Here's some additional Info. on Gray Brewery
Gray Brewing Co. toasts 150 years of success as family-owned Janesville company
(Published Monday, August 28, 2006 11:28:42 AM CDT)
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By Jim Leute
Gazette Staff
When you've been in business for 150 years, you realize that one of the constants is change.
Through economic highs and lows, World Wars, deaths, prohibitions and fires, Janesville's Gray Brewing has reinvented itself over the last 15 decades to continue as one of the community's oldest family businesses.
"We've been resilient because we've always been small," said Fred Gray, who represents the fifth generation of the Gray family to own and operate the company. "We've always kept it at the right size to feed our families."
That philosophy has served many family meals since Joshua C. Gray founded the company in 1856.
Empty bottles wait to proceed down the fill line at Gray's Brewing in Janesville on Thursday. The family owned company is 150 years old and plans to start a new venture with a brew pub in Verona.
Bill Olmsted/Gazette Staff
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But later this fall, the philosophy will be tweaked once again as Gray starts feeding other families. The company will open Gray's Tied House, an "American Bonfire Grill and Brewery" in Verona.
"It will be a brew pub with a great menu where people can go and relax and feel at home," Gray said.
"Is it a leap of faith to get into the restaurant business? You bet, but it's a gift to the business," he said.
The Gray name has often been served up when discussions turn to brew pubs in Janesville. And why wouldn't it, given the brewery's long local history?
"It came down to being a competitive thing," Gray said. "We sell our product to a lot of businesses in Janesville, and if we opened a brew pub here, I'd be in direct competition with all of my customers."
Filled and capped bottles of beer line up for their turn at being labeled at Gray Brewing Co. in Janesville. The family-owned company, which is celebrating its 150th birthday, produces a wide variety of beers and sodas. Each year, the company produces about 200,000 cases of Gray's soda, the most predominant of which is root beer. It also contracts for about 150,000 cases of soda for other labels and brews about 45,000 barrels of a variety of beers.
Bill Olmsted/Gazette Staff
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That's not to say that Gray doesn't sell sodas and beers in Verona. But the market is expanding in the Madison area, and Gray believes he'll get more bang for what is turning into a lot of bucks to the north of Janesville.
"We're not exactly the first folks to come up with idea, but we'll be able to test a lot of new products at the brew pub," he said.
In the meantime, Gray's operation on West Court Street will continue to churn out soda and beer, both under its own labels as well as those of others.
Gray Brewing recently became its own distributorship, which will allow the brewery to better focus on its core brands. In addition, it will allow the company to better meet the needs of its local retailers and customers with better service, promotions and product availability.
"Brewery self-distribution has been, and will continue to be, an integral part of brewery growth, so it's a natural step in our continued growth model," Gray said "It lets us take control of our brand and serve our core customers."
Gray plans to distribute its products to all of Dane, Iowa, Green and Lafayette counties. It will maintain relationships with wholesalers in Rock County.
Fred Gray
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Each year, the company produces about 200,000 cases of Gray's soda, the most predominant of which is root beer. It also contracts for about 150,000 cases of soda for other labels and brews about 45,000 barrels of a variety of beers.
About 90 percent of Gray's business is in soda production.
"We sell more root beer than everything else combined," Gray said. "Over the years, we've done just about every soda pop under the sun, including bottling Coke in the 1970s."
Small or "micro" breweries enjoyed a resurgence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Gray was no different.
In 1976, Gray said 48 operators had 26 different brands of beer. These days, hundreds of breweries produce thousands of different brews, he said.
Brewer Rick Cook stirs water, malted and unmalted barley during the lauter process as Chad Raby adds barley to the mix.
Dan Lassiter/Gazette Staff
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"It's like in the 1970s when people learned that not every wine coming out of Napa Valley was labeled Gallo," he said. "The micro breweries have bought their shelf space and gained market share at the expense of the major brewers.
"It all comes down to the quality of the beer. A Budweiser is a Budweiser whether you get it in Orlando, Janesville or Spokane. Same thing with a Big Mac."
And as alcohol laws have become more restrictive, people are drinking less, "but they're drinking better," said Gray, who is active at the local and state levels with alcohol licensing and regulation issues.
A major catalyst for Gray's resurgence was a fire in 1992 that devastated the business on Court Street.
"That was a real time of reflection and transition for us," Gray said. "My dad (Robert) and I discussed it a lot: Do we close up shop or do we grab ourselves by the bootstraps and go on by getting back to doing business the way this company was started?
"It was started on quality."
Whether the company moves to a sixth generation remains to be seen. Gray's 10-year-old son works occasionally around the brewery, just enough hours "to wonder where his last paycheck was," Gray said.
"It's been an interesting experience," he said. "Being able to work with my dad has been great. Like anything, you have differences in family and business.
"I hope my kids will do what they want to do. They're around here; I was around here. There's no doubt it gets in your blood."
Knowledge is Exciting to know
This is my DD, I hope you like it, if not do your own.
Pete
