Latest / The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel / Great Lakes Brewing Comes to Tennessee: Chris Brown & Josh Sazy on the Expansion | Episode 115

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Great Lakes Brewing Comes to Tennessee: Chris Brown & Josh Sazy on the Expansion | Episode 115 · The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel

0:39
Negative. One negative. 2 Are you even on?
0:41
Is he even on in there? Oh, we're on, is he saying?
0:43
Oh, we're on already. We're hanging out at Middle
0:46
Ground Brewing today. This is awesome.
0:48
We've got the foamy heads and we've got the Brewery
0:50
Underground podcast. We're sitting in the corner of
0:52
Middle Ground Brewery, located right off.
0:54
It's not Mitch, it's not far off the Interstate.
0:56
Murfreesboro, TN right off of Old Fort Parkway exit.
1:00
Near I-24. Yeah, near I-24, real easy to
1:03
get to. What Middle ground is great
1:06
because, I mean, not only is the space insides great, but they've
1:08
got a really cool, like outside like covered area.
1:11
It's very secluded. I know that's one of the things
1:13
Brandon has has mentioned multiple times and like
1:16
discussions he's had, stuff like that.
1:17
But Mitch, you got here like super early.
1:20
Yeah, just getting set up we. Were going to get set up at
1:22
2:00. Mitch sends us pictures at like
1:25
1:30. And he's on a different time
1:27
zone he came from. He's the Eastern.
1:29
Time he came from the future. Eastern Time, people.
1:31
That's right. So it's a good DeLorean.
1:33
So it's not as cool. That's true, and we've got a lot
1:36
of good beer shows, but more importantly, today we've got
1:39
Brandon. Keep me honest, man.
1:41
Bingman is that. You got it, Brandon.
1:43
Bingman co-owner and we're Middle Ground Brewery out here
1:46
in Murfreesboro, TN. What's up dude, how are you?
1:49
Good man. Thanks for coming.
1:50
Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.
1:52
This was awesome. I know, I mean, from the time, I
1:54
mean, I've, we've all been here multiple times, but it's, it's
1:57
always a good experience every time we come here, but even more
2:01
fun to just sit down and get FaceTime with, with the owner
2:04
and kind of talk through it. So thanks for sitting down with
2:07
us and thanks for the hospitality.
2:08
Absolutely. This is a good time.
2:10
Steve, you got 3 beers. In front of you.
2:14
Hello. Hello.
2:15
We all have 3. Beers, I have 3 beers.
2:17
Look at this we have we have beer in front of us from middle
2:20
ground. Thank you by the.
2:21
Way, Yep. Yeah, quite an assortment, we'll
2:23
get into that. But there's quite an assortment
2:25
before of us before of us. I think the plan today is to run
2:28
through 5 or 6 of them and we're going to be hitting all
2:31
different styles. That's the plan.
2:34
Yeah, we definitely want to hear about them because you're the
2:36
guy that brews the beer, right? Sure, do tell.
2:39
Us tell us a little bit about yourself first kind of
2:41
background of Brandon. We'll get into the whole like
2:44
your brewing history and stuff, but with, you know, from Yazoo
2:48
to here and stuff. But tell us a little bit about
2:50
yourself. Yeah.
2:51
So my family, we've been here in Murfreesboro for nine years.
2:55
I've lived all over Nashville before that.
2:58
And yeah, probably 9-10 years ago, my wife and I were kind of
3:04
talking about the, the lack of breweries in in Murfreesboro, of
3:07
course, Mayday, you know, great beer back in the day.
3:10
But when we would travel, we would get a breweries, but then
3:14
we'd come home and didn't really get to do that.
3:16
And so that was sort of the motivation for, you know,
3:19
wanting to do this here in Murfreesboro.
3:20
So, but yeah, I'm originally from just north of Columbus, OH.
3:25
So a lot of good beer up there. And yeah, I've been here in in
3:29
Middle Tennessee for about 26 years, if that gives away my
3:32
age. Oh yeah, you look every bit of
3:35
it. He's the the youngest looking
3:38
dudes into the potato by. Far you moved here about the
3:41
time I did I'm you know, I'm from Ohio too, Cincinnati and I
3:45
moved here in 1998. And so, you know, I think, I
3:48
think we know that Murfreesboro in those many years as Nashville
3:52
and Murfreesboro has grown so much.
3:54
And I like as you said, you know, there's so much room for
3:58
growth in this area. Middle ground has become a
4:00
really big part of that in the brewing.
4:01
Community yeah, it's true. There's there's not.
4:04
I mean, even 10 years ago there were a Murfreesboro just wasn't
4:08
what it is today, number one. But the breweries doesn't don't
4:11
exist, you know, 10 years ago kind of like they did say.
4:14
And and we've seen some fallen soldiers unfortunately in the
4:18
Murfreesboro area, you know, come and go.
4:20
But I mean, 10 years ago Mayday, were they open at that point in
4:26
time? Yeah.
4:27
They were around 1314. OK, so they were.
4:30
I'll give you the details on that later, but.
4:31
Only the name. The only name in the game you
4:33
know in Murfreesboro. Pretty much, yeah.
4:35
That was it, yeah. And Murfreesboro is just blowing
4:38
up now. It is and there's, there's,
4:40
there's another one coming we can get to later.
4:42
There's another one coming. We've lost a couple here but
4:44
we've got another one coming, which is promising I think, for
4:46
the area I hope. And every time I see those guys
4:49
in here, I'm like, if there were anywhere else, you guys need to
4:52
stop hanging out and go get your brewery open.
4:53
But since you're here, I'll let you.
4:55
Every time I'm in here I tell them that OK fine, you can have
4:59
some beers, but if they're open yet or you'll.
5:01
Take their credit card today. Exactly.
5:03
Yeah, if there's somewhere else you're like, shouldn't you be
5:05
working on the birds? What are you doing here?
5:08
Stop hanging out, you don't have time.
5:09
How long has middle ground been this location now?
5:12
We've been here 2 years, three months of September of 2023.
5:16
I would have guessed longer. It seems like it's been a little
5:19
bit longer. Well, good.
5:20
Yeah, Steven, you and I came here like the week it opened,
5:23
like we run out here, ran out here and kind of one of our
5:25
little Murfreesboro trips and this was that list because you
5:28
guys have just opened up and it was the first week, I'm pretty
5:31
sure. And a compliment, one of the
5:33
first time because it's in a shopping complex.
5:35
I remember the first time I walked in here, I went this
5:37
place and you gave us a tour earlier and we'll talk about
5:40
that. But this is a much bigger, it's
5:43
much bigger in there than maybe it looks on the outside, at
5:46
least from my perspective. I don't know if other people say
5:49
that when you come in, you're like, there's a lot of room in
5:51
here, people. 3100 square feet, yeah, about 900 or so back in
5:56
the brewing space. And the rest is kind of tap room
5:58
and hanging out space. So yeah.
6:00
OK, it's definitely tucked away. I mean, like it's, it's, you
6:06
have to know it's here. I think it's it's visible with
6:10
the signs and like the the banners that they have out on
6:12
the sides of the, you know, the streets, but tucked away.
6:16
And I think one of the benefits of of middle ground being in
6:18
this area is that patio area right out there.
6:22
Oh yeah. It's secluded, it's quiet, Wi-Fi
6:25
reaches out there if you need to like, grab a laptop.
6:27
And stuff like that. And we're recording this today.
6:30
It's December 27th and amazingly, there are people
6:33
sitting out there without coats on.
6:36
Why are we not outside? Why are we not outside?
6:38
Yeah, we didn't. That ever even came up?
6:40
Yeah. How come we're not outside?
6:42
Why are we, why are we not outside?
6:43
Yeah. It's a, it's a rare thing, you
6:45
know, almost this time of the year.
6:47
You know, usually it's like 30°. But you probably still see
6:49
people out there in the colder weather.
6:51
A little bit. Yeah.
6:52
A little bit here, there. Yeah.
6:53
Yeah. Imagine.
6:55
The last time Steve and I were here, and it wasn't that first
6:58
week, but the last time we were here was his birthday, his
7:00
birthday weekend. And we came in here and it was
7:02
one of a few spots we had come to that day and we got the whole
7:06
place to sing. Happy birthday to Steve.
7:09
I did not break it out, but the whole place was in song.
7:11
Did he get Did he get his free cake?
7:13
I don't think we got any cake. I'm.
7:15
Gonna get a cake, I guess we. Don't do that anymore.
7:17
No cake. Like, I'm just kidding, we never
7:19
offered free cake here. Hey man, I was here for the
7:22
beer. You know the cake always comes
7:24
later, but when you're going to a brewery, you want the beer.
7:26
Right. That's right.
7:27
Yeah. Let's talk about that actually.
7:29
Absolutely. So the the first one we're
7:30
getting into, Steve, you've got yours in hand right now.
7:33
I've already kind of drank about half of mine.
7:35
But I think the first one we're starting off is the live left
7:38
lager. It's the Hellas lager.
7:39
That's right. Tell us a little bit about this
7:41
one, Brandon. Yes, this is one of those beers
7:43
back when I was home brewing. It's like, hey, if I can nail
7:45
this beer, then I've got a little more confidence to, you
7:49
know, do some beer commercially. When I was at Yazoo, actually
7:52
that's did a lot of pilot brewing at Yazoo and that was
7:55
one of the beers that I was most proud of.
7:57
So if you remember a Yazoo seasonal called Harvest Hellas
8:01
5-6 years ago, that was mine. Not exactly the same recipe, but
8:04
it's a Hellas. So it's pretty, you know,
8:05
simple. It's a lot, a lot of
8:07
similarities. But yeah, so it's, you know,
8:10
it's a hella. So it's not quite as bitter as
8:12
pills. So I think it kind of scratches
8:16
that itch for a lot of craft beer drinkers that want a
8:19
quality lager, but also people that are new to craft or just
8:22
trying to drink your basic American lagers, right.
8:25
And so that was that was one of these beers.
8:27
I'm like, we got to have this all the time.
8:30
You know, if you care about the specs, the details, I think
8:33
it's, you know, 1520 IVUS 18 I think, and it's normally right
8:38
about 5.2%. So nice and.
8:41
Drinkable. Yeah, statistically it's
8:42
perfect, I mean. This is one of those this is one
8:45
of those beers that you give the the people that maybe not quite
8:48
the hey, I'm looking for Bud lighter Miller.
8:50
Like what do you have? That might be something a little
8:52
more on the lines of an American lager.
8:54
Like this is more of a a little bit step up if they're looking
8:57
for something that that is beer but has more flavor to it, and
9:01
this would probably be something you gravitate them towards.
9:04
Yeah, yeah. Is a hellos something that
9:06
anytime throughout the year you feel like it's important to have
9:09
on your tap menu or certain times throughout the year?
9:12
No, I think I think it's a year round beer.
9:15
I mean, but yeah, what you were saying about the kind of being
9:20
such a tight style. I was actually texting a a
9:23
German friend of mine the other day and because he had tried the
9:25
Hellas, I put in a can and gave it to him.
9:27
And of course, like all Germans, you know, he looked up the very
9:30
specific definition of it and, you know, send it to me on
9:32
WhatsApp and I sent the check marks.
9:35
Yep, those guys are about. Their beer, by the way.
9:38
Yeah, so there was, I think I have three out of four.
9:41
It's not filtered. So it didn't didn't hit that
9:44
German definition of Hellas, but it's it's an unfiltered Hellas.
9:48
And yeah, it's definitely a year round beer in my opinion.
9:50
So for sure. You had you had mentioned about
9:53
so you basically got your roots from Yazoo which is a brewery
9:57
obviously that the legendary been around in Nashville for a
10:00
long time. So did you get your start at
10:03
Yazoo then? Yeah, that's where the bulk of
10:05
my experience comes from. And I, I had the good fortune of
10:09
actually the logistics at Yazoo, so I wasn't in the brew house
10:12
every day. So I feel like a lot of times
10:14
you get kind of becomes paint by numbers a lot of times and
10:17
you're growing a big system like that.
10:18
Maybe there's some burnout potential.
10:20
And so I was able to avoid that and just kind of go do some
10:23
pilot brewing, whatever I wanted to or whenever I can make the
10:26
time. So I was able to just kind of do
10:27
what I wanted. So that was really cool.
10:29
Minus is always, you know, all about that, that you're you're
10:32
making some pile of beers, have fun, go at it.
10:35
So, yeah, so that was kind of most of my experience there.
10:38
And I know you mentioned in the in the beginning, like you and
10:40
your wife were talking about, you know, this area needs to
10:43
have more places like this. Was it always for you like that
10:46
where you, when you're a Yazoo doing what you're doing, going,
10:49
you know, I, I eventually I want to go off and do my own thing.
10:54
Yes and no. I mean, that was a great place
10:56
to work. And so, you know, just like any
10:58
job, you know, through seasons in life, sometimes it's like,
11:01
yeah, maybe I'll stick around here, maybe I'll move on.
11:03
So, but I think, you know, eventually by time we had moved
11:07
to Murfreesboro, it was like, OK, there we need to do
11:09
something here. This is this is where it's at,
11:11
so. So that was the decision then
11:13
behind Murfreesboro. I mean, you live in here and was
11:16
it just the drive for you or was it just the lack of breweries in
11:19
Murfreesboro, combination of everything that kind of pushed
11:22
you over the edge to to start doing something?
11:24
Yeah, definitely combination. Yeah, the, the, the brutal
11:28
commute was just, you know, oh man.
11:30
I mean very familiar with. That.
11:31
Oh my word. Were you going to Madison?
11:34
Were they in Madison at that point?
11:36
Yeah. So I was, I worked, I was one of
11:38
those. I there, I was there from 2013
11:40
to 2023. And so the move was 2019.
11:44
So I was doing the Murphy's Bird of Madison commute for about 4.
11:48
Years, yeah. So it was very used to it.
11:50
I mean, early morning and you get your coffee and you, you
11:53
know, but yeah, lunch. Yeah.
11:56
Journey back the lunch just for the rise of the journey.
11:58
Exactly. Listen to podcast.
12:00
The podcast, we all, we all joke about it though, because
12:02
national traffic can be just and it gets worse and worse.
12:06
I kind of wonder sometimes when people are driving home if maybe
12:09
they just stop in here because they're sick of sitting in
12:11
Nashville traffic during the week and going.
12:13
I'm going to middle ground and let traffic thin out a little
12:15
bit before I get home. Yeah, that Murfreesboro vibe of
12:18
like I am not getting on I-24. It is Saturday.
12:21
That is real, man. Yeah.
12:22
We know it. Yeah, we know it.
12:23
Yeah. Is that typically the busiest
12:25
times and like a brewery here would be like after work during
12:28
the day like during the weeks or would it be more of weekend?
12:32
We do, you know, it's funny, we do really good business on
12:34
Thursday with trivia night and then Sundays are nice and steady
12:38
and then Saturdays can pop off, especially if we have, you know,
12:40
something going on like an event, music or whatever.
12:43
But yeah, I'd say Thursdays and Sundays are most consistent and.
12:46
Saturdays. Yeah, that's fine.
12:48
Yeah. That is weird.
12:49
And Saturday tonight you guys have live, I mean, we're
12:51
recording to, you know, today, but you guys have music going on
12:54
tonight also as well. Brad Frazier, he's a local guy
12:57
owns a it's I think it's Taekwondo studio up in Smyrna.
13:03
And his actually the heart of vinyl, the dude, Justin.
13:05
So it's his brother that's playing here.
13:07
Oh, right on. OK, yeah.
13:08
So his his that's a whole like musical family.
13:11
So Justin does the records and then they have like a family
13:15
band on the side that Justin plays drums in.
13:17
And so yeah, it's just very, very cool.
13:20
Local family stick. Around long enough we can get
13:22
them on the podcast, yes. Yes, get Brad to play some some
13:26
Ozzy or something. We'll be here around that time,
13:29
so probably. Maybe do some requests, yeah.
13:33
This I'm I'm digging the I'm digging the Hellas Lager.
13:36
Mitch knows I'm a Hellis Logger fan.
13:39
I think the first experience I had might have been when we were
13:42
hanging out with Chad at Tenfold.
13:44
Oh, really? Yeah, That was my first Hellis
13:46
Logger experience. When we were remember, we were
13:48
in the back in the kitchen. Yeah.
13:50
And this. Was oh oh.
13:52
Yeah, we took it right out of the bright tank.
13:54
Actually we are. All equipment was just sitting
13:57
on like coolers and we were standing up because there's no
14:00
place to sit. We were holding microphones, so
14:02
we're like holding beers in a circle around like a box of.
14:05
Grains, grains. There's no That was the biggest
14:09
dive into the production side of setting up electronic equipment
14:12
next to grains and freezers. You know, like.
14:15
Cold. It was really cool.
14:17
It was cool, yeah, but that was my first experience with the
14:20
Hell Slogger, and for me it always been just.
14:23
Like their ice machine was right there too.
14:25
It was right, intermittent scooping and servers.
14:27
Coming back and like filling up ice buckets.
14:30
But yeah, you guys slowing down production?
14:33
Yeah. It was.
14:33
It was definitely we were in the way, not the other.
14:35
Way. Oh, absolutely, yeah.
14:37
But experiencing Hells Loggers, you know, kind of it was right
14:40
one right out of the bright tank.
14:41
I mean, he it was a couple of days from being ready to go.
14:44
So it was at the point where Chad felt comfortable serving it
14:48
right, you know. And so being able to being able
14:51
to drink a Hells Logger like that kind of is what kick
14:53
started me. Now if I go to a brewery and I
14:56
see a Hells Logger on tap, I will get it every single time.
15:00
Yeah, it's just, it's it's such a great beer for for times when
15:05
big craft beer nerds like us are always looking for either
15:09
highest Ibus or biggest Abvs, you know?
15:12
But eventually we come back down to what's comfortable for us.
15:16
And for me it's always something like a hell slogger.
15:20
When I think about that, you know, for somebody that's coming
15:22
in, you know, they're as you said, they're, they're looking
15:24
for, it's a 5.2% beer. So there's a lot of people I'm
15:29
sure that may come in after work as as we said are coming on the
15:31
weekend and maybe they don't want something high ABV.
15:33
They're not looking for that 8 or 9%.
15:35
They're coming in for something a little bit less of an ABV,
15:40
right? Exactly.
15:41
And I've, I've, I've said since day one it's like, you know, we
15:43
we need to be making beers that people want to order a second
15:46
one of. Yeah.
15:47
And so I think this for sure is one of those.
15:50
It's like you see people drinking four of these a night,
15:52
you know, hanging out so. It's great.
15:53
Still be OK to drive after a couple hours, right?
15:56
Did you have when you first started you did you have like
16:00
this is the set core starting out of what I want to have or
16:05
was it just kind of? I I think this beer was probably
16:08
the one. Yeah, the one the.
16:10
One and then beyond that, I said, you know, a lot of people
16:12
were asking me that before we opened what are the flagships,
16:15
you know, whatever, you know, whatever that term is, you know,
16:18
the core, core beers, whatever. And I just kind of wanted to
16:21
give it six months or a year and see what people responded to,
16:24
what people liked. And, you know, I in hindsight, I
16:27
kind of wish I'd been a little more methodical about that.
16:30
I sort of just like let it run and maybe, you know, maybe
16:34
tracking that a little bit better.
16:35
And, you know, but I think we're stuck in the the four core beers
16:40
that we have now. So.
16:43
But yeah, it's good to, it's good to have a process, but also
16:46
you don't want to put yourself in the corner.
16:48
So that's where I was. So.
16:49
Yeah. And, and how much of it for you
16:52
as a guy that brews, are you like a kid in the candy store?
16:55
You're like, I really want to bring more beer, different
16:57
styles of beer for people as well.
17:01
What's that balance? For you, it's tough.
17:03
I mean, so the the the first six months I was, you know, my
17:08
attitude is sort of I need to brew beers that I'm confident
17:11
we'll sell, right. Yeah.
17:12
And actually, I could tell you a funny story about the first IPAI
17:14
burden here. I I didn't want to brew a single
17:16
IPA. It was just I have to kind.
17:19
Of thing and. So.
17:20
Yeah, people that like IPA? Yeah.
17:23
Who are those people anyway? Good people.
17:26
Nobody at this table. Me on a Saturday.
17:30
So of course the Ipas here are great.
17:33
I think I hit my stride with some of those.
17:34
But the first IPA in here was, I just called it Centennial IPA.
17:37
And it's just, yeah, Centennial hops in the Whirlpool and then
17:42
dry hop the Mosaic and it's, yeah, just enough hops to call
17:45
it an IPA. And people love it.
17:47
And a lot of non IPA people have really liked that beer.
17:50
And so that's not really a core beer.
17:52
We don't have it all the time, but it's frequently here.
17:55
I and I do remember it was about a year ago, I was sitting here
17:58
with you when I, I ordered it on a hat, you know, half poor.
18:03
And I told you, I'm like, this is a really good Centennial IP.
18:06
And it was the laziest beer I did before we.
18:08
Ever. It was just like.
18:09
Here's some Centennial hops, here's some Mosaic.
18:12
And. But yeah, you know, simple beers
18:13
are best beers, so I. Remember you just kind of
18:15
grinning though when I said that?
18:16
And I'm like, well, hey, I liked it so.
18:18
Firstly, there you want an IPA, there's.
18:20
You hooked me. Here you go.
18:24
You have to make one. Yeah.
18:25
OK, Steve, have that sensitive idea.
18:27
Hope you like it. Come on back.
18:29
And here we are. Brandon, when you found this
18:31
space or when you were looking around, I'd be probably, I'm
18:34
sure you looked at a lot of places.
18:35
It was when you saw this place was like this is it?
18:38
This is this is ideal. This is what I was looking for.
18:40
Yeah. We need to build it out, but.
18:43
Yeah, that's kind of a long story.
18:45
We looked for real estate for I think up close to three years
18:50
and the the zoning, the zoning regulations in Murfreesboro
18:55
actually were changed around 20 summer 2023 you.
18:59
Guys were the first commercial zone.
19:01
Borough, that's right. Yeah.
19:03
So previously you had to be in an industrial zone in
19:06
Murfreesboro. And then the the city, a lot of
19:08
the industrial zoning that existed, the city had rezoned.
19:11
So a lot of the potential properties all of a sudden were
19:14
no longer an option, you know, near downtown and kind of really
19:18
the old Mayday area, the old Panther Creek area, that's kind
19:21
of the the industrial space near downtown.
19:24
And so the law change, the zoning changed in I think it was
19:27
June of 2020. No, 2022.
19:30
I take that back. Yeah, it was a year before we
19:32
got open, so summer 2022 when it changed and we signed the lease
19:36
here about 30 days later. So, yeah, so it really opened up
19:40
some options for us. You know, we knew that that the
19:43
zoning code was going to be changed soon.
19:45
And so we were looking at this space during that time, but we
19:48
couldn't, you know, sign a lease on it until it was official.
19:51
Right. So we, we talked a little bit
19:53
about before, but what was this place before and then how did
19:56
you have to build this out if you had to at all?
19:59
So this was a pizza restaurant coming to old school, like pizza
20:02
parlor, you know, booths all along this wall, you know, red
20:08
booths. And it's called a Heart's pizza
20:11
Garden. So the garden was the beer
20:12
garden, not back, but it's a beer garden.
20:14
It was a pizza garden. So kind of cool.
20:17
And the garden sign is still Outback there.
20:19
We just hung it up. Yeah.
20:21
The next step is we got to get it to light up next.
20:24
That's, that's been on the To Do List for like 2 years.
20:27
See how it's a pizza restaurant. We didn't do much.
20:30
Well, we did a ton, but also not much.
20:32
I mean, we, we gutted the kitchen, ripped out the ceiling.
20:37
We did a lot of, you know, putting lipstick on a pig in
20:41
here, so to speak. And you know, the, the tables
20:44
and chairs are originally from that space and they were in
20:47
storage for a while. But I, I would say kind of light
20:50
remodeling out here in the tap room, but then some pretty
20:52
hardcore work back in the kitchen.
20:54
You get a little bit different equipment for what you do.
20:56
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we did keep a few things
21:00
we got. They got a prep table back there
21:01
and, you know, some pizza pans and stuff like that.
21:03
So yeah. Awesome.
21:06
Cool. That's very Yeah.
21:07
So when did, what kind of equipment did you have for
21:10
making beer when you when you when you moved into this space?
21:13
And has it changed a bunch since this is kind of when you moved
21:17
in? So I was the crazy person that
21:19
had things stored in my garage and you're looking at driveway?
21:24
Yeah. I also said you were home,
21:26
Brewer. Right.
21:26
Yes, yeah. And actually that's kind of the
21:28
small batch stuff back there. But yeah, I had those fermenters
21:31
were all in my driveway for like a year.
21:32
Wow. So my neighbors were the first
21:35
time they came in here. Some people were like, hey, so
21:38
how do you know about this brewery or whatever?
21:40
And he was like, dude, you see those tanks back there?
21:41
Like I was looking at those out my kitchen window for like a
21:43
friggin year. They're not.
21:44
There anymore? He's like, they're gone right
21:46
here now, yes. Were your neighbors helping you
21:48
look for real estate? They're pretty cool.
21:51
We don't have an HOA, so they're pretty cool.
21:55
What's that like? It's awesome.
21:57
It's. Very freeing.
21:58
It's. Very.
21:59
Hate my absolutely. I can't do a damn thing.
22:03
You should become president. I should, it won't matter.
22:06
Politics. That's pretty cool.
22:09
So we we drank through the live left logger, Yeah.
22:13
That's gone. Love it.
22:14
That's really good. Yes, I think we're switching to
22:18
did we say we were gonna do the IPA?
22:20
We were gonna do the IPA next. So I think the one we have is
22:23
Crispy Crush. Yes, that's correct.
22:25
That's the one. So we're definitely changing
22:28
gears going from the house logger, we're moving up the IBU
22:31
chain quite a bit. This sits around 7% seven ish 72
22:37
I think it's. What?
22:38
Yeah, 72 usually. My vision is going bad up there,
22:40
but what was so you, you kind of hit on it just a second a few
22:46
minutes ago, but you just like you didn't really want to brew
22:49
Ipas initially. But if I'm looking up on the
22:51
board today, I see 123, I see three.
22:57
And I know I've had others in previous times here not not even
23:00
just excluding Centennial, your original 1.
23:02
So. So how do you go from first of
23:05
all, let's talk about this one. But while you're going through
23:08
it, how do you go from I don't want to brew an IPA to now you
23:11
have three of them on the board. And it can't just be because the
23:13
people in Murfreesboro won I. Just gave.
23:16
I gave in. OK, Yeah.
23:18
I'm trying to keep the doors open to.
23:19
Get the people what they. Want.
23:22
I guess that's right, it is. Well, so yeah, I I gave in is
23:27
really the short answer. But you know, this is a cold IPA
23:31
style. So if you, if you've read up on
23:33
that much, it's sort of, it's a very dry kind of IPA.
23:37
There's not a ton of malt getting in the way.
23:38
So it's just kind of like hop juice.
23:40
It's very dry, crisp, refreshing, and it's the style I
23:44
really liked like a few years ago when you start seeing them.
23:46
And so I just thought, you know, why not just stick with
23:48
something like this and eventually it became a flagship.
23:51
So logger right? Like cold Ipas?
23:53
Is that Is that a thing? So yeah, cold IPA is basically a
23:58
the grist is a pre prohibition American logger.
24:01
So it's typically about 80% base malt, normally pills or could be
24:05
like a pale ale malt. And then the remaining about 20%
24:08
is either like rice or corn. And so you're shooting for an
24:11
ABV of like above 6% into 7% is fine, but it's sort of that pre
24:16
prohibition American logger type grist and IB us are, you know,
24:24
debatable, but you can either use a logger or an ale yeast.
24:28
And it's it's not loggered like long term the way a hellus or
24:32
like a traditional German logger would be.
24:34
But so the way I do it is I'm using a vianstaponer, the same
24:40
logger yeast that's in the hellus, and it's like 3470.
24:45
Fermentis is like the really common commercial one, but you
24:48
run it at a little higher temperature.
24:50
And so it really forces the beer to really dry out, really get
24:53
nice and nice and dry. This has a dry finish, by the
24:57
way. Yeah, yeah.
24:58
Not over, not over the top, not over the top.
25:00
Dry. I've definitely had Ipas where
25:03
I'll take a sip of it and just be like your mouth, just like.
25:05
Sucked back. This isn't that, but this is
25:08
definitely not on the It's definitely on the dryer side for
25:12
a finish to wear an IPA. Yep.
25:13
Yeah, it's sort of, yeah. A lot of people talk about it in
25:16
terms of it's a West Coast with not so much malt in it, you
25:18
know, so. Yeah, hot profile.
25:22
This to me is kind of fruity. It's almost a little menthol Y
25:25
or minty. It's got some dank
25:27
characteristics to it, I think, yeah.
25:30
Right at that mid and end. Oh, this is the one you were
25:33
drinking before we jumped on? Yeah, OK, you're right.
25:36
Like. Doesn't compound like it doesn't
25:38
compound just kind of you mentioned earlier like like a
25:41
like a cooling, it's kind of not doesn't overpower you in any
25:45
way. It doesn't, you don't lose it,
25:48
you know, you don't lose any other flavors just cause the
25:49
mints there, it's really good. You know, so where'd this idea
25:51
come from then? So I mean why the why the cold
25:54
IPA is I just? I liked a lot of them.
25:56
I had had, I grabbed the bottle of one of the small batch cold
26:01
Ipas in Sierra Nevada, you know, the summer before we opened here
26:05
or maybe a year before and had some out West here and there.
26:09
And yeah, I just really liked it.
26:10
Just a really refreshing kind of IPA.
26:12
You don't get, you know, a lot of thing, a lot of older Ipas, I
26:17
think the hop character is almost muddled and you can't
26:22
really distinguish what's going on with the hops.
26:24
They're kind of just almost like the, the water is muddied almost
26:27
when you're when you're drinking and tasting those hops.
26:30
And so for me, this, this style of IPA, it's just it's very
26:34
definitive. You know, like, I think with a
26:37
lot of hazies you experience the same thing where a lot of the
26:39
hop flavors are kind of muddled. And with a cold IPA, if I were
26:42
to change up the hops in this particular, you know, make it
26:45
different batch with different hops, I think it'd be very, very
26:48
different. And so more than one?
26:49
Or is it just single hop? This is this is 3 hops, 3 hops,
26:53
Yeah. So it's a single hop in the boil
26:55
and then two different drop hops.
26:56
Gotcha. Yeah, only because we're talking
26:58
about Ipas at the moment, you know, do you, do you like plan
27:02
out especially like 2026 when this is how many different
27:05
styles of Ipas that I'm going to have?
27:08
Or is it just sort of right now you're like, I'm not really sure
27:11
we'll see, you know, or you think you're going to stick
27:13
stick with some of the same ones that people like?
27:15
Yeah, I, I, I think in 2025 I can say that, you know, we
27:21
typically try to keep two or three Ipas on the tap wall.
27:23
Yeah. And it was always, OK, let's get
27:25
another one going because we're going to run out of this one
27:26
soon. And I'm trying to structure it a
27:28
little bit more in 2026 where obviously this cold IPA we have
27:32
on all the time. And then I brought back a hazy
27:35
IPA this year. And so that's been really well
27:37
received. And so I'm going to try to keep
27:39
a hazy on all the time, but I'll be changing that one up, you
27:43
know, changing up the hops in it.
27:44
So at least those two will be on, you know, this cold IPA and
27:48
then a hazy all the time. And they're probably a third one
27:50
on. So it was the guy that mentioned
27:51
that you weren't really brewing that many IP as before.
27:55
What have you found that you really like about the the
27:58
profile and the styles now that when you're brewing and going?
28:01
I really want to dive into this more and this is more what I
28:04
want to do. So I do not like making hazy IP
28:08
as. Now we know.
28:12
So the answer to that question is nothing.
28:15
I, I, I really don't enjoy making them, but they're
28:17
popular. So it's, it's sort of for me,
28:18
it's like a necessary evil where it's like, all right, let's make
28:22
it. But no, I, I've been starting to
28:25
have some fun, you know, getting different hop varieties and, and
28:27
messing around or getting feedback from people because
28:29
there's some Ipas that we've had.
28:30
I'm like, yeah, that's, that's pretty mid.
28:32
And then people are just loving it.
28:34
And so OK, well maybe I should put my opinions aside and sure
28:38
wasn't what people want. Well, and not to call Centennial
28:42
mid up, but that was kind of your thought, right?
28:43
It was just like, let's make an easy IPA.
28:46
If I have to make an IPA, let's just throw some hops into the
28:48
boil and let's just come out here Centennial IPA.
28:51
And it's like, you put it out because you needed an IPA and
28:54
people were drinking the hell out of it.
28:56
Yeah. I feel that's what I mean
28:57
though, because as a Brewer, you want to go, you know, you want
29:00
to have fun too. You're going, OK, I want to be,
29:03
I want to keep my creativity going.
29:05
So whatever style of IPA that is, you know, at least you're
29:08
trying to make that that effort for your, your obviously for
29:11
yourself, you know, but for your customers as well.
29:14
Well, and a great example of that is got a black IPA in the
29:17
bright tank right now. People have been asking for that
29:19
and I made a small batch back for Star Wars Day.
29:22
We called it the dark side IPA Nice.
29:26
And so people kept asking for it.
29:28
And so I basically did a scaled up version of that recipe, you
29:32
know, to five barrel. And so that should be coming out
29:35
next week. So that's a lot of Centennial
29:36
hops, a lot of D bitter black malt.
29:39
So should should be really good. Is that your first one?
29:42
Yeah, first big one. Yeah.
29:44
Yeah, cuz I think, I think all of us have talked about that on,
29:47
you know, various podcasts that you don't see that many black
29:50
Ipas come out. It's sort of like when you do
29:53
like, Oh yeah, man, that is different and good for you guys.
29:57
Yeah. We're going to leave the mic set
29:58
up until next time. We're just, yeah.
30:01
We working here. We are working right.
30:03
Here I'll just bring the caution table.
30:05
This is a little more under construction around the tables
30:08
we're. Going to stand in line.
30:09
Britain's like get your shit out of.
30:13
Here, Mitch, do you remember we went to Tanasi Brewery?
30:16
Oh yeah, in Chattanooga. And, and that was one of the not
30:20
that I mean, I'm just, I'm one beer drinker, you know, out of
30:23
many big bearded beer drinkers and in the area.
30:26
But for me, a black IPA, Cascadian dark ales as as you
30:32
call that as well are very for me, it's difficult to enjoy
30:38
something that kind of has roasty notes as well as
30:41
bittering hops for an IPA And Tanasi, in my opinion, when they
30:46
have their black IPA. Yeah, it was just like for me,
30:49
it went straight to the top because I just, I don't know,
30:53
I've had, I've had a few before and because I had that one, it
30:57
made me appreciate the different characteristics of a black IPA.
31:01
I then started going back and going, OK, let me try drinking,
31:04
yes, yeah, let me see if I can appreciate.
31:06
And some of them have been, well, decent.
31:08
I will say that some that I've bought from a store that are
31:11
canned, they don't have as bold of flavors as I would get from a
31:16
local tap, which I'm really impressed with Tennessee with
31:20
all the people, just the local craft beer.
31:22
State is killing it because I'm enjoying those styles of beers,
31:26
but it's kept me from buying, you know, out of state beers.
31:30
Yeah, it's a weird thing, travel across straight.
31:31
Line because even a I'm trying to think of one of the black IPA
31:35
cans I've bought 1 was from like a imported beer.
31:39
It may be a Japanese brewery. They've got different
31:42
ingredients in it, but you couldn't taste as much of the
31:44
roast and some other ingredients that just kind of they
31:48
advertised on the can. So I think.
31:50
It's just a freshness thing. It could be, yeah.
31:52
I didn't look at the canning data or anything either, so that
31:55
there could be a lot of issues on why, but yeah.
31:58
There's not a lot of black Ipas on the market.
32:01
Like I don't know if there's a huge market for it, but no.
32:04
Well, I, I, this may be a very Murfreesboro specific thing
32:07
because I think that, you know, Mayday had, I think a flagship
32:11
black IPA. So I think a lot of people
32:13
around here are just familiar with the style and they keep
32:15
saying, well, how come I never see this anywhere?
32:17
They had the flagships they're from.
32:19
So then a lot of them have been coming in here last couple years
32:22
saying, hey, you should do a black IPA.
32:24
Hey, you should do a black IPA. Heck yeah.
32:26
So I don't know if it's a Murfreesboro specific thing or
32:28
not. We know.
32:29
Craft beer is always changing, right?
32:32
So going back to your Yazoo days and then when you're home
32:36
brewing, if somebody was said, hey, what about brewing a black
32:39
IPA? Did you ever homebrew a black
32:42
eye? I never did, No, no.
32:44
Well, yeah, kind of a brown IPI guess you would call it, but no,
32:48
not really. Yeah.
32:49
It's just like there's that damn word in IPA, everybody.
32:53
With the IPA. I don't like them, I don't want
32:57
to brew them anymore one by half.
33:00
Or two. You mentioned and is it on every
33:03
one of your beers, Ibus? Do you make sure you list Ibus
33:07
on all your stuff? And no, OK.
33:09
No, I don't really. Do that and I know it's not
33:11
mandatory. I asked this question to a
33:13
burger once like why isn't, why don't people put it on?
33:16
What's not mandatory? You don't have to do it like ABV
33:18
and that kind of stuff, but how is it you measure Ibus if you
33:22
wanted to? Ibus are like horoscopes.
33:24
It's like some people like them, some people don't.
33:28
Yeah. Most of the time they're
33:29
detrimental to marketing. Yeah, selling.
33:32
You need a few and I've done this 120 Ibus give me that.
33:37
Yeah, yeah, that. Now.
33:39
Scott loves talking about the IBU.
33:41
Because it's, I don't understand it.
33:43
I just, I mean, I understand it, it's a thing, but it's not
33:46
everywhere. And then sometimes it can sell
33:49
almost like ABV, but it can sell the higher the number.
33:51
Some people are going to be like hot pads probably.
33:53
It's like, oh God, I got to have that.
33:55
It's about as bad as calling a English better an English better
33:59
on the board, you know? Yeah, it's.
34:01
Everything but because it's not better, right?
34:04
Yeah, there's, we've definitely have had, we've definitely have
34:06
had people on show where they're like Ipus are just a made-up
34:08
number. Like it's not even a real thing,
34:10
which am I true? But like, at the end of the day,
34:14
can somebody really go? There's yeah, there's no rules
34:17
to it. The perceived bitterness is what
34:19
actually matters. And how do you measure that?
34:21
But I will say Ibus on the back end of brewing is something I
34:25
use a little bit. So there's like, and this might
34:28
be silly, but the IBU to starting gravity ratio, if
34:34
you've ever read about that, like in home brewing, you know,
34:36
you don't want the Ibus to pass the starting gravity or it
34:42
becomes too bitter relative to the strength of the beer.
34:46
I kind of use that as like a guidepost on not making a beer
34:48
too hoppy, but I'm sure a lot of Brewers, you know, don't.
34:52
So yeah, a lot of great Ibus like it just.
34:54
It's just spits out what it spits out.
34:56
I guess ultimately if if you're not paying attention to that,
34:59
Right. OK, yeah.
35:00
But is it just part of the formula how you would figure
35:01
would be like, OK, well, this, this, this equals this.
35:04
That's how you get your IBUI mean it's.
35:06
Yeah, I haven't manually calculated Ibus in years, but
35:09
it's all it's all that they're software now.
35:11
But yeah, so crispy crush. This is a good practical one to
35:15
talk about the starting gravity on this is 1515 ish play DoH.
35:21
So that's one point O 6 O specific gravity.
35:25
And the so the IB us on, I try to keep it like 55 to 50 if you
35:31
if you got so the one point O 6 O meaning 60.
35:34
So if this were to be more than 60 IB us, it may come across as
35:38
2 bitter. That's that's like the rule of
35:41
thumb that a lot of people. Use.
35:43
I see what you're saying. So this one is like a fiftyish
35:46
Ibus. It's it's.
35:46
Important to your process, not necessarily what it says on.
35:50
The yeah, yeah. Exactly.
35:51
Yeah, I'm just always fascinated by.
35:54
It because he is. Scott loves talking about it.
35:56
I'm curious. I'm curious When you get
35:58
together with other guys and we'll talk about the beer
36:01
community too. When you get together with other
36:04
guys who brew and the beer community and other owners, are
36:07
you all talking about Ibos much? No, I don't know.
36:11
The first time I ever saw an IB, the 100 IB US, it was at Sierra
36:14
Nevada, the one in Asheville, and it was on the boards 100.
36:18
Like I've never seen anything written down as 100.
36:21
I must have. Scott back in the back, I'm
36:24
trying to remember what what year it was.
36:26
We we went to Mitch. You might have been there.
36:29
I don't. I don't go to New Heights by
36:31
myself. So it would have been you or
36:33
somebody else. But Shane Rogers, probably not.
36:38
It was probably not Shane Rogers.
36:40
New Heights had a 200 and who knows?
36:44
Yeah, it was it was some sort of face peeling IPA.
36:47
You take a 200 Ibus IPA and who knows?
36:51
I mean, like you couldn't tell the difference between that and
36:53
IBU, but apparently allegedly 200 IBU double IPA beer at new
36:59
heights it. Was just like eating the hops
37:01
directly. It was very bitter.
37:03
It was very, very bitter. I don't recall that myself.
37:06
So somebody. Else I want to try that.
37:07
I mean, they make great beers. I'm really curious.
37:10
It was really good. It was just like, yeah, but it
37:12
was definitely the marketing thing because the only reason I
37:15
got that was because it was right on the board.
37:18
That's a 200 IP. With that called a DJ at all,
37:21
sometimes you guys go IPA hunting.
37:23
It could have been and, and I love, I love, you know, new
37:27
heights background from like their West Coast vibes coming
37:30
here to Nashville and stuff. So, you know, anytime I can make
37:34
a trip out there, I will. And being that they're from
37:37
California, it's like they're they're no strangers to hopped
37:41
beers, you know, Ipas and things like that.
37:43
W Coasties and stuff like and this was very much that.
37:46
So if you're in the mood for something high IBU, whether or
37:49
not it's a real number. Post it better be bitter though.
37:52
I'm shooting for bitter somehow. It better be whatever whether
37:56
it's 200 or not. So to answer your question,
37:59
something we do talk about a lot is pounds of hops per barrel.
38:04
And so I'm always striving to make a great IPA with as little
38:09
hops as possible because there's sort of a diminished return on
38:13
how many hops you use per barrel.
38:14
And some, some Brewers are just, you know, pushing it to crazy
38:17
limits And it's, you know, cost money to do that.
38:20
And so Centennial IPA is 1 where it's like sort of the minimal
38:23
amount of hops to really have an IPA, but I try not to overdo it.
38:26
So just make good Ipas with moderate hops.
38:29
Well. And it's fun because we saw you.
38:31
We all we did the collab podcast at the last beer fest on earth
38:36
and come John, in 2025. But we saw you there.
38:40
We saw everybody there. And I'm, I'm, I'm always
38:43
curious, you know, when you are, when you, when you go to an
38:47
event like that, how much it really means to you because
38:50
you're, you're with other guys that are doing the same thing
38:52
that you are. I'm just hanging out and trying
38:56
to beers. I mean, that's only my attitude
38:58
of those things, yeah. Seeing old friends I haven't
39:02
seen in a long time and all that good stuff, yeah.
39:04
It has to be a lot. Of fun now, yeah.
39:06
I think I was there waiting for my pancake when you guys were.
39:10
Nice. Yeah.
39:11
Pancake. Yeah, we did a collapse pan we.
39:12
Were right next. To We didn't taste those
39:15
pancakes. They were good.
39:17
I actually took. The.
39:18
I had a bite, I think, yeah. Did you get the logo?
39:21
Did you get your logo? The logo, Yeah, it's really
39:23
good. I actually took the bite out of
39:25
the side. I still have ours.
39:27
I did did you with the glue and stuff?
39:28
I didn't, but it's preserved. Just is it preserved?
39:30
Yeah, would you glue an epoxy over it or?
39:33
They kind of you get it in like a little like like a small pizza
39:36
box or whatever and it comes with this like epoxy thing.
39:38
That you put. Over it, Yeah.
39:39
I thought that was syrup. I should have drunk that.
39:44
Basically it was glue and. Three days later, Brandon
39:46
started brewing IPA's in his brewery.
39:49
This seems like a good idea. I and and and this is a
39:54
different brewery. Actually, they were at the
39:56
Common John Beer Fest. It was called St. side in
39:59
Cincinnati and I was up there around the holidays and I bought
40:04
a four pack and I gave Scott 1 I had it was called this shit is
40:07
bananas and it was a it was a collab.
40:11
It was a collab. It was like a a banana pancake.
40:16
Beer, you know, stout Maple syrup, too much cinnamon and you
40:21
could taste it by the time it was done.
40:23
I'm like this thing. It really is freaking banana
40:25
because you could actually taste how it becomes.
40:28
Every layer of flavor you could. Taste and it was this color or
40:32
something something close to me they're.
40:34
Able to pull off those many flavor profiles like
40:36
individually. Pretty good.
40:37
It was pretty good I. Mean when you look at that,
40:39
nothing with sour egg. When you look at that, you're
40:40
like, Can you imagine? Would you ever?
40:44
Yeah. Is that something that you go
40:45
for like different flavor, like individual flavor profiles and
40:48
beers, or are you just trying to make a good tasting beer and
40:52
that's where it stops? So I was just telling a guy that
40:53
left here before we started recording is I typically don't
40:56
like things that taste like other things, so.
41:00
Beer that tastes like beer, right?
41:01
That's what I want. To go, but you know that PB and
41:04
J from Zul and the one that common John does.
41:06
I mean, that's pretty interesting stuff.
41:08
I was gonna you, you start talking about that beer and I I
41:10
remembered. You remember that banana bread
41:12
beer? Yes, Wells.
41:14
Yes, something like that. If I could pull something like
41:16
that off that, it'd be pretty cool.
41:17
That's a great beer. That was a great beer, full
41:19
bodied and ever like you got the print part of it too.
41:22
Yeah. So there there's some stuff out
41:24
there that I've I've thought about kind of diving into and
41:27
then PB and Ji mean that's I don't know that I want to take
41:29
that on, but well. See, I was going to ask that.
41:31
I mean, I know we have another beer to talk about, but that
41:34
goes into another conversation because Scott and I, we have
41:38
really gotten into the PB and J viewers at like, you know,
41:41
Marble Fox, Zool's view up. Wait.
41:43
Do they have one of Marble Fox? Yeah, they have APB and J at
41:45
Marple Fox. Oh, I didn't know.
41:47
That no, no crust. I think it was right.
41:49
Yeah. That's.
41:50
A good one. That's a good one.
41:52
But if it seems like it's almost unique to this area, you don't
41:57
see them in other parts of the country.
41:59
Yeah, this region, we've talked to the guy at Beers Association,
42:04
we were kind of talking about PB and J Beers and he hadn't, you
42:06
know, they're out of Colorado. He really hadn't even heard of
42:08
it. So I think it's there are other
42:09
parts of the country that have done it, but it's more of a
42:11
regional thing, I think at least that that do it well.
42:14
You know your Zools and your Marble Foxes and you're coming
42:16
John's. But outside of that, I don't
42:18
know that a lot of people the rest of the country even know
42:20
about. Them beer, I mean, beer flavor
42:22
profiles are regional, right? I mean, California favors their
42:25
westies. Like, you know, you're not going
42:27
to find Stone brewing up in like the New England area.
42:30
You're going to find like oh God, what's the like the the
42:36
original long anyway, it's regional.
42:40
Right. I mean like.
42:41
You know, people, people in the South love their peanut butter
42:44
and Jelly sandwiches. I mean, it's just what you had
42:46
packed before you go to the pool that day or before you go to
42:48
school or whatever. So and I wasn't much of actually
42:51
the first PB and J that I had was the one that you and Steve
42:54
had gifted me from Marble Fox. It was the original no crust.
42:58
I hadn't had something like that before.
43:00
And to be fair, I'm not real big on Jelly.
43:02
Like I just, I prefer like peanut butter honey sandwiches
43:05
or whatever, but like that, no crust.
43:06
Fucking. It worked like it was really
43:08
good. It was really good.
43:09
He's only improved on it since. Then yeah.
43:11
And they have, and it's like Zul, right?
43:13
It's like the Zul, like the PB and J mixtapes that they have.
43:16
They have the different Jelly flavors that come out and stuff
43:19
like that. And, and in my opinion, Marble
43:21
Fox does it really well. Yeah, yeah.
43:24
Yeah. Yeah, they do a good job and
43:26
he's on the same thing. He's come out with different.
43:27
He's on a BlackBerry and strawberry and a grape and
43:29
things. So it's it's it's yeah, but but
43:32
I've had some that work so good too.
43:35
We won't mention those. Yeah, they're hard.
43:38
I mean, they're hard to make because they have to.
43:40
You have to layer them inappropriately, but also they
43:43
have to taste like what you're going for.
43:44
You can get too much peanut butter, you can get too much
43:46
Jelly and not enough peanut butter.
43:48
It just it tastes flat or it tastes different.
43:51
So Richard's opinion, That's all it.
43:53
Is there you go. I guess that's leading us into
43:55
sound. What is this one?
43:57
What this is the zest intentions?
44:00
So this is actually, you know, when, when Ozzy closed Mayday a
44:04
little over a year ago, he was just kind of giving stuff away
44:07
to some of us here locally left and right.
44:09
And so I, I used some of some hops and some Ipas and there was
44:13
a big 44 LB pack of lemon pureed that Cedar Glade picked up and
44:19
Robert over Cedar Glade actually then gave it to me.
44:22
And so put it in this wheat ale and yeah, it's a great kind of
44:27
shandyish. It's actually not a sour, it's
44:30
just really tart from the. Lemon.
44:31
I do. I do tarts.
44:33
I can do tarts. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you.
44:35
Yeah, I like a tart beer, but not a sour.
44:36
Beer. I wonder, is it the same?
44:38
You know, he had that push pop. Been saying that's what I've
44:41
been saying I like tarts, sorry tarts not sour He he said tart
44:44
not sour that's what I. Go Yeah, I.
44:45
I agree at the first hip I'm going it does taste like a
44:49
little bit of like a shandy. Yeah.
44:51
Yeah, but Cedar Glade did that push pop one I think with the
44:54
with the. Almost like.
44:56
One that came from Mayday and one of the same base I don't.
45:00
Remember. It might be.
45:01
Was that a small batch of that? Yeah, I think it.
45:03
I think it's the same lemon to get and stuff.
45:04
For Mayday and he turned it into that what they called the push
45:07
pop. Yeah.
45:08
I just cleaned my house recently and but I'll pledge nesty OH.
45:14
Gosh. There's the.
45:15
Pun. Lemon Zeff waiting on the.
45:17
Pun. I do like lemon though, so this.
45:19
This smells good, I enjoy that. It's easy to drink though it's
45:23
not too heavy. What are what are we looking at?
45:25
What's the ABV on the? 5% ish.
45:28
We're the Ibus. Oh, that's super easy.
45:32
According to I won't ask that question.
45:33
According to my untapped app, even though I don't have my
45:36
glasses on, it's 5.3%. 5.3%. That is really smooth and
45:43
doesn't irritate the palette at all.
45:45
It's not making it. There's like maybe a little
45:47
sweat right here. But yeah, it doesn't make
45:50
anything cry. No, it's nice and it's great.
45:52
That's awesome. This is easy to drink.
45:54
This actually good? I mean it's good hot weather
45:55
beer, but it's good cold weather here too.
45:58
Like somehow this would work. Granted, it's December and it's
46:01
70°. Out we'll sit here, shorts.
46:03
I was shorts and T-shirts. I got shorts and I debated put
46:05
shorts on. It wasn't the wrong move, I'll
46:07
tell you that out of. Patio, you know, shorts.
46:10
And I drink get this beer outside right now too.
46:13
What was Brandon, what was the so you mentioned kind of like
46:15
you got some you got some of the materials from Cedar Glade who
46:20
had passed it on from from Ozzy at Mayday.
46:23
But you had to have figured there was something going to
46:26
your mind when you got this. What made you land on this beer
46:30
to to make? Well, this is yeah, this is just
46:32
kind of an American wheat. And I was over there talking to
46:34
Robert one day and I was like, yeah, it's, I'm thinking about
46:37
adding some fruit to it. It's, you know, I don't know
46:39
that just an American wheat's going to sell all that well.
46:41
And he was like, hey, I got this lemon puree I used in this small
46:45
batch. Do you want the rest of it?
46:48
And so it was honestly just an organic conversation where I was
46:50
talking about a beer that I had fermented away, and he said,
46:53
hey, you want this thing? That worked.
46:55
Sure, I'll take it. Yeah, this is just sort of a
46:56
happy accident. How long from start to finish
46:58
does does it take you to make a beard like this?
47:01
This one was probably 4 weeks. OK.
47:03
Yeah. Let that, let that fruit sit in
47:05
there kind of toward the end of fermentation and then just sort
47:08
of settle out. OK, So that's when it goes in
47:11
then when it's when it's sitting once the it's couple weeks
47:15
before I. Don't remember exactly when I
47:17
added the fruit puree on this one.
47:18
It was probably like day 10 or something like that, like not
47:22
totally done fermenting that kind of re kicked, you know,
47:24
kicked the fermentation back off when I added it, you know,
47:27
adding that sugar in yeah. But yeah, kind of near the end
47:30
of fermentation is is when I did it on this one, so.
47:33
It's got a clean, yeah. Puree don't play very good.
47:37
That's right. Very good.
47:39
When you're doing, when you're doing like a small batch, how
47:41
many times have you done that where you're like, you know
47:43
what, I think we need to do more of this.
47:47
Not much. So my small batches are like
47:51
home brew, it's like 13 gallons. It's a single keg.
47:54
And so I've, I've done that very few times just for like events,
47:58
right? Like an Irish red for Saint
47:59
Patrick's Day and you know, the black IPA for Star Wars Day,
48:02
things like that. Because it's just a lot of work
48:04
just for one keg. Right, but there has to be time.
48:06
Nothing around but. There has to be times.
48:08
There has to be time where people really like it and then
48:11
you gotta bring that balance hit of going, should we just put it
48:14
out here all the time or? That's the black IPA, I think
48:18
this year, yeah, Yeah. What'll probably happen again?
48:21
Another one. Or you wanna build that
48:22
excitement where we're only doing this maybe once or twice a
48:25
year, you know, where people are getting excited about it.
48:28
Or do you put it out a lot longer?
48:31
Right, yeah. And we, we did the the small
48:33
batch. It's like a peppermint Porter,
48:35
Peppermint Scout. We did that last year, did again
48:37
as a small batch. But boy, it's hard to sell those
48:40
seasonally like strict beers. You know, it's like because
48:43
once, once January 1st comes, you gotta peppermint beer.
48:45
You're you're sitting on it. The next day.
48:48
Yeah, yeah, like the. Green beer, Like if you had any
48:51
kind of green beer, it's like, Yep.
48:53
That's where our job comes in though, because people with New
48:55
Year's resolutions, like our job is to make sure.
48:57
Well, that's going to sound bad. I don't.
48:59
Want to say to make sure they don't follow that, but like if
49:01
you're, if you're doing a dry January, if you're trying to go
49:03
back, that's fine. You know, there's, there's
49:05
definitely. And we've had conversations with
49:07
other breweries where they had to get creative of OK during
49:10
like the first few months of a year I assume are the toughest
49:14
for breweries. Yeah.
49:15
I think I think people should do a dry February.
49:17
Dry February yeah, that'd be better yeah, I do know I do.
49:20
There's definitely a lot of my friends go starting January 2nd,
49:23
I'm going to do dry. No one wants to not drink on New
49:25
Year's Eve and then I'll on New Year's, you know, they wake up
49:28
little hair of the dog or whatever.
49:30
And then typically that's for like, OK, I'm done for a little
49:33
bit. If your last name starts with A
49:34
through B January, you want to make like A.
49:37
Tier. System that or a Dewey decibel
49:41
or something. But you know you don't want to
49:43
impact your local folks so hard every.
49:45
Time every you Everybody listening to this podcast knows
49:48
the Dewey Decimal System. Nobody younger than us,
49:51
probably. Probably not Brandon.
49:53
Probably doesn't even know the Dewey Decimal.
49:55
Yeah, I think I remember it. But it's it is always.
49:59
It always it's, it's such a fun conversation.
50:01
I feel like we have, we've had this with so many Brewers.
50:04
I mean, we talk about Oktoberfest season, we get to
50:07
talk about seasonal. Do you feel that pressure?
50:10
Do you feel like January 1st, OK, it's on to whatever the next
50:14
thing is and then on to the next thing.
50:16
Do you do you feel that pressure or you just like I want to do
50:19
just really good core beers? Yeah, both.
50:22
I mean, there's definitely that pressure.
50:24
The, the, the thing with seasonal beers again is just
50:26
like people want it when they want it and then they don't when
50:29
they don't. And so it's really hard to
50:30
manage that demand. Right, Right.
50:34
And so, yeah, that's why I kind of stick with small batches on
50:38
like I'll probably do like a Raspberry beer for Valentine's
50:42
Day or something like. That, you know, on that note,
50:45
what's up with fest beers? They're like all year almost
50:47
now. That's right.
50:49
They like that though, because. I'm not complaining.
50:52
In September and then, yeah. I'm not, I'm not complaining,
50:55
but I, I often wonder though, like would you get together with
50:58
some of your contemporary, some of the other brewery owners?
51:01
Do you guys talk about that where you're like, Oh gosh Dang
51:03
it, you know, we're we're, we got this pressure for, you know,
51:07
this seasonal beer. October Fest in July.
51:11
Before, you know, like a summer beer, it's only April now in
51:15
Nashville. It gets warmer, but you're
51:17
going, you know, summer's not till June.
51:21
I mean, that has to be fun conversation sometimes.
51:24
We need to, I think I thought where you were going with this
51:26
is we should, we should do a collab with another brewery and
51:29
then just split the beer in half and.
51:31
Get rid of it. Sooner, you know, so yeah,
51:33
here's the seasonal beer. That's a collab, yeah.
51:35
Might have to, might have to take that not.
51:36
A bad idea? That's your idea, definitely
51:39
your credit for that. That's less.
51:40
Inventory you're carrying on hand though, yeah.
51:43
So does that, does that factor into the conversation like when
51:45
you're trying to figure out what brew to be, what beer to brew
51:48
next? I mean, are we, are you talking
51:50
about like, oh, it's this time of the year so I should probably
51:52
do this. But sometimes those ideas come a
51:55
little too late in the game because you have to account for
51:57
the brewing process as well, right?
51:59
So I mean, like, I mean, this one was 4 weeks, but some of
52:02
your Ipas and some of your stouts are even longer than
52:04
that. So how do you, when you're
52:07
trying to figure out what beer you're going to brew next, what
52:10
goes through your mind? Because you have to take into
52:12
account timing and release date and things like that, especially
52:15
if it's a seasonal. Beer.
52:19
Yeah, it's tough. And then as the room and the tap
52:20
wall for it. So you know, we got the four
52:23
core beers and we've got room for seven other beers.
52:26
So try to keep, you know, maybe lager, a couple IP as maybe dark
52:31
beer and that the tap wall is full.
52:32
So yeah. And Ipas don't hang very well
52:36
long term either. It's like you want to finish
52:38
those. Yeah, and those turn through
52:40
pretty fast. I do have the advantage,
52:42
something I do to kind of, you know, to deal with inventory a
52:45
little bit is, you know, it's a 7 barrel system back there, but
52:47
I can brew 5 barrels scaled down, you know, recipe for
52:52
something that I want to just kind of knockout, you know, get
52:55
rid of sooner. So actually I do that on a lot
52:57
of Ipas just so they stay fresher.
52:59
So you may not brew an entire 7 barrel system on an IPA.
53:01
Correct. Yeah.
53:03
Yeah. I guess that makes sense.
53:05
I want to mention Dry January again and I'm talking to the
53:08
anybody that's listening. Yeah, you can do Dry January if
53:11
you want to, but don't forget about your Brewers and your
53:14
breweries. You have stuff that are non
53:16
alcoholic. You don't have to stay home and
53:19
do Dry January. Come out, have some pizza, have
53:21
some food, support your local people.
53:23
There are things on draft or other things, guest taps or
53:26
guest drinks you might have that are being non alcoholic come out
53:30
and still support your breweries, your local breweries
53:32
during the month. Or go hang with your friends who
53:34
are not doing exactly January because they'll be something
53:37
great for. You.
53:39
You would mention January is rough.
53:40
For most breweries it's the worst.
53:42
And don't just sit home we're gonna do non dry January.
53:47
I am anyway. But the those that are doing do
53:50
your okay won't be healthy. Okay, still come out and support
53:52
these guys. So there are other things you
53:53
can have. Yeah.
53:54
I've been drinking that wizaker makes that hop zip, that
53:58
sparkling hop water. I've been drinking that a lot.
54:00
Just when I'm craving an IPA, just grab a hoppy water.
54:04
So drink that and a beer. Those are solid.
54:07
Yeah, they're really good, Yeah. Yeah, keep.
54:09
We gotta keep these guys in business so that they're here
54:12
when we do come back, right? Or when they come back when?
54:14
January is over. Yeah, Yeah.
54:18
Regular February. Would anyone be interested in
54:21
trying that clarified punch? Yes, yes I would.
54:25
Actually, I've also got a few things brought as well as you
54:28
guys do I'm sure. So like this is.
54:30
Probably a good time to collect those things.
54:33
OK, see what we want to share. We'll pause Real.
54:35
Quick yeah, I'm going to hit mute and then just let this B
54:38
roll and then we'll just unmute. Come back in.
54:41
Sounds good to. Me beautiful, we're back.
54:43
There you go, 2. Come on, say the two and one.
54:47
Didn't you watch Wayne's World? Yeah, I skipped the one.
54:50
Didn't know about the 2. Rich.
54:52
What are we drinking that? We got, thank you, Steve, thank
54:56
you. Hope everyone's comfortable now
54:58
they got their thing. We're not doing any more
55:03
countdowns. Which has to stop stating the
55:06
things he doesn't like. When you do do stop countdowns,
55:08
you can't say 2 and the one. You wouldn't make her, you know,
55:12
when they're in the the rocket. I don't, I don't, I don't do
55:16
well with negative gravity like one.
55:18
I'm a big dude so if he gets a centrifugal force to get me off
55:22
the ground #1. But I mean, at least the
55:25
countdown didn't start with 6-7. That's.
55:27
True, I don't know why my 5 year old is going through that all of
55:30
a. Sudden it's the next two numbers
55:32
though from the five. So we all we got to do is go up
55:34
two. That's right.
55:36
Well, we've got another beer with us here, so we kind of
55:39
split it up a little bit. So some of us are drinking the
55:43
stout, Santa Peppermint Stout. And then Mitch, you've got the
55:47
cherry cordial. Yes, which is I'm going to let
55:49
Brandon kind of give us the science behind both of these a
55:52
little bit. By the way, cheers.
55:53
Cheers. You got me a way to do all
55:56
right. Yeah.
55:56
Thank you for having me. Thank you so much, Brandon.
55:59
He's very nice down that way. Cheers.
56:02
Yeah, I got to reach it. We've got 2, so let's talk about
56:05
the Let's talk about the Stout Santa First.
56:07
There's a peppermint Stout. Run it down for us.
56:10
Peppermint Stout. So I love using tea in beer.
56:16
At the end of the boil, there's some tea bags in and you can
56:18
extract that flavor really well. I think that's better a more
56:24
authentic flavor than using like a extract that you add on the
56:28
back end on the fold side. And so I've done Chai beers like
56:31
this friend of mine at Yazoo, he didn't Earl Grey tight beer at
56:35
one point. But yeah, it's really easy.
56:37
Peppermint tea bags is literally just dried peppermint.
56:40
That's where the peppermint. Comes from then exactly.
56:42
Is it, is it important to you that when you're like, we're
56:47
drinking a beer and we're like. Let's.
56:50
Smell the nose. It's important for you to go,
56:53
OK, I want this is what I want people to smell.
56:58
Yeah. More about the taste.
56:59
Is it? Is it about all the whole
57:01
experience? It's about the whole experience,
57:03
but I think the aroma really matters, especially on something
57:05
like that. Peppermint's kind of one of
57:06
those things you think of as an aromatic kind of thing.
57:08
You know, you can smell that peppermint tea from across the
57:11
room or the, you know, the peppermint essential oils.
57:14
Yeah. So that's, you know, the the
57:16
aroma is definitely part of the flavor.
57:17
So all of it, yeah. How did it smell when you're
57:20
brewing this like back there? Oh, the whole thing, it just,
57:22
yeah, it just smelled like a. Whole room.
57:24
Tea factory or whatever. So yeah.
57:27
I wouldn't have thought tea, I mean like peppermint tea bags is
57:29
what gave it that that peppermint flavor on the.
57:32
End just making tea into the work before fermentation yeah Oh
57:35
yeah, you. Just came across in your
57:37
experience, is that something that is a a lot of burgers do
57:40
that? Let's see, I don't think I've
57:41
ever heard of that. I don't know.
57:43
I suppose a lot of Brewers do. I mean, you see that in like wit
57:46
beer, for example, like a chamomile in in a wit.
57:49
Beer. Kind of where that spice comes
57:50
from. Yeah, I mean, that's that's
57:52
essentially. Actually my wife and I were
57:53
talking about this recently. Herbal tea is not herbal tea is
57:59
just herbs. So chamomile, like in a wit, you
58:03
know, you'd pick fresh chamomile or dried, I guess dried
58:05
chamomile in a wit beer. That's essentially a form of a
58:08
tea that you're putting into the Whirlpool of the the work before
58:12
fermentation. So you can do that.
58:13
You can do anything you can do with any, you know, Chai then
58:16
Chai spice beers, obviously the peppermint.
58:19
So I think you can try with a lot of.
58:21
Things, some of those ingredients you just talked
58:23
about, I bet a little bit goes a long way, right?
58:25
Especially that. Yes, I think this was this.
58:28
Again, this is like a 13 gallon small batch.
58:30
I think it's like 40 tea bags. OK.
58:32
So yeah, it goes a long way. It's just a big box of tea from
58:35
Kroger. That's.
58:36
Less than I thought it would. Have right exactly.
58:38
Especially for something like a like a you said like a 13
58:41
gallon. Yep, it's like one of the small
58:42
batches. Yeah, exactly.
58:43
You just go buy a big box from Publix or Kroger and just dump
58:47
it in. Exactly.
58:48
Yeah, there's fancier ways of doing it for sure.
58:51
And it also goes back to the seasonal beer S Santa.
58:54
Obviously the holidays when what's your this is the
58:59
beginning of when I'm bringing it out and when is like the cut
59:03
off day going OK, we're done. I think I released this one too
59:07
late because we're what is it? 27th, 27th or 26th, 27th, 27th?
59:12
2 days after Christmas and we still haven't so it needs to be
59:15
gone. So drink up guys.
59:17
Well, we're helping. We're trying to help here.
59:19
Right. But like January 1st, you know,
59:22
new Year, are you going? To be a tough sell.
59:25
Yeah, I think January 1st is the hard cut off.
59:27
Same. And I haven't.
59:28
I love pumpkin beers. I haven't done a pumpkin beer in
59:30
here yet because once December 1st comes, you're done with it.
59:35
So I haven't done that yet. I would, I would love that Scott
59:39
was picking up the microphone. I think we have talked about
59:41
pumpkin beer so much. I would love to talk to you
59:44
about pumpkin beers because pumpkin beers seem like they are
59:47
really, really challenging. Would you agree with that?
59:50
Yeah, and and one thing I was going to say that ties in is we
59:53
have beautiful weather here, right?
59:55
Right now it's warm. It's if it's colder, that's
1:00:00
probably more people thinking about drinking that beer.
1:00:03
Don't you think maybe as opposed to being warm like a heavy stout
1:00:06
would be less than a heavy stout, but a stout maybe tends
1:00:08
to be lend itself to colder weather kind of thing.
1:00:10
So I don't know if that if it's colder you're like.
1:00:14
Yeah, yeah, it might be on this beer.
1:00:17
And last year I actually I did this with lactose.
1:00:20
So it was like a peppermint milk stout.
1:00:22
So it's kind of hot chocolate, peppermint vibes.
1:00:24
And so it was a little different.
1:00:25
It's not exact, you know, very different this year, same
1:00:28
basically base beer, but just without the without the lactose.
1:00:33
But yeah, yeah, weather definitely drives some of that
1:00:36
for sure. And go back to what he was
1:00:37
talking about pumpkins. As the weather gets cooler into
1:00:40
the fall. It's, I think, the same thing.
1:00:42
It's cooler. Pumpkin beers are really good,
1:00:44
you know? I get massively confused anymore
1:00:47
and, and I mean, there's, there's a couple of pumpkin
1:00:50
beers that maybe I like, but I get massively confused anymore
1:00:55
as to when the season begins and when it ends and.
1:00:59
See, I thought pumpkin beers were supposed to be like around
1:01:02
Thanksgiving time. It's like.
1:01:04
But like, we haven't had a super cold Thanksgiving in Tennessee
1:01:07
in years just because, well, whether or not you believe
1:01:12
global warming is real, we just haven't had a cold Thanksgiving.
1:01:16
And it doesn't. Last, if we get.
1:01:17
If we do, it's a day or two here and there, which makes it and
1:01:21
kind of more to your conversational point, I bet you
1:01:23
it's very difficult to brew seasonally adjusted beers if you
1:01:29
don't know if it's going to be this.
1:01:31
To your point, this would be even better if it was 20°
1:01:36
outside, but it's 70. I'm still drinking it, I'm still
1:01:39
enjoying it, but I have a feeling it would go faster.
1:01:42
It's. More if it was 20° outside.
1:01:46
Exactly. You're having to brew this beer
1:01:47
weeks in advance, not knowing what the weather is going to be
1:01:50
like by the time you release it. Right.
1:01:52
Yep. It's a factor to consider.
1:01:54
Yeah. And it's all relative because
1:01:56
like an Oktoberfest lager, Yeah, feel like you can probably sell
1:01:59
that year round. But yeah, it definitely, it
1:02:02
seems like nowadays you gotta release those July 25th.
1:02:04
Yeah, yeah. So for real, I know.
1:02:06
What does it? You gotta follow some amounts.
1:02:08
Yeah, talk about that so many times.
1:02:11
You know that Oktoberfest season, when it begins, when it
1:02:13
ends, I'm curious from a Brewer. And you also do a lot on the
1:02:18
business side, like how do you balance that out?
1:02:21
And really what is the most fun? Is it the brewing part of it Has
1:02:25
to. Be I don't balance it, I work
1:02:27
all the time. He does everything 100% of the.
1:02:31
Time, yeah, but the but the brewing part really has to be a
1:02:34
lot of fun, right? Like it is, yeah.
1:02:36
I mean, those are the best days because it's like, oh boy, I'm
1:02:39
not looking at a laptop screen or I'm not paying taxes or
1:02:42
whatever. But yeah, I do try.
1:02:44
I do have an assistant Brewer in here about one to two days a
1:02:47
week, and so she helps out a ton.
1:02:51
And but no, I mean, my, my best, my favorite days are the ones
1:02:54
where I'm just brewing a new beer, you know, just because
1:02:56
it's something I want to brew. But yeah, I try to set a
1:03:00
schedule every week where this day is brew day, this day is
1:03:03
kegging, this day is this. This day is kind of an office
1:03:05
day. So it's tough to balance.
1:03:07
But yeah, how? Often something during the you
1:03:12
know, is it every week you're brewing a beer or is it?
1:03:15
Ideally, yeah, we're kind of set up to brew about once a week.
1:03:18
It's it's slower months, maybe twice, but it's 2-3 times a
1:03:21
month physically. So yeah.
1:03:23
Are you, are you always thinking about beers too?
1:03:26
You're in the grocery store, you're this or like something,
1:03:29
an ingredient for a recipe or something.
1:03:32
You know you. Is that always on your mind like
1:03:35
recipe used? To be more when I homebrewed,
1:03:37
but yes and no, I mean there's there's certainly a lot of like
1:03:43
beer ideas on the back burner. It's like, man, I I would like
1:03:46
to do that. I don't know when I'm going to
1:03:47
be able to fit that in or when when can we do that?
1:03:49
You know great like check, check pilsner or something I really
1:03:53
want to do. I don't really know that that
1:03:54
fits in with our tap wall right now.
1:03:56
So does that make sense to do it?
1:03:57
I don't know, maybe not, but I want to, you know, it's.
1:04:00
Always. It's always kind of hanging
1:04:01
around. Yes, Yeah, exactly.
1:04:03
Yeah, you. Ever find yourself like waking
1:04:04
up at like 3:00 in the morning and then all of a sudden you're
1:04:06
going, I've got the perfect idea for a beer and you got to write
1:04:10
down and, you know, your wife's like, go to bed?
1:04:12
Yeah, exactly. See, I imagine in my head, like
1:04:16
most brewery owners, they're like, just constantly thinking
1:04:19
about pumping out the next big thing and, like, super excited
1:04:22
about it. In reality, I'm guessing it's a
1:04:24
lot of laptop work, a lot of paying taxes.
1:04:27
Yeah. And like every once in a while,
1:04:28
you get to brew a new beer. Which regulation did I forget
1:04:32
about at 3:00 AM? If I could which?
1:04:37
Role did I not know existed that I didn't follow.
1:04:40
But but on the business side though, and on the brewing side,
1:04:44
do you ever wrestle with that where you're going, Gosh, do I
1:04:48
do I give the business side to somebody else?
1:04:50
Do I give the brewing side to somebody else?
1:04:53
I mean, where does where does that stand for you?
1:04:55
Well, there's certainly lots of jobs you're trainable and you
1:04:58
can pass off and there's accountants and there's
1:05:00
professionals and there's things that can do things even, you
1:05:02
know, you can hire. You know, like I said, Sydney's
1:05:05
working in the brewery 1-2 days a week.
1:05:07
She's been great. And so, yeah, I think it's both
1:05:09
just to buy it out, what can I, what can I get off my plate.
1:05:12
So that's kind of where we are in terms of growth right now.
1:05:14
What what makes sense to get off my plate.
1:05:16
So yeah. But you mentioned some of your
1:05:19
team, talk about your team and how they important, how
1:05:20
important they are to you in the business.
1:05:22
They're huge. I mean, we, I think we've got
1:05:25
the best hospitality staff in Murfreesboro.
1:05:28
That's been a goal from day one. You know, we've got people that
1:05:32
have experienced from other breweries that you see in here
1:05:35
from other national breweries. Dallas, yeah, Dallas get a ton
1:05:39
of experience from the casual pint and turn places he's
1:05:42
worked. And so that's been a huge relief
1:05:46
for me. It's like, hey, let's hire
1:05:48
grown-ups who can just kind of handle the tap room when I
1:05:51
don't, you know, need to be here and I can talk about beer have
1:05:55
really, you know, high customer care, care about the customers
1:06:00
and even people that don't have brewery experience if they've
1:06:03
got a background and, you know, high customer care.
1:06:06
I really value that, so yeah. Yeah, cuz of the face.
1:06:10
If you're not here right, you need to be confident that people
1:06:13
are going to be taken care of. Yeah, and we, again, we've got
1:06:16
great people, you know, so we've had great people that have moved
1:06:19
away and got new, you know, new people along the way.
1:06:22
So shout out to Cheryl, who's in here a lot.
1:06:27
She's worked at Black Abbey back in the day and, you know, you
1:06:32
know, other breweries that, you know, people have worked at.
1:06:34
So, yeah, been very fortunate with that.
1:06:36
I know staffing is difficult in the hospitality space, but we've
1:06:40
been really, really fortunate. So nice.
1:06:42
Yeah, yeah. Well, it probably lends itself
1:06:44
to who they're working for too, I'm going to imagine.
1:06:48
Come on, baby. I don't know.
1:06:50
I don't. Know, I think, I think I'm
1:06:52
lucky. I don't know.
1:06:53
I don't know there's. Got more to it than that.
1:06:57
So in in addition to we're most of us, we're drinking the the
1:07:00
stout Santa. But Mitch, you've got the cherry
1:07:02
cordial over there. The the lone wolf hey.
1:07:06
Over there drinking that. 'D be different.
1:07:08
Drinking the other beer, but that's interesting.
1:07:10
I, I took you were talking Brandon, but I, I snagged
1:07:13
Mitch's beer and I took, he did the same for mine and and that's
1:07:17
good. It's fantastic.
1:07:18
Yeah, that brown ale and cider, that is.
1:07:21
We are not against mixing beers here.
1:07:24
A lot of breweries you go to, you ask to mix beers and they
1:07:27
just look at you like you're a space alien and we're not
1:07:30
against it. So that was a happy accident
1:07:32
from about a year ago. We mixed, I just kind of, you
1:07:36
know, again, mix the, the brown ale on the side.
1:07:38
I was like, you know, it tastes like the, you know, those cheap
1:07:40
cherry cordial candies you get at, at CVS or Walgreens or
1:07:43
whatever. Those are like fancy for me
1:07:45
growing up, I was like, that tastes like a cherry cordial
1:07:48
man. And so it's kind of a Christmas
1:07:50
beer like a year ago. And then we just kept it.
1:07:52
And so we've, you know, if you ever see a couple things on the
1:07:54
on the beer board that you want to mix, do it.
1:07:58
We don't mind. Yeah, yeah.
1:07:59
What's the term you always use, Mitch?
1:08:01
Cuvee there it is. Cuvee melange.
1:08:04
Asshole when you say. Something.
1:08:07
Worst. Word ever melange goes with
1:08:10
microgreens. Oh my.
1:08:11
God, yeah. But you know, it's funny, as we
1:08:14
talked it earlier, you know, people come in here, keep doing
1:08:17
that, and they're expecting an IPA because we know people's
1:08:23
beer styles and styles in general change.
1:08:27
Ciders are becoming more of a demand so.
1:08:30
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so obviously you have
1:08:32
one. I mean, people are coming in and
1:08:34
going. You have a cider, right?
1:08:36
We keep yes, and this is a black cherry cider we keep on tap all
1:08:39
the time. We've got a honey crisp that's
1:08:41
great. It's sort of a semi sweet.
1:08:43
And then Magner's, we keep Magner's Irish cider on because
1:08:46
that's yeah, that's, I mean 20 plus years ago that was my first
1:08:50
cider. So I was like, man, that thing
1:08:51
is awesome. Like Magner's dry Irish cider.
1:08:54
Love it so. But this is completely different
1:08:57
though. I mean like this isn't semi
1:08:59
sweet, it's not dry, it's a brown ale.
1:09:03
It's a cider mixed with a brown ale.
1:09:06
Yeah, brown ale plus black cherry cider.
1:09:09
Yeah it's semi tart but it to me it comes across sweeter than I
1:09:12
was expecting it to do, especially for cherry.
1:09:14
Cord And some people come in and they're like, give me go heavy
1:09:17
on the brown ale or go heavy on the cider.
1:09:19
The variance, yeah. Hang on a second.
1:09:21
So this is not this is this is pouring 2 different.
1:09:24
Terribly pouring 2. Different tabs.
1:09:26
Is the ratio half to half? I didn't.
1:09:28
One to one. Yeah, we have to.
1:09:29
Have one to one. I thought this was this is
1:09:30
something already mixed? Oh, let's about it.
1:09:32
Did you get it a certain weight match or?
1:09:34
Did you know it's this 5050 here?
1:09:36
Is it the? Is it the second best?
1:09:38
Brown it. Is Yep.
1:09:39
Yeah, second best brown ale mixed.
1:09:41
It tastes like the first best brown ale of the 1st.
1:09:44
I assume. Better.
1:09:45
I think it'd be better. Yeah, probably not second best.
1:09:48
First best in this. World, Yeah.
1:09:51
Gold. Gold medal.
1:09:52
Cherry Cordial. Yeah.
1:09:54
Just a step above. So you so you you brewed the the
1:09:57
butt? Well, you brewed the black
1:09:59
cherry cider. No, that's, that's 1911 brand.
1:10:02
Yeah, we bring that in for Litman.
1:10:03
So we keep that on tap all the time.
1:10:05
Yeah, yeah. Huh, I got learnt.
1:10:07
Today, very. Good.
1:10:09
We talked about non January for these people, wherever they are,
1:10:13
they want to do non, they want to drive January.
1:10:16
What are some of the things other products you might have
1:10:18
for them and maybe other non beer products as well?
1:10:21
Yeah, so obviously we've got a kitchen here, so food, having
1:10:24
food in the brewery was a priority from day one.
1:10:27
So we've got pizza, pretzels, wings, couple sandwich options,
1:10:34
a couple churros, cookies, just lots of good like bar food,
1:10:37
snacks and stuff like that. And in terms of like the NA
1:10:40
options, we got a lot more NA requests in the last like 3-4
1:10:44
months. And so I've got some of the
1:10:46
athletic brewing options. Go Brewing I think is 1.
1:10:51
I think it's a golden nail that came recommended to me.
1:10:55
And then of course, the hop water, we've got that so.
1:10:59
Yeah. Good, something for everyone.
1:11:01
Which one is the hop? Water again.
1:11:02
That's a wiseacre. Wiseacre Hop Zip.
1:11:05
Yeah, I know, Logan. This makes it commercially.
1:11:07
It's available one. Then.
1:11:09
Bearded Iris, bitch. We were at Bearded Iris in
1:11:12
Sylvan Supply a while back. You might, you might remember
1:11:15
that they they were just like, they gave us a hot water and
1:11:17
they're like, just ask for it, Keep asking for it.
1:11:19
So yeah, keep brewing. That's true.
1:11:20
They did, yeah. It was just.
1:11:22
Like I'd never had a hop water up until that.
1:11:24
Point RIP Sylvan Supply Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:11:27
I did a small batch of a of a hop water about a year ago for
1:11:31
dry January and just I couldn't keep up with demand.
1:11:34
I was doing it all the time. So really it's better just to
1:11:36
keep. Yeah, it's easy.
1:11:38
But yeah, it's just one of the things just to get and honestly
1:11:40
the Weisiker 1, you know, it's just good or better.
1:11:43
So it's like, yeah, let's just you can get it distributed.
1:11:45
So exactly, yeah. And I can take it home and drink
1:11:48
it all I want. Oh wait, I mean I don't do that.
1:11:53
I pay for it. Speaking of distribution, do you
1:11:57
guys have and if I have missed something, do you guys have
1:12:01
plans to can your beer? I sure would like to, but
1:12:06
that's, you know, that is a project.
1:12:08
Yeah, yeah. I've gotten asked from a lot of
1:12:11
accounts locally to do that. And I've said, you know, hey, if
1:12:14
we're going to do that, we're going to do it right with the
1:12:15
canning line to keep the oxygen levels low you need.
1:12:19
Space for that. Yeah.
1:12:20
And you need space and we don't have it.
1:12:21
So that might be a 2026 project, but that's for me that's a nice
1:12:26
to have, not a need to have at this.
1:12:28
Point, but it's like a wish list of like eventually we would love
1:12:32
you know you would love to have places you can go in and
1:12:36
Murfreesboro Nashville area. Yeah, Middle ground, Yeah.
1:12:39
There's a lot of accounts that, you know, don't want the draft
1:12:41
beer, but they'll take a case of cans.
1:12:43
Yeah. And so that's been something
1:12:44
that's holding us back a little bit.
1:12:46
So there might be some room for that, that maybe I'm not
1:12:49
realizing yet. So.
1:12:51
On the same note, what about growler fills?
1:12:53
Is that a thing? We will fill a growler.
1:12:56
We don't sell any growlers, but we've got crowlers we've got
1:12:59
we've got the stovepipe. The 19.2 oz cans, we'll fill
1:13:03
those up. So we might be transitioning
1:13:05
those to 16 ounce this year. The 19 oz ones are getting
1:13:08
harder to to find. Yeah, yeah.
1:13:11
So I'm not sure why that is. I'm curious but anyway, so we
1:13:16
might be switching that to a different.
1:13:17
Format demand thing. It's just like for me a 16
1:13:20
ounces is the perfect amount of beer to have 12 ounces.
1:13:24
I'll end up taking two and then I regret drinking the second one
1:13:27
because it's 24 oz but like 16 will leave me feeling just
1:13:32
right. I imagine 19 would kind of be
1:13:34
like, I'd be OK with it, but I'm it looks intimidating to me.
1:13:39
A 19.2 ounce can just feels like more of a commitment than it
1:13:44
should be. And it's not that much more than
1:13:46
a 16 ounce can. But for whatever reason, just
1:13:48
the, the, the height of that beer looks bigger.
1:13:52
And maybe it's a demand thing, I don't know.
1:13:54
But you guys are distributing, you're doing kegs, right?
1:13:57
So I mean, like you can get middle ground beer out in the
1:14:00
wild. It's just restaurants, pubs,
1:14:02
bars, things like that. You just can't go into a grocery
1:14:06
store, right? Right.
1:14:07
Beer Store and pick up a six pack.
1:14:08
Or your neighbor's bar with a whatever, right?
1:14:14
I can't think of the name for it because I don't have a tap at
1:14:16
home, but yeah. You like a kegerator kind?
1:14:19
Of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, some places sell the
1:14:22
smaller kegs too. And I can't think of the name of
1:14:24
that, but yeah. Yeah, the little 12th barrels or
1:14:29
little 2 1/2 gallons or whatever.
1:14:30
Yeah, Yeah, that'd be fun. Well.
1:14:32
We've got an we've got something else sitting in front of us.
1:14:35
This is kind of like the wild concoction where where Mitch,
1:14:39
we're going to lean on you on this one.
1:14:41
But so we've got a brand. Just a little background.
1:14:43
We have a text thread going between the four of us.
1:14:45
We actually met the Bury Underground podcast at like
1:14:49
officially met at one of the Nashville Predators Craft Beer
1:14:55
Fest, and we were. 20/24/20. 24 yeah.
1:14:59
We were down on the ice and we kind of all met at that point.
1:15:03
So we, we became friends, we became homies.
1:15:05
We got a text thread going. And there's a lot of crazy ideas
1:15:08
going back and forth. This one, I guess maybe I was
1:15:12
drunk that night or maybe I was like, up feeding babies.
1:15:14
But like a bunch of stuff going back and forth.
1:15:17
Mitch was like sending pictures of like the whole process of,
1:15:21
yes, over a period of several days, paper filters to, to
1:15:25
everything. But we've got something in front
1:15:27
of us. Yeah, Well, it looks really
1:15:29
good. It's a clarified punch.
1:15:31
The full names clarified milk punch.
1:15:33
But when you mentioned milk, most people are like, what?
1:15:36
What'd you do? But it's an Earl Grey tea bag
1:15:40
effort at the beginning. And you throw in a little bit of
1:15:44
Ruby port, a little bit of aged rum.
1:15:46
And I used postures over there. It's just one of my favorites
1:15:50
for painkillers. So I said, why not?
1:15:52
I'll use that dark rum. There we go.
1:15:53
And then I filled what I made back into the bottle that I
1:15:57
used. And then there's a allspice
1:16:00
tram, which is what I was failing to remember earlier in
1:16:03
our conversation. And it kind of gives that Chai
1:16:05
hit at the end or mid to end, in my opinion.
1:16:09
But yeah. And I threw in some fresh lemon
1:16:12
juice as well. And it takes a 1 cup of whole
1:16:15
milk and then you filter that out.
1:16:16
That's what you guys kept seeing me do with the shit ton of
1:16:20
coffee filters till I learned better and use cheesecloth for
1:16:23
the first part on the second batch, which is what this is.
1:16:26
What are we? This is.
1:16:27
What are we smelling on the nose?
1:16:28
Mixed well, the I only used a little bit of the rum, but I
1:16:32
only had a little bit of the rum left.
1:16:34
So that's why I have another bottle of the Pusser's rum at
1:16:37
home. But yeah, having an empty
1:16:40
bottle, I needed to put this in something and it looks pretty in
1:16:43
there. I just don't have like a label
1:16:44
remover. So I just ripped off the top
1:16:47
blue hinted Topper and makes me remember that's what that is.
1:16:52
But. It smells Christmas.
1:16:54
Oh yeah, it is. Totally.
1:16:56
It smells like Christmas. And this is, yeah, Alton Brown's
1:16:59
recipe for it, so enjoy. Wow, that is delicious.
1:17:04
Wow, that's good. Have you ever tried?
1:17:05
Would this be good? Like warmed up, like a like a
1:17:08
warm. I think you could Mull it pretty
1:17:10
nicely. OK yeah, Stick a cinnamon stick
1:17:13
in it and then like sprinkle some nutmeg or something.
1:17:16
You could even put a cream in it, like a a homemade kind of
1:17:21
cream thing. Like a like a cold foam kind.
1:17:24
Of yeah, that'd be rad. Yeah, I think that'd be.
1:17:26
Awesome. What does the milk do before you
1:17:28
filter it out? I think it adds a little more
1:17:30
body and kind of like this it it, I feel like it cuts the
1:17:35
alcohol a little bit too, but I haven't really seen exactly what
1:17:40
milk does to the whole thing in a descriptive sense because I, I
1:17:45
have a similar question as well. But every time I've taking a sip
1:17:49
and whatnot, the ABV is somewhere between like 15 and 19
1:17:54
on this. It's not super heavy because
1:17:56
it's not using a whole lot of liquor, but the I feel like the
1:18:00
clarifying process of that milk gives it a little bit better of
1:18:04
a silky body, a creaminess to it, but you don't see that
1:18:07
represented and how clear it can be.
1:18:10
But yeah, I cheesecloth and like two or three coffee filter
1:18:15
sessions till I'm happy where I don't see any artifacts in it.
1:18:19
Yeah. This is well done.
1:18:20
I really enjoy this. This is good.
1:18:23
I'm glad I haven't had any feedback yet, it's just been me.
1:18:26
This. Is this is not on my list of
1:18:29
things to try today and. It's.
1:18:31
Really good. It's really good.
1:18:33
Super tasty. You know, with the new untapped
1:18:35
you could break this. You could check this in because
1:18:37
I like what's. Going on with Untapped, like we
1:18:40
all know it was commercialized the beginning which Brewers I'm
1:18:44
assuming have a love hate relationship with Untapped?
1:18:47
Mostly hate. Mostly hate, yeah.
1:18:49
I didn't want to say hate hate, but we assume that's.
1:18:51
Pretty ambivalent honestly. I wouldn't call it hate, I just
1:18:54
don't pay much attention. Well, you get the people that
1:18:57
you know, be like, oh, they'll they'll check in an IPA and be
1:18:59
like this is too bitter. Or if they'll check in a style
1:19:03
and be like not heavy enough or something.
1:19:05
For the record, I don't think anybody here would do something
1:19:07
like that so. No, never, never let me go back.
1:19:12
Look at my original check. I guess you could check that we
1:19:14
could make this on untapped now that it's you can make Wild
1:19:17
West. So it there's liquor and all the
1:19:19
things on Untapped. Got purchased by a big mega
1:19:23
conglomerate company or whatever which.
1:19:25
You know, Congrats. You either become Google or you
1:19:29
get big enough to be bought by them.
1:19:30
One or two I. Mean like, well, I mean I'm sure
1:19:32
that happens with craft breweries as well too, right?
1:19:34
I mean, like the goal is to stay as local and craft as possible,
1:19:39
but you want to expand to the point where you're able to do
1:19:41
well enough for yourself to where it can go on autopilot and
1:19:44
you can do the things that you want to do.
1:19:47
And if it becomes something that ends up not being successful,
1:19:50
like brewing a certain beer, whatever, it's not a punch to
1:19:52
the bottom line because you're doing well enough as a brewery.
1:19:55
So like the goal is to always expand and get bigger or at
1:19:58
least to make enough to where you're comfortable with that.
1:20:01
At some point it kind of goes over into the one of the bigger
1:20:04
companies comes over to you and says, Hey, how much would it
1:20:07
cost to acquire you? Right.
1:20:09
And that's kind of what happened with untapped because they, they
1:20:11
built this following. They have millions of people
1:20:13
that pay, you know, money per month to be insiders.
1:20:17
You know, and now all of a sudden I opened up my untap one
1:20:19
day with an update and I can check in Diet Coke if I wanted
1:20:22
to, and it's not called brew anymore.
1:20:24
It's called place and it's not called.
1:20:26
It's just like what happened. Well, they're entering their
1:20:30
next phase. Yeah, it's now a drink, place
1:20:33
and produce. Yeah, it's not beer focused
1:20:35
anymore. I got a friend, Michael Stokes
1:20:37
and I, He did this last night. He's checking in.
1:20:41
I saw that, yeah. Maker's Mark, and not that he's
1:20:43
creating it. It's in there.
1:20:44
Yeah, I go. Are we playing this game?
1:20:46
Because I'll be here all day. I won't double them on numbers
1:20:50
overnight. Surely people are trying to be
1:20:53
the first to create a registry but not keeping a log of it or
1:20:58
anything you know. But is there any Rep to creating
1:21:02
the first check into it? Oh, you can.
1:21:05
When it when you do it and you take a screenshot and maybe you
1:21:08
put on your social media, but then the next person checks it
1:21:10
in and then that's all gone. There's nothing.
1:21:12
There's nothing. Nobody looks back and says, oh
1:21:13
God, you were the first, right? You know, until the second
1:21:16
person comes in, then you are. But then, then after that it
1:21:19
doesn't matter. Yeah, true, true.
1:21:22
Good beers tonight. Yeah, delicious.
1:21:24
Very. Mitch, this is.
1:21:25
This is great, Mitch. Thank you.
1:21:26
Thank you. This was super good.
1:21:28
Not something I was expecting to try today and it was it's super
1:21:30
tasty. It's got a very definitely has a
1:21:32
tea back end to it and it's sweet at the same time we.
1:21:36
Just kill half that bottle just sitting here, yeah?
1:21:38
Five of us 5. Five of us it's. 8 tea bags of
1:21:42
Earl Grey. Well, it's all have been good as
1:21:46
the beer from Middle Ground. I know we're wanting one quick
1:21:49
thing and I'm and I'm looking around and I have, since I've
1:21:51
been here, your your tap room is set up for community.
1:21:57
You've got couches, you've got a big long table over there which
1:22:01
I'm assuming some kind of community.
1:22:02
Foosball. Got the foosball.
1:22:04
Foosball over there. Can you speak to that?
1:22:06
Is that is it set up that way? I think your password to your
1:22:08
Wi-Fi even says talk to each other or something.
1:22:11
Yes, yeah. Promoting that community thing
1:22:13
like get in here, get off your phones, beer is community kind
1:22:16
of thing. Is it on purpose?
1:22:18
It is, yeah. Beer.
1:22:19
Beer is community. That's right.
1:22:20
I mean, beer is best enjoyed with food and with, with friends
1:22:23
and family. So, you know, we're always kind
1:22:27
of trying to update and change things.
1:22:29
That's probably a January project, right?
1:22:31
Normally my wife and I get here in January and sort of, you
1:22:33
know, whip some, you know, make some changes.
1:22:36
And so, yeah, always working on that.
1:22:40
We, I think we need a bit of a coffee table or something here
1:22:42
at the couch so people can actually eat some food and set
1:22:45
their things down. But yeah, that big community
1:22:47
table was kind of a a change about a year ago where it's
1:22:50
like, you know, we need, you know, we have a small bar.
1:22:52
And so we need a place to sort of as a de facto, you know, a de
1:22:55
facto bar where if the five bar seats are taken, people can
1:22:59
still sit down and hang out with each other.
1:23:01
So I think it's done that. It'd be nice if we're a high
1:23:03
top, but it's still doing a pretty good job so I like it.
1:23:07
I like it. And if we start looking around,
1:23:08
people start like, Oh well, they're seats over there at that
1:23:10
table. You sit down, you don't know the
1:23:12
people, and they'll have a conversation, you know?
1:23:14
Exactly. We've all had those stories a
1:23:16
million times at a word. People get worried about that at
1:23:18
at trivia night sometimes. Sometimes we'll split up that
1:23:21
big table for trivia night, you know?
1:23:23
But other than that, it usually works.
1:23:25
So yeah. Like I'd be set up that way too
1:23:27
in the sense that communal. Thing.
1:23:29
Earlier, you know, there's just the big table, just they.
1:23:32
They even adjusted to us. They expanded the couch space
1:23:35
and moved the foosball table and gave this area a wider opening.
1:23:39
It was super smart. Yeah, definitely.
1:23:42
So, so what's coming up in middle ground kind of rounding
1:23:45
everything out There's there's things coming up.
1:23:48
I want to first of all kind of give us a, give us a history or
1:23:52
like a summary of like Mug Club. I don't know about Mug Club
1:23:54
membership, you know, what are the details on that?
1:23:57
And then kind of lead into what are some of the things that you
1:23:59
guys are looking forward to in 2026?
1:24:02
For sure so mug club is it started out being a am I going
1:24:08
to say this right, a calendar year thing where you you join at
1:24:13
the end or beginning of the year and then it would last I.
1:24:15
Was your like your time to sign? Up.
1:24:17
Yeah, That was time to sign up. And then what we discovered was,
1:24:19
well, this doesn't really work because especially in a place
1:24:22
like Murfreesboro, there's people moving here all the time.
1:24:24
So we would get people that would move here from California
1:24:26
in the summer. No chance to sign up.
1:24:28
Yeah. And they say, hey, I really want
1:24:30
to join the mud club. And so I kind of, you know,
1:24:32
retooled how we were doing that. It's like, OK, OK, it's now it's
1:24:35
a annual thing where it's just your membership is good, you
1:24:39
know, 12 months from the date that you sign up, right?
1:24:42
And so got a lot more memberships that way.
1:24:45
It's typically 75 bucks a year and you get 20 oz mug instead of
1:24:50
a 16 ounce bore every time you come in.
1:24:52
Yet 10% off to go beer and merchandise all the time.
1:24:57
Nice. You get a free beer on or near
1:25:00
your birthday, you know, if you close on a day that is your
1:25:02
birthday, then you come in and get it the next day or whatever.
1:25:05
And then we do a few, you know, kind of special or private
1:25:09
events for Mug Club throughout the year.
1:25:11
And then something really cool that really, really trying to
1:25:16
get go heavier on in 2026. And I don't think, I don't know
1:25:19
of any Mug Club anywhere that does this, but it's mud club
1:25:22
exclusive beers. It's opera beer that is
1:25:26
obviously a small batch. It's not a full 7 barrel batch
1:25:28
of beer, but it's a beer that's just for them.
1:25:32
And so I, we put it up on the menu wall and everything.
1:25:34
And so people, you know, will see it and they'll ask for, it's
1:25:37
like, no, but a lot of times that prompts people to join the
1:25:40
mud club, right? That's really cool.
1:25:43
I want that, you know, I want that beer.
1:25:44
You guys do that. And it's, it's not a ton.
1:25:46
It's maybe you know, maybe four or five a year or something like
1:25:48
that. So mug club exclusive beers is
1:25:51
something we do a little bit of too that.
1:25:53
And I mean, if, if, if that exists anywhere else, I'd love
1:25:56
to learn of that then I don't think it does so.
1:25:59
Bring out of that. Nope.
1:26:00
That's great, Yeah. Bring in those frequent Flyers,
1:26:02
yes? Yeah.
1:26:03
It's one of those things, hey, if you sign up right now, you
1:26:05
can get that beer, kind of. Thing yeah, that's that's the
1:26:08
upsell, right? So yeah.
1:26:11
So yeah, so that that's been fun.
1:26:13
We've got a Mug Club exclusive coming out here probably next
1:26:16
month, kind of West Coast IPA. Oh yeah.
1:26:19
And yeah, 2026, just looking to make more great beers.
1:26:24
You know, we've again been open a couple years and so not that
1:26:27
we're not coming up with new beers or being created, but it's
1:26:30
kind of nice to look at the backlog of great beers that we
1:26:32
have made and say, OK, let's bring that back.
1:26:34
Everyone's asking for that. What?
1:26:36
What has worked? Let's do it again.
1:26:37
Oh yeah. So Centennial IPA going to make
1:26:40
a comeback? Yeah, I'm sure it will.
1:26:41
Yeah. And actually some it's.
1:26:43
Easy and it works. It's easy.
1:26:44
Yeah, some, some regulars and Mud club members, Cecil and
1:26:50
Carolyn, doesn't matter how to say their name, Cecil and
1:26:52
Carolyn. So Carolyn was not an IPA person
1:26:55
and but she loved that IPA. And so they got married back in
1:26:58
May. And so about a year ago she was
1:27:01
saying, hey, I want that at the wedding.
1:27:03
I want that beer at the wedding. And so I brewed it just, you
1:27:05
know, time to write. So they'd have a keg of that at
1:27:08
their wedding. And so yeah, just kind of going
1:27:12
back to some some trusty recipes and beers that we've done and a
1:27:15
lot, a lot of cool events coming up here in 2026.
1:27:18
Awesome. I love it and I like the I like
1:27:20
the camaraderie that middle ground has.
1:27:22
I like the the open space, the very like friendly type of
1:27:26
welcoming to everybody that wants to come in.
1:27:29
Scott, you touched on the long table, you know, the foosball
1:27:32
table, the the the couches that are sitting here.
1:27:35
It's like there's if you're coming in to just work for a
1:27:38
while. I've brought my laptop and I sat
1:27:39
one of the one of those tables right over there and worked for
1:27:41
a little while. I've sat at the bar, you know,
1:27:43
with my buddy Scott when, well, YouTube, but like another Scott,
1:27:48
you know, come inside of the bar having beers.
1:27:50
Mitch and I have been in here a couple of times so.
1:27:52
You know, I really wish there was breweries like this around
1:27:55
when I was going to college here.
1:27:56
Yeah, really. Yeah, we're just old heads.
1:27:59
Mitch, I know. We can't.
1:28:01
We, we can, should have, would have, could all we want.
1:28:04
But it's good to know that the craft beer community is moving
1:28:07
forward and that Murfreesboro has a place in it.
1:28:10
Dang. Right, because the people that
1:28:12
are here are watching it just expand and grow like crazy.
1:28:17
And it's good to know that beer is part of that footprint.
1:28:21
And we cheers to you, Brandon, for being part of that community
1:28:25
100%. And would you like to see more
1:28:27
breweries in in Murfreesboro as a whole?
1:28:28
That's kind of help your business too, right?
1:28:31
Yeah, and you, you'd mentioned the Smack Dab Guys earlier.
1:28:33
Well, you didn't say the name, but the Smack Dab Guys comments.
1:28:36
We've talked about a collab. Cedar Glade, you know, we've
1:28:38
talked about a collab. So yeah, if it's all, you know,
1:28:42
friendly camaraderie, we're here for it.
1:28:44
So awesome. It's one of the rare other
1:28:47
industries were having multiples of the same type.
1:28:51
I mean, there, there's there's times where bigger ones can, you
1:28:54
know, kind of come in and take away share whatever.
1:28:56
But like if you have small craft breweries that are moving in,
1:28:59
like it helps elevate the entire scene, not just take away market
1:29:03
share from other people. You were recently on, we're
1:29:05
going to mention another podcast because shout out to those guys.
1:29:08
Hell yeah, Tap the craft, those guys.
1:29:10
You're on that. Listen to it today.
1:29:11
And one of the things you said was breweries aren't competing
1:29:15
with each other. You're competing in kind of that
1:29:18
that that entertainment space or the hospitality space or the
1:29:21
restaurant space, that kind of thing.
1:29:22
So is that kind of that thing you don't care if there were 50
1:29:25
breweries in Murfreesboro would be a good thing ultimately.
1:29:28
Well, I yeah, I don't know. I mean which?
1:29:30
Is a lot of 50 would be a. Finite amount of money that we
1:29:33
have do. They need to be on the same
1:29:36
street or I mean. I've been like walking between
1:29:39
them. But you.
1:29:39
Know yeah, I just hell yes. Yeah.
1:29:42
I, I yeah, we we are, I think a mistake that breweries make is
1:29:47
that the mentality of, you know, we're competing with other
1:29:50
breweries. We're really just competing for
1:29:52
entertainment dollars. We exist in the hospitality
1:29:55
space. And yes, I yeah.
1:29:58
I don't know what the magic number is.
1:30:00
I mean, how many bowling alleys is too many in Murfreesboro?
1:30:02
You know, I don't know if there's one in each part of town
1:30:05
or whatever. And it makes sense.
1:30:06
Sure, but I think it yeah, at the end of the day, it's just a
1:30:10
place to hang out. And the fact that we make the
1:30:12
beer is the cherry on top. So yeah, what the magic number
1:30:17
is, I don't know. But I think that I think that a
1:30:19
lot of breweries, it's maybe where they go wrong is like
1:30:22
you're a hospitality industry. You're here to take care of
1:30:24
customers. You're here to make people feel,
1:30:26
help people feel welcome and be a good place to get together
1:30:29
with people. So hopefully we're we're doing
1:30:31
that at least we're trying so. I like hearing that from a
1:30:33
Brewer. When you say that, I like
1:30:34
hearing that from a Brewer because as consumers we like
1:30:37
having multiple places in that area, right?
1:30:39
It's I think we will hit Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang, bang and if
1:30:42
you. Give me a You're good at that
1:30:43
by. The way trying to come work and.
1:30:44
You'll hit every place. Every single one of them, yeah.
1:30:47
Make why the drive count? Yeah, you try to 100%.
1:30:51
Man, yeah, such a good time. Yeah, I know, I know.
1:30:54
We'd probably let this man get get on with this.
1:30:57
Thanks for hanging. Brandon, thank you for having
1:30:59
us. This is awesome.
1:31:00
I'm glad this worked out. All my glasses empty no.
1:31:03
Glasses, young people, who cares?
1:31:04
Yeah, this. Is really, Brett says he.
1:31:08
Cares we didn't go order some. Clarified Punch.
1:31:11
Is that what? We're here for a little while
1:31:12
longer. Anyway, we're gone.
1:31:13
So till next time. Brett, thank you so much for
1:31:16
having us. It's been a great time and we
1:31:18
love the. Place.
1:31:19
Cheers. Cheers everybody.