Freeman really grew to appreciate the value of consisten- cy. As he explains, “You can ramp up the hops and other ingredients in certain beers and make them a real punch in the face, and people will say ‘wow what a great beer.’ But they get through one of them and they have to move on to something else.” With the prospect of opening his own brewery in the near future, Freeman was seriously pondering what kind of beer he wanted to lead with and make his flagship. “I was looking at the market at the time, six years ago, and there weren’t many craft breweries that made an American style pale ale as their flagship brew. As it turned out, by the time we launched, the whole market had turned that way anyway. So our Downhill Pale Ale was actually my final project in college. I had to design and brew a beer for the course, so I decided that I was going to brew the beer that was destined to be my flagship when I started my own brewery. I brewed Downhill at the college and probably brewed it another 10 to 15 times again at home before I finally made it at the brewery a few years later when we opened.” Well, let’s call that one a success. Downhill Pale Ale is definite- ly the kind of beer that you can have four or five of over the course of a hockey game on TV, and not feel that your mouth has been assaulted. In fact, based on what the industry and the current market is churning out for IPAs, it’s actually lighter
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • APRIL 2018
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