Mercury's goal: Fresh and local

By Cody Therrien

Essex Country Newspapers

Mercury Brewing Co. is proud to be a local micro-brewery. With the philosophy that small brewing companies can create a better tasting, fresher, and more interesting beer, Mercury has no desire or illusions about becoming the next Anheuser-Busch.

"We would like to be the premier small brewery in regards to quality and selection," said Rob Martin, president of Mercury Brewing Co.

Mercury has several awards to its name, including a bronze medal at The Great American Beer Festival, and a rapidly expanding selection. What remains is to expand the area where the brew is sold as well as build a good reputation for the new product lines.

The company was purchased from The Ipswich Brewing Co. in September of 1999 by a former Ipswich Brewing Co. employee, Rob Martin. He changed the name to Mercury Brewing Co. after the Roman messenger god of commerce. One year later, Mercury is planning to expand its largely local market to cover the entire coast of Massachusetts.

Mercury still contract brews the original Ipswich line for a Chicago based marketing firm. The new lines include the Dornbusch line of German beers, which is licensed to Mercury, and the Stone Cat line, which is owned by Martin. The company also contract brews small scale specialty orders for several local pubs and restaurants.

So far, Mercury has worked to strengthen its local markets on the North Shore creating a strong base from which to begin a further expansion. This was most important, according to Martin.

"The nature of a micro-brewery has always been fresh and local," said Martin. "It's important for people to realize that they have one."

There is plenty of room for expansion, according to Martin, who says the plant is currently under capacity. Mercury only brews about 6000, 31-gallon barrels of beer per year _ the equivalent of nearly 2 million 12 oz. bottles. It is capable of producing up to 15,000 barrels. No new fermenting tanks or other equipment needs to be purchased.

"The best kind of expansion is expansion without investing in bricks and mortar," said Martin.

Mercury produces approximately the same amount of beer per year as the old Ipswich plant but instead of having 16 employees Mercury needs only five. Ipswich needed eight people on the bottling line, Mercury needs only four. This is due, according to Martin, to increased efficiency that comes with using experienced workers.

"We have gotten better with experience," said Martin.

Mercury is focusing on more promotional spending and posting in order to increase the market for the Stone Cat line.

The Dornbusch line of German beer was taken on last year in order to take advantage of a very specific market niche. Not only is German beer very popular now, according to Martin, but, until Mercury began brewing Dornbusch, no true New England micro-brewery in was making a line of German beer. This is because, according to Martin, German beers have a much longer fermenting process and take more care to brew.

"By producing German beer, we are not only part of the local segment, but the import segment as well," said Martin.

The problem was that Mercury had to go through the expensive process of coming up with, and producing, new labels for the Dornbusch line.

The Ipswich line continues to be the staple and flag ship for Mercury _ 70 percent of the beer being produced in the plant is for the Ipswich line. The remaining 30 percent is in mostly Stone Cat and Dornbusch with a small percentage of contract brewing being done for local restaurants and pubs.

Martin is hoping that by next calender year Ipswich will account for only 60 percent of production with the new lines improving to account for the remaining 40 percent.

In regards to revenue for Mercury, Ipswich contract brewing brings in about the same amount of money as the direct sale of the new lines.

Martin will soon be meeting with beer distributors for Cape Cod and the Boston area in hopes of expanding the Mercury market by next April.

April is the best time to indroduce a new beer," said Martin. "People will be getting jazzed up for summer."

Ipswich Ale has received several awards since it was first established, including being named one of the top 10 micro-brews in the world by magazine Wine Enthusiast. The new lines are also getting some recognition from the beer connoisseur community. Dornbusch received a bronze medal from the Great American Beer in Denver Colorado last August.

"Coming in third isn't bad," said Martin, considering that there are 1,500 entries. "This the big one, the beer Olympics."