Next week is American Craft Beer Week.

Celebrate the Flavor and Diversity of American Craft Beer!
May 14-20, 2007 is designated as a time for all legal-drinking-age Americans to explore and celebrate the flavorful beverages produced by our small, traditional and independent brewers. Craft brewers produce flavorful beers that combine classic European recipes with bold American innovation.

Same as last year, you can join the “Great American Beer Tour” with a chance to win prizes. I like the spirit of that, but I just don’t have the time… maybe next year.

And, Flying Dog Brewery has released a press release concurrent with next week’s events:

Denver’s Flying Dog Brewery will celebrate American Craft Beer Week, May 14-20, with week of special brewery tours and contests. The week recognizes America’s small, independent and traditional brewers and contributions the craft beer community makes to our economy.

Flying Dog always offers FREE tours on weekdays at 4 P.M. and Saturdays at 1 P.M. and 3 P.M, but brewery visitors will be treated to special tours during American Craft Beer Week. All tour-goers will be registered to win a variety of Flying Dog prizes, including pint glasses, and one Grand Prize Winner will receive a three-day pass to the Great American Beer Festival in October. All week, tours will be given by Flying Dog’s brewers, culminating with German-trained Brewmeister and CEO Eric Warner giving the brewery tour on Friday, May 18. For a complete schedule of brewery tours and who will be giving them, log on to www.flyingdogales.com.

“It’s rare that the brewers have a chance to get away from the Brewhouse to give a tour, so we think it will be a special treat for visitors to get an extremely inside look at our brewing process,” said Flying Dog’s Director of Marketing, Neal Stewart. “And Eric probably only gives four or five tours a year, so this is an excellent opportunity for Flying Dog fans to interact with one of the country’s most knowledgeable brewers.”

The theme of this year’s American Craft Beer Week is “Visit your local brewery” in an effort to highlight America’s 1,300 craft breweries (there are 99 in Colorado). With at least one in every state, the average American lives within 10 miles of a brewery. To further encourage brewery visits, the Brewers Association will conduct the Great American Beer Tour from May 14-20th. The program awards points to participants for each brewery visit, allowing them to earn premiums such as beer mugs and logo shirts. The beer tour traveler who accumulates the greatest number of points will receive an all-expenses paid trip for two to the 26th Great American Beer Festival held in Denver, Colorado October 11-13, 2007. More than 850 Brewers Association member breweries will have passports for validation. Details of the program are available at www.GreatAmericanBeerTour.org.

“America’s small brewers are part of a movement, a shift in consciousness, and the trading up of what beer people drink,” stated Julia Herz, a spokesperson for the Brewers Association, the not-for-profit trade association for America’s small brewers. “American Craft Beer Week will highlight craft brewers and the beer drinkers that support this grassroots effort.”

Over the past three years, craft beer has grown 31.5%, and for 2006 the segment had sales of $4.6 billion. According to scan data from Information Resources Inc. (IRI), the craft beer segment is the fastest growing segment of alcohol, surpassing other beer, wine, and spirits with a 17.8% increase in the US Food channel (dollar sales) from 2005.