The Rock Bottom brewpub chain has a big secret. It’s an open secret, but something that most people, even many beer nerds, don’t know. I myself was unaware of this secret until a ten-minute talking-down from the brewer at the Chicago location corrected my misconception of the chain.
The secret is this: There are no standardized brews at Rock Bottom.
That’s right; every beer at every store is an original creation of the head brewer at that store. While some beer names are used across the chain, the beers behind the names are unique. The food menu is standardized, but the beer menu is not. Brewers have essentially total control of the beers that they produce.
Over the 20 years that the chain has been in existence, this open policy toward brewers has resulted in 45 GABF gold medals and countless silver and bronze medals. Rock Bottom brewers are consistently among the medal-winners in the World Beer Cup and other prestigious brewing competitions. Many Rock Bottom brewers have gone on to open their own breweries or to work at other successful breweries. Surly brewmaster Todd Haug is one example. Anyone who has visited Rock Bottom with any frequency knows that this chain brewpub is different from the others.
This difference is in jeopardy. The recent merger between Rock Bottom and Gordon Biersch has been widely reported. Initially Frank Day, co-founder of Rock Bottom and board chairman of the newly formed company CraftWorks Restaurants and Breweries, stated that no re-branding would occur. “Each brand will stay separate and do its own thing…we’re not wanting to homogenize the restaurants.” The problem with this statement is that while it may rule out homogenization between the different concepts, it doesn’t preclude increased homogenization within each concept.
That appears to be exactly what is happening at Rock Bottom. As first reported on Brewpublic.com, it seems that the new corporate management intends to limit the amount of control that Rock Bottom brewers have over their production. Sources inside the chain have leaked the information that a number of system-wide, standard beers will soon be required at each location. Because the chain has never done a particularly good job of marketing the fact that each store’s beers are unique, this isn’t technically a “re-branding.” It is, however, a bad idea on many levels.
Unlike the Hops, BJ’s, and Gordon Biersch chains that serve the same beers across the entire system, each Rock Bottom store has a different brewery setup. While every Gordon Biersch has a reverse osmosis system in place to standardize the brewing water, every Rock Bottom location uses different water. Consistency across batches is hard enough for a small brewery. Consistency across a number of small breweries with different systems and water is a near impossibility. If management’s intention is to give guests a consistent experience from store to store, they will most likely miss their mark.
And besides, who really wants another Hop’s, BJ’s, or Gordon Biersch? In a world overflowing with Benihoulafridaybee’s restaurant concepts do we really need another totally-interchangeable, cookie-cutter dining experience? Craft beer is the only segment of the beer industry currently seeing consistent growth. Part of that success is due to a growing desire in the public for all things local. People are beginning to seek out fine food and drink. Grocery stores are beefing up gourmet food sections. Restaurants and bars are offering more and more eclectic beer selections. The number of operating farmers markets saw 16% growth from 2009 to 2010. Why is CraftWorks looking to homogenization when uniqueness and higher quality are the trends of the future?
Rather than trying to limit brewer freedom at Rock Bottom, CraftWorks should be developing a coherent marketing strategy to sell it. They should be shouting from the hilltops that every visit to Rock Bottom is a unique experience. They should boldly declare that their brewers are among the nation’s best, and they should be trotting out their competition medals to prove it.
I am encouraging beer-lovers to send this message to CraftWorks management. Send an email to operations@rockbottom.com. Use the power of Facebook and Twitter to spread the word. Blog about it. Tell your friends.
Let’s save Rock Bottom.
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The email you have listed is incorrectly .dom Having said that, after my first attempt bounced, I sent a message to the correct address. Hope they keep things they way they are.
Thanks for pointing that out. Email fixed.
Still didn’t fix the email link mate 😉 Thanks for the post. It is unfortunate that this approach is even being considered.
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I hate to be cynical, but after the firing of the Portland (OR) brewmaster for speaking out (that’s the rumor on why he was let go) I think the new management has already made their decision…a decision to overlook the palates and pocketbooks of the craft beer community. I would love to be wrong, but I think I may be better off just hoping the brewmasters that are fired or leave find better situations to showcase their talents.
Kris,
You may be right, but to me it still seems worth letting out voices be heard.
Sorry, I don’t think you’ve done your homework on Frank Day. As someone who lived in Denver and Boulder during Day’s rise to chain-restaurant glory, I nearly spit out my beer when I read this post. What next, save Applebees? There are a lot more worthy local businesses to save.
“In a world overflowing with Benihoulafridaybee’s restaurant concepts do we really need another totally-interchangeable, cookie-cutter dining experience?” That’s what Day made his name and fortune on. Let it go.
Tom
As to the reporting on Day, the quote in the piece was from his press release. He said it. While most things about Rock Bottom are cookie-cutter, the beer never has been. That seems worth at least raising a stink about. And raising a stink about this doesn’t preclude trying to save “more worthy local businesses” as well. Save them all.
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I didn’t realize they were sold. That must explain why the discount for AHA members changed when I was in last month. Bryon Tonnis has been doing a fantastic job as the brewmaster at the Mpls. Rock Bottom. I’d hate to see somebody limiting his creativity with how great a job he’s been doing.
Your post leaves out the one piece of information that is vital—are the various RB brewers expected to only standardize the “RB Basics” beers?
The majority of each restaurant’s beer menu, after all, has always been beers unique to that location. If there are 15 beers on the menu, 10 are usually unique to that location. I assume from the information you DID provide in this post that this is not changing.
Honestly, even as the world’s biggest craft beer fan, I can’t say that I care too much whether the recipes for the likes of Lumpy Dog Brown and Erik the Red are standardized from restaurant to restaurant. I had assumed that they already were—they are after all, the same name at each one.
But honestly–I can’t even remember the last time I ordered any of the basic beers. When you have access to a RB with a great brewmaster, who is going to waste their time drinking the same basic beers whenever they come in, when there is a twice as large, constantly rotating selection of seasonal and special beers that are far more interesting?
So, as long as that is remaining the case, I’m not going to be particularly concerned about it.
Jim V
That is the point. There are not (for) now and have never been ANY standard beers in the Rock Bottom chain. EVERY beer is the creation of the local brewmaster. Even though some names are shared at some stores (even that is not standardized) the beers are not at all the same. For instance, Eric the Red at the Mpls location is a Vienna lager. Eric the Red at the MSP airport (which actually comes from the Denver store) is an Irish Red. Itasca Extra Pale Ale at the mpls store is a bright, bitter, tropical-fruit laden American Pale. At the airport it’s an English style pale. It’s not just a slightly different recipe for the same beer, it’s a totally different beer.
And you should give some of the mainline beers another try. The brown at the mpls store is great. as is Itasca Extra Pale. They stand up very well beside the specialties and seasonals.
I’m not saying it’s a GOOD thing, but the mere fact of standardization doesn’t necessarily mean that those will be bad beers. This is just one of the few times where I can see their side of it, wanting people to be able to go to different Rock Bottoms and finding the comfortable beer that they may like.
That, however, isn’t me, which is why I’ve always been glad the majority are the specialties, anyway.
I don’t even doubt that the ones on tap all the time may be good–but if I go to RB once a month, tops, every time I go there are going to be limited releases out, and 99% of the time, that’s what I’m going to be looking for. So yeah, I’ll just save my concern for if they try to shut down the creativity of the portion of the beer menu where I EXPECT creativity from them.
Fair enough.
(still, you should give those full-time beers a try. :-))
I agree wholeheartedly with you, Michael. This decision has everything to do with marketing and nothing to do with the quality of the beer. It’s Gordon Birsch basically saying to its brewmasters, “We don’t trust your QA abilities or your instincts as a brewer.” Homogenization is the cheap way for chains to maintain QA.
187 visits… to RB.. The new beer sucks.. I would rather have a 90 shcilling.
While I still think that this move was a bad idea, I have had two of the standardized beers and I really didn’t find them that bad.
Anyway, it’s only four of the beers on tap at any restaurant. I know some stores have as many as 14 brews on at any given time. That’s 10 beers that aren’t standardized chain beers. Still plenty to choose from.