DogBerry Moves Forward, By Moving On

Written By: The Gnarly Gnome

Public Statement From DogBerry

This little thing called DogBerry started 13 years ago as an idea to immerse ourselves in a passion. Now, well into our tenth year of operation, the time has come for change. There will be plenty to say and a lot to reminisce about in the coming days and weeks and……… we will certainly being throwing a bash to celebrate.

For the time being however, we have decided it is time to move on to the next phase of our lives. Our situation is currently fluid and the change is yet to be ultimately defined. Maybe DB lands in the hands of new ownership. Maybe we simply close this chapter in our journey. Regardless of the outcome, we thank you for an overwhelming decade that saw ups and downs, trials and celebrations, untold number of learning opportunities and wonderful friendships. We look forward to your continued support in the short term and we look forward to sharing the details of what may become of DB.

Thank You,
TM and the DB crew

I have thoughts.

The Current State Of Craft Beer

There’s a lot of talk by breweries about how to make great beer, and how to build a taproom the provides drinkers with a space that they connect with. Everyone seems to know that events are important. They all know that giving folks a food solution to allow them to hang out longer is critical to success in today’s crowded craft beer landscape.

There’s plenty of knowledge about how to run a successful brewery business.

I’d also say that our craft beer scene is better than it’s ever been before. You can walk into countless breweries across this country, have a wonderful experience, drink some phenomenal craft beer, and feel like you’re in craft beer heaven.

Yet, when a place closes – or maybe sells to someone else… when things change we are hit with these big questions about bubbles bursting, failure of a business, burning out… a lot of things that are or aren’t the case… and the more that I think about it, the more than I let it roll around in my beer soaked brain – the more I realize that it comes down to one simple question that I’ve asked hundreds of people at this point:

What Is Your Measure Of Success?

To understand what is happening up in West Chester at DogBerry, you have to understand this question, for yourself… and for people around you.

For some people, their measure of success comes easily, it slides right off their tongue like a well-rehearsed answer. Other struggle trying to put it into words at all. Then there are some people who have never even considered it to begin with. But the question leads us to the reasons to that every place that has ever thrived, or withered away has done so…

Why do they exist, and where are they going?

For some places, building the city’s premiere brewery, selling beer across the country – having a thriving taproom full of food, a cocktail program, their own seltzer brands, a branded hot air balloon… that might be what THEY need to be successful, what their company needs to thrive. Others – might want the country’s only urban farm brewery tucked away in a small neighborhood, brewing batches sized for some of us to drink in a week by ourselves.

That is a success.

Either way, you need to know that about yourself and your business to figure out how to choose every decision that comes along.

DogBerry’s Measure Of Success.

I’m going to make a few assumptions here. I feel like I know DogBerry’s owner, Tony Meyer, pretty well. (Tony’s been on my podcast somewhere around ten different times, at least.) I’ve shared plenty of beers with him, and… he was one of my very first clients when I jumped to working for myself. I consider him a friend. While all that is true… I’m still making assumptions about things in his head, so keep that in mind.

I go back to the very first time I interviewed him, though—alongside his then-business partner, Chris. I don’t know if I asked them what their measure of success was or if they already had it very well defined in their minds, but I’ll never forget it.

“We want to make the beer we like and share it with people that like it too.”

This idea has been the backbone of DogBerry throughout its whole life. Every time I’ve seen the brewery drift from that idea at all – I can see the struggle with it from them. Who DogBerry IS rests on that measure of success… and in that, they might be one of the most successful breweries in Greater Cincinnati.

What Does All This Mean, Then?

So, why, then, are they (maybe) closing? Why are they maybe looking to sell the brewery? Why is Tony parting ways from this thing that he’s spent a decade building?

It takes a very smart, very self-aware person to know when their story and their own measure of success doesn’t match with something that is as big of a part of their life as this brewery has been for Tony.

If the path forward doesn’t match up, you have to take a different path for some folks, which means selling off their business to someone who wants to turn it into their project. Some people just walk in, turn off the lights, and close the door. For others… they burn shit to the ground. We all have to find a way to take a different path, though, when our measure of success calls for it.

My Takeaway

Aside from supporting DogBerry in the short term as they settle into whatever things are going to look like (we know that there will be a party) – I really, really implore everyone to spend time figuring out your own measure of success in EVERY part of what you do. Know who you are, know why you do the things that you do, and know when you have to take a different path. Too often, people burn out, they suffer in silence, or they crash and burn because they don’t do that or don’t know how to forge a different way.

As always – Be Gnarly, move forward.