Tilray Brands - Craft Beers Jimmy Seifrit is no stranger to good beer. After starting his career with Deschutes Brewery in 1995, he quickly became a key part of their product development team, working on iconic beers like Dissident, Black Butte, Abyss, and Mirror-Mirror, among others. In 2011 he was pried away from Deschutes by crosstown rival 10 Barrel, and hasn’t looked back in the decade-plus since. As one of the lead brewers at 10 Barrel, Jimmy has helped orchestrate exponential growth during his tenure. When he was first hired, the brewery was producing around 10,000 barrels per year. Fast forward a to last year and that number was 140,000. It doesn't take a math savant to see his impact. In that short time (by industry standards), they’ve expanded into a new facility, built four brew pubs, been acquired twice, and started to dabble with cocktails, wines, and spirits, while sticking to their brash roots.
Much of their growth can be attributed to one simple and surprising thing: Pub Beer.
Vending Machine Origin
Pub Beer was never meant to be sold to the public. Wanting an easy drinking beer just for brewers, servers, and company staff, Jimmy threw together the original recipe in 2013, which was influenced by his time studying in Germany. It was created as an “Employee Only” beer, to give staff a break from the hoppy craft IPAs that 10 Barrel was known for at the time. Humble beginnings, so they say.
Inspired by a Google search of “generic beer can,” Pub Beer’s exterior is simplicity at its finest: black lettering on a plain white label. This made an impression immediately, standing out from the intricate and colorful designs of other cans. Soon after, Jimmy retrofitted a vending machine and filled it with Pub Beer, allowing employees to snag one before meetings or bring a few home at the end of the day. Soon, he says, the machine was empty.
It didn’t take long for patrons of the pub to take notice, often asking about the “secret” cans they saw floating around the hands of employees. Jimmy realized he had an opportunity he needed to seize.
Not So Craft Anymore
The following year, 2014, 10 Barrel started selling 6-packs of Pub Beer at a few local accounts, as well as pints at their pubs. But the real turning point was when the public saw the vending machine, Jimmy says. “They lost their minds,” he laughed, “that’s when we started taking it seriously.”
The next step for Jimmy and his team was transitioning Pub Beer from a German lager to something easier to drink. Knowing that the lightest beer would be the best selling, he worked to evolve the flavor profile from a craft brew into a macro lager, lowering the malts to make it less bitter. And soon after, sales started to rapidly increase. “It started as a joke and became a fun reality for us, so we just ran with it,” said Jimmy.
To compete with national breweries like Coors and PBR, Jimmy knew they had to match prices, which meant evolving the recipe even further. “We kept Cascade hops because we wanted a hint of our Northwest heritage, but we had to dial back other raw materials to hit the price. We brew Pub Beer high gravity to 8% and water it down to 5%– and we’re unapologetic about it.”
Learning From Mistakes
The process wasn’t perfect. It took two years to arrive at the current recipe, after realizing the Pub Beer customer was "not a beer nerd." Jimmy says that they worked to make a beer that people would want to crush cans of, whether at the lake or the game. “The sweet spot is value and taste at the same time. We had to dial the craft down and make it more macro, without losing the roots entirely.”
Today, 10 Barrel refers to Pub Beer as “Cheap Fun,” and has built out an ecosystem around that catch phrase, including a mechanical beer bull they bring to big events, a dive bar menu at their brew pubs, and an annual event in downtown Bend called the Dirtbag Ball, which features Pub Beer.
The Final Recipe
As of this year, Pub Beer is the best selling craft beer in the Pacific Northwest. “We’re proud it's this big,” said Jimmy, “and we did it by recognizing that craft breweries take themselves too seriously and need to relax. We can still have fun. I never thought I’d be the king of macro in the Northwest, but sometimes you surprise yourself.”
Looking forward, Jimmy says that 10 Barrel hopes to compete with PBR, Rainer, and Bud Light on a national level. “That’s not craft, but we’re not pigeonholing ourselves to staying as just a craft brewery. We don’t care about the industry standard or how others see us. We don’t want just four crayons. We want all 164 in the box.”
