Celebrate New York Craft Beer Day Friday

By proclamation of the governor, April 11 is now the day to officially celebrate and recognize NYS beers.

There’s a holiday to celebrate each and every goofy object, food item, president, celebrity, sports team, area codes, the 2003 Syracuse men’s basketball national championship team, Dua Lipa, etc. (Truthfully, I just wanted to see how long I could continue this asinine list of nothingness before I grew bored — not as long as expected.)

So it only tracks that there should be a day to recognize and celebrate and drink the incredible beers being produced right here. Last month, Gov. Kathy Hochul presented Paul Leone, New York State Brewers Association executive director, a fancy, framed proclamation, declaring April 11 as New York Craft Beer Day.

In probably her least controversial and most impactful action as governor, Hochul presented Leone and the NYSBA with the proclamation at last month’s New York State Craft Beer Conference in Albany. Hochul was in attendance to present the Governor’s Cup, awarded to the beer in NYS. This year, the honor was bestowed upon Brooklyn’s Grimm Artisanal Ales for it Grimm Weisse Hefeweizen (wheat beer).

The first chance to celebrate this new holiday is Friday. So I thought it would be a good time to catch up with Leone, who has led the Brewers Association for more than a decade now, and check in on the state of craft beer here. Sure, times are tough, but Leone said it’s also an opportunity for enterprising and creative folks to open a new brewery, since the scene here has matured so much.

(If you’re reading this Cass or Zach, the time has never been better to open that metal-themed saison and lager bar, right??)

With more than 500 breweries and billions of dollars in economic impact, we really should celebrate. What follows is a slightly edited transcript of our talk earlier this week:

Cleveland Prost: Friday is the first New York Craft Beer Day. As an Association, what went into gaining that recognition from the state?

Paul Leone: It’s something that I’ve been working on for a while. There’s a holiday for everything, it seems. My counterpart in Minnesota last year, he got Minnesota Craft Beer Day passed, so I reached out to him and learned the process. I reached out to my lobbyist and said, ‘Hey, let’s do a New York Craft Beer Day.’ We put in the required paperwork. And with the governor coming to deliver the Governor’s Cup again this year (as the results for the New York State Craft Beer Competition were revealed), it just aligned perfectly. We have a date, forever and ever.

CP: What does the day entail? What sort of celebrations are on tap?

PL: This year the runway is short. We haven’t had a chance to plan anything on a state level. So right now, it’s guerrilla marketing happening. Some of my staff is going to be in New York City doing something similar to what we’re doing in Rochester (a craft beer walk to a number of different locations in the city — itinerary to be shared on social media in the coming days). We’re just encouraging breweries through the state to have some sort of promotion, to draw people to their breweries on Friday.

Photo: Gov. Kathy Hochul, left, presents NYSBA executive director Paul Leone a framed copy of the state’s proclamation related to New York Craft Beer Day. (photo provided)

CP: If we’re looking at the numbers and the state of the scene, how are we doing in New York state?

PL: We’re holding tight (at over 500). If a brewery closes, another opens. We’re pretty steady in New York state right now.

CP: That’s a huge accomplishment. I had one brewery owner tell me recently that flat is the new growth.

PL: That’s kind of how I feel about it. You write enough about this stuff, you know it and it seems like when you write about a brewery closing, you hear about another one opening.

Breweries have been finding out for a while that you can’t just make beer anymore and have people just come in. They have to do more. They have to do events. They have to have food of some kind. They have to get creative on how to get people to come to their breweries, now more than ever. That’s what they’re adapting to right now. A big part of our conference was understanding your business. A lot of breweries know how to make great beer, but they’re not always the best business people. They really have to get better at running their business and saving money where they can. And just being smarter about their growth.

CP: Even though it’s difficult, do you still see room for innovation and room for a lot of different players?

PL: I’ve said this and haven’t gotten any criticism yet from other breweries. But I almost feel like now is a great time to open a brewery. You know what the market is like. You’re not going to over-build. There are a lot of great people in the industry that need jobs. You can get equipment discounted, because there is a lot for sale on the open market around the country.

CP: What are some of the things the Association is still working on at the state level?

PL: We’re just looking to support the industry. It’s what we’ve always done. We’re the people they call when they have issues of any kind. We’re sort of their insurance. We’re here for them. I make a lot of connections for breweries to some of our allied members on the business side of things. Of course, legislatively, we’re really keeping an eye on the expansion of the bottle bill and on extended producer responsibility. These could be both good and bad for the industry. We’re spending a lot of time defending the industry right now, so that nothing is gonna get through that costs them any more money right now.

There’s an expanded bottle bill that would keep redemption cost at five cents and redemption centers would get more money from the state and would expand it to include wine and liquor bottles and more packaging that doesn’t have deposits. And then there’s a bill that makes everything ten cents. So it would cost the breweries more. That’s the one we’re trying to beat.

Extended producer responsibility (or EPR) is trying to reduce waste in the waste stream. For instance, how many Amazon boxes do you get in the mail? So who would be responsible for disposing those Amazon boxes? Is it you or is it Amazon? On the brewery level, there is a PacTech (plastic four-pack holders) bill right now to ban them outright. Extended producer responsibility would be, who is responsible for PacTechs? It’s making sure the breweries aren’t going to have more burdens placed on them.

CP: I know it’s early on, but what sort of impact are we seeing from President Trump’s increase in tariffs, particularly with Canada?

PL: The obvious, malt. Our ecosystem has always worked really well with Canada. We grow barley here and we ship it up there to get malted. They do the same. It’s this thing that has worked beautifully for so long. And now, malt is going to cost more, especially for those breweries that have silos and really use a lot of it. The same thing with aluminum. Those are the two big things we’re keeping an eye on.

CP: What excites you about the New York state craft beer scene right now?

PL: I think New York craft brewers are still innovating and still adapting. If you go to a brewery, it’s more than just going to have a beer. They have other products. They’re just great places to visit, great places to bring families, to bring your dogs. If you need a stress reliever, go to a brewery. You go there to talk and hang out. Kids are welcome. They’re family friendly. With weather turning, that’s going to help a lot, too.

A final note: It’s pretty wild to think I’ve been working on this independent publication for over two years now. In that time, I’ve published nearly 250 newsletters, highlighted some of my favorite people in the industry, curated two beers festivals (that featured 150 participants and 4,600 attendees), and continued to break all the biggest news in the region (closures, consolidations, openings, etc.).

The Cleveland Prost remains the preeminent source for regional beer news. If you own a brewery, bar, or beer-adjacent business, this is the best place to reach the nerds you wanna be in front of. So I remain open to sponsorships, advertisements, and sponsored content. Feel free to reach out to me at clevelandprost@gmail.com for more. And more than anything, thanks for all the support. None of this would be possible without the devoted (and thirsty) audience.