The Stevens Point Brewery is part of that exclusive club of US breweries whose roots are pre-Civil War and have continued to operate ever since. Founded in 1857 in Stevens Point, Wis., USA, the brewery became famous throughout its home state for Point Special Lager. It’s the fifth-oldest continuously operating brewery in the country, producing soft drinks and near-beer products to stay afloat during Prohibition. The brewery was largely family-owned until 1992 when it was sold to Chicago-based Barton Beers. The current Wisconsin-based owners bought it in 2002 and the business has since evolved into a craft brewery with six year-round beers bearing the Point label—in addition to Special Lager, there’s Classic Amber, Belgian White, Horizon Wheat, Burly Brown and Cascade Pale Ale—and four Point seasonals: Einbock, Nude Beach, Oktoberfest and St. Benedict’s Winter Ale. Last year, it launched a more extreme brewmaster’s limited release series under the Whole Hog label. Beverage World gets right to the Point with operating partner Joe Martino.

Beverage World: How has the brewery evolved since 2002?
Joe Martino: This is a very different brewery from the brewery we purchased in 2002. It was a regional brewery with the lion’s share of its business from Point Special Lager. It was only in Wisconsin and very very small in Chicago and Minneapolis. And now we’re in 20 states…We offer a line of excellent and award-winning craft beers. 

BW: Could you detail how you position your brands?
JM: Our positioning for the year-round beers are kind of in the middle of the craft beer spectrum. They’re well-balanced, smooth and extremely true to style. Don’t get me wrong, these aren’t light-tasting beers. These are absolutely full bodied. They’re just not extreme. Would I like to be over-the-top, extreme? Sure, but we’re a bigger brewery than that. We’ve got a lot of capacity to fill, We brew 70,000 barrels [a year], but it’s not all ours—we do some contract. I’d say 40,000 barrels is our [brands]. When we came out with the seasonals we wanted to just go a little more in that direction, so they’re higher in alcohol, more full bodied. About a year ago, we looked at the more extreme end of the segment and we said, ‘They’re doing well, let’s try to take advantage of that because we have the capability to do that…’ They’re actually called Whole Hog. There’s not a big P-O-I-N-T on it.

BW: How have distributors responded?
JM: When I talk about how we are true-to-style craft beers and when they taste it they say, ‘This is great, finally a beer that I can drink, finally a beer someone can drink three or four of. And that seems to fit a niche in their portfolio.”

From Beverage World September 15, 2009