Magazines » November/December 2008 Issue » What's in a Name?: Clay Pipe Brewing
Do you want the good story or the true story first? When Clay Pipe's founder, Gregg Norris, answers the question, "what's in a name?" he doesn't mind mixing in a few outlandish details if it makes for a better yarn.
One version goes like this: During his time working at Tuchenhagen, a German brewery engineering firm, Norris traveled with some Coors executives to the Guinness brewery in Ireland (which Tuchenhagen had just modernized) to show off his company's creation. As the group walked the grounds, he noticed a little old Irish man smoking a clay pipe in the courtyard.
"I asked one of the tour guides about the guy," Norris says. "He said he was the old brewmaster and he was retired (and a little senile), and enjoyed sitting in the courtyard smoking his pipe." Norris says the sight of the man reliving his golden years at the brewery inspired him to open his own.
"That is all true, except for the guy with the pipe in his mouth and the tour guide. But we did bring the Coors guys over," Norris laughs.
Another version of the (un)truth -- in which Norris says he was a crackhead and the pipe is a symbol of his freedom from his habit -- is a darker picture. Norris admittedly has an affinity for tall tales. "I like to make up grandiose stories about the name, but the real story is that I have a son named Clay and a daughter named Piper."
Norris may struggle to keep his stories straight about how Clay Pipe got its start, but he's never strayed far from the knowledge and experience he gained on his way there. After college, he worked in research and development at Anheuser-Busch; he credits the brewing education he earned there as the basis for all he understands about the right and wrong ways to do beer. After a five-year gig as an equipment manufacturer for Pub Brewing Co. and the stint at Tuchenhagen, Norris had enough know-how and skill to build his own brewery -- so he did. (His only help? A plumber and an electrician to ensure everything was up to code.)
In the spring of 2002, he introduced his first beer, Backfin Pale Ale, which would go on to be the brewery's top seller. "Backfin" references the prime meat on the back of a crab: "It's like the tenderloin of the crab, so it has that high-end appeal to the locals here in Maryland," Norris says.
Norris describes his beer drinker as a person who enjoys the finer things of life --"somebody who doesn't wear socks," he says. And of course, someone who appreciates what Norris fondly calls beer's "element of fun."
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This article originally appeared in the November/December 2008 Issue of DRAFT Magazine
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