A TWEAK in New Jersey beer regs is paying immediate dividends for Garden State beer drinkers.

Under longstanding rules, breweries had been prevented from selling beer for consumption on their own premises. That meant no tasting rooms, which are a significant source of revenue for breweries in practically every other state.

The law was changed last year, however, to allow breweries to sell pints to those who tour their facilities. As a result, small brewers are opening what amount to quasi-brewpubs that sell only house beer (no food).

The result has been stunning: Less than a year after the new law’s enactment, at least 15 new breweries will open throughout New Jersey by next summer.

Here’s a look some of the fresh, new beer we’ll be enjoying just a short ride from Philadelphia.

GLASSTOWN BREWING

Location: Millville.

Status: Build-out nearly complete, equipment on site, awaiting final lease and licensing. Hoping for mid-November opening.

Brewhouse: Half-barrel system with tasting room. (One barrel equals about 14 cases of 12-ounce bottles, or almost 250 pints.)

Brewer: Paul Simmons.

About: Simmons, a longtime homebrewer, and his wife, Jenifer, will open in a former maintenance building at Millville Airport. Their tiny brewery’s name is a nod to Millville’s history as a glassmaking capital.

Beer: The initial lineup includes American stout, German wheat beer, American pale ale, India pale ale, amber ale and a California red ale, available on-site and in local bars.

GARDEN STATE BEER

Location: Egg Harbor City.

Status: State, federal licensing under review; expected opening, early 2014.

Brewhouse: One-barrel system with hopes to expand to two barrels before opening.

Brewers: Shawn Grigus and Jason Stairs.

About: Located in a garage just down the street from Grigus’s Tap It Homebrew shop, the tiny brewery will feature a tasting room. Kegs will be distributed to one or two bars in the vicinity.

Beer: “We have so many recipes, but our mission is to make beer for everyone,” Grigus said. “So we’ll make easier-drinking ales and lagers in the 4.5 to 6 percent range, plus a rotating tap with special stuff.”

LUNACY BREWING

Location: Magnolia.

Status: Construction complete, awaiting licensing. Expected opening in early 2014.

Brewhouse: Four barrels with tasting room.

Brewers: Jay Macrina, Mike Lees, Ricky Lees, Ed Gledhill.

About: The four friends have been homebrewing for years and, said Gledhill, “we had an IPA we were really proud of . . . We figured, we have to take a shot and run with it.” They’ll pour drafts and growlers from their tasting room and distribute kegs in bars throughout South Jersey.

Beer: “We want an IPA that ranks right up there with Green Flash and Stone Brewing,” Gledhill said. “After that, we’ll focus on basics – porter, stout and pilsner – plus small batches of others.”

SPELLBOUND BREWING

Location: Mount Holly.

Status: Obtained building lease; opening in spring 2014.

Brewhouse: 20-barrel brewhouse production brewery with tasting room.

Brewers: John Companick, Mike Oliver, Scott Reading.

About: The three partners describe themselves as “avid homebrewers” with backgrounds in marketing, mechanics and engineering. “We’re total beer geeks,” said Companick. Referring to Tampa’s cult favorite, he said, “We’re hoping to be the Cigar City of the north.”

Beer: Initially an IPA and a porter, in kegs and cans.

VILLAGE IDIOT BREWING

Location: Mount Holly.

Status: Federally licensed, awaiting build-out of facility. Opening in 2014.

Brewhouse: 1.5 barrels with tasting room.

Brewers: Vince Masciandaro and Rich Palmay.

About: Located in downtown Mount Holly in the former Bridgetown Pub, the brewery will take advantage of the new state regs allowing the sale of pints and growlers at small breweries. Masciandaro, who, along with Palmay, is a member of the local Barley Legal homebrew club, was the winner in Philly Beer Week’s 2012 Belgian collaboration contest.

Beer: Very small batches, available primarily at the brewery.

FORGOTTEN BOARDWALK BREWING

Location: Cherry Hill.

Status: Initial construction, no licensing; “on target” for May 2014 opening.

Brewhouse: 30-barrel brewhouse, with tasting room.

Brewer: TBA.

About: Former investment banker Jamie Queli is taking over the space formerly used by Flying Fish Brewing before its move to nearby Somerdale. She said, “It’s been a slow process – we’re only doing minor work right now.”

Beer: No real details, yet, but Quell said that she’s hoping for an “old-time” Jersey Shore atmosphere for the brewery, with nostalgic Boardwalk games.

Still others on the horizon in South Jersey:

Rinn Duin, Toms River. The Irish-themed father-daughter brewery is expected to open later this fall with a fairly large, 25-barrel brewhouse.

River Horse, Ewing Township. The longstanding Jersey brewer moved out of Lambertville to new digs, with a tasting room that opens Saturday.

Lower Forge, Medford Village. Other than a logo and website, there are no solid details. Earlier reported plans called for a three-barrel brewhouse.

Pinelands Brewing, Little Egg Harbor. A three-barrel brewhouse was slated to open by August, but the brewery’s Facebook page has been decidedly silent.

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Thanks to Mark Haynie, Jeff Linkous and NewJerseyCraftBeer.com for research assistance.

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GET READY for yet another wave of new breweries in and around Philadelphia. By my count, up to 20 more should be opening between now and next spring.

Some are tucked in city neighborhoods or borough shopping districts; other larger operations are setting up shop in suburban industrial parks.

Notably, a third of the newcomers are opening on the other side of the Delaware, thanks to recently enacted New Jersey liquor regs that allow small breweries to sell draft beer to visitors. I’ll be writing about them next week.

In the meantime, here’s what’s on the horizon in Philadelphia and its four suburban counties.

Barren Hill Tavern & Brewery

Location: Lafayette Hill.

Status: Brewing has begun; restaurant to open later this fall.

Brewhouse: Seven-barrel brewpub.

Brewer: Scott Morrison, formerly of Dock Street and McKenzie’s Brewhouse.

About: The former General Lafayette Inn & Restaurant is now in the hands of Erin and Scott Wallace, who operate the popular beer-oriented bars Devil’s Den (South Philly) and Old Eagle Tavern (Manayunk). Look for Barren Hill brews to pour at both locations and at the renovated brewpub, just across the Montgomery County line, on Germantown Pike.

Beer: Morrison, known for his farmhouse ales, appears to be spreading his wings with new hybrid styles, including Double Berliner Weise, German Imperial Pilsner and a French version of Oktoberfest, called Biere de Octobre.

Do Good Brewing

Location: 3245 Amber St., Kensington.

Status: Opened last weekend.

Brewhouse: 10 gallons, to be expanded to seven barrels, with tasting room.

Brewers: Tom Sheridan, Benjamin Bedard.

About: Sheridan grew up at Emerald and Ontario streets. He owns a Web-development firm and partnered with Bedard, who works as an electrical engineer in Ardmore. They’re brewing at The Loom, a massive former textile mill converted into workspace for artisans.

Beer: Just one so far, Benjamin Franklin’s United Ale, a cream ale flavored with blood orange and coriander. It made its debut last week at Fishtown’s Barcade.

Armstrong Ales

Location: Phoenixville.

Status: Opened six weeks ago.

Brewhouse: One-barrel nanobrewery.

Brewer: Steve Armstrong.

About: The latest in a recent spate of ultratiny breweries just opened its doors in a warehouse off Route 23, on Hollingsworth Drive. “I’m looking for investors to grow into something larger,” Armstrong said, “I’m hoping to go to a 10-barrel system in a couple years or so.”

Beer: A variety of English-style pales and Belgian ales on tap at its tasting room, 4-8 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, and noon-8 p.m. on Saturday. Limited varieties on draft at local bars, including the Craft Ale House (Limerick), Railroad Street Bar & Grill (Linfield) and the Pour House (Pottstown).

Saint Benjamin Brewing

Location: Kensington.

Status: Construction underway, opening expected this winter.

Brewhouse: Three barrels.

Brewer: Timothy Patton.

About: Patton, a longtime homebrewer, lost his attempt to build a small brewery in Fishtown, so he’s moved northward to build a full-scale brewery and pub in a former carriage house used by the 19th-century Theo Finkenauer Brewery. Patton raised some seed money through Lucky Ant crowd-source fundraising.

Beer: Patton has been tinkering with a variety of styles, including a classic cream ale.

Broken Goblet Brewery

Location: Bristol.

Status: January opening expected.

Brewhouse: Three barrels, with tasting room.

Brewers: Joe Fazekas, Bub Grosse.

About: Although Fazekas and Grosse, along with partners Mike LaCouture and Jason Grosse, have no brewery experience, they’ve been working for two years to put together their business plan. Operating out of an industrial park, they’ll start with draft beer only, with hopes to produce canned beer within a year.

Beer: “We’re definitely going to take some chances . . . some off-kilter beer to go along with some standard styles,” said LaCouture.

Kennett Brewing

Location: Kennett Square.

Status: Awaiting licensing, construction underway, expected opening January.

Brewhouse: Five-barrel brewpub.

Brewers: Chris Braunstein, Mark Osborne.

About: The 50-seat Broad Street brewpub is owned by the brewers’ wives, Jen Braunstein and Jocelyn Osborne, who are new to the restaurant business. Their husbands have brewed together as hobbyists for years.

Beer: “They’re kind of like Jekyll and Hyde,” Jen Braunstein said of the two brewers. “Mark is super scientific and loves traditional brewing styles. Chris tends to do newer styles – sours and hoppy. When they collaborate, they do amazing stuff.”

Guild Hall

Location: Jenkintown.

Status: Build-out of former antiques store underway; opening slated for late February.

Brewhouse: Seven-barrel brewpub.

Brewer: Owen Hutchins, formerly of General Lafayette Brewery.

About: Hutchins, who had left the beer business entirely, is returning with his wife, Jennifer McGuire, a program coordinator at the Abramson Cancer Center, at Penn. “He’s wanted to get back into business for a long time,” McGuire said. “We finally decided the only reason we weren’t doing it is because we were afraid to try.”

Beer: Look for the return of a Gen. Lafayette mainstay, Germantown Blonde kolsch, with a bitter, an IPA and a stout. “Some classic beers, and then who knows what happens,” McGuire said.

Bucks County Brewing

Location: Pipersville.

Status: Under construction, licensing approved, opening spring 2014.

Brewhouse: Seven-barrel production facility with on-site growler fills.

Brewer: Andrew Knechel.

About: Currently working in IT for a school district, Knechel is a homebrewer who buffed up his résumé with internships at Harvest Moon, in New Brunswick, N.J. In a first for Pennsylvania, the brewery will open directly next door to a distillery, Hewn Spirits.

Beer: “We’ll brew everything from light summer ale to dark, smoked butternut squash porter,” Knechel said. Expect some barrel-aged brews, too, with used casks from the next-door neighbor.

Victory at Magnolia

Location: Kennett Square.

Status: Planned opening mid-2014.

Brewhouse: Five barrels, with 250-seat restaurant.

Brewer: TBA.

About: Downingtown’s Victory Brewing is in the midst of a massive expansion, with a second production brewery in Parkesburg, Chester County. Its new brewpub in downtown Kennett Square will fill the bottom floor of a luxury apartment building.

Beer: Victory’s core brands plus new brewpub exclusives.

Conshohocken Brewing Co.

Location: Conshohocken.

Status: Expected opening in early 2014.

Brewhouse: 15 barrels, with tasting room.

Brewer: Andrew Horne, formerly of Yards Brewing.

About: Located just off the Valley Forge Bicycle Trail, the brewery will add a new dimension to Conshohocken’s continued resurgence. Co-founder John Remington, working with several partners, said he expects to renovate an existing Elm Street warehouse as environmentally friendly green space.

Beer: No details yet, though beer will be distributed locally in kegs and, possibly, cans and large bottles.

Others on the horizon:

Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Ardmore. The successful area chain’s 11th location, coming in 2014.

Stable 12, Skippack. No solid details on this one, but it did raise more than $20,000 seed money in a Kickstarter campaign earlier this year.

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TWO HUNDRED ninety years ago Sunday, Benjamin Franklin – Philadelphia’s most celebrated beer drinker – stepped out of a boat on the Delaware and into a tavern.

I was inspired to mark the occasion of the 17-year-old runaway’s arrival in town by visiting the newly reopened Benjamin Franklin Museum in Old City.

That’s the place, tucked in a courtyard off Market Street, that features the steel-beamed “ghost house” marking the outlines of Franklin’s long-gone home. The adjoining museum, dedicated to his life and legacy, has been spruced up with new exhibits.

The many facets of his life are on display – printer, inventor, diplomat, Founding Father, public servant, sage. Although it’s a bit dumbed-down for my taste (too many cartoons and simpleminded interactive displays, not enough artifacts), you leave with a fair appreciation of his accomplishments.

But it’s missing some important context that helps explain Franklin’s genius. Namely: booze.

Hang in there with me, because I’m not being facetious.

Among the notable Franklin quotes highlighted by the museum is one that declares, “Man is a sociable being.” It’s illustrated chiefly with chatty letters Franklin wrote with a variety of correspondents.

Franklin, though, wasn’t talking about writing, which in practice is an act of solitude.

He was referring to human contact.

And in his time, meaningful contact was found in a tavern.

It was a tavern – the Crooked Billet Inn on the wharf just below Chestnut Street – where Franklin sought refuge on his first night in the city after his long trip from Boston.

It was a tavern – the Indian King near 3rd and Market streets – where Franklin and his fellow intellectuals founded their discussion group, the Junto.

It was a tavern – the Tun Tavern on the wharf between Walnut and Chestnut streets – where Franklin organized the Pennsylvania militia.

It was a tavern – the City Tavern at 2nd and Walnut streets – where Franklin and his fellow revolutionaries argued and conspired to craft the Declaration of Independence.

These weren’t just convenient places to rest or conduct business. They were places to drink wine, rum, cider and beer while conversing and sharing ideas with one’s fellow man.

Clearly, Franklin recognized the importance of social lubrication:

“I doubt not but moderate Drinking has been improv’d for the Diffusion of Knowledge among the ingenious Part of Mankind, who want the Talent of a ready Utterance, in order to discover the Conceptions of their Minds in an entertaining and intelligible Manner.”

Or more succinctly:

“There can’t be good living where there is not good drinking.”

The museum not only overlooks the importance of taverns and drink in Franklin’s emergence as a public intellectual, but it also demonizes booze with a bizarre cartoon re-enactment of his pithy “Dialogue Between Franklin and the Gout.” Nearby, a reproduced fragment of a household wine inventory is displayed as if to underscore Franklin’s gluttony.

Yet, when it came to alcohol, Franklin was better known for moderation.

It was Franklin who organized the first wholesale closure of the city’s unlicensed “tippling houses,” the source of so much unrestrained drunkenness. It was Franklin who, while toiling as a printer in London, was known as the “aquatic American” because he drank water, not porter, during work hours.

At the tender age of 26, he was already wondering “whether it is worth a rational man’s while to forgo the pleasure” of good food and drink “for the sake of enjoying a healthy old age.”

That’s a deep philosophical question, but without taverns and their ale, the museum misses an opportunity to examine it, and much more. The role of taverns in the American Revolution is well-understood, but I wonder about their role in the creation of Philadelphia’s greatest citizen.

Would Franklin have been a greater man if he’d forgone pleasure? Would he have pulled that stunt with a kite in an electrical storm if he’d been stone-cold sober?

Oddly, the museum does get one thing right when it comes to drinking. It amends that misquoted adage, that “Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Franklin, we now know, was actually talking about wine.

You won’t see the corrected quote among the museum’s displays, however. Instead, it’s inscribed on a fine-looking wine decanter available in the gift shop for $34.95.

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HERE’S how geeky America’s passion for hops has gotten: Brewers are now using experimental varieties that are so new and untested, they haven’t even been named. Instead, the hops are known by a series of digits and letters – No. 01210, or HBC344, or whatever.

That’s not the nerdy part, though.

Hops-obsessed beer drinkers have become such wonks, they know the codes and can rattle them off like Professor Frink-wannabes in “The Simpsons.”

Blogs, online news groups and beer publications echo with chatter about the fruity character of this newfangled variety or the peppery kick from that one. Homebrewers brag about getting their mitts on them, then offer treatises on their arcane qualities.

Which is actually the point of experimental hops. Hops producers have found that the best way to bring new varieties to market is to brew with them and see if the lab mice – I mean, beer drinkers – like them.

That’s what’s happening at Stoudt’s Brewing in Adamstown, where brewer Brett Kintzer has been toying with experimental hops as part of his yearlong Fourplay series of single-hop India pale ales.

Kintzer brewed four mid-strength (6 percent alcohol) ales with identical malt bills that were equally bittered to 60 international bittering units, or IBUs, with just one hop variety each. (Normally, beer is brewed with a blend of two, three or more hop varieties to produce complex aroma and flavor.)

The first two batches were made with Apollo and Bravo hops, both relatively new varieties.

The third batch was made with unnamed experimental hops known only as No. 06300. The brew is available around the city in bottles and on draft right now.

The fourth, to be released next month, contains experimental hop No. 01210.

“I wanted varieties that Stoudt’s hadn’t used before, because we wanted to make an IPA that didn’t taste like the Double IPA we already make,” Kintzer said. “So I asked our supplier for hops that were either extremely new or experimental, and this is what they came back with.”

That supplier, Hopsteiner, is one of the world’s largest hop growers and is well-known for developing new, unusual varieties. One of its latest, Calypso – a hybrid between Nugget hops and a U.S. Department of Agriculture variety simply known as 19058M – produces telltale aromas of pear and peach. You can taste it in the likes of Yards Cape of Good Hope and Philly Beer Week’s Manneken-Penn.

Phillip Davidson, Hopsteiner’s regional craft sales representative, said that many brewers eagerly participate with experimental hops because they can make a beer that no one has ever tasted before.

“It’s about being new, about uniqueness,” Davidson said. “It gives them an opportunity to provide their customers a new experience.”

The consumer taste test is the final step in developing new hops, a process that can take a decade or more, he said.

Remember, this is agriculture, so it all starts with thousands of tiny seedlings, only a handful of which will be planted and examined for their ability to grow, resist disease and be harvested.

“Beyond that,” Davidson said, “we’re looking for their brewing characteristics.”

Some of those characteristics – alpha acid content that provides bitterness, for example – can be quantified in lab tests.

But aroma and flavor are largely subjective. For example, get a load of the descriptors that accompany No. 06300: dill, herbal candy, cocoa, anise, tropical, Saltine cracker, mint tea, peach, stone fruit, Jolly Rancher, passion fruit, caramel, toffee, vanilla, chocolate, watermelon, cocoa, butter and coconut.

Sly Fox brewer Brian O’Reilly, who brewed with the new hops earlier this year, described the flavor as “woody.”

Kintzer said that he picked up coconut and chocolate notes.

I tasted orange.

Clearly, no one really knows what hops No. 06300 tastes like, yet. That’s why they call it experimental.

I asked Kintzer if he was hesitant about brewing an entire batch with a largely unknown ingredient. “No,” he said. “If it tasted like sour milk, [Hopsteiner] obviously wouldn’t put that out and cultivate it.”

Will Stoudt’s continue to use No. 06300? Beer drinkers will get a vote.

Stoudt’s will serve all four batches of Fourplay side-by-side at its Micro-Fest on Oct. 19, and patrons can choose their favorite. The winner goes into full production in 2014 as part of Stoudt’s core lineup.

After that, the only thing remaining is to name the new hops. A random number just won’t do.

“Hopsteiner asked me if I had a name,” Kintzer said. “I haven’t given it much thought. . . . My job is to make the beer, not name the ingredients.”

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BREAK OUT your beer bong, the fall semester is in full gear. College is all about frat parties and tailgaters and suitcases of Natty Light. Right?

Not so fast. For one small group of students at Temple University, beer is not just something to chug-chug-chug. The fledgling Temple Craft Beer Enthusiasts Club actually sips.

Well, not always.

“If PBR is on special and someone else is buying, I wouldn’t say no,” said the group’s president, Alyssa Montgomery, a fifth-year senior business major from Bethlehem.

“But I prefer craft beer, and I see a lot more students branching out to better beer, too.”

The organization got underway two years ago with a few meetings and events, attracting about 30 members, most of them in the business school. They have a faculty adviser, an assistant risk-management prof named Mike McCloskey. They share bottles and homebrews. They chat about the varieties of flavors of their favorite ales and lagers. During the holidays, they do a bottle swap.

This fall, the group hopes that the university gives it full accreditation as an officially recognized club. Its goal: to give students an appreciation for the quality and proper consumption of craft beer.

Therein lies a bit of a conundrum.

First, Temple is basically dry, with no booze permitted in the residence halls and elsewhere on campus. So, if this club of enthusiasts is going to enjoy a cold one, it has to enthuse somewhere off campus.

More troublesome is the legal drinking age; a good two-thirds of the student body is under 21, which means that the club is off-limits to them.

Dem’s the rules, as they say. But everyone knows:

A. There’s plenty of beer in the dorms.

B. As long as there are 18-year-olds, there will be fake IDs.

I raise these two points because Temple, like every university, struggles with the usual problems connected with underage drinking.

The challenge is especially troublesome in light of last April’s accidental death of a 19-year-old West Chester University student during Temple’s annual Spring Fling festival. (She tripped and fell three stories from a rooftop at an off-campus party during the event.)

Last month, Temple canceled Spring Fling 2014.

A university news release said that “a dangerous culture of high-risk drinking had infiltrated the event.”

When I read those words, I couldn’t help but think of how a simple student club of craft-beer enthusiasts could help reverse that trend. Instead of pounding brewskis, they’re savoring and creating a friendly culture of social drinking.

Beer 101 ought to be on the curriculum for every incoming freshman.

No, I won’t kid myself. As long as the United States remains practically the only nation to enforce a 21-year-old minimum drinking age, no college can hope to change the culture.

And, besides, why ask the dean of student life to teach the kids responsible drinking? It begins at home.

“I learned about beer from my father before I was 21,” Montgomery said. “He was always interested in good beer, and he always offered to share what he was drinking. That’s how I got my start.”

Victory Summer Love was her first craft beer. “It’s like summer in a bottle,” she said.

Lately, she’s been enjoying the variety from Fegley’s Brew Works, from her hometown.

Now that she’s moved into Northern Liberties, she’s begun to show her father some of the local spots, including Standard Tap and the Foodery.

So, who has the better beer chops now, dad or daughter?

“I think my palate is more refined,” she said. “But he’s probably tried more beer than I have. He plays rugby, so . . . ”

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By the way, Temple isn’t the only local university with a craft-beer club. There’s also one at Penn Law with a great name: Beyond a Reasonable Stout.

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PASCAL WAGNER looked me in the eyes and assured me: “Don’t be afraid. Just put it in your mouth.”

I paused. My companions on this weeklong expedition to the lush vineyards of Burgundy nodded with encouragement. “Go ahead,” one said. “Lick it.”

“You can actually taste the terroir,” said Pascal, a sommelier, cellarman and local wine expert who was tutoring us on the ins and outs of the local product.

I glanced down at my hand again. It held a small, dirty stone that I’d just scavenged from the soil beneath a vine laden with tight bunches of green grapes nearly ready for harvest.

“The terroir is the character of wine,” Pascal continued, pointing to the acres of perfectly trimmed rows of vines that spread across the gentle slope above the winemaking village of Puligny-Montrachet. “It’s how the place where the grapes are grown – its climate, its water, its geology, the aroma of the air – how it all influences the taste of the wine…

“This place is magical,” he said. “Go ahead, taste the rock, and you taste the terroir of Montrachet.”

Oh, what the hell. I’ve put worse things in my mouth. I gave the stone a good, sound lick.

And so it went last week for a beer guy in Burgundy, where the French are in love with the intangible qualities of their beloved juice, and Joe Sixpack winds up with a mouthful of dirt.

I mean terroir.

In fairness, the wine was spectacular. Montrachet is an elegant, almost sensuous white Chardonnay that novelist Jay McInerney once described as “the Grace Kelly of wines.” (You might remember, it was a bottle of Montrachet that Philadelphia’s princess brought to wheelchair-bound James Stewart during her first visit to his apartment in Hitchcock’s “Rear Window.”)

It is quite rare, and bottles of the grand cru, if you could even find them in Pennsylvania’s miserable state stores, are basically unaffordable.

So, I drank a lot of Montrachet while I could. In the name of investigative journalism, of course.

But the terroir thing is something I could never get a handle on. Yes, it’s clear that, because wine is an agricultural product, its flavor is dependent on the soil, the climate, the sunshine and so on. But what makes the grapes on that field (or appellation d’origine contrôlée, as the French define it) so much better – and, thus, more expensive – than the grapes on the other side of the road?

Are they really “better,” or just “different”?

It’s a valid question, because the traditional boundaries of AOCs go back to the protective rules established by monks nearly 1,000 years ago. As my traveling companion Warner noted, “It’s like 10 centuries of scientific progress don’t even matter to these people.”

I’m not sure about that. Pasteur – whose groundbreaking 19th-century studies focused on the microbiology of wine – was French, wasn’t he?

Yet for many wine drinkers, the indefinable notion of terroir is the essence of their favorite bottle.

Which is confounding to a beer guy. Outside of a few styles (notably the spontaneously fermented lambics of Belgium, whose flavor and aroma are influenced by ambient microorganisms), the character of beer isn’t really dependent on terroir. Its ingredients are frequently shipped from around the world, so that a beer made in Philadelphia could contain malt from England, hops from New Zealand, German yeast cultured in a Colorado laboratory and water drawn from the Schuylkill and treated with gypsum mined in China.

Moreover, many of the beers we love today are the result of brewers ignoring the confines of tradition that are religion to French winemakers.

Consider Belgian-style India pale ale, one of the newer darlings of craft beer. It’s neither Belgian nor Indian; it’s an aggressive take on an old English-style ale, spiked with ample West Coast hops and fermented with volatile Belgian yeast.

That’s not terroir, that’s mad science. If the French winemakers are capable of matching its inventive flavor, I never encountered it.

Still, after a week of buttery croissants, stinky cheese and savory cassoulet, this beer guy is more than willing to give the French the benefit of the doubt when it comes to cuisine.

Just pass me another bottle of Montrachet to wash the dirt out of my mouth.

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A handful of rare ales that haven’t even been brewed, yet, are already so coveted that some beer drinkers are shelling out big bucks just for the right to purchase them months from now.

Yes, we’re talking about beer futures.

The beers are sold through clubs operated by small breweries known for unusual, limited-edition styles. With names like the “Reserve Society” and “Collected Works,” the clubs add another fascinating layer of exclusivity to cult beer.

In July at Cigar City Brewing in Tampa., Fla., for example, the newly minted El Catador Club sold out 1,500 memberships at $126 each in less a week. (Five hundred of the memberships were sold online in exactly 1 minute, according to a company spokesman.)

Members get a t-shirt plus bottles of five barrel-aged beers, only one of which – the highly rated Hunahpu Imperial Stout, to be released next March – has been identified. There is no time-table for the availability of the other bottles.

Members also get first rights on other beers to be released in the future.

Geiger Powell, Cigar City’s media and marketing director, said the club was created to cut down on the massive crowds that regularly show up at the brewery’s doorstep on announced sale dates of certain brands.

“The main idea is that club members have guaranteed access,” said Geiger Powell, media and marketing director at Cigar City. In fact, he said, the brewery would prefer that some of its select beers go only to members because “exclusivity is one of the perks of the club.”

If all of this sounds like the rarified world of wine collecting, you get the idea.

In Bordeaux and Burgundy, the finest varieties from famed chateaus are frequently purchased before they’re bottled through so-called wine futures. The pricy vintages are scarfed up and stashed into cellars by wealthy collectors, never to be tasted and enjoyed by the hoi polloi.

Investing in beer futures is far more affordable than grape speculation, naturally. Cigar City’s membership, for example, works out to about $25 per 750ml bottle, the same amount you’d pay in a retail shop. (The brewery also provides members with a 10 percent discount on additional purchases.)

Nonetheless, the willingness to pay for beer that hasn’t even been brewed, yet, underscores the near-fanatical obsession for cult beer.

Strong and typically barrel-aged, the cherished beers are often traded or re-sold by collectors who stockpile impressive cellars. Thanks to limited supplies of some brands, it’s not unusual to see prices of $100 or more per bottle on the re-sale market.

The clubs, then, are a means for breweries to cash in on some of the mania.

At Vermont’s Hill Farmstead Brewery, ranked the world’s No. 1 brewery by RateBeer.com, 150 members in the Collected Works club get 12 bottles of various exotic brews. Cost: $350.

In Everett, Mass., tiny Night Shift Brewery sold 200 memberships in its Barrel Society. Members got 14 corked bottles of various hoppy, sour or flavored ales. Cost: $250.

The proceeds were the equivalent of $50,000 no-interest loans, which the breweries said would go toward equipment purchases and expansion.

Beer futures are not without their pitfalls.

“In order to have a club, you have to have a lot of excitement around new releases,” said Tomme Arthur of California’s Lost Abbey/Port Brewing Co. “The challenge is there’s an expectation of innovation and exclusivity, or why else buy in?”

Worse, Arthur said, “What if the beer doesn’t live up to expectations? What do you do?”

Quality is especially challenging with the barrel-aged or sour beers that are popular club offerings. The flavor of those varieties, which are often blended, depends on time spent in the barrel, wood characteristics and other factors that may be beyond the brewer’s control.

The Lost Abbey ended its own club, Sinners and Saints, after three years because of the pressure to meet scheduled release dates, according to Arthur.

Still, it appears beer futures have a future.

Take Old Redwood Brewing in Windsor, Calif., for example, where the operating model is based on the exclusivity of its beer club. You can’t buy its smoked porter, IPA or any other varieties in retail stores; everything is sold directly from the brewery.

And fully half of its monthly output of about 500 swing-top 750ml bottles goes to club members.

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Interested in buying beer futures? Sale dates vary, so you must either join brewery mailing lists or follow their Facebook posts for advance notice.

Typically, shipping is not included and may not be available. Club members may be permitted to assign “trustees” to fetch their beer at out-of-town breweries. Popular clubs include:

Cigar City El Catador Club, $126 for 5 bottles.

Crooked Stave Cellar Reserve, $300 for 20 beers.

FiftyFifty Brewing Eclipse Futures, price varies.

Hill Farmstead Collected Works, $350 for 12 bottles.

Night Shift Brewery, $250 for 14 bottles.

Old Redwood Brewing, price varies.

The Bruery Reserve Society, $295 for 10 bottles. Info:

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SOMEDAY, Fat Tire, the enormously popular amber ale from Colorado, will be available in Pennsylvania. Not this year, and probably not next.

But soon enough, New Belgium Brewing Co.’s flagship will shoulder its way in among the 6,229 brands already registered for sale in the Keystone State.

First, it hits the shelves next door, in Delaware.

Its slow, deliberate rollout this week in one of the nation’s smallest states underscores the challenge that the brewery faces as it tries to establish a foothold in the heavily populated Northeast.

Namely: How to encourage beer drinkers to focus on a newcomer when so many other brands already have their attention.

Now, Fat Tire is not one of those trendy, new-age hybrids made by some dude in a garage.

It’s a well-regarded brand from a brewery with a very solid, progressive reputation. New Belgium is huge on conservation, and it’s now 100 percent employee-owned.

It’s no pipsqueak, either. The brewery is bigger than Goose Island and Deschutes and Shiner, to name three out-of-towners who recently made big splashes when they jumped into the local pool. The label is the fifth-biggest craft seller in America, behind only Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and three Sam Adams varieties.

And that’s despite sales in just 33 states. So, it already has a very loyal following out west. And now it’s eyeing the East.

The company is building a second brewery in Asheville, N.C., that is slated to open at the end of 2015. Its president, Kim Jordan, told the craft-beer business website Brewbound.com that she expects Fat Tire to be in all 50 states by 2018.

According to Tim Donnelly, president and CEO of N.K.S. Distributors Inc. – the New Castle wholesaler that is handling sales in Delaware – New Belgium conducted a “white-glove market survey” before it decided to enter the state.

He said that two or three teams from the brewery’s headquarters in Fort Collins visited the area for two weeks, conducting interviews with retailers and beer drinkers while mining sales and demographic data.

Like any new brand, New Belgium will find an instant audience among the curious. Indeed, many Easterners have already enjoyed Fat Tire during travel to the Rockies and have been itching to buy it locally.

“I’ve been in the business 27 years, and I have never seen a new product with this much excitement,” Donnelly said.

New Belgium is capitalizing on that excitement with commemorative labels in each state it enters. In Delaware, bottles of Fat Tire declare, “First Time in the First State.”

Rather than flooding Delaware with suds, according to N.K.S. craft and specialty manager John Leyh, New Belgium will initially deliver only six of its more than 25 brands: Fat Tire, Ranger IPA, Rampant Imperial IPA, Trippel and a pair from its Lips of Faith series in 24-ounce bombers, plus Shift Pale Lager in cans. No draft or seasonal flavors until October, and no 12-ounce bottles until after that.

“Their philosophy is that $3.99 for one bomber is not as much of an investment as $8.99 for a sixpack,” Leyh said.

With a brewery as large as New Belgium, however, the trick is to turn ever-fickle craft-beer lovers into loyal, repeat customers.

That’s a tough row to hoe in the Northeast, where the shelves are already groaning with strong regional brands, including Victory, Dogfish Head, Flying Dog, Harpoon, Saranac, Brooklyn and Magic Hat. Meanwhile, Sierra Nevada and Oskar Blues (with new breweries in North Carolina) and Lagunitas (in Chicago) are pushing eastward, too.

New Belgium spokesman Bryan Simpson says his company can attract a following by “being true to who we are and hoping that resonates.” That means emphasizing the corporate image as an iconoclastic do-gooder while producing “playful” beers, including hop monsters, quirky Belgians and barrel-aged varieties.

But those styles represent only a small fraction of New Belgium’s sales. For a company that’s spending $100 million on East Coast brewery construction, success rests on its top seller, Fat Tire.

So get ready for billboards, neon signs and that rarity among craft brewers, TV commercials, because Fat Tire is rolling up I-95. But it can’t get to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and beyond without rolling through Delaware.

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