Vinnie Cilurzo is regarded as one of the most innovative microbrewers in the country. He explains why he’s happy keeping his brews local:
Right now your beers are mainly available on the West Coast. How important is it to you to go national?
Not at all. We expanded three months ago into this new brewery space, so now we’re brewing in both our brewpub and in this brewery. And we started bottling Pliny the Elder, which until six weeks ago we had never done before. It had only been available on draft. We could be [widely available] like Stone or Lagunitas, and I get calls from distributors all the time from all over the country. But we do this more for the lifestyle, my wife and I, and same with our employees. I can ride my bike to work. I live one to two miles from either brewery. I fill my gas tank once a week. I think you can get caught up way too much in growth. We don’t have any growth goals.
[thanks MA]
Livin' the Dream
on 02 Oct 08Russian River Brewing Company does it “for the lifestyle” and I totally agree with that. I see no problem with a lifestyle business and in fact, would love to see more people build their businesses around how they want their lives to look instead of how they think business needs to look.
Brad Huber
on 02 Oct 08I am so glad I got to visit the RR brewpub on my trip up to California. I’m incredibly conflicted here, though. Their beers were some of the best I’ve had, so I desperately want them to distribute nationally (or at least to New Orleans :-P)... but I also deeply respect the decision to build the business around their lifestyle instead of their checkbook. It’s definitely what I would do, as I’ve modeled my life around doing what makes me happiest, and not necessarily what makes me more money.
Joe W
on 02 Oct 08This reminds me of the Belgian monks selling Westvleteren beer as mentioned on the Church of the Customer blog.
nickd
on 02 Oct 08Joe W: The first thing I thought when I read that quote was Westvleteren as well. It could well have come from one of their monks!
There’s a good WSJ article about Westvleteren that has some interesting Getting Real-esque lessons to take away from it.
Justin
on 02 Oct 08Forget growth goals, what about altruism?! It is their responsibility as beer connoisseurs to spread their malty goodness to those of us who don’t live out West. :)
Richard L
on 02 Oct 08I for one am glad they haven’t gone national. I don’t want to share Temptation ale with the rest of the country.
gwg
on 02 Oct 08Vinny really embraces the brewing and home brewing communities. It’s great to see him getting pub here.
Tim Jahn
on 02 Oct 08I think it’s great they choose to enjoy the lifestyle and love what they do without growing. Growth isn’t everything. You can be great without being the biggest.
Charles Banas
on 02 Oct 08I’m also happy they’re staying small. Those guys brew amazing beer. I recently had the opportunity to sample Damnation and Salvation – the memories of which make me salivate.
Too much growth kills breweries. Boundary Bay Brewery, for example, used to have very good beers all across the board. After their 10th anniversary (for which they brewed the amazing Decade ale), everything started to slip in quality as they try to ramp up production in the relatively tiny space they have. There’s too much demand for their beer and the quality is suffering for it.
Anonymous Coward
on 02 Oct 08Fuck staying small. I hate it when people don’t think global.
Zach
on 02 Oct 08What’s he driving if he fills once a week and can bike to work? Must either do LOADS of other driving… or be driving some sort of super car to work despite the distance.
Beersage
on 02 Oct 08He takes (or has taken) the time to write long reply emails to complete strangers, too.
:)
Tommy
on 02 Oct 08Great story about a great business model. I love the lifestyle business choice and have recently gone that way myself.
Back to the beer though, I’m wondering if Seattle has anything like this. Maybe Hale’s Ales, but I think they distribute on a national scale. There are so many beers and breweries around here, it’s tough to know the business model of each one.
Geoffrey Grosenbach
on 02 Oct 08@Tommy Seattle has a ton of microbreweries, but I think Portland is even better. My favorite is Hair of the Dog. I tried to design a website for the guy, but he’s of the same mind…stay small, produce a good product, and don’t worry about the rest.
http://hairofthedog.com/
Bobnation
on 03 Oct 08Schell’s Brewary right here in the center of Minnesota has taken a similar approach. They have stuck with local brews and kept alive “dead” local brands for the local clientele and have become successful at that. A major brewery they will never become, but if you can say you are the oldest American-owned brewery, that must count for something.
Dana
on 03 Oct 08Nice! RR is literally a 10 minute walk from my front door. Its good to see them getting some PR. I can attest to their beer and to their pub which is almost always busy, even on a Monday afternoon (no Monday morning blues for those folks).
The business model they have is what businesses should aspire to, imo.
Cheers!
Tomas
on 03 Oct 08Very inspirational indeed. Wish I knew how to brew beer, too :)
One thing, though: is filling your gas tank once a week consider something good?! Or was it some sort of micro-entrepreneur slang? If not, talk about distorted sense of doing good to the planet.
Bryan Sebastian
on 03 Oct 08Their story fits right in with other companies in the book “Small Giants” (excellent book) which is a study of companies that focus on being great at what they do instead of growing for the sake of growth.
El Heffey
on 03 Oct 08@Justin
QUOTED: ... It is their responsibility as beer connoisseurs to spread their malty goodness to those of us who don’t live out West. :)
Nay good sir! It is time YOU made the pilgrimage to the meca. ;) I mean, its not like Jerusalem or Rome go out on tour.
JD
on 03 Oct 08I’ve enjoyed a beer or two with JF.
Mike
on 03 Oct 08Reminds me of a company in Bo Burlingham book “Small Giants”
ANCHOR BREWING – San Francisco, CA. The original American micro-brewery. Owner Fritz Maytag was working on an IPO to raise the capital needed to increase production and avoid a capacity crisis. But he called it off. “This is not going to be a giant company,” he said, “not on my watch.”
http://www.smallgiantsbook.com/profiles.html
Tom
on 05 Oct 08I live on the East Coast and would love to be able to try this beer some day, but I respect the brewery for living a life and not a wealthy life.
Huh
on 06 Oct 08@Tom, just because they choose to do business this way does not mean they are not wealthy. In fact, they may even be wealthier because of it.
diarmuid ryan web design
on 07 Oct 08so many have notions of world domination when it is better to find a niche in the market or a reasonable geographic area
This discussion is closed.