BP: Moving on to the beers–is it fair to say that (Belgian-style) Tripel Horse is your top seller?
CW: If you take the seasonals out of it, all of our year-round beers (Special amber ale, Hop-Hazard American Ale, Hop-A-Lot-Amus Unfiltered IPA, Tripel Horse) are about even. It is strange because they’re different alcohol levels and different price points, but they all sell pretty close. Summer Blonde is probably our biggest seasonal.
BP: Is Belgian Freeze (winter seasonal) a newer brew, or just redesigned for winter?
CW: Redesigned. When we bought the company, “Frostbite” was the name of it. The previous owners sold that name to somebody else; to me, “Frostbite” is a negative thing. I picture your toes being black and falling off…so “Freeze” is the name we went with. It was the last one to be converted over to the new packaging.
BP: Is there any beer that you’ll be producing more of this year to meet demand?
CW: Well, I’m currently not sleeping because of (Hipp O Lantern Imperial) Pumpkin. We originally introduced is as a “Brewer’s Reserve” two years ago, it got its own packaging last year, and our preorders and estimates from wholesalers are very very high. It’s got a lot of ingredients in it, and is a costly beer to make…sourcing the pumpkin and getting all the other stuff in time is a bit of a circus. But we’ll be ready to go.
BP: Your lager has recently been put ‘on vacation.’ Is that to make room for some of your other brews?
CW: Yeah. We can do two tanks of anything else for one tank of lager. I like the beer, I think it’s served us well as a transition. Not a lot of micros do a lager, but there’s a reason for that. Hopefully we can bring it back, but to squeeze out as much (other beer) as we could, we just had to, you know…
BP: Can you talk a little about your Brewer’s Reserve series?
CW: It’s a playground. Markets are different, and everyone’s interested in new beers. We try to mix it up, do some off-the-wall things, some underserved traditional styles, some new takes on our existing beers. One of the best days here is when a new beer is being packaged for the first time. The guys love to do it, too, it’s fun. We do three a year. Double Wit was our first; we did both Oatmeal Milk Stout and Pumpkin twice as a Reserve.
BP: How far in advance do you plan them?
CW: Well, with the licensing and all, we sit down in January/February and ask ourselves, “What do we want to do this year?” That way, we can get the label art done and send it in for approval, and start piloting recipes.
BP: Have you thought about doing anything in barrels?
CW: We’re not quite there…there’s a lot of things on the horizon. We’ll do Tripel Horse in a firkin with bourbon-soaked oak and that kind of stuff, but in terms of actually aging it in barrels, or putting it in 750 (mLs), we just don’t have the time or capacity. We’ll get there someday, but we’re not quite there as a brewery.
Cool, so this company was just bought by two wall st. guys who wanted to make money off an industry… awesome.. I’ll be sure to avoid them next time I’m in New Hope..
To be fair, there are plenty of bankers and people from other industries that jump into craft beer. Doesn’t mean that they are in it for the money.
Brock Wagner was once a banker. Now, he runs Saint Arnold Brewing, one of the largest craft breweries in the USA.
I commend them because the comment about knowing “They would not last too long” means that they had the self awareness that they were somewhat unfulfilled, and then they went and did something about it.
I gravitated toward craft beer ( and away from a 6 figure pharma career) because it is such a positive and motivating industry. The corp rat race is increasingly unfulfilling for more and more people and craft beer is like a breath of cool Spring morning air. These people are willing to make a lot less money if it means they can feel a real connection to the work they do.
I have been drinking River Horse for years and the slow, steady growth appears to be more about passion than profit.
Ah, Cliff’s got a point, I guess. I don’t drink Anchor, Sierra-Nevada or Stone products, ’cause I figure “What do the heir to a washing machine fortune (and cheese maker!), bicycle repairman or rock music promoter know about brewing beer?”
You can learn a lot about brewing by homebrewing as a hobby. All it takes is passion for the craft. The rest does not matter.
Hey Cliff . . . The “Wall Street Guys” bought the company, they are not actually brewing the beer. Who cares who bought the company, they are doing a great job and have great brewers.
I’ve been drinking River Horse since they first opened and the beer produced now is a much higher quality, consistant tasting product. Nothing local beats their Summer Blonde and Imperial Pumpkin Ale as seasonals. I don’t really care about the background of who owns a brewery as long as the beer produced tastes good. Isn’t that what really matters?
Cliff – Go jump off one. If the background of the owners of a beer firm are your only criteria for judging a beer, you’re to stupid to drink. RH beer are very good, and maybe you should stay in NH and go to Triumph. You probably like Miller Lite…
Cliff seems like a joke to me, these guys were successful in a career that most parents and society push you towards, and then they followed their hearts. How can you possibly hate on that? Riverhorse isn’t top 10 brewery in the East Coast but they do produce good beers for everyday drinking, and I feel that gets lost among beer snobs. I run a Liq Store/bottle shop in CT and I sell a lot of their stuff because it is good. Period. So lay off the background and worry about the product, and actually give these guys credit for keeping what they had in place and just being involved monetarily
Interesting article Chris, keep them coming.
I would be more wary if it was an investment firm that bought River Horse (i.e. like Centerbridge Capital with Gordon Biersch/Rock Bottom) rather then two guys who moved from an investment firm. Hopefully with their business knowledge they will be able to run it more consistently then the previous owners.
I believe Jess Kidden was just kidding, given he enjoys a “half and half” of Sierra-Nevada’s Celebration Ale and Bigfoot Barleywine to recreate the original Ballantine IPA.
Hey, maybe those ‘Wall Street guys’ are on to something. They hired a former intern from the craft brewery at which I am brewmaster. This guy worked 40 hours/week for 6 months….for free. River Horse got an employee that I would have hired myself. My loss.
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