The Good

So far in 2009, I have added 189 new beers to my RateBeer collection (currently at 920), which is a bit ahead of my pace over the last 6 years. From a rating perspective these beers ranged from a high of 4.4 (Stone 12^th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout ) to a low of 1.2 (Bobcat Cafe Wee Heavy Scotch Ale). If you look beyond the ratings, however, these 189 new beers on my list really (and more importantly) represent a collection of experiences; some of which were shared with close friends or family and many of which were done solo, but enjoyed none the less because of that. I can honestly say that I enjoyed tasting all of these beers, even the ones that I did not rate very highly. The Wee Heavy at the Bobcat Cafe, for example, was shared at the brewpub in beautiful downtown Bristol, Vermont along with an excellent dinner with my wife and two grown children during one of our early holiday shopping forays this fall. While that one bad beer gives my son and I something to joke about now and then (other brews at this pub were excellent, BTW), it will always be remembered in the context of the really good time that all of us had that day.

My real journey into the craft beer world began with my eyes being opened by my first taste of Ommegang Abbey Ale while staying near Cooperstown (NY); that event started me down the path of discovering many new beer styles and beer flavors which I hadn’t known existed before that point in time. My subsequent discovery of the RateBeer Web site in early 2004, where I found great pleasure in keeping track of the various new beers I was trying, in sharing my own opinions about what I liked (or not) about each new beer and in reading what other people liked (or not) about the beer that I had just tried. Thanks Joe T, for giving me a place to record both my beer memories and some really excellent personal experiences!

The Bad

Craft brewing lost one its beloved pioneers in October this year. Greg Noonan, author and inspiration to both home and professional brewers alike, passed away peacefully at his home after a brief battle with cancer. Greg was the author of many books; most notable of which was probably his iconic “Brewing Lager Beer” ,originally written in 1986 and then updated in 2003. This book became the de facto “handbook” for startup brewpubs in the 80′s/90′s and, no doubt, still carries some weight for those looking to get into that business today. I personally benefited from his book “Seven Barrel Brewery Brewers’ Handbook” when I was first beginning to brew my own beer years ago. As a transplanted Vermonter (from Massachusetts), Greg started Vermont’s very first brewpub, The Vermont Pub & Brewery, in Burlington in 1988. The story of this goes much deeper, however, than Greg simply opening this business. Before he could even open this downtown Burlington landmark, he spent 3 years lobbying the Vermont Legislature to legalize brewpubs in this state. Greg’s friendly manner and willingness to share his considerable knowledge of beer and of life inspired many many people in the beer industry. I have written before of my favorite brewpub,The Alchemist, in nearby Waterbury, VT. John Kimmich, owner/brewer at this award winning establishment, learned his brewing art and served as head brewer at Noonan’s Vermont Pub & Brewery for a number of years.

People like Greg do not come along everyday and, while the person known as Greg Noonan has finally left the brewpub for the last time, through his books and the people that he shared his life with, Greg’s legacy will last much, much longer…

The Really Ugly

For many people the continuing economic problems were their only real focus of the last year. Unemployment in the US has hovered around the 10% mark for much of the year and as of the end of November approximately 15.4 million people here in the US, nearly 5% of our current total population, were without work. The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), a measure of people’s degree of optimism or outlook in the US economy, while up from the 30′s earlier in the year, has hovered around 50 for much of the end of this year. This in stark contrast to a CCI above 100 before the current recession began in late 2007. By many accounts, lots of people have lost a third or more of the equity built up in their retirement funds and housing during this recession.

According to a recent USDA study, 49 million Americans (17 million children) are “food insecure”; meaning that they were at risk of hunger. Perhaps more alarming than this very large number is the fact that only a year ago a similar study indicated that “only” about 36 million people fell into this same category… this is an increase of over 36% in one year! Foodbanks, community kitchens and food shelves are being stretched to their limit by this huge increase in the demand for their services. It is a sad commentary that, in this great country of bounty and excess, we could allow so many people to be without enough to eat every day.

The light of hope, however, shines here too. America has never been known as a nation of “quitters” and a rally is already underway to provide aid to all of these hungry people. Organizations big and small; from the Feeding America association of food banks to churches, civil organizations and the “average” person, the call is out to provide whatever aid or assistance they can to meet this massive challenge. ALL of us can help in this effort by supporting these national and local efforts to feed the hungry. Give the gift of a full stomach this holiday season and become personally active in the ongoing effort to “Make Having Enough Food a Right, Not a Privilege”.

Hope for the Future

If you look at the last year and some of what I have written above, it would be easy to imagine that all is gloom and doom and be depressed about the future of the next year. Being the “half full” guy that I am, I see much to look forward to in the coming year. The economy is improving, albeit slowly, and along with that the employment picture, the outlook on the economy and people’s personal financial situation will all begin their long climb back to more normal levels. Here in Vermont we only have 4 or 5 more months of winter weather left (sigh) until the sun and the warmer weather comes back for a (short) few months. There is always the question of beer, of course… the top rater on RateBeer has recorded over 15,000 ratings to date, compared to my 920. While I don’t think that it would be a good idea for me to reach for such a lofty number in the coming year, I will definitely be looking forward to adding to my “life experiences” though the wonder of beer tasting… a 1,000 should be easy… do I foresee a 1,200 in my future? Hard to tell, but I do expect this next year to be full of events for me to enjoy along the way and share with all of you at this time next year.

My feeling would be that while high ABV craft beers may contain more alcohol than some beers and other alcoholic beverages, I believe that there are some “controls” in place to make these craft beers the less attractive alternative, if I decided that I wanted or needed to simply drink to get drunk.  So, I decided that I would do a bit of research to see if there was any evidence to support my conviction and would bring into question claims such as the one above. I believe that one of the most significant controls in place is one of price… the cost to purchase the alcoholic beverage of choice.  Purchase price has been used somewhat effectively with other vices to discourage overuse… hard liquor and cigarettes carry high tax levies, which are used partially to help fund our government on the backs of people that “need” or use them and partially as a disincentive to purchase too much of them.   I believe that these high ABV craft beers are being singled out in error.  There are, as we will see, much cheaper ways to simply get drunk…

I happened to visit one of my favorite beer stores yesterday and picked up 7 bottles of craft beer for my future pleasure, so I have accurate price information for some craft beers.  I then pulled some advertising flyers out of the Sunday paper to use for gathering additional information about other alcoholic beverages that are currently for sale.  For comparison purposes, I chose a 30-pack (12 oz. cans) of a nationally-available brand of beer and a nationally-available brand of “boxed” wine (5 liters).  I am no mathematician, but I do use spreadsheets quite a bit for my work at a financial institution.  The table below is an interesting study of the costs associated with the craft beers versus the other readily available sources of alcohol to drink.  For the craft beer ABV I used an average of the 7 bottles I bought yesterday and for the ABV of the wine, I used an average for 4 varieties of wine they sell in boxes that were listed on the producer’s Web site.

As you can easily see, of the three, the craft beers are the most expensive way to purchase alcohol for consumption… more than 3X as expensive as the 30-pack and more than 5X as expensive as the wine for approximately the same total amount of alcohol. Could there be an incentive to drink the higher ABV beer and have to drink less liquid to accomplish the same goal… perhaps, but I would only need to drink 2 cans of the 30-pack to roughly equal the same amount of alcohol as 12 oz of the craft beer or the wine.  Do you have to be careful about drinking these high ABV beverages if you intend to drive… absolutely!

I like the idea that these higher ABV brews are available to me right here in Vermont.  I have been drinking them for years, but had to either buy them in another state or drink them when traveling.  Keep in mind that of the 7 bottles of craft beer I purchased, only one of them would have been available to me prior to last year… ask the store’s owner how he felt about my $50 purchase yesterday.  It is a very good thing, who’s time has arrived.  If people are really concerned about what people will buy to get drunk with… stop selling products that target that… I can still buy the “wino” wines MD 20/20 and Thunderbird, not that I would though… force AB-InBev to sell their 30-packs or Vella to sell their wine boxes for the equivalent of what it costs to purchase the craft beers… it’ll never happen.  If you are truly concerned about alcoholism and if you are not going to try and affect the huge market of the national megabrews or boxed wines, which impact a much broader population of people, then why pick on craft beers (err… AB-InBev has *lawyers*).  Price and quality are powerful influences on the market and are the primary reasons that I think that these “detractors” of high ABV craft beers are just plain wrong.

The Maine Beer Company is part of a growing national trend of very small entrepreneurial breweries, called “nanobreweries”, which produce high quality beer in limited quantities (far less than the 15,000 barrels of a “micro”) for a local market.  The founders of these small businesses are generally  looking to either kick their brewing hobby up a notch or are looking to grow their beer making obsession into a larger business venture.  Either way, these small, community-focused brewers are producing excellent beer.  A quick search of the Internet turned up a fairly large number of these “nanos” across the country and even a few right here in Vermont.  I have to admit, these brewers have been below my radar as I have searched for new beers to enjoy, but my discovery of the Maine Beer Company has certainly opened my eyes to the promise that these types of brewers hold for my future contentment.

Having been a small business founder/owner myself, I applaud what Maine Beer Company  is doing and what they are producing.  Everyone should have the opportunity to “work” doing what they love to do anyway.  I thoroughly enjoyed their Spring Peeper Ale and would hope to sample any other brews that they choose to make in the future… no rush, something of the same high quality would be nice… I’ll be waiting when you’re ready…

Matt Nadeau, Rock Art owner, is ecstatic, but is still adamant that there needs to be additional trademark reform that would prevent similar situations (big corporation bullies abusing the small business owners) from happening in the future.

The month-long battle was fought on two fronts… Rock Art and the lawyers fighting the legal battle against Hansen in the courts and the very public battle waged on-line and in the media by craft brewers and other concerned individuals. Hansen had their hands full on both fronts.  It quickly became evident, to many, that Hansen’s legal pursuit of the Vermontster name was probably not going to hold up in court and, perhaps more significantly, Hansen’s reputation as a beverage manufacturer began to take a real beating in the marketplace as beverage retailers, distributors and tens of thousands of everyday consumers rallied against Hansen’s efforts against Rock Art.

Stay tuned for an official statement from Rock Art at their Web site… http://www.rockartbrewery.com/

It’s nice to see the little guy win for a change… and justifiably so!  Thanks everyone for your help in winning this epic battle against “evil”!!

I join the rest of the craft brewer community in mourning his loss and my condolences go out to his family, friends and employees.

On September 14, just six days before his birthday, Matt Nadeau, owner of Rock Art Brewery in Morrisville, received an unusual email. Attached to it was a PDF full of legalese in which an attorney for the Hansen Beverage Company — maker of Monster brand energy drinks — demanded that the Vermont brewery “cease and desist” its use of the name “Vermonster” for a high-test barley wine. “Your client’s use and registration of the Vermonster in connection with beer will undoubtedly create a likelihood of confusion and/or dilute the distinctive quality of Hansen’s Monster marks,” the document reads. Nadeau was given two weeks to respond.

Nadeau, who holds the “Vermonster” trade name in Vermont, thinks the letter was probably triggered by his application to trademark it nationally. “I don’t get those people out there in California,” he says. Given that Nadeau sells about 95 percent of his beer “within 50 miles of Morrisville,” the feisty brewer says he fails to see how giving a single product a name that’s a play on its home state could damage a massive corporation making a completely different type of beverage.

So Nadeau called to offer a concession: He would promise to stay out of the energy-drink biz if Hansen stayed out of brewing. No luck. “Their third-party lawyer … believes they’ll likely pursue lawsuits and [proceedings against] trademark infringement,” Hansen says.

Simply continuing to pursue his trademark application against Monster’s opposition could cost Nadeau up to $15,000. And he’s willing to take the matter to court — an even pricier proposition — if necessary, he says. For one thing, five trademark lawyers located all over the country have told him he’ll probably win in the end. More importantly, adds the brewer, it’s a matter of principle: “They have no morals,” he says of the beverage giant. “They think, We’re just gonna steamroll it … We’ll take this little Vermont company and squash them. Well, sorry.”

You decide… confusion… not likely!!

Rock Art Vermontster