PR Resource – Muarateweh.net

Ignore the gold medals and red-white-and-blue ribbons from beer competitions that decorate Mad Anthony Brewing Co.’s walls.

It’s not about the brewpub’s award-winning crabcakes or deep-dish Chicago pizza.

Quite simply, it’s about the beer – the craft brews the Fort Wayne establishment, 1109 Taylor St., has been producing since 1995.

“When I am on this side of town,” says Rodney Luckie of Fort Wayne, “I have to stop in here for the Old Fort. It’s that good. It’s worth the trip over here just for it.”

When Luckie’s friend, Clarence Wilkes, a Detroit resident, visits the Summit City, he usually takes a case of beer back with him.

“I can’t get this in the Motor City. I haven’t met a brew here I didn’t like,” Wilkes says

A microbrewery like Mad Anthony is defined as an establishment that produces fewer than 15,000 barrels of craft beer annually and that sells it for on-site consumption or carry-out, according to the Colorado-based Brewers Association.

Microbreweries can also have brewers deliver it to a wholesaler, who sells it to a retailer, or the brewer can act as a wholesaler and retailer.

The Brewers Association estimates national craft brew sales for 2006 at more than 6.6 million barrels (one barrel equals 31 gallons). That’s $4.2 billion in retail sales.

Craft beers – draft beer from pressurized kegs – are produced with 100 percent barley or wheat malt, or other fermentable ingredients to enhance the flavor.

“U.S. craft beers have really come on strong during the past five years,” says Justin Fisch, marketing director for U.S. Beverage, a Connecticut company that produces two craft beers.

“I predict import craft beers will be the next big trend here. Craft beers are following the same lead wines and spirits have taken. People are spending more money on those than they were 10 years ago.”

Plus, Games Magazine lists The BrewMaster Game on its Top 100 list in its buyer’s guide. The board game allows players to “create” their own beer, attend a beer festival and receive awards for their brew.

Although craft beers have been popular for a couple of decades, the industry has more kegs to be tapped.

“In 1980, there were a total of 42 breweries in America. That’s 42 breweries brewing all beer consumed,” says Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association, which tabulates industry data for craft brewers.

“Today, there are 1,400 breweries brewing craft beer. Those small, independent and traditional craft brewers have hit their stride. They are popping up all over the country.

“Craft beers offer choices. I believe it’s on a similar path like people purchasing bread, coffee and cheese. Once, there was only Wonder bread and Maxwell House coffee. Today, there are many bread and coffee choices. It’s nice consumers have those choices. Craft beers offer diverse choices for different beer tastes. Beer is the new wine, and it can go with just about any food.”

In the first six months of this year, the U.S. beer industry sold 1 million more barrels than were sold during the same period a year ago, says Gatza, adding that 400,000 of those barrels are produced by craft brewers.

Since starting Mad Anthony with Todd Graham and Jeff Neels, president Blaine Stuckey says their business has expanded from its original location on Broadway to include spots in Warsaw and Auburn. “There is still a lot of growth potential out there,” he says.

“When we started this, a lot of people were not into microbrews,” says Stuckey, who is also president of the Brewers of Indiana Guild, representing the state’s 20 microbreweries.

The Guild lists Indianapolis-based Broadripple Brew Club as the state’s first microbrewery. It opened in 1990.

“In the 10 years we’ve been doing this, we have grown each year,” Stuckey says. “As more people get educated about microbrews and experience the local flavors they offer, the major growth will be in the Midwest region. People are opening their eyes to beer and we have to step up.”

One way to step up, Stuckey says, is exposing people to craft beers by hosting beer-tastings, similar to wine samplings. He says big breweries are acknowledging the effect craft beers are having in the market by adopting the “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach.

“They have a financial interest in some microbreweries. They are making their own beers. This is a market that can rock out for years to come,” Stuckey says. “All we do here is make beer. The restaurants are good, but we make beer and sell beer. We want to keep doing that for a long time to come.

“You would hear people complain there was nothing going on in Fort Wayne, and maybe I was one of those people. I wanted to take what was happening outside of Fort Wayne and bring it to Fort Wayne. That’s what we did with craft beer. When people come in here, we want it to feel like the pub they know in their own neighborhood. We really believe we are the NFL: Natural, Fresh and Local.”

Craft beer flavors range from those “as dark as motor-engine oil with a milkshake texture, to one that taste like burnt breakfast toast, to a sour red blend that has been aged in a wooden cask,” says Julie Bradford, editor of the North Carolina-based All About Beer Magazine.

The difference between beers produced by big breweries and microbrewers comes down to taste, she says.

“Anheuser-Busch makes a very good beer. It’s clean and consistent,” says Bradford during a telephone interview. “Craft beers make up the difference because they are complex beers. What makes them attractive are those beers are unique to an area. You usually can’t get them anywhere else. I think some people take brewpubs for granted. A locally made beer has its own story. That gives a town real charm.”

Because craft brews – which are popping up these days at groceries and convenience stores – are made in smaller quantities, people pay a little more for them, says Fisch, of U.S. Beverage.

“People are trading up to premium beers, import beers and craft beers. They want to try a different style of beer, and craft beer provides that,” says Fisch, from his Connecticut office.

And some people will get adventurous with brews at home.

After serving as a doctor in the Air National Guard, when he returned to Fort Wayne from the gulf war in 1991, Dave Holmes began making beer in his kitchen.

He would drink the homemade brew with his wife, Kristine, and friends.

“I liked making beer and I liked drinking wine or cocktails,” says the doctor, who founded Warbird Brewing Co. “My wife isn’t a big beer drinker, but she said she liked it and we could sell this. She’s the reason I am doing this. She thought it was great.”

That thought has blossomed into a company with distribution locally – at Flat Top Grill and J.K. O’Donnell’s Irish Ale House – throughout the state and in Pennsylvania.

Holmes does his brewing after leaving his doctor’s office.

“I love doing this,” he says, adding that his wife and two children also assist him in the company.

“This is all done by hand. It’s hand-crafted beer. It’s a great product and we are very proud of it. I am thrilled to be doing this. It hasn’t been about making money. It was a dream to make a good beer, and I’ve been blessed to pursue that dream.”

kjackson@jg.net
___
By K.O. Jackson
The Journal Gazette