“We are All Witnesses.” Admit it, you saw the ads. A few weeks ago professional basketball player LeBron James’ face was plastered along sides of buses, taking up full pages in the newspaper and nabbing television’s ‘breaking news’ headlines. The hype was huge and at the end of it all, LeBron James announced that he was leaving his home and the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat in a hour-long prime time special. Needless to say, Ohioans were devastated after being dealt a blow to their hometown pride.
Enter the Great Lakes Brewing Company, rooted in Cleveland and known locally for its sports related seasonals such as the ‘Stein Bach’, and the ‘Wit’ Till Next Year.’ While local reports say the company was going to lower the price of all its burgers to $6 if James announced his sixth year in Cleveland, the brewers released a limited run of a dry-hopped and casked India Pale last Wednesday afternoon. They dubbed the ale ‘Quitness’, a play on the ‘Witnesses’ tagline for the Decision and most of James’ career.
According to the Great Lakes website, Quitness is a ‘Pale Ale that is as bitter as the mood of Cleveland these days!’
While the world was pouring over Dan Gilbert’s whiny letter haphazardly written in comic sans, Cleveland beer fans took to Quitness with fervor: Great Lakes reported that the first run sold out in three hours, thanks to Cavaliers fans crying in their beer. A second run was released on Saturday to nationwide coverage, and while there are no official numbers on how long this run of Quitness lasted, it’d be a decent bet to say it disappeared in an hour or two. Let’s just hope it didn’t spurn any more Cavalier jerseys burning in effigy over the weekend.
I think the idea of a bitter ‘sendoff ale’ is decently clever, but I absolutely love the idea of a brewery that responds to the events of their hometown. This weekend’s coverage of the Quitness ale has treated Great Lakes as yet another business eager to capitalize on Cleveland’s loss, but supporters of Great Lakes have been adamant to point out that the brewery holds limited in-house offerings of beers cultivated and named in light of Cleveland’s current events happens to be the shtick du jour. Such a scheme is admirable, even if it doesn’t register as noteworthy for the national beer scene.
While craft beer aficionados always talk about the breweries that innovate the art of beer and brewing, breweries that target their communities’ small-talk woes can be equally as fantastic: a little bit of local relevancy could endear macrobrew drinkers that believe beer is a populist beverage to look beyond their aluminum cans. Quitness and the rest of Great Lakes’ Cavaliers-roster is a creative way to stimulate the local beer community and does something high-concept microbreweries sometimes miss. It humanizes local professional brewers.
How do local Breweries stay relevant in your community?
Tell us by commenting below!
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome article Lydia! I think LeBron made a big mistake. The greats stay. Bryant Gumbel commented on all of it in the closing statement of the last Real Sports. ‘Quitness’ fo’ sho’.
I think Bryant Gumbel made a big mistake in that closing statement, but I do agree with you: LeBron should have played his decision in a less overwhelming manor. The fact that he let so much hype build was proof itself that he wasn’t going to be staying in C-land, anyway.
Agreed. It would have been rude to put the Cavs through that entire ordeal and then simply return, as though he was just hanging leaving over their head to feed his ego.
That being said, I still think all of the hype was about ego. His agent orchestrated all the media frenzy, but it just ended up making LeBron look bad. If he had his ego in check and was a classy guy, he would have told his agent that they were going to treat everyone involved with respect. Not the case the way it played out.
Great article Lydia, I agree breweries should stay in touch with their communities. Maybe Brooklyn Brewery should have a beer to welcome the (now) New Jersey Nets to Brooklyn. They’ll have to give Jay-Z a piece though!
That’s the thing, Tom. Brooklyn Brewery is a perfect example of a brewery that has a wealth of examples they could use to stay relevant, including Jay-Z!
Good stuff Lydia. It’s just a shame that Miami doesn’t have a craft brewery to make a welcoming beer for Lebron. Go Heat!
Lame.
I’m going to stay out of the whole ‘should Lebron have stayed or left’ thing, but you’re very right, it’s a shame that Miami can’t answer Great Lakes’ call in turn!
Having grown up playing basketball, I couldn’t lay off. I agree though. It would be cool to see a Miami brewery that created a response. LOL!
Well — Jordan left. Retired with Bulls, then went to the Bullets.
But, good stuff, Lydia. I too heart when a local brewery responds to local news (well National news really) affecting it’s surroundings.
That’s because the Bulls told Jordan they had moved on. Couldn’t blame them. It was hard to watch him perform at any level other than his best.
I believe connecting with the local people is crucial to growing your brand in any market. I think breweries who recognize that will continue to succeed.