Latest / Brewsers / Brewsers #406- Christophe with Grand Strand Brewing

Transcript

Brewsers #406- Christophe with Grand Strand Brewing · Brewsers

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze, and Bruisers.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Ray John, and today we talk to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Christoph with Grand Strand Brewing out of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: We talk about how he started brewing at 18 years old,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Grand Strand Brewing, and so much more. Christoph is doing
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: absolutely amazing things and has been doing them for quite
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: a while. So you don't want to hear from me,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: you want to hear from him. So without further ado,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: here is Christoph with Grand Strand Brewing out of Myrtle Beach,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: South Carolina.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Oh, hey!
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I would like to welcome to the show Christoph with
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Grand Strand Brewing. How are you doing today?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I'm doing well. How are you?
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I'm doing well. Well, for those listening, kind of paint
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: us a word picture. Where are you at and what's
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: going on around you?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We are...
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: One of the few breweries here in town, we kind
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: of call this the last frontier of craft beer. Most
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: have at least, you know, 10 or 11 breweries in them.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: And when we opened up, we were the fourth brewery
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: to open up that was kind of a large scale
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: or rather not a nano brewery, right? Not a kind
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: of garage style brewery. And we have been at it
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: now for almost six years. We started in February, 2021.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: So we're getting close to that six year anniversary. And yeah.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: We're making beer at the beach and enjoying having fun
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: while we do it.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: So how many breweries do you think are in Myrtle
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Beach right now?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I want to say there's about seven in the greater
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: metro area. Okay. So six or seven. Yeah.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: So I'm looking at the population. How is it only 40,000?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Is that real?
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: That is real. So there's only 40,000 people that live
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: in this Myrtle Beach city limits. Right. We get somewhere
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: between 16 to 17 million people.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: That's what I thought.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: That come to visit the beach on annual basis. Wow.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Very tourist-driven town.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Well, of course. I mean, I've been there as a kid.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: We globally talk about Myrtle Beach as a place that
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I want to go back to as an adult as well.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: But it just hasn't happened yet. It will, but it
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: just hasn't happened yet.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: Well, so... I let's go all the way back in time.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: What is your earliest memory of beer?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's a great question. So my dad is French,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: went to France as a kid, you know, seeing family.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: And I remember I think I was 16 or 17,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: which is which is legal over there, getting to sit
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: at a cafe and try a beer. And, you know,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: I'd always see my parents drink it and finally got
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: the thumbs up. So we get get to a cafe.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: And I remember having it touch my lips and thought,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: this is incredible. Um, and then, you know, I started my,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: my brewing career, uh, when I was 18, made a
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: deal with my dad that if I made the beer, uh,
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: he would, he would get to have some, uh, if he,
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: if he bought the equipment, uh, you know, I'd give
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: him some beer and try to try to batch turned out. Okay. And, uh,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: kept brewing since I was brewing in my dorm room, having,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: you know, beer ferment under my dorm bed was not
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: very popular then. So it's not so on the greatest, but, um,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: kind of continued on with that and having these kind
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: of homebrew parties where, you know, my senior year in
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: my house, we'd have a $ 10 at the door, all
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: you can drink of our home brew, kind of a
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: speakeasy style. And, and just kind of worked my way
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: from there. You know, I graduated college, had a desk
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: job for about three years, hated every minute of it,
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: of course. And then found an opportunity to work at
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: a brewery for I think it was like nine or
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: 10 bucks an hour catching cans.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: I never looked back.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I read about this speakeasy. So How many brews
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: were you in were the beers actually good? Because I've
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: heard from almost every brewer I've talked to, the first
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: few batches, not that great. So I was thinking, I
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: was like, how deep in is it? Or are people
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: also just buying the bad, buying access to bad beer
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: as well?
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when you're 22, I think your threshold for good
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: versus bad is pretty diminished. But I would say, I mean,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: we were taking it very seriously too. We had bought
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: a 25 gallon pot We made our own mash time.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Everything I was doing was, was, you know, reading books.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: All my reports in school were about beer centric. You know,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: if it's a history report, I was taking primary sources
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: from the eight hundreds or, or you know, I was
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: fully in beer. So we were doing everything we could
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to make it turn out as great as we could.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: What was your gateway craft beer then?
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Great question. My gateway craft beer was dogfish head.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Okay. Very nice.
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: Again, I apologize. I keep admitting to petty crimes here, but,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: I'd steal beer from my dad's fridge when I was younger.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: It was often Dogfish Head. And then I kind of
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: fell in love with reading about Sam Calagione and the
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: whole Dogfish Head story. So much so that I made
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: sure that my first legal beer was at the Dogfish
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Head brew pub. Wow. As a present, my parents got
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: me like a po-hunk hotel room in Rehoboth. And I
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: got to use my ID for the first time at
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: Dogfish Head, which was awesome.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: That's amazing. What was it about beer that just grabbed you?
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Because I'm especially from a young age, if you had
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: gone to France and like, oh, yeah, you know, like
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: you said, you're 16, you get to try beer. Who's
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: going to say no? So it didn't matter. But like, obviously,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: you fell in love with beer to the point to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: where you wanted to obviously continue to make it yourself
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: and try different ways.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't know if there's one thing that really
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: drove the love for it, but I think what continues
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: to drive the love is just how interconnected beer is, right?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: It's an industrial product, but it uses agricultural raw material, right?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: We're very much, if there's a drought in the Midwest,
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: beer is going to be harder to make. Beer is
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: more expensive and it's harder to make. And, you know,
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: going to hop fields and seeing that, there's a lot
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: of science involved with it as far as yeast and fermentation.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: I joke around that when we were opening up Grand Strand,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: we had to rig the tanks up. And we have
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: really short ceilings. And I wasn't sure if we were
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: going to actually be able to get them upright. And
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: I got to use the Pythagorean theorem, A squared, B squared,
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: C squared. I don't know how many people get to
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: use that after geometry in high school, but I did. So,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: you know, in this, in this field, you get to
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: use a variety of different tools and learning abilities. And
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: you're part of so many different industries. It's, it's really
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: all encompassing.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: That's hilarious. Well, where, what, So were you a fan
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: of the European beers or is there a style of
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: beer that you have been more, I guess, drawn to
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: than the others?
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love Belgian style beers. I absolutely love them. Again,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: in that northern part of France, it's mostly what all
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: the beers are. You know, I do like lighter beers
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: as well. I'm a big lager fan. But, you know,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: good Belgian beers, you just can't beat it.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Plus, it is the season. It is Oktoberfest season.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: So it's one of my favorite times of year.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. Uh, Octoberfest, it's my favorite beer that we
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: make here. Um, and, uh, yeah, like you said, it's
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: my favorite time of year to be drinking beer.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: All the stouts that come out as they start. Fantastic.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Once the stouts start coming out. Oh, I'm
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: going to, it's going to be fantastic.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So obviously people know about, and I've sold wine
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: for almost 20 years now, and I know obviously France
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: is very well known for the wine. what we get
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: over here in America is what we get. But I
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: didn't really know that the Northern part was more beer
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: centric than it was anywhere else.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: The Northern part is, is massively beer centric. I mean,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: most people drink beer up in the North of France.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: They drink wine too. Don't forget. The North doesn't really
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: grow wine as well. Right. So they've just kind of
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: been predetermined to, to, to drinking beer that a lot
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: of barley comes out of that region and France is
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: actually one of the largest barley producers in the world. And,
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: and again, there's a lot of Belgian influence and German
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: influence on the East, but Belgian influence on the Northern
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: side that creates that. Interesting.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: We learn something every day.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And unfortunately there aren't a lot of French beer styles.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I think there's really only one. And I hope I
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: don't offend anybody, but it's definitely one of the more
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: mute styles, right? If you read the, the description of
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: what a beer to guard is supposed to taste like
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: it's medium and everything. Yeah, exactly.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: That's why France is not known for their beers. They
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: did not focus on that. Well, so you've been there
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: since the beginning. Tell us the story about the, how
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: Grand Strand started.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Um, you know, we, uh, I was working in Charleston, um, with, uh,
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: one of the founders, Clayton Burroughs. And, um, He had
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: been approached by the mayor of Myrtle Beach and wanted
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: to revitalize this part of Myrtle Beach, the downtown part
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: of Myrtle Beach that had just kind of been forgotten.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: You know, there was a massive pavilion there back in
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: the 90s and early 2000s that had gotten knocked down.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: All the businesses around there had kind of dried up.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: And she ran on a platform of trying to revitalize
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: this area. And she herself had been involved with the distributor,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: the beer distributor in town. And so she knew that
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: a brewery is a great anchor in trying to redevelop
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: certain areas. So she got a hold of some of
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: the founders at Grand Strand and their interest in wanting
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: to open up a brewery. And so that's kind of
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: where we got located in Myrtle Beach. And from there,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: we had kind of always structured ourselves to definitely have
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: a tap room and have a way to express our brand.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: But We wanted to be distribution focused as well at
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: the same time because we knew that it was going
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: to be pretty hard to get a lot of people
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: to come into that part of town. And so I
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: joined in November 2020. We opened up in February 2021. Wow.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Pretty hard time to be opening up this COVID. This
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: was right around when I think is the Delta variant
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: was starting to come up and they thought they were
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: going to shut everything down again. So definitely a lot
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: of stress that was involved with that. But we got
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: through it. And I think we are currently the fourth
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: largest brand in South Carolina, hoping to be the third
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: largest by, by the end of the year.
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Congratulations. That's awesome. Thank you very much.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's been a fun ride.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Well, so what, so I love the, the artwork is
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: fantastic on the cans. First off, who is y'all's artist?
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we work with an artist group, Griffith Griffiths in Statesville,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: North Carolina. Okay. And ironically, Jeremy, the head graphic designer
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: does not drink beer. But he's great at making beer cans.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: So nobody's perfect, right?
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: Exactly. Yeah.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: So that's who we work with. We worked with him
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: since the beginning. We worked with him at Palmetto a
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: little bit as well before where I was working. And yeah,
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: he's definitely the actual designer of it. And then the
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: ideas come from a variety of different reasons. My sister
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: has helped create some of the brands off of ideas.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: You know, we had a beer called Sandy Cheeks IPA. Mm-hmm.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: was a fat dude with, with, uh, sand in his
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: pants from sitting on the beach. I think something a
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: lot of people can relate to when you go to
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: the beach and we try and have fun with, with our,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: with our brands.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: As you should. I mean, you're, yeah, you're basically in
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: a beach town. Like why would you not have fun
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: with that?
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Yeah. And Myrtle beach has a, you know, slightly
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: party aspect to it. Right. So kind of funnier, funnier aspects.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: So we try and bleed into that a little bit.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Well, so did you also have to, so, If people
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: didn't know, the three founders are also gigantic deadheads. Are
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: you a deadhead as well, or do you appreciate the
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Grateful Dead?
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: I appreciate the Grateful Dead. I am by no means
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: a deadhead myself, unfortunately. I was a little nervous that
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: I wasn't going to be included in the team if
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: I wasn't a big deadhead, but they've excused my lack
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: of knowledge for them.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Have you been to a show?
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: I have not been to a show. I have heard
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: nothing but awesome things. It is definitely on the bucket list.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Yes. I don't know what they're going to do in
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: the future, but yes, it is a, especially with John
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Mayer stepping away. So I'm curious.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: But who knows? It's a fun time. Everyone should go
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: to a dead or check out a dead company. So
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: if you get a chance.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: For sure. Yeah. We work with a lot of deadhead
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: cover bands. So every first Sunday of every month, we've
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: got a cover band, a deadhead cover band Sundays, Sundays. No,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry. Thursday's dead. That plays on Sundays. And they're,
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: they're fantastic.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, that leads right into it. So you
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: guys do so many different events, whether, like you said,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: music or music trivia, bingo, sisterhood social, which I saw,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: which I think is amazing for people, for women to
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: have a safe space to go to and just talk
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: and do all that stuff. How close is the community
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: that y'all have formed here at Grand Strand?
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. You know, we are not in
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: a very residential area. And we have to do a
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: lot of outreach to kind of get a community around us.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: And we've always wanted to kind of structure ourselves to
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: be welcoming to everybody. So like you said, we do
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: the Sisterhood Social. That's been an awesome experiment in trying
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: to bring women to the brewery, kind of have a
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: safe space. We'll have different artists and crafts on those
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: nights as well. You know, we've done stuff like Mystic
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Mondays around the Halloween time where we'll have kind of
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: more eccentric vendors come out with crystals and tinctures and
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: stuff and really play into that. You know, we've done
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: a lot with the local fire departments. We really just
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: tried to broaden the scope of beer. I think beer
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: drinkers tend to look like you and I.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: And how do we get to find a way to
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: bring the entire community around? Yeah. So, yeah, it's been
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: definitely challenging again because our location is not conducive to it.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: So we do have to make pretty consorted effort into
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: bringing people into the tap room. Yeah.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I think that there's still, I think the stigma is
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: going away when it comes to breweries and people thinking like, Oh,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: it's just a bar or we're drunkards go or whatever.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: And it's like, no, like full on families go there.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I have friends where we measure how tall their kid
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: is by the barrels. And so like, and then you
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: also have the dogs that come around. And so like you,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: it's a community building place. It's just happens to be
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: that it's also a brewery.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: That's exactly it, yeah. I mean, I bring my kids
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: all the time. There's almost always a gaggle of kids,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: especially on the weekends, running around. I think the challenge
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: is making sure that people with kids aren't necessarily bothering
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: the people without kids.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Right, right, right.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: But we have a pretty big space, and I think
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: we do a good job with that. But yeah, no,
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: like you said, dogs are welcome, kids are welcome, and
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: it's not a dive bar. Like, you don't see a
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: lot of kids in a dark, gloomy place. Like, we
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: want to have family stuff. We want to have everybody
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: from all walks of life come and enjoy a pint. Yeah.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, so talk about the food because the food
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: pictures are, they look so good. Like I'm very curious
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: about these foods.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm a little biased, but I think we have
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: the best smash burger in Myrtle Beach. We grind our
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: own meat. You know, we knew very quickly too, that
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: we were going to have to find a way to
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: kind of compliment the beer that I think the old
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: notion of, if you brew it, they will come, doesn't
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: really hold true anymore. You have to have things that,
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: you know, bring people in and then keep them there.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: But if you're having one or two beers, you have
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: to get a little hungry. Um, and if you've got
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: some food, you're able to, you know, safely drive home and, and,
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: and not, you know, not cause a problem or have
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: a third. Um, and you know, we, we, we do
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: have a full bar as well. So if, uh, someone's
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: partner comes in and they don't drink beer, they have
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: other options as well. Um, but the food has been
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: a lot of fun. So we, you know, my dad
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: is French. My mom is Canadian. Uh, another bias. I
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: think we had some of the best poutine. Yeah. In
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Myrtle Beach, yeah. And we would import cheese from Wisconsin,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: the cheese curds. And really did well in trying to
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: make that gravy the way it's supposed to be.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: So we usually have that come around in the colder months.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Poutine isn't necessarily the first thing ordered when it's 100
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: degrees outside.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Says you. I will eat that stuff all day. It
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: doesn't matter to me.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I will too. It's really hard for a lot of people.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: But yeah, no, so we're able, we're trying to do that.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: We have a special food menu when we have our
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: Oktoberfest event. Mm-hmm. And I will be honest, I don't
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: think we've been able to fully exercise that food arm
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: and how much fun we can have with it. But
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: that is definitely on the horizon of what we're trying
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: to do of, you know, Taco Tuesdays and having cool
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: different varieties of different foods from around the area.
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Now, I have had an idea and I've pitched it
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: to multiple people for a while of southern poutine, where
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: you instead of brown gravy, obviously you use sausage gravy,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: sausage white gravy. And I always keep thinking which fry
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: is the best. Obviously, you need something a little thicker.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: A string fry is not going to work. Regular fries
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: aren't going to work. So it's got to be either
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a steak fry, maybe a crinkle cut, maybe the thinnest
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: you can go, or a waffle fry.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: I like that. I absolutely like that idea.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Well, if you guys want to figure it out and
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: then name it after me, I'd be fine.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say, we'll definitely name it
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: after you to give you credit.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, perfect. I'll take it.
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Also, if anybody else wants to take me up on this,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: but first you guys have first dibs, obviously. Now, what
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: is it about the area? Like you talked about with
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: like millions of people coming in on a regular basis,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: how is it been difficult to try to get them
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: over or is the city doing enough to where they're
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: not just going to the beach. They're also being drawn
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to where you guys are at.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Great question. So we were part of, well, The
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: area is part of a massive 10, 20 year plan
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: of revitalizing the entire spot where they're redoing roads, redoing
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: traffic patterns, building up a lot of residential area and
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: commercial buildings. They did a lot of legwork for us
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: in the legality of being able to make the building
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: eligible for tax credits, which was also helped us open up.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: And then as far as today, um, it is still
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: definitely a challenge that we are, you can see the
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: ocean from the taproot, which is awesome. I think on
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: chat GBT, I think we're one of the closest breweries
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: to the ocean on the East coast. Um, and so
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: you can see the ocean from, from the, from the taproot,
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: but we're still a good three, four blocks from the boardwalk.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: And so we don't see a lot of that traffic
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: come to the brewery, but then we are close enough
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: to the boardwalk where locals think, oh, there's too many
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: tourists around. I don't really want to go visit. So, um,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: It really has been an interesting challenge of trying to
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: bring people there. I mean, we found ways around it
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: and we're definitely finding success in how to attract people.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: But I would not say it was this goldmine of
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: a location. And as I was saying, we really tried
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: to have to diversify off of our events, off of
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: our menu, how to bring people around. With 17 million
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: visitors that come, Little Beach also has more restaurants than,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I think it's Tokyo, Paris, and London. combined.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: What?
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: That there are just a plethora of food options when
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: you come visit. Thanks so much. For the beer drinker,
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: like the beer seeker, they're going to come find us.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: But the average family has a plethora of options to
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: choose from. So how do we differentiate ourselves to get
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: them to come in? Right.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Well, obviously, like you said, so many restaurants, there's, you know,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: you try to get on the taps as much as
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: you can. But a lot of those taps are, you know,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: taken up by the big three, which kind of try
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: to consume as much beer as possible. But you have
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: to have a restaurant that wants to have local beer
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: on tap, as all of them should. Even if you
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: are a Chili's or something like that, like have local
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: stuff on tap because Let's say you are going on vacation,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: but you weren't checking out whatever mom and pop restaurant
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: is around. Oh, there's a Chili's. Yeah, my kids love
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: their chicken tenders. Let's go over there. So you go
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: over there, but the beer options are all the same
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: because it's Chili's. If you have the local stuff on tap,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: people will be like, oh, that's cool. Local beer. Let
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: me get that. Oh, how local are they? Oh, three
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: blocks away. Let's go over there and after this. It's
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: just little things like that that I don't think a
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: lot of these restaurants are probably even thinking about either.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: You're absolutely right. I mean, the amount of traffic we
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: do get from people that have tried our beer at
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: whatever restaurant has been awesome. And we've tried to work
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: pretty hard with especially the restaurants on the main strip
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: of the boardwalk, at least getting one tap on there
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: so that we at least they can engage in that conversation.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: Something else we do is that any restaurant or bar
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: that has our beer on, we'll invite them over, give
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: them a full tour with their staff. give them a
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: flight of a tasting and helps build that relationship that
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: when they talk about our airbrush hazy IPA, they also
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: can add, yeah, you should go check out the place.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: The tanks were shiny. The people are friendly and they
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: have AC kind of thing.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Plus every tank is named after the seven white or yeah,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: snow white in the seven doors.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah. So the guys that helped rig the
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: tanks up, once we figured out that we were going
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: to have enough space, They were these short, stout little
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: men that kind of made us think of Snow White
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: and the Seven Dwarfs. And they do also have a meaning.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: So Dopey is our little tank at the very end.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Love that. We have a Grumpy where there's a light
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: right at the top. So you bump your head anytime
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: you have to get on top to add hops. Our
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Bright Tank where the beer is clarified and carbonated. That's happy.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: And Snow White is our hot water tank. She's the
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: hot one out of the group.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Obviously, yeah.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Well, so I know this is going to be a
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: hard question for you. What are your three favorite beers
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: you've ever made?
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, great question. I have to say Oktoberfest is my
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: favorite beer that we make.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: Nice.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Took a long time to perfect. And we get probably
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: the most compliments out of that one. I'm so proud
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: of that beer. It took a lot of time to make.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: And it's just turned out really well. Probably my favorite
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: beer to actually brew is our Red Ale, our Jolene
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Red Ale. Yeah, that was the first beer that we made, um,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: back to dogfish head when Sam brewed his first beer,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: it was a red ale. Uh, and, uh, and I
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: always remember thinking like, I want to brew a red ale,
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: just like Sam, if I ever get to open up
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: a brewery. So, so here, here I was, I took
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: that opportunity and I'm sure you can guess who I
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: was listening to while, uh, and then, um, and then
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: I would have to say the, the, the beer I'm
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: proudest of is our hazy IPA, um, our airbrush. not
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: because the hazies are the craze, but it took so
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: much work getting that haze to stay in solution. Hundreds
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: and hundreds of years of literature into how to clarify beer.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Everything about beer is to try and make it clear, right?
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: The yeast that you use tends to help clarify. The
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: malt that you use helps, you know, lower protein extract
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: to clarify that beer. And then the last 10 years,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: everybody wants it hazy. So it's had to completely turn
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: the industry upside down into how do we keep Hey, sustain.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: And I joke around. I don't have any more hair
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: because I had to make a hazy IPA. It is hazy.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: The hair did not grow back, but I'm, but I'm
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: very proud that we've been able to make a beer
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: as successful.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: As that one. Well, that hazy gets to stay around.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: So that's really, you know, it's a fair trade.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: It's a fair trade. It's worth it.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Now do the trends of craft beers across the country
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: hit you guys as well, or is it kind of
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: a consistent trend? kind of consistent lineup for what you
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: guys have and what people are really enjoying when it
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: comes to when they come in?
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: We tend to see that we are maybe three to
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: five years behind. Wow. So when we opened up, maybe
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: a little after we opened up the session beers, or
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, the sours really started hitting around and it
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: took a while to get to Myrtle Beach, the sours.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Like everybody had stopped kind of drinking sours. we're on
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: to session beers yeah and so we've we're still like
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: not we're only now starting to see people gravitate towards
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: those lower alcohol beers whereas it seems like the entire
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: country um has kind of switched to that right you
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: know we distribute now throughout the state of south carolina
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: so when we go into a myrtle beach bar restaurant
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: they want something local but they want something high in
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: gravity people are still ready to party in myrtle beach
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: whereas if we go to columbia or greenville they're asking
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: the same questions we hear you know do you have
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: anything A lager, you have anything light in alcohol, light
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: in calories. And we do have a beer that does that,
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: but we still see that our more popular beers are
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: the higher alcohol beers in Vero Beach.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, you're already there.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: You might as well, yeah, keep it going.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: That's right, yeah.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Well, do you see, I mean, I see that there
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: is a, I don't, I won't call it a trend
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: because I think there's this, there needs to be a
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: market for this, but it's the low alcohol beer. everything
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: like 5% to let's say 2% or whatever, because anything
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: lower than that, I think they basically call it non-alcoholic,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: which is fine. I love people who are curious over.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with that. Um, but do you see
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: that that is coming more into the craft beer scene
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: or are you seeing that that's probably more like a
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: nationwide thing?
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I would say it's probably a nationwide thing. I think, um,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: you know, again, if you look at, uh, how Myrtle
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: beach drinks beer, craft beer is still not a very
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: large portfolio to say somewhere on the West coast. Um,
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: it's still very much a blue collar vacation town, uh,
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: that just, they, they haven't really picked up on the
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: craft beer scene. Um, and I would say that almost
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: everybody's still starting. They are starting to ask for those
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: lower alcohol beers. And I think people are drinking less
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: and when they drink less, they want to, they want
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: to enjoy it a little bit more. Um, So I
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: was just saying that like people tend to gravitate towards
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: high gravity beers, but we are starting to see a
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: lot more questions of what do you have that's low alcohol?
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: And we're starting to see in our tavern as well,
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: the lower alcohol beers are starting to do a little
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: bit better. And that's a trend that started in the last,
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: I would say this summer is the first time we've
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: really seen that. Gotcha. Yeah.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: I'm curious how much it's going to be creeping into
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: the craft world scene is, I mean, obviously it's on
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the national level, but I am very curious on the
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: craft side as well.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's, I don't know what's driving it because
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, I've heard the theories that all these, uh,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: GOP one, uh, medications have curbed drinking, but if you're
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: going to be drinking, why differentiate from a low to
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: a high alcohol? Why are you, why are people going
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: towards those kinds of lighter, less, less flavorful beers, if
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: you will, as opposed to the kind of more robust
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: beers that have traditionally done well in the craft scene. So, uh,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: like you, I don't know if it's a trend or
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: just a fad.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Um, I think it's just a new market now that
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: we are going to start seeing as much as the
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: GLP one thing could be a part of it, but
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: I think you're not, you're not supposed to be drinking
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: a GLP one, which I know a lot of people
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: are probably still doing it, but I think it's more
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: leaning toward almost like the Michelob ultra thing where it's a,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: they want to be still be active and they still
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: want to have a drink or two, let's say, and
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: even as low alcohol, they can still go back to
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: doing whatever they're doing afterwards and, like you were talking
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: about earlier, if you're having two of the heavier beers
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: and then you need to eat something because then you
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: got to, if you want to drive or something. So
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I think it's more of an activity situation. And also
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: it's borders on the non-alcoholic because there are so many
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: people that are enjoying the non-alcoholic beers or cocktails or
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: whatever it is, because they still want to be with
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: their friends. They still want to celebrate. They still want to,
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: you know, have the ritual, but at the same time,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: they don't want to feel like crap the next day or, again,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: they have to drive home or whatever it is, because
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: now the non-alcoholic world is not just for recovering alcoholics
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: and pregnant women. So it's literally a whole market, which
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: I think is fantastic because we need those choices. It
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: shouldn't just be a LaCroix or a soda or a
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: juice or whatever it is. Why can't you still enjoy
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: the taste of old fashioned or beer or Like athletic
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: beer has done the best when it comes to non-alcoholic beer.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: No offense to everybody else, but theirs is the best again,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: except for their style, which is not great, but it's fine.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Not all of them are going to be winners, but
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: we're just, it's the whole market is just changing and
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: it's evolving. And I think it's a fantastic thing because
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: also we are now seeing the THC drinks has become
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: so popular as well.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah i think a big indicator too is how
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: much the the big guys have jumped on it you
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: know heineken zero guinness zero.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Um coronas yeah.
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: Corona yeah corona zero they're putting a lot of money
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: behind it because they must see something that that i
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: think a lot of the craft industry may not have
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: yet into this new segment where people are starting to turn.
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: To yeah i mean during COVID, everybody hit peak when
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: it came to all their vices. So a lot of,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: during that time, people were like, you know what? I
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: maybe don't want to drink for a while, but I
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: still want to enjoy myself. So, and then that's why
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: you have so many of these new brands be coming
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: up because it came from that time. And it takes
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: quite a while for people who don't understand. You can't
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: just be like, oh, I have an idea to make
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: a beverage drink. it'll come out in two weeks. No,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: that like two years basically is how that works. So yeah,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: now we're seeing that boom as much as it is.
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: And then the THC world becoming the same thing and
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: it's another alternative. And there's so many other breweries that
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: are making their own THC seltzers as well.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. We we thought about it. We had, we
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: had done a few experiments and we ultimately did not
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: end up pursuing it.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Just at the time we weren't, we weren't, we didn't
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: really have the capacity to, And the laws of South
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: Carolina have been very unclear as to how to legally
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: produce it.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Nationwide and Texas are the same way, yeah.
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. So I'm curious to see what legislation does.
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Because if I'm not mistaken, I think that a lot
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: of the THC drinks, if they're not legal in the state,
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: are going to be outlawed.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: There's no... As much as people are worried about that, money-wise,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I don't think that will ever happen. There's way too
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: much money. Now that the genie's out of the bottle,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: there's way too much money nationwide for that to happen
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: like as much as the big liquor wants to get
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: in on like oh well we're gonna stick it to
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: them like no you idiots it's called pivot like right
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: it's not like your brown uh liquor was doing so
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: well for so many years you had to pivot at
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: some point that's why you had the flavors and that's
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: why you do all the other things like figure it
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: out get in i'll get on the board like it's
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: not a problem yeah yeah absolutely Also now American whiskey
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: is going to be so much better because we can't
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: get Canadian stuff here anymore. All those backlogs of warehouse
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: are going to be a okay now.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: Well, what is the, so you guys are five years
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: in now. What would you tell yourself five years ago
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: about what's coming in the future?
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Oh man, that's a good question. Um, It has our
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: growth though, very welcomed and, and, uh, and exciting has been, um,
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: Quite challenging to reach. We have a pretty small, um,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: location to begin with for the amount of beer that
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: we're producing. So we've had to get pretty crafty in
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: how we, we do that. Um, while also kind of considering. Trees, uh,
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: don't grow to the sky kind of thing. There will
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: be a plateau eventually. As much as I would like
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: to say we're next in line for Sam Adams recognition.
• 32:20
  Speaker 2: And so I think it's been pretty interesting to kind
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: of have to grow with quick solutions as opposed to
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: a strategic plan. So that's probably what I would have
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: told myself of like plan for bigger growth than you're anticipating.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: You know, I think we've been fortunate enough again. in
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: the industry that's been faltering a little bit. And unfortunately,
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: breweries that have closed down, we've gotten a lot of
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: equipment for a great deal because people have been closing down.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: So it's not the nicest thing to say, but we've
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: been able to fund our growth in a pretty affordable manner.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: I think that the strategy would have been more, what
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: do we need? When do we need it? And how
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: do we make sure that we don't outgrow it in
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: nine to 15 months? Yeah. Yeah.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: That makes sense. Well, I have a segment on the show.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: I call it the five count. It's just five random questions.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: Number one, crunchy or creamy peanut butter?
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Ooh, crunchy. Okay.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: Same. Number two, if you were a pro wrestler or
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: MMA fighter, what would your name be?
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: I get blinded. I always loved the name Captain Insano.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Probably steal that trademark.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: I do wonder if he has that or not.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: He should.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: If he's not, oh, it's an idiot. That's the only
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: time I'll ever say that out loud. Number three, who
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: was your first concert?
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: My first concert was the Virgin Mobile Fest. And I
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: got to see the Who, the Red Hot Chili Peppers,
• 33:54
  Speaker 2: the Killers. I think Amy Winehouse was getting her start.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Way too good of a first concert because all the
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: other concerts after that were good, not great. But yeah,
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: I got pretty fortunate with that.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: That is a killer lineup.
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: It was unbelievable.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Was it Ringo Starr's kid as the drummer? Who was
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: the drummer?
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: For The Who? The Who, yeah, sorry. Yes, yeah, it
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: was Ringo Starr's kid as the drummer. And then they
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: had one other person from, I can't remember the band name. Yeah,
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: but they're two really well-known artists. They're up there playing
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: with them.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: That's awesome. Number four, who or what inspires you?
• 34:37
  Speaker 2: Um great question uh who or what inspires me i
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: would say um i have started to be pretty inspired
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: at people that understand the balance of work work life
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: um in this industry it's great to be in and
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: i love beer but i think i get inundated with
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: beer and the brewery too much and i've had a
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: hard time kind of breaking away and so i've tried
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: to find inspiration and in um lifestyle and ways of thinking.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: So I guess off the top of my head, I'd
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: say Andrew Huberman. I've been listening to his podcast a
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: lot about managing stress, managing a healthy life balance.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: Did you buy his new book?
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: I did not buy his new book yet, but it's
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: on the Amazon cart.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, I've heard it's very thick.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: From all the interviews he's been doing recently, I've been
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: hearing that it is a very thick book.
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: His podcast and YouTube, I think, are enough for me
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: right now.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: To keep it going. Yeah, I try to keep up
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: with the podcast, but I don't think I make time
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: for the YouTube. So yeah.
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: And then number five, what would you tell your 17-year-old self?
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: Don't be afraid.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: Just keep dreaming, keep going after what you want. I
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: think I've been fortunate enough to find a lot of
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: success in something that I've loved. It took me a
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: long time to kind of make the leap of faith
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: and was filled with doubt naturally, loads and loads of time.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: And it's always worked out. So don't be afraid to
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: believe in yourself.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: There we go. that's a word for everybody. Now, anybody
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: wants to find out more about y'all follow you guys online,
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: visit you guys in person, uh, support you guys in
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: any way. How can they do so?
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've got a website, uh, grandstrandbrewery.com. Um, we're on
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: all the socials, Facebook, Instagram. Um, I think we have
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: a Tik TOK as well. I'm not really on there,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: so I'm not quite sure. Um, and then come see
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: us in Myrtle beach. I mean, our airport has cheap
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: flights from almost everywhere. Uh, Great town, has a little
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: bit of everything. And then we are in the center
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: of Myrtle Beach. So you get a little taste of
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: it all.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Love it. Yeah, it's been long overdue since I've been there,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: since I was a kid. So I definitely need to
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: make it back there. And yeah, once we get the
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: southern poutine figured out, I'll definitely go back there.
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: It'll be a great reason for you to come visit
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: and try the poutine.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much to Christoph for being on the show. Again,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: if you are in the Myrtle Beach area, which I
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: highly recommend, even though I have not been there in
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: a very long time, definitely swing by Grand Strand Brewing
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: because they're doing awesome things over there. And, you know,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: you're going to need some fantastic beers for that beautiful beach. So,
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: and while you're doing that, make sure you go follow
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: us on social media. It is BruisersPod, that is B-R-E-W-S-C-R-S-P-O-D,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: on the Instagram, the threads, and the Twitter. If you
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: want to send us an email, it is BruisersPod at gmail.com.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow me directly, it is Rodijon.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: That is R-O-D-I-E-J-O-N. Rodijon is the name on the Twitter.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: And I'm untapped. In case you want to find out
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: what I'm drinking, maybe we can have a beer together.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: If you want to follow me on the threads or
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the Instagram, it is OfficialRodijon. So until next time, make
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: sure to enjoy life, drink local, and cheers.