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A century ago, the great H.L. Mencken went to the annual Bach Festival in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In an essay titled “The Noble Experiment,” he described it thus:
“I once came so near going dry in Pennsylvania, and in the midst of a huge fleet of illicit breweries, that the memory of it still makes me shiver.”
Fast-forward a century and you’ll find that the Bach Festival is still going full-steam. So is Pennsylvania’s brewing tradition, arguably the best in the country.
As for New Jersey, our government is still trying to impose the legacy of Prohibition on our breweries.
But we’ll be taking a big step into the present this week. A bill to open up the brewpub business passed the state Senate unanimously on Monday. It’s expected to clear the Assembly on Thursday. Then it will go to the desk of the governor, where it should be the first step in Gov. Phil Murphy’s promise to reform liquor-licensing laws.
Till now, brewpubs have been the prime target of the liquor-license lobby, which wants to throttle competition. Under the current system, for example, brewpub owners are expected to pretend that they’re merely offering tasting sessions as opposed to giving customers what they came for – pint mugs of freshly brewed beer.
They’re also prohibited from giving customers access to food, thus assuring they drink on an empty stomach.
The reform package would eliminate both of those obstacles – and not a moment too soon, says Dave Hoffman of Climax Brewery in Roselle Park.
I first met Hoffman at a brewfest in Pennsylvania some years ago. There were dozens of great beers from the Keystone State on tap, but just one from the Garden State. That was Climax.
Since that time, dozens of brewpubs have sprung up, but a lot of them have been struggling, Hoffman said. It’s hard to make money brewing beer.
“You gotta shell out a whole lot of money to make a little bit,” he told me. “When you’re selling beer wholesale, you’re not making a lot.”
The math is simple, he said. It costs him more than $100 to brew a keg of beer. If he sells that keg to a bar, the distributor takes $40 or so. Hoffman’s lucky to make $60 profit.
But if he sells that same keg by the glass, he can get 120 pints out of it. At $6 a pint, he can make about $600, which gives him a healthy margin to cover his costs in a business in which the price of supplies such as barley malt and hops keeps going up.
But first he’s got to get those customers in the door. That’s something that the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control seems determined to prevent.
Under current law, just having some guy play a guitar in the pub qualifies as a “special event” under a ruling by the ABC. Even a trivia night qualifies as a special event. A brewpub is allowed just 25 of them per year.
The reform bill removes that cap. It also removes a prohibition on coordinating with food trucks. That will be a big help to brewpubs, Hoffman said.
“That’s awesome,” said Hoffman, whose brewery is located in a former machine shop with a big back yard. “That means I can have a food truck in the back where people are hanging out on the patio every day.”
Who could oppose that?
Not the people of New Jersey. A recent Rutgers-Eagleton Poll showed that 92 percent of those polled said brewpubs should have a “greater ability to serve food on their premises.”
But then there’s the liquor-license lobby. The license-holders have made it clear they want to restrict the sale of alcoholic beverages to those who have licenses awarded under a scheme that dates back to 1947.
This gives Pennsylvania a big economic advantage, said one guy who lives in a town within walking distance of New Hope, Pa.
“Looking at a town like Lambertville, you should have two or three brewpubs,” said Jeff Tittel, an environmental advocate from Lambertville. “On weekends we get 10,000 people in town. Go across the river, and New Hope has three brewpubs. Every little town in Pennsylvania has one.”
The lack of brewpubs on the Jersey side is hampering economic growth, he said. And one of Murphy’s goals is economic growth.
Trenton insiders speculate that goal is part of a strategy for a potential presidential run by the governor.
But whatever the motive, this move away from the legacy of Prohibition is popular with the voters. That poll showed that 72 percent responded affirmatively to “giving small towns additional retail consumption licenses and allowing more restaurants to serve alcohol.”
But will Murphy be able to overcome the cronyism of the legislators and the liquor lobby?
As a longtime student of Trenton politics, Tittel is skeptical.
“I think the chances of an overall reform are about as good as a flat can of beer,” he said.
I’d prefer a nice, fresh pint of Climax ale.
But even a flat can of beer is an improvement over the current situation.
More: Recent Paul Mulshine columns.
Paul Mulshine may be reached at pmulshine@starledger.com.
Follow him on Twitter @Mulshine. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook and on Twitter
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