Bars, stop with the "House Beers". It's not 1998 anymore.

The fact that most BAs don't understand what you are trying to say means this IS a real problem. I didn't agree originally, but I do now. I always knew this was going on and am sure to ask what the beer really is; I'm blown away that others don't realize it.

 

The volume of being the 'house beer' and consequently selling more than they would maybe expect to (I think that is the reasoning though I can't say I agree with it in most cases). It does nothing for their brand because their name is not on the tap handle, or the menu.

 

If Joe's bar, Bill's brewery, (and Bob's distributorship) are all on the same page in terms of awareness & permission (no deception) to re-brand to Bill's Pale Ale to Joe's Pale Ale- who cares?

In the ideal case, craft beer is on a handle, and a patron (like yourself, & other BA's that may be ruffled by this) with the due diligence to ask a server (or read a menu) to determine what the beer's origin is, will do so. Joe's long term or craft-savvy customers obviously are aware there isn't a brewing operation going on in the back parking lot.

Patrons will ask Joe what the scoop is on the beer, directing them toward Bill's (presumably local) brewery and sales via Bob's; IMO everyone wins. One may argue they 'shouldn't have to ask' for the beer's origin. Perhaps.
Then again, I don't like having to ask for an un-frosted mug, but...

 

How, exactly, are you just casually walking into the cooler of a bar?

Edit: Ahhh, beer sales. That makes sense.

 

He sells brew, thus providing access, would be my guess.

 

What the OP is referring to is also called "rebadging".
Happens more in the UK, I think. For example, many supermarket own-brands (Aldi, M&S) are just a brewery's existing beer with a different label.

Totally different animal from contract brewing:
It's the difference having a house built to your blueprints vs. just buying a townhouse and then repainting it.

 

Not every contract brewing arrangement involves "renting space" (aka an "alternating proprietorship" in TTB-ese) nor does every contract "brewery" marketing company supply the contractor brewery with their own recipe, or have a brewer/employee on site, etc. "Contract brewing" has evolved into a casually-used broad term, that includes even the private/store brands carried by retail chains (Trader Joe's, Costco, etc) where besides recipe approval, the label owner does very little besides writing a check. (The Oxford Companion to Beer has a thorough entry on it- "Contract Brewing").

I agree that what the OP is talking about shouldn't be considered "contract brewing" if it's simply a re-labeled regular beer or a beer brewed by a brewery specifically to supply multiple bars. I had always thought that to sell such a beer under a different name, the bar would have to get permission from the brewer and state ABC approval. (Lots of states have laws about tap handles having the correct name of the product on it, etc).

I know in NJ for a time Magic Hat's distributor was supplying a beer called "Single Chair" to numerous bars, rebranded as the house beer. I do feel that any bar that does that should be open and honest when asked, "So, who brews this for you?" (and maybe even required to do so) but that it not always the case. It was the couple of times I ran into to it on tap.

 

Speaking of FW, the first time I ate at lazy dog I ordered a flight of their "lazy dog brews" and was blown away by the pale ale I had. Tasted super fresh, with tropical fruits climbing out of the glass!!! The other 5 beers on the flight were forgettable at best. Come to find out some months later the beer I flipped out about that night was none other than "union jack"! What's kinda sad to me now is that that was THE BEST tasting union jack ever...and all it was that night was the lazy dog house pale ale...they weren't even categorizing it right.

 

If I didn't know what the house beer was, I doubt I'm ordering it.

 

get a real gripe. this is absurd. this hurts no one. especially you and likely all of us

 

Every time I've seen this it usually goes like this:

What's Bob's Bar Pale Ale?

It's a Pale that Dave's Brewing makes for us.

Now I've been to Dave's Brewing and it tastes exactly the same as Dave's Pale Ale.

If the BREWERY want to roll that way, why should I care or why should I blame the bar? It's not like the bar forced the brewery to do so and, round here at least it's illegal to simply rebadge without the agreement and yes - things like that are checked. Least they were when I was working in bars.

 

This clearly says contract brewing to me:

And I have to agree with everyone who is saying that it isn't such a crime, especially if you know who is contracting the beer.

 

Some breweries will make a beer exclusively for your establishment. I know Chatham brewery does this for al of the NYC Dive Bar locations. If that's the case I am fine with having house beer. If you are just buying a keg of Killian's and calling it your *insert bar name here* Irish red then shame on you.

 

Our Whole Foods here gets a special brew made for them by a local brewery, which I think is pretty awesome...but taking a random beer and slapping your own tap handle and name on it and selling it as the house beer? Not cool. Have you contacted the brewery and told them they were doing this?

 

Huber and Dubuque Star used to do it all the time here in the Midwest back in the mid to late 80s. Laws may have changed since then, who knows?

I would see the likes of "Butthead Beer" at Bears Star Kevin Butler's bar and know it was Huber's plain ol' lager. Or a local pizza joint that had their own label from Dubuque that tasted just like Dubuque Star. And yeah, the bar tenders always told me where it was from or the bottle always had the brewery's address on it.

Not sure how contract brewing works today, but what about all the breweries re-labeling beer for Trader Joe's?

 

While some of the TJ beers seem to be just "relabeled" beers from a brewery, some are apparently separate TJ recipes. I'd say private label "store brand" bottled beers, labeled with the correct city name even using a dba is a form of contract brewing - and actually pre-dates the faux "brewery company"/beer marketing company model made popular in the craft era by Boston Beer, Olde New York/New Amsterdam and Pete's Wicked.

See, for example Carl Conrad's Budweiser brewed by Anhueser-Busch, or the scores of supermarket brands over the years (Safeway's Brown Derby one of the longest lived and having the most brewers over the years) or those beers that once existed as draught-only beers from a number of classic old bars - McSorley's and... I'm blanking on the others- one in Boston* and a one in Chicago (Berghoff brewed by Huber before they lost Augsburger?), too.

OTOH, in the OP's case where he claims to have gone into a cooler and found the keg with a label that said "some brewery's regular beer" rather than "Joe's Bar Brown/Silly name" is a slightly different business deal. Did the bar truly contract with the brewery to make that beer?

So, while it may be "contract" - is it "brewing" - since the beer is already brewed, and often offered to numerous other on-premise retailers?

* EDIT- Jacob Wirth!

 

Firestone Walker brews the Mission St. line for Trader Joe's with separate recipes, and has won GABF medals for the Mission Pale Ale IIRC.

 

One of the well known Ann Arbor multitaps, Ashley's, is having a 30 tap take over by Bells today. Bells brewed a special beer for this, as it is the 30th anniversary for Ashley's, and gave it the name "Ashley's 30th Anniversary Ale".

Terrible practice, a brewery making a special beer for a prime account.