WATER ON BREWERS' MINDS FOR BEER WEEK

Milwaukee Beer Week kicked off Monday, September 14th., 2009, with a Craft Beer forum at a luncheon at the Harley-Davidson Museum Rumble Room. 

The four panelists were Jim McCabe of Milwaukee Brewing Company, Randy Sprecher of Sprecher Brewing Company, Deb Carey of New Glarus Brewing Company and Alan Newman of  Magic Hat Brewing Company.

Newman, of Vermont, was the only non-Wisconsin brewer on the panel and he addressed many concerns common to brewers and non-brewers alike about popular trends, changes in social media, trying to outguess the economy and other travails of business. He called Milwaukee the city with the best beer culture in America, and cautioned that craft brewers ought to not try to take away business from their brothers. After all, the craft beer segment is only five per cent of all sales -- yet this sum represents tremendous growth opportunities, he said. 

McCabe and Sprecher also talked about their years in the craft beer market, and the necessity of remaining nimble to consumer demands while maintaining the core values of their enterprises. For example, Carey of New Glarus (the first woman to own and operate an American brewery) mentioned her firm's commitment to providing a living wage and health insurance for all workers.

All four of the brewers have recently expanded, or plan expansions. New Glarus recently completed a $21 million Hilltop Brewery facility. Since the brewer is located in a rural area with a population of 2,500, the brewery would have overwhelmed the village's sewage treatment system, so Carey built her own, using  a membrane filtration technology for the first time on this side of the Pacific Rim. 

Newman says water and sewage issues are important to him, as well. He has a contract to sell his entire waste stream from a brewery expansion to a vendor -- who will convert it to methane and sell it back to him. 

Sprecher and McCabe both operate using Lake Michigan water and the services of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which have luxuries of capacity that must seem fanciful beyond wonder to brewers located in less liquid regions. 

In order to address concerns of craft brewers about water resources, Lucy Saunders has organized the Great Lakes Craft Brewers & Water Conservation Conference scheduled from October 26 - 27, 2009, at Discovery World on Milwaukee's lakefront. Attendees at this first-of-a-kind event will discuss how to save money in the brewing process, where the 12 ounces that wind up in a bottle is but a small portion of the water needed to produce the beer. Participants are expected to listen in wonder as one brewer will explain how he got his ratio of water to beer all the way down to 3:1.

This could bring us this afternoon to the tavern closest to the laboratories and headquarters of MMSD where

a tasting event today, Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at Just Art's 181 S. 2nd St. will feature $2 taps of Buffalo Water Bison Blonde and free snacks. There may even be some of that pig left over from Saturday's roast.

--Michael Horne