Expert: Matt Dick - 4/6/2009

Question
Matt,

Hello, I'm a reporter with Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine in Washington, D.C. working on a web story that features "clone" products--that is products produced by the same manufacturer but sold under different names and at different prices? Do you know of any white-label beers that have brand-name clones? Stockyard Oatmeal Stout and Goose Island Oatmeal Stout are an example. Trying to get this story done ASAP Thanks for your help!

Louis Jones
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
(202) 887-6423

Answer
I'm sorry it's taken me some time to get back to you.

It is not uncommon in the brewing industry to do what is called "contract brewing" where a brewery will brew and label a beer for another company.  I know of a restaurant here in the Chicago suburbs (The Millrose Brewing Company) that gets most of its beer from a brewery up near Madison, WI.  I could look that up for you when I get home--I have some promotional material from the brewery from when I took a tour there years ago.

But in terms of finding identical beers with two branded labels, I know less about that and I doubt my research would be any more complete than yours.  I know Michael Jackson (the beer author, not the pop singer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_(writer)) has written a lot about private beer labels in the United States.  I would think some of his material would cover cloning as an aside.