Questions brew about root beer

Campus-created root beer not produced in five years

By Jillian Yalung
The Collegian

Once known as the number one root beer in the United States, some people may be wondering what happened to the once-popular local beverage Bulldog Root Beer.

In 1997, two Fresno State professors, Timothy Stearns and John Shegerian, decided to pitch an idea to 11 of their students in a venture known as Bulldog Root Beer.

That year, Stearns started a class called New Venture Layouts, where students majoring in entrepreneurship would have to launch their own businesses.

Randy Sprechter, Stearns’ friend from Wisconsin, had experience in beer, wine and root beer production, making this gutsy pitch a possibility.

With Shegerian opening the Bulldog Brewery in Fig Garden at the time, the production was possible, but it was time for the students to begin the promotion of their products.

The first trial in the process was selling the root beer to the masses at the annual Fresno State Vintage Days. The only problem in that process was they were not a club.

To fix the problem, they decided to create a club known as the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization.

In 1997, the organization raised $5,000 at Vintage Days and sold out of the 35 barrels of root beer they had produced.

Alan Bontya, a sports psychology graduate student, was present during the 1997 Vintage Days.

“I remember when they [Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization] were selling the root beer,” Bontya said. “It was new, so many were hesitant, but it just blew up… it was amazing.”

Soon after the success at Vintage Days, Shegerian took over the business of Bulldog Root Beer, reformulated the product and brought in some investors from Oregon.

This explosion created such a buzz that rootbeerbarrel.com named Bulldog Root Beer the number one best-tasting root beer in the nation.

Wanting to put this beverage on supermarket shelves, Shegerian entrusted the promotion to Garrett Jones, a former Fresno State student and former president of the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization.

Jones got the product in places such as Costco and Save Mart supermarkets.

Since this was once a school project, Stearns believes approximately 3 percent of all revenue would go back into the entrepreneurship program and back into Fresno State.

The question now is, with so much success, why did Bulldog Root Beer just disappear?

In 2002, Shegerian closed the Bulldog Brewery and the rights of Bulldog Root Beer are currently with his investing partners at Steelhead Brewery in Oregon.

The product is no longer being brewed nor distributed.

Reminiscing on the success, Stearns said, “It was a great product and it was a great experience. It was because of this product that we created the Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization.”

Though Bulldog Root Beer is no longer being brewed, Stearns agrees that if Steelhead Brewery were to approach the school with an opportunity to give the beverage another try, he would be open to the idea.

“I would be interested in the venture,” Stearns said.

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