Hello everyone, December marks the our first anniversary here at hereforthebeer.com. We want to thank all of the wonderful people that we had the opportunity to meet this year. We hope that you enjoy our montage (the first good use of the song as far as we are concerned)! We look forward to an even more interesting and exciting 2010 on here for the beer … Cheers!

Related Posts:

• 2009 Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO
• Day 4 in Denver for the 2009 GABF
• Craft Brewers Conference – Boston, MA
• I am (not) a craft brewer – but they are…
• Slow Fest – A Celebration of Session Beer

Vermont Pub and Brewery owner and brewer Greg Noonan died in his sleep at home early Sunday morning.  According to this Beer Advocate forum post visitors to the Vermont Pub and Brewery on Sunday found the pub closed, with a sign posted: “Greg Noonan  March — 1951 – Oct. 11th 2009. ”

We always enjoyed chatting with Greg, who had some of the best craft beer stories to share in Vermont.   Always approachable and generous, he had a strong impact on many brewers in our region.  His reach though, was in fact much further than just our small state.   Debbie Cerda, the Austin TX craft beer examiner had this to say:

His books on brewing are mandatory reading for both home and microbrewers, including “New Brewing Lager: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home and Microbrewers” published in 1986 and re-issued in 2003. His sour-mashing techniques were featured in this article which appeared in the October 2008 edition of Brew Your Own magazine.

He was a well-known speaker at brewers’ conferences and author of numerous trade journal articles and books.

Greg was instrumental in getting “brewpubs” legalized in Vermont, lobbying the State for years to legalize small pub brewing and distribution.  In New England he is often spoken of as the “Godfather” of brewing in Vermont and we have not met a brewery owner in the state that hasn’t referenced Greg in at least one aspect of their own brewery.  Many sources cite that his lobbying work and research in Vermont was used as a basis to legalize pub brewing in other states as well.

In 2005, Greg received an award for innovation in brewing from the American Brewers Guild.  Business People-Vermont reported on Greg in this article:

Noonan was brewing beer as a hobby while working as a manufacturing manager for paper and wood products companies in Massachusetts. Microbreweries were just becoming trendy on the West Coast, and he decided to pursue the commercial possibilities for his craft.

He had managed restaurants in New Hampshire and Boston and wanted his own restaurant to feature his brew. He used the results of his research for Brewing Lager Beer to launch his brewpub in Burlington.

“I specifically sited my brewery in Burlington because it’s where I wanted to live. I admired the politics in Vermont,” says Noonan. “I had $175,000, which is a shoestring budget in the brewing industry; brewing equipment is very expensive.”
He applied to several banks for additional funds, but lenders were skeptical. “The banks all said, ‘What is a brewpub?’ But I plunged on anyway with the money I had.”

Greg Noonan was an inspirational brewer, not only in the larger context of his influence on the industry as a whole, but also on a personal level.  At any visit to the Vermont Pub and Brewery Greg was happy to talk “shop” and share a pint.  Our last meeting with Greg was at the Craft Brewers Conference, where always a good sport in the interest of beer, he “volunteered” to be in this video at cask night.  His generosity and dedication to the craft brewing world will be missed throughout Vermont and undoubtedly throughout the entire brewing community.

The background on Greg in this post was shared by Debbie Cerda, be sure to subscribe to her blog.

Related Posts:

• Three Penny Tap Room – Montpelier, VT
• Brattleboro Brewers Festival 2010
• Northshire Brewery in Bennington, VT
• Brattleboro Brewers Festival and Pub Crawl
• National Homebrew Day

A really interesting press release just came our way from the Brewers Association summarizing the mid-year craft brewing numbers.

Perhaps the most interesting part was the chart (attached) that indicates the growth and decline based upon the number of actual breweries. I was amazed to see that the US has just now, in 2009, surpassed the number of breweries that were here in 1910.

So post-prohibition it has taken about 75 years to rebuild the industry.   As a matter of fact, the number of breweries has increased from under 100 to over 1,500 in just the last 30 years.  Most of this growth has clearly been in the small and independent craft brewers.

The U.S. now boasts 1,525 breweries, the highest number in 100 years when consolidation and the run up to Prohibition reduced the number of breweries to 1,498 in 1910. “The U.S. has more breweries than any other nation and produces a greater diversity of beer styles than anywhere else, thanks to craft brewer innovation,” Gatza [Paul Gatza, Director of the Brewers Association] added.

The other interesting take away was the exponential growth from the mid nineties through the early 2000′s.  Obviously that growth has tapered off recently (as it has for almost everything else), but it leads me to wonder how much room is left for additional growth in the craft brewing industry? Have we reached the peak?

So rest easy tonight as you can officially party like it’s 1910 all over again.

Related Posts:

• 2009 Here for the Beer – Year in Review
• New Homebrewers Association Website Launched
• Vermont Craft Brewing Pioneer Greg Noonan Passes Away
• 2009 Great American Beer Festival in Denver, CO
• Day 4 in Denver for the 2009 GABF

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In this episode, we head to the Craft Brewers Conference and Trade Show in Boston, Massachusetts.  This amazing conference with over 2000 attendees is run by the Brewers Association.  Check out this video from the conference that features Trade Show floor.  This conference was unlike any other we had ever been to.  The most noticeable difference was the amount of great beer available, I mean everywhere!  Beer was available throughout the trade show floor and at the many hospitality events throughout the week.

It was great to catch up with some of the friends we have made during our beer journeys and to have opportunity to make so many new ones.  The most notable facet of this event was the genuine camaraderie amongst the brewers.  They are a community of people willing to share their knowledge and techniques with one another.  It was refreshing that they do not see each other as competition, but as colleagues.  They share a common goal and that is to produce really good beer.

We hope you enjoy this video and stay tuned for a few more fun episodes from our week in Boston, right here on Here for the Beer.

Related Posts:

• 2009 Here for the Beer – Year in Review
• I am (not) a craft brewer – but they are…
• Slow Fest – A Celebration of Session Beer
• Vermont Craft Brewing Pioneer Greg Noonan Passes Away
• Small Breweries as plentiful as in 1910… Hoorah?