E-Malt.com News article: US, IL: Statehouse beer battle threatens new Springfield brewery

Many men fall in love with beer during their college days. For Chris Trudeau, beer became a passion.

As a result, Trudeau, 28, is finishing construction of Rolling Meadows Brewery, the Springfield area’s first microbrewery. Production started last week, and Trudeau hopes to start distributing Rolling Meadows beer in a month, The State Journal-Register posted on April, 26.

However, a legislative battle between small craft brewers and beer giant Anheuser-Busch could derail Trudeau’s dream.

“We just want to bring good, handmade beer to central Illinois,” Trudeau says. “We want a low-impact, environmentally-friendly way for people to enjoy beer close to home.”

Rolling Meadows brewery facility, which is complete except for the stairway, is on Trudeau’s family's 1,000-acre farm near Springfield.

Rolling Meadows aims to be green. Trudeau described it as a closed-loop system: the brewery feeds spent grain from the brewing process to the farm’s llamas and goats, uses the droppings as fertilizer for organically grown hops, and the hops go into the beer.

In a greenhouse near the two-story brewery, Trudeau grows adjuncts for use in flavoring the beer – vanilla beans and coriander. The farm also is experimenting with wheat and barley for use in brewing, the eventual goal being an estate beer made entirely with home-grown ingredients.

The first batch will be Springfield Wheat, a Belgian-style witbier (“white beer”) with notes of banana and citrus, so there’s “no need for a stupid orange slice,” Trudeau said.

The brewery has plans for two more Illinois-inspired brews: Lincoln Lager, which will change seasonally from golden to dark, and Abe’s Ale, a maple-syrup brown ale with a higher level of alcohol by volume.

For Trudeau, it all started five years ago while he was obtaining a degree in graphic design in Vancouver, Canada. On Granville Island, where he went to school, was Granville Island Brewery, which claims to be Canada's first microbrewery.

“We’d go there when class was done, and I began to think, ‘Whenever I leave school, I’d like to open a nice little microbrewery in Springfield,’” Trudeau said. “I just figured it (the city) could really use something like that.”

He began planning for the brewery in 2008. Construction of the facility began in October. Trudeau learned the trade by working with Half Acre Brewery in Chicago. His partner in the venture is his mother, Caren, who has been home-brewing beer for more than a decade.

The legislative struggle that could determine the fate of Rolling Meadows Brewery started after St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch tried last year to buy a Chicago beer distributor. Anheuser-Busch’s effort was thwarted by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, so it took the case to federal court.

The beer giant discovered that Illinois craft brewers were able to self-distribute, but out-of-state brewers weren’t given that same privilege.

Sales by craft brewers and other small beer producers have been growing in the United States for the last decade, while national brewers have had flat sales.

U.S. Judge Robert Dow Jr. gave the legislature a deadline to deal with the problem, but ruled that self-distribution rights would be taken away from all brewers in Illinois if no law was passed by May 31.

To that end, Senate Bill 754 would set the legal definition of a craft brewer and allow such small operations to self-distribute up to 7,500 barrels – the equivalent of 15,000 kegs – of beer.

Trudeau says Rolling Meadows does not anticipate brewing more than 1,000 barrels a year.

Anheuser-Busch opposes the measure. In a statement, company vice president Gary Rutledge wrote that the bill would unfairly stifle competition between brewers looking to distribute beer.

If nothing happens in the legislature, all brewers in Illinois will have to go through distributors.

“This is important for craft brewers … because they put so much money and resources into getting things up and running,” said Springfield native Ryan Hermes. Hermes, who now lives in Chicago, is a beer blogger and co-founder of a group called Save the Craft.

“In order to go through a distributor, to have them market your beer and get it into bars and restaurants and stores, you have to give them a chunk of your profit margin,” Hermes said.

Chris Trudeau declined to say how much his family has invested in the brewery – only that it is a sizable amount and his family has no outside investors.

However, he said, if Rolling Meadows has to sell through a distributor, the brewery’s profit margin would be reduced to the point where “we’d be doing a community service.”

Rolling Meadows already has local interest in its beer, from outlets ranging from Brewhaus, 617 E. Washington St. to American Harvest Eatery, 3241 W. Iles Ave.

“Our whole concept is local food, and you can’t get much more local than that,” said American Harvest Eatery chef Jordan Coffey. “As soon as production is in full swing, we plan on buying up everything we can.”

If Rolling Meadows has to go through a distributor, the beer will first have to be shipped from Springfield to a distribution center in Peoria and then back down to Springfield, Chris Trudeau said.

“This could possibly be the nail in the coffin for us,” he said.

Rolling Meadows has already purchased hundreds of kegs and bottles, has printed shirts, hats and beer glasses, and is having labels printed.

“I don’t feel like we’re a competitor with AB Inbev (the company formed by the 2008 buyout of Anheuser-Busch by Belgian brewer InBev),” he said. “We don’t want to take money away from them. We’re just a small business trying to get a foothold and have our beer be at the highest quality.”

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Distribution bill could receive vote soon

A measure to allow small craft breweries to continue to self-distribute small quantities of their beer will be called for a vote soon in the Illinois Senate.

Action on Senate Bill 754, which creates a legal definition for craft brewers and allows them to self-distribute a limited quantity of beer, was postponed two weeks ago by sponsor Sen. Donne Trotter, D-Chicago.

“Some of the participants wanted to have another discussion before we passed it,” Trotter said. He said that discussion has taken place, but “I’m not inclined to make any changes.”

The measure stems from a 2010 court case in which St. Louis-based beer giant Anheuser-Busch tried to purchase a Chicago distributor, was rebuffed by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and took its case to federal court.

Illinois law allows in-state craft brewers to self-distribute as much beer as they can, but all other brewers must use third-party distributors.

U.S. Judge Robert Dow Jr. struck down the self-distribution rules for craft brewers, but agreed to stay his decision to allow the legislature to address the problem. Dow imposed a May 31 deadline for the General Assembly to act.

If an agreement is not reached by then, no breweries will be allowed to self-distribute in Illinois.

To that end, Trotter’s proposal defines craft brewers as those that produce up to 465,000 gallons of beer a year and allows them to self-distribute 7,500 barrels – equivalent to 15,000 kegs – per year.

The bill is opposed by Anheuser-Busch. In a statement, company vice president Gary Rutledge wrote that the measure unfairly restricts competition among brewers trying to distribute beer.

The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild also opposes the bill. In a letter to the Senate Revenue Committee dated April 13, board member Matthew Potts – owner of Normal restaurant and brewery DESTHIL – wrote that the self-distribution limit should be the federally recognized limit of 60,000 barrels.

Potts was not available for further comment.

However, a beer blogger and co-founder of the Save the Craft movement, Ryan Hermes, said the proposal is necessary for small craft brewers to get a foothold in the market.

Because craft brewers are so small, hiring a distributor cuts too deeply into a craft brewer’s profits, and distributors aren’t always interested in working with very small breweries, Hermes said.

The Senate comes back in session on May 3.


27 April, 2011