When Charlie Papazian created the Great American Beer Festival in 1982, 900 people showed up in Denver.
There were 40 beers to taste from a few dozen breweries — mostly from big brewers who had a less obvious style or two in their roster. (Remember Ballantine IPA? I do.)
Craft brands were represented by pioneers like Sierra Nevada and Boulder Brewing. That’s all there really was at the time.
“Everyone who showed up had a great time,” said Papazian, the home-brewing legend and current president of the Brewers Association who visited Boise last month to check out the local brewing scene. The GABF, he said, “is a little bit different now.”
Different as in how 49,000 people attended the GABF last year. There were more than 2,200 craft beers to sample from 455 different American breweries. The GABF, which celebrates its 30th birthday this year, is now the biggest, baddest and “funnest” beer fest on the planet — and a great indicator of how craft beer has insinuated itself into the palates of Americans over the past three decades. All tickets sold out in a week this year.
“It’s a pretty strange, unusual feeling when I see all those people,” Papazian said. “I just (can’t) stop marveling at whole thing.”
Papazian has been in the center of the American craft brewing renaissance since the beginning. In addition to founding the GABF, he also founded the American Homebrewers Association in 1978 and wrote “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing” in 1985, which is regarded as the home-brewing bible. It has sold more than 900,000 copies since its release.
In 2005, Charlie became the president of the Brewers Association, whose mission is to promote and protect small and independent American brewers and their homebrewing brethren.
Put simply, this guy knows his beer.
Papazian visited Boise last month for the first time and came away impressed with the Idaho beer scene.
“It was excellent ... I bet I tasted 30 beers or so in my 12 hours or so in Boise,” Papazian said. “I didn’t come across any that were funky. Everything was good.
“I kept telling people I wished I wasn’t driving around (visiting Boise’s five breweries) so I could drink a few full ones.”
Papazian even tried a style he’d never had before — the lavender-infused orange blossom Spring Celebration ale from TableRock Brewpub & Grill. That is really saying something when you can surprise Charlie Papazian, and it also shows just how innovative and creative the brewing scene has become in the spud state.
Papazian also found time to address the local chapter of the AHA and the fledgling Idaho Beer United guild at the Ram. His message to the guild was simple: Stay together and promote Idaho craft beer as much as possible.
One thing Idaho brew pubs have going for them is they can self-distribute and be their own wholesalers. A guild, which actively lobbies the Legislature and promotes the craft beer industry, can help protect that, Papazian said.
“It’s important to build relationships for the future, so when the time comes when some legislation or regulation (that could hurt the industry) is proposed, you have someone to go to,” Papazian said. “When (brewers) speak as a group, it’s so much more powerful.”
It’s also just a good idea to promote a growing, dynamic industry in the midst of stagnant economic times. Idaho’s craft brewers even have something of an unlikely champion in U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, who has proposed an excise tax break for America’s craft brewers to help stoke growth and hiring in a growing industry.
Idaho grows lots of barley and hops used for brewing, so there is some synergy between the craft beer and agri-business for a beer guild to pursue.
Craft beer sales continue to rise nationally — 11 percent growth in volume in 2010, according to the Brewers Association — while sales for major beer conglomerates are stagnant (down 1 percent last year).
Brewing stalwarts like New Belgium, Deschutes, Grand Teton, Oskar Blues and others have expanded brewing capacity and still have a hard time meeting local demand for their beers. It feels like the American beer palate is slowly but surely developing a taste for artisan beer styles.
Unlike the late 1980s and early ’90s, when the craft beer business expanded too quickly, Papazian sees steady growth for the future.
“It’s still only 5 percent of (the total) beer market,” he said. But “I think there has been a fundamental change. A lot of new beer drinkers were born in the age of craft brewing.
“They don’t know what it was like when it wasn’t available. When they were kids, they looked in the refrigerator and saw craft beer.”
© 2011 Idaho Statesman
Patrick Orr: 373-6619
