I have been flooding with comments and emails after my post earlier this week about Drewrys Brewery “returning” to South Bend. At that time, I basically passed along a press release from the brewery itself. Many of you were wondering whether the beer was actually going to be brewed in South Bend. So here is your answer from Dan Blacharski, president of Ugly Dog Media, INC. for Drewrys Brewing Company.
“Drewrys will initially be a contract brewing operation, in the same manner as many major brands (including Pabst), to allow Drewrys to be up and running quickly. Although the South Bend area does not have an existing brewing operation capable of handling the capacity we have in mind, we do plan to launch the contract brew portion of the Drewrys operation in two phases. Prior to engaging a major contract brewer, we will first release a “special limited edition” Drewrys, brewed in cooperation with a local micro-brew operation, and we are actively seeking local micro-brew partners for this purpose. It’s important to note that the new Drewrys Brewing Company is starting out small, using as many resources and vendors in the South Bend area as possible. From our initial hyper-local focus as a premium beverage marketed in the South Bend area, we plan to move forward to expand throughout the Great Lakes region.”
This may answer some questions for now, but if you have further questions, it is my understanding that Drewrys Brewing Company will have a booth at the South Bend Brew Fest, tomorrow, Saturday, January 12, at the Century Center in South Bend.
Well, obviously they will contract brew at Four Horsemen to start, which will help both parties. I just hope whatever they do, they never contract brew through Minhas in Wisconsin. Just about everything that comes out of those places tastes weird. City Brewing in La Crosse might be a better choice, as they are handling the Kraftig line from William K. Busch to some success so far. It would be nice to see them do well and maybe secure enough capital to get a full production line going in South Bend, because the city needs it. If they’re smart about things, they could eventually be like a Midwestern Yeungling, and believe me, the market is there for that.
They should consider contracting with The Fourhorseman or Moerlein (based in Cincinnati). Moerlein is a recent revival in Cincinnati and recently opened up a place called the Moerlein Lager House right outside the Reds Stadium. It is amazing and would make it so they would instantly have a tap there. It’s one of the largest and most elaborate restaurants I have ever been in.
Thanks for your feedback and support. We’d also like to hear from the community about taste and recipe. Tastes have obviously changed since the ’60s, and we’ll be updating the recipe of our first lager for the modern palate. There’s a vibrant conversation thread on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/DrewrysBrewingCompany) on this very subject, please feel free to log in and register your opinion on what the new Drewrys should taste like.