Perhaps there’s room for growth in between the U.S. market chasm that separates “craft” and “crap.”

Last week was a kind of milestone in the craft beer world — it finally broke the 5 percent barrier.

Name: Rattlesnake Rye-P.A.
Brewery: Squam Brewing (Holderness, NH)
Style: Rye IPA
Price: $6.50 per 22 oz.
ABV: 7
Final Grade: C-
Score: 28

If Squam Brewing is representative of what we’re going to get with the nano brewery trend, then I weep for the future. We may see a repeat of the microbrewery bust that happened in the late ’90s.

I don’t want to write off this new brewery yet. Founded in August 2010, it has had barely a year to work through its processes and the Rattlesnake Rye-P.A. is the only beer I’ve tried. Still, this is straight up homebrew. I definitely have produced equal or superior beers to this in my closet, and I’d be hesitant to serve this to unfamiliar company.

This is an ugly beer, and while its cloudiness can be excused because of the use of rye, the peppery spice was beat down beneath layers of green apple and lemon sourness. I also detected some oxidation, making this taste like a stale key-lime pie.

Every time there’s a report on the state of the craft beer industry, it’s always the same story — it’s growing.

When it comes to beer and liquor companies, who spends the most on advertising?

A group of seven or eight people stood in a miserable rain, without concern, and listened to Scott Russell’s story. He’d been out hunting. Feral rhizomes was the topic of concern.

“They were growing basically inside a stone wall,” said Russell, the manager of the homebrew shop at the South Royalton Market, and author of www.vthomebrewguru.com. “So we pulled up a chunk of a rhizome about this big.”

At this point, Russell extended his hands away from his chest, with thumbs and forefinger shaping a “goalpost” nearly a foot wide. Someone used the word “girth.” The rhizome was probably 100 years old or more, he said, and he was going to plant it at his place to see what happened.

None of this was why my wife, toddler son, or I had traveled an hour to the Justin Morrill Homestead on a soggy Sunday afternoon. We were here to work and learn, and Russell was just sharing a story that served as an appetizer for the hop planting we were about to commence.

“Small” brewers just got a lot bigger.
On Monday, the Brewers Association announced it was changing the definition of a “small” craft brewer to triple its previous size. Now, small brewers are considered any independent brewery that makes 6 million barrels or less, up from 2 million. To check out the new definition, click here.
“Thirty-four years have passed  since the original small brewers tax differential defined small brewers as producing less than 2 million barrels,” said Nick Matt, chairman of the Brewers Association board, in a statement. “A lot has changed …

Looks like the Boston Beer Co., makers of Samuel Adams, is expecting a good 2011. I’m sure they’re popping corks of Infinium as you read this.

It fits snug in a koozie, makes that satisfying psssfchik when it opens and can be crushed on your head. Really, what’s not to like about cans?

I promised a couple weeks ago that the 2nd quarter earnings report for AB-InBev would be interesting. Sadly, I was correct.