On my Beerbox #2: Piling On

     So, I missed-slash-avoided the recent "craft vs crafty" debate on this blog because I was new to the gig and everyone and their drunk mother was writing about it anyway.  For those not extremely sick of this-slash not "in the know", the debate was something like this: macrobreweries (Budweiser, Miller, Coors) have been making some beers that appear to be "craft" but of course are not.  Some people think this is purposeful brand confusion, others mere bandwagon-hoping.  Honestly?  I don't care all that much.  I'm as big a supporter of craft beer as the next guy, but I won't hate a beer just because of who makes it.  I'll hate a beer if it's bad.  Or rather... if it's badly made.  There are some beers I certainly don't mind drinking that in no way you could call good, but... hell, once in a while I don't mind a Miller High Life.  There.  I said it.

    The craft vs crafty debate even affected me personally.  At least, it almost did.  My local store is Belmont, MA's Craft Beer Cellar, a craft-only bottle shop that strives to educate people where they can as well as sell beer.  To this tune, they offer study classes for those looking to get Cicerone certified (think wine is to sommelier as beer is to Cicerone... sort of), and even went so far as to become the first retailer member (called "Associate member") of the Massachusetts chapter of the Brewer's Guild.  About this same time, they announced that they would no longer carry some brands that didn't meet the definition of "craft" as set by the Brewer's Guild.  These included, among others, beers by Magic Hat Brewing Company and Narragansett Brewing Company. 

     A lot of people, myself included, didn't respond well to the axing of Narragansett   It turned out that Craft Beer Cellar thought better of it and even petitioned for change, so 'Gansett stayed around.  As for the others, including Magic Hat?  Nope.  Did I care?  Nope.  Did anyone else, that I heard of?  Nope.

    I have never really liked any of Magic Hat's beers, so I was already ready to throw them under the bus last year when their founder called beer geeks "one of the industry problems".  Now, I've been told I might have been biased in my harsher reading of this condemnation, but to me it seemed he was lumping anyone who tried to attain knowledge of what they were drinking into the category of "beer geek" (even though he MEANT "beer snob"), and I took offense to that.  I already didn't like the beer, and it was all too easy to push me into the realm of "well, you'll never see another dollar from me, then".

    Honestly, I re-read that article now and I can kind of agree with the guy in his point about Goose Island Beer Co.  Budweiser bought up a portion of them, so basically they get their beer out there via AB's distribution... but damn it, they still make good beer.  Sure, the rest of his statement is still as asinine as when Jim Koch said that hoppy beers generally aren't good (my favorite forum quote: "Heady Topper is not new or interesting but Latitute 48 is? Riiiiiiiiiiight.), but shouldn't it be more about what you like than who makes it?  I certainly think so.

    So why do I bring all of this up, in my meandering sort of way?  This week, Magic Hat came out and filed a lawsuit against West Sixth Brewing of Lexington, KY.  The reason?  Well, the reason is that when you turn a 6 over, it looks a hell of a lot like a 9.

    Patently ridiculous?  Sure.  But this is 'Murica, and silly lawsuits are par for the course.  Magic Hat is seeing, like, an Applebee's level of social media backlash on this one... and honestly, I gotta think that's because Magic Hat is no longer considered "craft" beer by my fellow geeks.  Case in point?  Rogue Ales' lawsuit against a restaurant called "Rogue 24" garnered very little venom in comparison.  Now, the facts are slightly different in these cases... just look at West Sixth Brewing's response to Magic Hat:

• Their federal trademark is simply for the text “# 9”, and our logo contains neither a “#” nor a “9”. (our favorite part of their argument is where they call a 6 an “inverted 9”.  Yeah, and did you know that a “p” is just an inverted “d”? They’re totally the same letter!)
• Finally, our logo includes the words “West Sixth Brewing”.  We think that makes it pretty clear.

Now, you compare that to the Rogue thing, where "Rogue" is actually in the name and used as a shorthand nickname for the restaurant and the issue of "Rogue Spirits", and yeah... there could be some legitimate brand confusion there.  But the Rogue case is not an isolated incident.  Sixpoint Brewery, New Holland Brewing, Troegs Brewing (and many more) have all brandished the hammer of cease-and-desist against other breweries.  It's certainly not uncommon.  One could argue that these companies need to be stalwart guardians of their image, and once in a while the particulars are going to look ridiculous as a result.  

    But you see... Magic Hat is different.  They're no longer beloved, so it's ok to hate them, right?  It feels funny to defend a brewery that I wouldn't even want a free sample of their beer, but I gotta call it like I see it.  People are letting their bias feed their anger.  And anger leads to hate.  And hate leads to suffering.  And then you kiss your sister.  But seriously, we should all worry a little more about who makes a good beer than what a brewery's lawyers are filing.  This stuff tends to come out in the wash anyway.  Sure, you should vote with your dollars... but I think it should be based on taste, not litigation practices.

    Can't we all just be simply beer drinkers?

Laws, Damned Laws and Statistics, Part Two

    If'n you missed part one on beer laws in Massachusetts... what the hell, man?  Ok, but seriously you can go read it here.  Time to move on and move north.  Slightly.

    New Hampshire is another pit of vipers entirely, when it comes to beer laws.  Or any of their alcohol laws, for that matter.  I mean, this is a state that not only directly sells all spirits, but famously has liquor stores on the highways.  Funny enough, I never thought this was odd... just a coy way of collecting highway toll revenue, and certainly not as strange as drive-through package stores found in the south.  Never mind the places that give you a daiquiri as long as they don't put the straw in for you, but I digress.  NH has beer and wine available in more places than MA seems to, thanks to MA instituting a low allotment of liquor licenses per town.  Still, NH does find myriad more ways to be weirdly antiquated and restrictive.

    Granted, the Granite State used to be worse.  There was a 6% ABV limit on beers, which today is 14% (in the intermediary, it was at 12% until recently).  A cap of any kind is unfortunate, but that's certainly better than before where the low limit seemed tailor-made to discourage experimentation and keep people on their piss-water pilsners and light lagers.  Incidentally, I can't find anything about an ABV cap on wine.  Just saying.  On the sunnier side, NH has only recently started allowing beer sales at farmer's markets, so good on them there.  Of course, a law allowing wine sales was passed a year or two sooner... but let's not get all sour (or fermented) grapes about it.  Instead, let's turn to something you'd think would be innocuous, yet remains a big deal: beer labels.

    Make no mistake about it, the mere act of seeing this label will turn your infant into an alcoholic!  New Hampshire state law prohibits any reference to minors that may induce anyone under 21 to drink.  You know... because it's a pictorial reference that's really going to push those teenagers over the edge.  Now, NH is not alone in.  Maine (which also has greater variety on the shelf that in NH) banned Ridgeway Brewing's Santa’s Butt Winter Porter for much the same reason... the sweet siren song of Ol' Saint Nick would seduce the innocent kiddles.  Beer labels require both state and federal approval, so you can find stories like this all over the country... but you know what else you can find all over the country?  Candy flavored vodka.  Still, things in NH are getting slightly better.  House Bill 1208 includes amendments such as "Prohibit[ing] the liquor commission from requiring federal label approval for New Hampshire beverages", but was further amended to prohibit advertising "targeting" under 21, which is clearly a matter of interpretation.

    You might have noticed above that I off-handedly mentioned that Maine (and by implication, Massachusetts as well) has more variety on the shelves than New Hampshire.  Why the hell is that, anyway?  Overall prices are higher in surrounding states.  Sales tax too, obviously (I've heard that NH label fees are higher than surrounding states because of the absence of certain taxes, but let's not turn this into economics class, mkay?).  There's also no redemption program in NH, so there's no deposit paid on bottles and cans.  And, as we said before, you can simply get beer in more places in NH as compared to Mass.  The sad truth is that makes people jump over the border to buy cheap macrobrews in the Granite State, but not so for craft beer.  NH is late in the game to craft, and has classically had limited distribution because there's been little demand.  Luckily, selection seems to be improving as customers are becoming more educated and craving better beer (one concrete exception is the Shelton Brothers does not distribute to NH at all, causing a lack of exposure when it comes to Belgian beers).

    But the problem goes deeper than just bad habits.  Restrictive liquor laws, past or present, certainly can't help.  As I've already said, NH has an ABV cap that was only recently raised.  Recently, a tax increase was proposed that would have raised it by 10 cents per gallon sold off-premises.  Of course, NH already has a fairly high excise tax rate on beer, especially compared to MA (but fairly close to Maine).

Governor Hassan has said she would veto this bill were it to pass, but it just goes to show that NH has some catching up to do in being friendly to the growing craft industry.  Steps are being made in the right direction, like recent laws to make it easier for nanobreweries specifically to get up and running (making NH the first state to legally delineate nanos from other brewers) and the ability to sell pints of beer at breweries so long as "hot food" is provided (again... it seems a little unjust that bars which are open until 1am can close their kitchens at 10pm, yet a brewery has to follow special standards), but it takes time to completely change course... both for NH drinkers getting educated and starting to demand beers they didn't even know existed until recently, and for the lawmakers to make it easier for those beers to get into the hands of consumers.

   Knowledge creates converts, people.

   Woof.  Between two blog posts, that was a rather long one... but there was a lot to cover and I really only scratched the surface.  If I missed something, tell me about it!  I can take it.  Anyway, I promise to write something short next time.  And fun.  See you then!

Side Note: May Day Cask Fest

    Wanted to give a quick note about something cool that's going to be happening in the Boston area that hasn't got, I think, enough press.  On Friday, May 10th some Homebrewers are getting together and throwing a little party called The May Day Cask Festival.  It's going down in the Porter Square neighborhood of Cambridge, MA.

    Here's the skinny:

• It's a private party, and you need to get on the guest list to go.  
• The guest list is open to donors to the event only.
• A donation of $10 gets you a commemorative glass and a "chip" to vote for your favorite homebrew of the 10 available.
• The exact location of the event will be sent to donors this Wednesday, so get on that list now!
• Don't go thinking you can pay at the door.  You can't.  This goes back to beer laws... homebrewers can't sell their beer.  These guys are giving away the beers to donors, and taking money at the door could be misinterpreted.

   Get thee to the website to make a donation and get on the private guest list (and see the beers).  You can also check out the Facebook event page if you have more questions.

Laws, Damned Laws and Statistics, Part One

    So I've been a bit derelict in my duties.  First, I was on vacation.  Then I was sick.  Then I was stressed from getting caught up at work at work from being on sickcation, and couldn't be arsed to work on the blog in my downtime.  THEN, I had to spend some time thinking of an excuse for why the blog hadn't been updated.  Ahem.  But then I realized I had a big subject to cover, and decided to take some extra time to split it up into two separate posts rather than one giant one.

   That said, let's get into THE LAW.

    Now, I'm no fancy, big-city lawyer... but today we're going to talk a little bit about beer laws in Massachusetts (and save New Hampshire for next time).  My two home states both love beer, but they each handle certain things about beer in very different ways, and their decisions greatly affect the market.  There's a lot to talk about here, even if I only limit this to a few topics in each state, so strap yourself in.

    Sure enough, there are all kinds of crazy liquor laws out there, but some of those laws restrict beer specifically, and I've always thought it weirdly biased.  All too often you can point to a regulation that pertains just to beer drinkers and not to wine.  I've always chalked that up to the perception of beer drinkers being something like this:

...and that of wine drinkers being something like this:

    Sure, it's not all about that.  For the most part, it's about where and when you can buy beer, or any alcohol for that matter.  It wasn't that long ago that you couldn't buy booze at all on a Sunday in Massachusetts.  I remember hearing tales of a few intrepid package stores that stayed open in defiance of the blue laws, and were not shy about stating that they just wanted to make enough in sales to cover the fine for being open.  Nowadays, you can purchase on any day of the week in MA (save for a few holidays, including a certain one celebrating a certain ship landing on a certain rock because they ran out of beer), but the state still has its fingers in how much you have to pay and what happens when you want to give away just a taste of your brews.

    Recently, under the shadow of the oncoming Massachusetts casinos and their likelihood of handing out cheap-as-free drinks, the idea of repealing the "Happy Hour" ban so that local drink dispensaries could remain competitive.  The idea was nixed because of a fear of a "race to the bottom" (so they say) and for consumer safety concerns.  I guess they suppose all that's keeping people from becoming binge drinkers and overthrowing society is a dollar off on Tuesdays, 5-6pm.  We live in a country where there's a parking lot outside most bars, and I live in a city where the public transportation stops well before the taps are shut off... yet Happy Hour is a public safety issue?

    The wording of the Happy Hour ban itself is interesting.  Basically, it doesn't say what you can sell a drink for, but rather it mandates that you can't sell it for less than you would on any other given day of the week.  I will note that I have seen at least one Brewpub circumvent the ban in a very interesting way: they offer a $2 beer at all times.  The beer constantly rotates, but they're not charging "a price less than the price regularly charged" for that named item on the menu.

    While we're on the subject of the Commonwealth, did you know that (shock of shocks) there are laws which afford wine drinkers privileges that beer drinkers can only dream of?  Namely, restaurant goers can take unfinished bottles of wine home with them.  Granted, this is not without its hiccups, as there's a huge hoop to jump through in terms of how the wine-to-go must be packaged, but I consider this pretty good food for thought from the same state that gives Nanobreweries no uncertain amount of trouble when it comes to pouring samples of their beers.

    I'm no giant of the craft beer community, but even with my limited scope, I hear plenty of tales of breweries who are having trouble just merely letting people sample their beer.  Sure, there's a semantics dance a lot of the time about if someone is selling a sample of their beer or if you're paying for the glass (like the beer isn't technically a rental too, amirite folks?), but some places can't pour samples at all.  To me, this is a clear growth inhibitor.  It's lucky that these brewers have a supportive community around them in the form of people willing to plunk down for a growler of a beer they've never had before... but there are just some people that are going to want to try before they buy, and freezing them out can cut off growth at the knees.  Growth of both the business at hand and of converting people to craft beer.  Think about it.  If you're a casual or a macro drinker and find out there's a new nano down the street from you, and you go to check it out only to find that you have to pay the deposit on a growler plus the cost of the beer for something you can't even try?  Well, back to your aluminum bottles and color changing cans you would go.

    There are lots of vague and mysterious reasons that a nanobrewery may not be allowed to pur samples.  With Tree House Brewing Co, it's chalked up to "licensing confusion" (you got me on what's that shorthand for).  With Trillium Brewing Company, they need to build an ADA complaint bathroom before you can try just a few ounces of their offerings.  And of course it's already been pointed out that liquor stores pour samples, and just you try to find a bathroom in there.  Used to be the liquor store closest to me always had a wine tasting going on, but no bathroom in sigh-- oh WAIT.  That was wine.  Clearly, the rules should be different.

    There's a whole 'nuther issue of what it takes to actually sell pints slash more than just samples of your beer.  We'll touch on this more when we get to New Hampshire, but the new law of the land there basically involves the sale of "hot food".  While I can appreciate this in spirit, as I can the bathroom law, this also seems weirdly inconsistent.  Who hasn't been to a tavern where the bar is open until 1 or 2 in the morning, but the kitchen closes at 10 or 11?  Do they think the late hours are the slow ones or something?

    So, that's all for Massachusetts for the moment.  Next time... NEW HAMPSHIRE!  Keep watching the skies!