Craft beer legend Pete Slosberg is brutally honest when people seek his advice about opening a brewery today.
Slosberg, who co-founded Pete’s Wicked Ale in 1986, tells them they can’t succeed by simply making fantastic beer because the market is too crowded with fantastic beer.
“You have to have a good brand,” the 65-year-old San Francisco resident said Friday during a visit to Hoppin’ Frog Brewery in Akron. “A good story. You have to be memorable. ... If nobody is aware of you, nobody will try you.”
Slosberg, who sold Pete’s in 1998 and went into the chocolate business, is collaborating with Hoppin’ Frog owner and brewer Fred Karm on the limited-edition Wicked Re-Pete 2X, an homage to Pete’s Wicked Ale.
It’s a 10.4 percent imperial brown ale that’s essentially a bigger version of the original.
The beer will be available on draft and in 22-ounce bottles in about six to eight weeks.
This would have been the 30th anniversary of Pete’s — which has since disappeared — so the proposed label includes the phrase “Happy 30th anniversary.”
Slosberg, who has a trimmed salt and pepper beard, and Karm have known each other for years, going back to when Slosberg had his chocolates produced by Harry London in Green and Karm was still brewing at Thirsty Dog Brewing Co.
Slosberg stopped by the brewpub and Karm kept bringing him beers, honored that a celebrity was trying his brews.
Karm has since sought out Slosberg for advice over the years and recently asked him to work together on a beer.
“He is a beer icon,” Karm said. “He is the one who coined the American brown style.”
Pete’s Wicked Ale was one of the first brands to get Karm into craft beer and he recalls how cool it was to see the word “Wicked” on a beer label.
Slosberg isn’t ready to be described as a legend or an icon. He prefers the term pioneer.
“I have a lot of arrows in my back,” he said. “Pioneers used to get the arrows in the back.”
Nowadays, Slosberg volunteers with SCORE and provides business counseling. He also keeps his hand in the brewing industry.
He is working with new breweries and beer competitions in South America.
“Once beer is in your blood, it’s hard to get out,” Slosberg said.
In addition to making great beer, his advice for new brewers is to distinguish their brand and story. They also should be able to provide a quick sales pitch on why the consumer should be turning to them.
If they can’t do that, then they shouldn’t bother launching a brewery, he said.
He recalled the first label for Pete’s, which featured his white English bull terrier Millie and a purple label. It stood out on the store shelves.
Pete’s and Anheuser-Busch would get into a lengthy legal battle because Bud Light started a marketing campaign using the fictional terrier Spuds MacKenzie.
Even though Pete’s dog came first, Slosberg said, Pete’s opted to stop using the label because the dog became too associated with Bud Light.
Slosberg said he worries that at some point the brewing capacity in the country — there are more than 4,000 breweries now and more are coming online every day — will exceed growth in the marketplace.
He also wonders if there will be a price war among craft brewers as large craft brewers such as Stone, Lagunitas and New Belgium open additional breweries.
While in Northeast Ohio, Slosberg plans to meet up with Market Garden Brewery brewer Andy Tveekrem and stop by the Winter Warmer Festival in Cleveland on Saturday.
He hasn’t been in Cleveland in about a decade. Slosberg has fond memories of Great Lakes Brewing Co., where Tveekrem cut his brewing teeth.
“Great Lakes was the first brewpub I’d ever been to where every beer to me was world-class,” Slosberg said. “So many places have one or two that are world-class and one or two that are so-so. This was just across the board.”
Not surprisingly, he’s also a big fan of Hoppin’ Frog.
“[Karm’s] beers aren’t just great. They are super impressive,” Slosberg said. “They just coat your whole mouth and make you feel good.”
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his beer blog at www.ohio.com/beer. Follow him on Twitter at @armonrickABJ.