Rogue Spirits

We have road maps – Craft beer, craft cheese, craft coffee, craft tea – on and on.

The big guys will always knock off the best characteristics of craft and claim as their own via bigger marketing budgets, or if nothing else confuse the consumer.

Ultimately they will fail when consumer 1. Catches them lying. 2. Gets educated.

I was on the Board of Brewers Association for 6 years dealing with this same issue – result – small independent, traditional; translate no rice-no big guy ownership/share, size limit tied to federal law.

If going down the definition road/Good Housekeeping Seal of Small Distiller:

Expect a counter attack on "Small" distillers who – Have big distillers Shareholders, rectify, do not distill, do not have distilleries.

The definition will take time – in the meantime as individuals and ADI as our Club need to be more active on the PR front – NOW.

With the recent Moon Mountain discussion here and the growing interest by large producers to create brands that look & feel like they're crafted by small producers, I recently spoke with Bill Owens about simple, cost-effective ways we could help consumers and the trade identify the genuine article.

The idea I mentioned involved branding bottles of spirits produced by qualified micro spirits makers -- e.g., those who sell less than 60,000 PGs per year -- with a sticker that would clearly identify them as "certified micro spirits."

This approach, where ADI would issue certification of each producer's "micro" status, would offer us a number of advantages:

- easy marketability to consumers and trade buyers for our brands and the category and

- a more defensible barrier to entry against big producers than trying to claim terms like "craft", "artisan" or "small batch" for micro spirits producers' exclusive use (though that would be great, too).

There would be some costs, as well, for instance:

- obtaining certification as a micro spirits producer from ADI

- buying and placing the stickers on our bottles

- changing our label art (for simpler production down the road)

I invite all to comment on this approach to promoting and protecting our turf (as well as my attempt to create the stick art). The next ADI meeting is a few months away and, if we get consensus that this is a worthwhile idea, I'd like us to have a more formal discussion there about implementing it.

Melkon

BI Model.

There is a model for the DISCUS - Artisan Distillers relationship.

Fritz know about it. The craft brewers have 1 seat, 5 ex-official seats on the Beer institute board. We pay next to nothing for dues. Had this relationship for 10 plus years. Works well – if want further info.

Craft Brewer Definition developed by the Brewers Association:

An American craft brewer is small, independent, and traditional.

Small: Annual production of beer less than 2 million barrels. Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to the rules of alternating proprietorships. Flavored malt beverages are not considered beer for purposes of this definition.

Independent: Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer.

Traditional: A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewers brands) or has at least 50% of it’s volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.

Microbrewery: A brewery that produces less than 15,000 barrels (17,600 hectoliters) of beer per year. Microbreweries sell to the public by one or more of the following methods: the traditional three-tier system (brewer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer); the two-tier system (brewer acting as wholesaler to retailer to consumer); and, directly to the consumer through carryouts and/or on-site tap-room or restaurant sales.

Brewpub: A restaurant-brewery that sells 25% or more of its beer on site. The beer is brewed primarily for sale in the restaurant and bar. The beer is often dispensed directly from the brewery's storage tanks. Where allowed by law, brewpubs often sell beer "to go" and /or distribute to off site accounts. Note: BA re-categorizes a company as a microbrewery if its off-site (distributed) beer sales exceed 75 percent.

Contract Brewing Company: A business that hires another brewery to produce its beer. It can also be a brewery that hires another brewery to produce additional beer. The contract brewing company handles marketing, sales, and distribution of its beer, while generally leaving the brewing and packaging to its producer-brewery (which, confusingly, is also sometimes referred to as a contract brewery).

Regional Craft Brewery: An independent brewery with an annual beer production of between 15,000 and 2,000,000 barrels who has either an all malt flagship or has at least 50% of it's volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.

Last updated on 12/14/07

How do craft brewers make beer?

Craft beer is made using a traditional process of blending the sugars from malted grains (such as barley or wheat), with hop flowers and water. The skill of the Masterbrewer brings out the desired aroma, color, mouth feel, foam and flavor qualities of the hops and malt through formulation of recipes and the fermentation of sugars into alcohol, carbon dioxide gas and other characters. After careful aging at just the right temperatures the beer is packaged and delivered to the consumer.

Craft-brewed beers are usually not pasteurized, but often go through a filtration process to improve clarity. But this is not always the case. Many craft-brewed beers are not filtered and you may experience what's called a tasteless "chill-haze or protein-haze" in unfiltered beer. Some craft beers may also still have yeast present either in suspension or as sediment, increasing its appeal to beer enthusiasts that enjoy these characters.

Does the beer made by craft brewers taste different? If so why?

It's hard to generalize about the taste of beer, but nevertheless we might say that beers from America's craft brewers will usually have a fuller more complex flavor than the typical light American lager style of beer popular throughout the world. Because of the increased percentage of specialty malt and hop ingredients you are going to experience flavors and aromas not found in light American style lagers.

The aroma of the beer may remind you of citrus, flowers or herbs. This is attributable to how the Masterbrewer utilizes the delicate characters of the hop flower. You may also smell caramel, sweet biscuits, cocoa, coffee-like character, honey, fresh baked cookies - all pleasant sweet notes contributed to by the skillful selection of specialty toasted and roasted malted barley.

And there's even more you'll discover with the Masterbrewers use of specialty yeasts whose delicate byproducts of fermentation result in sensual aromatic and flavor characters such as clove, spice, banana, strawberry, apples and more.

As a member of the Board of the BA (Brewers Association) when they defined craft, I learned

1. Any organization must have a definition for membership. ie. Am. Distillers

2. Festivals ie. GADF (Great American Distillers Festival) can and maybe should have standards for entry. 3. Competitions should have category standards.

4. The consuming public and retailers

5. The grey will never go away.

6. To get to issue have to name names. Who are we excluding – ie What Bill calls merchant bottlers, Sub Rosa,

Hood River Distilling

7. Good to face early on – type BA definition excluded many we loved: Widmer, Red Hook, Kona, Goose, Lennies

The following is meant as a jumping off point, though it does seem to cover the meat of the subject. Time to define the terms: "craft" and "artisan" distillers. Here's my first attempt. Comments welcome.

****

PROPOSED DEFINITION OF "CRAFT" OR "ARTISAN" DISTILLER

"Craft distillers produce alcoholic beverage spirits by distillation, or by infusion through distillation or redistillation. Maximum production for a "craft" or "artisan" distiller should not exceed 50,000 proof gallons per year. The "craft" or "artisan" distiller utilizes a pot still, with or without rectifcation columns, for distillation of beverage spirits. A distiller starting with neutral spirits produced by others, who redistills without substantially altering the neutral character of the spirit may not be said to be a "craft" or "artisan" distiller.

***

This definition deliberately excludes producers of infused products making use of alcohol which the producer has not made from the fermentation and/or distillation process. It is inclusive of the distiller who starts with grain neutral spirits and then redistills as a function of infusion or some other process which substantially alters the neutral character of the original spirit. It excludes the distiller who starts with gns and merely runs it through a still again to create another neutral spirit; or starting with grain neutral spirits only adds flavoring and/or color unless those changes are introduced as the result of distillation, not merely as additives. It excludes blenders or bottlers who buy spirits from another distiller to blend and bottle it under another brand. The "distiller" must distill.

Ralph Erenzo

Tuthilltown Spirits

Gardiner, NY