Oklahoma Breweries

[bchris02]

OKC really needs to market itself as a beer city more. It has a better beer scene and a greater variety than a lot of larger cities. I'd say it's easily on par with Colorado.

[unfundedrick]

OKC really needs to market itself as a beer city more. It has a better beer scene and a greater variety than a lot of larger cities. I'd say it's easily on par with Colorado.

visitokc.com does promote that.

https://www.visitokc.com/things-to-d...ife/breweries/

And there is this.

https://www.okcbrewtour.com/

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^^^
It’s really easy to not know how OKC markets itself if you LIVE in OKC. We’re not their primary visitor demographic. Any VisitOKC ads you see locally are targeted at regional watchers, not so much local. Go to Texas and you’ll know ALL ABOUT breweries in OKC. Have a Texas IP on your phone and visit here and your social will blow the hell up with it.

[Mballard85]

The Big Friendly won brewery of the year again for their size at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver over the weekend, they also brought home two gold medals for two different beers as well. GABF is pretty much the gold standard for craft beer recognition in the country and to do this two years in a row is amazing.

[ManAboutTown]

The Big Friendly won brewery of the year again for their size at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver over the weekend, they also brought home two gold medals for two different beers as well. GABF is pretty much the gold standard for craft beer recognition in the country and to do this two years in a row is amazing.

WOW, that is impressive. Their beer is pretty tasty, so it was well deserved!

[warreng88]

John recently completed the sale of Elk Valley. I'm probably wrong, but I believe it is to a group of people starting a brewery in Tulsa called New Story Brewing.

Can confirm that is correct. They have a great potential location in Tulsa on the east side of downtown. Should be an interesting project and they already have a built in fan base in Elk Valley drinkers.

[fromdust]

Another brewery bites the dust. CROSSTIMBERS is no longer. This one sucks as it was in walking distance from me, and by far the best patio in the city.

[Pete]

Strange that we would lose 3 (Twisted Spike, Elk Valley and Cross Timbers) in quick succession and at a time that this is usually great for breweries -- the fall.

It worries me that others may follow.

[Mballard85]

There was a heavy saturation of breweries, and I think only the superior one's will survive. Not only was competition pretty high, but the first expense people typically lose is going out when they are trying to save, and that's most at this point.

[PhiAlpha]

Between this and the list of long time restaurants that have closed in midtown…it’s definitely a little concerning. Could just be general turnover but it seems like a lot in a short time.

[amocore]

I have to go with Mballard85. We went from 2 or 3 breweries to 15 in a few years. It was a trendy new market so lot of newcomers until saturation but now it is the time for a trim.

Classic

[jedicurt]

location and accessibility has a lot to do with it as well. i only ever went to cross timbers when i went to Edge Craft BBQ. and yes it was a great patio, but i never felt the need or want to go there any other time. it was just so out of the way from pretty much everywhere else.

[chssooner]

Ideally this will also happen with all the weed dispensaries in town. Only so many are needed.

[SEMIweather]

Ideally this will also happen with all the weed dispensaries in town. Only so many are needed.

To a certain extent, I think that it has...it's just that the corresponding signage doesn't always get removed right away, and dispensaries are not exactly known for their subtle marketing.

[jedicurt]

i think something else that has to be said is that just because you make great beer, doesn't mean you are a great at running a brewery. I think there are often a line of bad business decisions that come along with some of this, it's not just people not buying the products.

[Pete]

i think something else that has to be said is that just because you make great beer, doesn't mean you are a great at running a brewery. I think there are often a line of bad business decisions that come along with some of this, it's not just people not buying the products.

Marketing, with all small businesses, is paramount.

And almost nobody invests in it or even considers it much before they open their doors.


Remember when I originally posted about Cross Timbers opening? Nobody even knew about it and yet for the first week or two, they were overrun. Never, ever heard from them again and I would have never been there in the first place if I hadn't been watching them and contacting them for months before they opened.

Almost all these new places I contact well in advance and they usually have delay after delay, which is typical. And yet, 98% of the time it's me contacting them over and over -- I bet with most I average about 10 messages/calls that I initiate. They almost never get back in touch to say, 'Hey we've set a date and would love to have you out.' It's not an exaggeration to say a post from OKCTalk means thousands in business not to mention the pyramid effect of learning from friends, repeat business, etc.

Even almost all the PR firms don't get it. They are busy charging their client to get something in the Oklahoman or 405. How many young people that frequent these places pay any attention to either?

It just shows how most of OKC still has a very old way of looking at things; how we are still pretty unsophisticated in too many ways.


I always use Boomtown Creamery as the polar opposite great example. I knew they were going to kill in the moment I talked to the young woman who runs it. It's become very predictable.

[FighttheGoodFight]

I interacted with the owners of Cross Timbers a few times. I'm not too surprised it went under. Hopefully something can fill that space. Now I need to get back to EdgeCraft...

[Pete]

I should add that after I badger some of these places and almost have to beg them just to come take photos (I do not accept any freebies at all; no food or drink, even at soft openings) many are still reluctant.

Then, I show up and the place is a mess, nobody is there to meet me, whoever is there doesn't know anything about me being there, etc. It takes me literally 10 minutes to get what I need... Pick the place up for crying out loud. More than one time I've told them, "Can I come back when you have everything looking like you want it?." This is after making the same request before the first visit.


I'm strongly considering only making this sort of effort for people who are willing to pay for a featured post. And even then, I'd still be pretty selective.

"Thanks for driving tens of thousands of $ our way... We added a couple of thousand social media followers. How about a free beer?"

[Bits_Of_Real_Panther]

Marketing, with all small businesses, is paramount.

And almost nobody invests in it or even considers it much before they open their doors.



Almost all these new places I contact well in advance

I always use Boomtown Creamery as the polar opposite great example. I knew they were going to kill in the moment I talked to the young woman who runs it. It's become very predictable.

What was different about boomtown?

Not familiar with the story

[Will Dearborn]

I'll be the outlier based on the comments above but I didn't see anything appealing about Cross Timbers: their beers were totally pedestrian and the patio was whatever.

[jedicurt]

Equity Brewing in Norman announced they will be closing down when their lease is up at the end of July. I know many on here will say this is another bit of proof that the Craft beer scene is dead in OKC. But this is once again another situation where management showed that they couldn't overcome their own deficiencies. You can't do some questionable business practices that causes an almost complete turnover in your staff; the brewery you were helping get off the ground decide it was better to just not make any beer or money until their own brewery space was finished rather than continue brewing and selling with you; and most of your regulars at the time to leave you and never come back, and expect to survive long term.

[dankrutka]

That's unfortunate. Equity had a really unique, intimate space—somewhere between brewery, coffee shop, and book store. I enjoyed it the few times I visited.

[okcrun]

Equity Brewing in Norman announced they will be closing down when their lease is up at the end of July. I know many on here will say this is another bit of proof that the Craft beer scene is dead in OKC. But this is once again another situation where management showed that they couldn't overcome their own deficiencies. You can't do some questionable business practices that causes an almost complete turnover in your staff; the brewery you were helping get off the ground decide it was better to just not make any beer or money until their own brewery space was finished rather than continue brewing and selling with you; and most of your regulars at the time to leave you and never come back, and expect to survive long term.

Not sure why you would expect anyone to know what you are talking about

[jedicurt]

Not sure why you would expect anyone to know what you are talking about

literally just pointing out that the writing for this had been on the wall. and that this isn't the "craft beer industry is dying" like others keep saying. all of the recent brewery closings have been not surprising to those who actually follow and know these breweries.

Twisted Spike always had a terrible location, Cross Timbers had some ownership issues, Black Mesa couldn't pay their taxes, and Equity made some bad ownership decisions that cost them their best staff and a large group of loyal customers.

i just get tired every time one of these has closed, so many people on here who don't frequent these places or know the people involved just throw out "Craft Beer Is Dying", or whatever other nonsense they constantly say when they don't actually know what is going on.

[Pete]

Any insight as to why Elk Valley didn't make it?