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meets exceptional taste. Visit them Today Comedy, the Carlson Ticket and show times
at Carlson Comedy dot com. Well, in this episode, I sit down
with Fairport Brewing Company owner, creator, and all around brewmaster Tim Garmon to
find out how it all began. We literally started in a five gallon bucket.
Tim tells us about the plants he had to expand the Fairport location and
why that didn't happen. After we got shut down with the with the expansion
in Fairport, we decided, well, we obviously needed a bigger place.
We looked over here at the cannery it looked like scud missiles had gone off
and inside those walls, and I'm like, you know, we need we
need something, We need it now. We find out what's next for Fairport
Brewing Company and what Tim's trying to replace. I'm looking to replace myself someone
who wants to be like the product manager. Well, I can grow the
business. I mean my forte is sales. Yeah, but I understand this
business pretty well. Lost you learn about tim Bucha and the hopes to expand
it beyond New York State's borders. It's all coming up right after this btb's
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When your old career gives you lemons throwing some ice mixed in syvodka.
Big call It a podcast from the mack of a trade studio in Fairport and
driven by Victor Chrysler Dots Jeep Brahm. It's Billified, the Bill Moran Podcast.
Well, hello and welcome. Thank you for getting your pot on,
thank you for telling a friend. That's how we spread the word about the
pirate ship. That's how we spread the word about Tim Butcha. Who knew
Tim Butcha. It's a different kind of Kim kom Butcha. I always say
it wrong. I think I don't know if I say it right or wrong.
Yeah, so you're gonna have to try to get just a little bit
closer to the lie because people always complain and go your gets sound so far
away. I get it, And that's the thing. But Tim Garman is
the owner of the Fairport Brewing Company, and why do you make that face?
I think that's I think that's impressive. But just like you know,
craft beers had kind of popped up and exploded across the United States. I
think the first craft brewery I ever saw was nineteen ninety three Wassatch Brewery in
Park City, Utah. They had glass walls, and they were brewing and
you could watch them brew and it was like a pub restaurant. Was the
first one I had ever really seen like that. And then I came east
there was really nothing, and then all of a sudden, slowly over time.
Now I would think that it's in a business that has a high attrition
rate to some like businesses, common business go. Some beers make it,
some beers don't. You've been able to hang on, Man, that's impressive
as hell. I mean, through COVID and everything. Yeah. Yeah,
it's been a challenge. But COVID was a real tough you know, a
tough scenario for a lot of small businesses. I mean, we're we're just
one of them. I mean people just assumed that because you make alcohol,
you're going to survive, you know, and people who did make alcohol survived.
Yes. But I'm even hearing now that liquor sales are down for the
first time, beer sales are down nationwide. Yeah, and I'm wondering if
that has to do with the growth of the marijuana industry. Oh, there's
got to be a correlation. I would think there's got to be a correlation
for sure. But let's go back to your story because I find it interesting
because I met you Joe Ricado, had a show at your university location at
University Avenue, and I didn't know the whole story. And at that time,
I don't think you slept. No, I still don't. I think
you were like Draculas somewhere, but you were working correct. So how does
this all begin for you? Did it start with the kombucha or did it
start with beer? No, it started with beer. Ok, started with
beer. And it was all about switching gears. I was a medical device
sales rep for thirty three years. About fifteen years ago, you know,
I started making beer in my office, which you know, it's in the
village of Fairport, just to switch gears. I did it with a buddy,
and before long, you know, we had UH. I had you
know, some some of my customers like coming over and so so some of
the people who were buying medical devices were coming over to your office and they
were buying some they were either sampling or you were giving it a little purchase,
a little bit of everything. It was. It was great. Some
people take their clients to UH to golf, you know, to to make
those big deals. I would just bring them to my office, and uh,
and then we also had neighbors. You know, we only had so
much capacity, so you know, the neighbors were always free to just come
on in and and help themselves. And so people would come in with pictures
while I had customers there and it was fun. So where where was this
all happened? Dewey, Dewey, Dewey Avenue, one bedroom apartment. So
you had a Dewey Avenue, one bedroom apartment in it was my office.
No right here in oh, right here village, in the village of Fairport.
Okay, I forgot, there's a Dewy avenue. Yeah. Build.
The cool thing about that is is when we decided in twenty ten to go
professional. It was a couple of middle aged dudes saying, hey, we
can push the paperwork. You know, we're we're smart enough. And it
was a big deal. It was actually a really big deal because there was
nobody I mean up here. I mean it was uh, you know Genesee,
Roerbox, custom brew crafters, right, and a few other people that
were just getting started. Well. Rhorboch would be the oldest one in this
area, right, I mean he started I think in ninety three as well.
Yeah, CBS actually, oh yeah, CBS was the oldest yet okay,
and then they're no longer rightrect yeah? Correct? Custom crafted? Were
they custom brew? Crafters? Crafters? That's right? So who's the one
that says that really encourages you? Are you all in on this? You
just seem to be a guy as a medical device guy. They kind of
looks at things. It may be waste the pros and the cons which is
the smart way to do it. But then when you have a passion for
something, sometimes you just got to go fuck it, be all in.
You know. The cool thing was is again I call it switching gears.
So my day job was in the operating room predominantly, and you know,
it gets a little stressful in the operating room sometimes. You know, I
did a GPS in the head, I did mapping and locating motor nerves and
powered instrumentation, so we could, you know, in head and neck surgery.
So what is your educational background then? Marketing? Marketing degree? Okay,
but then there's an awful lot of science involved in what you were doing.
Is you know, just learn on the job. I went to Niagara
University, I became school I became, you know, way back when a
medic I worked for a professional ambulance company in the city of Niagara Falls,
and I really loved the biology, the science, human and human anatomy and
things like that, so it was pretty cool for me. Getting into operating
room sales was like a no brainer. Yeah, I mean, there was
no money in emergency medicine and there probably still isn't. Yeah, did you
ever think of pursuing a medical career. You know, by the time I
did, it was too late. I had a family, you know,
a marriage, had a kid. Yeah, and uh yeah, it was
just it was just too late. But that would have been cool. It
would have been cool. Not as cool as making beer. No, not
as cool as making beer. And then I'm trying to like draw the parallels
here, because I would think that there's chemistry involved, there's science involved in
the beer making. No, there's so much science if I only listened in
high school, and my high school teachers are probably laughing at that. But
I mean the physics that we deal with every single day. I mean,
yesterday we had a root beer emergency over at Fairport Brewing because you know,
we just couldn't get the carbonation to stay in it. So this is all
physics. This is rupper you make. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I would have brought some here today, but we had an emergency yesterday.
So or so when that happens, is it completely lost? Now?
It means you got to go back to the drawing board, you know.
So you set up your canning line, you're you're you're pumping the rootier out.
You're expecting, you know, your your carbonation to be there after you
do a case, you do some QC. And it was like it was
like all flat and you're like a shoot, So can you recarbonate that or
is that okay? As a matter of fact, you know, we had
a twenty five foot line. You know, I think our temperatures were just
too warm. So we were losing it in transit and you know in translation.
So here's where I'm seeing, Like from the technique, I always say,
the human body, if you really just break down to the simplest form
is pumps and pipes. Right, If you got a pump and then all
your pipes correct, and when you're running the brewery, it pumps the bipes.
Yeah, and there's a yeah, right if the carbonation isn't going.
So you're like a trouble shooting you like that stuff. We have a lot
of balls up in the air. Yeah, we're juggling, We're we're we're
dealing with problems and issues every single day because you're dealing with mother nature.
I mean, kombucha for crying out loud is mother Nature in a can,
right, you know, you know, we we've we've dealt with exploding cans.
We've dealt with exploding beers, you know, attenuation and bottles and confined
spaces. Thank god, we haven't had any exploding kegs. So you've got
the one bedroom apartment on Dewey. I'm assuming at that point you're you have
that was the man cave. That was the man cave, but that's where
you were living. I was not living. Oh and no, what's cool
about that? Bill? So that was your office, that was my office,
and we were able to get a federal license that said we were a
brewery in that in that one bedroom because nobody lived there and honestly got you
know, once we realize it's probably not gonna be a good idea to run
a brewery out of a one bedroom on Dewey because the neighbors were just gonna
you know, you're gonna have shipping and receiving every day, and you know,
just materials coming and going. We decided to move and we went down
to the Turkill Turkill Park is the Turkill Park, the one where amazing grains.
We were right next door to that. Oh man, I always wanted
I was looking years ago. Building was for sale there. Oh yeah,
many many years ago. I'm going back, maybe twenty five and Brownfield,
Yeah, and I was looking at buying it because I thought, what a
great thing for a studio and uh and then I got Chicken other home.
It's a huge place. It is a huge place. But I always thought
that would be cool to have, like a studio video all kinds of shit
going on, right anyway, So you go there, and then eventually the
firehouse, the old firehouse, right, I mean your location in the village.
It's pretty in real estate. I mean, that's pretty good, old
pure oil gas station, historic piece of property. And so the village,
the village of Fairport bought it when it was probably overpriced on the market.
And then what they did is they wanted to control it because of what happened
across the street. With the church and how the church almost got knocked down.
People in the village were pretty upset, and you know, they they
made it historic designated saved the church. So what the village did is they
bought that piece of property because they didn't want the same thing happened. They
had it designated as a historic piece of property, which is good and bad.
You know, we've we've had our trials and tribulations with historic preservation as
you might know, as some of your listeners might know. We had we
had put together a big expansion over there, like underground and you know,
and yeah, we got shut down really yeah because it's a historic Yeah,
yeah, because historic Preservation committee decided they didn't want it, even though even
though the entire village was like all for it. Yeah, we spent a
lot of money trying to make this happen. Yeah, it was going to
be a legacy. It was. It was so beautiful. In fact,
the previous uh president of that Historic Preservation committee was an architect, and we
hired him so that we could do it, right. Yeah, sure,
right, and it you know, it was you know, the paperwork looked
great. So history is preventing progress here, I mean, is what I'm
saying, that's the progress. It's like, it's kind of crazy. But
when you made that move from the one bedroom to the place to Church Hill,
now what happens I mean is it started. You just start growing and
start growing. You start out, you know, six hundred and thirty five
square feet looked like like it was huge. Oh my god, what are
we going to do with this next thing? You know, you're busting at
the seams. And at that time, you know we're going back like you
know, thirteen years ago. At that time, you know, there were
there weren't a whole bunch of breweries in in Rochester, so we would have
lines, you know, we would have all sorts of problems, you know,
just trying to trying to smooth out the operations, you know, work
within our budget, et cetera. You know, we didn't want to go
too deep. We wanted to walk before we run. Sure, we didn't
go out and get huge investment, so we were just you know, pouring
the profits back into the business. Right. So well that's usually me.
Yeah, I know that story. Yeah, you can do it two ways.
You can go out and get big money and then to live up to
it, or or you can, you know, bet on yourself. We
literally started in a five gallon bucket. Yeah, out of the See that's
the amazing thing. And to have the belief that this is going to work.
I mean, Bill, you've seen our you've seen our university where the
university place isn't really impressive, but that, I mean, you've got all
the lines, the canning and all that stuff in there. To go from
a five gallon bucket to that, do you ever? Are you ever?
I'll say it this way in awe of what you've done. And I know
that sounds a little silly because it's you and it's what you're doing every day.
But man, from where you were to where you are, I got
to think on the hard days. If you think that way, it may
make the hard days a little easier. It's true, we've got we've got
everything that we could ever ask for that any big brewery has, from de
filters to bright tanks to you know everything. I mean, we've got everything.
It's just you know, we're a little bit sure on labor these days,
okay, like so many other people. But that'll come back. I
mean COVID that was a COVID product of COVID. Yeah, you know,
and things are coming back. Things are good, so the science side of
things. Now, So then when did you expand to university? Let's go
there, because I would assume eiight years ago, five years ago. Yeah,
after we got shut down, after we got shut down with the with
the expansion and Fairport, we decided, well, we obviously needed a bigger
place. We looked over here at the cannery. It looked like scud missiles
had gone off and inside those walls, and I'm like, you know,
we need we need something, we need it now. So we we we
looked at University. It's ten thousand square feet and I'm like it's too big.
We're never going to grow into this thing. And and I walked away
from it and I came back to it. I'm like, all right,
let's go for it. Yeah, that was before COVID. That was about
a year and a half before COVID, and we grew into it. Now
we're busting at the seams again. Yeah. So, but never thought about
giving up the location here, No, No, So it was always going
to keep the footprint. We're Fairport Brewing. Yeah, And I just didn't
know if we're looking somewhere else within here. I mean the cannery certainly changed
now. But yeah, but when you need something today that was not turnkey,
that was not turnkey, No, not even close, not even close.
So it was pipe dream it was, it was. It turned out
great. I mean, yes, I mean the amount of people it's bringing
in a Fairport is good for Fairport. Yes, you know, I know
there's a lot of talk about parking, and yes, parking and traffic is
an issue, but that's a good growing pain for it. Yes, it
is, you have Yeah, I agree, I agree, And I keep
saying that there's some space that you can put a parking garage in and go
underground. Yes, and some rich guys, well, what is the one
across the street from us? They have underground? They landing, they do.
Yeah, so nobody uses nobody does. I saw somebody going to the
wait that's open. I have no idea. That's crazy. So with the
two locations, and then you're you're making I would assume a variety of beers.
Right, So that's exciting, it's growing, it's going that way.
Then all of a sudden, is it the science side of you? You
got a science brain, don't you a little bit only because I've been forced
to you know. Yeah, but I mean, I mean, but it's
a passion in a way, because then you come out with and it's not
it's tim correct, which I love. I like that names and uh and
you've got a whole line. But for a while, I mean, this
really became I don't want to say your focus, but it was maybe your
passion. It is a passion. Yeah, it's totally a passion. I
mean again, going back to switching gears, you know, it was all
about, you know, doing something that makes people smile. Okay, and
when you can sit down and you have a good product and you know,
the person you never met before in your life is saying, wow, this
is fun, this is great. There's yeah, it fuels the passion.
But yeah, making making beer, making kombucha, making a good is a
challenge, you know, because there's there's a million ways you can kill a
consumer beverage. There's a you know, I mean, when you're when you're
starting on a small scale, there's a million ways. You know, we
don't have computers that just do the work force. We do every step of
the way. So like you know, you take beer, I mean,
you can oxidize it so easily and kill it you can. I mean every
Brewers, every Brewer in the in the history of man has done it,
you know. But that's how we learn. It's like doing surgery. You
know, you just don't go to medical school and next thing you know you're
a surgeon. You know, you have a few way it might be.
It's a little scary, it's safe, Yes, I understand, but I
mean all of us, like I think a lot of people see the term
is failure. I don't like it as failure. It's just like that.
Okay, that's not the way. Let's go over failure. It is failure.
And when you have a when you have a thousand dollars batch go down
the drain, that's a failure. But if you don't learn from it,
it's a bigger failure. Well that is It really is. Yeah, it
really is. And we're you know, we've been doing this for a long
time. We're still learning. We're still learning. How many hours a day
were you when you were because you're no longer medicals? Correct? Correct?
So but that when did you stop? That? Recently? A year and
a half ago? Okay, so not that long ago. Post COVID.
So let's say, uh, go back to twenty nineteen pre COVID. Yeah,
what great year. By the way, Yeah, what's the what's a
Tim Garman day? Like? So Tim is, Tim is in surgery daily
work until two three in the afternoon, doing paperwork, and well he's on
the road because he's covering a big territory. While he's on the road,
he is, he's calling his director of operations say where are we with this?
Where we have that finger on the pulse? You know, I wasn't
doing it. I wasn't doing it after COVID, you know, with with
labor and issues like that. You know, so you were sort of the
the orchestra, the uh facilitator orchestra of every total. Yeah, but it
was your brain child. I mean this is all your Yeah. Yeah,
yeah, I had a PhD. Chemist. How do you find these people?
You know? Sometimes you just get lucky? Yeah, you really do.
I mean you got to ask somebody. I had lunch with one of
Tom Gallasano's guys years ago, and he says, why don't you contact University
of Rochester and see if you can get somebody to do an internship? You
know, because science was such a big deal. So we brought in it.
We brought in a part time chemist who was working on her PhD.
And she was with us for like six years really, yeah, yeah,
six maybe seven years. So she's working on her PhD and she's doing switching
gears to the beer. Yeah right, but beer and kombucha, I mean,
this stuff is highly Why the kombucha? Why are you why? So
in twenty six, twenty fifteen, twenty fifteen, got a lot on my
plate. You know, one of my guys comes to a marketing meeting because
we're talking about marketing. You know, there's there's the evolution of things in
a business. We finally got to the marketing stage. Yeah right, and
so we got to tell people what you got. Yeah, h you got.
I gotta get out there. You should do the town crier, right
exactly, not anymore. So this guy comes to the meeting and he's got
a little Mason jar and he's he's like, hey, you want to try
something something different? And I'm like, what is it. He goes It's
kombucha, and like, no, we're talking beer. He goes here,
we'll try it later. I throw it in the fridge. Three days later,
I open it up. I try it. I'm like, whoa,
what is this stuff? And I call him and I says, Scott,
what what is it? You know? He goes, did you like it?
And I said, yeah, I really did. He goes, that's
because your body's craving it. And I was hooked and I was like,
what is it? You know it's been around since two twenty BC, Manchuria,
China, It's been all over the world. Probably the last place for
it to be is in the US. Well, so it's all about gut
health, but I'm ignorant to the benefits of anything. It's yeah, yeah,
so what people didn't realize, you know, going back twenty years ago,
is everything good or bad happens in your gut. Yeah, so,
you know, I mean it just it just is what it is. There's
so much talk about like probiotics and how how important they are. This stuff
is like natural. I mean, it's like you can't make it without probiotics.
You can you can there there. You know, some companies are dumbing
it up, but we do it traditionally the way it was done, you
know in two twenty you know, so and what it so? What when
you say probiotics and things. So what I called this greater Yeah, right,
we'll talk fermentation. Well that's what I mean, is that what's happening.
We barely ferment tea. Sweet tea gets fermented, and what you end
up with is is and and you introduce bacteria and yeast that live together symbiotically.
Okay, okay, So you got this bacteria and yeast and that's a
secret. That's a secret right there, Bartney and Stevie Wonder need talk about
it by side on my piano. Care there you go. Yeah, but
uh but yeah, so you know, once you once you do that,
then it's all about you know, monitoring it and if you're doing it at
home, and a lot of people do it at home, and it's been
done at home, you know for thousands of years, right, you know,
you just go by taste, you know, you know, but it
will ferment all the way down to vinegar if you if you let it.
Okay, So so we have to we have to. We have to monitor
it and we do. We've got a lab and you know, so so
what is it. It's a high end health beverage full of B vitamins and
probiotics. So b vitamins are great for energy. Yeah, of course,
of course B vitamins. I mean, like you take B twelve for example.
Yeah, B twelve you know is so important for your cardiovasc or,
it's so your neurovascular. I mean, it's just so important. And the
same thing is in this day, most fifty year olds and above are deficient
in B twelve. So they're running around, they're they're exhausted, they're they're
down, they're depressed whatever, right, and they don't know it because it's
so easy to be depleted. You know, there's there's not a lot of
foods you can get B twelve that right, So this is loaded with B
twelve and the B twelve comes from the yeast. The probiotics comes from the
bacteria. So it's that combination and it's just a it's a double whammy for
the guy. How long does it last? Like if I you refrigerate,
you buy it. Let's say I buy yah, keep it in the refrigerator.
It's it's good for I mean, it doesn't go bad. It's just
going to slowly change over time. It will get more carbonated. Your can
might bulge, you know, but but you figure about ninety days. I
mean it's a it's a perishable you know, you don't want to I mean,
I can't. We've had this issue so many times before where people buy
it and they sit on it and put it on their basement stairs and when
they go to open it, it just hits the ceiling. It's alive.
What's in here is mother nature. It's alive. Yeah. So is that
has that become more of your focus? The beers are because the beer selection
when I go in there is amazing. We have a lot of beers,
Yeah, a lot of beers. You know, obviously we're started as a
brewery, but we only serve I mean really, we're not doing wholesale and
beer. Okay, So KiB is A is a wholesale you know product.
So that would be the thing that would take you beyond the borders of New
York, New York. So let's Monroe County, I should say. Okay,
so let's go all the different flavors. I'll go back to that.
We'll stick with the the timbucha. And so that is something that's been growing,
but was growing prior to COVID. It was Yeah, COVID, COVID
hit us hardy, you know, I mean where where's our products sold.
It's sold in restaurants, it's sold in you know, grocery stores, et
cetera. But you know, we had we had distributors, like you know,
harder to distribute because it's a live thing, because it's cold, you
got to keep it coffrigerated. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
But yeah, so again it's a COVID story. When COVID. We were
in nine states before before COVID. After COVID, we retracted right back to
New York and so we're we're just kind of regional. We've you know,
retooled our process and it was like starting a business all over. Who goes
out and sells it? Me? Yeah, okay, So I mean you
go and meet with different people, you're making cold calls. We had,
we had a whole bunch of customers here. Yeah. Again, we we
hired a distributor to handle it. Again, COVID knocked them out. We
took it back, and we've just been approaching the the customers that we we
had and we're doing it. But you know, like I said, short
top, you know, labor's tough right now. Sure, so again we're
working. Do you ever go out and do and then This will sound ridiculous,
but let's say, you know, farmers market or whatever, set up
a table and do free samples. People. We don't do farmers markets,
but we do. We do. You know some beer shows like yeah,
did a Buffalo Beer Geek show. Awesome up in Buffalo. We did the
Zoo Zoo Brew just you and you bring the timbucha to all that we bring
tim We bring yeah, because there's hard timbucha which has is Yes, that
was a COVID project. So you basically take a kimbucha and you amp it
up because you know, when you're when you're selling a healthy beverage, there
there is a a fraction of alcohol. It's it's an NA product, but
it's got to be below zero point five, just like in any year.
Hard kombucha. We go the opposite direction. And and when we looked at
it during COVID and you know, we're standing around, there's nobody coming in
because you know, nobody was allowed to. But we were an essential business.
So so uh, you know, we're like what do we do with
ourselves? So going back to our pH D, Jen I I said,
Jen, let's do it. Let's give me give me a recipe that gets
me to nine percent. And we looked at the mall. We looked at
and we looked at the market, and uh and the market was, you
know, clocking in at about three percent ABV maybe four hardly ever five.
And I'm like, we're going to be the biggest in the country. And
so we cranked it up and our first recipe was a huge success. So
that is our old Goat hard kombucha I had. I've had the okay,
because I've had old Goat though with you, and I took some home and
I did it. Yeah. I enjoyed that. Cool. Yeah, because
in my mind I'm healthy because it's the kombucha. But I'm also taking a
ride. I liked. But that's ah. It's just interesting to hear this
story as it all unfolds and develops. COVID hurt the hospitality industry killed it,
but basically right killed it. And now I think people are very angry.
You know, you're seeing things and I like to think maybe I'm naive
people were operating out of caution in people's best interest. I don't know.
I wish we had thought things through a little bit better, because you know,
the health of the economy is very important for the well being of people
as well. It really is correct. So when you see that, but
you survived, we did, we did. That's amazing. My sister who
owns a Birkenstock story and I just got to throw this out there because she
gave me a fifty to fifty shot because it's like your sister did. My
sister, she goes, yeah, you got about a fifty to fifty shot
of surviving, right, I'll take that challenge. Yeah, those are a
pretty good Hoddess. Wow. Where's her Birkenstock store. She's in Chicago,
Okay, Evanston, Yeah, a very successful. Yeah. Well, Evanston
is a nice area people people continue to buy Birkenstocks. Well, they're comfortable
and they got a great name. Well, I was not well. I
was looking at IDs through people's windows trying to deliver beer. I gotta tell
you it was. It was interesting because you go from like, you know,
being you know, the CEO of your company to be in a you
know, a delivery guy. Yeah, you know, but you got to
do what it takes. I would say that the best bosses, the people
you always want to work for, in my mind, is the guy who's
willing to do whatever, get us whatever it takes. Yeah, and we
do. And and I think that you know that you want, you want
a boss like that, and working for a place or you know that's small
by comparison to other places, would be great. And I think a great
leader knows what to do, no matter what it is, and knows what
is needed to motivate their people. And that's how you survive. Hey,
survival. Did you call your sister after? You know? Go, Hey,
I think I made it? Did it? Did it? Guess he's
got two thumbs that did it? This guy? Uh so the tim?
So now where can I buy this? If I'm going out? I obviously
I would say come to PC. Yeah, go to Fairport either one of
our locations. You know in Fairport we we make deliver east daily. So
if you don't get the flavor you want today, just tell the bartender.
We'll have it for you tomorrow. We have people that buy in bulk over
it over at University by cases at a time, save money. And there
you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, production, Mondays and Fridays are
usually iffy just because we're running errands, we're picking up grain. We we're
a farm brewery so we support our local farmers. We drive, we drive
out to farms to get grain. We we you know, source hops locally.
When you're going to get grain truck, what are we doing here?
We got we got a van, We got those you know, and they
just put them in sacks for you fifty pounds. Yeah, and we're not
again, we're making one hundred gallons at a time. Okay, so you
know we're we're probably gonna use three hundred pounds of grain per you know recipe.
It's not huge. So what are take me to? Like a meeting?
Somebody goes, Tim, I got a great idea for a beer.
How does it go from that person's head to your board at Fairport Poring Company?
But a buffalo Buffalo beer geeks? You know that that beast from the
East that I brought over this morning. It was was something they came to
us and said, hey, do you want to participate? We have this
competition each year. It's a crazy competition and uh, and what we do
is we we we give you a theme. And this year's name was was
w w E or whatever it's called a World Wrestling Federation And so they so
they brought a bunch of guys together and they said, all right, you
guys come up with you know, a product, you come up with a
label, whatever. And we came up with the Beast from the East and
and it was it was something where you know, you play to win because
because there's going to be you know, five or six hundred customers that come
through that door for that beer show, and and they're all going to be
voting on you. And it's like, that's cool. So in my experience,
I'm like, geez, you know what beers typically win. You know,
it's usually a barrel aged you know, dark beer or or a super
you know I P A or sour. These days, sours are getting bigger
and we have not done a ton of sours. We've got one on right
now only because we just never liked them. Yeah. I mean when I
started brewing beer back in the day, if your beer was sour, you
did something wrong, you know what I'm saying. If it was hazy,
you take the hazy I p as. If you did a hazy beer,
you did something wrong, right, you know. So this is interesting.
But let's say so now that's one that you can go and order or pick
up in a can and take to your right, which one the beast of
the east beast? These we did a very limited women run again, going
going way off, going way out on the limb to try and get the
fuse meant considerable risk. Did you win? No? Okay, they're they're
fifty other breweries there. Okay, but we did good. We got we
got great feedback. I mean it was good. So the beer, and
that's well at the end of the day. You know, one of the
things that these these two dudes back in the day, who are you know,
getting together to switch gears? You know. One of the things that
we used to say is if people don't like our beer, we'll drink it.
Yeah, we were serious. So, but how do you have meetings
with everybody? Because honestly, there's a bunch of different types like kinds of
beer, right that I can go in and get it. Yeah, So
where does that come from? And how does it go from idea to hey,
we I mean I would assume is there a meeting? I don't know.
No, there's there's a lot of times, you know, things are
things are constantly changing because it's a creative process. It is a creative process.
It's it's like you know, we're we're at the point where we're making
not the things that everybody expects, but some things that you know, we
just go out on a limb and we we try to get creative. I
mean, I'm gonna be doing a pickle sour, you know, coming up
pickle so sounds I've never done that before, but it sounds pretty cool.
Why where did the idea come from? Uh? One of my bartenders said
she was at another brewery and it was amazing. Okay, all right,
let me look at that. Yeah, i mean we just did a we
just did a cream ol So that's what I'm saying, Like, so it's
in her head. Yeah, and then you say I've never had one.
Oh that's interesting. I'll make it myself. I'll give it a shot.
Yeah, I'll give it a shot. I mean when you look at our
hard kombucha, it was first shot. We knocked it out of the park,
right, So that was pretty cool. Yeah, this is you know,
you just never know. You just never know. There's a lot of
shots you take. You step up to the plate, you strike out.
Okay, what was one you thought would be great and maybe wasn't. Is
that okay to ask you beer? Yeah, of course, I mean like
a flavor wise things that never made. Probably, Like you know, I'm
not really a big fan of the Apple Crisp because it's such a pain in
the ass Can I say that word, absolutely pain in the ass to make?
I dropped the F bomb early on. It's a whole different world,
yeld. It's such a pain in the ass to make. And there's a
lot of babysitting, Okay, you know it's it's the high touch babysitting jobs
that I don't like. But you know it's part of the business. You
just do it, and Mother Nature doesn't just because you want to take Saturday
or Sunday off, it doesn't. She don't care. I got a beer
waiting for me today that has to be kegged. It's a it's the big
day I p A. And this is my third batch. You have an
I p A over there that I really like, and the name is Escaping
Me Fluffy. It might be it's really really good. Like you get to
Apollo Apollo, Ah, yes, the Apollo there. The beers, the
Fairport Broom beers are delicious. That's why I'm always interested in how the process
goes, because I would assume everybody's coming on. Hey man, I got
a great idea for a beer, and you got to be polite. Yeah,
but something might stick in your head. You know that's a great idea.
How like a pickle sour. We're not going to be the first ones
doing it, no, I understand that. But the but like it's like
a salt and vinegar chip, right, do you know what I'm saying.
There's many different varieties, but there's some really good, yes, and there's
some better than others. And we want to we want to be something like
yes, but again never having one and and jumping in and when we'll have
kombucha? Was exactly that. I made it to my taste. I said
I like this, and people liked it so right? Did you ever think
you had like a I always say the name wrong, but the salmi a
palette where you could taste and you know, well, I'm just I've seen
these guys come in and they'll take this and get it around, they'll blow
it out their nose. The first time I saw that, I was like,
like, well, and then what do they do? Did they tell
you it's good or they tell you if it's good or bad? Really?
How? But what is that feeling like when you're so tell me about that.
Somebody comes in, they're just a beer snob. Oh call them,
and then does it feel judgy to you? Of course? Yeah, so
does of course it does, because it's one palette, one person's palated percent
to that person. But you know, we have thousands and tens of thousands
of palettes. But when you've got does it. I don't know how to
say this. It's almost like there's so much of you invested in this that
it's kind of feeling like a personal affront. At times you have to put
that yes you really do, of course you do, you really do.
But but I mean, this is your this is your baby, Yes,
this is your baby. Yes you did it by the book, you love
it, You're you're and somebody comes in and tells you and tells you it
sucks and you have to be able to take it. I wasn't always good
at that, It really wasn't. What would happen? Would you get mad
at people? I'd be like, what gives you the right? You know?
What gives you? Who? Who died and left you king? You
know? I mean, but but that's it. It's a personal blow,
you know, you know Jesus years ago, when I was on the road
finger on the Pulse, I had brewers, I had, you know,
partner or whatever, and their beer was getting our beer had my name on
it too, was getting trashed. And I'm like, oh ah, just
took somebody to task and uh a lot of keyboard idiot. I was just
going to crate media. No, it's not, because sometimes those things didn't
last forever, fire, backfire, you know, you become and that's where
it's really hard to do. But it's part of the learning process. You
want to you want to kill people, Well, I would think so,
because it's what you're you know, your passion, You've put so much into
this. They have no I want to get what the process is, what
goes into it. I have no idea how many different ways we can kill
a beer. Yeah, right, exactly. That's the tough. What is
a day like today like now for you, now that you're not doing medical
sales, I would you know just as lower. Yeah, it's just as
long. If you're not longer seven seven days a week. What time are
you up because you said you're early and we're doing this thirty six okay,
and then what time does the head hit the pillow? Jesus. We were
doing payroll at twelve thirty in the morning two nights ago. Last night,
I think it was an early night, but yeah, the night before was
really late. Yeah, and I found myself twenty hour days. Yeah,
yeah, and you love it, you know what, I wake up,
I do it again every day because every day is a different challenge. Now,
can I ask, can I get a little personal? Sure, I
don't mean it like that, but your significant other, Yeah, it helps
a lot with this's she's our event coordinator. She's wonderful. She's a very
attractive woman, like stands out and you see her what's not which sounds gross
of me to say, And I don't mean that in a rude way,
but like you know, of course objectively. Yes, it's just like tasting
your beer. You know, maybe it's good, maybe it's not. No,
right, she does, she's said, very professional, and I I
and then when you had introduced me a while ago, and then on Canal
Days, I saw her hustling, Like I go, that is a great
person I have in your life right there by your side through all this.
Yeah, I mean investors full on the keg, I would say the ship,
but the keg. We're making beer. So what's what's the future then?
Is the future really for you? The the kombucha you think beyond.
I'm not trying to stop doing beer. That's how a bent I mean a
beer beer again is local. Yes, it's two locations. Yeah, you
know if we if we if you see our beer on a shelf anywhere,
it's because we did somebody a favor, but we don't. So you're you're
not going to see us. You're not going to see us, Okay,
you're just not going to see us, not out of beers of the world,
not no ajs, you know, the little c stores. You're just
you know again, it's uh, it's just we cap it at two locations
because of the size of our brewery. Okay, the size of the brewery.
We're probably the smallest brewery in Rochester. We're three barrel. That means
we're making ninety three gallons at a time, you know, so we got
enough just for our two locations, which is great. Kimbucha I'm hell bent.
Yeah. Yeah. We we have people that drive in from Syracuse,
Buffalo to pick up cases and stuff like that, and it's it's pretty cool.
So now that's got to be on the other side. That's the other
side. We have enough capacity, and I think I showed you that night
the wall of for manners we have. We have enough capacity to feed the
world. But what I was going to say, what I mean by the
other side is that's got to be a really great feeling when somebody is driving
an hour and a half to get your product because they they like this,
this type of product, yours is the best. Yeah. Yeah, And
we get that, We get that a lot. So how do you get
the word out about it? Marketing? You know, it's not so much
a word, especially around here. Most people know the brand what what it
is is. It's about logistics. We got to get out of here.
We got to get to Florida, We got to get to you know,
New Hampshire and Ohio and stuff like that. And that involves other It involves
distribution, It evolves trucking, you know, the right kind of refrigerated trucking.
It involves probably food shows, you know, you know, going to
like national events and stuff like that and doing those tastings that you were talking
about. But you know, again it's there's only one of me. So
I'm on it. I'm on it. Well you're into science, you know
people there, could you clone yourself make another? You know what I'll tell
you. I keep saying labor is really it is really tough finding that person.
Yeah, well here's the thing. We've tried. We've tried. I
just got to think it's got to be hard to find the person. We
say, find the person, But when it's something that that is that personal
to you, you want somebody who's going to care. And nobody's ever going
to care about your business as much as you do. That that we get
true. But you want somebody who's going to be honest and trustworthy and come
with ideas and be a more or less a partner. I would always say,
you know, when you had a job at least like in radio and
here uh here and I'm independent, but even on radio, I would always
go, it's my I'm like hanging out a shingle on their stick, so
to speak. Right, So this is my thing and I own it,
and I'm going to treat it like I own it. Now I'm going to
run through walls, right, And I feel like if you come with that
with a job, who knows what could happen? Right, you know,
and that that those are the how do you find people? You just keep
you know, sometimes sometimes they just find you because they're passionate about what you're
doing and they want to be a part of it. And we've we've had
that in different you know and different What are you looking forward? You know,
I'm looking to replace myself someone someone who wants to be like the product
manager. Well, I can grow the business. I mean, my my
forte is sales. But I but I understand this business pretty pretty well.
So you have to replace yourself eventually, you have to. But you got
to make sure everything is in place before you do that, you know what
I'm saying. So, like in October of last year, we started doing
we changed our process and how we make this and we start and then we
have to do shelf studies. So we're six seven months into shelf studies.
Wow, I know, it's crazy. Well, there's just so many les.
I just think there's so many layers to it that people don't understand.
And it's a lot of work. Yeah, it's a lot of work,
and you're constantly juggling, you know, Oh god, I got to do
this, Oh God, I got to do that. And you're dealing with
I mean regulatory yesterday. Yesterday, I'm at the university and fire marshal.
I'm throwing stuff in the in the dumpster and the fire marshal approaches me and
says, hey, yeah, I just checked out your place, and you
know you're good here. Like regulatory, Yeah, they come in whenever they
want. I mean, we're highly highly highly regulator. All right. I
got to ask some questions since you touched on this, all right, are
there if they came in and said, do you warrant in compliance or there
was a something that was off, do they give you time to fix that?
It depends on the regulator? Okay, could they find some? Regulators
can find you and they will some. Is that like a state fine?
Yeah yeah, it's a state thing, right, because that's always my thing,
is like to run a business bill, state liquor authority. Yeah.
Yeah, I'm sure you've heard yeah, yeah, yeah, you've heard them,
right, But you're talking. This is the fire marshal. They'll come
in, yeah, fire marshal. I mean, I'm sure he's got powers
to do that. But you know what, those guys are pretty reasonable.
Yeah, they come in and they're like you know, if there's something wrong,
they're going to be like, you know, fix it, call me
right, right, right, and then I'll come back. We did,
yeah a lot of times that's what they'll do. But what I was saying
is once is like, I go, it's so hard to do anything.
Sometimes even at your house. You got to get permits, you got to
pay for all this stuff. There's so much you don't even know what you
need. That's a big problem. You don't even know, right, So
some of these things right, and it's like you get educated along the way.
You know. Last year, I got a call from the FDA.
I'm like, we make beer, we makemucha these are fermented things. And
it was out of Syracuse and he was trying to decide whether he was going
to make a trip up to inspect our facility. And when he realized how
small we were, he's like, I'm not going to waste the taxpayers money.
And I said, I appreciate that. Yeah, you know, but
everything's in compliance anyway. We we we try it. I mean, it's
yeah, I mean we don't we don't build ourselves out as code inspectors.
No, right, but I understand what we're expected to know. You're you're
putting out a product that you want people to have, that's going to follow
all the rules to to make that work. I love the fact that the
beer is just going to stay local. I think that that makes it even
cooler, that makes it more special. Yeah, it really does, because
you really got to you know, if you want Fairport beer, you got
to make a trip. Yeah, you know, right, come along the
canal. When was the last time you were able to kick back and enjoy
one of your beers and not really think about anything else? Never? You
know what? Right? Probably not? Because if I sit if I sit
down the street and have a beer, my mind is going a mile a
minute, like, what's my bar tender doing? You know? What's that
guy over there drinking? Does he like it? You know? I mean
you know what I'm saying. You're just you're just constantly on Yeah, constantly.
Yeah, I got it. But it's okay, it's okay. That's
what you do. Have you taken a vacation at all? We try we
take vacations as much as we can because we have to. We have to
get away from it. Yeah, I would think so. But when you
go away, do you chaste the beers and things like you're you're visiting other
breweries all the time. You never get away from all the time. Yeah,
and it's cool and I drink beers. I don't necessary. I would
never reach war just to just to see what's what all the hoopla is about?
Right? You know? When will the pickle sour be? When does
that come? As that sounds summary? Yeah, I don't know why.
It probably is. It probably is. I'm guessing in the next month.
Really it'll be ready? Oh nice, Yeah, it'll probably be about thirty
days. Thirty days? Have you started this whole process of what to make?
And I just decided like two days ago that I was going to do
it. See now I love this and I so I start ordering in the
different ingredients and like this is how I'm gonna do it, and this is
how I'm gonna approach it. It's it's like, do you dream about this
ship too so in your head all the time? Like hotly, I don't
have time to dream. Probably not, not if you're going to bed at
twelve thirty to get up at five thirty or six. Yes, you push
it, push the envelope. I mean some days you're like, God,
you know, you got to look at your phone. Yeah and see what
David see where you're supposed to be. Yeah, sure, what's going on
exactly? Well, I think this is interesting. Get out there, try
the timbucha. I think you're gonna love it. If especially the if you're
a kombucha fan, you're going to love this. If you've never had it
and you're looking for the health benefits, maybe you're reading about it. It's
getting a lot of a play in the press these days. Kombucha. Yeah,
uh, and no, no kombucha company is making any health you know
guarantees. No, you know, it's just their health. There's a lot
of there's a lot of biology in your gut, yes, there is.
And most people know if they've got good gut or bad gut, and the
ones that got bad gut, you know they got they should probably take it
a little bit slow. But oh take it a little bit slow. Yeah.
Yeah, but this will balance things out over time, because that's what
you know, that's what it's been known to do, not just ours,
but any any traditional kombucha. And when I say traditional, if you look
at our label, you won't see that we dumped in four hundred billion probiotics.
You you won't see that. That's traditional. If you don't see that.
If you do see it, I mean somebody kind of sort of dummed
it up a little bit, and it's not traditional anymore. Right, So
this is the traditional, it's traditional. How many flavors we got eleven?
We got eleven. We do have eleven, but you know, we we
kind of mix it up. Sure we don't always have eleven on the shelf,
but we at least have six. Yeah, and and eventually all way
to the West coast. That's a goal. I would think this. I
would think Tim Bucher would be a smash. It would be pretty cool.
Yeah, in places like Oregon and you know, yeah, I mean there's
a lot of k companies out there, I'm sure, but they haven't met
Timbucci. That's right. And that's the thing. You got to go for
the best. Well, this has been fun. I appreciate it. A
Fairport Brewing company right at the corner of Maine and Church Street, christ Church
Tract. Yeah, that's the tap room. That's the tap room, and
then down on University forty four University. Yeah, it's a little you got
to go back a little bit back but there's signs. You can see the
signs. It's not sometimes there's uh, you've got live and entertainment in there.
Sometimes we do. We do a ton of events, a ton,
so we're almost I mean we're open to the public today, you know,
I mean Fridays and Saturdays. You know, Friday's four o'clock, Saturdays,
twelve o'clock Sundays too. Right now, we're not open on Sunday. But
why do I see Runner? I thought I saw people. Oh maybe that
was Mondays. There was a Runners group that I would see on Mondays.
Over over in right here at Fairport. Fairport's open seven days a week.
Talking about a universe gotcha University. We have a huge event space. We've
got a full bar. We have a full bar. And that's the other
thing. We just got a full bar down the streets. I saw that
liquor license, which is kind of cool. It is kind of cool.
Now we got something for everyone. So the people that don't like craft beer,
you know, too heavy to whatever, you know, now they can
get a Jenny light, you know, which is kind of cool. But
but yeah, over at university we do free events space and it has been
a smashing success. That really has been. We can fit up to two
hundred and forty nine people according to the code, and we got a full
stage, we got smart TVs, we got we've got sound, professional sound
there, and we do when you say free event space, if I had,
we don't charge for the venue. Yeah. So if I said,
hey, I want to you got to book it. Yeah, you got
to book it, go on, go online, host an event page.
Right, what you're gonna do? I mean, we have to accept it.
Sure, I mean, okay, you get, you get, you
know, you know, use this example because it's real. But you know,
say you get a kids group. You know, we make our money
when people visit the bar. You know what I'm saying. So you know,
if it's a church group or whatever, nobody drinks, it's probably not
going to be right for us. It won't be a win win. But
but yeah, we do birthdays, we've done weddings, we do receptions,
really do corporate events. What we had Highland Hospital nursing there the other night
doing a recruiting event. So very cool, really cool. You can decorate
it any way you want. We keep it pretty neutral in there so that
you can decorate it for your occasion, very cool. And then and then
I know here in the village of Fairport, there's live music. You got
the fire, Yeah, we do a ton of yeah music. It's it's
really great in the summer. Yeah, yeah, it's totally a summer Then
you that patio has got to be probably one of the best the county for
sure. Yeah, for sure, we got we got a stage over there.
Intent I think it draws people in when you start seeing only getting better.
We make investment into that property every year. Yeah, you know,
so we just keep trying to careful. It's historical, I know, don't
touch it. Historical will get hysterical and then you're gonna be a lot of
trouble from there. Tam Garment, it's been a pleasure Fairport Brewing Company.
Get the timbucha, get the hard timbucha. Get how many flavors of beer
are there? Why did I want to say thirty two? And I don't
think we've got we've got I mean, we have way more recipes. It's
what what do we have on We've got forty seven taps over at University,
but I don't know you, I mean over here we got seventeen, right,
something like that. You're like a mad scientist doing all this stuff.
That's just fun. It is. It is fun. That's the greatest thing.
It's a passion and it's really turned out well for you. And I
love seeing that you're not doing the surgery anymore. Yeah, do it an
you this so check it out. Fairport Brewing Company. Get the timbucha for
Tim Garman. I'm Bill Moran, will see you tomorrow. The Big Hotel
didn't know what to do. I'm trying of TV. Don't do the letter
to you a danger a stay