Hey, what's up. It's the trilog bun b. This is What's on
Tap Radio with James Simpson. It's going down. Okay, welcome back to
What's on Tap Radio. I'm very excited because I have some really special special
guests in studio back. It's been like what a few months. Yeah,
Independent Brewing Company, Amy Cartwright, Stephanie Meyer, welcome back to the show.
We had so much fun with you guys when you were back in here
in November. How to glad to have you guys back in studio here and
now, Yeah, I've got a lot to get to. I know we've
got some beers in front of us, but I told you when we were
off the air, and some really hard hitting questions, some questions that have
m making me nervous. Sparked a lot of feedback on our on our social
media, which we'll get to here in a second. But uh, I
got scoop here that I'm very excited to talk about. But we'll get that
to that in a second. But you said, yes, we start with
I don't want to butcher the name. I brought a special little beer called
geister Zoo. Geister Zoo, which is a coach so we took the name
inspiration from a special event they do in Cologne, Okay, the birthplace of
Colch and so on one of the nights of their big carnival, they do
the ghost train the geister Zoo. Is that what it means? Ghost train?
Yeah? Okay, in a geister zoo. Okay, geister Zoo,
geister zoo. Okay, yeah, because when I what happens is next week
when I'm talking about the beer, I'm gonna butcher it. When Amy's not
in studio, you can just be like, hop upboard the ghost train.
Here you go and on the label it's got a cool little train with a
skull in the front of it. And uh, I feel like I mean
to me every year or every time the season is Cole season. But now
that the months are getting a little warmer, that you know, people start
switching from stout stouts and so forth. But how you how you been great?
Great, good good spring so far? Yeah? Driving in you gotta
love those feld to blue bonnets. I think about driving from Austin to Houston,
as all the fields, right, and they're like weeds or something,
right, they grow like weeds. Even though it's the National flower. I
still love it. My grainy s to send me Texas Highway Magazine. Really
a blue bans there's a not to get off the beating track. But I
drive to Dallas a lot and a milad marker two one one was my favorite
mild marker because you go over this overpath and before there was this giant land
and blue bonnets which is grow and it looked like a blue sea. Yeah
yeah, but then they like built like a warehouse there now storage. Yeah,
it's a storage, you know. So there's like they took away where
it was this beautiful like it should have made like a historical landmarker. I
don't know, but like, yeah, but when you drove over, it's
just beautiful blue bonnets, but now it's a stupid ugly warehouse. Yeah yeah,
but you know it is blue bonus season, but it's also cool season.
And so tell us a little bit about this geister zook. So with
the zook, the geister Zoo, it just really went pretty traditional. Uh
it is um it's just a very traditional coal so just designed to be light
crisp. It's a traditional noble hops. So for my listeners that don't know
what a coalshes, what's it. What's a coal? So how can you
explain that coals to him? Well, so coal should be lighter. I
mean, if you look at this, it's light straw in color, so
it's a lighter malt um. You know you want it to be finished,
dry and crisp. But um, it's actually a weird hybrid because its ferments.
As you know, it starts off cold fermentation. But it's actually an
alias. So yeah, it's really good. What's a ABV on this?
It's hitting right around five? Right around five? Okay, I like it?
And so this is new? Is this a season or it's a spring
seasonal season? And this is the first time you've done it? Yeah?
Yeah, so uh, our headbrew Brandon Radiki had worked on he'd been reading
about. He added some thoughts on how to do a little bit unique taste
on his own version on a coal shian Um, so you can't spill all
the beans. But you know something he'd been wanting to work on for a
while. And it's just nice to have seasonal releases, so you can just
do something for fun, all right. But ghost train guys, your shoogoo,
all right, So I told you I have a list of questions,
I want to throw your away. And so the first question, and this
has have been a hot topic on What's on Tap Radio lately, what is
your opinion or what do you think is one of the let's let's say top
three, top three, and Stephanie you can jump in on this as well.
Underrated beer styles Top three Underrated beer style, Underrated beer Styles. I
mean, I'm not going to do an order prayer. Yeah you don't have
to. And I did that too because chat through that chat through that at
me, and I was like, I don't know if I can listen in
order, but I'll do three. I think just paleo, like nice pale
ales that was on my list. You know, I do love a good
Chris Paleo that's you know, not too not too high alcohol, um and
sort of in that same vein. I just feel like that, you know,
um, oh god, let's see, just like you know, some
of the lower abb styles. So I'm trying to think of you before you
jumped the next one. The palel so I said the same thing. I
said the same thing, the good old traditional palout. But I feel like
when session IPAs came out, they kind of like, hey, we'll take
it from here at Palel, and then Palels were like, okay, well
we got a good run. And I think that what's difficult about it,
even if we enjoy making them and drinking them, is that I would also
just say in retail, you know, people really are like, oh,
it's not sellings like I'd rather carry IPAs. So there is a little bit
of like the retailer dynamic that can also lead to it just not being available.
Yeah, you know, And so then people are like, oh,
it reinforces everything's got to be IPA. Everything's IPA now, Amy Cartwright,
sevny Meyer here Independence Brewing talking about underrated beer styles. You said the Palel,
what else you got? Um, okay, hold on, I know
I told you it's a hard hitting questions. Um well, I would just
say that I've been asked this quite a bit from people that, you know,
you have fans of certain beers, you made them want you to bring
them back, And I would say that even though it's not a you know,
necessarily a favorite of mine, the black Ipa people Black Ipa I kind
of feel like in the last year they've kind of made a resurgence with the
Cascadian Dark Ales yeah, I know Stone came out with they re released their
black IPA and then a few other like hound Song has a really good black
ip I don't know if you've had that one, but I agree with you
black IPA. I think the third has got to be Hellis just likes logger.
I think in Austin it gets a lot of love, like everybody's like,
yeah, I mean we have ABG and the whole hell Loss project,
right everything. So, but I don't feel like it's just widely understood,
like people will often say, oh, well, you know, I like
loggers, and you're like, yeah, Hellis is a logger, right U.
And it's okay to explain it to them. But you know what I
mean, It's just I think people don't generally know my favorite beer's logger.
Okay, yeah, all right, so you said black eyepa, um,
hellas logger and so yeah, three underrated that was what we're going for.
Oh yeah, three are you? I mean you can throw it more if
you if you want. I mean, Stephanie, do you have any thoughts
on underrated beer styles? A good like crisp check Pilsner. Yeah, um,
you know, nice and dry. I love a Baltic Porter, and
I don't think people talk about I don't enough no refreshing it is for a
darker bear, how light you know. I think it's maybe misunderstood. And
it's also you know, when I get it's a logger, so it's harder
to make. Yeah, short spears um, so like a good awesome short
spirit. Yeah, guys. At the in the tap room, one of
our newbrewers, Nick made an alt that just was so damn good and but
lighter than what I anticipated. And it's like, man, I don't know
the last time I had an alt on tap. Yeah. That was another
one that comes up every now on the alt beers. Yeah, and I
think my third would have to be a roush a roush beer, Okay,
like a good smoke yeah, just done right. Vector out of Dallas is
doing a really cool smoked four that's like oddly addicting when you when you have
it, but you know they have it, they have a place. But
I think that I think that nobody talks about them and uses them, especially
in like food pairing. Okay, right, that they could so he said,
check Pilsner, this Roush beer and the Baltic Porter and yeah, Baltic
porter is another one that pops up and listen. I don't feel like a
lot of Texas brewers mess with a Baltic porter, which I think, uh,
I mean, put me on the spot, don't. I can't think
all top of my head. But but yeah, they're not very many Baltic
porters don't see it very often now, you know. And it's funny,
very popular, and they're hard to make, they're expensive, and they don't
the consumer doesn't necessarily understand. I'm like a black I pa, you know
right, I talked about amber beers. So I feel like amber beers are
very underrated. It was like ten years ago brown ales, Amber ales,
but they're just not talked about anymore, and so much that like I don't
know if you saw that fat tire new Belgian fat tire is now getting an
identity change, right, and so that's going away is because consumer shifts.
Well also they reformulated, though it isn't just the identity. But I think
for us, even though if people don't talk about it a lot, we
I mean we have Austin Amber. It's been a beer we've been making for
a really long time now, I like five but I would say that.
I mean, we still it's still like neck and neck is our number two
slot, is it? Yeah? It is very I think the one complaint
we got was when we just stopped doing bottles at all, because we did
we used to have amber in a long neck and there's definitely some diehards that
like ambers that are like the bottle, I'm on the long neck, right,
you know, So that was really hard just moving away from that.
But yeah, our Austin Amber has actually been one of those beers that it
has also traveled well, which kind of defies convention because people up in Dallas
they're like, yoh, I want to see what's from Austin. Everyone's like,
even if Houstonians sometimes want to hate hate on Austin tepit, it's like
people still like stuff from there. They're like, oh, give it a
try. Yeah, is that the beer that you guys um do for the
big game up there between Ou and Texas And so originally it was for a
long time, but then we actually for a couple of years did a special
like a light creamail. Okay, the guys really wanted just to go even
lighter than our Native Texans, so we did that and then so kind of
tried to make it lighter. I think, when you know, Ambers just
a little bit too hefty for tailgating. Yeah. When I first got into
craft beer, I've hated Browns and I hated Ambers. But now as I
got older, I'm not you know, get off my long guy. I
enjoy a good Amber. Now. I don't know if my palace just mature,
but now that it has, I see less and less Ambers on the
shelves. So I also think though Viennis Dialoguer has done Maltier like it's a
good a good uh, you know, approximate If you like Ambers, I
would try that too. Yeah, Ambers are good. I don't know,
just make does my humble opinion? All right? H Next question, Okay,
so you paid your tab, but you're at a restaurant or a bar.
You paid your tab, how long do you sit at the bar or
at the table before you leave? Oh? Well, I generally tend just
to leave pretty soon, like within five or ten, you know, five
minutes or so. I don't know. By the time you pay, it's
like you're leaving. If you're not, then you order something else until you're
you know, I don't know. I guess you're at. What you're sort
of implying asking is like how long is it okay to occupy a space if
you're not actively consuming? And so I would just think that, I mean,
having worked in um, you know, service industry and understanding just what
is going on in that person's life, it's like you need to like make
that space available. So if it was like a table at a restaurant,
there's always the option of moving to the bar or sitting outside for a minute
if you need to chit chat or use your phone or whatever. So I
think pretty like within minutes, okay, minutes like you're saying like ten minutes,
like five minutes, oh, five minutes, you're going five minut Stephanie,
what do you say sitting at chat? You pay your tab? How
long you uh out the doors? We're signing the check, Like when we
get the check, it's it's time to go. Okay that reason Amy said,
like, you know, within minutes. Like one thing I think is
different though, Like let's say you're at a coffee shop where it's really chill,
like really open and people are just milling, you know, there's no
pressure for the space. I think that's a little different. So in Michigan,
like, people are notorious for paying their tab and just camping camping,
and so we got in a little bit of a discussion about you know,
you pay your tab. You know, even though the waitressing waiters are always
so nice, hey, you know, take your time, even though they
say they say to take your time, don't take your time. But people
just camp out and people feel okay with it. Oh yeah, okay,
well you said that, then no, yeah, we'll just go ahead and
hang out. The cafes are for but you know, you're hanging out a
restaurant and they can turn that table into another. But I've seen it on
the opposite end. We're eating and you're trying to bust the table and drop
off the check when we're still eating. Yeah, I've been there before.
Like I'm um, well, okay, so we're eating crawfish and you know
they drop the check off, Like, well, I was gonna order more,
but I guess we're gonna gotta go. So all right, I said
about fifteen minutes, I said, enough to finish your drink. Because if
I pay for a beer and then okay they bring it to me, you
shouldn't be chugging it. No, no, but you know i'll pay,
I'll take a beer and then bring me my check. So I just say,
you know I've finished your beer? Yeah? Is that rude? No?
Okay, no, absolutely, especially with the alcohol. You need to
you know, you're in charge of your body. You've got to figure that
out for yourself. Okay. Now, I'm sorry to think I was like
she said, five minute. God damg, I'm rude. All right?
Uh? Can we crack another beer? Yeah? Before I throw another?
I don't know? You tell me. You guys got a we have a
secret. Are we to talk about the secret? Yeah? No, I
was just making it. But if I've had bruise on before him, We're
like, we can talk about this affair. Yeah. No, this is
a good secret. We want getting out. I want to taste that one
next to go for og. I want to taste Okay, So why don't
you I can't sell it as well as you can or Stephanie can, so
tell us what this is? You know, every so often we want to,
you know. So our flagship IPA stash IPA. It's known for its
lovely dankness and citrusy quality and so kind of just to celebrate certain reaching a
Milestone with that brand and making the same beer for the better part of you
know, twelve years now. We made an extra special version of it,
a secret stash I brought. I brought a different glass for this one,
very limited edition stash in which, you know, we really want to showcase
some innovative hop extract technology that our friends at HOST let us play around with.
So you know, on the h in our hop editions we've got and
a product from them called Incognitoes addeded just a Centennial extract to the whirlpool.
So you know, our whole thought process there is adding extra flavor and aroma
hops bring on the dankness of Centennial. And then on the cold side,
um, they have something new called Spectrum and it's just a it's a type
of hop extract. So we really wanted to enhance the citra aspect of Stash.
So that's what we got. All right. What I'm gonna do is
I'm gonna open and crackt. Wow. That smells good, y'all, y'all,
let you pour, and then I'm gonna just do the rest I mean,
sorry again. Hanging out in studio Independence Brewing from Austin, Texas.
Amy cartwright Stephanie Meyer, answering the hard hitting questions and uh oh this is
a little bit of a lighter color than I was expecting. Well hm,
okay, so uh yeah, I was thinking it's gonna be more of a
I was thinking it was gonna be more of a darker Just can this this
morning? Oh that fresh several hours ago? Oh you can't get more fresh
than that. She waited until it came off the canning line before she had
a to Houston this morning. Oh wow, And I appreciate you, thank
you, Amy. Wow that I wish I had a candle that smell like
this. I'm a big candle I'm a big candle guy. Yeah, I'm
a huge candle guy. It's just that combination of resine citrusinus. It's so
good, Amy, that's good. Yeah. The finish is really nice.
Yeah wow. Okay, So so this is a limited edition you said,
secret stash IPA and double dry hops. Yeah, just playing with more and
new ways of doing hops. I'm a fan. I mean not that I
wasn't going to be, because I've always been a fan of Stash. I
have a rich history of a stash. Yeah. Um, but wow,
that's that's really good. And I know people are saying, God, James,
you're just saying that because they're in studio. Shut up, No,
there, it's really good. And uh, okay, what's ABV on this
one? Six point five? Okay? I like this? And will this
be available? So yeah, it's going to be shipping out. Our distributors
to be picking up next week and we'll just be trying to make sure to
get it to different pockets pockets of Texas. And it's a limited run.
Yeah, it's a sixty barrel batch. So it's just a single batch that
we did. And um, like I said, it's really about exploration,
like you have to continue just to see what you know, all these hop
growers and processors are, you know, spending a lot of their energy and
R and D trying to figure out how to make it to where we get
better flavor and more enhancements out of all these things. So it's exciting to
work with them and just see what we can do. Wow. Yeah,
I um, I'm speechless. I don't really know what to say. I
don't I mean, I don't know what to say. I'm just glad I
got to bring it to you. Yeah, I'm I'm happy I don't have
a a I'm happy I don't have a co host yet took it and put
it in his car and said, what secret stash? Because that's happened before.
I don't know if we have new listeners. But once upon a time,
Stephanie, I mean no Amy, Amy came in studio and she brought
some ash and we had a former co host and he secretly took the stash
and uh put it. I guess she sta stayed away and then he left
us one um like one one stash. And so Stephanie, another hard hitting
question for you. Okay, okay, drunk shopped? Drunk shopped? Have
you ever had a few beers, had a happy hour and then jumped on
Amazon and purchased Oh I thought you were gonna be like grocery shop. Well
that too, we'll get into that too. We'll get into that too.
Look at Brian holesen coming in KPRC Channel two. Is this a fresh glass
right here? Yeah? Here grab that, Brian Holsen. Oh, we're
sorry, we got a new secret stash right here. Okay, drunk shop,
So you've had you went to happy hour and then got on the Amazon
and started purchasing things weirdly enough to not do that. I'm like, nope,
I'm not even gonna go there. I don't I don't get on that
because I was like, I don't want to be trying to remember what I
did. So you never you never gone the happy hour and a little liquid
courage. You're like, you know what's been in my cart? I'm thinking
pull the trigger? Get that? No? Really, okay, it's probably
I mean in my earlier career before beer, you know, I worked on
shopping carts and early web stuff, and it's like, no, I just
know, it's like all that stuff can be I already have enough vices.
I don't need to be addicted to shopping. Yeah, so no too much
online shopping. So one of three people say that they have drunk shop before.
Yeah, now going to the grocery store totally different. All right,
let's talk about Okay, let's talk about the grocery store because a lot of
times you're hungry. Yeah, well, they say, never go to grocery
store hungry. Yeah, well I think that sort of like the drunk shopping
is sort of like being hungry at the grocery store too, you know.
Yeah, so uh, you know, getting a ride there, You're like,
also, don't have to be that responsible, you know what I mean.
If you're drunk and you're somebody else took you to the grocery store,
you're like, you're just milling around like everything looks good. That's where I
would spend too much money in that scenario, because it's like, you,
what about the what about what about the seven These grocery stores have bars at
them and they serve beer, like Whole Foods Foods did that guilty of having
a beer, having a pint? And you know, we used to have
to do pint nights bars like that. So I'd say that's the only time
I really felt that way. I don't know, I don't really buy pin
some beer while I'm shopping and walk around. I don't really do either.
But I got a lot of emails from listeners that said that they've been guilty
of that. I mean, I could see the appeal. It's just something
like I've just never done because it's like I've been always been on the other
side, like serving the beer. Stephanie, are you guilty of having a
few beers and going you know what, Okay, I'll take that. Oh
yeah, and I forget yeah, that's what normally happens. That's a normal
And then all of a sudden you get a you get a notification that you
have a delivery, and you go, oh, yeah, what's the biggest
purchase that you've You've bought maybe a few beers, and a very expensive piece
of furniture showed up. I remembered that I bought it, but I played
dumb until it came and it was well, that was that was on the
list of purchases that people buy after consuming. It's furniture. Yeah. So
yeah, and they said the average is about they spent about three hundred dollars.
Oh, I wish it's only three Yeah, So I'm guilty of this.
I am. So I'll put things in my cart and then I'll go.
This happened a few weeks ago. A buddy of ours had a fortieth
birthday party and we went out for it and had some beers, and I
came back. Actually Brian gave me a ride home that night, and I
came home and everybody had already went to bed, and so I'm I'm on
the couch and I'm just going through Amazon, and I had some stuff in
my cart and I was like, you know, what I needed for my
studio, and I ended up buying it and I forgot about it, and
then they got delivered and so I just got I was like, Oh,
how's anybody ever drunk shop before? Or you know, buzz shot whatever it
is. I get a lot of home organizing stuff too, Like I have
a couple of cocktails or beers and I'm like, oh, I need to
organize this, and then the Amazon boxes of organization stuff that, and then
do you realize, like maybe I don't need this? Oh yeah. I
would be the type so many returns if I'm looking at stuff on my phone,
you know, I'm in that kind of zone, like I scroll way
too much though, Like I'll just look at it forever. I'll like look
at options until I'm like I'm exhaustible going to bed. I wish I had
the discipline to do that. I don't though I can't, especially especially when
it stuff is like you know what, I kind of want that, all
right. See. I'll wind up also, though, like trying to pick
a show out like on Netflix or any streaming service. I'll just sit there
looking forever, right, and then finally get tired and be like I'm going
to bed. So you said furniture organizing. What else? Wine? Because
I can ship wine to to Texas, so sometimes I'll sometimes I'll do the
wine. The wine. Yeah, she's got to scare look at her face,
like, yeah, I'm expensive, expensive bottle of wine. The worst
is I got I did some drunk shopping and then I went on a week
trip oh Texas, and I came home and the show, like the shipping
was yeah. Yeah, the entire dating room at table, it's covered.
My husband's like, is this like really the reality of Like yeah, so
apparently, yeah, seventeen percent of Americans have m have purchased stuff after having
too many beverages. But yeah, so apparently the biggest items shoes, clothes,
accessories, food, and then some people bought things like cigarettes, gambling,
and more alcohol. Yeah I could see gambling, feel good. But
vehicle artwork, furniture in vehicles. I guess they did a carbona Carvana.
I don't know, but seventeen Americans, yeah, by a car. But
yeah, seventeen percent of Americans have drunk shops in the past year. Okay,
all right, speaking of wine being shipped, next question, there's this
push grind now going right, now beers to you. Now, this is
a they're lobbying right now for breweries to be able to ship beer directly to
the consumer. Thoughts on that, Well, I think it should be because
why I can do it. I think it should be allowed, and that
would be the rationalization is that we now have many years of history of wineries
being able to have wine clubs and ship wine directs, so and it hasn't
you know, there's you could have your point of view on what it is
in the industry, but I think for consumers that you know, they want
that ability, they would It's a lot more convenient to order something to be
delivered to you from a brewery you might have visited while you were in a
trip and you're like, hey, I really like that. I'd like to
continue to support them. You know, I really like their beer. You
know, it's not like I'm going to drive three hours to Houston stop by
that. You know the likelihood of that versus being able to order somem and
getting it shipped your house. I think you'd have a dual benefit. Like
the consumer, if they want something or they've heard about something, they want
to try it, you know, they should have that ability to do that
easily. And then number two just it's I think it just like wineries seem
to have this relationship with their customers, you know, because they had their
members of the club and you just get to know them. I think that
as a brewery, it would be awesome to be able to have that experience
with people that just really enjoy your beer. I think, you know,
one of the things that was really like a joy of self distributing, which
is kind of hard saying that. I guess it's a lot of work.
It was you just spend so much time with your customers and you get to
know them so well, and you know, you just had that direct relationship.
And I think that ms aside from all the financial stuff, that would
you know, benefit breweries. I think that, you know, I look
to that it's like, you know, being able to get feedback directly from
people buying your beer, what they like, if they had an issue.
You know. Just I think that goes it helps make us better. Independ
is brewing in the house, Amy cart Rice steffy Meyer talking about beers,
do you have gotten a lot of calls from people like, hey, can
I order beer? So our number one requested beer is high Boy. Oh
yeah, I can see that people see it and they've heard about it,
and especially like in groups where they're really trying to it's you know, those
are all limited releases, the rotational nineteen twos, so people are trying to
track it down and so you know, so you have one audience that's just
like obsessed with double IPAs by and far, and then you have actually like
people that are in truck enthusiasts that you know, own a highbaway truck or
go to those kind of meetups. And so there's actually a secondary fan base
for us, which is like they own high Boys, like they love highway
culture. And that's what's on the label. If you look at the Highways
truck, it's a truck. Yeah, so there's one in there, yeah
brought Yeah, oh look let's do that. So uh yeah. So this
is all new to me because I wasn't aware that breweries couldn't ship, or
because I don't know, I just always assume that it could. I never
really thought about it before. So I mean, I think a lot of
it. What always helps me remember is like, okay, is the government
getting their taxes? Like that's a pipe, you know, yes, or
no, So it's like the problem with the current setup would be like I
mean, first and foremost, there would just be that part of the transaction
it's legal at retail, like retailers can do it. So that's why you
have the third parties that it cropped up like drizzly because everybody's getting right the
government entities are getting their taxes in that scenario, Why do you think it
wouldn't pass if they decided no, that's not a good idea. Why?
I mean because in two thousand and seven I read that wine was you can
ship wine. Stephanie was talking about how she's guilty of doing that after you
know, have a few drinks. But why why is do you think beer
hasn't been at um what you know, behind the scenes, and you look
at how the industry works in a state like Texas, you know, it
really comes down to the three tier system. And you know, there's a
lot of legacy and history of how the laws were written, especially you know,
post prohibition. So there's I think number one, there's just people who
are opposed to beer to go. Are you know, concerned about their business
that they've built up in their rights and you know, I think they also
sometimes worry that it's going to trigger other changes that wouldn't beneficial for them.
So you know a lot of times the tho those are the counter arguments that
will be presented, and I think that. I mean, I know a
lot of wineries where they don't have the type of their distributor network that they
work with is not as strong as the beer distributor network. So I mean
it's a complex. It's more complex than it would seem. But I think
the point is is that consumers don't really care and they want to get what
they want to get. You know. It's like, so we want to
serve us our customer base, and in an era where beer sales are down,
I think that overall, it's like we have to look at meeting people
where they are, you know, and it's like even if so we have
to figure out a way to work with both interests like that brewers and distributors
and retailers all have to come to a scenario that they win. Do you
think it will be passed eventually? I think it has a very strong possibility,
just because of I do think consumer sentiment. I mean, our representatives
represent their districts, not just interests. So I mean, I think that
it doesn't. It's just like when Growler stuff all got sorted out, like
honestly, like in beer to go, like customers didn't understand. And especially
because a lot of them, you know, a lot of people have moved
to Texas in the last ten years, and so they might be from an
area where the laws are very different, and so they're like, well,
this is dumb. Why can't we do this? Yeah, but I mean
I do think that I would say, it's hard to say this year,
I haven't. I honestly like there's a lot of Unfortunately, with the political
system, a lot of things just don't get on the table. They don't
get scheduled for votes, and they don't make it out of anything. So
I think that's the one downside is that we have messed up property taxes and
school districts stuff to sort out, you know what I mean. And this
think that there's bigger priorities, So it's hard to say. I feel like,
I feel like this is a high priority. You know, I would
somebody comes and visits Independence Brewery and they like the High Boy and they you
know, they live in Michigan. They should be able to get it.
Yeah. I think that also because there are seemingly third party networks that are
doing direct shipping. You know what I mean. It's like think you were
in an scenariose where it's not fair that you know, it's some but not
all, you know what I mean. It's like somehow some people are winning
in that. All right, last question, I know you guys are busy.
Last question thoughts on mixed twelve packs. Well, we have a mixed
twelve pack. Yeah, it's done the same way. I think that what
people don't necessarily understand about that is just that even at large scale breweries it's
hand packed. Yeah, because they're the technology of sorting to assemble a mixed
twelve packs actually really complicated, and you know, a casebox erectors are notoriously
for failing. So I am a huge fan of mixed twelve packs, huge
fan, and I like mixed twelve packs for especially a family gathering parties.
It's there's something in there, there's it's nice having variety. And so my
question you is, how do you decide what beers will go into a mixed
twelve pack? Well, I'm gonna start if I was just going to put
on my like Hey, I'm just a drinker hat for a minute. And
it's like, I've always thought that it was pretty clever, like Shiner having
like the Christmas pack, you know, but it wasn't all dark multi beers,
you know what I mean. It seemed really well designed for like a
family gathering. So I think seasonality is nice when if you're big enough to
pull that off, Like I do think that's a nice way like or hey,
we're going to the beach, here's my beach pack or something, you
know, not that we have. You guys are a lot closer to beach
than Yeah, I am an Austin, but I you have the lakes out
there though in Austin. Yeah, So I do think that as a consumer,
I really like when they can be tailored to the season. Um.
But I also think just having um, you know, at least one offering
on the lighter side. I like copy beers, so I would want more
hoppy slot. I think years and years ago, we took this trip to
Colorado before we started the brewery, and uh um, I want to say
one of the brewers in Colorado had a mixed twelve but it was a mystery
pack. Oh and I was also we went in we're camping through Colorado,
opened the damn twelve pack and it's all blonde except for like two IPAs,
and I was like, rip off right one. Yeah, that was a
negative experience with the mixed twelve. The mystery pack Mix twelve is no go
Okay, it sucks. Good advice from Amy Cartwright of Independence Brewing Company.
I can go on and on with you guys. What about you? What's
your like perfect mixed twelve? My perfect mix twelve is a light to dark.
So if I can get maybe a couple um colchas maybe and then have
it like added an amber an ipa and then I have like a stout and
there. Yeah, just a couple across the board. Yeah, those are
nice. Yeah, I don't know, but I found my h on a
hoppy fixed where you know, I'll go grab a hobby mixed well pack and
but I don't know. Usually I like the ones that have the variety styles,
the variety styles. But uh we we read on a trend that this
is continuing to be a it's gonna want more popular where it just be like
loggers and IPAs. Yeah, and I don't want to just loggers, but
I want to mix in there. I would like, I know, you
know, I want an amber in there or something. Even though yeah,
I know, all right, I appreciate you guys want to do Yeah,
okay, we do one more, but I know that, uh, I
gotta go assume. But all right, this is the high boy Mosaic.
We can just drink it without talking about No, no, I want to
talk about. I want to talk about. I have you guys here,
and so I'm gonna I'm gonna do a Chris Brawley poor. I'm just kiddy
a little behind the scenes. So I used to have a co host who
would pour the whole his whole glassful and then hand the rest and then it'd
be like no beer left. But I mean, this is a we got
enough enough enough go Brian holes and hanging out with us as well. But
yeah, mosaic, this is more classic. It's definitely like the malt backbone
that you expect when you're tasting a double ipa. So it's you know,
definitely a little bit more on the golden dark range of color, and uh,
mosaic just as a it's it's not super new anymore, but I think
it's just a super popular hop it is so with this series. We just
you know, a lot of times you want to design a beer just to
highlight, you know, the particular hop we're working with, so tropical.
Yeah, it's interesting. I have to admit this one's kind of hard to
taste now after I know, after the secret stash, I know, we
kind of waiting. I know I would have fail here at studios. Oh
there you go. All right, Um, Stephanie Amy, Independence Body,
thank you guys for so much for stopping by studios. Always a pleasure of
having you guys in. We can go on forever with you, guys.
I have so many I have more questions, but we got we gotta go.
But uh, let's do it again. All right, let's do it
again. If you're ever in the Austin area, stop by Independence Brewing.
The hospitality, it's fun, an atmosphere, it's welcoming, it's welcoming.
It's a weird welcoming place. It's a welcoming place. It is a welcoming
place. And they've been around for how many years? Since two thousand and
four. It's easier just to say that now. Instead they're trying to do
the mass since two thousand and four, so they know a thing or two.
But again, thank you guys for stopping by the studio. I'm gonna
take pictures of this and I'll post it to my social media and I you
can get your hands on the secret Stash. Get your hands on the secret
Stash. Hear it? 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.