John Shuck knows beer. He’s a connoisseur, one might say. Sure, he started as an electrical engineer, working five years at a firm in Los Angeles, Calif., but after that, his life has been all about beer.

He worked in a microbrewery in Seattle, Wa. He also took classes in beer making in Chicago, Ill. And in July 1995, the then 29-year-old packed up his things and moved to Holly Springs, N.C., where he and his younger brother Greg teamed with their college-buddy, Joe Zonin, founded Carolina Brewing Company.

Twelve years and nearly 100,000 kegs of beer later, John, Greg and Joe operate one of North Carolina’s most successful microbreweries.

But it’s been an interesting three years for beer makers in the state. Amid trying to overturn a 70-year-old prohibition holdover law that limited alcohol by volume, some of the microbreweries faced a boycott of their distributor and saw profits take a substantial hit as a result.

And now that the law is changed and the boycott ended, North Carolina’s beer-making industry is starting to develop itself, catching up to the best in the nation.

Measuring beer density

Alcohol by volume can’t be measured or altered once fermentation starts; instead, it’s controlled by gravity, or the density of a liquid. The standard measurement of gravity is distilled water at 1.000 g/cm3. To measure gravity, a hydrometer is used.

The sugar extracted from the grains determines the gravity. Different grains have different effects, according to Shuck.

“Different grains produce different malts. For example dark roasted grains produce dark colors and roasted flavors,” he said.

“For a batch of beer, we use about a thousand pounds of malted barley for a five percent beer.”

Beer makers measure the original gravity of the wort before they introduce yeast, which ferments the beer.

After fermentation, the gravity of the beer changes. It’s the disparity between original and final gravity that indicates how much alcohol has been produced.

Changing the laws, shaping an industry

John Shuck never thought North Carolina would overturn its old law restricting alcohol by volume to six percent. So when “Pop the Cap,” an advocacy and lobbying group, formed to campaign for a law change, Shuck was a naysayer.

When four representatives introduced a bill suggesting the state’s General Assembly amend the law, Shuck was a critic.

“I never thought it would happen. I was very surprised that it did. In general, things keep getting more restricted when it comes to alcohol,” he said. “We have to pay more taxes on it. There are more and more restrictions and more and more paperwork, so I never thought there would be any ease.” Shuck was wrong.

On Aug. 13, 2005, 10 days after passing through the state Senate, Gov. Mike Easley signed House Bill 392 into law, increasing the allowance of alcohol by volume from six percent to 15 percent.

`The argument behind the reform was that North Carolina beer makers weren’t free to produce styles of beer produced throughout the United States and around the world.

“It has to do with beer styles,” Shuck said. “I’d guess that half of a percent of all the beer consumed in the United States is over six percent alcohol. It’s not a big sales difference. There’s so many styles that part of the flavor profile has to do with a high alcohol content level.”

For example, Carolina Brewing Company, as one of its seasonal brews, produced a Belgian Triple, which according to Shuck, should fall between 9 and 10 percent alcohol by volume. Under the old laws, such a beer was illegal in North Carolina. Nevertheless, Shuck wanted to produce it for his market.

“I scaled that down to under six percent. It doesn’t even taste like the same beer,” he said. “There’s something to the alcohol and the body of the beer when the alcohol is that high. You can’t duplicate it at a lower alcohol content.

“We struggled with the fact that we weren’t trying to make it part of our regular lineup. We just wanted to give people the chance to try things they haven’t had the chance to try.”

Shuck said the new law doesn’t affect his regular lineup of beers — it only influences the seasonal and anniversary beers the company produces three times a year.

The effects of the new law

The truth is that the new law doesn’t have an enormous impact on everyday, commercial beers. Most of those brews sit under six percent alcohol as it is. The impact is on the microbrews — the specialty craft beers — that reflect local industry and markets.

Chris Austin the assistant director of health promotion, substance abuse prevention, said the law was aimed at microbreweries, not so much the mass commercial breweries.

And as far as beers that land in the six-to-eight percent alcohol by volume range, he said there isn’t an enormous impact.

“The big difference comes if you have something that has 10, 11 or 12 percent alcohol. That’s when if you have one beer it’s like having two beers,” Austin said. “You’d think most people would be able to feel the difference.”

He added that craft beers might not be the target of students looking for a cheap drink.

“Microbrews are more expensive, usually. It’s not the type of drink people are buying just to become intoxicated on,” Austin said.

“By state law, all beer labels must have alcohol by volume on them.”

The boycott of Mutual Distributing

In March 2005, after House Bill 392 went through it’s first, second and third editions, Mutual Distributing Company lobbied against the potential law change. Mutual is one of the state’s largest beverage distribution companies, servicing seven territories across North Carolina — Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, Wilmington, Asheville, New Bern and Elizabeth City.

When word got out that Mutual was against the bill, beer drinkers in the state organized and boycotted Mutual’s products, which included Carolina Brewing.

“We probably got 50 phone calls in an hour saying ‘Sorry, we can’t buy your beer anymore,'” Shuck said. “And Mutual got so many phone calls that they just took the phone off the hook.”

While “Pop the Cap” wasn’t officially in charge of the boycott, Shuck credits the organization. Carolina Brewing used to donate beer to “Pop the Cap” functions, but after the boycott, Shuck called their relationship “an awkward situation.”

“It worked. It was very effective in getting done what [the boycott] wanted to get done. But then [Pop the Cap] called us while the boycott was going on, asking us for more beer for their events,” Shuck said.

“I just thought ‘Hey, our sales are hurting because of your boycott.’ I was OK with the logic of the boycott, but I wasn’t going to give more while it was already hurting our business. A lot of restaurants never picked up our beers after the boycott, and that makes a difference.”

Shuck added that the request for free beer is nothing new.

“We get requests for free beer constantly. It’s never ending,” he said. “The Vet School [at N.C. State] has a gathering every year and asks us for free beer. I was just on the phone with someone else asking for free beer.”

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