 |
|
|
VOLUME 1 | ISSUE 7 |
|
|
Cover Story |
|
|
MICRO BREW'S - HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU. |
|
|
by Bill Ellison |
|
|
You're about to embark on a journey. A journey into a wonderful world filled with ales and lagers, hops and yeast. A journey into the world inhabited by an elite micro-beer known to a select group…call them beer aficionados, if you will. The type of people who prefer the taste of a top brewed specialty ale or the robust flavor of a bottom brewed kick-ass lager. The type of people that buy their beer to consume and enjoy, not rent and piss like the spiked water that most domestic beers embody. The mass-produced common macro-beer whose names are pounded into the unsuspecting public's fragile eggshell minds through TV, radio, magazines, and billboards. Drinking that type of beer is like making love in a canoe...fucking close to water. We're going to find out about real beer. Beer with guts, flavor, and the alcohol level necessary to communicate on the same level with The Creator. I'm talking about Three Floyd's Beer and I'm talking with John Freyer, one of the original owners of the Three Floyd's Brewery. I first met John when he contacted me, through my ad in The Tap, to illustrate t-shirts for the antique baseball league that that he's involved with. Then I found out that we had something in common besides baseball…beer. Since my cartoon Interstellar Guano appears in The Tap, and John is involved with a mighty tasty micro-beer, I thought that I'd have a go at writing an article about the business. I mean, what the hell. I'm not getting paid for it so the budget isn't in peril. Besides, I might learn something. John agreed and we met at a loud restaurant on Southport to discuss the micro-brew industry over lunch. I learned the first rule of conducting an interview in a restaurant with a tape recorder. Go to a quiet restaurant. Although there weren't many customers in the joint, the music was loud enough to be on the verge of annoying. Especially when I'm recording an interview. This wouldn't be bad if I was, say, 20 years younger and drunk. Maybe I should just get drunk for the next interview I conduct. The first thing we did was picking out a table away from the other customers, which consisted mainly of four salesmen talking way too loud. They were probably drunk. Come to think of it, John and I were the only sober ones in the place, and I was the one who walked in carrying a six-pack of beer. Three Floyd's beer, but more of that later. I set the beer that John had graciously given me on the floor next to our high top table by the window and asked our waitress how much for a pack of cigarettes. After finding out their price was six dollars I excused myself to go the convenience store down the street. They charged me $5.40. I only saved sixty cents, and walking is healthy, but paying six bucks for a pack is absurd. Quit? I'd rather roll my own. I borrowed two packs of matches to put under the table legs so that it would stop rocking. My coffee was poured, John got a soda, my cigarette was lit, our sandwiches ordered, and I was now ready to find out about Three Floyds beer, the history of beer in the United States and the micro brew industry itself. Bill: So John, let's start out with how you got involved with Three Floyd's. John: I'm one of the original owners of Three Floyd's. Well, not one of the original owners, but very early on. I was with them on a full time basis since, what was it, '98... at this point I handle the sales and marketing. Bill: When did Three Floyd's start? John: It started in November of '96. I came on board in January of '98, so it was about a year after they started. Other than Nick Floyd, I'm still there. Nick's one of the last original employee's. Bill: So it was actually named after humans. John: Yeah, Mike Floyd, Nick Floyd and Simon Floyd. That's how they started off. A father and two sons'. That's the Three Floyd's. I knew Nick from years ago when I used to distribute a beer called Golden Prairie, which was a local micro-brew. It was probably one of the first micros on the market. Nick was an assistant brewer at Golden Prairie and we just kind of became friends and hung out. Bill: What's the history of micro brewed beer? Up until the 80's all you could get other than the usual domestics were Heineken, St. Pauli Girl and Becks. John: Don't forget Lowenbrau. I swear, to impress your girlfriend you'd bring her a Lowenbrau, back in the day. The microbreweries started happening in California around '83. Sierra Nevada was really one of the first micro-beers to come out, although Anchor Steam was there before then. It took a long time for it to get here. Like any other west coast beer it took about five years. Bill: What brought about micro-brews in the 80's and not before? John: There were changes in the law's back then. Particularly for the brewpubs. Those got changed in the late 70's and people started saying: "Hey, you mean I can make my own beer at home?" That's what really started it. Plus the fact that there weren't many breweries left. Big breweries were buying out little breweries, like the big fish eating the little fish. I think there were about 27 breweries left in the whole country right before the micro revolution came. Bill: So how do you start a microbrewery? John: It's a tough industry to get into. I've seen several good people fail that had fantastic business plans and lot's of money. It's a very competitive thing, like anything else. You don't think you're competing with Budweiser, but you are. Five years ago you wouldn't think that way, but you're buying for a person's consumption so it really hurts your ability to get business without having to... Bill: ...shell out over a million bucks for an ad during the Superbowl. John: Yeah, right. That type of stuff. The most difficult part of a microbreweries business is getting out the initial sampling. Getting the people to try it. Having the beer tastings. Then if the beer is good enough the people will go seek it out. I've seen breweries come in with marketing concepts saying, "We're going to do this", or "We're going to do that" and all when it comes down to it the beer sucks. Then they're scratching their heads saying "How come this didn't work?" It takes a lot more than just putting something in a bottle and assuming that it will sell. Right now we've got a shakeout of what happened in the '90's, where everybody in the world had a brewery and wanted to be in six packs and they all wanted to be in Chicago at the same time. It's like a tic. It grew and grew and grew until it finally popped and the aftermath now is that when you do have quality beer consumption they're all mostly regionals and more imports and things like that. The little brewer in a small town shouldn't be in the Chicago market because it's a crowded market. A lot of micro breweries have come to Chicago and have real high expectations because there's seven million people here, but the reality is that it's not a specialty market as good as the west coast or Boston. Most people here drink Miller or Bud. At least my friends do. Bill: How you think it's more advantageous for a micro-beer to get a name for itself? To advertise first, or to first get the beer out in front of the consumer? John: I'd rather spend money on tasting's and festivals. For me to have my stuff work I need people to sample it. To take their first sip of Alpha King and go "Wow, I've never had anything like that beer before." Those are the reactions that we want from people. At this point I think people have misconceptions about microbreweries. It's like anything else. It was such a fad in the '90's and everyone got kind of burnt out on it. Even myself. I've bought a six-pack for seven bucks, brought it home and it tastes like crap. I've just wasted seven bucks. You've got to save it for your brother-in-law to come over and be like "Oh yeah, I've got something special for ya'." Bill: I used to teach bartending and we had a list of beer terminology with the beer falling under Ale, Bock, Lager, Malt Liquor, Pilsner, Porter and Stout. Do you consider those categories or styles of beer? John: There are two categories and everything essentially comes off of that. Ale and Lager. Ale's are top fermented; Lager's are bottom fermented. Porter and Stout would fall under the auspices of Ale, whereas in the Lager category you'd find Bock beer and dark lagers. A Weiss is actually Ale, so it's a top fermented beer. A lot of people think it's a Lager but it's actually Ale. Bill: Stupid fools. John: Of all the world's styles there are ten times more ales produced than there are lagers but the lagers take up ninety percent of the world's consumption. I have a theory on that, if you'd like to hear my theory... Bill: Of course. John: If you look at the history of the United States, English settled the east coast in the sixteen and seventeen hundreds and they made Ale. The Midwest...Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, were mostly settled by Europeans. The kinds of beer that they liked to make were lagers and pilsners. The west coast didn't have any refrigeration in the 1890's so the only type of beer that they could make out there was steamed beer. It would be brewed and left out over night, bottled up and it would look like steam coming off a keg. You're from Michigan so you were probably weaned on Stroh's. I'm from here so I was weaned on Schlitz, Pabst, Dreweries…beer like that. It's the style of beer that we all grew up on that we get used to. Golden in color, kind of sweet. So the people in Chicago still drink Old Style, Miller and Bud. The corn lager that you grew up with. So the outside brewers that come here with a highly hopped beer, or the regular pale ale, have a hard time taking a foothold here. First of all, Chicagoans aren't real big ale drinkers and second of all there's over a hundred different ales out there. Waitress: [Brings food] Can I get you anything else? Bill: More coffee, please. John: I'm okay. [Waitress cleans ashtray, then exits] Bill: How many beers does Three Floyd's have? John: Right now it's about sixteen. We're looking at new beer all the time. Nick Floyd is a creative brewer. He'll get a wild hair and be like "I want to make a Lambic" so he'll go and make it. Bill: So he comes up with all of the recipes? John: He's got a real good head brewer. Nick does more than just brew. He's got a head brewer, Jim Cidak, and he's one of the best microbrewers that I've ever met. He's meticulous. A true artisan. Beer is the kind of thing you can't rush. There's no shortcut. Particularly if you want to maintain a consistent quality level. Cidak's all about that. We hired him in May of last year, I don't know. Time gets away from me. It was either May of last year or May of the year before. Bill: Who was your head brewer before? John: Nick Floyd was. Bill: So it still stayed in the family when Jim came on? John: As time goes on everyone gets different responsibilities. Nick has to do a lot of stuff. We're doing tours out there. Nick handles it all. A lot of the marketing, planning, development, and making speeches. That's why we have Jim on board, to kind of take over the brewing, which leaves Nick to help do other things. Bill: Out of your sixteen beers, how many are on tap? John: All but two. Bill: That's good. When I'm in a bar and want to know the beer selection, the tap handles come in handy. If I want to try a new beer, a cool looking handle really helps. John: It's funny you should mention that. I don't know if you've ever seen our handles but we've got really crazy ones, and that's one reason we've designed them to be like that. I went to Sheffield's one time after a Cubs game. I'm sitting there, minding my own business. People keep on coming up after a Cubs game "What's on that blue handle?" It's the only blue handle up there. Everything else was like, white, red, and wood. One girl comes up and orders what's on the blue handle. "I'll take one of those." I asked; "Why did you buy that beer. Have you ever had Three Floyd's before?" "No, this is my first time. I like the blue handle." So what starts going on in the back of my head is how people are color conscious for one, and then you start talking to people about what beer they like. It's like, the colors. The way it looks. So with our handles it's basically sales persuasion without being there. Bill: Is it the same thing with the label when they're looking at it on the shelf? John: Right. That's why we design the packaging the way we do. A lot of people think it's ugly, or cryptic, whatever, but people notice it on the shelf. The whole idea is to have someone walk over to your six-pack. Bill: How many stores and bars is Three Floyd's carried in Chicago? John: Tons. Bill: Gobs and gobs? John: We're everywhere. Out in the suburbs it's more high spotted. Liquor chains, that type of stuff. You know, good beer bars, good beer restaurants. In the city I would say that we're between the river and Irving Park and Western to the Lake. About fifty percent of our sales come out of that area. Then Indianapolis is really picking up for us. We've got a really good distributor down there. They're really running with it. Bill: How long does it take to make beer? John: Lagers take much longer than ales. That's one reason that we don't release many lagers. It takes up too much tank time and when you've only got three tanks you want to keep turning them over. For us to make money, the faster you have to turn these tanks over. We're in a mode now that as soon as these beers get kegged they're out the door by the next week. It helps us maintain freshness. With the Octoberfest, we kegged it around the first week in September. We sponsored an October fest out in Munster. We went through half the beer, something like forty kegs, and that's all I've got. So it turns over pretty quickly. A lot of the batches, especially the specialty stuff, we make one batch up so when it's gone - it's gone. You missed it so you've missed it. Particularly last year we had the Alpha Klaus. It's our English Porter and we make it with English chocolates and Mexican molasses and it went like gangbusters. People tried it and said "We've gotta' have more." Every place that had it blew through a keg of it in a day or two and we only made twenty kegs of it so by the time Thanksgiving came around we had people yelling at us "You've gotta' have more of that" and we were like "We only made one batch" so this year... Bill: ...you're making two. John: Yeah, this year we'll make two batches. Bill: You've told us how long it takes to ferment. How long does it keep on the shelf while you're waiting for you brother-in-law to come over? John: A long time. Our kegs are probably good for six months to a year. The heavier beers will last longer. Our shelf life, I'm confident in saying, is a good year. Also it's the amount of hops. Hops act as a preservative, and we have so many hops in our beers. Of course, like anything else, you want to drink the beer fresher, like when it comes out. Bill: I don't drink to get messed up. I drink for the flavor. Of course, the more I like the flavor, the more messed up I get. |
|
|
|
John: A good beer consumer…you just hit the nail on the head. You're not drinking to get drunk. People drinking Three Floyd's aren't the type of people who drink to get drunk. They're not going to drink a case of beer. They're going to drink a pint with lunch, have a glass with friends. It's so funny; I was having almost the exact same conversation yesterday. I was asked, "Why do you feel that micro-brews aren't mass consumed like macro-brews?" I just take a snapshot of my own life. The friend's that I have and the friend's that I grew up with. I'm a south-sider. You're either a Bud drinker or you're a Miller drinker. There's no two ways about it. Guys who drink Bud or Miller all the time. It always hit me curiously. Everyone's reasoning behind drinking Miller or Bud is the fact that they could drink a case of it. "If I'm drinking all day, I'm drinking Miller because I know I can drink a case."Whereas if you drank a six-pack of Alpha King, you'd have a real good buzz going on. I think its familiarity. They know their limits. "When I drink 18 cans of Miller I get this much drunk."I've been at parties |
|
drinking Three Floyd's and somebody will be "Hey this stuff taste's pretty good" then after three or four beers they're annihilated. They're used to drinking Miller Lite and they're used to drinking them fast. One time I was at Maple Tree Inn with my brother-in- law, who's turned into a good beer consumer, and we were drinking a Behemoth Barleywine, which unless you knew how high in alcohol it was you'd be like "Wow, this is great" and pound it down. He probably threw down 4 pints of Barleywine, which is 10% alcohol, in about an hour. He stood up from the barstool, went to go to the bathroom and bam. He fell flat on his face. Bill: So what lies in the future for Three Floyd's? John: Part of our future is that we're going to put in a 22oz bottling line. We're going to start releasing some of our seasonal, and the Dreadnaught IPA won an award so that's going to be our first product in a bottle. We're going to be doing a lot of promotion and marketing the brewery itself. Having tours, we've been doing a lot of promotion on our website at www.threefloyds.com or www.3floyds.com. Bill: So if someone wants to take a tour of the brewery where should they go? John: It's at 9750 Indiana Parkway in Munster, Indiana. 888-266-0294. It's all on the website along with a map. Well there you go. Pick up a Three Floyd's. See how it tastes then go and see how it's made. Let someone else be the designated driver. |
|
|
©Copyright 2003, Tap Magazine, Inc., All rights reserved. |
|
