E-Malt.com News article: USA, NJ: New Jersey craft brewers want law change to boost sales

In 1995, when Timothy Hall opened a tiny brewery at The Ship Inn in Milford, interest in New Jersey brewpubs had nowhere to go but up, Lehighvalleylive.com reported on March, 10.

His brewpub was the first in New Jersey since Prohibition, he said, and while The Ship Inn is unlikely to rival Anheuser-Busch and other beer giants, more customers than ever want his niche beers.

"We've gotten more appeal to the masses," he said of growth in the craft beer industry during the last 17 years. "The customer palate has become quite more educated."

Now that demand is up, Hall's problem is that he can't bring his beer to the people who want it.

A bill making its way through the state Legislature aims to lift New Jersey brewpub limits that include allowing sales only on-site, meaning at the brewery or the restaurant attached to it.

Under existing law, Hall can't act on his plan to sell six kegs a week to a distributor in New York to gain exposure there. Nor can he brew a signature beer he has in mind for neighboring Milford Oyster House to sell.

Senate bill S641, designed to enhance New Jersey's craft brewing industry, passed the Senate Law and Public Safety Committee last week. An identical bill, A1277, is before the state Assembly. Committee approval is one step toward legislative approval that sends the bill to the governor for his signature.

The proposal more than triples the amount of beer brewpubs can make annually, from 3,000 barrels to 10,000. It would also allow brewpubs to sell their beer wholesale rather than only on-site; to have as many as 10 locations instead of two; and to provide samples at fairs or charity events with a permit.

Also under the bill, microbreweries would be allowed to sell beer at the brewery, which is currently prohibited.

Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose, a sponsor for the Assembly bill, said the legislation would "take the shackles off" New Jersey's craft beer industry, which wants more opportunity to market and sell its beer.

"Believe it or not, in this economy, the craft beer-brewing business in America is actually growing," said McHose, R-Warren/Sussex/Morris. "New Jersey can capitalize on this trend by enacting this bill."

She and the bill's sponsors cite ballooning demand for craft beer nationwide and point out that New Jersey lags in craft beer production.

Nationally, craft beer sales by volume shot up 12 percent from 2009 to 2010 even as beer sales dropped as a whole, according to the most recent statistics provided by the small-brewer advocate Brewers Association.

Pennsylvania ranks second and New York seventh in craft beer production, according to the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild. New Jersey is 32nd.

"The interest in craft beer has been fast-growing and our laws have not kept pace with demand," New Jersey state Sen. Donald Norcross, one of the bill's sponsors, said in a statement. "This unfortunately has stymied expansion of this successful industry at a time when companies are clamoring to be freed from our restrictive laws."

Gene Muller, who founded the Flying Fish microbrewery in Cherry Hill, N.J. in 1996, said what counts as a wide beer selection has changed dramatically.

"When we first opened, if there was a bar that had Flying Fish and Sam Adams, that was considered a beer bar," said Muller, who's also treasurer of the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild. "Now, in my neighborhood, I can walk to about 15 that have incredible draft selection. It's really come around."

But he said he holds beer festivals in Pennsylvania and Delaware because New Jersey limits when and how much beer can sell at them. He said the guild helped draft the legislation so the industry has more freedom to market itself.


14 March, 2012