The life of a brewer is a hectic one. between finding some stable work, networking, getting settled in a new city, and all that other stuff I have not had time for as much immediate progress as I had hoped. That being said, true to my nature, I haven't shut up about exactly what my plans were.
A lot of people have been really supportive, and I've been very excited to see how many people in Oklahoma want some new beers in the state. However, there are also quite a few people who just want to turn their noses up at someone gypsy brewing or contract brewing production. This is something I don't get at all, and I thought I'd take a minute to defend not only my own business plan, but many brewers putting out great beers, especially here in the state of Oklahoma.
First of all, the anti contract logic usually seems to be flawed. One guy told me he only likes to support local products as he was drinking his 80 acre from Boulevard, which was brewed in Kansas City. This one I can't figure out. Most brewers who contract or gypsy brew have most, if not all of their production within 100 miles of where they are located. And even if it's being brewed somewhere else, I promise that the brewer who lives in the local area is still putting the money back in the local community by, you know, living there. Isn't that the point of supporting local business? to help support the economy of your community and make sure everyone around you prospers? A local clothing store doesn't sew all their own clothes in the back of the shop, but that doesn't make them any less of a local business. Why am I somehow a "lesser" part of the local community by outsourcing some of my production?
Another thing I've heard a lot is that people want to be able to know who brewed their beer. It's me. I'm the one who brewed the beer! I don't own the brewery it came out of, but I made it happen! Most contract brewers will brew the specialty batches of beer themselves, will do all the quality control monitoring, and damn skippy all the recipes come from the guys who started the company. What do folks think a more conventional brewery is like? Sam Calgione doesn't brew all the beer at Dogfish head, he hires people to brew beer that he oversees, then pays them for their time. The only difference is that the Dogfish head building only produces dogfish head beer, while a contract brewer pays another brewer a rental fee of sorts to brew in their facility, and then they pay the workers who produced their beer. Again, what's the difference?
The thing that grinds my gears the most though is that this whole thing is very selective. Those contract breweries like Prarie (out here in Oklahoma) or Stillwater (in Baltimore) that put out really artisinal quirky batches and nothing else get the highest of praise for what they're doing while breweries like Mustang (also in Oklahoma) and Schmaltz (based in New York) who produce some high quality lagers and a more consistent and less over the top product line get slammed over and over again for somehow being less then authentic. This is just straight up snobbery. Mustang wins medals on a national level every year, especially for their wheat beer which is CONTRACTED. Schmaltz might be producing the best lagers on the east coast, they're objectively in the top 3. What it comes down to is that somehow contracting turned into a dirty word, and I'm not quite sure why.
For what it's worth, I'm 22 and have very little money or credit, certainly not enough to open a brick and mortar place. Eventually I'll get there, but for the time being I'll be contracting. My product line is posted up here, and there will be a few one offs, but mostly it's going to be those six beers. And they are all great beers. I hope you'll try them, and maybe some of you will become regular customers of mine. If you don't like my products after you've tried them, that's fine. But hey, if you don't want to try my beers because my business plan wasn't good enough for you, that's your loss.
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