Latest / No Dirt No Flowers Podcast / Harvest Happy Hour Hang / Ft. Joe Mastrorocco

Transcript

Harvest Happy Hour Hang / Ft. Joe Mastrorocco · No Dirt No Flowers Podcast

0:00
Hello everyone and welcome back to No Dirt No
0:02
Flowers Harvest Edition. Today we'll be sitting
0:06
down with Joe Mastrocco, our sales director for
0:08
Roy Farms. They'll be covering a wide range of
0:11
topics today including harvest check -in, what
0:14
varieties we've picked so far and how they've
0:16
been picking, what they've been seeing in the
0:17
market. They'll also be discussing some of the
0:19
beers that our good friends have been sending
0:21
us to enjoy and a whole bunch of other random
0:23
stuff. Hope you enjoy. Yeah, we can get started.
0:35
Drew's out doing harvest things, or my lovely
0:39
co -host is out doing harvest things. So he'll
0:43
burst the door at some point. Cool. So we're
0:46
here with Joe Mastrocco. How'd I do? That was
0:51
great. Yeah, thanks. Key account manager, director
0:54
of sales. And yeah, we're going to do a little
0:59
bit of a deep dive with him on what he's seen
1:01
in the market, beer styles. Some of his favorite
1:05
beers, background. Yeah. Let's start with your
1:08
background. Yeah, just first off, the podcast
1:11
has been awesome. I know we've joked and talked
1:14
about it, and I've been enjoying it from afar,
1:17
but glad to be in here today. It's super fun.
1:20
First -time talker, long -time listener. Long
1:22
-time. Six -four to 150 -plus. Ding. Ding. My
1:31
name is Joe Mastrocco. Let's call back. I joined
1:35
Roy Farms four years ago. Well, this is my fourth
1:39
harvest, so like three and a half years or so.
1:44
Previously, beer experience was about 19 years
1:48
that you went to a brewing company, which is
1:50
based in Salt Lake City. It's where I live. I
1:54
did not grow up there, but I ended up playing
1:57
some college sports and wanted to ski after that
2:01
because I couldn't ski for a few years. And so
2:03
I ended up in Salt Lake City at a brewery. I
2:06
was part of the Uinta family right away, kind
2:09
of saw that brewery go from small regional to
2:13
a very large regional, if not national brewery.
2:18
Something scaled back, but yeah, I kind of did
2:20
a little bit of everything there from packaging
2:23
line to brewing to warehouse management. And
2:27
then previous to Roy, I was about 15 years in
2:31
sales there. A fun time from 2011 to 2019 of
2:38
just huge growth and getting to see the world
2:41
through a pint glass, so to speak. You went to
2:45
have had a relationship with Roy, but that's
2:47
not really how this came about, but just ended
2:50
up having a conversation with Andy, and it just
2:54
was the right time for me to step away from you.
2:56
At that point, I was managing sales and kind
3:00
of the contract business. kind of touching a
3:03
little bit of everything you went to was going
3:05
through some investment and selling. And it just
3:09
was hard to leave, but it was an awesome opportunity
3:12
to come here. And I couldn't be more excited
3:15
to be here. It's a blast. And you guys are all
3:18
fun to work with for the most part. For the most
3:23
part. Just kidding. Yeah, so kind of started
3:28
out here as just having like the Rocky Mountain
3:30
region. And, you know, building some of that
3:34
out, building some relationships, continuing
3:36
on Roy relationships. And yeah, for the last
3:40
couple of years, kind of transition to taking
3:41
a little more of a national role. But yeah, it's
3:45
we have the partnership with Crosby, which kind
3:49
of helped transition some of my role. So still
3:51
working with that team and some of our members
3:55
that are leaning more on that side. things now
3:58
and so yeah it's just really been a fun fun transition
4:03
into uh pop sales yeah so talk a little bit about
4:07
going from beer sales to hop sales since that
4:11
was the most current transition yeah career and
4:14
i don't know their similarities is it materially
4:17
different i mean yeah i'd say tons of similarities
4:21
you know when you start out let's say is if you
4:24
know kind of a entry Beer sale job would be going
4:29
around on premise, and we could go right now
4:32
and sell a couple one -off kegs and some fresh
4:34
cases of beer to a local craft establishment.
4:38
I don't want to say it's easy, but there's a
4:41
playbook there. And coming to Roy, when I started,
4:45
there was a playbook to sell some one -off hops
4:48
or experimentals or new shiny stuff, and I took
4:54
advantage of some relationships. that I had in
4:57
the beer world and was able to walk in and be
4:59
like, hey, we got Estrada. We're only Washington
5:01
grower Estrada. We have this experimental. And
5:05
it was able to get relationships. But that was
5:08
just kind of small, small or one, two, couple
5:11
boxes here and there. And then in the beer world,
5:14
like I said, kind of my last roles were managing
5:18
a team of salespeople around the country. And
5:22
you're selling more to. wholesaler partners distributor
5:26
partners or chain relationships and kind of building
5:31
sort of a larger volume or a larger sales volume
5:35
is is that and so my role now with roy is going
5:40
after some bigger contracts bigger sales and
5:44
so it is a similar transition as a sales rep
5:48
for hops and beer in my in my mind i mean one
5:52
of the conversations that's come up recently
5:55
uh with brewers cycling through here and doing
5:59
selection we've talked a little bit about you
6:03
know some of the complications and the importance
6:05
of having these strong distributor relationships
6:07
and i don't know why that comes comes to mind
6:11
but you know we are a distributor of our own
6:14
hops and we rely on others to distribute our
6:16
hops yes and so i don't know what what do you
6:20
what do you think about that well The distributor
6:23
term in the beer world, you know, the three -tier
6:28
beer world where you have brewer, wholesaler,
6:31
distributor, and then retailer. Not every brewery
6:35
follows that. Smaller people can go direct. Even
6:37
larger brewers might have a distribution network.
6:40
But I would say to junior salespeople in the
6:44
beer world, I would say, who's your number one
6:46
customer? And they would go around, oh, it's
6:48
this account or this chain or this. And I'd be
6:52
like, yeah, those are good, but your number one
6:53
customer is your distributor because they are
6:56
actually the people that are out doing the sales.
6:58
And so we have to be cognizant of that. Whereas
7:01
you and I went on a trip in August and we saw
7:04
a bunch of breweries and we were selling direct
7:06
to those breweries, but we also have partners
7:09
that are selling our hops and we have to be cognizant
7:12
of that, of how they're representing us. And
7:15
so that part is really similar in terms of education.
7:20
that you would have to do in the beer world.
7:22
And so even just like talking about this right
7:25
now, and I know we've touched on it before, but
7:27
it's something that we definitely have to keep
7:29
in mind as we're moving to more of this phase
7:34
in Roy, Roy farms, hop sales. I mean, being our
7:38
own distributor. Yeah, exactly. But also relying
7:41
on some other people that are out direct selling
7:44
our hops as well. Yep. Yeah. I mean like Crosby's
7:46
the easy example there. Sure. You know, We are
7:49
building that relationship. Their team will reach
7:54
out to myself or Andy Roy. We have people coming
7:59
to the farm today and tomorrow that are more
8:02
on the Crosby side of things, but we're going
8:05
to be able to talk to them about what Roy offers,
8:07
and then they'll be able to go through Crosby
8:09
to get Roy Farms and Crosby Hops. I think it's
8:14
a fun thing, and we're kind of... going down
8:17
a a unique path so to speak yeah well um yeah
8:22
what are you seeing right now out in the sales
8:28
and or beer landscape i mean maybe we start with
8:31
the sales side of things like what are you seeing
8:33
out there headwinds opportunities yeah sure again
8:38
we spent a lot of time in a car the last couple
8:40
months weeks and you hear my cascade i went Not
8:46
a tirade. A soliloquy? Yeah, sure. But, you know,
8:52
for the first two and a half years of Roy Farms,
8:55
I can't imagine that I talked about Cascade as
9:00
much as I had in the last couple weeks. Or months,
9:03
sorry. Obviously, we know how the current hop
9:07
market is, right? I don't need to reiterate where
9:10
we're at. But there's a lot of hops out there.
9:13
Cascade being one that's probably one of the
9:16
higher volumes that's available. And spot market's
9:20
not taken away from people contracting. But over
9:24
the last three months, we've contracted somewhere
9:28
around 75 ,000 pounds of Cascade for 25. Some
9:32
people bought some 24 crop. To me, that's like
9:37
a major headwind. I don't know if it's a headwind,
9:41
but a win. That people are coming around and
9:44
saying, oh, that's a sign that the market is
9:47
kind of shifting. And so I've been really excited
9:50
about that. And we'll be in a cascade in a little
9:53
bit. And I was out in the field last week, and
9:56
I'm excited about cascade. Other trends are just,
10:00
in general, people calling back and saying, hey,
10:03
for the last two and a half, three years, we
10:06
were knocking on doors. And maybe at this point,
10:09
we're getting people calling us. That's also
10:11
exciting. But as far as other varieties that
10:15
I'm seeing the excitement about, I mean, Amarillo,
10:20
Centennial, and that's maybe leading that West
10:24
Coast IPA kind of renaissance that I also probably
10:28
talk too much about. So, yeah, I'm seeing kind
10:33
of a comeback to some hops that have been around
10:36
for a little bit. We're probably going to talk
10:39
about experimental hops, which there's a bunch
10:41
of those that I'm really excited about too. I
10:43
know that there's been some doom and gloom over
10:46
the last bit, and I feel real positive right
10:52
now. I know we've talked about this kind of stuff,
10:55
and some of the brewery partners that have come
10:57
through have had some really positive conversations,
10:59
and I feel good about things. What about you?
11:04
Yes, I am feeling better. That's fair. Generally
11:10
speaking, I feel pretty good. I mean, there's
11:13
a lot of challenges out there. Oh, look who just
11:15
decided to walk into the recording studio. Hi,
11:18
Drew. Hi, Drew. Hello. What do you got there?
11:23
A can -do attitude. Love it. I mean, that's not
11:27
surprising, but what's in the bottle? Let's hear
11:29
it. Is it ice cold? It's pretty cold. Happy Hops
11:36
IPA. Courtesy of Russian River Brewing Company.
11:39
I saw those come in. Yeah, try some. What have
11:42
you guys been talking about? Joe's background
11:44
transitioned from beer sales into hop sales.
11:48
And we kind of just got into what Joe's seeing
11:51
out in the market. And he was mentioning that
11:56
people are starting to knock on our door a little
11:58
bit more. People are not only maybe topping up,
12:01
but starting to take a more of a forward look.
12:05
Yeah. In their sourcing right now, one of the
12:08
varieties we specifically talked about was cascade
12:10
spots and interest kind of picking up, and it's
12:13
kind of interesting. To reiterate, you've heard
12:17
me say it, but cascades, that sort of telltale
12:20
that maybe we're shifting back to a better position.
12:25
What do you think about that? It's the first
12:26
to come and the first to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
12:29
Because everybody will plant some number of acres.
12:33
Yeah. I guess other hops that are real exciting
12:36
to me right now, Adina. Anyone that knows me
12:40
probably gets tired of me talking about Adina.
12:45
It's maybe because that hop fits into styles
12:49
that I drink the most, and that being lighter
12:54
lager styles, Pilsner styles. The beer I'm drinking
12:57
right now is from our good friends at Icicle.
13:02
It's an Adina. that we have on tap at the farm,
13:06
and I know we've all been enjoying it, and I
13:10
think it hits the mark. It has a little bit of
13:13
that spice. I always describe that Adina kind
13:17
of has that lemon zest, and I think it's there.
13:20
It's a really nice beer. What else did they put
13:23
in there? I think it's about 90 % Adina, maybe
13:27
a little bit of something in the front, but I
13:29
know it's primarily Adina. Nice. What do you
13:33
think about that one, Drew? I thought it was
13:35
good. I know you guys. Thanks, Icicle. Yeah,
13:38
thank you guys. And I know you guys talked last
13:40
week about the Roadhouse lager beers that we
13:44
have, and we have some of their IPAs as well,
13:46
but Highwayman and Family Vacation are pretty
13:49
heavy Adina, so they're going to bring some more
13:52
whenever they come out. Love it. We can load
13:54
it back up. That stuff's going fast. We're probably
13:57
going to need to get another bit of this Icicle
13:59
beer as well. Yeah. We'll have to touch base
14:02
with him. The other one Icicle did that I really
14:04
enjoyed was the Adena 1001. The 1001? Yeah. In
14:09
January? Yeah. Yes. That was money. I was just
14:13
walking out in that field just 20 minutes ago.
14:16
The Adena field? The Adena. The 1001. Oh, the
14:18
1001, yeah. And? Pew. Looks good. So what are
14:27
the beers you have sitting in front of you? This
14:29
is kind of like. Yeah. I think this is a decent
14:32
lead in here. I had mentioned lagers on the cover
14:36
of the beer rags in magazines and articles over
14:40
the last few years. I can't tell you how many
14:43
times it says the year of the lager or lagers
14:45
next, and it's correct because people are transitioning
14:48
and drinking more of that. Remember the days
14:50
of going out and drinking 12 IPAs out at a pub,
14:55
which I'm guilty of. I've never done it. I don't
14:59
do that anymore. I will drink one or two, and
15:02
then I'll transition to a nice lager like this.
15:05
But the other style, I would say, is West Coast
15:09
IPA that I'm most excited about. Touched on that
15:11
a little bit earlier. But Lucky Envelope, good
15:14
friends of the farm, came up to pick up some
15:17
Citra Fresh Hop, and they brought this fancy
15:20
lad's West Coast IPA featuring our Strada and
15:25
ADHA 1631. And I know that we had tried some
15:31
of this, but... It already made the noise for
15:37
you. Bush. I think this beer is really enjoyable.
15:45
I prefer the West Coast style IPAs. I mean, hazies
15:48
are here. We like hazies. But I would prefer
15:52
to drink something like this. It has a little
15:55
bit of that berry note from... From the Strada,
15:58
and then our description on 1631 is, my description
16:02
is Hawaiian Punch. Yeah. That's a really nice
16:06
beer. I like that beer. About 7%. Oh, yeah, I
16:10
tried that the other day. It's delicious. We
16:13
don't have a beer in front of us with 1123. No,
16:19
there was a really cool beer brewed with that.
16:22
There was. Yeah, what notes do you get from 1123?
16:26
A little more punchy. It still has some of that
16:30
fruit, but to me it was a little more lime and
16:34
then a little more dank. I think it sets itself
16:38
apart. I get fruit punch from a lot of the experimental
16:42
hops, but that hop kind of pushed a little more
16:45
lime to me. It's just more punchy. It's kind
16:49
of an exciting hop. I did not get a chance to
16:53
try that beer, but... I know that everyone was
16:56
very excited about that beer. Yeah, and I'm not
16:59
the best at describing the sensory, but that
17:03
beer that I tasted had me at the smell, and then
17:07
it really backed it up on taste, whereas in some
17:12
it can be like one or the other. You tasted what
17:15
you smelled. Yes. That's what you said to me
17:16
yesterday. Yeah. We need to get another keg of
17:20
that. We should get another keg of that. Do it
17:22
now. So you've talked about some of the hops
17:26
you're excited about out of our breeding program,
17:29
1123. 1631. 1631. 1001. So, yeah, all of those
17:37
are being advanced and expanded right now because
17:40
we've seen enough interest that we're moving
17:42
those forward. Cascade, you're excited from a
17:46
sales perspective. That one's picking up. Amarillo.
17:51
Yep. Well, we're not picking Adina, but we had
17:54
to go back to a library sample of 24. It was
17:57
awesome. We went to – on Adina we did? No, Azaka.
18:02
Sorry, Azaka. Azaka went back to the library
18:05
sample. Yeah, because we were running labs on
18:08
it. But that was like – and I knew that hop.
18:11
I knew that lot because a couple closer breweries
18:14
that I see, they got that lot. That was awesome,
18:19
and I can't wait to see what Azaka looks like
18:21
this year, which we're still a little bit a ways
18:24
to go, but that's another hop that if we can
18:27
find, get its rhythm going, which it has the
18:29
last two years, get back into the rhythm, that's
18:33
another hop I'm excited about. Yeah. Yeah, I
18:36
think what I'm really excited about is managing
18:39
that variety better. Some of the feedback we've
18:41
gotten from brewers, not all brewers that...
18:45
have used and are using azaca but some others
18:48
is that when that hop is on it's really impressive
18:52
and when it's off it's off but there's been maybe
18:56
some aromatic inconsistency through the years
19:00
we are really trying to dig into that and figure
19:03
out why i mean i have some ideas and i think
19:07
generally speaking it just had to do with maybe
19:10
some mismanagement a lack of intention around
19:14
pick dates across the different growers. Simple
19:18
answer. Maybe it's more complicated than that,
19:20
but we're really wrapping our arms around that
19:24
this year. I guess that's what I mean by getting
19:27
it back into rhythm. When you're talking to brewers
19:30
out in the field and introducing a hop or reintroducing
19:35
a hop, do you find any trends on whether or not
19:39
they're willing to try something new, go back
19:42
to something? Or how do those discussions typically
19:45
go? All right, let's say we're walking into a
19:49
brewery that maybe used a Zaka a couple years
19:51
ago and maybe it was out of rhythm. So that's
19:55
a difficult thing to get it back in front of
19:58
people to try it again. But a beer like this
20:02
might be something that we could share with people.
20:06
So difficult, but I do think that we can show
20:11
beers that have it in it. And what can do. I
20:15
think that what also happened with the Zaka was
20:18
there was some single hop usage with it. And
20:23
I often tell the story of when I was interviewing
20:26
with Roy, I thought that was a New Zealand hop.
20:31
Because it sounds like a New Zealand hop. And
20:34
I had previous brewery worked for a brewery.
20:37
We had contract brewed a beer that was Zaka Solo.
20:41
I did not like it. I was not a fan. But I think
20:45
when you put a Zaka in to the mix with some other
20:50
hops, I think that's where it plays. And so that's
20:55
probably the discussion with brewers. And the
20:59
fact that we can get it to yield and we can get
21:02
a price point, that's also attractive to people
21:05
right now. I feel like I need to voice the elephant
21:09
in the room. He's not that big. He's only like
21:13
6 '5". No. The ultimate wing hop, your favorite
21:18
slogan for Zaka. Yeah. It may be true that it
21:23
plays well with others. How about that? It just
21:27
plays well with others? I just don't think it's
21:31
good to tell a brewer this is exactly what this
21:34
hop is. It can never be the leading lady. Think
21:39
about if Chris Stapleton was told that he always
21:41
just needs to be writing songs for other people
21:43
instead of get up there and open that baby up.
21:47
The world would have never got his gift. I hear
21:50
you. I mean, it does play well with others. And
21:54
maybe it shines on its own. But you don't tell
21:57
a painter what they can use black for. Negative
22:01
space. That's one way. Could also be a tie. Or
22:08
a piano key? It could be stripes on a soccer
22:11
ball. So, yeah, what would be a good example
22:14
of a beer that you like with a Zaka in it? Yeah,
22:19
so speaking of happy hops, our good friends at
22:23
Russian River sent this sample up to us, which
22:27
features our Zaka. So this has got a Zaka and
22:32
Strata leaning towards a Zaka, right? Yes. Okay.
22:38
Malt builds real nice and clean. And then it
22:42
has that orangey, sweet, orange rindy note. It's
22:49
a great beer. I like it. Am I picking up grapefruit
22:53
in that? Yeah, rindy for me, sure. Regular grapefruit,
22:58
not like ruby red. This is timely because we're
23:01
currently waiting on... the Azaka variety to
23:06
develop so that we can hopefully harvest it soon.
23:10
Thinking next week? Sometime this week? So probably
23:15
get into it about 21st, 22nd. It's developing.
23:19
Russian River also sent us Mind Circus, which
23:24
is a hazy IPA also featuring Azaka. So why did...
23:33
The Zaka find its way into a lot of hazies. Why
23:37
does it still exist in a handful of hazies? Yeah,
23:41
you know, I knew we were kind of chatting about
23:43
that earlier, but, I mean, my initial response
23:46
would be that because it plays well with so many
23:50
other hops, it blends in a lot of those hazy
23:53
beers, probably also because it's more soft fruit
23:59
notes. soft orange kind of sweeter orange which
24:03
i would say is playing in this beer yeah so what
24:07
were some of the other hazies that that it's
24:09
in that we like free verse from uh virginia beer
24:13
company which i believe also has chinook and
24:17
then hazy like a fox from new realm and that
24:20
one's a zaka forward as well yeah but i mean
24:23
it's not just a hazy hop so to speak. I can't,
24:27
you can't see this on the radio, but happy hops
24:30
is brilliantly clear, beautiful beer. I think
24:33
it can play in all IPA pale ale styles for sure.
24:38
I had an awesome West coast pills from our mutual
24:41
friend in Denver, ancient poems, which was featuring
24:46
our Zaka. And I think our shot was in that as
24:48
well, but as a fun beer, let's get down to brass
24:51
tacks here. What did you not like about you into
24:54
so much that you left them? Oh, geez. Well, it
24:59
was that lying son of a bitch Johnson. Yeah,
25:05
it was hard to leave. I mean, it was like I started
25:07
working there when I was like 22 years old, and
25:10
I left when I was 42 or 40 years old. So I had
25:15
a slight hiatus from Uinta for two years, two
25:20
and a half years in that time frame. Was this
25:22
when you followed the dead around? That was further,
25:24
I believe. Oh. I'm taking the rest of this happy
25:26
out. Do it. Yeah, it was real hard to leave there
25:29
because that was kind of like my life, you know.
25:33
Started there very young and kind of helped build
25:37
it up and then also dealt with some struggles
25:39
and, you know, great people that I still get
25:43
to work with that are there, and I miss that.
25:46
Yeah, it was just time for me to try something
25:49
new, and this opportunity has been awesome. I
25:52
couldn't be more excited to be here now. But
25:55
the other thing is I still get to work with them.
25:59
They buy hops from us and very close with a lot
26:02
of their team still, and it's kind of a win -win.
26:05
Do you like selling hops more than you like selling
26:07
beer? I don't know. Well, I'll say this. I get
26:11
a lot less free beer right now. Really? Yep.
26:17
I don't know if I've ever walked out of a brewery.
26:22
Yeah, but I try not to take advantage. I will
26:25
say that one time someone, I was a malt guy when
26:27
I started with Roy Farms. He's like, oh, yeah,
26:32
I don't take beer from brewers. I'm like, if
26:35
you don't take the beer, you'll ruin it for all
26:38
of us. You have to take the beer. It's a sign
26:41
of respect, and it's what we do. So anytime someone
26:47
offers, I'm taking beer. Like this one with Chinook.
26:53
What beer is that? That is Bodhi Safa from our
26:58
close friends at Georgetown. Love those guys.
27:02
Featuring Roy Farm Chinook. That is good beer.
27:06
Yeah. And we went and we were smelling some fields
27:10
two days ago. And, yeah, we're not ready to pick
27:15
Chinook, but it's coming along very nicely. Do
27:19
you want to play a game of word association?
27:21
Yes. Let's start here. When I say Chinook, you
27:23
say? Pineapple. Do I get to play? Yeah. If you
27:29
say Chinook, I say Chinookie. Did you do it all
27:33
for? Chinookie. Chinookie. Chinookie. When I
27:38
say top cutter. I say that we hit a power pole
27:41
with one the other day. Oh, dear. When I say
27:45
airplanes. Vodka soda. I want to say something
27:54
different, but I have to say what Joe refers
27:57
to them as. I didn't want to go there, but. Tubes
28:02
of death. Did I mess it up again? No, that's
28:05
correct. Yeah. I think that's a little dramatic.
28:08
You talk to me. How'd you get here? Vodka soda.
28:16
If I say no dirt, no flowers. Oh, that Pilsner
28:20
from Madtree that I'm excited to try featuring
28:23
Adina. I feel like if I say Adina, you're going
28:28
to say, well, it's not more of a thought. It's
28:30
more of an uncontrollable physical response.
28:33
It's an essence. What about coffee? More. When
28:38
I say Andy Roy. Tribal knowledge. Leslie Roy.
28:45
Oh, man, even more tribal knowledge. Tribal encyclopedia.
28:50
Mike Roy. Force of nature. Oh, geez. All right.
28:55
Well, like, you know, you're on a wall or you're
28:57
surfing and you're making changes. Yeah. All
29:02
right. What about when I say the hot market?
29:10
Now we're getting back on schedule. Coming around?
29:16
Dumpster fire being extinguished. Okay. Force
29:22
of nature. Ask me Mike again. When I say Mike,
29:27
you say? Vision. Wow. When I say brown nose.
29:32
Joe. Okay. That was a fun exercise. Real fun
29:41
exercise. We talked about, you know, one of the
29:45
interesting conversations that keeps coming up
29:47
is, you know, public versus proprietary, and
29:51
that can be a confrontational subject. I don't
29:55
want it to be confrontational, but it is an ongoing
29:58
discussion, especially in our world, since, you
30:05
know, we can grow, process, and sell public varieties.
30:11
things out of our breeding program and we can't
30:14
do all three of those with other varieties and
30:17
that's not a necessarily supposed to be a negative
30:21
comment it's just the reality of us and our direct
30:25
tuber business we have some relationships here
30:28
and there where we can do some creative things
30:32
but generally speaking it's a lot more complex
30:35
when it's not a public variety for us or something
30:37
out of our breeding program you know and i think
30:40
we've as roy farms and latitude 46 i've been
30:44
trying to wrap our heads around new varietals
30:47
and are they desired what do we do with them
30:51
how do we bring them to market there's a lot
30:54
of great varieties out there and so i don't know
30:58
like what's your opinion on that landscape you
31:01
know i've heard some some brewers say they you
31:05
know may want more of a balanced a balanced portfolio
31:10
in the market, maybe leaning not as heavy to
31:13
proprietary varieties. Others are fine with it.
31:17
But I think for us, my main question is, is like,
31:21
well, how do we just do our thing and, and get
31:25
our varieties to market? Well, the getting the
31:28
varieties to market probably is a secondary comment
31:31
for me, but the first comment of like public
31:35
versus proprietary is the conversation last night.
31:38
And I said, there's a couple of the, and I'm
31:43
talking major proprietary varieties. There's
31:47
a couple that are really unique and kind of set
31:51
themselves apart. And there's another one that
31:54
you can use to save a beer. And I think you can
31:59
get that from a couple of the public varieties.
32:04
So my argument last night was. Well, you can
32:07
get that flavor from Chinook and Centennial and
32:11
Cascade, right? But the counterargument was,
32:15
well, from an agricultural standpoint, you could
32:19
get all that from one hop. Isn't that more efficient?
32:22
Well, I think specifically, too, the individual
32:26
was saying, well, then I got to open three boxes
32:27
instead of one. And then efficiency on the brewing
32:31
side as well. That was a great point. There's
32:36
a cost -effective piece of growing Publix versus
32:40
some of those proprietories. So it is a balance.
32:44
And another brewery that was here a couple days
32:47
ago said, yeah, it needs to be a balance. And
32:51
maybe that other brewery was scaling more towards
32:54
public -fronted varieties and maybe getting a
32:59
little bit away from. some of the proprietaries.
33:02
I mean, we could have this debate for a very,
33:04
very long time. But I thought it made sense to
33:07
talk about that point. As far as getting hours
33:11
to market, we just talked about seven hops, 1123,
33:17
1001, 1631. We didn't talk about 218, but we
33:23
have a lot. I mean, I love 1624. Adina is still
33:29
kind of. It's named, but it's still up and coming,
33:32
which we're still bringing that to market. Azaka,
33:35
we're still sort of bringing to market. Bringing
33:37
back. Bringing back. Bringing back. Getting it
33:40
back to rhythm. To me, the simple answer is we
33:43
need to pick two of those numbers and say, that's
33:48
where we're going to go. I think it gets modeled
33:51
when we have six or seven, and we just need to
33:54
say, let's make the call and push. One or two
33:59
of those. Let's pick the lead pony. Let's ride
34:01
that horse. I mean, that's real simple to say.
34:06
And I know there's agronomic piece that I'm not
34:10
as involved in and not even close to knowledgeable
34:14
about. But yeah, my feeling is we have a lot
34:19
of brewers liking two, three of these hops. Let's
34:23
let this year go. All right, here we go. Those
34:27
are the ones we're going to try to push forward.
34:30
Drew, you have a lot of experience with that
34:32
side of things, and I don't know. What do you
34:35
say? I think there's space in the industry for
34:39
novelty, which can manifest itself in multiple
34:42
ways. It can manifest itself in terms of replacement
34:45
of current varieties with better yields. It can
34:48
manifest in new flavors or aromas. I think anything
34:54
that solves a brewer's problem, we need to let
34:56
the market decide if there is a problem that
35:00
is worth solving. And if so, does this address
35:04
that? So I think ultimately having really good
35:07
communication collaboration with brewers is probably
35:11
the best bet. Yep. Yeah. So harvest update. I
35:16
got my opinions, but I'd like to hear yours first.
35:20
A little spooked by smoke, but that has blown
35:23
out. Quality's been good. Aroma's been good.
35:28
Yields have been good. Communication with brewers
35:31
has been good. Generally speaking, I think we
35:34
have more things to improve upon in the future,
35:36
but I think for Roy Farms, we're doing pretty
35:39
well this year, and I'm pretty pleased with the
35:41
team, and yeah, no real complaints. Can I give
35:45
a harvest update from a sales and... Front -facing.
35:49
Yes, please. That's why you're here. We have
35:53
a brand -new selection room that is real cool.
36:00
Yeah. Intimate. It's an awesome space. I mean,
36:05
it's the same space for those of you that have
36:07
been here before, but with some updates, and
36:10
I think people are excited about it. I think
36:13
it's a better sensory setup. And, yeah, people
36:17
have been – we haven't really had a ton of selection
36:20
just yet, but I'm real excited, and people have
36:23
been very excited about it. Thank you, guys.
36:27
Yeah. That was a fun little all -hands -on -deck
36:30
project. Thank you to Mike Roy for having the
36:32
vision. We're going to get you some safety glasses
36:36
for next time. Did he tell you how he hot -wired
36:41
that thing? He was standing in a bucket of water.
36:44
There's power switches. You just kill the power.
36:47
Or you shock yourself and trip the circuit breaker,
36:50
and then you don't have to go downstairs and
36:53
turn the breaker off. Ladies and gentlemen, our
36:56
fearless leader. And we're complaining about
36:58
a top cutter hitting a power pole. Yeah, it's
37:02
not surprising why some of these things happen
37:04
around here. Top down. Top down. Mike, your harvest
37:10
update? Pretty psyched on the crop, yeah. From
37:14
a growing perspective, it was a relatively drama
37:18
-free year. Pests and mildew and whatnot, they
37:23
were all pretty easy to control, and we ended
37:25
up spraying like three or four blocks this year
37:29
for mites, which was pretty incredible. A win.
37:32
Yeah, a super big win. Parts we do to implementing
37:35
our in -house scouting team and taking more ownership
37:40
over that, so that's good. But yeah, drum -free
37:44
crop looks good. It's been coming in good. Everything's
37:49
picking heavy. I'm hearing that the industry
37:53
is picking heavier than they thought in general.
37:58
I mean, I think here in Moxie, we're seeing yields
38:00
up anywhere from 5 % to 15 % pounds per acre
38:06
off of what our expectations were. Not sure how
38:12
it's going to manifest itself in the marketplace.
38:14
Could be good. Could be bad. So far, the one
38:17
that's probably up the most for us over last
38:21
year, year over year, is probably Amarillo or
38:24
maybe Cascade. We have some initial numbers that
38:30
would indicate that that one's maybe up quite
38:33
a bit. But they're all up. It'd be nice to have
38:38
Amarillo come in high because... We've sold out
38:41
the last couple years, so that would be great.
38:45
Yeah. Cone density is up. Cone size is up. So,
38:50
yeah, everything's looking pretty good. Labor
38:53
was a little bit of a challenge when we were
38:58
starting up the machine, but it resolved itself
39:01
pretty quickly. Because we've got a good team
39:04
to resolve it. Yeah. So we're in Citra right
39:07
now. Yeah. What's next? Yeah, so after we get
39:12
out of Cascade and go into some Mosaic, then
39:18
we hit some early pick CTZ, just a little bit
39:25
Chinook. We will get into a Zaka after that,
39:30
somewhere in between there. I think we're going
39:33
to go in and knock out our Vira Yard, which we
39:36
were just walking out in. That beer yard, I want
39:40
to see what that thing comes in at. It's big,
39:42
huh? It's oily. That's got to be the best public
39:45
variety that's ever been released. That's awesome.
39:48
We'll also be picking 1631 this week, which we're
39:51
really excited about. Which we had some beers
39:54
with that in moments ago. Yeah, 1631 is expressing
40:00
itself nicely, along with 1123 and 1001, which
40:05
I think we talked about earlier on. Adina. I
40:11
don't know but it's nice to have Dina Vera zaka
40:17
some of these varieties for us that come after
40:20
that early mid mid -season glut of varieties
40:24
yeah for sure I know we're always looking for
40:28
early pick or later pick oh yeah hey thanks for
40:34
being on the show today you know Drew You really
40:37
built me up on this one. I feel good. It was
40:41
fun. I thought it was good. My brain's a little
40:46
fried from staying out late. Mike has been the
40:51
champion this year. It's very impressive. I think
40:57
people are enjoying it. Yeah, I think so too.
41:00
I got to go talk to Leslie Roy. And I got to
41:03
talk to you. Joe, thank you. Thanks for having
41:06
me. Yeah. Love it. No dirt, no flowers.