It is no secret that the craft beer section at the supermarket is filled with beers from the major brewers: MillerCoors and ABinbev. Many of the staples you see at parties during the summer such as Leinenkugel and Blue Moon are all brewed by MillerCoors. Their popularity has led MillerCoors to launch a new Craft Beer and Import division, Tenth and Blake Beer Co.

“You are seeing a tremendous amount of consumers gravitating to craft beer,” [Tenth and Blake CEO Tom] Cardella said. “Consumers are being more discerning about beer.”

Although some consumers have traded down to less expensive beers during the extended economic downturn, a substantial number continue to seek greater variety and have turned to higher-margin craft and import brews, Cardella said.

MillerCoors executives see the move as a way to keep its sales growing as the economy slowly improves. Crafts and imports are outperforming MillerCoors’ premium flagship brands such as Miller Lite and Coors Light, which have posted flat or declining sales.

What an observation. Who knew that people cared about what kind of beer they were drinking? I believe this switch has much more to do with how the beer will be marketed and is an attempt to separate their craft beers from Miller and Coors brand. But I also wonder if a beer in such large scale production as the Blue Moon products is really “craft beer.”

The Blue Moon portfolio, which includes Belgian White, Rising Moon, Honey Moon, Harvest Moon and Full Moon, has been growing at a clip of more than 20 percent in 2010, Cardella said. MillerCoors is expected to produce about 1.5 million barrels of Blue Moon products this year.

Regardless of motivation, I’m sure we’ll all get to see some new and exciting marketing for these beers in the future. Just imagine if Blue Moon Summer Sampler had a window on the side so you could see what your were drinking? or maybe the moon will turn blue when your beer is cold?

In yesterday’s Atlantic, a reader took quite a bit of time to call out writer Erik Kain’s article from Balloon Juice about the rise of the microbrewing industry and its connection to Jimmy Carter. As you may remember, I posted a graph from that article about the enormous spike after Carter supposedly deregulated the beer industry. Well, an Atlantic reader definitely doesn’t see it that way. Not one bit.

While I have immense admiration for President Carter, and would love to see him get the credit he deserves for all sorts of things (and who knows; now that Obama has officially supplanted him as History’s Greatest Monster, maybe he will), but E. D. Kain’s claim that Carter “deregulated the beer industry” (in Kain’s words) is grossly inaccurate. What Carter did sign was HR 1337, which legalized homebrewing “for personal or family use, and not for sale”–’deregulating’ individual, not commercial, behavior. The legalization of homebrewing did contribute to the growth of the craft beer industry (according to Charlie Papazian, 90% of the pioneer craft brewers started out making homebrew), so President Carter certainly deserves credit for that…but it just as certainly isn’t “beer industry” deregulation.

IMO, the step that really touched off the craft beer explosion was the legalization of brewpubs in various states–WA and CA in 1982, OR in 1983, with others following shortly thereafter. This is consistent with the graph, which shows a leap in numbers from 1979 to 1989 (meaning the growth could have started at any point during that decade); according to the American Brewers Association, the low point was 1982, meaning the turnaround actually began in 1983 (not 1979). Also: of the 1500 breweries in existence today, 2/3 are or began as brewpubs.

OK, good point. Sort of. Except for the fact that, you know, homebrewing almost always leads to the best microbreweries, much as reader Tom Hilton notes above. I was set to write a lengthy counterargument about why Hilton wasn’t much brighter than a stick, but sadly, Erik Kain responded before I got to, and essentially hammers my point home.

In the pre-Carter days there was little or no access to home brewing supplies, very little knowledge base for do-it-yourselfers to draw from, and far less experimentation with home brewing, making it effectively impossible to gain entry to the beer market for non-corporate brewers. Carter’s deregulation essentially stripped away all these barriers to entry, making it possible for a number of people who would otherwise not have entered the market to do so. Did deregulation of brewpubs also help lead to the craft beer explosion? Certainly. But as your reader notes, 90% of craft beers began as home brews. Without Carter’s deregulation, the brewpubs themselves would never have taken off. 90% of the craft brews we now have would never have existed. Even if this didn’t allow home brewers to directly sell their beer in the wider market, it allowed them to gain the skills and information necessary to do so.

Wooo, yeah! Suck on that, Hilton! All in all, this is kind of a funny Internet argument, and even more interesting than most YOU’RE AN IDIOT! NUH-UH YOU ARE! that floats around, so I like seeing a lively debate about craft beer and presidents. And not ones that involve beer summits.

So what do you think? Did Carter spearhead the craft brewery movement, or was he just given special acknowledgment for being President during a time where microbreweries spiked in popularity?

The Atlantic — Jimmy Carter: Not the King of Beers?

UPDATE AFTER THE JUMP

UPDATE: John Fleury from over at DCist points us to an article from Alex Mitchell at Beer in Baltimore where Mr. Mitchell also doesn’t quite agree with Mr. Kain’s original posting. The Atlantic has also now posted his sentiments. The money quote:

To apply the term “deregulated the beer industry” to the bill legalizing homebrewing is a supreme insult to the many hard-working zealots in the craft brewing avocation and industry–many of whom I’m proud to call friends, some of whom I’m on a first-name basis with–who personally lobbied for and shepherded the passage of numerous state laws actually permitting both homebrewing and the establishment of the microbreweries and brewpubs that give us reason to drink good beer. It’s an insult to those who still have to jump through local and state hurdles, reasonable and no, to set up and operate a brewpub or microbrewery, or even to brew beer at home.

Well, huzzah. I think now we’re looking at a stone-cold debate about how craft brewing came to be. I don’t really believe that Mr. Kain meant to say that without Jimmy Carter, we’d be a bunch of bumbling fools still disappointed with our Miller High Lifes, but Mitchell has a point that a lot of the grunt work was certainly done in the background through lobbying efforts and the sheer manpower of burgeoning craft brew stars. This happens with almost any type of legislation–with the more time that goes by, the easier it gets to heap the praise (or, in many cases, the consternation) unto one person. Did Jimmy Carter play a role? Yes. Was he the only actor? No. Are we happy there’s craft beer and lots of it? Very. See everyone at the bar this evening? Fantastic.

Poor Jimmy Carter gets a lot of flack for being one of the worst presidents in history. But yesterday was International Beer Day (damn, now I’ll have to find one of those Happy Belated International Beer Day cards at Hallmark to send out), and as this wonderful graph shows, Jimmy Carter was actually a spearhead in the craft brew renaissance.

If you’re a fan of craft beer and microbreweries as opposed to say Bud Light or Coors, you should say a little thank you to Jimmy Carter. Carter could very well be the hero of International Beer Day.

To make a long story short, prohibition led to the dismantling of many small breweries around the nation. When prohibition was lifted, government tightly regulated the market, and small scale producers were essentially shut out of the beer market altogether. Regulations imposed at the time greatly benefited the large beer makers. In 1979, Carter deregulated the beer industry, opening the market back up to craft brewers.

So we should probably all take a bit of time to reevaluate our feelings toward Mr. Carter and dedicate a pint toward him this weekend. Or at least spend a few minutes beefing up his Wikipedia page about his accomplishments in beer. That’s what the cool kids do these days.

Balloon Juice — International Beer Day

A new company has recently started operating in Montana: Taylored Adventures. I have often though of setting up some sort of Montana Craft Beer tour, but it looks like someone beat me to the punch. Taylored Adventures offers three unique tours around different areas of Montana (and a short jaunt into Wyoming). The tours focus on seeing the great outdoors, one includes a bike down the Beartooth Highway, as well as experiencing all the great Craft Beers brewers around the state have to offer.

Mike Taylor [the proprietor of Taylored Adventures] has been organizing college activities and tours for over twenty years at the State University of New York, University of Hawaii, University of Oregon and Northwest College in Wyoming.

His trip leadership experience includes: New York City/New England Tours, Hawaii Adventure Travel, Montana Ski Tours, Australia and the Cook Islands and more! He has also taught outdoor lifetime activities and sports including, Golf, Alpine, Telemark and Nordic Skiing, Snowboarding, Backpacking, Mountain Biking and Bicycle Touring. His interests include outdoor sports, photography, golf, travel, homebuilding, and beer tasting!

Although the tours are a bit out of my price range (they cost about $1400.00), they could be a great activity for when your beer loving extended family comes to visit. What better way to see Montana than with a few great Craft Brews in you!

In a year that saw a drop in overall U.S. beer sales, craft breweries rose to the challenge and saw a booming year. Beer sales dropped in the United States by about 5 million barrels in 2009. According to the Brewers Association however, Craft Brewers saw a 7.2 percent growth in volume, equaling almost 614,000 barrels.

“Beer lovers continue to find great value and enjoyment in fuller flavored craft beers,” said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. “Americans have an increasing appreciation of craft beers, and the growing number of brewers behind them. They’re eager to try the latest seasonal release and to sample a variety of beers from different breweries.”

There is a nice article over at Beer Advocate with some more statistics about craft beer and beer in general. Check it out!

Before launching BarBEERians.com, we spent a while thinking of catchy domain names people would remember, but craftbeer.com never crossed our mind, even though it is an obvious choice for a beer related website. Luckily, it wasn’t just sitting there unused. Unknown to most of us, the Brewers Association had been working on developing it into a website about craft beer, who would have guessed? For the decade long history of the domain name, there is a brief article on beernews.org.

I haven’t had a lot of time to play around on the site yet, but it seems to have some interesting feature and a nice design. Although it doesn’t appear to have daily content updates yet, it does promise to be a great resource for beer drinkers. Perhaps we’ll get some input from Steffen on what he thinks, being as he is our resident expert on the interweb.

We're counting down to Christmas with 12 beers that resonate with the feel of the holiday. Some beers were nice; some beers were naughty. This is The 12 Beers of Christmas. Enjoy!

Yesterday’s brew, the Seriously Bad Elf, was more of one you might get as a stocking stuffer or maybe to enjoy over a meal. Today, something more affordable and just as delicious: Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale. In my mind, I have this preconception that bigger breweries brew beer that is maybe not quite as tasty as what the small guys are putting out. Sierra Nevada has proved my wrong again! Their Celebration Ale is great and a perfect selection for a hoppy New Year.

This really is a beer to celebrate with. It’s a reddish amber with lots of carbonation, resulting in a frothy head with good retention, and it was not as dark as I had expected. I have constantly been surprised by how light these Christmas beers are. The nose was light and floral with a touch of fruit to it, a perfect prelude to the beer itself. At 6.8% ABV, the celebration was not too boozy in taste, but there is enough in there to warm you up. Maybe not at these sub-zero temperatures we’re seeing in Montana, but in Chico, I’m sure its fine. The ale was a full-bodied, well-rounded, smooth hop beer. Not overly sweet, but filling and with a bit of a fruity finish.

Sierra Nevada’s Celebration ale is definitely a beer worth celebrating (with). I can see myself picking up a few more of these to share with friends through the holiday season. Happy drinking, and don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for the third beer of Christmas!