There was a time, Hugh Sisson remembered, when every region of the country had its own brewery that was part of the community?s culture and identity.
These days, with beer giants Anheuser-Busch and soon-to-be-formed MillerCoors about to control almost 80 percent of the $94 billion U.S. beer market, the onus is on smaller breweries ? like Sisson?s Clipper City Brewing Co. ? to capitalize on local business.
“This beer renaissance, it?s all about bringing it back to the local brewery,” Sisson said in a recent interview at Clipper City?s Baltimore County facility.
Craft beer sales, which totaled about $4.2 billion in 2006 (about 4.5 percent of the beer market), continue to increase, with sales jumping 11 percent in the first half of 2007 compared with the first half of 2006, according to the Boulder, Colo.-based Brewers Association. Though Sisson wouldn?t disclose sales figures, he expects Clipper City to brew about 16,000 barrels of beer this year, enough to pack 225,000 cases.
“People are trading up in quality and down in quantity,” Sisson said.
Sisson, a sixth-generation Baltimorean, knows a lot about the Baltimore region and maybe more about beer.
After successfully lobbying the General Assembly in 1987 to pass legislation required to open a brew pub in Maryland, Sisson opened the state?s first brew pub ? Sisson?s in Federal Hill (where Ryleigh?s Oyster Bar is now located) ? in 1989. In 1995, Sisson left the brew pub and established the Clipper City brewery, named for the Clipper Ship, built in the port of Baltimore.
Today, Clipper City brews three product lines ? 14 beers total ? and markets in 18 states and Washington, D.C.
Local breweries, though, are facing pricing challenges as the cost of raw materials spikes, Sisson said. “I?ve never seen the numbers jump like this,” Sisson said. “People will continue to buy beer, but will they continue to buy high-end?”
Clipper City, with its local reputation, is still well-positioned in the region, said Curt Cooney of Republic National Distributing Co. in Jessup. The distributor markets Clipper City beers to bars and retailers throughout Baltimore City and Baltimore, Carroll and Howard counties.
“The growth in the industry has come from high-end beers, which are craft and import beers,” Cooney said. “Ifyou look at consumer trends, everything is becoming more high-end.”
Sisson?s combination of business and beer knowledge has helped Clipper City grow in the region and across the country, said Ernesto Igot, the company?s brewmaster. “You have to have a passion for beer to be in the business this long ? it?s a very fragile market,” Igot said.
“There are thousands of beers out there,” Igot added, “and you?re only as good as the beer you make.”
