A New Brewers Guild Grows in the Garden State

Yeah, somewhat vague, too, about the actual cause of the split from the New Jersey Brewers Association, which confusingly changed it's name (for an unknown reasons) only last summer and was previously known as the Garden State Craft Brewers Guild:
https://www.brewersassociation.org/activities/new-jersey-guild-rebrands/

So, huh?

But the only hint at a reason for the break is the old group is "...more focused on the needs of newer, taproom-focused breweries..." but "tap-room focused" can describe some of the founding members of the new Guild like Beach Haus, Carton, Kane and, particularly, Iron Hill, can't it?

I could see a split between true production/distributing breweries and brewpubs and the small brewers whose sales are mostly "own premise" (a term the Brewers Association now uses for both on- and off-premise sales from the brewery).

They even hired an former NJBA official as their executive director:

Something unstated going on...

 

Interesting indeed. I'm not completely familiar with that side of the business, however when they mentioned "tap-room focused" I had a pretty good idea who I would see on this.

They stated trying to get rid of the "tour-first" before sales requirement. While I agree that is a silly silly rule and a nice little selling point, it seems a bit odd that it would need to be called out as a focus.

Interesting too that, with the exception of Cricket Hill, all the breweries listed seem to be Central/South Jersey...could mean nothing though.

 

Maybe some of the NJ brewery folks can provide some more input here?

Cheers!

@augiecarton @brianhink

 

you are welcome to ask me any questions you like but i really can't add much to the discussion. at the moment carton is a supporting member of both groups
the issue is really NJ's arcane laws and how they affect small and very small businesses. the small breweries are most concerned with reasonable franchise laws and the smallest are most concerned with reasonable on premise rules. i am personalty concerned with jersey being a mature market where we can be proud of our home and its products. we are making huge leaps on that front, with more reasonable laws that can only get better so here is to hoping both the groups can accomplish what they hope.

 

But the creation of the new Guild was, in part, because the NJBA was too focused on those tap-room breweries:

The "established organization" is the New Jersey Brewers Association.

Not to mention that eliminating the tour requirement is also a NJBA goal, according to the Brewers Assoc. article:

 

I get why brewers want to eliminate the silly tour requirement, but in reality it doesn't seem like a huge impediment, rather a mere annoyance.. unless it's my first visit to a brewery - I pretty much never get asked to take a tour... at most I get asked if I've been there before - if yes I get waved through.. plenty of places never even ask... I assume because the brewery equipment and everything is essentially visible from / inside the tap room area, so you could argue its a self guided tour...

 

I suppose (to me) the breweries listed seem to have a bigger distribution footprint than the smaller brewery-only places I’ve seen pop up in the past few years.

 

I don't really know anymore than what these articles have posted - I heard about it for the first time about an hour before the press release went out. From what I understand it was a decision based on the differing needs of the mostly taproom focused breweries vs the distribution focused breweries. Both guilds will continue to be active and hopefully grow and continue to improve the beer laws for all NJ breweries they represent, but from my vantage point it only seems like a win win. Instead of one organization fighting to improve the laws governing the brewing industry we now have two, with some obvious overlap in agendas but also some pretty different ones, too, which in theory should only help the consumers to the best of both worlds.

 

Brian, I much appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this topic.

Cheers!

 

While you don't list "Industry" under your avatar here on BA, aren't you from Cape May Brewing Co., one of the founding members of the new Guild?

That certainly hasn't been the history of competing brewers organizations in the US, whether it was the old United States Brewers Association vs The Brewing Industry, Inc. vs United Brewers' Industrial Foundation vs American Brewers Association during the Repeal period and the decades after, or even the modern period (1980s-early 2000s) after the split of the USBA that created the Beer Institute (the "big brewers") , while the traditional small brewers and some of the new "microbrewers" were represented by the American Brewers Association and many of the newer "craft" brewers were in the AHA homebrewers' organized Institute of Brewing Studies/Assoc. of Brewers.

Even today, with only the BI and BA left, their competing excise tax plans and other conflicting state and federal proposed laws has probably only created more gridlock. Throw in the very different objectives of the NBWA, which sometimes agrees with one or the other of the brewers' group, but often opposes them, as well.

As for the concept that these industry trade organizations which lobby the government are for the benefit of consumers....

 

The nine breweries of this new guild are:

• Beach Haus
• Spellbound
• Cape May
• Cricket Hill
• Flying Fish
• Riverhorse
• Kane
• Carton
• Iron Hill

I put Iron Hill in bold since they are a brewpub.

Are you familiar with the food situation at the other 8 breweries? I have visited Cape May a few times with the most recent visit Sept. 2017. They do not serve food there; my wife and I purchased food at a nearby Taco Shop and brought that in to eat for lunch.

Cheers!

 

I also think this might tie into the 5 year anniversary of the taproom bill and it's upcoming review by the state. This review should occur and the findings released in the next couple of months if my timeline is correct. From the limited people I know in the NJ beer industry, they are worried about the review because some breweries are not abiding the law (either as written or in spirit).

The splitting of the guild may have been inevitable based on the needs of microbreweries vs. nanobreweries, and (if the state is going to crackdown on breweries in the next few months) this just meant the time was right.

 

I know there is some issue with the way breweries handle food, since breweries are not allowed to sell food onsite. Delivery and bringing food in seem to be legal, however many breweries (including Twin Elephant) have seemingly partnered with food trucks, which might be illegal. I say seemingly partnered as breweries have actively promoted the food truck on the brewery's social media or with signs at the brewery, but do not know if that relationship has extended beyond promotion.

 

I did a podcast with Ryan from Cape May the later part of 2018 on Cape May and NJ Craft Beer, also gave his take on what went down (as a former guild prez):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/72j8VBIJXRLLLBqOSHBJbR?si=0kqM9bKNRPe_bUYl2R605w