But first he has to ask a question that could ruin it all, one that's making hundreds of the nation's microbreweries think twice before going exotic.
"Do spruce tips have caffeine in them?" said Newman-Bale, 31, co-owner of Bellaire, Mich.-based Short's Brewing Co. "It's not the easiest thing to find out."
Tchell DePaepe / MateViza
MateVeza Yerba Mate, which uses a stimulant South American herb similar to green tea, has been banned in Michigan, but its maker says he hasn't sold his beer there for three years.
With recent negative buzz over drinks that mix alcohol and caffeine, and the Food and Drug Administration issuing a warning Wednesday to four brands, including Four Loko -- which sloshes together an alcohol content of 12 percent and as much caffeine as a cup of coffee -- the craft-beer industry has the jitters.
The microbreweries, which sometimes add coffee, tea or chocolate to enhance beer flavor, have reason to be anxious.
Michigan already banned a craft beer that lists yerba mate tea as an ingredient. The brand, MateVeza, based in San Francisco, uses a stimulant South American herb similar to green tea. Many craft-beer insiders will be watching hearings on so-called alcohol energy drinks next week in the Midwestern state.
And a year ago, the FDA listed an Ithaca, N.Y., craft beer as an investigation target because of its caffeine content.
Beer makers fear the FDA might widen its net and that more states could ban alcoholic drinks that contain caffeine. They argue it's unfair to lump a microbrewery adding trace amounts of cocoa beans, say, together with products that cater unsafely to underage drinkers and add caffeine to the beverage just for the jolt. And, they say, historically, they're on firm ground.
Of the nation's 1,600 craft-beer makers, roughly 100 to 300 use coffee, tea or chocolate in their beers, said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association.
On Tuesday, the association issued a plea to the federal government to draft guidelines that explicitly make it legal for alcoholic beverage makers to use natural ingredients that happen to contain caffeine.
"The more clarification we can provide then the better off we all are," Gatza said. "Beer drinkers are definitely responding to small local companies. It'd be a shame if some of them weren't able to do what they're doing safely and creatively."
Unlike the "blackout in a can" products such as Four Loko, which use bright colors and flavors like watermelon fruit punch to market to young people, artisan ales usually go by elegant names such as amber ale and imperial porter.
The higher-priced concoctions appeal to adult foodies who aren't out to party hard. Instead, connoisseurs appreciate subtle flavor and bitter drinks that require an acquired taste.
"You want it to taste like beer, instead of coffee that is beerlike," Gatza said.
And, artisan beer makers argue, craft beers with caffeine contain less caffeine and alcohol than the majority of products being targeted by the FDA.
Michigan has blocked the sale of 55 drinks with alcohol percentages ranging from 5 to 12 percent. MateVeza contains 5 percent alcohol, along with and four others, including Smirnoff Raw Tea Raspberry, a malt beverage that contains tea.
So far, Gatza hasn't heard of any breweries losing money over the sudsy controversy. But in Michigan, Newman-Bale, the experimental brewer, said that if the state clamps down further on caffeinated booze, the industry would be "pretty much screwed financially."
He serves on the state's craft-beer association and says the 80 brewers represent one of the fastest-growing industries in the recession-embattled Rust Belt state, after wind and solar power.
The first person to add coffee to beer was writer Kurt Vonnegut's maternal grandfather, Albert Lieber, of the Indianapolis Brewery, according to Gatza. Lieber won awards for the brew at Paris and St. Louis world expos.
In its plea Tuesday to the U.S. Tax and Trade Bureau, the Brewers Association cited a different historical example.
"In fact, the Aztecs brewed a corn, honey and chili-based beer that contained cocoa," the statement read.
The FDA's food and beverage historian, Suzanne Junod, said the current brouhaha pales in comparison to the time a man named Eben Byers hawked a radioactive beverage during the Depression. When he died his corpse registered high levels of radiation.
"They had to bury him in a lead coffin," Junod said. "They check it periodically, and he's still hot."
For some, the drinks Michigan officials cited as "wide-awake drunk" and "cocaine in a can" can lead to an early grave. Earlier this month, a Florida college student shot himself in the head after drinking several Four Lokos and partying for more than a day.
But if you ask Jim Woods about his organic drink that was banned in Michigan, MateVeza (a riff on mate from yerba mate and veza from the Spanish word for beer, cerveza), it's not about the physical effects caused by his brew. It's about taste.
Sponsored Links
Like many craft brewers, the 30-year-old started his company because of the recession. Last year he left his job as a financial analyst at Deutsche Bank to devote himself full time to the business.He's still the company's sole full-time worker, but now his beverage sells in five states: California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon and Colorado. He hasn't sold in Michigan for three years, which makes it strange that the state is targeting him, he said.
Woods first had the idea to add an "earthy green-tea flavor" to pale ale beer several years back on a Friday afternoon.
"The flavors really complemented each other," Woods said. "I thought it would provide an interesting bitterness."