Pintley Blog

Bringing Australian Beer to the US: Interview with Mountain Goat

Rich — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:51:03 +0000

A few months ago, we were introduced to a brewery from halfway across the world just as they were entering the US market. I hadn’t really spent much time thinking about craft beer in Australia…it just seemed like one of those places that didn’t “get it” when it came to craft beer, and at first, I worried that the beer would have a tough time competing against so many of the high quality US craft beers. Man, was I wrong. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dave Bonighton, Chief Brewer and Co-Founder of Mountain Goat, as well as trying their first two beers for the US: The Australian Pale Ale, and the Hightail Ale.

Rich: So what’s the story? What got you guys interested in starting a brewery, and what was it like starting out?

Dave: Two Goats, plenty of beer, no money. That’s were it started. My business partner Cam & I discovered a love of craft beer in Canada & the US respectively back in the early 90′s. There was just no craft beer in Australia at the time, so we decided to give it a crack and do it ourselves. For the first couple of years I swear we were the only ones drinking the beer, cause whenever a bar re-ordered, we’d been in the night before! Genius sales strategy, if a little expensive. So it was really hard starting out in a town that didn’t even know what craft beer was, let alone what an IPA, Hefeweizen or Porter was. But we persevered, and we’re still here today, 15 years on…

Rich: That sounds like a lot of US breweries’ stories, too. But we Americans know very little about the craft beer scene over in Australia. What’s it like?

Dave: It’s really in its infancy but taking off quickly, with breweries popping up all the time. The craft segment is only around 2% of the market, but is the only growing segment of the beer market, so people are starting to pay attention to it. We can’t believe it’s taken this long. But at the end of the day the market is dominated by the dreaded yellow, fizzy lager…

Rich: Again – that sounds a lot like where the US craft beer market was 10 years ago. So… what inspired you to come stateside if things are starting to pick up down under? And what are you hoping to bring us that we haven’t seen yet?

Dave: Well, the States inspired us to begin with. Seems natural we should come back and join the party! For something new, we’re using Australian Hops, brewed with Australian Malt and water. The Galaxy hop is relatively new variety coming out of Tasmania, we happen to love its tropical fruit aromas and flavors… but there’s more to come. Stay tuned.

And I have to agree with Dave. Their beer is actually pretty different than a lot of what we see over here today, and they really know how to use those Galaxy hops well. There are a few beers here brewed with Galaxy, but I don’t think we quite have the mastery over them yet. But, when I tried the Australian Pale Ale, I was completely blown away. It may be bold to say, but the first beer it reminded me of was the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, with a sweetness akin to the 120 Minute. It has tons of citrus flavors (Citra hops) and a subtle, but somehow different bitterness, which I can only imagine is due to the Galaxy hops. Do I taste passionfruit in there, too? Why yes! I actually feel like I could offer this beer to any serious hop lover and expect a wide-eyed “WOW” in response. It’s not an enamel removing IPA, but it is a big, balanced, masterfully-brewed, hop-focused beer.

The Hightail Ale has also been met with a lot of positivity here. It’s about as amber as an Amber Ale gets – huge, sweet toffee aroma, caramel and toffee flavors at first, with a very roasty aftertaste. The head sticks around for the entire time, endlessly releasing the aroma. For me, that was my favorite part.

After talking to Dave, and trying the beer, it seems they’re in a pretty similar place over there in Australia. New breweries are popping up, and some of them really, really know how to make some fantastic beer, but they’ve got the same problems that we do, too. When I asked Dave about Fosters, he said that all the major beer brands over there are just like ours - low bitterness, low malt, low character beer that’s designed for repeated, unchallenging drinkability. Some Pintley members near LA also had a chance to try some of the beer and meet Dave, and apparently it was well received: They kicked all the kegs, and I got a few emails thanking Pintley for inviting them to the event! That’s a pretty good sign, to me!

Craft Brewers are building their niche just the same around the world as they are here, and its great to see that more brewers are being inspired by the US, and are looking to share their beer with us. We must be doing something right.

Canning the Future: A Look Inside the Canning Process with Crown

Tim — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:48:53 +0000

Crown Holdings is one of the oldest surviving supporters of the beer industry. William Painter founded Crown Cork & Seal Company in 1892 to monetize patents for his new invention—the crown bottle cap for carbonated beverages. Within a decade, Painter had invented several devices that increased the speed and ease of sealing bottles with crown caps, including a foot-powered crowner device for bottlers.

Today, Crown is an $8 billion dollar company operating 154 plans in 42 countries. While their focus has shifted somewhat—they now manufacture one out of every five beverage cans used in the world—they still produce crown caps. So you can imagine my excitement when I got a chance to sit down with two of Crown’s top executives to learn about the canning process.

Jan Dunphy (Director of Sales) and Andy Navarro (Director of Customer Technical Services) took time out of their busy schedule at the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego to share how they’re helping Craft Brewers convert to cans with solutions that fit the craft community’s size, style, and budget.

Working with Craft
Today Crown works with nearly 100 Craft Breweries throughout the country, including Stevens Point, Sly Fox, and Wachusett. But what’s impressive about Crown isn’t the number of small breweries they work with, but the level of involvement they have in the process and the changes they’ve made to their business in order to accommodate the needs of Craft Brewers.

While working with cans is more efficient from both a cost and environmental perspective on a long-term basis, the conversion does take some getting used to noted Navarro. Understanding the differences in format—cans have a larger printable surface area than standard bottle labels—and the printing process itself is critical to the success of the converting from bottles. ”The biggest piece of the puzzle that craft brewers need to understand is the artwork process,” said Dunphy, “we try to walk Craft Brewers through that process and make it as easy as possible.” The process of ordering cans with new artwork takes about six to eight weeks, though Crown works closely with their brewery customers to ensure that process happens as efficiently as possible.

Similarly, Crown is working hard to decrease the minimum batch size that Craft Brewers need to order. While most can manufacturers have minimum order sizes akin to multiple truckloads, Crown has scaled that requirement to meet small brewers’ sizes and budgets. “We can easily do less than a truckload,” said Navarro, “it’s a 10-pallet minimum run and we also do half-pallets since some of our customers have told us that half-pallets are easier to work with.”

Sustainability
When I asked them what else they wanted brewers and drinkers to know about the canning process, both Dunphy and Navarro were quick to emphasize the sustainability of cans compared to bottles. Craft Brewers who can have long touted the sustainability and efficiency of working with cans compared to bottles. Anyone who pays attention to this industry knows that cans weigh less and that, over the long term, that decrease in weight reduces fuel costs significantly.

What most people don’t know, however, is just how sustainable cans are from a recycling standpoint. “The can that you’re drinking today can return to the shelf as another can in as little as 60 days” said Navarro. In fact, aluminum recycling is so efficient that it saves 95% of the energy needed for primary production. Perhaps most important, aluminum is 100% recyclable, meaning that the metal can be continuously reused with no degradation to the materials.

What’s Next?

When we talked about Crown’s strategy for working with Craft Brewers and the next steps they planned to take, it was clear that they understood the community culture just as well as they understood the technical aspects of canning. ”We’ve decided to take the smaller orders, to work more closely with the brewers throughout the process, and we’re seeing how we can help them grown and get there with them” said Navarro. ”Personally, I love the enthusiasm we get from these Craft Brewers,” Dunphy said, “they’re entrepreneurs who have this great passion for what they do, and we’re here to help.”

If the praise we heard for Crown from brewers at the conference is any indicator, Crown’s pay-it-forward philosophy will continue to help them succeed.

Innovating the Beer Industry: a Q&A with Night Shift Brewing

Tim — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:42:42 +0000

Massachusetts is one home to some of America’s top craft brewers, including industry-leaders like Sam Adams and Harpoon Brewery, as well as almost five-dozen smaller operations in and around Boston. Like many of its competitors, Night Shift Brewing offers some fantastic beers. But what makes Night Shift so unique is the way it’s quietly innovating—from their unique, locally-sourced ingredients to the their innovative approach to marketing.

Night Shift Brewing was founded in 2011 by three friends who turned a passion for nocturnal brewing into their profession. Started as a hobby in their Somerville kitchen, they now brew at their nanobrewery in Everett, MA. Fusing unique ingredients into an array of rich, complex flavors, Night Shift is creating some of the most innovative and memorable craft beer in the world. I caught up with Michael Oxton, one of the brewery’s co-founders, to talk about their recent success, unique beer, and spirit of innovation.

Q: How did you decide to transition Night Shift from a hobby to a real brewery?

A: The idea of starting transitioning Night Shift from a hobby to a real brewery started around batch 3! I’m only sort of kidding. We fell in love with brewing almost as soon as we started it, which was right out of college in 2007. Even then, talks about someday owning a craft brewery had already begun. We go more serious a few years later, once we were producing great beer that tasted as good as the stuff on the shelves. Our homebrew system was fairly advanced, and we took the process itself very seriously. We also got a lot of great feedback from tasting parties we held, and that encouraged us as well.

I’d also say that we all have that “entrepreneurial spirit” or whatever you want to call it. We wanted to be our own bosses, be directly responsible for our own company, grow something from nothing. That appeal was enormous to us. As daunting as the task seemed, it was also unbelievably exciting, and allowed us to apply (and develop) so many different skills. And, of course, we’ve still only just started.

Q: What makes Night Shift different from other breweries in the Boston ecosystem?

A: Night Shift Brewing is different for a number of reasons. First of all, we’re completely our own operation, and we started our brewery from scratch. As opposed to contract brewing (which is a great option, just not what we’re doing), we own our facility, and do everything in-house. Because of that, we control every step of the process and are able to get really creative. Yeast selection, especially, is important to the flavors we are creating; with our own brewery we are in total control of which yeast gets used, exactly how much, and the entire fermentation process that follows.

Having our own brewery also allows people to visit it and see where the product is made. We have a tasting room set up where guests can sample beers, talk with the brewers, and buy merchandise, growlers or bottles. We also offer tours of the facility to anyone who’s interested.

We’re also a nanobrewery, which is vastly different than the larger Boston breweries. Because we only produce about 450 bottles per batch, we’re able to get that much more experimental with our recipes, and also tweak recipes from batch to batch.

Q: Talk about your sales and marketing plan; how are you planning to grow over the next year? Over the next 5 years?

A: As a tiny brewery, our sales and marketing strategy is slow but steady growth. Because we’re self-distributing for now (i.e. I drive around Boston and drop off cases of beer to liquor stores, bars andrestaurants), our geographic territory is somewhat limited in range. But, we see this as a good thing. The goal is to maintain a very “local” focus for now, establish a strong presence at the 20 or so accounts we sell to, and slowly expand from there. Once we’re in a position to do so, we’d like to upgrade our brewing system from 3.5 barrel production to 15 or 20 barrel production. At that point, we’ll likely need to start using a distributor (if we aren’t already) and we’ll be able to reach more than just the Greater Boston community.

That being said, we’re really committed to keeping our local presence as strong as possible even as we expand. We source from local businesses like Taza Chocolate and Mem Tea Imports right now, but would love to source from even more. We’d also like to get further involved in community events and programs, and become a more established part of the local economy. Just takes a little time.

Q: As a startup brewery, how does digital media fit into your marketing plan?

A: Digital media is an especially integral part of our business, as it seems to be for almost any startup these days. Brewing and bottling beer is of course our priority; it’s how our business stays alive. However, our brand becomes so much more through the use of digital media. I hardly use Facebook or Twitter at all anymore for personal use (I actually don’t even have my own Twitter account), but I use both on a daily basis for Night Shift. There’s just no easier way to reach a such a wide audience and share your brand’s identity, whether it’s a news announcement, a random photo from the brewery, or a survey we’d like some feedback on. Our slogan, “Share the Night,” came from a Facebook survey that landed us 38 different slogan suggestions. And all it took was 10 minutes of my time to set that up… you can’t beat that kind of efficiency.

Or take our launch parties, for another example. With the help of Pintley, we hosted two launch events that, combined, gave us over 70,000 unique exposures on Facebook. Again, you can’t find an easier, more effective way to reach such a wide audience.

Q: In what ways is Nigh Shift innovative? How are you doing things differently?

A: I hope that we’re innovating on a number of fronts. Our beers, first and foremost, are specifically meant to be innovative and memorable. We’re trying to create and produce flavors that you don’t often find in a beer (and sometimes anywhere) without sacrificing the beer’s quality itself. Like wine, beer can be incredible complex and intricate, and paired very well with food. A lot of people don’t realize that, so we’re trying to create something that helps promote that understanding. We all also really enjoy cooking, so there’s a culinary element to our recipe and beer creation that I think is fairly unique. That’s partly why we use so many unorthodox ingredients – they add complexity and uniqueness to a beer’s flavor, and when they’re done correctly, the taste is that much more interesting.

I also think, relative to our size (which is very, very small), we’re innovating the way our business is branded, marketed and sold. We’ve put so much time and effort into the small details—our logo, label design, label material, website, blog, marketing material, T-shirt and glassware selection—that I’m not sure you often see from a business of our size. The sacrifice is that we’re often working 100-hour weeks, night and day shifts, but I hope we’ll see a payoff for all the work. The beer market is a great one, but also incredibly competitive, so we want to come out of the gates stronger than most would expect from a 3.5 barrel brewery run by three twenty-somethings. You often hear that quote, “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” We’ve tried to apply that to our brewery; from the very start, we’re treating it like the business we want it to be in 2-3 years.

Q: Now that you’ve launched, What’s next for Night Shift?

A: What’s next for Night Shift? On the beer front, a lot. Without revealing too many details, I’ll say that we have a quad and a sour—neither yet released—that have been aging for about 2 months now. We’ll launch both of beers over the coming month or so, and I’m really excited about how both are tasting. We also have a number of other beers-in-waiting that will hit the market as summer rolls in. Hint: habanero peppers.

We also plan to do a lot more with our brewery itself as the year goes by—we’d really like it to become a fun, interactive destination for both the local and tourist community. Also expect more to happen on our blog, including many more guest bloggers. And we’ve got more merchandise plans in the works. I could go on forever about future plans, but I’ll instead just say that we constantly expect a lot from ourselves, so anyone following us should do the same. Anyone with questions or comments can always contact us directly at info [at] nightshiftbrewing [dot] com.

Pintley Partners with Tap Hunter to Create the World’s Largest Beer Location Database

Tim — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:40:36 +0000

A few months ago, we mentioned that we were working on something special with our friends over at Tap Hunter. Today, I’m proud to announce that Pintley and Tap Hunter are partnering to create the world’s largest beer location database. You can read the full press release here.

We're BFFs, okay?

If you haven’t seen them already, sometime today or tomorrow you’ll notice beer locator buttons like the one pictured below on beer pages around the website. Clicking one of these buttons will help you discover where that beer is available in your area, both on tap and at bottle shops and liquor stores.

The New Beer Finder Button

This data comes from a variety of sources, including Tap Hunter’s location information, Pintley’s check-ins, and the breweries themselves. When you look at a specific location, we’ll even tell you where the data is coming from and when the beer was last seen, so it’s easy to know how up-to-date the information is. We’re about half way finished with our data integration with Tap Hunter, meaning that you’ll see even more beer availability information in the next few weeks.

We’ll be submitting an update to the iPhone App Store tomorrow and to the Android Market early next week, so you’ll have access to these features on your phones as well! Here’s a look at what the new screens will look like:

The Beer Finder Map

The Beer Finder List

As the Beer Finder feature rolls out, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know how it’s working for you.

Cheers from Team Pintley!

Even More Ways to Win Free Beer!

Tim — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 20:20:30 +0000

Pintley’s monthly Craft Beer for a Year Giveaway is an ongoing way for Pintley to give back to the beer community. And judging from your reactions, it’s working well …Really, really well!

Today, we’re pleased to announce the first of several changes to the program that will make it even easier to win free beer. Yes, that’s right. More prizes and more free beer!*

Seriously, guys, we love giving away free beer…

More Free Beer Prizes!

This month, we’re giving away even more prizes! The prizes for this month are:

One Grand Prize: Craft Beer for a Year - Awarded as a $500 pre-paid gift card to a random Pintley user.
Fifteen Leaderboard Prizes: Craft Beer for a Month - Awarded as a $45 pre-paid gift card to each of the Top 15 users on the leaderboard as long as those users have earned at least 20,000 points during the month.

*As usual: no purchase necessary. A purchase will not increase your chances of winning. See Official Sweepstakes Rules and Points Program Terms and Conditions for complete rules and details.

Win a Free Trip from Zephyr Adventures!

This month, we’ve also partnered with our friends at Zephyr Adventures to give away a Free Active Beer Tour to Yellowstone and Grand Teton from July 20-25. To enter, just complete the online registration form and Tweet about the giveaway.

Enter to win a a six-day trip hiking, biking, white water rafting, and drinking great beer in and around Yellowstone and Grand Teton courtesy of Zephyr Adventures!

Tips for Earning Points

You’ve asked and we’ve answered. The improved Points Page now features tips for how to earn points, including a full list of all the brewers who are currently offering points bonuses.

As always, if you have questions about the new points changes, please feel free to drop us a line.

Winter’s Craft Beer Winners!

Tim — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:05:58 +0000

Old Man Winter Must Be Getting Pretty Old...

It’s time to announce the Free Craft Beer Winners for November and December!

It feels funny that the first real day of snow in Boston didn’t occur until yesterday, compared to last year’s insane amount of snow.

Nevertheless, we’re finishing the last of our winter warmers and announcing the the winners!

Congratulations to everyone who won during November and December! For those of you who didn’t win, keep your eyes peeled; today we’re announcing even more chances to win free beer!

November Contest Winners

December Contest Winners

November & December Sweepstakes Winners

Peter A. - November Winner
Mark - December Winner

You should have an email with information on how to claim your prize soon. Dont forget to email us or mention us in a Tweet or Facebook post including pictures of you with your prizes so we can feel wam and fuzzy about all of the awesome beer we’re helping people discover.

Be sure to check your Points Opportunities page for new opportunities that we’re constantly adding!

Cheers!

Tim

Sneak Peak of New Features

Tim — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:22:40 +0000

Many of you have been asking about new features, so here’s a sneak peak of the updated beer detail screen that you’ll see in the coming weeks. We’re not going to comment on exactly what this means, but we’re sure the observant among you will notice the difference…

Left Hand Nitro Milk Stout Bottles Hit Shelves!

Rich — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:02:26 +0000

If you haven’t had a fortunate enough life to have tried Left Hand’s Milk Stout on Nitro, leave now. Find your nearest craft beer bar, and demand it. Let me know when you’re back.

…

Now that we’re all on the same “Milk-Stout-on-nitro-is-fantastic-and-as-creamy-as-it-gets” page – something wonderful has happened! Left Hand has become the first American brewery to bottle a nitro beer. We’ve all seen it in cans with Guinness, but this is a fully legitimate US owned craft brew coming to your fridge full of that creamy, nitrogenated goodness. To give all of us uneducated American drinkers the full effect, they’ve been running a campaign teaching everyone how to properly pour a Nitro pint, since it is actually different than how you pour an average beer. In a gesture of true devotion to everyone properly enjoying this stout, Left Hand has even put a QR code on the bottle, linking to this video:

Equally as amazing as the reality of packaged nitro Milk Stout itself, is the fact that they’ve managed it without the use of a “widget” like what you find inside of the Guinness cans. It’s a pretty amazing technical feat, that apparently took them a few years and a few hundred thousand dollars (!!) to accomplish. Worth it, in my opinion. They even managed to keep it a secret until they announced it at GABF this past September, 2011.

This isn’t entire breaking news, but I just heard about it tonight, so I figure some other folks must have missed it, too! Starting this week, the bottles will be released in cities throughout the country. Chicago gets lucky first…but check out the rest of the release dates below!

When it hits Boston on February 9th, be sure to stop by the Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA to join Chris Lennert of Left Hand Brewing for the East Coast kick off! I’ll definitely be there, probably picking up a whole case…

Calendars, Beer, and John Cusack

Jason — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:50:49 +0000

ATTENTION. ATTENTION. On 11/11/11 at 11:11:11 PM, only because most of us will be working at 11:11:11 AM, pop open your bottles of Stone Vertical Epic 11/11/11. Since 02/02/02, Stone has been releasing small batches of their Vertical Epic series of beer on the one year, one month, and one day anniversary of that first brewing. Each one is designed to age well for enjoyment on 12/12/12, when the last in the Vertical Epic series will be made available.

Stone recommends drinking each year of their Vertical Epic series on 12/12/12. Fine. I’ll do that. But only because I have a few other bottles stashed away for the occasion. Until then, why not pop open a bottle of the recently released 11/11/11 and celebrate the date that has only half of the numbers that are used in binary code?

So, what happens after the 12/12/12 is released? What about 13/31/13? Let’s just call it January 31, 2013 because someone forgot to carry the one or something. Or maybe in a few hundred thousand years the Sun’s gravitational pull on the Earth will weaken and our planet’s orbital path will increase in circumference from 584 million kilometers to 663 million kilometers, thus necessitating the need to add an extra month into the year. Math!

Stone seems to be onto something here. If John Cusack’s character taught me anything in the 2009 movie, “2012”, it’s that the Mayan calendar ends on 12/21/12. Some would say that day is the end of days. Others would say that the Mayans were just too lazy to keep the calendar going. Me? I believe anything John Cusack says. That means you have nine days to recover from the inevitable hangover that you get from drinking all eleven versions of the Vertical Epic on 12/12/12 and “borrow” a plane so you can fly under tumbling skyscrapers and do some sweet barrel rolls like you have been training for all your life by playing entirely too much Star Fox.

Start getting friendly with your local craft brew store owners and maybe they might share some of their secret stash of previous Vertical Epic series with you.

Brewmerica Episode 6 – DC Brau

Tim — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:17:15 +0000

Newly-launched DC Brau is the first production brewery in the District of Columbia in over 60 years. Watch as ex-DJs and co-founders Brandon Skall and Jeff Hancock break into other breweries and brew some great beer!