From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog
Morgan Cox of Ale Industries expressed his frustration on Facebook the other day. His frustration was so great he created a Facebook group called, “Only companies that brew beer should be considered a brewery“. At first glance, it’s a no-brainer; of course companies that brew beer should be called breweries. It’s not only common sense but obvious as well, right? As I let this question percolate in my noggin, I came to the realization that maybe the issue isn’t so cut and dry.
Of course it’s obvious that companies that make their own beer should be called breweries. They have earned the distinction by their vary actions. You show up to their place of business and, if your timing’s good, you can smell beer being made. Often you will be able to taste the final product, or products, as well. If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck then it must be a…? Brewery, right.
But we all know this is not the case. There are various brewing companies out there that call themselves brewing companies or brew pubs that don’t actually brew the beer they serve on premises.BJs is probably the largest of these companies. Marketing themselves as a restaurant and brewhouse, I have yet to walk into a BJs and smell wort being made or see a galoshes, cargo shorts, beard adorned brewer walking about. I could be wrong, I could just be visiting BJs when they’re not brewing but I don’t think so. Do I feel this is disingenuous? Eh, a little. Do I let this bug me? Not so much anymore. Unfortunately at the end of the day, your average customer isn’t as beer savvy and as a result, they don’t care where the beer is made as long as it’s being poured where they’re at.
Then there are other breweries, the kind Fritz Maytag referred to as “marketing companies”. They don’t have a brewery of their own to produce their beers but they aren’t brewpubs either. In most cases, they are essentially marketing companies that contract out production breweries to brew their beers up for them. In some cases, someone from those companies will actually brew the beer at the production facility but that’s not always the case. Should these companies be allowed to append “brewery” or “brewing company” to their names? If we were to side with Morgan Cox, the answer would be “no”.
But I don’t side with Morgan, in fact, I’m not really siding with anyone. I’ve met people who have started, or will be starting, breweries without an actual brewery. These are honest people, hard working people, with a dream to make great beer even if they can’t make it themselves. In many cases, the cost of starting a brewery proper is far prohibitive to the average craft beer fan. In these cases, it’s more cost-effective to either use someone else’s equipment or pay a production brewery with extra capacity to make their beers.
So, the question I ask you is, “should companies that brew beer be considered breweries only”? Is there a “wrong” or “right” side to this issue? Should we even be applying morality to the issue to begin with? Maybe it’s more of a question of ethics? Oh, and what are some of the more memorable “brewing company” beers you’ve had?
From: Mario at Brewed For Thought
I guess I’m a little confused. How is BJ’s disqualified from this argument? They brew their own beer, not on premise, but it is still done by BJ’s for BJ’s. Long ago, I believe each of the BJ’s actually housed a brewery at some point and they have since consolidated their brewing operations to a few regional centers. This would be similar to Rogue and their Ale Houses. Then again, Rogue’s official name is Rogue Ales, and not Rogue Brewery saving them from putting “Rogue Brewhouses” on their establishments. Pyramid and Gordon Biersch would be similar examples.
Where Morgan’s Facebook group seems to be aimed is at contract brewers. I’m not quite sure I agree with him in that contract brewers should not be called breweries.
I’ll give an example of a friend of mine, Daniel Del Grande of Bison Brewing. When I was in college in Berkeley, Bison was set up just down the street from my residence. As this was before my brewpub hopping days, I never made it through the doors of Bison (something I regret) before those doors were closed permanently. Today, Daniel’s beers are brewed at Mendocino Brewing Company’s facility in Ukiah.
By Morgan’s standards, this would mean Daniel would have to change his company’s name. A name change could negatively affect his brand, which would only serve as an additional slap in the face after having to close a brewpub. And to what end?
Let’s apply this standard to other aspects of life, such as consumer electronics. Most people don’t realize, but the insides of that Sony, Panasonic, Dell, etc are generally the exact same. Manufacturer’s around the world produce components for these electronics which are then sold to us with a new name and in some cases, nothing changed but a shiny case. Big retailers re-brand electronics with their own logos all the time. Best Buy doesn’t know anything about making TV’s, but they still have their own brand.
I’d rather have Daniel continue to brew Bison’s Chocolate Stout (one of my favorites). I’d also like to see him continue to produce a selection of organic beers, something the brewing industry is lacking in general. Add into this that Daniel is one of the few American brewers who released a bottled un-hopped ale.
Sure, out of the same Ukiah brewery, Carmel Brewing Company’s Carmel Wheat and Pale are being produced and these, in my opinion, are awful beers. The good people of the Monterey Peninsula are misled into believing that they are drinking a locally produced beer and continue choking down the stuff in the name of local pride.
I’d love to see someone alert the public to branding schemes like this, but to paint with such broad strokes would throw the baby out with the bathwater.
So where’s the compromise? Do former brewpub/brewery owners get grandfathered in? Am I missing the true target of Morgan’s comments?
From: Peter at BetterBeerBlog
The point I was trying to make with BJs is that they market themselves as a brewhouse, which for me has the implication they brew on premises, when in reality they don’t. I’ve only been to the Pyramid in Berkeley and they brew on-site there. Gordon Biersch, on the other hand, brews at all their brewpub locations so would be excluded (at least all the locations that I know of/have been to).
It’s difficult to say if we’ve missed the true target of Morgan’s comments, only Morgan can verify that. I don’t mean for this Hopinions to be a “pick on Morgan” thing but he does raise an issue I think is worth talking about, even if it’s within the context of 4 emails.
If we read between the lines, it sounds like people are gaming the system. There are benefits having a “brew on premises” license and if people are abusing the system, perhaps it’s time to take a look at the system. Maybe now is the time to update it to reflect the reality of today.
It’s interesting you use Daniel Del Grande, and Bison Brewing by extension, as an example. I had a chance to try their Honey Basilyesterday for the first time (I liked it); it was in during research for that post did I find out they contract their beers out to Mendocino Brewing as you described.
Personally, the real issue with brewing companies that don’t brew their own beer lies not in where the physical location of where their beers are brewed, but with their intentions. If the goal at the end of the day is to brew a quality beer honestly marketed, then it really doesn’t matter to me if they brew on-site or down the street at a Public Storage. The last thing I’d want to see is an explosion of contract breweries putting out poor products in an attempt to make a quick buck. The craft beer world is already facing issues with the macros trying to gain a foothold through fictitious craft breweries.
So where does that leave us. Are they breweries, are they not? Do we need to take a look at the existing rules and regulations to see if they need tightening up or are they fine as is? Is it fair for consumers to demand a certain level of transparency from the companies they patronize? This is a topic that I would love to see our readers chime in with their thoughts.
From: Mario at Brewed For Thought
After responding to your email, I talked to Daniel a bit and got some information on this contract brewing thing. On brew day, Daniel heads to Ukiah and watches over the brewing process. While he’s not as involved as he had been with this previous setup (Mendocino’s system is very large and very automated), he is as present and as much a part of the brew as any brewer who owns a brewery and has a full-time production brewer. He also told me that as things continue to improve, as demand for Bison beer grows, it will be necessary that he goes and buys his own brewhouse.
He also wanted me to pose this question: Is the Homebrew Chef not a chef because he doesn’t own his own restaurant?
I think there is transparency with the labeling requirements we have today. Grab a bottle of beer, look at the label and see where it’s brewed. This tells you a lot. Yeah, there are ways of confusing the issue. Somehow, the contract brews that show up at Trader Joe’s from Firestone, Goose Island, etc bear a different brewery name. For the most part though, the name of the brewery that actually did the brewing will appear on the label.
Personally, I don’t have a problem with contract brews. Many are excellent beers and poor products will not gain acceptance among craft beer fans. Mass marketed faux-craft beer will always be there. If someone’s drinking a Blue Moon, let them know it’s brewed by Coors. The most likely answer will be “So what?” as they reach for the orange slice placed on the edge of their frosty mug.
Additional Reading:
Mario brought this to my attention this morning; the timing couldn’t have been better. It’s an article from Hop Press/Ratebeer written by Brian Cendrowski explaining further the intricacies of contract brewing. I learned quite a bit.
http://briancendrowski.hoppress.com/2010/05/27/why-arent-there-more-contract-brewers/
No related posts.
From our research, I was under the assumption that if you do not brew your own beer that you cannot include Brewery or Brewing Co in your business name. Which is why Sam Adams had to call themselves Boston Beer Company.
That’s interesting. Brooklyn Brewing started off as a contract brewer but they’ve have “Brewing” as part of their name since inception.
I am glad that this is getting some attention. I would like to clarify some of my thoughts on this.
When I was a kid, my father would take his four kids on “field trips” to Berkeley for records from Rasputin’s, and pizza Fat Slice. We would always end the day with a trip to Bison Brewing Co. for Italian Sodas and he would have a pint or two of the Coriander Rye, or the Chocolate Stout.. I have very fond memories of Bison. I also Know Daniel. He is one of the hardest working people in this local scene. I have never heard him tell anyone that he currently brews his beer, or that he is the brewer. I have much respect for Dan and his beers.
My concern is for the consumer, and the respect of the people who actually make that beer. It will never be good for the industry if anyone with a few tens of thousands of dollars can apply for a beer re-sellers license, and start a publicity tour, posing as the “brewer of the beer, that you are about to drink.”
I have nothing against contract brewing, BJ’s, or Bison. I only want businesses to act in an ethical fashion when the artistry and mastery of the brewing sciences are concerned. This is how I make my living after all.
Morgan
Morgan – Thanks for writing in and clarifying things. I thought your updates were thought provoking and worth talking about in greater detail. I think that greater transparency is a good thing and hope that good people doing good work will be rewarded for their efforts.
I think the analogies into other industries is applicable here. As Mario points out, we generally don’t ask who assembled our electronics, or shoes or pens or basketballs, etc… In the end, we just want to know that what we bought works and was made with the quality we expect for the price.
Now, with all the sustainability movements going on with our environment and food system, people are starting to pay more attention to where things come from. More and more people do want to support local. In that vein, I believe it is important for people to know that if a contract brewery is “based” in one particular city, the beer may have had to travel much further than that.
I liked that Peter brought up the concept of transparency. To me, that’s the key. As a discerning beer drinker, I’d like to know where the beer was brewed, if it’s their own recipe or the producers under a private label, and a little history behind the owners of the contract brewery. I know we’ll never see all that on a label, so it’ll be up to me to decide if it’s worth the time to research before I lay my $5 down for that pint.
Realistically, it’s probably not worth it. I’ll try it once and decide if I’d order it again. That’s the bottom line.
If we are to use other industries as a marker here, let’s look at Millie Vanillie. They were in the music industry, and duped everyone with what they were exactly doing. No one would have been upset or felt tricked if they were a dance crew, who did not pretend to sing. Instead they chose to lie, and because of that they lost their fans trust.
This is my point, it is not the act of contract brewing that I disagree with, it is the deceit that is involved with SOME “breweries” out there, and the blind praise that these companies receive from the press and fans for “their” beer.
I think anyone who listened to Milli Vanilli got what they deserved.
On the topic of sustainability and such, Daniel and I were talking about the idea of a Co-op brewhouse. apparently it’s one he already tried a few years back in Berkeley and again recently in Chico. Unfortunately those plans fell through but it’s an interesting idea.
Imagine a brewhouse cooperatively owned and run by smaller brewers. If they system can be kept running virtually 24-7, imagine the savings in efficiency alone that could be shared among these brewers. From a sustainability perspective, any saved costs are almost directly attributable to saved energy. It’s an interesting concept, and one I am sure ABC would crap all over.
But I guess that has nothing to do with this topic.
“This is my point, it is not the act of contract brewing that I disagree with, it is the deceit that is involved with SOME “breweries” out there, and the blind praise that these companies receive from the press and fans for “their” beer”
Well, instead of bringing out a 20 year old example that has nothing to do with brewing, is it possible for you to name some names here?
Hey guys! Great conversation. Let me share my story with you: My company (The Wolverine State Brewing Company) has been “contract brewing” Wolverine Premium Lager for 3.5 years at Michigan Brewing Company (where they brew the various Celis options, among others). We went this route for the very reason you initially enunciated about breweries being extremely expensive to set up in the beginning. My business partner, Matt Roy, a 20-year home brewer who masquerades as a corporate attorney by day had come up with a Premium American Lager style recipe that fit into the vast spectrum of Michigan Craft Beer options very nicely. I (The Beer Wench a.k.a. E.T. Crowe) was brought on board as part owner and to handle sales and marketing.
I did my job well, and we were able to push our “open the brewery and tap room” plan ahead by a couple of years (that combined with a pretty sweet lease deal on the west side of Ann Arbor). We hired a brewer whose day job is to manage and supervise the entire process for our beer up at our contract company (and the renovations at the warehouse which is slowly but surely taking shape as our dream operation).
The contract brewing model is a good one, and one used by no less that Jim Koch (who still uses it to a certain extent). But frankly, now that I have my own brewer handling operations even “off site” as it were I do feel more legit. When I’m pouring beer at the myriad of summer festivals we attend I love to (now) say: yeah, we use Michigan Brewing’s facilities but brew it ourselves–for real.
Here is my problem with transparency and one you touched on briefly at the end of your original post: Macros posing as Craft “microbreweries” and taking Our Shelf Space in the process. Now, the sophisticated beer consumer at the more upscale shop with many craft options is not going to be fooled. However, when the Miller/Coors suits create “Batch 19″ (or the completely ridiculous AB/InBev “Shock Top”) and market it to their base as “craft” (i.e. look, you too can be one of the Cool Kids if you drink this being the message) I am gonna go postal (and already have–see my post from Monday May 24 http://www.a2beerwench.com).
However, for those of us micro brewing, experimenting and creating honest craft beer for a wider audience (like my lager options) the contract model works very well and we remain grateful for the bigger guy up the road at Webberville to let us use their infrastructure just to get started.
cheers guys!
Your Ann Arbor Beer Wench