Lexington, KY - Whether they realize it or not, beer drinkers across America have been privy to a renaissance over the past few decades. Craft beer, noted for incorporating unique and high quality ingredients and flavors, has been quietly staking its claim as the big kid on the domestic beer market, with 2009 marking the sixth straight year that it has outpaced the rest of the segment in terms of overall growth.
With Lexington restaurants, distributors and liquor stores steadily upping their quantity and selection of craft beer in recent years, local beer fans are finally getting their piece of the pie. Local restaurants and bars are starting to diversify their draught selection, and a number of local beer and liquor stores now sell "growlers," or large refillable jugs that customers can purchase to tote draught beer home (Shenanigans Wine & Spirits, located in The Lex apartment complex on South Broadway, and The Beer Trappe and Liquor Barn Express in Chevy Chase are a few examples of stores that have started offering this service within the past six months).
The changing landscape is welcomed by local beer enthusiasts, including Damon Coates, who moved here from Atlanta seven years ago to open the Lexington branch of Mellow Mushroom, a pizza pub that has long focused on predominantly craft beer from U.S. breweries. Located on South Upper Street, Mellow Mushroom features over 100 beer selections, 95 percent of which Coates estimates are craft beers, including all 21 taps.
"It is the greatest time in the history of the world to be a beer drinker," Coates said. He has noticed a significant increase in the local demand for a quality product when it comes to beer.
"When we first opened, I felt that the Lexington market was under-represented when it came to the craft beer that was on tap in restaurants," he said. "You could buy a large variety at the package stores, but there were not many places with a good selection of craft beer on tap. The Lexington market has definitely come a long way."
"The customer is getting smarter about beer," said Kevin Patterson,"resident beer guide" at The Beer Trappe, a boutique beer dispensary on Euclid Avenue that features eight rotating taps and a selection of nearly 500 bottles of hard-to-find craft beer. "They've been smart about wine and spirits for a long long time, but they've recently realized that there's a lot of momentum in craft beer."
It's a momentum that has moved beyond the keg party and into the courthouse - this past June, the Michigan Senate passed a resolution to recognize July as Craft Beer Month in that state, and earlier in the summer, the U.S. Congress passed House Resolution 1297, which officially "recognizes the significant contributions of craft brewers to the economy of the United States".
Craft beer may represent a relatively small segment of the overall beer market, but while beer sales are down overall, it has been growing at a rapid pace in recent years, even while overall beer sales are down.
"For the first time in its history, craft beer saw a 10 percent increase last year, even in a recession," Patterson continued. "That was a huge milestone for craft beer to overcome - they didn't think they would be able to do that this decade."
Patterson, who is involved with the Cicerone Certification Program (a certification of expertise on par with a sommelier, but focusing on beer rather than wine - for more information, visit www.cicerone.org), said that the national surge is attributed to a number of factors, starting with the fact that people are beginning to pare down from high end spirits.
"You can find as good of quality as a high end spirit in a high end beer, at a fraction of the cost," he said. He added that with the recent boost in culinary interest, as evidenced by the influx of television shows, magazines and other media devoted to food,
it's only fitting that an increased enthusiasm about beverages would follow.
"People are in love with flavor - high quality flavor," Patterson said. "It's just natural that they would tap into beers. Looking at wines, cheeses, chocolates, I think that beer can be a big part of that too."
Larry Dean, general manager for Wines on Vine, noted a rise in the local awareness of beer as a drink that is compatible with more and more food items.
"People seem to drink less, but want more taste," he said. Though beer is not the primary focus of Wines on Vine, a bar and restaurant on Old Vine Street, with an adjacent wine shop, approximately 85 percent of the bar's beer selection consists of craft or import beer, including a self-service style refrigerator with a large selection of bottled beers. The restaurant features regular beer tastings, which often sell out, as well as featuring "choose your own" 6-packs, giving customers the option of mixing and matching bottled beers to go.
The American craft beer movement was born in the 1970s, after highly effective marketing campaigns by major corporations started to mold the tastes of the American public around the light lagers that remain popular to this day (Patterson calls them "industrial beers"). As the national beer industry consolidated to fewer than 50 brewing companies nationwide, a grassroots home brewing culture started to emerge in response. From that culture, entrepreneurs started opening small brewing companies, with the intent to impart more flavor and diversity into the beer selection that was available to the public. The movement enjoyed a small but steady growth for many years, and has experienced a significant surge since 2000, with the number of craft breweries having grown from eight in 1980 to more than 1,600 today.
Lexington's home brewing culture largely centers around the organization BOCK (Brewers of Central Kentucky), which has been in place since 1994 and hosts regular monthly meetings for members to exchange brewing tips and other resources (visit www.bockbrew.com for more information). Patterson, who has been an active member of BOCK for 10 years, recalls that his love affair with beer began about 15 years ago, soon after he turned 21. One of his best friends in college happened to be a guy whose taste in beer was a bit more affluent than many college students at the time.
"He was a little bit older, and he didn't like Miller and Coors - he liked Guinness and Harp and Bass," Patterson said. "We would go out and drink those beers when we were done with our school work."
Eventually, a school assignment took the friends out to Portland, Ore., which has long been a big hub for microbreweries and craft beers.
While he was out there, Patterson fell in love with Sierra Nevada's pale ale, which was, at the time, a microbrew he had never tried before. The beer found its way into the market across the country within six months or so after that trip, and is now so widely produced it isn't technically considered a microbrew (microbreweries are defined as producing fewer than 15,000 barrels a year).
"That pale ale took me to other pale ales, and I started liking India pale ales (IPAs), which is a more bitter pale ale. Then I just learned that there's so many different wonderful styles - why limit yourself to just a few?" he said. "I don't have any beef with Bud, Miller or Coors, but it's just one narrow style of beer - try them all and see what you like."
Patterson may not have beef with Bud, Miller or Coors, but you certainly won't find those beers stocked at The Beer Trappe. After opening in May, the shop became the first and only store in Lexington to focus exclusively on craft beer -
with the exception of specialty glassware and memorabilia, craft beer is the only product they carry. The store is the brainchild of 24-year-old owner Brett Behr, whom Patterson credits with having made the right connections with the right people, including some beer distributors who specialize in craft imports that are difficult to find in the country, let alone in Kentucky.
"It's a beneficial relationship, and allows us to get some highly sought after, hard-to-get beers," Patterson said.
Behr may have been instilled with a diverse palate and deep appreciation for beer by his father, Pazzo's Pizza Pub owner Tom Behr, but the idea to combine hard-to-find draught beer and bottles was inspired by the increasing number of shops across the country that are following the model. The inspiration from the shop's design came from visiting a number of brew pubs and shops on a recent trip to Europe, particularly in Belguim, the country that makes up the second-highest concentration of bottled beers in The Beer Trappe's selection (the United States is first, with about 30 breweries represented).
Most customers at the Beer Trappe come in with an open mind and a genuine interest in expanding their beer palate. Many start by naming a beer they like and asking for something similar; oftentimes they want to branch out and try something new altogether.
"They're on this journey with us," Patterson said. "I'm still learning, and they are too."