Glossary
Contract brewing
Having beer produced at someone else’s brewery, either to your recipe under your supervision or entirely by the host brewery to a brief.
Also called cuckoo brewing, gypsy brewing, nomad brewing.
Trade usage. Established by practice in the trade rather than by any formal definition.
A normal and long-standing commercial arrangement, and the range of practice within it is wide: at one end a brewer who develops recipes and supervises every brew but owns no plant, at the other a brand that commissions beer and has no brewing involvement at all.
"Cuckoo" or "gypsy" brewing usually describes the first — a brewer without premises using others’ equipment. The latter term has fallen out of favour for obvious reasons.
Related
- Craft beer — The debate this practice complicates.
More vocabulary
Brewery tap · Brewpub · CAMRA · Craft beer · Cru · Microbrewery · Real ale · Session beer · Small beer
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.