Great Lakes Brewing Company Turns 20
Sustainability Champs Helm Burning River Fest and Talk Beer Biz

It’s been a big year for local brew gurus and sustainability champs Pat and Dan Conway. This summer, they're celebrating 20 years in business as the highly-decorated independent brewery, Great Lakes Brewing Company. What's more, their annual, green-minded summer festival is in year eight and really hitting its stride. Burning River Fest hits this the Nautica Entertainment Complex on the west bank of the Flats this Saturday (see our event listings), and while it's only part of their 20th anniversary festivities, it represents everything that has made GLBC what it is today.

"The Burning River Fest (left) started out in the brewery," co-owner Daniel Conway told Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian in an interview yesterday. "We saw it as a celebration of different environmental groups and exploring their functions and reasons for being. We always wanted to bring it outside, but probably should have always had [the festival] on the water. Whiskey Island and Voinovich Park have hosted the event in the past, but were cumbersome when it came to parking. With Nautica, we think we've found a location that will bring a lot of people out to receive that sustainability message and engage."

"There are 3000 parking spaces, infrastructure, utilities and more at Nautica," added brother Patrick Conway. "It seemed like a more perfect fit as a venue--minimizing costs of all the things that go into producing the festival. We're anxious to see how it performs this year. The receptivity should go up because of greater accessibility... and we've always felt this is a great way to educate people about making choices about lifestyle and environment.

"If you wait for the government to make choices for you about these things, you might wait forever," he added with a laugh. "We see more diversity, organic farmers, award-winning beers and a lecture series on lakefront development, water quality, and vendors [dealing] green apparel and supplies as very appealing."

Indeed. Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) has operated from that standpoint pretty much from the get-go, as has been well-documented. Their "triple bottom line" philosophy and approach to business--operating wisely with economic, social and ecological mindfulness--has paired well with a fiercely loyal staff and now-regional following.

To wit, the Conways have always followed the beat of their own drummer: being the first smoke-free establishment of its kind in the state, long before the county mandate; taking the words "reduce, reuse and recycle" to brand new levels by embracing things like vermicomposting with worms and operating SVO (straight veggie oil) vehicles as a part of their trucking fleet. In their words, "a more cyclical approach to business instead of a linear one."

If there's a secret to the success of the brewery over the course of 20 years beyond those groundbreaking approaches, these "early adopters" are pretty humble about their longevity.

"We've always had success with quality and common sense growth," said Patrick. "Knowing not to get too big too soon. You don't want to start shipping [your product] all over the country not knowing how it's being stored or handled. Proof as a good business practice and being adamant about customer satisfaction has always served us well and if we ever falter, there's always hope that we can win back a customer's affection with good customer service. Reaching out to people has helped us a great deal and most people appreciate that."

As for being the first smoke-free establishment in the state, Daniel is quick to offer that "[W]e were initially appluauded for the company's efforts to take care of the staff. Customers appreciated the food and beer tasting better, lower dry cleaning bills [and] a sparkling establishment instead of one coated with nicotine. In the end, it was a calculated risk to support something that radical at the time. But our customers understand where we're coming from; our base is often supporting our sustainable messages and like to think of alternative strategies on how to change the world. You can be environmental stewards and still be profitable--politicians often want to make that an eiter/or proposition."

Their next "early adoption" for business practice? Capturing heat from the brewery's boilers and converting that into power. GLBC will serve as a "beta site" for such a program, and continue their budding farming relationship with Hale Farm and the Western Reserve Historical Society for a "pint-sized" organic farm that started this spring. "They are hosting brewery waste for us," Daniel said, and the results of the first harvest have yielded "great cucumbers, onions and fresh herbs and they'll be a part of the menu at the pub until the end of the harvest."

Daniel added that the approach has made something of an "edible schoolyard," to quote Alice Waters. "Learning where the food comes from, harvest to table, is an incredible culinary experience for our staff. With the cost of petrol and transportation these days, there's a pendulum swinging and people are beginning to look local for more of their everyday products, including food."

In all this amazing talk about environment, business practices and sustainability, it's almost a sin to get sidelined from the company's primary focus: beer. GLBC creates a number of spectacular, hand-crafted beers which are featured at their brew pub in Ohio City and distributed to a huge footprint across the Midwest. Anyone who's been to Great Lakes knows what a good, fresh beer without preservatives tastes like. Their latest variety, the Imperial Dortmunder, is based on their existing, award-winning Dortmunder Gold beer. And it's fantastic.

"The idea was to base it on the existing Dortmunder; it's everything the Dort is, but just more of it," said Patrick. Is there a future for this beer, or is it a limited time run? "We're thinking about future anniversary products, but the response has been so great that... we would not be surprised if it did not come back. But it is still an open book issue at present."

In the 20 years in business, one might think that career highlights would include a visit from rockers Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin... who stopped in for shrimp and ale after a gig. But the brewing duo are far more grounded when it comes to the idea of GLBC "career highlights," so to speak.

"In mid 1990s, when we were able to expand footprint beyond original brew pub and into the other buildings, that really helped us control our future. Expansion was a critical point and had we not been able to secure real estate in the manner we did, we might not have bene able to grow as we did," Daniel said. "We could also talk about our first gold medals earned [their flagship Dortmunder Gold struck gold at the 1990 Great American Beer Festival]. And in the mid 1990s, we were named Microbrewery of the Year... that emerging beyond Cleveland was big for us."

Explore the world of the Conways and Great Lakes Brewing Company at the Burning River Fest this Saturday, August 9 at the Nautica Entertainment Complex in the Flats. And get there early... we're guessing the draft version of the Imperial Dortmunder will go fast, too. Learn more about this fantastic event at http://www.burningriverfest.org.

Learn about and love on your local brewer by visiting Great Lakes Brewing Company's site http://www.greatlakesbrewing.com. There you'll get details on the "20 Days of Celebration" you will find below.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com

Great Lakes Brewing Company's 20 Days of Celebration

August 17: GLBC Former and Current Staff Reunion – Tasting Room

August 18: City Fresh Monday, 6 - 8PM

August 19: Entrepreneurs for Sustainability Third Tuesday Network Event, 5:30 - 8:30PM

August 20: 20th Anniversary Beer School, 7 - 9PM (SOLD OUT)

August 21: Happy "HOURS" All Day Until 9PM

August 22: Customer Appreciation Night: “Party Like It’s 1988!” With 80s Music and 80s Prices!

August 23: Raffles & Store Specials... including raffling off of windshirts, Browns tickets, etc.

August 27: An Evening With Francis Quinn & Friends, 6 - 9PM

August 28: Happy "HOURS" All Day Until 9PM

August 29: Customer Appreciation Night: “Party Like It’s 1998!” with 90s Music and 90s Prices!

August 30: Pigskin Classic With "Keep the Glass" Special!

September 1: Closed for Labor Day

September 2: Science Café Cleveland with Mark Hunger, GLBC Director of Brewing & Quality Control, 6:30 - 8:30PM

September 3: 20th Anniversary Beer School with Pat Conway 7 - 9PM (SOLD OUT)

September 4: Happy "HOURS" All Day Until 9PM

September 5: Customer Appreciation Night: Party Like It's 2008! With Happy Hour All Day Until 9:00 PM

September 6: Customer Appreciation Night: Happy 20th Anniversary! (:divend:)