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What's on tap? Art Art

Brewers are getting a handle on standing out in crowded line of draft beers at bars.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 2, 2006

COLUMBUS, Ohio - When Roy Wadding sits down at a bar, he scans the draft selection before ordering a beer.

His eyes zip from one tap handle to the next, searching for something different, something he has never tried before.

"I see something new and I gravitate to it," the 51-year-old Tampa man said recently at a Winking Lizard Tavern in Columbus.

Such is the power of an eye-catching tap handle.

Breweries have tried for decades to attract attention by making tap handles larger and more colorful, but the microbrewery movement has brought a proliferation of artsy and exotic ones. Some are full-fledged artwork, a small brewery's main advertising and a way to entice beer drinkers to sample a specific brand in the competitive craft market - specialty brews typically made in small regional or local breweries - which grew 11 percent in the first six months of this year.

Take Goose Island Brewing Co. in Chicago, for example. It has a long ceramic handle sculpted in the shape of a squawking goose. Three Floyds Brewing Co. in Hammond, Ind., has one with a 22-karat gold crown. Wychwood Brewery Co. Ltd. in Oxfordshire, England, has a hideous, bug-eyed hobgoblin hugging a giant sword.

You name it and it's been fashioned into a tap handle: Orca. Saxophone. Bloody hatchet. Pelican. Lightning bolt. Rocket ship. Hockey glove. A turtle floating on a raft. Frog leg. Lighthouse with working light. Lobster claw.

With so many craft beers available, breweries are designing the tap handles to distinguish themselves from their peers in some bars that can feature 20, 50 and even 100 different beers on draft.

"When I sit at the bar and watch people come in, the first thing they look at are what taps you have," said John Lane, a partner in Winking Lizard Tavern. "The tap handle is like a trophy."

About 1,371 craft breweries operate in the country, with annual retail sales of craft beer hitting $4.3-billion last year, according to the Brewers Association in Boulder, Colo. While craft beers hold about 3.5 percent of the beer market in the United States, the segment of industry is growing.

Companies that produce tap handles, including Tap Handles Inc. in Renton, Wash., and Mark Supik & Co. in Baltimore, agree that customers are asking for more custom handles, which can cost anywhere from $15 to a couple hundred dollars. The small breweries are especially interested in producing something different.

"They are relying on that handle as their primary advertising vehicle," said Mark Gentzen, general manager for Tap Handles, which produces about 200,000 a year.

BY THE NUMBERS

All about beer

Information about beer and its consumption, by the numbers:

1,409: The number of breweries - ranging from brewpubs to national brewers - operating in the United States.

306: The number of breweries in California last year, putting the state first in the country. Mississippi was last with one.

$82-billion: The U.S. sales volume for beer last year. Craft beer, beer typically made in small batches by regional or local brewers, accounted for $4.3-billion.

21.3 gallons: The amount of beer consumed per capita last year in the United States. New Hampshire led all states with 31.1 gallons. Nevada, North Dakota, Montana and Wisconsin rounded out the top five. Utah was last at 12.2 gallons.

48: The percent of beer sold in metal cans last year in the United States. Glass bottles followed at 42 percent and draft beer was at 10 percent.

84.1: The market share held by major U.S. breweries and noncraft regional brewers. Imports have 12.4 percent and craft brewers hold 3.4 percent.

[Last modified November 2, 2006, 00:07:38]