HEROES OF THE GOOD BEER MOVEMENT - EYE ON ALABAMA

Tyler Bell - Owner

El Rey Burrito Lounge

1031 Fairview Avenue

Montgomery, Alabama

http://www.burritolounge.com

El Rey Burrito Lounge Slide Show

With an assist from Harry Kampakis, President of Birmingham Beverage http://www.alabev.com/

Tyler Bell's success in creating a wonderfully quirky beer bar at El Rey Burrito Lounge in Montgomery makes manifest not only the creativity of the craft beer renaissance – but also how far and wide it has spread since the passage of H.R. 1337.

Tyler's story and the struggle for beer freedom in Alabama are the subject of the first in a series of profiles of “heroes of the good beer movement”. We have a soft spot for individualists like Tyler - who make extraordinary efforts to create highly original gathering places in their hometowns – more often than not against formidable odds. Our business has been built thanks to the fortitude of people like him.

I’ve not been to Alabama. I learned about El Rey Burrito through a google alert about Castelain being featured there. I followed the link to the website for Tyler’s Slow Food-inspired, Mexican eatery with a killer beer list, and a wonderful flick’r slide show. Sure I had happened upon a great spot, I emailed to thank the owner and to ask for the story behind his unlikely beer outpost. Tyler and I arranged a time to talk. His story did not disappoint.

First a preamble. H.R. 1337 - signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 14, 1978 -legalized home brewing. It set in motion the renaissance in craft brewing in the USA. Not all parts of the country benefited equally or simultaneously from its liberating effect. Despite the fact that it was a Southern President who signed the bill, beer culture in many parts of the Deep South significantly lagged the rest of the country because -though home brewing was allowed – sales of high gravity beers were not.

Alabama was one of the last of the Southern states to raise the ban on strong beer. It was not until Friday, May 22, 2009 that Governor Bob Riley signed a bill into law raising the maximum alcohol content to 13.9%. This marked the successful conclusion to a five year battle to legalize strong beer that was waged by a grass roots organization called “Free the Hops” led by Danner Kline and Stuart Carter. Kline and Carter were supported by a team of volunteer lawyers in Birmingham, other craft beer advocates like the publican, Tyler Bell, and our stalwart Alabama distributor, Harry Kampakis. of Birmingham Beverage.

True to form El Rey Burrito Lounge was the first restaurant in Montgomery to offer strong beers. “As soon as the ink was dry on the new law, Tyler Bell got in his car and drove to Birmingham to pick up the beer from the distributor so that he could begin serving it that night, at least a day ahead of other restaurants.” For as long as Tyler has owned El Burrito Lounge (on of three Montgomery establishments he has operated over the past 15 years) he's been working to bring the best beers available in state to his customers. It is just that for a long time that selection was extremely limited.

Tyler grew up in Montgomery (pop 200,000) home to Nat King Cole, Hank Williams, and a young John Denver. Not surprisingly he became a musician and hit the road. Band tours took Tyler all over the country in the late 80’s and early 90’s. He explained his beer awakening began on a mountainside outside San Francisco when a friend gave him an avocado sandwich and an Anchor Steam. Peregrinations also turned him into a serious foodie. (Did you know that Jim Leff the founder of Chowhound is also a musician?) By the mid 90’s, a road weary Tyler decided to head back to Montgomery – a place he described at that point as a “food morgue”. “If you wanted a croissant you’d better be prepared to drive to Atlanta to get one”. Undeterred, Tyler felt his little garden district neighborhood of Cloverdale could use a good eatery. Tyler brought a fine dining place, an espresso bar and El Burrito to the Montgomery food scene.

In these early years - when Tyler could sell nothing stronger than Shiner Bock, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Sam Smith and Anchor at El Burrito, Vanberg & DeWulf was already in business in Alabama - with the help of the state’s most progressive distributor, Harry Kampakis. Harry had gotten in touch with us to ask if we’d be willing to work with him to complete the paperwork necessary to sell our bottle-conditioned, high-octane brews (and permissible lambics) at Alabama military bases (not subject to state laws). The idea appealed to our subversive souls. Harry knew that servicemen and women who had been posted in Europe had developed an appreciation for the subtle and sophisticated UK, Czech, British, German and Belgian beers and would order them if they could. Birmingham remained one of our smallest distributors, they were also one of our favorites.

Around 2000 Tyler met his wife, a set decorator in the film business. He consolidated his restaurant holdings, and began to split his time between LA and Montgomery. A film project in Philadelphia four years ago introduced the couple to the town’s great beer places: Tyler mentioned especially loving The Foodery and TRIA Wine Bar (which despite its name is a bastion of great beer). Tyler attended many events At Philly Beer Week. One of them was a Tria Beer tutorial by Don Feinberg. That is how and where he first encountered our company and our imports - Castelain and Saison Dupont (now staples on his beer list).

Tyler explained that as he saw it, in some ways Philly is not the most sophisticated town, yet had managed to develop an awesome beer culture. This gave him hope that with a change in Alabama’s laws, he could help bring about a similarly vibrant beer scene in Montgomery. And, he is wasting no time doing just that. El Rey Burrito Lounge is educating thousands of Alabamans about good beer and supporting home grown microbreweries. And thanks to Harry Kampakis’ patient nurturing of importers and brewers of craft beers - starting long before the law changed, Birmingham Beverage is now making them available statewide.

We hope to get to Montgomery in 2010 so we can express our appreciation to Harry, Tyler and the teams at Birmingham Beverage and El Rey Burrito. We hope too to tip our hats to the folks at “Free the Hops” who have given us all a textbook to follow about grassroots politics and citizen action in support of artisan ales. That’s another amazing thing about the craft beer business. Over the last 28 years we have made fast friends with kindred spirits coast to coast – often without ever even meeting. If you had overheard us talking on the phone – you would have sworn Tyler and I had known each other for years.

If you are like us - when you travel to Alabama you’ll go out of your way to support Tyler. Drink the good stuff in Alabama with the help of El Rey Burrito Lounge and take some time to learn more about Montgomery. Did you know that is where Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald was born and raised?

Free the Hops http://www.freethehops.org/