Odell Brewing Co. embraces its microbrewery roots.

Thinking Small
Odell Brewing Co. embraces its
microbrewery roots.
by Peter V.K. Reid
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O
dell Brewing Co. thinks small. Smallbatch, that is. Though most production takes place in a 50-barrel
brewhouse, the company’s tiny fivebarrel pilot brewery has become a
focal point of its marketing efforts. A steady
stream of small-batch beers emerges from
this microbrewery-within-a-craft-brewery,
and the limited-edition pilot brews provide
Odell with a key point of differentiation in
its home territory. Local consumers flock to
the Odell taproom and annual Small-Batch
festival to try one-off beers, and brewery
managers are now moving small-batches
to the off-premise, with a new line of highprice, limited-edition bottled beers called
the Woodcut Series.
Though Odell is now a good-sized regional, the company still holds to its smallscale roots. “We’re just an overgrown microbrewery,” says founder Doug Odell with a
laugh. Odell, founded in 1989, was draughtonly until 1996. The current small-batch
program is a logical throwback to the company’s roots.
Small-batch is also a survival strategy,
borne of doing business in the literal shadow of super-crafter New Belgium. The New
Belgium brewery is visible from Odell’s back
pasture, a big, blocky silhouette through a
thin screen of trees.
“Partly because New Belgium is so close,
we had to find our own niche,” says Odell
chief operating officer John Bryant, “Innovation is also very good for the company, and
that’s the heart and soul of what we are doing with the pilot brewery, creating innovation in beer. People like seeing new beers,
and tasting new beer styles.”
Locals now flock to the Odell taproom,
buying taster trays for $4. The drinker can
choose to donate the $4 price to charity, or
get a $4 credit for brewery merchandise. The
program raises $5,000 to $8,000 a month,
and also moves a lot of T-shirts. “Every two
weeks we change what’s on our pilot beer
tray,” Bryant adds. “You can try four beers
that may not be around next week. They
know which brewer made which beer. Our
brewery engineer made a Viking malt liquor,
and people ask “Where’s Big Jim’s Viking
malt liquor?” We’re trying to make beer personal.”
When the consumers like the beer, they
buy it by the pint. The profusion of personal
beers emerging from the pilot brewery also
gave birth to the company’s Small Batch
Beer Festival, now an annual summer event.
At the last Small Batch festival, brewers
poured 23 different in-house beers.
A new Five-Barrel system was installed in
July, allowing the company to produce even
more short-run specialty beers. “With our
new five-barrel system, we’ll be able to do
a lot more stuff, really turn over a lot more
beer. We’ve had to do two mashes to get
is the Woodcut Series. As the brewery expands this year, a key new feature will be a
wood aging cellar, with ranks of wooden
barrels to house these specialty beers. The
Woodcut Series will feature runs of about
120 cases in 750-ml wine bottles, hand-corked, custom-labeled and pre-sold, selling for
Odell Brewer Brent Cordle with a barrel full of hops.
the higher alcohol beers, the new system
will crank those out in one shot,” says Brewery engineer Jim Weatherwax.
“We invested in the new pilot system because this has become so important to the
company,” Bryant says. “Originally, it was just
a true pilot plant, used mainly for R&D. As we
started growing and offering pilot beers to
the public, we saw this big spike about twoand-a-half years ago. People would come in
and order trays—2 of these, 1 of those—and
we said, ‘let’s just do a pilot tray.’ It took off.”
The next step in the small batch program
$24.99 a bottle.
“The price point is ambitious,” Doug
Odell admits. “But there is a lot more cost
involved in making these beers—both ingredient cost and barrel cost—and there is
value in that. The Woodcut beers are also
very labor intensive, hand-made beers, and I
think people will see they are getting more
for their money.”
But Mr. Odell laughs wryly. “Sure, I guess
someone could say, ‘Hey, why should I pay
more? It’s not my fault that you guys don’t
have automation!”
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Mr. Odell says the first Woodcut beer was
a blending challenge. “There were three different batches, two different yeasts, and two
different barrels,” he reports. “There was a lot
of variety. The yeast strain made a difference,
and so did the type of barrel. We had done
some wine barrel aging in the past, but we
and volume growth will be slow by design.
We have no national aspirations. We want to
make beer, manage our growth and maintain a good company culture. We have no
dramatic expansion plans. We will continue
to serve Colorado and a few neighboring
states, just as we do now. At the core of what
The Odell sales team services their largest account, Wilbur’s Total Beverage, in Ft. Collins, CO. Left to right — Jeff
Matson (Manager of Wilbur’s Total Beverage), Todd Ewing (Odell Sales), Adam D’ Antonio (Odell Sales), Matt Pomeroy (Odell Sales) and Kirk Simpson (Odell Wholesale Manager).
used new oak barrels for this project. We’re
not trying to extract flavor in this case, but
we still want a wood character in there.”
COO John Bryant sees the Woodcut
beers as a key to building Odell’s image as a
high-value brewer. “We have to brew beers
that are worth more,” he says, “Our goal is to
be more of a Dogfish Head or Russian River.
We will do high-end brews, charge for that
creativity, and make it on the margin. Innovation is the main way we are going to succeed.”
The new higher-priced specialty beers
are part of a general effort to peg prices
higher, Bryant notes. “We are starting to
raise our prices,” he says. “We currently have
three-tier pricing, and we’d like to make it
two tier. Our core brands—Cutthroat, Levity,
Easy street and 90 shilling—are at $7.99 in
our home market. The IPA is at $8.99 and the
double pils is a $10.49.”
For Bryant, higher-value beers also fit in
with the company’s growth strategy. “Realistically, we’re not trying to grow 8-10% a year,”
he says. “We will be a specialized brewer,
we are doing, there will be continued innovation in beer quality and style. We have to
give consumers a reason to find more value
in beer.”
“I like the idea of regionalism in consumer
products,” founder Doug Odell adds. “I like
the idea of independent coffee shops, hamburger stands and ice cream that’s made in
your own town. That way you can go different places, have different products, and get
different versions of things. Being a regional
brewery fulfills my idea of doing that. You
come to Ft. Collins, and you can get beers
you don’t get in Indiana. I think regionalism
is important for the health of independent
brewers. Not everyone can be everywhere.”
Odell’s seven-state footprint now comprises Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico,
South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. About 93% of the company’s volume
is sold in the top three markets—Colorado,
Wyoming and New Mexico.
“The heartland states that we’re in don’t
do as much volume, but our sales team is
working those markets, and we’re seeing a
low-level groundswell,” says Eric Smith, director of sales and marketing.
“Our early expansion was mainly through
ignorance,” Doug Odell admits. “When a restaurant in Manhattan, Kansas, wanted our
beer, we sent them our beer. John Bryant
and his team have been working to develop
those markets where we were stumbling.”
Colorado has been fertile ground for
craft, and that’s where 85% of Odell’s volume is sold. “The retail system in Colorado
is very beneficial for small brewers,” says
Odell. “Independent liquor stores can have
only one license, so we can walk into a store,
and don’t have to talk to buyers out of state.
The system encourages large independents,
and helps the smaller brewer get the product out.”
Growing sales in Colorado have pushed
the company towards the next steps in its
managed growth plan. Odell produced
just under 40,000 barrels last year out of a
50-barrel Newlands Service brewhouse, and
is dancing on the edge of capacity. “We’re
about a year away from having no space,”
Bryant says. “We’re not maxed out, but we
are close.”
In 2009, a major expansion is planned.
“We have to move some fermentation tanks
out of here, put in a new cellar, add a mash/
lauter tun and brewkettle,” Odell says. “The
system will remain mash/lauter kettle, but
with a separate whirlpool. Getting the whirlpool activity out of there it will improve operations.”
“In the brewhouse the hop back is the
newest component,” Odell adds. “We still
use pelletized hops. But we now use whole
flower hops in some beers for flavor and
aroma, this has helped us to diversify flavor.
I guess we’re one of the few breweries with
a hop back, it produces great aroma, great
hop characteristics, and that stands out in
every beer. Right now we only use it for four
of our beers—Five-barrel, IPA, Double Pils,
and Extra Special Red.”
As the expansion proceeds, the company will open up some walls to add cooler
space and room for new tanks. The first of
a planned group of stainless steel Mueller
fermenting tanks have been installed. “We
want to put in a tank farm,” says production
manager Brendan McGivney. “Mueller has a
lot of experience in designing larger installations, and they provided us with a consultant if we decided to put in 12 new tanks.”
The packaging line, installed back in the
mid-1990s when Odell started bottling, has
reached peak efficiency, but is also reaching
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capacity.
“We’re running a Krones line with a rinser,
filler and labeler that dates to 1995-1996,” says
Odell packaging ninja Ryan King. “We got it
when it was way more than we needed, and
now we’re reaching capacity for it. We run
it at 123 bottles-per-minute with four guys.
barrel system, more fermentation space and
more warehouse space,” he says. “But we’re
looking closely at cost as we go along. For
example, with the tank farm, we may build
the shell to house it, and put in the equipment as we need it. It can be set up for 12
tanks, and maybe we put in 3 or 4 to start.
The key for us is we don’t want to put all this
money into expansion, and change the nature of the company, and lose people.”
When Doug started the brewery, he was
the sole employee, but it soon became a
family affair, with his wife Wynne and sister
Corkie. “My sister came down after awhile
Odell’s front-line team at the summer small batch festival included (L. to R) chief operating officer John Bryant,
director of sales and marketing Eric Smith and sales and marketing coordinator Joni Denyes.
Head brewer Jake O’Mara, sporting wounds from a
mountain bike crash.
Yesterday we did 160 barrels, starting at 7:30
and running until 2:30. That is amazing considering where we came from. We used to
have to shut and tape boxes by hand. Now
the secondary packaging is more consistent
and looks better, and we even have a roller
for a best-by date.”
John Bryant says the company has carefully assessed the costs and benefits of further growth. “One thing we’re learning is
that the more you grow, the more capital
intensive it is,” he says. “We need new capacity, a more efficient brewhouse, a new five-
Production manager Brendan McGivney and COO John Bryant.
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Founder Doug Odell stands on the platform of the company’s 50-barrel Newlands Services brewhouse.
and started volunteering,” he recalls. “Wynne,
my wife, had a full-time job with HewlettPackard, but she helped out with the business side. John Bryant joined us in 2004. We
had been thinking of hiring somebody. We
knew John, of course. And one day, Wynne
said, ‘You know what? We need someone
like John Bryant.’ Not long after that, a mutual friend put us in touch with John, and he
ended up joining the company. He has been
a great addition to this brewery.”
Doug Odell still serves as brewmaster,
and frequently brews on the pilot system.
But day-to-day production is now handled
by production manager Brendan McGivney
and head brewer Jake O’Mara.
Odell Brewing Co.’s beers are broadly in
the English style, the result of Doug Odell’s
early exposure to English styles. “I was living in Seattle when Grant’s and Redhook
opened, and my first trip abroad was to England,” Odell says. “That was really my first exposure to different beers. I liked English ale,
so that’s what I decided to make. The older
beers we make are probably more malty,
our balance early on was more towards the
malty end. We do some higher IBU stuff
now, but I don’t want hop bombs, I like
some balance. The 90 shilling for example is
pretty malty—if you look at recipe sheet, we
go heavy on the malt. We use an ale yeast, of
course, but from the ingredients you’d think
it was an Oktoberfest.”
“The 90 Shilling is our number one seller,”
notes Brendan McGivney. “It’s a Scottish/
English hybrid, 5.2% abv and 27 IBUs. Levity is a drinkable 5.1% abv, 25 IBU beer, very
malty and middle-of-the-road. The pilot version of Levity is now nitrogenated, since our
process is now set up to do nitro beers, and
that has been a big draw. Our Five-Barrel
Pale, at 5.2% abv and 36 IBU, is made with
an infusion of fresh whole hops in the hop
back, and of course our gold medal IPA is 7%
abv. That’s our main portfolio, and then with
the Woodcut series, we’ll push the limits.”
This portfolio is rounded out by literally
dozens of small batch beers, like Hop Light,
a light bodied ale with 40+ IBUs; Bobby, a
fresh and drinkable kolsch; and of course,
Big Jim’s Viking malt liquor. “It’s a malt liquor
made from quality ingredients,” says engineer Jim Weatherwax, “or at least it was until
I dumped a 50-lb bag of sugar into it.”
Given the current ingredient shortages,
Odell has been fortunate to have long-term
contracts, and has guaranteed hop supplies
for the next 18 months. “We won’t be introducing another double IPA this year, but
we’re in pretty good shape,” Odell says. “In
the near future it will return to where everyone is paying the same thing, but this year
there is severe cost pressure on some brewers. It’s a little hard to gauge the internal financial health of some of the craft brewers,
and I see some more consolidation as likely.
But overall, I see craft as healthy. Even with
the economy the way it is, we haven’t seen
that consumer cut-off, with people saying
‘I’m not buying that expensive stuff anymore’.”
Doug Odell says balance in business is
just as important as balance in beer. “Everyone wants to grow,” he says. “Growth is
good because it keeps people motivated.
And with inflation and higher ingredient
costs, you have to bring in increased revenue. But we’d like a combination of higher
volume and higher value. Increased volume
on its own is not our goal.”
John Bryant agrees. “Growth in volume is
addictive,” he says. “You can run yourself out
of business real quick. Jack Joyce of Rogue
is the Yoda of the beer business when it
comes to dollars vs. volume. He taught me
that you have to focus on margin and profitability. The sole pursuit of volume market
share will lead you astray and damage your
business.”
“We have to learn how to grow in a reasonable way,” Bryant adds, “and we have
reward our people along the way, by investing back into them. That’s the way this will
work.”
“Our employee turnover is nonexistent,”
Doug Odell points out, “and I think that’s
because we’ve empowered people and let
them be a part of this.”
For Doug Odell, the term “small brewer”
will never be a pejorative. “I like the size we
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