Craft beer in 2013 – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

ACB is a consortium of writers, artists, industry professionals, and dangerous hopheads that cover the craft beer scene for us and for you. Many of them are based in different cities and they all come with differing interests and perspectives as to what’s important in the world of craft beer. So we asked them to look back at 2013 – and give us some of their highlights and lowlights – and got so much back from them that we were forced to break things up into three separate articles that we’ll be running throughout this week.

So fasten your seat belt and welcome to the first in what’s fast becoming a series – Craft beer in 2013 – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Tom Bobak – Editor-In Chief – Washington, DC

The Good – From a national perspective, 2013 saw many states throughout the country necessarily addressing archaic alcohol regulations and adopting more reasonable craft beer and small business-friendly statutes in their regions.

The Bad – Some states continue to support the most ridiculous laws. Case in point – although Florida currently allows for growlers to be sold in 32 oz. and 128 oz. sizes, they for some inextricable reason continue to ban the popular, mid-sized 64 oz. container.

The Ugly – With more craft breweries than ever before operating within the continental United States, naming disputes and craft beer litigation issues are only going to increase. With brewery startups cropping up almost daily, business plans and visions will increasingly collide, and with that will come even more legal challenges.

Lindsay Snyder – Wisconsin Correspondent

The Good – Brewing in Madison has taken flight this year, with multiple new breweries having opened their doors to an adoring public (Next Door, Mobcraft, Wisconsin Brewing Company, to name a few). The support of pub owners throughout the city who put these promising breweries on tap almost immediately sets the tone for a city rich in crafts and craft-lovers.

The Bad – As delicious as much of the beer is, Wisconsin is also home to many odd traditions and prohibition-era lagers that haven’t changed their recipes since they were secretly brewed in a basement bathtub. Schlitz, Blatz, and PBR with a pickled egg are products of our state. We’re sorry.

The Ugly – We all appreciate the pubs opening their tap lines to new and different Madison crafts, but I’m getting a little tired of sprinting to the liquor store at 8:58 PM on a Friday night because of some legal mumbo-jumbo backed by a robust league of bars, who prefer that I drink at their establishments than at home. Seriously, have you ever heard of a county-wide 9:00 PM liquor store closing time?

Jessica Fender – San Francisco Correspondent

The Good – The Bay Area saw a spate of high-quality new breweries open their doors in 2013 – from massive operations like Faction to micros like Pine Street and specialty brewers like the sour-focused Rare Barrel. The new additions added not just more barrels to the beer scene, but also variety. And that’s what craft devotees thirst for most. We also saw a trend toward limited-edition collaborations shaking things up. The stellar Saison Boston Tea Party – team brewed by Cervecería de MateVeza and Sam Adams – comes to mind. And we hear Mikkeller, which opened its SF digs last year, decided to brew up a peppery pilsner for (personal fav) Mission Chinese, due out in February. But please guys; can we ditch the restaurant’s plastic cups for the occasion?

The Bad – Rising tides may raise all ships, but they also make it a lot tougher to get a beer at your favorite watering hole. The bigger and the busier the best breweries, bars, and bottle shops get, the less likely we are to run into owners or be able to chat up our favorite beer slingers. Chalk it up to progress, I guess. What’s truly bad is the advent of the over-priced beer venues taking advantage of craft beer ingénues who don’t realize the $20 they’re paying for 6 oz. of Deus is a boondoggle of the highest degree. (And, god forbid you’re unlucky enough to buy a skunked bottle. These joints may mark up like wine, but many are not honoring their product like it.)

The Ugly – While many homebrewers are quite attractive, they go in the “ugly” category because they do their work in grungy basements and the best of them (admirably) jury-rig their systems together with mutilated kegs, two-by-fours, and whatever other salvage is on hand. 2013 marked the rise of the homebrewer in the Bay Area. In San Francisco alone, the hackspace and brew school run by BrewlabSF marked its two-year anniversary and the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild doubled in size in its first year. Super selective Sirwisa Brewing Collective even helped put together the first homebrew-focused tasting event for SF Beer Week, which technically is coming up in 2014. But I’m pretty sure they started planning it last year.