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

One of our (very good) locals (a pizza/burger place with 20-25-odd taps), has a 'house' Pils, Dry Stout, and Belgian Dubbel. They're all from breweries within our state, and this particular establishment says 'brewed by ______' underneath each of the offerings. Granted, these are brews that are regularly brewed (although one is tap-only and rarely available in our area), but I think the fact that these are 'house' beers (i.e. always on tap, well-priced, and fresh) is just fine, AS LONG AS they acknowledge where they're coming from. Just my .02

 

No it isnt. In "true" contract brewing, the label on the keg would be the contract name: "Wicked Awesome Ale brewed by John's Wicked Awesome Brewery [Wilkes-Barre, PA]"

In this case, the label says Local Pale Ale, but the tap handle says "Wicked Awesome".

 

Not true at all. I run many handles of house beer and was approached by a prominent microbrewery in Denver about doing so. It is a former seasonal, now one off, only available to us and is branded with their logo acknowledging they brewed it. Speaking for every brewery and bar, now that is a selfish act that is rooted in a swollen ego.

Also, I have never had a brewery rep let themselves into one of my coolers; there is no reason to. Your beer is distributed by Coors. Coors has sales reps to sale Coors portfolio which your beers are in. Coors has draft techs and contracted line cleaners to service the hardware your beer is poured from. I have had reps from your brewery stop by my Pubs and never, and I mean NEVER did they walk behind the bar or in the cooler.

 

It would have been more amusing if you had finished 1st and unranked.

I did a blind tasting of four beers for some friends, only it was really only 3, two of the samples being the same thing. In most cases, they scored similarly, but one person actually ranked it 1st and 4th.

 

A place near me does something similar, except they dont have the brewed by, but instead the city its from. But as they are all local, its easy to figure out whose beer it is (for some people).

 

Not sure what you're addressing, but I was talking about the OP's communication of whether or not the brewery knew the bar was re-labelling the beer with a "custom" tap-handle. My guess is, since they were contracting they knew full well.

As has been pointed out, it would not be terribly legal to add your own tap handle without previous "consent."

As to what is on the keg opposed to the tap handle, I imagine that can run all over -- I also wonder just how the OP was allowed into the cooler?

 

michelob used to do that with their amber. I don't see it as much now but for a while every local bar had their 'own' beer on tap and when asked they would tell you michelob brewed it just for them. Just another sales gimmick from AB.

 

[quote="steveh, post: 923697, member: 3211"

As to what is on the keg opposed to the tap handle, I imagine that can run all over[/quote]

Not really, the TTB controls that pretty tightly.

Keg labels require approval just like bottle labels. So a contract brewed keg label will identify the beer in the same way that a contract bottle does. In other words, unless you look at fine details, it will look like just another brewery/brand label. Usually that detail is the location, which in some cases will clue you in as to what brewery made the beer.

 

For the keg to come in "private branded" the brewery has to submit the label artwork and name for approval to the feds. The distributor then has to set up a SKU in the warehouse for said product and sell it only as the private brand. So even if the beer is being sold as A & B (private) and the distributor runs out of A, they cannot sell B as A despite being the same beer. So basically it might be the same recipe but the brewer/distributor/retailer handles it as its own entity. This is costly, time consuming and a nuisance to the distributor (additional SKU/space in warehouse where space is at a premium) so most breweries consent to brand X being re-branded and sold as brand Y at bar Z.

As far as the reason the OP was in the cooler? I have the same question/doubt.

 

Understood -- what about the tap handle?

The point is, the bar didn't just order a keg of Bubba's Pale Ale and slap their own handle on it, as some allude. It was all set up between the bar and the brewery ahead of time.

 

I understand this, I'm a graphic artist who has set such labels up for a brew-pub that was having their beers contracted for bottling at a local micro. But as I've been trying to make clear, the bar in question (more than likely) did not take some home-made tap handle and throw it on the line for a known brand of beer -- that would be illegal.

 

and I'm agreeing with everything you've said... I didn't "like" your post to disagree with you. Not sure where the disconnect was.

 

Capital does this often in this area. We've been offered it many times, and I've always said no. However if another local brewer approached me, asked me to write a recipe, come to their brewhouse, brew the beer with them, I'd have no problem doing a "collaborwtion" with said brewer. And call it such.

 

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a bartender at Captain Seaweed's in Providence years ago. If you're a beer geek don't go. It's a dive bar. It's not a fake dive bar, that just looks crappy but has $9 bourbons. It's an actual dive bar with people who work for a living that gamble, do drugs and frequent prostitutes. And I love it. Anyway, here was the conversation:

Me: Hey man, what's the "Captain Seaweed's Lager."
Bartender: "It's $1."
Me: "But what beer is it?"
Bartender: "It's Captain Seaweed's Lager."
Me: "Yeah, but what is it?"
Bartender: "Natty Light."
Me: "I'll take one."

Oh and no "custom handle." It was just a piece of paper wrapped (poorly) around the top handle with "Captain Seaweed's Lager" written in sharpie.

 

I dunno, seems to me that its pretty obvious when a place is brewing their own beer on site. I mean, if there is no equipment and they sell house beers.. just don't buy it. It's like when something is on the menu with no price. Your just taking a gamble and more times than not, you'll lose.

 

Of course. And I dont agree with the OP either. Im not sure I entirely disagree either, there is a lot of "it depends" on this one for me.

Im trying to distinguish between house brand and contract brewed. That is my point, some seem to be using the terms wrong, just like you are correcting those that are alluding to the bar doing it alone.

 

Seems like more people will order a pub's "house beer" than not, hence why they do this practice. For me, I would be more likely to order a Fat Head's, Head Hunter IPA off of the menu, than a "Smitty's Ale-House IPA" but it seems like Smitty's Ale House thinks they can sell more Head Hunter by calling it their house beer, so that's what they do (in this hypothetical scenario)

In addition, it probably gives the pub a little more prestige, if people think they offer some sort of unique product.

 

I think what he is referring to is stuff like this:https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/beer/hilltop-hound-ale/26696/ this beer is often found in WI as an establishments "house beer".

 

There's a pizza place near me called Emma's that has a house beer called Ron's special brew or Ron's whacky brew (the theme of the place is how whacky and crazy the owner Ron Emma is), but it is only PBR with their handle. The waitress I had was nice enough to tells us that before I ordered it.