Latest / The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel / SweetWater Brewing: Atlanta Craft Beer, 420 & Southern Beer Culture | Episode 111

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SweetWater Brewing: Atlanta Craft Beer, 420 & Southern Beer Culture | Episode 111 · The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel

• 0:05
  Stand by for the Brewery Underground
• 0:40
  Well, here on the Brewery Underground podcast, you know
• 0:42
  Scott Tehran, we are in Nashville, TN, Music City, USA,
• 0:48
  and not far from us in Atlanta, GA sits a grape brewery known as
• 0:54
  Sweetwater. And we're so excited.
• 0:57
  We're so excited. They're a pretty sweet brewery.
• 1:02
  A play on words, that's how. That's how we're starting this.
• 1:05
  A play on words. How sweet it is, how how's the
• 1:08
  house is how sweet it is to have Evan Woolard.
• 1:11
  He is a senior brand manager, so Sweetwater Brewing Company on
• 1:15
  with us on the Brewery Underground podcast, Evan.
• 1:18
  What? Hello man, so I didn't tell you
• 1:22
  guys this when I was in Music City.
• 1:25
  You can rent an Airbnb, Johnny Cash's old apartment, and I can
• 1:30
  confirm it is old and it is an apartment.
• 1:33
  But you stay there for like the experience and it's like right
• 1:37
  where the live music is. So if you want to go for a good
• 1:41
  time, stay there. If you want to get sleep,
• 1:43
  definitely, definitely don't. But that's that's my story of my
• 1:48
  Airbnb in Nashville. They.
• 1:49
  Have remnants of Johnny Cash in there anything?
• 1:52
  There are like music posters. There is what I think was a bed.
• 1:56
  I don't know how old it was again, like it kind of doesn't
• 2:01
  matter because the music is blaring from right outside the
• 2:04
  street. Yeah, I booked it just to say I
• 2:07
  could book it and then I'm pretty sure I expensed it.
• 2:10
  So yeah, we went and. We lose.
• 2:13
  It wasn't like a fire pit nearby, like the Ring of Fire or
• 2:16
  anything like that, that. Would have been cool.
• 2:18
  Like if it was a whole Johnny Cash like Nashville experience,
• 2:21
  that would have been great. Yeah, No, I but I, I love
• 2:25
  Nashville. Been there many times.
• 2:27
  Never for a Bachelorette party but have had many beers.
• 2:32
  Well, then you came for the right reason if you didn't come
• 2:34
  for a bachelor party because any other Bachelorette party,
• 2:36
  because any other reason is acceptable.
• 2:39
  Well, Evan and I love it in Atlanta.
• 2:41
  I, I have friends in Atlanta. I probably have been to Atlanta
• 2:44
  a dozen times. I've been down there to see the
• 2:46
  Braves take on the Cincinnati Reds, which is my team.
• 2:49
  And I've done other things down there with friends over the
• 2:53
  years. Love Atlanta, don't love the
• 2:55
  traffic. But The funny thing was I had
• 2:58
  some friends in from Atlanta earlier about a year or so ago
• 3:04
  and met them at some breweries here in Nashville.
• 3:07
  And they were even talking about almost comparatively now how bad
• 3:11
  the traffic is compared to Atlanta.
• 3:13
  And I'm like, wow, we're, we're moving on up.
• 3:16
  Nashville's not good. I will tell you, you, you guys,
• 3:19
  I think hang your hat on being like low key fun.
• 3:22
  We're all about the music. But like, your traffic's not
• 3:25
  great either. It's I write in, I write in town
• 3:27
  and I'm sitting there. It is bumper to bumper.
• 3:30
  Yeah. So welcome to the party, guys.
• 3:31
  Yes. It is part of the club now,
• 3:34
  aren't we? Yeah.
• 3:36
  Well, before we before we throw out you a lot of questions,
• 3:40
  there's a lot of things we have to thank you for.
• 3:42
  You know Scott and I are wearing well, Mark you.
• 3:45
  Sent us some trout. Sweets.
• 3:47
  Water. Sweetwater.
• 3:49
  Got the hat on. OK.
• 3:52
  Let me put mine on them. But mine's right here, sweet
• 3:54
  hats, I may say. No point in time I.
• 3:56
  Love it. Got it.
• 3:58
  Beautiful hats. Beautiful.
• 3:59
  All right. So our UPS account is live or
• 4:02
  FedEx, whichever it is. So I can't confirm.
• 4:05
  I can't confirm. When it came to my house, they
• 4:07
  knocked on the door and they wanted my signature and he
• 4:10
  knocked pretty hard. So I thought, well, it's either
• 4:12
  a delivery guy or it's the police.
• 4:14
  And I don't think it's going to be the police.
• 4:15
  Knock it on my door. Thank God.
• 4:17
  And when you answer the door for and the other one you don't.
• 4:19
  Yeah, exactly. You know why you needed a
• 4:21
  signature, Steve? Because it had beer in it.
• 4:25
  I know, I guess. It's going to.
• 4:26
  Be there we go. And we've got beer.
• 4:29
  It's a beer podcast. I.
• 4:31
  Love it. Yeah.
• 4:32
  Cheers, guys. Love that.
• 4:33
  Cheers. Let's go around some new brands.
• 4:35
  You're drinking the day trip, which came in our care package.
• 4:37
  I did, this is my first time at the day trip.
• 4:41
  I just started drinking in there a few minutes ago.
• 4:44
  And can you explain to us what the day trip is all about?
• 4:48
  Yeah, so day trip took a long time for us to make it, you
• 4:54
  know, how long do we have? We have 90.
• 4:56
  I can fill up this entire long. Time.
• 4:59
  Go for it man, Go for it. So Sweetwater, you know, we were
• 5:03
  born here in Atlanta and our founders Freddie and Kevin came
• 5:08
  here in in 96 Freddie is is from Southern California and they
• 5:14
  went to school in Boulder. So if you think in like late
• 5:18
  80s, early 90s and just the influence that those two areas
• 5:23
  as far as beer goes, like had on Freddie and Kevin, they come
• 5:26
  here in 96 for the Shania Twain World Tour.
• 5:29
  I'm kidding. They came here for the Olympics.
• 5:31
  Usually that lands that that joke like lands hard.
• 5:35
  Like what? No, they came here for the
• 5:37
  Olympics and it was really like a lot of opportunity for craft
• 5:42
  beer here in Georgia and the South.
• 5:45
  And you know, the beer that influenced them the most was
• 5:48
  West Coast style beers and Ipas. So we really pride ourselves and
• 5:52
  our Brewers pride themselves on making just a great lineup of
• 5:57
  India pale ales. And it had kind of been a while.
• 6:00
  We we day trip was kind of a, a revisit back to our roots.
• 6:05
  You know, we, we've got a whole portfolio of IP as but we wanted
• 6:08
  to come out with like, where are IP as going where, what is the
• 6:12
  future of IP as? How do we invite like a new
• 6:15
  consumer or customer? How do we invite them to IP as?
• 6:18
  Because you know, IP as have a stigma, you know, hot shop and
• 6:23
  super bitter and you know, they'll you have one and like
• 6:27
  you're good if you're if you're new to craft beer.
• 6:29
  So we kind of wanted to flip that on its head.
• 6:31
  So day trip what you've got there.
• 6:32
  We spent months and months and months and months testing and
• 6:36
  wanted to come out with a beer that was like, OK, what if we
• 6:39
  had an IPA that was like you, you have the bitterness that an
• 6:44
  IPA aficionado is going to enjoy, but you also have, you
• 6:49
  know, a flavor and an attitude that's going to invite a
• 6:52
  consumer to enjoy it. Aroma wise, it's like you're
• 6:56
  going to have citrus and you're going to have some of those
• 6:59
  tropical notes, but it's not one of the new, you know, I think
• 7:02
  there's a, there's a whole new craze around like fruited
• 7:05
  styles. And where we wanted to go is
• 7:07
  like the only fruit and the only aroma you're going to get out of
• 7:10
  this is from where we do our work with the hop.
• 7:13
  So, you know, it's one of those and it took us a long time.
• 7:16
  It took a lot of testing reiterative, you know, consumer
• 7:20
  panels and where we netted out was, you know, we have a beer,
• 7:25
  we have an IPA that's like high on refreshment and when like you
• 7:28
  don't score super well on refreshment.
• 7:31
  When you think of Ipas and just a lot of things that we didn't
• 7:35
  have in our lineup and we've got multiple, multiple IP as in our
• 7:38
  lineup and this one fit in so well.
• 7:42
  And then we started to go to bars and restaurants.
• 7:46
  You know, we've got a great, a great sales team, a great
• 7:50
  distributor presence, just great relationships throughout Atlanta
• 7:53
  and throughout Georgia. And they're like, you know, I
• 7:55
  don't drink IP as this one I could get into or like you guys
• 7:59
  have 500 IP as but this one I could see like, you know, like
• 8:04
  I, I understand why it fits. So we're super excited about it
• 8:09
  and I, you know, we're not ones to kind of, you know, ring the
• 8:13
  bell or, or, or or shout from the mountain, but you know,
• 8:17
  we're, we're excited. It's the number one new craft
• 8:19
  beer in the Southeast where it's, it's, it's kind of taken
• 8:23
  on a ton of momentum this year, whether it's, you know, on
• 8:27
  premise or in package. I just the beer's great.
• 8:30
  I've enjoyed it sometimes like if my wife listens like
• 8:34
  earmuffs, but like I'll have a six pack and then I'll just be
• 8:37
  like, shit, where did that 6 pack go?
• 8:39
  I also don't know, can I cuss on this pocket?
• 8:42
  I, I don't know. OK, all right, I'll try to leave
• 8:44
  it to S words. So yeah, we're we're super proud
• 8:48
  of day trip. Just again, you know, we we we
• 8:52
  pride ourselves on Ipas West Coast style beers.
• 8:55
  This is kind of, you know, trying to get more folks
• 9:00
  interested in Ipas and then that was our goal.
• 9:02
  And, and I, I think we're, we're doing a great job.
• 9:04
  Is that is this one only in the southeast distributed so far?
• 9:08
  Yeah, yeah. We keep it super close to the
• 9:11
  vest. And you know, our, our, we're,
• 9:13
  we're, we're basically SE So we, we've, you can find it, you
• 9:17
  know, Florida, Georgia, I think all the way up to DC as far West
• 9:21
  as the Mississippi. Yeah, Southeast, if you're not
• 9:25
  the SEC where now we have like Texas and Oklahoma and Missouri
• 9:30
  expanding area, I don't know, I don't know what the Southeast is
• 9:33
  anymore. But yeah, you can find it kind
• 9:34
  of in our home like regional market, which is part of our
• 9:38
  strategy to stay really build momentum here in Georgia.
• 9:41
  There's been a lot of great feedback.
• 9:43
  It's a it's a great beer and there's not a lot of Ipas like
• 9:47
  this in our market that that it's, it's really attracting
• 9:51
  some attention. Yeah.
• 9:52
  And drinking it, you know, as it goes down, it's a nice, nice
• 9:55
  tasting beer. It goes down, you're tasting the
• 9:57
  hops, and then boom, there's the citrus.
• 10:00
  Yeah. And they combine right at the
• 10:02
  moment that you're really wanting to taste the beer of it
• 10:06
  the the flavor profile of. It yeah, that's that's like
• 10:09
  totally what we were going for on our you know, it is the
• 10:13
  toughest beer that we've made, like the the hops that we
• 10:17
  procured, you know, go all the way to our Brewers have told me,
• 10:22
  like if we reach a certain threshold with this beer, we
• 10:27
  will run out of pops in the Northern hemisphere.
• 10:30
  It sounds like. Well, that's a problem.
• 10:32
  Good problem. Won't sell too much of it.
• 10:34
  We'll see when we get there. So, you know, it's a very
• 10:37
  complex beer for our team and I think our team has crushed it.
• 10:41
  And I've enjoyed drinking many of these on a college football
• 10:44
  Saturday this fall. I could see that, yeah.
• 10:47
  The AB VS Nice too 6.6 it's kind of right in the middle right?
• 10:50
  Kind of right where you want to be for a nice IPA in my opinion.
• 10:53
  Yeah, I mean, there's there's a lot, you know, West Coast
• 10:56
  styles, you know, we our sister breweries, Green Flash and
• 10:59
  Alpine and a lot of those or 7 percenters, we've got beers in
• 11:03
  our portfolio that are in the low sixes.
• 11:05
  So it was kind of like, you know, what's a nice kind of in
• 11:08
  between spot that somebody could have a good time with dinner
• 11:12
  pairing with food or, you know, be, you know, just nice and
• 11:16
  refreshed in the afternoon on their day trip.
• 11:20
  Crazy. I hate that I said that.
• 11:21
  Let's let's edit that part now. Let's edit.
• 11:23
  That listen and it's kind of maybe kind of the opposite.
• 11:25
  I'm drinking one that came in our care package as well and
• 11:28
  it's called dive beer. A beer.
• 11:31
  And it's a lager and it's 4%, so kind of the opposite of that
• 11:34
  one. And I'm drinking it and it's
• 11:35
  really good. It's really nice.
• 11:38
  It's really smooth, it's really nice and light, but it's got a
• 11:39
  lot of flavor to it also. Yeah, you guys went like polar
• 11:43
  opposite there. Well, and I actually, because
• 11:45
  you sent, you guys sent these a few days ahead of time.
• 11:49
  I had this one a few days ago already, so I've already tried
• 11:52
  that one. I couldn't wait.
• 11:53
  That's right. I couldn't wait.
• 11:55
  It's really good. No, it's delicious.
• 11:57
  So this is this is another new one from you guys too, right?
• 12:00
  Yeah, so we don't, I mean, I feel like if you know, we, we
• 12:04
  hang our hats on Ipas, but there's a whole contingent of
• 12:08
  craft beer fans who who you know, loggers are a style that
• 12:13
  we are such a large portion of, of craft beer and beer overall.
• 12:18
  So where we were going with Thai beer and it looks a little bit
• 12:21
  different was kind of, you know, we wanted to have fun with it.
• 12:25
  We wanted to have kind of an homage to a few nights where we
• 12:29
  stay out late. I'm like, I like pointing to
• 12:31
  these bars where we stay at. Les, if you guys?
• 12:34
  Can see that that's OK. But just kind of an homage to
• 12:37
  where we've had many a brainstorm, many a late night in
• 12:42
  the beers that come with them, right.
• 12:45
  And Dye beer was another one where we knew what we wanted.
• 12:48
  We wanted something where, you know, if you're on the lake,
• 12:52
  like Sweetwater is just, it's such a brand that is just, you
• 12:57
  know, a product that's so great to consume on the water.
• 13:00
  We were born on the river. We have so many lakes around
• 13:04
  Atlanta where, you know, 3 hours from the coast.
• 13:07
  So it's like, what are the, what are the beers?
• 13:10
  People love the drink when they're when they're on the
• 13:13
  water. And we felt like this was
• 13:15
  something that we wanted to bring to market, but knew was
• 13:19
  going to again, just like day trip kind of a, a challenge for
• 13:23
  us. But we went through that same
• 13:25
  reiterative process. This is, this is was such a
• 13:28
  nightmare. Honestly, we went through that
• 13:30
  same reiterative process and then we realized within like 2
• 13:34
  months, like we have this killer beer with day trip and then we
• 13:37
  have a killer beer with diet beer.
• 13:39
  And we launched them both at the same time. 2 beers from a very
• 13:44
  opposite sides of the spectrum and I beer was was just so it's
• 13:49
  honestly like beloved by our team downstairs.
• 13:52
  The Brewers love this beer. We don't have a lager really in
• 13:57
  in in the Sweetwater portfolio under the Sweetwater brands and
• 14:01
  we just we felt like we needed that It is super good.
• 14:06
  There's again we we tested this one and then we felt so strongly
• 14:10
  about it. But the, the big sticking point
• 14:12
  for us was, you know, here in the Southeast and in this day
• 14:16
  and age, I don't know if the government's going to be shut
• 14:19
  down, if it's going to be open or, you know, affordability of
• 14:26
  beer, affordability of groceries.
• 14:28
  One of the, the areas that we wanted to address was how can we
• 14:32
  provide a beer that is high quality, high refreshment, great
• 14:37
  tasting, You get all of those, but you can get it at a lower
• 14:41
  price point. And that's essentially became
• 14:44
  the ethos of dive beer and why it why it is what a quote dive
• 14:48
  beer. It's like, well, you're going to
• 14:50
  have a good time, but you're going to be able to afford this
• 14:53
  and who knows, you know what, you know, the economy is going
• 14:57
  to go. Who knows where, where, where
• 14:59
  the beer shelf is going to go. We want to provide you guys with
• 15:02
  an entry point to craft beer, and that entry point fits.
• 15:08
  If it's affordability, great. If it's, you know, turning Ipas
• 15:13
  on its head so that you guys can have a new understanding of
• 15:15
  Ipas, that's great. But it's all about overall
• 15:18
  inviting like a new cohorts of people to enjoy Sweetwater,
• 15:24
  enjoy craft beer, enjoy beer and just kind of raising the overall
• 15:29
  tide of of the industry. So that's Tie Beer.
• 15:33
  We have come across in the last year so many Brewers the
• 15:36
  brewery's doing. And this doesn't say light
• 15:38
  lager, but, you know, the 4% maybe, yes, but yeah.
• 15:40
  But it, but it's not mandatory. You have one, but if you have
• 15:43
  one and you do it well, it's gonna sell like we it's we've
• 15:47
  come across many of it, and they're all really good.
• 15:49
  If you'd said I was going to drink a light beer, a light
• 15:51
  lager a couple years ago, I'd have told you you were crazy.
• 15:54
  But they're delicious. I got no problem drinking this.
• 15:57
  This is very good. Yeah, it's like, you know, the
• 15:59
  stigma on a light lager is like, oh, are the mountains blue or,
• 16:03
  you know, stuff like that. You and you can read between the
• 16:05
  lines there, but for for us, it's like a craft brewery can do
• 16:10
  a light lager and do it very well.
• 16:12
  And you know, craft beer can still be at a range where we can
• 16:17
  invite people to enjoy it and price is not something they have
• 16:22
  to worry about. Scott and I joke sometimes, You
• 16:24
  know, we go to breweries about, well, we're doing market
• 16:28
  research. No content for the for the
• 16:31
  podcast. Do a lot of market.
• 16:32
  Research yes, of course we do. Of course we do right.
• 16:35
  Talking about the beer and and talking to great folks like you.
• 16:38
  I, I really come to love the lager game and a lot more as, as
• 16:44
  Scott kind of alluded to, that I used to, to, to almost to the
• 16:47
  point now when I walk into a brewery and if you know whether
• 16:52
  what, whatever I'm going to do, if I'm going to get a flight,
• 16:54
  I'm going, I want your logger. I want to see how that logger
• 16:57
  tastes And and I want to hear about the 411 of this logger.
• 17:02
  Is it new? Are you keeping up with the
• 17:04
  times? Because if you're not, I think
• 17:07
  you're going to lose a lot of consumers out there.
• 17:09
  Yeah, yeah, I mean, there's, I feel like there's a way to
• 17:12
  simplify. You walk into a brewery and it's
• 17:14
  like it's got pilsner malt, it's got some hops and it's got a got
• 17:18
  a ton of water on it, right. But like loggers are, but a good
• 17:22
  logger is hard to make. And like I, I definitely have a
• 17:26
  new respect for the team. Again, the the process that they
• 17:29
  had to go to where we're testing this, we get feedback and you
• 17:33
  know, feedback can range from color to carbonation to
• 17:38
  crispness, Christmas or crispiness.
• 17:41
  I'm not sure. Probably a bit of both.
• 17:43
  A little bit of crispy, yeah. So, yeah, I think I think like
• 17:45
  the appreciation around Kraft loggers has been, you know, low
• 17:50
  where where, you know, it's, it's a very it's tough style to
• 17:52
  make and making sure craft beer is, is is kind of at the
• 17:57
  forefront and stewarding the industry.
• 18:00
  I think a lot of a lot of folks just need to be, you know,
• 18:03
  hopefully there are more, more brands to that can invite again
• 18:06
  that cohort to enjoy craft beer. Hopefully logger is another
• 18:10
  step. Like Ipas aren't for everybody.
• 18:12
  Loggers are for a different subset and, you know, bringing
• 18:16
  attention to whether it's Sweetwater or another brewery
• 18:20
  down the road, I think there's raising the portfolio.
• 18:22
  Raising the visibility of loggers is another way to raise
• 18:25
  visibility of craft. Beer.
• 18:27
  You probably wear a lot of hats at the brewery, but your title
• 18:30
  is senior brand manager. Can you kind of talk about what
• 18:33
  your day entails and what that job title means?
• 18:36
  Yeah, yeah, I wear a lot of hats because most days I don't
• 18:39
  shower, that's why. We're doing this remote today.
• 18:44
  Yeah. Yeah, fair.
• 18:46
  Yeah, No, it's great. I've I've been in this role.
• 18:49
  So I, I, I started Sweetwater about five years ago.
• 18:52
  I've been in this role for about 3 years and it it's great.
• 18:55
  I get to piss a ton of people off.
• 18:57
  I get to annoy our Brewers, I get to annoy our sales team, I
• 19:01
  get to annoy our tap rim team, all folks who are, you know,
• 19:06
  just just way more talented and gifted than I am.
• 19:09
  And it's, it's a ton of fun. I, I, you know, our day ranges
• 19:13
  from, you know, I, I walk in and we do a lobby, you know, we
• 19:18
  shotgun beers. I come off to the desk and it's
• 19:21
  time for a, a desk beer. And, you know, after that, it's
• 19:24
  time for, for quality panels. So I, I have 5 beers there.
• 19:29
  Yeah, then it's lunch, so I'll probably have a beer for lunch.
• 19:33
  Anyway, it's exactly how I pictured your title would be,
• 19:36
  yeah. Managing the brand, it's, it's,
• 19:39
  no, it's, it's great. It's, it's so rewarding because
• 19:43
  you work with a ton of different folks, all of the folks who I
• 19:47
  mentioned previously, the taproom team, our Brewers, our
• 19:50
  sales team, graphic designers, like having visibility into just
• 19:55
  the entire ecosystem is amazing. And at a place like Sweetwater
• 20:01
  where just I've seen it, you know, grow throughout the years,
• 20:05
  it's, it's very humbling. I, my day just includes crazy
• 20:11
  things, innovation. We could have great discussion.
• 20:14
  We could have what we call bad ideas only, you know,
• 20:19
  advertising consumer panels. The research is very rewarding
• 20:24
  because you get to hear these things that you didn't, you
• 20:26
  know, even think of. And then you understand, like
• 20:29
  consumers are changing. So there's always like this
• 20:31
  ongoing, you know, if you do consumer research in 2020, it's
• 20:36
  very different from 2024 or even pre pandemic to now.
• 20:41
  Like just the habits change. So it's, it's, it's crazy.
• 20:45
  It's it's a ton of fun. It's everyday wearing, wearing
• 20:49
  different hats and not knowing what's going to come up from
• 20:52
  beer to music festivals to anywhere that I can help out.
• 20:58
  But again, mostly I usually do more harm than hurt and I just
• 21:02
  end up making people mad. So.
• 21:04
  Pissed everybody. Yeah, I, I have two questions.
• 21:07
  Are you on this committee? Are you on the committee that
• 21:10
  helps name these new beers that have come out?
• 21:12
  Committee, yeah. Panel committee, you know.
• 21:15
  Yes, yeah, it's kind of a it's a group think, but yes.
• 21:19
  What did? What did we get wrong?
• 21:21
  You. Didn't get anything wrong.
• 21:23
  That's what I mean. That's what I mean.
• 21:24
  How much fun? How much fun is that being part
• 21:26
  of that where you're banning about different names?
• 21:29
  Man, Sweetwater goes back 28 ish years and there is such a legacy
• 21:37
  and just like they Georgia Brown, for example, named after
• 21:41
  a song, but also like our home, also a style of brown ale like
• 21:46
  man, how perfect and naming his heart.
• 21:49
  All the good names are taken. They're taken.
• 21:52
  But like there's such a great legacy here at Sweetwater with
• 21:55
  the beer and the team and the family that has been around
• 21:59
  Sweetwater for for many, many years.
• 22:01
  That kind of just you, you have I texted, you know, old
• 22:05
  Sweetwater people definitely have I visited with them?
• 22:09
  Absolutely. And just picking their brain,
• 22:12
  trying to understand like what goes in the name?
• 22:15
  I, I think the biggest thing is, you know, with naming, it's
• 22:18
  understanding the brand. Who is Sweetwater Sweetwater.
• 22:20
  We're we're a brand that's loves a great time, sometimes a little
• 22:24
  bit too much, but we we love music, we love the outdoors.
• 22:29
  So you know, you can kind of connect the dots with day trip
• 22:33
  and and dive beer. There's other times where it's
• 22:36
  like we just want to let consumers know about beer.
• 22:40
  So we've done beers with the most simple names.
• 22:43
  You can understand IPA. There's not a more basic name
• 22:46
  than that. We had one rattler, guess what
• 22:52
  style that one, because the feedback we got was like, a lot
• 22:55
  of folks just don't know what a rattler is.
• 22:56
  So let's just under like educate people on different styles and
• 23:00
  different opportunities for craft beer.
• 23:02
  So, you know, we there's a wide range of creative names and
• 23:06
  sometimes the best Ave. is to keep it simple.
• 23:08
  And I love those because then, you know, check, we're done.
• 23:12
  We move on to the next part and now we can get again.
• 23:15
  Go shotgun more beers in the lobby.
• 23:18
  Everything is a play on the beers you mentioned a few
• 23:20
  minutes ago about about how the basically consumers, what they
• 23:24
  want has changed. Talk about the 2025 of from a
• 23:28
  Sweetwater perspective of how much you see in that.
• 23:31
  So 2025, I mean, there's, there's so many things at play
• 23:35
  here and, and you guys know your shelf space is limited and
• 23:40
  there's more and more options than ever.
• 23:42
  I think you're, you're, there's a cohort there.
• 23:46
  There's folks who who know Sweetwater, know we're all about
• 23:49
  quality beer. First you got to be, you got to
• 23:51
  have quality beer and you got to be consistent.
• 23:54
  You got to deliver on, you know, the beer that I had 10 years
• 23:59
  ago. God, I hope it's the same.
• 24:02
  But you know, you, you have to deliver on that.
• 24:04
  But then inviting new folks into not not even Sweetwater, just
• 24:08
  craft beers like, OK, how do we meet them where their needs are?
• 24:12
  And luckily, you know, I've got a lot of younger folks.
• 24:15
  I, I'm more great here hairs than the screen shows.
• 24:18
  You know, there's a lot of younger folks here and, and one
• 24:21
  of the so one of the things that we're doing 1 was an invitation
• 24:24
  through flavor. So if they don't understand yet
• 24:28
  what a stout is, they might understand what chocolate is.
• 24:32
  So calling out, so like our fall seasonal that we just released.
• 24:35
  Boom Chakalaka is a chocolate stout and getting them like
• 24:39
  inviting them through the flavor and then delivering on OK, you
• 24:43
  understand it's chocolate. Now you understand it's a stout,
• 24:46
  getting them to kind of understand what that is.
• 24:50
  And, and like, it's not just I'm buying beer for enjoyment.
• 24:53
  I'm buying now I'm buying beer for the education.
• 24:56
  Like that's all part of it. And we that's kind of the so
• 25:00
  boom Chakalaka is a seasonal for us.
• 25:02
  It's it was here in the fall. We are recording this live in
• 25:06
  January as I understand. So I am speaking in present past
• 25:12
  tense. So, you know, I think that was
• 25:14
  one of the things we saw. And you can see that with other
• 25:16
  trending beers, you know, throughout craft beer, you know,
• 25:19
  younger, younger folks love flavor and younger folks are
• 25:22
  trying to like tip their toe into beer, whether it's double
• 25:26
  Ipas, whether it's Ipas or pilsners.
• 25:29
  So it's trying to meet them in the middle.
• 25:31
  And our strategy right now is, you know, giving them something
• 25:35
  they can understand and then also telling them, you know what
• 25:38
  else that something could be. That's a great point because it
• 25:42
  can't you, you can squash that. Hey, I don't like beer statement
• 25:46
  kind of thing to anyone really. Right.
• 25:47
  Hey, I don't like beer. Well, let me introduce you to
• 25:49
  something. Let me educate you on something.
• 25:51
  And maybe it's not the beer you think it is.
• 25:53
  If I introduce you to chocolate or something like.
• 25:55
  Oh, OK, I didn't know this existed.
• 25:56
  Yeah, it's a great, you know, it's a kind of great viewpoint.
• 25:59
  It's like, you know, beer. It's like I kind of want to
• 26:03
  shake them on their shoulders. Listen to me, young strapper,
• 26:06
  whipper snapper. Like we, there's so much you
• 26:10
  don't know and there's, you can have so much fun with this and
• 26:14
  you can have fun with it through so many vehicles, whether it's
• 26:17
  Sweetwater or other breweries like those vehicles are Pactite,
• 26:21
  those vehicles are styles, those vehicles are flavor.
• 26:25
  And just, yeah, there's a whole new group here that's increasing
• 26:29
  their buying power and getting them interested in craft beer.
• 26:33
  Like I, I keep saying this and not only elevate Sweetwater,
• 26:36
  it's it's going to elevate like all, all all of the crap
• 26:40
  breweries at the table. And you know what, looking at
• 26:42
  the Boom Chocolaga on your website, which love the website,
• 26:45
  it's a 6% beer, another one that you know, another another great
• 26:49
  tasting beer that you could have during the day and maybe have
• 26:52
  after a day trip. Struggling when you walk in the
• 26:55
  front door. Yeah.
• 26:56
  So, you know, with our seasonal rotators throughout, you know,
• 27:01
  2026, it'll be, you know, it'll be how do we invite new folks to
• 27:07
  enjoy craft beer through flavor? But also, you know, with these
• 27:11
  limited time only is, is how do we bring people back to
• 27:14
  Sweetwater? Yeah, you'll, you'll see a lot
• 27:17
  of that. And, and boom, Chakalaka like
• 27:19
  great one. And, and, and our Brewers were
• 27:22
  so stoked about telling me about it.
• 27:24
  We tried it and we sampled it down in our tap room.
• 27:27
  Our, you know, our tap room is such a great like vehicle where
• 27:30
  you get to like litmus test different things versus their
• 27:35
  folks are like, I'm literally just here for lunch and I'm
• 27:37
  like, I'm literally going to give you 3 beers to try.
• 27:40
  Come on down. You know, so it's, it's, you
• 27:43
  know, you get so much feedback through that.
• 27:45
  And we hadn't had a chocolate stout like to like in, in, in
• 27:50
  many, many years. So yeah, it, it, it made a ton
• 27:52
  of sense for us are we were super thrilled about it.
• 27:56
  And then and it, it, it makes sense with that strategy of, of
• 27:58
  bringing folks back to. Let's go back to basic names for
• 28:02
  a minute. Sweetwater was one of my
• 28:04
  introductory brands into craft beer early on for 20 was a big
• 28:09
  part of that, and Sweetwater Blue was another part of that.
• 28:13
  I drank a ton of that stuff and they're kind of two opposite
• 28:17
  ends of the spectrum, but it was something when I was discovering
• 28:20
  beer. I like that style now.
• 28:22
  This blueberry thing was really nice.
• 28:23
  That's nice and smooth. Anybody can drink that.
• 28:25
  So those, so I've really got a profound respect and I was
• 28:29
  trying to support the brand because you guys were one of my
• 28:31
  introductory brands into craft beer because you've been around
• 28:33
  for a long time too. So as I was discovering it,
• 28:36
  those were some of the ones I had discovered and still like
• 28:38
  them to this day. And found on the store shelves,
• 28:41
  you know, here in Nashville. And even if you go to like a
• 28:43
  Nashville Predator game, you know you can get you can get
• 28:46
  Sweetwater there as well. You recognize that label a mile
• 28:49
  away? Yeah.
• 28:50
  So. Yeah.
• 28:51
  So cheers to that. By the way, Sweetwater Blue, am
• 28:54
  I wrong? At one point was that just a
• 28:56
  seasonal beer and now it's a year round beer?
• 28:59
  Or was it always a year round beer and I just only found it
• 29:01
  sometimes? So like reverse history.
• 29:06
  So when I mentioned Freddie and Kevin came here in 96, the
• 29:11
  brewery opened up in 97420 was not the first beer we ever
• 29:15
  brewed. We've had extra special bidders
• 29:19
  was our first one. That's like my trivia question
• 29:22
  on the tours. It's like what was the first
• 29:23
  beer? And everybody thinks they know
• 29:25
  it's like 420 and it's not. They're always wrong.
• 29:28
  And we had our original IPA, which was the the first like
• 29:32
  West Coast style IPA in the Southeast.
• 29:35
  And then we had Blue and blue predates 420.
• 29:39
  And I think it goes back to like, I'm definitely not
• 29:43
  answering your question the way you asked.
• 29:46
  It it's OK, you just go. Mumble on so blue was kind of
• 29:51
  like now you see with these consumer trends everybody wants
• 29:54
  variety. Not everybody wants beer and you
• 29:58
  see like seltzer's see RTD's and like everything in between.
• 30:06
  People are doing things with wine and spirits and blue for
• 30:10
  Sweetwater was like the beer for the non beer drinker, right.
• 30:17
  Like it was that I I keep going back to like flavor can invite
• 30:21
  people to craft. Blue was our blueberry wheat ale
• 30:26
  so approachable. Like, my God, if you're ever in
• 30:30
  the airport at 6:00 AM, like blue is like that 6:00 AM beer
• 30:35
  where time like doesn't matter. Nobody knows what time zone
• 30:38
  they're in. And I like people are drinking
• 30:41
  blue. And by people I mostly mean me,
• 30:44
  but like they're like blue is big concerns.
• 30:47
  So like it smells like blueberries in the morning.
• 30:51
  Wheat ale, so approachable. So like seasonal.
• 30:55
  No, but like one of those early beers for us that kind of like
• 31:00
  got Sweetwater's name out. Of course, we're 20 as the
• 31:03
  flagship IPA, which became a staple here in the Southeast
• 31:08
  where, you know, I Nick Knock is our head Brewer and he's been
• 31:11
  here since 97. And, you know, it's like we
• 31:14
  brought the hops to the South. Like those are the two that get
• 31:18
  most of the attention. And, and Blue has just than, you
• 31:21
  know, jugging on for 28 1/2 years because there's there's a
• 31:27
  there are folks there who like, yeah, I don't want an IPA.
• 31:30
  I want a refreshing, flavorful wheat ale. 6:00 in the morning.
• 31:34
  Yes. At the airport.
• 31:36
  And blue just kind of like hit that before seltzers and RT DS
• 31:40
  and not all these other things at the market.
• 31:42
  It's 1 and it's the blueberries. Not overpowering at all.
• 31:44
  It's light, it is refreshing like you said, but it's there
• 31:47
  and it's really good. Still one of my favorite beers
• 31:49
  of all time. I mean, Blueberries series was
• 31:51
  something I had for breakfast this morning, just without the
• 31:53
  beer. Just wash it down with the blue.
• 31:55
  I know game plan. There was, and I can remember
• 31:59
  this, there was a promotion, I guess you guys had done it and
• 32:01
  we had gone to Buffalo Wild Wings and they were running a
• 32:04
  blue promotion and they had the blue pint glasses and they were
• 32:08
  blue. I don't know if did you ever see
• 32:10
  those or remember. They were awesome.
• 32:12
  Of course I had the glasses. Yes.
• 32:13
  I stole them from from Buffalo Wild Wings.
• 32:16
  What you got to do? Yes.
• 32:18
  You probably I'll I'll let her lawyer know.
• 32:20
  But yeah, that's great. Thank you for.
• 32:21
  Telling that's where they all went.
• 32:22
  But for the for the record, I broke them all at some point
• 32:25
  along the way too. It happens.
• 32:26
  They don't exist anymore. It happens high usage.
• 32:29
  Yes, one of the other beers and it is it is a 420 and I won't
• 32:33
  forget. I'll never forget where I had it
• 32:36
  the first time. It's the 420G13 strain.
• 32:39
  Yeah, it is the most pungent, dank beer I think I've had to
• 32:44
  date, both on the nose, mostly the nose and the pallet.
• 32:47
  I was at a Tapper. It was Deep South Growlers, and
• 32:50
  they poured it across the room and I go, what is that?
• 32:53
  You could just smell it wafting across the room.
• 32:56
  How is that beer for you guys? Is it still a big seller?
• 32:59
  Is it still around? I remember that and I'll always.
• 33:01
  Remember it. So when I figure out when it's
• 33:04
  on our production calendar, I will invite you to the brewery.
• 33:07
  You can, you can figure out Nashville and Atlanta traffic
• 33:11
  and you can walk into our brewhouse and it smells just
• 33:15
  extremely dank. I'm like, did somebody just
• 33:18
  light something up or was that us?
• 33:21
  I, I don't know. But yeah, G13 is just a fun one.
• 33:25
  And when I talk about that beer, you know, I, I, I probably get
• 33:28
  the vocabulary wrong, but I'm like, this is a sensational beer
• 33:31
  as in it will mess with your senses.
• 33:33
  So my, you know, my high school teacher is probably going to
• 33:37
  text me that I misused that word.
• 33:40
  But like, it is, it is so aromatic with the terpenes, but
• 33:45
  the terpenes go so well with the hops that are used in that.
• 33:48
  And like, then there becomes this whole, you know, a lot of
• 33:51
  people don't know that like terpenes and marijuana strains
• 33:56
  and hop strains, they're all like close cousins.
• 33:59
  And that fits perfectly with who Sweetwater was and who, you
• 34:03
  know, we were born as and continue to be.
• 34:07
  The G13 continues to be one of our favorite beers to brew,
• 34:10
  favorite beers to drink, favorite beers to sell,
• 34:13
  Obviously like favorite beer to talk about because it's like
• 34:17
  you, you smell it, right? But then you go in and you drink
• 34:21
  it and you're like, oh, it's like a it's a very tasty AZIPA.
• 34:27
  So I had it, yeah, if you don't mind me saying.
• 34:30
  So I had it a few days ago before we did this podcast as
• 34:33
  well. You know, I had different,
• 34:35
  different variations of Sweetwater over the years.
• 34:37
  I hadn't had that one. You had mentioned that you have
• 34:39
  some family out in Brentwood, you know, Brentwood, TN I was at
• 34:43
  a place called Cool Springs Wine and Spirits, and I went out
• 34:48
  there and I was like, I need something new.
• 34:50
  They have a lot of varieties. And I got that.
• 34:52
  And yeah, I mean the hops, which was the biggest thing that stood
• 34:56
  out to me that I really enjoyed about that.
• 34:58
  Beer, yeah. It's like it's, you know, you
• 35:00
  the aromatic is one thing and then you taste it.
• 35:03
  And I like, I feel like a craft beer lover can enjoy the craft
• 35:07
  behind that beer. Yeah.
• 35:09
  And a lot of work went into that beer.
• 35:12
  And yeah, we, we still love Drake to that one.
• 35:15
  It's it's great. It it kind of had its own family
• 35:18
  for a while and that one continues to stand out for us.
• 35:22
  Is it so? Is it now just in the 420?
• 35:24
  Are there still other parts of that or other maybe styles or
• 35:27
  beers that you make with it? So yeah, we did.
• 35:30
  We did a few, like we did a terpene infused Mexican lager,
• 35:34
  we did a terpene infused wheat ale, we did a terpene infused
• 35:37
  double IPA. And they were all like, you're
• 35:40
  asking me like, great, go out and buy 5 million cases, you
• 35:45
  know? But you know what, what really
• 35:47
  stands out was G13. Like there's so much on just
• 35:51
  that one beer where where our Brewers just cracked the case on
• 35:56
  marrying the hop style to the terpene style so that the aroma
• 36:01
  brings out flavor, but the aroma doesn't overtake the flavor.
• 36:05
  And that, to me, makes that beer so special.
• 36:07
  They work well together, yeah. Hey before we go on I want to
• 36:10
  say that my day is not ended with day trip.
• 36:13
  No, I'm done with that. I always got more.
• 36:16
  I'm on with another one that you all sent here.
• 36:18
  We. Go OK, yeah, OGIPA, the yellow
• 36:23
  fella around I don't know about Nashville around Atlanta.
• 36:26
  If you say you want yellow, big yellow or OG, like it's, it's
• 36:31
  got a stigma. It's been around for 28 years.
• 36:33
  I think I mentioned like it was, it's been around longer than 420
• 36:37
  and kind of the first of its kind here in here in Georgia.
• 36:40
  Another recognizable label, too. In Cannes, you can see that
• 36:44
  thing across the room. Yeah, yeah.
• 36:47
  And it's kind of I think as we're kind of in this strange
• 36:51
  period where you have folks who wherever the economy is going,
• 36:56
  maybe they want to go back to I want to buy a beer that I know
• 37:00
  is good. So we've seen a ton of momentum
• 37:03
  around O around our original IPAI.
• 37:06
  Sometimes I call it OG, sometimes I call it I'd like a
• 37:09
  yellow. I've so many names for up here.
• 37:11
  That's literally so simple, but just a great West Coast style
• 37:16
  that we love. Again, like I talked about dye
• 37:19
  beer being so beloved here by all of our brewery, by all of
• 37:23
  our Brewers. Oh geez the other one like it we
• 37:25
  we love that beer to death and it's been around for 28 years
• 37:29
  and kind of set the scene for what a West Coast style should
• 37:33
  be in the southeast and and a bright yellow can so that the.
• 37:38
  Bright yellow can on the shelf and you know, go buy it today.
• 37:41
  Go buy it today. That's the thing.
• 37:42
  It's like the Sweetwater logo and the Sweetwater brand is so
• 37:46
  synonymous. But then you look at the can art
• 37:48
  too, which is also a very important thing.
• 37:51
  Talk a little bit about the can art for a lot of these different
• 37:54
  brands. Yeah, we've got.
• 37:55
  So we, we did a brand refresh a couple years ago wanting to
• 38:00
  make, you know, kind of bring our packaging into the new 21st
• 38:05
  century, which we've been here for 20 years.
• 38:07
  So, you know, but you know, a little bit more stylized, a
• 38:12
  little bit more inviting to folks, particularly younger
• 38:16
  folks. And with that, we so first and
• 38:18
  foremost, like you see behind me, like Sweetwater, and this is
• 38:23
  Fletcher, by the way, Fletcher, Fletcher rainbow trout, like non
• 38:28
  negotiable. We have to have this as part of
• 38:31
  our brand identity. Beyond that, like I, we are such
• 38:35
  a very colorful brands and the way we talk and the way we party
• 38:40
  and in the way we show up on the shelf.
• 38:42
  So, you know, color was the next non negotiable.
• 38:45
  But then beyond that, it was just like, how do we focus on
• 38:48
  who we are and what we care about?
• 38:51
  But you you kind of see like our, our can.
• 38:53
  I don't have an I do. It's in a colorful pocket like
• 38:59
  like so so we we wanted to incorporate like we were born on
• 39:03
  the river. Sweetwater is a Sweetwater Creek
• 39:05
  is a tributary off of the Atlanta main water source, a
• 39:10
  Chattahoochee National Park. So Sweetwater Creek is based off
• 39:14
  of the Chattahoochee River. So it's like, how can we include
• 39:17
  a river on everything we do? How can we just just Sweetwater
• 39:21
  born on the water? There should be water as part of
• 39:24
  it, which we didn't before. So first and foremost you see,
• 39:26
  you see water as part of the foundation and then the next
• 39:29
  part is you kind of see the Atlanta skyline.
• 39:32
  So, you know, if you're cheering for a competitor, you know, NFL
• 39:37
  team and you see the Atlanta skyline, well, you know, not
• 39:41
  great. But for us, you know, Atlanta's
• 39:43
  home and we will embrace that. And we want to make sure Atlanta
• 39:47
  knows that we are we're here for the, the, the home team, the
• 39:51
  hometown traffic sucks. That's fine.
• 39:54
  We're in it together, very literally.
• 39:57
  And so we, we just with the, with IPA, we kind of show off
• 40:00
  the skyline. And it's, it's, it's an homage
• 40:03
  to our hometown. And we had them.
• 40:05
  Brother lives in Texas and he would come visit me here in
• 40:09
  Tennessee and, and I can't tell you the year, but it's been many
• 40:12
  years now and he couldn't get Sweetwater in Texas at that
• 40:15
  time. And he would come here and I
• 40:17
  think Blue was one of the ones he really loved when he come up
• 40:19
  here. And they finally and they
• 40:20
  eventually got it and they seemed to be like at one point
• 40:22
  there was this progression of Sweetwater kind of sweeping the
• 40:25
  OR going state to state to state and distributing and kind of
• 40:29
  maybe that is that SE you're talking about?
• 40:31
  How many states are you guys in? Do you know that?
• 40:33
  Or is it primarily the the the the Southeast or you get into
• 40:37
  getting into most states so. I'm gonna like, I'll, I'll make
• 40:40
  up a number. Can we just say we're in like
• 40:42
  42.0 states so that I keep it on brands without like totally
• 40:47
  knowing the number? That's actually a number I saw
• 40:49
  online too, by the way, 42. So there we go.
• 40:52
  I think it. I think it's, yeah.
• 40:54
  There we go. We'll just we'll we'll keep
• 40:55
  that. Maybe we just lock that number
• 40:57
  in and then like so I mean, yeah.
• 41:00
  So, you know, a few years ago, we, we, we, our, our home is
• 41:08
  Atlanta, but like the ethos of Sweetwater, the invention of the
• 41:12
  brands and Freddie and Kevin's brain was born out in Colorado.
• 41:16
  So they're like Colorado for a while was like kind of a second
• 41:19
  home to us. So for a while we, you know, we,
• 41:23
  we, we went go West, young man and kind of had that, you know,
• 41:27
  sort of bring Sweetwater to all the place where there's
• 41:29
  freshwater. And like we couldn't do that
• 41:33
  without awesome, awesome partnerships.
• 41:35
  Like we had like Atlanta, you think of, yeah, sure, gridlock
• 41:39
  traffic, but think of like the other big partners we have in
• 41:43
  the city, one of which is Delta Airlines.
• 41:46
  And we are so fortunate to be one of the beer brands on Delta
• 41:52
  Airlines. Amazing like partnership with an
• 41:55
  Atlanta brands. And for us, it's just, you know,
• 41:58
  you think about everybody who flies on Delta and you think
• 42:01
  about the, you know, us being able to have 420 pale ale in
• 42:07
  front of these folks. So like, you know, you got all
• 42:10
  the snowbirds from up north who want to fly down South for the
• 42:13
  winter. And you know, there's, there's a
• 42:15
  solid shot they're flying Delta. So for us, like it started
• 42:19
  there. It started with us being able to
• 42:21
  spread kind of the awareness throughout the US through this
• 42:25
  awesome partnership, then kind of laying the foundation of we
• 42:28
  were born out West. Let's go out West kind of live
• 42:32
  the 420 highway sign for a little bit and and just see
• 42:38
  where the road takes US. Texas is Texas has great beer
• 42:42
  like I will like flat out like your your family's got just like
• 42:47
  awesome options and we've got other breweries who like shoot
• 42:51
  text me, sell them to text me and I'll give some
• 42:54
  recommendation like blood and honey is great out there.
• 42:56
  There's some awesome, awesome breweries out in Texas and for
• 42:59
  Sweetwater, we, we kind of rained it in like we went out
• 43:03
  West and we were like, but we're, we're from the South.
• 43:06
  We love southern culture. Like I, I don't know if it's the
• 43:10
  Creole food or low country. I I don't know what it is, but
• 43:14
  we kind of rained. So we went out West.
• 43:16
  We rained it in as as kind of just kind of owning Atlanta,
• 43:20
  owning the SE Owning is a strong word, but just kind of wanting
• 43:25
  to make sure like we are able to prioritize and give back to the
• 43:29
  communities here in Jordan and beyond.
• 43:32
  Just making that focus more in your backyard kind of thing.
• 43:36
  Well, and for people that sorry, Scott, for people that are, you
• 43:40
  know, listening to this podcast wherever they are across the
• 43:42
  country, you guys aren't in Antarctica yet.
• 43:44
  See, we're still waiting to try to get somebody that's listening
• 43:48
  from Antarctica. Cold beers.
• 43:50
  I know. Very cold beer.
• 43:52
  Ice cold. Beers.
• 43:53
  We have some stats out there that show people are listening
• 43:56
  in other countries, but I don't think you can find Sweetwater in
• 43:59
  other countries. But on your website at the
• 44:02
  sweetwaterbrew.com, there is a beer Finder you can type in.
• 44:07
  You know where wherever beer is sold.
• 44:10
  A Sweetwater across the country. We've been spoiled in Tennessee
• 44:13
  because, and I've been here 21 years and I found it from day
• 44:17
  one. So we support.
• 44:18
  I can get Sweetwater anytime I want to and I do it's.
• 44:20
  Good problem. It is a good problem.
• 44:22
  For me at least. And what are the things early,
• 44:27
  especially early on, you guys have some of the best mixed
• 44:29
  packs, mixed cases around like you'd have.
• 44:33
  And that's how I discovered Georgia Brown, I think.
• 44:35
  Oh my God, that's one of my favorite beers.
• 44:36
  Coastal. Was it going coastal?
• 44:38
  Maybe there's a pineapple version of that.
• 44:39
  I remember all this. It was such when you would find
• 44:42
  your mixed case, everything in it would be brand new.
• 44:44
  And if I remember, maybe you had some seasonal ones or different
• 44:46
  ones at different times of the year.
• 44:48
  But some of the best mixed cases I've ever had were from
• 44:51
  Sweetwater. Yeah, and there's, you know, I
• 44:53
  think if if you're me, me, you know, it's it's like, do I want
• 44:58
  to go drink 12, four 20s or do I want to have a little bit of,
• 45:02
  you know, something that I start with mom, I'm not drinking 12
• 45:05
  beers on my own just in case she listens.
• 45:08
  But you know, for us, variety packs are, are great for, you
• 45:12
  know, showcasing the diversity of skill set.
• 45:14
  We can do this beer, we can do that beer, that beer, that beer.
• 45:18
  I think it provides a lot of value to people who want to have
• 45:21
  an understanding of craft beer. Again, I come back to like, we
• 45:24
  want to invite people to what we have going on and also the
• 45:28
  brewery down the street what they have going on.
• 45:30
  So like it's it's an invitation to trial different types of
• 45:34
  beers. And for us.
• 45:35
  So yeah, we've got like an IPA variety pack that showcases some
• 45:40
  of our type IPIPAS. We have a tackle box variety
• 45:44
  pack where, you know, somebody needs something a little bit
• 45:48
  easier for the water. That's what that's meant for.
• 45:51
  But showcasing what you have I, I I think is important for, for,
• 45:54
  for trial or invitation, everything, everything you've
• 45:58
  got going on. Yeah.
• 46:00
  But Tackle Box is a great name for a variety pack too, don't
• 46:03
  you think? Especially based on your name.
• 46:05
  Yeah. So like, you know, for us, it's
• 46:07
  about owning, you know, where we've been.
• 46:10
  I mentioned I, like I keep saying we were born on the
• 46:12
  water. You know, Freddie and Kevin, the
• 46:14
  Sweetwater was born in a brewery where we're very close to
• 46:19
  Sweetwater Creek here in Atlanta.
• 46:21
  And the guys would go fishing. And so fishing is part of our
• 46:26
  DNA. And tackle bot, yeah, it's a
• 46:28
  it's a great name. It really is.
• 46:29
  And when you think about what should go into it, you know,
• 46:32
  it's, it's beers for the water. So we, we've got our, our tackle
• 46:35
  box variety. We have a couple different
• 46:37
  variety packs just meant to invite folks to craft beer.
• 46:40
  Tackle box is very much you know, what are beers you're
• 46:43
  going to enjoy out on the water on the boat, kind of more
• 46:46
  sessionable. And then our IPA variety pack,
• 46:49
  which is going to be like, get ready for some flavor everybody,
• 46:52
  because it's coming at you. Well, yeah, and we were just
• 46:54
  joking earlier about the names of their committee or whatever,
• 46:58
  but everything you're talking about is such a great marketing
• 47:01
  tool of you don't want to just be, hey, this is just our beer.
• 47:06
  This is the beer that's really going to get you engaged in
• 47:10
  whatever style it is. Yeah, and we're fortunate.
• 47:14
  We don't want to fake it right? Like we we want to invest in
• 47:19
  that fishing community. Like, yeah, anybody can do
• 47:22
  tackle box. But like we want to partner with
• 47:25
  like minded folks. So we want to partner with folks
• 47:27
  who keep our water clean. We want to partner with, you
• 47:30
  know, fishing companies who can take people fly fishing and it's
• 47:35
  catch and release. So the fishing get a chance, you
• 47:37
  know, to go swim. Oh, my friend.
• 47:40
  So it's, it's kind of like, yes, it's marketing, but then there's
• 47:43
  also like the extra layer of like, no, this is this is who we
• 47:46
  were, this is who we started as, but this is also who we are and
• 47:50
  who we want to be. You sent us one of the the notes
• 47:53
  and one of the emails and you sent us an Instagram link.
• 47:58
  I'm trying to build it up a little bit because it's so good.
• 48:00
  Come on. About the dank tank and I I
• 48:04
  thought about for half a second playing the clip on here, but it
• 48:07
  goes a little long for maybe for this, but the date tank and it's
• 48:11
  a really good, I guess an internal video you get you guys
• 48:14
  made and and a lot of people within your your organization
• 48:17
  are talking about this dank tank and things.
• 48:18
  So first of all, if anybody gets on their website or their
• 48:21
  website or their Instagram account, look this thing up.
• 48:24
  It's hilarious. But anyway, talk about the dank
• 48:26
  tank and I'll just let you talk about it.
• 48:28
  Extremely well produced by the way.
• 48:31
  It is so good. So the dank tank is a real tank.
• 48:35
  It's it's real and it has been around for like since the
• 48:40
  earliest days of Sweetwater. They they moved it from brewery
• 48:43
  to brewery. So it is it it physically, if
• 48:46
  you go on one of our tours, you can see the dank tank and it
• 48:49
  looks as crazy as it appears in the video, but it's it's it's
• 48:54
  not just a tank. So we, you know, we, we pride
• 48:58
  ourselves on crafts, we pride ourselves on quality.
• 49:01
  So we, we kind of this is not a new thing, but historically
• 49:06
  Sweetwater, we've had a Brewer series where our Brewers get to
• 49:10
  play around our Brewers get to create a style that they want to
• 49:14
  have fun with. The only requirement is that it
• 49:18
  be very fun. And by very fun, I mean like
• 49:21
  bump up the gravity on that. So DS right.
• 49:24
  So we, we got away from this a little bit and we are, we just
• 49:29
  decided like, guys, this is not only crap, this is, this is
• 49:34
  innovation, this is having fun and having fun is what craft is
• 49:39
  all about. And so we made it a, a decision
• 49:43
  to just bring back the dank tank.
• 49:45
  So part of that was making sure people knew like, what is the
• 49:49
  dank tank? So we we had a lot of fun with
• 49:51
  this like what is the dank tank did this whole like history
• 49:54
  channel spoof? But the Dang tank is is it's
• 49:57
  essentially a Brewer series where we, you know, the Brewers
• 50:01
  get to talk about like, OK, what do you want to brew?
• 50:05
  And then every fall it's a fresh hops double IPA.
• 50:09
  Like that is the mandatory. So fresh sticky nugs makes its
• 50:12
  return every fall. Our Brewers go out and scout the
• 50:16
  the freshiest hops that they can find.
• 50:19
  And then within 24 hours we have our fresh hops double IPA.
• 50:22
  But then, you know, seeing what lies beyond that in the spring
• 50:26
  and the summer, trying to make it an all year year thing where
• 50:30
  where it hasn't been for quite some time, but where are Brewers
• 50:34
  can kind of, you know, test their mettle where we get to see
• 50:38
  what else there is in craft brewing that hasn't been
• 50:40
  explored. That essentially is is the ethos
• 50:43
  of the bank thing. What other you said sticky nugs
• 50:46
  is is brewed in there? What are some of the other ones
• 50:48
  Is that is the boom chakalaka chocolate.
• 50:51
  Burger Boom Chakalaka is it's, it's, that's part of our catch
• 50:56
  and release strategies. Catch and release is, is going
• 50:59
  to be in 6 packs and drafts 6% chocolate stout where we're
• 51:04
  talking with the Brewers. It's like you've got to go, you
• 51:07
  know, 7 and up, bump it up. Let's crank it to 11.
• 51:12
  Not 11% like just music. Mine goes to 11.
• 51:17
  So, yeah, so it's, it's exploring it, it's more of it's
• 51:21
  like an exploration, you know, what isn't there?
• 51:24
  So we could talk about, you know, high gravity Loggers, for
• 51:29
  example, we could talk about, you know, things we usually
• 51:33
  don't dabble in, which could be sours or like like beers where
• 51:39
  we're going to invite again. I, I, I keep talking about
• 51:42
  invitation, invitation of new people to craft brewing.
• 51:46
  But also like, what is something that if you're a craft beer
• 51:50
  person who loves, just just has loved beer for many years, what
• 51:56
  can we do to re engage and, and get you thinking, what are
• 52:00
  things that are going to be, Oh, I didn't know that was doable.
• 52:03
  And so that's what the the the dank tank is meant to do.
• 52:06
  I wouldn't. I would imagine the Brewers in
• 52:08
  there, not necessarily. They're fighting for the space,
• 52:10
  but I bet they can't wait to be the next one up, right?
• 52:13
  Oh, it's my turn now. Yeah, dude, it's like in it's a,
• 52:16
  it's slightly competitive, Yeah. Where we, we all want to talk,
• 52:21
  we all want to do. Like at the end of the day, we
• 52:24
  all want something that's gonna be good like that we are going
• 52:28
  to enjoy. Because I think if we enjoy it,
• 52:31
  you know, here is Sweetwater, folks will enjoy it, you know,
• 52:34
  elsewhere. So it's like, what's a beer we
• 52:36
  can be proud of and what's a beer that we can put our stamp
• 52:39
  on? And yeah, all of our Brewers,
• 52:42
  like they, that's what it's meant to do.
• 52:44
  Yeah. Be a Sandlot.
• 52:46
  It's really those videos are so much fun.
• 52:49
  So for people interested, where can they go and find those
• 52:52
  videos? So we've got our Instagram
• 52:55
  channels is the main 1. So if you follow at
• 52:58
  sweetwaterbrew.com, sweetwaterbrew.com at Sweetwater
• 53:02
  Brew on Instagram, you can find a slew of videos.
• 53:05
  If you think they're funny, please like them.
• 53:08
  Please comment. If you don't think they're
• 53:10
  funny, that's OK, mom. We'll make sure we put that link
• 53:16
  in in our post and stuff because everybody needs to see.
• 53:19
  I watched it three times today. I was back to bed.
• 53:22
  It's so entertaining. We we had some funk.
• 53:24
  I wanted to pull some one liners from it and discuss it from
• 53:27
  every single one of them were so good I couldn't pull just one
• 53:30
  because they went from person. Yeah, and one guy, he's like.
• 53:34
  Yeah, I was gonna say you got the one guy who's in the dark,
• 53:36
  like he's not supposed to be recognized, you know?
• 53:38
  He's like, I can't believe you know about this or whatever.
• 53:40
  It's so good. You can't believe you know, but.
• 53:42
  They're illegal, yeah. And what it probably is too,
• 53:45
  It's like guys just getting together.
• 53:47
  There's nothing real scripted. Everything is just off the cuff
• 53:50
  where everybody's just having fun.
• 53:51
  Probably all had three or 4 beers before we filmed.
• 53:55
  Yeah, it was a good time. The big one for us though, you
• 53:58
  know, Nick is in that video, Willie is in that video.
• 54:02
  I think craft beer can stand out.
• 54:05
  I talked about flavor. I've talked about invitation.
• 54:07
  I haven't talked about people. Craft beer I think can really
• 54:11
  stand out by showcasing what goes behind the craft.
• 54:14
  And the people are it's like that's it, it's the people.
• 54:19
  So, you know, we wouldn't be anywhere today without Nick,
• 54:23
  without Willie, without a very talented team of Brewers.
• 54:27
  And I think for for craft beers is how do you showcase those
• 54:30
  Brewers? How do you showcase them,
• 54:31
  whether it's educational or entertainment, like where we
• 54:35
  just do crazy, weird stuff. And like, I hope some people
• 54:39
  find this dank tech video funny. For us, there's a point and
• 54:44
  showcase, you know, just the awesome, awesome talent that
• 54:48
  goes behind making our beers every day.
• 54:51
  I think it's great You're humanizing the beer in a in a
• 54:53
  sense where you're you're getting to see the people that
• 54:55
  make it like they're real people back there.
• 54:57
  It's not just some machine that does it.
• 54:58
  It's, you know, wheat, water or insert name beer.
• 55:02
  You, you know, that's, that's what's going to separate craft
• 55:05
  apart and get attention of young folk, young folk.
• 55:11
  That's what yeah. That, that, that I, I just, I
• 55:13
  feel like, you know, showcasing the people behind the brand.
• 55:16
  It's, it's important. And then I don't even think
• 55:18
  that's just beer. I think that's just, you know,
• 55:22
  life today where everything is so visible.
• 55:25
  People can look in this, you know, I can research, I don't
• 55:29
  know whether it's true or not, but I can do any sort of
• 55:31
  research on how to repair XYZ thing in my house.
• 55:34
  Information is at your fingertips and people can look
• 55:37
  into like, is this a brand that I want to purchase?
• 55:41
  And if they see that there are people behind the brand that's
• 55:44
  more than a logo, that's more than a price, that's more than
• 55:48
  just like a style. It's the folks who bring it to
• 55:52
  life. And that's kind of like where I
• 55:55
  think a lot of the magic happens again, whether it's beer, toilet
• 55:59
  paper, I don't know about toilet paper, but like, yeah, yeah,
• 56:02
  that's that's the gist. I keep said in the beginning
• 56:05
  that you've been with the company, what, five years,
• 56:07
  right? Yes, yeah, as of as because we
• 56:11
  are live right now here in January 2026.
• 56:15
  Yeah, it's it's been about five years.
• 56:17
  Five years ago was, you know, we were we were in the midst of
• 56:22
  just some crazy times in the beer industry and, and just we
• 56:27
  were in the midst of crazy times period.
• 56:29
  And I was so lucky to so fortunate to join a family and a
• 56:34
  brand like I'm from Atlanta. I went to school at one of the
• 56:38
  most prominent football programs in the country.
• 56:42
  And by the time that this podcast airs, Georgia Tech will
• 56:46
  have won the national championship.
• 56:47
  I think. Let's time stamp this.
• 56:51
  So like, I, I'm, I'm from Atlanta and I, I, you know, you
• 56:54
  see Sweetwater everywhere and just so fortunate during that
• 56:59
  period to join the team that I've been made.
• 57:03
  It's a family and it's a fun family and it's a family that
• 57:07
  enjoys lots of beers at 4:20 PM. That's like kind of like, yeah,
• 57:13
  yeah, enjoy a beer at this crazy time.
• 57:16
  And it's I, I wouldn't change it for the world.
• 57:20
  And I think the cool thing is, you know, the company's been
• 57:22
  around about 28 years. You had, it's like you started
• 57:25
  about five years ago. You had to have some of these
• 57:28
  aha moments when you met some of these folks you've been talking
• 57:31
  about. You're like, now I can really
• 57:34
  even understand more why this company has flourished as much
• 57:38
  as I have with these people that I'm surrounded by.
• 57:41
  Yeah. And, you know, it's, it's,
• 57:43
  again, it's a family where you've got great mentors.
• 57:46
  So I was so fortunate to be mentored by the founders and by
• 57:53
  the former CMO and just so many other folks who have had so much
• 57:58
  influence not only on Sweetwater but on craft beer in the
• 58:01
  Southeast. It's just like, why would you
• 58:03
  not take advantage of that? And then why would you not pick
• 58:05
  the brain of our Brewers and talk to them and really piss
• 58:10
  them off in any way, shape or form with your stupid questions?
• 58:14
  That's what I do. That's what I'm here for.
• 58:16
  Who is this guy that's submitting these ideas for
• 58:18
  stupid names? Why?
• 58:20
  Is he not? Why is he wearing short shorts
• 58:23
  and short sleeves in the in the brewhouse when he knows that's a
• 58:27
  compliance to plate OSHA? I wear jeans and safety
• 58:32
  equipment. If you're listening like I, I, I
• 58:34
  feel like your question is, is there's a lot to your question
• 58:38
  and it relates to the history, it relates to the people who
• 58:41
  have been here. It relates to the people who are
• 58:43
  here now. And the team and the vision of
• 58:47
  Sweetwater have just been been great.
• 58:49
  And the guiding light on the brands, on who we are, on the
• 58:54
  beers we make. There's and the magic happens
• 58:58
  way, way, way more down the brewhouse than it does.
• 59:03
  And anything that I do, yeah, being able to just just just
• 59:06
  talk to people and everybody's inviting, everybody's sharing.
• 59:10
  Everybody knows what Sweetwater has been and what Sweetwater is
• 59:13
  and what Sweetwater can be. So it's a.
• 59:16
  Huge family, I'll say. Cheers of that.
• 59:18
  Yeah, cheers. A really good explanation.
• 59:21
  Definitely. Cheers.
• 59:22
  Because we're in 2026, we may or may not have missed the the
• 59:27
  holiday release. You guys have a holiday release,
• 59:30
  festive ale, talk about that. Yeah, a little bit.
• 59:33
  And yeah, we hope to get. So many festivals in the last
• 59:37
  five weeks, right? Yeah.
• 59:39
  So Festivale, ma'am. Festivale is a great one.
• 59:42
  We do that one every year. It is our holiday release.
• 59:45
  It's our. It's our, you know, Christmas
• 59:47
  season. Give back to folks 6 packs
• 59:50
  limited time only. And honestly people will e-mail
• 59:53
  me and just comment on our social media like hey, when is
• 59:56
  festival coming back? And I'm like it's I'm back the
• 59:59
  same time it always does. Just like my toddler asking me
• 1:00:04
  like is it Christmas Eve? Like, no, it's October.
• 1:00:09
  So yeah, very excited about Festive Vale.
• 1:00:12
  It's it's always a great one that we look forward to.
• 1:00:14
  That's cool. We'll look for it next or this
• 1:00:16
  upcoming holiday season in 2026. Plan ahead.
• 1:00:21
  Plan ahead, Scott. Totally.
• 1:00:22
  You mentioned briefly a little bit about the the kind of the
• 1:00:27
  water conservation stuff you guys do.
• 1:00:29
  It's obviously water is very important to you guys.
• 1:00:31
  It's important beer. It's important to all of us.
• 1:00:33
  Can you talk a little bit about some of the programs you guys
• 1:00:35
  are a part of? Yeah.
• 1:00:38
  Dan, it's kind of like I, I don't know where to begin.
• 1:00:41
  So, you know, we've worked with many, many years with, with
• 1:00:44
  several different organizations, you know, step back.
• 1:00:49
  Water is in our name. Water is in the thing that we
• 1:00:52
  produce, right? Like you can't have great beer
• 1:00:55
  without clean water. So water is very important to
• 1:00:58
  us. It's not just a leisure
• 1:00:59
  activity. It's, it's at the in it's in our
• 1:01:02
  blood. So we partner with several
• 1:01:04
  organizations who are dedicated to just just the preservation of
• 1:01:10
  life, the preservation of our water.
• 1:01:12
  One of the biggest ones that we work with is Waterkeeper
• 1:01:14
  Alliance, which is a global organization with many, many
• 1:01:18
  chapters here in the US locally in Georgia, you know, it's,
• 1:01:22
  it's, it's the Chattahoochee Waterkeeper, which again, that's
• 1:01:25
  like the main vein that flows through Atlanta.
• 1:01:28
  That's our, our main drinking water.
• 1:01:30
  And Waterkeeper Alliance is just, it's, it's an amazing
• 1:01:33
  partner doing amazing work you wouldn't think of right?
• 1:01:37
  Like. So I, I think the biggest thing
• 1:01:40
  they have bringing awareness to issues with our drinking water.
• 1:01:44
  And, and right now PFAS is, is becoming this word where people
• 1:01:49
  are getting awareness of plastics that are in our
• 1:01:52
  drinking water. If it's in our drinking water,
• 1:01:55
  it's in our source water. If it's in our source water,
• 1:01:57
  it's being consumed by fish and animals and who knows what,
• 1:02:01
  which PFAS. I, I had to write this down
• 1:02:04
  because Holly fluoroalkyl chemicals and I did not do well
• 1:02:08
  in chemistry. So I, I had to write that down.
• 1:02:11
  So they're, they're bringing awareness to and, and testing
• 1:02:15
  like PFAS levels in main water streams across the country.
• 1:02:20
  And it's amazing to hear what goes on.
• 1:02:24
  It's amazing to hear, you know, behind the scenes, the advocacy
• 1:02:29
  that they have for us, you know, to, to have clean water and
• 1:02:34
  clean water sources and the fight that they have, whether
• 1:02:38
  it's it's globally, whether it's combating organizations who, who
• 1:02:43
  contribute to PFS or even just EPA guidelines on like what are
• 1:02:49
  levels of PFS like, guys, we work in beer.
• 1:02:52
  We need water. Like it's, it's, it became just
• 1:02:55
  so crazy just how much we need organizations to stand up for
• 1:03:00
  water. So, you know, that's just,
• 1:03:02
  that's just one example. And so we're, we're, we're super
• 1:03:05
  fortunate to work with these organizations.
• 1:03:08
  And I come to work, you know, loving what I do and loving
• 1:03:13
  obviously I, I, I love the beer. But then you think about a cause
• 1:03:17
  beyond yourself, a 'cause that can last over a lifetime.
• 1:03:21
  And you talk with people who are making a great difference in our
• 1:03:24
  environments and, and causes both locally and globally.
• 1:03:29
  And that's like a great reward for what we want to do in terms
• 1:03:33
  of our sustainability. So we work with Waterkeeper
• 1:03:36
  Alliance and, and, and we, we include them in our 420 fest
• 1:03:40
  where where proceeds go to their organization and, and it's, it's
• 1:03:45
  great to tie into organizations like.
• 1:03:48
  That let's let's go to 420 fest. Let's I know it's a big event
• 1:03:51
  for you guys. I've never been It is on my
• 1:03:53
  bucket list. Let's talk a little bit about
• 1:03:55
  that because it looks really damn cool.
• 1:03:57
  Yeah. So by the time of this, we are
• 1:04:01
  recording live in January. Welcome to 2026 Happy new year.
• 1:04:07
  So our I hope you guys enjoy the lineup that will be that has
• 1:04:14
  been maybe posted. But yeah, we're we're back we're
• 1:04:17
  excited for another year. We we've got a great new home
• 1:04:21
  we're we're back in the outdoors and Westside Park Atlanta save
• 1:04:24
  the day April 17th through 18th where we're super excited It's
• 1:04:29
  once again it's going to be a great show like the environment
• 1:04:31
  is, is part of our DNA, much like music is part of our DNA.
• 1:04:35
  So for 20 Fest, this will be our 21st year of 420 Fest and it's
• 1:04:40
  it's a great show. It's a great show every year,
• 1:04:42
  every year, just such authentic and fun and spirited acts that
• 1:04:49
  we're excited to showcase and portion it to showcase.
• 1:04:52
  We're, yeah, we're looking forward to another year here in
• 1:04:55
  April. And you mentioned, I think
• 1:04:57
  before we even got on here that people come from all over for
• 1:05:00
  this thing, all right, like just all over the country of the
• 1:05:03
  world, we. We, we've got last year, I want
• 1:05:06
  to say 5 continents. Wow, which we were talking about
• 1:05:11
  Antarctica earlier and I, I still don't think that's part of
• 1:05:15
  it just yet. Not yet of the like 5
• 1:05:19
  continents, 48 states. And it's a tribute to just the
• 1:05:23
  amazing artists that want to be a part of what we do.
• 1:05:28
  And it's so humbling. It's just, you know, you go back
• 1:05:33
  through the years and years of 420 Fest and the, the folks that
• 1:05:37
  have come to perform, you know, 420 Fest has moved venues a few
• 1:05:41
  times, but the folks who have come to perform have been just
• 1:05:44
  just amazing, amazing artists ranging from, you know, we've
• 1:05:48
  had Snoop Dogg last year, we've had The Revivalists and Marcus
• 1:05:51
  King and Slightly Stupid. We've had such gifted artists.
• 1:05:56
  And this year is it's it's much of the same.
• 1:05:58
  It, you know, that's core for our brands.
• 1:06:00
  We're all about music. We're all about having a good
• 1:06:02
  time and celebration. It ties in with Earth Day.
• 1:06:05
  So it's perfect for us. Yeah.
• 1:06:07
  It's perfect to showcase like what we get back to.
• 1:06:10
  And yeah, if you've not been, let's go.
• 1:06:13
  Let's let's talk about some tickets.
• 1:06:15
  All right, that's awesome. I would love to do that.
• 1:06:17
  I mean, it's like you've been doing it for 20 years and it
• 1:06:19
  says something like 20,000 people show up for this thing.
• 1:06:22
  It's not a small event at all. Yeah, it's, it's, it's great.
• 1:06:25
  It's great for the city of Atlanta, you know, inviting our
• 1:06:27
  friends and family, but also for the folks outside of Atlanta,
• 1:06:30
  whether it's Georgia, whether it's the Southeast, whether it's
• 1:06:33
  we had ticket buyers and Europe showcasing what Atlanta is all
• 1:06:37
  about. So yeah, it's a great time.
• 1:06:41
  Listen to music, you drink good great beers, you're just an
• 1:06:46
  amazing atmosphere with with friends and family and it is one
• 1:06:50
  of the best weekends of the year.
• 1:06:51
  And you may even get to meet Evan too.
• 1:06:54
  You never know. You might.
• 1:06:55
  I'm usually running around, but I'm I'm running around with a
• 1:06:58
  beer. So if if you do see me, let's
• 1:07:01
  let's cheers. There you go.
• 1:07:02
  No. We're kind of wanted that.
• 1:07:03
  We don't want to keep you forever.
• 1:07:04
  You do have a toddler, you said, but is untapped the app?
• 1:07:08
  You guys are a big brewery. Do you guys care at all?
• 1:07:11
  Does it come across your radar and if so, how?
• 1:07:13
  How do you guys guys even care about it?
• 1:07:15
  I don't know a craft beer person who isn't on on tapped or, or or
• 1:07:20
  doesn't think about on. I mean, for us, we use it in a
• 1:07:23
  few ways. 1, you get to listen to people who care about craft
• 1:07:27
  beer, so you get to hear what they think about your beer. 2 I
• 1:07:30
  mentioned our tap room earlier and that's a just a great hub
• 1:07:34
  for a couple reasons. One, like it invites people to
• 1:07:37
  Sweetwater. You get the whole 360 Sweetwater
• 1:07:39
  experience. But two, you know, you get to
• 1:07:42
  rate a lot of beers that we have on our pilot system that don't
• 1:07:47
  make it beyond the four walls of our brewery.
• 1:07:50
  So we kind of use it to litmus test, you know, what is a beer
• 1:07:55
  that folks enjoy? And you never know what you're
• 1:07:57
  going to get because you never know what one person might think
• 1:08:00
  or another person or like they rate it one star, but one star
• 1:08:04
  we was because of, you know, carbonation or service.
• 1:08:08
  Five stars, you know, could be something else.
• 1:08:11
  You're like, I was, you know, it was my fifth beer.
• 1:08:13
  So five stars. So, yeah, untapped is is it's
• 1:08:16
  it's great. It's great for research.
• 1:08:18
  It's great for community involvement.
• 1:08:20
  It's great for just just the profile of craft beer.
• 1:08:24
  I think that one is the biggest, you know, being able to
• 1:08:28
  understand what I can get here at Sweetwater versus a brewery
• 1:08:32
  down the road or a brewery in Nashville.
• 1:08:35
  Like, how do I enjoy something that I've had at another part of
• 1:08:42
  town or another part of the country, and Untapped is the
• 1:08:45
  amazing vehicle for that. I found that interesting because
• 1:08:47
  as big as you guys are, I'm, I'm not, I wouldn't have thought it
• 1:08:49
  would have come across your radar.
• 1:08:50
  Obviously, I, you know, I assume you knew what it was, but did
• 1:08:53
  it, you know, did it factor into anything?
• 1:08:55
  But it obviously does. So, so, and kind of my point
• 1:08:58
  with this, because Steve and I've talked about this many
• 1:08:59
  times, untapped when someone gives a crappy rating for the
• 1:09:02
  wrong reason on a beer, you know, and there's a million of
• 1:09:06
  those. I don't like Ipas.
• 1:09:07
  I don't like a good beer. The other one, you know, that
• 1:09:09
  kind of thing. But go back to that, that video
• 1:09:12
  where you got the people's faces that are making the beer.
• 1:09:14
  There are real people behind that thing.
• 1:09:16
  So kind of my point is, hey, man, people are doing this.
• 1:09:19
  So don't just give something a crappy rating because you don't
• 1:09:21
  like it. But I like your your, your point
• 1:09:24
  of view on that. I think it's really interesting.
• 1:09:25
  I think it's fair. I think if somebody rates
• 1:09:28
  something and social media is what it is these days, right?
• 1:09:30
  Like I could say something to somebody 5 million miles away.
• 1:09:34
  I don't know how big planet Earth is.
• 1:09:36
  So I made that number up and like not have a care in the
• 1:09:39
  world, but that's just that's how close communities are now.
• 1:09:42
  Craft beer communities. I love the fact that we're able
• 1:09:46
  to communicate with each other. And if I know that, you know,
• 1:09:50
  somebody rated something poorly because they don't like Ipas,
• 1:09:54
  OK, If I know somebody rated an IPA poorly because they don't
• 1:09:58
  like Citra hops, you know, that's a that's another thing.
• 1:10:02
  You can almost throw those out. Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:10:05
  You just, you just kind of think you can filter it.
• 1:10:07
  But like having that understanding is great.
• 1:10:10
  Furthermore, it offers an environment that can develop,
• 1:10:15
  you know, kind of a a craft beer culture.
• 1:10:18
  Like if we all are talking about beer, we're raising the profile
• 1:10:22
  of craft beer. Yeah, And we're making craft
• 1:10:26
  beer fun. And I, I think beer, I had a a
• 1:10:30
  predecessor who said this, like, beer is an awesome, awesome tool
• 1:10:34
  to bring people to the talking table, whatever they have to
• 1:10:38
  talk about. It could be politics, could be
• 1:10:41
  anything going on in this world. Could be just just let's go
• 1:10:44
  crack jokes. Let's reconnect.
• 1:10:46
  But beer can get people to talk if we're talking to craft beer,
• 1:10:50
  like that's great for craft beer and untapped, I think is a, it's
• 1:10:54
  a platform that does that. Yeah.
• 1:10:56
  So if I get a one star, we're talking about why I got that one
• 1:11:00
  star. If I get a five star, we're
• 1:11:01
  talking about fives and, and, and that's great.
• 1:11:05
  So yeah, I, I personally love the platform, use the platform,
• 1:11:08
  but professionally and personally because it's it's a
• 1:11:11
  great tool for beer lovers. And you might teach somebody
• 1:11:14
  something, yeah, at the same time that somebody who gave
• 1:11:16
  something their bad rating, maybe you teach them.
• 1:11:18
  There's so much. Again, I go back to how much I
• 1:11:21
  piss off our Brewers with. My dumb question.
• 1:11:23
  And showing up in like athletic shorts and flip flops in our
• 1:11:26
  brew house. Like there's, there's so much to
• 1:11:28
  learn about fear that you know, the more you learn, the more you
• 1:11:33
  appreciate it. We've actually we talk about
• 1:11:35
  this sometimes, Scott. No, there.
• 1:11:36
  We'll, we'll go back and like look at our ratings from five
• 1:11:40
  years ago to hopefully now on certain beers ago.
• 1:11:44
  Are you rating it higher? You know and and hopefully you
• 1:11:47
  are and uncertain. We didn't have that perspective
• 1:11:49
  back then when we started talking to Brewers.
• 1:11:51
  We're like, oh shit, there are people on the other side of
• 1:11:53
  this. Actually, to your point exactly
• 1:11:55
  early, there are people on the other side of this.
• 1:11:57
  Thing I think if you're not a Brewer or brewery listening to
• 1:12:02
  feedback, then you know you're not you're not playing the the
• 1:12:06
  game right? Like it's about talking to
• 1:12:08
  people. Yeah.
• 1:12:09
  And there may be some useful information in there even in
• 1:12:12
  some of the crummy ratings or something you might possibly
• 1:12:14
  get. Yeah.
• 1:12:14
  Got it. Yeah, of course there's there's
• 1:12:16
  technical stuff, sure. Yeah, I've got one more thing.
• 1:12:19
  Steve and I do this top ten. We'll do top 10 beers.
• 1:12:23
  We do top 10 breweries that we've visited every year.
• 1:12:26
  It's kind of a recap thing and we've put it on our website the
• 1:12:28
  past couple years, which we have not maintained very well the
• 1:12:30
  last six months. But anyway, our our top for 2023
• 1:12:35
  and 2024 are listed on the website.
• 1:12:37
  My number one brewery visited in 2023 and it's on the website was
• 1:12:42
  Sweetwater, Fort Collins, Co. And I will read the lesson.
• 1:12:46
  And I got a big long description about why I liked it.
• 1:12:49
  But the very last sentence I wrote in my description, I said
• 1:12:51
  I would put the Sweetwater location in the upper echelon of
• 1:12:54
  breweries that I've been to, like Sierra Nevada in Mills
• 1:12:57
  River, NC, and Blue Moon in Denver.
• 1:12:59
  Like that level of yeah, hierarchies, so.
• 1:13:04
  Those are those are like Mecas. Thanks first.
• 1:13:08
  So thank you. And it was like, wait a minute,
• 1:13:10
  I think I rated them number 11 year.
• 1:13:12
  That was two years ago. So legitimately big fans of
• 1:13:16
  yours, as I've mentioned earlier.
• 1:13:18
  Thank you. Yeah.
• 1:13:19
  So we, yeah, I mean, I love that Fort Collins brewery.
• 1:13:23
  And for us, I think I mentioned, you know, we made it a very
• 1:13:26
  clear imperative to come back home.
• 1:13:30
  You know, Sweetwater born in the Southeast and, and we were so
• 1:13:34
  fortunate to have a sister brand and Breckenridge Brewing.
• 1:13:38
  And for them, you know, great beer Colorado giving back.
• 1:13:43
  And and while we were there like it, it was it was so fun.
• 1:13:47
  You learn from literally your neighbor is one of the most well
• 1:13:54
  respected breweries in craft beer.
• 1:13:57
  Like I hope you didn't just go to craft to go to Sweetwater.
• 1:14:00
  I hope, I hope you went to it for a brewery.
• 1:14:01
  We spent this Sweetwater for five days in a row, just every
• 1:14:04
  day. Just all day.
• 1:14:06
  Yeah, we were all over the place of Fort Collins.
• 1:14:09
  Good, good, good, great town, great beer folks.
• 1:14:12
  And and being able to work with our innovation Brewers there,
• 1:14:15
  which which we still do just because that's that's a town
• 1:14:19
  that knows a ton about beer that I will never ever fathom.
• 1:14:25
  And it's it's yeah. So, so we, we still, you know,
• 1:14:30
  kind of have a, have a presence there.
• 1:14:32
  Breckenridge Brewing is just absolutely crushing it and
• 1:14:37
  Colorado and and Fort Collins. And we thought, you know,
• 1:14:41
  there's, there's not another brewery here that deserves to be
• 1:14:44
  here more than Breck, Whereas we felt, you know, our, our place
• 1:14:47
  here is back home. It's back in the South.
• 1:14:49
  It's, it's causing traffic problems.
• 1:14:51
  And Steven Scott's neck in the woods.
• 1:14:53
  Let's cause traffic problems for Evan.
• 1:14:55
  Why not? Let's go bomb bombard the
• 1:14:57
  airport. So it was kind of, you know,
• 1:15:00
  let's, let's, let's come back home a little bit, invest in our
• 1:15:03
  community and then go from there.
• 1:15:05
  Well, we absolutely love what you're doing again, years ago.
• 1:15:10
  I mean, I don't know how long I've been drinking craft beer,
• 1:15:12
  10 years, I don't know, but long time.
• 1:15:14
  And you guys were right at the cusp of it, right at the
• 1:15:16
  beginning. And you'll always be part of my
• 1:15:18
  journey. Same here.
• 1:15:19
  Great. That's great.
• 1:15:20
  Well, thank you guys so much. I think that's, that's, you
• 1:15:23
  know, that's not marketing, that's our Brewers.
• 1:15:26
  That's everybody who's been a part of the family for for 28
• 1:15:29
  years making great beers, making consistent beers, making quality
• 1:15:33
  beer. And I'm glad to have as many
• 1:15:35
  folks along for the ride as long as they will have me.
• 1:15:39
  There you go. It's a very recognizable brand
• 1:15:41
  too. Not just the not just the
• 1:15:42
  individual beers, but the brand itself.
• 1:15:44
  That logo right behind you is very recognizable and I I would
• 1:15:48
  assume 9 out of 10 people probably could recognize that.
• 1:15:50
  That's awesome. That's awesome.
• 1:15:52
  Thanks for saying that. Steve, anything else?
• 1:15:54
  Evan, is there anything we didn't cover that you would like
• 1:15:56
  to talk about? No, I'm just excited to be here
• 1:15:59
  in January live. Happy New Year with everybody in
• 1:16:04
  January 2026. It's been such a great year so
• 1:16:07
  far. I forgot all about that frost
• 1:16:09
  last weekend. Yeah, time flies, doesn't it?
• 1:16:12
  It's just you look up and it's. Flies.
• 1:16:14
  I'm telling you. I'm telling you here.
• 1:16:15
  We are the Falcons made it to something.
• 1:16:21
  Wow, you went on 11 on 2? I, I, I appreciate you guys
• 1:16:25
  having me if you guys I, I mean I love talking to her so I could
• 1:16:29
  talk to her for another two hours.
• 1:16:30
  Appreciate it. And hopefully we'll do this
• 1:16:33
  again and it won't wait. We won't wait 11 months we'll.
• 1:16:37
  It happened when it was supposed to happen.
• 1:16:39
  That's right. Well, thanks, Evan.
• 1:16:41
  We appreciate it, man. And we'll just tell anybody if
• 1:16:44
  you're going to Atlanta and get the Sweetwater and they also do
• 1:16:46
  tours. So go on their website and you
• 1:16:49
  can get all the information on their website about the tours as
• 1:16:52
  well, if you want to do that. Yeah, we've got.
• 1:16:56
  We've got regular tours, high gravity tours.
• 1:16:58
  The high gravity tours give you the whole facility.
• 1:17:01
  I'm once again waving my arms like a weather forecaster.
• 1:17:06
  High gravity tours are great. It's one of the top ten tours in
• 1:17:10
  the country. That's not me saying that that's
• 1:17:11
  the USA TODAY. It's a great tour.
• 1:17:13
  If you're ever in Atlanta, it's it's a fun time.
• 1:17:15
  Learn about beer, drink beer, have fun, talk to folks and and
• 1:17:19
  have a good time. Awesome.
• 1:17:20
  Well, thank you. Sir, we'll say thank you.
• 1:17:22
  I'm overdue for getting to Atlanta.
• 1:17:24
  I just want to say I'm way overdue.
• 1:17:25
  So do it, I wonder. We'll make sure we're in touch.
• 1:17:29
  Embrace the traffic. Evan will say cheers to you.
• 1:17:32
  Yeah. Cheers guys.
• 1:17:34
  Cheers to you and Sweetwater Brewing Company.
• 1:17:35
  Thank you. Thank you guys so much for
• 1:17:37
  having me podcast. All right, cheers.
• 1:17:40
  Cheers guys.