E-Malt.com News article: USA: Sleeman makes roads for his beers to Chicago

Sleeman Breweries Ltd. introduced its Canadian beer in Chicago stores in the week 24, signing a distribution deal with Lincoln-wood-based Louis Glunz Beers. Sleeman beer was not available here since Prohibition, when Al Capone allegedly had a lucrative smuggling arrangement with John Sleeman's grandfather, Suntimes reported on October 24.

Nowadays, John Sleeman does not worry about the Canadian authorities who cracked down on his grandfather. Instead, his concern is expanding his business in a Canadian beer market that is increasingly competitive. By pushing into Chicago, Sleeman hopes to keep his company growing. "My grandfather and his brothers got caught smuggling to Al Capone. Kind of careless of them," Sleeman said.

Even though "the Budweisers and the Millers of the world do really well here," Sleeman said, "Chicago has a pretty well-developed, well-educated beer consumer who likes craft beers."Sleeman knew nothing of his family's history in the beer business until he had entered it on his own. After becoming the Canadian distributor for Heineken and Guinness, his Aunt Florian handed him a recipe book with his grandfather's secret formulae. Then he learned the whole story -- how his grandfather refused to pay a fine to the government, and was thrown out of business.

Thus in spite of fact that the family once had "millions in the bank," Sleeman had a "modest, working-class" upbringing. His parents, he said, never touched alcohol. And though Sleeman now heads a $255 million brewing company, they still don't. Today, Sleeman Breweries makes beer using the same recipes and ingredients -- Irish moss, egg whites -- his grandfather used. Sleeman ranks as Canada's third-largest beer producer, behind Labatt and Molson Coors. The product comes in bottles modeled after those used in the old days, with raised lettering on the glass instead of a paper label. A six pack retails for $7.99.

Even if the Canadian breweries traditionally dominated their own beer market, in recent years U.S. companies have made inroads. Today, Budweiser is Canada's best-selling beer, Sleeman said. The U.S. beer market, meanwhile, has become more welcoming to imports. Over the last 10 years, U.S. beer consumption overall has been flat, growing 0.7 percent, according to Citigroup beverage analyst Bonnie Herzog. But purchases of imported beer have grown 8.5 percent.

The imports’ growing popularity is crowding the market, this being a challenge to smaller entrants like Sleeman Breweries.

John Sleeman has confidence in his products. Three of them -- Sleeman Cream Ale, Sleeman Porter and Sleeman Lager -- won medals at Chicago's Columbian Exposition in 1893. The ale and porter are now available in Chicago stores, along with Sleeman's Original Dark and an India Pale Ale.

Up to now, Sleeman's has made only small forays into the U.S., but John Sleeman feels a special tie to Chicago. Sleeman lacks definitive proof his family did business with Capone, but he said family documents show they were smuggling to the Midwest. And, he pointed out, Chicago organized crime figures controlled most of that activity during Prohibition.

He said that a year ago, an elderly man came up to him at a sales event in Minneapolis and said, "'Sleeman? I used to smuggle that stuff for Al Capone back to Chicago.'" "We were certainly smuggling to organized crime in America, and this part of America," Sleeman said. But Sleeman's isn't smuggled anymore. It's now for sale at 20 very legal establishments in the Chicago area.


25 October, 2005