Tap Handle #717: Switchback

April 07, 2019

Tap Handle #717: Switchback - IPA

Tap size: 13.5"
Rarity: less than 10 seen
Mounting: internal 3/8" nut

This tap comes to the Museum courtesy of Collectors Club member Jason C. I'll let Jason describe his contribution to the Museum in his own words:

"This tap represents Switchback's Connector IPA and it is based on the world's tallest filing cabinet. It's kind of a funny story around here and represents the fact that one of our interstates was never completed due to the amount of paperwork that blocked it. Apparently it would take filing cabinets 38 feet tall to store all the paper. It still stands near the Switchback Brewery and is visited quite often by folks traveling to the area. I've always thought it was a funny story and it made me appreciate the tap handle that Switchback created for this beer."

Many thanks to Jason for this background on the tap. I'll admit I thought this tap was a strange one, and now that I know the story behind it, it adds so much more to its character and history. It definitely represents the stack of filing cabinets that Jason mentioned (see photo below). There are drawers popped out on each side, just like they do on the real-life sculpture. The beer name appears all over the tap, but the brewery name only appears in fine print on the very bottom file cabinet, on both sides. It's a great addition to the Museum, as I have only ever seen one or two on the secondary market.

In 2002, Bren Alvarez, a 45-year-old Burlington architect (who also co-owned an art gallery), created "File Under So. Co., Waiting for...," a satirical sculpture commenting on the bureaucracy of urban planning. Over 40 feet tall, the monument sits on a vacant lot, and is essentially a stack of 11 metal filing cabinets in brown, beige, black, gray and green, with a total of 38 drawers, one drawer for every year the project had been in existence at the time of the sculpting. The drawers, some left partially open, are actually now facades that were reattached. The sculpture symbolizes the paperwork that has accumulated since 1965, when the controversial Southern Connector was first proposed to link downtown Burlington (Vermont) with Interstate 89. The purpose of the stalled beltway, which would have stretched about 2.5 miles, was to relieve traffic congestion. The cabinets are welded together and stabilized by an interior steel post. On one side, Alvarez used a blow torch to emblazon a map of the area, along with a timeline in Roman numerals that reflects the phantom road's history from 1965 to the present. Over the decades, as the project experienced one delay after another, the corridor's route and design were changed, often as a result of heated debate.

After the sculpture was completed, a 30-minute play, "Paper Highway", was developed by a local poet, and was performed at the monument's site by a cast of eight, along with the Burlington Taiko drummers. The plot of "Paper Highway" involved people in the year 2552, who find the sculpture and believe it to be an exciting archaeological discovery and an ancient shrine to the gods.

A local politician, when interviewed about the newly completed sculpture, made a bold proclamation that the Connector project would move forward in 2003, and exclaimed that the sculpture would have to be moved. As of 2019, the Connector project is dead, and the sculpture still stands. Adding another 17 file cabinets to the structure (to represent the years 2003-2019) would be incredible, but is entirely unfeasible.

Sculpture article courtesy of Seven Days.

Click through to read more about Switchback Brewing, their Connector IPA, and to see more photos of this iconic tap...

Switchback Brewing Company was founded in Burlington, Vermont in 2002 by Bill Cherry and Jeff Neiblum. Cherry was in college in the early 80’s when he first started thinking about brewing. He pulled out of all of his engineering classes and switched his focus to microbiology. Once out of school, he took a job in quality assurance at a bologna factory in Fremont, Ohio. Seeing upstart breweries like Sierra Nevada get off the ground, he sought employment with domestic beer producers like Anheuser-Busch and Coors, but was turned away due to his lack of experience and training in beer. After a little more formal education at UC Davis, he finally broke into the business, interning at Anheuser-Busch. From there, he became head brewer at Boulevard Brewing. But after 5 years, he left craft-brewing for a high-tech job in rural Vermont. Finding that he missed brewing, Cherry started writing a business plan for Switchback, spurred on by college friend Neiblum.

The two combined Cherry's expertise in brewing and science with Neiblum’s experience as a business entrepreneur. They brewed the first salable batch of Switchback Ale in the fall of 2002 in an old brick warehouse near Magic Hat Brewing. Cherry wanted to maximize complexity, flavor, and delivery the way a brewmaster experiences it. To do this, the beer is left unfiltered and is carbonated 100% naturally in a special process using the yeast. The result is a beer that defies easy description, because it is brewed to a flavor idea and not based on any existing style guidelines. All Switchback beers are brewed this way.

The marketing plan had always been to introduce draft beer first in Vermont only, which allowed Cherry to do all of the brewing, packaging, cleaning, and selling by himself until sales justified hiring some help. The brewery hired its first employee in 2003 and eventually ran 24 hours a day to keep up with demand. As that demand continued to grow, the brewery added state-of-the-art German equipment including a 1964-built copper brewhouse from the Brauerei Schmucker in Beerfelden, Germany. In 2014, a bottling line and a canning line were added, and a tap room was constructed as an outlet to showcase experimental brews and limited release batches. It also hosted beer-themed events including Stretch & Sip Yoga, Cheese and Beer Pairings, and various educational classes. The tap room featured floor to ceiling windows, polished concrete flooring, a custom Douglas fir commercial bar, Douglas fir wall paneling, a custom trellis, and new LED lighting. The expansion cost over $1 million, but paid off as sales grew more than 25% by 2016, thanks in part to the bottling and canning production.

In 2017, Switchback established an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), transferring 100 percent of the company’s stock into a trust. In turn, employees took over ownership of Switchback Brewing Company. Cherry remained with the company as brewmaster and president. He had been thinking about where the brewery would be in 15 years, and how he'd be unable to retire, since most of his money was tied up in the business. He had been approached by several private equity firms and investment groups with offers to purchase the company, but he never considered anything other than an ESOP transaction. He wanted to make sure the employees had job security and that the brewery would remain in Vermont.

Switchback Ale once represented 90% of all the brewery's sales, but now the lineup has grown to include over 20 beers as year-round offerings, rotating specials and limited releases. In the summer of 2017, they announced a new distribution agreement that made their beers available in all New England states. This came to fruition by completing distribution throughout the state of Massachusetts and starting distribution in the state of Connecticut.

Connector IPA was Switchback’s first and long awaited IPA. Making its debut in 2015, it is a year-round Vermont exclusive. Light in color and body, the beer is designed to showcase the hops delicious medley of citrus, tropical fruit, and pine characteristics. Following a huge late addition of Citra hops at the end of the brewing process, they dry hopped this beer with a massive amount of Mosaic and Centennial hops. It is unfiltered and 100% naturally carbonated. The result is a lively, refreshingly hoppy IPA that finishes dry with a quick hit of bitterness that fades quickly and invites you back for another sip. It was named one of the best IPAs in America by Draft Magazine in 2017.