Millstream Brewery and Hy-vee

DaveCo · Post by **DaveCo** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:03 pm

Below is a email from Teresa about Homebrew competition. The winner will be produced by Millstream for Hy-Vee.

Dave Coughlin

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Happy New Year to all of you out there in Home Brewers Land!

I have a fun proposal for all of the Iowa Home Brew Clubs that I hope you will pass onto your club members. Millstream Brewery contacted
Hy-Vee a few months ago and started talking to them about private labeling a beer for Hy-Vee. They really liked the idea and as things
go one idea grew into another and then into another. So here is how the story goes: They wanted to do 4 seasonal beers and would like for us to take samples of several spring, summer, fall and winter beers up for them to sample. They would put a panel of judges together from their various stores for them to pick the beer to be brewed. This of course, allows buy in from their employees of this product because they chose the actual beer. We really like the idea too, but here is where a problem occurs for us and you come into the picture. As I said this part of the whole concept really blew into something bigger and really is going to be fun if you are interested. We cannot brew small batches of test beers for Hy-Vee to sample and choose from. I asked Hy-Vee if they minded if I brought in the home brewers at this point. I would like to challenge each home brew club to brew a summer beer to submit to Hy-Vee to sample. The winning beer/recipe would then be brought to Millstream Brewery and we would brew this beer and package it for Hy-Vee as their summer seasonal beer on a regular basis. Hy-Vee will then promote this Iowa Home Brew Club to Iowa Microbrewery to Iowa Retailer concept throughout Iowa. They will publish the winning home brew club and their new seasonal beer in the newspapers, TV, in their in house “Seasonal” magazine, etc. What great publicity for Iowa businesses and Iowa beer. I’m really excited about this venture and hope that we have several home brew clubs willing to take on this fun challenge.

You could make this a competition within your own club to have everyone brew a beer and choose which one goes on to represent your
club or you can do a group brew (is that done?). However you want to do it.

We will be doing this 2 times this year for a Summer and Winter brew and 2 times next year to add in the Spring and Fall brews. I wish we could do all 4 this year but it would be very taxing on Millstream to brew 4 new beers and get the packaging done in 1 year. Also this gives us great publicity for 2 years.

There are no entry fees associated with this friendly competition. Judging will be done the week of Feb 15th. Sorry about the short notice on this, but I promise I will give you plenty of notice for the next 3 seasonal beers. We just needed to get this off and running!

Here are the only guidelines for you to follow as you develop a beer for this fun competition.

1. Must be an ale
2. We use Briess Malt to brew with so keep that in mind
3. 4 bottles must be submitted to Millstream Brewery for judging by Feb 15, 2010. (Bottles can be of any size)
4. A summer style beer is preferable.
5. Only 1 beer submitted per home brew club
6. Nothing too exotic – remember it will go into production and we have to be able to afford to brew it and still make a profit!
7. MUST BE LEGAL! (6.25 ABV)

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:17 pm

Sounds cool but not sure I would have time on teh short notice. Hope somebody can produce a good one.

Mr T · Post by **Mr T** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 3:30 pm

I got that email earlier this morning and have been thinking about it.

I’m mixed if we want to get engaged in formulating recipes for millstream twice a year. The publicity is nice but as a local brew club “very local” its not that state wide exposure is going to benefit us much if at all.

Many breweries come up with their own recipes for brewing to sell, not sure why its been difficult over the years for Millstream to formulate anything new of their own. Although I certainly give Millstream props for the great idea of getting someone to brew a great beer and they get to sell it… Clever, although Sam Adams is cashing in on the same exposure.

Too bad we don’t get free beer for a year… hint, hint.. Mrs. Albert.

From: Matt F [mailto:brew-news@crbeernuts.org]
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 3:17 PM
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org
Subject: Re: Millstream Brewery and Hy-vee

Sounds cool but not sure I would have time on teh short notice. Hope somebody can produce a good one.

Matt Franklin
Slappy Brewing

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lpapkin · Post by **lpapkin** » Wed Dec 30, 2009 4:39 pm

Although pretty short notice, maybe a few of the club members who want to try to submit an entry could brew a beer and the club would have to 'approve' it for submission since it will be representing the club. If the club wins it would be good publicity and fun to say a club beer is being sold at Hy Vee. Since Hy Vee will publicize this, it might also attract new club members. You could also send in a story to BYO or Zymurgy - would be pretty cool. I agree with T however, that it's kind of weird that Millstream can't formulate a beer on their own. Every other brewery I know of does test beers on a pilot brewery. How else do you test new beers (oh, that's right, they never come out with any new beers, do they?)?. Anyway, my two cents. Hope everyone has a great new year and may every batch of homebrew be better than the last.

Larry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mr T" <brew-news@crbeernuts.org>
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 3:35:08 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: Millstream Brewery and Hy-vee

I got that email earlier this morning and have been thinking about it.

Iâ€™m mixed if we want to get engaged in formulating recipes for millstream twice a year. The publicity is nice but as a local brew club â€œvery localâ€

Mark R · Post by **Mark R** » Thu Dec 31, 2009 12:36 pm

We know that Mr. Anderson is out of the running....I don't think he's capable of making a beer less than 6.25%...

hee hee

Happy New Year!

On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 4:52 PM, lpapkin <brew-news@crbeernuts.org (brew-news@crbeernuts.org)> wrote:

Although pretty short notice, maybe a few of the club members who want to try to submit an entry could brew a beer and the club would have to 'approve' it for submission since it will be representing the club. If the club wins it would be good publicity and fun to say a club beer is being sold at Hy Vee. Since Hy Vee will publicize this, it might also attract new club members. You could also send in a story to BYO or Zymurgy - would be pretty cool. I agree with T however, that it's kind of weird that Millstream can't formulate a beer on their own. Every other brewery I know of does test beers on a pilot brewery. How else do you test new beers (oh, that's right, they never come out with any new beers, do they?)?. Anyway, my two cents. Hope everyone has a great new year and may every batch of homebrew be better than the last.

Larry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mr T"
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org (brew-news@crbeernuts.org)

Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 3:35:08 PM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: Re: Millstream Brewery and Hy-vee

I got that email earlier this morning and have been thinking about it.

Iâ€™m mixed if we want to get engaged in formulating recipes for millstream twice a year. The publicity is nice but as a local brew club â€œvery localâ€ its not that state wide exposure is going to benefit us much if at all.

Many breweries come up with their own recipes for brewing to sell, not sure why its been difficult over the years for Millstream to formulate anything new of their own. Although I certainly give Millstream props for the great idea of getting someone to brew a great beer and they get to sell itâ€¦ Clever, although Sam Adams is cashing in on the same exposure.

Too bad we donâ€™t get free beer for a yearâ€¦ hint, hint.. Mrs. Albert.

From: Matt F [mailto:brew-news@crbeernuts.org (brew-news@crbeernuts.org)]
Sent: Wednesday, December 30, 2009 3:17 PM
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org (brew-news@crbeernuts.org)
Subject: Re: Millstream Brewery and Hy-vee

Sounds cool but not sure I would have time on teh short notice. Hope somebody can produce a good one.

Matt Franklin
Slappy Brewing

mrT (big T)
Prez Nut

Larry

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DaveCo · Post by **DaveCo** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 2:51 pm

Looks like those evil lawyers have put an end to this competition. Below is the email that I just received from Teresa.
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Dave,

Just after sending the email out to the home brewers asking for your help with our Hy-Vee venture, I found out that we are going to have a little legal glitz that is going to prevent us from going forward with this project. It was a problem that could be worked around, but sort of defeated what we wanted to do with the whole Iowa brewers to Iowa store thing. We will not be doing a private label for Hy-Vee now.

So anyway, I really apologize about this. I should have done just a little more homework & research before asking for your help. Sorry again and thanks for the help, it would have been a fun project.

Cheers!

Teresa Albert

TappedOut · Post by **TappedOut** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:35 am

Interesting. They contract brew John's White, but it's available at lots of other places than just Dirty Johns.

tompb · Post by **tompb** » Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:58 pm

I don't think it was the contract brewing. I think it was the fact that homebrewing was involved. The fact that homebrewers were just developing the recipe doesn't seem like it should be an issue though. Sam Adams does it with the Long Shot beers. Iowa has some lame beer laws.

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:27 am

I imagine it could be done. I just wouldn't push the homebrew thing. All millstream would need to do is say they have had people brew some test patches for the brewery. A batch is picked and then they brew it. Sounds like we need a lawyer in the club. Anybody know a homebrewing attorney around here?

Mr T · Post by **Mr T** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:35 am

First of all, I don’t believe it has anything to do with the homebrew recipe formulation, its something with the hy-vee – millstream relationship and brewing.

Second, wouldn’t it completely defeat our purpose of involvement if we were the secret recipe?? Then we would get no compensation or recognition. It would just mean you could pay more for the beer you brew.

If anyone is really hung up on this, there is always the longshot by sammy.

From: Matt F [mailto:brew-news@crbeernuts.org]
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 11:27 AM
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org
Subject: Re: Millstream Brewery and Hy-vee

I imagine it could be done. I just wouldn't push the homebrew thing. All millstream would need to do is say they have had people brew some test patches for the brewery. A batch is picked and then they brew it. Sounds like we need a lawyer in the club. Anybody know a homebrewing attorney around here?

Matt Franklin
Slappy Brewing

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

Matt F · Post by **Matt F** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:38 pm

The long shot is the way to go. I am not too concerned about this one. I need to keep my best recipes in case I need to start a brewery.

Mr T · Post by **Mr T** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:15 pm

Amen to that… besides you all ready have a brewery… Slappy Co.

From: Matt F [mailto:brew-news@crbeernuts.org]
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 1:39 PM
To: brew-news@crbeernuts.org
Subject: Re: Millstream Brewery and Hy-vee

The long shot is the way to go. I am not too concerned about this one. I need to keep my best recipes in case I need to start a brewery.

Matt Franklin
Slappy Brewing

Post generated using Mail2Forum (http://www.mail2forum.com)

tony b · Post by **tony b** » Thu Jan 07, 2010 5:36 pm

I have to admit that I was on the fence on this one from the initial post. Too many irons in the fire for us right now anyway. Let's let these folks sort out the wrinkles and see where it goes, if anywhere. We can always jump into the game down the road if it gets going.