A Brewery in New York Wine Country

Located in Geneva, on the shores of Seneca Lake, Three Brothers Winery and Estates sits at the epicenter of New York’s Finger Lake wine country. When the Mansfield family bought their first parcel of land in 2006, the winery consisted of a few acres and a single tasting room. Today, the estate sprawls over 40 acres, 30 of it under active grape cultivation. In addition to War Horse Brewing Company, the lakeside destination hosts three wine tasting rooms and a coffee house.

The process to bring a full-fledged brewery on site was a long one, lasting almost a decade, but the Mansfield family has been serving its own line of beers since 2008.

Initially, they contract brewed with a Rochester-based company.

(VISIT: Find a New York Brewery)

“Contract brewing was a great way to get into at the first,” explains Jon Mansfield, director of brewery operations. “We opened up with three or four beers and a root beer and we just had a teeny tiny little tasting room. They’d make the beer there and drop it off over here and we just had it on tap.”

For the Mansfield family, brewing on premise was a long-term goal, but one that gained little initial momentum.

“Everyone was all kind of like, all right someday, someday, all the beer, we’re going to make it all right here,” Mansfield reminisces.

When ‘Someday’ Becomes Today

What nudged them into ultimately investing in their own equipment? Contract brewing helps many brewers launch their brands, but it comes with drawbacks. Foremost was the persistent question about authenticity: is beer brewed offsite by someone else really your beer? Additionally, there were artistic and logistical issues with contract brewing.

“You don’t have full control and full autonomy,” Mansfield explains.

Contract breweries allocate fermentation schedules and raw materials months in advance. This process worked for War Horse’s mainstay beers but it can also stifle innovation.

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In the end, though, it wasn’t their philosophical struggles with contract brewing that pushed the team to make the change. It was dabbling in cider.

“What got us to the point of making beer was making cider,” Mansfield explains. “Our winemaker, Justin [Paolicelli], always had this little itch for doing cider.”

Paolicelli’s initial cider batch was supposed to last an entire summer but sold out in just two weeks. Mansfield remembers that time and jokes, “We just made a lot of work for Justin. That was the first time in our War Horse Brewing Company world that we put something on and it caught a little fire.

After selling out of subsequent batches, it was clear that the cider operation needed its own space. The family surveyed options, ultimately deciding to build the cider house adjacent to the beer taproom.

When they reviewed what was required for the cidery, they saw many of the things breweries also need: concrete floors with drains, glycol, tanks, CO2. The family realized that now was the time to commit to making their beers at the estate.

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The Importance of Place

In June 2016, the brewery debuted their onsite beers. With the move came changes. As terroir influences the nature of wine, so, too, did the new location affect War Horse’s brews.

The taproom enlarged, expanding to allow visitors to see, smell, and hear the beer-making operations. The 1942-styled tasting room opened up to highlight the stainless-steel brewery. Against this backdrop, consumers could now drink a beer while watching the next batch being made. 

Some changes were bolder in scope. The contract-brewed recipes were created with a specific intent in mind. For instance, Peace Bomber is a wheat ale brewed with Riesling. Its purpose is to link the drinker to the sprawling grape vines surrounding the taproom. Likewise, the scotch ale is intended for a cool summer evening, a contemplative beer to drink when the sun is setting across Seneca Lake.

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When brewer Tony Cordova, previously at Brewery Ommegang and Ithaca Beer Company, took the helm at War Horse’s onsite brewery, he was conscious of these intents. Mansfield recalls Cordova asking, “Do you want me to make all these beers that you’ve been making contract, and make them like they are?”

Mansfield and his partners wisely said no. Instead, Cordova reimagined each of the beers. The intent, and in some cases, the styles, remained the same, but the beers now connect more fully with the land upon which they are brewed.

The move to onsite creation was nerve-wracking, but the change was well received. Mansfield notes that the positive reception from other breweries was an initial bellwether of their success. “What brought everything home, and made everyone sleep a little easier, was the reception from the brewery industry.”

Given the inclusive nature of the independent beer world, this isn’t surprising. Yet, there may be one additional factor that has contributed to War Horse’s success.

“In the dead center of every winemaker’s heart is a beer drinker,” notes Mansfield. “It takes great beer to make great wine because, at the end of the day, that’s where all the wine guys end up—at the brewery.”

The post War Horse Brewing: A Decade in the Making appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

The company will transform from a small, on-premise only restaurant in the ‘burbs to a multi-site operation that includes high-end dining and a distribution brewery in the heart of a resurging metropolitan area.

Lock 27’s Original Location

The brewery’s original location, named after a nearby lock in the former Erie Canal, opened in 2013 in a strip mall in Centerville, Ohio—one of Dayton’s larger suburbs.

Sandwiched between a 24/7 fitness center and a Bath and Body Works, Lock 27’s opening was part of a release of pent-up demand for local beer. Today, the Miami Valley hosts 13 breweries (and counting), but prior to 2012 there were none. When it opened, Lock 27 was on the leading edge of the trend.

Owner Steve Barnhart’s initial venture, which will remain open in tandem with the expansion brewery, is as much a restaurant as it is a brew house. Despite the pre-fab building, the interior has a comfortable, rustic feel, with wood staves, faux brick and vintage photos highlighting the area’s past.

The food is a huge draw, with a menu of gourmet poutines, curries and other exotic fare. House beers, brewed on a bustling three-barrel brewhouse in the back of the restaurant, make up the beer list. They also feature several guest taps.

Building a Future by Honoring the Past

Fast forward four years and Barnhart is once again riding the leading edge of a trend. His new brewery, set to open in July 2017, is part of an urban resurgence that capitalizes on a reverse “white flight.”

Dayton, once known as a manufacturing town, was hit hard in the 80s and 90s, leaving the downtown area heavily vacant. But now, the city has doubled down on its downtown by building condos, attracting businesses, and promoting an active nightlife. As a result, the heart of the city is beating again.

Within a block of the river and squarely in the middle of downtown, the new Lock 27 brewery occupies two floors of an old Delco factory. It shares a plaza with the Dayton Dragon’s stadium, the Gem City’s single A minor league baseball team.

(More: 7 Baseball Beers You’ll Find at Minor League Stadiums)

The floors above the brewery are luxury loft apartments, with stunning views of the ballpark, the Great Miami River, and downtown Dayton, seen through floor to ceiling windows that line the outside walls.

Whereas Barnhart had to work to give his original site a vintage feel, with his new location, he had to actively prevent the contractors from updating too much.

“Right off the bat from an aesthetic perspective, we’re doing what I call ‘ratrod,’” explains Barnhart, referencing a style of hot rods that retain a vintage feel. “What we didn’t want to lose in the building was the history of the space. This building was built in 1912, so everything we did, we tried to make sure we maintained as much as we could in terms of that rustic, rugged feel.”

This look and feel is consistent throughout, from the distressed paint to the reclaimed wooden doors (all found throughout the original building); from the sink made from the freight elevator chains to the rough, unfinished concrete floor. The bar is new, but even it has been distressed to mimic metal from a 100-year old factory. A large seating area with huge, windowed garage doors that mimic the original factory windows opens onto the plaza, blending inside and out.

Built with Growth in Mind

Tucked in the back corner of this huge space is the new brewery. Sitting squat between the basement and the first floor, the brewery pops up from the basement. Construction crews had to cut an opening in the nearly 12-inch concrete floors to be able to make room for it.

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Although the brewhouse is compact, it’s not small. Since adding new fermenters would entail removing the entire brewhouse to fit them into space, Barnhart opted to upgrade to the largest vessels the space would hold. As a result, this brewhouse itself is almost seven times larger than the Centerville one, and represents a significant upgrade in overall fermentation capacity.

Barnhart has expanded his brewing team and hired a sales manager who will oversee offsite distribution, a new foray for Lock 27. Barnhart explains, “We think we have capacity for between maybe 4000-8000 barrels a year, but not without some additional investment outside of the space.”

Already Thinking About the Next Move

In the midst of construction of the new brewery, Barnhart is already thinking about his next move: “As we grow scale, we will grow past our ability to store here and will start looking for an offsite distribution space for us,” he explains. “The idea is to produce here, do the things we need to do here under license, and then do distribution from somewhere else.”

Some breweries might be intimidated by such a large step forward, but for Barnhart, the eye to the future epitomizes his business ventures. Barnhart notes that his initial brewery was never destined to be the final product. Instead, it was a prototype of sorts, a model that built towards the current expansion.

“We used the first three years as a pilot test,” notes Barnhart. “We built a little brand; we built up our core recipes; we built up a following. Now’s the time for us to take that following and turn it out into the marketplace.”

Starting this summer, Barnhart will be able to see how well his planning worked out.

The post A Giant Next Step: Lock 27’s Leap Forward appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

(MORE: What is Craft Beer?)

Below are five activities that will expand knowledge, taking you from craft beer newbie to in-the-know. Each project is designed to take place over a set period of time and involves making conscious choices about what you buy and consume during that time period, both at home and out at breweries and pubs. How long is each period? That’s up to you. The important thing is to isolate beer based on a set of criteria and to try a bunch of brews matching those criteria to understand how they compare and differ from each other.

5. Go Local

A 2014 presentation by the Brewers Association, publishers of CraftBeer.com, noted that nearly 80 percent of adults of drinking age live within 10 miles of a brewery. Take into account the brewery boom in parts of the country in the last three years, and chances are, you live closer than that to several breweries. For this project, set a geographic boundary for your beer buying choices. Create your boundary by city, state, or region and get to know the breweries in that area. What styles dominate your chosen region? What styles are missing? Which breweries make your favorite beers?

4. Go International

Americans are leading the craft revolution, but we’re not the only ones who make great beer. Similar to the first project, this one is geographic in nature. Go Reinheitsgebot to explore German beers, or tap your inner Trappist and explore the breadth and depth of Belgian beers—there are nearly 200 breweries in the tiny country, with styles all over the map. Want something edgier? Try beers from emerging craft markets like Italy or Japan.

(MORE: A Sour Beer Pickle in American Brewing)

3. Pick a Style

You’ve had a lot of IPAs and you know you like them. Now it’s time to broaden your horizons. While IPAs are great, there are more than 100 other styles to choose from (the Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines list more than 80 ale styles, about 30 lagers, and approximately 35 hybrid styles). Pick something IPA-like, or something on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, and explore the style by reading up about its characteristics, its history and its production. You can find style suggestions similar to what you like in our interactive CraftBeer.com Style Guide. Then challenge yourself to drink only that style for a set period of time.

Pro-tip: Ready to really geek out on a style? The Classic Beer Style Series from Brewers Publications is a great resource; each book in the series focuses on a style, with detailed histories and recipes for that category.

2. Pick All of the Styles

Want to really get a sense of the diverse range of beer styles? Download the style guide from the Brewers Association and use it as a punch list. Start working your way through each of the styles, trying a couple from each. Use the Great American Beer Festival medal winners as a cheat sheet to measure what judges consider the beer brewed closest to style in each category. Admittedly, a few of the more obscure styles may be hard to find, but even if you don’t try every type, a conscious sampling of even a portion of the guidelines will significantly improve your palate and your beer knowledge. Is there a style you really want to try but can’t find? Reach out to your local brewery to convince them to resurrect the style.

(MORE: 2017’s Great American Beer Bars)

1. Make It Yourself

Instead of buying ready-made beer, brew it yourself. Beginner homebrewing kits are relatively cheap and abundant and chances are, you already know someone who brews their own. Apprentice with a homebrewing mentor, offering to assist on their next batch (pro-tip: when apprenticing, spring for carry-out lunch, bring a sixer, or offer to buy the ingredients for a batch). Pick a recipe for a beer similar to one you already like and work through the ingredients list. Take time to taste and smell the malts and the hops, as well as the finished wort. Take notes, and then look for those flavors and aromas in your finished beer. Then, make another batch and another, modifying the ingredients each time to enrich your sense of beer’s component parts. The American Homebrewing Association, our sister website, has a lot of great resources to get you started. Be sure to sign up for your free trial of Zymurgy, their homebrewing magazine.

The post Craft Beer Newbie? 5 Activities to Take You from Beer Beginner to In-the-Know appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

What makes a co-op brewery different? On the surface, not much, says General Manager Tanya Brock. “Anybody who’s just going to stop and have a drink, they are none the wiser.”

Yet, dig deeper and you find an organization that is responsive to the community. Being a co-op, Brock explains, “makes us listen more to the patrons that come in and be more cognizant of getting to know them.”

(MORE: Brewers Association Announces SAVOR 2017 Brewery List)

Building Fifth Street Brewpub as a Co-Op

This responsiveness is rooted in the pub’s origins, which started as a neighborhood initiative to save a historic building. The brewpub, located at 1600 E. Fifth Street, is in a downtown residential neighborhood known as St. Anne’s Hill. The architectural features of the neighborhood’s Victorian homes landed St. Anne’s Hill on the National Register of Historic Places in the mid-1980s, but until recently, economic recovery has been slow to come to post-industrial Dayton.

Residents of the city that birthed the Wright Brothers and Guided By Voices have found that innovation and growth most often come through DIY bootstrapping. In 2010, a group of 34 St. Anne’s Hill residents invested to restore the local landmark at 1600 E. Fifth Street.

The initial plan was to fix and sell the building to a business, but post-renovation, the building sat empty. The group realized that if they wanted a business in the building, they’d have to build one themselves. After a meeting with Jeff Black, brewer and a founding member of Austin, Texas’ Black Star Co-Op—America’s first cooperatively owned brewery—the St. Anne’s Hill neighbors decided to emulate Black Star’s model.

(MORE: 9 Brewery Couples On Their Strong Relationships and Successful Breweries)

Co-Op Membership and Management

Membership is open to anyone with $125 and the pitch for membership was, and still is, simple: One share, one stake. Member-owners get to claim that, “I own a brewpub,” a slogan that dominates the brewery’s marketing campaigns. And Dayton has responded enthusiastically, immediately purchasing more than 800 memberships. Five years later, membership tops 3,300.

Membership draws from the surrounding community, with a heavy tilt towards those in the neighborhood. “We’re a real life version of Cheers,” Brock explains. “The majority of people who come here two, three, four, five times a week. This is their watering hole; this is a place that they rely on for dinner, or lunch or breakfast.”

Many employees are members, but membership isn’t required to work at Fifth Street Brewpub. “We leave it up to the individual employee,” says Brock, although she notes that there is a “strong nudge” for management to join. “[It’s] self-beneficial that we’re members because members have a voting right.”

With so many owners, how does anything get done? Brock runs the day-to-day operations and members elect a Board-at-Large, which advises, and a Board of Directors, which oversees operations. There are four officers: the president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer.

“Those four are my direct supervisors,” Brock explains. “They’re the ones that I work very closely with on figuring out the business management and the larger goals of what we’re doing.”

Brewing Classic Beer Styles

Darren Link, Fifth Street’s brewmaster, manages the beer for Brock. Link’s seven-barrel brewhouse is located across a paved biergarten from the main pub, in an outbuilding restored and retrofitted for the brewing equipment.

Link’s beer list is peppered with classic styles — a German-style Kolsch and a Scottish Wee Heavy sit alongside English-style pale ales, browns and stouts. Link is a prolific brewer who plays with expectations.

“I like to challenge myself mentally, challenge my skills by throwing the curve balls in there,” he explains. One of his signature beers is Herbavore #1, a pale ale with honey and basil.

A homebrewer turned pro, Link’s homebrewing experience has allowed him to make beers that are different without being gimmicky. Expect Link to push the envelope, but not chase trends: “I’m going to have to be pulled kicking and screaming into the Northeast IPA,” he jokes. And barrel aging? It’s pretty limited. “We have a whopping four barrels,” laughs Link.

(MORE: Mark Your Calendars for American Craft Beer Week 2017)

A Decision to Distribute

Fifth Street initially planned to limit distribution to on-premise sales, but in the last year, Link has expanded to nearly three-dozen outlets throughout Dayton. Although the brewpub produced less than 400 barrels last year, Link sees distribution as necessary because it allows them “to increase production, increased our perception in the market, and use that distribution as an advertising tool and an additional source of income.”

And that visibility brings this co-op brewery full circle to its roots: building community. The pub and its members continue to invest in community, be it through an annual homebrew competition where the winner brews his or her recipe on Link’s system, or the popular Monday night Guest Bartender program that allows local non-profits to sling beers in exchange for a portion of the sales.

Brock and Link work together to find additional outreach, often at the suggestion of members, and look forward to projects like creating a commemorative anniversary brew for Link Dayton Bike Share, a non-profit organization with self-serve bike rental locations throughout town. These actions are a way to give back to the neighborhood that gave life to the brewery.

The post Fifth Street Brewpub: How Neighbors Started a Co-Op Brewery appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

The new 30-barrel brewhouse, housed in a former Michigan State Police post, will allow for up to 20,000 barrels annually, a massive upgrade from the Chicago site’s 1,400-barrel yearly output. The production brewery will enable Haymarket to distribute their core and limited release beers.

The additional capacity makes sense, but why the geographic distance? Haymarket is a staple of the Chicago beer scene. Why not locate the production brewery there? Crowley notes that it wasn’t for lack of trying.

(MORE: Think You Know Beer? Try Beer 101)

Finding a Diamond In the Rough

“We were looking to expand and we were looking in Chicago. So we looked at properties all over the city of Chicago and we actually put an offer in on a building just west of our brewery.”

When the property didn’t accept their offer, Crowley and business partner John Neurauter got creative.

“We got a little, I don’t know, frustrated with trying to find a property big enough, with space big enough, in Chicago that we liked,” explains Crowley. “Because so many of them are just old, giant warehouses in the middle of nowhere and we wanted something with character, with a little bit of romance and community.” So Neurauter suggested they look on the other side of Lake Michigan, where he has a vacation home, where he, Crowley, and their families regularly visit, and where Crowley has contacts within the local brewing community.

Crowley recounts the day they found their new location. “[Our agent was] driving us around, we’re looking at this property, that property. We just wanted a space near the highway anywhere between New Buffalo up to the Stevensville/St. Joe/Benton Harbor area, so it’s close enough to Chicago so I can get back and forth because I’m brewing at both places. And at the end of the day, she’s like, ‘There’s this other piece of property that’s been available for three years. It’s an old state police station — Michigan State Police — and no one knows what to do with it.'”

When they arrived at the site, Crowley and Neurauter knew they had to have it. “As soon as we saw it–it’s 18 acres, it’s all trees, there’s this giant outdoor space, all grass that we could do a couple thousand person beer festival, tons of parking, it’s right off the highway. We were like, ‘oohhh.’ She said, “You see, no one knows what to do with it.’ We were like, ‘Sold,'” explains Crowley with a laugh.

They bought the property and immediately initiated a $5 million renovation to transform the police station into a functioning brewery. “We gutted the entire inside of the building,” explains Crowley. “We had to reinforce the roof because we put the brewery in the middle of where the jail cells were, and they were all bow truss, so we had to put steel reinforcements on each side. And it was all offices and everything, so we really had to redo the entire inside of the facility. And then, in order to have enough room for the packaging and production side, we built a 6,000 sq. foot building on the back end of the [original] building and connected the two. So now we are looking at about 16,000 sq. feet of usable space.”

The site isn’t all production, though. It was important to Crowley to maintain a taproom where the community could interact with the brewery. The Michigan taproom is smaller than the Chicago pub, but it’s comfortable and open. A wall of windows flanks one side of the taproom, beyond which glimmers the stainless steel brewhouse. Through an opening in an adjacent wall, two white Italian wood-fired pizza ovens serve as both a visual centerpiece and the kitchen workhorses. Garage doors along the backside of the taproom open to an extensive beer garden, which overlooks an 8-10 acre protected wetland that came with the property.

(MORE: This Hawaii Brewery That Serves Craft Beer and War Stories)

“We Can Be City Folk or Country Folk”

The Haymarket Brewery and Taproom, located at 9301 Red Arrow Highway, Bridgman, Michigan, began producing beer in November and will open in January 2017. Four beers will dominate much of the brewing capacity: the first three, Speakerswagon® Pilsner, Oscar’s Pardon Belgian Pale, and Mathias® Imperial IPA, all relate to Chicago’s 1886 Haymarket Riot. The fourth, Aleister® IPA, alludes to Aleister Crowley, the infamous British wizard about whom Ozzy Osbourne wrote “Mr. Crowley” and to whom Pete Crowley may be related.

Initial distribution will be limited to southwest Michigan and Chicagoland, although Crowley eventually plans to extend to other Great Lake states. (In an interesting aside, in order to serve his Michigan-produced beers in his Chicago brewpub, Crowley first has to sell his beer to a distributor in Michigan, and then buy it back from the distributor in Chicago.) Because Crowley loves to produce limited release beers, expect to find plenty of taproom exclusives at his Michigan facility.

Crowley will oversee brewing at both sites and relishes the idea of having two very different locations. “The change of pace is really nice,” says Crowley. “We can be city folk or we can be country folk within an hour and a half. It’s really pretty sweet to have the best of both worlds.”

The post Haymarket Turns Former Michigan Police Post Into New Brewery appeared first on CraftBeer.com.

To Art Oestrike, owner of Jackie O’s, “Everything spawns from the brewpub.” This is both literally and metaphorically true.

Jackie O’s journey started in 2006, when Oestrike bought the former O’Hooley’s brewpub, a declining product of the 90’s brewpub boom, and hired Brad Clark as his brewer. Oestrike renamed the bar Jackie O’s in honor of his mother and he and Clark cultivated a cult following with Ohio University students.

(EXPLORE: 75+ Beer Styles)

As the brewery’s popularity grew, so did its footprint. Within a handful of years, Clark strained the brewpub’s 900-barrel capacity. In 2013, Jackie O’s opened an 8,000-barrel production brewery five miles from the brewpub and inked a distribution agreement with Cavalier, a Cincinnati-based craft beer distributor, to sell throughout Ohio.

Less than two years later, Jackie O’s found themselves again at capacity. In 2015, they expanded once more, this time a massive blowout of their production facility, adding 120-barrel fermenters, a quality control lab and a dedicated space for souring. In 2016, they’ll likely hit the 14,000-barrel mark, with room to grow to 30,000 barrels annually.

Sustainably Crafted with a Purpose

Jackie O’s has seen remarkable growth, but it is a controlled growth guided by the principles established at the brewpub. Their motto encapsulates their business model: “Sustainably Crafted With Purpose.” As they expand, Art Oestrike and Brad Clark are making conscientious decisions about how to sustain that growth, both for the brewery and their community.

It is not surprising that Jackie O’s looks to companies like New Belgium and Patagonia as role models. Both companies have philanthropic bona fides, and both are certified B Corporations, a certification that sets “rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.” The standards required for B Corp certification guide Jackie O’s growth, and not surprisingly, the company is working towards this certification.

(READ: California Brewery Couple Faces the Fires Together)

There are obvious ways that Jackie O’s drives sustainability: they have their own CSA; they donate spent grains to local farmers; they invested in solar panels; they can their core offerings to offset their carbon footprint. But they also see sustainability through human resources lenses. In addition to the above, sustainability to Oestrike “means people and the ability to live and have a life in this impoverished area, and be happy and enjoy what they do.” Oestrike explains, “If we don’t take care of them, they’re not going to take care of us. And we’re not going to have this Sustainably Crafted With Purpose thing in a human sense, in a resource sense.”

This year, with 127 employees (64 FTEs), Jackie O’s will be one of the top ten employers in Athens County. Nearly all of the production brewery employees are full time, including their photographer, plumber and carpenter. This staff comes from the local area. Many are former Ohio University students who, upon graduation, looked for ways to stay in Athens. And many stay for the duration—four of five original employees are still with the brewery.

To retain talent, Oestrike and Clark empower individuals to advance within the company. When an employee comes on board at Jackie O’s, they are often hired for a specific growth track. “There’s another job above the one that we’re putting them in the position for, that is always in mind,” Clark explains. “There has to be [movement within the company] … we need to have those options so that people stay here.

(READ: What is the Independent Craft Brewer Seal?)

Employees also stay because Jackie O’s pays a living wage and health benefits, with additional benefits added as the brewery can support them. “What it all comes down to is, we have a lifestyle company,” Clark explains. “It’s not necessarily about profit. It’s about us having good jobs that are supporting us that we enjoy.”

Being an outstanding employer is just one way that Jackie O’s gives back to Athens. They also create opportunities with Ohio University, from working with business students on the B Corp certification process to conducting brew chemistry courses during the summers. When a fire broke out in 2014 that destroyed several buildings in the Athens business district, including part of the Jackie O’s kitchen, Oestrike was on the front lines helping the city recover. And, most importantly, through their business model, the brewery works to drive tourism and tax dollars to the impoverished county.

Driving People Into Athens and the Local Economy

Although Jackie O’s is widely available throughout Ohio, the majority of their limited release beers are sold at the production brewery. Taproom sales for breweries are more marginal, so direct sales help fund special projects and provide face-to-face contact with consumers. But the main reason Jackie O’s consciously funnels the majority of their rare releases through their Athens facilities is because doing so drives people to Athens to visit and participate in the local economy.

Aaron Spoores, state sales manager for Cavalier Distributing in Ohio, sees Jackie O’s as a major force for tourism in Athens. “Jackie O’s brings people to that city when there’s nothing else going on.” Art Oestrike agrees, explaining that, “We liked for years that the only place to get our beers was Athens, Ohio.” He adds, “That drives a lot of people through Athens.”

“The consumer is spending their money in Ohio and we’re bringing people in from outside of Ohio. It’s building and strengthening everything around us and within us.” ~ Brad Clark, Jackie O’s Brewer

The release of Champion Ground is a perfect example of this phenomenon. The 2016 limited release is a bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout made with coffee beans from Stauf’s, a Columbus, Ohio, roaster. Jackie O’s produced 700 cases, of which 460 were sold through the production brewery taproom and the brewpub. This approach drives people to spend money in Athens. “Even if they just come here,” Oestrike notes, “maybe they sleep here, maybe they just spend some money up at the brewpub, but they’ve tipped a couple of people along the way, they bought some gas, eaten dinner, bought a pair of sandals at the Import House, stayed the night at the OU Inn. Whatever it may be, that is money and sales tax generated for the area.”

Although taproom sales dominate the rare releases, Cavalier sells the majority of the core beers in about 3,500 accounts throughout Ohio. Cavalier was a natural fit for Jackie O’s, in that Cavalier’s core values align with a lot of Jackie O’s, especially “being a vibrant community partner” and “pride in doing the right thing in all things.” With Cavalier’s help, Jackie O’s is now available all over the Buckeye state, from local carry outs to chains like Kroger and Costco. There are approximately 1,600 Jackie O’s tap handles, including in venues like Ohio State University’s Horseshoe and the Cleveland Indians’ Progressive Field. Oestrike takes pride in never being more than a car ride away from servicing any of these accounts.

(LEARN: CraftBeer.com Beer 101 Online Course)

Winning at Home

It might be tempting for Jackie O’s to branch out beyond Ohio. Yet, Jackie O’s wants to support Ohio in the same ways that another role model, New Glarus, supports Wisconsin: to drive people and dollars to the local community in a sustainable way. By very conservative estimates, Jackie O’s generates $550-$600,000 annually in Ohio sales tax. This limited distribution model is the Jackie O’s motto writ large.

“Staying within the state is sustainable,” explains Clark. “There’s a reduced carbon footprint but there’s also keeping money within the state, whether it’s going to the distributor or the retailer, the consumer is spending their money in Ohio and we’re bringing people in from outside of Ohio. It’s building and strengthening everything around us and within us.”

Spoores agrees. “We always tell brewers to win at home,” he explains. With Jackie O’s, Spoores sees a strong foundation based on local roots that nourishes both the brewery and its community. “I look a Jackie O’s as an oak tree—those roots are deep in the earth, and they stick towards the river where there’s water. They really want to sink deep and grow tall.”

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