Oklahoma Breweries

[bille]

I'll say this, if you are not frequenting the Big Friendly, you are doing yourself a massive disservice.

Indeed! Easily one of my top five OKC breweries. More times than not if I only have time to visit one brewery that is where I go.

[bille]

^

Thank you for all that insight.

I will say that relative newcomer Fair Weather Friend seems to have found their audience. But they do a great job of serving food and marketing themselves and the various events they hold, such as trivia.

Also, Frenzy Brewing in Downtown Edmond seems to do well and of course there are now tons of food places all around them. Sundance is another that does a good job of marketing themselves and seems to stay pretty busy. Stonecloud was one of the first and they also seem to have found their audience, same with OG Anthem.


It seems the lesson is you'd better offer something unique and actively work on continuous promotion and events. OKC is too competitive to just open your doors and hope people show up and keep thinking of you amid the hundreds of competing choices.

Reed and Adrienne both have far-reaching backgrounds in the business, working at PAA and Stonecloud to name a couple. They've seen what works and hopefully understand what doesn't. In addition to making good beer I have to credit them with coming out of the gate with on-site pies (that are yummy) so there's no rush to leave to find food elsewhere. I'm afraid too many breweries discounted food options or once realized their importance have failed to move forward trying to find food options of some kind. If you don't have a convenient location, decent walkability and/or foot traffic you certainly need to find a niche or something that sets you apart. Indeed you cannot just put out a basic portfolio of beers, regardless if they are brewed perfectly, set back and expect the customers to come to you on a consistent basis.

The breweries that seem to have their fingers on the pulse imo are The Big Friendly, Roughtail, Stonecloud and Skydance. Understand what the crowd wants, have a least a couple of options for everybody, including the non-craft fans, and not staying stagnant pushing new/fresh beers or variants of old favorites. That helps bring in new faces as well as the loyal customers.

[bille]

yes. they are the only brewery in Oklahoma right now winning national awards. and the product speaks for itself

They make great beers but equallly important is seeing value in entering these contests so that when you do get recognized you can parlay those accolades into a marketing campaign, follow up beer releases, etc. It's a very smart move!

[borchard]

Someone earlier in this string mentioned a brewer that was GREAT at brewing beer, but really didn't want to, or even know how to, run a taproom. They just wanted to brew beer. The ones that are still shining, and hopefully will continue to shine, are the ones who seem to know how to do both? What I hope is that the failure of some of these leads to lessons learned by up-and-coming brewers, so that history doesn't keep repeating itself. I have ZERO personal inside knowledge of the brewing industry in Oklahoma. I just know what I like, and what I hear from people who report to "know". From that, and what I've read here, there can be many reasons why these breweries are failing:

- Didn't pay their taxes
- Not in a good location.
- Good at brewing, but bad at business-running
- Hired the wrong people
- Expected development around them to augment them
- Grew too fast
- Just didn't make good beer

I still believe that making an EXCEPTIONAL beer can cover a multitude of other issues. IMHO, Coop does not have a good location for a taproom, but they caught lightning in a bottle with some of their beers, especially F5. It can be found at almost EVERY place in Oklahoma that has beer taps. A friend of mine in New Mexico even heard about it and had me to get him some.
Roughtail made ERWO. Its also in a ton of places around the state.
PAA created Prairie Bomb years ago. That beer has traveled all around the country. I recently saw a PAA beer in a pub in North Georgia.

Other local breweries have some good beers, but if they can create THAT beer it goes a long way to making them a success.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. Doesn't mean it's right.

[TBD]

The Big Friendly is great and their taproom is amazing. Love grabbing a beer and a taco at Taco Nation across the street. Was there last night and noticed they're starting a membership club. Seems mostly targeted at neighbors, but looks like a good deal for anyone there on a regular basis.

[corwin1968]

I wasn't a beer drinker until the mid-90's, when Samuel Adams started putting out different styles of beers and still wasn't much of a drinker until recently, when I discovered the HUGE variety of beer that is now available.

I'm a BA stout guy and try pretty much every one I can get my hands one. I feel very fortunate that we have some excellent breweries/brew houses in OKC. I'm a frequent visitor to PAA, who puts out an outrageous number of stouts, and although I've never drank at the OKC taproom, I've bought beer at Stonecloud and drank at the Stillwater taproom. Today, we went to Frenzy for the first time (their canned Midnight Sentinel started me on my stout journey) and I was very impressed. We then stopped by American Solera, where we had been before, and I had three more stouts, one of which was among the best I've ever had (Solchata, if you like BA stouts, you have to try this one. On tap, only).

Overall, I would rate Stonecloud over PAA, as far as high quality BA stouts, but PAA wins for sheer variety and frequency of new releases.

Anthem has a line-up of three BA stouts, Hunting for the Sun (good), Eclipse My Mind (AMAZING) and a third that is yet to be released. I haven't been to their taproom and haven't seen "In your Eyes", but I would really like to try it.

The quality of beer coming out of OK breweries is amazing to me.

[Bunty]

An interesting thing about Stonecloud Brewery that may not be well known is that its owner Joel Irby grew up in Stillwater while his dad was having success building up Stillwater Designs, famous for its Kicker brand of car speakers, subs and amps.

To put up his new Stonecloud in Stillwater, Joel got with Cory Williams, who after leaving politics got more involved in redeveloping old residential and commercial properties in Stillwater. A downtown Stillwater building abandoned for decades was remodeled into Stonecloud. Today with its great patio, it is a big hit and gives other downtown bars, including Iron Monk Brewery, plenty of competition. Pictured below. Part of an old white building is on the right. It is currently being remodeled into a new restaurant.

[OkieBerto]

"Good at brewing, but bad at business-running"

From my conversations over the years with one of my close friends who is a local Brewer, this is the main reason for the struggles he has had at the two local breweries he has worked at over the last decade. At his last brewery, the company couldn't keep the original brewer or formula guy happy so they split. It was up to the junior brewers to keep that place afloat. It survived, but it was clear management messed it up. The same thing happened to his current location last year. The Main Brewer wasn't happy with the way things were managed and he split. He is now brewing for a bigger national chain. My friend is now the head brewery and loves his work, but it ain't easy being a brewer.

[Urbanized]

The actual operation of a business - especially one with an intensive public-facing customer component - is far more complex than can be imaged by someone who’s never done it themselves. Just because someone is skilled in an art, be it via education or self-actuation - business needs such as legalities, leases, finance, taxes, building and equipment maintenance, insurance, hiring, training, supervision, scheduling, HR, payroll, marketing and other comms, and customer service ALL require a deft touch to ensure simple longevity, much less success.

Anyone who gets into a business endeavor based solely on a passion for the product MUST assess and recognize their own shortcomings or at the very least their own lack of expertise. Sometimes you can become a self-taught expert on a needed task on your own, of course. But the tradeoff in doing so can impact the time you can spend on the part you love, which will often rob you of your original passion.

Usually a better strategy is to identify and lean on experts in any aspects of your business for which you lack experience or passion. To quote Solomon, pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

[jedicurt]

I wasn't a beer drinker until the mid-90's, when Samuel Adams started putting out different styles of beers and still wasn't much of a drinker until recently, when I discovered the HUGE variety of beer that is now available.

I'm a BA stout guy and try pretty much every one I can get my hands one. I feel very fortunate that we have some excellent breweries/brew houses in OKC. I'm a frequent visitor to PAA, who puts out an outrageous number of stouts, and although I've never drank at the OKC taproom, I've bought beer at Stonecloud and drank at the Stillwater taproom. Today, we went to Frenzy for the first time (their canned Midnight Sentinel started me on my stout journey) and I was very impressed. We then stopped by American Solera, where we had been before, and I had three more stouts, one of which was among the best I've ever had (Solchata, if you like BA stouts, you have to try this one. On tap, only).

Overall, I would rate Stonecloud over PAA, as far as high quality BA stouts, but PAA wins for sheer variety and frequency of new releases.

Anthem has a line-up of three BA stouts, Hunting for the Sun (good), Eclipse My Mind (AMAZING) and a third that is yet to be released. I haven't been to their taproom and haven't seen "In your Eyes", but I would really like to try it.

The quality of beer coming out of OK breweries is amazing to me.

if BA stouts are your thing and you are down in the norman area, Beer Is Good Brewery has some pretty great stouts as well.

[corwin1968]

if BA stouts are your thing and you are down in the norman area, Beer Is Good Brewery has some pretty great stouts as well.

Thanks for the recommendation! I will check that out.

[emounger]

I would just like to add that Angry Scotsman seems to be another one that is doing well. They have a wide selection of great beers and a great patio. We go there for trivia every Wednesday night and it's always packed; same with bingo on Sundays. They also do a good job of marketing themselves and the events they host.

[bille]

Someone earlier in this string mentioned a brewer that was GREAT at brewing beer, but really didn't want to, or even know how to, run a taproom. They just wanted to brew beer. The ones that are still shining, and hopefully will continue to shine, are the ones who seem to know how to do both? What I hope is that the failure of some of these leads to lessons learned by up-and-coming brewers, so that history doesn't keep repeating itself. I have ZERO personal inside knowledge of the brewing industry in Oklahoma. I just know what I like, and what I hear from people who report to "know". From that, and what I've read here, there can be many reasons why these breweries are failing:

- Didn't pay their taxes
- Not in a good location.
- Good at brewing, but bad at business-running
- Hired the wrong people
- Expected development around them to augment them
- Grew too fast
- Just didn't make good beer

I still believe that making an EXCEPTIONAL beer can cover a multitude of other issues. IMHO, Coop does not have a good location for a taproom, but they caught lightning in a bottle with some of their beers, especially F5. It can be found at almost EVERY place in Oklahoma that has beer taps. A friend of mine in New Mexico even heard about it and had me to get him some.
Roughtail made ERWO. Its also in a ton of places around the state.
PAA created Prairie Bomb years ago. That beer has traveled all around the country. I recently saw a PAA beer in a pub in North Georgia.

Other local breweries have some good beers, but if they can create THAT beer it goes a long way to making them a success.

Anyway, that's just my opinion. Doesn't mean it's right.

F5 is the number one selling craft beer sku in OK, they sell A LOT of it.

Prairie’s early/instant success was no accident. Chase, who originally started at COOP, met the folks at Shelton Brothers distributing at a craft beer conference while he was still working for COOP and although his next brand (Red Bud) didn’t really have a chance to take off the contacts he made back then and the experience with the Brewer’s CO-OP (eventually Brewer’s Union – yes, he started that too) would lay the groundwork for understanding what made sense and what it took to be successful. Spend time working on a solid recipe, contract a brewery (Choc) to do all the hard work, packaging, etc. for you and then have your new friends at Shelton Brothers distribute it to the far reaches of the world. The venture paid off big time for him! ��

[bille]

I wasn't a beer drinker until the mid-90's, when Samuel Adams started putting out different styles of beers and still wasn't much of a drinker until recently, when I discovered the HUGE variety of beer that is now available.

I'm a BA stout guy and try pretty much every one I can get my hands one. I feel very fortunate that we have some excellent breweries/brew houses in OKC. I'm a frequent visitor to PAA, who puts out an outrageous number of stouts, and although I've never drank at the OKC taproom, I've bought beer at Stonecloud and drank at the Stillwater taproom. Today, we went to Frenzy for the first time (their canned Midnight Sentinel started me on my stout journey) and I was very impressed. We then stopped by American Solera, where we had been before, and I had three more stouts, one of which was among the best I've ever had (Solchata, if you like BA stouts, you have to try this one. On tap, only).

Overall, I would rate Stonecloud over PAA, as far as high quality BA stouts, but PAA wins for sheer variety and frequency of new releases.

Anthem has a line-up of three BA stouts, Hunting for the Sun (good), Eclipse My Mind (AMAZING) and a third that is yet to be released. I haven't been to their taproom and haven't seen "In your Eyes", but I would really like to try it.

The quality of beer coming out of OK breweries is amazing to me.

Chase (proprietor of American Solera) is famous for starting Prairie Artisan Ales and being the created of Prairie Bomb. Bomb was modeled after Cigar City Hunahpu and other popular stouts that were sweeping the nation at the time. I distinctly remember those first releases of Bomb and Pirate Bomb here in OK, it was total chaos trying to locate bottles and many were trading for insane values on the secondary market!

[bille]

An interesting thing about Stonecloud Brewery that may not be well known is that its owner Joel Irby grew up in Stillwater while his dad was having success building up Stillwater Designs, famous for its Kicker brand of car speakers, subs and amps.

To put up his new Stonecloud in Stillwater, Joel got with Cory Williams, who after leaving politics got more involved in redeveloping old residential and commercial properties in Stillwater. A downtown Stillwater building abandoned for decades was remodeled into Stonecloud. Today with its great patio, it is a big hit and gives other downtown bars, including Iron Monk Brewery, plenty of competition. Pictured below. Part of an old white building is on the right. It is currently being remodeled into a new restaurant.

I met Steve many years ago, such a nice guy and thankfully my buddy who introduced us, didn't mention specifically who he was initially as he knew I'd probably embarrass myself fangirling too much having been a Kicker fan since my early teens. I didn't meet Joel until he returned back to OK to open Stonecloud. Probably one of the most interesting things about Stonecloud, at least to me, is that the Stillwater location absolutely kills the OKC taproom in terms of numbers. I would have never guessed that but it does make sense considering the location and lack of good beer options there.

[bille]

I would just like to add that Angry Scotsman seems to be another one that is doing well. They have a wide selection of great beers and a great patio. We go there for trivia every Wednesday night and it's always packed; same with bingo on Sundays. They also do a good job of marketing themselves and the events they host.

Glad to hear they are doing well, they are great people! They definitely have the best brewery taproom in OKC!

[jedicurt]

it was total chaos trying to locate bottles and many were trading for insane values on the secondary market!

very much this... i actually had a 4 pack of Pirate Bomb and 2 4 packs of the normal bomb bottles, and ended up making a trip all the way to St Louis to meet a guy who drove in from Milwaukee to pay me $2000 for all of it. it was crazy, but it made the trip worth it. lol

EDIT: sorry i rounded up... actually only got $1,800 for all 12 bottles. because it was $150 a bottle.

[bille]

very much this... i actually had a 4 pack of Pirate Bomb and 2 4 packs of the normal bomb bottles, and ended up making a trip all the way to St Louis to meet a guy who drove in from Milwaukee to pay me $2000 for all of it. it was crazy, but it made the trip worth it. lol

EDIT: sorry i rounded up... actually only got $1,800 for all 12 bottles. because it was $150 a bottle.

My first out of state trade was for one or two bottles of Pirate Bomb for a rather lopsided haul of Bruery goods (mainly two bottles of Black Tuesday). I can't recall if it was one or two bottles on my end but either way it was lopsided <but the going rate>. I threw in some extras for him because I felt a little guilty but I definitely came out way ahead on that trade.

[corwin1968]

very much this... i actually had a 4 pack of Pirate Bomb and 2 4 packs of the normal bomb bottles, and ended up making a trip all the way to St Louis to meet a guy who drove in from Milwaukee to pay me $2000 for all of it. it was crazy, but it made the trip worth it. lol

EDIT: sorry i rounded up... actually only got $1,800 for all 12 bottles. because it was $150 a bottle.

That's crazy!! I guess it's a reflection of the times, but I consider Prairie's Bomb to be mediocre at best.

[WhoRepsTheLurker]

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

The ABLE leadership change hurt Elk Valley. Before the new leader, John was told it was okay to make mead under his license. He had a voicemail and everything that he used for backup in case something went array. So he sunk a lot of money into the equipment and material necessary to make mead. But when the leadership change happened, he was told they couldn't make mead and that the voicemail and documentation he had from ABLE didn't matter. So they had to get rid of the product they had, hence their big mead sale in December before they closed.

In the final few months, he was losing between $8k to $20k a month.

[Mballard85]

The ABLE leadership change hurt Elk Valley. Before the new leader, John was told it was okay to make mead under his license. He had a voicemail and everything that he used for backup in case something went array. So he sunk a lot of money into the equipment and material necessary to make mead. But when the leadership change happened, he was told they couldn't make mead and that the voicemail and documentation he had from ABLE didn't matter. So they had to get rid of the product they had, hence their big mead sale in December before they closed.

In the final few months, he was losing between $8k to $20k a month.

His mead was fantastic

[bille]

His mead was fantastic

That mead was labeled as Elk Valley mead but in reality it was brewed by Burt Renard. Look him up, he has a "B's Meadery" page on FB I believe. He isn't commercial but is dabbling in it, initially with John at Elk Valley and currently collaborating with the fellas over at OK Cider. His meads are some of the best I have ever tried, I'm fortunate enough to get to try them regularly as he often brings samples to our homebrew club meetings.

[corwin1968]

if BA stouts are your thing and you are down in the norman area, Beer Is Good Brewery has some pretty great stouts as well.

We live in far NW OKC but once Total Wine opens, we can make a day of it, stocking up on new varieties to try and then hitting the taphouse.

[corwin1968]

This is a long-shot and probably a strange question, but there seem to be some people here with in-depth knowledge of the people behind many of the local breweries.

About 15 years ago, I worked with a girl whose husband was really into home brewing. She even brought me a sample for my opinion. His dream was to open his own brewery and now that I've really gotten into the brewery scene, I can't help wonder if they are involved in any of them. I don't remember her name but she was a licensed social worker at the time. Anyone know of any breweries where one of the owners used to be a social worker?

[BoulderSooner]

This is a long-shot and probably a strange question, but there seem to be some people here with in-depth knowledge of the people behind many of the local breweries.

About 15 years ago, I worked with a girl whose husband was really into home brewing. She even brought me a sample for my opinion. His dream was to open his own brewery and now that I've really gotten into the brewery scene, I can't help wonder if they are involved in any of them. I don't remember her name but she was a licensed social worker at the time. Anyone know of any breweries where one of the owners used to be a social worker?

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