Jersey Beer Blogs – Beer Stained Letter

October 28, 2009

Welcome to the next installment of New Jersey beer blogs!  If you’re late to the party, come on in!  The idea behind this series is to introduce our fine visitors (yeah, you too I guess) to the other New Jersey beer bloggers.  So far, its been a really interesting and fun experiment and there a real sense of camaraderie that’s taking shape!

Today, we shine the spotlight on Jeff who runs Jersey’s own Beer Stained Letter!

I started the Beer-Stained Letter in January of 2007 to specifically speak to New Jersey craft breweries and brewpubs.  You hear a lot about Pennsylvania, New York and beyond, but comparatively little about New Jersey. And that’s without leaving New Jersey!

There’s plenty of good beer made here, so I thought some recognition was due. Also, I thought a little mention for the industry would help toward it growing. After nearly 15 years of state-allowed small batch brewing, New Jersey’s craft beer industry hit a plateau, and that was before most of the breweries and brewpubs celebrated 10-year anniversaries.

New Jersey is a tough business climate for any commercial enterprise, but when you get to an industry that is heavily regulated, it becomes a real flaming hoop to jump through.

With that as sort of a mission statement, I try to focus on the NJ breweries and brewpubs and what they are doing and the people who are behind what comes out of the taps and brew kettles.

In addition, I try to look for at least one larger video project to do in addition to the beer festival stuff I’ve already shot.  For example, right now I’m working on a video about Flying Fish’s latest Exit Series release, but I like to approach the bigger projects as sort of mini-documentary pieces, like the ones linked below on Oktoberfest and Weyerbacher growing hops.

Last year (2008), the American Homebrewers Association began a YouTube video contest for Big Brew (Homebrew Day, held the first Saturday in May).  I won in that inaugural year!

Here are some links to my YouTube videos if you like to check it out!
2008 AHA Big Brew Day
Weyerbacher Hops Solution
A Taste of Oktoberfest
Iron Hill Brewery in Maple Shade, NJ
Philly Craft Beer Festival 2008
The Philadelphia Real Ale Festival
2009 Garden State Craft Brewers Fest

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell!

Cheers,
Jeff Linkous
Beer Stained Letter

Posted in Beer Blog Focus