“B” Companies: The “B” isn’t for Beer, but it could be….

Posted by Jeremy James, Cosgrave Attorney

 

On May 23, 2013, the Oregon legislature passed HB 2296, allowing new and existing businesses to designate themselves as “benefit companies.” 

What is a benefit company, you wonder, and what does this have to do with beer? 

Well, to answer the first question, a benefit company is a new kind of business entity that allows directors to pursue social and environmental goals while still turning (or trying to turn) a profit.  Under the traditional for-profit business model, the folks in charge have a primary obligation to the other owners or shareholders to maximize the economic interests of the business (i.e., to make money).  If, for example, a CEO wakes up one  morning and decides the company’s biggest widget factory ought to switch over to solar power, no matter the expense, she risks getting fired – and, in some circumstances, embroiling the company in a shareholder lawsuit – for letting environmental interests get in the way of the company’s bottom line. 

Under Oregon’s new law, that same business could designate itself a benefit company and write an environmentally-focused policy into its by-laws, enabling the CEO to take reasonable steps to improve the company’s carbon footprint without getting herself or the company into hot water (or, better yet, hot air).  As the Oregon legislature explains in the introduction to HB 2296, a benefit company is “a form of business entity the purpose of which is to create benefits for the public in addition to generating profit for the entity’s owners.” 

The idea has been around for a few years now, spearheaded by the advocacy organization B Lab, which certifies companies around the country as “Benefit Corporations” (and now boasts 763 certified companies in 20 countries).  But state legislation has been needed to clarify the multitude of legal issues facing benefit companies and their directors and owners.  With HB 2296, Oregon joins 12 other states (according to B Lab’s website) that have adopted some form of benefit company legislation.  And Oregon’s new law doesn’t just apply to corporations.  Limited Liability Companies (“LLC”) will also be able take advantage of the benefit company structure.    

So on to the second question: what do benefit companies have to do with beer?

Other than the not-insignificant coincidence of starting with the same letter, benefit companies and beer making seem a natural fit.  For people involved in the brewing industry, particularly those starting new breweries, social and environmental goals often go hand in hand (glass in hand?) with ideas about making good beer and someday running a thriving business.  For example, Colorado’s New Belgium Brewing Company, a very successful maker of very tasty beer, in this blogger’s humble opinion, recently earned “B” corporation certification from B Lab for, among other things, writing commitments to its workers, its community, and the environment into its corporate laws.

Here in Oregon, pristine ingredients and obsessively dedicated suppliers and entrepreneurs produce the best craft beer in the world.  The benefit company structure might provide business owners in the industry a means to ensure that their own commitment to the community and the environment remains a part of their business for as long as the beer keeps pouring. 

Ecliptic Brewing Unveiled

Posted by Marcus Reed

One of the Cosgrave firm’s excellent brewery clients, Ecliptic Brewing, was unveiled to the public this past Sunday, April 28. The now-barren 14,000 square foot facility at the southern tip of the Mississippi District in Portland will soon (this Fall) be one of the gems of the Portland craft beer scene. It’s founder, John Harris, has been professionally brewing in Portland for 26 years, and in that time developed some of Oregon’s flagship beers, such as Deschutes Brewing’s Mirror Pond Pale Ale and Black Butte Porter. We at the Cosgrave firm wish John the best of luck in building his new brewery, and we look forward to sampling the fruits of his labor.

April Fool's Roundup

it's not just google that has a sense of humor.  check out some of our favorite breweries' and bloggers' April Fool's shenanigans.

Lagunitas + Bronner’s:

http://www.its-pub-night.com/2013/04/lagunitas-buys-dr-bronners-soap-company.html

Pope says no more Trappist beers:

http://beervana.blogspot.com/2013/04/pope-francis-to-trappists-no-more-beer.html

Burnside and Breakside merger:

http://brewpublic.com/oregon-beer/burnside-brewing-and-breakside-brewery-cease-desist-turns-into-merger/

Fort George sea lion solution:

http://www.oregonlive.com/beer/index.ssf/2013/04/fort_georges_commonsense_appro.html

Bonus! Rogue’s Beard Beer gets released for real:

http://www.oregonlive.com/beer/index.ssf/2013/03/is_rogue_kidding.html

http://www.oregonlive.com/beer/index.ssf/2013/04/the_beard_rogue_is_not_kidding.html

 

thanks to Cosgrave's own Alex Moffat for the research!

it's spring! check out these 5 portland beer haunts (updated)

posted by guest blogger Hanna Laney

 

Our fair city is noted as one of the greatest beer cities in the world. Rivaling Marzen-soaked Munich, delightfully style-diverse Denver or super-hopped San Diego, Portland holds a special place in a beer lover’s heart. With a plethora of places destined to make a seasoned zymurgist proud, those who find themselves at the other end of the beer spectrum—or even those with moderate brew knowledge—may be overwhelmed with all the beerific choices awaiting them in the Rose City. Here’s a definitive guide for beer aficionados, neophytes and anyone in between.

Horse Brass Pub: This legendary haunt was made so by a man of equally legendary reputation. Don Younger, the late inimitable publican, founded the pub with his brother under hazy circumstances in 1976. Slowly building his pub into the English-style beervana it is today, he grew the taps and the bar’s status grew, too. Though Younger has since passed, his beloved bar remains a testament to his forward thinking, the meteoric rise of American craft beer and the undeniable importance of the craft beer community. Horse Brass is located at 4534 SE Belmont Street.

The Commons Brewery: Mike Wright and Sean Burke’s beer brainchild is a lesser-known delight. In their words, their beers “are geared to be session-able and therefore enable or enhance social interaction. For consumers, the focus should be on friends and family they are sharing time with…” Who can argue with that? Plus, it’s not just their feel-good philosophy that makes them a hit, they have been lauded with both a Great American Beer Festival medal and a World Beer Cup award, two of brewing’s highest honors. Visit their SE Portland tasting room Thursday-Saturday to enjoy one of their Belgian beauties at 1810 SE 10th Avenue.

 

Upright Brewing: Alex Ganum brings open fermentation to Portland in his Belgian-inspired brewhouse and tasting room. Though some of Upright’s beers have somewhat intimidating numerical names to an uninitiated Upright beer drinker, their Engelberg Pilsener is a perfect introduction to the sort of nuanced, subtle, balanced brewing Upright is known for. The tasting room often boasts an around-the-block line for their bottle releases but don’t miss their Four, Five, Six and Seven if you see them around town. Visit Upright at 240 N Broadway in the basement of the Left Bank Building.

John’s Market: If you’re looking to quaff a brew at home or are looking for the perfect bottle to bring to your next dinner party, John’s Market in Multnomah Village is your one-stop-shop. With a dizzying array of craft beer from here and abroad, John’s Market is a gem. Additionally, their website boasts an extremely helpful archive of what they have on hand (http://www.johnsmarketplace.com/Bottles/). Looking for that obscure Cantillon you had while you backpacked through Europe? It’s there. Hoping to snag a bottle of Hair Of The Dog’s famed Adam? It’s there. Go global or pick a beer from Portland’s backyard at 3535 SW Multnomah Boulevard.

Oregon Brewers Festival: Every July, Waterfront Park transforms into one of the best beer festivals in the nation. Expanding to five beer-soaked days in 2013, this fest features some seriously sought-after taps and is a veritable who’s who of craft brewing. If you want a crazy, raucous festival environment, try the Saturday session. If you’re looking for a more relaxed tasting, try the festival on Wednesday, before the crowds really swell. Find more information about this year’s fest as summer nears at www.oregonbrewfest.com. 2013 dates are Wednesday, July 24 to Sunday, July 28.

For beer lovers, living in Portland is like being a kid in a proverbial candy store. But, if you’re new to the beer scene, don’t let the city’s storied reputation scare you away. The Rose City boasts some of the most well-reputed, knowledgeable, and friendly members of the craft beer community. Beer is meant to be shared; grab your friends and head out for a pint!

happy 40th, bottle bill!

well, we all have to turn 40 sometime.  i appreciate the bottle bill  aka "The Beverage Container Act" going first.  love it or hate it,* 2012 marked the bottle bill's 40th anniversary in Oregon, the first state to adopt such a bill.  if you delve into internet research on the bill, there is a lot on the environmental impact of the bill and how it is part of Oregon's rich history of progressive legislation.

what you don't see is reference to the bill's biggest supporters, one of which was the Blitz-Weinhard Brewery (bringing it back to Henry's).  Blitz-Weinhard supported the bill for two very good reasons, first the family running the brewery were/are avid environmentalists and second, this was an effort to keep the big boys: Anheuser Busch, Coors, and Miller out of Oregon.  the bill required breweries to send their empties back to the mothership.  it's a long enough way to St. Louis to make a company think about whether breaking into the Oregon market was worth it.

the bottle bill was shepherded through the legislature in 1971 by J. Alford "Hunky" Hampson, a visionary (with an awesome nickname) also responsible for banning billboards on coastal highways and many other environmentally friendly laws.  the bill went into effect in October 1972.  my favorite part of bottle bill lore is this: at some point during the 1971 legislative session, a representative from the coast,  (as it was told to me, Rep MacPherson) stood up and said "Some of you have said this is a bill for Bill [Wessinger].  And why not?  No one has done more for this state or its environment."**

i love this story because it's about a local brewery, albeit a big one, doing good things for Oregon.  the big boys were kept out for a time, but eventually manoevered into Oregon in the late 1970's.  

i have wondered if Oregon breweries realize or are interested in the bottle bill's beer history and if it adds anything to the beer culture here.  Captured by Porches, for example has its own $1 bottle deposit going on.  Double Mountain also has a returnables program for half liter bottles touting the unique bottles' size and strength. and avowing that they can be cleaned and refilled many times.  how successful has this been?  what's the environmental impact of refillable bottles vs. "traditional" bottles*** vs. cans?****  perhaps we'll explore that down the road.




*i've taken an informal poll about who returns bottles and who tosses them in with the rest of the curb recycling.  i've found that if you grew up doing it (as i did) you're much more likely to haul a heavy sticky bag smelling of alcohol (not in a good way) to the grocery store.  empty bottles have value, not a bad lesson for children and apparently remembered into adulthood.

**Bill Wessinger was then running the Blitz-Weinhard brewery with his brother, Fred Wessinger.

*** whatever "traditional" means.  we'll include that in the exploration. 

**** and shouldn't we all be toting around growlers like this super sweet one from Base Camp anyway?

beer exchange

cosgrave introduced a new holiday tradition this year: the beer exchange. 

cosgrave, as i may have mentioned, has a coalition known as the beer geeks - a group made up of lawyers and staff who, well, like beer. 

this year to celebrate the holidays, i thought it'd be fun to do a beer exchange.  each of us brought a six pack and then drew numbers.  we each picked one beer in order of our numbers and then went around again and again until we each had a full six pack.  the only rule: bring a seasonal or holiday beer.

on the day of the exchange, as is typical in most offices, there were last minute beer runs and cancelations.

lessons learned:

 1.  the 7-11 on 4th and taylor carries two holiday brews: widmer brrr and blue moon winter abbey ale.

2. most popular beers present (the first to go) firestone velvet merlin oatmeal stout and ninkasi sleighr

3. DO try this at home or with your friends.  cost is minimal and the take home is fantastico--6 new beers to try.

happy holidays!

i drink beer, and i vote!*

I'm amused and impressed by the media connections between beer and voters.  Willamette Week recently did a piece entitled "The President of Beers," which got mixed reviews.   The article selected a popular micro-brew from each state and ranked them from 1 to 50 (Deschutes Black Butte Porter came in 7th).  I liked it, probably because it supports my theory that most of the best-selling micro-brews in the United States, are sweet: ambers, bocks, and brown ales.  I've always found this baffling, and we'll explore this further in later posts.

President Obama's beer of choice, Yuengling, placed dead last in WW's rankings, but at least the man drinks beer.  Politicos have been making much of this, claiming that the old poll question: "who would you rather have a beer with?" can never work for Romney and he will thus never close the "beer gap." There is even speculation that Obama is mentioning beer on purpose to highlight the difference.

Romney's running mate, Paul Ryan, was quick to mention his favorite Wisconsin beers in his August acceptance speech.  Critics pointed out that Ryan managed to get most of the electorate in his choices: a micro brew sold only in Wisconsin  and brewed by an Obama supporter (New Glarus's Spotted Cow, which incidentially made it to #33 on WW's list), a local lager popular in his youth brewed by a family with strong Republican ties (Leinekugel's), and the everyman brand of Miller.

The blogsphere has semi-erupted in posts on what your beer choices say about your party affiliation.  Heineken and Corona drinkers are overwhelmingly Democrat while Sam Adams drinkers are overwhelmingly Republican.  I even found a chart on Brewvana correlating blue states and brew states, noting that the 25 most densly brewed states (i.e.those that brew a lot of craft beer) all went for Obama in 2008.

Beer and politics have always mixed.  At least two of our most beloved lawmakers (bringing it back to the law, people) gave us the finest quotes about beer:

Benjamin Franklin:  "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Abraham Lincoln: "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer."**

Truer words were never spoken, Abe.



*in homage to my favorite bumper sticker of all time: i play the accordion and i vote!
**okay, the attribution to Lincoln is iffy.  still an awesome quote.