Happy New Year and welcome to season six of Beer in Front. This is
Beer in Front, part of the Odd Pods Media Network. Sometimes the beer
in front of you is the best one yet. I'll talk about some old
school beers that maybe you've forgotten about, some new beers that have the potential
to be a classic. I'll also talk to various people around the beer world
and get their stories all about beer. That's Beer in Front and it's coming
up now. Happy New Year and welcome to the January second edition of Beer
in Front. I'm your host, Dave's Alatorus and Beer in Front is a
proud Odd Pods Media Network member. In twenty twenty four, I'm participating in
Dry January for the first time. I was inspired to try this after talking
with Joe and Matt's over at Go Brewing. I've talked with Joe before on
the podcast back in August, and I really enjoy their different beer, so
I figure now is as good a time as any to do this. I
tried maybe six years ago. I tried it for a week and that was
difficult. But the choices with non alcoholic beverages back then they pale in comparison
to what you could enjoy now, so I feel with the tools available to
me, I've got this. I'm doing this for many reasons, mostly for
my weight and health. Since the pandemic and the start of the podcast,
I put on forty pounds and it's time for that to go away. When
I injured my back in August, I haven't been as active as i'd like
to, which it's understandable, but it's still not excuse, so that's all
on me. I've had some epidural injections in my back last week, so
hopefully that's gonna kick in soon and I could be more active to help me
drop this weight. If not, between the beer and diet, I'll be
more cognizant about my health and weight. I hit the scale took a body
pick on January first, but if you want to see that, you're gonna
have to sign up for OnlyFans or something. You're not getting that for free.
I'm going to update the weekly loss here on the podcast and on the
website beerinfront dot com. I'm also tracking my sleep to see the improvement before
and after, so i'll let you know how that's coming along as well.
I'm confident that I'm gonna drop the weight and be healthier because I did it
before in twenty eighteen. I dropped an easy thirty pounds and felt better.
So while it might be a little harder now since I'm older and my sight
hustle is beer, but it's going to happen. I'm still going to talk
about the beer world in different beers out there. I just won't be having
as many of them. I did some recording the last week of December,
so I have a couple beers segments recorded, so throughout the month, I'll
still be talking about the beer that's in front of me. I'm really proud
of the interview with Joe and Matt, so stay tuned for that in a
couple minutes. Thanks for listening to me. Ramble on to find out more
on my journey and dry January, check out Beer Infront dot com in Beer
News. This week, Jim Bean is coming out with a new line of
Kentucky Cooler Lemonade. They're gonna have two flavor is, black cherry and blueberry.
These are going to check in at five percent alcohol and will be made
by the people over at Boston Beer. So look for that. That should
be coming out this year. Goose Islands, Bourbon County brand Stout had a
forty seven percent sales drop for a similar four week period from last year.
Mariano's, which is an Illinois grocery store chain, they already have all of
it marked down fifty percent, so if you didn't grab any on Black Friday,
knowledge your chance. I'd be pissed if I dropped a ton of money
on it to see it marked down by half. Five weeks later, Snoop
is coming out with a line of cannabis beverages. Texas based Hill Beverage will
make the product under Snoop's name along with Death Row Records. Prices are going
to be between five and six dollars a can, and once again, the
Illinois Craft Rwers Guild is having a contest called My Beer Fridge. Each week
they'll be giving on a fifty dollars gift card to an Illinois brewery. Head
over to the guild's Instagram page for more details. I'm Richie aka Midnight Agent
Raw. I'm Devin aka Special Delivery Dev. We're the Supermedia Bros. Podcast
and each week we give a comedically informative take on movies, music, television,
pro wrestling, and much more. Check us out at supermediabrospodcast dot com,
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else that you can listen to podcasts.
Shades on We're off, be sure to catch the latest from super Media
Bros. Wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey you there, We've got a
question for you. Are you tired of clickbait stories and the loudest voices driving
discussions and culture and entertainment. If so, I'm Dylan, I'm Kendall,
and I'm Corey, and we host the podcast From the Middle. We're middle
class guys living in the middle of America, in the middle chapters of our
lives with points of view Somewhere in the middle. We take a more reasonable
and centrist approach in our discussions, covering genres like comedy, culture, entertainment,
and interviews with really interesting folks like business owners, comic creators, doctors,
news anchors, New York Times bestselling illustrators, professional stand up comics,
and more. We really value a relaxed and conversational podcast, one that we
hope is so fun and laid back you'll forget you're not actually hanging out with
us. So search at from the Midpod, just like it Sounds, or
check us out everywhere you can find podcasts. When you're done listening to this
show, head over to From the Middle and check them out. Always a
great show. Hey, I'm pants Sarin, this is Stevie and I'm Augie
and we are bfytw podcast all about playing games and having fun. Our games
are usually based on British panel shows and game shows, but we'll play anything
that captures our attention and imagination. Why it's right there in the title.
You'll never guess what the F stands for before we get to the interview.
Since Joe was on before, I didn't want to do the whole Batman origin
story again. Go back to August and listen to the Go Brewing episode if
you want to find out more details on how they got started and the brewery
itself. All right, welcome back. Many people take time off from beer
alcohol after the holidays and participate in Dry January in twenty twenty four. There
are many more choices out there than just even a few years ago. Go
Brewing open to Naperville, Illinois. It's sixteen fifty five Quincy. And while
I haven't tried every na brand out there, I've tried a lot, and
in my opinion, Go is the best one out there. Joining me is
Joe and Matt. Joe is the president and filed group of Go Brewing.
Matt is the head of sales all right, Matt is the head of sit.
Joe is on with head brewer James back in August. This time I'm
at the brewery. Gentlemen, thanks for taking time out to talk today.
Our pleasure. Yeah, thanks for stop it in and oh yeah, before
we get started, this place is outstanding. What a great tap room.
You guys have everything here inside and now great job on the tamp room,
thank you. Yeah, it was really important for us to invest a lot
in a log experience for people, and looking at the tap rooms around here,
wanted to differentiate herself with the ability to have music and a nice stage
and also not only have really good selection of at aviers a chap, but
I have some of the best not or some of the best alcoholic peers that
are in the Chicago area as well. Yeah, I saw you had hot
Butcher you have with Solemn Oath which is right across the parking lot here.
So yeah, no, just a revolution. The best tap room is nothing
without the beer. You could have the greatest place in the world. But
if the beer is not good, no one's coming in. But the beer
part is really dialed in. I've talked before on social media. I believe
we thought that the New School Sour, of all the ones that I had,
I'd have to say, that's been my favorite so far. I see
you have like a holiday version of that. How have those been selling?
The holiday versions off to a great start. Let's just wrapping up. We're
gonna run out of it right in time for the new year. Okay,
we'll do more of those pilot batches. We really use that experiment on DTC
so direct to consumer. Our traditional wholesale distribution partners aren't going to carry all
of our releases right as we build up a court, but we've we've brought
it some festivals. Clid, our partner here in the Naperville area, has
a little bit of distribution in some of their better retailers. But yeah,
the Sour family continues to grow. And Joe likes to tell this, I'll
steal a story from him. But during the summer and the key festival period,
we were challenging consumers the blind test ours versus a traditional leaded sour,
and that one had the highest rate. New school Berry, who's about fifteen
to fifteen experience spiritunker is getting wrong. Say this one's got alcohol. It
was ours and it's been an or vice versa. Yeah, that one.
I mean when I first had it, I picked it up. I think
it was in bottles and cans in the city. And you know that was
after I talked to you before. So I'm like, all right, I
see you think got a new one. Let me try this. I'm like,
oh, yeah, that's good. You know. I gave some of
my wife who liked sours, and then he been you know, talking with
like various people about na beer. As you go. I'm like, you
gotta try this one. So I gave it a couple of way to like
my friends and even my coat workers. I'm like, oh no, you
could drink this here them it's not alcohol, all right, and they were
like where can I get this at? So yeah, I think once people
try it, they're it. Yeah. The ginger version of the holiday glen
is just perfect for the season. It's it's winter warmer and the blend of
fruit and spice is really Yeah, there's spice, there's cranberry in it orange.
It's actually one of my favorite beers that okay, we've ever made.
I absolutely love it. You should definitely try it. Okay, if you've
had it yet, no one yet something here, all right, We'll make
sure you have something because to Matt's point, we're running out and okay,
that's the coolest thing though. We were able to think of a style,
launch it within a month, and then test it see how it does on
market. Because we're able to have it not just a sample in our tap
room, we're able to really sell it across the US. So, as
I was telling you earlier, we had more sales last month on our website
in California than we did it in Illinois, which is pretty cool. Yeah.
Are you going to do like different variants of that throughout the year,
like maybe a spring one, a summer one, and keep the barry one.
But so yeah, yeah, so we have that has done a really
good job having been in the space for a long time looking a hat at
at seasonal beers, and the sour is going to be its own seasonal beers.
We'll have a variation on that sour three to four times a year.
Last year we also had the well last year, I should say this year
when this comes out, maybe it'll be last year. Yeah, this is
coming out January seventh, Okay, perfect, So we'll have the We had
the Guaba sour right which was which was a fan favorite as well. So
it seems like we really do a good job with the sours. Full credit
to our brewers. Definitely not definitely not me, but it's you know,
it's it's a lot of fun. And to your point, that's the one
that I would give to people for two reasons. One, if someone says
they don't like beer, that's actually really good ones to have them try.
Yeah, and then and then secondly, it's one that you really can't tell
that there's not I'll call it it. Yeah, like the one I'm having
now that you pour it is the grapefruit ipa. This one is this is
bringing you back ten years ago when grapefruit IPAs were sculping day, Yeah,
sculping, and yeah, everybody had a great fruit ip a. But no,
this one's really good. You have two on ipa and a pail.
Yeah, I mean, truth be told, we were making our grapefruit ipa
and our young brewery is you know, we don't get it right all the
time. But we there was nothing wrong with the beer. It tasted great.
It just wasn't our great fruit IPA. So we're like, what can
we do differently with this beer of salvage yet and it allows us to create
a beta beta grapefruit So we're probably not going to have that one again,
okay, but it was a really good one to test, and it was
it was a little bit whiter. It ended up being more of a of
an ale. Okay, but yeah, no, this the grapefruit IPA.
If you remember the sculping days and all of that, when everybody who is
it Sammy Adams had their rebel i PA grapefruit and I think every one was
putting it out. This one here, this is what called jib jib jab
jab jeb jeb okay, the great for IPA, top notch. This is
one you need to pick up as well. You have according to the website.
Then I looked at it last week. You have like fourteen different beers
on in cans right now. We do. Yeah, we're always rotating in
and out of the beers. We have some core styles and then we have
some experimental beers always, but yeah, there's about fourteen, okay, and
are all of those available on tap or so what we're doing now is we'll
make one to two CAGs of all of our beers. Okay. Once it's
gone, it's gone, so they rotate out. Not all of them are
available today, most are, but some. If we have cans left,
we'll sell the cans in our tap room as well. Okay. Cool.
When I first started drinking NA beers years ago, and maybe it's just me,
or maybe it's a lot of people, my initial thought process was to
compare it to a regular beer, which it's not fair. It's not fair
to the any brewery. It's that fair of the regular brewery. How do
you get people to change that mindset and just appreciate what's in the glass?
Like discrape for ipa phenomenal, But how do you get people to change that
mindset where you know this isn't a Sierra Nevada plao, this is just a
really good paylo that happens to be non alcoholic. A loaded question, but
a great question, I think Joe pointed at me. I'll give you my
personal experience with the audience of one, but I think first and foremost the
comparison being unfair. Is alcohol. Ethanol has a taste to it, right,
Yeah, it impacts your taste buds, the way your body processes it.
So it's really about how do you overcome the expectation of that. And
we are finding more and more consumers gravitating towards the category for variation I do
for reasons, and Joe's really good at capturing this data and we're learning more
about our customer base and now we have to educate and that coincides with making
better beer. There was a time in craft beer called twenty years ago where
the tides really started to rise really quickly and everyone was just kind of making
better beer simultaneously, and the craft industry was sharing secrets and recipes and hop
contracts and here's what we learned about how this east interacts with this hop.
And that's kind of happening in a right now. It's a much smaller community,
and you know, we all have our processes and certainly don't want to
share everything, but we're we know that horizon tide will raise all ships,
absolutely, and we're making better beer today than we did yesterday, and so
are our peers. And that's a lot of people's first experience with NA verse
our father's na which was not to be disparaging of old duels or the core
domestic products, but they kind of bland and less flavorful. Right. So
I have a working theory that there is a generation my age in mid thirties
and mid forties that are exiting the They're starting a new chapter in their life,
whether it be parenthood, you know, they're making wellness changes. And
we grew up on craft beer, and now when we want to find ways
to balance our relationship with alcohol but still find those flavors, these great nacraft
breweries like ourselves are popping up, and it tricks your brain because you can
you don't have to be sober, you can you can reduce your consumption by
finding these great flavors like you just did with that great fruit ipa and and
then you start to realize you don't need the alcohol and you can enjoy it
with food and all the ways. Traditional beer is magic, so is an
A. So we definitely have an education component to bring people into the category.
But quality discipline. We're not we're not the elking, we're not contract
brewing. Right, you saw our house here, So putting out world class
product which a craft consumer has come to expect. You know, the days
of having inconsistent flavor profiles are long gone, so we hold ourselves to a
similar standard. And I think that as the world changes, were our consumer
basement and girl even now national brands are coming out with any products where even
Sierra Nevada they're rolling out one. I think nationally it will come out this
month in January, which I kind of see is like in the long run
good for companies like Go where like in the beer world, people will try
something and then well we all want to gravitate towards local. How do you
see the national companies coming out with more in a products? Yeah, I
think to your point, it's a really positive thing. What we wanted to
do early on is being known for just not alcoholic beer. See. You
know when you see our logo in the Island Eddie grocery store and you check
us out a line, you know, any product then you buy from us
is going to be nonalcoholic. Yeah, and that allows us to create a
wide spectrum of beers where people also know that it's high quality, there's there's
natural ingredients in there. If a beer let's say it's made with German hops,
like we use those same hops, so we don't we don't modify anything.
And I think because of that and the beers that we've made thus far,
our name is associated with good quality at A. So the more that
people can try an NA product of a brand they love and now now they're
thinking, hey, n A beer, isn't that bad, they'll see go
brewing and associate that with a good quality at A. Nika Twat can try
a wide variety of the beers. Yeah, I mean you have everything from
pills, mirrors to the IPA we just discuss. It's the one I'm going
to have now is you're stout. Yeah, that's our donut stout beards not
even out yet, So you're special. You're the first one tasting it.
Right, I haven't even tried that. It smells really good while you taste
that. I'll add a little bit of color to what Joe is saying too,
like the national brands playing in the space is absolutely a good thing,
right, I'll echo it. Because our category is under indexed, it's one
of the fastest growing categories in adult beverage and it's one of the smallest segments
as far as shelf space is considered in adult beverage, So there's this massive,
massive growth happening. It is those guys come to play in the category,
it validates it, and what we're seeing from national account buyers is a
willingness to expand that category for the first time in a long time. So
it's nice to have him play in the in the space as well. Yeah,
I mean, I'm looking forward to trying the Sierra Nevada one because one
and you know, everything Sierras put out for forty years has been, you
know, phenomenal. So I'm assuming they're going to do a great job on
NAC So I know when that bowles out, I'll definitely have to try it
because I've read good things about I think they're gonna do a golden and an
ip a, so be interesting to try it. This stout really good.
Now you said you're gonna add mapel to this down the road once it's done,
Yeah, okay, yeah, so that's and Mabel to it. Obviously
we have to carve it up yeah a bit, but yeah, it has
really good flavor. I mean, the roasted malt on this is phenomenal.
This tastes really good. So when this comes out, you need to grab
yourself the doughnut stout this is. It's going to be called donut Kill My
Vibe. Donut Kill Me. My dog has that shirt. Its yeah,
donut kill My Vibe. That's cool. Yeah, that was a contest.
We had naming contests. So yeah, a lot of fun I noticed,
Like walking through it on the website, you have an electrolyte water hop waters
now seem to be all the rage. Is that something you're gonna have down
the road to further, you know, enhance your brand in the NA world.
It's it's possible. We're not you know, we don't like to follow
trends. Yeah, we like to get in front of them a bit.
And it's it feels saturated without water. That doesn't mean we're not going to
make one. Electrolyte water and functional water is something where I could see us
doing more of, like flavored electrolyte babrias Okay that maybe has like a beer
component. We also have a gluten free beer with adaptogens coming out next week,
so I have Ashrogada in it and alth the innine. So those are
properties that will help you relax. So it actually has a functional component.
So I think because we're at a we we are, we can have the
liberty to try it to do other things. And that beer that I'm talking
about is going to be called our Freedom Amber and it's going to be a
gluten free beer as well. So that's something that's really taken off for us.
We didn't even realize this when we started making them, but you have.
We'll have now two beers crafted without gluten, and there's not many,
not all Colic breweries that are making them crafted without blow it actually not using
barley, so we don't use barley at all, all right, so it's
truly made without any including ingredients. Now. The first one that was Freedom
Cali paying Frea Kelty. I think they had that when I talked to you
last time in August. Yep, you know we were talking before and I
heard you on Rod Jay. You were mentioning, you know, handing people's
samples of the sour. Is that something you're going to do further on down
the road, getting more festival this year in twenty twenty four. Do you
do like tastings and grocery stores or bio shops and will be if you're in
the Chicagoland area. If you're listening to this, you know, I assume
you're close by. But we'll have multiple Saplings and every Binnies in the Chicagoland
area throughout the month of January. We have a great partner on Ohio giane
Eagle, who's launching our brand, and there'll be Saplites and thirty five stores
in the northern Ohio area. Just got approved for Great Taste in Midwest Man
which would be awesome Beer and Cheese festival in Wisconsin, a few others.
So we're we're actively finding our niche where where we make the most sense and
where we don't. Like, we've kind of find out that we don't.
We thought we're gonna play really nice at golf events and stuff that not so
much the people there for a reason out right afternoon when they're getting off of
work. But yeah, we we are definitely finding the festival go we're at
traditional beer fest is seeking us out and we're we're having great feedback, and
then we'll look to activate some larger partnerships to get into some of the music
festivals and sponsored events as well. Yeah, I think with like beer fests,
a lot of people just go in there and they're like, all right,
I've got two hours. I'm gonna pound down everything I can. I
think having you there would be good, Oh okay, good, I could
take a little break for us. So at the very end they come to
us, they swarm, Yeah, you know for sure. So yeah,
those those can be polarizing for sure. Like initially when people are coming by
you, they you know, in my experience, they some folks will look
at you as if they're sober and you're trying to feed them alcoholic beer,
and They're like, get away from me with that, and I'm like,
you're gonna be perfectly fine. But at the very end of those fests were
really popular, I could say that. Yeah, even at Fault Bab,
which you wouldn't think, I know, they had revolution did a hot water
line. Yeah, and they had a logger spot that the lyington there were
just as long as they were for some of the beer brewers lagers. Uh.
Yeah, Well we're seeing we're starting to see events with the reputation full
Bab like one of the one of the most anticipated events of the year in
your world, start to investigate an autocoholic category. Yeah. And and we
were a little early to investigate it this year, but there's there's opportunity down
the road to contribute in a major way to those and having an area where
consumers who are looking to moderate and have an option there. Well, that
was going to be one of my later questions, but since you brought it
up, the brewing techniques have grown leaps and bounds for Anna beer just in
the last couple of years, and the different YEA springs are out there that
you can use. Do you see something like being able to do a barrel
age that's no alcoholic while you still have those you know, barrel notes in
the beer. Yeah, one hundred percent. We tried. We were gunna
this year. We just ran out of time, honestly, But it's absolutely
possible. I think for something like that. Deall game is a is a
good method, and we don't use that method today. To be fun to
experiment with that as one of our first dauplized beers, okay, but we
don't have any concrete plans. It's aspirational that we get it done in twenty
four, all right, but with our growth, I don't know that we're
going to be able to squeeze it in this year. Yeah, Yeah,
are there any other trends that you see or like, what do you have
coming up this year that's going to be different. Joe talked about the seasonal
sour release, so that'll continue to let us explore that new school line.
Spoiler alert, Wabba will come back in the spring and we'll work out a
variation with summer because Berry is in the full time rotation. So here you
can find that. We'll be a Mariato's in January in biddies right now,
so that that is a grocery brand kind of more of a core brands.
Our Double I Pa is huge for us. So that is a beer that
is hard to tell that there's not all call it and many many people haven't
they gravitated to it. There's a lot of like phenoalenal Facebook groups and organizations
that are just they strictly just talk about not al caolling beer. And I
can tell you that that beer is among the most acclaimed beer that we have,
and that's on the market period, and I think it's because it's just
so flavorful. Hop forward. We use Ciitra mosaics, a town of hops
in there, same as everyone else. You're just the same as everyone else,
and it's and it tastes like a regular beer. And this was a
this was an example of a of a beer that we just wanted to do
a test on. So we talked to a retailer that specializes just in non
alcoholic beer. They are not non alcoholic beverages. They have they have at
a bottle shop and we asked them, We're like, what's selling and they
toasted, they toast Double I p A's fly off the shelf. So we
decided to make one and within a couple of weeks it was sold out,
and we're like, we have something here and we haven't been able to keep
it in stock. But that's a great example of us being able to do
a test. And now that beer is going to be sold in Ohio and
market in Chicago pretty soon, hescon in Wisconsin. So so it's it's a
that directing caturo out's just a really good way to test the market. So
we pair you pair the Double I PA with an expanded tour line, the
Freedom adapt Gen, the Freedom Growth line, and then we are we released
some seasonals this year. We did it first October Fest. Yeah, so
it would be told out in like four days. So we we're building into
a fully functional seasonal lineup which will allow us some innovation and some surprises along
the way. And then we never were never sleeping, so we carved out
a little bit of space in our forecast just strictly for innovation and let our
brewers do what our brewers do. So it's it's a lot. We have
a lot of cooking cool all right. Next up, I'm having head On
American Week. This is with orange Peel. I think this is really good.
Can you guys tell everyone a little bit about the head On fair Away.
That was one of our first five beers that we came out with.
It used to be with Hear and we decided to make it into a week
here just by fighting the ingredients. But you can you can see that it
has like really nice head to it. It has still a little bit flavors
of the orange peel in it, and yeah, it's just a really solid
beer. Yeah that's another one. It's just outstanding. Like I saw on
the website, you do like mix so you have like holiday sample packs and
I think one for dry January. Do you normally do like a variety mixed
pack that you sell, whether it's here at gop ring dot com or nationally,
not really on our website unless it's part of a sample pack, like
okay, like Super October we did one, we did an advent calendar beer.
We're gonna do a dry January bundle. For a few reasons. It's
hard for fulfillment to just keep it going. Yeah. Secondly, we're typically
running out of something within there, you know, or just try to predict
volume because we have so many sales channels Amazon, we have our Pure Club.
We have about five hundred members in today that get recurring memberships. We
have as the online website, we have online full sale, and then of
course we have regular wholesale y. Yeah, the consistency of a mixed pack
is better found on some of her partners, like Amazon has a really nice
selection that you can try multiple styles if you're outside the Chicago End area.
But hat On is usually found in those because it offers wonderful variety and it's
one of it. It's a fan favorite and it comes to like thirty calories.
Yeah, so you would never one, you would never know it's na
you would never know it's thirty galleries because it has a great mouth feel to
it as well. It's not like drinking some water down light beer. This
is really flavorful. I won't tell the story on that beer because I don't
know it as well as Joe does, but this is one of the stories.
All our beers are named after an inspiring person human being, and the
storybrand had onunds really cool. So if you go to the website look at
hat On and read the story, I'll give you a little bit of the
inspiration find it. Yeah, it's named after a girl lady named Amy Purty.
She had a brain disease since she was nineteen years old. Man and
perfectly healthy yellow lady just woke up and she's pretty much paralyzed. Any amputator
likes she it since went on was on Dancing with the Stars and should have
been winning it or was runner up, was runner up, and she she
competed in the Olympics as a shielboarder as well. So it's like head On
has a lot of different meetings, but what is just when you have adverse
in your life and you have challenges, it's like head On, Like,
yeah, like there's some times, you know when I'm skiing and I'm going
down that black Diamond for the first time I looked down at It's like,
hey, there's there's no way out but through. And that's exactly what kind
of an amous philosophy in life and something we respected. So we decided to
devote a beer and oh, Aspy buy her well, did a great job.
You mentioned dright January, we're talking about mixed packs. This episode comes
out on January second. What advice do you have to anyone that's gonna participate
in Dry January, especially for the first time. Yeah, I have a
lot of tips. In fact, you can go to our websites and on
the home page you'll be able to click to get the Dry January tips by
the time this episode comes out. Honestly, the first thing a little self
serving, but it's very very true. Think about an eight beersli a beverage
to enjoy, but a tool for your toolbox. You're gonna have massive cravings
your body if you're anything like me and I know Matt as well, Like
we've been drinking for decades at this point, so the five o'clock like craving
is real. It's your body's conditioned to wanting alcohol, your body's conditioned to
the reward at that end of a work week. Yeah, so when those
craving has come, just because you're in a challenge doesn't mean they're going to
go away. You having a tool like a like a no alcoholic gear is
really important. So makes you stock about our beer, but also take this
time to look at all the amazing eddy options out there. There's a lot
of cool mocktail type yeah things, there's the stuff in it. Can like
I can make a martria that gets like ninety eight percent there and that's no
alcoholic. So that's one two. I would replace the habit of not drinking
with something that's positive. So one habit. Like many times we start the
year, we have this huge list and we want to meditation, cold bats
and and saunas, and we're gonna do all these things right and the and
the problem with that is you put so much on yourself that if you start
missing some of those things you wanted to do, you feel like you're failing.
And then and then you throw the towel on on everything. So my
philosophy is like pick one positive habit while that's working out or or eating healthy,
whatever it is, and just start to tether the habit of not drinking
with this positive habit. Okay, So that that's me is huge, And
then I think, three, get something on your calendar. Like for me,
I know that I'm going to have a race March seconds, and every
damn motivated to work out because I want to be prepared for that race.
You know, if you don't have something on the caliber, it's kind of
hard to be motivated. Yeah, do you. I mean you talked about
the mock tails and everything else, So you advise people obviously to drink go
brewing, but that wouldn't be like a hindrance to somebody, Like it's so
close to tasting like real, like maybe stick with something else. That was
the whole point of it. Yeah, So thirty percent of our customer base
is sober. Okay, so takeing a hint from them that, like,
you're able to now consume great at a options, which is why this category
is popular. Iscah, you're not missing a lot anymore. Yeah, because
if you like the taste of beer, you like that that flavor that you're
filling this void in your life by having a beer, like you're not you're
not sacrificing taste. In fact, like to see your earlier question, on
people gravitate, gravitating for the taste of that age beer, and it's not
really fair because you're comparing it to an alcoholic beer. Reality is like the
flavor profile. I think many people are changing to something a little lighter.
Like we were through days of like real heavy, hazy IPAs that I still
love. I said three or four of them. Now I drink half of
one and I'm like, oh my god, I feel full, i feel
bloated. So that's why I think people are gravitating more toward loggers. Well,
if you think about that trend and eight beers are just a little lighter.
Yeah, to Matt's point earlier, many people don't realize that alcohol has
seven calories per gram. So to put that in perspective, everyone knows that
that fat has four calories program, proaching has four calories. I'm sorry,
fat has seven carbs have four, Approaching has four calories program. So you're
you're getting a lot of wasted calories when you're drinking alcohol. I'm not saying
that's bad, buddy, It's a fat, right. So the other fallacy
is just to touch on it, and that's one on a tangile with something
said as like low carb like if it's a nickel ultra, it has not
carbs. But the calories you're getting from alcohol are far worse than the calories
you're getting from carbohydrate carbs. But they could say low carbs, but they
don't say, like, yeah, but all the calories in you are coming
from all call themselves. So it's a it's this. It's one of these
things where we highly suggest that use it as a tool of curb you're craving,
because it's not gonna go away. Yeah. I wasn't on a mission
of sobriety when I came to go. I was actively reducing my consumption.
And before I even knew I was going to work here, or Joe and
I had just met a few times. I drunk the beer in the bar
ere and was astonished by it. Joe, Joe could tell you some very
real stories. I ask my opinion. I was dumbfound about the quality and
I left that day, wouldn't beer. I brought it beer home, and
for me, that's where it stuck. I put that beer in my fridge
and now I had twelve ven A beers in there. And the Tuesday with
the neighbors, Hey, you want come out. We had a fified on
kids are out. Instead of grabbing two letted beverages, I brought two gold
beers over and drag those and didn't miss anything and miss the socialization I did.
I reduce those calories and that those dominoes started to fall on each other,
and before I knew it, that just had become my common practice.
Yeah. When I was reaching for the flavor, I was having dinner,
I wanted a beer because I was conditioned to it. Those became cold cold
brewise or other nas. And my consumption is down. Yeah, I'm not
sober to this day, but my MI assumption is dramatically reduced. And it
starts with just having them innu fridge. Yeah, you know, and then
you can make thosels of your choices. And at Joe's point, not reason
men run a marathon or not. Everyone's gonna take a dramatic diet on topic
win drinking. Wake up thirty minutes earlier because you don't have that alcoholic system.
You're gonna get better, run sleep. We're gonna sit there, give
thirty minutes to wake up and start your day. Yeah. And then also
in that self, the compounds and those behaviors you'll find rewards for it because
you just have more time in your day and more energy for the things in
your life. So it's changed my life, and it was it wasn't through
a challenge, but yeah, And if you haven't already compared before you do
dry jail, I know it's come out dry January. But chances are people
have some sort of fitness of ice like the Apple watch or a garment or
a whoop. It's clear now that what happens when you're sleeping in you have
all call in your system versus not right like it's it's very clear. But
if you haven't tested that test it. The other thing I'll say is if
for whatever reason you you decide to drink during dry January, don't feel like
this is a byary thing and then completely fail, Just go back the next
day and stop drinking and like make it. Make it dry January ish where
you are upstating most of the month. If you just can't do it,
but I'm telling you, if you commit to it, you can do it.
Just take one day at a time, and I think at the end
of the month you look back and realize what you accomplished and how good you
feel. I did that last year. I call it damp January. I
made it like fifteen days and it failed. But I didn't want to quit
on the journey. So are you enjoyed you Well, I'm doing damn check.
Yeah, I had a day where I had because you should be rewarded
for reducing your consumption by a massive percentage over the course of a month.
Ration fields of failure. Yeah, I know. If you were mentioning sleep,
I know my wife will be happy because I snore like mad when you
know I have a couple of beers, so I'm sure she'll be a lot
happier with me at the end of the month. Yeah, we all do.
Yeah. Back to the tap roo here before we closed, I mentioned
earlier you guys have everything here, your outdoor reviews, great fire pits,
bags. But one thing I noticed on the website. You got these giant
tubs of ice. What's that about? So we wanted to make this buried
accession of ourself and we were into you. And one of the things over
the last high five years or so is our cold plunges. And cold plunges
create this dopamine, the fact that you'd otherwise get maybe from all call or
from something else, except it's super healthy. I know it sounds kind of
crazy too, but I think it shouldn't the beer be on ice and at
the customer both. Yeah, So so it's what it's it's doing something hard,
right, Like I think we've conditioned ourselves to live in comfort a little
too much, and there's nothing easy about even thinking about jumping in cold ice,
especially in the winter. So we'll have sessions here with cold pludges,
including wim Hof breathing. Wim Hof is a is a guy at a pole
into kind of created this movement and how to relax in cold climate. But
it also parallels into life because a lot of us we'll fight our we'll fight
ourselves in times of like massive stress. If you're able to control your breathing
and you're able to employ some of these techniques that you were earned by going
in the cold plunge, you're able to cope with stress in a different way,
and there's a lot to learn from that. So not only do you
have to put yourself in a very uncomfortable position, but when you're in there,
as soon as you get in that tubbed or full body's screaming, like
getting me out, of here and it's easy to get out. But once
you sit and relax, it's a metaphor for life right to you know,
you could just fight something and be super tense, but if you just kind
of let it be and you just think about it, all of a sudden,
it becomes easier and you view it in a different way. So it's,
uh, it's it's something that we've had here. At the first weekend
reopened, we had a whim Hoff Cold Plunge breathing class and we and over
the course of twenty twenty three we've probably had it. Two hundred people go
in it, and all those two hundred people, the goal is sustain it
for two minutes. Okay, it's about thirty five forty degrees. I know,
it sounds nuts. And only two people out of the two hundred or
so got out really, so they made it for at least a minute,
okay, So it's pretty incredible. And when you're around others that do it,
you you kind of feel this sense of obligation that you should do it
as well. They'll whole two minutes and not one person at the end of
it regrets it. They're all like, I want to do more. Of
it. Yeah, some people end up buying cold plunges from their house,
but from Andrew Huberman to many many you know doctors out lie there and much
smarter than me attest to that. Just dramatic benefits that it can have.
There's no one getting out, like talking about shrinkage or anything like that.
I'm sure, I'm sure there is, but uh uh. You know that
some of the starst people that go in a are or older females like they'll
they'll jump in there, and you know, I think their mice at is
is such that they know they're going to commit to the two minutes and they
don't get out. Yeah, they deal with us for the rest of the
lives. Exactly what's two minutes? And I yeah, yeah, Well I've
talked about how much I like go brewing. I want you to try it
for yourself. Thankfully, these gentlemen are hooking us up with the gift card,
so I want to thank you for that. Send me an email Dave
at beeringfront dot com. Put go in the subject line. I'll pick a
winner at random, and then Joe and Matt will send you out a gift
card so you could try go Brewing for yourself. Thank you very much,
gentlemen, thank you, thank you very much of it. And Dave,
I have to say, like after that first podcast, I could generally see
your attitude toward an a beer change your bed, and you were promoting it,
and you're the way you're supporting Go and these local breweries is incredible.
So I want to thank you a lot for you. Everything you're doing,
no problem, it's all you know. Like you mentioned, rising tide lifts
all boats. I don't try to talk bad about other breweries. You know,
sometimes there's something they may not like. I just won't mention them.
The more people to get out and enjoy, whether it's Go, whether it's
you know, another brewery down the street. For me, that's good for
everybody. So I appreciate the kind words and thank you gentlemen for having me
here. It's been a lot of fun. This is a great location.
Once again, if you're in the Naperville area, you need to go to
sixteen fifty five Quincy. You're open Wednesday through Sunday. Okay, so Wednesday
through Sunday, so head over to Go Brewing, great tap room. The
beers are all fantastic and have the sour and thank me for it later.
Guys, thank you again. I really appreciate it our pleasure. Thank you
so much. All Right, the beer I'm going to have now from Go
is not just another story double IPA. This has Simco Mosaic and Citra Hops.
Ten percent of the proceeds for this beer will go directly to the Institute
of Non Violent Chicago. I'm really stoked about having this one after hearing Joe
talk about it. I've heard about this one, I haven't had it yet,
so let's crack it open. Looks good. Has that nice like I
think they're is caramel Waltson here. It's a little darker than your typical IPA,
but it looks very nice. Yeah, the hops are there. You
really get that hop aroma. It smells fantastic. That's good. Nice.
They don't list the IPUs on this, but you definitely get the bitterness there.
And it's more like old school IPA where that bitterness hits you at the
end on the back of your tongue. So if you're a fan of old
school IPA's, I think this will be right up your alley. Yeah,
that's really good. Get all of the flavors from the hops, little sweetness
from the malt, but not a lot the hops are I think the big
store with this one. I like it. I think this is good for
my dry January. I'm gonna have to run over to the store and pick
up a couple six packs of this because I think this is good. So
if you want a beer, if you want an ipa that's non alcoholic,
I would definitely search this one out from Go Brewing. It's called not Just
Another Story Double Ipa. I think it's really good. I think you should
put this one in the cards. Cheers. All right, that's going to
wrap things up for this edition of Beer in Front. I thank you very
much for listening, and once again to Joe and Matt over at Gold Brewing.
I'll include the link in the show notes. If you want to sign
up for the Go Brewing Dry January Challenge, don't forget. Send me an
email at daveatbeerinfront dot com with go in the subject line by Monday, January
eighth, and midnight i'll pick a winner for a Go Brewing gift card so
you could try the beer from Go for yourself. Big thank you to Joe
for agreeing to do this for the listeners. I'll update my website beerinfront dot
com throughout the month on any weight loss, sleep data and overall health as
well. Have a great week everyone, and remember sometimes the beer in front
of you is the best one yet