( )
KU Life Section B THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
JUNE 26,1996
Microbreweries Tap Lawrence market
one copper brew house is a prominent part of the decor at the Kaw River Brewery, 729 Massachusetts St., which opened March 30. Kaw River, which serves eight of its own
Pam Dishman/KANSAN
microbrews is the second brew pub to open in Lawrence, The Free State Brewing Co., 636 Massachusetts St., opened seven years ago.
By Nicholas C. Charalambous
Kansan staff writer
The way the O'Rears tell it, beer is a father and son thing. Alan O'Rear received a home brew kit five years ago as a birthday present from his family, and he couldn't keep his son, Sean, away from it.
The idea of opening the Kaw River Brewery originated at the O'Rears' kitchen table. Jan and Alan O'Rear, along with Sean and their two daughters, Erin and Heather, were bouncing around a few ideas about a change from the doughnut business they had bought in 1993.
"We said, 'What can you do with wheat and yeast? Well, we can make beer,' Alan O'Rear recalled. 'It sounded absurd, but the more we thought about it, the more we thought it was worth checking into.'
About one year later, The Kaw River Brewery, 729 Massachusetts St., opened without fanfare March 30. It became Lawrence's second "brew pub" — a restaurant-brewery that sells the majority of its beer on site — joining the Free State Brewing Co., 636 Massachusetts St.
Nearly three months old, Kaw River is slowly losing its tag as Lawrence's best-kept secret and is establishing a regular clientele. Last Saturday, as Irish folk band Newgrange was tuning up its instruments for Celtic Night, the brew pub busted with people young and old. A kindergartner, wearing a canary yellow T-shirt and propped up in booster seat, was digging into some food with her parents.
That's the variety of customers the O'Tears hope will distinguish them from Free State. The O'Rears also plan music and comedy two or three weekends a month.
"In this town, if you're going to talk about brewing, you're going to talk about Free State," Sean O'Rear said. "Our beer is just as good. Our food is just as good. Our atmosphere is better. Our service is better."
The Kaw River occupies the oldest commercial building in Lawrence to survive Quantrill's Raid, and the interior faintly recalls the time when bars were spit-and-sawdust places. The family stripped 9-inch-thick plaster from the original stone walls and cleaned up the wooden floor. Stunted versions of 1920s-style streetlights illuminate the brew pub's solid-oak bar and sage decor, creating a relaxed ambience.
"You can smell the malted barley. It feels warm and friendly; a family cooking for you and making beer for you," said Jan O'Rear, who used her family's recipes to create the menu. Entrees are priced from $6.95 to $8.95.
--attention. They said they were looking for somewhere to talk and hang out and liked the stronger flavor of microbrews.
But it's the showy display of the sparking steel and copper brew kettle in the window that tells the customer that the focus is on the beer.
Twenty-three-year-old Sean O'Rear, now the Kaw River's brewmaster, developed the recipes for the microbrews during a year off from studying microbiology at the University of Kansas.
The Kaw River has seven of its own microbrews on tap, including a dessert beer. An eighth, Eldon's special chocolate brown, is in the making. There are two guest microbrews from the 75th Street Brewery in Kansas City, Mo. And for those who haven't yet developed a taste for fuller-flavored beers, there are Bud and Bud Light.
"A brewer from 75th Street Brewery and I sat down one day," Sean O'Rear said. "We wanted to make a recipe for the pale, the red and the brown. So we got a bunch of six packs, and mixed six different reds, pales and browns. We tasted each one and took apart the things we liked and took a few things from the beers that my mother, my father and I liked."
Sean O'Rear, who still drinks at the Free State now and then, said he thought the Kaw River's beers leaned toward the European style, while the Free State's were more American.
"A lot of it is about variety," he said. "We make beers that are not like theirs and people get to go to and from."
Sean O'Rear's favorite beer, the River Witch Wheat, has been the summer's best seller. It's unfiltered, has a low hopping — the level of bitterness in the beer — and has a low carbonation. Except for the wheat beer, all the microbrews comply with German purity law that dictates beers are produced from 100 percent barley malt, hops, yeast and water.
Heather Richins, Chico, Cal., senior, and Micki Jacobs, Smith Center graduate student, walked into the Kaw River on a whim. The copper brew kettle caught their
John Etzel, a senior from Kansas State University, said he first tasted microbrewed beer in Portland, Ore.
"Nobody orders a Budweiser in Portland. They look at you funny," he said. "Since I started drinking microbrews, I haven't looked back. It's something about drinking a beer that's brewed here. I enjoy the beer, and I know I can't get it anywhere else."
--percent. Industry analysts say there is room in the market for more brew pubs.
In the past 15 years, microbreweries have flourished in Colorado, California and the Pacific Northwest. As a byproduct of the microbrewery boom, brew pubs such as the Kaw River Brewery have been springing up in the Midwest, brewing beer in small quantities and appealing to a more sophisticated taste than Joe Sixpack's.
According to the Institute of Brewing Studies in Boulder, Colo., only one brew pub existed in the entire United States in 1984. Now there are 553, half of which opened in the past two years.
Kansas City alone has six bree pubs, Topeka and Wichita each have two. When the Sports Page Brewery, part of a corporate chain, opens at Kasold Drive and Clinton Parkway this fall, Lawrence will have three.
And while U.S. beer sales remained flat in 1996, craft brewers posted an annual growth rate of more than 40
Have Americans, who have suckled on Budweiser and Coors for generations, really rediscovered beer?
"Definitely," said Sheri Winter, marketing director for the Association of Brewers. "People are being captivated by the variety of beer."
Like coffee, beer has become a drink for people who appreciate complexity of flavor, she said.
R. C Pewtress Sr., Lawrence resident, agreed that flavor was important. His favorite beer is the German Warsteiner, a taste he acquired after serving for three years with the U.S. military in Germany.
"I think Americans are tired of mass-produced products," he said. "They are liking a more pure product, and you get a better product in smaller batches. Its definitely a step up from Bud."
Winter said that in places such as Portland, Ore., microbrews had taken 8 to 10 percent of the market.
The major brewers haven't suffered, though. Americans drink about 190,000,000 barrels of beer a year, a volume equivalent to Lake Erie. In 1995, microbreweries and pub wines accounted for only 2 percent of that market. Anheuser-Busch probably spills more on it's factory floor than the 1,300 barrels Kaw River expects to roll out, combined with the 2,400 barrels Free State produces annually.
But the major brewers recognize the potential to sell a high-margin product. Miller Brewing Co, rushed Red
Dog, onto the market, and Anheuser-Busch's Red Wolf was produced in partnership with the one of the microbrewery pioneers, Redhook of Seattle.
Robert Weinberg of Robert S. Weinberg Assoc., a market research firm in New York that advises the major brewers, said that 90 percent of Americans didn't like full-bodied beers.
"The leading beers taste like Kool-Aid," he said. "Anheuser-Busch can buy the same material materials as the craft breweries for a hell of a lot less. They don't save money, they are complying to the taste of consumers."
Weinberg, who worked for Anheuser-Busch for five years, said that the major breweries started decreasing the amount of barley malt and substituting rice and corn in their beers during grain shortages in World War II. By the time the war ended, Americans were used to drinking lighter, blander beer.
Microbrewers are helping more than they are hurting the brewing industry because they are kindling an interest in beer, Weinberg said. He estimates microbrews will take no more than 4 percent of market share.
Jerry Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer's Insights, a trade newsletter, said microbrews reflected a desire for novelty.
Please see Brewery on page 3B
MUSIC VERED
Beck's music is coolly eclectic: Kill Creek reaches maturity
Review by Andrew Dalton
Beck! Odelay (DGC). In a far gone decade, Barbara Mandrell described herself as "being country when country wasn't cool." Beck is the opposite. He is retro when retro is cool, he is a slacker when being a slacker is cool, and he's even a little country now that country is cool.
On his second major-label release, Odelay, Beck has made further progress on the sound he made popular with his debut, Mellow Gold. The sound is not clearly definable. It is a complex mix of hip-hop, folk, country and pure pop. Each song is embellished with samples from the '70s and '60s, which provide an overall retro feel to the project. Throw in Beck's rapping, flow
ing, seemingly senseless, yet possibly brilliant tikts, and you have his sound.
The album was produced by the Dust
Brothers, who were behind the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, Odeley has a similar feel, but it allows Beck to showcase his talent outside the realm of the Beastie's hip-hop. The
first single, Where It's At, is Beck at his funky best. He shows a different side of himself with the almost pure country sing-
along Stissneck. Change his T-shirts and flipped-out pants for chaps and rihstone-studded button-downs, and Beck would be the next George Strait with this album.
No matter what your opinion on Beck's music, it's highly entertaining to listen to a musician who had a blast while recording. Overall rating: eight out of 10.
Kill Creek Proving Winter Cruel (Mammoth). I managed to find time in my not-so-busy schedule to catch these guys at the Bottleneck, 737 New Hampshire St., last Friday. Based on what I had heard from the band's first album, St. Valentine's Garage, and two songs from the new release, I was expecting an evening of raucous mayhem. Kill Creek did not disappoint.
The Lawrence band ripped into its set
with a steady stream of up-tempo tracks that captivated the near-capacity crowd. Kill Creek then slowed the pace with a collection of softer tracks, leading to a slight loss of interest among the fans. The four-piece group reestablished its collective stage presence and capped the show with a
final barrage of steady rockers. Any band that is pushing a new album faces the problem of having to play some songs that are
not suited to be played live, especially in a bar. Kill Creek successfully handled that problem by lumping together all those tunes in the middle of the set.
Proving Winter Cruel shows the band has matured. This record still contains driving guitar cuts like Binky, but the majority of the disc consists of introspective tracks that rely on tempo change and powerful lyrics to catch the ear. Its songs made up the middle of their live set. Kill Creek has a talent for writing smart, complex tracks while keeping the forceful integrity of its sound. It's placing Kill Creek above other area outfits and moving the band up the national ladder. Overall rating: eight out of 10.
1