Off Color Brewing in Chicago, focus on resurrecting styles that have been essentially extinct since the advent of
Reinheitsgebot
The (; ) is a series of regulations limiting the ingredients in beer in Germany and the states of the former Holy Roman Empire. The best known version of the law was adopted in Bavaria in 1516 (by William IV), but similar regulations predate the ...
in Germany.
Belgian beer
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...
styles have also been adapted by American breweries, including
saison
Saison ( French, "season," ) is a pale-colored ale that is highly carbonated, dry, fruity, spicy, and often bottle conditioned. It was historically brewed with low alcohol levels, but modern productions of the style have moderate to high leve ...
,
dubbel
The term dubbel (also double) is a Belgian Trappist beer naming convention. The origin of the dubbel was a strong version of a brown beer brewed in Westmalle Abbey in 1856, which is known to have been on sale to the public by June 1861. In 1926, ...
,
tripel
Tripel is a term used by brewers mainly in the Low Countries, some other European countries, and the U.S. to describe a strong pale ale, loosely in the style of '' Westmalle Tripel''. The origin of the term is unknown, though the main theory i ...
, and
Belgian strong ale
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...
.
The lighter of these (saison, golden strong ale and tripel) beers have soft malt flavors and mild to strong "spicy" characteristics that come from yeast or the addition of spices. The darker of these beers (dubbel and dark strong ale) may have flavors of dried fruit that derives from the malts, yeast and sugar used to make them. All of these beers are high in carbonation and low in hop character.
Witbier
Wheat beer is a top-fermented beer which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley. The two main varieties are German and Belgian ; other types include Lambic (made with wild yeast), Berliner Weisse (a ...
, a style nearly extinct until reintroduced by Belgian brewer
Pierre Celis
Pierre Celis (, 21 March 1925 – 9 April 2011) was a Belgian brewer who opened his first brewery in 1966 to revive the wit beer style in his hometown of Hoegaarden.
Early life
Celis was born on 21 March 1925 in his family home on the edge of ...
in the 1960s, is one of the top-selling craft beer styles in the United States.
Brewery Ommegang
Brewery Ommegang is a brewery located near Cooperstown, New York, United States, that specializes in Belgian-style ales.
History
Ommegang began brewing Belgian-style ales in 1997. It was founded by Don Feinberg and Wendy Littlefield, owners ...
,
Jolly Pumpkin, and
The Bruery
The Bruery is an American brewing company based in Placentia, California, founded by Patrick Rue and named as a portmanteau of his family name and the word "brewery". It opened in 2008 and has produced an average of 2,500 barrels of beer annual ...
are other examples of breweries that produce Belgian-inspired beers. In 2014, Spencer Brewery, opened by the monks of
St. Joseph's Abbey
St. Joseph's Abbey is a Trappist monastery in Spencer, Massachusetts. The community of monks was founded in 1825 in Nova Scotia, Canada. In the early 20th Century, they moved to Rhode Island, and then in 1950 decided to move to Spencer. The monks ...
in
Spencer, Massachusetts
Spencer is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,992 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census.
For geographic and demographic information on the census-designated pl ...
, became the first certified
Trappist brewery
Trappist beer is brewed by Trappist monks. Thirteen Trappist monasteries—six in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, and one each in Austria, Italy, England, France, and Spain— produce beer, but the ''Authentic Trappist Product'' label is assigned ...
outside of Europe.
Pale lager and malt liquor
While craft brewing companies with myriad style offerings continue to gain market share, the best-selling style of beer made in the U.S. is still
pale lager
Pale lager is a pale-to- golden lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness.
In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmayr took British pale ale brewing and malt making techniques back to the Spaten Bre ...
, most often made by most large-scale brewers, including
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian Multinational corporation, multinational Drink industry, drink and brewing company, brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. It is the largest brewer in the world, and in 20 ...
and
MillerCoors
MillerCoors was a beer brewing company in the United States. MillerCoors was formed in 2008 as a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors to combine their brewing, marketing and sales operations in the United States. The company was acqu ...
. These large-scale brewers also produce other popular styles, often relatively light in body, flavor and calories.
Light beer
Light beer (sometimes spelled lite beer) is a pale lager that is reduced in ethanol, alcohol content or calories compared to regular beers.
Light beer began to be mass marketed in the United States in the early 1970s, following test marketing and ...
, which was introduced on a large scale by Miller Brewing Company in the early 1970s, is a beer made with reduced alcohol and carbohydrate content, and has grown to eclipse many of the original pale lager brands in sales.
Bud Light
Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016.
The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in oth ...
, brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev, was the top-selling beer in the United States.
Ice beer
Ice beer is a beer that has undergone some degree of freezing during production. These beers generally have a higher alcohol content, and lower price relative to it.
The process of "icing" beer involves lowering the temperature until ice crystals ...
is an example which has been partially
freeze-distilled
Fractional freezing is a process used in process engineering and chemistry to Separation process, separate substances with different melting points. It can be done by partial melting of a solid, for example in zone melting, zone refining of sili ...
with the intention of concentrating flavor and alcohol. The technique is based on that used to make
Eisbock, but the two styles share no stylistic similarities (apart from both being lagers) otherwise.
Dry beer
Pale lager is a Pale (color), pale-to-Gold (color), golden lager beer with a well-Attenuation (brewing), attenuated body and a varying degree of Hops#Noble hops, noble hop Bitterness (taste), bitterness.
In the mid-19th century, Gabriel Sedlmay ...
, a Japanese style based on pale lager, is also brewed by some American companies. In dry beer, the yeast is encouraged to consume more fermentables, resulting in a crisper finish and an unusually subtle hop flavor.
Malt liquor
In the United States of America, Malt liquor is a type of mass market beer with high alcohol content, (typically above 5%), made with malted barley and resembling those for American-style lagers.
Manufacture
Malt liquor is a strong lager or ale ...
is a high-ABV pale lager. It has often incited controversy due to its alcohol content, larger-sized containers, low prices, and advertising that frequently targets
inner city
The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...
neighborhoods.
Distribution
Beer distribution in America is divided into manufacturers,
wholesaler
Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...
s, and retailers. The
middle man
Middle man or Middleman or The Middle Men may refer to:
* an intermediary, which may be either a third party that offers intermediation services, or, in trade, entities or people offering value added services to a product, such as:
** a wholesaler ...
in this arrangement is a requirement of the laws in most states in order for more efficient taxation and regulation of the industry. Before
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
, beer was sold to the American people almost exclusively through saloons.
[Miller, Carl H. ''Breweries of Cleveland''. Cleveland: Schnitzelbank, 1998.] Patrons either drank their beverage in the bar or in some cases used "growlers" (large tin pails) to bring beer home from the saloon. The vast majority of saloons in America at this time were owned or controlled by
breweries
A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of be ...
. After the end of Prohibition in 1933, states passed laws regulating the sale of alcohol, inserting an intermediary between the brewer and retailer that did not exist before, known as the distributor, supplier, or wholesaler. Breweries produce the beer, distributors transport and sell it to retailers, and retailers sell it to the public. To ensure that the incentives that resulted in over-serving and corruption before Prohibition did not exist, states adopted provisions to ensure independence of manufacturing, wholesaling, and retailing in the beer industry. Delaware's Code of law states that "It shall be unlawful for a manufacturer or supplier…to own or be interested in any manner in any establishment licensed by the Commissioner to sell alcoholic liquors". This system gives the states more control over alcohol sales than before because now market participants at each of the three steps need state license to do business.
Under the three-tier system taxes could be levied at three levels of the beer distribution process. Breweries pay a federal
excise tax
file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...
. Distributors are taxed by the states (usually on a per volume basis), and then retailers have to pay a
sales tax
A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
. While this adds much to the price of beer, it was believed higher beer prices would lead to temperance. Small breweries like this system because it ensures that large breweries cannot control the distributors and block them from the market. Tax rates vary from state to state;
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
taxes wholesalers on volume ($4.21 per barrel) and on sales (17% of the wholesale selling price). A
Standard and Poor
S&P Global Ratings (previously Standard & Poor's and informally known as S&P) is an American credit rating agency (CRA) and a division of S&P Global that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks, bonds, and commodities. S&P is consi ...
analysis estimated that all the taxes levied during the manufacture, distribution, and retailing of beer adds up to 44% of the retail price.
Another issue is the deterioration of independence between the breweries and distributors. Most distributors even label themselves as "
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC ( ) is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...
" or "
MillerCoors
MillerCoors was a beer brewing company in the United States. MillerCoors was formed in 2008 as a joint venture between SABMiller and Molson Coors to combine their brewing, marketing and sales operations in the United States. The company was acqu ...
" distributors, and recently
Anheuser-Busch InBev
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, known as AB InBev, is an American-Belgian Multinational corporation, multinational Drink industry, drink and brewing company, brewing company based in Leuven, Belgium. It is the largest brewer in the world, and in 20 ...
has strengthened incentives in its exclusivity program. While they lack the same degree of control as Pre-Prohibition times, manufacturers can still have substantial influence over what beers make it to shelves. In fact, one of the reasons InBev recently bought Anheuser-Busch was to gain access to its distribution channels. This lack of independence is especially threatening to small breweries, who claim that wholesaler independence is critical to making sure the success or failure of beer depends on consumer demand, not barriers to distribution. They would also like to see the ban lifted on contracts between brewers and wholesales, especially when they feel that incentive programs from the larger manufacturers have been getting around this ban for years.
Those pushing for a more open system of beer distribution often point to recent changes in the laws concerning wine sales. All but 11 states now allow wineries to ship directly to the consumer, cutting out the wholesale middle man. The reasoning behind these laws is that because of high shipping costs, only enthusiasts looking for high end, expensive wines are taking advantage of this method, eliminating the need for temperance-inducing increased costs.
Proposals to open up laws in the remaining 11 states are opposed by distributors and retailers who claim it would hurt small business, but supported by small breweries who hope the changes may spread to the beer industry as well.
See also
*
List of breweries in the United States
At the end of 2017, there were total 7,450 breweries in the United States, including 7,346 craft breweries subdivided into 2,594 brewpubs, 4,522 microbreweries, 230 regional craft breweries and 104 large/non-craft breweries. From 2017 data, ac ...
*
List of defunct breweries in the United States
At the end of 2017, there were a total of 7,450 brewery, breweries in the United States, including 7,346 craft breweries subdivided into 2,594 Microbrewery#Brewpub, brewpubs, 4,522 Microbrewery, microbreweries, 230 regional Microbrewery#Craft brew ...
*
National Beer Day (United States)
National Beer Day is celebrated in the United States every year on April 7, marking the day that the Cullen–Harrison Act came into force after having been signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 22, 1933. April 6, the da ...
References
;Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
A Concise History of America's Brewing Industry EH.Net
Library of beer historyfrom BeerHistory.com
History of American Beerfrom Beeradvocate.com.
Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) style guidelines
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