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For manufacturing giant Shaw Industries, producing carpet in north Georgia costs the company millions of dollars in sales taxes that it wouldn't have to pay in most parts of the nation.

That's because Georgia is one of the few remaining states that requires manufacturers to pay sales tax on electricity, natural gas and other energy they consume to produce goods — whether they're building Gulfstream business jets in Savannah or brewing Miller beer in Albany.

Gov. Nathan Deal has made scrapping the energy tax on manufacturing plants one of his priorities for the 40-day session of the state Legislature that began Jan. 9. Deal says the tax exemption would save companies about $157 million a year. But it's still unclear how the state — and likely local governments — would make up for the lost revenues when budgets are still lean from years of recession.

In the heart of north Georgia's "carpet capital," Whitfield County commission chairman Mike Babb said he fears the state risks losing jobs by keeping the tax on the books. However, with more than half the county's 53,500 jobs tied to manufacturing, local officials also rely on the taxes those businesses pay.

"Because there is so much manufacturing here and they use so much energy, that goes to the bottom line of our budgets," Babb said. "But we also need to make sure that we keep manufacturing here. And right now we're not competitive with our surrounding states."

Only 14 states including Georgia still tack sales tax onto the utility bills of manufacturing plants, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The four other Southern states that still use the tax — Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee — either give companies reduced rates or offer exemptions for specific industries or fuel types.

Georgia manufacturers pay a full 4 percent sales tax to the state plus an additional amount to local governments, typically 3 percent. That means for every $1 million a plant pays in electric bills, it would typically owe $70,000 in sales taxes.

"It wouldn't be unusual for a major manufacturer to have an annual energy cost of $2 million," said Roy Bowen, president of the Georgia Association of Manufacturers.

Manufacturing accounts for about 10 percent of Georgia jobs, employing 345,600 statewide. Even before the recent recession, manufacturing was already declining in the state. Georgia has lost an estimated 198,000 manufacturing jobs in the last decade.

Industry advocates say the energy sales tax may not be a deal breaker, but it's certainly watched by firms counting every nickel. Not only does the tax discourage new manufacturers from locating to Georgia, they say, but it also gives those already here little incentive to increase production — and boost jobs.

James Jarrett, group director of manufacturing for Dalton-based Shaw Industries, said energy is easily among the company's top five costs and is something its executives consider when deciding whether to expand in Georgia or go to one of its neighbors — Tennessee, Alabama or South Carolina.

"In our case the benefit would be in the millions" of dollars, Jarrett said, if Georgia exempted Shaw from its energy sales tax.

Georgia homeowners and non-industrial businesses pay the same sales tax on utilities.

Industry groups have lobbied Georgia lawmakers to exempt their factories from the energy sales tax since the mid-1990s, but had to settle for a temporary — and now expired — cap on their maximum tax bills passed in 2008 to offset a spike in energy prices.

The tax exemption may have a better chance this year. With Georgia showing signs of an economic recovery, Deal said he's ready to expand some of the state's tax incentives aimed at luring new business, including the energy sales tax.

"Georgians cannot compete for jobs that go elsewhere when employers make the decision that a neighboring state is a better place to do business," the governor said in his State of the State speech last week.

House and Senate leaders said they've heard little dissent among the Republican lawmakers who control both chambers.

"It's almost, as far as tax reform is concerned, the one issue that everyone agrees on," said Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock.

However, the specifics of Deal's proposal to end the tax are still being hammered out. And a couple of key details remain unsettled.

First, the governor didn't account for the revenue losses that would result from the tax cut in his proposed budget last week. By law Georgia has to have a balanced budget. Lawmakers would either have to raise taxes or make additional budget cuts to pay for the tax break.

Alan Essig, executive director of the nonpartisan Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said perhaps the fairest way to pay for Deal's proposal would be to repeal other business tax breaks that haven't proven effective at helping recruit and retain industry.

"We're still in recovery mode and you can't assume that normal revenue growth is going to pay for them," Essig said. "There are lots and lots of other tax breaks and exemptions that are on the books."

Another unknown is whether lawmakers will try to roll back the local portion of the sales tax — typically about 43 cents of every tax dollar manufacturers pay for energy. The total cost to local governments is estimated at about $108 million per year.

Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the administration only anticipates ending the state's portion of the sales tax. A decision on eliminating the local sales tax would be left to local governments. However, the Georgia Association of Manufacturers and other business groups want to scrap both the state and local shares.

"My opinion is we're going to have a mixed reaction among our members on it," said Clint Mueller, government affairs director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

Even counties that most want state lawmakers to repeal the tax may not be so willing to see their local portion cut.

In Albany and surrounding Dougherty County, where Procter & Gamble employs about 1,300 people making paper towels and toilet paper and Miller Brewing Co. has about 650 workers making beer, local officials say eliminating the state energy tax is critical to protecting local jobs. The southwest Georgia county has lost three of its major manufacturers in the last five years.

However, asked in an interview if local officials would consent to giving up their 3 percent share of the sales tax, Commission Chairman Bodine Sinyard said: "Quite frankly that has not come up at all."

He said many of the major incentives Georgia now uses to lure industry are property tax breaks — which are funded at the local level.

"The local counties and cities are doing their fair share," Sinyard said.

___

Bynum reported from Savannah, Ga.

For manufacturing giant Shaw Industries, producing carpet in north Georgia costs the company millions of dollars in sales taxes that it wouldn't have to pay in most parts of the nation.

That's because Georgia is one of the few remaining states that requires manufacturers to pay sales tax on electricity, natural gas and other energy they consume to produce goods — whether they're building Gulfstream business jets in Savannah or brewing Miller beer in Albany.

Gov. Nathan Deal has made scrapping the energy tax on manufacturing plants one of his priorities for the 40-day session of the state Legislature that began Jan. 9. Deal says the tax exemption would save companies about $157 million a year. But it's still unclear how the state — and likely local governments — would make up for the lost revenues when budgets are still lean from years of recession.

In the heart of north Georgia's "carpet capital," Whitfield County commission chairman Mike Babb said he fears the state risks losing jobs by keeping the tax on the books. However, with more than half the county's 53,500 jobs tied to manufacturing, local officials also rely on the taxes those businesses pay.

"Because there is so much manufacturing here and they use so much energy, that goes to the bottom line of our budgets," Babb said. "But we also need to make sure that we keep manufacturing here. And right now we're not competitive with our surrounding states."

Only 14 states including Georgia still tack sales tax onto the utility bills of manufacturing plants, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The four other Southern states that still use the tax — Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee — either give companies reduced rates or offer exemptions for specific industries or fuel types.

Georgia manufacturers pay a full 4 percent sales tax to the state plus an additional amount to local governments, typically 3 percent. That means for every $1 million a plant pays in electric bills, it would typically owe $70,000 in sales taxes.

"It wouldn't be unusual for a major manufacturer to have an annual energy cost of $2 million," said Roy Bowen, president of the Georgia Association of Manufacturers.

Manufacturing accounts for about 10 percent of Georgia jobs, employing 345,600 statewide. Even before the recent recession, manufacturing was already declining in the state. Georgia has lost an estimated 198,000 manufacturing jobs in the last decade.

Industry advocates say the energy sales tax may not be a deal breaker, but it's certainly watched by firms counting every nickel. Not only does the tax discourage new manufacturers from locating to Georgia, they say, but it also gives those already here little incentive to increase production — and boost jobs.

James Jarrett, group director of manufacturing for Dalton-based Shaw Industries, said energy is easily among the company's top five costs and is something its executives consider when deciding whether to expand in Georgia or go to one of its neighbors — Tennessee, Alabama or South Carolina.

"In our case the benefit would be in the millions" of dollars, Jarrett said, if Georgia exempted Shaw from its energy sales tax.

Georgia homeowners and non-industrial businesses pay the same sales tax on utilities.

Industry groups have lobbied Georgia lawmakers to exempt their factories from the energy sales tax since the mid-1990s, but had to settle for a temporary — and now expired — cap on their maximum tax bills passed in 2008 to offset a spike in energy prices.

The tax exemption may have a better chance this year. With Georgia showing signs of an economic recovery, Deal said he's ready to expand some of the state's tax incentives aimed at luring new business, including the energy sales tax.

"Georgians cannot compete for jobs that go elsewhere when employers make the decision that a neighboring state is a better place to do business," the governor said in his State of the State speech last week.

House and Senate leaders said they've heard little dissent among the Republican lawmakers who control both chambers.

"It's almost, as far as tax reform is concerned, the one issue that everyone agrees on," said Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock.

However, the specifics of Deal's proposal to end the tax are still being hammered out. And a couple of key details remain unsettled.

First, the governor didn't account for the revenue losses that would result from the tax cut in his proposed budget last week. By law Georgia has to have a balanced budget. Lawmakers would either have to raise taxes or make additional budget cuts to pay for the tax break.

Alan Essig, executive director of the nonpartisan Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, said perhaps the fairest way to pay for Deal's proposal would be to repeal other business tax breaks that haven't proven effective at helping recruit and retain industry.

"We're still in recovery mode and you can't assume that normal revenue growth is going to pay for them," Essig said. "There are lots and lots of other tax breaks and exemptions that are on the books."

Another unknown is whether lawmakers will try to roll back the local portion of the sales tax — typically about 43 cents of every tax dollar manufacturers pay for energy. The total cost to local governments is estimated at about $108 million per year.

Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the administration only anticipates ending the state's portion of the sales tax. A decision on eliminating the local sales tax would be left to local governments. However, the Georgia Association of Manufacturers and other business groups want to scrap both the state and local shares.

"My opinion is we're going to have a mixed reaction among our members on it," said Clint Mueller, government affairs director of the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

Even counties that most want state lawmakers to repeal the tax may not be so willing to see their local portion cut.

In Albany and surrounding Dougherty County, where Procter & Gamble employs about 1,300 people making paper towels and toilet paper and Miller Brewing Co. has about 650 workers making beer, local officials say eliminating the state energy tax is critical to protecting local jobs. The southwest Georgia county has lost three of its major manufacturers in the last five years.

However, asked in an interview if local officials would consent to giving up their 3 percent share of the sales tax, Commission Chairman Bodine Sinyard said: "Quite frankly that has not come up at all."

He said many of the major incentives Georgia now uses to lure industry are property tax breaks — which are funded at the local level.

"The local counties and cities are doing their fair share," Sinyard said.

___

Bynum reported from Savannah, Ga.

A California startup out to change the world shined at the Consumer Electronics Show on Thursday with a light bulb blending beauty and efficiency with love for the Earth.

Switch Lighting executives Tracy Bilbrough and Brett Sharenow glowed as they showed off new-generation LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs that they believe will transform the more than $30-billion global market.

"It is exciting to be the little David taking on the Goliath's of the world," Switch chief Bilbrough told AFP.

"You pick this because it doesn't have mercury; you can dim it; it loves cold weather; there is no ultra-violet so they don't draw any bugs outdoors, and it fits in any fixture an incandescent bulb goes in."

Switch bulbs being are being tested in two US hotels and will begin shipping later this month as a smart option to incandescent or CFL models.

Incandescent bulbs are power-sucking classics being phased out in countries around the world, replaced by energy-efficient CFL versions containing toxic mercury that make them hazardous to toss in the rubbish.

"LEDs are really the next thing in lighting," said Switch chief strategy officer Sharenow.

The Silicon Valley company's bulb is touted as Earth-friendly from "cradle to cradle" and lasts about seven times longer than CFLs while providing the kind of light people like from incandescent.

Switch bulbs have an artistic look akin to a snow glove perched on a silver pedestal. They can also survive a three-foot drop to a hardwood floor.

A ring of metal prongs, each with a computer chip on it to emit light, is immersed in liquid that fills each bulb. The liquid cools the chips while acting as a lens to magnify light.

"It is food-grade; actually used in making beer, pasta and women's cosmetics," Sharenow said of the liquid, the ingredients of which were secret.

"We actually get more light out of the LEDs with liquid in the glass dome than if there was air in there."

Switch bulbs use 80 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs and last for about 25,000 hours no matter often you switch them on or off, he added.

The life spans of CFL bulbs shrinks as they are flicked on or off and they buzz or burn out if dimmed.

Switch bulbs, which are being launched in 65- and 75-watt models, are priced at $35 each but the price was expected to drop under $20 by the end of the year.

Even at a price of $35, businesses recover the cost in six months while homeowners hit that mark in two years, according to Sharenow.

LED bulb efficiency is on par with CFL, which cost about three dollars each versus 50 cents for incandescent. Bilbrough expected LED bulbs to quickly get more efficient that CFL.

Switch is first targeting businesses that see cost-savings in energy-efficient bulbs that last them more than a decade. Bilbrough estimated that Switch bulbs would last about 25 years or longer in home use.

"If you put that in your baby's room when they come home from the hospital, they will still be studying under it when they are in college," Bilbrough said with a nod toward one of the bulbs.

"These things will last longer than your phone, iPad, car or sofa."

When people are done with Switch bulbs, the company wants them back so they can recycle or reuse the parts giving them new lives in a practice referred to in the industry as "cradle to cradle."

"We want to reuse every part we can so nothing goes back to the biosphere of the Earth," Sharenow said.

Switch in coming months will release a 100-watt bulb and models tailored for Europe.

"Everyone is looking for ways to avoid building power plants," Bilbrough said, noting that about 20 percent of the world's electric power goes to lighting.

"The one thing with no negative environmental impact is to use less," he continued.

A California startup out to change the world shined at the Consumer Electronics Show on Thursday with a light bulb blending beauty and efficiency with love for the Earth.

Switch Lighting executives Tracy Bilbrough and Brett Sharenow glowed as they showed off new-generation LED (light-emitting diode) bulbs that they believe will transform the more than $30-billion global market.

"It is exciting to be the little David taking on the Goliath's of the world," Switch chief Bilbrough told AFP.

"You pick this because it doesn't have mercury; you can dim it; it loves cold weather; there is no ultra-violet so they don't draw any bugs outdoors, and it fits in any fixture an incandescent bulb goes in."

Switch bulbs being are being tested in two US hotels and will begin shipping later this month as a smart option to incandescent or CFL models.

Incandescent bulbs are power-sucking classics being phased out in countries around the world, replaced by energy-efficient CFL versions containing toxic mercury that make them hazardous to toss in the rubbish.

"LEDs are really the next thing in lighting," said Switch chief strategy officer Sharenow.

The Silicon Valley company's bulb is touted as Earth-friendly from "cradle to cradle" and lasts about seven times longer than CFLs while providing the kind of light people like from incandescent.

Switch bulbs have an artistic look akin to a snow glove perched on a silver pedestal. They can also survive a three-foot drop to a hardwood floor.

A ring of metal prongs, each with a computer chip on it to emit light, is immersed in liquid that fills each bulb. The liquid cools the chips while acting as a lens to magnify light.

"It is food-grade; actually used in making beer, pasta and women's cosmetics," Sharenow said of the liquid, the ingredients of which were secret.

"We actually get more light out of the LEDs with liquid in the glass dome than if there was air in there."

Switch bulbs use 80 percent less electricity than incandescent bulbs and last for about 25,000 hours no matter often you switch them on or off, he added.

The life spans of CFL bulbs shrinks as they are flicked on or off and they buzz or burn out if dimmed.

Switch bulbs, which are being launched in 65- and 75-watt models, are priced at $35 each but the price was expected to drop under $20 by the end of the year.

Even at a price of $35, businesses recover the cost in six months while homeowners hit that mark in two years, according to Sharenow.

LED bulb efficiency is on par with CFL, which cost about three dollars each versus 50 cents for incandescent. Bilbrough expected LED bulbs to quickly get more efficient that CFL.

Switch is first targeting businesses that see cost-savings in energy-efficient bulbs that last them more than a decade. Bilbrough estimated that Switch bulbs would last about 25 years or longer in home use.

"If you put that in your baby's room when they come home from the hospital, they will still be studying under it when they are in college," Bilbrough said with a nod toward one of the bulbs.

"These things will last longer than your phone, iPad, car or sofa."

When people are done with Switch bulbs, the company wants them back so they can recycle or reuse the parts giving them new lives in a practice referred to in the industry as "cradle to cradle."

"We want to reuse every part we can so nothing goes back to the biosphere of the Earth," Sharenow said.

Switch in coming months will release a 100-watt bulb and models tailored for Europe.

"Everyone is looking for ways to avoid building power plants," Bilbrough said, noting that about 20 percent of the world's electric power goes to lighting.

"The one thing with no negative environmental impact is to use less," he continued.

It was important for DuClaw President David Benfield to stay in Harford County when he was looking for a new site to expand the popular brewery. After all, the 41-year-old businessman has lived in the county his whole life.

In the beginning of December, Benfield signed a deal that will put a 165,000-square-foot brewery at an industrial park in Havre de Grace, hoping to amp up DuClaw's craft beer manufacturing and distribution, as well as make it a place for various events.

The microbrewery, which began in Harford in 1996, has four restaurant and pub locations — the Arundel Mills Mall in Hanover, in Bowie, at BWI airport and Bel Air. The site in Havre de Grace — the old Collins and Aikman Auto Plastics site at 1601 Clark Road — will solely be used as a brewery. There's no official date for an opening, Benfield said, but is aiming for October

"We need more space," Benfield said of the reason for expansion. "To make beer, you need more fermentation tanks." The microbrewery's location in Bel Air is only 10,000 square feet, Benfield added.

DuClaw's distribution of 12- and 22-ounce bottles only reaches select areas along the I-95 corridor, most in Harford, Cecil and Baltimore counties, as well as a few in Baltimore City. Benfield hopes to change that with the new location, planning to reach farther into Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Delaware and eventually going to New York and North Carolina.

For these operations, Benfield said Havre de Grace was a great location.

"Havre de Grace is a very nice, waterside town," he explained. Benfield said the city's expansion in the last 10 years, but keeping a vast majority of its green space, was a big factor. His parents also have a house in Havre de Grace.

DuClaw also looked at locations in Prince George's County and White Marsh, but Benfield found that Havre de Grace had a more inviting feel that would bring in visitors to tour the brewery and attend festivals the company hopes to host on the site.

"You can go into areas where there are pure industrial parks, and that might be more cost effective, but people don't want to visit," he said of the area. "This invites people to visit from bed and breakfasts and golf courses. People can come in and feel it's cool to be in a brewery." He added that Harford is "a reasonable county" as far as property taxes, referring to Baltimore City's high property tax rate and recent 2-cent tax on bottled beverages.

Benfield also feels the Havre de Grace name also sheds a positive light on his company.

"Wherever we reside, the town name has to be on our [bottle] label," he said. "You don't want to be in a town that their name doesn't carry respect or coolness." He added that "a good bit" of his current staff resides in Havre de Grace, taking pride in DuClaw's roots in Harford.

It's because of this and his love for the place he grew up in that Benfield wants to make the Havre de Grace brewery location a destination for tourists, as well.

He hopes to "pull in people from other states" with brewery tours and beer festivals, similar to that of fellow craft brewers, Flying Dog, in Frederick.

"[Visitors] can take tours of the brewery, stay at bed and breakfasts and eat at restaurants," Benfield said. "It's [the site's potential] limited only by our imagination."

For the brewery's grand opening, Benfield wouldn't give anything away, but did say he had "ideas for something special" to mark the occasion, including a special beer that will be launched. Whatever it is, he promises to pull out all the stops. "If nothing, we've never had a problem with putting on a big show."

Shane and Jacqui Creepingbear have started the Vitruvian Brewing Company, a small microbrewery in the space formerly occupied by the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute. They hope to to provide a locally-owned produced and bottled beer, with an initial production of about 600 gallons of various types each month. (Photo by Lauren Heaton)

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If there were such a thing as the perfect beer, the new Vitruvian Brewing Company would brew it. While local residents Shane and Jacqui Creepingbear haven’t finalized the recipe for their first signature micro beer, their aim is to create a brew so perfectly balanced in nutrient, aroma and flavor that it could be called a “canon of proportions,” like the Vitruvian Man. With the business incorporated and the new space at MillWorks ready for occupancy, the local couple is excited to open their kettles and start stirring up a hoppy storm.

The Vitruvian Brewing Company took occupancy of the 2,000-square-foot business space formerly occupied by the Nonstop Liberal Arts Institute on Jan. 1. The Creepingbears plan to spend the first several months remodeling the space to accommodate an initial 10-barrel production facility that will bottle and keg about 600 gallons of various types of beer each month. In a culture where 80 percent of the beer consumed is either manufactured overseas or owned by people who live overseas, the Creepingbears wanted to provide a locally owned and produced beer for area residents. Instead of cheap rice, they will use wheat grains and malts with local water. Unpasteurized and made from house-cultivated yeasts, the Vitruvian beers will retain a flavor unique to the area. And the couple hopes to reduce packaging materials by encouraging patrons to buy the beer in growlers, soda kegs and kegs and “filling station” they envision for the brewery.

Shane and Jacqui Creepingbear have been brewing not only beer but the idea to make and bottle beer for many years, since they met as students at Antioch College, where Jacqui was introduced to home brewing in an introduction to botany class. They were both struck by the marriage of science and art behind the brewing and experimented widely together to see how adding different grains and sugars in a controlled environment would affect the final product.

“I remember having this overwhelming satisfaction, like, oh my gosh, look what we did!” Shane Creepingbear said in an interview this week.

They travelled together, often finding little towns with their own microbreweries, including one in the Yukon Territory called the Yukon Brewing Company that featured great tasting beers with names like Aroma Borealis and Lead Dog IPA. They found the microbreweries to be a boon to the local communities and began to wonder why Yellow Springs didn’t have one of its own.

“We used to joke about why has this never been done in Yellow Springs, and at some point that changed to ‘Why aren’t we doing this?’ And then it became, ‘We should do this. We can do this!’” Shane Creepingbear said.

So with Jacqui working at the Sunrise Café, and Shane as the admissions counselor at Antioch College, with three young daughters Era, Hazel and Inez in tow, they began to craft a business plan. Especially after home brewing 80 gallons of beer for their wedding in 2008, they quickly learned that making beer, even on a small scale, requires vessels, big ones, to hold and transfer massive amounts of liquid.

“It’s all about moving liquid,” Jacqui said.

The first step involves a 300-gallon tank where the grains are steeped, then moved to a brew kettle, where they are boiled with hops and malts. That product goes into one or more fermentation vessels where the sugar and yeast are added to make alcohol and carbon dioxide. At that point the beer will be either bottled or tapped to continue fermenting completely. To start, the 14-day brew cycle, to be located in the warehouse area of the MillWorks space, will be coordinated by the company’s first employee, a Dayton area master brewer who studied brewing at University of California Davis and was a shift brewer at the Pyramid Brewing Company in Berkeley. The Creepingbears plan to split the former Nonstop office area between the yeast cultivation rooms and the retail space, with a door and patio opening onto the bike path.

On tap to start will be two craft beers, a citra hop India pale ale and a crisp session beer, with much wider varieties to follow, including porters, stouts, seasonals and signature beers uniquely crafted for each of the different bars and restaurants in the village. The Creepingbears hope to involve a co-op student from the college, and they are happy to know that they have endless local supplies for flavorings and sweeteners such as lavender, honey, coffee and apples.

The whole endeavor is expected to cost an estimated $150,000. The couple plans to finance their venture through a combination of debt financing and local investors, many of whom have already expressed interest in backing the brewery.

Having a local brewery is good for a small community, the Creepingbears believe, especially because in case of an emergency power outage, the brewery would be the only place to boil safe drinking water on a large enough scale to serve the local population, Shane said.

Beer itself is one of the oldest beverages known to man. And instead of the large-scale industrial process that currently prevails, if local beer can be made responsibly with care, it would be a healthier and more enjoyable drink to share in good company.

“It’s like the whole white bread thing. Would you rather have fresh baked bread or the flat, industrialized thing you buy in plastic on the shelf?” Jacqui said.

Mark your calendars. Vitruvian Brewing Company expects to have its first official brew coming sometime in March, just in time for spring. Additional investors are welcome to contact the Creepingbears at vitruvian.brew {at} gmail(.)com.

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Chris Post, brewer at and owner of Wandering Star Brewing Co., measures the fermentation of a batch of beer Thursday at the company. Food & Wine magazine named Wandering Star’s Mild Heart brew as one of its five favorite beers of 2011. (Caroline Bonnivier Snyder / Berkshire Eagle Staff)

PITTSFIELD -- Wandering Star Brewery has only been making beer for six months, but already the company is winning high-profile recognition.

Editors at Food & Wine magazine listed the Pittsfield brewery's Mild Heart -- an English dark mild ale -- as one of its five favorite beers of 2011.

The endorsement came as a surprise to Chris Post, brewer at and owner of Wandering Star, who said he had no idea they'd been picked as a stand-out until a colleague spotted the endorsement on the magazine's website.

"[This] was really, really exciting for us," said Post. "I guess it just shows we're really doing something right."

Food & Wine editor Megan Krigbaum likened Mild Heart to the beer version

"The beer is rich and malty, but remains somehow light on the palate," wrote Krigbaum in her yearly editor's picks, which included brewing heavyweights like San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Co.

Post said he wasn't sure about the comparison to a milkshake, but he appreciates the compliment none the less.

"I kind of get it, because it's got a chocolate flavor with no bitterness, but it doesn't taste very sweet," he said.

Post hopes the national recognition will help expand his business' distribution to pubs and bars across the Northeast.

"The craft brewing field is very, very competitive," said Post. "It's important to get recognition, and this will definitely help us stand out among our

Wandering Star officially opened in a nondescript building off Merrill Road in June. Last year they brewed 350 barrels of beer, equivalent to 700 standard-sized kegs or 86,800 pints. Post said he expects to produce twice that amount this year.

The brewery only distributes its beer to bars and pubs, primarily in New York City and the Berkshires.

Locally, Post says you can find his brews on tap at the Purple Pub, Hops and Vines and Desperado's in Williamstown. In Pittsfield,

To reach Ned Oliver:
noliver@berkshireeagle.com,
or (413) 496-6240.
On Twitter: @BE_NedOliver

Chris Post, brewer at and owner of Wandering Star Brewing Co., measures the fermentation of a batch of beer Thursday at the company. Food & Wine magazine named Wandering Star’s Mild Heart brew as one of its five favorite beers of 2011. (Caroline Bonnivier Snyder / Berkshire Eagle Staff)

PITTSFIELD -- Wandering Star Brewery has only been making beer for six months, but already the company is winning high-profile recognition.

Editors at Food & Wine magazine listed the Pittsfield brewery's Mild Heart -- an English dark mild ale -- as one of its five favorite beers of 2011.

The endorsement came as a surprise to Chris Post, brewer at and owner of Wandering Star, who said he had no idea they'd been picked as a stand-out until a colleague spotted the endorsement on the magazine's website.

"[This] was really, really exciting for us," said Post. "I guess it just shows we're really doing something right."

Food & Wine editor Megan Krigbaum likened Mild Heart to the beer version

"The beer is rich and malty, but remains somehow light on the palate," wrote Krigbaum in her yearly editor's picks, which included brewing heavyweights like San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Co.

Post said he wasn't sure about the comparison to a milkshake, but he appreciates the compliment none the less.

"I kind of get it, because it's got a chocolate flavor with no bitterness, but it doesn't taste very sweet," he said.

Post hopes the national recognition will help expand his business' distribution to pubs and bars across the Northeast.

"The craft brewing field is very, very competitive," said Post. "It's important to get recognition, and this will definitely help us stand out among our

Wandering Star officially opened in a nondescript building off Merrill Road in June. Last year they brewed 350 barrels of beer, equivalent to 700 standard-sized kegs or 86,800 pints. Post said he expects to produce twice that amount this year.

The brewery only distributes its beer to bars and pubs, primarily in New York City and the Berkshires.

Locally, Post says you can find his brews on tap at the Purple Pub, Hops and Vines and Desperado's in Williamstown. In Pittsfield,

To reach Ned Oliver:
noliver@berkshireeagle.com,
or (413) 496-6240.
On Twitter: @BE_NedOliver