New York State’s craft beverage industry got a week-long New York City welcome in November during the state’s first-ever Taste NY Craft Beverage Week (NYCBW). The event, from Nov. 5-11, featured a variety of special events and promotions at participating bars, restaurants, taverns and retailers. NYCBW was designed to give New York City residents and visitors a taste of New York State’s home-grown, world-class products and highlight the strength of the industry, represented by nearly 1,000 world-class wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries.
The week was well-received, said Jennifer Smith, director of the New York State Distillers Guild and Executive Director of the New York Cider Association, who described a Thanksgiving food pairing seminar that helped introduce participants to “the range and quality of” New York State ciders. “Appropriately for a Thanksgiving-themed event, they were thankful,” she said. And an NYCBW cocktail event showcasing New York spirits and liqueurs was “a great way to educate consumers about local industry and sustainable agriculture while showing them a good time.”
Beyond the week-long promotion, the success and economic growth spurred by the craft beverage industry happens year-round. Early November marked the official opening of 1886 Malt House in Central New York. The Oswego County operation will be New York’s biggest malting facility, helping to meet the growing need for malted barley from the state’s craft beer industry. 1886 Malt House is expected to produce more than 2,000 tons of malted barley, sourced from New York State farms, per year—that translates into more than 1.6 million gallons of beer.
Cornell University has taken a measure of the state’s craft beer industry growth in acreage: from 2013-2016, hops acreage more than doubled, while malting barley acreage increased by nearly 500 percent during that same period. Since 2011, New York State has actively supported the industry’s success, with the passage of a Farm Brewing law and the elimination of regulatory red tape that has helped boost the number of breweries.
