Two Guys & Beer
From Local Brews to Global Praise The Hop Butcher Story
Ever wondered how a Chicago-based brewery became internationally renowned? Discover the secrets behind Hop Butcher for the World's impressive growth and unique beer offerings straight from owner Jeremiah Zimmer. Join Andy Beckstrom and Sean Field in the Two Guys Beer Podcast Studio as they share exclusive insights from their interview with Jeremiah and take you through a tasting journey of Hop Butcher's exceptional IPA. With notes of ripe tropical fruits, pleasant pine, and fresh citrus, this IPA is sure to tantalize your taste buds.
Get ready for an exciting exploration of Hop Butcher's dynamic expansion and engaging collaborations. Inspired by Carl Sandburg's poem "Chicago," the brewery's name and philosophy reflect the passionate spirit of traditional butchers. Learn how they engage with customers, seek feedback through festivals, and form strategic partnerships to share their craft beyond Chicago. Jeremiah provides a behind-the-scenes look at their thoughtful decisions on expanding their reach, including collaborations with restaurants, vendors, and other breweries.
Hop Butcher's journey from a local favorite to an internationally recognized brewery is nothing short of impressive. From their humble beginnings in 2014 to distributing across 30 states and internationally, discover how their strategy of organic expansion and community engagement has paid off. We also touch on the brewery's unique branding, featuring Chicago historical references and eye-catching artwork on labels. Plus, stay tuned for an exciting discussion on the latest developments in the WNBA, highlighting rising stars and rivalries that mirror historic NBA moments. Don't miss out on this compelling episode packed with insightful conversations and thrilling beer tastings!
Ever wondered how a Chicago-based brewery became internationally renowned? Discover the secrets behind Hop Butcher for the World's impressive growth and unique beer offerings straight from owner Jeremiah Zimmer. Join Andy Beckstrom and Sean Field in the Two Guys Beer Podcast Studio as they share exclusive insights from their interview with Jeremiah and take you through a tasting journey of Hop Butcher's exceptional IPA. With notes of ripe tropical fruits, pleasant pine, and fresh citrus, this IPA is sure to tantalize your taste buds.
Get ready for an exciting exploration of Hop Butcher's dynamic expansion and engaging collaborations. Inspired by Carl Sandburg's poem "Chicago," the brewery's name and philosophy reflect the passionate spirit of traditional butchers. Learn how they engage with customers, seek feedback through festivals, and form strategic partnerships to share their craft beyond Chicago. Jeremiah provides a behind-the-scenes look at their thoughtful decisions on expanding their reach, including collaborations with restaurants, vendors, and other breweries.
Hop Butcher's journey from a local favorite to an internationally recognized brewery is nothing short of impressive. From their humble beginnings in 2014 to distributing across 30 states and internationally, discover how their strategy of organic expansion and community engagement has paid off. We also touch on the brewery's unique branding, featuring Chicago historical references and eye-catching artwork on labels. Plus, stay tuned for an exciting discussion on the latest developments in the WNBA, highlighting rising stars and rivalries that mirror historic NBA moments. Don't miss out on this compelling episode packed with insightful conversations and thrilling beer tastings!
All right and welcome in everybody here. Once again to the Two Guys Beer Podcast Studio here in lovely Minnesota. I'm glad you could join us for yet another broadcast. Andy Beckstrom, sean Field once again back at it in the lab, as the kids say. I don't really like that phrase. I feel like it's maybe overused or improperly used, maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think improperly used. I don't know if this could be a beer lab or dissecting beer with our palate. Yeah, it's true. Does that even make sense? That doesn't sound like it makes sense.
Speaker 1:I'm down, I'll follow.
Speaker 2:Whatever, After a couple of years I'm sure it'll make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll probably come up with a better description, maybe later on, for sure, after the beer, for sure.
Speaker 2:And you haven't noticed everybody, our wonderful brick wall from our masonry skills, our nice new logo in between us there. Let us know what you think of that.
Speaker 1:And a new addition to the to the program. So, yeah, again, give us feedback on anything. You know we say it pretty much every single time, but you know the old like share, subscribe, everything like that. But you know, comment, give us feedback, recommend a us some beer? Very good, yeah, go ahead and send it to us. But yeah, just give us an idea of something you want to be able to see and we'll do our best to try to be able to put it on the broadcast and be able to kind of do a little research and talk with some people and get some information about whatever brewery it is.
Speaker 2:And speaking of talking with people on this specific episode here from Hot Butcher, andy got to actually interview the owner of the brewery. What about an hour-ish or so? Yeah, with a whole bunch of questions.
Speaker 1:Got a chance to reach out. You know we generally do try to reach out, but not everybody, whether it be time or they probably get a lot of media requests or things like that. I don't blame anybody for not being able to reply or anything like that, but talked for a little while with Jeremiah Zimmer earlier today. Hop Butcher for the World is the beer that we're doing today, and if you see the two cans we have out there, one has the logo or the art label for the beer itself, but then you'll notice that the Hop Butcher for the World logo is actually on the back of the beer. So we'll talk a little bit more about that a little bit later.
Speaker 1:Some of the notes that we have from the conversation that we had with Jeremiah Zimmer and first and foremost I want to thank him for being able to take the time out to be able to chat with, chat with me a little bit and give me kind of some background and some history and just some fun fact type of stuff that they got going on down there, so kind of a cool deal that has something like that. So just so that everybody's aware, we've had now a couple of them, but it's from kind of the Chicagoland area. They have a Chicago brewery store and taproom on Lincoln Avenue and then they also have a retail store as well. So they got a couple of different places you can be able to be able to get that for wherever you're looking to be able to go to their actual location. So they're in a couple of different places but it's kind of a cool deal when they went from something pretty small and again we'll talk a little bit about that, but we'll kind of work on that as we go through here and talk about where they're at.
Speaker 1:The other one is the Bedford Park area on the other one. So a little bit different kind of deals and a fun deal to be able to go and check out what's going on there. So first and foremost, just kind of like a little bit of some basic stuff about them. See if I can get to the About page here. So the Hop Butcher for the World. You know what I'm getting ahead of myself. Slow down, hold it on, bring it back. We haven't even hit the high point yet.
Speaker 2:We got to open it up. I even forgot about that.
Speaker 1:How I forget about that, because that's the key. That's the key to every episode. It should almost be just right off the top.
Speaker 2:Such a gorgeous sound and this is the whole reason we do this show is just to try and drink beer. Who doesn't like to drink beer?
Speaker 1:So this is an IPA Citra, eldorado and Muteca. I'm probably mispronouncing that wrong, so I apologize, mr Zimmer, for mispronouncing that one. But M-O-T-U-E-K-A, all of those hops involved with that, it's a 6.5%. It is a pint, so a full-size guy Appears to be ripe, tropical, pleasant pine and fresh citrus type of tasting notes that they talk about on the can as well, you can definitely smell the pine and citrus in it when you take a smell of it.
Speaker 2:A little bit hoppy, not too bad Mostly I smell mostly just kind of pine and citrus when I smell it.
Speaker 1:When I first opened it I got a little bit of aroma of hops, but now that it's breathed a little bit, yeah, it's kind of mellowed out, almost even aromatically. If you will, it does, yes, breathe a little bit. Yeah, it's. It's kind of mellowed out, almost even aromatically. If you will, it does, yes, that's pretty solid, though. I do like that. I like that. It's not not real heavy hop but, uh, definitely a very, very solid beer. I like that one a lot yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's crisp too for ipa. It is a crisp ipa. Yeah, it drinks pretty easy, it's smooth. You know, I'd like to say on our lawnmower scale this one. I would probably drink a couple of these on a lawnmower scale because it's light and smooth for an IPA and for the hop flavor. Yeah, because it's light and smooth and even crisp. It kind of drinks like a lager to an extent, which, of course, is what you prefer when you're sweating on the lawnmower admiring your work.
Speaker 2:You want some little crisp, clean, refreshing, and I think is for an ipa, I think, uh, jeremiah hit it on the head with this for sure absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think this would probably be. Uh well, I mean, I guess it depends on how much of my lawn I'm mowing, if I'm mowing what I'm currently mowing, or if I'm mowing what I normally mow. If I'm mowing what I normally mow, probably about a, a two-pounder, but for what I'm currently mowing, probably about five. We hosted for those that aren't aware, we hosted a 50th wedding anniversary for the in-laws this last weekend.
Speaker 2:Congratulations to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Congratulations out to Dean and Cordia. Many, many years and kind of live out in the country on a farm and spend some time trying to, you know, get everything kind of cleaned up and you know painted some stuff and you know you got all the family coming over so you got to make everything you know look better than it ever has and everything like that, which is good.
Speaker 2:Spruce it up.
Speaker 1:But in part of that process we also had to make some additional areas for parking and some additional areas kind of cut out to try to cut back some of the mosquitoes and things like that. So we'd have like three riding lawnmowers out here like buzzing around all over the place. So I'm probably cutting about twice as much as what.
Speaker 2:I normally do at this point.
Speaker 1:So it's good for you. Yeah, I mean, it just allows more time for things like sweet home.
Speaker 2:It sure is. Nothing beats sweet Home. Exactly.
Speaker 1:Not even Alabama when you're at Sweet Home.
Speaker 2:I'll say one thing Sweet, that's great. Leonard Skinner. I might be going to that concert here on August 30th, by the way, in Treasure Island.
Speaker 1:So think about it Interesting. Yeah, I'm going to put that one in the files here, leonard Skinner is the headliner.
Speaker 1:That'd be fun. I'm assuming, though that it's so. In talking with Jeremiah he said that the majority of pretty much all their beers have Chicago references. So there's Chicago Brewery, but they have grown to be able to distribute in a lot of different places, but a lot of the names and some of the artwork is still kind of based more locally. They want to still try to stay connected with kind of that Chicago area. They want to still try to stay connected with kind of that Chicago area.
Speaker 1:So I would assume Sweet Home Chicago would probably be the song on that one. It could be, yeah, I would assume. I guess I didn't ask about that one particularly, but that is kind of their plan or their kind of intention. I guess with that they really want to try to be connected with that, you know, still local community, even though they have grown quite a bit. So one of the big things that they wanted to talk about a little bit that, in talking with Jeremiah, made sure to mention that in some of their releases it's a constant churn of new and returning favorites, sometimes two beers in a week, other times six beers in a week. So they have a lot of rotation with their beers, but they always have different batch sizes with pretty much everything that they got going on.
Speaker 2:But as far as kind of their so they have roughly about six new beers a week, yep, okay, and then they have just the. How many main staples do they carry all?
Speaker 1:the time A ton. Oh yeah, if you go onto their website under the beard labels, it's your. What are we? Three across one, two, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, you have fingers to count that high fingers toes.
Speaker 1:So about thirty-ish rows all the way to the bottom, oh, and three across. So Perfect, I mean that's about ninety. I mean I don't know that they have all of them available all the time. He did say that it's kind of a constant rotation of beers. Some of them will be kind of staples that will kind of stick around a little bit more often. This is actually one that more recently they kind of decided that they wanted to have this one stick around a little bit longer, so he thought it was probably a pretty good choice of the one that we picked to be able to, you know, have on here.
Speaker 2:I think that would be a good choice for them to keep this around a little bit longer. I think a lot of people would probably enjoy this Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And so they go through like a lot of. Sometimes they'll bring back old ones and kind of like you know whether it be time of year or things like that or just you know what. We haven't done this one in a while and it's kind of fun, so let's do it again. So they rotate through quite a few. But one of the things that they wanted to also make sure to kind of say so.
Speaker 1:When you think hop butcher, I guess in my mind initially it kind of conjures up the like somebody big old cleaver and the apron and I'm just murdering hops. You know what I mean, something like that. But that's not actually really what it's even about. So it's kind of somewhat based a little bit on a poem from carl sandberg, but it's actually a poem called chicago. Hog butcher is what it's, uh, referred to in here.
Speaker 1:Hog Butcher for the World, toolmaker Stacker of Wheat, prayer with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler Stormy Husky, brawling City of the Big Shoulders. So that's kind of the idea that they kind of somewhat took some of the name from. But the Hog Butcher for the World, the idea of it, isn't so much about that, it's more so about the people that actually do the butchering. If you've ever gone to like a butcher shop, you're going in there. Yes, you're going into a place where they do a lot of those types of things, but you're getting people that are like, passionate about their craft and you know like they're friendly, they want to talk about it, they want to explain, like they're just excited to talk about, like, oh, I got this new thing here, we got some of this stuff over here. This is really good. You know what I mean. That's kind of, and so that's kind of what they're trying to do.
Speaker 1:It's not trying to, you know, be the kind of the, the bloody, attacking type of a story behind it, but a lot of inspiration from the passionate, knowledgeable people that have done things like that, and so that's kind of. They took it from the hog butcher over to, you know, hop butcher, so that's kind of where that goes. And then, as far as like the for the world part, what it says on their website here, the for the world part is an important and meaningful element of our name. It inspires the ingredients we use, the characters on our labels, the balance of our beers and how we communicate and more. It guides everything from who we partner with to get our cans and kegs and where they're distributed and where they may someday be distributed. So they're definitely kind of you know, want to be part of the world, not just you know, kind of a local thing, but they want to. It's not like they're starting global, but they want to think that, like you know what someday potentially might be there. We don't make good decisions for all that, sure.
Speaker 2:So does Jeremiah collaborate with any other breweries? Has he in the past? Does he brew himself or does he not do that anymore? Does he have a brew master now?
Speaker 1:We didn't get too much into that a little bit but he was obviously heavily involved initially. I'm assuming he's probably got some additional people that he's brought on, but he is part of that decision-making process with what they're making. But yeah, they like to do collabs and he said that they're always looking for fun and new ways to engage with people they really want to like. Let's go back to the discussion of their name the hot butcher, that friendly, engaging, knowledgeable person. They want to try to engage with more people all the time. So they try to do collabs. They try to do a different work with, like, cocktail rooms or you know things like that.
Speaker 1:So it's not just within that scale of just brewery right there. They're working with restaurants, they're working with vendors to be able to do things. He actually said that initially, part of the reason why they started distributing kind of a little bit on a wider level was mostly because they were trying to just get into more festivals. They wanted to get the beer out there and more festivals get the beer in more hands. And you know, kind of like in a way, like we do on the podcast, where we always ask for feedback and want people to do it they wanted to get into the festival to like, hey, this is what we have, we're really passionate about it. Like, are we on point here? Do you like this, do you enjoy this? You know, like, give us some feedback. You know like we want to talk about it.
Speaker 2:And the more they did that, the more they started to grow and started to expand and just kind of somewhat took off from there, so like growing by word of mouth you know, networking old fashioned way, or boots on the ground or cans on the ground, bringing cans with you to drink, kind of that kind of sounds like kind of that what you're explaining to me.
Speaker 1:So and there's still involved with festivals and things like that, but it's a. It's definitely something that that's kind of where it started. You know what I mean. They started obviously locally in Chicago and try to kind of grow it within that area, but that's kind of where they started to work with out-of-state distributors to be able to get into the festivals in other areas to just see, like all right, is Minnesota an area that would like something like this? You know what I mean. Like are our tastes similar? You know what I mean. Like do they like that?
Speaker 2:I would say yes. I would answer that question as a yes. So continue to bring your fine quality beer to Minnesota. We'll continue to drink it for you. We appreciate that. Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so they initially. I mean, obviously you want to try to grow and try to do everything that you can, but initially it was just all right. We're just going to start local, we're going to try to get into some of the festivals to kind of meet and engage people, and because of that it started to expand a lot more and now they're up to 30 states and every so often they are distributed into other countries as well. They've worked with a distributor that the European Union and the UK brew export is what the business is, and so they work with them and it'll just randomly, kind of periodically, send it to different countries to kind of taste test like would this play well in Israel? And so interesting, that's what he said. He's like it's just remarkable to kind of taste test like would this play well in Israel? And so that's what he said. He's like it's just remarkable to all of a sudden see like our little brewery from whatever, I mean not little brewery, but you know like our little, small beginnings to what it is now.
Speaker 1:And now we're in Canada, now we're in Israel and now it's in the UK, and what kind of feedback you get from things like that and the people that you know like it and if there's a demand in different areas. And so you know it's kind of become more about the world. But you know he's like they started working with Brew Export and it's been just a fantastic pairing and it's been a lot of fun to see kind of where they end up and where it goes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that would be interesting to see what kind of feedback they're getting from consumers in other countries. You know, because you know other states United States have different palates and different types of drinking. You know, when you go to a completely different country and they have completely different food and ingredients and things not even associated with what we drink here. You know what comes to mind when you say that. You know, in Las Vegas, if you go to the Coca-Cola store, you know, when you go up to the second floor you can actually get a flight of Coca-Cola.
Speaker 2:I don't remember if it's 12 or 24, correct me if I'm wrong, but all those Coca-Colas are Coca-Colas from different countries. What they market in that country is Coca-Cola, and when you go to drink, some of those Coca-Colas that we would think would be coca-cola is not coca-cola, but it's coca-cola in that country. Yeah, so it'd be interesting. And there are vast differences from our coca-cola classic here to a coke in spain or israel. You know, it might taste like orange in spain, I don't remember exactly, but they're super distinct. I wonder what the beer drinkers think about, you know, drinking something from Chicago or the United States in another country, or it's like Coke from McDonald's, the country of McDonald's.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Which there is actually a thing behind that.
Speaker 2:It's always refrigerated and it's in metal tins.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one of the biggest things. Instead of like the bladder bags or whatever, I actually kind of learned that just recently. I was like I always thought that it was different, but it's kind of interesting to be able to see what the difference is.
Speaker 2:I guess to a certain extent it's gold and they have it in the metal containers.
Speaker 1:So let's see here when was I at Now. I got to get back to my hot butcher brewing here, mr Zimmer here. Hot butcher brewing here, mr zimmer here. Uh, so, uh, they started in 2014. That's when they kind of got everything off the ground as far as like the idea and the name and everything like that. First beer sold in early 2015 and it started to really kind of catch some attention in 2016.
Speaker 2:We got one question, so they got it off the ground in 2014. Was it it him and his wife? Was it just him? Was it a group of guys Like, how did?
Speaker 1:it. He said it was kind of him with maybe a couple people. We didn't get too deep into, you know that specifics of who is all involved at that point in time, more so just the brewery of, you know kind of where they started. But it sounded like there was kind of a small group of people that was involved with that initial setup place. They started as a kind of contract brewing with another location. So they set up actually brewing at another brewery. They had their own area but they didn't do the equipment.
Speaker 2:So similar to Microphone when they leased yeah, perfect, yeah they did that.
Speaker 1:So initially it was a 15 barrel batch per month. That's kind of where it started, so pretty decent barrel just to be able to get going with that. But everybody that was doing this you know all the people so this is where I was mentioning the group that was involved they were all doing full-time jobs, so they were just doing this basically on the side, just kind of for fun, like we'll see where it goes and we'll do the thing.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Two Guys and Beer podcast folks.
Speaker 1:Exactly, that's you, Exactly, and so many times that's kind of what it is. So they did that initially, but then they kind of got a little bit bigger and it started kind of catching on, as I mentioned about 2016, started to really kind of ramp things up, and so then they had to move to a different brewery and contract with a different one to be able to up their batches a fair amount Bigger equipment, larger facilities, up to a 90-barrel batch and a 60-barrel batch per week at that point so you started at a 15-barrel per month and now you're up to between the combination about 150 barrels per week in different batch sizes and stuff.
Speaker 2:Some good growth there.
Speaker 1:Once they get kind of to that area about 2021, at the end of 2021, they got their own location and moved tanks and everything into their own setup. Downtown has a 15 barrel system and they'll do batches of between 7 and 30 barrels at a time and then bedford park has a four vessel 30 barrel system into 60 and 90 barrel tanks for, uh, different batches. So definitely grew quite a bit, you know, over the course of the years, and you know a lot of fun to be able to see like how much they've been able to do that so actively growing the business. I did, I did ask him kind of the way that he explained it. You know, like, okay, well, you know we're getting into some festivals, but you know we can kind of start local and we'll just the festival to get feedback and talk to different people and just interact with people. You know he's like it's been kind of a not slow, but and I did, I did kind of ask. I mean, I'm sure it seems like a blink of an eye but at the same time over the course of a handful of years, like it's almost, you know, 10 years now since they kind of hatched the idea and really started getting into it and now it's grown to what it is. Now you know it's kind of more of an organic growth rather than just like starting with, all right, I'm going to put $5 million down and build this giant thing and all the stuff.
Speaker 1:And so you know, I asked him like do you you know for future plans? You know, are you thinking you know kind of more of the organic growth or you know, like you really like you have plans or specific things? And you know he said like no, they're. They're actively looking to continue growing as much as they can and trying to be involved with a bunch of different things, like I said before, looking for fun and easy ways to engage with people, participate in festivals and find new accounts in and out of Illinois, whether it be restaurants or different places to have it on draft, rather than just breweries or just their own little thing or just liquor stores. They want to try to see if it'll pair well with a pork chop or a steak or just liquor stores. You know what I mean. They want to try to see if you know people, will you know it'll pair well with a pork chop or a steak, or you know something like that. I could go for a pork chop right now.
Speaker 2:I think a pork chop would sound great right now.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yeah, so that's kind of what they're, you know, kind of working on as they go. He did say that the to be part of the community and giving people a chance to be able to interact, and you know it's something that we've heard many times from different breweries and kind of what their mantra is or what their background or what their thought is is wanting to involve people and just have that sense of community. You know, working with different breweries and working with different organizations to, you know, just bring people together. So a lot of fun with that.
Speaker 2:It sounds like a great place. I mean, he took the time for us, so that's really cool. Yeah, we appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely so. As I mentioned before, a lot of the beer names are usually Chicago historical references. So if you look on their website, as I mentioned just right on the main page, it goes through a whole pile of different beers that are there, but a lot of them make references to Chicago mainstays. One of them is a personal pan pizza. It's a Citroen Vic Secret Hopped American Pale Ale. It's here. They got all directions at once. I want the beef there is. There is a triple ipa that I really liked, a triple snorkel squad, triple snorkel squad and that's a triple ipa.
Speaker 1:But you know, I mean kind of based with the old chicago fire and that's one of the things that they also do is they have a lot of artwork. You know, if you look at their website at a hot butchercom, they have, as I mentioned, all of the labels you know kind of listed right there as far as what they make or what they have, and the artwork is absolutely incredible. If you click on any of them you'll go into and it'll talk a little bit about. You know, this is a secret snacks. It's a double India pale ale, 8.0 ABV, what the hops are involved with that when it was last canned, and then the label artwork, so they actually highlight the artist to make sure that you know there's some credit given with that as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So it's kind of fun to be able to see that. And you know that's what they said is they want to try to make sure to give people give back, even on things like that. You know what I mean. Like give credit where credit is due, but the artwork is just absolutely incredible for so many of these different things and we've talked about that before with the labels, like you know, like coming up with the idea for labels and you know what you're going to call beers and stuff like that and that's theirs is to kind of give a lot of nods to historical things around Chicago and be able to be stuck with that.
Speaker 2:You know the artwork that we talked about, the labels and the names. You know as a consumer. When you're in a liquor store looking for some craft beer, that's what really draws your attention right away is the name the label first and then the name. So that's really key. I think that they give some recognition to the artists and the labels and stuff like that Definitely works out great that way. I think that's really awesome that they actually do that. So, because that really is what sucks. I don't. I'm in the liquor store buying a craft beer. It's the art on the can that really sucks me into. Oh, let me check with that out. Then I read the name and if it sounds cool, I'm like, yeah, grab a case that and let's bring it to andy and let's go there we go another episode of two guys and and Beer and that's.
Speaker 1:I'm kind of the same way. I mean there's so many beers where it's I mean, they have their own labels and they, you know, have their own thing, but it's their name forward. You know what I mean and that's what's really highlighted. But what's kind of interesting with them is, you know, you look at their label, the biggest thing that shows up is the artwork and the name of the beer. But the logo for the actual brewery is not hidden, but it's on the back, you know, with the uh, the UBC code, and you know it's not, it's in a different spot. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:You'd think that you know a lot of places put it. You know that's their thing. They want that name recognition. But he even said that. You know we want to highlight that artwork and hey, this is going to be a hot butcher type of beer because they like the artwork and things like that. They want to have that kind of cool vibe, like you're saying, sure, look for something that would be kind of fun, that you want to be around and want to be involved in.
Speaker 2:Well, how about this as an idea this is an idea for you, jeremiah for hot butcher? Maybe there's a brewery in Chicago that already has it. I don't really know, but I don't really know. But since you're referencing Chicago and the history of Chicago, what about the mob scene in Chicago? What if Hot Butcher had a line of beer that was like the mob scene, with some different mob characters and stuff? I don't know how that would incorporate. I don't know if any breweries have that out there, but that's the first thing I thought of. You were talking to him bringing him up. Historical Chicago. The first thing that came to my mind I don't know why was historical crime, mob figures, because they would come up to Minneapolis too. You know they'd run back and forth between the two cities, but I thought that might be a cool line of beer to have, maybe as some sort of mob, hot butcher mob line of some sort. Maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I guess it's not necessarily mob-related, but we referenced, you know, kind of being involved in the community and you know Chicago historical things. One of the ones that they've had recently also is a nod to, if you're familiar with WGN or anybody that's broadcast on there. Tom Skilling was a longtime weatherman that was there after 45 years was retiring and so they created a brew for that, the Tom freaking Skilling beer, oh cool, which apparently the WGS morning show did kind of a little bit of a skit based on him or whatever, and they kind of made it a little nod to that and a nod to a Tom Skilling. So they thought it was kind of a cool type of deal and they said that it sold out very fast.
Speaker 2:So it was kind of a cool type of deal and they said that it sold out very fast. That's cool.
Speaker 1:It was kind of a cool thing but definitely a fun deal. Hundreds of cases sold out within days, perfect, that's what they said on there. So kind of a fun thing that they did, kind of giving a nod to a little bit of a local legend there. So a lot of fun stuff that they got going on and I highly recommend you know, checking it out, try to find it. If you go to their website, they do have a location where you can do a finder beer so you can be able to find out, as far as you know, whether it be at a certain liquor stores or certain restaurants or things like that.
Speaker 1:There's a whole segment of outside of illinois. So minnesota is listed on there, obviously, because that's where I got. It was in rochester. This is at uh, I believe it was jack's bottle shop. I have to double check that. That's what it was, but I believe that it was jack's bottle shop down in rochester. Um, great place to be able to go. I think I've talked about it a couple of times and and I'm going to keep talking about it because you know what it's good.
Speaker 2:Any place it's good. Yeah, any liquor store that pushes craft beer and that's what kind of prominently they have, that's the place to go. You know for sure, and that's just an awesome place.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's just a fun spot. They have good stuff to be able to pick from. They have craft beer everywhere in that location and, yeah, I want to thank them also for kind of putting us on this particular brew. So I made sure to mention that also to Jeremiah when I was talking to him that it was them that they said that they were highly impressed and wanted to highlight that. Know, highlight that one. You know they thought it was good. Jack's Bottle Shop is what it is. So Jack's Bottle Shop in Rochester is what it is, on 6th Street Northwest. So I want to thank them for kind of putting us on this and, you know, just giving us that idea to be able to go there. So I'm assuming it's probably in multiple locations, but um for sure you can find it there rochester. I gotta believe you might be able to get it, even if you request it at the the dabbler depot in st paul.
Speaker 2:I've talked about that place a couple of times too so and total wine is another good place too.
Speaker 2:I know it's called total wine, but if you walk into there they have every craft beer you can imagine by style, by country, by this, by that. There's a one store I've seen, like the old, old-fashioned libraries, when you get on the ladder that's on the track and it slides down and you actually go up and there's beer that high up and I get and pull it down. So I wouldn't be surprised to find, uh, some hot butcher there at total wine and spirits and there, I think two locations in Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely likely that it would probably be at that. But, yeah, I want to thank Jeremiah Zimmer for being able to take the time and, you know, spend a little bit of a chance to be able to chat about things a little bit and give us some information and some background of it. And, you know, whatever is there now is you go back again next week, you'll be able to find between two and six different types of beers that are just there. So they have quite the rotation that they got and they got. They are trying to rotate through and be able to uh sling out the door if you will.
Speaker 2:So, but uh, sweet home is what we have for the particular episode today sweet home by hot Hot Butcher over there in Illinois. Thanks, jeremiah, I appreciate your time, even though I didn't get a chance to chat with you, but I appreciate your time helping out our podcast here. Go get yourself some Sweet Home, it's good beer.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So that's kind of the long and the short there of Hot Butcher for the world. What else you got? I think you were saying something about you had some Chicago content.
Speaker 2:Yeah, kind of it. Just I thought we better talk about this, since the whole sports world is talking about this. You know now that we're getting on to our bar banter part of the episode here where after you have a beer you just banter about whatever. But I kind of want to talk about the WNBA a little bit here, which is kind of crazy that we want to talk about it. Been around a long time Doesn't typically generate a ton of excitement, even though they are skilled players, very fundamentally sound, very fundamentally skilled. I've attended a few games. I went to Game 7 of the Minnesota Lynx Los Angeles Sparks Finals which we lost that particular championship, dang Sparks. So I just kind of want to bring it up a little bit because you know you got Angel Reese. You know that rookie over there and plays for the Chicago Sky. She's not afraid to say words, she's not afraid to say anything.
Speaker 2:And of course you know the big Caitlin Kirk how she's turned into some controversial figure. It's just mind baffling. I kind of wanted your take on it here. I I think she's been a great ambassador for the WNBA. Like she's brought more excitement to the WNBA than probably anybody in the history of the WNBA. Any games she's playing I was just looking at the attendance records 18, 20,000,. Any game she's not in five 6,000. And she is taking so much heat on all social media on how the WNBA is racist in some way and they're catering to her because she's white or they're playing her on national TV. Well, she's super skilled. If you look at her stats on social media I just saw the other day like the top 10 rookies this year she's like number eight. That's not even possible. She's literally outstatting everybody in every category, up to number one. Like I don't know what's going on. Like what the big deal is like. Let's get more notoriety to the wmba so they can showcase their skills.
Speaker 1:Like that's what they need yeah, and I think that that's you know. I mean, if you're asking my opinion, I think that that's one of the things that and I've heard some of that stuff too and you could go ahead and make a case for whatever kind of idea you want to get at, but the awmba has done a really good job trying to market everybody multiple multiple different players over the course of the years, whether it be l Lisa Leslie back in the day Now, I can't remember her name Cheryl Swoops.
Speaker 2:D'Amica Ketchings.
Speaker 1:Maya Moore.
Speaker 2:Simone Augustus Katie Smith. Of course, now I'm naming off Lynx players.
Speaker 1:Right Sue Bird.
Speaker 2:And I'm trying to think of.
Speaker 1:There's the one that she just retired, but she's been even on the TNT broadcast for NBA stuff, candice Parker. Candice Parker, incredibly talented like and it's going to be weird to say photogenic, and has like a good personality for that type of thing, and so that's something that you can kind of latch to and be able to try to expand within, and what Kaitlyn Clark is doing is basically the exact same thing. I don't think that she's necessarily asking for any of this. I don't think so either. That's just what's happening and it kind of was coming along at the right time for just, I guess, women's sports in general. We've seen an explosion of following, especially with the NCAA tournament. With the last couple of years in the NCAA women's tournament I went out of my way to go and find a bar or go find a place to be able to watch it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I sought it out. I've never really done that before on that site and I did it more for that than the men's tournament this year by far. You get somebody that you can kind of attach to that for whatever reason that anybody has. You know that, whether they're just a good ambassador or they're just an incredible talent, when you see somebody that's just like a generational talent at something, you look at people like a Steph Curry, I guess with basketball Michael Jordan you look at like a Tiger Woods when he was at the top of his game. You know golf right now. I mean they do have Scotty Scheffler, but they don't have somebody. Scheffler might turn into that, but they don't have somebody. That's that generational talent that people are like seeking out watching golf right now. Right, and that's At Tiger they were, because you have somebody like that and that's.
Speaker 2:Caitlin Clark right now. She was by far the best college basketball player in the country last year and Angel Reese was not far behind. You know they had a great rivalry.
Speaker 1:To me.
Speaker 2:I likened their rivalry because Angel Reese won it the previous year.
Speaker 1:You know, Caitlyn Clark.
Speaker 2:They didn't win the title. Heck, I don't even remember. That's terrible of me. Yeah, they didn't win the title, but they beat Angel Reese.
Speaker 1:Yeah, in the Final Four.
Speaker 2:What I liken the Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark competition or competitiveness between the two. I think it's great. I think it's good for women's basketball. I love the Angel Reese talks. They're both outstanding players. It kind of reminds me of the Magic Johnson-Larry. Bird of the NBA in the 80s early 90s. That's exactly what the WNBA needs is Angel Reese and Kalen Clark to shine that spotlight on that sport and get it going Absolutely, and I think that that's why people are going after her.
Speaker 1:I just don't understand. I mean, I think that part of that is just it's the nature of the beast when you become that popular and that big and you're a rookie and you haven't't played any minutes in the WNBA.
Speaker 2:Those WNBA players are pretty sound. Oh, absolutely, they're awesome. They're no joke. I mean, look at, kaitlin Clark got left off the USA Olympic team. That doesn't bother me. Kaitlin Clark is an extremely good basketball player, but those people that are on gals that are on the WNBA Olympic team are super good. That team is super deep. If Kaitlyn Clark got selected to play, she'd be lucky to play a couple minutes a game.
Speaker 1:It wouldn't be too dissimilar from the Dream Team in 1991 when Christian Lager was on there One of the best college basketball players of all time he barely got off the bench. It Wouldn't have been.
Speaker 2:It's the same thing. So the fact that she didn't get selected doesn't bother me one, but she'll be on there for years to come, you know.
Speaker 1:And I think that I think potentially they I could have seen them selecting her but like you said, I don't know that she would have played. A ton would have been a get eyeballs on it type of selection. But knowing that she wouldn't play that much, they probably don't want to have that negative type of vibe to it. You know what I mean, because people would tune in to watch her and if she doesn't play then they'd be mad about it.
Speaker 1:But I do completely agree she's going to be a phenomenal talent. She's going to be amazing, but as a rookie you can even tell like right now she's starting to break through it a little bit, but she's learning to play at that next level. It doesn't matter who you are when you take that next step. Michael Jordan he had his flash moments, but he also kind of struggled as a rookie. Everybody does. That's just part of that growing process. You're still kind of young, kind of immature. You're not as refined as them. You were just the best at your position with a lot of people that were really good, and now you're going to be jumping into a pool where everybody's amazing.
Speaker 2:Super good. Yeah, can you imagine Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark on the same basketball team in the next Olympics?
Speaker 1:It'd be fun.
Speaker 2:Good luck to the rest of the world For women's basketball. You're going to do nothing. I'm sorry You're just not doing anything. Then you throw in I don't even know the name now that rookie the Lynx have is playing really well. I can't think of her name right now.
Speaker 1:I know Nafisha Collier, but there's a different.
Speaker 2:I think she's native, isn't she?
Speaker 1:I thought she was like her center or power forward?
Speaker 2:Heck, I don't remember. I'm terrible. I should know better than that.
Speaker 1:Did you know that Katie Smith is an associate head coach? I did not know that For the Lynx.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really Didn't know that. Looks like I ought to brush up more on my Lynx trivia.
Speaker 1:There you go, trying to bring up the old roster here. Internet's a little bit slow when I'm running off with my phone. Forgot to change it back over before we started. But I guess to a certain extent, even beyond anything like that, as far as what you're saying about the development and things like that, she's the type of player that she's going to bring what she's going to bring to the table. I like the fact that she doesn't really have a whine about things kind of attitude and she's not shying away from anything at all Not at all. But at the same time, to your point, your exact point, you nailed it right on the head.
Speaker 1:There are teams that typically don't play at an NBA stadium. They just don't. That's just there. That's what they're doing. You look at, even like the PWHL, not everybody's playing at an XL energy center, they're playing at college campuses, things like that Cause if you only have 4,000 people showing up in a 20,000 seat arena, it seems completely dead. But if you put 4,000 people in a 5,000 seat arena, then it's packed and it's boisterous and it's fun and it's cool and you want to get more people to go. You can grow from there and that's how you basically develop things like that. Right now, with Caitlin Clark everywhere that she is, they're having to move the games to the NBA arenas or college arenas that are of a larger size, because that's how many tickets they're able to sell at even a higher price, and that's allowing the NBA or the WNBA to be able to do flights and all sorts of different things. You know what I mean? They they would always just do like commercial flying or their own flying, or flying just like us Right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now they're doing chartering flights, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's such a huge thing to be able to do when you have the ability to have something like that. And that's stuff that she's bringing to the table, that some people that just are not wrapping their head around or they're not, I don't know if I want to say not respecting, but it's, they're just not allowing that to be a thing. It's, it's kind of crazy that they're not doing that. But at the same time, I don't know, you got to kind of let her be her, but you notice also that all of this stuff is happening. You don't see her out there like complaining about this or whatever. You'll see everybody talking about like, oh my god, they should have done this. Or people are like taking shots against her and, you know, trying to knock her down and like being too aggressive, and at least I haven't noticed it.
Speaker 2:Maybe I'm paying enough attention, but if it's too aggressive, there there was a couple of plays that were, of course, were all over social media and ESPN, or getting body checked a couple of times. Yeah, it bothered me a little bit, but then I got thinking, you know, that reminds me of 80s basketball. You got some hot shot rookie coming in and those veterans they're going to knock you around a few times. So that's just kind of a growing process, a learning curve. You have to earn the respect you sure do.
Speaker 1:Yep, and that's something. I think that she's kind of taking that on head on and just from a standpoint of what has she done for the game and things like that.
Speaker 1:We're talking about it here on a beer podcast right we're talking about her and the situations and everything like that. Don't get me wrong. I love the links. I will honestly admit that I don't follow them, probably as much as I probably could. I do look at the box scores every so often. I know a couple of players that are on the team. I know that they've kind of struggled the last couple of years, but they're one of the best teams in WNBA this year, for sure between Nafisha Collier and Kayla McBride.
Speaker 2:Their defense is on point this year. Holy cow, it has been stellar. Good luck to the rest of the WNBA man.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and so it's been a lot of fun to be able to kind of do that. But at the same time, last year at this time I don't think we were recording at that point, but we're not having conversations about alright, so the WNBA playoffs are coming up this week. You know like we're not doing anything like that, it's just it's bringing that notoriety and everybody's talking about it. And if everybody's talking about it, advertisers are like wait, hold on, they're talking about that. They're talking about the thing we should hitch our ride to some of this stuff.
Speaker 2:Right and the endorsements she's received.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's what builds everything for you. You know just everything. The more people are talking about something, the more don't want to make. It seem like everything comes back to money, but the more that happens, the more money you can get in the stadium and then you can improve some of the things that they want to be able to, like the chartered flights. Even just something minor like that you can start to change the conversation about all right, your contract's not going to be $60,000. Right, maybe we can start to try to work contracts up a little bit Exactly, and that's I'm glad that you brought it up and you compared it to Bird and Magic in the 80s, because it really is a lot like that. And that was at a time when the WNBA or the actual NBA, not WNBA the NBA was kind of struggling.
Speaker 2:They were in a tough part, it was kind of on a downhill slope there.
Speaker 1:It was not in a good spot. And then that all of a sudden attached things. People were like I want to see this. We got Showtime and we got this white guy from Indiana that's doing all sorts of crazy stuff. It just became a whole different level of interest. That pushed things up. And you look at where the NBA is now. They kind of stood on those shoulders to be able to get there. You know it obviously helped to get some. You know hotshot young rookie from North Carolina. That definitely helped, but he took some shots when he was a rookie too.
Speaker 2:You know he wasn't. I mean, he was a good basketball player initially in the NBA, but didn't really do anything. It didn't take until the late 80s, early 90s when he started having success in the NBA as a team. So individually, of course, he was rocking right off the bat, but it didn't translate to team success. But it brought more eyes on the sport.
Speaker 1:And more eyes are going to be better. It doesn't matter. You're talking about one way or the other, even if it's, I guess, to a certain extent, negative, as long as it's not too negative for too long. Any attention is better than no attention. And so I don't know. I think that it's amazing. I think that she, you know, probably isn't getting as much respect as she probably should be, but at the same time, I know where people, I understand where people are coming from. Not that it's okay, because it's not, but I get it Like what has she done? She's proven nothing and the Fever are terrible. Yeah, they are terrible, but they were terrible before. That's why they had the number one pick. It's not like they did the number one pick and then drafted about seven other people to just completely change their team. It's going to be kind of a multi-year process with them, but at the same time, there's a chance that in the next off season or two, you're going to see a couple of people be like maybe we should go play for.
Speaker 1:Indiana. She might, she might be onto something. I mean you see that all over the place. You've seen that with Sue bird out in Seattle. You've seen it with Candace Parker. You know whether she was moving around or whether people were kind of going there. You've seen it with other players.
Speaker 1:Not that it's quite as much of the contract jumping and teep hopping like in the NBA. It's still kind of happening a little bit. But at the same time there's some interest. You know what I mean. Some people may be like I'm going to knock her down, I'm going to make sure she earns it, but at the same time I wouldn't mind being on the wing over there just sitting there. You know how much I could probably pocket a few extra dollars if I'm on a team that is on national television 40 times a year and playing to 20,000 people. I think I could probably make that work for my life. You know what I mean. You're going to see some of that in a couple of years. You know that team's probably going to look completely different and probably be a really dang good team.
Speaker 1:Mostly just because of her and the attention that she brings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree with that completely. And to more of what she's done. She's played really well so far in the WNBA. You know she didn't get any rest. She just played 40-some NCAA games in college and played in a national title game what two weeks off and now she's playing in professional women's basketball in the WNBA.
Speaker 1:So that rookie year is just brutal for the WNBA and then to come into like people trying to knock you down. You're already like your legs are rubber to begin with, Right? Not that we know anything about that.
Speaker 2:No, no, not at all. Yeah, no, I just wanted your take on it. It seems like some of the attention has been kind of negative and I can't really figure out why. I mean I get maybe some jealousy factor there. I've heard some race thing there where she's white so they're going to push her. I sure hope that's not the case. I love to see a rivalry between Angel Reese and Kaitlin Clark. You know Larry Bird, magic Johnson, so I hope it's there. Yeah, I think the NBA is going in the right direction for sure with those two gals.
Speaker 1:I absolutely agree, you know, and it's just going to build over time and I think that that's a great thing for the sport. You know what I mean. I think that that's fantastic and I think that it'll definitely be a positive thing for what they got going on. So, but yeah, it's, I don't know, it's amazing, you know, like, even from that standpoint you had mentioned that it's kind of like some jealousy. I think that there's a little bit about it and I think that there's almost a little bit of trying to think of the word for it, but it's more of a well, but we've been here.
Speaker 2:And we've done it. Yeah, we've been here. Yeah, this is.
Speaker 1:We built this. Yeah, this isn't new. Like she's just showing up now, coming in. Yeah, you know why is everybody like latching to her when we've had some superstars right over here that have been absolutely incredible and are just as good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, like, come on, maya Moore.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm, kelsey. I don't know why kelsey plum isn't a bigger thing. Sure you know what I mean. And they had the um. Now I'm failing to remember the name and it's gonna drive me nuts, but uh, they just had the in the nba all-star game. They had the three-point shooting contest. They had the contest, but then they had like the special one, right steph curry and yeah, they didn't.
Speaker 2:They have a wmba player. Teammates, didn't they do teammates you would?
Speaker 1:know it was just the two of them.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, got it.
Speaker 1:What was her name? Now? She's in a commercial right now too. Yeah, I just don't remember.
Speaker 2:I remember that story, but I don't remember Sabrina Ionescu.
Speaker 1:Perfect Ionescu. I probably got it wrong either way. But yeah, stephen Curry and Sabrina Ionescu did kind of their own little battle and I would assume that Kaitlin Clark will probably be involved in that point in time, since she's kind of like Stephen Curry shooting from the logo, like I'm sure she'll probably be involved with that same thing. But you know, it's a cool thing to be able to see some of that crossover. But that's where some of that is. We've had Sabrina now for a couple of years, was one of the best college players of all time before Caitlin Clark came along, obviously Right and really kind of set a different tone and now is in the WNBA. And why haven't people latched on to her necessarily?
Speaker 2:Or was it promotion? Or was it advertising.
Speaker 1:Or was it the marketing? Yeah, sure, yeah, and you know it kind of is what it is. I believe Sabrina Ionescu went like Oregon or something, and so I don't know if it's a Pac-12 issue, you know, or Pac-2 issue, whatever it is now, but like kind of that West Coast issue, you know what I mean, just because of like media markets and things like that Not that Kate and Clark is so much more East.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of still a small deal, but it's, I don't know. I wish I had a better idea of why it was. But it's just, you get that right person at that right time that you can really kind of latch onto. And when everybody does, or when enough people do, then everybody does. And you know it's not to take anything away from somebody like Ionescu or Candace Parker or Maya Moore. You name your WNBA superstar, but it's, you just have to ride that as much as you can.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean Be thankful that it's somebody. You know what I mean. Yeah, it may not be you and that sucks. I'm sorry for whatever it is and maybe you should have been treated better or glorified more or whatever you want to say, but it's there for somebody and it's going to improve the state of everything for your entire league, so have fun with it. But yes, I do completely agree. I think a little spat between the two of them, which I don't even know that it necessarily exists, because they both kind of downplayed it after the championship game but at the same time having a little bit of sass going back and forth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fire it up a little bit, ladies. Come on, let's go.
Speaker 1:I think it's good for everything. You know what I mean. You get those clips out on TikTok and all the different social media platforms and people talk about it and again more people talking about it is always a good thing.
Speaker 2:You could almost liken this to NASCAR from the 70s, early 80s, if I remember. I'm a NASCAR fan, I know. I know we can talk about that all the time, but in the late 70s, early 80s now I don't remember the driver one of the first televised races, one of the drivers took a swing and punched another driver. Well, what did that do for nascar? Just immediately ramped it up because there's people punching each other, you know. So, right, that could be like you're saying the wmba, let's get it going with a little rivalry between the two and amp it up a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, don't punch each other. Yeah, don't punch each other. But it was kind of fun to watch them kind of like taunt back and forth just a little bit about what they're doing. A little friendly rivalry is not bad for anything. You know what I mean. If it's more competitive, it's always going to be better, I agree 100%. So, but yeah, and if Caitlin Clark, if you want to come on the podcast sometime, angel Reese, if you want to be on here too, that'd be cool too.
Speaker 2:Right, we're open. The schedule's open for you guys. Exactly, I don't know if or we can get you some hot butcher sweet home, there we go, featured, right in Chicago.
Speaker 1:Well, I want to make sure to thank once again Jeremiah Zimmer from Hot Butcher for the World for taking time out of his schedule. He's got a lot going on. So I'm sure you know like we email back a couple of times trying to be able to find time, back a couple of times trying to be able to find time, and you know I appreciate him making the time to be able to uh, you know, be a part of uh the broadcast and be able to help kind of give us some insight into what they got going on there. I can't say enough about that. It's very kind of him to be able to do that. Thanks for sean uh being here once again and uh celebrating the classic beer podcast. You.