Threes Minus One
A mid-Beer Week missive, government efficiency, and a brewery from a warm, baseball-less place
Good morning! Anyone else dealing with a midweek NYC Beer Week hangover? I’ve been to eight beer events in five days and I’m not at my best, but I’d like to think I’m doing the hard work of supporting our city’s beer scene in its first full-fledged beer week in two years.
Opening Bash, NYC Beer Week’s premier event, went off without a hitch on Saturday. The cons: it was cold (can’t control the weather) and the bathroom lines were long (though they moved pretty quick). The pros: a cool new venue, so much good beer, an improved format that paired NYC breweries with their invited guests, and a lot of out-of-town breweries that had rarely been seen in the city, from Fidens to Human Robot, Two Tides to Bierstadt Lagerhaus (who was the first brewery to run out of beer! Maybe people are finally catching on to this whole lager thing!). Honestly, for me, it was a day full of socializing with a lot of beer folks I haven’t seen in nearly two years, and meeting some of the people who read this very newsletter (nice meeting some of you!).
Anyway, if you haven’t been out yet this week, there are still four more days of NYC Beer Week events left for you to try. I’ll see you out there!
Threes Brewing CEO steps down after doubling down on anti-vax mandate comments
A week and a half after news emerged that Joshua Stylman had made comments on Twitter that called vaccine mandates “a crime against humanity” and equated them the Holocaust and Jim Crow Laws, Threes Brewing announced their CEO would step down effective immediately on Tuesday.
In February, Stylman made two posts on Twitter — one stating “vaccine mandates are a crime against humanity. If you are not speaking out against them, you are a conspirator,” and another stating that the implementation of vaccine mandates “echoes early sentiments expressed in the Jim Crow South, Nazi Germany, Stalinism, Maoism, and other dark times in human history.” After public officials, journalists, and even fellow members of the beer industry brought attention to these comments, Stylman doubled down, while hypocritically insisting that his opinions were “nuanced” and he was open for debate. He did not specify what part of his statement that “vaccine mandates are a crime against humanity” was in fact nuanced.
A day after these statements came to light, Threes released a statement on Instagram distancing itself from Stylman’s comments on February 17th. Last week, likely out of a fear of a public backlash, Threes backed out of the annual New York City Beer Week Opening Bash. Their social media had remained entirely silent until Tuesday, when another statement was posted announcing that Stylman had stepped down as CEO of the brewery. “He believes that his fiduciary responsibilities as CEO of Threes Brewing are in conflict with his duties as a parent and citizen,” the statement explained, “and is choosing to be able to speak his mind without concern that the team at Threes will be held responsible for his personal views.”
Jared Cohen, the brewery’s COO, will step in as CEO.
The statement did not offer an apology for Stylman’s extreme comments or the impact the comments had on employees whose livelihoods were placed in jeopardy as a result of a customer backlash, nor did it specify if he will maintain his founding ownership stake in the company, which would take much longer to untangle. Eater later reported that Stylman would eventually divest his equity in the company, and in the meantime hand shareholder rights over to Cohen.
The vaccine mandate for indoor dining in New York City ends on Sunday, March 7th, though employees of businesses will still be required to be vaccinated for on-site work.
Governor Hochul announces enhanced funding plan for State Liquor Authority
Bars, restaurants, and beverage manufacturers in New York all deal with a massive headache to simply exist: applying for, upgrading, or renewing a license with the State Liquor Authority. Each year, the SLA processes 75,000 applications for various types of liquor licenses, with a team of just thirty employees dedicated to them. It’s not surprising, then, that the average turnaround time for these is six months — half a year just to get a license approved, even if there’s nothing wrong with the application. There’s currently a backlog of 3,700 applications.
The state took a first step last year in addressing this in New York City by approving a bill that implements temporary liquor licenses in the five boroughs — a right that bars and restaurants outside the city had already have. A similar law allowing craft manufacturers to have temporary licenses was also signed into law in Decemeber. These new temporary licenses have a turnaround time of as little as fifteen days, and can allow a business to operate while they wait for full license approval.
But in Brooklyn yesterday, the governor announced that her Executive Budget will dedicate funding to make that waiting period much shorter. Two million dollars will be used to hire thirty-nine new employees dedicated to liquor license applications, and will offer the SLA more resources to allow for digital acceptance of those applications, dragging the agency out of the prohibition era. It’s another step in reforming the state’s 85-year old Alcohol Beverage Control law. This is an ongoing process, but the governor intends to, as she said yesterday, “get back to the ABCs of the ABC Law,” including allowing to-go drinks and permitting movie theaters to get liquor licenses.
To-go drinks, a wildly popular and common-sense idea that helped save jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic, continues to top Hochul’s to-do list for this legislative session, and she intends to “take it to the people,” she said yesterday, and called it a “critical revenue stream” for bars and restaurants, an industry who lost as much as sixty-four percent of its workforce during the pandemic. To-go drinks were shelved abruptly last June when disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo lifted his executive order, and a wildly popular bill to legalize them permanently faces opposition from the liquor store lobby.
Brewery Tracker
Total brewery count: 2,591
Total breweries visited in 2022: 63
Total breweries visited in Florida: 91
Brewery Visit of the Week
Brewery #523, Fort Myers Brewing Company, Fort Myers, Florida (Visited 7-Mar-2016)
The story of this brewery visit starts with a hangover. Not mine, though. Fort Myers’ then-head brewer KJ Lynch was supposed to meet me at the brewery on a sunny afternoon in March, but he partied a bit too hard the night before. He was celebrating the brewery’s award as Best Large Brewery in Florida at the Best Florida Beer Championships’ Brewers Ball. On top of that, they took home five medals for their beers, including two golds. That’s a completely justified hangover. Thankfully, KJ had the brewery’s co-owner Rob Whyte stand in and greet me. I arrived just after a reporter and photographer had visited to cover the news of their victories. And Rob got down to business right away, pouring me a beer and talking shop.
Six years ago, Southwest Florida was not exactly a place known for its craft breweries — its summertime heat and humidity make it more of a Corona-and-Bud-Light-swigging kind of place. But chat with the brewers in this area and you’ll see just how rapid the growth in craft beer has been in the region. “We’re the oldest brewery south of Tampa,” Rob told me as we sat at the bar. I asked him how long they had been open at the time. “We’re celebrating our third anniversary later this month.” Today, there are well over a dozen breweries in the region (and more recently, a few pandemic-era closures). Now nine years old, Fort Myers Brewing Company is squarely part of the old guard.
Their beers run the gamut from breezy, warm-weather beers like their Gateway Gold to heavy, aggressive stouts and barleywines (yes, barleywine!). Being the only game in town for a while, FMBC had to be versatile when it came to styles. The smaller, newer breweries nearby established their niches. When I visited the brewery again in 2019, they were booming, and their beers had matured into a full-fledged craft juggernaut. I’m overdue for another visit, but the Major League Baseball owners had other ideas (both JetBlue Park and Hammond Stadium, the spring homes of the Red Sox and Twins, are both nearby). Here’s hoping baseball’s back by next year.
Social Post of the Week
Beer of the Week
Elephantasm
Five Boroughs Brewing Company (Brooklyn, New York) in collaboration with Twin Elephant Brewing Company (Chatham, New Jersey)
Hazy IPA
6.2% ABV
This hazy bomb was the first beer I sipped at Opening Bash on Saturday. I enjoyed it then, but enjoyed it even more last night at Blind Tiger. Made with NJ-grown Cascade hops and Phantasm hop powder, this felt like a cheat beer. It was delightfully citrusy, with grapefruit pith and white wine grape character. This cross-Hudson collaboration was everything I love about Beer Week, and the fine but anonymous gentlemen who brew beer at two other New York City breweries and posed for this photo agreed.
Long Listen of the Week
In an issue of the newsletter last month, my Brewery of the Week was Offset Bier Co. in Park City, Utah. Well, if you want to get to know more about this brewery beyond my quick little write-up, Steal This Beer interviewed Offset’s founders, Conor Brown and Patrick Bourque on last week’s podcast. Worth a listen if you want get to know about their approach to beer and how Utah’s liquor laws impact what they brew. (Side note: by referring to me as one of John Holl’s “rich friends,” I assume Augie Carton means “rich in experiences.”)
One More Thing
If you’re a longtime reader of Brew York, you might remember a fun little competition among beer bars I used to do each March called Barch Madness — a series of votes to determine New York City’s favorite beer bar. Well, against my better judgment, it’s back for 2022. After all, after a really rough past two years, beer bars need all the support they can get. So things will kick off next week with a play-in round, and I need your help! If you’ve got some beer bars that have opened in the recent past that you think are worthy of being considered for competition, let me know in the comments!
Cheers,
Chris
For Barch Madness: I'm not sure if it's new, but St. Elias at 899 Broadway in Brooklyn was new to me and looked pretty "shiny." It's a bottle shop with a full bar, including about 8 taps.
Chris,
Even though you were a longtime supporter of Threes Brewing and someone who at least knew me socially, you decided that my words about vaccine mandates were so newsworthy that you were the first in the beer community to spread them without even asking me for comment.
Now, you continues to misrepresent my words. How were my comments "anti-vax" in any way? I have legitimate questions about the mRNA shots (you might too if you did any research), however, my *controversial remarks* were exclusively about the mandates.
You also said, I "equated them the Holocaust and Jim Crow Laws." For sure, I made the mistake of trying to have a discussion without context in a public space and that's on me. Still, I clarified my POV but you omitted that from your follow-up "reporting" which is interesting.
https://stylman.substack.com/p/first-principles
You also claim, "the impact the comments had on employees whose livelihoods were placed in jeopardy as a result of a customer backlash." Do you know of any employees who earned less money or had their employment at risk because of anything I said? I'd be careful with publishing statements you know nothing about.
If livelihoods are at risk it's because of folks like you, manufacturing a story that brings negative attention to people who have nothing to do with me or my views, but are just trying to earn a living. I feel so strongly about this topic that I resigned so that I can speak freely without creating more distractions for people I care about.
https://stylman.substack.com/p/new-york-i-love-you-but-youre-bringing
If you must know, I posted that vaccines mandates were "a crime against humanity" after hearing two terrible stories earlier that day...
The first was from a teacher friend who lost his job months ago and had just learned that he could no longer earn unemployment or food stamps. He has infection acquired immunity and is no health threat to anyone, yet he is sweating feeding his kids. The other was from another friend who was agonizing the loss of her child, who died from an adverse reaction to the jab (which he only took as a condition of employment). So yeah, I was distraught and spoke with some very strong language. For what it's worth, I also clarified that I should have said "complicit, even if they don't know it" but I guess details don't matter.
https://mobile.twitter.com/jstylman/status/1496557464409591810
Rather than trying to understand my take, you chose to pile on with the angry mob.
Just know that while you're out cavalierly brewery hopping, kids are still having their childhoods stolen from them because of these unscientific interventions.
https://mobile.twitter.com/angrybklynmom/status/1499804064787447823
It is especially tortuous to see children under 5 who, despite having infinitesimal risk from COVID, are still being required to wear masks all day (even though there is zero evidence that they work for anything except stunting their development).
https://mobile.twitter.com/Hold2LLC/status/1499798699052081158
While restaurants, bars and breweries will no longer check vaccine cards, workers (including my teacher friend) still don't know where their next meal is coming from. So, maybe zoom out and try to consider what's at stake here before passing so much blind judgment.
https://mobile.twitter.com/TheEliKlein/status/1499799930638061577
Please know, you can keep trying to come at me, but all you're doing is hurting my ex-teammates. I am a private citizen and happy to discuss this with you anytime if you care to. Either way, I'm going to stand my ground against anyone who tries to twist my words or attack my character. Regardless of whether you actually want to have a discussion or just look for clickbait, the record will show that I came out against segregation and you supported it. I'm proud of the position I took. Let's check back in time and see if you can say the same.
Thanks,
Josh