Have a beer with Chuck

Sen Chuck Schumer has recently been talking a lot about craft beer in New York State. As he points out, the 75 or so New York microbreweries employ 59000 people in the state, and generate $1 billion in taxes, state and local. Sen Schumer is urging retail outlets, both bars and retailers selling for home consumption, to carry more craft beers. He notes that in Oregon small brewers represent about a third of the market while in New York they are under 10%.

What's a craft beer? Is it the same as a microbrew?

In general a craft brew is made to have a particular taste, color, aroma, and overall impression. The brewer is making a beer in which he (or she) takes pride, and price is not the determining factor, buyers of craft beers generally are willing to pay for good beer. Just as wines vary a lot in price, craft beer might cost $10-15 for a six pack, and $10-20-up for a 22oz bottle. You can still buy 32 cans of swill for $15 at the big box stores, so clearly craft beers sell to the type of person who buys a fine wine instead of gallon bottles of "what's on sale?" wine. Because craft beers have a distinctive style, which leads people to strongly like or dislike them, but differentiates one from the other gaining customer loyalty but limiting the number of potential customers. Sad to say, many of the national brews are enough alike that they are hard to tell apart without a label.

The term microbrewery properly should be used for very small brewing operations, while craft brewing is possible at larger scale, as long as the quality drives the price and not the other way around. The Saranac label within Matt brewing behaves like a craft brewer in many ways, releasing "brewer's choice" small batches, seasonal brews, and occasionally a brew made in very small quantity with a special brewing method and distributed only locally. Other brewers, like Harpoon and Samuel Adams also have similar small batch offerings, keeping the "craft" in the brewing even though their operations are no longer "micro" in volume.

Where do you buy craft beers?

In the Capital District it's not hard to find craft beer, in addition to a number of brew pubs where the brewing takes place on premises, and pubs which own a brewery (Brown's Brewing in Troy comes to mind), beverage centers like Glenville Beverage in Scotia, Oliver's in Albany, and the rest of the "Brew Crew" stores, the three major regional markets carry a selection of craft beers in bottles.

Many brews are sold in "growlers," half gallon or gallon containers which are filled with fresh draft beer from a keg and taken home. Others carry beer in bottles, usually the traditional 16oz or 22oz size, and good brews are now available in cans. Unlike mass market canned beers, craft beer in cans usually has a distinct style, meaning that it is far from the mass market brands which have a style of "cold, foamy, contains alcohol." Craft beer provoke a strong reaction in most people, instant like or dislike. That promotes consumer loyalty, not trying to please everyone. One canned brew, Dale's Pale Ale, was picked in a NY Times poll as the best Pale Ale of the year.

Suggestion for the state legislature: Sen Schumer is correct, this is a growing part of the state economy, and should be encouraged. Things which traditionally help very small businesses include tax breaks, seed money in grants and/or loans, and publicity.

Some low budget helps to craft brewing:

• low/no interest loans for capital expense and expansion. Limit the loans to 50% of the cost to identify the entrepreneurs who can manage to raise the rest of the capital themselves.
• No sales tax on equipment purchased to do the actual brewing.
• A state craft brewing website listing retailers who have some minimum display space for NY state brewed beers. Provide window and shelf signs retailers can use to draw attention to their NY brewing affiliation.
• A state owned trademark our brewers can add to their label, packaging, and advertizing to allow customers to easily identify NY brews.

I would love to see some politician or party pick up on this with elections coming and job creation a hot topic.

Final note: I have used the term "beer" loosely here, to include all fermented beverages. Distinctions of beer vs. ale, barleywine, lambec, mead, and other beverages were left out for clarity. There are other articles online which are precise and pedantic, if someone wishes to learn more. The topic here is the economic benefit, with just enough context to help casual readers.