Rooted: Commercial Brewers and Their Homebrewing Partners

The symbiosis between pro brewers and homebrewers runs deep—both rely on the other to continue to grow and survive. Instead of viewing the homebrewer as competition, pro brewers are happy to lend a helping hand in several ways.

QUESTION: WHEN WAS THE

last time you saw a big-box soda company with a “locked-in-a-vault” recipe host an event where you get to come to the factory, ask questions about how it’s made, walk out with the ingredients to make it, a copy of the recipe, and advice on how to produce an identical version of it? Answer: Never. You might assume that homebrewers and commercial brewers would be natural enemies. After all, homebrewers produce the very thing commercial brewers want to sell to them, and many homebrewers give their beer to friends and family, further undermining the craft market. Homebrewers even have the gall to attempt to “clone” commercial beers.

The reality, however, is precisely the opposite. Homebrewers enjoy robust support from professional brewers for at least one simple reason: many pro brewers developed their love of brewing in garages—not in a commercial brewery. Any number of famous names in brewing began their careers on a propane floor burner: Sam Calagione at Dogfish Head (Milton, Delaware), Greg Koch at Stone Brewing (Escondido, California), Jamil Zainasheff at Heretic (Fairfield, California), and thousands of others who remember standing on the other side of the tap handles.

These “failed homebrewers” (as I like to call them) maintain their affinity for homebrewers because homebrewers are their best customers and biggest advocates. Strange as it might sound, we homebrewers end up buying a lot of beer, and we’re also a very loyal crowd who believe in the importance of local, small, and community-oriented businesses. The partnership between pro and homebrewers is deep and broad, and many pros enthusiastically share their knowledge, ingredients, and community support.

Access

One of the most visible ways pro brewers engage with homebrewers is by offering themselves and their breweries to homebrewers. Several offer open-house programs that invite the public to assist in the brewing and packaging process. Others participate in “meet-the-brewer” events, either at their own breweries or at locations that serve and sell their products. Some are even crazy enough to give away or publish their recipes to homebrewers.

The open-house and “brewer-for-a-day” programs are a dream come true for homebrewers. Many aspire to operate their own brewery one day, and these programs provide a venue to build familiarity with the everyday practice of professional brewing. Programs like these also provide homebrewers access to some of the biggest and shiniest toys in the brewing world. The benefit to the brewery is free labor—and who doesn’t want more of that? More importantly, though, is the level of identification that these homebrewers develop with the brewery. You can bet they’ll be telling their friends to buy the beer, since “I helped make it!”

Homebrewers might be, conversely, surprised at how modest the operations of brands with global reputations are: I distinctly remember taking a private tour of Allagash in Portland, Maine, and viewing their pilot system (a 10-gallon rig covered in a sheet and rolled underneath a staircase for safekeeping) in a small room where employees were hand-labeling an upcoming barrel release.

In that same vein, “meet-the-brewer” events provide an opportunity for homebrewers to pick the brain of someone whose livelihood depends on brewing well. Not only can homebrewers benefit from hearing the thought processes of the pros—their inspirations, their worries, their goals—but they also get to seek out answers, tips, and tricks of a technical nature. Brewing is part art and part science, and pros have a strong incentive to get both right. The alternative is gallons