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Episode 9: Fest of Ale — Strange Fellows Interview · Brew Tox with Scott & Scott

• 0:10
  Welcome to Brutons with Scott Scott.
• 0:13
  Bruto X lake detox only taste you.
• 0:17
  I'm Bill Scott. And I'm Scott Smithson.
• 0:20
  And this is a podcast that celebrates alcohol free beer.
• 0:27
  Well, here we are, Scott, sitting in your garage.
• 0:31
  Yeah. Recording this most recent
• 0:35
  episode of Brutal Box and a couple of weeks removed now from
• 0:39
  our trip up to Penticton for the Festivale and a great trip it
• 0:44
  was. It was, it was awesome.
• 0:45
  It was nice to be up in Penticton again, always nice to
• 0:48
  see my parents who are there and got to see them again and stay
• 0:52
  with them and get over to the festival again finally after
• 0:57
  missing it for so many years. And I know your parents are
• 1:02
  loyal listeners to the show and I just want to thank them for
• 1:05
  their hospitality for have us there and and to be available
• 1:10
  for us. It was really kind of cool.
• 1:12
  Yeah, it was. It was for sure.
• 1:14
  You know, but you remind me that the last time we went up was pre
• 1:18
  pandemic. It was, wasn't.
• 1:20
  It yeah. And you know, I think what was
• 1:23
  kind of interesting about that was back then our younger selves
• 1:27
  were more interested in seeing how many flights we could have
• 1:30
  over a six hour period. And there wasn't an Elk free
• 1:35
  beer to be seen in that that process.
• 1:37
  No, I mean alcohol free beers were maybe coming onto the
• 1:41
  scene. I mean, but they certainly
• 1:43
  weren't there at the fest of hell and we had no interest in
• 1:46
  them anyway. Even if they're, even if they
• 1:48
  were there, we wouldn't have had.
• 1:49
  Any we were still traumatized from Modell's at that point.
• 1:55
  So go ahead. Yeah, No, we were just going to
• 1:58
  meet with a couple of folks from the breweries that agreed to
• 2:01
  meet with us ahead of time. And so one of those interviews
• 2:04
  we have for people today is with a fellow by the name of Boyd
• 2:07
  Taylor. And I think people will be
• 2:10
  really fascinated to hear what he has to say it.
• 2:12
  Was a great interview with, boy, he, he had so much to say.
• 2:15
  And it was our first real interview of anybody for this
• 2:19
  show, right? So I think it went well and Boyd
• 2:22
  was a fantastic guest. So let's have a listen.
• 2:27
  Let's do that. OK, so we have the pleasure of
• 2:29
  being with Boyd Taylor here at the Penticton Festivale, a sales
• 2:34
  Rep for Strange Fellows Brewing in Vancouver and amongst other
• 2:38
  things they brew something called Nevertheless Pale Ale, an
• 2:43
  alcohol free beer which both Scott and I have had and really
• 2:47
  enjoyed. The first time I came across it,
• 2:49
  though, Boyd was that Gilton Co, where my daughter plays as a
• 2:52
  musician. Something amazing.
• 2:54
  Yeah, I'm always glad to watch my daughter play there because
• 2:58
  you get the opportunity to have an alcohol free drink if you
• 3:01
  want to, and you're nevertheless pale ale is definitely one of my
• 3:05
  gotos. We appreciate the support.
• 3:08
  Yeah, great. Yeah, so thank you for taking
• 3:11
  the time to let us interview you, Boyd.
• 3:13
  What caused Strange Fellows to start brewing alcohol free beer?
• 3:17
  What was your motivation? Yeah, it's a great question.
• 3:21
  So obviously the market has been growing substantially for the
• 3:23
  last five years, I'd say. Yeah, I remember when I was
• 3:27
  192812 years ago, there was O duels of the grocery store.
• 3:32
  Yeah. But the quality was never really
• 3:34
  something that you'd necessarily wanna session, right.
• 3:38
  So a number of years back, our brewmaster, Ian Hill decided to
• 3:42
  go to the UK and he was doing a Bureau program there and he
• 3:45
  actually tried non-alcoholic there.
• 3:46
  And I think I do think it's spurred on a lot of the idea
• 3:49
  that, well, we can actually do this well and this can be a
• 3:51
  great representation of our product.
• 3:53
  So about, I want to say it's about four years, four years ago
• 3:57
  we started with the pale ale. So that was the first one.
• 4:00
  The market was growing and we were lucky that we got on pretty
• 4:03
  early. But yeah, it was it was kind of
• 4:05
  just watching the market and the amount of people that are more
• 4:07
  sober curious or just maybe interested in whether it's
• 4:11
  complete sobriety or just trying something a bit different.
• 4:14
  Yeah, definitely changed for sure.
• 4:15
  Well, it's great to see that you guys were sort of at the
• 4:18
  forefront and deciding to take that plunge and give it a whirl.
• 4:23
  That's awesome. Yeah, and the other piece of it
• 4:25
  seems like the the Europeans have a really big head start on
• 4:30
  the brewing of alcohol free beer.
• 4:32
  Am I right in that assumption? I think so it makes sense if you
• 4:35
  look at the the time span of beer right there were light
• 4:37
  years ahead of us. So it makes sense to get there
• 4:40
  first. And I think yeah, it goes into
• 4:41
  the culture of drinking doesn't necessarily have to be
• 4:43
  alcoholic. Getting together with friends.
• 4:45
  I think that's a strange how it's really based around getting
• 4:48
  to go with another strange fellow and enjoying a beverage
• 4:50
  alcoholic or. Not so why?
• 4:52
  Why are so many robberies seemingly reluctant to kind of
• 4:56
  jump into the non alcoholic? Is it is it financial?
• 4:59
  Is it like, yeah, what? Do you think it it depends how
• 5:01
  you make it? Like as an example, the way that
• 5:03
  we brew our beer or non-alcoholic is basically the
• 5:06
  same process is doing all right. So we use the same tank space we
• 5:09
  see use the same amount of time to make the boiling points are
• 5:13
  different and the proteins that we are different removes the
• 5:14
  alcohol, but the process, the manhours, all of that is the
• 5:17
  same. The packaging is the same.
• 5:20
  We calculate all that. It's actually just as expensive.
• 5:24
  So a lot of people look at non alcoholic beer and they say why
• 5:26
  is it only $2.00 less? Than yeah.
• 5:28
  The alcohol, you're paying for the process, you're paying for
• 5:31
  the time, Yeah. Wait, I think that's one of the
• 5:34
  things people don't understand. And as I understand it, there's
• 5:38
  two different ways that you can go about making alcohol free
• 5:42
  beer. 1 is to go through the whole brewing process and then
• 5:46
  take the alcohol out, and the other is to stop the brewing
• 5:51
  process before the alcohol even gets formed.
• 5:54
  Have I understood that correctly?
• 5:56
  I think. That's correct.
• 5:57
  Yeah. Honestly, I'm a sales
• 5:58
  representative, so I can't always be the.
• 5:59
  Best. Fair enough.
• 6:01
  I'm sure you know more than that.
• 6:02
  Yeah, no, no. But basically the way that we do
• 6:04
  it, we use the same tank space for using all of the same brain
• 6:07
  system that we do in a regular beer.
• 6:09
  We're just doing a different boiling point to bring down the
• 6:11
  alcohol. And then we're also adding a
• 6:12
  super protein that removes that alcohol.
• 6:14
  So the beer is exactly the same. I would say a great example is
• 6:19
  my wife spent two years sober and this was a huge opening for
• 6:23
  her to be able to find. This perfect.
• 6:24
  This product, that's what she loves about going out and having
• 6:27
  a drink. She's a big supporter as well.
• 6:30
  Well, it's interesting knowing that you saying that really it's
• 6:33
  the same same process, it just an extra little step.
• 6:37
  You saying that surprises me that more craft breweries aren't
• 6:42
  doing it yet. I mean a few, there are a few
• 6:45
  but but not many. The percentage wise is very low.
• 6:49
  Market is, I think kind of hit its peak.
• 6:52
  In reality, I think. Market, I think the people that
• 6:54
  are going to start cutting back have already done it.
• 6:57
  I think that the amount of products that we see now, the
• 7:00
  pals, the Ipas, the sours, the porters, whatever it is, I feel
• 7:04
  like we've all kind of maximized the portfolio.
• 7:07
  So I think there's other breeds that are getting involved, but
• 7:10
  it's more become kind of a partnership.
• 7:11
  So we work with lots of breeds specifically in the Okanogan,
• 7:14
  the carrier and non-alcoholic instead of bringing their own.
• 7:16
  Especially if you're a bit of a smaller organization, it can
• 7:19
  take a lot of your time to make to make enough talk here.
• 7:22
  It's not necessarily has the same return as.
• 7:25
  Yeah. And that's probably a huge piece
• 7:27
  that return on it at this point. Yeah.
• 7:29
  Well, boy, this isn't something that I thought I was going to
• 7:31
  ask you coming into this interview, but it really is
• 7:34
  something that interests me now as a sales Rep, how do you go
• 7:38
  into these smaller communities? For instance, my wife and I were
• 7:42
  in Princeton a little while back, and strangely enough,
• 7:45
  there was a Strange Fellows Nevertheless Pale Ale sitting in
• 7:48
  the cooler ready for purchase. So that was like in Princeton,
• 7:53
  and a craft brewery from Vancouver is there.
• 7:55
  How do you go about getting your beer into those small
• 7:59
  communities? What was the name of the place
• 8:01
  you remember? I don't remember.
• 8:03
  Like a little restaurant. Yeah, little restaurant.
• 8:05
  So that's a funny story. Actually, that's one of our like
• 8:08
  funny stories. One of our Brewers that's been
• 8:10
  with us since day one, his brother owns that place.
• 8:13
  So if you go to that place, it's almost like a little miniature
• 8:16
  strange fellow. So strange fellows on the door,
• 8:17
  the strange fellows everywhere. Yeah, it's like a little neck of
• 8:20
  strange fellows all the way out in.
• 8:21
  Princeton. Oh, well, we're gonna have to
• 8:22
  stop on our way back. Oh.
• 8:23
  Yeah, it's a great spot. But in general like, yeah, it's
• 8:27
  a pretty big part of our business is kind of grow that
• 8:30
  nevertheless specifically out here, I think in Vancouver we've
• 8:33
  got a pretty good name for it. Yeah.
• 8:35
  But there's a lot of grief even we're talking to this weekend
• 8:37
  that are interested in the product and should bring
• 8:39
  something that's like really high quality.
• 8:41
  And we do a lot of we go all over BC.
• 8:43
  Yeah, it makes. It pretty easy.
• 8:44
  So by a partnership do you mean that you would brew their
• 8:48
  version of a non alcoholic for them?
• 8:51
  Nevertheless, yeah, yeah. But it's kind of a win win.
• 8:55
  They get a really good product. Obviously, they're great at
• 8:57
  making gear. They're making gear full times,
• 8:59
  but we get to kind of offer our product to get to.
• 9:01
  Bring. Something a little bit different
• 9:03
  without having the. Overhead.
• 9:04
  Exactly. Yeah, cool.
• 9:06
  Well, that was the first part of that interview.
• 9:08
  It was, he said. So many things that I learned in
• 9:13
  that those few minutes of talking with Boyd.
• 9:16
  Yeah, he's really a great interview.
• 9:18
  I'm really thankful that he took the time to sit down and have a
• 9:21
  conversation with us. And I know he was a sales Rep,
• 9:25
  but he knew a lot about the brewing process too.
• 9:27
  And he said, he said quite a few things about brewing as he put
• 9:31
  calls them non elk bears. That was a term he was using a
• 9:34
  lot and how that affects the cost right and and the selling
• 9:40
  price that they can have for their non alcoholic beers.
• 9:43
  Yeah, no, I really think that that came across loud clear is
• 9:47
  that you have an understanding now why you're not getting a
• 9:51
  break on alcohol free beer, why it's not priced like say Coke or
• 9:56
  Bubblies or whatever. Yeah, exactly.
• 9:58
  Just as we said, people think it should be cheaper.
• 10:00
  You're not getting the alcohol, but there's a lot more to it
• 10:03
  than that. And then you mentioned, you also
• 10:05
  mentioned a word we've said before which is sober curious.
• 10:10
  And I know he comes back to that again, he mentions it in this
• 10:13
  next part of the interview that we'll listen to in a bit.
• 10:16
  So it was interesting that he used that term when he first
• 10:19
  said it. I was like, oh, that's something
• 10:21
  that we've talked about. Yeah, it makes sense for a lot
• 10:24
  of people. You want to be able to change
• 10:28
  your lifestyle, so why not be curious about something you
• 10:32
  know, And you and I have been curious about alcohol free
• 10:35
  beers. That's why we're doing this
• 10:36
  podcast. And that's why I'm staring at
• 10:38
  about 35 empty cans in your garage that are all different
• 10:42
  types of alcohol free beer and we haven't even begun to get to
• 10:47
  all of. Them I know it's way more than I
• 10:49
  would have thought there was out there when we started this whole
• 10:53
  journey for sure. He did mention about you just
• 10:56
  said here about 35 beers and you think is the market is it is
• 11:00
  that as many as there's going to be?
• 11:02
  I think it's still growing. I know Boy suggested it wasn't,
• 11:06
  it was the market was saturated perhaps.
• 11:09
  And in the second part, you actually kind of not, I don't
• 11:12
  want to say you call them on that, but you do ask them to
• 11:14
  sort of clarify that and he does.
• 11:18
  Yeah. I mean, I kind of was interested
• 11:20
  in his perspective. What causes him to think that
• 11:23
  the market saturated? I know that there's a lot of
• 11:26
  belief about that in the craft beer industry in general.
• 11:29
  The festivals was a good, good indication of that.
• 11:32
  You and I were both blown away by the fact that there were
• 11:35
  maybe 30 less breweries there this year than we had seen at
• 11:38
  the last time we were there. And the organizers were saying
• 11:42
  to us that that was kind of the trend they were noticing.
• 11:44
  And you know, you keep hearing about consolidation of a brief
• 11:48
  of different breweries and we'll actually be talking about that
• 11:51
  in a future podcast because one of the alcohol free beers that
• 11:55
  we most recently tried and loved, they bought out another
• 12:00
  alcohol free brewery. So you know, that trend is
• 12:04
  happening all throughout industry and it's I guess the
• 12:07
  alcohol free beer market is no different.
• 12:10
  Being that we were talking with Boyd and he's from Strange
• 12:13
  Fellows, hmm, I think we probably need to try a Strange
• 12:18
  Fellows Nevertheless brand beer. That sounds like a great idea to
• 12:23
  me. I'm really thirsty at this.
• 12:24
  Point we've had with the ball hockey brews, we did try that
• 12:28
  nevertheless pale ale one I've got here is the nevertheless
• 12:33
  pilsner. OK, now you and I have talked a
• 12:36
  lot about the fact that pilsner was never our go to beer, no, as
• 12:40
  an alcohol right. But I'm finding I had one last
• 12:44
  night actually, it was a pilsner, A non-alcoholic
• 12:47
  pilsner. And I'm like you know what I
• 12:49
  quite like it. So I'm excited to see if this is
• 12:54
  also pretty good as a pilsner. So these are quite cold and we
• 13:00
  each get our own. We get our own.
• 13:02
  Or do we share figure it out? Yeah, we'll figure it.
• 13:05
  Out do we have frosty glasses? We do, they're over in the
• 13:08
  cooler because we are in my garage, so I've gotta walk
• 13:11
  across my garage to the deep freeze and get to get them so
• 13:15
  I'll be right back. Well, you're going.
• 13:17
  I have a dad joke for you. Of course you do.
• 13:21
  So why did the craft beer podcaster get bad audio?
• 13:27
  Why? Oh man.
• 13:29
  OK, Why? To any hops in the recording.
• 13:36
  That's really appropriate joke for this segment because we've
• 13:41
  had a heck of a time with the audio on this because we were up
• 13:46
  in Penticton, we were using our mics and it was in and out and
• 13:51
  it's been a bit of a battle. So yeah, an appropriate joke.
• 13:55
  Too many hops in the recording and we certainly had lots hops.
• 13:59
  In that right, well, let's try this pilsner that you brought
• 14:02
  out. OK, so nevertheless,
• 14:03
  non-alcoholic Pilsner 0.5 pretty typical from Strange Fellows.
• 14:10
  It's got kind of cool graphic. It's got their little elephant
• 14:13
  guys. I think it's different elephant
• 14:15
  than the and that's on the PLL one if I remember right.
• 14:17
  But here, we'll crack her open. Ooh, ooh, it's spit spit.
• 14:22
  A little bit. And just so you know this, 170
• 14:26
  calories. 70 calories. Which is very similar to the
• 14:30
  blue moon that we had in the microbrew.
• 14:32
  So if you haven't heard the microbrew podcast from the end
• 14:36
  of April about Blue Moon, highly recommend you have a look at.
• 14:40
  It is that ever light. Yeah, that's really, really wow.
• 14:45
  I mean that's see through. But look at the head on that
• 14:47
  like that, that's bubbling up nicely.
• 14:50
  You can see it's kind of nice. We have the window right here.
• 14:52
  We can hold it up and see right through this.
• 14:54
  That's pretty impressive, actually.
• 14:56
  It is. That's the most head on an elk
• 15:00
  there that I think I think I've seen.
• 15:02
  Well, that's pretty good. Let's try it out.
• 15:05
  Let's see here. OK.
• 15:11
  Again, I know we've said this so many times, man, a frosty one
• 15:16
  makes a difference. It sure does, Right?
• 15:17
  Yeah, like that is. But wow.
• 15:20
  Yeah, that's pretty good. Hey.
• 15:21
  Yeah, and I think I actually told you that one of the things
• 15:24
  I've been doing with my alcohol free beers is pouring them in
• 15:27
  these smaller glasses that we use for the show and then
• 15:30
  putting the can and in a rare case bottle back in the fridge
• 15:35
  until I go and get the second portion of it.
• 15:39
  And that's why I did the small glasses, because I remember you
• 15:41
  saying that and I thought, yeah, OK, I've got lots of these
• 15:44
  little flight glasses from different breweries.
• 15:47
  Not that I stole them or anything.
• 15:49
  No, I wouldn't have done that. No.
• 15:53
  Wow. So what do you think?
• 15:55
  Colour colour wise? Like we said, super, super
• 15:57
  light. Yeah, about as light as you
• 15:59
  could get and still be a beer. You know it, It is a pilsner,
• 16:05
  there's no doubt about that. And pilsners aren't my favorite
• 16:09
  variety of beer, No in general, but this one's not too bad.
• 16:13
  I mean, if I was going to have a pilsner, this would be
• 16:18
  definitely one that I would look at for sure.
• 16:21
  Yeah, there's not much to it really.
• 16:24
  It's, it's very light obviously, but even flavor wise, you know,
• 16:29
  there's not much substance to it.
• 16:31
  Like there's not a, there's not a secondary taste like you get
• 16:34
  with the Ipas. You don't feel that it's just,
• 16:38
  it is what it is. You know, you drink it and you
• 16:41
  taste it. And unlike an alcohol beer and
• 16:45
  alcohol beer, you have almost that secondary taste that you
• 16:47
  back your throat. You don't have that even here.
• 16:50
  Yeah, I think part of it for me too is the bias I have towards
• 16:55
  their Paleo. Like they're pale ale is really
• 16:58
  a good alcohol free beer. Yeah, it's definitely one that
• 17:02
  that's a go to for me. And so part of that is the bias
• 17:07
  towards the pale ale that they have, as well as my not
• 17:14
  overwhelmingly enthusiastic support for pilsners in general.
• 17:18
  Yeah. OK.
• 17:20
  So on rating scale then what would you rate this?
• 17:24
  Well, I have become more a fan of the half.
• 17:28
  OK, because I really can't give it a four, but it's more than a
• 17:34
  three, so I'm going to say 3 1/2.
• 17:37
  You know what I've agreed to? It's it's I like it.
• 17:41
  I'm not gonna dump it out. I might not choose this over
• 17:44
  like say the pale ale version. I would probably buy that first,
• 17:47
  right? So I can't really say it's a
• 17:49
  four and I'd run out and buy it, right.
• 17:51
  But it's good. I'm enjoying it.
• 17:52
  So I'm going to call it a 3 1/2 as well.
• 17:55
  Perfect. Well.
• 17:58
  And we will finish. It we will finish it, yes.
• 18:01
  And while we're finishing it, I've got a 0 proof full truth
• 18:06
  for you. Zero growth, full truth.
• 18:11
  You messed it up again. Oh.
• 18:15
  God, let's do it again. That's OK.
• 18:17
  No it isn't OK. 0 proof full truth.
• 18:25
  OK, what was the first alcohol free beer brewed in Canada do
• 18:32
  you know? Have no idea it was the first
• 18:34
  alcohol free beer brewed in Canada.
• 18:36
  It was the Budweiser Prohibition brew which was brewed in 2016.
• 18:43
  It's only 10 years ago. Really.
• 18:46
  Like it's that recent. That's how new the alcohol free
• 18:50
  beer. Industry is here, yeah.
• 18:53
  And you compare that with Europe, where they've been doing
• 18:55
  it for decades, I know, and the US where they've been doing it
• 18:58
  for longer as well, because we drank O'doul's.
• 19:02
  Yeah, exactly. But in Canada actually brewed so
• 19:05
  by LA Bats are they brewed Budweiser only 10 years ago, but
• 19:10
  ten years ago 2016 is 10 years ago.
• 19:13
  Blows, blows my mind. But this is interesting.
• 19:16
  As I was doing a Google search for this question, it came up
• 19:20
  and they mentioned Iota Phillips as kind of a front, you know,
• 19:25
  one of the early ones. And they also mentioned
• 19:28
  nevertheless by Strange Fellows, even though it's not that old,
• 19:32
  it came out in 2023, but it came up in my search.
• 19:35
  So now is that because of the whole algorithm thing and
• 19:37
  because I had searched up other things and it came up tied in
• 19:41
  with this question, but I think it's because it is quite
• 19:44
  popular. Yeah.
• 19:45
  So what we're going to listen to the second-half of our interview
• 19:49
  with Boyd where he touches on kind of some of the topics we
• 19:52
  already mentioned and give some clarification.
• 19:55
  And again, it's great. He just had some awesome answers
• 20:00
  and very freely spoke about everything and answered all our
• 20:04
  questions. So here's the rest of it.
• 20:07
  Can you tell us a bit about the cost factors relative to alcohol
• 20:11
  free beer? Like you said earlier, sometimes
• 20:12
  people go, OK, well this should be less because I'm not getting
• 20:15
  the alcohol, I don't pay for it. It's kind of like when we had
• 20:17
  unleaded gas and you tried to figure out why did you get it
• 20:20
  have to pay more for unleaded gas than regular.
• 20:23
  So can you explain to people that are listening to this, you
• 20:26
  know, what is it about the alcohol free process that
• 20:29
  doesn't allow the price point to come below regular alcohol?
• 20:33
  Yeah, I would say that the best way to look at it is the amount
• 20:35
  of time that it takes to make the beers the same.
• 20:37
  We still have the same four or five people working in the
• 20:40
  storehouse, in the brewing process, in the canning line.
• 20:44
  All that time is still it's the same amount of time, same amount
• 20:48
  of people, same amount of man hour.
• 20:49
  So we can't really cut the cost do that.
• 20:51
  Yeah, yeah. If anything it would it could be
• 20:54
  more expensive because of the extra time that it goes and
• 20:56
  doing it. But that being said, we price
• 20:58
  ours pretty competitively against others because we want
• 21:03
  it to be something that people can approach and have a four
• 21:05
  pack and really enjoy. It, like you say, it could be
• 21:07
  more expensive. Probably the only thing that
• 21:09
  prevents it from being more expensive is that there's less
• 21:12
  tax on it. Right that.
• 21:14
  That kind of balances, yeah, that's massive.
• 21:18
  It takes a pretty big chunk to look at.
• 21:19
  Text So as a as a sales Rep, you would know the marketing side
• 21:23
  more like how so how do you approach the marketing of your
• 21:27
  non alcoholic? Do you is that a separate like
• 21:29
  you have a different strategy for that or like how inside of
• 21:32
  your regular? Ones I really enjoy because it's
• 21:34
  a great foot in the door for, let's say restaurants.
• 21:36
  Yeah, there's only so many taps in a restaurant.
• 21:38
  There's only there's even fewer non alcoholic options out there
• 21:41
  that are really, really good. So it's a great opportunity for
• 21:44
  me to get into restaurant, have an on out there and let someone
• 21:48
  see a different product if they normally wouldn't see it.
• 21:50
  Yeah. And the other thing is it's just
• 21:52
  a nice extra offering that we can give to liquor stores as
• 21:55
  well too. It's just kind of shows that
• 21:56
  we're kind of open to everybody and we're always trying to
• 22:00
  innovate. New styles and new knockouts are
• 22:01
  always planning and coming down the line as well, so.
• 22:04
  Yeah, it's very rare to see a non elk on tap.
• 22:09
  Like I know even in Langley, I'm from Langley, the Barley
• 22:13
  Merchant is in Langley and they've got, I don't know,
• 22:15
  they're always carrying fifty different taps, not one
• 22:19
  non-alcoholic. They've got non-alcoholic on
• 22:22
  offer like as cans and stuff, but not not on tap.
• 22:25
  So why is there a reason? Yeah.
• 22:27
  So the main reason is specifically for crafty
• 22:32
  non-alcoholic gear. If you put it in a beer line
• 22:34
  that isn't that doesn't have the perfect glycol levels, OK, it'll
• 22:37
  freeze points. Threesome.
• 22:39
  The alcohol so you don't wanna first of all, you don't want to
• 22:42
  send out a product that can ruin someone's taps for the day and
• 22:46
  then yeah, just that's. Basically we.
• 22:48
  Just want to make sure that our product is drinkable.
• 22:50
  For sure. OK.
• 22:52
  And like going back to kind of having the cans festivals and
• 22:54
  having the tastings and giving. Them the clients.
• 22:56
  Just the best example of what we're.
• 22:58
  Producing. It's most.
• 22:59
  Consistent. OK, good.
• 23:01
  We've got one last question for you, Boyd.
• 23:04
  What do you think draws people to alcohol free beers?
• 23:08
  I imagine you thought of this as a sales Rep and you know, how do
• 23:12
  you market to that kind of motivation that people have?
• 23:16
  Yeah, it's a great question. I think there's two different
• 23:18
  lines for non-alcoholic. There's people that are sober
• 23:21
  and they don't wanna drink anymore and whatever reason that
• 23:23
  is good for them, it's great. And then there's the other class
• 23:25
  of people that are just more curious about and I think that's
• 23:28
  kind of the market that I push towards.
• 23:30
  That's who I am. I'm a big sports fan.
• 23:32
  I love watching sports on the weekends, but I can't go to
• 23:35
  someone's house and drink beers all day and then go to work on
• 23:37
  Monday. But I can have a bunch of nodes
• 23:39
  and be part. Of the community, part of that,
• 23:40
  yeah. OK, I think the sober curious
• 23:42
  community is a great example of what we're trying to go for.
• 23:45
  Like I said before, my wife been sober for a couple years.
• 23:48
  She loves the idea that she can have a really well made pilsner.
• 23:51
  Really well made. Yeah, right.
• 23:53
  Like a nice sour from another brewery.
• 23:54
  Yeah. And actually just feel like we
• 23:56
  can feed an event longer than if you're just looking popper
• 23:58
  water. Yeah.
• 23:59
  You know, yeah. But yeah, I find it it's one of
• 24:01
  the easiest things to sell now. I think especially the younger
• 24:04
  community we're looking at like a demographic that is after
• 24:07
  COVID has just completely for sure going out.
• 24:08
  For sure. We're seeing a bit of a return
• 24:10
  from the younger ages now. There's a big gap of 20 to 26
• 24:14
  year olds that just don't drink. They're active.
• 24:16
  Which is great. Able to go to a bar, they want
• 24:20
  to go enjoy live music, they wanna be part of a community and
• 24:23
  I think that non alcoholic. And it's become just, and it's
• 24:26
  become just accepted. It's just, it's just another
• 24:29
  drink. People are having.
• 24:29
  Absolutely right Which? Is fantastic.
• 24:31
  Absolutely love that. Tell the difference anymore,
• 24:35
  it's not like we were saying earlier, it's not what it was
• 24:37
  before there's one gigantic brand that you get in the
• 24:40
  supermarket and it's been sitting on a shelf for God knows
• 24:42
  how long. Yeah, this is being made every
• 24:45
  few weeks. We're we're batching this and
• 24:46
  we're always changing the recipes to make it perfect and
• 24:49
  make it the best possible probably for all of our.
• 24:52
  Customers, it was interesting. And one last thing that I wanted
• 24:55
  to go back to when you were talking about younger people.
• 24:58
  My daughter's a musician and so I'm in clubs watching her play
• 25:01
  in various bands that she's in. And not too recently or I guess
• 25:05
  pretty recently, we were in in the Fox in Vancouver.
• 25:09
  And I looked around me and the number of young people that were
• 25:13
  drinking, but they weren't drinking alcohol, you know, they
• 25:17
  were drinking sodas. They were drinking the Corona
• 25:20
  Sunbeam that they had there. They were drinking mocktails.
• 25:23
  It really seems to be an uptick. And so I'm wondering, you know,
• 25:27
  you said earlier you thought that the market maybe was
• 25:29
  saturated and you know that to the point where we perhaps
• 25:32
  there's no more growth there in terms of the non elk.
• 25:35
  What about those young people and coming up?
• 25:37
  Yeah, I think it's a great question.
• 25:38
  I think that there is more of a moderation coming.
• 25:40
  That's well, that's my hope as someone who works in the
• 25:42
  industry is that there isn't just people who drink too much
• 25:46
  and then people don't drink at all.
• 25:47
  It'd be nice to see that kind of moderation.
• 25:49
  And I think that's starting to happen with with younger people.
• 25:51
  Yeah, seeing a lot of 20 year olds who even work in
• 25:53
  restaurants, which is one of I worked in restaurants for years.
• 25:56
  It's one of the most drink heavy environments you can possibly
• 25:59
  work in, especially as a young person.
• 26:00
  And you're seeing 1920 year olds who are leaving that at the
• 26:03
  door, making the money what they want, working in a fun
• 26:06
  environment and still being able to go and exercise the next day.
• 26:08
  So I don't think it's going to change.
• 26:10
  I don't. I think that young people have
• 26:11
  gotten a lot smarter than we were.
• 26:14
  And like you alluded to, it's not, it's not an all or none
• 26:17
  like it's like it's fine to have a few and then I think.
• 26:20
  Yeah, exactly. You can find that moderation
• 26:22
  then. Exactly.
• 26:23
  Exactly. Well, boy, thanks very much.
• 26:26
  Thanks for doing this. It's nice to be able to talk to
• 26:29
  someone that's an expert in the field, so to speak.
• 26:31
  So I appreciate that. Thank you.
• 26:34
  Thank you. Thank you.
• 26:37
  Thank you very much. Wow, again, lots of food for
• 26:42
  thought in that following that interview, right?
• 26:45
  It was great. Yeah, I think Boyd undersold
• 26:48
  himself in terms of the knowledge he has about the
• 26:50
  industry. Yeah, and caught the same when
• 26:52
  he questioned all. Thanks for calling me an expert.
• 26:54
  I think he was an expert. He can call himself that.
• 26:56
  Yeah, absolutely. You know, I do want to thank him
• 27:00
  for appearing on the show and, and one of the things that got
• 27:04
  me thinking or got me curious, I guess, is how their name came
• 27:08
  about. Do you know how they settled on
• 27:10
  the? Name Strange Fellows?
• 27:11
  No, I don't. Well it struck me as being an
• 27:14
  interesting name for a brewery and so I looked it up and
• 27:18
  interestingly enough the 2 owners, Ian and Aaron had been
• 27:22
  looking for a name for many many months apparently and couldn't
• 27:26
  agree on a single one to the point that somebody said to them
• 27:30
  you guys are a real odd couple. OK, like the TV show?
• 27:34
  Yeah, yeah. The movie, all that kind of
• 27:36
  stuff, and that's sort of morphed into Strange Fellows,
• 27:41
  and the name became Strange Fellows Brewing.
• 27:45
  Odd couple strange fellows. That's good.
• 27:47
  Thanks. Well, listeners, we hope you've
• 27:51
  enjoyed listening as much as we've enjoyed bringing this
• 27:54
  podcast to you. Come back next time because
• 27:58
  we'll always have an alcohol free beer to try and a story to
• 28:02
  tell. After all, this is brutal box.
• 28:06
  Today's beer featured nevertheless non alcoholic
• 28:10
  Pilsner by Strange Fellows Brewing in Vancouver.
• 28:13
  Original Bruto X theme music composed by Zach Wong.
• 28:16
  Original graphics created by Shelby Smithson.
• 28:19
  Brooks is produced and edited by Scott and Scott.