Latest / The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel / Hoppin’ Frog Brewery | Shandy Day, Global Craft Beer & Evolving With the Industry | Episode 86 Part 2

Transcript

Hoppin’ Frog Brewery | Shandy Day, Global Craft Beer & Evolving With the Industry | Episode 86 Part 2 · 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.
• 0:50
  And then here's one of the best things and I think I just
• 0:52
  discovered this or it's been in here.
• 0:55
  If you go to Rice Vice and you haven't, you and I have not been
• 0:58
  yet, you can get 20% off your first tab of proper sake at Rice
• 1:02
  Vice. How crazy is that?
• 1:04
  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 go, 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?
• 1:52
  What are they? Right, because I've forgotten it
• 1:54
  a couple times and I regretted it.
• 1:56
  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, maybe in your glove compartment.
• 2:04
  Maybe in the glove compartment? That.
• 2:05
  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.
• 2:19
  Buddy who was always going to remind you.
• 2:23
  That's right. To bring your brew pass with you
• 2:24
  and you know you designate it, maybe make it 3 or 4 people, who
• 2:27
  knows, but it can always make sure that you have your brew
• 2:31
  pass with you. Or make sure you just stick it
• 2:34
  in your hand. That also is helpful too as
• 2:36
  you're going out the door. Put it with your keys or your
• 2:40
  wall. That's right or something.
• 2:41
  So it's always there. Here's 1 and I think it'd be a
• 2:43
  little annoying, but it would. But I think it would be proven
• 2:46
  to work. You can set Siri up to remind
• 2:48
  you every time you leave the house to bring your Nashville
• 2:52
  Brew 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 to bring your Nashville 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
• 3:12
  nashvillebrewpass.com or go on their Instagram page now.
• 3:16
  Bam bam. And I want to talk about
• 3:52
  something, one of your beers, God.
• 3:53
  And I have this discussion every once in a while.
• 3:55
  We're rating beers or we're doing a podcast and we're
• 3:58
  talking about some of our favorite beers.
• 4:00
  And a lot of it is you remember where you were when you had a
• 4:03
  particular beer, right? So you mentioned the stout.
• 4:06
  So I remember I had this beer at my house.
• 4:09
  I think I had somebody send this to me in a beer tray.
• 4:12
  The evolution to Boris the Crusher, chocolate covered
• 4:16
  strawberry, the Russian Imperial Stout, 9.4%.
• 4:21
  I'm sitting in my house and I'm drinking this and I'm going, my
• 4:24
  God. I mean, you talk about getting
• 4:26
  this right like you talk about the chocolate covered
• 4:29
  strawberry. We're literally the strawberry
• 4:32
  is going down and you can taste the chocolate just like if you
• 4:36
  were actually doing a strawberry dipped in chocolate and I'm
• 4:40
  like, you got wow, man, this is I could have this all day, you
• 4:43
  know, and I'm going, Oh my God, that's just awesome.
• 4:47
  You know, and and again, I think that goes into we love talking
• 4:52
  about the brewery experience, whether you go to a brewery or
• 4:55
  you're just drinking an individual beer and you remember
• 4:57
  it. And that's one that really
• 4:59
  stood. I mean, all the ones that I've
• 5:00
  drank that from, you guys have stood out for me.
• 5:02
  But that was one when you were just talking about Styles child,
• 5:05
  that really stood out for me. I'm glad it did and we really
• 5:09
  appreciate that. We, we painstakingly make sure
• 5:13
  that if it says strawberry and chocolate on the beer label,
• 5:16
  you're going to taste strawberry and chocolate.
• 5:18
  I mean, we, we painstakingly make that happen because we are,
• 5:23
  I don't want to speak for Fred and Zachary, but I know in my
• 5:26
  heart of hearts that we can't stand it when we pick up a beer
• 5:29
  and it says something on the label and you're searching for
• 5:32
  it. You're like, wait what?
• 5:33
  Wait, where is the I? Guess I taste the strawberry
• 5:36
  like no no that's way brew. And that's probably an added
• 5:40
  note to the conversation we were having earlier about the PB and
• 5:43
  J beers. I've had a couple of them over
• 5:45
  the over the last year or so. I'm going, no, I love peanut
• 5:49
  butter, but I'm going, but I can't taste the peanut butter.
• 5:52
  All I'm tasting is the Jelly. And if it's in a 16 ounce can,
• 5:56
  I'm like, Oh my gosh, man, this is way too much.
• 5:59
  This would almost be too much on a flight.
• 6:01
  If all I'm if all I'm tasting is Jelly, it's way too sweet for
• 6:04
  for. My It smells like 16 whole
• 6:06
  ounces of disappointment. It's like, I guess it's been the
• 6:10
  next half an hour trying to put this thing down the 1st. 2 oz
• 6:13
  suck. Now I got to drink the rest of
• 6:15
  the 14. Zach, I don't know what you just
• 6:18
  poured, but it looked fantastic in that glass.
• 6:20
  This is actually one of our headers, Chris Little smoking
• 6:24
  toad. Whoop whoop.
• 6:25
  Sorry my. Camera yummy.
• 6:27
  Nice. So it's A5 5% lightly, very
• 6:31
  lightly smoked Porter. Wow.
• 6:33
  That's amazing. Delicious.
• 6:34
  We can. I wish that our head Brewer,
• 6:36
  Lee, that was his idea. I wish.
• 6:38
  Fantastic, I don't have a sniff sniffer thing that everyone gets
• 6:42
  a chance to. But.
• 6:44
  Don't worry, AI will create that here very soon.
• 6:46
  Yeah, sure. Right.
• 6:47
  It's coming. It's.
• 6:49
  Coming. It's having 44 conversations.
• 6:51
  So until then, I'll have to taste it and just tell you how
• 6:53
  good it is. Well, what kind of smoke is
• 6:55
  applewood? I'm trying to imagine it.
• 6:57
  Cherrywood. I forget what they smoke it
• 6:59
  with. Be more like I almost wonder if
• 7:01
  it's more. Yeah, I think it might have been
• 7:03
  Cherrywood. Smoked.
• 7:04
  Yeah. Yeah, that's Breeze malt for
• 7:06
  y'all. Nice.
• 7:07
  Yeah, I like that ABV on it too. That's nice.
• 7:10
  Right. Well, that's.
• 7:12
  New for. Us, you know, as some of these
• 7:13
  lower ones came, it was more cuz I think I mentioned it earlier,
• 7:19
  but our, our tasting room and our, our general manager that,
• 7:23
  you know, I mentioned a couple of times that, hey, it'd be nice
• 7:26
  if we had something that wasn't, you know, 8-9, ten, 15%.
• 7:30
  So that when, when people come, maybe their friend or one of the
• 7:34
  people driving could at least have a beer.
• 7:36
  So, you know, after a while it took, it took him a while to
• 7:41
  convince us. And we're like, yeah, you know
• 7:43
  what? He's probably right.
• 7:45
  We don't want to though. Right, right.
• 7:48
  And really the first, first one we we dabble on that was that
• 7:52
  smashing honey blonde. When we made that blonde
• 7:54
  smashing honey blonde, which I mean, really, we, we were the
• 7:59
  plans were just to have it as something on tap in the tap
• 8:02
  room. Yeah.
• 8:03
  And then I don't know if you guys heard about the pandemic
• 8:06
  back in 2020. Something about it.
• 8:09
  But that caused that caused us to have to do something other
• 8:12
  than keg all of it, which then, you know, we, we end up canning
• 8:16
  it and things along those lines. But then because of that,
• 8:19
  through distribution, we were able to enter it in the GABF and
• 8:22
  the World Beer Cup. World Beer Cup and won a silver
• 8:25
  medal and we, Fred and I were out in Colorado for the GABF for
• 8:31
  whatever reason, decided to sit in the front row.
• 8:33
  I don't know why we did that. That was kind of silly on the
• 8:36
  part, but it was destiny because then the honey blonde won a
• 8:39
  gold, which was just awesome. I mean, just as you know, for
• 8:44
  for a beer that we kind of created to make for our tasty
• 8:47
  room fan, now it's distributed everywhere and it's a great.
• 8:50
  Morning, next morning at the GABF, they send an e-mail out to
• 8:55
  all everyone who's participated all 40,000 or they get 10,015
• 9:00
  thousand people a day. All these people got this e-mail
• 9:02
  and they were like 3 or 4 pictures on it.
• 9:04
  One of them was Zachary and I with our gold medal.
• 9:07
  Nice. In the front row, it was.
• 9:09
  It was crazy. You're smashing Pecan Blonde Owl
• 9:13
  was a very first Hoppin dog beer that I ever had.
• 9:17
  And I can tell you when I had it, I was hooked.
• 9:20
  I was like, I gotta have more of Hopping Frog.
• 9:23
  Yeah, you guys hooked me. And you know, we were saying
• 9:26
  earlier when we stopped it is that when we stopped in your tap
• 9:28
  room, it may because we were coming up there, we were going
• 9:31
  to go to Cleveland, Great Lakes Math said.
• 9:34
  And we'd even said along the way, I said, while we're up
• 9:37
  there, I said, man, we have got to stop and Hopping Frog.
• 9:40
  And we came in there for like an hour and a half.
• 9:42
  And you know, we should, we really wanted to stay longer.
• 9:45
  We were just on a road trip. But I'm so honestly, I'm so glad
• 9:48
  we did because for me it was like it it literally, I don't
• 9:52
  say this just to be joking around.
• 9:53
  It was a bucket list brewery for me to go to.
• 9:56
  Having had your beer around here and having known, you know, what
• 9:59
  the history it was of you guys and how much beer I've had
• 10:03
  already, so and I think Scott can say the same thing. 100% And
• 10:07
  it was, we talked about it in one of the episodes, but it was
• 10:10
  raining so hard. So I mean, you couldn't, we
• 10:13
  couldn't see the car in front of us.
• 10:15
  And I was like, if a car stops, if a car stops, we're all dead.
• 10:18
  You know, it was one of those kind of things, but it was a
• 10:20
  welcome break too. We're going to hop and Frog
• 10:22
  anyway. We're going to, we're going to
• 10:24
  ride this rain out and we're going to drink some beer.
• 10:26
  And it was. It was just, it was.
• 10:27
  Perfect. Nice.
• 10:28
  I want to, I want to talk to you guys because I know you've
• 10:30
  mentioned it twice now, especially you, Zachary.
• 10:33
  How much have you, has your business had to evolve and
• 10:37
  change or has it had to change that much since 2020?
• 10:41
  Had there been a lot of changes for you guys in particular since
• 10:44
  that time? I'm just going to touch on the
• 10:45
  fact that how is our business involved John to mention just in
• 10:49
  general, but John mentioned the 22 ounce bombers.
• 10:53
  I mean that if you, if you had told me hack 10, 12 years ago
• 10:59
  that we would not be in bombers anymore, I would have laughed at
• 11:03
  you and left the play. But like, no, we're going to be
• 11:05
  in bombers forever. But you know, that definitely
• 11:08
  obviously has changed. I think that the pandemic
• 11:12
  expedited the process by which we made that full transition.
• 11:15
  It actually gave us the opportunity to get our own
• 11:19
  canning line during that time frame.
• 11:21
  So, you know, that's definitely something that changed.
• 11:26
  Is that nothing to rub? Is that where the 8 oz cans kind
• 11:29
  of come into play? So you go the opposite direction
• 11:31
  in a sense. Right, right, right.
• 11:33
  Fine. We can't do 20 twos.
• 11:34
  We're doing eights. We'll show you those.
• 11:36
  Show you. But yeah, we, I mean, we got a,
• 11:41
  we got a candy line. Our tap room was closed for a
• 11:44
  extensive period of of time. Some of that was by choice.
• 11:49
  I believe the word of the year was pivoted and we pivoted and
• 11:52
  had online sales. We operated a drive through
• 11:57
  delivery service to folks who made orders online.
• 12:00
  We were kind of doing everything you could to just kind of help
• 12:05
  keep things going until we got through it all staff, you know,
• 12:09
  we, we unfortunately, you know, with our tap room closed, some
• 12:12
  of our staff, we had to, you know, layoff and we had a couple
• 12:15
  people stay on just to help run that drive through line at
• 12:18
  night. And we, I mean, if it wasn't for
• 12:21
  our fans and our followers and, and the people that have grown
• 12:25
  to love us, you know, coming through some, if not daily,
• 12:29
  weekly, we probably wouldn't all be sitting here today and having
• 12:31
  this conversation. But.
• 12:33
  It was great in a way because we had a lot of beer sales and
• 12:37
  virtually no cost, right, other than the building.
• 12:41
  So I don't know if it was a higher profitability, but it was
• 12:45
  just a weird, weird time, but. We've also heard from other
• 12:48
  breweries, you know, owners and breweries that you know, they've
• 12:52
  they've pivot a little bit where maybe they're doing other
• 12:55
  lighter options now, maybe also some non alcoholic beer or
• 13:00
  whatever. Do you guys, do you guys feel
• 13:02
  any pressure to do that because or because you've been around
• 13:05
  for so long? You're like, you know, we, we
• 13:07
  have their reputation. This is what people expect from
• 13:09
  us. We are doing all the above.
• 13:11
  The ones that you mentioned, we have them on tap.
• 13:13
  So we've even tried seltzers, but those didn't taste that
• 13:16
  great. But we didn't put a whole lot of
• 13:17
  effort into it. I mean, I think it's important
• 13:19
  to constantly have. Fans to begin with, yeah, I'm
• 13:21
  sorry. No, no, I'm sorry.
• 13:22
  I I was just saying you got to constantly be evolving and
• 13:25
  adapting to what the market wants, what the customers are
• 13:30
  looking for. If you think you can just do the
• 13:32
  same thing every single day and you're not gonna change and you
• 13:36
  think everyone else is gonna change to you, then you probably
• 13:38
  won't be operating for very long.
• 13:40
  I mean. I mean, the trick is and I,
• 13:43
  Zachary and I, we deal with pretty much all of our sales and
• 13:47
  then I help guide our sales team out in the market.
• 13:50
  And you know, at the end of the day, yes, you always have to
• 13:53
  evolve. But I think that what you need
• 13:56
  to do and what what we're very conscious of doing when we do
• 14:00
  anything new is always making sure that it has the hop and
• 14:04
  frog flavor to it. I always tell people, you know,
• 14:07
  dare to compare, go ahead and take another oatmeal Russian
• 14:10
  imperial stout around 9% put it next to ours.
• 14:12
  And I don't say this in a condescending, mean way.
• 14:15
  I'm just saying go ahead and do this, you know, put it, put put
• 14:18
  them together and I guarantee you you'll, you'll taste the hop
• 14:21
  and frog flavor each and every time.
• 14:23
  It it, it goes back to what Fred was saying, right?
• 14:26
  It's about more ingredients. It's about creating this product
• 14:28
  where you don't want to lose your identity and what you're
• 14:31
  doing. Yeah, do cool things, but make
• 14:33
  sure they know it's hop and frog, right.
• 14:36
  And, and so we've seen there are there are breweries that have,
• 14:40
  you know, chase trends and then before you know what they're
• 14:44
  closed or they've got issues or, and you feel bad, you know, it
• 14:49
  hurts. You don't want to see anybody go
• 14:50
  under. You want to see people do well,
• 14:51
  but you've got to be true to yourself too.
• 14:54
  And we've also noticed other trends in the market.
• 14:56
  You know, we've noticed that people might not go out as much
• 14:59
  as they used to, or they want more of an experience or they
• 15:01
  want, like you were saying, lighter beers or different
• 15:04
  beers. And we're adjusting to all those
• 15:05
  things, but we're doing it within the parameters of staying
• 15:09
  unique. Do you know what I mean?
• 15:10
  You're true to yourself. And we're not going to stop
• 15:12
  making the stuff that we also are known for making.
• 15:15
  You've got to make beer you love too.
• 15:17
  If you're just making beer for other people, in my opinion, I
• 15:19
  don't know what you're doing. I mean, that's what that you
• 15:22
  want to know why I've been here for 14 years.
• 15:23
  Another part of it is because I love the beer we make.
• 15:27
  I mean, you know, you know what, it's obvious that your formula
• 15:29
  is working. I mean, it really does.
• 15:31
  And that's, that's, that's really the the great thing about
• 15:34
  it. I'll tell you, you talked about
• 15:35
  canning earlier and the thing that really fascinated me when
• 15:41
  you know, we were we were researching and looking on your
• 15:44
  website and different things is that you can and what is it?
• 15:48
  It's accurate on your website. I think 22 states in 40 foreign
• 15:52
  countries. Is that right?
• 15:54
  The canning, the aspect of. What you guys do that we
• 15:57
  distribute to Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, we're, we have
• 16:01
  definitely our global distribution company.
• 16:06
  I really want to hear about how that has really taken off,
• 16:10
  especially globally and that many countries.
• 16:12
  Isn't that crazy? We first got a request, I think
• 16:15
  it was November of 2000, seven really early on for a beer from
• 16:21
  Sweden. And I kind of blew him off like,
• 16:23
  no, we can't sell to you guys. Then, like the next month, I got
• 16:26
  another request from Denmark, and it was during Christmas.
• 16:30
  And I had just read an article less than six months before
• 16:33
  about Denmark being this hotbed of craft beer.
• 16:37
  And they were behind, you know, the US by 15 or 20 years.
• 16:40
  But they're just catching on, and they're catching up, and
• 16:42
  they're just loving the crap out of it.
• 16:44
  And this person from Denmark contacted me.
• 16:47
  We still work with him. He ended up buying beer from us
• 16:52
  beginning of 2008 and by the end of 2008, the beer that he had
• 16:56
  bought, a bunch of which was Boris the Crusher, had had 100
• 17:00
  out of 100 rating on ratebeer.com.
• 17:02
  So he said I wanted, you know, 60 cases of that.
• 17:05
  And he bought a slew of other beers, but he bought a bunch of
• 17:07
  Boris if I can remember, like once he got it, like 3 months
• 17:11
  later, we hit a gold medal with that, the GABF.
• 17:14
  So it's like, Oh my gosh. And it's already overseas.
• 17:17
  So it got widespread distribution before you know it.
• 17:19
  We found ourselves in many states.
• 17:21
  So now I can say we've sold our beer as Far East as Japan.
• 17:26
  Well, now it's China. And then as far West as Hawaii,
• 17:29
  we recently sold to Hong Kong, which is technically China.
• 17:32
  So boom. And we're around the world,
• 17:34
  although it doesn't happen every year.
• 17:36
  I mean we don't see our beer in every in these countries every
• 17:39
  year. We have made sales, you know,
• 17:41
  around the world in the last 20 years.
• 17:43
  It's pretty cool. We've talked to people and we
• 17:45
  talk about the distribution laws just between states, right?
• 17:48
  And there's that's another like this state's better than.
• 17:51
  Time to talk about that. Right.
• 17:53
  But you guys were like, you guys were like, OK, not only do we
• 17:57
  do, do do we do that? Hold my beer, we're going to
• 17:59
  ship it internationally. Here's a whole another set of
• 18:02
  problems I'm sure in in logistical stuff that came up
• 18:06
  and. Yeah.
• 18:07
  I mean, yeah, is. This your lifestyle create or is
• 18:14
  it? You know, it's just it's
• 18:17
  different. It's not, I don't want to say
• 18:20
  it's easier, but it's different one.
• 18:22
  I mean, there's a couple of things that we work out with
• 18:25
  those other markets ahead of time to help make the process a
• 18:29
  little bit easier for us. So from that experience, I guess
• 18:32
  it makes it a little easier within the states.
• 18:36
  That's a whole another set of challenges that continuously
• 18:41
  changes. I actually just read today about
• 18:44
  a state where there's a huge festival every single year and
• 18:48
  there's some breweries that go there that don't distribute in
• 18:50
  the state normally, but go there every year.
• 18:53
  And it's going to cost them what used to cost them.
• 18:55
  And nothing is not going to cost them like $1000 for that one day
• 18:58
  if they want to, if they want to do that and.
• 19:01
  Get Licensing Special licensing for the festival.
• 19:04
  And all that kind of stuff. And it's, you know, festivals
• 19:06
  are fun, but festivals aren't profitable for breweries.
• 19:10
  And so, you know, it's going to impact those kind of things.
• 19:13
  And you know, there's registration and I and I and I
• 19:16
  get it. You want to, you know, you want
• 19:18
  to have some like guidelines and things in place.
• 19:21
  So you don't want to be like the wild, Wild West of everyone just
• 19:24
  throwing whatever out there. And then you got, you know,
• 19:26
  dangerous product or things like that.
• 19:28
  But the same token there's it's still a little archaic.
• 19:31
  Is it and we don't have to go down a rabbit hole, but with the
• 19:33
  distribution to other states is ABV kind of the biggest thing as
• 19:38
  in certain states won't allow certain ABV couple?
• 19:42
  There are some, yes, a lot of a lot of that has changed.
• 19:45
  There's AI don't want to say benefit of COVID, but I mean,
• 19:48
  one of the things a lot, some, some laws do get relaxed in some
• 19:51
  states where and that seemed to be the one that they kind of
• 19:55
  relaxed on a little bit. But there are some states out
• 19:57
  there that still have some limits.
• 19:58
  A lot of times ABV more impacts taxes than it does whether or
• 20:01
  not you're allowed to sell them. OK.
• 20:03
  Do you guys have to deal with that directly or can you work
• 20:06
  with distribution and kind of let them bear some of that
• 20:09
  weight? I thought we weren't going down
• 20:10
  the rabbit. No, I'm just kidding, which is a
• 20:15
  little, no, no, no, no. I mean, obviously we're not self
• 20:18
  distributing in other states. I mean, as much as I'd like to
• 20:21
  go personally take beer to Hawaii once a month, that's
• 20:24
  probably not going to happen. But so we do work through
• 20:28
  distributors and then it's within that partnership that you
• 20:30
  work together to figure out, you know, who's going to be
• 20:32
  responsible for what. A lot of times that's dictated
• 20:35
  by the state. So, you know, the distributor
• 20:37
  might have taxes that they have to pay on the product they sell
• 20:39
  and then you don't, or you might pay the taxes and then the
• 20:42
  distributor doesn't. Or in some instances is we all
• 20:44
  get to pay taxes and in that aspect too.
• 20:48
  So it varies. And that's what makes it
• 20:50
  challenging is is there's, you know, 50 States and nobody has
• 20:54
  the same rules in regards to. Alcohol and so when you are also
• 20:58
  dealing with other countries and oh.
• 21:01
  Here we go with the disturb. No, I'm not.
• 21:03
  I'm at this is a different. Different rabbit hole.
• 21:05
  This is a different question. I'm going down a different
• 21:07
  rabbit hole. OK, No, I think this is a
• 21:08
  simpler 1. And you're making a decision to
• 21:11
  send your beer to other countries.
• 21:13
  Is it what you decide you're going to send to them?
• 21:16
  Do they request it? How?
• 21:18
  How does that how do you make the decision of what you're
• 21:20
  going to send to them? I guess that's a joint thing.
• 21:23
  I mean, we more kind of let them know what we would have
• 21:25
  available and then they pick from what we have available.
• 21:28
  We don't really have anything available.
• 21:30
  Yeah, some some are very specific and they be oh hey, we
• 21:33
  only want XYZ and so. OK, no, you know, we, we try to
• 21:37
  work, we try to be flexible and work with them.
• 21:39
  But yeah, it's more of a if, if they like it, we have it.
• 21:43
  We'll, we'll find a way they can happen.
• 21:45
  And I think of the neat conversation that if I'm, you
• 21:47
  know, working in your brewery, all three of you guys, if you're
• 21:50
  just sitting there and all of a sudden somebody comes in from a
• 21:52
  country like Denmark and said, hey, by the way, I saw your kind
• 21:56
  of like us here in Tennessee. I was in Denmark and I saw Hop
• 22:00
  and Frog and I wanted to come to America to actually come to your
• 22:03
  brewery. That's happened I'm.
• 22:04
  Going to set you guys up with some stories.
• 22:06
  Oh, yeah, no, that's, that's definitely happened.
• 22:09
  I've been in the I've been in the tasting room before when
• 22:11
  people have come through from other countries that tried our
• 22:14
  beer and, you know, had it in that country and we're planning
• 22:17
  a trip to the United States and purposefully, you know, decided
• 22:23
  to come through acronym on their desk on their way to wherever
• 22:26
  they were headed. I mean, it, it happens a lot.
• 22:29
  It happens a lot. And every time it happens, you
• 22:31
  just go on. I mean, it's just, it's just
• 22:34
  wow. It's a It's hard it.
• 22:36
  Is we used to be rated one of 100 best breweries of the world
• 22:39
  year in and year out by ratebeer.com.
• 22:43
  It was 17 years running. So those who
• 22:46
  frequentedratebeer.com, which were the beer nerds around the
• 22:49
  world, they knew of Hop and Frog.
• 22:51
  It wasn't just a couple years or four years or six years, it was
• 22:54
  17 years running. So we were like one of the
• 22:56
  staples. Fred, I want to really get your
• 22:59
  perspective on that as the owner, because you go back to
• 23:01
  2006, as you said, you're selling beer basically from your
• 23:05
  car trying to grow this brewery and and do you ever sit back and
• 23:11
  go, wow, I've got beer in other countries like Denmark and
• 23:14
  people that come from Denmark to come to my brewery?
• 23:16
  I haven't done that lately, but I should.
• 23:18
  Yeah, I have, of course, but it has been a while.
• 23:20
  I need to. I need to kick back and think
• 23:22
  about that. That's pretty amazing.
• 23:24
  I miss going to Denmark. That's what I think about.
• 23:28
  Yeah. Let me go over there.
• 23:29
  That's pretty cool. Great experience.
• 23:31
  Going over there and brew brutal with those guys over there was
• 23:34
  one of the best experiences. I learned tons of stuff from
• 23:36
  them, but just being there and experiencing their culture was
• 23:39
  enough. It's just like amazing.
• 23:40
  But to learn stuff from them was just beyond.
• 23:44
  It is cool, though, just somebody from another part of
• 23:45
  the world recognizes your brand. And sometimes, hey, we ship some
• 23:49
  stuff, right? OK, somebody wants it.
• 23:50
  But then somebody comes in the tap room and it's a person.
• 23:53
  It's like, oh, you're real. You're not just a number.
• 23:56
  You're not just an account. We say you're a real person who
• 23:58
  actually really does appreciate it.
• 23:59
  Yeah. It really is endearing.
• 24:01
  It makes your whole week when something like that happens.
• 24:03
  Not the same thing, but we had a guy reach out the other day who
• 24:06
  is who listens to us in Australia.
• 24:08
  And you know, sometimes we see the numbers on Spotify and say,
• 24:11
  hey, you got point OO1 listeners in this country, in this
• 24:14
  country. And this guy goes, he goes, I'm
• 24:16
  in Brisbane, Australia and I'm driving down the road.
• 24:18
  Listen to your podcast and he sent me a screenshot of his
• 24:20
  navigation system and our podcast on the thing.
• 24:23
  I go, oh, that's awesome, that's cool.
• 24:24
  You know what I mean? It was a real person and I was
• 24:27
  like, all right. That's a real person.
• 24:29
  You're global. Now you're.
• 24:31
  Global. We're in Australia too.
• 24:34
  I keep making a joke. I keep making the joke on the
• 24:36
  podcast. You know, we got Australia, but
• 24:38
  I've made the joke over the past few months.
• 24:40
  I want to get that Antarctica check in.
• 24:42
  Yeah, well, I tell them the signal hasn't got to Antarctica
• 24:45
  yet. It's still.
• 24:46
  It's still on the way. That's awesome.
• 24:48
  They need beer down there though, I'll bet.
• 24:50
  Don't hurt to have any. God, if you were there, you'd
• 24:53
  need something. They have.
• 24:54
  To Yeah, they're. Probably whisking.
• 24:56
  Well, you got to warm up from the inside, right?
• 24:58
  That would help. Well, your barreling stuff would
• 25:00
  do that. For sure.
• 25:01
  Yeah, that would do it. Guys, can we talk about your tap
• 25:05
  room? Because you guys look like you
• 25:06
  have an awesome tap room. We've been in it, but you guys
• 25:08
  would talk about your events and things.
• 25:11
  I saw this. You guys just had it.
• 25:12
  The greater accurate Beer choir is the tap room.
• 25:15
  What is it? What is that?
• 25:17
  It was awesome. I was there singing along with
• 25:19
  them was insane. It was so much fun.
• 25:23
  It was only a couple hours and it was only a it was let me
• 25:28
  think it was a couple. It was a guy and a gal looked
• 25:30
  like they had done it a bunch. Didn't want any money for it.
• 25:33
  This want to come to the brewery and hand out hymns or hymnals or
• 25:37
  whatever. They are just book booklets with
• 25:41
  all their songs and they wanted microphones and they wanted to
• 25:44
  hook up for their keyboard. So they were a little bit of a
• 25:46
  show couple. They got there and sung a bunch
• 25:49
  of beer songs. We're singing along with them.
• 25:52
  They're playing keyboards. It was great.
• 25:54
  It was a big old party and it was almost like, you know, it
• 25:58
  was, it was planned, but in a way it felt like it wasn't
• 26:01
  planned. It was cool.
• 26:02
  People really enjoyed. It was a Friday after work and
• 26:05
  people were carrying on. It was pretty cool.
• 26:07
  Singing whether they're like their songs they had come up
• 26:09
  with like beer songs. Some were, yes.
• 26:11
  Some were completely different ones that they had drummed up
• 26:15
  from other song parts, I imagine.
• 26:17
  Yeah, I think some were also, I think some were also beer songs
• 26:21
  that I just didn't know. I I think that they were out
• 26:23
  there that they knew about and they had us singing too.
• 26:26
  Or maybe they made-up. They made-up and like a couple
• 26:30
  of them, you could tell they took lyrics from a normal song
• 26:32
  and change it into a beer song and that was fun.
• 26:34
  So in general, they were just, you know, two hours of fun.
• 26:37
  It was really cool, man. That's awesome.
• 26:39
  Yeah, they they've been offering for about a year or two.
• 26:42
  And I finally said, yeah, you got to come do this.
• 26:44
  What the hell? Why are we not doing?
• 26:47
  It I would go for that totally. It was so.
• 26:49
  Cool. It was big fun.
• 26:50
  What other events do you guys do with the tap room?
• 26:52
  Because on your website you've got a whole bunch of stuff you
• 26:54
  guys do. Man, the coolest ones coming up.
• 26:56
  What is it? August 23rd at Shandy.
• 26:57
  Day, Yeah. Yeah, OK.
• 27:00
  Twice a year we do Shandy Day. That's like Christmas.
• 27:03
  You guys do special shandies for that event?
• 27:06
  Yeah, we usually have about 16 to 18 shandies on tap and
• 27:12
  usually every year I tell her head Brewer, hey, just a couple
• 27:14
  is fine. Don't stress yourself out over
• 27:16
  it. But it usually ends up coming
• 27:17
  with like four or five special shandies just for Shandy day.
• 27:22
  Sure, Yeah. Those special recipes and
• 27:25
  register them with the federal government under the formulas
• 27:28
  and then under the the label. So it's a bit of a jumping
• 27:32
  through hoops. Right.
• 27:33
  Yeah, yeah. It's fun, there's some there's
• 27:35
  some good creations and actually that's where our we've we came
• 27:39
  with that mango cream pie he had this last time.
• 27:43
  We actually just made, you know, usually we just, we make them
• 27:46
  and I mean, some of them are just not capable of being mass
• 27:50
  produced, you know, just for a variety of reasons.
• 27:52
  Usually it's cost because he he spares no expense on, on the
• 27:57
  ingredients. He's usually going all out,
• 27:59
  which is awesome. I mean, that is, it's a way to
• 28:01
  kind of say thanks to everybody and to give all our Shandy fans
• 28:05
  something extra special and things along those lines.
• 28:08
  But we did make that mango cream pie smoothie, which was a huge
• 28:11
  hit. And we actually did make it.
• 28:13
  And I believe if I could queue up, Fred, I thought you got a
• 28:16
  can of it. Oh, I thought you had a can of
• 28:18
  it. Oh, I thought that.
• 28:19
  What do you say he does? All right, take take two.
• 28:23
  OK, Yeah, we'll. Come.
• 28:24
  Back Jeopardy music coming in, coming in here, there.
• 28:26
  It is. So that's where our first yummy
• 28:30
  packaged smoothie that we made. So I saw your post about that,
• 28:34
  Fred, too, and as soon as I saw yeah, I wish I could have that,
• 28:37
  yeah. I guess I'm opening this one.
• 28:39
  August 23rd, I mean, there's still time.
• 28:42
  You can, you know, it's a Saturday.
• 28:44
  You could leave Friday night and be up because you want to be
• 28:46
  here early because we open at 11 and there's, there's a lot.
• 28:49
  It's good. Oh yeah, I bet there is.
• 28:52
  Look at that. Well.
• 28:53
  Look. At that, it's like ice cream in
• 28:55
  a glass. He's got a Hoffbrau house glass.
• 28:58
  Oh yes. Oh yeah, nothing but the best.
• 29:00
  I wasn't, so I was going to bring this up.
• 29:02
  I was in Germany in June and there's a lot of rattlers on the
• 29:05
  menus, A shanty and a rattler about the same thing.
• 29:08
  Is that the same thing? I think of them in the same
• 29:11
  vein. Yeah, yeah.
• 29:12
  Because I was on the different turbo.
• 29:14
  I swear to God, and I'm not kidding, we were at a restaurant
• 29:16
  and there was this kid, he couldn't have been 10 or 12
• 29:18
  years old in Germany and he had a porn and it looked like a beer
• 29:24
  it. Probably was a beer.
• 29:25
  Yeah, it probably was people. It probably was a beer or a
• 29:29
  where Rattler or shanty because they're like 3.8% or something
• 29:33
  so. Is drinking a beer sometimes?
• 29:35
  Yeah, yeah. And I think it's just part of
• 29:37
  their culture. Yeah, yeah.
• 29:40
  That's I will. Say, yeah, shanty days, One of
• 29:43
  the biggest ones, that mango cream pie smoothie, that thing
• 29:45
  is insane. I will tell you that.
• 29:47
  And I mean, we, we do a lot of fun stuff.
• 29:50
  We have trivia on Wednesdays. We've got every Tuesday we have
• 29:53
  a beer infusion tower. We we take a beer, we add some
• 29:56
  cool ingredients. People can try it at the bar
• 29:58
  that day. I mean, we try to have something
• 30:01
  for everyone, try to have a lot of fun.
• 30:04
  Yeah, I saw, I saw that tower Tuesday and I was like, that
• 30:06
  looks incredible. What are some of the things that
• 30:08
  you you infuse with? I mean, they get pretty
• 30:11
  creative. Sometimes they do different,
• 30:13
  like smoked teas, sometimes they get mint and sometimes they get
• 30:17
  chocolate in there. They've done crazy stuff with
• 30:20
  like jalapenos, they've put bacon in there.
• 30:23
  I mean, it just depends on the beer.
• 30:24
  They come up with crazy stuff and it's fun.
• 30:27
  That is fun. And it's just on Tuesdays and
• 30:30
  it's just at the bar. It's, it starts at around 3.
• 30:33
  People come in, grab some. We're open earlier than that.
• 30:36
  But that's that's about when the tower comes out.
• 30:38
  We've got some friends and maybe you know them, They're Porch
• 30:41
  Beers USA. It's Keith and Coop.
• 30:43
  I don't know if you know those guys.
• 30:44
  They're out of Delaware. OK, I haven't made them.
• 30:46
  Now. Well, anyway, they might.
• 30:47
  Recognize their faces. Probably will they will drive
• 30:50
  when your blueberry. Yeah.
• 30:54
  Turbo Shanty comes out, they go the minute we know it's
• 30:57
  available. They will drive 7 hours from
• 31:00
  Delaware to your place to go get it, he said.
• 31:01
  What they did that one time and there was like 1.
• 31:03
  I don't know if it was a case or or whatever it was left.
• 31:07
  Oh my God. But it's.
• 31:08
  Are you talking about the state of Delaware?
• 31:11
  Yeah, they're I. Was thinking of Delaware.
• 31:12
  OH, for some reason, I think I know who you're talking talking
• 31:15
  about because I remember someone talking about coming from
• 31:18
  Delaware. That's them, Yeah.
• 31:20
  They love that shanty so much. Make sure we hook them up, man.
• 31:24
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Port Spears, USA, that's
• 31:27
  how. That's our buddies there.
• 31:29
  Yeah, I always have an extra case, so.
• 31:31
  Yeah, you didn't. You didn't hear that here
• 31:33
  though, No? No, no, no.
• 31:36
  Everyone's going to get enough, Fred.
• 31:37
  Hey, I hear you. I have an extra case.
• 31:38
  Well, I already gave it away. The first person.
• 31:42
  You guys should have got here 6 1/2 hours ago.
• 31:45
  Right. Yeah.
• 31:46
  So I'm curious and what what do you guys, if anything, do you
• 31:51
  have any expansion plans in the future?
• 31:53
  I mean, you're at that location in Akron.
• 31:55
  Is there any plans for expansion there anywhere else, anything
• 31:59
  that you could talk about on the podcast?
• 32:00
  Any breaking news that you want to tell us?
• 32:02
  Exclusive things solidified, but we sure like to.
• 32:05
  I mean, I don't know how much we want to.
• 32:08
  Right. I mean, I guess it's always, I
• 32:09
  mean, that's always something that worth considering and
• 32:11
  considering to look at, but there's so many factors that
• 32:13
  fall into there. If it's the right place at the
• 32:15
  right time and it makes sense. I don't think we would say no,
• 32:19
  But I mean that's kind of where we're at.
• 32:21
  I mean, our brewery itself is, you know, where it's at, is
• 32:24
  expanded about as as much as it can expand.
• 32:27
  Yeah. So I could say I don't think
• 32:30
  there'll be any expansion plans there.
• 32:33
  But you know, if other opportunities in the area were
• 32:35
  to present themselves, we're definitely would consider.
• 32:38
  Am I right at that location where you have your brewery, you
• 32:42
  also do the brewing there and you do the packaging and
• 32:44
  shipping there at the same location?
• 32:46
  Yes, every, we have one. We have one location, 11
• 32:49
  address, one location. So we have our brewery and then
• 32:52
  the canning areas attached to the next unit from there.
• 32:55
  And the next unit's kind of like our storage and we have a
• 32:58
  warehouse cooler and then the next one's the tap room that you
• 33:01
  guys all have a chance to kind of hang out out in and enjoy.
• 33:04
  And then the the next room from there is our, you know, a little
• 33:07
  bit more extra seated where a barrel room is and then some
• 33:11
  storage space in the back and that and then we utilize some
• 33:13
  other units for storage, but we're all in that central spot,
• 33:17
  which is nice because everything is like right there.
• 33:19
  So that's like one of the things you got to consider if you're
• 33:21
  like, oh, let's let's open up another spot, then it's like,
• 33:24
  but we got to go back and forth all the time.
• 33:25
  So I mean, there's, I mean, there's so many things that keep
• 33:29
  in mind, but. You got to make enough fear for
• 33:32
  the other place and stuff. Right, right.
• 33:34
  I mean, right, it, it sounds fun, but you know, the actual
• 33:38
  implementation and operation and that can be challenging.
• 33:41
  And at the same time, we don't want to lose what what we've got
• 33:45
  by being, you know, overly focused on something else or
• 33:47
  distracted or when you stretch yourself too thin.
• 33:51
  That's where we've seen some of our brother and have some
• 33:54
  challenges and so you've got to be mindful of that.
• 33:57
  Like the character of the whole outline when we went in there, I
• 34:00
  mean, the character of all of it I thought was just cool, you
• 34:03
  know, and the frogs out and the front and all of it.
• 34:07
  And, you know, as you were talking about it and we were
• 34:09
  talking about the expansion into other countries earlier, has
• 34:12
  that meant more expansion inside your shipping areas and stuff
• 34:17
  like that too over the years? Has that changed at all?
• 34:20
  I guess a little bit, I mean, the biggest thing I think from
• 34:22
  expansion point has been just an additional, adding additional
• 34:25
  fermenters. So just so we can add more tank
• 34:27
  space and have more beer being in process at the same time.
• 34:31
  And that, you know, that that first expansion is really how
• 34:34
  John myself, Lee, you know, 15 years ago when Fred started
• 34:40
  getting some additional tanks, that's when it was like, OK, you
• 34:43
  know, he needs some additional help.
• 34:45
  And that's kind of where we came aboard.
• 34:47
  And then what probably five years or so after that, we added
• 34:50
  the last round of tanks that we put in just to kind of help make
• 34:54
  sure that we have the capacity we need to continue to grow into
• 34:57
  the future. And we're not maxed yet.
• 35:00
  So I mean, we have opportunities of growth and you know, we
• 35:04
  operate one shift with, you know, we have 3 Brewers one
• 35:07
  shift. There's ways that you can expand
• 35:09
  without having to add on more stuff if you really wanted to.
• 35:13
  But we're, we're looking more just to continue to put out a
• 35:16
  great product and kind of naturally grow, not do anything
• 35:18
  like so crazy, especially in this climate, right?
• 35:21
  I mean, the, the, the craft food market industry has shaved and
• 35:25
  evolved and having this massive, you know, huge brewery doesn't
• 35:29
  necessarily make sense of these days.
• 35:30
  When your growth is more organic and not debt heavy, you get the
• 35:34
  chance to, as we were talking about earlier, produce some of
• 35:37
  the beers you want to make too, along with the market trends
• 35:41
  you're not just beholden to. We have to pump out beer whether
• 35:44
  it's great or not, and we got to get sales.
• 35:47
  Everyone needs sales, don't get me wrong, but you have more
• 35:50
  control over what your brand's going to be rather than holy
• 35:54
  crap, hang on to my seat, let's get it all out there.
• 35:57
  So there is something to be said about about that as well.
• 36:00
  Yeah, you're kind of dictating what you're, what you're doing
• 36:04
  in a sense, what you can produce and what you want to produce in
• 36:06
  a sense. Because you having those
• 36:08
  additional fermenters in the canning line has got to be
• 36:10
  helpful, right? Because and I know this, you
• 36:12
  could store stuff in the fermenters if you need to or if
• 36:14
  you need that fermenter, you just go ahead and can it when
• 36:16
  it's ready, right. And you can free up that stuff
• 36:18
  too, so. It's what you're talking about.
• 36:21
  The biggest addition that we had is when we added the canning
• 36:24
  line and made that transition to all cans and not 22 ounce
• 36:27
  bottles. So to put in perspective, what
• 36:29
  took us essentially 7 days, like a full week and took seven days
• 36:34
  to, to bottle at that time, we can now can in a day.
• 36:39
  I mean, when you, when you look at that, just being able to
• 36:41
  empty the tanks that that was the biggest hang up for us was
• 36:44
  our tanks are full. We can't put any more beer in
• 36:46
  and our tanks are full because we can't package it fast enough.
• 36:48
  Well, we, you got rid of that at that, that pinch point in the
• 36:53
  whole process and opened it up. And so now it get, you know,
• 36:55
  allows us to have more flexibility.
• 36:57
  And keep moving through. Having our own canning line
• 36:59
  versus you know, we did start out with a mobile canning
• 37:02
  company which was great because it was a great way to go.
• 37:05
  OK, Is this it's going to actually work and make sense.
• 37:07
  Before we invested something, but they were still challenging
• 37:10
  too because you had to coordinate with them and what
• 37:12
  day of the week it worked with them to be able to come.
• 37:14
  I mean, there's so much where now it's like we control the
• 37:16
  whole part of the process. And so not only are we ensuring
• 37:20
  that every step of the process is under our domain for quality
• 37:24
  and care, but then we can also, if we need to only put out 10
• 37:27
  barrels, we can do a small batch or small run if that's what we
• 37:30
  need to do, or we can do a large run.
• 37:33
  You know, we kind of dictate all that.
• 37:35
  Hey, and I do want to add something about your cans and
• 37:38
  can art. And we've talked about can art
• 37:40
  with other breweries. The one thing, the thing, and
• 37:43
  probably probably because of the frog, but hopping frog certainly
• 37:46
  stands out to what they can. But I love it how easy it is to
• 37:49
  spot your cans when you go into a place.
• 37:52
  And I think that is so important because you can go into a place
• 37:56
  and you're going, OK, wait a minute, where am I?
• 37:59
  I can't find this mirror. Can't find this mirror Hopping
• 38:02
  Frog right in front of me. Yep.
• 38:06
  I've hoped for that for a long time.
• 38:08
  That's what I was trying to do. I mean, I got into this really
• 38:11
  early on and that's one of the focuses that I've had is I want
• 38:15
  to be recognized on the shelf within a quarter second.
• 38:17
  You're looking at 1000 or 600 beers.
• 38:19
  I want you to say, oh wait, I want your eye to just
• 38:21
  automatically stop. I've seen that before.
• 38:23
  What is that? You know, that's, that's
• 38:25
  something of interest. So thank you.
• 38:28
  That's what I was hoping. That's why we haven't changed
• 38:29
  the logo. And there was pressure to change
• 38:32
  the logo, you know, from internal pressure, because we
• 38:34
  know you get so used to seeing the the frog face.
• 38:37
  It's like, you know, let's update this shit.
• 38:38
  So we finally did it. We did all the work.
• 38:41
  And then I had a I'll just describe this person as a very
• 38:45
  senior marketing person. Ask me, why in the world would
• 38:47
  you be doing that? Is there something wrong with
• 38:49
  your brand? Like, well, no, we just want to
• 38:53
  update it. And they describe that to be a
• 38:56
  common feeling with businesses. It's just the way things are.
• 39:00
  But you got to look at your brand and if there's a problem
• 39:02
  with it, then you need to change the logo.
• 39:04
  But if not, then you should continue to use it.
• 39:06
  So that's nice to hear that you that you still recognize our
• 39:08
  stuff after nearly 20 years being on the shelf.
• 39:10
  Yeah, I mean, I don't know if this is a great comparison, but
• 39:13
  it would always be like McDonald's saying let's just
• 39:15
  change our arch. Why the heck would you want to
• 39:17
  do that? It's right.
• 39:18
  It's been the same things for for decades.
• 39:20
  So. Yeah, because everyone's, you
• 39:22
  know, fighting for business, whether it be McDonald's or us.
• 39:26
  Well, I to your point, I knew like I knew in the, in the
• 39:29
  liquor store where these were, but they have A and these were
• 39:32
  all like on the, the, the warm shelf right there on the other
• 39:34
  side. Then they weren't in the cooler,
• 39:35
  but they had some in the cooler. And I know I can go to the
• 39:37
  cooler where they have singles and scan up and down really
• 39:40
  quickly to find yours. It's very easy.
• 39:43
  Like I know they got some over here.
• 39:45
  Boom, got it. Awesome.
• 39:47
  Nice to hear it. Thanks.
• 39:48
  Yep, yeah. Absolutely.
• 39:49
  It helps a lot because a lot of times we move forward with these
• 39:52
  ideas that I have and a lot of them are antiquated.
• 39:55
  So I need to at least be being able to figure out whether
• 39:58
  they're actually still working or not because a lot of my ideas
• 40:00
  I recognize our old school and. They they need to be updated.
• 40:04
  Fred, I'd like to ask you this and we because we asked these
• 40:06
  guys early on kind of about their work environment stuff.
• 40:09
  How important is your team to you and for what they do in the
• 40:12
  brewery and into your to the success of the brewery?
• 40:15
  How could I possibly answer that any differently?
• 40:18
  I mean, my gosh, they're essential.
• 40:20
  You can't do what we're doing without them.
• 40:23
  I mean, they are the business. I could go away and things would
• 40:26
  still keep going. So yeah, they're essential.
• 40:29
  Can't do it without them. Yeah, I mean, what?
• 40:32
  How can you put it any other way?
• 40:34
  Right. The longevity you guys have had
• 40:35
  come up with 19 years, it's a testament to all of you guys and
• 40:38
  your whole team. Well, I was gonna say, yeah,
• 40:40
  let's not there's there's many that are not on have the
• 40:45
  opportunity to be on the screen, if you will, and talk about
• 40:48
  this. But you know, it's a it's, it's
• 40:49
  a team effort. It truly is.
• 40:51
  There's ideas and things that come up, but, you know, it's
• 40:53
  everyone working together to make sure that the, the goal is
• 40:56
  met and the, the vision is exceeded.
• 40:59
  And everyone, you know, takes great satisfaction and pride and
• 41:02
  hearing when people say, Oh my gosh, I love your beer.
• 41:05
  Or I, you know, I had so much fun in the tasting room last
• 41:07
  night. So, and so it was great.
• 41:09
  Or whatever the case would be. I mean, it means a lot to
• 41:12
  everyone. And they, they come to work
• 41:13
  every day, you know, with great pride and things on those ends.
• 41:17
  And we couldn't. It's a definitely A-Team effort
• 41:19
  for sure. Well, hopefully when this
• 41:21
  podcast comes out, they can listen to it and hear that
• 41:23
  they're being recognized because really it's one of our goals
• 41:27
  when we started this podcast to champion breweries to talk about
• 41:31
  what you guys do and the great work that you're doing.
• 41:34
  And you know our experiences and our adventures as well.
• 41:37
  So we we certainly appreciate it.
• 41:39
  That's awesome. Thanks.
• 41:40
  Yeah, that's great. It's totally big fans of you
• 41:42
  guys. Thank you.
• 41:43
  Absolutely. I know we're winding down.
• 41:45
  Is there anything we didn't cover or anything you guys want
• 41:48
  to talk about or plug or anything coming up or maybe like
• 41:52
  Steve said earlier, maybe some, you know some inside information
• 41:55
  about something coming down the. Rd.
• 41:57
  Or that you know some exclusives.
• 41:59
  Gosh, you put us on the spot there.
• 42:01
  And the answer could. Be I just want to make sure we
• 42:03
  don't all give away a different secret.
• 42:05
  Yeah, no, no, Hey, I just want to say thanks for Theo.
• 42:08
  Thanks for having us. I mean, if it wasn't obvious,
• 42:11
  this is my first podcast I've been part of.
• 42:14
  So this has been this is this has been fun and I wasn't sure
• 42:17
  what to expect, but I really appreciate you guys taking the
• 42:21
  opportunity or taking the time, I should say, give us the
• 42:24
  opportunity to just kind of share a little bit about us.
• 42:26
  And thanks for coming to our tasting room.
• 42:28
  Hopefully we'll we'll see you again.
• 42:30
  Shandy Day, August 23rd. There you go.
• 42:32
  A little plug or, or if you're interested, we have a clay bake
• 42:36
  that'll be at the end of September.
• 42:38
  But yeah, so you know, just thanks and thank everyone who's
• 42:42
  tried our beer. And if you haven't, please give
• 42:44
  us a try. Let your taste buds be the
• 42:46
  judge. That's. 100%.
• 42:49
  Put. Drink the beer, drink the beer
• 42:51
  you love. I can't say that the people
• 42:54
  enough and I appreciate what you guys are doing by humanizing the
• 42:58
  industry in a way. And so to get people to see the
• 43:01
  people behind the things they love to make that human
• 43:05
  connection and and they'll go back and go, yeah, that's that
• 43:09
  is amazing beer. And I appreciate what those guys
• 43:11
  are doing. And we appreciate our fans more
• 43:14
  than you know, I mean our sales guys in the field all the time.
• 43:17
  We are known as the brewery that is the easiest to work with.
• 43:20
  We will bend over backwards for for our our vendors, our
• 43:24
  distributors, for people out there really trying to spread
• 43:27
  the love because we believe, we believe in this product.
• 43:30
  I mean this, this stuff, what we do, like Fred said earlier, I
• 43:34
  mean it's we're selling happiness and we want people to
• 43:36
  be happy. Thank you guys for what you're
• 43:40
  doing. Well, thank you for that.
• 43:41
  And it's, it's really some honor for for all three of you guys to
• 43:44
  even want to come on it. It's it's a big deal to us too.
• 43:46
  So we really appreciate you guys being with us.
• 43:49
  No problem. Gosh, look, we're just a couple
• 43:52
  of beer drinkers. We're nobody, I'm telling you we
• 43:55
  don't, we, we're not, we're not professional.
• 43:57
  We're just drink beer and we travel around and we and we go
• 43:59
  to places and we just like to talk about it.
• 44:01
  But you know what? You're you're our fans, and that
• 44:03
  means a lot. So thanks.
• 44:04
  Yeah, thank you for that. You know that's.
• 44:07
  We don't think of ourselves as much different.
• 44:09
  I mean, we're just beer drinkers too, man.
• 44:11
  Yeah, there you go. We just sometimes get to drink
• 44:14
  the beer 1st and that's really the biggest, the biggest
• 44:17
  difference, right? And we're only doing that to
• 44:20
  make sure that it's the absolute best by the time you get the
• 44:22
  chance to try it right. Right, we have a responsibility.
• 44:25
  Right. You have to have right?
• 44:27
  You can't put any crappy stuff out there.
• 44:28
  You gotta write money control. Exactly.
• 44:31
  When it gets to the mass. Job but someone's got to do.
• 44:33
  It it is. It is.
• 44:34
  We don't drink all day, but we do drink.
• 44:37
  Yeah. Just part of the job
• 44:39
  description. Guys, I'm going to raise my beer
• 44:42
  to you all. Thank you for a great night.
• 44:45
  Thank you for a great brewery experience when we came to Hop
• 44:47
  and Frog, and so many more to come.
• 44:49
  And thanks for being on our podcast tonight.
• 44:51
  Thanks for having me. Cheers.
• 44:53
  We're even bigger fans now. Hop and Frog Brewery on the
• 44:56
  Brewery on the Ground podcast. Cheers everybody.
• 44:58
  Cheers. Cheers the great beers.
• 45:00
  Cheers.