Latest / The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel / Hoppin’ Frog Brewery: Akron, Ohio Craft Beer, Barrel-Aged Beer & Turbo Shandies | Episode 85 Part 1

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Hoppin’ Frog Brewery: Akron, Ohio Craft Beer, Barrel-Aged Beer & Turbo Shandies | Episode 85 Part 1 · The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel

• 0:00
  Hey Scott, do you know how you can discover the best crap brews
• 0:03
  in Music City? I do Nashville brew pass.
• 0:06
  Bam, Nashville Brew Pass. Yes.
• 0:09
  And Steve, I'm up to 8 stamps in here already.
• 0:12
  You are rocking and rolling money.
• 0:13
  I'd have had a few more, I forgot it a couple of times, but
• 0:16
  I'll still go back and get them. That's right.
• 0:18
  So tell us all about what are some of the benefits of
• 0:22
  Nashville Brew Pass? Well, first, like I mentioned,
• 0:24
  when you go somewhere you get it stamped.
• 0:26
  You know, it's kind of a passport, right?
• 0:28
  Hey, I've been here. Secondly, there's a lot of
• 0:31
  bargains out there and I'll give you a couple of instances.
• 0:33
  Broadcast Brewing and Homegrown Tap Room out in Donaldson.
• 0:37
  Buy 1 pint, get one free. I know, can't beat that.
• 0:41
  Monday Night brewing, it's buy one, get it.
• 0:43
  Yes, we love Monday night. Love them.
• 0:45
  You you buy one and a free token for a beer.
• 0:48
  So you're getting a free beer there and then here's one of the
• 0:51
  best things and I think I just discovered this or it's been in
• 0:54
  here. If you go to Rice Vice and you
• 0:56
  have you and I have not been yet, you can get 20% off your
• 1:00
  first tab of proper sake at Rice Vice.
• 1:02
  How crazy is that? 20% off sake, I'm there.
• 1:06
  Yeah, I know we got to get over there because we've had a little
• 1:09
  bit of sake, but we've not had enough.
• 1:10
  We're going to, that's right. We're going to go get our 20%
• 1:12
  off. You can never have enough sake.
• 1:14
  Never. By the way, if you order one of
• 1:17
  these from nashvillebrewpass.com or go on their Instagram account
• 1:22
  and you use the Code Brewery Underground podcast, yes, you
• 1:25
  get $5 off 5. $5 off people, come on.
• 1:30
  I don't know why everybody doesn't have one.
• 1:31
  I know it. I love Nashville Brewpass.
• 1:34
  Again, go on Nashville brewpass.com, go on their
• 1:37
  Instagram page and get one of these.
• 1:39
  Yes, and it's free shipping all the time.
• 1:42
  Well, you can't beat free shipping.
• 1:43
  I've got a couple of things to help you.
• 1:45
  Remember to bring your Nashville Brewpass with you if you want to
• 1:49
  hear them. I.
• 1:49
  Have a feeling you do have some helpful tips?
• 1:51
  What are they? Right, because I've forgotten it
• 1:54
  a couple times and I regretted it.
• 1:55
  Yes, yes, everything I would suggest and it's a no brainer
• 1:59
  and pretty obvious, but keep it in the car.
• 2:01
  Keep. It in the car?
• 2:02
  Maybe in your glove compartment? Maybe in the glove compartment.
• 2:05
  That way you don't forget it at home, right?
• 2:08
  It's already with you. Here's another one, and this
• 2:11
  might be a little silly, but I think it could work.
• 2:14
  An accountability buddy. An accountability buddy?
• 2:17
  Yes, like a workout buddy. A workout buddy who was always
• 2:21
  going to remind you. That's right.
• 2:23
  To bring your brew pass with you and you know you designate it,
• 2:26
  maybe make it 3 or 4 people, who knows, but it can always make
• 2:29
  sure that you have your brew pass with you.
• 2:31
  Or make sure you just stick it in your hand.
• 2:34
  That also is helpful too as you're going out the door.
• 2:38
  Put it with your keys or your wall.
• 2:40
  That's right or something. So it's always there.
• 2:42
  Here's 1 and I think it'd be a little annoying, but it would.
• 2:44
  But I think it would be proven to work.
• 2:46
  You can set Siri up to remind you every time you leave the
• 2:50
  house. You can bring your natural brew
• 2:53
  pass. And then there is another thing
• 2:54
  that's cool. I actually looked this up today
• 2:56
  and I think it works. You can set a location reminder
• 2:58
  in your phone at any time you get near a brewery.
• 3:02
  It'll remind you bring your natural brew pass.
• 3:05
  I love that I may have to use that one.
• 3:09
  That could be a little dangerous too at the same time.
• 3:10
  That's right. Well, go on natural brewpass.com
• 3:14
  or go on their Instagram page now.
• 3:16
  Bam bam. I got some mood music going on.
• 3:53
  I used to play when I would brew by myself at like 5:00 or 6:00
• 3:57
  AM, I'd come into a formal brewery where I worked and I'd
• 4:00
  fire up the like, smooth jazz. So I'm listening to Down to the
• 4:04
  Bone right now, great beginning of the day kind of music.
• 4:09
  And then by the end of the day, back then, I'd be listening to
• 4:12
  Metallica, Yeah. Yeah, to set the tone for the
• 4:15
  day, right. And then you just work up into
• 4:17
  Metallica, right, Right. That's how it is, yes.
• 4:21
  That wasn't. I used to brew by myself at the
• 4:22
  one brewery that we were brewing at.
• 4:24
  Then there's another brewery where I had a assistant.
• 4:26
  We would play more normal music well.
• 4:28
  Awesome. Well, we are happy to kick off
• 4:31
  the Brewery on the Ground podcast and and we've been so
• 4:35
  excited. Scott and I have been about this
• 4:37
  episode coming out because we stopped at Hopping Frog in Akron
• 4:42
  in mid-May and tonight Scott, we have an All Star lineup from Hop
• 4:47
  and Frog. You want to do the introductions
• 4:49
  for us, my friend? Yes.
• 4:51
  So we've got Fred Carm, owner, Brewmaster still in the title.
• 4:55
  Yes, I see. We've got Zach Baston, Director.
• 4:59
  Do I get that right? Yes, Zachary and Zachary and
• 5:03
  John Humphrey, beer Ambassador, welcome guys.
• 5:06
  Hey, thanks for having us this. Is it's gonna be fun?
• 5:08
  Yeah. We had a we had a great visit.
• 5:10
  We didn't get to stay long enough because we're on our way
• 5:12
  to Cleveland, but we made sure we stopped at your brewery on
• 5:15
  the way up. Well, thanks.
• 5:16
  Appreciate that. Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna
• 5:18
  definitely talk about that. And I know right before we hit
• 5:20
  the record button, I know you had said Fred.
• 5:23
  You know, we got to start with a beer and I know you got a beer.
• 5:27
  Show us what you're show us what you're drinking tonight.
• 5:30
  So I busted this out first. This is our Hot Shots Zesty
• 5:34
  Pickle beer, which is tasty. We made this just for the Hot
• 5:38
  Shots people. It's available at the brewery
• 5:40
  too, but this is something that isn't really distributed at all.
• 5:43
  This is a real special beer that we do just locally and a lot of
• 5:47
  fun. Incorporates a lot of dill
• 5:49
  pickle flavor and a little bit of spice and it's light and easy
• 5:53
  drinking, so super fun. Great one to start the night
• 5:55
  with. Nice.
• 5:57
  Yeah, cheers to that. John, how about you?
• 5:59
  What are you drinking tonight? Right.
• 6:01
  Well, I am, I'm going for. And some say it's early.
• 6:05
  I don't care. I love this beer.
• 6:07
  I'll drink this beer Christmas time, summertime, Frank, if I
• 6:11
  have it, I'm drinking it. Yeah.
• 6:13
  Frogs Hollow Double Pumpkin Ale. It's a gold medal winner at the
• 6:16
  Great Great American Beer Festival.
• 6:18
  But so I started, first six years I worked, I started in the
• 6:21
  brewery. And I loved making this beer
• 6:23
  because we would mix all the spices together to put in the
• 6:26
  kettle and just the whole brewery would have this bouquet
• 6:29
  of spices. And it's just filled the air.
• 6:31
  And I've always loved that so. So it's always stuck with me,
• 6:34
  that beer. Is that tend to be a seasonal
• 6:36
  beer or do you guys just to release it kind of whenever?
• 6:38
  No, it's definitely a seasonal beer for the market, but I'll
• 6:41
  drink it whenever. I love pumpkin beer.
• 6:43
  It doesn't matter to me. If I like something, I'm gonna
• 6:46
  drink it. Why eat dessert?
• 6:49
  And I had that pumpkin beer. I'm looking on my on Tapped app
• 6:53
  right now. I had it November of last year.
• 6:57
  I picked it up in can here in Nashville.
• 6:59
  Nice. I really liked it.
• 7:00
  So yeah, really good beer. Right.
• 7:02
  Maybe we should do Halloween in March or Halloween in April,
• 7:06
  Yeah. Yeah, everything's all right.
• 7:08
  The seasons to beer ratio is completely backwards at this
• 7:11
  point. But I'm kind of like, I'm kind
• 7:13
  of like John at this point. If it's there like fresh beers
• 7:15
  now around, I'm like, just embrace it.
• 7:17
  Let's go, right? Yeah.
• 7:18
  What are you gonna do? You gonna do Zach what have you?
• 7:21
  Got. Yeah, I was gonna start a little
• 7:23
  more simple, but it is still delicious.
• 7:25
  Is our one of our newer ones actually is our hop and pilsner.
• 7:28
  We're not necessarily known for low alcohol beers, but I got to
• 7:33
  tell you what, having a tap room and needing a place where we
• 7:36
  can, someone could come and have more than two or three.
• 7:39
  But the hop and pills are comes in right now for just under 5%
• 7:43
  and it's super crisp and refreshing.
• 7:46
  A great way to start is what I'm feeling.
• 7:49
  That's that's great. And in this heat that we've had,
• 7:52
  we were just talking about look at that.
• 7:53
  That's beautiful. And this week we've had those
• 7:56
  are those beers are welcome. And and Zachary, yeah, I
• 7:58
  actually influenced Scott to get that on our trip when we went to
• 8:03
  Hop and Frog, because I had gotten that one on a flight and
• 8:07
  I'm drinking it. And I said, man, this is a
• 8:09
  really, really good pilsner. And I really enjoyed it.
• 8:12
  It stood out even more from some of the other Pilsners I've had
• 8:15
  maybe in recent time. And so Scott says I gotta get
• 8:18
  that one too. So it's always good to influence
• 8:20
  people, you know? Absolutely.
• 8:22
  Yeah, well, it was like I didn't get it on my flight.
• 8:24
  I had four others and then Steve said how good it was and I'm
• 8:27
  like, well, we're not leaving until I have it.
• 8:29
  I was like, we're getting, I don't care how long it takes to
• 8:32
  drink it, we're having it. It makes me feel so good because
• 8:35
  that wasn't at all our bailiwick, but we can make a
• 8:38
  damn good pilsner and think about it a little bit.
• 8:42
  Yeah, that's all right. Steve, what have you got?
• 8:44
  Well, guys, you know, we're about to kick off and I know
• 8:47
  we're in the early stages, I guess, of Oktoberfest season.
• 8:51
  And I found this in Cannes here in Nashville.
• 8:54
  It is the Hop and Frog Oktoberfest.
• 8:57
  Nice. Yeah, I am.
• 9:00
  I am a Oktoberfest guy. I I would love trying almost any
• 9:05
  variation of an Oktoberfest beer and this is the first one.
• 9:09
  In fact, I had it the other night and it was really good.
• 9:11
  But this is the first Oktoberfest beer that I've had
• 9:14
  from you guys and so great to kick off the season for it.
• 9:17
  Heck. Yeah, I can tell you something
• 9:19
  special about that. It's 100% German ingredients,
• 9:23
  which is pretty special. Yes.
• 9:24
  I'm fond of saying the only thing we couldn't bring in was
• 9:27
  the. Water want.
• 9:29
  To work on that. That would be a little more
• 9:31
  difficult. German, and it has, it has a
• 9:33
  cool flavour because of that traditional flavour.
• 9:36
  You know that malt that they have over there is different.
• 9:38
  Story about that beer that Steve's drinking right now.
• 9:41
  Couple years ago, group of our friends got together and we did
• 9:44
  a blind tasting on nothing but Oktoberfest beers.
• 9:46
  We had 18 different beers, so everybody just brought different
• 9:49
  things and I'm not kidding. That beer one in a blind test,
• 9:53
  multiple rounds, that beer one out.
• 9:56
  Wow, yes. I believe.
• 9:58
  It Yeah. Wow, that's awesome.
• 9:59
  It did, and there were some other beers in there and I have
• 10:03
  them on my list here. Like I Anger or Steiner was in
• 10:06
  there. Really.
• 10:07
  Yeah, it's like my absolute favorite.
• 10:09
  I just love angers. Yep, they were Hacker, Shore,
• 10:13
  Shiner, Polliner, and even Sam Adams was in that blind tasting.
• 10:17
  So to win in a blind is even better.
• 10:20
  I think you don't know what you're getting.
• 10:21
  To be fair, we probably charge more for ours than most of the
• 10:24
  other people because we don't skimp on any ingredients.
• 10:29
  So that's wonderful that we could actually win that blind
• 10:31
  tasting. It makes me feel good.
• 10:32
  It's kind of it's justifying for what we do because we use more
• 10:37
  ingredients than most people. You end up getting more flavor
• 10:39
  than most people, but also more cost.
• 10:41
  And I, I love them. So I we don't stop.
• 10:44
  But yeah, there's sometimes when we wish we could be more cost
• 10:47
  effective. But when you win contests, when
• 10:49
  you beat 18 other Oktoberfest, including a anger.
• 10:53
  Oh my. God, Yep.
• 10:55
  It's like the leading one from Germany in my book.
• 10:57
  Yep. And like I said, multiple
• 10:58
  rounds. So it was, it was, it wasn't a
• 11:01
  it wasn't a fluke. You ran the gauntlet and you
• 11:04
  won. Wow thank you man it makes me
• 11:06
  feel good. You made my night.
• 11:08
  Absolutely. Thanks for sharing.
• 11:09
  That's great. We were gonna talk about
• 11:11
  Oktoberfest beer at some point during his podcast.
• 11:15
  Since we're doing it now, it kind of evokes some other
• 11:18
  questions. We talk about this all the time.
• 11:21
  What do you guys think about Oktoberfest season?
• 11:25
  This seems like it starts earlier and earlier every year.
• 11:28
  I mean, are you in on it? Like you know, it's driven by
• 11:32
  the marketplace. I would love to know what you
• 11:35
  guys thoughts on are. Well, it's definitely driven by
• 11:37
  the marketplace. Yeah.
• 11:39
  I mean, yeah, I mean, everybody wants to get out there first.
• 11:44
  I think that that's where where that all started.
• 11:46
  So distributors are wanting to get it so they can get on the
• 11:49
  store shelves first before the other other guys do.
• 11:52
  And so now it's just kind of expected.
• 11:54
  I mean, I think the benefit the consumer gets maybe a little bit
• 11:58
  longer period of that product, but some of them get a little
• 12:01
  upset too when they see it on the shelf and it's July.
• 12:04
  Yeah, yeah, it's there's always something to be said.
• 12:07
  We always say something about it.
• 12:08
  Meanwhile I go get. It right, right.
• 12:10
  Exactly. Exactly.
• 12:11
  So it's kind of nice to have it come out like a month earlier
• 12:13
  than you'd expect and then you have an opportunity to buy it a
• 12:15
  second time. That's kind.
• 12:16
  Of yeah, I guess my only the downside of that is if it goes
• 12:19
  away too quickly and it's still the middle of even October, if
• 12:23
  it, if it lasts that long, that's kind of the downside of
• 12:25
  it. But I'm not going to sit there
• 12:26
  and let it sit on the shelf. I'm going to get it.
• 12:28
  I'm going to drink it. Yeah, I mean, as a brew that
• 12:31
  does a lot of different styles of beer, do you do you feel like
• 12:35
  the style of Oktoberfest? There's a lot of people that are
• 12:38
  coming in and this time of the year they are expecting it.
• 12:41
  And if they're not seeing it, they're walking away
• 12:43
  disappointed. So you got it's consumer demand,
• 12:45
  right? Oh.
• 12:46
  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you definitely got to have
• 12:49
  it. I credit Sam Adams, ultimately.
• 12:51
  There you go, they. Were the ones that always seem
• 12:53
  to have it out first they. They paved the way for us.
• 12:56
  I have great respect for people like them and the close local,
• 13:00
  the one that did that for us is Great Lakes.
• 13:02
  You know, they've been around for I think 35 years.
• 13:04
  Got to throw them respect every time I can, man, cuz they, they
• 13:07
  paved the way for us. They were charging more than,
• 13:10
  you know, that anyone had ever charged for beer before.
• 13:12
  It was really awesome and tons of flavor and we just we took it
• 13:15
  to the next level. Wendy, you guys, cuz you know,
• 13:17
  like I said, I obviously saw this in a beer store.
• 13:20
  In fact, I was just South of me. I live South of Nashville and I
• 13:24
  went on a beer and liquor store about a week ago and I was on
• 13:28
  their Facebook page. I'm like, you have any Hop and
• 13:30
  Frog down there? And like we absolutely do.
• 13:32
  And I walked in and they had several different variations.
• 13:34
  But when I saw that Oktoberfest, I said this is going to be
• 13:37
  perfect for the podcast you. Made a beeline right for it.
• 13:42
  You had to. I had to.
• 13:43
  When do you start sending out cans of Oktoberfest?
• 13:47
  During the year that. 'D be exactly a question,
• 13:49
  probably, right? That's in July.
• 13:51
  Yeah, Can you believe it? It's hard to believe.
• 13:55
  Yes. I mean, it's just cuz when you
• 13:56
  think about the, the, the timeline, you know, from when it
• 13:59
  gets picked up from us and then gets to the distributor and then
• 14:01
  the time they get to the stores and then till it gets on the
• 14:04
  shelves. I mean, there is a little bit of
• 14:05
  a, a time frame in which all that needs to happen.
• 14:08
  So that ensures, you know, an August shelf date.
• 14:11
  But some are a little faster than others.
• 14:13
  So yeah. Do you, do you have to start
• 14:17
  brewing that in March or can you wait a little later for that?
• 14:19
  Or do you just go ahead and get it out of the way as early as
• 14:22
  possible? No, we do it a little.
• 14:24
  I do, you know, it's funny. I knew you're probably going to
• 14:27
  ask when do we start brewing that like off the top of my
• 14:29
  head, I don't remember. I feel it's it's a little later
• 14:31
  than March, though. I do know that.
• 14:32
  You don't have to storm the loggering tunnels anymore,
• 14:35
  right? You've got, we've got technology
• 14:37
  now where we don't do that right, Right.
• 14:39
  No tunnels involved, right? Yeah. 300 years ago, yeah.
• 14:44
  And I know there's so many breweries out there, they do a
• 14:46
  lot of different special Oktoberfest events, you know,
• 14:49
  maybe once a year. Do you guys do anything for like
• 14:52
  that or or is it just more, hey, here it is, you know, here it is
• 14:55
  in our tap room and enjoy the Oktoberfest during the season.
• 14:58
  That's what we don't do an event around, yeah.
• 15:01
  It's more of just enjoy it for the whole season.
• 15:03
  Yep. Yeah, it's been a long time.
• 15:05
  We, we do other large events around other beers that have
• 15:09
  kind of developed a cult following around the brewery and
• 15:11
  then beyond Oktoberfest, I think it was a long time ago.
• 15:15
  We, we, we had like a, a German band, like a polka band come in
• 15:18
  and, and all that. We did it like one or two years
• 15:21
  and it was fine. A certain group of, you know,
• 15:24
  people had fun. But yeah, we've, we've moved on
• 15:26
  to some other crazy parties that we have throughout the year.
• 15:29
  Well, there's. Already a lot of German type
• 15:31
  festivals around here too, which I think is, I mean, heck, we all
• 15:35
  go to them. So I mean it's like, you know,
• 15:36
  at that point it's like, hey here, just come and enjoy our
• 15:39
  beer, enjoy the food and you know, at your leisure.
• 15:42
  Don't feel like you got to come on a certain day to be able to
• 15:45
  have fun. As we like to say, it's a it's a
• 15:47
  festival at the brewery every day.
• 15:49
  Yeah, so let's just. Celebrate every day.
• 15:53
  Yeah, we're throwing a beer fest every day.
• 15:55
  Yep. Well, my check in tonight of
• 15:57
  Oktoberfest certainly is hog some conversation, but we
• 16:01
  haven't found out yet what Scott is drinking, so we've got to
• 16:04
  ask. Him.
• 16:04
  I was waiting for an opportunity and I found these today that.
• 16:07
  Can good? What is that?
• 16:08
  Plum with my camera. I can't see man.
• 16:11
  Plum Tucker. Wow.
• 16:13
  Double, Double Porter, Yeah, 18.8% and what's great, and
• 16:18
  maybe it's the only way it's served, it's in like an 8 1/2
• 16:21
  ounce can, yes, right, yeah, Yep.
• 16:23
  Like look. At the 8.
• 16:24
  News. It's a tiny little thing, It's.
• 16:26
  Awesome. Perfect.
• 16:26
  It's a personal serving, even though it's.
• 16:29
  And for that ABV, you know you don't need 16 ounces
• 16:31
  necessarily, although I did get coarse that looks.
• 16:36
  Well, that's barrel aged. You've got a rare.
• 16:38
  You've got a rare can there. That's a great beer.
• 16:40
  Oh yeah, we don't make the barrel age version of that every
• 16:44
  year. That's a golden.
• 16:45
  Ticket. I'm going back to get.
• 16:47
  The rest of them? I love it.
• 16:49
  It's like Willy Wonka there. That's right.
• 16:51
  Well, I love them because they're all these smaller cans.
• 16:53
  And then I got a Taurus the Tyrant.
• 16:56
  I got that. One, yeah.
• 16:57
  You know another small can. Here's another one to not to
• 17:01
  jump too far, but to add to your collection and keep an eye out
• 17:03
  for but. Oh yeah.
• 17:05
  No sextuple. Yeah.
• 17:08
  What is that? Is that a triple?
• 17:09
  No, OK, It's not a triple. It's not a quad.
• 17:13
  It's a quintuple. It's a sex tuple.
• 17:15
  Duh. Yeah.
• 17:17
  So imagine a super quad. A super.
• 17:19
  Quad. I mean it's just 16.4% quite
• 17:24
  easy drinking. But again, another one of these
• 17:25
  light these nice single serving cans.
• 17:29
  I love this been popular. So those you guys been keeping
• 17:32
  up with the frog, but we actually coined the pentupple.
• 17:36
  We got to a point where we won a bronze medal with it, the GABF
• 17:40
  followed by a gold medal. So we can confidently say that
• 17:44
  we've made a a great example of what would be considered a
• 17:47
  Belgian beer, but they haven't made it yet because they've
• 17:50
  made-up to the quadruple. Well, we made a pentuple and
• 17:52
  we've we've won some of the best medals now, so we're super
• 17:55
  excited about that. Our head Brewer Lee was the one
• 17:58
  that suggested, hey, I think it's time for sex tuple.
• 18:01
  I said, oh, no way, you kidding me?
• 18:03
  Then I looked, I'm like, man, it's been like 6 or 7 years
• 18:05
  since we released the pen tuple. Let's do it.
• 18:07
  Yeah, their pattern, just like the Belgians do.
• 18:11
  So every odd numbered 1 is going to be a lighter, more hop
• 18:15
  forward one. This being sextuple, it's rich
• 18:19
  and and thick and delicious. You know, you know, there's a
• 18:22
  lot of, there's obviously a lot of competition out there to win
• 18:26
  these awards with other breweries.
• 18:28
  I mean, what does this mean for you guys?
• 18:30
  I mean, you've been at it since about 2006.
• 18:32
  What does it mean for you in this in this age, you know, to
• 18:36
  keep winning awards? It means the world because it's
• 18:39
  such competition now it's harder and harder to prove yourself
• 18:43
  that you can point to the medals you had before, but it's only
• 18:46
  about the the ones you won recently, which kind of bums me
• 18:49
  out because I haven't entered the last couple years, but we
• 18:51
  haven't entered the last couple years.
• 18:52
  But as it turns out, the GABF is changing.
• 18:55
  So I don't know if as many people are entering anymore,
• 18:58
  things are changing. Well, let's to prove ourselves
• 19:01
  differently now. What was your question are?
• 19:03
  You going to GABF this year? No, no, just try to go every few
• 19:06
  years or just when the mood strikes you.
• 19:08
  We don't have a plan. We we decided not to do it last
• 19:11
  year or this year. We're focusing on other growth
• 19:14
  aspects in the business. Nice way to put it, nice way to
• 19:17
  spin it. There you go.
• 19:19
  Well, you guys just celebrated 19 years in business.
• 19:23
  I have that right 19 you just had a.
• 19:25
  Let me think 19's coming up September 1st.
• 19:28
  September 1st OK, so we're kind of, we're all coming up on it.
• 19:30
  I know when we were at the at the brewery, they were saying it
• 19:32
  was coming up and I figured maybe it had to happen to her.
• 19:34
  So we're, I mean, you're just weeks away from 19 years.
• 19:37
  How? How are you guys going to
• 19:38
  celebrate that? I have a massive celebration.
• 19:40
  I guess that'd be the 20th year, but the 19th?
• 19:43
  We should do something, huh? I mean, we always do things like
• 19:45
  food specials. We'll break out tons of
• 19:47
  different beers. We'll probably do like 6 vintage
• 19:50
  beers that we'll get out. We'll tap 3 at the beginning of
• 19:53
  the week, 3 towards the end of the week, and we'll make make it
• 19:56
  some of the best ones that we have.
• 19:57
  We have such a stash now after being open for 19 years, man,
• 20:01
  you look at the list, it's like you start salivating, like, Oh
• 20:04
  my gosh, yeah, what are we going to tap up?
• 20:06
  So it's really fun to be us when it comes to anniversary weeks
• 20:10
  and stuff like that. Can you do a 19 tuple?
• 20:13
  Is that a thing? I don't know what's the what's
• 20:15
  the thing for 19? I don't know, right?
• 20:19
  And when you get someone for your 19th anniversary, you know
• 20:21
  it's. Yeah, right.
• 20:22
  Is that diamond? No.
• 20:23
  Yeah. I don't know.
• 20:24
  I don't know what that is. Beer.
• 20:25
  I just let's go with beer. Right.
• 20:28
  What do things look like and when you when you go all the way
• 20:31
  back now to 2006 when you opened, what do things look like
• 20:36
  back then for your brewery? You can almost do no wrong.
• 20:38
  You'd put product out there and you know, unless it was shitty,
• 20:42
  people loved it. Lucky for us, we don't have any
• 20:44
  of those problems. As I asked distributors, they
• 20:46
  would often times say yes. Now they laugh in your face.
• 20:49
  Yeah, it's really hard to get distributor ships now, whereas
• 20:51
  before they were interested. It was cool.
• 20:54
  It was so different back then. I like to tell people when I got
• 20:57
  my license in Ohio, I was #40 now there's 440 or there were at
• 21:01
  the beginning of the year, and there's probably more now.
• 21:03
  So it's really changed quite a bit.
• 21:06
  Fred, when you emailed us last, you said that these guys had
• 21:09
  been with you at least 10 years or over 10 years each of them.
• 21:12
  That's got to be a testament to the work environment.
• 21:16
  You know your Co workers what you guys are doing and you guys
• 21:19
  talked to that for being there for 10 years and kind of what
• 21:22
  what that means to you guys. Yeah, I mean, I guess I can, I
• 21:25
  can go first. Yeah, it's been, I mean,
• 21:27
  obviously we're, you know, when we started brewery was, oh gosh,
• 21:32
  four or five years old, kind of starting to grow.
• 21:35
  And, you know, Fred was, I've been doing a lot of it himself
• 21:38
  and was, you know, brought us on board and always took great care
• 21:42
  of us, you know, and was a great teacher, great motivator,
• 21:46
  learned a lot. We had a lot of fun.
• 21:48
  We worked hard though, too. Don't it's not like home
• 21:51
  brewing. I guess I should say that.
• 21:52
  Now, the disclaimer, it's not like home brewing where you come
• 21:56
  in, you set up, you start the, you know, start getting things
• 21:58
  going and then you just drink all day.
• 22:00
  And at the end of the day, you do knockout and you go home and
• 22:03
  you leave a mess in your kitchen or garage or wherever you're
• 22:06
  doing it. It's not quite like that.
• 22:08
  So there's a little adjustment there.
• 22:10
  No, but yeah, no. And it's just it's been a great,
• 22:13
  it's been awesome to be part of it.
• 22:16
  And like I said, I mean, you know, when we started out, there
• 22:19
  was only a handful of us. We had lunch together every
• 22:22
  single day. Fred treated us.
• 22:25
  Heck, are, you know, still, as it sounds, our brewery has air
• 22:28
  conditioning. So you're not there on the
• 22:30
  summer. You're not like, you know,
• 22:31
  sweating so bad you don't want to go in.
• 22:33
  You know, we just we looked forward to going to work every
• 22:36
  day because we got to do what we enjoyed to do, which was make
• 22:39
  great beer. And then when you see, when you,
• 22:43
  when you're out and about and you see something that you were
• 22:45
  part of at a bar or you hear someone talking about it that
• 22:48
  doesn't know who you are, I mean, it just makes it that much
• 22:51
  even that much better. So it's been, it's been awesome.
• 22:54
  It's been, it's been great. Obviously there's been lots of
• 22:57
  ups and downs in the industry, heck in the world in general.
• 23:01
  And Fred's been more than accommodating and helpful in all
• 23:04
  our various situations. And I just, I can't say thanks
• 23:07
  enough for, for the opportunities that have been
• 23:09
  presented to myself. And I'm, I don't want to speak
• 23:12
  for John, but I, I think in general, that's how the majority
• 23:15
  of our, our team that's been around.
• 23:17
  I mean, we've been here 14 plus years and we've got another
• 23:21
  round of folks that we kind of had hired in what, probably 10
• 23:24
  years or so ago. And we're like a family, you
• 23:26
  know, we've had a few people come and go as life does for
• 23:31
  various reasons, but most of them we stay in touch and
• 23:34
  communicate with and see them out and things like that.
• 23:37
  So like I said, it's like been a big family we've built and
• 23:40
  Freddy's been the leader of it all.
• 23:42
  That's nice to hear you feel that way.
• 23:43
  Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
• 23:47
  John, what about you? Yeah, it's, it's kind of
• 23:49
  interesting how I got started and why I never left.
• 23:52
  So when I was going to college, I went to college when I was
• 23:55
  older, right? So I didn't even start till I
• 23:57
  was 25. And I had a there was this place
• 24:01
  across the street from where I lived in Akron, because I went
• 24:04
  to the University of Akron, much like Fred and Zachary there.
• 24:07
  There was a store called the West Point Market and they had
• 24:12
  Hop and Frog beer in these 22 ounce bottles.
• 24:14
  And I was like, what is this? And back then this is 2000 and
• 24:19
  nine, 2010 somewhere in there I'm like, what is this, you know
• 24:22
  it barrel aged. Boris the Crusher.
• 24:24
  OK, I'll give it a try, you know, and I'm like, I love this
• 24:27
  stuff. So around that time, around
• 24:29
  2010, I started dating my wife who had already knew about Hop
• 24:32
  and Frog because of the she loved the the Raspberry beer
• 24:37
  that Fred made a long time ago. And we don't make it anymore.
• 24:41
  But she got me into Hop and Frog and I graduated college.
• 24:45
  I was about to go to grad school.
• 24:46
  She's like, why don't you go and see if they need help?
• 24:48
  Like, you know what, you're right.
• 24:49
  I mean, because I'm always having people over.
• 24:51
  I'm always doing beer dinners at my house, bringing in new beers
• 24:54
  for people to try. I just, I fell in love with the
• 24:57
  beer industry back then because it was exploding with flavor,
• 24:59
  right? I grew up watching my dad drink
• 25:01
  in Old Milwaukee's Best. And then, you know, you
• 25:05
  transition to all of these stouts and then Hop and Frog
• 25:09
  doing barrel age beers and I was like, Dang, this is really cool.
• 25:12
  So I went in and nobody was there except for I believe her
• 25:17
  name was Brenda who was there from the beginning has helped
• 25:19
  Fred out. I bought some beers from the
• 25:20
  cooler that the one cooler they had came back another day and I
• 25:24
  met Fred's dad because Fred was running around busy.
• 25:27
  They were bottling and doing a bunch of stuff.
• 25:29
  And so I talked to Fred's dad for about 20 minutes left.
• 25:33
  Then he called me on the phone. Hey, why don't you come back for
• 25:36
  an interview? And I never looked back.
• 25:39
  I didn't know a lot about the mechanics of brewing.
• 25:43
  But like I, if anyone ever asked me if you're willing to go into
• 25:46
  a place and just do whatever they say, sweep the floor, take
• 25:49
  this over there, do this, do that.
• 25:50
  If you just listen to people and get every opportunity you can to
• 25:53
  help somebody, eventually they'll teach you things.
• 25:57
  And eventually our head Brewer Lee was like, yeah, I guess I
• 26:00
  could work with him, because if you ever met Lee, that's a
• 26:02
  compliment. That that's a compliment, all
• 26:04
  right? He's not going to go pat you on
• 26:06
  the back and say, hey, doing a great job.
• 26:08
  He's like, yeah, I don't mind him.
• 26:09
  So great guy. He'll bend over backwards for
• 26:13
  you. But that's kind of how Lee is.
• 26:15
  And I just fell in love with it. I would and I never left.
• 26:18
  And I don't want to re state everything Zachary said, but it
• 26:21
  feels like a family. We take care of each other.
• 26:23
  We have a common goal and we love what we do.
• 26:26
  So when that happens, whether it's the good is great and the
• 26:29
  bad isn't so bad, right? Because oh, you're all there
• 26:32
  working together to make it happen.
• 26:33
  Unique. Goal we have I like to describe
• 26:36
  it as ultimately we're selling fun, right?
• 26:39
  Because all this is fun, you know you drink these crazy
• 26:41
  beers. Oh what are you drinking?
• 26:42
  I'm drinking this re repeat 3X we made with Pete from from
• 26:46
  Pete's Wicked Ale. Look at that.
• 26:48
  Is it fun or what? It is fun.
• 26:50
  Yes, yeah. Just selling fun.
• 26:53
  Yeah, I think the thing that stood out when we came in in
• 26:56
  mid-May and we stopped in there and we were there for like an
• 26:58
  hour and a half because we weren't going up to Cleveland.
• 27:01
  And we did go to Great Lakes. You mentioned them earlier.
• 27:03
  We had a great time there too. And I love the variation of beer
• 27:09
  on your tap list. I mean, it was tremendous.
• 27:11
  I mean, I know I'm looking at my flight that I had and I got, you
• 27:15
  know, the Gangster Frog IPA, the Hoppin Pilsner, the Kicking
• 27:19
  BlackBerry Turbo Shandy Citrus Ale, which I really loved, and
• 27:23
  also the Smashing Honey Blonde. And so everything I got, I mean,
• 27:26
  I one of them, I think I'm going for a variation here today.
• 27:29
  And every single one of them, you know, were really fantastic.
• 27:33
  And the thing I'm curious about when you first started, Fred,
• 27:36
  how many beers did you start out with?
• 27:37
  I. Think it was four and one of
• 27:40
  them was made as a blend from two of the ones that we were
• 27:43
  making. The IPA and the stout blend them
• 27:45
  together and made night, you know black and tan.
• 27:48
  So when we opened the doors we had 4 beers.
• 27:50
  Did you have a goal set at in in your mind?
• 27:53
  Do you have a goal where in a year from now I want to double
• 27:56
  the amount of beer that I'm doing or five years from now,
• 28:00
  what was what was your goal for that or did you have one?
• 28:02
  My goal was to make sure that I didn't lose my house, which I
• 28:05
  had put on the line. That was my ultimate goal.
• 28:08
  Yeah, everything's centered around that, right?
• 28:11
  Make sure I had enough income. I put beer in my trunk and I was
• 28:13
  delivering it everywhere. I was calling everyone, doing
• 28:16
  everything I could to make sure I had enough income.
• 28:19
  That was the goal. Did the shanties and rattlers
• 28:21
  come later, or is that part of your vision too when you first
• 28:24
  started? Because they're a big part of
• 28:25
  your business. In 2009 we had a couple events
• 28:29
  at our place and at those events we had a light, easy drinking
• 28:34
  beer base that I used for a fruit beer.
• 28:38
  And where did it start? Might have been me, but we
• 28:41
  decided to stir in country time lemonade into that for the
• 28:45
  party. And everyone liked it so much.
• 28:47
  They're like, well, you got to sell this like, well, I can't
• 28:49
  sell that exactly, but I'll bet you I, I bet you I can develop
• 28:52
  that by the looking at the ingredients on the list and
• 28:55
  saying, well, the biggest ones right there, it's the first one.
• 28:57
  I mean, I got to start with that and put a bunch in this beer and
• 29:00
  see how much else other things I need.
• 29:02
  That's where I started. I was able to reverse engineer
• 29:05
  country time Lemonade by looking at the first five ingredients.
• 29:09
  That's how I built the flavors in the in the shandy.
• 29:12
  It's such a big, it seems like it's such a big deal for you
• 29:15
  guys. The shanty, that turbo shanty,
• 29:18
  is that a baseline for a lot of the other ones too?
• 29:20
  Is that Turbo the one that's kind of the baseline for all the
• 29:22
  others or a lot of the others? Yeah, yeah, it's a baseline for
• 29:26
  about 15 beers we do right now, including some that even don't
• 29:29
  say shandy and they just, you know, supersede shandy.
• 29:32
  They, yeah, they're, they're better in shandy in a way, like
• 29:35
  the pineapple upside down cake. Not a lot of people know that,
• 29:38
  but that's the shandy base. OK.
• 29:39
  But when you taste that, you're like, Gee, it tastes.
• 29:41
  Like I've had that one, yes. It's really good.
• 29:44
  Yes. Yeah, I had the recently, as a
• 29:48
  matter of fact, somebody shipped it to us.
• 29:49
  The peanut butter and Jelly. There you go.
• 29:51
  Yeah, Zachary's got it. Zachary's got a whole cooler and
• 29:55
  stuff, right? There I can't prepare.
• 29:56
  We'll talk about the beer, and Zachary just pulled it up.
• 29:58
  Yeah, I got one right here. Yeah, you were talking about
• 30:01
  that. Scott and I both had the peanut
• 30:03
  butter and Jelly turbo shandy. I'm very fascinated because we
• 30:07
  were just at a brewery last night that had a PB and J beer
• 30:11
  and there's a lot of different breweries now that are all
• 30:14
  catching on to that. Do you think this is a phase or
• 30:17
  do you think it's here to stay with the PB and J type
• 30:21
  collaboration beers? I think those type of beer ideas
• 30:25
  are here to stay, but is there like a trend where there would
• 30:28
  be a PBJ for a while and then it'll go away?
• 30:30
  I don't know. I'll bet you people always be
• 30:31
  making that. It's like the, you know, some of
• 30:34
  these traditional flavors that people make.
• 30:36
  That seems traditional to me. What do you guys think?
• 30:38
  I think it's fascinating, you know, I think it's fascinating
• 30:41
  because it just, it seems like it just caught on maybe in like
• 30:44
  the last two years or so, at least in this area that I've
• 30:47
  kind of noticed. People are learning how to make
• 30:49
  these flavors that they really love from their childhood in a
• 30:51
  way, yeah. Yeah.
• 30:52
  I mean, you don't really know. I mean, there's, there's peanut
• 30:56
  butter beers out there that seem to stick and some that don't.
• 30:59
  And I think it could be very likely that you'll have peanut
• 31:02
  butter and Jelly beers around for a while, but only the good
• 31:05
  ones will stick around, right? Because if you get something
• 31:08
  that, and I'm sure you guys have experienced it, if it tastes
• 31:11
  like a novelty item, you do it once and you'll never do it
• 31:14
  again. You're like, OK, I did it, I'm
• 31:15
  done. I barely got through it.
• 31:17
  But if it tastes good, you'll come back to it.
• 31:19
  And I, so I think, I mean, I don't think they're going to
• 31:21
  dominate the market, but I think that there's a place for them
• 31:23
  and if they're done right, I think people enjoy that, that
• 31:25
  kind of stuff, you know? Yeah, and when they taste
• 31:28
  exactly like they say, that's a big thing, like like in this
• 31:31
  area, and you guys may have heard of them, is Zul XUL out of
• 31:34
  Knoxville do that PB and J, the mixtape PB and J.
• 31:37
  Yes, I haven't had it, but I've heard of it.
• 31:39
  Yes. That's it.
• 31:40
  That set the world, at least set this area on fire with the PB
• 31:43
  and JS and Southern Grist was doing 1 and now everybody's got
• 31:46
  one. And they just seem to be the, at
• 31:48
  least in this area, kind of the leader in that, you know, now
• 31:50
  they've done Peach and blueberry and grape and strawberry, and
• 31:54
  there are variations of it. I think you're right because
• 31:57
  they're so good. I think they'll be around for a
• 31:59
  while. And I've said this to Scott a
• 32:00
  few times, they're not often, but every once in a while, maybe
• 32:03
  it's, you know, everything is subjective when it comes to
• 32:05
  beer. You go and you get one, you're
• 32:07
  thinking maybe maybe this is just flight worthy for me.
• 32:10
  Maybe it's a little bit too sweet, a little overpowering,
• 32:13
  and maybe I just rather have it on a flight rather than a 16
• 32:16
  ounce can. And I think that I don't think
• 32:18
  that's a bad thing because I think that enhances your
• 32:21
  experience, experience and maybe want more in the future.
• 32:23
  You know exactly what you want. And I've said this before with
• 32:26
  some beers, it's kind of like going into a restaurant and
• 32:31
  ordering a dessert and you're going, yeah, I got that molten
• 32:34
  lava cake that I'm gonna order for dessert.
• 32:36
  But after I get about half of it done, I'm like, all right,
• 32:38
  that's enough for me for. Tonight, Yeah, everything from
• 32:42
  like cinnamon roll to like you said, chocolate cake or brownies
• 32:45
  or anything. It's it's, it's all good stuff,
• 32:47
  but sometimes it can be rich. Right, right.
• 32:49
  And that goes back to those little cans that you've got.
• 32:52
  Yes, right. You know, if you give it to
• 32:55
  people in the proper portion size, you know, then they're not
• 32:58
  overwhelmed by it. Yeah, that's right.
• 32:59
  And they'll get drunk after they finish.
• 33:01
  They're not completely drunk when they finish the 16 ounce
• 33:03
  can. Like this little one?
• 33:04
  This re 3X it's only 15.6%, but it's also only 8 1/2 oz so no.
• 33:11
  Big deal. So all of your guys tolerance is
• 33:13
  probably pretty high because you you consider getting a lot of
• 33:16
  the high ABV stuff all the time. I I, you know, I, I think that
• 33:20
  if you're in this industry long enough, hopefully you learn how
• 33:23
  to pace yourself. Yeah, that old.
• 33:24
  Rule, right. Yeah, that's.
• 33:26
  It some people learn, some people don't.
• 33:27
  If you've ever been to a beer festival, you'll you'll see some
• 33:30
  people learn, some people don't. That's.
• 33:32
  Exactly right. I do often wonder how they can
• 33:34
  get so drunk on those little, the little glasses that you get
• 33:37
  at a beer fest. But they manage.
• 33:39
  Yeah, it is that. Tolerance.
• 33:40
  Slam them down low tolerance. Yeah, six of those, for some
• 33:44
  people is a lot. Yeah, they just aren't used to
• 33:46
  it, man. Just Kelly takes them by
• 33:48
  surprise. Yeah, they're thinking beer.
• 33:49
  Sure. Bang Bang, Bang, Bang.
• 33:52
  Yeah, that's it. They're shooting them.
• 33:53
  A lot of times they seem shooting them like it's just a
• 33:56
  little bit. Yeah, it catches up, William.
• 33:58
  Darius, when you open in 2006, were there any other breweries
• 34:02
  that open in that area at that point in the Akron area?
• 34:05
  You know I'm. Thinking were there any around
• 34:07
  2006? No, but I think that you know my
• 34:10
  predecessor that I'd started, you know I cut my teeth at a
• 34:14
  local restaurant. They started their brewery about
• 34:16
  a year later because the restaurants closed it was
• 34:18
  thirsty Dog Brewing Company. They closed those restaurants.
• 34:21
  They about opened up about a year after I did an Akron also
• 34:25
  and you know we've supported each other.
• 34:27
  I look at like my alma mater, you know, just recently they
• 34:29
  wanted keg caps from us and we just gave them some.
• 34:32
  They're they're they're good, good people.
• 34:34
  Yeah. I just learned today and I shame
• 34:38
  on me, but I didn't know what Boris or Taurus or Chorus meant
• 34:43
  until actually when I was doing recycle.
• 34:45
  Wait a minute, there's a common theme here.
• 34:49
  We gotta hear about it. We gotta hear about it.
• 34:51
  I'll tell you where it started. It started with me going to the
• 34:53
  local brew pub and see an RIS and asking what that meant, and
• 34:57
  they said it's a Russian imperial stout.
• 34:59
  So when I started making one at home and I started brewing, I
• 35:02
  called it Boris because it was a bodacious Russian imperial
• 35:05
  stout. Bodacious.
• 35:07
  So that's where the name came from.
• 35:08
  But when I started the brewery, the O took on a different
• 35:11
  meaning because I wanted to also, I guess, incorporate but
• 35:17
  also take advantage of the fact that Sam Samuel Smith Oatmeal
• 35:23
  Stout was so popular back then. Back in 2007, they used oatmeal.
• 35:26
  So I wanted to make Boris Bodacious Oatmeal Russian
• 35:29
  Imperial Stout, and that's what it is today.
• 35:31
  The oatmeal really adds a level of complexity to the beer that
• 35:35
  helps so much. So that's where the name came
• 35:37
  from. And then Doris's Double Oatmeal,
• 35:39
  Russian Imperial Stout, and so on.
• 35:42
  And then we've got the Taurus and we've got the is it Chorus,
• 35:45
  I guess. Yeah, the weirdest 1 was chorus.
• 35:46
  I remember looking it up. I'm like, well, it is really a
• 35:48
  word. I guess I don't have to make
• 35:49
  that word up. I mean, I've never seen that
• 35:53
  word. I don't know if we'll make a 5.
• 35:54
  I don't know what the five one will be.
• 35:56
  I think we might have maxed out. I'm not sure.
• 35:59
  I thought we came up with a name.
• 36:00
  I can't remember it off the top of my head.
• 36:02
  I forget me. But yeah, gets more challenging,
• 36:05
  but yeah, yeah. Take better notes when we're
• 36:08
  drinking. That's the hard part.
• 36:10
  Yes, and then know where you put the notes.
• 36:12
  That's the other part. I bet some of your company
• 36:16
  meetings are a lot of fun, yes. Yeah, and then we'll look at
• 36:19
  each other. Are you writing this down?
• 36:21
  Yeah. Really.
• 36:22
  Right, Who's got this? Who's subscribed today?
• 36:25
  Everybody gets in these conversations and you're
• 36:27
  Spearing ideas. That would be a great idea.
• 36:29
  And that would be a great idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 36:30
  That's like the meeting's over here, like I don't nobody or
• 36:33
  anything down or we got nothing. I will say we do a pretty good
• 36:36
  job of writing stuff down. We do, yeah.
• 36:39
  We've learned. I think one of the awesome
• 36:42
  things though, is the conversation we're having about
• 36:44
  the names because to me that especially if you come into the
• 36:48
  brewery, that also enhances the brewery experience where you're
• 36:52
  saying, OK, not only are you getting the shandy, I'm getting
• 36:55
  the shandy that, you know, bore us to this and that.
• 36:57
  And and I, I just think that adds so much more fun and that
• 37:01
  the dynamic to it that you want to stay and you want to have a
• 37:04
  good time. Versus just stout.
• 37:06
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is our snout beer.
• 37:08
  This is snout beer. Of your.
• 37:10
  Porter yes, I know. I always find it interesting
• 37:13
  when you go somewhere someone just names the beer, the style
• 37:16
  of the beer. And I'm like, you know,
• 37:18
  especially when they have other names for other things.
• 37:20
  I'm like, why did you try on this one?
• 37:21
  But. It's like this is our tasty
• 37:23
  lager. I'll tell you names are names
• 37:26
  aren't as easy as it sounds. I mean, we're.
• 37:29
  All sitting here spewing them off.
• 37:31
  But yeah, they're it's harder. And again, it goes back to
• 37:34
  writing them down because there's sometimes that we've had
• 37:36
  it where we've said something, but like, Oh my gosh, that'd be
• 37:39
  a great beer name. You better write it down.
• 37:40
  We don't have a beer for it yet, but we'll come up with
• 37:42
  something. And then there's other times
• 37:45
  you've got a beer and you're going golly, what do we call
• 37:47
  this thing? And we always try to incorporate
• 37:49
  what you're going to experience when you're drinking it.
• 37:52
  So that's the only like peanut butter chocolate coffee Porter,
• 37:56
  you know, peanut butter hazelnut caramel chocolate cake stout.
• 37:59
  So I mean, obviously it's important to have that because
• 38:01
  then people are like, well, I should by reading that you
• 38:04
  should know what you're going to experience versus Joe's beer.
• 38:08
  Joe's beer, Yeah. Great, that's how to get into
• 38:11
  it. But the funny part is I've, I've
• 38:13
  been places where people are like that.
• 38:14
  Sounds delicious. Yeah.
• 38:17
  What is it? What is the mystery?
• 38:19
  You open the can up and you find out.
• 38:21
  And barely Joe made it. Was it A and it might be before
• 38:25
  all of our times. Wasn't it a Billy Billy's beer?
• 38:28
  Was it? Yeah.
• 38:29
  Didn't it just say beer on the can back in the day?
• 38:31
  Yes. Or did it say Billy's beer?
• 38:33
  It might have said Billy's was a Billy.
• 38:34
  'S beer man. Oh, that's.
• 38:36
  Funny. That was Jimmy Carter's brother.
• 38:39
  In fact, I had AI had a great uncle.
• 38:41
  He had many, many years ago. He passed away and I was at a
• 38:44
  family reunion a few years ago and I'd asked one of his
• 38:48
  grandkids, as I said, is it true that when you're when your
• 38:51
  grandpa, It was my great uncle Howard.
• 38:53
  When he died, they were going through his house and they found
• 38:55
  Billy Beer in his refrigerator. And they said, Yep, that's true.
• 38:58
  Now I don't know if anybody kept it or not, but.
• 39:01
  Wow. It probably wasn't good to start
• 39:04
  with. I can't.
• 39:06
  Imagine. At least you kept it in the
• 39:08
  fridge. Yeah, there you go.
• 39:11
  Bailey's beer. Peek in a fridge.
• 39:13
  I'm gonna visit my fridge again. Yeah, I love that.
• 39:15
  It's handy. It's just right there.
• 39:18
  Right. There's a few beers in there,
• 39:20
  yeah. All stocked up tonight.
• 39:23
  So you guys, you obviously barrel aged a lot of stuff.
• 39:26
  Is it a barrel aging program per se or do you just randomly say
• 39:30
  hey this would be really good in a barrel?
• 39:32
  Well, probably a little bit of both, yeah.
• 39:34
  I mean, it depends on what you mean by program.
• 39:37
  So we have beers that we make all the time, like barrel aged
• 39:41
  Boris, like that's a staple. We like, you know, there are
• 39:43
  certain beers that are available that have been barrel aged.
• 39:46
  And then sometimes we make a beer and go, you know what?
• 39:49
  We need to put that in a barrel. And so we do right there, barrel
• 39:53
  aged, Frogs hollow double pumpkin Ale.
• 39:55
  There is a barrel aged sextuple, there's a barrel.
• 39:58
  We've done the pen tuple in different barrels.
• 40:01
  We've done it in red wine barrels.
• 40:03
  We've done it in soddle barrels. We've done it in mezcal barrels.
• 40:07
  We've done it in a bunch of cool stuff because it lends itself
• 40:10
  well to that. So I guess we'll do some of that
• 40:13
  stuff, but then we do have mainstays that that we offer all
• 40:16
  the time. When did you guys get into the
• 40:18
  barrel aged barrel aging of beers?
• 40:20
  When did when did that start to catch on it?
• 40:23
  Hopping Frog? It was 2008.
• 40:25
  I mean, it was way early, so just trying to remember.
• 40:28
  Hang on, let me think. The first barrels I got were
• 40:31
  from Cavalier. I didn't start working with them
• 40:33
  right away. It was after the Shandy came
• 40:36
  out. Shandy was developed, helped in
• 40:37
  2009 and 2010. The summer 2010 was the big cut
• 40:41
  off. I told my distributor that was
• 40:43
  around the whole state except for around the brewery, which I
• 40:46
  had another distributor. If you don't buy these guys out
• 40:49
  that are around the brewery, they're going to never be able
• 40:51
  to be bought out because I'm not ready to release the shandy and
• 40:54
  everyone's been dying for it. It's going to take over my
• 40:56
  sales. So one thing led to another.
• 40:58
  It was 2010 and I was able to talk cavalier into carrying us
• 41:01
  across the state and they bought out the smaller distributor that
• 41:04
  was around us. Where's I going with this?
• 41:07
  So, yeah, yeah. So with the relationship with
• 41:10
  Cavalier, we were able to hit, I'm pretty sure in 2011 was when
• 41:14
  we got the first barrel. So I'm pretty sure we started
• 41:17
  our barrel aging program in 2011.
• 41:20
  I hadn't really thought about that, but yeah.
• 41:23
  Yeah, wow. Do do.
• 41:23
  A lot of times. Do you just come across barrels
• 41:26
  and we work backwards into the barrel as far as what was in it
• 41:29
  before, whether it be wine or whiskey or.
• 41:31
  Early on that was definitely what happened.
• 41:34
  There is time we formed some relationships with some
• 41:36
  different cooperages and as we were buying barrels and frankly
• 41:40
  at the time we were one of the few it seemed that we're doing
• 41:43
  that. So when they would get something
• 41:44
  special, they'd usually reach out and say, hey, would you guys
• 41:47
  be interested in. So, for example, Pappy Van
• 41:50
  Winkle barrels and now everyone, I mean, everyone knows what
• 41:54
  Peppy Van Winkle is now. But at the time I'm like, I
• 41:57
  don't know, sounds cool. I guess I, I don't know anything
• 41:59
  about it. So in my ignorance, I'm like,
• 42:03
  sure. Well, then I I, well, I asked
• 42:05
  how much and they were really a lot more than usual.
• 42:08
  So I got a hold of Fred. We did a little research.
• 42:11
  We're like, oh, holy smokes. Yeah, these are actually we
• 42:13
  should get these. So I got back to it and said
• 42:16
  yes, we'll take them. So that is so that we that was
• 42:20
  that was a story where we got some barrels that we were
• 42:22
  definitely not seeking for. We were able to secure them one
• 42:26
  other time. And then after that needs to say
• 42:29
  they've become very hard to come by.
• 42:31
  But there's been other ones that similar, similar type things
• 42:36
  where it's like, oh gosh, that would be great.
• 42:39
  And frankly, I mean, a lot of them Boris has gone into Boris
• 42:43
  is just such a great beer for that.
• 42:46
  And so we've had lots of different variations of Boris in
• 42:49
  different barrels. But then as we kind of brave,
• 42:52
  John said, hey, something else other than Boris in a barrel
• 42:54
  might be good. Now we see a lot more.
• 42:57
  I mean, we got our pumpkin, we've get done shandy.
• 42:59
  I mean, heck, we've done shandy and you know, bourbon barrels.
• 43:02
  We've done shandy and tequila barrels.
• 43:04
  God I love shandy in in bourbon barrels.
• 43:07
  It reminds me of a whiskey sour is so tasty.
• 43:09
  Yeah. But the more popular one I think
• 43:11
  is the tequila. Barrel one, the tequila barrel
• 43:13
  one, it's been very popular. But people, everyone, everyone's
• 43:16
  got their thing that they like, right?
• 43:18
  So, I mean, as with anything, when you run out of it, of
• 43:21
  course there's a line of people that said they would have bought
• 43:23
  more. So I mean, you're going to have
• 43:25
  that. But yeah, but the, the, the
• 43:27
  market for that has definitely changed a lot in regards to
• 43:29
  getting barrels. It's got a lot more challenging,
• 43:32
  a lot more challenge to get those specific barrels and those
• 43:34
  we would say quote UN quote special barrels.
• 43:36
  So they're few and far between. But when they come, we we snag
• 43:40
  them for sure. You guys are at least known to
• 43:42
  us and probably to the to the crappier world that shanties
• 43:47
  like I know you guys from shanty's barrel aged and then
• 43:49
  the high the high grab barrel aged stuff too.
• 43:52
  That's kind of how I come to know you guys and then, you
• 43:54
  know, dive into the other stuff too.
• 43:56
  But is that kind of what you perceive for in the industry
• 43:59
  kind of the barrel aged stuff, the high ABV stuff or?
• 44:02
  I guess it depends on who you're talking to, right?
• 44:05
  Yeah. I mean, at one point in time in
• 44:09
  the past, I think that was probably true for most people,
• 44:13
  but we've had we have so many different beers and so many
• 44:16
  different flavors now that have reached so many different
• 44:18
  people. I think that people have
• 44:20
  realized that we we can do a lot more than that.
• 44:24
  We can do that really well. We can do pilsners really well.
• 44:28
  We can do shandies really well. So at the end of the day, yes,
• 44:32
  we cut our teeth on stouts, barrel aged high gravity beers,
• 44:36
  always known for quality. But to be honest, a lot of
• 44:38
  people I talk to you today, some of them haven't even tried those
• 44:41
  beers, but they love our shandies or they love our
• 44:43
  gangster frog or they they like the cool flavor combinations
• 44:47
  like our coconut cream pie or pineapple upside down cake.
• 44:50
  You know, they flock to those beers and you know, they might
• 44:53
  send other people our way that like that stuff, but we get a
• 44:56
  good mix that come into our tasting room.
• 44:59
  Hence like in January we have a stout day where we blow out huge
• 45:03
  party stouts like crazy. In the summer we got Shandy Day,
• 45:08
  you know, so we've got a huge party blow out with Shandy's
• 45:11
  exclusive flavors that we make there.
• 45:13
  So I guess that's the long answer to your question, but I
• 45:15
  think the expanse or the breadth of our portfolio reaches so many
• 45:19
  different people that I think we're known for a lot of
• 45:22
  different things now.