Speaker 1: huh?
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: The brewing industry is all about community. And what better
Speaker 2: way to catch up with everyone then at the Great
Speaker 2: American Beer Festival,
Speaker 2: Welcome to the gas, Katie and beer podcast. My name's
Speaker 2: Aaron and I'm Cascadian have a background in radio and
Speaker 2: television broadcasting from a music producer and have a passion
Speaker 2: for beer. I don't consider myself an expert on beer
Speaker 2: by any means,
Speaker 2: but I do enjoy and respect the craft and the
Speaker 2: passion of these brewmasters.
Speaker 2: I want to learn for these pioneers. Let's set some
Speaker 2: apart from the rest and why they choose to go
Speaker 2: Cascadia their home.
Speaker 2: Cascadia is a bio region in the Pacific Northwest in
Speaker 2: the North American continent.
Speaker 2: It is made up of the U. S states of
Speaker 2: Washington and Oregon, as well as the Canadian province in
Speaker 2: British Columbia.
Speaker 2: In this podcast series, a profile the unique breweries of Cascadia,
Speaker 2: a region that has a strong presence on the international
Speaker 2: beer scene.
Speaker 2: On this episode, I've traveled back to Denver for the
Speaker 2: Great American Beer Festival 2018. This is my second time
Speaker 2: attending the festival, and I was really looking forward to
Speaker 2: catching up with friends of the podcast from Cascadia, as
Speaker 2: well as those that I'd met last year while attending and,
Speaker 2: of course, meet new breweries and new people along the way.
Speaker 2: I wanted to start this episode off by getting a
Speaker 2: clearer picture to the craft beer industry in the past year.
Speaker 2: For that, I was fortunate enough again to sit down
Speaker 2: with chief economist for the Brewers Association Bart Watson. My
Speaker 2: name is Bart Watson, and I'm chief economist at the
Speaker 2: Brewers Association, and it is fantastic to see you again.
Speaker 2: We saw each other almost this time last year. I mean,
Speaker 2: it was October last year. Ah, we're at the Great
Speaker 2: American Beer Festival 2018 in Denver. And are you excited?
Speaker 2: I'm excited. This is one of those events. Every year
Speaker 2: that re energizes me. That gets me excited. You get
Speaker 2: to see everybody in the beer industry. You get to
Speaker 2: see how excited the consumer still is about beer and
Speaker 2: craft beer. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's
Speaker 2: a fun few days, all right, so you are the
Speaker 2: economist for the B A. So
Speaker 2: let's crunch some numbers here.
Speaker 1: Things were
Speaker 2: looking really positive last year things were on the on
Speaker 2: the up. I remember you said we were seeing between
Speaker 2: 70 to 80 closures of breweries kind of annually. Has
Speaker 2: that changed at all? I mean, I kind of feel
Speaker 2: like there might have been a bit of a down
Speaker 2: slum in terms of openings. Yeah, we've seen, um, certainly
Speaker 2: that closing number rise. It's, um, Risen a little bit
Speaker 2: is a percentage. You know, some of this is just
Speaker 2: we have a lot of worries now, And so even
Speaker 2: if a low percentage of them closed, that's a much
Speaker 2: higher number than it was a few years ago. Um,
Speaker 2: I think some of it is it's a tougher market
Speaker 2: than it was. And so, you know, more people are
Speaker 2: recognizing that, you know, maybe they're not getting the growth
Speaker 2: they expected to get and are choosing to close down.
Speaker 2: You know, I think we'll probably see between two and
Speaker 2: 300 closer just here, which is gonna be the most
Speaker 2: that we've seen. But as a percentage is still, you know,
Speaker 2: only a few percent of the industry and way below
Speaker 2: what you see in a lot of other small businesses. Yes,
Speaker 2: that today do you know, off the top of your
Speaker 2: head how many breweries we have in America here? If
Speaker 2: I had to guess a number right now they're active.
Speaker 2: Probably 6800. So we're approaching 7000. I think we're gonna
Speaker 2: hit 7000 by the end of the year. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be the most we've ever seen. And, you know, it's
Speaker 2: worth noting that even with all those closures were still
Speaker 2: seeing openings outpaced closures. Probably 321 And we're gonna see
Speaker 2: more openings this year than maybe we saw last year.
Speaker 2: So there's still tremendous excitement about getting in, but certainly
Speaker 2: it's tougher than it was a few years ago, and
Speaker 2: we were seeing openings last year, like, kind of in
Speaker 2: kind of well established hubs. Already have we kind of
Speaker 2: scene that spread across the board?
Speaker 1: I think we're
Speaker 2: still seeing it, at least statewide. In places where there
Speaker 2: are already a lot of race, it's actually
Speaker 2: really baffling to me how much more density you're getting
Speaker 2: in places where there already a lot of Berries
Speaker 2: Portland, for example.
Speaker 2: There certainly are limits to this, though, and you know,
Speaker 2: I think we've finally seen the tipping point. A couple
Speaker 2: of the very leading cities Portland, San Diego, are places
Speaker 2: where it's starting to be a little bit more, one
Speaker 2: in one out and occasionally even one going in or,
Speaker 2: you know, one coming out and not getting replaced by
Speaker 2: another brewery, which is something we certainly didn't see in
Speaker 2: those cities a few years ago. So it is changing.
Speaker 2: But generally speaking, most of the openings are still in
Speaker 2: states that have a lot of worries. So overall industry
Speaker 2: as a whole that we see growth or is it
Speaker 2: just kind of been stable again? We see growth, Um,
Speaker 2: and you know that. I think that's were stressing that,
Speaker 2: you know, even a slow down. It's a growing industry.
Speaker 2: I think you know, there is a question about whether
Speaker 2: there's enough growth for everyone to succeed. But, you know,
Speaker 2: I think we're going to see 45% growth when all
Speaker 2: is said and done this year in an industry that's
Speaker 2: 25 million barrels, I mean, we're gonna see a 1,000,000
Speaker 2: barrels of growth, and that's something five or 10 years
Speaker 2: ago would have been a remarkable achievement down. And, uh,
Speaker 2: what are we sitting at market share wise in terms
Speaker 2: of the overall consumption here, I think we're looking at
Speaker 2: probably somewhere in the 13% range in terms of volume share.
Speaker 2: When all is said and done this year, dollar sales
Speaker 2: are always stronger and we continue see strong dollar sales growth,
Speaker 2: particularly cause so much of the growth is in the tail,
Speaker 2: which is, you know, higher price point on average, more
Speaker 2: likely to be on premise. So you know it's possible
Speaker 2: we're gonna get Thio 23 24% of dollar sales this year.
Speaker 2: And then, like last year, too. We're really looking at
Speaker 2: kind of the tasting rooms just really exploding and not
Speaker 2: necessarily packaging products and sending it anywhere. Has that kind
Speaker 2: of come about? Yeah, the tasting room still or where
Speaker 2: A lot of the dynamism is that. Certainly, you know,
Speaker 2: we talk about more Berries opening than ever. Most of
Speaker 2: them are banking on a direct consumer, locally focused model.
Speaker 2: These aren't Berries. They're starting up expecting to be packaging
Speaker 2: and broader distribution like we saw maybe five years ago.
Speaker 2: So that's certainly where some of the growth is. I
Speaker 2: don't think all the growth but I wouldn't be surprised
Speaker 2: if you know last year was only 30% of growth,
Speaker 2: and this year it might be more like 40 or 50%
Speaker 2: of the growth that we see coming direct from those
Speaker 2: bary sales. So you said last year we're seeing most
Speaker 2: of the Berries. 75% are making less than 1000 barrels.
Speaker 2: Is that still the case? That's still the case. You know.
Speaker 2: We still see that long tail, you know, dominating the
Speaker 2: number of worries. And so it's worth keeping that in perspective.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're moving toward a world where we have
Speaker 2: 78 9000 breweries. But you know that that long tail
Speaker 2: most of those aren't gonna make very much beer. And
Speaker 2: you know, when you think about 75% of the brewery's,
Speaker 2: you know, that's a huge number of breweries, and if
Speaker 2: you add up all their beer, they're making about one
Speaker 2: out of 200 years in the US they have about
Speaker 2: 1/2 a percent of the market share, so it's a
Speaker 2: lot of breweries and not a lot of beer. And
Speaker 2: then the conversation last year that we're having to was
Speaker 2: there was a lot of talk about multi being the
Speaker 2: new hops. How have those those feeder industries as it
Speaker 2: were for the brewing industry, come about? Have we seen
Speaker 2: growth in that sexual too? Or is everything just kind
Speaker 2: of kind of happy as it is? We've been seeing
Speaker 2: tremendous growth and hops in recent years. I think we're
Speaker 2: starting to see that slow down on. And perhaps there
Speaker 2: was maybe even a little bit of an over builds
Speaker 2: and hops, you know, particularly in certain varieties. You know,
Speaker 2: one thing to note is that the hot industry is
Speaker 2: a global one. Even if hop growers aren't seeing as
Speaker 2: much demand growth as they've seen here in the U. S. Overseas,
Speaker 2: we're seeing craft explode as well. And American hops are
Speaker 2: really the signature flavor of what craft beer is now globally.
Speaker 2: So, you know, I think we're going to see some
Speaker 2: growth there just because of global demand on the moat side.
Speaker 2: Certainly there has been some growth, you know, I don't
Speaker 2: think it's quite as fast and certainly multi being the
Speaker 2: new hops is we're not quite there yet. We've certainly
Speaker 2: seen a lot of sessional styles grow,
Speaker 2: but they're not necessarily supermom forward styles, so we'll see
Speaker 2: if that changes. I still think that's a lot of
Speaker 2: green space for burgers to explore. All right, And then also,
Speaker 2: there's talk. Last year, about kind of siders were beginning
Speaker 2: The new popular thing. Has that had much of effect
Speaker 2: in terms of beer? Or where where is the cider
Speaker 2: percentage with B A. Yeah, you know, we don't track
Speaker 2: cider closely. Certainly some of our members make cider, and
Speaker 2: we're seeing increasing. The lot of them are more interested
Speaker 2: in cider, and there's been a lot of growth this
Speaker 2: year and particularly rose a ciders and then, ah, big thing,
Speaker 2: you know, driving chunks of the market. You know, there's
Speaker 2: overlap there. I mean, some people who are drinking cider,
Speaker 2: drinking beer and vice versa. Um, some people drinking cider
Speaker 2: because they don't like beer and vice versus So I
Speaker 2: think we're still seeing growth in the cider market. It's
Speaker 2: it's really split it kind of the larger producer. It's,
Speaker 2: you know, some of those rose A's of the products
Speaker 2: that air. They're going really well, but there's a lot
Speaker 2: of small producers inside, or just like in beer and
Speaker 2: a lot of them are focused on dryer. Cider is
Speaker 2: on kind of really getting that those local dry flavors. So, um,
Speaker 2: the cider markets in your shoe when it's it's definitely
Speaker 2: not as developed is the bear market in the U. S.
Speaker 2: But it's one that I think there's gonna be a
Speaker 2: lot of changes in the coming years, of which state
Speaker 2: had saw the most growth last year in terms of volume,
Speaker 2: volume growth.
Speaker 1: That's a good
Speaker 2: question that I probably should know off top my head. Um,
Speaker 2: you know, I'd have to guess that it's one of
Speaker 2: the states that we're seeing come online, um, you know,
Speaker 2: and grow rapidly. You know, a state like Texas, you know,
Speaker 2: we have seen some slowdown in in some of the
Speaker 2: leading states
Speaker 2: Colorado, California, growing quite like they once were. You're part
Speaker 2: of that, too, is that buries in Those states are
Speaker 2: building second Berries out of state rather than growing in
Speaker 2: state now. So there's been a lot of growth in
Speaker 2: states that a little less traditional for craft. Virginia's been
Speaker 2: one that's really moved up a lot of the rankings recently.
Speaker 2: North Carolina seen a ton of growth now just because
Speaker 2: of the second Berries. So that might be the one
Speaker 2: that has had the most production growth. Just his second
Speaker 2: Berries are opening their. And if I recall off memory,
Speaker 2: both those states Virginia and North Carolina took home a
Speaker 2: lot of medals last year, too. So I mean, it's
Speaker 2: it's really seems to be happening over there. Yet both
Speaker 2: of those are states where there's been a conscious push
Speaker 2: by the state to develop the industry. But they're also
Speaker 2: ones where there's really dynamic industry. It's not, you know,
Speaker 2: it's not just state driven, but there's also that consumer poll.
Speaker 2: People are excited. You're seeing the industry developed. So you know,
Speaker 2: one of things that has been excited is it'll contradict
Speaker 2: myself from earlier. Is that we? You know, we have
Speaker 2: seen some some new places really pop online, and craft
Speaker 2: isn't just the California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, you know,
Speaker 2: a handful of states, and you know there's tremendous growth
Speaker 2: in New York, which has been a state that's kind
Speaker 2: of been a sleeping giant for years, So we're seeing
Speaker 2: lots of places you really start to develop. And if
Speaker 2: Kraft's gonna get growth in the coming years. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be those places you no more so than leaving states
Speaker 2: that really drive it. And then numbers wise. How's the
Speaker 2: Pacific Northwest doing? Washington, Oregon? You know, we're still seeing
Speaker 2: growth in number Berries. Oregon certainly slowed. I think Oregon's
Speaker 2: starting thio really mean the per capita numbers are very high.
Speaker 2: You know, more than 20% of the beer that is
Speaker 2: drunk is produced in state and by small producers. That's
Speaker 2: a tremendous is it? Can a state that doesn't have
Speaker 2: a large Marie in it and you know it. So
Speaker 2: I think you're seeing a little bit slow our growth
Speaker 2: there because it's just reading Gene, that mature market point
Speaker 2: Washington seems like it's still growing. Certainly a number of
Speaker 2: breweries and that long tail continues to grow. But maybe
Speaker 2: it wasn't quite what it was a year or two ago. Okay,
Speaker 2: And what is the one thing that you're most excited about?
Speaker 2: Numbers wise
Speaker 2: for the next year? Like, what's a big projection that
Speaker 2: you that you'd like to see happen? Um, what's a
Speaker 2: projection that I would like to see happen? You know?
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I always like to see, you know,
Speaker 2: high success rate. You know, I'm not sure that we're
Speaker 2: going to see that success rates stay as high as
Speaker 2: it has been just because it's a more competitive market. Um,
Speaker 2: I'm excited to see the consumer demand for at the
Speaker 2: brewery sales continue to grow. And watch that. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's one. That that's probably the number I I get
Speaker 2: most interested in every quarter is the TT be premise
Speaker 2: use number seeing how that's growing because for so many
Speaker 2: of these Berries, that's really where they're gonna make it
Speaker 2: or break it if they can continue to get consumers excited,
Speaker 2: how high service quality have high beer quality and get
Speaker 2: them into their tasting rooms and get those margins. That's
Speaker 2: where most Berries or going to succeed or fail No, right. And, ah,
Speaker 2: the festival hasn't even started yet. Um, so is there
Speaker 2: a particular thing that you're excited about upstairs that you're
Speaker 2: gonna check out once we get doors open here? You know,
Speaker 2: every year one of things I'm most excited about is
Speaker 2: just to be surprised by, you know, one of the
Speaker 2: styles that suddenly I wasn't id or no, my radar
Speaker 2: and you start seeing lots of Berries have I mean
Speaker 2: it's often a really good leading indicator what's gonna be big?
Speaker 2: So I'm interested to see what people are bringing in that.
Speaker 2: You know, maybe they weren't a year or two ago.
Speaker 2: You means lots of new things upstairs. First time ever,
Speaker 2: Caro Convention Center's gonna have food trucks in there. There's
Speaker 2: a whole bunch of areas that are redesigned. Buffalo Wild
Speaker 2: Wings is building a sports bar so I can watch
Speaker 2: the Stanford Oregon game on ah on Saturday. That's not
Speaker 2: the only reason they're building it, but that's that's what
Speaker 2: I like to believe. I'll give you credit if if
Speaker 2: he had a hand in making yeah S o so
Speaker 2: that's gonna be awesome. So it's gonna be It's the
Speaker 2: biggest space we've ever had. I think it's gonna be awesome.
Speaker 2: I'm super psyched, all right? Yeah, I'm, uh I'm hoping
Speaker 2: for a more safe zones this year, like, but I
Speaker 2: also think we're gonna find probably a lot of brute.
Speaker 2: I p A's like that seems to be the fancy
Speaker 2: style of the moments
Speaker 1: that will be
Speaker 2: an interesting one. Watch will be interesting to see if
Speaker 2: brood I p. A has spread geographically. I mean, certainly
Speaker 2: that's a style you see, a ton in on the
Speaker 2: West Coast and you're starting to be in Colorado. And
Speaker 2: that's a great indication of Has that style spread to
Speaker 2: Marie's in Ohio? Is it, You know, spread across the
Speaker 2: country and I can really be a good sign that Oh,
Speaker 2: this is gonna be something to watch in the coming years.
Speaker 2: And then Plus, I just want to be surprised by
Speaker 2: I didn't think that you could do that. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: did it good. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Really appreciate it. Yeah. Wonderful. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Depart for his time. Now, the
Speaker 2: festival's getting started. And I just wanted to reflect again
Speaker 2: on what the Great American Beer Festival is and how
Speaker 2: we got to where we are today. Full of full
Speaker 2: recap of the history, you can check out my previous
Speaker 2: episode on the Great American Beer Festival from last year
Speaker 2: at Cascadian Dark Beer.
Speaker 2: Before a quick recap on the festival, I spoke with
Speaker 2: the Director of the Homebrewers Association,
Speaker 1: Gary Glass directed American Homebrewers Association and How important is
Speaker 1: Thea American Homeowner Association to J B F like? What
Speaker 1: is the relationship? Well, the American Homebrewers Association started the
Speaker 1: G A B F, so it's pretty important
Speaker 1: now. All this came from, uh, came from memory. Charlie
Speaker 1: Facing started the H A in 1978 3 years later,
Speaker 1: he started the Great American Beer Festival,
Speaker 1: so it was really a bunch of Homer's who got
Speaker 1: the breweries from all across the country together. First time
Speaker 1: this happened in the United States, where the Berries were
Speaker 1: together in a beer festival. And then it's expanded into
Speaker 1: what you see now, and part of the competition is
Speaker 1: the pro am. What exactly is the pro am? And
Speaker 1: what role does that play in the competition? So the
Speaker 1: pro am is members of the American over his association,
Speaker 1: who have won awards and competition Avery's scale up those
Speaker 1: recipes and produce them and then enter them into the competition.
Speaker 1: So it's a collaboration between numbers and professional brewers, making
Speaker 1: beer and then entering into the Great American Beer Festival,
Speaker 1: so we would medals to both the number and and
Speaker 1: a professional brewer. For those that win the competition So
Speaker 1: if somebody was wanting to get into some, uh, well,
Speaker 1: just gettinto homebrewing where some good resource is that you
Speaker 1: could direct them to, uh, well, great resource. Our website,
Speaker 1: homebrewers association dot or we've got a ton of free
Speaker 1: information videos. They could walk people through the process. Really encouraged.
Speaker 1: People start out very simple with an extract batch. Make
Speaker 1: it really easy. And then from there, this guy's the limit.
Speaker 1: When was the last time you brood? The last time
Speaker 1: I brewed was a couple of weeks ago, but you
Speaker 1: make I made Ah, steam beer. California Common. Right. Sweet. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time. Absolutely. My pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much to Gary for his time. Really
Speaker 2: appreciate it now The festival's underway. So I just wanted
Speaker 2: to hit the floor and see what was happening around
Speaker 2: in the Great American Beer Festival.
Speaker 1: My name is Patrick Harris. Signed the tapper manager for
Speaker 1: a mass production facility at Break Side Brewery in Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: Organ and I also manage at one of our tap,
Speaker 1: our new tap room downtown. It slapped down and so
Speaker 1: break side. I mean, you guys have expanded a lot
Speaker 1: in recent years. Yeah, it's pretty exciting. Last year, we
Speaker 1: kind of got I think our barrel ege was 24
Speaker 1: a half 1000 barrels. This year, we're gonna knock on 30.
Speaker 1: So we're seeing that 15 to 20% growth is kind
Speaker 1: of our kind of our ideal spot right now. We
Speaker 1: don't want to get too big too quickly of a
Speaker 1: natural progression. The demand. The market wants more beer, and
Speaker 1: we're trying to give him more beer, Eh? So how
Speaker 1: is Portland as a whole s a seed at the
Speaker 1: moment is there is a kind of plateau door are stable,
Speaker 1: shall I say? Oh, man, that is the question I
Speaker 1: probably get the most. Most people ask because, you know,
Speaker 1: in the greater Portland area would probably have 93 re
Speaker 1: somewhere around there. And everyone's worried about saturation. And I
Speaker 1: always say this Portland does not need more breweries. However,
Speaker 1: we will always drink good beer. So if you open
Speaker 1: a spot and you make great beer, we're gonna come
Speaker 1: to you. The market is not saturated where it's so
Speaker 1: supportive of each other. We're all friends with each other.
Speaker 1: There's no competition. Obviously, We need sell bottles, cell kegs and,
Speaker 1: you know, make money to pay our employees and things
Speaker 1: like that and accolades. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we all love beer in Portland so much that we're
Speaker 1: rooting for each other. So if you make great beer,
Speaker 1: you get a hangout. That's always say right, so, Portland,
Speaker 1: you're there. Do you venture out much? Who in Washington
Speaker 1: is inspiring you? Who? The people in Washington Uh, my,
Speaker 1: my like my baby Right now. I don't I don't
Speaker 1: specifically know anybody up there but Rubens out of Seattle
Speaker 1: over and Ballard. I lived in balance for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Rubens wasn't there when I lived there. That's my darling.
Speaker 1: That's my baby. I think those guys make such fantastic beer,
Speaker 1: and I'm so happy for them, and I just hope
Speaker 1: they continue their success. And if you haven't had Ruben's
Speaker 1: get on it, the Gaza is absolutely amazing, as as
Speaker 1: seen here, a G B F. They've given love to Rubin's.
Speaker 1: It's time for everyone to give love to them, too.
Speaker 1: And then how about Canada, who is a favorite B
Speaker 1: c stand out? Well, you know, we got some friends
Speaker 1: up there, Yellow dog. You know, we we know those
Speaker 1: guys and I have to give a shout out to them.
Speaker 1: We've collab with them. They make great stuff, too. They understand, Brett.
Speaker 1: They understand. I p a mass love to the yellow
Speaker 1: dot kids. So as anything stood out for you here
Speaker 1: at the festival yet, like, what's a beer that's, like,
Speaker 1: really got your attention anywhere?
Speaker 1: Who? It's a tough call. There's so many places. I'm
Speaker 1: just trying not to get too drunk, To be honest
Speaker 1: with you, It's so easy. You just looking. You're like
Speaker 1: one sip one ounce. I can put this back real quick.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I haven't got there yet, right? So
Speaker 1: I know that's a bad answer, but I'm not quite
Speaker 1: there yet, so this is my second time here. And
Speaker 1: last year the best advice I got before the festival
Speaker 1: even started was from another media guy from Fort Collins.
Speaker 1: And I said, What's the best advice you could give me?
Speaker 1: He says, You're already two beers in. I'm like, What
Speaker 1: are you talking about? He's like the air's thin. Your
Speaker 1: two beers it Yeah, I heard something the same I
Speaker 1: asked some friends that working it for our company and
Speaker 1: some friends that work for other breweries in the Portland
Speaker 1: area said, What's biggest advice? They said, To be honest,
Speaker 1: there's so much beer you're going to drink so much
Speaker 1: fear that if you taste something and it's not good,
Speaker 1: spit it out. You don't have to finish it, because
Speaker 1: if you just say whatever, I can kill this one
Speaker 1: ounce beer. Two hours later, you're on the floor.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much. Not a problem. And good luck.
Speaker 1: All right. Friend of the podcast. You see again your
Speaker 1: name Aaron Hamrick
Speaker 1: Company. And you're in Aurora, Colorado. Yes. And how have
Speaker 1: you guys been the past year? We've been good for
Speaker 1: really gearing up for 2019 and 2018. 18. Great. And
Speaker 1: how many beers do you have entered in the competition
Speaker 1: this year? You know, off the top, your head, we
Speaker 1: we have at least eat, so we're hoping to get
Speaker 1: another medal. Okay, well, best of luck to you, and
Speaker 1: it's always great trying your beers because they are.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: Been sable with circle brewing companies and I'm drinking your
Speaker 1: historical i v a. What's historical about it? Well, uh,
Speaker 1: pretty much everything. Is this Oracle about it? We were
Speaker 1: as accurate and true to historical accuracies who possibly could
Speaker 1: be on recreating the beer way, working the micro moster
Speaker 1: to recreate the mold that went into it, we researched
Speaker 1: a bunch of different recipes at the time. 300 years ago,
Speaker 1: a pale ales that they were sending around the around
Speaker 1: the world took an amalgamation of that recreated that recipe.
Speaker 1: We then took that recipe rude. It's then put it
Speaker 1: in the barrels inoculated with pretending diocese because during those
Speaker 1: trade routes, all of those barrel stays in being broken
Speaker 1: down and reuse over and over again. Bright contamination waas
Speaker 1: absolute certainty at the time. So my time he got
Speaker 1: to assassination at its secondarily fermented with bread on this
Speaker 1: mare is the results. So we did all of those
Speaker 1: things as best we could. And hopefully when you drink
Speaker 1: some of this beer, you're drinking what it tasted like
Speaker 1: 300 years ago to drink, and I bet and you're
Speaker 1: from Austin, Texas. What was the bolt company that you
Speaker 1: worked with? Black? One small And where were they based? Uh,
Speaker 1: they're based in Cedar Park, Texas. All right, cool. And
Speaker 1: then how's the festival been for you? How many years
Speaker 1: have been opened? And how many times attending been open?
Speaker 1: Eight years were circled, But this is my 10 g
Speaker 1: b f in a row. Yeah, Gold. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your time. Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Andy Johnson. You're representing Pico Brew? Uh huh. And how
Speaker 1: is Pico grew Been because I saw you guys last year.
Speaker 1: You introduced this Still what's new this year? From you? Uh, Z.
Speaker 1: So the Z is tthe e second generation of the zygomatic.
Speaker 1: So we've taken a lot of users feedback. And then
Speaker 1: I used our engineering department has changed things about it.
Speaker 1: Dimensions wait. Speed through ability. That's a word
Speaker 1: on. How's the reception been with Pico in the past year.
Speaker 1: That's great. Really good. We we did also lunch. Um,
Speaker 1: are you, which is our universal model that does everything
Speaker 1: from beer to spirits, too. Coffee and kombucha and fusion beverages.
Speaker 1: And we put that on hold of finish out Z
Speaker 1: and push out the still because we have a lot
Speaker 1: of users that want that we've rolled out about 1200
Speaker 1: of those. So we're pushing out about ah 100 a
Speaker 1: week
Speaker 1: and should have that all fulfilled in a month. Six weeks,
Speaker 1: and then the you will blast out again in January, right? Awesome.
Speaker 1: And they know what are the plans for next year?
Speaker 1: A major expansion going on? I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: it's some with all the excuse that we do have
Speaker 1: its managing those. And then they will be you. That
Speaker 1: will be enough for the next year for us, then
Speaker 1: with our Pico units, with all of our very partners
Speaker 1: air adding onto those. So I believe since I saw
Speaker 1: you last or a cinch last year, J B f
Speaker 1: we've added on another 75 very partners. Which brings us
Speaker 1: upto almost 250 which is a lot when we first
Speaker 1: started signing him was at G A b f a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, so I'm pretty proud of that.
Speaker 1: And I mean,
Speaker 2: you need to check all these
Speaker 1: recipes to, like with the breweries to make sure that
Speaker 1: they're kind of in line with what they're brewing. Correct.
Speaker 1: We do. We we, uh once we get the recipe,
Speaker 1: and then we scale it up and our scale it down. Actually,
Speaker 1: in our lab, a ghost, a rigorous QC and sensory panel.
Speaker 1: And then we send it off to the brewery so
Speaker 1: they can also sign off on it. Sometimes is the
Speaker 1: handsome prince Miss. And then we you know, we do
Speaker 1: some changes, but then once it's signed off, um, I'm
Speaker 1: confident the brewery's confident,
Speaker 1: but it's, ah, very detailed process. But
Speaker 1: you want your you're using and Berries, bread and butter.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is there beer, so you need to
Speaker 1: be able to represent them. And people want that at home.
Speaker 1: Not just one thing. All of the brewery. So it's
Speaker 1: It's so it's nice to have it to have it
Speaker 1: most places. Thank you so much. Great to see you again.
Speaker 1: Always good to see you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The name St Barts, founder of Eastern Market Brewing
Speaker 1: Company in Detroit, Michigan. How long you been open? We're
Speaker 1: less than a year. Next week is actually our one year. Well,
Speaker 1: happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. So, obviously,
Speaker 1: first time here too, And we're in Brewer's row house.
Speaker 1: The reception been for you It's been great. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just so much great beer. It's unbelievable how big
Speaker 1: it is. There's a couple of festivals in Michigan, but
Speaker 1: nothing like this has been great. What's the reception been like?
Speaker 1: How people been responding to your beer. It's been spent great.
Speaker 1: You don't see a lot of New England solid base
Speaker 1: out here. I've come to realize, although there's a lot
Speaker 1: of growth. So we're having to explain to some folks,
Speaker 1: and they really like him. Are white coffee stout? There's
Speaker 1: been a lot of people keep coming back. For I
Speaker 1: had that. That's really tasty, man. Great work on that.
Speaker 1: So my favorite question to ask is, How did beer
Speaker 1: find you?
Speaker 1: Oh, man, it was a long journey. We actually found
Speaker 1: old building in Eastern Market in Detroit. They wanted Thio
Speaker 1: bring back to life, and there's a long brewing tradition
Speaker 1: in Detroit. And so we thought we'd bring the two
Speaker 1: together and started Bury. One of my other founders is
Speaker 1: a home brewer. So he brought his passion and started
Speaker 1: that very
Speaker 1: all right. Great. And, uh, how could people learn more
Speaker 1: about you?
Speaker 1: Come on. Our website Eastern market, not beer. They're on
Speaker 1: Instagram and Facebook. Thanks so much for the check. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: It's not just breweries at the Great American Beer Festival.
Speaker 2: In fact, in that previous segment, we heard from people Prue.
Speaker 2: And there's a lot of other great opportunities and great
Speaker 2: industries represented at the Great American Beer Festival. And with that,
Speaker 2: there's the media coverage. So I spoke with some fellow
Speaker 2: media types like myself.
Speaker 1: Eric Bice. I am a hot story teller for top stories, Right?
Speaker 1: And how long you been coming, Thio? The Great American
Speaker 1: Beer Festival? This is our second year here. Definitely learned
Speaker 1: a lot about having a great time drinking some good
Speaker 1: beers and seeing some good friends.
Speaker 1: So what stood out for you? Uh, during the festival? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, it's every year. It's kind of this crazy
Speaker 1: party where there's tons of good beer, so it's really
Speaker 1: hard to pick just one beard. That's it. Out there
Speaker 1: been a couple really big barrel aged stouts that, you know,
Speaker 1: start tonight with something like that and kind of warm
Speaker 1: palette up. And then, uh, maybe head to the Sauer's
Speaker 1: speciation from Michigan. They're killing it. I made sure to
Speaker 1: hit them early, actually, because they were just out of
Speaker 1: beer last year, every time I tried and what his
Speaker 1: hot stories all about. S O. We do video photography
Speaker 1: for the craft beer industry. A little bit of marketing,
Speaker 1: some social media's this sense. Yeah, video guilt. And how
Speaker 1: can we find you? Check inside a top stories dot
Speaker 1: com or instagram at top stories. Facebook slash cop stories
Speaker 1: were fairly active on Instagram. Sweet. Great to see you here.
Speaker 1: Great to see you. So I'm at the Great American
Speaker 1: Beer Festival and it's nice that you run into friends,
Speaker 1: especially Canadian friends. Who are you, sir?
Speaker 1: My name's Tim LaHaye and I am the craft, your
Speaker 1: tourist craft tourist on instagram, right? And what is it
Speaker 1: that you do? Well, you know what? I love to
Speaker 1: hike mountains, a lot of travel and I love Thio
Speaker 1: drink and showcased BC craft beer.
Speaker 1: But traveling the world and experiencing the craft, beer and
Speaker 1: the culture that exists, whether it be on the West
Speaker 1: Coast of North America or into, uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: mountains here in Denver. It's pretty exciting that there's a
Speaker 1: lot of worries here. A lot of beer and the
Speaker 1: exploring in the adventuring is
Speaker 1: what What draws me here? Right. So this is your
Speaker 1: first time at the Great American Beer Festival, right? Yes,
Speaker 1: it absolutely is. And this is night too. I saw
Speaker 1: you last night. So what are your impressions? There's a
Speaker 1: lot of beer here. And I gotta say, I was
Speaker 1: a little overwhelmed when I was looking at the numbers
Speaker 1: and I heard 800 breweries and 4000 viewers. And I
Speaker 1: had that foam Oh, thing going on. Fear of missing L.
Speaker 1: But when it came down to it, I figured if
Speaker 1: I didn't have a game plan and I didn't have
Speaker 1: a list of places that I had to make sure
Speaker 1: that I had and I just took the time to
Speaker 1: take it all in the enjoy it and experience it
Speaker 1: for what it is, you know, find the place with
Speaker 1: short lineups shot with this many people as I can
Speaker 1: that you know, I leave here with, you know, a
Speaker 1: great experience. And so far,
Speaker 1: the game plan is being executed perfectly. So what have
Speaker 1: been some highlights for you? Because this is a chance
Speaker 1: for us to try some beers that we can't get
Speaker 1: on the West Coast at all. Well, today I did
Speaker 1: have
Speaker 1: something from, well, works there. Coconut imperial coconut
Speaker 1: was amazing. It's like 13 and 1/2 percent. And it
Speaker 1: had mo feel like a bureau I've never had before.
Speaker 1: I almost felt like I was drinking pudding. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: that one was delicious. I actually just enjoyed a quadruple
Speaker 1: i p a. That weighed in at 15%. It was
Speaker 1: definitely a standard as well. I I'm amazed it. I
Speaker 1: couldn't taste this much booze in it, as you would
Speaker 1: expect for a 15% beard. But I mean, really is
Speaker 1: just It's for me. I'm gonna walk up. We'll try.
Speaker 1: Some goes, is I'll try some fruit beers. I'll try
Speaker 1: some bullshit has had a delicious Cole's cross a few
Speaker 1: Berries off the bucket list and just enjoy it like
Speaker 1: a cent for what it is. We've just had some
Speaker 1: great beers over a dry dock to which is a
Speaker 1: favorite of mine. Yeah, definitely. They just cracked ah, barrel
Speaker 1: aged imperial Russian stout, and it was 12 and 1/2 percent.
Speaker 1: And wow, like that beer It was one of those
Speaker 1: ones where I actually had to samples of it because
Speaker 1: it was just that good. Really good. It's great to
Speaker 1: see you, man. Yeah, you too, buddy. I'm here with
Speaker 1: another pot gasser. Uh, who are you, sir? My name's
Speaker 1: Chris Lewicki. I'm the host of Pub Cast worldwide. The
Speaker 1: show where what and where we're drinking is just as
Speaker 1: important as what we're talking about. I know you're a
Speaker 1: podcast because you touched my Mike.
Speaker 1: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. No, I I know the ins and outs.
Speaker 1: That's especially in a noisy environment like we are here
Speaker 1: in right now. The great American Beer Festival. Right. So, uh,
Speaker 1: how's your podcast doing? Like, How long have you been running?
Speaker 1: So Yeah. Good question. So I've been podcasting about two
Speaker 1: years now. I recorded the first episode on October 27th
Speaker 1: 2016 in San Francisco, and now we're just about a
Speaker 1: month out from that. So almost at the two year mark, Right?
Speaker 1: And how's it going like, has the response been
Speaker 1: response? Have been great. I mean, it's opening up a
Speaker 1: lot of doors. You know, the unique thing about the
Speaker 1: show is I don't just interview brewers. I interview like musicians,
Speaker 1: B list celebrities, interesting people, travelers. Really? Whenever I'm traveling
Speaker 1: around the world, whether that's in Australia or London or
Speaker 1: somewhere in California where I live, I'm looking for the
Speaker 1: best bars and Berries. Do an interview with unique people
Speaker 1: that have a great story, Right? And is this your
Speaker 1: first time here at the festival? Second time, actually. First
Speaker 1: time doing media here. Last time I was here, just
Speaker 1: trying to get a lay of the land and by
Speaker 1: get a lay of the land, I mean, get pretty
Speaker 1: buzzed and have a good time. But it's a great event.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've got over 800 breweries here this year.
Speaker 1: Over 4000 beers is the biggest it's ever been. You
Speaker 1: can feel the energy like we're doing this interview in
Speaker 1: like the middle of a crowd of people right now,
Speaker 1: like we're in Brewer's row, actually, where we're doing this
Speaker 1: where you could beat the Brewers. So as any brewery
Speaker 1: stood out for you so far, Wow, you know, one
Speaker 1: thing that jumps to mind, I'll answer this question two ways.
Speaker 1: So some of the changes I've seen this year with
Speaker 1: the Cast Mates program with Jamison, where there's essentially an
Speaker 1: area specifically dedicated to barrel aged beers. You know, when
Speaker 1: I come here, there are a lot of great bruise
Speaker 1: from across the country. But I always make sure I picked, like,
Speaker 1: 12 or so that I'm really excited about rent house
Speaker 1: from Arizona's top of my list that I haven't been
Speaker 1: over there yet. Night shift up in New England's a
Speaker 1: great one.
Speaker 1: Some favorites When I was living in Texas like 81
Speaker 1: you're brewing. They're just view that jump out that I'm
Speaker 1: always really excited to see your show. All right, well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for the chip. Cheers, man. Appreciate
Speaker 1: it
Speaker 2: At the Great American Beer Festival. It is a wide
Speaker 2: range of people, new breweries that have only opened in
Speaker 2: the past year, others that have been around five or
Speaker 2: six years. And then there are the true landmarks in
Speaker 2: the berry industry.
Speaker 1: I'm Garrett Oliver and I'm brewmaster of Brooklyn Brewery and Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: You guys air quite an influencer because we get your
Speaker 1: stuff out on the West Coast a lot and really
Speaker 1: loved beers. I'm so my question for you really is.
Speaker 1: Where do you see the industry at the moment, And
Speaker 1: where do you think we need to go?
Speaker 1: Well, I think you know, we're in a moment of, ah,
Speaker 1: great evolution where Ah,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you were here 15 years ago, what
Speaker 1: you would have seen was something which was at least
Speaker 1: somewhat fringe. Now we see craft beer become the mainstream
Speaker 1: in a certain way. Ah, lot of craft beer drinkers
Speaker 1: are still drinking industrial beers as well. But you know,
Speaker 1: we're becoming the norm rather than the exception. I think
Speaker 1: that's Ah, that's a great thing you're seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of evolution of, Ah, whether you agree with the names
Speaker 1: or not like i p a. Stiles or things that
Speaker 1: people are calling I P. A's lots of sour beers,
Speaker 1: lots of barrel aged beers and really showing off the
Speaker 1: breadth of what beer really is. And if somebody was
Speaker 1: to open a brewery in this atmosphere now, what would
Speaker 1: be some advice that you could give them?
Speaker 1: Well, think of what it is that you really want
Speaker 1: to do, and that you feel you can do better
Speaker 1: than anybody else and then bring it. And bring that.
Speaker 1: And only that because you're in AA market with 7000
Speaker 1: other brewers, You know, if you're gonna show up, you
Speaker 1: better mean it. All right, Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: All right. My name's Robin Brower. Soon to be Robin
Speaker 1: Webby Webby Brewing. All right. And you mentioned that because
Speaker 1: last year you had a pretty big event here, have
Speaker 1: a great American beer festival. I did. We want our
Speaker 1: first metal. We took a silver in the Munich style
Speaker 1: dunkel category Dark lager. And we won the silver medal
Speaker 1: for Moon Door dunkle. And we got engaged on stage
Speaker 1: at that moment by Beyonce. Now, um, dropped to one
Speaker 1: knee and proposed it was a total surprise
Speaker 1: like, changing paradigm shift in mind. So I still have
Speaker 1: clapped for you last year. So thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I don't think we stopped screaming for, like, a week.
Speaker 1: So you're actually a Washingtonian, right? I am from the
Speaker 1: just north of Seattle area with high school in Seattle.
Speaker 1: All right. And so what brought you to Colorado? The sunshine,
Speaker 1: the skiing, the climbing, mainly outdoor recreation, which is a
Speaker 1: little twist of sunshine. Know what Washington not offer at
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 1: What's your brew real about? What do you guys focus on?
Speaker 1: We've craft really tasteful modern loggers. Me do a traditional
Speaker 1: German style and approach we lager and horizontal La Goring tanks.
Speaker 1: But all loggers, no ales
Speaker 1: at all. And then how have you been received in
Speaker 1: your community?
Speaker 1: It's been really different. We've been actually, I think they
Speaker 1: always say one of the best forms of flattery is
Speaker 1: when when people maybe take some of those ideas and
Speaker 1: incorporate them into their own breweries are. And we ever
Speaker 1: seen a lot of that transition kind of happening and
Speaker 1: neighboring series of ours, they're starting to make loggers and
Speaker 1: rather's and uncles. And so it is really exciting to
Speaker 1: see a couple Videoton I p. Els as well. And
Speaker 1: it's a really nice twist, a clean approach to the
Speaker 1: i p. A.
Speaker 1: Really well received. So this day to the awards air
Speaker 1: tomorrow obviously you're not gonna get engaged again. But like, uh,
Speaker 1: how many beers do you have entered in the competition
Speaker 1: this year? We entered six and we did a pro am.
Speaker 1: We did a collaboration and impeded four of our flagships
Speaker 1: all right. And then
Speaker 1: you want the uncle t get something again? Is that
Speaker 1: what you're holding out for?
Speaker 1: That would be awesome. It would be great to get
Speaker 1: upgrade that silver to a gold. I think you have
Speaker 1: to take home anything would be an honor, and it's
Speaker 1: one of the largest competitions over for us. It's it's
Speaker 1: really nerve wracking. I think we've had our tummies and
Speaker 1: knots all week, so
Speaker 1: I've trying a couple of beers. They're fantastic, and it's
Speaker 1: great chat with you. Thanks so much awesome. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. My name is Paul Mahoney and I'm the
Speaker 1: head brewer and launch peppery and launchpad is located out
Speaker 1: of Run Aurora, Colorado, out by Buckley Air Force Base.
Speaker 1: And so that has something to do with the neighboring
Speaker 1: just a little bit.
Speaker 1: So what do you guys tend to focus on at
Speaker 1: the brewery? We're gonna focus on standard classical styles everything
Speaker 1: from German coal shoes, and have a nice farmhouse style.
Speaker 1: Cezanne's all the way down Thio,
Speaker 1: New England I p. A's milkshake I p A's barrel
Speaker 1: aged out. You got no movement of everything, including sours.
Speaker 1: If you guys want a couple medals last year, right?
Speaker 1: We want a medal at J B. F last year
Speaker 1: for our cherrywood session smoked porter. And then we also
Speaker 1: won a World Cup bronze for Well, all right, the
Speaker 1: awards air tomorrow. How many beers do you have entered?
Speaker 1: We have five total in competition. We have four for
Speaker 1: the office. Everybody got for this year. We have one
Speaker 1: in collaboration as well. All right. And, uh, what is
Speaker 1: a beer that you're pouring here that you're really proud of?
Speaker 1: I'm definitely really proud of the Peacekeeper Porter has done
Speaker 1: well for us taking home some hardware, so hoping it
Speaker 1: does it again. Um, probably my favorites. The Cape Canaveral
Speaker 1: key lime pie stays on springs back to home. Yeah. No,
Speaker 1: that was That was really great when I had it. Uh,
Speaker 1: you brought that out last year, right? And, uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was so good. Yeah, we had it last year. And, uh,
Speaker 1: kind of in speaking the recipe, we actually change styles or, uh,
Speaker 1: at the actual based on which ain't styles for Well,
Speaker 1: what injury is gonna be in this year's? See how
Speaker 1: it does. All right. Well, best elective are appreciated. Andrew Shelton.
Speaker 1: I'm with high sign brewing, and I'm the head brewer
Speaker 1: there and out of Austin, Texas, right? That's correct. How
Speaker 1: long you guys been open?
Speaker 1: A man. We're coming up on our second year in March, right?
Speaker 1: And what do you guys focus on? Like, What's what's
Speaker 1: your beer specialty? Obviously, we focus on beer more specifically.
Speaker 1: Right now, we're focusing in on ideas.
Speaker 1: And then right now we're kind of exploring kind of
Speaker 1: some of the fruit additives and stuff as well.
Speaker 1: So how is the Austin, Texas seat?
Speaker 1: Oh, the Austin, Texas seem It's growing. It's amazing. There's
Speaker 1: always more Berries open up almost every month. Now it's Ah,
Speaker 1: it's pretty fascinating. So you're coming up to two years?
Speaker 1: Is this your first time? Boring At the festival, this
Speaker 1: section My second sign last year, I was very fortunate.
Speaker 1: That high sign wanted Booth in the lottery,
Speaker 1: and this time we had such a great year that
Speaker 1: we're actually one of the sponsors. All right, well, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your time. Your beers? They're fantastic. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm Murray Kemper. I'm owner and general manager of checking
Speaker 1: up Brewery and friends of the podcast. And here we wait.
Speaker 1: Here we are again at the Great American Beer Festival. Uh,
Speaker 1: how many years is now? Well, we nest year. The
Speaker 1: first year we open, we didn't have enough beer to go.
Speaker 1: That was, too. That's the name. So choose as nine
Speaker 1: re entered the contest for the first time. We want
Speaker 1: smaller public the year with all lager beers. Nobody does that.
Speaker 1: So it was quite a feat. And then two years later,
Speaker 1: we were that a small brewery, only one small brewing
Speaker 1: company of the year. 2011. And then we weren't able
Speaker 1: to get in and 2013 because we didn't sign up
Speaker 1: fast enough.
Speaker 1: And then that was the only time we've missed since
Speaker 1: 2009. So I think this is what a Maybe this
Speaker 1: is our eighth. Ta bl. I think so. Yeah. Somebody
Speaker 1: else is doing the math. Not
Speaker 1: so. Okay. My mom around? So how was the production
Speaker 1: facility going down in Burlington? Oh, yeah. We opened that
Speaker 1: facility and we just room six more taints down from
Speaker 1: our north, not location. Took a while for Weldon. Hook
Speaker 1: them all up. Well, the brewmaster and never all hooked
Speaker 1: up so Now we'll be upping up the production and
Speaker 1: right now just this. Sure, it's only about 4000 were
Speaker 1: still very, very small. But next year it'll be more
Speaker 1: like 5000 or maybe six thousands. And then, you know,
Speaker 1: that facility has a turn of open space around it.
Speaker 1: So we have all kinds of big ideas.
Speaker 1: And what does this festival mean to you? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: we please. In the Craft Brewers Association, we believe that
Speaker 1: really craft beer in America would not be what it
Speaker 1: is today without their help. And so that's why we
Speaker 1: come a CZ, often as we can to the Great
Speaker 1: American Beer Festival because we are supporting the Crabbers Association,
Speaker 1: we believe in them. We believe what they're doing is
Speaker 1: a great thing for craft beer in America. And this
Speaker 1: is night number two, the awards air tomorrow morning. So
Speaker 1: best of luck tomorrow, thank you very much. It's always
Speaker 1: a little bit racking, but you know well, if we
Speaker 1: don't get it, we don't get it. We believe we
Speaker 1: make great years. It's just a re confirmation that we
Speaker 1: do make great beers when we get in a word.
Speaker 1: So Yeah, thanks, but it's great to see everybody down
Speaker 1: in the hole, so I'll see you down there tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Really fun. Yeah, for sure. See you tomorrow. All right.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: And I'm happy to report that shock and had very
Speaker 2: won gold for their dunkle and silver for their hellis
Speaker 2: at this year's Great American Beer Festival. Now, outside of
Speaker 2: the Great American Beer Festival, there is also the satellite
Speaker 2: events that are going on. Denver is a big place
Speaker 2: and there's lots happening, but I was lucky enough to
Speaker 2: go to the Dogfish Head party that was happening at
Speaker 2: the Falling Rock. Taphouse.
Speaker 1: My name is Chris Black. On the other, the Falling
Speaker 1: Rock Taphouse. My business title is King, right? But that's, uh,
Speaker 1: with a lower case K. Because that shows humility. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not in the eyes of the magistrate. Oh, no, no, no. Yeah.
Speaker 1: All right. So how long is falling Rockman open? Ah,
Speaker 1: little over 21 years. We opened up in the summer
Speaker 1: of 97 to start 22nd. Great. Make up your bed. Right?
Speaker 1: And what does falling rock mean to Denver? Well, I'd
Speaker 1: like to think that it means it's kind of like
Speaker 1: the epicenter for great beer. We don't rule anything. We
Speaker 1: just serve everybody else's stuff. We're a Taphouse. I've been
Speaker 1: involved in the custody and craft bring industry for 35 years.
Speaker 1: I decided to open up my own favorite place to
Speaker 1: hang out ever, right? Next to course. Feel too? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that didn't hurt either. We're really lucky to find this location.
Speaker 1: It's where half a block from home plate for Coors Field.
Speaker 1: So we get some really good foot track for the
Speaker 1: baseball games. Ah, lot of people who love baseball love
Speaker 1: really good beer and wine kind. Get out of the
Speaker 1: kind of quotes, sports, far time mentality and whatever the
Speaker 1: cheapest beer thing is, they love coming in here before
Speaker 1: and after games. We get a lot of profit with that,
Speaker 1: but the other thing that I built it here for
Speaker 1: is we're only about 15 blocks from the convention center
Speaker 1: where the great American beer pistols out every year. Who's
Speaker 1: kind of a nice way of getting both those sex?
Speaker 1: Because I just saw a need in this community because
Speaker 1: prior to us, opening up people's idea of what to
Speaker 1: do for great maker Beer Festival was hang up the
Speaker 1: banner out in front of their bar saying buckets of
Speaker 1: Sam Adams for $10 I was kind of like, You know,
Speaker 1: if I just put on some really cool beers people
Speaker 1: show up for that and they're not worried about just
Speaker 1: the cheapest beer that they could get ahold of because,
Speaker 1: like tonight we're here a special event. You got the
Speaker 1: tap trunk?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have my own draft trailer I put out
Speaker 1: in the parking lot. If you there's noticed a noise
Speaker 1: in the background, it's Ah, Miles Davis's bitches brew is
Speaker 1: baked playing underneath the tent that we have put up
Speaker 1: here because we just turned on Sam Calagione ease Dogfish
Speaker 1: Head would age bitches brew, which just came out a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks ago. So we kind of centered the
Speaker 1: promo around this album and that beer
Speaker 1: and so like, are you officially a free house? Then? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we would definitely be like one of the ultimate pre
Speaker 1: houses around this area, right? So have you had something
Speaker 1: from every state on tap at one point at one
Speaker 1: time in your existence? Not quite. There's quite a few
Speaker 1: states in the southeast that we have not had represented
Speaker 1: A C uh, we haven't had anything from Alabama or Mississippi. Uh,
Speaker 1: we have had Georgia. We've had North Carolina definitely have
Speaker 1: not had South Carolina. But, I mean, we're probably somewhere
Speaker 1: around 42. 42 states represented so far, right? So what
Speaker 1: state do you think is the kind of the breakout
Speaker 1: state this year in terms of beer? You know, I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's getting a little tougher these days because
Speaker 1: so many places it going and done things like North
Speaker 1: Carolina kind broke out about 34 years ago and started
Speaker 1: putting out some absolutely amazing thing. Unfortunately, that attracted a
Speaker 1: lot of
Speaker 1: attention that maybe if you're really a craft brew van
Speaker 1: was not maybe the most welcome, you know, And then
Speaker 1: California has always been a hot bed. Then you get into,
Speaker 1: like the Oregon and Washington sub. Colorado has been crazy.
Speaker 1: The Northeast got hot last, like, 67 years, also with
Speaker 1: Maine and and New England and stuff like that with
Speaker 1: the hazy, I be a self right s. So I'm
Speaker 1: from the Pacific Northwest, So I have to ask you
Speaker 1: what is a favorite from Washington and once a favorite
Speaker 1: from Oregon for you?
Speaker 1: Well, right now from Oregon, I am absolutely in love
Speaker 1: with John Harris is here from ecliptic. I've known John
Speaker 1: since 1999. He's been We've had dinner together in my house.
Speaker 1: We do stuff. My wife and John and I did
Speaker 1: a collaboration brew last year for our 20th anniversary, and
Speaker 1: we did on the 40th the anniversary of the worst
Speaker 1: dressed up, which is, you know, absolutely dear. In my
Speaker 1: heart I missed on every day. He and I were like,
Speaker 1: really good friends. Did some traveling together. So we decided
Speaker 1: to do a brew on that day. So there was
Speaker 1: a good excuse. Also first go the 40th anniversary party,
Speaker 1: and we just had an amazing day hanging out together
Speaker 1: that there's also a couple others that I'm really, really
Speaker 1: high on right now. Like I love what Christians doing
Speaker 1: over at at Wilson People and then the other Christian
Speaker 1: over at, of course, Hub that So we just had
Speaker 1: some of ah hubs beers. On this week, he was
Speaker 1: able to get us a little bit of self fair.
Speaker 1: That was a lot of fun. And I love what
Speaker 1: they're doing. You know, their whole theme of the bicycles, and,
Speaker 1: you know, not not using cars or something. That really
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. And I just really enjoy that
Speaker 1: kind of seven in Washington state. I've really been kind
Speaker 1: of enjoying quite a few. The the breeze I've gotten lately,
Speaker 1: and I'm just really kind of like grain courting. It's
Speaker 1: kind of late at night right now. I mean, let
Speaker 1: me throw one out there. Probably Rubens,
Speaker 1: man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a really good one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: on then. Ah, hometown favorite. Mind chucking up
Speaker 1: checking. That's awesome, man. Hey, let's see if I could
Speaker 1: go three for 33 months, three months, Making some really
Speaker 1: nice views we had we had lush on about two
Speaker 1: weeks ago. We just got a second check of it. That,
Speaker 1: uh I think right now it's eight days old. Can't
Speaker 1: get any fresher than that. Get any better than that?
Speaker 1: I mean, I think they were on it did have
Speaker 1: its own seat on the plane to get out here,
Speaker 1: and it was like I think they were holding up
Speaker 1: the truck waiting to load that tag on there.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for your time. Really? Absolutely. Have
Speaker 1: a great night. Enjoy. J B. F.
Speaker 1: Yeah. My name is Sam Calagione IAM the CEO and
Speaker 1: founder of Dogfish Head Mood. And you've been a huge
Speaker 1: inspiration for me in terms of beer. I lived in
Speaker 1: New Zealand, got into home brewing, and I actually got
Speaker 1: your beer out in New Zealand and we get it
Speaker 1: quite regularly on the West Coast because my hometown is Bellingham.
Speaker 1: We get Elizabeth Station out there, we get stuff really
Speaker 1: fresh from you. So
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of your Berries. Thank you were
Speaker 1: proud of what we're doing. A dog for sure. My
Speaker 1: question for you really is where we in the craft
Speaker 1: industry now. And where do you think we need to
Speaker 1: go In terms of growth? Thio just even spread more
Speaker 1: awareness for the consumer. Well, in the US right now,
Speaker 1: it's awesome that there's never been a better time to
Speaker 1: be a beer drinker or a beer maker. There's now
Speaker 1: over 7000 grabbers in America, and there's amazing amount of
Speaker 1: creativity brewing outside the right height. Ski boat bringing culinary
Speaker 1: ingredients in wood from the wine world and which is wonderful.
Speaker 1: But also we have a challenge because wine and spirits
Speaker 1: are growing faster. So here has to get shit together.
Speaker 1: Convince young drinkers that beard should be there, go to drink,
Speaker 1: even above spirits and wine. I mean, that's what you've
Speaker 1: done for day one with your off center nails, right?
Speaker 1: Like you really pushed the envelope of what beer can be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we were the first. I think Murray in America committed
Speaker 1: to making the majority of our beers outside the right
Speaker 1: height school boat. That was in our business plan. It
Speaker 1: was true. And we were the smallest period America. That's
Speaker 1: true today we're a top 15 Murray in America. All right,
Speaker 1: where do you see the biggest growth in the industry
Speaker 1: in terms of the States? Because, I mean, you're in
Speaker 1: Delaware and, like, what's What's the competition like they're in
Speaker 1: terms of the other breweries. So, yeah, we're in a
Speaker 1: very small state. We have less than a 1,000,000 people
Speaker 1: in our state, but we're two hours from DC Baltimore
Speaker 1: in Philly. So it's a really nice hub to be
Speaker 1: a local brewery and and we're lucky that we are
Speaker 1: considered local and not just our state, but those cities.
Speaker 1: So we are growing double digits in her backyard, and
Speaker 1: that's necessary right now, all Berries across the country they
Speaker 1: distribute in two states or 20 states, they better make
Speaker 1: sure they're taking care of their home market before they expand.
Speaker 1: And what is the great American Beer festival mean to you?
Speaker 1: Means catching up with old friends? My high school friends
Speaker 1: you live out here aren't the bureau world, my brewer friends.
Speaker 1: So it's like a homecoming mixed up with the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: So it's a Super Bowl, a beer. But it's like
Speaker 1: a homecoming for us. Wiley vets. And if somebody was
Speaker 1: to open up a brewery today, what would be some
Speaker 1: advice you could give them? Oh, I would say, uh,
Speaker 1: there's always room for another great brewery and every in
Speaker 1: every big town in America.
Speaker 1: As long as you do three things,
Speaker 1: you got to come correct with world class quality,
Speaker 1: consistency and, being well differentiated. Don't copy what other Berries
Speaker 1: they're doing. Fine year old niche and make it resonate
Speaker 1: with beer lovers. Thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1: Really appreciate. You're my pleasure.
Speaker 2: Thanks for doing this big. Thank you to Sam for
Speaker 2: his time. Really appreciate it On the final day of
Speaker 2: the Great American Beer Festival. It was just nuts, but
Speaker 2: I was fortunate enough to speak with a few breweries
Speaker 2: representing Cascadia, who took home some metals. Bolt
Speaker 1: Minister, owner and Brewer, 54 40 brewing in Washington, Washington.
Speaker 1: And where is wash Kugel? Why? Sugar is just a
Speaker 1: little bit outside. Portland, Oregon. We're just about 10 minutes
Speaker 1: east of Vancouver, Washington USA
Speaker 1: and, uh, 20 minutes outside of Portland Airport. All right.
Speaker 1: And you've had a big day today. Here's a fun
Speaker 1: day today. What? What did you come home with? S
Speaker 1: So we got the silver for German style Koelsch.
Speaker 1: Right? And how proud of you for that. It's good. Uh,
Speaker 1: Cascadia is the beer and I disappear that I loved
Speaker 1: a brew and love to drink the most. So
Speaker 1: good. Right? And how many categories did you enter? We
Speaker 1: get her in four categories. Yep. Alright. Go also. Congratulations
Speaker 1: coming over the metal. Thank you. Thank you. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I'm with good life. Are you doing doing pretty well today, man,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. You've had a big day. What happened
Speaker 1: to you? Well, we wanna consecutive gold medal with our
Speaker 1: American Pale, weak, sweet as today. So two years in
Speaker 1: a row, right? Yeah, back to back. Two years in
Speaker 1: a row is awesome. Congratulations. Thank you very much for
Speaker 1: pretty stoked about this. So pretty happy. All right. And
Speaker 1: if somebody wants to come down and visit you, where
Speaker 1: can they find you? And what do you all about?
Speaker 1: Were located in Beautiful Bend, Oregon, all right, in the
Speaker 1: central part of the state. So just ask around town,
Speaker 1: they'll tell you how to get us.
Speaker 2: There was one brewery in particular that really caught my
Speaker 2: attention this year of the Great American Beer Festival. They
Speaker 2: had something pretty unique, and it was very delicious.
Speaker 1: My name is Melissa Priest. I'm one of the co
Speaker 1: founders of the referent beer blundering.
Speaker 1: I'm James Priest. And I am also want to co
Speaker 1: founders into guess Blender at the blundering. All right. And
Speaker 1: when did you guys start? Eh? So we started in
Speaker 1: early 2016 R tasting room officially opened at the end
Speaker 1: of 2016. There's obviously a largely time with these long
Speaker 1: aging beers to get enough beer mature enough to serve,
Speaker 1: you know, to the public in our tasting room. Also
Speaker 1: coming up in December, this will be two years open
Speaker 1: and Jason Room. So how did beer find you? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I moved to Maine. And what was that early Wait
Speaker 1: 2010 with nothing else to do but join Melissa and
Speaker 1: her senior year and May and then that I started
Speaker 1: working at Baxter Brewing Company right when they started up.
Speaker 1: Very serendipitous, with out job applications from which way.
Speaker 1: But Yeah, I went to school in Boulder, found Beard
Speaker 1: that way. But then I found my way into the
Speaker 1: beer industry. Is that serendipity of being right next to
Speaker 1: a brand new
Speaker 1: young upstart craft brewery there? But you guys have a
Speaker 1: really defining characteristic to your brewery, which is really unique.
Speaker 1: What is that? So everything that we do is 100%
Speaker 1: spontaneously fermented, which means that we're never adding cultured Easter
Speaker 1: bacteria ever. It's all. All of our beers are fermented
Speaker 1: with ambient yeast and bacteria from the air that come
Speaker 1: in during the natural cooling process. After we brew. We
Speaker 1: pump our warrant out into our cool ship, which is
Speaker 1: just a giant shell. Oh, stainless steel pan. We, uh,
Speaker 1: open it up to the cool winter air, and we
Speaker 1: let it cool naturally overnight. And during that process, we
Speaker 1: have wild Houston bacteria that float in and settle on
Speaker 1: the warrant. We then bring that back to our barrel seller,
Speaker 1: and we put that into oak barrels and then just
Speaker 1: with them for men usually start between one and seven
Speaker 1: days after reed pump aboard into the barrels and let
Speaker 1: them ferment for months. Two years. And you said this
Speaker 1: cool ship is mobile, right? It iss yes. Uh, right.
Speaker 1: Just in the back of a big old box truck,
Speaker 1: 26 plate feet, maybe 28 feet. And I can never
Speaker 1: remember their 26. Yeah, and we do that because we
Speaker 1: don't have a house. So we broke through locally at
Speaker 1: other Berries, and so are cool. Ship kind of can
Speaker 1: accommodate different batch sizes ranging from 10 up to 40 barrels,
Speaker 1: so that allows us to brew it kind of any
Speaker 1: brew house in that range that's willing to basically do
Speaker 1: these long, long Gru days with us of turbine mashing
Speaker 1: and long boils and a longtime cooling. So you're at
Speaker 1: the Great American Beer Festival. Is this your first time
Speaker 1: serving here? It's my technically second time served years here,
Speaker 1: once a flying dog like five years ago, maybe, but
Speaker 1: definitely first time as a prorated first time is yet boring.
Speaker 1: Everyone all spontaneous beer and
Speaker 1: yeah, showing everyone what that's about and what's the response been?
Speaker 1: We've been really encouraged by the response. It's kind of
Speaker 1: difficult beer to explain. Not everybody knows what spontaneous fermentation is,
Speaker 1: and so we've been doing a lot of vegetation back here.
Speaker 1: But people have been incredibly receptive, willing to listen to
Speaker 1: my very launch feels eso. I've been grateful for that,
Speaker 1: and people have yet been enjoying the beers, it seems.
Speaker 1: And how could people learn more about you? So we
Speaker 1: have a lot of information on our website. James's written
Speaker 1: up a lot of nice overviews about kind of how
Speaker 1: this process works, kind of how the biological process works,
Speaker 1: what our methods are. Yeah, I would say that's the
Speaker 1: best place. Or come out to our tasting room where
Speaker 1: we're happy to talk with you for a long, long
Speaker 1: time about anything you want to know. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Both of you for your time. Really appreciate it. Very,
Speaker 1: very delicious. Beer's Thank you. Thanks so much. Thanks for
Speaker 1: having us
Speaker 2: now. I'm at the Great American Beer Festival. So imagine
Speaker 2: my surprise when I saw a Canadian brewery on this floor.
Speaker 1: Jim Dodd's vice president operations red truck for your company.
Speaker 1: And you guys are friends of the podcast at Vancouver.
Speaker 1: But you've just opened in Fort Collins. Yeah. You know what?
Speaker 1: We're really excited about being down here. This is, uh
Speaker 1: this is cool. And, you know, being here at the
Speaker 1: Great American Beer fest is even cooler. So it's We're
Speaker 1: glad to be part of this, and we're really excited
Speaker 1: about being here. So it's you know what? It's a
Speaker 1: ton of fun, great beers. And again, we're looking forward
Speaker 1: to being part of it. Also, has the reception been
Speaker 1: in Fort Collins? You know what? It's been really good.
Speaker 1: We're very happy. We're hoping to open in May. But
Speaker 1: we didn't get open until towards the latter part of August.
Speaker 1: Would've liked have been there right through this summer. But
Speaker 1: you know what this is? Ah, Journey, not a destination.
Speaker 1: So you know what? It's
Speaker 1: gonna take some time and whatnot. But we've been well received,
Speaker 1: and you don't have an 18 beers on tap. And
Speaker 1: in all different flavors and styles and kinds and whatnot.
Speaker 1: It's You know what? It's really cool. It's a life
Speaker 1: or Collins. You know what we believe that, you know,
Speaker 1: we looked at a lot of other places in the U. S. And,
Speaker 1: you know, we just fell in love with four cones
Speaker 1: and knowing that it is the hotbed for craft beer
Speaker 1: in America, you know, why not just jump right into
Speaker 1: the deep end and the defense got no water? You
Speaker 1: know what I mean? It's like we're going in head first.
Speaker 1: So you know what? Our brand we feel really resonates
Speaker 1: on the east side of the of the Rockies all
Speaker 1: about outdoors music. You know, we're big into the bike
Speaker 1: scene and whatnot, and yeah, we're just Once we came
Speaker 1: here were like we fell in love with the place,
Speaker 1: and it's a great spot. And you know what, Colorado?
Speaker 1: As a hole. Just a great state to be and
Speaker 1: be part of. And this is the second night of
Speaker 1: the festival. How is the reception for you guys last night? Yeah,
Speaker 1: last night. It was really good. You know, it's we
Speaker 1: have our truck and trailer here, and, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: it's definitely stands out. And that's what we wanted to do.
Speaker 1: Was create a little bit of an impact and, you know,
Speaker 1: let people know that we're here. So it was really
Speaker 1: good last night. We're really looking forward to tonight. Expecting, obviously,
Speaker 1: was a big crowd here tonight, and same with tomorrow,
Speaker 1: So
Speaker 1: yeah, we're really excited about it. Thanks so much for
Speaker 1: your time. Hey. Absolutely. You've got? Yeah, I'm Sean Sides,
Speaker 1: and I'm the head brewer at Red Truck here. USA. Right?
Speaker 1: Right truck, Beer, USA. Because yet is a Canadian company.
Speaker 1: So how did you get involved with red Track? I
Speaker 1: actually worked for the company. They were in the process
Speaker 1: of purchasing the brewery building from, you know, over the
Speaker 1: course of about eight months or so into being friends
Speaker 1: with him and find out of nowhere they re job
Speaker 1: with an offer. Easy, very easy.
Speaker 1: Very easy to get along with. Justin's a great guy,
Speaker 1: and it's been pretty awesome being able to work with
Speaker 1: these guys and working with Justin specifically. So I mean,
Speaker 1: you have recipes from the Vancouver facility. Do you get
Speaker 1: to craft some of your own recipes as well? Yeah, absolutely. Uh,
Speaker 1: these guys have been wonderful
Speaker 1: because they realize that the market is just a little
Speaker 1: bit different. So we kind of had a long discussion
Speaker 1: about what brands we thought would do well here,
Speaker 1: and we decided to bring those downs. So there's some
Speaker 1: sort of continuity, but the other recipes are mine designed
Speaker 1: for sensitive in the floor of a market where I
Speaker 1: grew up in.
Speaker 1: I have been drinking beer my entire life. So you
Speaker 1: have a talent for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So what's a favorite beer of yours to make right
Speaker 1: now I'm really liking the black lager on generally loggers
Speaker 1: in general, I like to brew what I like to drink,
Speaker 1: and I like to drink, you know, three or four
Speaker 1: years at a time. So a lot of it ends
Speaker 1: up being some lower alcohol, larger stuff,
Speaker 1: which kind of doubles is fun because it is the
Speaker 1: most difficult to brew.
Speaker 1: It makes me feel good that we can pump out,
Speaker 1: you know, consistent, clean loggers. All right. Well, congratulations. And, uh,
Speaker 1: glad to see that you guys have a great reception
Speaker 1: here at the festival. Absolutely. Thank you.
Speaker 2: I just want to say thank you so much to
Speaker 2: everybody for their time. Really appreciate it. I mean, is
Speaker 2: the great American Beer Festival schedules air tight? It is
Speaker 2: just insane for those few days where everybody piles into Denver.
Speaker 2: It was great meeting a lot of new breweries. It's
Speaker 2: great seeing old friends again and can't wait to return,
Speaker 2: hopefully next year. And if you enjoy this episode, police
Speaker 2: feel free to share this episode. And we really appreciate
Speaker 2: gets this podcast into as many years as possible. Also
Speaker 2: that subscribe button in your favorite podcast app. Or leave
Speaker 2: us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. If you
Speaker 2: really like this show, we'd really appreciate your support by
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Speaker 2: slash cascadian beer where you can support this podcast series.
Speaker 2: Where is a little as a dollar an episode? If
Speaker 2: you want to check out more episodes including my previous
Speaker 2: episode on the Great American Beer Festival 2017. You can
Speaker 2: do so by heading to our website at cascadian dot
Speaker 2: beer on Don't forget to follow us on our social
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Speaker 2: on facebook dot com. Forward slash cascadian beer and I'm
Speaker 2: on Twitter at Cascadian Beer. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: I really appreciate it. And I know this episode in
Speaker 2: particular was a little bit different. But thanks for sticking around.
Speaker 2: And until next time, remember, support your local.