Two Guys & Beer
The Two Guys & Beer Podcast is a laid-back conversational show that combines the love of beer with a wide range of topics that pique the hosts' interest. These two guys, use beer as a launching pad for discussions on anything and everything that grabs our attention!
Two Guys & Beer
Lagunitas Tales and Table Trials
Ever tried working with epoxy for the first time and felt like you were in over your head? Shawn certainly did, and he takes us through every sticky (literally) moment of crafting our podcast's new saloon-style table. From battling uncooperative tape to finally achieving a mostly glassy finish, the journey was as entertaining as it was educational. Grab a beer and listen as we chat about the lessons learned and how a couple of cold ones might have influenced some creative decisions along the way.
Speaking of beer, we take you on a delicious adventure through local fairs and craft beer tastings. Our buddy's triumph at the Anoka County Fair sets the stage for a broader conversation about the unique offerings of the Texas State Fair and our ambitious plans for a world tour of fairs. Our beer musings also take a detour to Petaluma, California, where we explore the origins of Lagunitas IPA and dabble in some hilarious banter about beer-tasting gadgets, hand modeling, and David Duchovny's unforgettable roles. It's a whirlwind of flavor, nostalgia, and laughter in the world of craft beer.
Our Lagunitas journey doesn't stop there; we dive into the brewery's history and its impressive global expansion. From Tony McGee's humble homebrew beginnings to creative ventures like cannabis-infused drinks, Lagunitas has never shied away from innovation. We share tales of Oktoberfest preparations, memorable moments like the clever "Lagunitas Sucks" release, and the joy of combining outdoor activities with a refreshing IPA. Whether you're a beer aficionado or just love a good story, this episode has something to tickle your taste buds and your funny bone.
and welcome everybody into the two guys and beer podcast. Uh, upgraded studio performance. Uh, new, uh, new features lagunitas today. That's nothing else new at all.
Speaker 2:It's just the beer.
Speaker 1:Now we got a little new table. Sean John did a lot of painstaking work, and when I mean painstaking work, he put in the backbreaking work to it. I just helped put it together.
Speaker 2:When it's here it was ridiculous doing this thing, keep in mind. I had this great idea like oh, andy, we should get this new table, you know, so we can look more like a professional podcast. And he said yeah, great, sounds cool. You know, I'm like Andy, I'm going to get this spool, I'm going to make it, epoxy it. It's going to look good.
Speaker 2:I'm going to take a torch to it and burn it, it's all coming together it, you know, like our logo, the brown and the yellows, and like the distressed look of our logo. This is going to be good, saloon style, old West, absolutely Worldly brewery. Well, in the process of building this table that you see before, you keep in mind, I've never used epoxy before in my entire life, so I had not a clue what I was getting into.
Speaker 1:Those that are out there now that have used epoxy are like oh a clue what I was getting into those that are out there now that have used epoxy like oh so.
Speaker 2:So please do a comment in the comments on how retarded I was when I attempted to do this. Well, we can't say retarded anymore, can we, we're in this silly stain.
Speaker 2:How silly it was so, anyways, I sanded it down. I had the torch, I burnt it, sent, sent some photos to Andy. Hey, what do you think? So far Looks great, let's keep on going. So I keep on going.
Speaker 2:I get the epoxy, start mixing it and I'm starting to pour it on this table. And the whole plan was to fill in these cracks on the board, just to make it nice and smooth. Poured the first little 16 ounces. I mixed up on there. I'm like, wow, this is looking great. Everything 16 ounces I mixed up on there. I'm like, wow, this is looking great, everything's going good. Mixed up another one, poured another one on there. Wow, this is gonna be so cool, this is easy. 10 minutes later, drip, drip, drip, drip, it found its way through the cracks on the underside and it's dripping down below and I'm like, oh, oh, my gosh, what do I do? Didn't know what to do. Came up with a few ideas, took it apart, flipped it over. I'm like, well, I'm going to take some silicone and run it in these cracks underneath to stop it from leaking Brilliant.
Speaker 1:Seems like a good idea, there we go. Yeah yeah, a little correction of errors and we're good to go.
Speaker 2:Not quite the duct tape of Red Green Show, if everybody remember watching the old Red Green Show.
Speaker 1:If they can't find you handsome, they can at least find you handy. I'm neither nor.
Speaker 2:So we put the silicone in there, let it sit for a day, and then I took sheathing tape because, as of course, the old Google machine said, sheathing tape doesn't stick to epoxy and that's the tape everybody uses. Okay, great. So I started taping the cracks underneath. After it was silicone, I taped the edges with a little lip on it, you know, so the epoxy can sit Taped the crack out of it. I did Toward the next batch.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh, it's holding Everything's good. 30 minutes later, drip, drip, drip. I'm like you have got to be kidding me. So I'm taping more and taping more. I've got the whole underside taped. I've got everything taped on this thing. I keep pouring, I keep pouring. Finally I gave up. I'm like it's just not going to hold tape or hold the epoxy, and I don't know what I'm doing. This is the stupidest thing I've ever done. Sean, I'm telling andy, why did I do this? This is stupid. I should have just burnt it and put urethane on it and called it good, but nope, had to do this. So I came with the solution I'm just going to try to cover each board with epoxy to make it look glass, and that worked pretty well. Until you realize. Not every one of these boards on these old electrical spools are perfectly flat, so it wouldn't stay on the edges.
Speaker 1:It's weird that they wouldn't be made for precision.
Speaker 2:No, you think this would be some wooden transport. You think this would be like some precise machining of wood here, right, right.
Speaker 1:It is not. No, it was probably put the guy together by guys on work release or a sentence to serve from the jail.
Speaker 2:Probably that, uh, the quality standards were probably not right at the top of the list they should probably hone their skills a little bit for these instances, when people like me come up with these ridiculous ideas exactly probably after we had a couple beers, yeah, so I got most of it covered.
Speaker 2:There's a couple little spots on the edges that aren't quite covered in epoxy due to, uh, science and stuff and leveling and, I'm sure, newton's law or whatever. So anyways, this was, uh, the end in front, so there's a couple spots that don't have a little bit of epoxy on it. There's nothing I could do about that, but it turned out all right until I had to flip the table over and then take all the tape off the tape that supposedly doesn't stick, it's fine oh, it's stuck, it's stuck, oh, it's stuck.
Speaker 2:So then I spent about four hours with my multi-tool getting it off, the tape off, then I re-sanded it and then I urethane the bottom, which you can't see. But the bottom looks nice and urethane. But that's kind of the short story of how we got to this new table here in the DG&B podcast studio here.
Speaker 1:And I was only involved for just the reinstallation in here, which went really smooth as well. There's three of us and we almost had to call in more brain power, but that was only what. Two hours of work to do, at least two hours. That puts you close to a 40-hour work week on the project.
Speaker 2:I think that's conservative. It took us two hours, it probably took us a little longer than two and we were sweating.
Speaker 1:Just putting this thing together, my gosh and at the time we weren't even drinking beer.
Speaker 2:That's probably where we went wrong in the first place, we didn't start by drinking beer yeah, so all all in total, there's probably 24 to 28 hours into this table. That's how ridiculous this project become. But hey, it looks nice.
Speaker 1:It did turn out pretty good it looks fantastic and we got kind of a little bit of a rearranging. We moved some things around the room a little bit, so we're a little bit more just kind of just us in the beer. We can focus on the beer, just us in the beer, beer and the bullshit and the bullshit. That's the key is to what we're doing here. The key is to what we're doing here. We don't need to have all the technology right with us or whatever. So we've added some of that. We've got nice new chairs, nice new chairs All sorts of stuff that we've got going on and we have a spot for guests.
Speaker 2:Now we have some guests that will be on soon. We've got everything set up for them.
Speaker 1:We do have an additional mic.
Speaker 2:So if you're with a brewery, your story out for everybody. So yeah, that's kind of the story of that. Uh, just one another quick note before we get into this great beer here that I've never tried and he thinks he's tried it. Brandon has agreed to come on to the show. It's exciting news. We just have to lock down the date. Hopefully we'll be recording on a day in October, yep, so he'll be the first guest on. He's the home brewer that we've talked about, probably on half of our 30 episodes At least 100%.
Speaker 2:He's the one. He swept the Anoka County Fair again this year with six awards. He took home two awards at the Minnesota State Fair, which is always the most visited state fair in the country. It's either Minnesota or Texas. Fine for the top spot.
Speaker 1:Texas is over the course of like two and a half months or something.
Speaker 2:It's a lot longer than Minnesota.
Speaker 1:I'd like to go check it out sometime, just to experience it. I'm a fair person. I like the atmosphere. I think the Minnesota Fair is just amazing, but I'd like to try the Texas one, just to see what the hubbub is. I wonder what the craft beer profile is down there, if there's much. That's what we have to find out, maybe.
Speaker 2:Brandon knows.
Speaker 1:It's going to be part of our world tour that we embark on. Management is still putting that together Exactly, yeah, dates upcoming, it'll come into your city, oh yeah, so Lagunitas is today. Yeah, as we kind of work our way into this and I only am not necessarily trying to deflect away from any other conversation we can get back to whatever it is. But if we can pop the top, then we can at least start drinking it.
Speaker 2:Oh, that would be perfect. That would be perfect. A lot of talking, but no drinking. So far this episode.
Speaker 1:Which actually, now that I have a bottle, I'm going to have to remember this for a future podcast. But we did get a. We're given a I don't even know an apparatus Is that what you'd call it To be able to put over the top of a bottle, that it's supposed to aerate it as you pour it to make it taste more like a draft. So I guess it's supposed to taste different. I'm not really sure. Don't have it for this one, but in a future podcast we'll do a kind of a. I don't know if reaction video is the right way to be able to put it know if reaction video is the right way to be able to put it maybe we could do it for that react video to that and just kind of see like, is this really a legit thing?
Speaker 1:you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:we'll pick a random beer and then we'll drink it straight out of the bottle, straight out of the glass and then poured through said dapper apparatus the tapirates there we go so yeah, we'll, we'll give that a shot at some point in time too, and now see kind of what's going on and see if it works, if it does anything, or if it's just one of those hokey things that you spend five bucks on at the fair Give it a shot. Get it as a free gift when you register for an event or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of beard all over myself over here when I open this one up. I'm a little rusty with my bottle opener.
Speaker 1:Well, we have been out for a few weeks, so we've got to get back into it a little bit here.
Speaker 2:Let's see here First impression of this IPA. It's pretty tasty. I like it. It goes down pretty smooth. Man. It's not very strong at all for an IPA. Not too hoppy, not too much of anything.
Speaker 1:Not too hoppy. I do get some malting through there. So yeah, let's see what does it say on the side? Here You're holding the gold standard of our hop-forward approach to brewing. Our flagship IPA dreamed in California 30-odd years ago. We'll get into more of the details here in just a second, Amongst the Redwoods, rugged coastlines and rolling hills of Sonoma County. So we're going back to California again.
Speaker 2:Northern California. Huh, that's what it sounds like.
Speaker 1:Exactly Now, brewed from Petaluma. Yeah, petaluma is P-E-T-A-L-U-M-A.
Speaker 2:I have not a clue where that is. I just heard Redwood so I was thinking Northern California up in that area. I'm with you on that one Never been there, but I'd like to go.
Speaker 1:Petaluma or Petuluma. Maybe Petuluma Sure, if you're from there, I apologize, go ahead and comment and share it with your friends about how ridiculously bad I did that there, but they're brewing it from there to Chicago and beyond and, yes, somehow this particular bottle found its way into your well, my really nice hands at this very moment.
Speaker 2:Andy, you do have some good-looking hands over there. I'm just going to let you know. I mean, look at that.
Speaker 1:You know I've dabbled in hand modeling a little bit, but I'm no David. Was it David Duchovny? What movie was that? He was a hand model.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm no David. Was it David Duchovny? What movie was that? He was a hand model. Oh, I know him from the X-Files. That's true. That one show on Netflix where he's a struggling writer and he's a drunk Californication.
Speaker 1:Californication Yep, yep. I never watched X-Files, but I watched Californication, which was a phenomenal show. That was so good it was hilarious For probably about four I think it was like five seasons or something like four seasons were really good. The first season was absolutely amazing. But yeah, probably about four seasons were good and it was kind of like okay, let's land the plane here.
Speaker 2:I don't know where you're going. It kind of started repeating itself, like most shows.
Speaker 1:I think you kind of run out of what are you doing for something new. You almost have to have a show that's like a procedural, you know, where you can throw all sorts of different ideas out there, or like doctor shows, right, you know what I mean. Something like that where you can constantly come up with new ideas.
Speaker 2:But when you get into something like that, you know like, all right. So how many wild random trysts can you get into with all sorts of different women while talking about a book that?
Speaker 1:he didn't write. Yeah, you can only do so many episodes of that Exactly. How many times is that really hot wife of his Natasha McKellone, I think is her name, sure, the lady that's in there, or whatever how many times is she going to come back after all of the shenanigans that he's getting into? But I don't know. If you've never seen it, I do recommend it. It's pretty good stuff. Dream of.
Speaker 2:Californication.
Speaker 1:Great tune. I like the chili peppers, so Lagunitas highly balanced, super drinkable, and it's got a little puppy dog on the front, as you can see on the box here in front of us.
Speaker 2:It is highly balanced. It is, it really is. That definition is highly balanced.
Speaker 1:And it does say next to the dog, it says doggone good, so I would support that as well. 6.2 alcohol by volume is what we're dealing with here.
Speaker 2:You certainly can't tell by drinking that that that's a little bit higher content for a beer on average, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's it's very yeah, very smooth, very. It's a very drinkable beer and I'm pretty sure that I had it on a cruise. I know that they have at least one of the cruise lines that I've been on has like log into they have like two or three different Lagunitas, so I'm pretty sure that I've had this particular one. But I know that I've had a couple of the. They had like a wheat one at one point in time, but it was very, very weak. So if you don't like wheat, you know I don't remember what the name of it was, but uh, there was a couple, two, three of them that were on there and I'm pretty sure this was one of them. But yeah, I really like it. I think my brother-in-law is probably one of his favorite ones, so I'm going to definitely highly recommend. You know, maybe I'll save a bottle out of there when we're done or something and let him have some of that. But yeah, so Lagunitas, out of what did he say? It was Petulama.
Speaker 2:That sounds close enough.
Speaker 1:What did he say? It was Petulama. That sounds close enough. Yeah, that's where brewed by the Lagaditas Brewing Company, mcdowell Boulevard in Petuluma or Petaluma in California. So that's where our adventure is going to start. Northern California, on the kitchen stove, is where this entire shenanigans began, 1993.
Speaker 2:Hopefully better than your kitchen stove, that we had started that one time that we've talked about you know, at some point in time I need to actually pull.
Speaker 1:We need to post that picture out there of the custom modifications. I think we did that. Uh, we did, we get that out there, okay, yeah, perfect, I know that it came up we talked about at one point. It popped up on my facebook like the next day, so kind of an interesting thing. But you know creativity, you know solutions. I'm a solution-driven person. Sometimes the solution is just drinking more beer.
Speaker 2:It's all about creativity. It certainly didn't turn out like this.
Speaker 1:It did taste pretty tasty.
Speaker 2:It was pretty solid, so this is pretty good. This is better than I think most IPAs we've had on our show, to be honest with you. Pretty good. This is better than I think, most IPAs we've had on our show, to be honest with you, because it is pretty smooth and easy drinking.
Speaker 1:It is a very good one.
Speaker 2:Highly balanced, like it says, not to get off track here, but go ahead. What else we got?
Speaker 1:on this. No, no, I'm with you. I like to discuss this as well. I'm more filling the time with my randomness. Good stuff, if you haven't already got this, go out and get some. I think you can get it, not everywhere, but like fairly not. Yeah, I don't know what I'm really trying to say. Like if you go to like a small town, really small liquor store, probably not gonna, because they're gonna have most of the standards right and then a handful of craft beers. But if you go to like a decent sized liquor store that has like a pretty wide selection, laganunitas is going to be in there somewhere.
Speaker 1:It's fairly common yeah it's one of the more out there.
Speaker 2:For a craft beer. It's out there. It's more accessible than your local brewery down the street, you know. So yeah, if you find it, get some.
Speaker 1:So what they have on here is for different sayings. To quote our brew monster is the way that they put it Lagunitas is made up of all kinds of creeds punk rockers, misfits, ivy Leaguers, weirdos, waldos, sparkle ponies, musicians and everything in between. Just a pack of stray dogs that found, despite our vast and wild differences, the love and respect for the freedom to be different, and that's what brought them all together and made it work. So wide cross section of people, which I would say you know I mean, yes, it is is, you know, kind of the thing and we hear that from you know a lot of different breweries, like we're set out to make it the most unique with the way we do it and be driven Kind of a lot of the generic buzzwords you hear from most every brewery. But I do like that, you know they.
Speaker 1:They definitely highlight that it's a very wide cross-section of people, which I think that the craft beer industry is definitely like. You're going to get some straight-laced people that suit and tie by day and craft beer by night, but you're also going to have people that are definitely more punk rockers or, you know, sparkle ponies, musicians. You know it's not, you're not, it's not just the all right. Well, craft beer, oh, ipas, what's those guys? I know that IPAs have had a longstanding ponytail, uh man bun, type of uh tradition or you know kind of a little bit of stereotype. But uh, you know, yeah, I craft beer. I think it's all over the place and I'd like to kind of highlight everything with that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would like to know exactly what a sparkle pony is. I feel like I want to Google it, but at the same time, I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't want to see what pops up.
Speaker 1:I feel like I need to have you know this isn't a work computer that I'm working with, but at the same time I want to make sure that I'm safely disconnected from anything before I get too deep and it's probably totally fine.
Speaker 2:It probably is. It seems like something that should have been on the unicorn episode that we did. Well, probably that's like a sparkle pony, it kind of is. It really is yeah.
Speaker 1:So 1993, so you want to start a brewery in the kitchen in Northern California, the Hamlet of Lagunitas, tony McGee, m-a-g-e-e. Tony McGee was crafting beers in a five-gallon homebrew kit, which I have done. I have not done it to this level, clearly, just the handful of ones that I've done. I actually have a kit out there in the entrance. I don't know if you've seen that. I think I need to throw it away though, because I think the yeast is bad. Some of the ingredients are probably we should try again.
Speaker 1:There we go. Maybe we could do that. We'll do that on a fast episode where we use time-lapse video. We just sit and drink the entire time while the boiling happens. Brandon needs to be there to supervise us.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, he started with the five-gallon homebrew kit and then ruined Thanksgiving dinner, which made him take his hobby into a rented room behind the house of Richards in Forest Knolls where he became started slinging beers at that point in time. So he basically wrecked Thanksgiving dinner with what he was doing. And then no, you can't do it here, you're out. And he went and started making it in the back room of a business already so kind of created his own business. Just because of you know what it was supposed to be? 95, the IPA is born. This particular IPA, I believe, is the one that they're referring to To stand out among this sea of pale ales. In the mid-90s he decided to develop a new world spin on an old world style, the India pale Ale, which he shortened to IPA. Pilates at the time couldn't handle the hoppiness, or palates at the time, not Pilates, palates is how that's pronounced Pilates. It couldn't handle the hoppiness, but Tony had a hunch that it was the next big thing. So he went ahead and he just stuck with it. So he went ahead and he just stuck with it.
Speaker 1:Over the next handful of years, the next decade, from the 95 to 2005, quickly outgrew his spot in Forest Knolls and moved to Petaluma, or Petaluma depending on where you're from or if you actually know how to pronounce it. I apologize, but it's fine. After a few years he needed even more space and threw a party and told everyone that showed up to grab whatever wasn't bolted to the ground and walk it across the road to McDowell Street, where they still brew today. Perfect. I mean, if you're going to recruit people to move, you got to feed them beer. I mean, I feel like that's just standard, natural, what you have to do.
Speaker 2:Well, it's usually what you do. Yeah, like you said, somebody comes over to help you erect a bin out there. You know you've, or you buy them dinner, yeah. I mean you got to do something or both. Most people, I think, prefer a case of beer, but you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the last time that I helped somebody move wasn't even really so much move, it was more. They had a mover that was moving them and we were just basically helping move the heavy stuff to have it more accessible for said movers. So not a terribly large amount of work.
Speaker 2:So you like moved it away from the wall or what Kind of.
Speaker 1:Well, we did move some stuff because they were actually moving some stuff out to the garage for a garage sale and the movers weren't going to touch that. And then, you know, they were just kind of getting rid of some stuff and so we actually got some stuff. We have a really nice desk. Amanda has a nice desk. I'll show you maybe later at some point in time. Really really, really nice desk, but it was very, very heavy, but it was still, I don't know, maybe 10, 12 things, big, heavy things. We had these arm straps to be able to move with, if you don't have those.
Speaker 1:They're not super expensive. If you've ever had to move, or if you're ever planning on moving ever again, buy those. I don't know if mega movers I don't even know what they're necessarily called but it's just like it's these straps. You just put a big thick straps you put around your shoulders and then there's one that you kind of hook through and you can kind of cinch it up and you just stand up and then you can hold. You can lift incredible amounts of weight just casually with two people and it makes it easy to hold on to. It's such a slick thing, nice, and it makes it easy to hold on to. It's such a slick thing, nice.
Speaker 1:If you're ever going to move, I highly recommend getting those. Just, I wouldn't do anything without it. I'm not moving anytime soon, but my brother-in-law has them and so I didn't need to buy them. Sure, but, like I said, we didn't have to move all that many things, but the gentleman that we were helping out, they bought beer and food. Both Pete and Jen are fantastic. We were happy to be able to help and happy to be able to participate in any way we can. They're moving to Florida. Oh really, the jealousy sets in sometimes.
Speaker 2:Florida. What's down in Florida? Why are they moving to Florida Retirement?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so no longer working anymore. They're kind of wrapping things up and just going to not be in Minnesota all the time. I don't know that they're going to be snowbirds like my brother and sister-in-law are not, though, because they still come up and they're still around here, but they're actually moving to the same neighborhood.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Because they're good friends with them. That's kind of where that kind of started. So, yeah, they're moving to that same neighborhood and they're just going to be retired and golf all day.
Speaker 2:Well, congratulations to them, I know. Cheers to them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cheers to Pete and Jen. Yeah, but yes, if you're going to have people move for you, you have to provide something you do Quesbier, pizza, both All the above, whatever it is, yeah, 100%, anyway. So they move to their new location and then they started throwing parties in their employee loft. It's even better. It started at 420. Better yet, which apparently raised some eyebrows I can do it, but it gets way higher if I push it up there. But it not only raised some brows locally there we go, hold it up. But it not only raised some brows locally there we go. Little tape there, hold it up. But it also apparently attracted some attention from the local authorities After a failed sting and a 20-day suspension they installed a new line to bottle our undercover investigation.
Speaker 1:shut down, ale, because why wouldn't you take that just in stride? Do the crime, do the time, get the bragging rights.
Speaker 2:That's what they say that's pretty hilarious. I thought that stuff was legal in.
Speaker 1:California. Well, this is also in 2005.
Speaker 2:Oh sure it might have been before its time.
Speaker 1:Now it probably is encouraged if anything else, but yeah, at that time a little bit less. I mean encouraged if anything else, but yeah, at that time a little bit less. So so 2005 to 2009,. Now they continue to grow. People are drinking more and more IPAs. They expanded from state to state and their brand spanking new 80-barrel Rolex Brewhouse started brewing up a wholly original little thing under the sun called a little something some ale, and I want to say that's the wheat ale.
Speaker 1:Well, it had a little something, yes, which is it's good, but it just it's the wheat. It's very wheat forward for me, so it's good If you like. You know wheat beers and you're in front of that yeah.
Speaker 1:So I definitely recommend doing that. Beer weasel Ron Leidenbush had one thought in 2009. We should throw a circus. So the Beer Circus was born. They opened up the Petaluma Taproom and Beer Sanctuary featuring live music every day, including some special shows at the new Lagoo Mini Amphitheater at the following year. So they got a lot going on at that point in time.
Speaker 2:Sounds like they have to have a lot of fun. You know some 420, some circuses. What else Need some beer?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I mean, because that's really what it's all about. It's having the good times, having a good time. Having a good time. It's very musical today, isn't it? Oh, it's Queen, yeah, it is, I like Queen. Great, great tune, 2011,. When our 250-barrel brew house for those again, we've talked many times about barrels it was what about a 30-gallon, 30-gallon?
Speaker 2:on average 30 gallons on a barrel. Us gallon 30 US gallons Yep.
Speaker 1:That's true, because we are kind of right in the face of this episode, maybe after you can be coming out during Oktoberfest, right For those international viewers and or listeners on the podcast. So if you're international, also click on something and comment something to us, because that'd be fantastic. Yeah, that'd be great. Yeah, 100%. Are you going to Oktoberfest this year?
Speaker 2:I'm going to Oktoberfest this year. Me too Are you going Leaving in 12 days. The jet plane is departing there. We go Minneapolis, St Paul.
Speaker 1:I'll be just a couple of days after that. So, like 15 days, it's only 15. Good Lord, I have to start packing.
Speaker 2:Leaving on a jet plane.
Speaker 1:Don't know if I'll get back again. Okay.
Speaker 2:Karaoke is not our strong suit.
Speaker 1:So that 250 barrel brew house so 250 times 30 is a lot got hit by a storm in the Atlantic. They knew they weren't going to be able to brew their widely feared winter seasonal brew, sugar. Yep, after a few flood calls they put out a substitute to disappointed fans. That was renamed very quickly Lagunitas Sucks. So they had an idea of what they wanted to do. Storm wrecked the entire thing. Let's put out a subpar item and name it after what people are going to say brilliant you know, lean into it people just, whatever it is, just lean into it.
Speaker 1:You know this is going to be funny. There's two ways you can view things. People always say like it's not like life is what do they say? 90 percent, like 10 percent? What happens in 90 percent? How you react to it? Right, I don't know, I might be off math. Yogi Berra didn't tell me the math at one point in time, but that's one of those things that you have the option of storm destroyed the thing. You can either fold up shop and be pissed and be mad and whatever, or you can just you know what. Let's do this Because what could go wrong? And if it does go wrong, well, that's a fun story too. Right, you know? Because no, how many good stories come from the things that went right. I mean, yes, it's fun. I mean I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna be like, hey, I went to oktoberfest this fall, it was great, that's gonna be, anyways.
Speaker 1:But then it's gonna be like. So we had like seven liters of beer and me and Sean were dancing on the table like they do in Germany, and we got kicked out and we into another tent instead. These tents apparently can house like four to six thousand people. It's a big tent.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't. Would we really call them tents? They're more like erector. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Temporary structures yeah. Full on buildings yeah, I think the tent I have has four to six people. Probably four to six. It's mostly just me, Amanda and the dogs.
Speaker 2:Six might be stretching it, and actually the two dogs is almost too much.
Speaker 1:So as a process of expansion here, one of their guys the main guy, I should say Tony McGee. As we go back to Tony McGee, he's a native Chicagoan. He was looking for a way to be able to return home and some help from a local legend. Nick is what we're going to call him, because I'm looking at his name and it looks very Greek. There's a lot I like Nick. I mean I could give it a shot. But Merkopolis, I mean Merkopolis, we'll go with Merkopolis. Merkopolis, we'll go with Merkopolis. Nick is fine by me. He found our second home in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood.
Speaker 1:So Lagunitas Chicago was born, and then, a few years later, lagunitas Seattle. And so then they start, you know, kind of looking at where else they're going to go. They started partnering with Heineken in 2015 and started to bring the hop forward, ipas beyond and in bringing it to the world, all over the world. So at this point in time now they're all over the place, firing up brew operations in UK, amsterdam, brazil and more to bring fresh Lagunitas all over the place. 2018, they start using cannabis-infused hi-fi sessions, started to be able to bring that to what they're doing, and then in 2018, they did a refresher of IPAs and started doing a dry-hopped zero-cal, zero-carb, zero-gluten sparkling beverage. That's a lot of zeros.
Speaker 2:Yeah, doesn't that sound good to me? I worry about it being zero taste, if you're from Lagunitas.
Speaker 1:Send me one so I can try it, because I don't know if I'll be able to find it in Minnesota. But I'm curious. I want to give it a shot, but I just have my concerns.
Speaker 2:On the surface it does not sound very tasty.
Speaker 1:Apparently became an employee favorite, though Apparently Uber boosted productivity.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Where you feed your people more beer, and so they were thinking they're going to try to do that. And so they do that. They called it the Hoppy Refresher. And then in 2020, they started to delve into more of the NA variety and 2021 started doing some more teas at that point in time, so trying to do a lot of different stuff. And then in 2022, innovation is the name of the game.
Speaker 1:At Lagunitas, they took a huge leap forward with the creation of our disorderly house of brewing right next to the taproom and beer sanctuary disorderly house of brewing right next to the tap room and beer sanctuary, and it's a place of wonder where the Lagunitas team of wizards can just tinker and just dream up the next big thing. So that's a kind of like that's, that's everything like from their website, the way that they do that. But kind of looking at their Wikipedia, it kind of talks a little bit about what their barrelage, because we talked about the 250 barrel brew house. It's fine to have a brew house, but if you have 250 barrel brew house, I'm guessing you're making more than 250 barrels a year, maybe 250 barrels a week.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? Soon yeah.
Speaker 1:So you start being able to make some production on that. So if you take a look at their Wikipedia, in 2004, they increased from 27,000 US barrels in a year to 106,000 barrels, so that's quite the jump. In 2010, that was from 2004 to 2010. That's that frame, so that's six years. They jumped in. You know what's that? 70, 80?, 79,000 barrels that's a lot, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1:In March 2011, they had 92 employees, distribution in 32 states, and by 2012, they decided that's when they did the additional brewing capacity $9.5 million, which brought their capacity to 600,000 barrels, so a lot that they had going on. In that one, 2012, again, the Chicago that they were going to. It was a space that was owned by a film studio, cinespace for at least like 20 years, and so that's when they started being able to make a beer there. And then, 2014, they opened it as a tap room and then, oh, their Chicago brewery closed in 2024. So I think they just have the tap room there, so they don't actually brew in Chicago anymore, which is kind of interesting. You'd still be able to have that but Especially as big as they are.
Speaker 2:You know, all over the world, brewing everywhere. Yeah, that's a bummer, they close in Chicago. But I find interesting about all this information and this specific company is how creative they are. Yes, you know, like losing the products at sea or the Atlantic because the storm couldn't get what they needed and then they just went on and made something else.
Speaker 1:So 2015,. We talked a little bit about Heineken getting involved and Heineken going, you know, kind of worldwide to help expansion with that Heineken at that point in time, because Heineken, the size that they are, their stake exceeded the 25% requirement that they had to stay below to be considered a craft brewery. So they're, I would argue they're still a craft brewery. They're probably just not a microbrewery, or sure you know. However you want to qualify that, but they had purchased 50 of lagunitas in 2015. So that's actually it's was a purchase, or at least a not controlling stake, but you know, a pretty large stake, probably a controlling stake, if you know. Maybe, maybe Tony McGee had the other 50%, but in 2017, they bought the rest of it, becoming the sole owner. So now it's actually owned by Heineken. But founder Tony McGee stayed on as CEO of Lagunitas with the intention of expanding distribution for Lagunitas itself. So they still kept him on and he's still available or not available, still involved with Lagunitas itself.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of a division or a different department.
Speaker 1:You get the benefit of being part of the thing, but you're, you can just kind of All right, this is the idea that I have. Let's do it.
Speaker 2:Wonder how much they paid him for it.
Speaker 1:It doesn't say Probably a few bucks, a couple bucks it doesn't say, but I'd be willing to bet that it probably was a decent amount. Let's hear the most recent. Let's hear where is it. It doesn't give me a year here, but the most recent information that they have, at least on their Wikipedia the annual production volume. It is up to 916,420 barrels per year.
Speaker 1:So, you're almost to a million barrels per year of this fine brew. I'm sure it's all of the brews altogether, everything they brew, but that's what you're looking at for the expansion of Lagunitas In 20,. What did they say? It was 2004. Got to go back up to it now. Yeah, 2004, 27,000 barrels, and even 2004,. They started in 93. 95, I think, is when they actually started opening and doing sales. But yeah, it's a decade to get to 27 000 barrels, and then another decade to get 79 000 more barrels. And 2004, another two decades, and now you're dang near to a million barrels worth of production.
Speaker 1:So you want to talk about having some quality clearly is some good quality stuff that people enjoy and and of course, they craft beer revolution Like can't even begin to explain like how much the beer landscape has changed just even in our lifetime, and I think we've talked about this on the podcast before that it's just night and day that at one point you know it's I used to go to the liquor store. I'm like, all right, I'm going to buy whatever I don't recognize had it. Had it. Had it Coors Light. I'm going to buy whatever I don't recognize, had it Coors Light. So I'd have to go to like Elk River or like a larger city with a larger liquor store to be able to find something. And now it's yeah, you go to even the one here in town, you know, and it's a pretty. It's not small, but it's not a very large liquor store by any means. But almost every time that I go in there there's something I haven't heard of, something.
Speaker 2:I haven't seen. At least half of their coolers now are craft beers from various breweries all over the state, and the surrounding states too, that fill it up. You're like I've never heard of any of these before.
Speaker 1:You know what kind of drives me nuts. A little bit I get why they do it and I'll explain why here in a second. But you know what really, here in a second. But you know what really, to steal a line from Peter, from Family Guy. You know what grinds my gears, what so many different liquor stores have now the beer cave. Don't get me wrong, I love me a beer cave I love to like.
Speaker 1:Oh, I have it open, have the little bit of fog roll out because of the heat difference. You go in there, oh my God. Look at all these different craft beers that are probably just in the door. That I can find readily, but it looks cooler because now I'm in the refrigerator. Just a whole different experience. What bothers me, though, is that there's enough different liquor stores now that use it just as all right. The beer cave, no, that's just where they keep the palette of Mick Golden Light and a palette of Bush Light and a palette and a pallet of bush light and a pallet you know like, and that's. You got to store it somewhere and you got to have it in a, otherwise you're going to as an employee. You have to go back and you have to refill the case for the sliders, or you're just going to have it out on the floor where it's warm.
Speaker 2:Especially on those type of beers.
Speaker 1:So I get the idea, but at the same time it also it just kind of bothers me. It's like I'm always excited to go in a beer cave and then when I go in there and it's just all super, super light water beers, I'm like Michelob Ultra. Well, that's depressing, yeah, but anyways, we haven't even given this a lawnmower rating, or what was the other rating we had.
Speaker 2:Not campfire rating or something, it was something like that. I don't remember what it was a fall rating, it was campfires we were kind of making yeah because it was something that we were definitely not going to drink mowing lawn.
Speaker 1:But if we had a campfire like s'mores or something like that, that we'd have you know a couple.
Speaker 2:I think that was on the spot in episode. That's where we kind. But yeah, I don't know what would you rate this man. It is highly balanced. Like the label says, man, it is a really good IPA. This would probably be.
Speaker 1:I need to standardize the rating now that I think about it more, because you know I could say like three wall mowing lawn. Well, is my lawn, like you know, a little push mower lawn or is it like 14 acres worth of yard? I would say we're probably between two and three beers per hour. Does that kind of make sense as far as a rate? You know, like a Coors Light is, probably you might do five in an hour. Sure, you know, if you have the thing with you, you know a cooler on the lawnmower or something like that Green, but this I could definitely do, you know, at least two in an hour, because it's nice and smooth. It still has some flavor to it, some body, so you're not just pounding it like water. Yeah, you know, it's got some highly balanced and super drinkable. It says right there on the label.
Speaker 2:It says it right on the label. You know, you don't even need to listen to us. You can just read the label.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So yeah, I would say somewhere between two and three, because I think I could probably do two and maybe open a third, but I probably wouldn't finish a third in that hour Just because it's not heavy. But there's more to it. There's some body, some body, yes.
Speaker 2:I was thinking of a song that went off, that that just popped in my head, but I didn't really want to sing it for you this time.
Speaker 1:It's quite the musical episode today. Some body More queen yes, but I didn't really want to sing it for you this time. It's quite the musical episode today. Somebody to love More Queen yes, that is the musical episode.
Speaker 2:I wholeheartedly agree with you on that. Two to three beers for sure. This is definitely an IPA that you can drink after mowing the lawn, after a hot sweaty day or chopping wood, like I've been doing the past couple weeks.
Speaker 2:Whatever type of outdoor activity you're doing when you're sweating your balls off, you can definitely drink two or three of these IPAs for that. Yeah, you know most IPAs you probably aren't going to want to do that because they are a little more alcohol content. Nothing wrong with more alcohol, but a little more alcohol content. But it doesn't quite hit you when you're hot and sweaty, like a lighter, lighter beer or lager. You just man. It tastes so refreshing and good. But this is an ipa that can be refreshing and good while you're doing that I completely agree.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it would. You get like super hoppy beers. They get to be heavy and you you get like two of them and you're just like all right, I'm done chopping wood for the day. You know like you just can't do know, just it kind of kills the whole atmosphere.
Speaker 2:Kind of the end of it, yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, this is definitely, you know, like all right, I'm going to stop, I'm going to have this for a little bit, or whatever. Let's get back after it. Let's get some more stuff done. Let's trim the hedges or you know, like around the house or something, get everything kind of cleaned up a little bit. I have a little bit more trim and I mowed Actually, my brother-in-law, alan, came over and he was helping me mow the other day. He really likes mowing, he likes he actually what a nice guy, I know, fantastic guy.
Speaker 1:That's why he's one of my best friends Apparently he's not for driving tractors in the field, but he can mow for you. Yeah Well, I think that's a whole different conversation that we'll get into at some point in time. But no, he really enjoys mowing lawn, he actually. Even so, our neighbors to the north, they have this really nice property on the corner. Some point in time, when you come up here during the day, miss my driveway and keep going to the curve, it'll be right there on the left and it's like, why are you mowing that much lawn? It's a big farmstead but they're mowing like a quarter mile down on either side and there's trees everywhere and it's meticulously taken care of. It looks phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Alan likes it so much that he actually ran into her and Bram the other day and stopped and, like you know, he didn't know who she was, but Amanda did, just because being neighbors, and they're walking out to the car and it's like, oh, you know who that was. And he's like, no, and. And they're walking out to the car and it's like, oh, you know who that was. And he's like no, and he's like, oh, that's you know so-and-so. And he's like I have to go and compliment her on her lawn. So he literally walked away from them to go back and talk to her and be like change your lawn but I love your lawn so he really likes doing that.
Speaker 1:He like he's you know he's not doing landscaping or anything he's you know, not trying to get into a business for that, but he has an appreciation for that and he, I think he likes mowing lawn, like I think he would probably. I'm kind of a once a week, but I'm gonna cut a little bit shorter, not super short, but a little bit shorter, so I don't have to worry half the time.
Speaker 2:You know that's really what it comes down to, I guess sure, yeah, I don't mind mowing my lawn long as I'm on the rider. I don't want to push mow it, I don't want to get off and fire up the weed whip. I'm just not interested in that because I can't hold my beer when I'm doing a push mower with a weed bit.
Speaker 1:But I'm a rider, I've got my beer right next to me.
Speaker 2:There you go With my headphones on listening to music. So, that's the type of lawn mowing I like to do.
Speaker 1:And that's generally what I have too. I got the rider. Alan has a rider. We used that to be able to. He came over here and we just kind of double tuned it be able to do that. And then we grabbed the weed whips and we both have electric ones which only a handful of years ago did they go to an electric one, that's my.
Speaker 1:God, it's just it's. And I even at the time I was like okay, well, I'm going to find one for like a hundred bucks on marketplace or something like that. And I got it and I'm like God, was this really worth it? And like the first time that I use it, I'm like and I'm done Well, that was amazing, yeah.
Speaker 2:They are so worth it. We have one too. It's so nice. I think it's a 40-volt heart one, and I bought all the attachments for it, so I have the brush cutter for it. I've got the little chainsaw at the end with a 10-foot extension.
Speaker 1:Oh for like a tree.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, yeah, you're a ding.
Speaker 1:You're an arborist over here.
Speaker 2:Electric weed whips are worth it. I'm not sold on everything electric at this point in my life, but the electric weed whip, my God. It's so easy, it's just plug and play. The battery lasts. I have five acres and I mow probably half, so I've got a lot of mowing and trimming to do. It lasts for everything I need it for Perfect. It's definitely worth it.
Speaker 1:That's all you can really ask for. Yeah, that's yeah. Yeah, it's same thing with the battery stuff. You know, like like all the hand tools, and I like the fact that there's more and more where you can get one set, like like the heartland you're talking about. You can get that and like all right, I have now like two, three batteries, but I can use it for 17 different things. You don't need to get another battery for your drill or your driver or for whatever else you're going to use. You know what I mean. You don't need to get 17 different batteries for all of the different stuff you can just get. Well, I'm just going to buy this, I'm going to buy one of these, and it's going to be the same battery for all of the different stuff. So that's a. I haven't quite gotten into that yet, but I have had that discussion that, like this is my goal is to get into that Kind of have big goals, right.
Speaker 1:You do Really high level goals, Because then I can duct tape them to the vent hood that I cut a hole in to be able to.
Speaker 2:That's another story that you can see on our Facebook page Exactly A couple, couple months ago, you know. I was just looking at, since we're on this weird subject of battery powered tools you know I have a side by side and not that type of tool.
Speaker 2:I have a side by side lawnmowers, more. You know all the guy stuff. If you have any toys, you all know what I'm talking about. You know you got to grease that stuff. Well, I was just thinking the other day I wonder if they make electric the little greaser, yeah, instead of just trying to pump it up and then they pop off sometime. You know. Well, I found one oh perfect grease gun that uses a 20 volt battery, and I'm like well hell yeah, and it's a heart branded one there you go.
Speaker 2:So I'm a heart guy. I guess for some reason throw the 40 volt in there. Yeah, the heart tools I have no for as much as I use them for they work just fine. For me it's like you get them at your local walmart. You know it's not the cheapest line they have, it's the better line, I guess, if walmart has a better line.
Speaker 1:But it works. That worked fine for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were great for me.
Speaker 1:So I mean, you can get, like, you know de walt or I don't even know milwaukee or something like that, but uh, unless you're doing full framing or anything like that, you know like it's, it depends on what you're doing, right? I guess that's the way that I would put it. You know, it's not necessarily, it's just more a matter of you don't need it to be as rugged.
Speaker 2:Right? Does that make sense? Like Milwaukee and DeWalt, you know, if you were construction full time you probably better get those, because I believe they all have lifetime warranty on all their tools. You just send it back to them. They send you a new one or repair it.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of the ones my brother has are Milwaukee, because he's a diesel mechanic and works on garbage trucks for a massive thing down in the cities and he's got all of the different attachments and all the different stuff and I don't know. I had him replace something on my car the other day or whatever, and he's just like click, click, click, you know, but he uses it all day, every day, so he has to get something that's going to be good for all day, every day. I'm good with my. I don't even know what I got works. To be honest, I don't even remember it's orange and it works really well.
Speaker 2:Whatever gets the job done.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, so what else you got Sean?
Speaker 2:I don't really have much anything for this one. I would say I think get yourself some Lagunitas If you're out there and you see it, it's really good. We highly recommend this one. I mean, most of our episodes we recommend what we drink. We haven't had too many beers on our shows that have been kind of iffy. This one's on the higher end for sure. Go get you some and keep in mind. You know this company started on the stove with 30 gallons to over a million barrels today.
Speaker 1:So I mean heck.
Speaker 2:What does that tell you about this company and the quality beer that it produces?
Speaker 1:Good stuff. Yeah, absolutely yeah. I would echo the same sentiments, you know, highly recommend it for sure. But yeah, that's our story of Lagunitas, with the Lagunitas IPA out of California. And yeah, definitely get yourself some. And until next time We'll see Cheers.
