Clipper City Interview
Today, I have a special treat for all of you: an interview with Hugh Sisson of Clipper City Brewing Company in Baltimore, MD. I had the opportunity to meet Hugh at the last Beer Advocate Beer Fest, and he agreed to perform an email interview for DTEIY.
Hugh is the General Partner at Clipper City and started the company back in 1994 after his experience working at the family pub, Sisson’s. (Sisson’s is now Ryleigh’s.) For those in the Boston area, you should have the opportunity to try Clipper City brews at a Cambridge Common beer dinner on October 17. (More information is forthcoming.) Until then, check out their distributor list to find out where you can pick up their brews.
Also, regarding future DTEIY interviews, the future format will be Slashdot-style. What that means is I will post a notice about the interview, you readers will submit questions in the comments of that post (user participation is important here!), and I will send ten of the questions off to the interviewee. For the first one, I decided to just get the ball rolling. Anyway, on to the interview:
First, tell me a little about yourself. How did you originally get into brewing?
What would you like to know? I got into beer as an undergraduate student studying in England. At the time (1974!), the English beer was so much better than the stuff we drank at college parties that it was a real eye opener for me. When I finished grad school in 1980, I went to work in our family’s start up pub, Sisson’s, which we coincidentally patterned after the English pubs I was so fond of. We rapidly developed a large selection of interesting beers (95% imported) which was a radical concept at that time. In order to promote the beers, I began doing beer tastings (a la wine tastings, also radical at that time). In order to know what the hell I was talking about, I started home brewing (not very well!).
By about 1983, we had developed a pretty solid beer clientelle. Sisson’s was, I believe, the first draft Guinness account in MD. Started thinking wouldn’t it be cool if we could make and sell some of our own beer. This was, believe it or not, virtually unheard of at that time, and was in fact illegal. When I told friends what I was planning they would just shake their heads and laugh.
Anyway, we did a little research, figured out how to do it logistically, and in 1987 put a bill in the MD Legislature to allow the development of brewpubs. The bill passed in the first attempt (I was surprised!) and in August of 1989 we began brewing at Sisson’s with me as the brewer.
Do you miss the brewpub environment?
I don’t really miss the brewpub per se. What I do miss is the excellent marketing platform the pub presents for the beers. If it ever works out, it is one of my goals to again have an affilitated pub to be that marketing platform, as well as a great stand alone pub.
I remained at Sisson’s until 1994 when I left to develop Clipper City. It took me a while to raise the capital and build the site, but we began brewing in December of 1995.
Would you prefer for Clipper City to remain fairly local? To become a major craft brewery like Sam Adams? Or to grow to the size a brewery like Anheuser-Busch? Why? What’s your opinion of the alternatives?
As far as “do we want to remain fairly local” well the truth is I don’t think we can. We are a niche brewer, by definition not trying to appeal to a broad market, but a very specialized market. In order to do enough business to allow the company to grow and prosper, we need to enlarge our business base beyond our immediate back yard. Exactly how far remains to be seen. We are now in 15 states I believe, and we will probably stop for a while to make sure we can handle what we are doing now.
Longterm, I really don’t know how big we want to get. With the kinds of beers we make, I will be very happy if we get to around 35,000 barrels per year, and only service the markets we are now in. I don’t have a burning desire to be THE BIGGEST, I just want to do what we do really well, and take a lot of pride and satisfaction from that.
What is most important to you when crafting a new brew? How do you maintain the “drinkability” you hype?
Important considerations for me when we develop a new product are several fold. We like to do things a bit differently - hence Hop3 (cubed) ale vs IPA. We also really focus a lot on smoothness, subtlety, and drinkability. We make some pretty big beers. I am fond of saying that drama is easy, balance is tough. By that I mean, it is not too difficult to make a huge IPA by just throwing a huge amount of hops in the beer - but where is the skill in that (that’s drama.) However, to design a beer with a huge hop flavor profile, that still drinks really well and has great finesse and balance - now you have something to savor and talk about.
What’s your favorite Clipper City beer and why?
I love “all my children.” I really have no favorite beer in our portfolio - it really depends on so many factors. What are we having to eat, is it hot, am I tired etc. The nice thing about making so many products is that you can choose the right one for the right moment.
If you’re not drinking a Clipper City brew, then what are you drinking instead?
If I am not drinking one of our beers, I usually drink wine. I have been doing a radio show in the Baltimore area for 16 years on wine and beer (an outgrowth from my pub/restaurant days) so I have to stay somewhat current on the wine scene as well. On the rare occassions when I drink a competitors beers I skip around. There are a great many well made craft beers in the market now, so it is not difficult finding a beer I can enjoy. Also, I have been doing this for so long that I know a good many of the better brewers personally, so it’s kind of fun feeling like I am supporting a friend.
What advice do you have for those trying to break into the brewing business?
It is a really tough business. You can not be motivated by money - you need to be motivated by a passion for great beer. Having said that, you can not be a business knucklehead either. Also, for anyone looking to get into a brewpub - you are in the restaurant business, not the beer business! That means you will first and formost need the drive and skills to run a succesful restaurant.
Looking at BeerAdvocate, ratings for Clipper City brews mostly fall in the mid-3 range out of 5. Is it possible that you’re not quite meeting the demands of beer enthusiasts? What’s your target demographic?
As for beer website ratings - we take all of those with a grain of salt. I personally believe that many of the folks who post on those sites are into the “drama” mentioned above, and don’t completely understand what we are doing. Having said that, we do pay attention. We do think about some of the comments we see from time to time, and have internal discussions, but I don’t see us changing what we do to specifically appeal to any particular response we are getting on the websites. The most critical barometer of quality brewing is repeat sales, and happy customers. It is a business after all, although a very special business. I think the sites have just as much value in making people aware of new products as they are introduced as anything.
Clipper City’s distribution appears to be primarily on the East Coast and some of the Midwest. Are there any plans to expand westward and even internationally?
I am pretty happy with the response our beers have been getting as we have enlarged our “footprint”. I am also pleased with all the new people I have had a chance to meet and have a beer with. There is nothing better than sitting across a table from someone, sharing a great beer and good conversation, and being able to do that as part of your job. I am, indeed, a lucky man!
