HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - If it seems like new craft breweries are opening in Connecticut faster than ever, it’s because they are.
“We’re not even close to having enough breweries,” said John Kraszewski, founder of Armada Brewing, which opened in East Haven last month, working out of another already operating brewery. “The over-saturation is not going to happen.”
In 2011, there were 16 microbreweries, brewpubs and contract brewers in the state. That number grew steadily each year, and by 2015 there were 35. By the end of January, there were 55. In the Hartford area, there are now nearly two dozen brewers or breweries operating or in the planning stages, producing high-end beer that can cost as much as $12 for a six or four-pack.
For now, Kraszewski believes the unquenchable thirst for craft beer is driven by consumers demanding a high-quality product that is made locally.
Across Connecticut, 36 more breweries are in the planning stages, according to the Brewers Association, a national organization that promotes small, independent craft brewers and track all things beer.
The growth is not just happening in Connecticut, which is in the middle of the pack in terms of brewing operations per capita. According to the association, by the end of 2015 there were 4,269 breweries in the country and 4,225 of them were craft breweries, brewpubs and contract brewing operations - more than double the number in 2011.
Craft beer sales also increased by 12.8 percent from 2014 to 2015, while overall beer sales were down slightly. Nationally craft beer made up 16 percent of all beer sales and totaled $22.3 billion. Connecticut’s share was $569 million.
Craft breweries, which generally produce an assortment of ales, lagers and pilsners, are defined by the Craft Brewers Association as producing 6 million barrels of beer or less annually. They must also be independently owned and produce beer by traditional brewing and fermentation methods.
Kraszewski, 30, got into the business the same way a lot of others have: He started out home brewing and got to know others who were brewing. Eventually, he decided to go out on his own and was considering Chicago, where he was living, but on a visit home to West Haven to see his parents Kraszewski said he realized how few breweries there were in the New Haven area.
Opening under the roof of another brewer, Overshores Brewing, while he looks for his own space, Kraszewski said he envisions turning the New Haven area into a “craft beer mecca.”
For Kraszewski, the key for anyone to succeed in the craft beer business is marketing, spending and saving wisely - and making a good product. He said he believes he’ll succeed because his Midwestern-style beers are different from what many are making in the state now.
The Willimantic Brewing Company is widely believed to among first craft breweries in the state, opening in 1993. Growth was slow in the state during the 1990s and things didn’t start to pick up until about 10 years ago.
“I saw the craft beer boom coming,” said Curt Cameron, who runs Hooker Brewing Company, which opened in Bloomfield in March 2007.
Cameron, who bought the company from the former owners of the Trout Brook Brewery on Bartholomew Avenue in Hartford, owned several liquor stores and noticed a trend.
In his first year, Cameron produced about 2,000 barrels of beer. By 2016, that number had grown to 12,000. Cameron has also expanded his operation several times, invested in a $250,000 canning line and began contract brewing for other four other brewers. Hooker’s line of beers are also sold in three other states and in Norway, and Cameron opened a tasting room that allows him to sell pints last year.
On-premises sales, Cameron said, are important to keeping the smaller operations profitable and open. Cameron said that even a small operation needs about $250,000 to buy the needed equipment and space, and cash flow to keep it going early on.
Bart Watson, an economist for the Brewers Association, said there’s no sign of too much beer - yet.
“It starts with the consumer,” Watson said. “People are increasingly wanting to spend money on and support local breweries.”
Watson said the association monitors the industry and is award there is a saturation point, but he added that Connecticut is not even close to reaching that point.
He compared the state of Oregon, with 2.9 million people over the age of 21 to Connecticut, which has 2.1 million people over the age of 21.
“Oregon has 300 active brewing licenses. Perhaps they’re approaching saturation,” he said, adding that some breweries closing in Oregon as new ones open.
Watson said that the association tracks closings and that several factors appear to be at play, the same issues as other businesses that close: cash flow and a lack of capital.
For Watson, a possible sign of a downturn would be if well-run, high-quality breweries start closing, which could signal that there are just too many of them.
“That everyone is succeeding (now) is what’s unusual,” he said.
Phil Hopkins co-owned Hartford Brewery Limited, Hartford’s first craft brewery, which operated out of the Gold Building from 1991 to 2000. Since then, Hopkins has kept his hand in the business, working for Shipyard Brewing in Maine and also producing a separate line of beers under the name Hartford Better Beer Co.
He also bought the former John Harvard’s brewing equipment and is scouting locations in greater Hartford with the hope of opening a local brewery in early 2018.
Hopkins said being on the ground floor was challenging because “the American beer palate, especially in Connecticut, was still evolving.”
He noted that, in the 1990s, a number of breweries started up and failed quickly. That won’t happen again, he said, because the cost of getting into the business and staying afloat is far less prohibitive now that equipment is cheaper and serving food is not a requirement.
Hooker Brewing’s Cameron said that, at some point, a few breweries will close because of over-saturation, distribution difficulties, poor business models, quality of the product, or other reasons.
“There’s some great beer being made and some not so great beer being made,” Cameron said. “Consumers will decide the winners and losers.”
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Information from: Hartford Courant, https://www.courant.com
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