A kickin' tale from ROOBREW!

 

Barry Rosenbaum, Gordon Schorr and John Myers have been providing economic development assistance to the University of Akron and entrepreneurship support services to the Northeast Ohio region. To enhance their experience in starting up businesses, they decided to start their own business. All three have industry experience, and all have successful track records of innovation within their past companies, but none had ever started a business from scratch.

All have an interest in beer, and had made their own beer before so they had an idea to bring a new, locally brewed microbrew brand to Northeast Ohio. The mascot for the University of Akron is a kangaroo, Zippy, the 2008 Capital One National Mascot of the Year, and with Zippy as their inspiration, ROOBREW was the choice for a brand name. Zippy, eh?

The next step was a block away. Owner John Najeway of the Thirsty Dog Brewing Company liked the idea, offered to brew their beer, and provided, along with brewmaster Tim Rastetter, guidance on a larger scale brewing, recipe, choosing distributors, marketing, packaging, forecasting (almost nonexistent in this business), essentially all aspects of the business.  

The first challenge was licensing. The relationship with Thirsty Dog is somewhat unique in the state of Ohio. Most start-ups have the beer brewed outside the state and shipped in. ROOBREW, LLC is actually having the beer "manufacturing" contracted in-state, and selling in-state, and don't fit the three primary classes of licenses in Ohio: brewer, distributor, retailer, nor are they a true importer. After some weeks of back and forth with the state, and assistance from the Wholesalers Beer & Wine Association of Ohio, they received special dispensation as an importer, an S-1 license, saving them $3,000-$4,000 per year in fees.

Now it’s time for the actual brewing, which brings us back to Tim Rastetter. He assisted with creating the unique recipes based on the tastes and interests of the owners and came up with two varieties. Litigation Lager, a Munich Helles style, is a session beer, easy to drink and full flavored. Kickin' Tail Ale is an American style ale, with a fruity and slightly sweet finish. 

The University had some reservations about the corporate name, and I wonder if that had anything to do with the name of their first beer? At any rate, contributing some of their profits to the University for scholarships made everyone happy. They also ran into some label approval issues with the Feds for the Kickin’ Tail Ale until they sent a rebuttal explaining they weren't encouraging over-drinking to "get your tail kicked," but are based on a fuzzy kangaroo's tail.

They hope to be served in the loge and club seat areas of the new University of Akron Football Stadium, as well the Akron Aeros baseball stadium. ROOBREW is currently served in a dozen or so local establishments in draft, with bottles scheduled for availability by the end of May. Doesn’t it sound more fun to order a ROOBREW than a Bud? Try it!