Brewbound Awards 2024: Beer Champion of the Year - The Brewers Guild of New Jersey

Speaker 1 [00:05] Next up on the Brewbound Live live stream, it's a conversation with our beer champions of the year. Hello, it's Brewband managing editor, Jessica Infante. Joining me right now are two leaders from the Brewers Guild of New Jersey, Eric Orlando and Scott Wells. Guys, I feel like we were in near constant contact during your efforts to overturn some really draconian taproom registrations, but now it's been a minute and I'm not gonna lie, I kind of miss you both. How are you doing?

Speaker 2 [00:33] Doing good, doing good. It was a long, long 5 years.

Speaker 3 [00:39] It was only 5 years.

Speaker 2 [00:40] Oh my God. Oh my God, I lived like 2 lifetimes between them. Yeah, I, I miss it. I miss it a little bit though. I, I can't lie, Scott. I do not.

Speaker 1 [00:51] Scott, I believe that you do not. It was kind of like a, like an animating life force, yeah, reason to get out of bed, I suppose. But for people who don't know, those restrictions that we're talking about, they. They were extreme, but they included capping special events at taprooms to 25 per year, except anything that was included in those special events were things like trivia night, musical performances, showing sporting events on taproom TVs, things that breweries in every other state can do without batting an eye. New Jersey breweries were also barred from selling food and non-alcoholic beverages and coordinating with food trucks to provide service. So, there was basically, think of a thing that a regular taproom can do in the 49 other states. Pretty much New Jersey taprooms could not. So, why don't you guys share with the audience at home what the regulatory conditions in the state are right now for, for taproom operators.

Speaker 2 [01:43] So, I mean, honestly, look, Jess, you listed all the things now that folks can do. So I mean, honestly, we literally took the list of things they stopped everybody in the industry from doing and we said, you can do them now with no restrictions, which, which is really great. I mean, it's opened up a lot of different opportunities, um. You can show a football game on Sundays now. Think of that, right? There could be yoga classes every single Sunday morning now at your brewery. Um, you can work with the food truck, you can have a wedding at a brewery, and there could be a wedding there every weekend. I mean, It's, it's the simplest things, but at the end of the day, they really matter to the membership of the in the industry in general. Um, so it's all those restrictions, it's, you know, really kind of unshackled us from everything that had happened over the last, I don't know, 5 years or so.

Speaker 1 [02:33] Yeah, the, the restrictions were put into place pre-pandemic and then they were loosened because things were really unstable and unsure, but then they came back and I know you had a long fight talking to industry stakeholders, you know, business owners, but mostly, you know, representatives in Trenton. How exactly were you able to create this much-needed change?

Speaker 3 [02:56] So, I, the, the restrictions came back with a vengeance, and I think when they did, it kind of opened up the eyes to a lot of people on what was really going on and, you know, it's no secret to anyone in the past couple of years have been very, very tough for beer in general. So removing the best means that any small brewery has in introducing people to their brand and their products. It's a tough pill to swallow for lawmakers. The hardest part was getting the opportunity to educate the lawmakers, and we probably spent more time working on that piece and making sure they understand who we are and what we do first, because if we had the opportunity to explain that to anyone, they would immediately see how unreasonable. The the situation was and how how detrimental it was to small businesses that were organically growing within our state and the reality was the situation really created a scenario where our state was really supporting out of state beer very heavily over our in-state manufacturers and once everyone kind of saw that it was an easy task to get the ball rolling, but New Jersey's laws, they're very enshrined in prohibition and changing 80 years of law and regulation is very difficult to do, um, which, you know, heads back to where Eric fit into the whole piece because it's one thing for a bunch of people like me to go and try to get something resolved with the state, but without having proper representation in our state house, we never could have gotten it done.

Speaker 2 [04:40] I mean, you know what it was, and I gotta, you know, got to give the industry credit to the largest extent on this, right? So think about like 10 years ago, this could have never been pulled off and pushing back because honestly, the industry wasn't to the extent of which it is today, right? You have 150 breweries in the state of New Jersey. There is a reason in every single elected official's, you know, area, whether it be a state legislator or a local councilperson or a mayor, to support their local business on something like this, and the groundswell once those regulations were put back into effect a couple summers ago. Everybody jumped on board to try to push back. I mean, it was Republicans, it was Democrats, it was local officials. I mean there was a letter from Congress, from most of our congressional delegation pushing back on these things that there was just this huge groundswell of opposition saying get rid of these and come up with a better way to do this that really put the kind of the governor on notice here in New Jersey that he then made it a centerpiece to some of his alcohol reform efforts which he launched about 2 years ago. Um, that it was the one thing that everybody in unison said we support and that's what led to it getting, you know, a law passed and getting rid of the regulations.

Speaker 1 [05:56] Amazing because I know the liquor license landscape is also really complicated and I think at first, the plan had been to try to tie the taproom regulations into that, but that is such an enormous task that this was separated and handled on its own, correct?

Speaker 3 [06:12] Correct. And that's really where the work ahead of us now kind of lies. The, the fear now or really the situation we are in is because those two things got tied together, created something of an adversarial situation between the manufacturers and the, the license owners and our, our license structure is very similar to the taxi medallion situation in New York City. Um, so it's entrenched. In our culture, in the industry in New Jersey, and it's not something that's ever going to change dramatically. So looking for parity for breweries at a time where the governor was also looking to change and modernize the license structure system kind of put us at odds with our most important customers, which are the bars and restaurants. That we need to grow our businesses. So now, you know, almost a year after getting this law passed, we're still, there's a lot of work left to be done and move us forward into the next chapter.

Speaker 1 [07:18] So Scott, in addition to being a leader with the guild, you're also the director of sales and co-owner at Bolerosnort Brewing. So you are out there in the trade having these conversations with those retail partners. How have those conversations changed since the laws were lifted?

Speaker 3 [07:33] It it's, it's funny to a certain degree. There's a great outpouring of support from a lot of the bars and restaurants that they, it's important to them, it's their business model to show their customers that they're supporting local industry. They're buying local, they're a small local business. We're a small local business and we're supporting each other. Unfortunately it's a small percentage of the licensed owners in the state that kind of feel that way. There's been no shortage of other license owners that have since stopped carrying New Jersey made beer completely. There were rumors and falsehoods and misunderstandings and mischaracterizations that kind of circulated through the industry from some of our opposition. That were kind of pushing this false narrative that the breweries were out to harm the license holders and the license holders reacted by not carrying New Jersey beer anymore, um. And a lot of that hasn't changed since. Some of it has calmed down, but a lot of it hasn't. So there still is a lot of work, like I said, to be done with that, but we spent a lot of this this time since then focusing our attention there. The bill that we got passed focused entirely on our tasting rooms, not on the distribution side of our business. So we're really looking to continue that path to make it easier and most importantly, Create a scenario where the consumer in New Jersey isn't limited in what choices they have for beer to purchase based on the handful of license holders in their community, but they have access to the beer that they want and the better products that they deserve.

Speaker 1 [09:10] And well, the on-premise is vital to craft beer, so, so important. So it's absolutely, uh, these, these two channels really can coexist and do. So, I'm happy to hear that these things can be repaired. But Eric, what have you heard from guild members in the months since the ban was overturned? What's their general feeling?

Speaker 2 [09:30] So it's, it's really just an ease of doing business now, right? There is such an unpredictable nature to a lot of the things that they were allowed or not allowed to do, um, and it seemingly was always a moving target, um, you know, trying to run a small business, any business, um, without some level of predictability in terms of what regulators are going to say you can't do is almost impossible, right? So just the, just the idea that now to a certain extent, their rights and privileges are in black and white, and that they could say I can do this and I don't have to. You know, go to the state to ask for permission on some of these things is a huge win, um, that, you know, the fact that you can plan out a year in advance about what types of events you're going to do. Um, I always thought it this way, and it's funny, I brought up weddings before. Imagine. Imagine having somebody come into your brewery and say, I want to have my reception at your brewery. Um, and you have to literally tell, you know, the couple. Well, I can't necessarily accept you wanting to use our brewery as one of the 25 events we're able to have on premise, where something might change legally at some point, which you might have to cancel your wedding. That's impossible. Like, how do you market yourself as a hospitality business at all in those circumstances, and that's the reality that breweries were dealing with for a good period of time. So having those things gone, it, it, it really is a really better foundation to operate on in New Jersey. I mean, also Scott talked about too, it's like we're trying to concentrate now and really trying to promoting the industry, promoting the product, um, you know, in what we do in terms of trying to change all these statutes and laws regarding privileges. That's, that's a once in 10 year thing sometimes here in New Jersey, right? That's just the culture we live in, in, in the way things are done. Like Scott said, we're still dealing with a largely a prohibition-based system in terms of licenses and, and having these things that cost a million dollars to allow you to pour someone a beer. Um, you know, we're still dealing with the realities of that, but we definitely have a better climate to work in. Um, that we don't have to worry about those things that other folks haven't thought about ever in terms of operating their business.

Speaker 1 [11:38] So Scott, what has this meant for Blow or Snort? How have you changed what you do in the taproom and what has been your favorite event that you guys have hosted since you were able to?

Speaker 3 [11:47] All right, that second one's tough. I've got to put a little thought on that, but the first part of the question, what's been really interesting, we've seen kind of a changeover in our community and our direct neighborhood here since the law changed. We've been able to partner better with the closest local bars and restaurants. So, we've got a great relationship with some really fantastic small businesses that are very local, some of which are walkable to the brewery. They carry our beer. They've been supportive of us all along, and now they're able to be a partner for our parties and our events here and provide catering, where in the past we couldn't even coordinate that for them. And We don't make any money off that. We don't need to make any money off that. We never wanted to make any money off that, but having the ability that when people are looking to book their, you know, their birthday party, their rehearsal dinner, whatever it is, we've got these great partners that are super local to us that do phenomenal catering, and they're able to come here and it's, it's a new avenue for them to introduce more people in this community to their product. So we're starting to just now see the, the Strong symbiotic relationship in the industry that most of our neighboring states have had for a long time, and I think it's it's going to take time for the rest of the state to see that type of opportunity does exist, but they've never had an opportunity to see that because it couldn't have existed in the past. We, we're not a very event-driven brewery, um, you know, our, our products can be a little outlandish at times. We, we certainly for those that are familiar with our product lineup, we don't take ourselves super seriously. We have a lot of nostalgic and cartoon focused types of products. So we've done events like Saturday morning cartoons that we've done a bunch of beers that were were themed around our Saturday morning cartoons from the 90s and things like that and having those types of events where people get to come down and try some really unique and rare beers from us and often sometimes the first time they are, they are even introduced to our brand. And now we're able to partner with the local restaurants nearby that they could quick scan a QR code in our tasting room and get food delivered super quick from one of the one of the other local businesses. That has been a huge changeover, seeing the people that are able to come in here and kind of just sit down and relax and have a meal while they're enjoying our beer before they go out to check out one of the other places in the area, that's a big difference. We're in the. It was difficult to get food and you know, it's an alcohol industry. We don't want people drinking anything without having the access or availability of food. So it has been a big changeover where our events are certainly more impactful now and certainly people are enjoying going to their breweries throughout the state more than previously because it is now more of a welcoming environment. And I really do think that the more this evolves, the more the restaurants in the area are going to see that they are getting the benefit of that, that beer tourism, that agro-tourism because people are hitting these breweries as a destination, but We're still selling just beer. We're still, you know, we're very limited and restricted on what we're selling, and we're only trying to promote our brands in our tasting room. So these folks that are coming out and checking us out and coming to an event at a brewery, they're going to go out and have dinner at a restaurant nearby or check out some of these other local places or, or in many cases throughout the state hit that distillery that's nearby and really check out more business. So you know, I think we've seen this in the alcohol industry really over the last 10 to 12 years where that relationship has built up over time and made craft beer so successful for everyone in the industry. New Jersey's just at the infancy of that now and hopefully that ball keeps rolling. It's

Speaker 1 [15:42] a very special place. Well, Eric, what's next on the horizon for the guild?

Speaker 2 [15:47] So next on the horizon, like I said, is, is really trying to work on trying to like market the brand of the guild, but also to market the brand of Jersey craft beer. Um, we got some pretty special events coming here to the state of New Jersey in the next few years, 250th anniversary of the country, World Cup coming at the MetLife Stadium, the finals coming. So it's trying to like partner not only with the state, but a lot of other partners in the, in the hospitality space to try to Kind of co-brand those events with New Jersey beer. Um, I mean, the state of New Jersey already is doing different talks about the history of New Jersey and it's in the American Revolution at breweries like every single weekend right now, which is really cool. We might be doing some collab beers with the World Cup. Um, we're working with our state's restaurant association to see if we could try to partner. Local breweries and local restaurants directly, which I don't know if I was thinking about this a year or so ago, I could have never thought that happening, but that those doors are now opening because we've gotten past some of these uh statutory challenges that the industry was dealing with. So I think we're really in promotion mode now. Um, you know, we're trying to, to a certain extent, try to repair maybe some of those relationships over the past few years that were strained because of this really, this huge issue. Um, and, you know, try to bring more New Jersey beer to craft beer consumers, not actually, not only on premise, but out there in, in restaurants and liquor stores.

Speaker 1 [17:05] Amazing. Well, I know you, I know that you both have worked so hard on this because I was there asking you questions the whole time. So it's really, it's our honor to be able to honor you guys this way. You, I can't think of anybody more deserving of being called the beer champion of the year for this year. So thank you both for always being such great. Sources and partners in the news, and you've done so much. So I hope you are as proud as I am of you.

Speaker 3 [17:33] That that that means a lot. Thank you.

Speaker 2 [17:36] Thank you, Justin. Thanks to folks.