At last, good things are brewing in Bama again

Pitcher This: At last, good things are brewing in Bama again

06-11-2008

After a long, thirsty year, Alabamans can again wet their whistles with beer brewed in their home state.

Just in time for the Magic City Brewfest a week and a half ago, Birmingham's Good People Brewing Co. started filling kegs and brought some of its brand-new brown ale to the festival.

This came just shy of a year since Alabama's previous lone brewery, Huntsville's Olde Towne, burned last July. The company is rebuilding in an all-new facility in South Huntsville. Before the festival, Olde Towne founder Don Alan Hankins said if everything remains on track the new plant could be shipping out bottles by mid-July.

That would make this a good summer indeed for beer in Alabama, especially after last year's blaze and the flaming defeat for a bill in the Legislature that would have made legal beer with more alcohol, and thus more of the beer styles brewers across the country are crafting for a public that apparently is thirsty for diversity. This year's version of the bill didn't become law either, but it did pass the House before stalling, along with everything else in the Senate. Count that a moving in the right direction.

Now with Olde Towne's impending revival and the emergence of Good People, there are tangible successes to toast in Alabama.

The small sample of Good People's brown ale I tasted in Birmingham was a well-balanced treat.

I sipped it while talking with Jason Malone, who described himself as the company's brewer, as well as an electrician, drywall hanger and painter in the effort to complete its small Southside-Birmingham facility. Trying to keep costs down, the small company did much of the work itself, all while clearing the red tape required by various levels of government and keeping an eye on the quality of their product.

Like many small brewers (and a number of big ones, too), Malone and his partners got their start brewing at home, he said. Eventually, they had enough people asking for their creations they figured they could turn it into a business.

While he's proud of the beers Good People is bringing to market, Malone itches for the creativity making beer in one's kitchen allows, which can result in "funky, interesting things."

"But at the end of the day I have to remember I'm not a homebrewer anymore," he said.

Good People plans to roll out pale and amber ales along with its brown, plus an India pale ale or hefeweizen as it distributes kegs to Southside-area restaurants in these first few weeks. Bottling may come later, Malone said, by contract since there's little room for the equipment where they operate now.

As Malone, red-bearded and baseball-capped, spoke, a Good People T-shirt hung from the canopy behind him. Its logo, a beat-up old pickup, was a fitting choice for a hard-working company pulling itself up by its bootstraps.

It's also not a bad image for the state's tiny brewing industry as a whole. Despite long odds and tough breaks, and some even tougher laws, thing are finally beginning to pick up speed.

Good beer, too

As noted in the first post from the Magic City Brewfest, a great surprise was to find Alabama-brewed beer there after all. Birmingham's Good People Brewing Co. offered its beer to the public for the first time at the festival.

I got a chance Sunday to chat with Good People's Jason Malone, who said the company this week is beginning keg production, and will begin distributing the draft beer to Five Points and Southside-area restaurants such as 5 Points Grille, the J. Clyde and Mellow Mushroom.

"We want to be at the good places where people like good beer," Malone told me. What else would you expect from Good People, right? If all goes well, bottling could come within a few months via a contract brewer.

Malone said Good People will start off brewing the "mainstays," a pale ale, an amber, and an IPA or hefeweizen, and a brown ale, followed by seasonals down the road. The brown is what he's shown pouring above, at the festival. Stuart Carter, Free the Hops' president, called it one of the best examples of the style he's ever tasted. It was hard to judge after a day of drinking dozens of different beer styles in no particular order, but I can say it was good.

For our Calhoun County readers, I mentioned to Malone that we've got a Mellow Mushroom in Oxford and other restaurants committed to good beer. He said to let restaurants know you'd like to see Good People on tap, so they can ask distributors for it.

Thumbs up on MCBF '08

Just in from the 2008 Magic City Brewfest. The Star's 10-strong contingent had a great time, despite the occasional rain and one nearly hour-long storm delay. Over the next few days I'll be emptying out my notebook here on the blog. In the meantime, here's a few highlights from the festival off the top of my head:

• There was Alabama-brewed beer there after all. Birmingham's Good People Brewing Co. is finally off the ground, and debuted their brown ale to the public at the festival. They'll begin full-scale production this week.
• Rougue's Chocolate Stout was outstanding. That's it in the glass above. That's also it spilled on my shirt after a slight accident as I fiddled with the camera. (Don't worry, most of it come right out with water from a nearby rinse station.)
• The food was much improved this year. Among my favorites: meatball & corn from Yarbourough Catering (I think that's right), Jambalaya & sweet cornbread from 5 Points Grille, and hummus from whoever that was set up on the right as we entered the food court. Bravo!

Hats off to the organizers. Whatever ticketing trouble they had Saturday night was solved today. They rolled with the punches on the rain and had volunteers well-prepared. There were plenty of tasting glasses (I believe they ran out last year), plus festival T-shirts and plenty of merchandise available for sale. Congrats to Free the Hops & Danner Kline on a great event. Cheers, and here's to next year.

EDIT (1:15 p.m., June 2): I've seen folks linking to this post from elsewhere on the Web, some of who are taking issue with my description of the festival as relatively well-run. Keep in mind, I'm describing my experience at the festival's Sunday session. We had a pretty darn good time.

We'd all ordered tickets ahead of time and arrived about 30 minutes before the festival began. There was no line when I walked up to the will-call window, and it took the volunteer there about 10 seconds to find my name on a list. She slapped a wristband on me, and then it was just a short wait before they cut the ribbon and the tasting began.

I know there was trouble Saturday night, and the organizers have admitted as much. While the rest of us were sleeping Saturday night, they stayed up looking for ways to make sure the same problems didn't happen again Sunday. It worked, at least from my perspective.

I know the committed volunteers who organized this event want constructive feedback so they can improve every year (even from one session to the next, as noted above). If you ran into problems on Sunday, please click below to comment. Let's talk it out.

Sloss, here we come

I, the Mrs. and a group from The Star are rolling out this afternoon for the Magic City Brewfest.

Looks like there was overwhelming support from the public last night. Enough people showed up that there were ticketing and entry problems. Free the Hops' Danner Kline posted a message at the festival Web site last night after the session was over, indicating they would handle some things different today.

We're leaving Anniston around1:30, and most of us have will-call tickets. I hope everything goes smoothly. Look for a report, photos and perhaps a video or two online when I get back.

Anyone out there attend Saturday night? How'd it go? Click below to comment.

EDIT (11:36 a.m.): Looks like today's Brewfest session may face the threat of rain, and perhaps a thunderstorm. The NWS predicts a 60-percent chance of showers, and a moderate threat of thunderstorms after noon. Already, the NWS says a storm with hail and high winds is moving through Jefferson County. There's no mention of a rain plans at the festival Web site, or from Free the Hops. Keep your fingers crossed.

Today's column

Pitcher This: Birmingham's beer bonanza

05-28-2008

With apologies to the Iron Bowl and Talladega Superspeedway's twice-a-year festivities, there's no better time to enjoy beer in Alabama than this weekend.

Saturday and Sunday will see the return of the Magic City Brewfest, which debuted in 2007 to rave reviews despite a few first-year glitches.

The two-day festival will again take place at Birmingham's Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark and will feature beers from dozens of the nation's best brewers and a slew of quality imports. It's organized by Free the Hops, a group pushing for reform of laws restricting beer in Alabama.

Free the Hops' president, Stuart Carter, says there will be as many as 250 different brews on offer, up from around 180 last year.

"That represents the majority of beers available in the state," Carter says.

Though that may sound impressive, Carter says it's actually kind of disappointing. Alabama law limits the alcohol content of beer to 6 percent by volume. That leaves out many of the marquee offerings from brewers who will be at the festival, and keeps whole ranges of beer styles from being sold here. A Free the Hops-sponsored bill to raise the limit to 13.9 percent passed the Alabama House this year, and cleared a Senate committee before it died earlier this month along with tons of other legislation in the upper chamber's end-of-session gridlock. Carter says they'll try again next year.

Other beer that won't be available at the festival: Alabama's only bottling brewery, Huntsville's Olde Towne Brewing Co. won't have its new facility running in time. A fire destroyed the old brewery last July. Founder Don Alan Hankins says if everything goes well, the new place could be bottling by the first half of July, perhaps within a year of the blaze.

One silver lining from Olde Towne's misfortune: Hankins says a new bottling line capable of filling 120 bottles per minute will replace the old 20-bottle-per-minute line that gave the company headaches over quality.

The company will ensure distribution to its Madison County customers first, followed by Jefferson County, according to Hankins. Look for Olde Towne's amber ale, hefeweizen, pale ale and pilsner on shelves and on tap elsewhere after that.

Carter calls the lack of Alabama-brewed beer at the state's only festival "a crying shame." But his group is planning for thousands of attendees anyway, along with live music and the chance to earn converts to its political cause. And of course, there will be plenty of great beer available, along with food from Birmingham-area restaurants. A few tips gleaned from last year's festival:

• Take a designated driver (or two). Even with 2-4 oz. samples, you'll need help getting home safely. The good news: DDs get free admission, plus unlimited non-alcoholic drinks.

• Go with a group. Beer is best enjoyed with friends, and this much beer calls for a lot of company.

• Dress lightly. The festival's all outdoors, much of it while the sun's shining. Shorts, sunblock and shades are all good ideas, especially on Sunday.

• Get outside your comfort zone. There's so much exotic beer on hand, you won't want to waste your time with anything you drink regularly. You'll get a list at the gate of what's available. Mark off everything you've already tried, then circle anything new to you that sounds intriguing.

The festival runs in two sessions, each ticketed separately. Saturday is 7-11 p.m., Sunday is 3-7 p.m. Discounted tickets are available in advance online. They'll be $30 for beer only at the gate, $40 for beer and unlimited food. More info is available at http://www.magiccitybrewfest.com.

A good time brewing

The second annual Magic City Brewfest is just over a week away. Organizers say this year there'll be more beer, more food, and probably more people.

The festivities will be at Birmingham's Sloss Furnaces Park, Saturday, May 31 from 7 p.m.-11 p.m., and Sunday, June 1, from 3 p.m.-7 p.m. Tickets are available online now; they'll be more expensive at the gate.

Stuart Carter, president of Free the Hops, which is organizing the festival, says the group learned a lot from last year's inaugural event. Many more people than expected showed up, and organizers are preparing for even mroe this year.

Brewers will be more spread out over the festival grounds to reduce congestion. There will be more food vendors as well, also spaced out around the festival grounds to avoid last year's long lines. FTH also plans to better educate the red-shirted volunteers who will be pouring at the brewers' booths, so they'll be able to share some info on the suds. Between the musical acts on the festival stage, brewers and FTH organizers will be speaking, giving the festival a bit more of an education and advocacy edge.

"This will be about how to appreciate beer as an enjoyable thing, rather than guzzling it as a light macro," Carter told The Star earlier this week.

Perhaps most importantly, Carter says there will be as many as 250 beers available to taste, which he said is the majority of brews available in the state. That's up form last year's total of about 180, he said.

Looking to next year

I just spoke with Stuart Carter, president of Free the Hops, the group pushing the Gourmet Beer Bill to raise the allowed alcohol-by-volume limit on beer sold in the Alabama to 13.9 percent from 6 percent. He said last night's failure by the state Senate to do much of anything has ended any chance of passing the bill this year. Carter and other members were disappointed, to say the least.

"If it had been voted down that would have been a more understandable outcome than it never having been discussed," Carter said. Like most of the other bills awaiting the Senate's attention, the beer bill died as the Senate bickered over and failed to act on the state's 2009 education budget. The beer bill won't be up for consideration if Gov. Bob Riley calls a special session of the Legislature, Carter said.

FTH members and supporters are now turning their attention to the second annual Magic City Brewfest, scheduled for May 31 and June 1 at Birmingham's Sloss Furnaces.

"The Brewfest is an opportunity to introduce more people to the delight of good beer," Carter said. He also said it's "a good way to get more people frustrated and focused in their anger" over the Senate's failure to act.

"And of course we want people to have an absolute blast at the weekend, because we want them to come back for next year’s Brewfest," he said.

FTH sets Brewfest date, looks for volunteers

The folks at Free the Hops are looking for volunteers to staff their second annual Magic City Brewfest, the big whopping beer extravaganza at Birmingham's Sloss Furnaces (info on last year's Brewfest is here). There's a sign-up form available online, here.

This year's festival is set for two sessions, one Saturday, May 31 from 7 p.m.-11 p.m., the other Sunday, June 1 from 3 p.m.-7 p.m. FTH prez Stuart Carter says volunteers who work one session get to attend the other for free. Good deal, if you ask me.

I went to the inaugural festival last year, with a cadre of backup tasters drawn from The Star's staff. A good time - and a lotta good beer - was had by all. This is THE beer event in Alabama. If you like the good stuff, or just want to try a lot of new things, don't miss it.