Here for the beer

Geeks, snobs, tastings and teachings bolster the local interest in craft beer.

John the Beer Snob
John the Beer Snob

It’s shortly after 9 Saturday night at The Capital Bar and Grill, and as is usually the case on weekend nights, the downtown Little Rock bar is lively. The tables are full, with all the bar seats claimed. Groups wait near the entrance for spots. There’s jazz in the background from the Ted Ludwig Trio.

One table removed from where Ludwig plays is Tom Korder, brewery operations manager for Chicago’s Goose Island Beer Company. Wearing a red Goose Island shirt and khaki shorts, Korder is relaxing. Finally. Ready for some food. It’s been a long 30 or so hours for Korder. He arrived after lunch Friday, spent Friday night at Sonny Williams Steak Room for a sold-out Goose Island beer dinner and most of the day Saturday at Grapes Grains and Growls. (He did get a quick River Trail ride in Saturday morning.)

Korder is at the Capital because one, he’s hungry, but two, the bar, known for its impressive array of craft beers (bar beverage director Lee Edwards ensures the bar offers the best), is tapping a keg of Goose Island’s Bourbon County Stout (100/99*).

Bourbon County Stout is a world-class beer. A Gold Medal winner at the 2006 World Beer Cup. It has also earned accolades at the Great American Beer Festival, the United States Beer Tasting Championship and elsewhere. There are only a handful of imperial stouts in the world better than this particular stout.

The beer pours a midnight black. It’s thick. This is a sipping beer. A beer for savoring. It possesses a velvety mouthfeel and a rich, creamy taste full of chocolate and bourbon, with perhaps a licorice hint. It’s a beer that craft-beer lovers crave.

Due to its limited availability (only five cases were shipped this year to central Arkansas), Bourbon County Stout has become something of a “White Whale” beer in the local market, a beer that craft-beer lovers will hunt down. (It should be noted that as of 2011, Goose Island is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev — the multinational beverage company and the largest brewer in the world — but Goose Island still remains a craft brewery.)

Capital is the only place in central Arkansas offering Bourbon County Stout on tap. Right now. Word will get out about it, and the beer will disappear, if it hasn’t already. Replacing it will be Goose Island’s Matilda (96/99), the brewery’s Belgian Ale flagship.

“‘White whale’ beers didn’t really come around until the last two or three years,” Korder says of Bourbon County Stout and other exemplary beers like it that beer geeks search out. “Maybe four or five at max. People are more educated about beer. And the craft numbers are growing. They are blowing up. The online community aspect — RateBeer, BeerAdvocate — has helped. As has the social media aspect. And craft beer is becoming more of a mainstream hobby. People travel for beer now.”

Korder says perhaps next year the Little Rock market will receive more Bourbon County Stout, but right now, minus the few cases that local Goose Island distributor Golden Eagle of Arkansas offers at beer events such as Grapes Grains and Growls, this is all of the Bourbon County Stout in the area.

But Goose Island already has barrels of Bourbon County Stout aging in numbers that “dwarf” Goose Island’s 2011 numbers. Still, those barrels are aging for 2012 release. What is certain — after only a small time here — is that Korder considers Little Rock an emerging craft-beer market.

“I think it’s a young [craft-beer] market with lots of potential,” Korder says. He has noticed a thirst for knowledge among the craft-beer fans he has talked with during his 30 hours in town. “You see people who have the enthusiasm. That really shows that people are wanting to learn more. I think Little Rock ... looks like it is becoming a craft beer town, which is fun.”

Craft beers — beers outside of the realm of the Buds, Millers, Heinekens and so on of the world. Of course, Little Rock has long offered craft beers. Let’s not forget the local guys — Diamond Bear, Vino’s and Boscos — who have won several awards for their delicious brews. There’s no discussion about craft beer in Little Rock without mentioning those guys.

But local fans of craft beers have noticed an increasing number of brews from across the country and around the world in central Arkansas in the last two or three years. The number is only growing. Within the last two months, bars and liquor stores in the central Arkansas market have welcomed Marshall Brewing Company of Tulsa and Piney River Brewing Company from tiny Bucyrus, Mo.

And the craft beer market is growing not just in Arkansas but nationwide. The Brewers Association — “a passionate voice for craft brewers” — says craft brewers sold an estimated 11,468,152 barrels of beer in 2011, up from 10,133,571 barrels in 2010. (There are 31 gallons per barrel.) Although it’s only a micro percentage of the market — overall some 199,937,239 barrels of beer were sold in the U.S. in 2010 — the craft beer market is growing as the overall beer market has slightly shrunk in the past year or so. Overall, U.S. beer sales were down 1.3 percent by volume in 2011; craft beer sales rose 5.7 percent by volume in 2011.

There’s no big secret for the success of craft beers. Craft beers simply taste better. Bolder, crisper, tarter, bitterer, hoppier, maltier, sourer and so on and so on. A good craft beer hits your mouth, and taste buds stand at attention.

One local who knows about craft beers is The Beer Snob. John “The Beer Snob” Wells. By day he works for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. His other job is being The Beer Snob, the publisher of The Official Size & Weight EBeer ENews EMail, a weekly digital newsletter that details local craft-beer happenings.

Usually people duck out of the snob label. Or it’s a jest. A tag merely meant as a joke. Not with Wells. He’s a snob. A beer snob. Proud of it, too.

“Why wouldn’t I take the everyman’s drink and elevate it?” he says. “The beer snob was born. I found out later it’s not appropriate to say beer snob. We are beer geeks.”

On a Monday evening I meet Wells at The Pantry. It’s the perfect drinking spot for a beer snob. Great food and a small but select group of beers. A few taps and about two dozen beers in bottles. Right now, Wells is drinking a Franziskaner Hefe-Weissbier (96/100). It’s on tap. When it’s a stifling 97 degrees outside, a great-tasting, crisp German Hefeweizen is perfect.

But when it comes to craft beers, Wells enjoys a number of styles. What styles in particular depend on Wells’ mood. Lately it has been Belgian beers. He mentions Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus Westvleteren 12 (100/100), truly a “White Whale” beer, as a favorite.

“I love the Belgians’ take on beers,” he says. But Wells is a fan of most craft beers. He “can’t wait to drink the new beer in town, Piney River.”

Wells first discovered quality beer in the mid-1990s in Innsbruck, Austria, while on a ski trip. It was an Adam-Bräu (no score yet). “From that point on, beer took on a whole new thing for me.”

But returning home, he discovered Little Rock was mostly a craft beer desert.

“The more I learned about beer at that time, the more I also learned that I couldn’t buy most of these beers in Little Rock,” he says. “That’s kind of how the newsletter got started. The first really, really good beer to come to Arkansas was the Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale (98/98).”

Local wine connoisseur Bruce Cochran is a friend, so Wells decided the local market needed someone like Cochran but focused on beer. He says, “It’ll be a long time before craft beer reaches the level of wine, but I think it will. The truth of the matter is that beer is infinitely more complex than wine.”

Wells started the newsletter about five years ago as a networking, communicating, educating and advocating tool. It went out to only 18 people the first time. Now, Wells has approximately 700 subscribers.

“The advocacy thing was the thing that took off very quickly,” he says. “Pressuring stores. Asking distributors to bring in good beers. Doing anything I could to push for craft beer.”

Now, the market has changed remarkably. Wells mentions The Pantry, a place with “no crap on tap” — nothing but quality craft beers from Diamond Bear to New Belgium to international beers — as a restaurant that caters to craft beer fans. He points toward Flying Saucer Draught Emporium as a local bar that has pushed the craft-beer market. He mentions Khalil’s Pub & Grill, too.

Sure, there are beers not available in central Arkansas people wish were — beers from breweries such as Stone Brewing Company, Dogfish Head Brewery, Odell Brewing Company — but Wells says, “I can walk into Colonial or Springhill and find so many good beers. I mean I can’t decide what to buy. It’s a fascinating time to be interested in craft beer.”

Beyond the advocacy, Wells also promotes local beer dinners via the newsletter. Khalil’s offers a regular, last-Thursday-of-the-month beer dinner. Cregeen’s Irish Pub, Flying Saucer and others hold them from time to time. It’s an extension of the craft-beer movement Wells says is growing because, he says, “Beer dinners are so much fun.”

Wells and I talk two hours about beer. Everything from malting to the particulars of the Kölsch beer found in Cologne, Germany. He’s funny (“Yeast eats sugar and [discharges] alcohol”) and informative. The conversation ends with as much enthusiasm as it began.

“It is a great, great time to be a beer geek,” he says. “A great time. There’s so much out there.”

James Denoyer, a sales representative for Ft. Smith-based, family-owned Glidewell Distributing, is one of the reasons it’s such a great time to be a craft beer fan in central Arkansas. Glidewell is the distributor that introduced Brasserie Dupont’s Saison Dupont Vieille Provision (99/99) to the market. It’s a beer some have argued is the world’s best.

I meet Denoyer at Flying Saucer, where he is drinking a Moylan’s Brewery Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale (78/46).

Glidewell is the distributor bringing Piney River to Arkansas. This is part of the job of a distributor — hunting new accounts to bring to the Little Rock market. They cold-call. They email. They visit breweries. Taste beers. Hear about good breweries that might be expanding to new markets. They build relationships with craft breweries they’d like to see in this market. This is why they are praised for the craft beers they do bring to market and scorned for the ones they don’t.

“My mission at Glidewell is to bring the best craft beer in the world to Arkansas,” Denoyer says. “We’ve done that. Our portfolio is bar none the best craft beer portfolio in the state. I’m damn proud of that.”

Denoyer then calls off a list of beers Glidewell distributes in the state, pausing to note that many are ranked extremely high on RateBeer.

“I got more stuff coming,” and then he tells me off the record of a brewery coming soon. A brewery that isn’t Stone, but one that produces “off-the-chain, good, good stuff.” Look for it before the end of the summer, possibly early fall.

Bryce Nall, shelf-set analyst and high-end-brand manager for Golden Eagle of Arkansas, is another distributor employee who loves craft beer. I meet Nall at Flying Saucer as well — separately from Denoyer — where Nall enjoys a Goose Island Sofie (98/97) before switching to Tallgrass Brewing Company’s Halcyon Wheat (66/92). Kansas’ Tallgrass is the newest craft brewery Golden Eagle has brought to the Little Rock market, and Nall is one of the Golden Eagle employees responsible for tracking down craft breweries and bringing them here.

Nall is dressed in a charcoal gray Goose Island button-up shirt as he talks about craft beer and Golden Eagle’s (a mainly Anheuser-Busch distributor) spot in the movement. What he looks for in a craft brewery for Golden Eagle to distribute is simple. First, of course, “the beer has to be good.”

That was the case with Tallgrass, which Golden Eagle introduced to Little Rock in October 2011. “No. 1 — they make great beer,” Nall says. And Tallgrass is selling extremely well here.

Both Denoyer and Nall are always hearing the question: “Why don’t you guys get XYZ beer here?”

“We get it every day,” Nall says. “’Hey man, when are you going to get this?’ We don’t know. When are we going to get Stone? Everyone would love to have Stone.”

“It’s not because the distributors have not contacted them,” Denoyer says. “It’s the No. 1 requested beer I get. I get more requests from retailers; I get more requests from customers for Stone than any other beer. By far. Bar none.”

(Stone is much-loved by craft-beer fans because the California brewery produces amazing-tasting, highly rated beers. Go to Memphis and get a Stone Ruination IPA, rated 100/99. Then you’ll see.)

There are a lot of reasons why a particular brewery is not available in the area, but usually it’s because the brewery is already at capacity. Why expand to a new market when you are already selling all the beer you can produce?

Both Denoyer and Nall believe the local craft-beer market is growing stronger and stronger. So the pair, in competition, spend their days doing their jobs of selling what their companies already offer but also tracking down new beers to sell. And craft-beer fans reap the benefits.

“Whatever is not here is what people want,” Denoyer says. “But if people look, our selection has gotten tremendously better in the past two years. It’s only going to get better. There are a lot of great places selling great beer. There’s a market for craft beers. There definitely is.”

* Specific beers mentioned in this article utilize the RateBeer system on a 100-point scale with the first number being the beer’s score based on its percentile ranking among all beers. The second number is the beer’s rank among its style peers.

BEER EVENTS
Upcoming beer events in Little Rock include Piney River Brewing Co. glass night at Flying Saucer Draught Emporium on Wednesday, Khalil’s Pub & Grill’s monthly last Thursday food pairing at 6 p.m. Thursday and the Piney River Brewing Co.’s tap takeover at the Flying Saucer on Aug. 16.

NEWSLETTER
John “The Beer Snob” Wells’ newsletter can be subscribed to via www.johnthebeersnob.com. The Official Size & Weight EBeer ENews EMail contains “information for the insightful yet snooty beer drinker,” including the lowdown on beer happenings in the Little Rock area.

Upcoming Events