Latest / Ready To Drink Podcast / Why Staying Small Is the Growth Strategy | Dean Yaukey, Founder of Whiskers Brewing

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Why Staying Small Is the Growth Strategy | Dean Yaukey, Founder of Whiskers Brewing · Ready To Drink Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Dean Yocky.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're Whiskers Brewing Incorporated in Newville, Pennsylvania.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm the owner, the brewer, the accountant, the electrician, the janitor.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Should I continue?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, exactly.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: When did you uh when did you found our start uh Whiskers?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we actually started doing like the paperwork for it in uh March of 2021.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then it took us almost a year, well, it was a year before we technically were gonna open.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um the planned opening date was March 12th, 2022.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: That didn't quite happen.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: Ten days before we were supposed to open, and that was on February 28th, we had a massive fire that got into place.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: We had everything in place, everybody hired, food in the fridge, all the beer made, and then this fire started from a little uh eight put eight-port USB charger that we got off of Amazon that was going to power our POS systems.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so we were had a little bit of a setback.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: The beauty of it was is that we didn't the beer refrige was a walk-in cooler with a sliding glass door, and although it was completely singed, the beer inside was still at 35 degrees when we got in.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so the beer was actually saved.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then what we did in the coming months, not really in in March, although we we did that that that that was a Monday, I think it was that the fire happened.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And that weekend we actually did have people in our courtyard and we were serving our beer, you know, outside.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I heard about that, but I didn't realize that you still got to save the beer.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the beer was saved, and what was really great about it was is that I had built the walk-in cooler and I had four brake tanks in it, and I had some beer in kegs, not our complete inventory, but you know, a pretty good amount of beer.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then in the walk-in cooler, there was another door that was going to another walk-in cooler that hadn't been built yet.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: So that that door went to the outside world, and that was kind of our saving grace because what I did was I actually put a hole in the wall and ran beer lines out and actually set up jockey boxes out in the courtyard, and yet the beer was in the cooler that had already been made.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: We have since enclosed that now, and the regular cooler sits there, but so it kind of helped us get through that.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: We finally were able to open our first floor.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, let me step back.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: The end of June of that year, 2021 or 22, they uh were able to get the brewery room done because it kind of was a little bit separate than the main dining room area.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then September of 22, we were able to have the first floor opened.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: So then we were truly in business.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Then November 22, we had the kitchen open and kind of everything went from there.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: We also have an upstairs that they didn't finish until July of 23, though.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: So four years in now.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Is it everything you wanted and more?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoy it.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell you that one of the reasons that I did it is because I have another business, and the other business is is really where I make my money.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I'm I'm at that business for 47 years.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: I would certainly love to have a buyer come along, uh, but we'll see if that ever happens.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: So the brewery was sort of meant to be my later in life, possibly retirement plan, where that's where I would hang out and work and do whatever.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so far, yeah, I mean I enjoy it.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoy it better than the other business, the first business at this point.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: What um what were you doing prior, or what what is the other business that you were doing for 47 years prior?
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Phantom Entertainment.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And we are Yeah, yeah, okay.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: I know exactly who we are now.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: You know, do you know who we are?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: But explain to the audience.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: We have so I I like to say we're an elite party rental company because we we do have the bouncy things, but we have mechanical bulls, mobile ziplines, mobile escape rooms, rock walls, and most of the time we're finding ourselves doing uh very large family events, college events, corporate events.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: We don't really do much in the terms of backyard party.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's I had no idea that was you, that was you, Dean.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I've been uh I've been a client of yours for 20 some years now.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: I used to work at uh summer camp over in uh Mercersburg Academy, and uh we would hire you guys for DJs and all kinds, and then the bounce houses.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I've been I've been a fan of your work for a long time.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's the joy of uh of not doing any research for these things.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: I I know you as a brewery owner, and that's it.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't Google you intentionally because I wanted to learn.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's cool.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: So excellent.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you have that side of things.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: So you understand hospitality, you understand customer service, you know, you understand the grind of what you're doing in there, especially a weekend like this.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: You got bounce houses, you got thunderstorms, you you're uh you're quick to pivot, I'm sure.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, with that we're awesome, with the weather, it drives us crazy.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure, I'm sure.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's okay, let's talk a little bit about that then.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you're going into this as an established business, and now that I can I know that part, so I I know you guys are your your territory is very large as far as where you you service and things like that.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Where do what things are kind of different and where do you think the transferable skills came over from Phantom over to Whiskers?
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think a lot of it, you know, what I some of the things I mentioned, obviously, yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, my so my background with Phantom is nowhere near the restaurant or the bar business.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: However, one of the things that's always driven me with uh you know with Phantom is is that every event should be fun.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: Every event should be, you know, a a smile.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, so I think I understand in some regards customer service and you know, customer perception and things like that.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I try to translate that into the brewery business as well.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: To me, that's a really big deal.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, whenever we decided to do this, the wife, the wife said we we've got to do two things, and we have to do those two things really well.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: We have to make good drinkable beer and we have to have good food, you know, because that's that's everything.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so to me, I think not being in the business didn't matter with that because to me that's common sense, you know.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the number one thing is serving the customers.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if you I mean you you're doing that already, and that's the number one game.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: What uh what have you have you kind of like from my experience?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are you still feeling like in the in that area, like there's a lot of or do you guys have a lot of camaraderie with the other breweries and stuff like that, or is everybody kind of still in their linear paths and stuff?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, I tell you what, we we enjoy relationships with with all the breweries.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: I to me it's it's fun.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm I'm kind of transparent, you know, if somebody asks me questions, even if it's financial, I'm pretty transparent about that because I I'm like, hey, you know, I'm I'm not hiding anything.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, I think everybody goes through the same things and and but no, I I enjoy the relationships that I have with with many of the breweries.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And back when we had the fire, we had a lot of places reach out, you know, people who wanted to say, hey, do you need beard?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you need cups or glasses?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Do you need growlers, you know, whatever.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I was really surprised how people reached out, you know.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: And at that time, many of them I didn't know, and I came to know them, you know, through that.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's probably the best way to launch into the community, is uh, I mean, obviously not the best way for the financial part of the business.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let me rephrase what I'm saying, but as far as understanding the camaraderie and the care that people do have inside of it, and we are unique in Pennsylvania in the camaraderie of our breweries, a lot of other and other industries.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not like that in this in the spirits world.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I spend my time in the spirits world across Pennsylvania, and there's not a lot of collaboration that goes on.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody is very in the competitive mode.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I always have appreciated and and uh that part of the craft beer industry in Pennsylvania.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Talk a little bit about what people can expect.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I did happen to go on your website just now and I kind of scrolled the beer menu because that kind of gives me a real snapshot of the environment and the type.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to compliment you publicly.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like, for being of the size that you are, you have such a diverse beer menu.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what was the driving factor of that?
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because that is not an economic thing to do.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you're very intentional about having such a diverse menu.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so we we have 12 taps, and and right now I think I I reside on 11 of them.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think I put a cider on the 12.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: So have to understand that that first and foremost, when we would go out, like during COVID, okay, and we'd go to different breweries, and my wife is not a craftier beer drinker, okay, at all.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so my son and I would stand back as we go to these breweries and watch the interaction that she had with the server.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: If it was a if you know, many times it could have been um, you know, someone who actually was a brewer, brewer too.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so she would walk up and she would say, I don't really like craft beer.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you have this like a Miller Light?
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you'd always give this well, and and so my son and I were like, That's the wrong way to approach it.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: So in Newville, where we reside, they had been dry since 1939.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: In in March of 21 is when we find out that they were considering going wet.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, they're gonna have a vote in May of 21.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I started doing my research, my paperwork, only to find out that it didn't matter that they were a dry township.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: A brewery, a winery, a distillery is considered to be a manufacturer in the state of Pennsylvania.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And because you're a manufacturer, you're able to sell what you produce on site in a tap room or to go, regardless if it's a dry township.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, why didn't anybody ever research this before?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: So as soon as I found that out, I'm like, I'm not waiting for the vote.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna go ahead and put my my uh paperwork in.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: But the key was I knew people would walk in, they'd look up at my beer menu on the screen and go, I don't understand.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: What's like a bud light?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's what that Newville was gonna be ready for.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're not ready for all the IPAs and all that.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: So, what you should have seen from my beer menu is it's very heavy on beers that are very drinkable, loggers, not hoppy.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: I still have the hoppy stuff, you know, because I need to have that as well.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: But that's one of the reasons for the diversity was because I knew that the clientele.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And our per capita in Newville is small, you know.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I have to really appeal to that little per capita, you know, with the hope that we bring people in, you know, from other areas as well.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I start with that per capita.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you're how far away off of uh 81 are you?
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: I want to say it's gonna be maybe a mile because it's on country roads, it tends you tend to think it's farther, but it's really not.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably a mile.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe just a hair bit more.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So anybody listening in any of the uh you know, this the metro markets and stuff like that, that's simple.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: You you know, if you're looking to do a run off 81 and hit all those spots, you guys are right off pathway.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's perfect.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I'm looking here, like red ale, vanilla stout, seltzer, husky IPA, Mexican lager.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like loving the fact of how much you have a diverse portfolio in there.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: When um when how much of it uh when you guys got started, take me to the moment, like obviously you had Phantom Entertainment, but paint the picture.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Are you with your family?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: Are you with your friends when you decided that you were gonna be a crazy, crazy person and start another business?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then also when you decided that was gonna be a brewery.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the wife bought me a beer kit for Christmas.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: What year what year are you at this point?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: I hate to tell you this because you're crazy.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: 2019.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is awesome.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: How long I've been brewing.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's even better.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: So December 2019, I get a beer kit.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: March of 2020, COVID hits.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Phantom Entertainment.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're a large group provider of parties.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're doing none.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Everything canceled completely.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, not just that it canceled, we weren't allowed to do it.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: So what am I doing?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, March, April, May, June, July, you know, the rest of the 20 years, I'm just brewing out the wazoo.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm, I mean, sometimes I would brew, you know, once a day.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of the recipes that I have came from that time frame, you know, because it was almost like a forced force thing to do it.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then it was, you know, as COVID, as I'm brewing all this kind of stuff and enjoying it, and you know, geez, I had some great beer and I had some beer I had to throw out, you know, you both ways, but you learned.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's when I started to think to myself, and I, you know, kind of proposed it to the wife.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know, people are one of gonna go out again when COVID's over.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I want to be prepared for is that when people decide it's time to go out again, then you know, I want to do that.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: Took me a little bit longer to get it all together than what I had thought, but that was the whole motivation, really.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: When when you were some a lot of times we talk about a lot of success and failure, but we also talk about, you know, from a founder's perspective, what the emotion is of that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like you and I can connect immediately because we're working in Pennsylvania at the same time.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: COVID hits, your your business is your business, my business is the bars, restaurants, everything like that.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I sell to them and everything shuts down.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I are kindred spirits because that same day that everything shut down, I cried for about two hours and then I sat down at my computer and I figured out, all right, what's the pivot plan?
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I really respect what you did because there's a lot of people, and and I'm sorry if anybody gets offended by this, but it's there's a lot of people that went depressed and went into went into Netflix and and went into kind of detaching from reality as opposed to how do I harness this new reality into an opportunity.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I I want to just acknowledge that for a second because that's a really important factor to how where you're sitting today with both of these businesses.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I like to I like to make a distinction that I'm not a workaholic.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: I am a busybody and I like to stay busy, but I also can take a break.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I will tell you, in April of 2020, I remember saying to my wife, like, wow, this is what retirement would be like.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we weren't doing anything because you know, phantom were just dead in the water, you know.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So it didn't feel bad, but I again I'm I'm I I just like to be active, you know, and and so this was just another you know idea of keeping active and keep going.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, and you're humble though, because I mean that had to be for me like returning all the deposits, returning like canceling the contracts and all that, like it hit hard.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to I want people to realize that like a lot of people don't talk about that stuff because they talk about the different success or failures and things like that of COVID.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: But really, from as a business owner, especially as a small business owner, and let's call it.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're in a very rural area of Pennsylvania, it's South Central PA, it's not Philly, it's not Pittsburgh.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, to bounce back from that and not let it paralyze you is a true testament to your your courage.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know what I mean?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like you could, you could have you could have just said, I'm gonna wait it out too, but instead you came up with a backup plan.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you didn't you didn't wait it out.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I'm gonna come up with another scenario here.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: So from that, you know, go ahead, go ahead.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna tell you there's a little bit, as Paul Harvey would say, you know, and here's the rest of the story.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: So in the in the entertainment industry, I have a good friend up in north uh New Hampshire who has a party rental company almost identical to mine.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so he and I would always hash out things to out you know for business and whatnot.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, three years before COVID hit, he had gotten into another business in addition to his party rental business.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it was with a basically what I would call house flipping franchise, where this company would help you find houses and flip.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: So when COVID hit, that March of 2020, when everything went, we also bought a franchise.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: So starting July 2020, not only were was I brewing doing that, but now I was also flipping houses.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And what I did was all the inner all the employees that were full-time employees from Phantom were immediately moved over to the flipping and kept busy.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we didn't lose the beat where it came to people's paychecks, which I felt very proud of that.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: That that they, you know, yeah, it was a different work than they had expected.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think some loved it and some didn't love it, but their paychecks kept kept coming, you know.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so then I start to do the brewery, and I just remember that that the summer of 21, I'm thinking to myself, I'm running Phantom, I'm renovating a brewery and I'm renovating a house.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then summer of 22 after the fire, I'm like, here I am again running Phantom, renovating a brewery again, and renovating a house.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I was busy.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's yeah, I just I really I enjoy those stories a lot.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: So where when you are you in Newville, like uh a resident?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you live in the Newville area?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, no, I'm closer.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you know the area where the Cumberland Golf Course is going out of town.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of close to that.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: So when you uh what made you choose that area?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then was it was it the actual building?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the community?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of what were all the variables that you put in your location choice?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good question.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because I started to look at properties in Carlisle downtown, because I thought, hey, Carlisle's got a couple places and it might be a good destination.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: People come, they're gonna walk around and do whatever.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: And at that time, there was Market Cross.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I I for some reason, Market Cross, I don't really think of as being a brewery.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think of them being more of a restaurant and a bar.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: At that time was Bird's Nest, and then the other end of town was Molly Pitcher.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then Desperate Times was sort of out of town.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that's not really a park and walk.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what had given me the idea to look in Carlisle.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I did, I looked at a property.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Next thing I know, I get a call from somebody at Economic Development in Carlisle saying, hey, we're excited to hear you're thinking about maybe coming to town because this will be really great.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: We have a great destination because we have a distillery and two other breweries that are thinking about coming too.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, whoa, wait a minute.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: Now I look and I say saturation.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and not destination.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so I called Newville and I remember talking to the manager who I knew well, and I and I said, Hey, I said, I understand that Newville has never done anything with any kind of alcohol because, you know, of uh, you know, since 1939, and that, you know, there's always that room for contingencies, waivers, and exceptions, but we're told there's always one guy on the board that shoots anything like that down.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Dean, you're absolutely right, and he's gone.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we have a vote to go wet in May.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, holy crap.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I started looking and I just found the right place, you know, and and I felt it'd be great, hometown.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, parking is our nemesis, but it's it still works out.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's something for our audience that doesn't live in Pennsylvania that that it's it's uh under talked about is the dry townships that exist across the count across the state.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is that literally for anybody in the audience, a dry township means you cannot sell alcohol in those townships.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they're what used to be, I don't know if it's still the case, but it used to be a point where you couldn't even distribute through those townships.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was in the wholesale world, we would have to drive around those townships sometimes uh because we couldn't even carry whole alcohol into the township zone.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know about that.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: That sounds yeah, it sounds a little rigid, but but yeah, but you're right.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds like it was one of those things where I was told, I think, to scare us away when really it wasn't something that was enforceable.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it was a very rare thing.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: But so talk to me a little bit about when people come in there.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we talked about the portfolio of beers.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: What's what's the environment like and kind of what types of people would they interact with when they get in there?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: We we have a lot of regulars, uh, which we love, you know, and we we try to we try to holler when anybody comes to the door.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Whiskers.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it is a very much of a hometown feel.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're very small inside.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're uh downstairs is about 46 seats.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: We have 10 around the bar, which means we got about 30, 35, 36 uh in tables, high tops and low tops.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um the decorations, being that our name is Whiskers Brewing, what the reason we came up with that name is that we want to be very dog friendly or pet friendly.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: So our logo, though those dogs are our actual dogs.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Nice okay, they're in the logo.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Throughout the whole brewery, all the decorations are paintings of pets, either from the from the past or current.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And and my daughter had made all the paintings.
• 20:07
  unknown: Wow.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: So the hand painting.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're kind of almost like cartoon type paintings, but uh so you have that feel that we're very pet friendly when you come in.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now, not inside because we have food, but uh out in the in the puppy patio we call it.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: We actually installed uh a special kind of turf that they can do their business on without a problem.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're hoping they get that that that kind of hometown, you know, cozy feel.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And and I like to say we're one of the few breweries that does actual table service.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: That is, you are one of the few that does that, especially in Pennsylvania.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: So when you uh you've but you're a couple years into this now, what have you kind of and you're you know, you're very and I could tell that you might not you might not say it, but you probably seem like a very analytical person and you like to be able to predict and kind of look at look at things and align them.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you kind of see the the Pennsylvania beer scene going with all these changes and and you know, some people call them disruptions, but really you're a consumer-focused person.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's really consumer is a little promiscuous as far as which category in the adult beverage they're gonna they're gonna kind of support and things like that.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you kind of see things going and what are you kind of doing to prepare?
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I tell you the first and foremost, our our location, there's no way possible for any sort of expansion at that location.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I did that on purpose, okay?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I'm brewing myself and I'm making a beer, we're a two-bell brewery.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I think one of the batches that I make make like my one IPA might be at most four 55-pound bags.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: I can carry that in.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: But if I was a five arrow brewery, I wouldn't be carrying that grain in.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it'd be too too much for me.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, so first and foremost, we don't do it, we don't, we're not planning on any kind of expansion.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: Second of all, we're a taproom.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: We want people to come in and enjoy the beer there.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: You can also buy beer to go, but otherwise, we have no plans or interest in district.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Distribution.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're just too small.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think when you say about the beer industry in general, I I've seen so many of these places that have have been successful at their first location.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then they think they've got to put one here and one there and try to have their beer in every bar and do a lot of distribution.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that's to me where the financially it doesn't make sense.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: So for for us, we we love being small.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's going to be attributable to our success.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now, yes, we're always going to sort of be have an upper limit that we can anticipate making financially because of that, but I'm okay with that.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 18 years as a solopreneur for a reason.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have no full-time employees.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: And intentionally the same exact reason is my my goal in entrepreneurship was to control my life.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I keep things at a cap and I keep a certain client list and going and things like that for the same reason.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always, you know, there were periods of my career where I wanted to chase the dollar and become a millionaire and all this stuff.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I it was all bullshit.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was in my head that the world told me I could do.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't that I can't do it, it's that I actually decided after a while, some success, that I didn't want all the other BS that came with that.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to kind of put some barriers on my life so I could have more balance.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so in the latter part of these, these these decades now, it's uh it's much more controlled.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's uh that's that's been appreciated.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: When you uh when you talk about the the uh different diverse stuff here, I see you also have like Stella Artois NA and stuff like that.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: What how what outside of the beer, what other things uh and then type talk about a little bit about the food as we kind of close out as well.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: That way people know what's going on too.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh obviously we're we you know we make the beer and we make the seltzer.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_01: We can also serve for those that aren't beer drinkers.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: We do have spirits from Big Spring Spirits up in Belfon and love their stuff.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's great stuff.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, people seem to like it.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we get cider from Big Hill Cider Works.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're great people to work with as well.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I I don't make any sours, and mainly because I I know people in the industry have have gone back and forth with me on this, but a lot of times when you make a sour, that fermenter is going to be your cer your your sour fermenter from there on in.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: And with only having four little two-barrel fermenters, I'm like, I don't want to burn a fermenter and make it a sour.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: So we do bring in victory, one of their sours for that.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that that's pretty much the comp, you know.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, we have sodas and anything else like that as well.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: The uh no, that that's a great choice on the sour, because while uh you know, I I'm three and a half years sober, but when I drank them, I love sours.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, the economics and the the logistics of it, it just you have to be a certain size to do that.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's definitely makes sense.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to me a little bit about as we're kind of closing out.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um have you are you familiar with uh with the hemp beverage bill that's up in Pennsylvania, House Bill 2309?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I know.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yes and no.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the the groups that I'm on Facebook, I'll see things posted and whatnot.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I haven't really given it much consideration.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I sit back and see what happens.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know if I will get into making anything like that.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I haven't made anything like hop water or you know, anything different like that.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: At least not at this point.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I just want to make sure you knew every guest that I come on that's in Pennsylvania.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want to make sure they understand it's going on.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: We are as the agency a big advocate of it.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: We work alongside the bill getting it passed because we want to be able to have you guys have the opportunity to offer that stuff to your customers if it comes out into the public in there.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: So just want to make sure you're aware of it and and uh that things are going on there.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: When uh last question for you is what's one thing?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're four years in now.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: What's one thing if somebody still is is just as crazy as we all are and wants to join this industry and they haven't jumped in yet?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, give me one thing you would advise you would give that somebody.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I still think absolutely starting small, you know, it it everybody has grandiose ideas, you know, gotta be gotta start small.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, maybe factor in a little expansion if you want, but uh I just I think the overexpansion is what caused so many downfalls.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because starting small also gives you the ability to work through the problems on a small level, not on a massive level as well.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've always said to people, I'd rather be a sprinter than the Titanic.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like you can turn on a dime what you can turn on a dime when you're a sprinter and you got all that stuff with you.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Dean, I really appreciate you coming on.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh closing out here, I just want to let you know, like I really, you know, the courage of coming on without a script, and and you you're you're somebody that's knowledgeable in business and you come on, but there's no script and there's no prep for everybody to understand.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the realest conversations on the internet, Dean.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've never met, we've never shared a beer, a cup of coffee, or anything like that.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to thank you for coming on with that courage, uh, because there's a lot of people that do turn us down uh because we say, you know, there's no script, there's no agenda, there's no prep, and they're like, I'm out and a filter for it.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: We could talk here for three more hours if you have the time.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, exactly, exactly.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I love it.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna swing, uh, do drive by up on 81 every once in a while, so I'm gonna stop by one of these days when you're open and stop in and say hi.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I'll kind of close out here with this every exactly, exactly.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: I can close out for everybody here is uh we want to remind everybody this is something fun.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: We we we talk about it's ready to drink podcast.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about drinks, they are the social bridge to all kinds of great things in history as well as our present day.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things we try to remind everybody is with this being no prep, this is a human connection, all right?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: We sat down for 33 minutes here and we connected.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna go out and see him in a couple months when I'm up on the area again, and then we're gonna get to know each other and we'll build a relationship out of this.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is how easy it is to connect with human beings.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in 2026, as well as every other year moving forward, human connection is so powerful yet so underutilized.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I want everybody to realize when you're walking down the street on the sidewalk, put your phone in your pocket, look at the strangers, smile at people, when you're at the gas station, filling up your cup of coffee, look at the person next to you, ask them how they're doing, and shut your mouth and actually care about what they say and ask them a question or anything like that.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I challenge everybody, as I do every week for the past couple weeks, five minutes of kindness to a stranger every week.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's 20 minutes of kindness a month.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about ROIs all the time in here.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: That is a great ROI.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: You don't, your life might be full.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: You might have all these friends and family in the world, but somebody else might be struggling out there with human connection, and that five minutes could save their life, their day, their year.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean that when I say save their life, it could give them hope in human connection.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to thank everybody for attending and and like just thank you so much for what you're doing.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think there's it's an underutilized thing to be building something in a not everybody wants to go to an urban market.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons I was so excited when you connected with me, because I love talking about these stories in a non urban market and talk about how it is.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great place to go into, and you're right off the highway.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: So a mile off the highway, Newville, Pennsylvania, Whiskers Brewing.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Get over there and check out Dean while he's hauling those malt barrels or malt bags down there.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Dean, you have a good rest of your day, buddy.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate coming on.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a pleasure.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: All right, take care of it.