Spring has sprung! And with it comes another issue of The Beer Connoisseur.

In addition to the stories and news you’ve come to expect, our Innovators Series features Flying Saucer and Meddlesome Moth’s resident “Beer Guru” Keith Schlabs, who shares his unique vantage point on the business of the fizziness and where beer and life intersect.

Jonathan Ingram opines on the growing number of craft beer billionaires in Connoisseur’s Corner before tracking down the head of Breckenridge Brewery, Todd Usry, to discuss its recent acquisition by AB InBev, while Sherry Dryja stirs up some spicy brunch ideas with a caliente Tex-Mex Beer Brunch, and Greg Nagel is on a “mission from God” to play with The Brews Brothers: Coffee and Beer.

We’ll then strike westward to commune with Jon Lee of Utah’s Wasatch Brewery and Squatters Craft Beers, to see how he stays busy in the “Beehive state” before we pack our bags for Ohio, where Kevin Gray showcases Carillon Brewing Co., a brewery that makes historical ales “the really hard way.”

We also get a little introspective, asking some of our friends in the beer industry: “What is a Beer Connoisseur?” Their answers may surprise you.

Sherry Dryja

Sherry is a travel writer, lifelong traveler and taster of life. A reformed cookie scorcher, she now shows others how to avoid kitchen failures, occasionally teaching baking classes and catering small events. To know her is to be recruited as a taste tester for the recipes she develops for The Beer Connoisseur and her blog, Kitchen Dilettante. She and her husband split their time between Seattle and Phoenix with their miniature schnauzer, Lukas.

Click here to read Sherry's article. 

Jonathan Ingram

Tiers for Beers

Northeast players Victory Brewing Company and Southern Tier Brewing Company have allied under parent company Artisanal Brewing Ventures, or ABV.

The move marks a new strategic model for craft breweries hoping to remain independent while pooling resources such as capital and distribution networks.

Under the ABV umbrella, Victory and Southern Tier will command a joint capacity of over 800,000 barrels of potential annual production, putting the ABV within the top 15 craft brewing companies in the United States, according to the 2015 Brewers Association criteria.

“The craft beer community is at its most critical moment since its inception as larger brewing corporations have bought into our grassroots movement, irrevocably changing the marketplace,” said Bill Covaleski, founder and brewmaster of Victory Brewing Company. “Like-minded brewers such as Victory and Southern Tier can preserve our character, culture and products by banding together. Allied we can continue to innovate and best serve the audience who fueled our growth through their loyal thirst.”

There are infinite points of entry into the beer business, but one you won’t see too often is “Beer Guru.” As a successful beer-focused restaurateur with more than twenty years of experience, Keith Schlabs has watched the metamorphosis of craft beer from a one-of-a-kind vantage point – interacting with brewers, distributors and the public at large – and gauging the ever-changing tides of taste. He spoke with The Beer Connoisseur about the state of the industry, and what it takes to be successful in life and beer.

“EXTRA-BEER-ESTRIAL”

Before co-founding the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, The Meddlesome Moth and four other restaurant concepts, Schlabs was a young restaurant manager in Texas. The year was 1993, and the beer universe was still fighting its way out of the primordial booze.

“A friend told me about the first brewpub in Texas,” said Schlabs to BC in a recent interview. “It was called Yegua Creek Brewing Company. I went to check it out, met the owner, and we pretty much made a handshake deal right there and then that I would co-manage for him.”

At that point, Schlabs was relatively inexperienced when it came to beer.

“One of my favorite beers was Sierra Nevada at the time,” he said. “So I had at least a foundation, but I realized there was a lot to learn.”

BC: What life lessons have you learned from brewing?

Lee: I think perhaps the biggest life lesson would be patience. Prior to developing my career in the industry, I don’t want to say I had none – but it wasn’t very much. Since we have to wait so long to taste and enjoy our hard work it’s something that has become integral to my success as well as the breweries'. I think my family might back me up on this one as well!

BC: Aside from quality and consistency, what are the keys to a successful brewery?

Lee: The number one key has to be the people. First and foremost we need to find the right person for the position and they have to be in a rewarding position. They can then go home and be proud of a full day of hard work. That means good compensation, benefits, and a good work environment that treats them with respect. Also, making great beer that we want to drink. If we don’t like it, why should we expect someone to want to give us his or her hard-earned money? The beer has to be good!

I’ll never forget the 2012 Great American Beer Festival. That was the year I went on a four­ session coffee beer bender in search of the country’s best. Up since 5 A.M., fueled by greasy airport food and adrenaline, I nervously gripped my plastic tasting cup and followed the freshly-practiced bagpipers into the vast, nearly ­empty festival floor – a good 15 minutes before 12,000 thirsty beer drinkers entered the festival to sample, trample and fart.

Needing a jolt, I stopped at a familiar face, Jon Porter of Smog City Brewing, who at the time was brewing out of Orange County’s Tustin Brewing Company. “Got any coffee beer?” I asked with a junkie’s smile. He nodded, nabbed my virgin cup and filled it full of foam. “Let it settle,” he said knowingly. The beer was Groundwork Coffee Porter, a near­-black beer that settled quickly into a crema­like espresso head. One whiff and the words “coffee aromatherapy” are what got jotted down on the first page of my crisp, new GABF media notebook.

Entries into the Coffee Beer category at the Great American Beer Fest have tripled over the past five years.

Connoisseur. It’s a difficult word to pronounce correctly, let alone spell. Is it two “s’s” and one “n?” Is there an “a” in there? And it doesn’t help that it’s a French word – if you’ve ever heard someone try to pronounce monsieur without sounding ridiculous, you know what I’m talking about.

The word’s dictionary definition, however, leaves little room for ambiguity. A connoisseur is “an expert judge in matters of taste.” While this definition works perfectly as a descriptor for the expert judges who rate beers for us every day, it seems a bit one-dimensional when it comes to craft beer fanatics.

Sure, I like making judgments about beer as much as the next Master Cicerone or Grand Master IV BJCP expert, but sometimes I just want to sit back with a hefty brew and ponder life’s complexities. Why are we here? Why did they create a sequel to Full House? Most importantly, what is a beer connoisseur?

When you hear the word, what image does your mind conjure? Is it just a word, or is it more of a way of life? We posed this question to industry professionals, craft beer enthusiasts and ourselves.

Read on fellow connoisseurs, and discover for yourselves.

Alternative Grain Beer

When one thinks about beer, a few simple descriptors immediately spring to mind: carbonated, alcoholic, crushable, etc. When one thinks about the ingredients found in beer, the same could probably be said: water, barley, hops and yeast. These four simple ingredients have led to thousands of years of beverage experimentation and they continue to be the baseline for the wonderful, avant-garde brews that pop up every day in the world of craft beer.

However, there is a growing cache of brewers that do not follow the ancient belief that to make a "capital-B" beer you have to use some combination of those ingredients. It also happens to be in-line with the general pushback against gluten in modern society.

Todd Usry is one of the new faces of craft beer, even though he’s been working at Breckenridge Brewery since 1990 when he started as a delivery truck driver for what was then a 3,000-barrel brewpub in one of Colorado’s ski towns.

As the recently named president at Breckenridge, Usry is committed to maintaining the quality and innovation that helped the brewery become one of the top brands in its beer-crazy home state and on the national scene. And, oh yes, he’ll be working in The High End division of Anheuser-Busch InBev.

It’s the recent acquisition by the world’s largest brewery that has reshaped Usry’s role in the brewing world. He’s still committed to flavorful and authentic beer, but many people who support craft beer think ownership by a mega brewer is anathema to the mission. There is the fear that mega brewers will try to muscle out independent regional operations as they did midway into the 20^th Century, when America was turned into a light lager desert.

A U.S. Senator, who long ago seemed to have a handle on what disturbed people most about the political process in Washington, once offered this line about the problem of budgets. “A billion here, a billion there,” he said, “and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”

That’s the tune that now seems to be humming through the craft beer community. A billion dollar deal here, a billion dollar deal there and pretty soon you’re talking about real beer money.

Last year, according to respected individuals who work on the financial side of the beer business, there were three major deals that figured in the billion dollar range. The best known was the purchase by the publicly-traded Constellation Brands of Ballast Point Brewing Company for $1 billion. Using the current metric of $3,000 per barrel as a pricing guide for breweries in demand, Tony Magee brought in $1 billion by selling a 50 percent stake of Lagunitas Brewing Company to Heineken International. Given similar metrics, Firestone Walker would have been worth close to $1 billion prior to Duvel Moortgat taking a majority interest.