This What's on Tap Radio podcast is brought to you by Cast Branding. I
remember of the Texas craft Brewers Guild. Cast Branding has been supplying breweries,
distilleries, and wineries with top quality merchandise since twenty thirteen. If you're looking
for a way to promote and grow your brand, check out Cast Branding on
Facebook, Instagram, and online at Cast Branding dot com, Cast Branding dot
com, Cash Brandy dot com. Enjoy the show. This is about to
be good radio. Oh yeah. To me, a craft brewer is much
more of a mindset. We just opened two camps spread the gospel of good
beer beer. Tons and tons of stuff going on in the beer world.
I love craft beer. I love different people's beers. It's the first favorite.
Cheers two old US beer geeks and those new to the craft. What's
on Tap High five? This is What's on Tap Radio beer and the culture
that flows with it. Kears Beer Guru James Simpson and beer logics Chad Pilbet
start to show some bad news for all the potheads that are excited about going
to october Fest this year. It's coming up on today's episode, What's Up
I'm doing? Hey Ben glad you're here with us. By the way,
bad news for all you potheads. By the way, I like how James
just labeled everybody who uses marijuana. Hey, pothead, guess what if you're
planning on going to Octoberfest. We've got an update, yeah, coming up
on this episode of What's on Tap Radio, Welcome to show. I'm James
as Chad. We've got coverlight Bill hanging out. Say hello, Bill,
Hello, everyone. Glad you're with us. I'm glad that you are with
us as well. We got an action packed show. I got a beard
to crack. Chad's got a beer to crack. Bill's got a beard to
crack. I hope wherever you are safely have a beer to crack as well,
because we got a action pack of radio show on tap this week.
It's been quite the couple of weeks. Chad know, I need a beer.
I need to be here. There's been a lot of drama out there,
and uh, I don't even know how to It's not even drama,
it's it's excitement. I think it's got the makings of a good movie script.
Yeah, I mean it's Mother Nature and me. Yeah yeah, so
yeah, imagine Twister the movie only without the really bad CG effects only.
Instead, it's got a guy sitting there drinking craft beer in Houston, Texas.
That would be It's not Bill, It's not Bill Packed and it's it's
me Berger James Simpson. But Sunday's Film Festival, here we come, James.
I got you said you got an idea for a podcast. I got
an idea for a movie. But before we do, we gotta start drinking
beers, because you know what, before we can come up with these million
dollar ideas, we h we need to have a beer. And before we
can have a million dollar idea, we got to thank all of our wonderful
sponsors for the millions and millions of dollars. These are our investors. Yes,
they contribute to this program because it literally costs millions to put together a
show of this quality. Seems that way. Without the sponsored we wouldn't be
here. That being Tantrik Brewing, Superior Pest Control, being a Logic conference
and events, we knowledge anag insurance group, the Backyard Grill, keeping the
lights on, Thank you, Harbor Light to Brewing, and of course sponsoring
our podcast cast, Brandingcast, branding dot Com and I am ready for a
beer. I know everybody else is as well. It's been quite the week.
It's been quite a couple of weeks, and it's been in a lot
of today again doing yard work because well I'll talk about that here in a
little bit. But I'm ready for a beer. Who's going first, Chad,
brought to the table. I'm gonna take I'm gonna take it. Brought
to table thanks to our friends over at the Backyard Grill. Yeah, that's
right now on the northwest side of Houston, the byg. Get there for
your crawfish, get your barbecue game on the grill, and of course over
one hundred different beers the Backyard Grill, dot Com and Harbor Light Bill.
He's got his hand on the can. Here, go ahead, Bok,
crack that thing open. We are gonna start things off. We were talking
about million dollar ideas well, I've got million dollar flavor right here. Oh
that's a good slogan. Oh yeah, well check this out. This here
from Upland Brewing Company, the former number one best selling beer in Indiana,
originally brewed in nineteen o two by Walter Brune and his sons, who are
all German immigrants. We have they know us. No, they don't know
us. But this is none other than the premium Pilsner Champagne Velvet, the
beer with the million dollar flavor. Whoa, I feel like Ted Dibiassi here.
Now there's a reference right there by the way, Ted DIBIASI does not
know us at all. He does not, but should Yeah, I know
he should so and I just broke a rule. I don't know if you
caught that, but oh well, but this is a beer that tastes like
beer. It's a pre prohibition style lagger, so it should have a nice
balance of corn and pilsner malt. And it is a crisp, very bright,
very carbonated lagger. I'm gonna take a swig here. Yeah, wonderful
white head and a really clean crisp flavor. And it has just a hint
of residual sweetness. And yeah, it does. It tastes like beer flavored
beer pretty much tastes like every Oh, what's the every American beer existed from
nineteen oh two, from post prohibition to nineteen eighty four. Whenever Ken Grossman,
now he does know us. There's a name drop, Ken Grossman,
a Sierra Nevada brood, Sierra Nevada pale Ale and after. But it's just
tastes like American light lagger. But it does have a little residual sweetness to
it. I think I'm drinking it more for two things. One nostalgia,
just because it was one of the best selling beers in the country, uh,
circa nineteen oh two, and it says hits the beer with a million
dollar flavor on it, and I just wanted to see if that was true,
And well, does it tastes like a million dollars? Tastes like it
was like about seventy five cents for the can maybe a buck buck two ninety
eight, you know, I mean maybe you have to drink it fresh right
off the canning line to get that million dollar taste. That's what it is.
I think it's a little better than that. I mean, I think
that's worth about fourteen ninety five for a thirty pack. Okay, all right,
on our college listeners that are listening, like what yeah, speaking of
which, yeah, yeah, when we were drinking in college, We're going
to talk about a place we used to go. But James, quickly before
we have to go to break what did what did you bring? Listener suggestions
slid in our DMS at What's on Tap Radio with this suggestion, and I
went for it because I like Shandyes, and this is a beer with a
twist from our friends over at Saint Arnold Brewing Company, their brand new spring
shandy, the Citrus Shandy beer with a twist, And this is a lemon
and grapefruit and I like shandies. I'm a big fan of shandies. I
know people out there are like, listen the big finish sandy because it's made
with soda, but I I love shandies. And this is in my What's
on Tap Radio glass which I only have like three of these, since we
don't have a glass maker anymore. So if this one breaks, I'm down
to two. And if those break, I don't have any more What's on
Tap Radio water glasses, James, that's how math works. Yeah, if
you have three and you lose three, you have none. James enjoying the
shandy. Taking the sip here from Santrald Brewing Company, very very rich,
grape fruit and lemon, and then citrus sandy comes to you at four points
something percent out four point four point five percent alcohol by volume, and that
is what I brought to the table the Santrald Citu sandy, which I'll talk
about coming up. And then Chad kicked it off with the the Upland Brewing
Company remake of Champagne Velvet, the beer with a million dollar flavor five point
five percent pre prohibition Logger. That has been all right, James, thanks
to our friends over at the backyard Grill. But we have got to take
our first break on TAPT this we got a lot going on, including the
first I've ever heard of this a clear beer fest no weed at october Fest.
Brewer Association's got some numbers out and rip to the ginger man. All
this is so much more on tap this week. Hang with us for an
action pack show coming right up to the official What's on Tap Radio Fun Factor
of the Week. You don't want to missnounced this episode. I promise you
we'll be right back here at What's on Tap Radio. We know two types
of people, those you drink with and those that make you drink. Oh,
your parents are coming for the weekend. Either way, we're drinking all
right. Everybody's got a beer. You gotta beer, I got a beer,
We got a beer. You know who else has beer the Backyard Grill
on the northwest side of Houston. But when you're drinking, you want to
have something to eat too, So go get yourself some grub at the byg.
The menu is amazing. They've got all your Texas favorites like steaks,
the heat chops, and it's all grilled on a wood fired grill. Got
burgers, you got wraps. Hey, if you're vegetarian, they got salads,
they got soups, homemade dishes, and specialties like smoky the beer chicken.
Oh yeah, smoked chicken injected with local beer. Sounds delicious, right,
yeah, and don't forget the green beans. I know you're thinking,
wait a minute, is this guy just talking about all the grilled stuff and
you're gonna tell me to eat your veggies? Hey, mom said eat your
veggies. Over one hundred different menu items, get the green beans. Trust
me, you won't regret it, and over one hundred different beers head out
to the Backyard Grill in the corner of Weston Jones Road on the northwest side
of Houston. Cheers. What's on Top Radio? The movie? So I
got an idea for a new podcast, Chad, I was thinking about this
the other day, we're pitching the movie script where craft beer drinker's house gets
hit by a tornado. No, not that nomb and the only thing that
survives is is beer fridge because there's craft beer in it. I think we've
done a story like that before. That's a good story. There was the
one where the flood, the flood, that flood and then what was it?
Somebody was rescued by a floating cooler and inside the cooler was beer.
Right, Yeah, that was a pretty story. The idea that would make
it a good movie. But you got an idea for a podcast? What
chess pill at now? Or should I? Uh no, no, no,
you teased it. Let's go, man, I want to hear this
idea. I hear this million dollar idea. Well, it's not a million
dollar that's gonna get there one day. I didn't realize that, did you
know? There's a puzzle championship or a competition where all these people get together
and they all start with the same box. It's like a maybe two thousand
puzzle pieces, right, and they're all sitting at tables and they're all on
teams, and they'll say ready, set go, and everybody will open the
box of puzzle pieces together and then see who puts the puzzle together the fastest,
and whoever puts together fastest wins. What if there's a podcast that did
a play by play of them putting in the pieces together. Okay, hold
on, James put that next to the other idea of the podcast of watching
paint dry. All right, folks, Yeah, he just finished up the
last coat. We can save that as planned. B I'm just thinking how
fun it would be to do a play by play of Edna and Gladys and
Ruth, you know, putting these beautiful puzzle together and on the last edge
piece, on the last X page and Ruth's got together. No, okay,
if it's competitive, listen only if it's like full contact puzzle, full
full contest and there's better involved, so you have to Yeah, that's every
fifteen minutes you got to chug a beer and that makes putting the puzzle together
harder. And then yeah, full contact just just to straight putting a puzzle
together and do and somebody doing a play by play of it as a podcast.
Okay. Anyway, well, somebody, somebody said Napoleon Dynamite was a
dumb idea, and it turned out to be genius. So James, I
hope you make a million dollars with that idea. I also hope you find
a co host, because it's sure as hell is not going to be me.
I'll help you out, James. Thanks Bill, Bill, I'll knock
yourself out. Also, Bill, find a new friend, because you're not
coming over anymore. All right, we want to take our friends from the
Backyard Grill on the northwest side of Houston for bringing us brought to the table
the first segment where James and I cracked open a beer, and Bill and
I went first with the Champagne velvet beer, the beer with a million dollar
flavor, which I'm just gonna say is false advertising, but it did not
stop us. It was, as Bill said, very clean, crisp.
And also, here you go, it's gone. It's gone, so we're
gonna have to crack open another beer here in just a second. But James,
that's what we had. That was the at one point in time,
the number one selling beer in Indiana circa nineteen oh two. It's a pre
prohibition style lagger for those who don't know what that is, that is a
beer that has corn as a primary ingredient. In there, and a lot
of people say, oh, that's a cheap ingredient and it's gonna make it
taste different fundy, and that's how brewers corners. No, actually, that's
just it was an abundant grain that brewers used in the United States before prohibition,
and it carried over post prohibition, although a lot of them switch to
rice as well as barley. So this is quintessential American lagger, post colonial
times, pre prohibition times, and that's what we brought in. James.
You had. I had the Saint Arnold citrus, sandy, lemon and grapefruit.
It's a beer with a twist, and I put it in my what's
on tap radio glass, which I only have three left, and I'm you
know, that's it. If I what happens. If you lose one,
then I have two left? Okay? And then if you lose both of
those, then I have one left. No. No, if you lose
both of them, oh, then island then none left? None? Okay.
Yeah, your wife's English teacher, not math. We had to help
you with the answer on that one. But that's okay. It's not a
testing week, James, that's next week. So this is just a just
a practice. I'm not doing a show on math. I'm doing a show
on puzzles. Okay, I'm puzzle podcast. All right. Let me tell
you what I got in this what's on tab rideo glass that I only have
three left. But it's a citer sandy. It's pale logger mixed with lemonade
and grapefruit soda. M hm m. The aroma presents itself with a citrus
burst of lemon and grapefruit. Slight floral note, chad and bill flavors of
lemon and grayefruit play perfectly with the subtle notes of light, refreshing beer.
And again, this is the citrus shandy at four point five percent alcohol by
volume. So if you like a good citrusy soda and mix with beer,
this is a good mix for you. Sat Arnold Brewing Company, some Texas.
Okay, well, James, I want to go ahead and take a
second here real quick, to crack open another beer, because that one went
down. We talked about the beer with a million dollar flavor. We talked
about your million dollar idea of puzzle making podcast play by play of a puzzle
competition. I'll send you the video. You'll see what I'm talking about.
Okay, this is a beer that I've had on the show before, but
since we were talking about a million dollar flavors, I always wanted to find
this and we have yet to find it, not even in a ballpark.
But I brought this to the show before from hoof Hearted Brewing company. That's
h Oof Hearted h A r t ed from Connecticut. It's hoof Arted Brewing.
The sixty dollars nachos. I've never had sixty dollars nachos, James,
Yeah, but I've had park here because that's how much nachos cost it the
ballpark. This is a double IPA coming in at eight percent, and we're
gonna have some Bill and I have something else to drink. This is what
happens when you bring a stunt beer liver into studio with you. You can
go ahead and have extra beer and we'll talk about this beer a little bit
more. But James, you know what time it is. We have a
contract in now. The official What's on Tap Radio fun Fact of the Week,
brought to you by Who's ever checked Clear This week, studies have shown
that this is why they tune into What's on Tap Radio and all I know
is if I had to try and read my copy through this beer, this
murky, cloudy milkshake of a beer, I don't think I would be able
to read my copy. But all right, folks, ladies and gentlemen,
harbor Light. Bill in studio with me on stunt beer, Liver and Mike
number three over there. He he was telling me that whenever he feels a
little too confident about himself, and he's feeling really good, and he's like,
yeah, I just need to throw all that out the window. He
hits the links, he hits the golf course. Nice. Yeah, he
paid for eighteen holes. When he got to the tenth and he hit a
T shot. How'd that T shot go? Bill? Well, kind of
puffed up a little bit, landed about thirty yards in front of me.
I turned to the three guys that were waiting for me to play through,
and I just said, guys, mice will go ahead and play. I
quit before I break something walked up. Of course, before he threw the
club at something, he's like, I'm out of here. That's it.
I know my limitations, man, I knew if I would have continued,
something would have got broken. I don't I disagree with you if I think
if you would persistent and optimistic, you could have completed those eighteen holes.
Uh yeah, Phil michle can sorry, Phil Michels can say that. I
can't. You can't say, Phil Michlelson. It's okay, I can't do
math. You can't talk. I mean whatever. Yeah, it's the sixty
dollars nachos in his mouth here. It's a double ipa from who farted?
All right? Anyway, you will not find sixty dollars nachos on the golf
course at the at Augusta, at the Masters. In fact, the food
and concessions are notoriously inexpensive, from the dollar fifty cheese sandwiches to some of
the I think they had some wraps for a while that were going for three
dollars, but they did away with those. Beer is only five dollars,
and I mean everything is just notoriously inexpensive, but including the national beer,
I should say, the official beer of the Augusta National Golf Club there Crow's
Nest beer. But here is your official What's on Tap Radio fun fact of
the week. No one knows exactly who it is who makes the Crow's Nest
beer. When you ask anyone at Augusta National and anyone associated with the Masters,
they keep this a closely guarded secret. However, someone did some investigating
for golf dot Com. No they're not a sponsor, but they did the
work, so let's give them credit. And they dug into it and they
found out that Terrapin Brewery is located just down the road, and Terrapin Brewery
is owned by Molsen Cores and Pete Cores is a member of Augustin National.
And the Crow's Nest pilsner style beer. Excuse me, excuse me. It's
a Belgian wit style beer, recently replaced Blue Moon Belgian Wits, so we
believe it is Blue Moon Belgian Wit with lemon peel instead of orange. So
you're official What's on Tap radio? The fun fact of the week is that
the Masters, the golf tournament at Augusta National, has many deep secrets and
people aren't willing to talk about, but most recently, the Crow's Nest beer.
You cannot find it anywhere except on the golf course and only during the
Masters, but no one knows who bruise it. And that is your official
What's on Tap Radio fun fact of the week. All right, we gotta
take a break. Coming up on this episode, we caught up with a
very very interesting man who knows a lot about the brewing industry and why a
lot of breweries are closing, and he's got a million dollar idea. Yes,
all, this is so much more. Hang with us. We'll be
right back because it's five o'clock somewhere, Live Life, every old and menanovits.
It's always time for those slackers of What's on Tap Radio. We want
to thank Superior Pest Control West Michigan for flooding our inbox with stories each and
every week. Proud sponsors of our research department, Superior Pest Control, you
can find them here in West Michigan at Superior Pest dot Biz. That's Superior
Pest dot Biz. Right, it's gonna open this segment by saying rest in
peace with the ginger Man. Talk about that here in a second. Yeah.
The way this Lemon and Grapefruit Citrus Shandy, it's a beer with a
twist from Central Brewing Company, brand new release. The way it's drinking.
I'm gonna have to open a beer pretty soon too, because it goes down
really, really really fast. Four point five percent now called by volume.
And this is the beer for people that don't like beer, you know,
those that are like I don't like beer, But give this in their hand,
they'll come around. They'll come around. Now if they only made an
I p A like that for a fire Marshal Matt, we could probably get
him to turn around on his no no it's no no, no, no
no, So fire Marshall Matt talking about it. If it says ip A,
yeah, you gotta get a name drop in there. So thank you.
He is a good friend of the show, my former neighbor. But
he's a just been a friend of mine for over twenty years and we have
yet to find an IPA he likes. In fact, I think even some
ip I think. I don't want to say that. We've given him a
beer. He's like, that's not bad. And then we told him it
was IPA. He's like, hate it. And I can't say he's ever
done that. Maybe he has. I can't say he hasn't either, but
he just he doesn't like him. But he has another thing too. It's
just and don't ask me why, but I'm gonna just tell you. It's
it's like he loves music. And we we we listen to a lot of
tunes, but if Journey comes on the radio, that channel's getting changed in
a second and like zero hesitation. In fact, I think he's a big
brown ale and porter guy. I think if there if Journey collaborated with a
brewery to make a brown ale, he's not drinking it. I'm just going
out on a limb and saying that, So wow, what's that about.
It just doesn't like he doesn't like Journey music. It just it. It
just there's gotta be a reason. Just like Chatt, there was a period
I think. I think there was a period of time in his life where
it was just played too much and he got sick of it. I think
it was either a friend of his or somebody liked it way too much and
he's just like, I've had it, I'm done. Well. So no
Steve Perry fan, I see all right, man. I actually I think
he might be okay with Steve. So if it's a solo project, you
know, Sherry Steve Perry solo songs, SHU gone all right. So I'm
still working on this puzzle podcast where I do a play by play of somebody
putting a puzzle together. I thought that'd be a great idea for a podcast.
But let me know, uh that if that's an event, they can
sell sixty dollars nachos at that event. I feel like they could. I
mean that, I've never bought sixty dollars nachos o, I know, but
I want to now. But I've been to games where they sell like the
giant helmet that comes with the nachos and you put like jalapenos and sour cream,
and then if you don't want to do that, you can just drink
the beer that Chad's drinking, right. I like the artwork on this is
fantastic because it's clearly a very wealthy woman and she's got this bling on her
hands, and then she's hitting the nacho cheese pump, you know, with
the gooey fake nacho cheese, and instead of cheese coming out, it's twenty
dollars bills and there's three of them coming out at once, So they got
sixty dollars man, So sixty dollars nachos right by the way. This beer,
I'm not a fan bill. Do you got any thoughts on this?
Because it's a double ipa, but it's a double hazy milkshake, lots of
lactose in it. It's very like vanilla milkshaky to me. And yeah,
they need to advertise it more as a hazy lactose IPA rather than just a
double IPA. I don't love it, not hating it. But and by
the way, if I hated this beer, really really hated it, I
would explain why I wouldn't just say beer sucks. So we get it's a
hazy ipa. You tell me. Take a look there for our audience.
That's definitely hazy. Wow, that is definitely soul cloudy. So there's this
beer fest and we're gonna talk about it coming up called the Clear beer Fest,
the Clear Beer Fest, and that might be a beer that will not
be offered at that festival. We'll talk about that coming up. This would
not be there. No, I do want to talk about this. This
really hurt man. The news broke a few weeks ago, but after three
glorious decades in business. That's thirty years for you who don't know. The
Rice Village staple known as the ginger Man that became a nationwide chain is no
more. Recently, war crews transformed the ginger Man into a a pile of
wooden splinters, planks, tubes, and loose wiring. The Rice Village establishment
had it a close to three years earlier, which I'll talk about it in
a second, and it looked like New Stewart's Rice University figured grounding the ginger
Man would be a better than just leaving it as a pile of rubbish.
So if you're not familiar with the Gingerman, a New York native name Bob
Prescus opened the ginger Man in nineteen eighty five, and the Peterborough was a
noble forts rotating selection of imported and micro brewerysource bruise and like previous mentioned,
the ginger Man location in the Rice Village closed in the year that we will
not mention during the COVID nineteen pandemic. Yeah, during the pandemic. Yeah,
you couldn't get in there, and they were hit pretty hard. But
there was it morning Side, yeah, I believe so, Yeah, right
there at the corner of University in Morningside and in the Rice Village area of
Houston. And the number of locations, so the original owner they sold that
location if I remember correctly, and then they moved I think to Baltimore something
like that. It was somewhere up north, and so there were two.
There were two locations, one in Houston and then one in the northeast,
and then a couple of them popped up around Texas. One was in Austin.
I think there was one in San Antonio. No, was there one
in Austin? No, no, no, no, no, there were
two. There were two in DFW. That's what it was. There were
two in DFW. Yeah, so they were up there. Great beer bar,
excellent selection. The thing that I will remember the most though I know
the ginger Man is the the international beer selection that they had. The international
beer selection that they had at the ginger Man was fantastic. It was the
first place you could go and get chem on draft. Oh I remember,
Oh my god. It was so good. It's just sad to see it
just being crumbled. And I know everybody, not everybody, but a good
majority of craft beer and enthusiast that you know had the ginger Man had great
stories. I reached out to our buddy Chris Black. Chris Black former owner
of the Falling Rock in Denver, Colorado, he worked at the ginger Man.
I know our buddy Scott Birdwell has great history over there, and they
actually sent me a picture years ago when Chadnow were doing the show of The
Beer Hunter, Michael Jackson doing a cast tapping over there, and I want
to say after the cast tapping, they gave him a ride of Michael Jackson,
there was a story they gave him a ride to Austin. Yeah,
yeah, so, okay, yeah, I know a little bit about the
story. This is a great story. By the way, real quick,
I'm sorry, I have to just do this because we're gonna have a listener
do it. There was a second ginger Man location that did open in midtown
Houston. It was short lived. It was over on Gray Street, but
it was very short lived. It did not last very long at all.
Okay, but yeah, Michael Jackson was doing The Beer Hunter, was doing
a cask tapping and they were sitting around and they were talking and talking with
guests, and he wanted to sign all the books and he wanted to shake
hands and take all the photos. And they kept telling it was Bev Blackwood
and was it Chris black Yeah, and I it was Scott Burdwell not in
the mix. I can't remember. I don't know. Maybe it was Scott
Birdwell, but I thought it was Bev Blackwood. And and these are these
are Houston beer icons who have written for different beer publications, o homebrew shops
and basically got everybody in the greater Southeast Texas into beer. I mean,
these are guys who are just icons. Legends. Yes, but they were
like, hey, you're flying out of Austin and that's three hours away.
He's like, nah, we'll be fine, Like no, you don't understand.
And they they finally got him out of there, and they got in
the car and they sped as fast as they could to get there, and
I think they had time to stop for a beer because they were traveling so
fast, so they stopped had a beer, and then they kept going.
Got him to the airport and it was and I mean he hopped out,
ran ran through the terminal, and you know, he was on the plane
gone. And again I think it was Chris black and Birdwell or not Birdwell
at Blackwood, Jeff Ben Blackwood, and they looked at each other it was
like, well, now we got to drive home all the way back after
hanging out with Michael Jackson the Beer Hunter for like eight hours, and and
they didn't really get a chance say goodbye. It was like I gotta go
buy see it. Okay, But so uh, that was that adventure.
But that was a That's one of those things that you know, you hear
about, you hear these stories. But another another really good story about the
Ginger Man that I want to share is that a story about glassware. You
could always get really good glassware, but people would brag about stealing glassware from
the Ginger Man because the glassware was so unique. And I gotta tell you,
I gotta tell you I I never stole a glass from the Ginger Man.
I never once stole a glass, but I know plenty of people who
did, and they would have a separate shelf. They would have a separate
shelf just for the glasses that they stole from the ginger Man because the glasses
were so cool, right, But I never stole glasses from there. So
there's there's my story. Yeah, sad to see the ginger Man demolished.
Like I said, a lot of great stories out of there, including Saint
Arnold Brewing Company of one of their first accounts, and uh yeah, just
sad to see it go. But rest in peace, ginger Man. All
right, we have got to take a break. Coming up, we got
a great interview coming up next hour where I caught up with Kelly Meyer,
who has a lot of insight of what's going on in the brewing industry.
And also what's going on in the brewing industry. The Brewer Associations released some
annual craft brewing numbers we'll talk about and the Clear Beer Fest. All this
is so much more. Hang with us. We'll be right back. Beer.
It's like pouring smiles on your brain. What's on Tapper Radio continues,
All right, welcome back What's on Tap Radio? To get ahold of the
show. Number of ways to shout out to us on our social that's Instagram,
x, TikTok, Facebook, email the show What's on Tap Radio at
gmail dot com. We'd love to hear your stories. If you have a
great story hanging out over to the Ginger Man, I know that Chad and
I have plenty of them since I hung out. That was my college hangout.
I remember hung out over at We started at two Rows. I had
to go to two Roads, and this is in the Rice Village, which
is next to the Rice University, which is University of Houston, which are
also attending. At the time, wasn't too far down the road, so
we would go down to the Two Rows and then hang out there, have
some beer, and then go down the road to Morningside where the Ginger Man
was and of course have you know, good times. And that's the that's
the the genesis really of craft beer in uh in Houston. I mean,
I know, I know we were on in other markets and so you but
you have to appreciate Houston, to be very candid, Houston fourth largest city
in the United States, huge, huge city and great beer scene now,
but they were so late. Oh right, yeah, they were behind the
curve, way behind the curve. I mean, I mean, you know,
Michigan has eleven million people and Houston metro area has like what six million
people, Like the entire state of Michigan has eleven million. Michigan was just
kicking butt. And now you can't say that Houston's behind the curve or Texas
is behind the curve anymore. I mean, they're so they're they're just doing
so many cool things. But back when they were there, I remember somebody
said you got to go to the ginger Man, and I couldn't find it.
Oh really and they're no. You know why because you pull up and
you're like, well, okay, there's a here, there's an apartment building,
there's a house, and then there's another bar. And I'm like where
is it and you're like, it's right there, dude, you're right on
to I'm like, no, I see an apartment building, a bar,
a house, and another bar, and they're like, it's the house.
Yeah, it wasn't an old house. I mean like literally, there was
a fence that looked like a you know, the old white picket fence,
and there's a front porch and you just walk up. That's That's kind of
the thing with the Rice Village. What was the name of the Hans beer
House was like that too. Hans beer House was also a house. His
the name Hans beer House. Yeah, it was also a house at one
time. But uh yeah, if you have a great story, we'd love
to hear it. Love just love to read about it. Like I said,
reach out to us through our social or what's on tampoo at gmail dot
com. But Chad's jones enough the bit to crack a beer. Will it
be a hazy beer? No? I don't. I don't think it's gonna
be hazy, but we're gonna slow down because I do have a stunt beer
liver in studio. So we're cracking open the third one here. This one's
from Evil Twin brewing company called even More Biscotti Break Now Harbor Light. Bill,
he's over there doing the research. By the way, this is a
beer he brought. That's the reason he's sitting in a chair and not on
the floor because rules are rules. I didn't turn my phone off to start
the show. Oops. You don't crack a beer until the mics are hot,
and if you don't bring a beer, sit on the floor, right,
And well, Bill brought beer, So we're gonna go ahead and crack
this. So Bill, do you have any stats on this, anything you
want to share? That's your cue? I know a big heavy stout twelve
twelve percent? Oh good, yeah, great browed with coffee, almond,
a little vanilla. Evil Twin has a lot of beers, and then they
up their beers. Instead of like Imperial IPA or imperials, they call theirs
even more so they have even more of their standard beers, load of beers.
Language they have a bunch of beers called even More beers. So this
is their Piscatti break, but it's even more Piscatti break. Okay, Yeah,
they have the sweet Baby Jesus and then they have the even more sweet
baby Jesus. Yes, and by the way, get right with the watch
your mom. All right, here we go, moving on. But this
is a big coffee beer. Yeah, dark black mochahead, sweet but not
overpowering as far as sugary. A lot of adjuncts in there, you know,
adjuncts, you know, things that are giving you the residual sugars in
also formentable sugars for other than the greens. So yeah, it's a fun
beer at twelve percent. We'll see where this show goes. Now. I
can't wait to see you what our number two sounds like for you guys,
I know we beep in once. All right. So this is the first
I've heard of this beer festival. And I'm not sure this could have been
a beer festival going on for years, but this is the first I have
heard about it. Thanks to our friends over at Superior Pest Control for sending
this story our way. But this is an event that will appeal to folks
who appreciate a less hazy approach to IPA and other hot Ford beer styles.
What is this, ladies and gentlemen. This is the Clear Beer Fest twenty
twenty four, the Clear Beer Fest twenty twenty four. And this is happening
a five rights brewing company. And where is this I don't even know where
to bill get on it. Think it's in Washington, Washington. And by
the way, when I heard Clear Beer Fest, first thing I thought was
like, Miller Clear Beer. That's what I was thinking to, Like,
remember that clear pepsi they came out in the nineties, Like that's what the
thing is, just gonna look like water. Yeah, No, is everybody
drinking vodka? No, they're just talking about those beers that you can see
through. And yeah, but apparently there's gonna be a number of breweries.
I'm looking at the lineup here. The lineup includes pale Als, IPA's Double,
IPA's, West Coast Pilsners, New Zealand Pilsners, and a very impressive
lineup. He got break Side in there. You have Flatline Brewing Company,
Ghost Town Brewing, Radiant Beer Company, Russian River Brewing Company. You know
who should be on this list that's not on it? Infamous, Yeah,
Harbor Light. Yes, but but Bill not wasting an opportunity. Infamous brewing
company in Austin, Texas. Oh, because I have a sticker on my
beer fridge that says make IPAs clear again. I yes, Oh my gosh,
dude. By the way, if you ever get to infamous, that's
that's a that's a cool place. Yeah, it is an Austin Texas.
Josh Horowitz, the man, the myth, the legend. Yeah. By
the way, if you if you see Josh Horowitz, and I can say
this, okay, by the way, if you have kids in the car,
kids, don't do this. Don't try this at home or anywhere else.
But if you ever meet Josh Horowitz, give him the middle finger.
It's a absolutely. Just walk up to him and say, Josh boom.
Hit him with the bird, and he'll know he's like, dude, that's
a term of endearment for him. That's it. That's like giving a guy,
giving the guy a hug. You'll know it's him because he's the guy
who's cussing with a cigar hanging out of his mouth and he's given you the
finger. Yeah. Absolutely, if he likes you, he gives you the
finger and I will back this up because another sticker, which I have right
right next to the make I Pas clear again, is an infamous middle finger
sticker. Yep, that's true story he has He actually has stickers with the
giant middle finger. Not kidding, true story. But yeah, So if
you know you're one of those folks that hates those hazy I p as and
you just you know can't stand them, head out to the Clear Beer Festival
twenty four, which is that five Rice Brewing Company, is happening late April,
so the next couple of weeks. But at the brewery. Tickets are
on sale wherever they sell tickets at tickets dot com or tickets dot com.
Clear Beer Fest tickets were Washington. That was talked about on Once on Top
Radio dot com. And I want to take just a second here to go
ahead and also just just drop a little plug here in Allegan. We uh,
we've got we got a pretty solid beer scene in the area. I
mean, everybody knows the Kalamazoo beer scene with bells and everything going on down
there. In fact of shout out to Larry who I had a beer with
over at Tantrick Brewing Company the other night with who got me turned down to
wax Wings. Of course, we're not very far from Grand Rapids Beer City,
USA and Holland, home of New Holland Brewing Company, and of course
Harbor Light Bill's down there in south Haven. But between south Haven and Alligan
where I am there is quite a few breweries and in the outskirts of Kalamazoo
and they are putting together. I believe it's the third Alegan Craft Beer Fest.
On Saturday, June first at the Alligan County Fairgrounds is the twenty twenty
four Alligant Craft Beer Fest. I'm gonna be there. I know Harbor Light
Bill's gonna be there. He's gonna be there, porn beer, hanging out
talking to people. Tantrik Brewing Company helps put us on. I want to
thank Tanya and Patrick from Tantrik Brewing Company who helped organize this. They are
a big part of the economic development here in Alligan and supporting the Algin Fairgrounds
and the Algin beer scene and also the beer scene in southwest Michigan and so
lots of local breweries there. There's gonna be food trucks, live, live
music and yeah free what's on tap radio? High fives if you can find
me, but I will be there. I'll have a big giant size hat
on. I guarantee yellow sunglasses probably yep, yellow sunglasses and a big giant
size hat. So that's the Aligan It's a L E G. A N
so ale again craft beer Fest Saturday June first, get your tickets. Just
look up Algin or Alligan craft beer Fest. All right, we have got
to take a break. Coming up next hour, we're gonna catch up with
our longtime friend Kelly Myers. He's the host of How Not to Start a
Dan Brewery. Great insight on what's going on in the brewing industry. Also,
we got the Brewer Association and release some craft brewing numbers and no we
did Octoberfest. And if we can get to the story how some men lives
were saved by a case of beer. All this is so much more coming
up next hour, including hold my beer and watch this misann ounce of it.
We'll be right back. Beer. It's why we wake up every afternoon.
Wakey, wakey, what's on test? What's on tap? This is
what's on tap radio? Hold my beer and watch this brought to you by
your friends at Ringing All the ten Taking Insurance Group located in Grand Rapids,
Michigan and Holland along the Lake Shore RTI Grand Rapids RTI Grand Rapids dot Com.
All right, have you logged on? I got your tickets at Clear
beer Fest, the first event I've ever heard of the beer festival that no
hazy's allowed. They're discriminating. If there would be some guy outside the gate,
he's like, hey, you want the hazy stuff. I got it
right here, man, I got it right here. I got you want
the hazy stuff. And then some pothead's gonna come by and he's like,
oh wait, I heard about that at October. Yeah, and you're like,
no, no, no, I got the other Hayes guy's got a
jockey box out of his trumpet stuff. It's hard for me to crack a
beer. Welcome to our number two What's on Tap Radio if you missed the
first hour, and make sure to catch up on our podcast anywhere podcasts are
found thanks to our friends over our cast branding. But a beer I can
imagine probably not available at the Clear Beer Fest, which is happening very soon.
It's from Spindle Tap Brewering Company. This is the Gorilla Press Double IPA
now I'm not sure if this is a hazy beer, but knowing the brewery
came from, I can imagine it probably is. So I'm gonna go ahead
and crack this port. Listen to my What's on Tap radio class? You're
joking, right, yeah, I'm sorry, but Spindle Tap, I mean
they're number one selling beer I think is called Houston Hayes. Oh look at
that. It is a hazy I want to know what gorilla press is.
That's what I want to know. So there to go. This is yep,
it is a very hazy beer. And this is at eight percent alcohol
by volume. And I'm gonna not dive into the specks of this. I'm
just gonna go and take a sip of it now. But let me go
exclude this. Okay. So gorilla press is a military style throw that you
do when professional wrestlings. Oh yeah, I mean that makes sense because if
you look on the can, oh yeah right there, yeah, here it
is, you're lifting them up over your head like a military style press,
which is straight up over your shoulders, and then you just throw them into
a chair or table. Yeah yeah, see Bill has cable. So there
you go gorilla press, and I will talk more about the specs of it.
But it's it's good. It's very good, and it does not drink
like an eight percent beer. And it's a very hazy double India pl from
Simiddle tab Bering Company out of Houston, Texas. Again, our double I
PA was a hazy two so again beers that would not be available at this
Clear Beer Festival which is happening coming up. I wonder if you smuggled hazy
beer into the Clear Beer Fest if they if they kick you out for you
know, it's like that's you know, contraband they patch you down. They
patch you down to see if you have like a growler or something of it,
or a crowlery, and you're why do you wear a trench coat?
It's very warm out here. It's a lagger really, he's got crowlers in
his jacket. Hey, come over here, manute what a different label over
the top of it. It's not a hazy I just don't know how to
brew. Okay, you got the haze. You got the haze. You
got the haze. All right, hold my beer and watch this brought to
you by the Ring Malda ten Hacen Insurance Group where they'll cover you for just
about everything except this. This is becoming a theme on the show. And
you'll see what I'm talking about here in a second, but I'm gonna start
with this. Chances of this crime being reported one hundred percent. Okay,
you want to guess what this took place? Uh Bill, bohy gotta be
Florida. Not Florida this week. It's our wait wait wait wait, it's
it's our neighbors to the north. Oh in that case, in that case,
uh, Rhode Island. If you see joh you said Canada, you
said Canada. You're right, all right? Oh oh, so we got
we got crimes up there in Canada. Hey, oh that's just a beaute
yay way north, well way up there north. Yeah, right, there
were the plane hockey. So someone in Canada, you call, by the
way, I do you know where the trees are in Canada between the two's
and de fours? Oh my gosh, okay, dude, all right,
that's uh at. Don't put that bar soap back in his mouth for me.
Yeah, I will, yeah, stop talking, okay again. Uh.
Someone in Canada called the cops last week when they saw an impaired driver
crashed through a sign that said report and paired Drivers. Does this story sound
familiar, Chad? It does because it doesn't seem too long ago where I
did a story that happened in Alabama where a guy did the same damn thing
into a sign. Then he then he crashed into like a don't drink and
drive sign. Yes, and he and he wasn't in to poxicated the guy
who signed in Alabama Canada Report Impaired Drivers. I know that you know what
he did. He saved people time. He turned himself in. He's like,
well, I guess I can't. By the way, they tell you
not to use your phone while you're driving, I'm impaired. He's like,
hey, look, I'm taking one for the team. Guys. But this
happened on a Thursday night on Vancouver Island, just across the border from Seattle.
So they the people that call the cops, they said that they saw
a truck jump a curb onto the sidewalk and take out the sign. And
then you think the guy stopped and waited for the police to arrive. Oh
no, no, no, he definitely took off. He definitely took off.
Police pulled the truck over nearby and thought it was the same guy,
maybe because the front and right side of his truck was all dinted up.
They eventually confirmed it was him after another officer showed up where they had pulled
him over with the impaired driver's sign. Oh and also the guy's license plate.
Turns out it fell off in the crash. Hey, wait a minute,
hold on a second, James, I got an idea for a podcast
instead of watching people put puzzles together. This puzzle. This is a puzzle
of license plate, sign, car parts, curb, piece it all together,
dude, and we can do a podcast about that. They released a
photo of the sign leaned up against his truck. No word on the charges
he's facing, but uh yeah, an impaired driver crashed into a report impaired
driver's sign. Again this is becoming a theme of people taking out report and
pair drivers because again I talked about this a few weeks ago for the hold
my Beer and watched this where this time this happened in Canada. But the
last hold my Beer and watched this, this happened in Alabama where a man
intentionally crashed into it and to sign the sign said zero tolerance drugs and alcohol
sign. That's what it was, yeah, a zero tolerance drug and alcohol
sign. That's happened in Alabama. But the story in Canada where he took
out report impaired drivers and this guy was actually impaired, but he doesn't say
what they if they found any open containers or anything. But we don't know
what he was drinking. They don't know he was drinking or what led him
to do it. But yeah, he hopped a curb and took out a
report impaired driver's sign. And this has been brought to you by our friends
over at mean, not a take an insurance group where they all ensure you
for lots and lots of things, could insure me for this roof that I'm
about to have to replace because the storm I'm about to talk about, But
not this guy who drove and ran into in a report and pair driver's sign.
What is it? Is it becoming a theme, Chad? It's becoming
a theme. We're seeing a lot of those. Yeah, and I hope
this isn't the last because I like to report to these stories. Yeah.
Well, the thing is as long as they don't hurt anybody, well,
yeah, as long as one's Yeah, as long as no one's injured.
They we don't want you to get drunk and impaired and go say, hey,
what can I crash into? I want to be on the show.
Give us a call. We'll bring you on the show. Okay, we'll
find a way to get you on the show. Just don't drink and drive.
All right, James, we got to take a break, and when
we come back, I know we have an interview. Very interesting guy we
got to talk to. Also, the Bruise Association has more numbers that we're
going to crack open. Some more beer that and so much more this what's
on tap Radio. We'll be right back when someone says, hold my beer.
You know a trip to the er is in your future, So hold
your own beer, buddy, and just listen to more of what's on tap?
What's on tap radio? All right? I kind of flew over this
mental tapery Grilla Press double I p A got a listener feedback. You got
a hold of us, and they said, you know, we talk a
lot about the beers that we brought the table kind of break them down.
But then then the second beardy that we bring, which is kind of skate
over it real quickly. So I kind of want to make good on this.
Uh, the Spintle Tab Brewery Grilla Press. This is that a percent
alcohol by volume. It's an Imperial I p A and it's hazy brewed with
heap viisen yeast m but uh, definitely get some banana notes on it.
Yeah, I'm just tasting this. Uh, banana notes, lime, definitely
some limes, some sweetberry, stone fruit, light, nutty malt character in
it. Mm hmmm mmmm. Definitely get some rassle and moves out of it.
It's a tropical fruit cocktail. Again. This is the Grilla Press Double
India Palel from Sin coming out of here. So did you just say you
tasted wrastling move rattling note, Dude, James has Cable two. All right,
that's out staying. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here at the Beer Logic World
headquarters and Drinking Emporium and Harbor Light. Bill and I were sitting here and
we're nursing this beer a little bit. Bill, you brought it to the
table or you brought it? Tell everybody what we're drinking. Yeah, even
more. Biscottie Break from Evil twin twelve and a half percent stout brewed with
coffee albond and vanilla. It holds a really nice, clean, dark head.
But it's thick. It's brewed with a little bit seems like it's brewed
with some blacktoase. Very heavy, thick beer. Not bad though, I'm
enjoying it very much. I'm gonna say two things. One, as it
warms up, the flavors really come together a lot better, and it's very
delicious. I mean, it's like they were meant to be together. And
second, good job not cussing that time. Good job. We stuffed a
bar of soap down in his throat and when we took a break out after
a first hour, so high here at what's on Tampa radio. Yeah,
he's comfortable. Let's talk about october Fest for a second. So october Fest,
you can get drunk, but you can't get high. So the southern
German state will ban any smoking of cannabis at public festivals, inside beer gardens
or even at the october Fest, the world's most popular beer festival. So
local authorities in Bavaria will be announcing the prohibiting cannabis consumption in public areas such
as outdoor swimming pools and leisure parks, and their aim is to limit cannabis
consumption in public spaces, said one of the health ministers. It's important for
the health protection and especially for protecting children and young people. I don't get
that. So people can smoke cigars cigarettes, but the weed can't do the
weed. I don't know. Well, first of all, I know they
don't let cigar cigarette smoking in the beer tents or anything like that, but
it's the public areas, public area. I find it interesting. Yeah,
So this this move comes after Germany legalized possession of small amounts of cannabis for
recreational use over the country at the beginning of the month. Germany's nationwide law
of allowing the legalization of cannabis went in an effect on April first, which
is April Fool's Day, which is interesting. I'll picture a lot of people
are like, ah, April Fools. No, no, no, no,
it's actually really really think okay, but yeah, apparently legal possession for
adults up to twenty five grams, which is nearly one ounce of marijuana for
recreational purposes, and allowing individuals to grow up to three plants for their personal
use. And then also a second part of the legislation. Under the legislation
says. German residents age eighteen or older are allowed to join a nonprofit cannabis
growing clubs which they can buy marijuana, which takes place in July. But
if yeah, they legalized cannabis for you know, small amounts, small recreational
use. However, if you're planning on going out to Octoberfest, leave that
pot at home, folks, leave that pot at home according to the new
barbarian restrictions. So no weed, just beer because Bavaria bans smoking cannabis at
Octoberfest and beer gardens and swimming pools or any leisure of spots. I think
it's funny that so you said that they just recently legalized it. Yeah,
April first, which is right, Yeah, okay, all right, okay,
if if you ever want proof that the government does not know what the
hell they're doing, okay, James identified it. This is so good.
All right, So on April first, we're gonna legalize weed. Okay,
cool. What are we gonna do about Octoberfest? Oh yeah, all right,
Well let's let's let's let's ban it. But let's say it's to protect
the kids. Well, what about cigarettes and cigars? No, those have
been legal forever No, I'm not talking about bann them. I mean,
like, what about the kids. Nobody will ever ask that question. Have
you ever listened to what's on tap radio? They'll ask the question. There's
James bringing it up, finding a loophole in the idiocracy known as politics.
Well, they probably you know, pitched this idea and like, oh yeah,
I mean, what could be the problem? There's nothing, and all
of a sudden they pass it. Right, Wait a minute, some's not
right, some's not sitting right. You know, we have this one of
the biggest beer festivals. That's right. People smoke pot now at October Fest.
Damn it. Why didn't we think of that before? Yeah, that's
it, you know what, Yeah, it must be big Wu Tang clan
fans, you know, for the children, for the children. Absolutely,
that's what they're thinking of. I don't get it though. You know,
Cigars not a problem. Pipe's not a problem cigarettes, But the weed a
weed. We gotta protect the children have that, it's right, get to
watch out. Yeah, we can't have we can't have dad smoking and weed
in the corner because you know, the kid gets second hand the kid,
the eight year old kid gets second hand weed. The next thing you know
he's smoking crack and shoot heroin. Yep, that's it. Yep. Gotta
protect the kids. Ye. All right, let's jump over to the Brewers
Association. I'm getting out of the from smoking crack heroin. Let's talk about
production numbers out of the Bruis Association quick. That's right. According to the
Brewers Association chief economist Bart Watson, heroin production of brewers still at zero percent.
Bill you guys brew you guys making a heroin a harbor light. No,
all right, that's out of the question. All right, However,
they are making beer. And I want to go ahead and give you a
little update on the association, or rather on the industry, according to the
association, which just recently did release numbers. And we want to thank our
good buddy, Bart Watson, chief economists there at the Brewers Association trade association.
Oh yeah, yeah, good guy, he's uh. But the Bruce
Association trade association for craft brewers out of Boulder, Colorado, and only twenty
three all in all craft brewers they increased. I couldn't believe this one,
because we've we've been talking about how the market has gone flat, but craft
brewers are up an overall number of breweries and twelve up eighty two breweries,
and the number of breweries that have opened has decreased for the second straight year,
and the number of breweries that have closed have increased as well for the
second straight year. But we still have a net of seventy seven new breweries,
so we are still seeing growth in the industry. However, this is
interesting though. Overall production is down one percent, so that means there are
more still more people compete. By the way, Bill close your years,
I'm sorry, he owns two breweries here, folks. I'm sorry to bring
this up, but there are more breweries competing for an even smaller market share.
But overall beer consumption down five percent. But I want to go ahead
and hit the top brewers in the country. I want to mention New Glaris
honorable mention here at number eleven. I remember when they were like in the
forties, Number eleven largest craft, number ten athletic brewing company. Okay,
what's that. I'm surprised that's not higher on the list, but okay,
oh I'm not. They were like twenty last year and forty the year before
that. The Canarchy group or Monster group. They're coming at number nine.
Then Brooklyn Artisonal Beverage Ventures. I'm not familiar with them till ray. They
bought a lot of the Budweiser brands. Their number six Gambrinas, which is
Shiner, is number five. Duval mort got basically the top four unchanged.
Dubal Mort got Sierra Nevada, Boston Beer Company, and Yingling. Saint Arnold
came in at number forty one on the list, And just real quick,
I want to mention the overall largest we're in the United States still Anheuser Busch.
Still Molten Cores at number two. But I wanted to mention that Karen
Lyon coming in at number nine. They're the ones who bought New Belgian Brewing
Company and Bell's Brewing Company, and the top craft brewery on the overall list,
Boston Beer Company at number ten. Those are the numbers from the Bruises
Association. Speaking of numbers, we're gonna catch up with Kelly meyerd. He's
the host of How Not to Start a Dan Brewery podcast, and we're gonna
talk about why we're seeing so many breweries closed, his thoughts on it,
and his thoughts on breweries opening, and his advice to those breweries that are
opening. All this is so much more. Hang with U is a great
interview. You don't want to miss anounce. We'll be right back. This
is What's on Tap Radio. All do I have a special treat for you
guys. Welcome back to What's on Tap Radio? Joining me in studio.
SA very special guest. A man who's had more jobs than I successful jobs.
I think what you owned A successful jim then he sold his gym,
opened a brewery. While he open he had a brewery, wrote a very
successful book, then sold his brewery, started a very popular podcast. Let
me reintroduce Kelly mother Meyer. Welcome back to the radio show. Welcome to
studio. Ask my friend's been a while, and I'm so happy to be
here. You have no idea it's been about what we said about two and
a half years. Yeah, I think it had to have been at least
it was like the summer of twenty one. Yeah, and I remember when
you came on. I don't know if it was like a bittersweet day for
you, but you had just sold the brewery. It was. There was
a lot there, so yes, selling the brewery was a lot of emotions
positive negative in the middle. Ultimately was a massive relief, and I was
happy to be here that day. But I went through ups and downs for
sure, Oh sure, roller coaster ride New Brothels Brewing that was the brewery
was How long did you have New Brothels Brewing Nine and a half years?
Nine and a half years. How has your life been since the day you
sold and you got out of the industry. Well, so I did a
I wrote an article kind of about that experience. And so the first company
that I sold you mentioned the fitness centers, that was a seven figure exit.
And when I sold the brewery, I sold it for eight percent of
what I sold the fitness centers for and I was about twenty four times happier
with the experience. Like it was just in the day after. I remember
just driving around and listening to ska music. I had nothing to do,
and I was just at peace in a way that it had not been for
years. And I don't want to say it's been a every day's been better
than day before, and I'm not some idiot, but at the same time,
it has in a way like it's just the further away from ownership of
a brewery, I get the happy aream to go back and drink a beer
out with guys in the industry like you. It's just I can enjoy beer
for the reason I got into it again, and that is beautiful for me.
I really enjoy it. Is that what it was that you just weren't
didn't have that drive, that fire anymore when you were just getting out.
If you really at the end of the day, it was just a lack
of profitability. It wasn't that I didn't like what I did. It wasn't
that I didn't love the beer and the creation and the artistry that we made.
It was just that I couldn't find a way to turn that into enough
money to keep the lights on consistently enough to keep my kids going to college.
And that's people talk about burnout in the industry now a lot. It's
kind of like this buzzword. It's not what it is. It's doing the
same thing over and over for no pay. It doesn't matter what you're doing.
If you're mowing yards and like you can't afford to pay the car payment
to get the truck that you need to go mow yards with, it's stressful,
right, And so that's ultimately what it was. I miss a lot
of the art that I got to create. I still have some of the
beers in my cellar. I don't miss that part of the industry. I
just it's the business part, just the getting up and brewing, the whole
production process, the daily grind. Yeah, but I mean those were fun,
like it was kind of like a workout. And the brewing process itself,
it's it's art artistry, but at the same time it's work and so
on a big enough systems, it's not like when you have a two barrel
thing and you're scooping grains out and spilling them on your toes like it was
fun. But so I have missed that part in a way. But the
fact that I haven't brewed a single drop since would probably argue that fact.
Maybe, So maybe I haven't missed as much as I think I did.
All Right, we're a couple of minutes in. Let's go ahead and do
this. I he just drove in. He's making the rounds, stopped my
studios, and I told him, hey, you can whatever kind of beer
you wanted. He went into Belgian quads, but unfortunately I was out,
so instead I decided to do let's do something special. Since it's a special,
you know, having you and studio. It's a nice pleasure. Brooklyn
Brewing Limited or release black Ops. One pint of barreled age stout, it's
only twelve percent. Well that one's aged. And four roses barrels too.
I've had black Ops. I've never had an age four roses barrels. Pour
this in the what Chad Pilbum calls the mecha of all beer glasses, the
Sam Adams. He says that it will cure a male pattern baldness if you
creak out this glass, and it will do your taxes for you. He
would know. Yeah, oh yeah, I mean he's him and I almost
have the same kind of barber. Oh all right, oof, that's tasty.
All right, got you in studio. Let's talk about you wrote a
book called it How Not to Start. Well, I can't say the word
brewery. But then you change. I guess you got your publicists like,
hey, maybe you should x that word out. Well, the Amazon would
let me publish it, but they wouldn't let me advertise it. Okay,
so even they would, they didn't tell me that when I named it.
So I changed the name because it gave it marketability, right, and there's
an F word in there that it's not sec friendly. But then you kind
of turn that book into a podcast, a very successful podcast, very entertaining
podcast. It's called How Not to Start a Damn Brewery? Yep, and
that's the name of the book now too. So so you've been going around
interviewing breweries from around the country, around the world. Now around the world.
Yeah, okay, now around the world. And uh, what is
the overall I guess mentality of brewers these days as you're going around talking to
them. Oh, there's a lot of defeatism. Okay, fortunately, what
are you learning? And so keep in mind to you that I do occasionally
interview breweries that are still open and or successful. I interviewed Dave at the
Southern Star, for example. And but the primary focus is the interview breweris
that went out of business, to figure out what went wrong, and then
ultimately to aggregate those stories together to find out if there are similarities that we
can tie together. So in a way, I have a myopic view of
failure. So keep that in mind that I don't I'm not talking to the
CEO of Brooklyn. So yeah, Garrett Oliver yea. Now, if you
Kelly Meyer shows up to my brewery, does that mean oh, no,
something, he's looking at my numbers something, I'm doomed. What do you
know? Man? Yeah, I've had some people like, or was actually
what was I'm not going I'm gonna butcher the story. I don't remember,
but there were Oh. It was Tommy Arthur from Lost Abbey. He interviewed
because his whole thing was he had grown down, so he had expanded to
a point where the model didn't work and he had to restructure, retrench and
he called it growing down, and so I wanted to have him on the
show to talk about that. And I had told some people I was interviewing
Tommy, and I got these messages off site. People were like, is
he closing? What the hell? What's going on? Like no, no,
no, no, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry? What do you
like? The grand reaper of the brewery industry don't be seen with Kelly?
Yeah. What is it? The contributions to why breweries fails? Is it
a bad beer, bad location, customer service, bad marketing. Why are
we seeing a lot of breweries close these days? Well you may not want
to know the answer to that, as a consumer. Some of what we
appreciate the most is actually what's worse for the industry. And so for example,
scales and one of the number one and then right now it's twenty twenty
two, I think less than it was. Seventy three percent of the breweries
United States made lefts sent a thousand barrels and that model is just not profitable.
It wasn't in the nineties, it hasn't been since, and unfortunately,
there's too many breweries in the marketplace to be able to get enough of them
over that thousand barrel hump. So that's a big problem. And then just
rising costs and the fact that prices aren't matching those rising costs. Everybody knows
during COVID everything went up right, right, you know, it didn't go
up the price of cans like or the price of cans at retail. So
you go in the grocery store, ten bucks for a Pilsner six pack is
still kind of like, hmm, that's up there, But realistically that should
be a thirteen dollars six pack. It needs to be based on costs and
margins, and it's just it can't. But it's kind of nowadays. I
mean you're seeing about two to three dollars more six pack than it was,
you know, two years ago, three years ago. Then volumes are down.
So what you find that out, Like there's this kind of threshold in
there where the consumer won't pay it, but the brewer can't make money on
it. So those are two big problems and you'll have to read the second
book to find it all the rest of them, but that's one big part
of it. Again, How not to start a Dan Brewery podcast? Kelly
mars I guessed according to the text carw Brewers guill this is just breweries that
are a part of the guild. There are seventy breweries in planning in Texas.
What do they need to know to be successful? Like? What is
maybe two big tips they need to know to be successful? So I would
temper that with one sort of I guess off off business statement is that you
need to define, first of all, what your definition of success is,
because if your definition of success is to make money, you're not going to
period. I'm sorry like that one of them might they might get lucky and
be in a market in an area that has, you know, an anomalous
situation. But I can promise you that as a rule, most of them
won't make money, but that does not mean that they are not successful as
long as you went into it knowing you're going to create. You've got someone
who will fund the project, back the expenses. Do it, have fun,
make create cool art. I want to drink it. I want you
to make it, but you know at the end of the day, you're
going to need to find a way to fund it. Okay, what defines
a successful brewery today and how's it different from five to ten years ago.
Think you get two choices. The number one thing that you really have to
consider is that a successful brewery in twenty twenty four America is not what we
would think of as a brewery. It is a bar or a restaurant,
or a combination of both that happens to have beer. If you're leading with
beer. If the number one thing that you put on your Instagram is the
new IPA release with Strata hops versus what you have before, you're screwed.
You got to have more so you can be successful opening a brewer today.
I think you can. I think it's harder than it's ever been, and
I think it's going only going to get harder. But again, what I
say you can open a successful brewery. What I mean is you've got to
temper that. So if you want profitability, it's going to be slim.
You're going to need to work there. You're going to need to actually create
revenue with the position that you have and be very strategic to who you hire.
Kelly Myers, our guest, How not to start a Dan podcast?
How not to start a Dan brewery? How can people find it? Where
can people listen to it? So the book of the podcast, the podcast,
the podcast is on everywhere. It's Amazon, Apple, I've got it
shared it all over place if you should be able to google it if you
need to, and they'll they'll sendywhere you got to go in the book books
on Amazon exclusively right now. And then we just got a scoop that there's
a second book in the works. That was the whole point of the podcast.
I wanted to get to one hundred episodes, but I'm at seventy.
We'll see how long I made before I start writing the second book. All
right, Kelly Myers, our guest, make sure to check out his podcast.
His podcast is very entertaining and if you're a brewer. You know,
on a brewery you might learn something to be successful. Kelly mar thanks for
stopping by studios. Hi, thanks for having me appreciate it. This is
what's on tap radio. Hang with us. We got one more segment.
We'll be right back. And the teacher said, no, Bobby, there's
no such time as bureau clock. Fire that teacher. This is what's on
tap radio. We don't thank our friends at Tantrik Brewing Company located Alligan,
Michigan, right there on the Kalamazoo River. Beautiful sites, beautiful beer,
beautiful food. And yeah, you see the Buera logic guy in there hanging
out. Stop by, get a free what's on tap radio? High five?
Great beer, great times, great food. Located an alligant, Michigan,
Tantrik Brewing Company. All right, big shout out to our friend Kelly
Meyer stopped by the show How not to Start a Damn Brewery podcast. I
will tell you that we did the interview, we recorded it. That's why
Chad wasn't around during the interview because he was on assignment. But I will
tell you that after the interview was done, we went and enrolled for an
additional thirty minutes. That will be released coming up soon. And man,
did that boy have a lot to say, including his thoughts on some up
and coming breweries opening. I asked him about Buffalo by your Brewing Company,
Buffalo by your Brewing Company, and I asked him about his thoughts on them
closing, and he shared his thoughts. All this is so much more.
There's a great, great interview coming up. Check out our Anywhere podcast or
found thanks to our friends over at Cast Branding. But this segment What's on
Tap Radio the last segment of the week, brought to you by our friends
over at Tantric Brewing Company. Yes, located in downtown Alligan and my hometown
brewery. I'm there probably too often. No, there's no such thing.
Support your local brewery. Get out there and if you're ever in the g
R area, you need to swing in to Tantric. It's only what thirty
five minutes outside of downtown And if you see me there free What's on Tap
Radio? High five great beers, great food, great scene. It's just
small time, small town vibe. Easy for me to say small town vibe,
but big beers and just great flavor. And I want to thank them
for continuing to support What's on tap Radio, And speaking of What's on Tape
radios show about beer, beer drinking, James talking about money and about putting
puzzles together. Remember that's my parent. Yeah, I'm gonna do a podcast.
You make a million dollars with that idea. But I'm gonna just tell
you right now. I think it's gonna taste more like Champagne Velvet, which
was the beer with a million dollar flavor, but tastes more like a dollar
fifty according to and then we tried the sixty dollars nachos. But James,
I have I had to do this. I saw Liberacchi on the label,
and I saw a bunch of nachos on a Steinway piano, and there it
is, dude Liberachi playing for nachos. James, I give you the Triple
India pale Al twelve percent, one hundred and twenty dollars nachos. They're twice
the price of sixty dollars nachos. They use. What kind of cheese?
It must be some really really really fancy French cheese or something. This is
from who farted? I mean sorry, hoof Hearted. Hoof Hearted Brewery out
of Connecticut, which by the way, we're staying with Connecticut beers here because
we had Evil Twin beer and that's Connecticut, and so now we've got who
Farted Connecticut beer. We've got Evil Twins, so and this is gonna be
another hazy Let me take a quick sip and tell you what I think here.
But it is oh whoa, whoa, it's chunky. Look, we
got the yeast in there to Okay, what are you getting out of that?
Chat? As he drinks it from his Boston lager? Like that a
lot better than sixty dollars. Like I like that twice as much as the
sixty. I like one hundred and twenty dollars Najos twice as much as I
like the sixty dollars Najos. So yeah, pretty, Actually this tastes more
like a hazy ipa and has less sweetness to it. I like it,
all right, So that's what we have. Thank you who Fearted for making
me laugh and also making these wonderful beers. All right. Gotta to get
a couple of stories in before we get out of here for the week.
But I like a good field good story, and this story is how a
case of beer saved some men's Lives. But if you didn't know this,
I hadn't really talked about it on the show at all, whatsoever. I've
been talking about how I've been doing a lot of yard work, doing a
lot of yard work because my house was hit by a tornado last week.
A tornado ripped through Katie, Texas, where I live, where I broadcast
studios, and my house was hit. Luckily, no one was injured,
minimum damage. I will talk about what happened, because yeah, we're okay.
But apparently what happened this tornado touchdown I about a mile from my house
and a parking lot of a bar called the Bourbon Street Sports Bar shortly around
three am one Wednesday morning, where five employees were in the bar, but
luckily, luckily, no one was injured. Luckily it was no one customers
were injured because it was after three am and you know, they were already
closed. But yeah, all five workers were in the back of the building
when the tornado destroyed the front of the building. So people of faith would
call it a miracle. Others would say it's a lucky coincidence. But the
tornadoes did suck in front of the building, so the front of the building
got all destroyed, but luckily the men were not injured because they were in
the back of the bar cleaning up a broken case of beer bottles. So,
according to the owner of the bar, the bar back dropped a case
of beer in the back corner and everybody was helping clean up. An employees
called around two forty nine am saying, in a tornado, I'd sucked the
front wall of the bar into the parking lot. But luckily all five men
were physically okay. Also, additionally, the tables, chairs, pool tables
in the front of the bar were wet, dirty, but otherwise unscathed.
But yeah, saved by a case of beer, all because they were cleaning
up glass that they They weren't in the front, because there could have been
somebody in the front maybe mopping or you know, cleaning up in the tables
or something. But yeah, they were on the back clean up this mess
when a tornado ripped the front of the building off. This is going to
be a side plot or just like a side like a side shot in the
movie that we produce. We just got to come up with a good name
for about a tornado that goes through West Houston and a craft brewer who does
a podcast, right, a podcast puzzle ber who does podcast and does does
two podcasts, one about old ladies put and puzzles together and one about beer.
By the way. One lasted one episode and the other one last has
been on for over ten years. I'll let you figure out which one's which.
And the only reason he and his family survive is because people need to
eat his wife's food and he has a beer fridge. And that's it,
because you got to have the food connection too, because not everybody drinks beer,
so you can't make it about just beer. Meanwhile, you're gonna look
and off you know screen, right, there's gonna be five guys who are
saying, thank goodness for that broken case of beer. We're alive all because
of that case of beer. Bourbon Street Sports Bar in Katie, Texas was
just the front was destroyed, although everybody was safe because they were out in
the back cleaning up case of beer that I dropped. But yeah, so
this tornado touchdown. This bar is about a mile from my house, and
the winds from this tornado flew through my neighborhood and I had this giant pine
tree in my front yard. Saw the picture it's probably about one hundred and
something feet and the way the winds pushed the tree, the tree fell not
onto my home but into the street. No cars wouldn't hit your car either.
No cars were damaged. My house wasn't damaged. Luckily. It was
late at night. Like I said, it was about three in the morning
when the storm went through, and nobody was on the road. But yeah,
I woke up the next morning and I knew this storm had come through.
It was very loud, and it woke the kids up. The kids
were all terrified. It was a light show. We lost power on three
AM, so we didn't have any power. So I get up and I
look in my driveway and I realized, oh, there's a giant branch in
my driveway. I need to go out and clear that because my wife and
I had to go to work. So I go out there and it was
very dark, and so I put my flashlight on to realize it's not a
branch in my driveway. No, it's a whole ass tree. My whole
ass pine tree was in it right now. I mean that thing is he
Yeah, I'll post I haven't posted to our what's on tap radio social.
I've posted on my personal social but I'll post it on What's on Tap Radio
just so you can get an idea of just how big this was. But
I want to give a special shout out to tell my neighbors who came and
helped them cleaned up. You know, they brought chain sauce. I had
a neighbor that dragged the tree into the street with his truck, and because
of that, the county that I live in, Harrison County, they came
and brought chain sauce and chopped my entire tree up, used a giant cherry
picker thing and picked it up, put in a dump truck and haulered it
off. But yeah, very lucky, very lucky that that tree did not
fall onto our home. But if you know, yeah, if you know
where James lives, you've heard the hold my beer and watch this crashing into
signs if you're going through his neighborhood and you and you're like, wait,
isn't there supposed to be a stop sign here? Yeah, that's that's sign.
That was not James crashing into it on the way home after drinking too
many beers. No, he would never do that, Never drink and drive
folks. Ye, but yeah, there's a I'm missing because the tornado took
it and I got a photo of it here. That's right the house.
So again we're very lucky, and so are these guys who are saved by
a case of beer. And that is this addition of What's on Tap Radio,
we have got to say goodbye. I'm hearing the music. But I
do want to thank Kelly Meyer from How Not to Start a Damn Brewery Podcast
for stopping by. I also want to thank Harbor Light Phil for hanging out
also along with our sponsors. Our sponsors being Tantrick Brewing, Superior Past Control
be a Logic Conference Events, Rinaldson ac Insurance Group, the back of a
grille keeping the lights on, Harbor Light Brewing, and course sponsoring our podcast
cast branding. So for mister Billlachi Chap, he'll be my brew good James
the same. Thanks for checking out What's on Tap Radio. We hope you
enjoyed it and we hope that you would join it for another action back radio
show next week. See it then, folks, cheers