As the craft beer scene evolves and matures, new approaches to making beer are certain. One such approach is “gypsy brewing”. A gypsy brewer finds an existing brewery with excess capacity, and physically brews the beer themselves in the rented facility with little, if any, assistance from the host brewery. And from what I understand, there are about 3 people that are actually doing this, and about a dozen more that pretend. You should learn the difference, because gypsy brewers are the real deal, and the pretenders are just that – pretenders.
I am not a gypsy. Yet I have been called one. So let’s nip this in the bud, and not let the perception misrepresent what I do as the brewer for Notch. Yes, I am a “brewer” in that I went to brewing school at the Siebel Institute of Technology, apprenticed as a brewer under a Brit, and owned and operated a brewery where I did everything from brew, cellar, run the lab, to operate the bottling line. But I am not the production brewer for Notch. What I am is an independent brewer that collaborates with other breweries.
How much of the actual production brewing I do is irrelevant to me. I currently brew at two places, Ipswich and Kennebunk. The Ipswich brewing system is like the Czech language to me, I just don’t know it very well. So I work very closely with the production brewers to get Notch brewed in a manner I prefer. At Kennebunk it’s different. I apprenticed there, and I ran a similar yet larger system for almost 10 years. But even at Kennbunk, I’m respectful that it’s head brewer Mike Haley’s turf. I can’t just walk in and do whatever the hell I want. You learn that when you run your own brewery – you get protective of your work. So Mike needs to guarantee that what ever I do, it doesn’t upset the rest of his in-house production.
So the breweries that allow me into their world are my partners. I collaborate with them – sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes I go right at a beer and a recipe, but just as often I lean on my partners for a great deal of input. I value the feedback from brewers who live in these breweries day in and day out. Any brewery that has grown up over the years has its quirks, best practices, and wealth of knowledge that when combined with my vision, yields a better result. They learn from me, I learn from them, and as a result the beers benefit.
So the gypsy tag gets thrown my way, and it makes me uncomfortable. I see quite a few marketing guys with the gypsy tag thrown at them, and they let the perception become reality. I mean, they are marketing guys, right? But for me, I won’t accept false labels. I have too much respect for the brewing profession. I have also been called a contract brewer, and that hurts. Contract brewers, for the most part, are disconnected from the beer and focused on the marketing. They go to brewery X, and ask for beer Y and get a photo taken at the brewery. Is that wrong? No, it’s just not what I am doing with Notch. And while the role of marketing is mine, I do have a kick ass partner in Holland Mark. This allows me to focus on other important things, like the beer.
So, I’m being called both a gypsy and a contract – but I’m really somewhere in-between. In the end, I’ll call myself an independent brewer, because that’s what I am. No more, no less.
