Great Central Brewing Company Spotlight
GCBC + the Rolec Crew, the brewery install team from Germany.
1. How long have you been in business?
We've been in planning for about four years, officially opening production in 2016.
2. How did you get started?
We grew out of discovering an unmet need in the brewing community, resulting from our own search for reliable, client-focused contract brewing services. When we couldn't find the right partner to help us scale our own recipes, we figured we could provide that service to others in our situation, ultimately helping everyone make more of what we all love.
3. What’s unique about your story or business?
We are Chicago's first craft-dedicated contract brewery, existing solely for other brewers to efficiently scale production. While other regional breweries may provide contract services on occasion, we're the only one in the city focusing on it as our primary business offering. As such, we're able to fully focus on the needs of our clients, diversifying risk, optimizing economies of scale and providing access to our network or strategic resources that enable our clients to grow in ways that makes sense for them. We're also uniquely positioned as a brewing community crossroads, bringing together a wide range of great local, regional and national craft breweries under one roof, connecting them with each other and enabling direct engagement with consumers through our tasting room.
4. What is the biggest challenge you have faced in business and how did you overcome it?
Our biggest challenge was changing the mindset of what "brewing on contract" can mean. We view ourselves as an extension of our clients' own breweries, not just some anonymous third-party production house. We reinforce this by truly partnering with our clients, understanding not just their recipes and flavor profiles, but also their motivations and business goals to help them strategically expand capacity without sacrificing quality.
5. Please list a few of your most recent accomplishments.
After four years of intricate planning, we assembled a knock-out team of brewing and packaging experts and finally opened production in 2016, with a full raft of award-winning clients. We've also received some great press coverage, including an article in Crain's Chicago Business and being named to the Hop Review's Breweries to Watch list - among others - which speaks to how the industry is changing its perception of contract brewing and welcoming the value that collaborative brewing spaces like ours can provide. We're currently completing our tasting room - scheduled to open in 2017 - so there will be one more great venue to sample brewery-fresh beer in the PMD!
We've been in planning for about four years, officially opening production in 2016.
2. How did you get started?
We grew out of discovering an unmet need in the brewing community, resulting from our own search for reliable, client-focused contract brewing services. When we couldn't find the right partner to help us scale our own recipes, we figured we could provide that service to others in our situation, ultimately helping everyone make more of what we all love.
3. What’s unique about your story or business?
We are Chicago's first craft-dedicated contract brewery, existing solely for other brewers to efficiently scale production. While other regional breweries may provide contract services on occasion, we're the only one in the city focusing on it as our primary business offering. As such, we're able to fully focus on the needs of our clients, diversifying risk, optimizing economies of scale and providing access to our network or strategic resources that enable our clients to grow in ways that makes sense for them. We're also uniquely positioned as a brewing community crossroads, bringing together a wide range of great local, regional and national craft breweries under one roof, connecting them with each other and enabling direct engagement with consumers through our tasting room.
4. What is the biggest challenge you have faced in business and how did you overcome it?
Our biggest challenge was changing the mindset of what "brewing on contract" can mean. We view ourselves as an extension of our clients' own breweries, not just some anonymous third-party production house. We reinforce this by truly partnering with our clients, understanding not just their recipes and flavor profiles, but also their motivations and business goals to help them strategically expand capacity without sacrificing quality.
5. Please list a few of your most recent accomplishments.
After four years of intricate planning, we assembled a knock-out team of brewing and packaging experts and finally opened production in 2016, with a full raft of award-winning clients. We've also received some great press coverage, including an article in Crain's Chicago Business and being named to the Hop Review's Breweries to Watch list - among others - which speaks to how the industry is changing its perception of contract brewing and welcoming the value that collaborative brewing spaces like ours can provide. We're currently completing our tasting room - scheduled to open in 2017 - so there will be one more great venue to sample brewery-fresh beer in the PMD!