Scottsdale’s Fate Brewing Company is no more. At least not with that name.
The 3-year-old brewery has settled what owner Steve McFate calls a ‘‘friendly’’ dispute with Fate Brewing Company in Colorado by agreeing to change its name.
“It’s unfortunate,†McFate says. “The craft brew industry has a reputation of friendly competition. We all share the same passion, but it’s no secret the craft beer market is growing rapidly and unfortunately name conflicts are, too.â€
Fate’s production brewery and restaurant on Scottsdale Road and McDowell Road, commonly referred to as Fate South, will become McFate Brewing Company.
The original Scottsdale Road and Shea Boulevard brewpub, known as Fate North, will become McFate’s Tap + Barrel.
Here’s how the dispute began
McFate (pictured above) opened Fate Brewing – one of Arizona’s smallest brewpubs at just 2,250 square feet – in November 2012. In early 2013, an unrelated Fate Brewing opened in Boulder, Colo.
Since both breweries were small, locally focused operations, McFate and Mike Lewinski, the owner of the Colorado brewery, came to a handshake agreement to peacefully co-exist.
But as both breweries began to develop national reputations – Scottsdale’s Fate won a silver medal for its Candy Bar Milk Stout at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival; Colorado’s Fate won a gold for its Kölsch at the 2014 GABF – outsiders began to confuse the two.
Then, in August 2015, McFate opened his second location – a 13,500-square-foot facility with a much larger brewing capacity (pictured below). Colorado’s Fate filed suit in federal court in Denver the following week.
Here are the legal arguments
McFate and Lewinski still tried to avoid a legal battle, exploring any ways the two could both keep the Fate name. ‘‘We even toyed with ideas like a joint website with a central landing page,’’ McFate says. ‘‘We really tried to work this out.’’
Ultimately, though, both men came to the same conclusion: one of their breweries would have to change its name. The question was which one?
Scottsdale’s Fate had opened first, and McFate had secured various Fate domains on the web, such as FateBrewing.com, and social media. But Colorado’s Fate had been the first to trademark its name.
‘‘I dragged my feet on the trademark,’’ McFate admits. ‘‘I can’t blame anyone but myself.’’
Which brewery would win a protracted legal battle was uncertain. What was certain was it would be very costly for both.
Here are the changes you’ll see
‘‘We could have defended the lawsuit in federal court, which would have cost us an enormous amount of time, resources, and energy, but we’d rather put those efforts into our beer,’’ McFate says.
So McFate agreed to change the name of his brewery, which he’ll officially announce Monday. He’s also taking advantage of the rebranding to change the structure of his brewing operation.
Going forward, he says 90 percent to 95 percent of Fate beers will be brewed on the 15-barrel system at the large McFate Brewing facility.
Fate Tap + Barrel, meanwhile, will return to its roots as small, neighborhood-focused pub (pictured above). Its 7-barrel brewing system will be replaced by a 1-barrel pilot system, a move that will free up space for a larger walk-in cooler.
As a result, the location not only will be able to expand its small menu of pizzas and salads, but also increase the number of taps from 12 to at least 24. The additional taps will be used for a selection of ‘‘guest’’ beers.
Here’s the timetable
McFate is planning a relaunching/rebranding party at McFate Brewing on June 25. A similar party will be held at McFate Tap + Barrel when its changes are completed at the end of the summer.
Before then, he has to get new signage, new glassware, new apparel, new menus, new URLs, new social media accounts, and a hundred other things.
Asked why he avoided using his own name in the very beginning, he says, ‘‘I liked Fate by itself – the look, the feel, the meaning. Besides, I’m not a spotlight kind of guy.’’
He’s also not a living-in-the-past kind of guy.
‘‘Ultimately, it is what it is,’’ McFate says. ‘‘It was time to get this behind us.’’
