Production Partnering and Management of Multiple Brands in the Small Brewery Environment

By Eric Warner Broadway Brewing, LLC, Denver, Colorado, USA. This paper was originally presented at the MBAA 112th Anniversary Convention, Keystone, Colorado, 1999.

Abstract
Many brewers are familiar with the logistics associated with pro-ducing contract or license beers at their facilities. From yeast to pack-aging materials, the management of brewing multiple brands for different customers has some unique twists in the small brewery. The speaker will discuss contract brewing and bottling at the microbrew-ery level. A brief introduction to the history of contract brewing and production partnering at the microbrewery level will be followed by the various types of contract brewing arrangements that are prevalent in the North American specialty brewing industry. Having been both the contract producer and the contract customer, the speaker will then focus on his first hand experiences. An overview of the primary concerns that the producer and the customer have, as well as the aspects of production and multiple brand man-agement that typically warrant the most attention from the producer's perspective will be discussed.
Keywords: contract brewing, contract packaging, production partnerships, joint ventures  

Sintesis
SINTE �SIS Muchos cerveceros est�n familiarizados con la log�stica asociada con los contratos de producci�n o licencia de cervezas en sus insta-laciones. Desde levadura hasta materiales para el empacado, el mane-jo de elaborar m�ltiples marcas de cerveza para diferentes clientes tiene sus propios retos en la cervecer�a peque�a. El orador discutir� el contrato de la elaboraci�n de la cerveza y el embotellamiento a nivel de micro cervecer�a. Una breve introducci�n de la historia de los contratos de la elaboraci�n de la cerveza y asociaci�n de produc-ci�n a nivel de micro cervecer�a ser� seguida por los varios tipos de arreglos de contratos de la elaboraci�n de la cerveza que son preva-lentes en la industria especializada de la cervecer�a en Norte Am�rica. Habiendo sido tanto el productor contratado como el cliente con-tratado, el orador enfocar� en sus experiencias propias. Se discutir� tambi�n una perspectiva de las principales preocupaciones que el productor y el cliente tengan, as� como los aspectos de producci�n y manejo de marcas m�ltiples que t�picamente justifican la mayor aten-ci�n desde la perspectiva del productor.