American Craft Beer Week: Where To Celebrate In Falmouth

FALMOUTH, MA — Eighty-five percent of adults age 21 or older, as the Brewers Association puts it, live within 10 miles of a brewery, including the residents of Falmouth.

With one brewery in Falmouth, Bad Martha Farmer's Brewery, the Brewers Association is urging craft beer drinkers to support local breweries as American Craft Beer Week approaches. The 15th annual weeklong observance will run from May 10-16 this year.

At Bad Martha, the focus for American Craft Beer Week will be getting the brewery's flagship beers ready for summer. General Manager Josh Flanders said canning their core brews like the "MV Ale" and the "Mischievous Mermaid" is the priority.

But this doesn't mean Bad Martha isn't experimenting before American Craft Beer Week. Flanders said the brewery is working on an orange root and ginger peel ale, and it should be ready before the week at their second location in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard.

Flanders said experimentation has always been a part of the American craft beer scene, making the new beer a perfect fit for American Craft Beer Week.

"American craft beer was kind of about pushing back on the traditionalism of the European style," Flanders said. "American breweries are where it really took off. "There's a lot of innovation over there now too, but that grew out of the American craft beer scene."

Many other breweries have had special releases for the week in years past. Those included on the South Side of Chicago in 2018, when two breweries — Open Outcry Brewing and Horse Thief Hollow — teamed to create a flight of beers as a tribute to the four flavors offered by the “Rainbow Cone” ice cream shop.

Newer releases, discounts and other creative ideas will be offered at craft breweries across America this year as well, the Brewers Association said in a statement.

American Craft Beer Week in 2021, which takes place 14 months after the coronavirus pandemic began its significant financial impact on local businesses nationwide, presents a prime opportunity to support local brewers, association officials said.

"America’s small and independent craft breweries have faced many hardships over the past year,” Brewers Association marketing director Ann Obenchain said in a statement.

In recent decades, craft beer has become the more popular choice for Americans. Craft breweries in the United States date back to the late 1970s, the first opening shortly after President Jimmy Carter signed legislation that made home-brewing legal in 1978.

Now, craft breweries are opening in communities across America. Small and independent brewing companies accounted for 40 of the top 50 top producing craft brewing companies in 2020 based on beer sales volume, according to the Brewers Association.

Even as in-person craft beer consumption and unique local events were shut down for months following the pandemic’s start, craft breweries in the country provided more than 138,000 full- and part-time jobs in 2020, according to the association.

For Bad Martha, the pandemic forced the brewery to completely alter its business model.

"We really didn't do table service," Flanders said. "It was go up to the bar, order your flight, talk to a stranger. It wasn’t sanctioned off to, this is your table and this is your table."

Before the pandemic, Bad Martha also used to have live music and outdoor games like corn hole, which still aren't back yet. And although the brewery will bring these things back eventually, Flanders said he anticipates table service will become a permanent part of Bad Martha's business.

"It forced us to adapt, and we’ve evolved," Flanders said. "In some ways it's been good. We might become a hybrid of the ways we do business. Some people want that very casual atmosphere, and some people want table service."

Now, with COVID-19 restrictions eased in many areas, 2021’s American Craft Beer Week “is about more than just delicious craft beer,” Obenchain said.

“It’s about community and showing support for hometown taprooms, brewpubs and breweries,” she added.