Latest / The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel / New Groove Artisan Brewery: Jonathan Duke, Josh Dodson & South Carolina Craft Beer | Episode 121

Transcript

New Groove Artisan Brewery: Jonathan Duke, Josh Dodson & South Carolina Craft Beer | Episode 121 · The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel

• 0:01
  Stand by for the. Brewery.
• 0:03
  Underground Podcast. The Brewery Underground podcast.
• 0:40
  Well, Steven Scott, we are in Nashville, TN and you know,
• 0:44
  Scott, you and I, we don't play any musical instruments.
• 0:48
  But if we did, I don't know who would be the lead singer.
• 0:52
  You probably would be. Maybe I'm over here playing
• 0:54
  guitar, but we would have a drummer.
• 0:57
  I'd be out front, but I wouldn't be singing.
• 0:59
  Yes, we certainly have a drummer.
• 1:01
  We would have a drummer and so today that's.
• 1:04
  Really the main he. Is he's here, he has returned.
• 1:09
  Chris Bennett, the The Little Drummer.
• 1:11
  Boy, yeah. Chris is basically our current
• 1:15
  host. He's our third host sometimes.
• 1:19
  3rd our host, that's right. And Chris today is joining us
• 1:24
  because, well, we love when he joins us.
• 1:25
  But there's a there's a good reason too, because he's brought
• 1:29
  maybe some musical guests, some brewery guests, some friends
• 1:32
  that Chris is known for a while. We love talking about breweries
• 1:36
  here on the Brewery Underground podcast.
• 1:38
  And Chris, I'm going to hand the microphone over to you, my
• 1:40
  friend. Talk about who we have here
• 1:43
  today on the Brewery Underground Podcast.
• 1:45
  Yeah. Well, thanks, Steve Scott, and
• 1:47
  it's great to be back with you guys and really excited to have
• 1:51
  New Groove Brewery with us today.
• 1:54
  Jonathan Duke and I go way back to the early 90s and we'll talk
• 1:58
  a little bit about that over the course of this episode.
• 2:01
  Here we go back in our drunk corps circles and also have Josh
• 2:06
  Dodson here. They are the two Co founders of
• 2:10
  New Groove Artisan Brewery over in Boiling Springs, SC.
• 2:14
  And so let's if you're not familiar with with Boiling
• 2:17
  Springs, it is a suburb of of Spartanburg.
• 2:19
  So if you find yourself in that neck of the woods, look them up.
• 2:23
  Fantastic place there. They're doing some great stuff
• 2:25
  and look forward to getting into it, these guys.
• 2:28
  So yeah, like I said, Jonathan and I, Jonathan Duke and I go
• 2:31
  back. We got to know each other back
• 2:34
  in the early 90s. He grew up in Carrollton, GA,
• 2:37
  and we both happened to March a drum and bugle corps out of
• 2:40
  Atlanta called Spirit of Atlanta.
• 2:42
  We're both percussionists and we've kind of stayed in touch
• 2:45
  through that activity really over the past 30 plus years
• 2:50
  here. So was really excited.
• 2:52
  I got a chance last year to get by and, and see new groove and
• 2:56
  catch up with Jonathan a little bit.
• 2:57
  And so it was great of, of Scott, you and Steve to reach
• 3:00
  out and, and, and get him and, and Josh on the on the podcast
• 3:03
  here. And first time I really got to
• 3:05
  talk with Josh Dotson, who's his partner.
• 3:08
  They both met, correct me if I'm wrong, at home Brewers and and
• 3:12
  met at the Spartanburg Brew Club and that's kind of how the
• 3:15
  partnership started out. And Josh Dotson, I think,
• 3:18
  handles most of the restaurant and the food aspects, now calls
• 3:21
  himself the the CBO. Yeah, we learned that today.
• 3:26
  That was. I was glad to see that.
• 3:29
  Chief Further Operator. Yeah.
• 3:31
  Thanks for having. Yeah.
• 3:32
  Thanks for having. Yeah.
• 3:34
  Before we tell. Those stories about the late,
• 3:35
  late past century when we when we met each other back in the
• 3:39
  late 20th century. Speaking of drone line,
• 3:41
  Jonathan, you've mentioned something, you asked if this
• 3:43
  date was specific for a reason. Can you, can you chat about that
• 3:46
  real quick? Yeah, today is today is March
• 3:48
  4th, which is it's kind of AI don't know a symbolic day, I
• 3:53
  guess in the marching arts and everybody changes their their
• 3:56
  their profile pictures to pictures of back when they
• 3:59
  marched and talks about marching forth and how the marching arts
• 4:02
  affected them. So I didn't know.
• 4:04
  I thought maybe with my connection with Chris, if this
• 4:06
  was was was chosen on purpose, but it sounds like it's just a
• 4:09
  happy coincidence. And yeah, just meant to be.
• 4:13
  I wish we were that that well thought out.
• 4:14
  Well, there's another There's another thing that goes on
• 4:20
  today, on March 4th specifically, and it's Steve
• 4:23
  Sullivan's birthday. So Steve right here before us,
• 4:27
  it's his birthday. He was probably going to try to
• 4:28
  slip through without mentioning it.
• 4:32
  So happy birthday to Steve on this March 4th.
• 4:35
  Cheers. Happy birthday.
• 4:37
  Thank you. 21 again few times over, but that's all right.
• 4:41
  Thank you, Sir. Thank you, Sir.
• 4:42
  So Jonathan, Josh, kind of talk about how this got started from
• 4:46
  you guys kind of being home Brewers to, to meeting in the in
• 4:50
  the Spartanburg, you know, Brewer Brewers club.
• 4:53
  And then, hey, let's, let's start something.
• 4:55
  Yeah, well, I mean, you kind of nailed it.
• 4:56
  We, we met in the local home brew club, kind of we're
• 5:00
  starting a local home brew club or in from, you know, with the
• 5:03
  first handful of people out of 2013, probably ish.
• 5:07
  And then when untapped was getting real big and there was a
• 5:11
  new beer bar that opened in Spartanburg and we all kind of
• 5:13
  hung out and kind of met hanging out there and grew the club
• 5:17
  there. And then there was kind of a
• 5:19
  subgroup of the club that would meet and share bottles.
• 5:21
  And that's sort of we started hanging out more often than
• 5:25
  that, that smaller group and often at my house or, you know,
• 5:28
  one of our friends and cracking open bottles and then started
• 5:30
  talking about, you know, what if.
• 5:33
  How hard was that to not hard even, but to make that
• 5:37
  transition because I'm sure home Brewers like we're going to
• 5:39
  start a brewery. When you guys did it hold the
• 5:42
  trigger? What was that next step like?
• 5:44
  Yeah, I don't. I mean, it was, it probably was
• 5:47
  harder than we knew it was going to be.
• 5:48
  Like, you know, anything else. It's good that we can know it
• 5:50
  was going to be that hard. We can do this no problem.
• 5:55
  And you guys open in what, 2017, is that right?
• 5:58
  2017 Yep, 16 went the summer activity that Chris and I met do
• 6:03
  it marching as members. I, I was teaching in 2016, kind
• 6:08
  of after that summer, it was sort of, I felt like come, I was
• 6:11
  coming back to my high school and you know, starting over
• 6:14
  there. And it's just like every year
• 6:15
  was kind of starting over and I felt like I'd sort of had that
• 6:19
  feeling like I had, I mean, I'd achieved a lot of great things
• 6:22
  and I kind of done what I was going to do.
• 6:24
  And maybe it's time to, you know, see what else was there.
• 6:28
  So we got, I've gotten really into the, the brewing and you
• 6:32
  know, actually that that summer of teaching drum core, I would,
• 6:35
  when we would go from city to city, I was looking up breweries
• 6:37
  in those other cities and going and visiting and probably should
• 6:40
  have been a little more focused on what, what I was supposed to
• 6:42
  be doing rather than than looking for new breweries every
• 6:46
  time we went to. But so, you know, it was, it was
• 6:49
  a passion that was kind of developing And, and Josh and I
• 6:52
  talked about he had started some businesses in the past and had
• 6:56
  an opportunity to sell his current, his business that he
• 6:59
  was running then. So we, we kind of talked about
• 7:02
  maybe it was time to to look at that.
• 7:05
  So it was kind of the fall of 16 that we decided to do it.
• 7:08
  And it took a few months for things to work out, you know,
• 7:11
  his, his, his selling, his business fell through or
• 7:15
  whatever. And then they came back and took
• 7:16
  the offer and just things kind of sort of line lined up from
• 7:19
  there. We found a building and and
• 7:23
  eased into our our look looked into where we were, thought we'd
• 7:26
  be open by April. We opened in July.
• 7:29
  We. Were ambitious, very ambitious,
• 7:32
  but also our our Fortunately our timeline came together much more
• 7:35
  quickly than some others that same I.
• 7:37
  Was going to say that was a time that was probably around a time
• 7:40
  where a lot of breweries were really starting to take off,
• 7:43
  right? It was like a big boom for that
• 7:45
  in that time period, right? It felt a little past the boom.
• 7:49
  I mean, it's compared to now. I think it was definitely much
• 7:51
  more of a positive environment. There were a lot, a lot more of
• 7:54
  them opening. But yeah, we, we, I get
• 8:00
  December, we signed the lease. And so I mean, opening in July
• 8:03
  is not, not too bad. In retrospect, those those seven
• 8:06
  months felt like a whole lifetime.
• 8:08
  The thing I was going to ask you is, so you're about what, you're
• 8:12
  in your 9th year now of being a brewery and owning a brewery.
• 8:16
  Is that right guys? Yep, this this summer will be 9.
• 8:18
  Coming up on your 9. Does it feel like it's been that
• 8:20
  long? I mean, has it been a fun ride
• 8:22
  so far for and nine years? You look back and you're going
• 8:25
  have we really been doing this for nine years?
• 8:26
  That feels like a flash sometimes and sometimes it feels
• 8:28
  like 20 years, but I mean, I. Think that's a yes and a no like
• 8:34
  it just it just happened but then Oh yeah it's been almost
• 8:36
  it's almost been almost a decade of this things we.
• 8:38
  Were just kind of talking today about, you know, 10 years
• 8:40
  basically and you know, looking at what we're what the next 10
• 8:43
  years might be, you know. You got to start playing on the
• 8:46
  Big 10 year, you know? Yeah.
• 8:49
  Yeah. That's quite a milestone.
• 8:51
  Yeah, we do. We just scheduled the the 9th
• 8:53
  anniversary one this summer. Nice.
• 8:56
  I was going to say, it's kind of an interesting conversation when
• 8:59
  you think about, you know, you've come your way nine years
• 9:02
  and then you're saying, what's the, what's the next 10 years
• 9:05
  going to look like? And can you even imagine, I mean
• 9:08
  in your heads like what can you, what Can you imagine that in 10
• 9:11
  years that how things are going to look like at your brewery,
• 9:14
  how you would like them to look like, you know?
• 9:16
  I mean, you know, what's the market going to look like?
• 9:20
  What's beer going to look like? You know, yeah.
• 9:23
  You don't really know. We had an idea of what new group
• 9:26
  was going to be when we come from a concept and it's kind of
• 9:30
  become its own entity. It's got its own character that
• 9:34
  we're just a part of that. So like where, where does this
• 9:37
  go? Where's this brand evolve from
• 9:38
  here? Where is it shift?
• 9:41
  Where does it move to? What's it going to become over
• 9:43
  the next five years, 10 years? It's it's a fun journey for
• 9:47
  sure. So Josh, I mean, obviously, you
• 9:50
  know, new groove. I know from knowing Jonathan it
• 9:53
  it combines a couple of his passions around music and and
• 9:56
  and around beer. Are you a music aficionado as
• 9:59
  well? And and and that, you know, part
• 10:02
  of your shared vision for a new group.
• 10:04
  I like music. I just bought a guitar.
• 10:08
  I'm on about four lessons in on it.
• 10:10
  So as I'm, as I'm getting older and losing hobbies to business
• 10:14
  life here, I've learned I need some more hobbies outside of
• 10:17
  that. I do tear up the karaoke mic.
• 10:21
  So I've got, I've got that going for me as well.
• 10:25
  No, no, no official designation for any musical talents on my
• 10:31
  end. We've got half a band started
• 10:33
  already now and you can and you can sing.
• 10:36
  So to some of those original home Brewers that you guys were
• 10:42
  doing or home brew recipes, did they carry over into the brewery
• 10:45
  and are any of those kind of still active now?
• 10:48
  They did, and a lot of them are. And some of them are pretty
• 10:51
  unique from both. Both of ours, probably the most
• 10:55
  unique one is we do still do, every every summer.
• 10:59
  That was Josh's recipe. That's our angry tomato monster.
• 11:02
  So it's a tomato, basil, jalapeno pale ale and based
• 11:07
  inspired from a local from a sandwich.
• 11:09
  Do you want to talk about it, Josh?
• 11:10
  Can I have that Beer came to be. Sure.
• 11:12
  Yeah, yeah, I had, I had a buddy that opened up a sub shop, this
• 11:16
  family, local Spartanburg, We were just picking it in a bar
• 11:20
  and talking about making a beer. And I was like, I'm going to
• 11:22
  make a beer for you. I'm going to put tomatoes in it.
• 11:24
  And he's like, shut up. So started working on a recipe
• 11:28
  and I got together with a buddy out our but our friend Andrew
• 11:32
  had brewery swamp rabbit brewery.
• 11:34
  Now when he's working in the home brew shop at Thomas Creek,
• 11:37
  I took the idea to him and he's like, Hey, let's put this into a
• 11:39
  pale ale base and let's work with the, you know, tomatoes,
• 11:42
  basil, tomato. They had tomato, basil,
• 11:44
  jalapenos. So step back a little bit.
• 11:47
  Their their logo for monster stubs is an angry tomato.
• 11:50
  Just got like a tomato with teeth on the front and another
• 11:53
  Italian. So you got the the basil and
• 11:56
  then a little bit of a kick for that angry come out.
• 11:59
  So try those. I I brought those ideas to him.
• 12:03
  He's like goes into a AOL base. We since adjusted that to.
• 12:09
  I'm more of an amber ale now entered, you know, the first
• 12:13
  couple years and I don't, we entered that in a contest and
• 12:15
  they're like, it doesn't taste like a pale ale and like it's
• 12:17
  not supposed to taste like a pale ale.
• 12:18
  It's a tomato beer. But you know, when you do a, a
• 12:21
  fruit beer or vegetable beer, you have to tell them the base
• 12:23
  style and they expect that. So it just made me kind of think
• 12:27
  outside the box. And so we kind of lean into the
• 12:29
  redness of the tomato and it's, it's just more of a sort of
• 12:33
  amber base, like 5%. And there's, you know, you have
• 12:38
  people all the time come in and they're like, oh, I don't know
• 12:40
  about that. Let me taste it.
• 12:42
  And then they taste it and like, oh, I don't think I could drink
• 12:44
  a whole 1. And then they drink three of
• 12:45
  them and it's like, yeah, you can.
• 12:48
  It's not, you know, it's not thick like tomatoes.
• 12:51
  It's just red. You know, that was something
• 12:53
  that I've made note of when I was looking on your website at
• 12:56
  some of the different beers and I put down that one Angry Tomato
• 12:59
  Monster. I don't know if I've ever walked
• 13:01
  into a brewery and I've seen a brewery name or a beer name like
• 13:05
  that, and some of the other ones you have as well.
• 13:08
  It seems like you guys have a lot of fun with naming your
• 13:10
  beers. We try to have a lot of fun with
• 13:13
  everything. Yeah, there's definitely, you
• 13:15
  know, it's, it's you, you. It's hard to continue to be
• 13:18
  creative and come up with new things.
• 13:20
  But you know, most things have been done to some degree before
• 13:23
  us. We're always trying to find, you
• 13:25
  know, find new names and hooks and stuff.
• 13:29
  A lot of lot of musical references, a lot of marching,
• 13:32
  marching arts or sometimes pop music or you know, try to tie
• 13:36
  things in. So is it like both of you guys
• 13:38
  that are coming up with the names or is it, you know, kind
• 13:40
  of a collaboration and sit around the table and say, hey, I
• 13:43
  think I got this beer name angry to made a monster.
• 13:46
  How does that? How does that usually pan out?
• 13:48
  Yeah, you never know that that, that some of them like that one
• 13:51
  was a home brew, so that you know, that that names, they
• 13:54
  existed. Yeah, the beers changed many
• 13:56
  times and kept the same name. And then we have a few other
• 14:00
  home brews that that we still do a good bit that would that would
• 14:03
  not be fun to talk about too. But yeah, there it's just the
• 14:07
  names find themselves sometimes. Sometimes it comes down to this
• 14:09
  beer has to go on the board right now.
• 14:12
  It's ready and I have to come up with a name and I write the
• 14:15
  signs. So I put a name on the sign.
• 14:20
  You're saying there's not a lot of thought?
• 14:22
  We're, we're fortunate to have a, a great staff that helps us
• 14:25
  collect, you know, kind of a collective of putting names
• 14:29
  together so we can go to them and say, Hey, let's, how are you
• 14:31
  feeling about this and put some names together to what we can
• 14:34
  come up with. It always doesn't always settle
• 14:36
  on there, but the. Is there always like a working
• 14:39
  list? Like you throw names around?
• 14:41
  OK, maybe not for this one, but save that for something down the
• 14:43
  road. I I haven't, I have a note
• 14:45
  notepad for sure. And I think we've had, we had a
• 14:47
  site channel of, of beer ideas. But yeah, try to keep a keep a
• 14:52
  going. But a lot of times it they just,
• 14:56
  you know, comes down to the beer and it it, it distills out, you
• 15:00
  know, something comes up. So, so nine years in.
• 15:04
  Yeah, on my phone, I just have a There you go, you know a notes.
• 15:08
  Hey Siri, write down this. Somebody says something, you're
• 15:12
  like, you know, that's a good name.
• 15:14
  You guys are nine years in now, like how is it the same of what
• 15:19
  you you thought about back in 2016 getting started and how is
• 15:23
  it different from what you, you know, what you set out to do?
• 15:25
  Well, yeah, I talked about the build out felt like a lifetime
• 15:28
  and it's, you know, you're that that feels like your whole life
• 15:31
  for a few months and then opening day happens and it's
• 15:33
  like that that, you know, that all changes to something
• 15:36
  completely different that you know.
• 15:37
  So what was it was the build out challenge?
• 15:39
  Was it the brewery equipment? Was it the, you know, the, the
• 15:42
  kitchen equipment, the and? The property management just,
• 15:45
  you know, whatever, getting everybody there at the right
• 15:46
  time and this has to be done before that can be done and this
• 15:49
  needs to be done before that can be done and you know, getting
• 15:52
  everything, everything happened in the right order and the
• 15:55
  regular. Construction delays.
• 15:57
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you know, and then.
• 15:59
  There was one construction delay.
• 16:02
  Yeah, there was some four, we had some adventures.
• 16:04
  Yeah, which so like just distant memory now.
• 16:07
  But I, I, I don't, I don't, I mean, I, I, I don't think I've
• 16:13
  regretted it. I wake up and get pretty excited
• 16:16
  about going to work. But I mean, you know, you guys
• 16:19
  sound, I think you know, there's a family friendly environment.
• 16:22
  It's kind of community driven, you know, is that was that
• 16:25
  always the intent is like, I really want to have kind of a,
• 16:28
  you know, a Community Center here and and a bunch of regulars
• 16:32
  that come in and, you know, can bring their whole family in a
• 16:34
  Jewett or that's. Just how it that was that I feel
• 16:37
  like we stayed true to that concept or that or that concept
• 16:41
  stayed true to the to the brand. We're kind of hung with the
• 16:43
  brand. That's what makes the new group
• 16:45
  special is a place for community to, to come out and bring your
• 16:49
  kids if you want, but know that they are in a, a tap room where
• 16:52
  the adults are drinking. But but yeah, that, that was
• 16:57
  our, I think our, our vision for the community that we've been
• 17:00
  able to be a part of and, and, and grow into was, was, was
• 17:03
  there from day one. So yeah, Josh, that's a good
• 17:06
  point because as you said, you you oversee more of the food
• 17:09
  aspect of it. When you all started your
• 17:11
  brewery, was food like as important as the beer or as the
• 17:15
  beer community has grown and demands have grown as we seen
• 17:19
  the shift, has it become all you know as is as important to make
• 17:24
  sure that's also a big priority in focus because that's what
• 17:26
  people also want. Yeah, First starting it was, it
• 17:28
  was mainly I like our in our state in South Carolina, you're
• 17:31
  required to carry a a Dtec license to purchase guest, guest
• 17:37
  beer and wine and open on Sundays.
• 17:41
  At that point. The laws have changed a little
• 17:43
  bit since then. I'm not sure how they would.
• 17:45
  They've shifted from where we were at that point.
• 17:49
  Yeah, first opening we opened with, you know, pre pre sliced
• 17:53
  lunch meat sandwiches, kind of a a sandwich kitchen concept, a
• 17:57
  big pretzel that we threw on a Panini press.
• 18:00
  And I think that was it, sandwiches and and chips and
• 18:05
  zapps, chips and and pretzels. And we found there was an
• 18:09
  opportunity to expand that that kitchen.
• 18:13
  So yeah, so we saw there was an opportunity to improve the
• 18:17
  business through expanding our kitchen and started adding some
• 18:19
  items, beer, brats and hot dogs and then developed into smoked
• 18:27
  meats. And now we do smash burgers,
• 18:31
  chicken wings and all kinds of fun stuff, fun specials and
• 18:34
  things of that sort. But yeah, so initially food,
• 18:37
  food was kind of a, a secondary part of it.
• 18:40
  And and now it, it's just as much, it's just as as essential
• 18:43
  to the business as the the beer side at this point for us.
• 18:46
  Is there a lot of pairing? It's.
• 18:47
  Definitely evolved a lot though. The the evolution of that from
• 18:50
  from when we opened is is pretty interesting.
• 18:54
  Is there the whole concept changed?
• 18:55
  Is there is there a pairing between some of the beers and
• 18:59
  the food? Is there?
• 18:59
  Is there a thought process to that too?
• 19:01
  That not a whole lot, I would say.
• 19:02
  I would say not a whole lot in the making of the beer.
• 19:05
  The beer still is primary primarily what new group is and
• 19:09
  the food comes along with that. I would say we'll take what what
• 19:13
  is available through the taps or and it just kind of tie that
• 19:19
  into the the seasonal food specials, whatever we're working
• 19:22
  with at that point. We do have every weekly I do a
• 19:25
  special wing sauce and a burger Thursday unique burger every
• 19:28
  week. So we're tying a beer in with
• 19:30
  that. For the beer comparing, we
• 19:32
  recently started doing a beer of the week put out under our our
• 19:35
  platforms and playing that into the the Wing Sauce and Burger
• 19:40
  Thursday specials as well. I did see something on your
• 19:43
  social calendar about a Girl Scout cookie and beer pairing.
• 19:47
  They seem to be a recurring thing that that, that's pretty
• 19:49
  cool that that. That was intriguing for sure.
• 19:52
  Yeah, I think this is the second year we've done it maybe and
• 19:55
  it's, it's like a two week long period.
• 19:56
  We have picked 3 cookies and three beers, 2 beers that we
• 20:00
  already had on and a third that we made for this event and.
• 20:04
  So you can buy a a a flight of three beers and three cookies
• 20:08
  and taste them together. And then whose kid is getting
• 20:11
  credit for all those? Cookies.
• 20:14
  There is a troop that comes on the weekends or is supposed to
• 20:17
  come on the weekend and sell actual boxes of cookies.
• 20:20
  Right now we're not selling the the cookies, but we are.
• 20:25
  We are providing a place for them to come sell them on the
• 20:27
  weekend. Jonathan, you'd look good in the
• 20:28
  little brownie outfit for sure. I'm gonna get the pizza party
• 20:34
  selling the most good piece there.
• 20:35
  You go that's. Right, guys, we did an episode,
• 20:38
  it was our episode one O 5 and it was at the end of the year
• 20:41
  last year the episode was and it was me and Chris and Steve, we
• 20:44
  all had our own list, but it was top top 10 beers that we all had
• 20:48
  in 2025, new beers. And the reason that's
• 20:52
  significant is because Chris's list had two of your beers on
• 20:57
  too. And he could probably, he could
• 20:59
  talk more about him if he's got the names there.
• 21:01
  But I know there were #4 or #5 and #4 Steve got him pulled up
• 21:05
  if you need to know the names. But that's he mentioned those
• 21:08
  and he was describing them and they were like, before the
• 21:11
  episode was over, really. We got to get these guys on,
• 21:13
  hence us being here. But but he was talking up these
• 21:16
  beers so highly. Like what?
• 21:18
  Beers were they? Yeah, I don't remember which 2
• 21:20
  they were to be. Honest, I know they're on your
• 21:21
  legs. You would you would rate them
• 21:22
  out. It was probably something from
• 21:24
  the Masterworks and then I know some was some side project that
• 21:27
  I had when I was there that I had rated on my top ten, but
• 21:30
  they were definitely in a couple.
• 21:32
  I got your back on it. I the one was I see a pilsner
• 21:35
  and I want to I want to painted it black.
• 21:39
  Is that right? Yeah.
• 21:39
  I want it painted black. Painted black, Yeah.
• 21:41
  Yep. And then the other one was
• 21:45
  turmoil and tinfoil. It was, as you said, part of the
• 21:48
  Masterworks series, a double pastry imperial stout.
• 21:53
  There was a 16.5% collab. Was the wool?
• 21:56
  Is that right? Yeah, yeah.
• 21:57
  So the masterworks is a a bottle society, a barrel aged bottle
• 22:00
  society. We have kind of two groups and
• 22:03
  we told we talked about the community that we build.
• 22:05
  One of them is a social kind of locals that meet once a month.
• 22:09
  And you know, there's there's perks they get with it.
• 22:11
  But basically they have, we have a, a bottle share once a month
• 22:15
  and share some food share, you know, what are things that are
• 22:18
  coming up and they bring in things to share, but then we
• 22:21
  off. So that's kind of like our
• 22:22
  social, that's the group club and that's our social group.
• 22:25
  And then we have the Masterworks bottle society.
• 22:27
  And that's a, a group where you can basically join that society.
• 22:32
  And we come up quarterly, we release beers and so they get 2
• 22:36
  bottles of each one that comes out each quarter.
• 22:38
  And then the welcome bottle for the for the years keeps it.
• 22:42
  We kind of know that we have that market for those barrel
• 22:45
  aged beers and we know when we need to put them out and how to
• 22:48
  how to put them out. And Terminal and Tinfoil was
• 22:50
  from the second year we brewed it with Zul.
• 22:53
  They came down for a beer fest that we hosted at the brewery.
• 22:58
  I think that was the first Woodstock Crispy Fester
• 23:01
  Woodstock I can't remember. What the Yeah, crispy?
• 23:03
  It might. Have been crispy Fest 2021.
• 23:06
  I got the notes open. Yeah.
• 23:08
  So they came down to for a beer fest.
• 23:09
  They were brand new at the time and we brewed a big stout, put
• 23:14
  it away to put most of it away into barrels at least, and that
• 23:16
  became thermal and tinfoil added toffee from our we have a local
• 23:19
  toffee company that toffee with ATI feel like I'm saying coffee
• 23:24
  with toffee. So with a vanilla and yeah, it
• 23:30
  came out great. We used oh, peanuts to yeah,
• 23:32
  yeah, peanuts because. Peanuts.
• 23:34
  And that's all Collapse. Yeah, they're they're they're
• 23:36
  big on the peanuts with the peanut butter and Jelly.
• 23:38
  So we used some of that, some of that same same technique that
• 23:42
  they use for that for the peanuts in in here.
• 23:45
  I'm actually drinking a zool tonight.
• 23:47
  It's called blood ice and it's a sour fruited but it's only like
• 23:51
  6.6% so it's not you know it's not that high ABV of what you do
• 23:55
  with them. Pretty good though.
• 23:58
  Yeah, you actually Zools making an ice beer, you know they're
• 24:01
  bringing those back. No.
• 24:05
  I'd say basically it's a sour beer with watermelon, mango and
• 24:10
  pineapple. It's pretty good, though.
• 24:12
  Yeah. In fact, I didn't even know I
• 24:13
  had a Zool in my refrigerator. I looked at it and I'm like,
• 24:15
  hey, I got a Zool, all right? Yeah, they're they're good dudes
• 24:19
  make great beer. You.
• 24:20
  Guys got to know them pretty well since then, even done more
• 24:24
  with them. Yeah, we we kind of see them
• 24:26
  couple times a year now, but yeah, they're good.
• 24:29
  They're good friends. We go to their event every year.
• 24:31
  They they host that their fest in Knoxville.
• 24:34
  We and they're they're kind enough to bring us up every time
• 24:36
  and we bring them down to ours and we usually see them at a
• 24:39
  couple other events throughout the year.
• 24:40
  What is the planning that really goes into a a collab like that
• 24:45
  with zool especially like a double pastry style that's like
• 24:47
  16.5%? What at the time we didn't
• 24:51
  didn't know what the adjuncts were going to be.
• 24:53
  It was just a, a stout brief Bentley that I don't think he's
• 24:58
  there anymore, but he was their original home Brewer and he and
• 25:02
  I had a, an e-mail chain going. It was actually really
• 25:05
  informative for me as far as, you know, seeing what other
• 25:07
  people do, because especially at that time, I, we had, we had
• 25:11
  done less of that. So getting to see how the, how
• 25:14
  he looked at stout recipes as far as, you know, percentages of
• 25:17
  roasted malt versus caramel malts versus base malt and how,
• 25:22
  how he, how he, how he thought of that versus how I, you know,
• 25:25
  had just kind of done it and what I, what I, what I knew.
• 25:27
  And it's always fun to see how other people do things and
• 25:31
  especially, you know, somebody like that gained some
• 25:33
  information. Well, when, when and not that
• 25:35
  you can't get it, but when Finn and does go down that way, Zul
• 25:39
  just came to Nashville. Like literally they just started
• 25:43
  took over Southern Grist. So when he goes, we'll send him
• 25:46
  with a bunch of Nashville Zul and we'll do a little bigger
• 25:49
  spot for your stuff when he gets down there.
• 25:51
  OK, Yeah. So, yeah, back to the the the
• 25:57
  Masterworks again, you know, great tie in with music again in
• 26:02
  the branding there. And and I noticed the logo is
• 26:05
  actually like a bass drum. It's a barrel mounted on
• 26:07
  somebody playing like a bass drum, which is which is which is
• 26:10
  great. But you want to talk about kind
• 26:12
  of your Masterworks series and and that that kind of wood age
• 26:15
  program that you do. I think that's a regular,
• 26:18
  regular thing that that you guys are doing now, right?
• 26:20
  Yeah, it's something we've really leaned into.
• 26:23
  Yeah. So the the masterworks is it
• 26:25
  gives us a you know, we, we know we can sell this, you know how
• 26:29
  many of those bottles a year. And so it gives us an
• 26:31
  opportunity to to plan for that a little bit better, which we
• 26:34
  really enjoy. So the basically we have about
• 26:39
  40 barrels at any one time full in the in the brewery.
• 26:44
  It's something that we're that we we're patient with and
• 26:47
  passionate about. So we brew these big beers and
• 26:49
  we put them in there. I don't even typically don't
• 26:52
  don't really treat them as finished until 18 months and
• 26:54
  start tasting and figuring out what we want to do with them.
• 26:57
  Occasionally we use them, you know, need something a little
• 26:59
  bit sooner. The those old still beer set for
• 27:03
  21 months, but some, you know, some much longer.
• 27:06
  So, and we, we're really enjoying double barrels like
• 27:09
  something I'll be in a a will at bourbon barrel for two years and
• 27:13
  then come out and go into a, you know, like a cognac barrel or
• 27:16
  something different for a little while.
• 27:17
  And layering those different flavors.
• 27:19
  French oak versus American oak provides different, different,
• 27:23
  different flavor components. And particularly the barley
• 27:25
  wines. We really enjoy exploring those
• 27:27
  different, different types of oaks and the layers of flavor
• 27:30
  you get from that. You guys have y'all had any
• 27:32
  barley wine? Josh, I think it was you, it was
• 27:36
  on a an interview, maybe it was on YouTube and they were talking
• 27:39
  about maybe just some of the stuff you've done, some of the
• 27:42
  barrels you get. You had mentioned Barique.
• 27:44
  I think that was you at Branch Barique.
• 27:45
  And then I saw Barique on your vendor list of wood socks,
• 27:49
  Woodstock 2026. Do you guys have a relationship
• 27:52
  for them with them? And is that kind of because of
• 27:53
  the they do those wild ales and those barrels probably really
• 27:56
  lend themselves to the stuff you guys do?
• 27:58
  Yeah, they, they usually actually didn't, they didn't
• 28:01
  come in 2026, but they were, they were invited, not able to
• 28:04
  come this year, but definitely friends and great, great wood,
• 28:08
  wood components. And they then they provide a lot
• 28:11
  more of this hour. And then even the lighter, I
• 28:13
  love some of the lager we do. We do some, some wood lager
• 28:16
  stuff as well. And they're one of the few
• 28:18
  others that that bring around that kind of stuff as well.
• 28:21
  Also a musical connection. He's the sound guy for Darius
• 28:23
  Rucker, right? Do you know that?
• 28:25
  Did not. Isn't it?
• 28:28
  Yeah. So, so yeah, that's.
• 28:30
  Another reason we like that. Thanks so much.
• 28:32
  Yeah, definitely. That's what I'm drinking.
• 28:34
  Yeah, nice. Yeah, I love how they've really
• 28:38
  leaned into the logger thing too, and they're making amazing,
• 28:41
  amazing loggers. Yeah, I'm, I'm, you know, a
• 28:44
  little sad. We need a moment of silence from
• 28:46
  Barik. They closed up their tap room.
• 28:49
  Oh, really? Yeah, Little sad.
• 28:51
  Yeah, They closed their Tapper in the end of the year.
• 28:54
  They're, Yeah, I, I, I'm not sure if they're going to come up
• 28:57
  somewhere else. I mean, but little, little sad.
• 29:03
  Yeah, I think, I don't think they'll completely go away.
• 29:06
  I don't know what's going to happen to them.
• 29:07
  But they had, you know, if you've ever been into the
• 29:08
  Tapper, they had hundreds and hundreds of barrels and they
• 29:11
  were all full of beer. So they had beer to last a long
• 29:14
  time. But we don't know what really
• 29:15
  what's what's going to happen to it, where it's going to be.
• 29:17
  So it'll be interesting to see. But yeah, it's sad because we
• 29:20
  love those guys. Yeah, me too.
• 29:22
  They were, they were losing their their location to some
• 29:26
  eminent domain development of the city there, you know, and I
• 29:30
  guess just didn't have a plan of where they could find another
• 29:32
  place. And hopefully they'll find
• 29:34
  another spot. God, I hope so.
• 29:35
  I mean, they could store some of those barrels here, but it can
• 29:37
  only get probably 6:00 or 8:00. We'll get some of Chris's.
• 29:42
  We'll get some of Steve's. From at your masterwork series
• 29:45
  kind of lended itself into the Woodstock Annual event that you
• 29:50
  guys have. You want to talk a little bit
• 29:51
  about Woodstock, I guess it was about a month ago, right?
• 29:53
  Right about a month ago now. Yeah, it's the first, the first
• 29:55
  Saturday in February. We've kind of, I guess we, we,
• 29:58
  we like that date because it's gets through dry January and
• 30:01
  it's still kind of, you know, barrel aged beer in the winter
• 30:04
  seems to go well together. It was so we, we, we just had
• 30:07
  it, it was a little different. Look for us this year.
• 30:09
  We, we moved it to off site to a, a partnered with a hotel
• 30:13
  downtown to provide an inside, an inside location, huge room
• 30:18
  inside where we could have it in the past.
• 30:21
  It's, you know, tents in the back and dealing with weather.
• 30:23
  So took that variable out a little bit and it had a lot of
• 30:26
  fun. We had about 30 other breweries
• 30:28
  visit, some from all over the country and really enjoy.
• 30:33
  We talked about the community earlier, the tap room, and
• 30:35
  that's this is just another type of, of community for us.
• 30:37
  We really love building the, the, the brewery community and
• 30:40
  having those guys come hang out and show them, you know, show
• 30:43
  them some hospitality in a good time and make them sit through
• 30:46
  Josh's karaoke and. They demand, they demand, they
• 30:52
  said. They won't.
• 30:55
  Let me leave until I do it. They'll say we'll come, but
• 30:58
  there's one stipulation. We need to use the karaoke.
• 31:03
  Yeah. The beer gets them there, and
• 31:05
  then the sultry, sultry sounds of Josh singing brings them
• 31:09
  back. That's what keeps them coming
• 31:10
  back, right? I look at I.
• 31:13
  Mean I, I figure if the Brewers want to come, then the Brewers
• 31:15
  are going to bring the best beer they can bring too.
• 31:17
  So we definitely have the number one goal is to provide an
• 31:20
  experience that that they want to come to.
• 31:22
  That's one of the things we ask is that they have an owner or a
• 31:24
  Brewer representative here. You know, it keeps that feeling
• 31:29
  like you're talking to somebody that knows.
• 31:30
  The beer, Yeah, we prefer those beer fests.
• 31:34
  Your list of brewery attendees, I know it says as of 11625, but
• 31:38
  I mean, 450 N Steve St. side out of Cincinnati is on that list.
• 31:43
  I mean, just killer names on this day.
• 31:45
  I mean, it's that's awesome. Fabled yeah, St. side's a great
• 31:49
  fan, Garrett actually, I think I'm going to get to see him this
• 31:52
  weekend. We've got a collab there they're
• 31:53
  doing I think it's his 10th anniversary already.
• 31:56
  They're, they're, they're doing a collab every month and we're
• 31:59
  the, the March, I believe spring break collab.
• 32:02
  So his his family used to come down to South Carolina for
• 32:05
  spring break. And I was going to say it's
• 32:07
  interesting because, you know, I obviously you see the Reds.
• 32:11
  I'm even in Nashville. I'm from Cincinnati and Scott
• 32:13
  and I, we make a trip, you know, once a year up there and then I
• 32:16
  go up there, see family. So I've been to St. side many
• 32:20
  times. And I was going to say when I
• 32:22
  was looking at your your tap room list, you do a lot of
• 32:25
  different styles that almost mimic St. side.
• 32:29
  It kind of reminds me a little bit about the stuff they do
• 32:31
  right? Yeah, that, that's probably one
• 32:35
  of the reasons we connected. I mean, you go in some breweries
• 32:37
  and you're like, I like every beer on the board.
• 32:41
  Yeah, this is the kind of stuff I like to drink.
• 32:42
  Yeah. So.
• 32:43
  Speaking, Speaking of boards, I'm looking at your updated
• 32:47
  March 3rd. So it's it should be accurate.
• 32:49
  I guess your beers on your website and I'm telling you the
• 32:53
  first five are at least 14%. He starts at 14 and goes up to
• 33:00
  16 1/2 on the 1st 5 beers. That is so cool.
• 33:04
  I mean I would get a flight of those if I mean I'd probably be
• 33:07
  hammered afterwards. But if you.
• 33:10
  Sold those in you. Sold those in Tennessee, I'd say
• 33:13
  that, yeah. If you sold them here they'd be
• 33:16
  10.1% magically. Yeah.
• 33:19
  Same beer here. Everything.
• 33:21
  Everything is 10.1. Percent.
• 33:23
  Magic number Can't go over that without a distiller's license
• 33:26
  you'll have. To come to our Black Friday
• 33:27
  event, because that's when we, some of those, you'll notice
• 33:30
  they say Mr. Plain, they're variants of Mr. Plain.
• 33:33
  The, the Mr. Plain brand is, is our sort of a base barrel aged
• 33:37
  stout that we release every Black Friday in bottles.
• 33:40
  And we have an event on Black Friday that kind of like a stout
• 33:43
  takeover where we do now. It's a masterworks release too.
• 33:47
  So two of the two of the beers are master, the Masterworks
• 33:49
  welcome bottle in the first quarter for the new year
• 33:51
  masterworks, but the rest is of the six beers.
• 33:55
  Yeah, 66 different variants of that Mister Plain there's.
• 33:58
  So there's one that says peanut brittle.
• 34:00
  I mean, it's got to be good, right?
• 34:01
  Yeah. Yeah, again, the local toffee
• 34:03
  and peanuts we talked about with his with his local AB.
• 34:06
  It's kind of that that concept. Yeah, I don't want everyone
• 34:08
  peanut butter s'mores, German chocolate cake, Peanut burglar.
• 34:11
  You've got the Woodstock 26 Festival of Barley wine.
• 34:14
  Must be leftover from that. I mean that is.
• 34:16
  Yeah, that's, that's the festival bottle that we that we
• 34:19
  meant for that. Yeah.
• 34:19
  So some of these high ABV beer, ABV beers that you've done, easy
• 34:24
  for me to say, say that three times fast.
• 34:28
  Did it start out that way when you open or has it kind of
• 34:31
  evolved that way? We, we tried, we couldn't quite
• 34:34
  get the ABV up that we first happened.
• 34:37
  We've got a much better brew, brew system now.
• 34:38
  We, we definitely struggled with that a little bit for the first
• 34:41
  couple years. But I mean a lot of that, the
• 34:43
  barrels pick up a good bit of that too.
• 34:45
  And when you, especially if you do 2 subsequent barrels, you can
• 34:49
  pick up, you know, 456 percent ABV just from the but.
• 34:52
  Wasn't it your intent when you started the hey, we want to brew
• 34:56
  these type of beers? Or was it just something it just
• 34:58
  kind of evolved as you got bigger and went on, I think.
• 35:01
  We were kind of always into the big ones as well, really more so
• 35:05
  the opposite has happened. We're we're a lot more
• 35:07
  interested in like Auger now than we were when we were home
• 35:10
  brewing. Much more excited about a 4%
• 35:13
  tell us now than than I would have been in, you know, 2017 for
• 35:16
  sure. I think we were, we were aiming
• 35:18
  everything then for 7% and that's where I liked it.
• 35:20
  The porters still 7% because that's about you know what, I
• 35:24
  liked it nineties 6.9 to 7.2, you know, and that range.
• 35:28
  We didn't, we didn't even intend on brewing loggers because, you
• 35:31
  know, lager takes up tank time and we push nails turn, turn and
• 35:35
  burn, you know, But then our, our tastes change.
• 35:40
  We like to we like to sell what we like to drink.
• 35:42
  And you like to drink, you know, it's hard to drink 3 or 416
• 35:45
  percenters. Those 4-5 sixes are a little
• 35:49
  better. It's actually easy, but it hurts
• 35:52
  a lot worse today. It's harder than one. 100%.
• 35:57
  Well, and I think it's something that all three of us can chime
• 36:00
  in on, myself, Chris and Scott, because as we have talked about
• 36:03
  probably really over the past year or so, we've done episodes
• 36:06
  together, the places we go, the lager game has really changed.
• 36:10
  That's changed for the better from the places we've gone to
• 36:14
  and also from the Brewers like yourself and brewery owners of
• 36:18
  how the there's a more of a demand for that now.
• 36:20
  Can you guys speak on that? That's, that's, I mean, that's
• 36:23
  definitely every event we go to. Probably the most beer that gets
• 36:26
  drunk at Woodstock is, is high life.
• 36:33
  So I mean, you know, the Brewers that are here hanging out aren't
• 36:36
  drinking 16% beers, you know, the night before or whatever.
• 36:39
  I mean, granted, that day, you know, we're all trying them.
• 36:42
  And now obviously the people that are here are passionate
• 36:44
  about that kind of stuff in general.
• 36:46
  But I, I think when I go in, the first thing I look for is, you
• 36:50
  know, if I see a, he talked about his favorite, one of the
• 36:54
  favorite beers was our, our dark lager.
• 36:57
  And that, that's something that I definitely look for.
• 36:59
  If I see a, if I see a dark lager on a tap board, I'm
• 37:02
  probably going to try it. And it's a good place, I think,
• 37:04
  to kind of see whatever he's into when you try that beer.
• 37:08
  Do you feel like if you? Go so for your barrel aged
• 37:10
  stuff, Jonathan, are are you like are you seeking out a
• 37:13
  certain barrel? Are you, are you do you, you
• 37:16
  come across stuff and you're like, that'd be kind of
• 37:18
  interesting. Will it barrel?
• 37:19
  Maybe. Or are you actively seeking a
• 37:21
  certain type of barrel to see what it might do?
• 37:24
  Some of both I'm actively seeking wet barrels and you know
• 37:28
  fresh, fresh dumped quality barrels there.
• 37:32
  We have a pretty good relationship because it's
• 37:35
  because it's something we do pretty often.
• 37:36
  We have a pretty good relationship with a barrel
• 37:38
  broker. I still check with a few other
• 37:40
  ones from time to time. Barrels.
• 37:42
  It's it's interesting to see the price fluctuation.
• 37:44
  Barrels are pretty cheap right now, which is probably because
• 37:47
  not good for part of the industry, but it's good for best
• 37:50
  buying spent barrels at least. So a lot of times I'm looking
• 37:53
  for a specific like type of not, not necessarily brand, but just
• 37:57
  you know, what's fresh and what's good.
• 37:59
  Sometimes something really interesting comes across.
• 38:01
  Every once in a while I'll get a text from the barrel guy that
• 38:04
  you know, hey, this is coming up.
• 38:05
  Are you interested in usually am of it something like that?
• 38:08
  So some pretty interesting barrels came across recently
• 38:10
  with we got some double oak and then there was a different one
• 38:13
  that that uses a combination of staves that's supposed to
• 38:16
  represent it's supposed to be reminiscent of baking spices.
• 38:19
  It was used to finish bourbon just for like 4 months, I think.
• 38:23
  So it's it's got a lot of the the oak still in it and and
• 38:27
  barely the spirit. And we put a put a second use
• 38:30
  beer again, there's like as a second barrel in that get those
• 38:33
  flavors. I'm pretty excited about that.
• 38:35
  So you see something interesting come across and you pull, you
• 38:38
  know, if a pappy barrel came, I would buy it no matter what you
• 38:40
  know. But otherwise for your for your
• 38:45
  will at barrels are usually pretty solid.
• 38:47
  When you get those barrels and there's some some liquid still
• 38:50
  sloshing around in there, do you ever try to get in you?
• 38:52
  Oh yeah, that's the best. Yeah, Josh remembers one, one of
• 38:55
  our first, one of our first attempts at barrels we get we
• 38:59
  add some Blattens barrels. They they were Buffalo Trace
• 39:05
  barrels, but then we bought them as Buffalo Trace.
• 39:07
  But on the end, on the on the heads, it said BLTN like in
• 39:11
  Sharpie on, on each of them were like, these are these are
• 39:14
  Blattens and they each had a solid quart left in them.
• 39:20
  Doesn't usually happen like that.
• 39:21
  That was early on and came from a place in Kentucky and that,
• 39:25
  yeah, those, those came out really nice.
• 39:27
  But you got some of that liquid out of that barrel before you
• 39:29
  used the barrel, yeah. One of them, yeah, we dumped 1
• 39:32
  and that, you know, into a jar and filtered it.
• 39:37
  I try to, I try to leave it. I try to taste, you know, I want
• 39:39
  to taste it, but I don't want to take it all out either.
• 39:41
  I like like leaving it there as much.
• 39:43
  Because you know, the point of getting the barrels to get that
• 39:45
  flavor in there and get that absolutely.
• 39:50
  There's a Jonathan, I think when you got on and maybe you still
• 39:53
  are, you were drinking, you were drinking a THC beverage that you
• 39:56
  guys. Made, you know, probably the
• 39:58
  opposite of the 16% beer we're talking about is is this we do,
• 40:03
  we call them mood waters. And we do this is the 2
• 40:07
  milligram and this one's Citro lemon lime.
• 40:09
  So it's, it's a hop water. It to me, it's kind of beer
• 40:12
  adjacent because of the hops. And it, it sort of hits my
• 40:15
  Hydrogelato Lacroix during the day as well.
• 40:17
  And so this this kind of replace that at times the 2 milligrams
• 40:21
  enough that I, you know, can stay functioning.
• 40:23
  We also do a 5 milligram mango that's kind of the the baseline
• 40:27
  where everybody is. And then we have a 12 milligram
• 40:30
  black cherry that it's a good, good end of the evening
• 40:35
  finisher. But.
• 40:37
  But not just that, but like non alcoholic beverages are big
• 40:40
  right now and important in the tap room too, right?
• 40:43
  I mean you, you go. They are any, any, any way we
• 40:46
  can diversify, especially January, everybody talks about
• 40:48
  dry January and I think this might be the first year that it
• 40:51
  hasn't felt like that increased. It's definitely has been a been
• 40:54
  a stronger thing every year, but people are looking for for other
• 40:58
  other answers. At least while we can.
• 41:00
  Right now we can. DHC Water's a a solution, so
• 41:03
  hopefully that stays. Something on the website that
• 41:05
  you were, you had a local Mead, you know, a local meadery I
• 41:09
  think that you were, you were putting in.
• 41:10
  Unfortunately, they've gone out of business.
• 41:12
  Yeah. Yeah, they're hopefully going to
• 41:16
  reopen. They they close that location
• 41:18
  and aren't manufacturing anymore but are looking at a spot to
• 41:21
  reopen. Are a lot of these non alcoholic
• 41:23
  drinks that you're now serving and seeing what you're doing
• 41:26
  there, could you imagine that would have been the case when
• 41:29
  you opened back in 2017? No, we would have made fun of
• 41:32
  everybody, right? Not at all.
• 41:35
  Yeah. So what's that?
• 41:38
  So what's that done? And I mean, because I, I, I
• 41:41
  guess you're all sitting around and seeing the trends.
• 41:44
  I mean, when did you start seeing the trends where you guys
• 41:46
  said, OK, we got to start doing something about this, otherwise
• 41:49
  we're going to not being able to meet consumer demand, right,
• 41:52
  Right. I mean it.
• 41:54
  Need to have those options there for sure, yeah.
• 41:57
  I mean, we know mid water is not saving the business or anything.
• 41:59
  I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's just another choice and
• 42:02
  another, you know, another, another outlet.
• 42:05
  And it's, it's, it's we like it too, because it's really easy to
• 42:08
  distro. You don't there's there's no
• 42:09
  distribution requirements. So I can, unlike alcohol, I can,
• 42:13
  you know, sell it from a cart on the street if I wanted to.
• 42:16
  It's it's a lot easier to, to to deal with than we do.
• 42:21
  We do non alcoholic beer, athletic, non alcoholic options.
• 42:26
  Yeah, you're right. And so we, we, we kind of have
• 42:29
  some other other choices. That could be the difference
• 42:32
  having something like that. Anything non alcoholic or THC
• 42:35
  might be the difference between someone showing up and not.
• 42:38
  And I'm not even talking like a single person, I'm talking like
• 42:41
  a group of people. Hey, we all wanted to do
• 42:42
  something. This one person doesn't like
• 42:44
  beer, doesn't like theirs is doing dry January or something.
• 42:47
  But that could be the difference of someone coming in or not just
• 42:49
  even having something along those lines.
• 42:52
  Yeah, we're staying for another round.
• 42:54
  Or not. No, if somebody's uncomfortable
• 42:55
  because they don't want to drink.
• 42:56
  Yep. And we do, we do, we do wine, we
• 42:59
  do they mentioned the, the Mead. We, we do a local cider from a
• 43:04
  from a cider eat that's not very far away.
• 43:07
  And so we we, we try to provide multiple options for sure.
• 43:10
  I think food is a big part of that too.
• 43:12
  And I mean, you guys have really leaned into the menu and food
• 43:15
  options and lots of interesting things that I get, you know, is
• 43:19
  that becoming a greater percentage of the, of the
• 43:21
  business or, you know, again, I think that's a key thing to
• 43:24
  people staying around or, you know, one person in the group is
• 43:28
  hungry and they're like, well, let's just go here.
• 43:30
  We can, we can drink and we can eat, you know, and it seems like
• 43:34
  it's a, it's a pretty key thing to, to give you a lot of
• 43:36
  flexibility in your business. And we definitely uptake in soda
• 43:39
  sales and we, we now carry bottled tea because, you know,
• 43:43
  people, we have people that come in that aren't there shockingly
• 43:46
  are there for the beer. Yeah.
• 43:48
  The people that come in just for the food, then that's.
• 43:52
  Good. Yeah, everybody eats now where
• 43:55
  before it was. That's right.
• 43:57
  It would be like a percentage like this.
• 43:59
  You might somebody might grab a sandwich because they had like
• 44:01
  one too many and now it's everybody.
• 44:03
  Yeah, it's dry January. It's not hungry.
• 44:05
  January. That's starving January.
• 44:10
  Word artesian in your name. It's got to have some
• 44:14
  significance was that was that something planned ahead of time?
• 44:17
  What significance does that have to you guys to make sure that's
• 44:20
  in the name of the brewery I. Think for me, it just it, it
• 44:22
  just speaks to the we, we were trying to be craft and as, as
• 44:27
  you know, the, there are original concept, which we've,
• 44:31
  you know, things have evolved a little bit, but was, you know,
• 44:34
  you're going to. Well, for us, it was new to go
• 44:37
  into a, a, a tap room that has a chalkboard menu and it's
• 44:40
  chalkboard because it changes every, you know, every day and
• 44:43
  you expect to come in. The, the, the whole reason you
• 44:46
  go is because you expect to have something new every time and be
• 44:48
  able to try a new beer. And so we, the, the original
• 44:51
  idea was how close can we get to that?
• 44:53
  But where we make the beer. So, you know, obviously we're
• 44:56
  not changing them every day because we have to, we have a, a
• 44:59
  business to run and have to, you know, have to make it in, in
• 45:02
  quantity a little bit. But it that, that named us so
• 45:05
  speaks to just the, the, the craftsmanship and kind of
• 45:10
  flexibility, I guess, and, and, and what we produce.
• 45:13
  And I'm not, I get asked all the time, you know, do you, is, is
• 45:16
  your beer consistent? You make the same beer every
• 45:18
  time? And I was like, I'm not trying
• 45:19
  to make the same beer every time.
• 45:20
  I'm trying to make a better beer every time.
• 45:22
  So I mean, if I can, if I can change the recipe, I, I don't
• 45:25
  need it to taste exactly like it did So the last time.
• 45:27
  I just need to be good. If I can make it better, I'll
• 45:30
  change it. So do you try to put a, you
• 45:32
  know, do you brand them as a year, you know, a certain year
• 45:35
  on there just just to differentiate?
• 45:37
  No, you know. I I kind of wish we could and
• 45:39
  you know, I got have that thought before we've about, you
• 45:43
  know, how we could doke. Obviously we can't date, date
• 45:45
  code cans because we're just don't have the technology.
• 45:49
  But we've, we've played around with, you know, paper stickers
• 45:52
  or whatever and, you know, just just trying to, because it was
• 45:54
  important to, to me as a consumer to know how fresh that
• 45:57
  beer was. And I, it's something we could
• 45:59
  probably be better. At how many?
• 46:01
  And I think I know the number, but you guys have like a shit
• 46:04
  ton of taps. Can you talk about how many
• 46:06
  you've got? Thickets?
• 46:07
  It's like 20 or something, right?
• 46:09
  It's 20. We opened with 16 and but
• 46:14
  planned room for extras and when we, there was something that
• 46:20
  happened where we, we I guess coming out of COVID where we
• 46:22
  made some improvements in, in general equipment and one of
• 46:25
  them was we added four taps, 2 on either end.
• 46:29
  So it's still nice and centered and pleasant looking, but so we
• 46:33
  have 20 taps and the problem is the the cooler space is pretty
• 46:36
  limited. So it's sometimes difficult to
• 46:38
  have 20 taps worth of beer necessarily, but that happens
• 46:41
  and. Then do you get a cat meal?
• 46:43
  Are those all new groove or do you have the guest taps you?
• 46:47
  Know the we don't as a rule, we don't really have guest taps.
• 46:49
  We do right? Right now we're serving through
• 46:52
  some leftover stuff from Woodstock.
• 46:53
  So there's like 450 N there was a barrel aged pastries out on
• 46:58
  actually St. sides. Got a street side beer on right
• 47:00
  now from that. So it's pretty cool to that you
• 47:04
  can come into New Groove right now and have a a beer that you
• 47:07
  won't be able to get anywhere else, even at those breweries
• 47:09
  don't have them anymore. So we're we're rotating through
• 47:13
  11 guest app with that. But other than that, they're all
• 47:16
  New Groove beers, yeah. So I was looking through the
• 47:18
  event calendar and, and I, I think it's awesome and it seems
• 47:21
  like you guys are having regular events, you know, which, which
• 47:24
  is great or driving kind of your regular crowd business.
• 47:27
  But one thing was a new groove run club, which I think is great
• 47:31
  for, you know, getting the community, you know, driving
• 47:34
  that community aspect. But I noticed it was 2 hours.
• 47:37
  Who is going and running for two hours before they come and drink
• 47:41
  beer? So I'm like I'll be.
• 47:42
  Here, Josh, I think it's more of a start time and then whenever
• 47:47
  they get back, they get back. So is that just for the spouse?
• 47:51
  So you'd be like, I'm running for two hours and it's really,
• 47:53
  I'm going to run around the building and then I'll be in
• 47:55
  here for an hour and a. Half we're we're right by a
• 47:58
  Walmart. So we have people that come to
• 48:00
  get groceries and drive, you know, the other side of town.
• 48:03
  We have, we have a buddy that comes to the gas station that's
• 48:05
  right in front of us just because that's clearly where he
• 48:08
  needs to go to get gas so he can come have.
• 48:09
  A Why do you come home? Why do you come home hammered
• 48:12
  from the running club? When you know you're going to go
• 48:18
  drink those big beers, I have this.
• 48:19
  It'll burn a few calories at a time.
• 48:23
  Hey, can you guys describe the Tapper a little bit?
• 48:25
  Kind of give the layout for us? I know Chris has seen it.
• 48:27
  We've not seen it. Gosh, well, it's interesting
• 48:33
  because it's an old convenience store, so it's it's it's got a
• 48:37
  curvy front of the building and glass around the front that we
• 48:41
  thought was groovy from the get go.
• 48:43
  So it's kind of like, you know, it's interesting.
• 48:45
  Bill Josh was driving by it and he lived out that way and he was
• 48:48
  actually the he found it driving by and saw a saw a sign in the
• 48:51
  window, right, that said for rent.
• 48:53
  And yeah. So 4400 square foot of think
• 48:59
  about a convenience store. They used to have a huge cooler,
• 49:01
  like a beer cooler l-shaped on one wall.
• 49:05
  Took that out and that's where the brewery is now.
• 49:06
  So that that for space and kind of that L shape and a lot of
• 49:12
  barrels and wood and the standard sheet metal that you're
• 49:16
  required to have inside of a tap room.
• 49:21
  The the standard, standard issue string lights.
• 49:23
  But ours were in the 2013 Grammys.
• 49:28
  Bottom 1 Etsy. Story there.
• 49:31
  Yeah, yeah, that's cool. Authentic.
• 49:35
  That was Home Depot, but not just the normal Home Depot
• 49:41
  lights. These are these are clearly from
• 49:42
  the anyway, yeah. So we we really try to focus on
• 49:45
  the environment in the tap room and the, the, the lighting and
• 49:48
  the the vibe. Yeah.
• 49:51
  Obviously. Local artist that commissions
• 49:54
  the art there on display for sale and and barrels everywhere.
• 49:59
  Yeah, I definitely remember seeing a lot of artwork.
• 50:01
  It was on display when I was there.
• 50:03
  So that that's another great community tie in.
• 50:06
  You know, with the with the music tie in, are you guys
• 50:08
  hosting, you know, you doing music events or, or anything
• 50:12
  like that in the in the in the tap room?
• 50:14
  Oh, that's one of those things that's changed, I think from our
• 50:16
  original, the ideas of what we thought the tap room would look
• 50:20
  like. We used to have a lot more live
• 50:22
  music. And it's just it, it's really
• 50:25
  difficult to kind of keep that fresh with the people that are
• 50:28
  around and affordable and feel like it's, it's people are
• 50:32
  coming there for the music. So it's, and with a combination
• 50:35
  of that and ASCAP and BMI and all the fees that you have to
• 50:38
  pay to, to have that. So that's become less and less
• 50:41
  kind of of a characteristic unfortunately we it's something
• 50:45
  we love and we were really excited about having as part of
• 50:47
  the tap room, but we've had to kind of make some tough
• 50:49
  decisions in, in that aspect. Yeah, I, I will say, I mean, you
• 50:54
  know, we're here in Nashville and I mean, you can't go to a
• 50:56
  Chick-fil-A without there being live music in the.
• 51:00
  Airport. In the airport and, and
• 51:03
  everything, sometimes you just want to go and have a
• 51:05
  conversation and just sit with somebody and, and not have to
• 51:09
  scream over, you know, someone that's trying to make it big.
• 51:12
  So I, I don't think that's necessarily a terrible thing.
• 51:16
  I just, you know, with your brand is obviously heavily music
• 51:19
  in the way you, you brand your beers and, and those kind of
• 51:22
  things. So I was just curious if if
• 51:23
  there was any kind of live music aspect.
• 51:25
  To it, yeah. We used to do every Friday and
• 51:26
  Saturday and just had to kind of.
• 51:28
  Now we do events, you know, we, we still like to come.
• 51:31
  If you really want to drive customers, man, get a live
• 51:33
  drumline in there and just like just have them have them play
• 51:37
  full double Forte, you know, like banging on some snare drums
• 51:41
  That'll get people excited. We we can send Finn and over
• 51:44
  from here. I I I I can see a picture on
• 51:48
  your website of the Tapper kind of a from a.
• 51:51
  You know. A further perspective and I
• 51:53
  could see the string of lights up there.
• 51:55
  So they are very grimy lights. I could see it's bonafide high
• 52:01
  school. It's got a, it's got a good vibe
• 52:03
  in there, man. We got to, we got to go down
• 52:04
  there, check it out one day, get out that way.
• 52:07
  How far are you from Asheville? About an hour, really.
• 52:09
  It's only an hour. About an hour from now.
• 52:11
  OK, I'm going. I'm going to Asheville the end
• 52:13
  of April. So that might be, that might be
• 52:14
  part of the journey. Yeah, it's hard to get bored in
• 52:16
  Asheville, but if you do, we're not very far away.
• 52:20
  If we run them out of beer, awesome.
• 52:25
  Anything else for you guys? You know, I had a question,
• 52:28
  Jonathan, you had mentioned before we start recording that
• 52:31
  this was a brew day for you when you were brewing beer.
• 52:34
  Is that, is that like you're, I don't know how many days a week
• 52:37
  you do it, how often you do it, But is that like your favorite
• 52:40
  time when you're in there brewing the beer?
• 52:43
  I mean, it, it is really rewarding.
• 52:45
  And yes, because it's, it's, it's the other days are more,
• 52:49
  you know, figuring out how to solve a problem or get a tax
• 52:52
  done. And brewing is, I know what I'm,
• 52:54
  you know, what needs to be done to, to get this, get this done.
• 52:57
  So it is, it is nice and straightforward.
• 53:00
  Yeah. And, and at the end of the day,
• 53:02
  nothing feels as good. I've always sorry, since we've
• 53:04
  opened, I've loved that feeling of turning out the brewery
• 53:06
  lights, walking out, you know, because usually the tap room is
• 53:08
  busy by then, you know, they're, they're starting to get going or
• 53:11
  whatever. And there's people over there
• 53:12
  enjoying and shut those lights out.
• 53:14
  And either welcome to the bar for beer or hurry home for a
• 53:18
  podcast. But obviously you've been doing
• 53:22
  it for a while, but from like, do you have, do you, do you have
• 53:25
  everything down like here? Here's the recipe.
• 53:28
  This is what I want. I know it can't be seamless like
• 53:32
  that all the time, right? Like just boom boom boom boom.
• 53:35
  No, and I mean it would be nice if it was even some of the
• 53:39
  things that, like I said, I I still change things from time to
• 53:42
  time just because that's what I do too.
• 53:45
  The 1 today was definitely one that it's, it's, it's a, a wheat
• 53:48
  beer that we've had on in some capacity since we opened as
• 53:52
  well. So it's something that was, it's
• 53:54
  dialed down and that it's, it's easy.
• 53:57
  You know, there's a lot of other ones that I might be trying
• 53:59
  something new or, you know, especially the lot we do in the
• 54:01
  cautions on the loggers or, you know, different techniques and
• 54:04
  stuff that we try can make things more difficult.
• 54:06
  But the one today is definitely cut and dry and got it done.
• 54:10
  Easy, rewarding. Boys said even even on the if
• 54:14
  it's a bad day, at the end of the day you're still just making
• 54:17
  beer. So that's right.
• 54:19
  How bad? How bad can your day be?
• 54:20
  Right at the end of the day, it has to be a real bad day for not
• 54:23
  to end with having made beer. Fiona.
• 54:28
  Yeah, Fiona. Fiona Batch 2 right Fiona's.
• 54:30
  Batch 2, Yeah, we have, we have a, we call it Fiona because it's
• 54:33
  an Apple Milkshake IPA. So Fiona Apple Milkshake IPA
• 54:38
  that we use and we've read that since the first year too, I
• 54:41
  think, and use Granny Smith apples or it's been different
• 54:44
  apples. Now it's Granny Smith apples
• 54:46
  that we Whirlpool to get to get the pectin like the original
• 54:50
  concept of the most Jake got PA to get some of the the pectin
• 54:53
  out of fruit to to add bad body. And that process over the years
• 54:57
  has that beer over the years has always been A and it it's always
• 55:01
  just been a problem. It finds way.
• 55:04
  It finds ways that so it finds it finds a way every year to to
• 55:08
  to make life difficult, it seems like.
• 55:10
  And I'm brewing the next Tuesday.
• 55:12
  So, well, it's this system we got to pan a dowel down, but.
• 55:16
  It's funny because you, you were talking about Streetside earlier
• 55:18
  and I feel like maybe this would be a beer that you all would do.
• 55:22
  The last time I was up there and I bought a four pack of this and
• 55:25
  I brought Scott one back and it was called, it's a sour fruit.
• 55:28
  It called this shit has bananas and basically it was packed with
• 55:32
  like bananas, Maple syrup, pancakes and it all came out
• 55:36
  well, like it, it felt like you were actually, you know, boom,
• 55:40
  boom, boom, boom, boom, having a pancake with syrup and bananas.
• 55:43
  And I just went man, you know, this thing is wild and but I but
• 55:47
  I absolutely loved it. And I feel like that's something
• 55:49
  that maybe maybe over the, over the over years you guys have
• 55:52
  done, you know, similar styles of that.
• 55:54
  We've done doughnuts. That was another thing that we
• 55:57
  started out with from that, the, the cidery that we talked about,
• 56:01
  they do cider doughnuts in the fall.
• 56:04
  And so we've we've done a a stout with the, the Donuts in
• 56:06
  the, in the Whirlpool. Blows everybody's minds.
• 56:11
  Yeah. And it's fun to do the release
• 56:13
  day and we put a doughnut on top of the glass.
• 56:15
  So you, you, you buy it for and it comes with a donut.
• 56:18
  We've had them here making Donuts out front live for a
• 56:21
  couple of times. That smells good.
• 56:22
  That is fun. Josh, anything wild coming from
• 56:27
  the food side? Things introducing anything new?
• 56:31
  Or well, we're getting ready. We got our beer of the week this
• 56:34
  week. Our featured beer is PB and J,
• 56:37
  what we call it PB sesh, peanut butter Jelly jam sesh.
• 56:41
  Sorry, jam session. Now today we did some peanut
• 56:45
  butter Jelly wings. I'm doing a peanut butter Jelly
• 56:47
  burger tomorrow. Nice.
• 56:49
  That sounds. Good, that'll be it then we've
• 56:51
  got our Saint Patty's Day coming up.
• 56:53
  We'll do some fun corn beef and coffee.
• 56:56
  Oh yeah. So do you have a background in,
• 56:59
  in, in, in in food or or food service or or or anything is?
• 57:03
  Just no. I work.
• 57:05
  Yeah. Eat a lot, eat a lot of food.
• 57:08
  I've always liked. I've always liked cooking.
• 57:10
  Yeah. Just came out, like through
• 57:11
  here. Just came out of necessity.
• 57:12
  We hired a a chef several years back, didn't work out.
• 57:17
  Then once he he moved on, I kind of shifted into that role and
• 57:22
  then took over there out of necessity.
• 57:24
  I guess the people get to call me a chef now.
• 57:27
  Josh, Josh, there's the Mrs. Burger officer.
• 57:34
  My dog got out of the yard, so I'm going to have good.
• 57:37
  Pop up here. Thanks for joining us, man.
• 57:39
  Yeah. Thanks for having.
• 57:40
  Great to meet you. You too you.
• 57:44
  Too we we wind up here, John, but quick question, but do you
• 57:46
  like to and maybe not even on purpose, but when you're in the
• 57:49
  tap room, it just kind of overhear people talking about
• 57:52
  the beer or the food or something.
• 57:54
  Is that kind of a cool? Like you didn't ask them if
• 57:56
  they're sitting there talking amongst themselves, they're
• 57:58
  hearing positive things. I mean, is that it's going to be
• 58:00
  a good feeling, right? It's still cool to go to.
• 58:02
  I'd still send pictures. When I go to tap houses and see
• 58:06
  even my friends beer on. It's like, I know the person
• 58:08
  that made that beer. I can text them.
• 58:13
  So yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, I mean, and it people are, you
• 58:16
  know, so nice and they, they, it is really cool to hear things
• 58:20
  like that and to go out in the community and hear things.
• 58:25
  It's still, like I said, the the best feeling is seeing your beer
• 58:28
  on the list somewhere, you know? Are you looking to distribute at
• 58:35
  at all, or? We distribute a little bit in
• 58:37
  South Carolina our it's just a matter of production capacity
• 58:44
  and storage space, you know the especially the cooler space for
• 58:48
  as far as how we can right now everything we send out, which is
• 58:51
  we just kind of send out a portion of each batch basically
• 58:54
  and it all, it all gets gone. So we don't really have a need
• 58:57
  to look for sitting at anywhere else yet.
• 59:01
  And you like that too, because you got that turnover.
• 59:03
  Now you can go make something else, right?
• 59:04
  If you're moving that one out, moving something else, I'm sure
• 59:06
  you've got something right behind it.
• 59:08
  That was definitely and that's from the get go was the idea was
• 59:11
  to try to turn them. It gets to you get into it and
• 59:14
  it's it you know it. There's definitely there's a
• 59:18
  cost that you don't think about. It's just creatively of coming
• 59:21
  up with a new period all the time and new names and, you
• 59:24
  know, a new, a new combination of the same 4 hops and, you
• 59:28
  know, put them in a, put them in a different order and change the
• 59:30
  label. And yeah, so, so constantly
• 59:35
  trying to come up with, with, you know, and, and every once in
• 59:37
  a while I'll get an idea that I get excited about and kind of go
• 59:39
  down rabbit holes of something new.
• 59:42
  So that's. I mean, do you feel like you've
• 59:44
  established a few like cornerstones that like we're
• 59:47
  always going to have this or we're always going to have this
• 59:49
  or we're always? Going to have this.
• 59:50
  Yeah. Even though originally we were
• 59:52
  like, you know, no, no flagships, you know, we don't
• 59:56
  want to be those kind of breweries has flagships.
• 59:57
  And now it's like we think there's definitely there's
• 59:59
  people that come in that want to have the same beer every time
• 1:00:02
  and they're disappointed if they don't have the same beer every
• 1:00:05
  time. They don't They don't want to
• 1:00:07
  spend that cost of trying something new and figuring it
• 1:00:09
  out. And, you know, it's finding what
• 1:00:10
  they like. They know what they like and
• 1:00:12
  they want to just come in and have a Lake Bowen.
• 1:00:14
  And so it's kind of becomes our job to make sure that that's
• 1:00:17
  available for them all the time. So there's the Lake Bowen is our
• 1:00:19
  number one. That's our it's now golden
• 1:00:21
  lager. It was golden ale when we
• 1:00:23
  opened. But it's evolved into something
• 1:00:26
  that we like drinking better than what we did.
• 1:00:28
  Then the other one's a Porter, Cole Porter, like a robust
• 1:00:34
  Porter on all the time. That actually came from a
• 1:00:37
  blueberry Porter that I made as a in at home brewing citrus, the
• 1:00:42
  cats or main IPA. We try to keep on all the time.
• 1:00:44
  And then we have variants it it was called that because my my
• 1:00:48
  cats previous, previous relationship, my cats were named
• 1:00:51
  Mosaic and Amarillo. So that beer is Citra, Mosaic
• 1:00:55
  and Amarillo. So Citra and the cats, which is
• 1:01:00
  has has developed into double the cats, as you know, is it
• 1:01:03
  when it was double dry hopped or, you know, cats in space with
• 1:01:06
  when you add a Galaxy or you know, whatever.
• 1:01:12
  So different, different variants based on that.
• 1:01:14
  But, and it has got the hazy IPA.
• 1:01:16
  We have a base that we like and we can change the hops and, you
• 1:01:19
  know, make a new beer pretty, pretty easily.
• 1:01:22
  The way you sell beer is the way I like to drink beer.
• 1:01:24
  I like those new ones every single time.
• 1:01:27
  If I could get it right, you know, and there's, and there's
• 1:01:29
  some that I like that I'll go back for, you know, multiple
• 1:01:31
  times if I can get a new one every single time.
• 1:01:33
  If I go to your place every day or every week and like, what's
• 1:01:36
  the new one? What, what do we got?
• 1:01:38
  That's what I want. We call that on the podcast.
• 1:01:40
  We call that market research. Well, that's what people all the
• 1:01:45
  time are like. How do you come up with beer
• 1:01:46
  ideas? And it's like, drink a lot of
• 1:01:48
  beer. I mean, that's.
• 1:01:48
  Drink a lot of beer. Yeah.
• 1:01:50
  And write it off on your taxes. It's a business.
• 1:01:55
  Expense. Yeah, I need to open it, Ellis.
• 1:01:57
  But kind of going back to the, but kind of going back to the
• 1:01:59
  original question though, like the core beers, it does seem
• 1:02:01
  like most breweries you go to now, they almost have like at
• 1:02:05
  least 4 on the same core beers that you see all the time.
• 1:02:09
  And then you know, bringing in new ones off and on and bringing
• 1:02:13
  some of the ones back that you know, throughout the year, maybe
• 1:02:15
  seasonals or releases or whatever.
• 1:02:17
  So. Yeah, I'm, I'm working on
• 1:02:19
  organizing our portfolio a little better that way with like
• 1:02:22
  a seasonal, a calendar just to make sure that I don't, you
• 1:02:26
  know, it's, it's, it's when you're doing new things all the
• 1:02:30
  time, it's really easy to, to kind of get, oops, Oktoberfest
• 1:02:33
  isn't ready in time because, you know, I was playing around with
• 1:02:36
  other stuff in the tank or whatever.
• 1:02:37
  So it's important to, to make sure that we schedule out the
• 1:02:40
  things that are expected at certain times.
• 1:02:42
  And doing that has helped me kind of look at some of the
• 1:02:45
  variants of things that we've made over the years and schedule
• 1:02:47
  those. And I, I think it'll be, it'll,
• 1:02:50
  I, I hope that I'm, it's going to help me to figured to, to
• 1:02:53
  kind of codify a new beer each quarter or month or whatever,
• 1:02:57
  you know, so we're keeping some fresh things moving through
• 1:02:59
  there as well. So other than your own event
• 1:03:02
  like Woodstock or can we find you anywhere?
• 1:03:04
  Are are you doing beer fest in the area or?
• 1:03:08
  Yep, we do. Well, we have the state Guild
• 1:03:10
  beer fest is that would be good to talk about that date real
• 1:03:14
  quick. This is coming up.
• 1:03:16
  We're, we're pretty active in our state Guild and have some,
• 1:03:21
  some things that the state needs to do better on.
• 1:03:24
  So it definitely helps us to, to when we're able to support the,
• 1:03:28
  the, the Guild and work together.
• 1:03:30
  That's coming up on the 21st of March.
• 1:03:32
  So that's, that's real soon down in Columbia.
• 1:03:34
  I think it's 150 S Carolina breweries all represented there.
• 1:03:37
  We have, we have regional, we've done collabs like regionally, so
• 1:03:40
  we did an upstate collab in Greenville that and each, each
• 1:03:44
  kind of region has, has one that may compete for the best, the
• 1:03:47
  best regional collab. So.
• 1:03:49
  Everybody, everybody gets lit and storms the.
• 1:03:53
  Capital or you know? What's Columbia?
• 1:03:56
  So anything can happen. We we know.
• 1:04:01
  Middle of the state down there. Yeah.
• 1:04:02
  So we that we have a couple other South Carolina beer fest
• 1:04:06
  coming up at at at local friends breweries.
• 1:04:08
  We always come to the one at Zool.
• 1:04:10
  I think we've been invited to that one next next fall already.
• 1:04:13
  We usually go to Moore's anniversary party up in Chicago
• 1:04:17
  because they're they're cool guys and have a good time up
• 1:04:19
  there and Festival of barrel aged Beer.
• 1:04:22
  We've been we haven't completely decided we're going to do this
• 1:04:25
  year. We've done the last two years,
• 1:04:25
  but it's something we've been we've kind of really enjoyed as
• 1:04:28
  far as as as we don't do a lot of the competitions anymore, but
• 1:04:31
  that's one that focuses on on a stop the like an area that we're
• 1:04:36
  pretty passionate about. So it's fun to see how it stacks
• 1:04:38
  up with that kind of stuff now. Where is that one?
• 1:04:41
  That's in Chicago. It's put on by the Illinois
• 1:04:43
  Craft Brewers Guild, but it's in in November and all all barrel
• 1:04:47
  aged beer. Different categories and a lot
• 1:04:50
  of fun. Do you ever get the GABF just as
• 1:04:53
  a consumer or or or to have a table at all?
• 1:04:56
  I haven't. I think it's, I mean, we've I've
• 1:04:58
  talked about it that it's kind of something that we probably
• 1:05:00
  should check off the list at some point, but have not Nope.
• 1:05:03
  We've done the Craft Brewers Conference a few times, which
• 1:05:06
  which is in conjunction with World Beer Cup when they have it
• 1:05:09
  every other year, but haven't done GABF.
• 1:05:11
  Did you come to Nashville? I guess CDC was here a couple of
• 1:05:13
  times. Were you here for those or
• 1:05:15
  either of them? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:05:17
  We. Twice, I think we we.
• 1:05:19
  Were just kind of get into we were beer drinkers, but we were
• 1:05:21
  just kind of get into this whole thing and the last, the second
• 1:05:23
  time it came here, I was like we're fucking we're missing the
• 1:05:26
  boat on this thing. I didn't realize.
• 1:05:27
  How big this? Thing is, right, we were like,
• 1:05:30
  we would jump around to different breweries and get, you
• 1:05:32
  know, guest taps that were in the town because of it.
• 1:05:35
  I think it was the first time we ever had like burial in
• 1:05:36
  Nashville's, you know, they had put some stuff.
• 1:05:38
  So we would jump around and do that.
• 1:05:40
  But then just seeing the degree of how big this thing was and
• 1:05:44
  all the cool stuff that was around it, like all right, they
• 1:05:47
  were come back here again. We're going to be right in the
• 1:05:48
  middle of it. Yeah, yeah, brings all the,
• 1:05:52
  brings all the cool stuff down, right.
• 1:05:54
  Influx of stuff, we got some distribution here, not even just
• 1:05:57
  that, but we'd like we some distribution lines opened up the
• 1:06:01
  first time it was here in Nashville just because of it.
• 1:06:04
  But stuff we could get like 3 Floyds was a good example that
• 1:06:06
  we couldn't get it at that time. And those distribution lines
• 1:06:09
  kind of opened up because of it. And we've had it since, which
• 1:06:11
  is, you know, yeah, so cool stuff like that.
• 1:06:15
  Well, guys, anything else for Jonathan?
• 1:06:17
  No, hey man, really, really cool of you to jump on with us, you
• 1:06:20
  and Josh both and really appreciate it and glad things
• 1:06:23
  are going well. Hate that I didn't get a chance
• 1:06:25
  to get over there. You know, the last couple
• 1:06:28
  months. I don't know, I'll find an
• 1:06:29
  excuse or I'll I'll just pack myself and Scott Suitcase when
• 1:06:33
  he goes over there. In April, Yeah, I.
• 1:06:36
  Wish we had some some beer to share that was.
• 1:06:38
  That'd be great. I I thought y'all need to come,
• 1:06:41
  are you? Judging are you?
• 1:06:44
  Are you doing a? Are you doing any marching arts
• 1:06:47
  stuff anymore? Yes, yeah, I, I, I judge a lot.
• 1:06:50
  I still active, especially this time of year indoor.
• 1:06:53
  I did a regional in Texas last weekend.
• 1:06:55
  I'm going to Ohio. That's how I'm hoping to see see
• 1:06:58
  Garrett St. side this weekend because I'm judging in Dayton on
• 1:07:02
  Saturday and Sunday. Yeah.
• 1:07:04
  I got you. Yeah.
• 1:07:05
  So we, we can edit this part out.
• 1:07:06
  We're going to nerd out. But yeah.
• 1:07:10
  Yeah. Jonathan, for for years and
• 1:07:12
  years after we aged out of the activity, he he taught very
• 1:07:15
  successfully with a bunch of groups.
• 1:07:17
  And then now he's moved on and and now he's judging the
• 1:07:19
  activity. So a good way to stay in touch.
• 1:07:22
  Yeah, it keeps keeps me involved in it without, you know, during
• 1:07:25
  the week is hard because of the brewery.
• 1:07:27
  And I tried, I tried to do some of that at the beginning and it
• 1:07:30
  just now it's, it's I can focus on the brewery during the week
• 1:07:33
  and we're staffed up in such a way that I can leave for the
• 1:07:36
  weekend and everything functions great.
• 1:07:39
  Yeah, no, that's awesome. That's a great way to stay
• 1:07:41
  involved. You know, at this point for me,
• 1:07:43
  I, you know, I kind of keep the books.
• 1:07:45
  I'm on the board of directors and then I don't get to
• 1:07:49
  participate or see a bunch of it anymore.
• 1:07:50
  But it's tough. You know, it is a strain.
• 1:07:54
  Yeah. I mean, as you know, it's a lot
• 1:07:56
  of time, but it's definitely a passion.
• 1:07:59
  I'm. Yeah.
• 1:08:00
  I'm glad you're staying involved.
• 1:08:01
  That's very cool. Do you still play and?
• 1:08:03
  I love that you we've. We're.
• 1:08:04
  Into it too. That's a.
• 1:08:05
  That's a great way, yeah. Good time.
• 1:08:08
  Good time, Yeah. That's good time.
• 1:08:09
  Yeah. We, we, it was well planned.
• 1:08:11
  We, we, we thought all about it. We knew exactly what we were
• 1:08:14
  doing. John, you still get the play,
• 1:08:15
  though, just like on your own. Just just a jam or anything,
• 1:08:18
  just not. Much I yeah, I do a little bit,
• 1:08:21
  but I'm actually kind of trying to learn banjo.
• 1:08:25
  I've got a got a banjo that I play around with.
• 1:08:28
  So yeah, all the the masterworks, all all those beers
• 1:08:31
  are named after Billy String songs.
• 1:08:32
  So that's, that's yeah, I've spent a lot of time listening to
• 1:08:36
  bluegrass now. Cool, we won't keep you.
• 1:08:39
  Man, really appreciate you taking the time and doing this
• 1:08:41
  and yeah, continued success for that thing and hope we get a
• 1:08:45
  chance to to catch up soon and and drink a beer in person.
• 1:08:48
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 1:08:49
  Y'all come see? Finna gets all the credit.
• 1:08:51
  Finna gets all the credit for having you guys on.
• 1:08:52
  He mentioned it and we're like, all right, let's, let's do that.
• 1:08:54
  So that's what we did. Very excited, always happy to,
• 1:09:00
  you know, talk to brewery owners and highlight breweries.
• 1:09:03
  And you know what the good thing is now?
• 1:09:06
  Now that we got, we lured you in, we'll have to have you on
• 1:09:08
  again sometime. Yeah, yeah, I can say y'all
• 1:09:10
  should come down to Woodstock and do a do a recording from
• 1:09:12
  there. We have a a local podcast that
• 1:09:14
  comes and interviews people throughout the day.
• 1:09:16
  I'll come come talk to people and would love to make something
• 1:09:20
  I don't. Usually have a whole lot going
• 1:09:21
  on in February, so it'd be a really good day, yeah.
• 1:09:25
  That's perfect, Yeah, as long as there's not a winter storm, you
• 1:09:28
  know, ice storm, you know, moving through that week.
• 1:09:32
  Yeah, we barely. Yeah, you just got it in.
• 1:09:33
  I mean, it was a week before, right?
• 1:09:35
  Yeah, that's. Why it didn't disrupt anything?
• 1:09:37
  Other than water, gas things. About you getting there to bring
• 1:09:40
  beer back for us, Chris, but. That's yeah, yeah.
• 1:09:45
  No, we appreciate it. Thanks for joining us on the
• 1:09:47
  Brewery Underground podcast. Yep.
• 1:09:49
  Thank you guys. Cheers man.
• 1:09:51
  Happy 4th. Cheers.
• 1:09:53
  Happy March 4th. Happy birthday, Steve.
• 1:09:55
  March 4th. March 4th. 4th.
• 1:09:58
  March 4th.