Inspired by home brewers across the country, last year President Obama bought a home brewing kit for the kitchen. To the White House”™s knowledge, the resulting honey brown ale was the first alcohol brewed or distilled on the White House grounds.
Maybe it”™s time to brew up a stimulus package.
Beer consumption dropped 1.3 percent in 2011, according to The Beverage Information Group, a market research company in Norwalk that publishes the Beer Handbook.
The Beverage Information Group cited increased competition from other varieties of alcohol and the impact of the economy on core beer buyers as factors precipitating the decline.
If brewers are crying in their suds these days, wine and spirits makers are popping the cork. Consumers are gravitating toward wine and spirits, The Beverage Information Group said, in part for varieties they are offering such as flavored vodkas, whiskey liqueurs, sweet reds and high-end blends.
Domestic beer giants have not kept pace on the innovation front, the firm added, though craft and imported beers have offset the industry”™s overall U.S. decline. According to the Beer Handbook, imported beer sales increased 1.3 percent in 2011, and are projected to climb further.
If Fairfield County lost a prominent wine company a few years back in UST whose labels included Chateau Saint Michelle, it retains one of the biggest importers in alcoholic beverage company Diageo, which this month unveiled a new ad campaign and slogan for its Guinness brew: “Made of More.”
More and more, Connecticut”™s craft brewers are making their own inroads. Earlier this year, organizers formed a Connecticut Beer Guild to promote the cottage industry here; along the “Connecticut Beer Trail” this fall, there was no shortage of Oktoberfest-style beer festivals, including The Underground Brewers of Connecticut (now that”™s a club name) hosting the annual Southern New England Regional Homebrew Competition at Edmond Town Hall in Newtown.
And local restaurateurs are not oblivious to the increasing popularity of “beer gardens,” with Fairfield”™s Firehouse Deli recently opening one, joining Bobby Q”™s in Westport and Newtown”™s Old Heidelberg German restaurant, among others.
You can get the recipe for the president”™s honey brown ale off the White House website (not to mention his recipe for the economic recovery); or you can deliver your own stimulus and head to your local beer garden or the next stopover on the Connecticut Beer Trail, where the hard work”™s already done.
It”™s October. Prost!
