Yards, or the Harrisburg Tröegs tasting rooms: beers, yes, some snacks -- snacks, Dan emphasized, and gave...pretzels as an example; I'm telling you, the brewpub traumatized the man -- but they're not in competition with their restaurant accounts. Probably open Tuesday to Saturday, from 11 to 6. Reasonable. And it probably means at least one more full-time employee... Look for it after the buildout is completed and the bottling and kegging operations are moved into it, so about a year from now.

What else? Well, there's a new IPA coming to replace Hops Infusion. Hops Infusion just never could settle into the groove after its initial success; it was tweaked, put on hiatus, retooled, re-imaged...and finally retired. The new IPA will be along in May or June, the Crimson recipe from Weyerbacher's IPA Project. “It will be a west coast style IPA," said Chris Wilson, head brewer. "Significant amounts of hops are used for flavor and aroma while keeping the malt profile simple, allowing hops flavor to dominate and shine" It won't be called "Crimson," or "Hops Infusion," there will be a new name to go with the new Weyerbacher packaging and logo and colors. Which seems like a good excuse to stick in that new logo...

Hope you're not one of those folks scared of clowns...

Another new beer is coming, a currently-unnamed sour black ale. That's going to be in 750 ml bottles, and again, out in May or June. 

Dan wanted to emphasize that this expansion is, in effect, already paid for, in the sense that the additional capacity that will be created will meet demand that's already there. "That's an important thing to remember about brewers who did this kind of thing 10 years ago," he said. "They expanded planning on growth to meet capacity. Catamount, Blue Ridge, Independence… [all breweries that invested heavily in expansion; all breweries that are no more] We’ve been careful. Our sales grew enough in 2011 to cover the costs already. This is not that risky."

He was also proud to point out that two former Weyerbacher employees were about to open breweries. "Jean Broilette is opening Tired Hands Brewing, he worked for us back in 2006, and Dan Hitchcock is opening his own place, Rushing Duck Brewery, in Chester, New York," Dan said, more indication that craft brewing is continuing to grow at a strong pace. 

Dan clearly feels relatively confident; there's a ten-year lease in place. "Everything’s cyclical," he said, "and I don’t know if we’ll see this strong growth in craft beer for more than another year or two. People can’t do more with what they have now. They’ll have to expand, and that takes time." 

Weyerbacher is going to be ready.

American Beer Blogger airs next Thursday!

The American Beer Blogger pilot episode will premiere on March 8th, at 10 PM, on WLVT, the Bethlehem/Lehigh Valley PBS affiliate station. 

It will be an hour-long pledge show, and I'll be appearing live on-air to help with the pledge program (and laugh a lot, probably). 

Don't remember what Carol Stoudt said here, but...

The success of pledging during this and subsequent airings of the show on other PBS stations will be crucial to the continuation of the show. We've been told that what PBS is looking for is the number of pledges during the presentations, not so much the amount of money. At this point, I do not know if they will have a live Webcast of the show; I’m trying to find out, but it looks like they won’t.

So if you're planning on donating to public television this year — or if you want to support craft beer on television — please consider making a pledge during your local affiliate's airing of American Beer Blogger. If your local affiliate isn’t airing it, email them to suggest it! If there are any bars or brewpubs who plan to host viewing parties to support the show (hint, hint), let us know, and we’ll get word of it to your local station, which will help! And if any PBS station manager reads this, and is interested in running American Beer Blogger as a pledge program to catch the motivated, educated, and rapidly growing craft beer community’s attention…drop me a line, and we’ll get you going!

We’re just about ready to roll. Green Leaf told me today the editing is done, they’re just doing the opening and closing credits. We’ve put in the work, now it’s up to you. Watch the show, and if you decide this is the kind of television you’d like to see more of, please consider making a pledge during the show. Feel free to tell them that you’d like to see more American Beer Blogger, too!

A Seasonally Adjusted Response

I was just talking to Dan Weirback about the $1.1 million expansion that starts today at Weyerbacher Brewing...more on that very shortly...and after he hung up, he called me back about three minutes later: his brewer, Chris Wilson, had seen the seasonals post below, and wanted Dan to make a response. Not a problem, I'm all for it.

Here's what Dan had to say, roughly (because I couldn't keep up -- he was a little excited -- but this is not a quote, it's a paraphrase, and if it's not right, I hope Dan will give me another call!).

It's a matter of demand and capacity. Weyerbacher's Imperial Pumpkin Ale, for example: to meet wholesaler pre-orders, they have to start brewing it in May and continue through to September to have enough for it to be available through the whole season. They don't have room to store it until September, so they start shipping it out in late June...and well, the wholesalers don't have unlimited room either [and I assume no one really wants to have fresh beer just sitting around; I don't] so they start releasing it. 

The same thing happens with Autumnfest. Most wholesalers in far off states only want to deal with one shipment of a seasonal. So they can ship it in late July, or they can ship it in mid-September. But the wholesalers tell them: if they get Autumnfest in mid-September, the shelves are already full of other Oktoberfest beers, and theirs won't sell.

"It’s not necessarily the way we want to do it, but if people want these seasonal beers, that’s how we have to do it." [and that is a quote.] 

I remember this is why Harpoon used to do contract brewing of their seasonals at Matt's in Utica; it was a huge bulge in their brewing schedule, and that let them get through that. Popular seasonals can be a real production issue. 

So that leaves the brewer with some unappealing choices. They can make less of a beer that their fans really want -- and lose those sales, and really piss off the people who don't get as much as they want -- or they can make the beers as best they can, and put up with the minor embarrassment of selling pumpkin beers in July (and moderately pissing off beer traditionalists). 

Responses? One that comes to mind is that beers like Hopslam and Nugget Nectar seem to do okay on limited releases (and large prices). Another is that maybe bitching about seasonals being two months early is kind of like being terribly upset about the kind of glass you drink out of...

But another one comes from thinking about what I said about Harpoon, and something else Dan said in our first conversation. He said, "I think we'll see at least two more years of this kind of growth [in the craft beer category]. But brewers can’t do much more with what they have now [in terms of brewing capacity]. They’ll have to expand, and that takes time, and money." And Harpoon? Well, they don't have to get their seasonals done at Matt's anymore. They're big enough that they take those seasonal bulges in stride now. With size comes smoothing. Weyerbacher's headed that way, but they've got a bit to go...

Meanwhile, they could do what Victory does. At Victory, seasonals come when the brewing schedule allows them. They let the yeast and the drinkers tell them what's coming out when. Of course, it helps that they do Festbier year-round...and they don't do a pumpkin beer -- I strongly doubt that they ever will.

I hear the bell for round two...

Anyone checked a calendar lately?

Tip of the hat to Uncle Jack for this, but mostly to my friend Chris Lohring (the man behind The Notch line of all session beers that's doing so well in Massachusetts), who wrote this sad story of how he's decided -- against his will, and his heart -- to pull Notch BSA from his seasonal line-up (Jack wrote a good post on it that brought it to my attention, and for that, I thank him; you should too).

Briefly, Notch BSA was a harvest beer, a literal harvest beer. Here's how Chris explained it:

I released my BSA Harvest in late September [of 2011]. You know, that time of September when Fall actually begins? Something about an equinox, I think. The BSA Harvest is a result of a program where Notch prepays a Western Massachusetts farmer for that year’s barley crop as in incentive, which in turn encourages local agriculture [hence the name: Brewer Supported Agriculture]. The barley is harvested in August, malted a few weeks later [at Valley Malt in Hadley, Mass., which I mention in the Element Brewing post below], brewed in the beginning of September, and hits retail fresh on September 21st. A real harvest beer in the season we should drinking it.

Except, as Chris relates, his retailers couldn't do it. See, Fall beers come out in August, or even July. Bring a Fall harvest beer out in late September -- when you would think harvest actually comes -- and you won't find a place on the shelf -- because of the winter beers coming in shortly -- and people have already fallen into their buying pattern for the season. At least, that's the conventional wisdom among wholesalers and retailers, Chris tells us:

They claim a September release is too late for a Fall beer, as they are making room for the Winter beers that will be in any day. This is the hand retail has been dealt, and it is certainly not their fault. So, a real Fall beer, the BSA Harvest, born of the change of the seasons that yields a barley harvest, is deemed too damn late. So unfortunately, BSA Harvest will be absent later this year, as it was killed off by the rush to shift units...

Is Chris just crying? Wouldn't you think that in the pervading atmosphere where the favorite flavor of craft beer is NEW, a new beer on the shelf in September that promised real Harvest character/story would work? Wouldn't you think actually releasing an Oktoberfest in mid-September would work? After all, I keep hearing from brewers that their seasonals run out before the season's over! And here comes 'Tardy Brewing Company's True Oktoberfest' in September, with its label proclaiming "Never Released Till We Hear The Oompah!" and you'd think that would kill, right?

Probably not. What's driving the craft market today is, increasingly, what's always driven the beer market: volume. Blue Moon is over 3 million barrels (and apparently accelerating), and whether we (or the Brewers Association) call Blue Moon a craft beer or not is pretty much immaterial: that's how the people who are selling it and drinking it think of it, and that's how the people who sell it...sell it. Likewise, when Samuel Adams seasonals come out, and when the major regional brewers' seasonals come out, that's the bulge that moves the snake.

And...wholesalers, after a short flirtation hustling smaller crafts and working hard at building brands, see that they can make volume and better margins selling the big craft brands, and it's less work. So if Samuel Adams Summer seasonals come out in April, that's what's shaping wholesalers' views of how the market is supposed to work, which in turn shapes the retailers' reactions...once the brewers have been encouraged to get their seasonals out earlier. Because then the wholesalers don't have to worry about getting the Oktoberfest all sold before November 1st.

I may be overreacting here, but there's a possibility that this is another early sign of things going back to the way they were: less choice instead of more in the beer market. ("Another" sign, you ask? The consolidation of craft brewers is one: the Magic Hat/Pyramid/North American Breweries roll-up, Goose Island, Old Dominion, Widmer/Redhook/Kona.) If wholesalers start to focus on the big craft brands, that's how things are going to go.

What to do? It's up to us, and Chris sums it up nicely:

What to do as a consumer? It is really quite simple. Stop buying beer out of season, and stop encouraging the trend. You may start to see more beers that make sense in the season. Or during today’s snow storm, sit back and enjoy that Summer Beer that was released just last week.

Is that realistic? Is it likely? No, not at all. Just remember: none of this was realistic or likely 20 years ago. Sam Adams was all contract-brewed. Over half the American breweries now in business didn't exist. You could stand on the stairs and see Harpoon's entire operation. Ten taps of microbrews at a bar was amazing news (because we didn't even call it 'craft beer' yet). There were no mass beer-rating websites. Yuengling had not done any expansion and was just barely known outside of eastern Pennsylvania. Most people had no idea what a seasonal beer was!

But the people who love beer made it happen and I'm assuming we still want it done right. If we have to shame craft brewers into this, if we have to make fun of them, if we have to appeal to their sense of tradition and call them out when they ignore it -- that's how this is supposed to work! The brewers, the passionate ones, are supposed to be running this, not the marketers and sellers of the stuff, and it's supposed to be run for us, the people who love the beer, the people who know when the hell summer and fall begin. 

Jack had a pretty pithy statement as well (He did warn us he was going to get more curmudgeonly this year):

For those of you who just want the next over-hopped, high alcohol, unbalanced mutation of a real IPA, none of this matters, of course. You gave up on beer a long time ago.

Are you one of those people who think Oktoberfest in August is ridiculous (especially when they all run out by October 1st)? Do summer beers in the snow piss you off? If you think that pumpkin beers should wait till September, if you think Maibock is for May, if you think winter beers shouldn't come out before mid-November at the earliest...say something. Tell your brewers, tell your stores. And tell your friends.