Craft brewing renaissance hits college campuses

A boom in the craft beer industry combined with an increase in food science programs means that more students are graduating college with a different kind of alcohol education.

Of all the places to find beer on a college campus, the classroom may not be the first one to come to mind.

But there are currently about 50 universities in the U.S. that have food science programs, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. With a handful offering courses in subjects such as enology, viticulture and the fermentation sciences, experts say more students than ever are graduating with a new kind of alcohol education.

“It’s an academic field that is growing like crazy,” says Thomas Shellhammer, a professor in Oregon State University’s food science and technology department.

When OSU’s food science department began in 2001, Shellhammer says there were about 40 students enrolled. Today, that number has more than tripled, and he estimates that it will only grow as time goes on.

“When I was in college, I had no idea there was a degree in food science,” he said. “Now we’re at a point when people in their first year are seeking it out.”

While food science programs in general have been on the rise over the past decade, what has happened in the beer and wine industries may be especially interesting, especially for students seeking work in a lackluster job market. After all, as Shellhammer puts it, alcohol is “relatively recession-proof.”

In the domestic beer world, Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors control about 80% of the market, while craft breweries only have about a 6.5% share, according to the Brewers Association based in Boulder, Colo. While sales from the large corporations have remained stagnant or even declined, craft breweries are growing.

Craft brewer retail dollar value in 2012 was $10.2 billion, up from $8.7 billion in 2011, according to the Brewers Association. Even with a relatively small share of the overall market, the craft brewing business employs roughly half of the brewing jobs in the nation.

Eryn Bottens recently graduated from OSU’s food science technology program with a concentration in fermentation science. He had homebrewed as a hobby for years, but a few different career and education paths led him back to school where he discovered OSU’s program.

“Most folks I talked to were surprised that you could even major in a field like that,” Bottens says. “Some weren’t sure that someone could be successful with it, but they have since turned around. There is so much growth here in the Northwest it’s hard to deny it.”

Bottens plans to work for the Boston Beer Company next year. He says the program at OSU has prepared him for a wide range of career choices.

“Any graduate could look into jobs that relate to a fermented food,” he says, “including beer, wine, cheese, bread, pickled foods and other fermented beverages. I just happened to focus on the beer side.”

While the number of colleges offering courses and workshops in beer brewing and winemaking is rising, there are still only a handful of universities that offer students the option to graduate with a degree in either, though the departments usually carry more technical terms like “enology” and “viticulture” in the title.

OSU, Cornell University and the University of California-Davis are examples, with UC Davis’s program dating back to 1860 when state legislators mandated there should be university research in the field, according to instructor Mike Ramsey.

Some college administrations have even installed student-run breweries on campus. UC Davis, OSU and the Seibel Institute of Chicago all have their own, and Colorado State University became the latest when it announced in April plans to unveil its own microbrewery in the university’s student center.

A bit of history: The microbrewing industry is a fairly recent phenomenon, both Shellhammer and Ramsey say. It was only in 1979 when President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that allowed home brewing to be exempt from taxation for personal or family use.

During that year, there were only about 89 breweries in the United States, according to a graph created by the Brewers Association. In 2010, that number skyrocketed to 2,403.

But the microbrewing renaissance may be a regional trend, says Kurt Staudter, executive director of the Vermont Brewers Association. Even a cursory glance at the colleges offering education in the field is a telling sign that states in New England and the Pacific Northwest as well as California are favorable to the industry, thanks to a clause in the 1979 amendment that left some control up to states. But that is isn’t the case everywhere.

“We’ve noticed a dramatic shift in drinking products locally,” Staudter says. “But a number of states have a long way to go.”

He notes that as more and more college students are exposed to craft brews, many have bypassed more generic brands in favor of those that are locally crafted.

“Kids today who are 21 are graduating with better taste in beer than their parents,” he says. “Before when you came home your father may have said, ‘Sit down, let me open you a Pabst Blue Ribbon.’ Now, it’s, ‘No, Dad, let me offer you an IPA.”

Devin Karambelas is a summer 2013 Collegiate Correspondent.

Beer co. owner: Home brewing is ‘a noble pursuit’

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) – James McEver credits his uncle for introducing him to brewing beer, and at 25, he recently became the new owner of Flying Barrel – a Frederick beer-making company for more than three decades.

McEver has been brewing for only a couple of years. He loved to cook and wanted to be a chef when he was a child but didn’t go to culinary school. In college, he drank lots of coffee and tea and read about them constantly.

“I was enthralled by coffee and tea,” McEver said. “That changed after working on the farm. After 100-degree weather being in the hot sun all day, someone passed me a nice cold Yuengling, and I understood. I’ve been trying new beers since then.”

Brewing his own beer was a natural extension of enjoying professionally brewed beer, McEver said.

“It deepens the appreciation for the beverage,” McEver said. “I love having a commercially brewed beer and being able to taste flavors that I recognize from some of my brews.”

McEver became the owner of Flying Barrel in March. He worked with previous owner Bob Frank for nearly two years learning the business, which recently moved from smaller quarters on South Carroll Street to a larger space on North Market Street in Frederick.

McEver’s father was in the Army, so he moved around a lot. He attended high school and college in northern New Jersey, “so I consider that to be where I’m from.”

His grandparents and aunt and uncle live in Frederick, where he visited often growing up.

“I felt totally comfortable moving here and setting down some roots,” McEver said, believing that Frederick offers the ideal home-brewing atmosphere.

“Frederick and home-brew go hand in hand,” the entrepreneur said. “I’m not sure if it’s the German heritage, or the great craft beer scene, or the agricultural presence, but there are a lot of home brewers in our area.”

He remembers coming home after closing up the shop one day. “My neighbor was brewing out in his yard with some buddies,” he said. “It was a great moment where I realized how communal of an activity brewing can be.”

McEver equates brewing beer to a backyard barbecue where everyone sits around the brewpot taking in the aromas and flavors, wondering how the batch is going to turn out.

“I have some customers who come in every two weeks like clockwork,” McEver said. “They keep their cellars full and are constantly brewing to keep beer or wine in their pipeline.”

The variety of people who home-brew is surprising, McEver said. His customers include yuppies, scientists, teachers, government workers, firefighters, and blue- and white-collar types.

In addition to selling ingredients, equipment and supplies, Flying Barrel lets customers rent brew kettles and offers guidance. The many steps involved in brewing can be intimidating to new brewers, McEver said, so having an experienced guide really helps getting started.

“We let the customer choose what they want to brew, and the options are pretty much only limited to their creativity,” McEver said. “I love it when a customer’s eyes light up when they realize they’ve entered into a new world of making your own beer, wine, cider, mead and any other concoctions you can think of.

“It takes a lot to make a great beverage and be able to reproduce success, but it’s a noble pursuit.”

Most of his friends have gone on to work on Wall Street for financial firms or large corporations.

“Even though I’m not making anywhere close to what they are, they’re sometimes jealous of all the fun I get to have,” McEver said. “They’re excited for me that I was able to make it happen and become my own boss. Some of my friends are aspiring to do the same, so I try to encourage them.”

McEver said he likes thought-provoking things.

“I tend to think about philosophy and spirituality a lot. I guess that’s what happens when your father and both grandfathers are ministers,” McEver said.

Dave Belcher is proud of his nephew.

“I mentored him, and I think he’ll be very successful,” Belcher said. “He’s a very smart kid. He got double bachelor’s degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology, and he was third in his class.

“I have faith in him, although I’m a little biased, but I think he’s got the right attitude and attention to detail to make it work.”

___

Information from: The Frederick (Md.) News-Post, http://www.fredericknewspost.com

Frederick beer company owner: Home brewing is ‘a noble pursuit’

FREDERICK — James McEver credits his uncle for introducing him to brewing beer, and at 25, he recently became the new owner of Flying Barrel — a Frederick beer-making company for more than three decades.

McEver has been brewing for only a couple of years. He loved to cook and wanted to be a chef when he was a child but didn’t go to culinary school. In college, he drank lots of coffee and tea and read about them constantly.

“I was enthralled by coffee and tea,” McEver said. “That changed after working on the farm. After 100-degree weather being in the hot sun all day, someone passed me a nice cold Yuengling, and I understood. I’ve been trying new beers since then.”

Brewing his own beer was a natural extension of enjoying professionally brewed beer, McEver said.

“It deepens the appreciation for the beverage,” McEver said. “I love having a commercially brewed beer and being able to taste flavors that I recognize from some of my brews.”

McEver became the owner of Flying Barrel in March. He worked with previous owner Bob Frank for nearly two years learning the business, which recently moved from smaller quarters on South Carroll Street to a larger space on North Market Street in Frederick.

McEver’s father was in the Army, so he moved around a lot. He attended high school and college in northern New Jersey, “so I consider that to be where I’m from.”

His grandparents and aunt and uncle live in Frederick, where he visited often growing up.

“I felt totally comfortable moving here and setting down some roots,” McEver said, believing that Frederick offers the ideal home-brewing atmosphere.

“Frederick and home-brew go hand in hand,” the entrepreneur said. “I’m not sure if it’s the German heritage, or the great craft beer scene, or the agricultural presence, but there are a lot of home brewers in our area.”

He remembers coming home after closing up the shop one day. “My neighbor was brewing out in his yard with some buddies,” he said. “It was a great moment where I realized how communal of an activity brewing can be.”

McEver equates brewing beer to a backyard barbecue where everyone sits around the brewpot taking in the aromas and flavors, wondering how the batch is going to turn out.

“I have some customers who come in every two weeks like clockwork,” McEver said. “They keep their cellars full and are constantly brewing to keep beer or wine in their pipeline.”

The variety of people who home-brew is surprising, McEver said. His customers include yuppies, scientists, teachers, government workers, firefighters, and blue- and white-collar types.

In addition to selling ingredients, equipment and supplies, Flying Barrel lets customers rent brew kettles and offers guidance. The many steps involved in brewing can be intimidating to new brewers, McEver said, so having an experienced guide really helps getting started.

“We let the customer choose what they want to brew, and the options are pretty much only limited to their creativity,” McEver said. “I love it when a customer’s eyes light up when they realize they’ve entered into a new world of making your own beer, wine, cider, mead and any other concoctions you can think of.

“It takes a lot to make a great beverage and be able to reproduce success, but it’s a noble pursuit.”

Most of his friends have gone on to work on Wall Street for financial firms or large corporations.

“Even though I’m not making anywhere close to what they are, they’re sometimes jealous of all the fun I get to have,” McEver said. “They’re excited for me that I was able to make it happen and become my own boss. Some of my friends are aspiring to do the same, so I try to encourage them.”

McEver said he likes thought-provoking things.

“I tend to think about philosophy and spirituality a lot. I guess that’s what happens when your father and both grandfathers are ministers,” McEver said.

Dave Belcher is proud of his nephew.

“I mentored him, and I think he’ll be very successful,” Belcher said. “He’s a very smart kid. He got double bachelor’s degrees from Stevens Institute of Technology, and he was third in his class.

“I have faith in him, although I’m a little biased, but I think he’s got the right attitude and attention to detail to make it work.”

MidWeek MashUp: Beer from Start to Finish at Lexington Beerworks

Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA being infused with Citra hops

BY CHRIS CAMPBELL

If you’re a male (or an extremely un-evolved female) between the ages of 18 and Larry King, chances are you’ve sat around with a group of buddies and decided that you will one day open a bar. Logistics be damned! This is indeed both the best and most original idea yet conceived by western thought – besides, of course, graciously offering up your telephone number to your server. This scenario is most often punctuated by a taxi ride home, headache, and no business plan…and definitely no call from a number you don’t recognize.

There is, however, a very small portion of the population who has had such ideas, and actually come up with some sort of strategy to make this boozy dream a reality. I’m talking about the bar idea, not the “number on the receipt” trick. Though you may pass Greg Leimer, Mike Vincent or Jason Wolf in the Meijer produce section one day and not think twice about their penchant for star fruit or their amazingly diverse selection of cheeses, take this opportunity to now pause and give adulation. These dudes did what you said you would do and then forgot about. They’re better than you. They opened the Lexington Beerworks.

Greg, Jason and Mike, work buddies, would find themselves musing about being the proprietors of an establishment of some sort. Jason Wolf, self-described “beer guy” of the triumvirate, elucidated on the genesis of LBW.

“We would sit around and talk about entrepreneurial crap….business plans, strategies….but we one day realized that we were always doing this while enjoying craft beer.”

The three all decided that the beverage that accompanied all these discussions – craft beer – would not only be the driving force behind their brainchild, it in fact, would be brainchild itself.

Wolf continued. “We decided that Beerworks would be a comprehensive entity: Beer from start to finish.”

What does that mean? Well, in some circles that would involve the beer glass first being full, and then being empty. These guys had a bigger plan. At Lexington Beerworks, you can find a selection of at least 10 craft beers on tap (and many more in the bottle) or you can find a wide selection of home brewing supplies. Here, you can literally buy the ingredients of the product you hope to create for consumption, or consume a version of the finished product itself. It’s like being Johnny Cash in the song “One Piece at a Time” and going to the car dealership all at once.

LBW is the homebrewer’s source for ingredients, apparatuses, advice and even tutorials. While it’s not the only homebrew source in Lexington, it definitely is the most comprehensive, and plans are to increase the scope of supplies in the future.

The Beerworks is “right about expected” in terms of sales as they start their 18^th month of operation and though the homebrewing section provides a niche, the crux of the Beerworks’ business is still serving the finished product. Kentucky is the 8^th fastest growing state in terms of craft beer production in the past calendar year, and Lexington’s Alltech, Country Boy and West Sixth breweries are major players in that upward trend. But places like Lexington Beerworks and The Beer Trappe (Lexington’s first exclusively craft beer grocery and taproom and the subject of an upcoming article) have the challenge of staying current and interesting to the beer connoisseur without offering their own in-house product. LBW has an interesting, alliterative answer to that challenge: Mid-week Mash-up.

Starting on Derby Day, LBW began utilizing an apparatus made by the Dogfish Head brewery called the Randall. According to Dogfish, the Randall is “a…filter system that allows the user to run draft beer though hops, spices, fruit, etc. so that the alcohol in the beer strips the flavor from whatever you add and puts it in the beer.” Appropriately enough, that first Randall experiment implemented an infusion of mint leaves in Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. While the Randall looks like something that your buddy in college who listened to Bob Marley kept in his dorm room next to his lava lamp, the Randall is both legal and harmless.

The Derby Day experiment turned into a weekly Wednesday night event. Each week, a new beer will be offered up for infusion, and Wolf hopes that the mash-up will keep longtime patrons interested as well as attract new customers who may have never have had anything really draw them to try craft beer.

“We will rotate different beers every week so we’re not infusing the same style every week” says Wolf. “Certain beers lend themselves to different types of infusions. We will rotate with dark beers (coffee, chocolate, fruits), hoppy beers (hops), and lighter beers (fruit).”

While Beerworks isn’t brewing their own beers, they are literally putting their own flavor on an amazingly fast growing industry that has caught fire in Lexington. While the closest you may have ever come to infusing beer with anything may have been when you put a Jolly Rancher in your Zima in the summer of ’94, don’t be surprised to see Werther’s Original, peppers, chai tea, peaches or apricots adding flavor to your favorite brew sometime soon.

The three owners of LBW had an idea much like many of us have had: to open a bar. They followed through. And, they’re putting a unique slant on the craft beer scene in Lexington without brewing their own beer. The mid-week mash-up every Wednesday provides an opportunity to try new beers or to put a twist on ones that you know well. Who knows, the next time you and your friends sample an Anderson Valley Summer Solstice with blueberries and raspberries or a Founders Imperial Stout with cocoa nibs and vanilla beans, you may come up with the next big business plan. When you leave, tip the Lexington Beerworks bartenders well. Don’t leave your number on the receipt though. They won’t call you back.

This article appears on page 4 of the June 13, 2013 print edition of Ace.

Click to subscribe to the Ace e-dition (delivered to your inbox every Thursday), and stay tuned for more Lexington craft beer news from Chris Campbell.

Staten Island attorney Joe Sykes plans to contribute to revival of borough’s …

Jay Sykes hope to open a brewery at the former site of Anguili Motors on Bay St.Staten Island Advance/Hilton Flores
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – Staten Island, once home to over a dozen breweries in the 1800s, may be ripe for a new generation.

Gary Angiuli, for one, seems to thinks so.

Come January, the borough attorney based both in Tompkinsville and Dongan Hills — as well as CEO of the Angiuli Group — will house Flagship, a startup brewery, on his property at 215 Bay St. in Tompkinsville, former site of Angiuli Motors. It will be the anchor in a 33,000-square-foot facility he’s dubbed “Back of the Bay,” and it’s a project Angiuli envisions as part of the “renaissance that Staten Island needs.”

Additional features planned for the development include “restaurants, cafes and piano bars and the like, of which we are currently in negotiations,” Angiuli said.

Jay Sykes, the entrepreneur behind Flagship, bills his product as an “unforgettable beer brewed in the forgotten borough.”

The 31-year-old Sykes is a West Brighton resident and salesperson with a Brooklyn beer distributor and a member of Richmond County Beer Club. His operation will occupy 13,000-square feet of “Back of the Bay,” where plans are under way for a tasting room that will be open Thursday through Sunday for tour-takers.

Two weeks ago, Sykes and his team planted hops at the Silver Lake Golf course; 300 rhizomes — Willamette, Mt. Hood, Nugget and Cascade varietals — that one day will yield buds to season Flagship’s anticipated three styles of beer: An India Pale Ale (IPA), a lager and porter.

Sykes, who already has hired a brewmaster, aims for the porter “to be robust, but drinkable,” the IPA to be around 5 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) and the lager — a brew that is traditionally crisp and dry with little bitterness lent by hops — to appeal to Staten Island palates, particularly newbies crossing over to the craft beer experience.

The young entrepreneur plans for seasonals — a winter and a summer brew — to be sold in kegs and limited bottles.

FEELING CONFIDENT

Does the brewery have a chance for success?

The most recent startup on Staten Island, Harbor Ale in the late 1990s established in Arlington well before craft beer became fashionable in New York City, alas was short-lived.

James Thomson, a West Brighton attorney who specializes in start-ups and is the attorney for Flagship, said he’s confident in what he sees.

“These guys have been sharp,” Thomson said, adding he’s looking forward to the operation’s opening day.

Ken Tirado, beer aficionado and owner of Killmeyer’s Old Bavaria Inn in Charleston, wishes the entrepreneurs great luck. While optimistic for Staten Island to see brewing start once again, he said he hopes Flagship starts off easy and comes around to shunning IPAs and trendy, super-hopped brews.

“They would be well-advised to [stick] with seasonals, a signature lager, and a brown ale,” Tirado opined. “The local tastebuds seem to like sweeter, milder beers.

“One thing about New York City,” Tirado continued, “is it’s a brand-loyalty and unsophisticated beer palate. I joke with the beer salesmen that Miller, Coors, and Bud are still the most popular beers regardless of what we throw at people.”

“Brewers wait their entire lives to make their beer available to consumers,” said Tim Sinatra, area sales manager with Brooklyn-based Union Beer Distributors. But as with any business, there are risks involved.

“I think the biggest issues with new breweries,” he said, “is that most of the brewers have been waiting a long time for the chance to make beer and have it consumed by more than just their friends. They tend to lose focus on quality.”

Home-brewers looking to turn pro should take baby steps for longevity, advises Paul Halayko, president of two-year old Newburgh Brewing Co. in Newburgh, N.Y. He mentions wildly successful brewers who made quick and impressive leaps to fame like Patrick Rue of The Bruery in Placentia, Calif. Locally, he said the upstate craft beer community is keeping an eye on Singlecut, a downstate start-up in Astoria, Queens. Open since December, Singlecut offers over 15 brews, organized tastings with food pairings and a slick marketing campaign that includes intricately-designed tap handles that are almost works of art, costly endeavors that some beer experts criticize take resources away from carefully-managed brewing.

As for Flagship, Sykes is keeping details as simple as possible to keep costs down. He believes the homegrown hops will save the company money down the line. He’s bought used equipment, including a small bottling system, and anticipates his biggest expense to be a build-out of the Bay Street location.

“We want to have great support from the restaurants and bars,” said Sykes. “We really want to go strong for Staten Island.”

CAUTION: Brewing Company on Asian and German-inspired Beer

CAUTION brews its inventive beers on Odell Brewing Company‘s original brewhouse (on which the infamous Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale was created). “We like to take the styles that we love and twist them a bit to make them more to our liking,” says Fey. “I like blonde ales, for example, but we wanted more creaminess and nuttiness in one, so we put organic wild rice [in a mash] and birthed the Wild Blonde, one of our flagships.”

CAUTION’s other flagships are also thoughtful twists on popular beer styles made with unlikely ingredients. Their Hippity Hops Chrysanthemum IPA is brewed with whole flower chrysanthemums and Chinese rock brown sugar and their Holy Matrimony Brown Ale is brewed with wildflower honey from Clark’s Honey Farm in Evans, Colorado. “We’ll never make a new beer just for the sake of making another beer,” Danny said in an interview at last year’s Great American Beer Festival. “We want to do something with the beer that makes it unique and different.”

Perhaps CAUTION’s best-known beer, the Lao Wang Lager is a spiced Asian Lager made with a secret blend of five spices and five rices perfect for pairing with Xiao long bao, or Chinese soup dumplings. The Lao Wang Lager is available on tap at Lao Wang Noodle House, a tiny Taiwanese food joint on west Federal in Lakewood that Danny’s parents own.

“Lakewood is our stomping grounds,” says Betty. She’s thrilled to report that CAUTION will soon open a new location on Wadsworth Boulevard where the two are building an even larger taproom and will be canning the Lao Wang Lager. They also plan to collaborate with the Barley Heaven homebrew shop across the street.

As CAUTION continues their construction, it’s making a splash as the only Colorado brewery (and possibly one of the few breweries in the country) committed to making beer to pair with Asian food. Together Danny and Betty have created a business that diversifies Denver’s booming craft beer industry – innovative, ever-evolving, and rooted in multicultural traditions.

CAUTION at a Glance

Locations / 12445 E. 39th Ave., Unit 314; Denver, CO 80232
1057 S. Wadsworth Blvd. Unit 60; Lakewood, CO 80226

Digits / (970) 315-BREW
Website / cautionbrewingco.com

Brewhouse size / 5 barrels (155 gallons brewed at a time)

Annual production / 100+ barrels, hoping to triple production in the next year

Most popular pint / Lao Wang Lager

Find their beer / on tap at Wynkoop Brewing Company, Denver Bicycle Cafe, Lao Wang Noodle House, Rackhouse Pub, The Ale House at Amato’s, Cedar Creek Pub, The Kitchen Next Door, and Lowry Beer Garden… to name a few

Grub / Baker St. Pretzels served in the taproom; The Pride of Philly and The Döner King food trucks on Friday nights
Upcoming Events / See their website

· A Pint With: Hogshead Brewery [EDen]
· Colorado Brewery Collaborates with Swedish Craft Brewer [EDen]

Learn the science and business of brewing beer

SAN DIEGO, CA – Leave it to the folks in California to turn beer drinking into hard work.

Two University of California, San Diego college campuses have developed 18 and 24-month professional certificate programs in beer brewing.

And yes, you’ll learn the craft from ‘bottoms up’, from the science of brewing, to the business of brewing, to a hands-on internship in a local brewery.

You’ll also have to take math, calculus, chemistry, and biology before you get your feet, and hands, wet, so to speak. An educational field where cramming for finals is its own reward.

Most beer drinkers around here know about Saint Arnold’s Brewery, the oldest craft beer brewer in Houston.

But did you know that Southern Select was a product of the Houston Ice Brewing Company more than 100 years ago, producing about 200,000 barrels of brew a year?

Or, that the site of the original brewery was the first commercial landmark in Houston protected for preservation?

And, did you know that Saint Arnold’s is not the only craft brewery around these parts?

In fact, you could drink a different local beer a day for a couple of weeks and never drink the same brew twice.

Restaurant owner looks to open craft beer brewery in Salmon Run Mall

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5:11 PM

By: Carmella Mataloni

Craft beer brewing is becoming quite popular. One North Country restaurant owner is bringing his passion for the process to Watertown. YNN’s Carmella Mataloni tells us his plans and the unique place his brewery will be located.

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WATERTOWN, N.Y. – All over the North Country, wineries and distilleries are popping up left and right; but come fall, a popular location in Watertown will see not only its first sit-down restaurant, but also its first on-site brewery.

“We will be making our own beer in the mall,” said Ryan Chaif, owner of Skewed Brewing.

The Salmon Run Mall will be the new home of Skewed Brewing. Owner Ryan Chaif currently owns Hops Spot in Sackets Harbor. Making beer has always been a hobby of his, and he thought it was time to expand.

“It’s something we have been working on for a while here, and tweaking some recipes and stuff, and we are looking forward to being able to take that to the mall and using it there,” said Chaif.

While the on-site brewery isn’t ready just yet, Chaif said it takes about two weeks to make the beer. He’s planning on making about 750 barrels during his first year.

“At a time we are making 10 barrels which is 310 gallons; but, we will be able to hold seven different 310 batches. So, it will be quite a bit. Right now, we are working on some different ones,” said Chaif.

Owners said the idea of Skewed Brewing came from doing things outside the box. Besides food, they wanted to be able to give their customers something that was made right on site.

“I’m hoping that they start to develop a palate for craft beer and start moving away from the yellow fizz,” said Chaif.

The brewery won’t be ready anytime soon as owners are still waiting for permits and their liquor license. But they hope to open Skewed Brewing to the public by October first.

Local Brewers Look to Boost Craft Beer Business

updated: 5/24/2013 12:58:55 PM

Andy Ober, InsideINdianaBusiness.com

The founder of a new craft brewery in Indianapolis says there is a “joint effort” by local artisans to expose more people to the emerging industry. Indiana City Brewing Co. owner Ray Kamstra says craft beer accounts for 3-7 percent of the market in Indiana, which puts the state at “just the beginning” of an international trend. He discussed the state’s brewing industry and his company’s grand opening during a Studio(i) interview.

Continued Below…

City Brewery launches new craft beer series

City Brewery is pumping almost 500 barrels of new, craft-brewed life into the La Crosse brand name.

La Crosse Session Series Amber Lager will hit area shelves and bars over the next week. The beer represents the re-entry of City Brewery Brands — owned by one of the brewery’s owners, Ralph Morello — in the craft market.

“We’re trying to be a little innovative,” brand sales director Don Morello said. “This is a whole new adventure for us.”

The amber lager will be a year-round offering that will likely be joined, eventually, by two other flagship craft brews, plus seasonal offerings. Six-pack cans should retail for about $6.99, and several local bars will have the beer on tap. Bottles will be offered in late June or early July.

This first offering hopes to marry “sessionability” — how drinkable a beer is — with flavor.

“It’s a very drinkable beer, just in time for summer,” brewmaster Randy Hughes said.

Because the brewery is built for larger production, to-scale recipe trials were done with employees’ home brewing supplies, searching for the “sweet spot” between flavor and fullness.

On the first production batch, Hughes oversaw an almost 500-barrel risk. But they ended up with exactly what they were looking for.

“The balance just brings it all together,” he said.

The former G. Heileman Brewery fell on hard times in the late 1990s and sold off its locally owned beer brands in 2007, although they remained with one of the brewery’s part-owners. Since then, it’s found new life as a contract brewer of beers, malt beverages and non-alcoholic drinks.

It is still contracted to make several craft brews, and produced the “Golden Leaf” line of craft brews, an update to an old Heileman’s line, from 2003-2006. More recently, it brewed City Brewery Festbier, which will likely be folded into the new line.

“La Crosse has always been synonymous with great beer,” Don Morello said. “Some of that’s been lost over the years.”

While the new amber lager accounts for less than 1 percent of the brewery’s overall output, it hopes to grow that share to 3 or 4 percent, first in Wisconsin and eventually outside the state through the City Brewery Brands’ network.

Marketing has yet to ramp up for the line, but attendees at April’s Between the Bluffs Beer, Wine, and Cheese Fest got an early taste of the brew. It received rave reviews, Hughes said. Kramers on Third Street near the brewery already has it on tap.

“Grand liaisons,” will be distributing drink chips good for an amber lager at bars, and Don Morello hopes to kick off other marketing efforts soon.

The choice to open the line with an amber was easy, Hughes said.

“Ambers are one of the hotter styles out there right now,” he said, plus the beer characteristics offered a chance to blend taste and drinkability.

The new offering has rejuvenated the brewery staff and rekindled a sense of pride. Producing national lines and more traditional brews “pays the bills,” Hughes said, but local crafts are more exciting.

“It’s like the old days again.”