5 Rabbit Cerveceria, Contract Brewing, and The Beeronaut
by Jim Vondracek on 12/15/11
Chicago is blessed with a great group of local breweries and the number seems to be growing monthly. One of those breweries, 5 Rabbit Cerveceria, presents an interesting case study that I found very informative. The three men who founded 5 Rabbit decided not to open their own brewery right away, but rather to 'contract brew' with an existing brewery, Argus. Both 5 Rabbit and Argus have grown, and 5 Rabbit needs to go in a new direction now, on the path to eventually building their own brewery. That path, though, is not a straight line. It makes for a very interesting story.
The Beeronaut,Mark McDermott (logo and photo above), wrote a really interesting blog about this, including an interview with 5 Rabbit brewmaster, Randy Mosher. It's a worthwhile read, informative and interesting - http://www.chicagonow.com/the-beeronaut/2011/12/5-rabbit-brewmaster-on-changing-their-contract-brewing-partner/
Mark is a member of a club I belong to, B.O.S.S. (Brewers of South Suburbia) and is a great chronicler of all the best beer events that happen in and around Chicago. Take a few moments to poke around his blog - it's fantastic. You can also read Mark at Examiner http://www.examiner.com/craft-beer-in-chicago/mark-mcdermott
5 Rabbit makes Latin American influenced beers. Read more about them on their website here http://5rabbitbrewery.com/ There's a fascinating video here http://www.thebeergoddess.com/blog/item/526-5-rabbit-brewerys-basement-beer from Erin Peters (The Beer Goddess) where the 5 Rabbit founders explain the unusual roots and goals of 5 Rabbit and show you the basement homebrewery that Randy Mosher built and that they use as a laboratory to develop their beers, before sending them to their contracted production brewery.
There is a connection here to my handmade beer making - Randy Mosher (pictured above) wrote a book called Radical Brewing, which is by far my favorite brewing book. I've read many brewing books -after I'm done, I almost always give them to someone else. Not Radical Brewing, I've kept it and refer to it often. I like the way Randy thinks.
