To be a brewhouse, you must...

I've often wanted to throw the bullshit flag on places referring to themselves as a brewhouse that didn't actually brew. They should call themselves taphouse and be done with it.

 

Po-TAY-toe, po-TAH-toe. The one that bugs me is "brewery" or "brewing" when the place patently does not brew. But a "brew house" can get a pass if they're legit in my book. Still, kinda iffy.

 

There used to be two offenders of this in NJ - one disappeared quickly - The Cellar Lounge & Microbrew (on their now-defunct website they called it "....Microbrewery" ) but Wildwood's Goodnight Irene's (not a) Brew Pub is still around.

 

On a related note, can you call yourself a brewery if you're simply fermenting concentrated wort from over seas like this new place in Portland?

http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2015/08/1-pints-at-the-new-splash-bar-brewery-in-old-town.html

 

Yes, if you go by Randy Mosher in his book Tasting Beer, "Brewers make wort, not beer. Yeast makes beer."

 

..think like a brewhouse?

 

Yes, but as the Randy Mosher quote stated above "Brewers make wort, Yeast makes beer", Ferment on premise isn't brewing but its still making beer.

In my opinion a brewery/brew house/brew haus needs to have the physical equipment ( or rent in the form of a tenant brewer or gypsy or even contract).*

*The justification for calling them a brew house could be to gain working capital to purchase the needed equipment without the hassle of rebranding.