TwoGuys & Beer

Crafting Community And Beer At 320 Brewing

• Andy Beckstrom, Shawn Field • Episode 38

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SPEAKER_03:

And welcome in, everybody, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Well, probably not boys and girls. Everybody of drinking age. Well, I guess anybody else could probably listen to it. It doesn't have to even be that. Uh Andy Beckstrom along with Shotfield. Uh joined uh by Lee Ankram here today. Uh new episode of uh Two Guys in Beer Podcast. Glad you could join us out here in the beer cast studio, beer cast studio. That works. I like it, but we'll go with that. That'll that sounds good enough for me. Uh joined, as I mentioned here, Lee Ankram from uh 320 Brewing in Pine City. Glad you could join us today. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, thanks a lot for coming on. We appreciate your time as well.

SPEAKER_03:

We've uh had been we were kind of joking a little bit before that we've been uh kind of planning this for quite some time. It just you know we had the snowstorm and then there was a Vikings game and then the Super Bowl, and it was kind of like what's the next thing that's gonna happen?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it was like January last year or this year, I guess, but the last winter.

SPEAKER_01:

That was a while ago, yeah. Priorities, you know, priorities come up.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep, absolutely. But you know, hey, we we got it going and we got it here, so we're all set to go. So we're talking uh 320 brewing in Pine City, Minnesota, and uh Lee joining us today, kind of to be able to do that. Many different kinds of beers. Uh do you have an idea of kind of what you have here? If you can kind of take us through or give us kind of an idea of some of the beers, and then we'll kind of hit the uh the best part of the uh I guess my opinion, the best part of the cracking and drinking them.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh sure. So the first one I see right there is called Pontoon Cowboy. It's kind of like a Belgian whip, but call it a white ale, a little bit more Americanized, just uh lighter than blue moon, is what I've been telling people. And uh that's kind of been our like summertime crusher. Serves with an orange slice in the tap room. Um so yeah, brew the last batch of it. I think we're almost on like the last keg of it. So summer's going away, so is that beer. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I was just gonna ask that question. Is that a seasonal beer for you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we just started in the beginning of of the summer this year, and it's been crushing. All right. In the middle there in that orange can we got Oktoberfest. Just released that first day of Oktoberfest, which was just last Saturday. So yeah, a lot of people like to bring their Oktoberfest out way too early, in my opinion. I like to keep a traditional. Sure. So that one got released last Saturday, tasting real good. Frilly Toothpicks is a pale ale that I opened up with and that I'm really proud of. It's got Cascade CGX, which is like just kind of like a hyperized cascade, and Simcoe, which are just like old school hop, new school hop, goes together with like kind of a classic pale ale. I say like it's Sierra Nevada on pale on steroids. All right, nice. Uh one of the white cans is uh a juicy IPA that just came out called Mindburst. Juicy is this kind of like black or vague term that's like in between hazy and west coast. So it's still got a decent amount of IBUs on it, but it's not like dry your mouth out kind of bitterness. It's you know, you're gonna want another sip, but you don't need to, I guess. In the middle there's I'll need to.

SPEAKER_03:

Don't worry about that.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh in the middle there, we got a New Zealand Pilsner. So it's a dry hop with New Zealand hops. I worked with a guy out of Malacca who used to have his own hop farm and now he's doing like hop selection for people. So it's kind of like a hop broker. So these New Zealand hops I got to like pick when they were picked in the harvest, I guess. So they were both mid-pick Motaweka and Nelson Sabin, which means means they're like danker, I guess. So that was a cool collab that I did with Pantown and St. Cloud. So he used a new experimental West Coast hop. And I used some New Zealand hops, but the same exact base, so you can go there, drink a West Coast pills, and come to 320 and drink a New Zealand pills. Different but very similar. Then we got a porter called uh Coffee Coconut Happy Life Porter, another beer that I opened up with that went really well. Always like the um the flavors of coffee and coconut together. Old ownership used to do a happy life or a happy wife porter. I am not married. So I was gonna ask you if there was a relation to that.

SPEAKER_03:

So I guess that kind of makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

I have to change the name up a little bit, otherwise I'd get confused.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, uh Sean, I'll let you pick uh let you pick first. I have my mind on a couple a couple of them, but uh I'll let you pick uh pick first.

SPEAKER_01:

I have my mind on two of them too. I was gonna let you pick and take the rest, but uh but I'm really interested in the the the pontoon one and the Oktoberfest, but I think I'm gonna steal the Oktoberfest out of there because I really like Oktoberfest beer.

SPEAKER_03:

So I was gonna take this juicy IPA over here. So we weren't even close to the street. Yeah, so that actually works out. The pontoon cowboy was gonna be kind of my backup on that one. Ponto and cowboy, yeah. Generally speaking, I think me and Sean are mostly kind of IPA, not exclusively, but you know, like that's a lot of what we tend to drink. Sure. So we've I was I'm definitely looking forward to that. My brother-in-law, especially, is gonna be looking forward to it as well.

SPEAKER_01:

And last year, Andy and I actually went to Oktoberfest in Germany. Oh, sweet. Oh, that was a blast. So much fun. Have you ever had a chance to go out there or any Oktoberfest festivals that are I went to uh probably six, seven years ago.

SPEAKER_00:

I went to Oktoberfest. I just went for one day and then got to kind of travel around Germany. Sure. Uh went to a couple different places, but yeah, blast.

SPEAKER_01:

It is so much fun. Yeah, we I couldn't believe it, but it opened at 10. And with a 1005, everybody's already got beer in their hands, having a good time. I'm like, this is fun as heck, man. It was absolutely amazing. Nobody cares, everybody's just sloshing beer, singing, having a good time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, even by the end of the day, that's the remote that was a remarkable thing. It in a way, how do I describe it? In a way, it was almost kind of reminding me of the biggest brewery ever. From the standpoint of there was I remember you had mentioned Malacca before at one point they were talking about putting a brewery in Malacca, but they needed to rezone. It's it's like one building on the corner of a block and it's in the middle of town, and they would zone for the entire block. So obviously it'd become residential because this construction company went out of business, I don't know, 50 years ago or something like that. Really cool looking building, but uh they couldn't get it rezoned because everybody would go to the council meetings, be like, no, we don't need another bar in town and people driving like crazy and stuff like that. And I'm like, Yeah, have you ever been to a brewery? Like, and that's kind of what like Oktoberfest did to me a gigantic, obviously, drinking beer party, yeah, but like nobody's there causing problems, nobody's getting in fights, they're not doing anything too wild, they're just like, you know what, let's have some more good times.

SPEAKER_00:

So did you guys do any of the rides when you were there? I just learned about all these because like I didn't see them when I was there, I was just there for one day. But yeah, there's like a wheel basically like on like this, but a little bit bigger, and it starts spinning and it goes faster and faster. Yeah, and the last person on like wins, I guess. We've seen some of those.

SPEAKER_03:

There was and there's one, isn't it like a like a on the conveyor belt?

SPEAKER_01:

On this conveyor belt that's spinning like this, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And isn't there one that like goes uphill too or something like that? Like there's we've seen some of those too, and we're like, oh, we're gonna do those. And I don't think we found them. And by the time we thought of it at the end of the night, it would have been a terrible idea. We would have been some of the TikTok videos.

SPEAKER_01:

There were too many leaders in at that point, but yeah, yeah. No, we didn't uh we didn't even find them or look for them. But yeah, we saw the videos of them, and that was the whole plan. Oh, let's go do that, it'll be great times. Yeah, we never got that far.

SPEAKER_03:

If you ever see the short that we had done, we did a live uh short uh out there, and uh you know, at the time in my mind, it seemed like no, this went really well. I thought this was really good. And it came out a little bit later, and I rewatched it back, and I'm kind of like it was we were a few liters in at that point.

SPEAKER_01:

So it was a good time. Well, let's get this and crack it open and try it.

SPEAKER_03:

So the uh best part, I guess, in in our opinion, we like to crack fresh on air. Oh it's probably a lot of uh beer in the uh probably mics, but it's okay, it's fine. It's not worse things to be in there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, that is good. I like that a lot. Definitely get the hops with that. It's not you know like super overwhelming, you know, like a huge IPA, but it's it's got the right, I feel like it's got the right amount of hops. I can definitely tell what you're saying that it's kind of that juicy where it's kind of in between, yeah. You know, a little bit of that down flavor, a little bit on each side. That's really good. I like that a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I really like this Oktoberfest too, and I'm not just saying that because you're sitting in our chair with us. Kind of critical of Oktoberfest beer because they can change such a crazy amount of difference between them. I'll tell you, my favorite Oktoberfest is Shells. Oh, yeah. I think I would match this with Shells. Not like the same flavor, but as a number one favorite choice of all the Oktoberfest beer I've had. This would be my number one tied with shells, in my opinion. I want to be super goodly. I'm really freaking good. Like I want a bunch more. I know we're gonna be stopping in soon before you stop brewing this for sure. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

Very good. Yeah, it turned out really good last year. I'm like also critical. Like a lot of Oktoberfests I don't even like. So I researched the shit out of it and came up with this this recipe. Turned out really well last year. And I was like, well, the exact same thing, not changing, not changing a thing.

SPEAKER_01:

So is this the only time you brewed it? Was this year and last year? Because we know you've been brewing and brewmasters and other breweries before you purchase 320. Is this the first your own?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I think I took like a couple things, but like I think the biggest driver in that beer is the yeast. Um so I used Bach Yeast, which I've had. Like a couple friends have used Bach Yeast in Oktoberfest, and I was like, I like that better than some of the more traditional yeast choices. So yeah, I did that, and yeah. So I kind of borrowed from things that I have done. Sure. That was probably the biggest change.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Super good. Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So uh we talked a little bit, uh, John just mentioning that you had been some other places, and it's you had purchased 320, how long ago was it? What do we a couple years now? Uh closing date was May 1st of last year. So geez, I feel like it was longer than it feels like it's not in a bad way. I suppose for you, it's probably like, oh my goodness. Well, what was kind of that transition like? Just that, you know, we got a bunch more stuff we'll get to, but just that you know, when you made the decision, when you seen it, you get into it and you sign the paperwork now to make your vision kind of come to fruition, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I guess I didn't think it was ever gonna actually happen. I just kind of kept saying yes to everything, and like there was like there was a every day when I after I said like I think I'm gonna do it to like I know I'm gonna do it, it was like there was another hurdle of like either financing or like laws or like whatever. Yeah, it was just like every day there was something I had to do for this business that I don't know how long it took me to purchase, but it was basically since Deer Opener in Minnesota to May 1st. So like it took that long to like figure all the stuff out.

SPEAKER_03:

I remember the like the kind of the announcement of the decision to do that, yeah. And I was like, oh, okay, cool, you know, like you know, keep going and you know, whatever. And and it seemed like, okay, is this is it still happening? Like, is it actually and then all of a sudden there's an announcement, you guys are gonna be, it was like a month you were closed or something like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, for a change of ownership, there had had to be, I don't know, government takes a while.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I was gonna ask if that was like a mandated kind of specifically because it's beer and a brewery and alcohol that it uh so I like started my own LLC.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't like buy the LLC. Okay, got it. So I couldn't just like use uh Nicholson's license. I had to like get my own. So okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So it was like starting all over from square one and you agreed to that made the decision. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Cool. So you know you get into that, and uh let's kind of take it back first. We'll go back a little bit. So when did you kind of get the I don't know if inspiration is the right way to put it, but when you decided, you know what, you know what, I'm gonna actually not just brew beer in my garage or wherever it may be, you know, in the kitchen stove like I've done in the past, you know. And we'll show you the picture of the mixer at some point. You know, like when did you decide, you know what, I'm gonna apply it a place, I'm gonna make this into a career, like kind of that whole process. Yeah. So keep drinking, keep talking, I'm gonna keep drinking.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Uh my said my process, I guess, was a little bit differently. I never really was a homebrewer. I like hung out with friends that were homebrewers. And so when they were doing that, I was really interested in like going out and snowboarding every winter. So I would go do that, come back in the summer. My friends would be home brewing, I would just get another Joe job or whatever. And after about four years of going out, snowboard instruction, then coming back to Minnesota, one of the friends that was doing home brewing brought it to one of his rich uncles for Christmas party. And they're like, you know what? Maybe we should start a brewery. And I guess they talked to Omar at Surle of like, I don't know, finances, and they got like really like jazzed about this idea of like retiring early. So basically didn't happen. Uh but basically it was like my friend that was home brewing, his rich uncle financed what is now known as Linlake Brewery. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03:

So gotcha. And I I've been there a couple of times in the past too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So I just got a job there for renovation construction, and then they're like, you work your ass off. You should probably like clean some tanks and stuff. So I did that. I just kind of like I don't know, kind of just found me, I guess. I didn't really apply for anything.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, interesting. Yeah, I suppose you know there's something to be had for hard work and just effort.

SPEAKER_02:

I guess you're yeah.

unknown:

Cool.

SPEAKER_03:

So uh Lin Lake, and then you spend some time with uh Is it Dangerous Man? Yep. Which is really too bad. We can talk about that whole in different conversation on that one. But uh episode, yeah. What was uh that kind of experience like then going from one brewery to another? Because you'd kind of I don't know if grown up in that was maybe a way to be able to put it, but then transition to like a whole different uh atmosphere and different deal.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so like the the head brewer of Linlife, the one that started at Joel Carlson taught me everything, and we were both kind of we were actually trying to start a brewery together before I went to Dangerous Man. We were actually talking to the owners of Blue Door. We were gonna start it's called Eat Street, it's on Nicolet in like Minneapolis. We were actually gonna start a brewery there, but their financing like fell through. So we were actually about to like jump from Lin Lake to start our own thing, and then that didn't happen. So we kind of started looking for jobs. So I got a job at Dangerous Man, he went to Fair State, and then yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Cool. And then how did you find out that 320? I guess that's a kind of an intriguing question, you know, if from my standpoint. Like I didn't even know that they were looking at that, but is that just something that threw the grapevine or like how did that even come about?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it was the day after like Dangerous Man's last day that Nick texted my old boss, the owner of Dangerous Man, Sarah, and she texted me. So I basically woke up with a pretty bad hangover and uh, do you want to buy a brewer? And I was like, I thought I was just done with this. Okay, I guess. I was kind of looking for a different career path. Sure.

SPEAKER_01:

So what did you do at Dangerous Man? Were you like the head brewermaster? Did you create beer there too?

SPEAKER_00:

Or yep, yep. So I was there for seven years, probably the first few. It was very much like like collaborative. No one really ever had brewer title there um until the last few years I held that title, mostly because one of my friends, John Lying, started Nine Mile down in Bloomington, and then they were also starting this like production area. So like I was the head brewer of Minneapolis, I guess. Oh, cool. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So you you talk about you know, this person and that person, everything like that. It really is just kind of a small community, really overall, especially in the metro area, because there's not that many people they supposed to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. Yeah, I don't know. You know, like it's for some people like job retention isn't as crazy as it was at Dangerous Man. I feel like everyone at Dangerous Man stayed there as long as they could, but everywhere else it seemed like there was always changing stuff. So you meet everybody somewhere or other. Also, there's beer fests. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I think Brandon's talked a little bit about that. We have a friend that does some home brewing. He's not at a brewery anywhere, but we've been trying to kind of talk to him about the same kind of thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think he actually has got he won something, so a local brewery in Minnesota is putting his stuff on tap there. I forget the name of the brewery now, but he posted. But his is Olive Street brewing, his home brew stuff. I don't know if you ever heard of that or not, but he's got his own tappers and his own stuff. Oh, cool. He's won what's four or five first place in the state four this year and last year, and he's won some ribbons in other states. So we're trying to get him on. We just haven't had to work the logistics out for that yet.

SPEAKER_03:

Where's he out of? So he lives in uh is it Coon Rapids there? I don't know. Kind of just by 10. Okay. Kind of up 10 a little bit. So yeah. Yeah, he's you know, like just he likes just tinkering with it you know more than anything. So he does a good job too. So now you've purchased 320 and you were getting into that, and uh you know, you're kind of going through that that month-long process. Did you have kind of a vision of what you wanted it to look like? Did you have an idea of what you wanted the beers to be? Like, or is it just kind of like a I so Sean made uh reference to like that? I had a bar at one point in time, and I think for me it was I had kind of a big picture, but as soon as like I signed on the dotted line, I went and I woke up with the hangover the next day after celebrating having purchased this thing or whatever. Now it was kind of like a well now what? Kind of like now I gotta actually make it into something. Right. Like what was kind of that transition, I guess, before you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so like we went, I went there a couple times with a few different friends up there when it was still open before I purchased it, and bounced ideas off of them of like, you know, just like interior design stuff. And the main thing was like the lights and the ceiling and the walls, like, and uh to put some of my own stuff on there. So like all like the I don't know, there's a bunch of deer skulls and plants in there, and like all that's from my house. So yeah, and like other little things that I found. But yeah, I don't know. I stressed over about paint color a lot. So I went to like Sherman and Williams probably like every day. I was just like, get a coffee, stop in, look at different paints, and then go to work. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

And what is the how do you balance because obviously since it's an existing brewery, there were people that were there before.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

And you kind of want to have some of those people to be able to come in, I would assume. Yeah, 100%. But at the same time, it's now yours with your ideas, with your kind of vision.

SPEAKER_02:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

How do you balance? I mean, I know that there's still the blood, orange, blonde, we still have the porter, even though we've renamed it now. Yeah, we've gotten no no longer a wife. The less wife. Yeah. Um, but how do you kind of balance? Is it just a sales thing, or was it was there certain things that like this is what I want to do, and these are the less performing, or what is that kind of um that process like?

SPEAKER_00:

When I took like when I took over, there was only like three or four beers left on tap. And so like there was like one keg of everything. So I think I like kept those on. And the idea was for me to just like oh take over like everything. Like Anti Interest Man, we had flagships, but I don't even like flagships. I would like to just brew a different beer every time I brew. Like I I'm not a production person. If I was, I would buy a bigger place. Like the brewery is the size of this studio. Right. Like so for when people like complain about like a flagship being out, it's like sorry, buy me a bigger place. I don't know. Right. What do you want me to do?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

But yeah, I don't know, it just kind of like evolved. I had like the beers that I wanted to do. I know I like I wanted a a full tap list or like tab everything full. So I just filled the spots that were open and uh yeah, kept on Blood Runge Blonde and did my own like light stuff, but pontoon cowboys been was better than like when they made like an ecentral light. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

How's the like feedback from the community been since you've been there? Any negative stuff? Oh, you changed our brewery? Because 320 was pretty well known in the area and people really liked it, you know. Yeah, you had any issues with community being a pain in your butt or anything?

SPEAKER_00:

No, not at all. Uh I feel like we do like a bunch of things for the community and with the community. Like, yeah, I'm trying to like throw events to get people together like all the time. Sure. So yeah, they've treated me well. I try to treat them well. And I have heard like the customer base has changed, but I don't know. Like there's nothing I could do about that. Yeah, well that's yeah, that's that's a natural evolution. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

And when you want to be creative and brew your own stuff, like that's the reason why you're doing it. So people's both change just on what they like to drink.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, no, and all the uh past employees stayed on for a while and then wished me the best when the slower time came. So I think it's been good. Nice good cool.

SPEAKER_03:

You talked about being part of the community. Um, and one of the notes we have here, we've talked numerous different times on on the podcast about you know, so many different breweries come up with different ways to give back. Uh, whether it be, was it the one in Chicago that I think they like, or no, uh Kansas City, they created like an own whole recycling uh deal with that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I was there this week in Boulevard Brewery.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, boulevard, like things like that. You know, like it seems like really the greater community tends to want to give back quite a bit. You guys do pints for pine. Kind of talk me through that process and you know what that's been like.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So uh we just kind of did the exact same thing that old ownership did uh last year, and we didn't really see that great of like give back, I guess. It's like I don't know. We were giving a dollar from each pint to a certain organization, and the idea was that they would come there on the first Friday or first Thursday of every month and like showcase what they had going. And some are good, some are bad. Yeah, some people like have the classic, I don't like beer. So we funneled it down a lot this year, and we just picked four different organizations that we wanted to work with that we knew would like throw a cool event, and we knew it was going to a good cause. So that's what we did this year, and we're we're actually brewing a beer with them. Um so inviting them in, and then the entire length of the beer, a dollar from each pint goes. So that's really cool. Yeah. So far, the most fun one has been I don't know if you guys have heard of fishing for all. It's a local fishing guide, just one guy, and he'll have like uh part-time guys come up in the weekend, but they take people out on the St. Croix fish or whatever, teach them how to fish or just take them fishing if they're from out of town. But then sometimes on the weekends they'll go down with the bus and grab kids from the city that don't ever know how to fish, and they'll bring them up here and they'll teach them how to like hook a line. Oh, nice. Teach them how to like, you know, fish. That's cool. Um yeah, he was at like the money that we're giving to him is for that pro bono work. So he doesn't charge anything for it, obviously. Oh, nice. Yeah. Evan, solid dude. Awesome. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_03:

One of the things I will say that I've also been very impressed with, you know, over the course of the last you know year plus, that uh not that there wasn't any events before, but at the same time, it does feel like you're kind of like if you come to me with the idea of an event and it sounds fun, let's try it out. Yeah, is that kind of the attitude? Because there's some things that have been like, oh, we're gonna do like the box car racers, the other create the car races, and you know, we had the out the spelling B. I think I finished third in that, by the way. I think I did pretty good. There was a lot of people there, that one.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the the first I first year was like, let's create some hype, let's just throw some stuff at the wall and see what sticks. We're just gonna try this stuff, and a lot of those things like don't break the bank. Like if it's not successful, we're just paying one of our employees to like help host it or whatever. So it didn't seem like that big of a risk, I guess. And we're still coming up with the new crazy ideas, so yeah. Some we've had it canceled just because we didn't want anyone like to not come to the tap room because they think we're there, and then there was only like a few people signed up. Like we just canceled the talent show, which I think just September people are pretty non-committal.

SPEAKER_03:

So and so now you also have food there. Uh, there is the Tiki Tim's that's uh involved. Yep. Um, and then I have also uh been I have attended a couple of times now the either uh burgers and tots or the dogs and tots events. Uh is that you cooking back there? Or is it okay? I thought that that's what I had heard, but I wasn't sure. Like it's been a lot of fun to be able to we'll do that. We'll get grab a group and October.

SPEAKER_00:

It's gonna be uh Bratz or uh Burgers, Bratz and Tots. Brats and oh there we go. Love it. October the Octoberfest uh sausage plate.

SPEAKER_03:

There we go. I'm loving it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's awesome. Yeah, so before I got into snowboarding, before I got into brewing, I was going to culinary school and working in restaurants. So um that's kinda I don't know, there was a kitchen back there, and I was like kind of drones in to get back there. So nice. It's been fun.

SPEAKER_01:

That's cool. Yeah, the food's good too. When we ran through Ragnar earlier this year and had the tacos there, and they were good.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was it's a lot of fun. Really cool place to be able to go. Yeah. So trying to kind of go through kind of some of the list here, try to keep myself on track a little bit. Take me through. Do you know uh like a lot of the history, like prior history, like the name 320 is I'm assuming it's just a nod to the zip code or area code, not zip code, that'd be a code is what I'm saying. Yeah, there we go. Okay, and then some of the other thoughts, or do you what is your kind of your philosophy moving forward from you know what it was?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, moving forward. 320, I so the reason I guess that uh my former boss Sarah texted me right away was because I almost bought a brewery down in Minneapolis called Broken Clock. Well, it was not Broken Clock, it was their old location. They just recently moved.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

It was like kind of back in this corner and had a huge parking lot, and I was going to have that like a motorcycle themed brewery, kinda, with like a bunch of live music and motorcycle rallies and stuff. But that like fell through in a horrible fashion, and that was kind of right before all this, so I totally forget the question. But keeping the name 320 was eh like hard for me because I had this vision of like this completely other brand, but at the same time, I was like, well, I don't want to scare away any of the locals like coming in with like you know a different type of party than they were looking for.

SPEAKER_03:

So the broken clock is that the uh the cooperative is that does that still exist in or is that yeah, 100%. Okay. I guess I there's only been to the one that was just north of 5'6 brewing or 56 brewing.

SPEAKER_00:

56? Yeah. So that was their old that was their old location. Now they're south of 56 on Marshall, like on the main drag, just south of where Psychosusie's was. Oh, okay. Okay, yep.

SPEAKER_03:

So Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I'm fairly familiar with, you know, I usually remember bits and pieces from when I'm in that area.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So we're talking about 320, and we talked a little bit about some of your past brewing at those those other companies, Dangerous Man and whatnot. Is there anything lessons that you learned from those days that you're able to carry with you into your ownership of this new brewery and the kind of things you wanted to execute?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, like besides just like the brewing stuff, because obviously that was like every day. But I don't know. Like they really like there was a reason that they had employee retention. So kinda like taking their model and uh like putting the employees first kind of thing. I guess yeah, they had a lot of community involvement too, but this place did before me, so I'm just gonna kind of carrying the torch of both of those. So cool.

SPEAKER_03:

So having been a uh a new owner of a business myself, it's always kind of an interesting question that a couple of questions asked. Yeah. Uh what was probably the biggest thing that surprised you, uh, either good or bad? Like now you've purchased it, you own it, you've opened up, and now it's fully you, and this is whatever it is. Here is my idea, and well, that's not at all what I thought it was gonna be.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't know. I guess the the clientele, not for better or for worse or whatever, but um when I first learned of this brewery, the brewery that I was about to create with a friend was from Rush City. So I don't I asked, obviously, I was like, I know you're like going off and doing different things, but I'm thinking about still starting a brewery. Do you know anyone in that area? And he ran me to a friend that he went to college with. So I met up with her. She kind of like showed me around the town and like introduced me to other people, and they were all like younger than me or whatever. And so now looking around in my like regular crowd, it's people much older than me. So yeah. I guess like the maybe I should have done my research, but the the age and the uh what people are into in Pine City was misrepresented the first few times I came to Pine City.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh fair enough. I suppose. I suppose you get kind of an idea just on you know a couple meetings. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. And then it kind of timbled to that. If you could, now that you're a little more than a year in, if there's one thing that you could maybe redo right from the get-go, is there anything that comes to your mind? Uh, you know, maybe an event or just anything, maybe that color that you chose from Sherman Williams that I'm gonna judge you on later.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh no, pewter green. Pewter green is great. Let's see, I'd probably start cooking food immediately. I probably would have done less time trying to like partner with people. And trying to make it work and then just like doing my own thing for finding a chef? Because yeah, I think that's like down to the future.

SPEAKER_03:

True. Absolutely. What's been you said kind of the future? So you obviously you're doing well and it kind of have a vision for the future. What has it been kind of like now for you with the way the industry has changed probably in the last three, four years? I mean, you're seeing probably more closing in the metro area than you are outstate, but at the same time, it's probably some people that you know and Dangerous Man, one of them. Like, what's that been kind of like getting, you know, kind of realizing what's happening, but trying to overcome that, I guess?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I don't know. Me and Travis were just talking about this like yesterday, Travis, pizza pub guy. And he was like, I don't know, it takes like five years for anything from the city to get up here. So I figure I got like three. I feel like I got three more. Perfect.

SPEAKER_01:

So talking about that, the challenges and breweries have been closing a lot lately, you know, maybe because they're oversaturated. Like 15 years ago, there was barely a brewery, you know, a craft brewery. And it was like a fun, oh, let's go to a brewery now. They're here, here, here, and here. Um, so we're we're seeing some losses there. And I'm curious on the business expense side of it, with the past couple years of cost of rising goods, how's that been affecting what you're able to produce and output?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, I don't think it's like affecting what I can produce. It's affecting probably my way of living more than anything, because I'm like the first one to fall on that sort.

SPEAKER_03:

So you're not just getting rich and retiring early, like you like the guy was talking about before.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm living in a fifth-wheel camper right now, dude.

SPEAKER_01:

Has it been pretty drastic, like price increases though, on the business side for all the ingredients that you need?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it's been a like up and down, but since like the war in re Ukraine, like everything's like kind of skyrocketed. Yeah, yeah. It's like, I don't know, they're the biggest producers of wheat or something like that. Sure. Um, so yeah, ever since then it was like I just remember getting like the emails when that started of like price increase, price increase. Now everything's kind of like plateaued.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh god.

SPEAKER_00:

And now everyone's like trying to give you a deal or whatever, because like all these places are closing. There's like smaller, so now all these suppliers are trying to get you a better deal. Sure, because there are surplus of stuff as well. Oh, there's yeah, yeah. Yeah. No, when I did that New Zealand pills, like there was like a quantity minimum, and then I called about it, and they're like, oh yeah, well, whatever. Are you buying hops? Sweet. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So let's go, let's get it going. So do you get a chance? You already said you bought some locally some hops from Malacca or a farmer out there.

SPEAKER_00:

Are you able to get any other locally sourced ingredients or uh when I was at I wanted to do a fresh hops beer this year because I did one when I was at Tangersman from a guy right across the border, not like dress or whatever, right past there. I think it's like Deer Valley Farms. I don't know. I partnered with him for a beer and that turned out amazing. And I want to do that again this year, but I have not had the opportunity.

SPEAKER_03:

Um, somebody that's got a lot of acreage, don't tell my father-in-law.

SPEAKER_00:

For hops, you say? You know what?

SPEAKER_03:

Me and my brother-in-law have been talking about, you know, like hops and you know, just all the greens, like all the different stuff or whatever. So Dean keeps wanting to do hay and stuff like that. And I'm like, well, hay's selling for like 10 cents a bale at this point. So it's fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, why not? You have little hops growing on your silo out there.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we got some out there. I did a beer at one point in time. Brandon did that, or whatever. It's uh what are the three? Cascades, Chinook, and something else that starts with a C. Centennial. There we go. Nailed it. See, that's the true professional right there. Yeah. It's all in there. Good. Yeah, so basically I was making my own beer. So we can I got I gotta it only will fill up wet hop, maybe not quite a five one of those uh what is it, the 30 quart totes, like the rubber made total? Might be able to get a five-gallon batch out of it.

SPEAKER_01:

From the silo to the can. There you go. So when you're coming up with new recipes, um, is there like a research and development phase you do? Do you just make a little and try it and give it to some people to try, or do you just boom, it's on tap for the whole public? Here we go.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't know. I've never we pilot bashed at Lin Light when we were like still building the place, but then we never used it after we opened. Oh, no. So it was like it was ten barrels or nothing. Um so yeah, I don't know. I've never like I said, I didn't really homebrew too much. Sure. And I barely pilot brewed. So like everything's kind of been like this is the smallest uh bur that I've you know worked in, sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, that's kind of neat. So it's an idea. Here it is, everybody have it.

SPEAKER_03:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. What is kind of that a process like you do you take suggestions from people, or is it just what kind of you want to do, or is it, you know, like where do the where do the ideas come from? Do you have like a suggestion box?

SPEAKER_00:

Like if I did, I would never look at it. Uh but yeah, I don't know. Um it inspiration comes from everywhere, right? It's like the depends on you know what people say they like to drink. So Pontium Cowboy, there's a brewery in Iceland called Einstock, and they make a white ale that I I had that. I don't remember where he had it. Pizza Pub has an on tap all the time for me.

SPEAKER_03:

That might have been okay. That might have been it might have been where I had it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I like that beer, but my brother-in-law really like all he'll drink is either summer shandy or uh blue moon. So it's like, how do I, you know, kind of because like I feel like he's like one of my consumers, you know?

SPEAKER_01:

True.

SPEAKER_00:

And you had a shandy. Made the shandy with um the fishing for all people. Okay, gotcha. That's what that's like.

SPEAKER_01:

And we had those this summer when we were there for a right stuff, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's super good. Yeah, super good. Absolutely. Well, cool. Let's talk water. We talked ingredients and water being one of the biggest things. Being in a city, do you run into water profile issues, or it do you have like a process for that, or is it just you tasted it and you're like, oh, this is gonna be fantastic and it's great.

SPEAKER_00:

No, so all the all the water at the brewery is RO. So it's all stripped out through an RO filter, like triple filter process. And so that water is great. It doesn't have anything in it. Right. It's all stripped out, but it's delicious. And actually, I canned some water this summer, and that was selling faster than beer. It's wild. I don't know if I made any money on it.

SPEAKER_02:

There you go.

SPEAKER_03:

Whatever it takes, you know. Yeah. That's the ultra NA. That's that's fair.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That's the beer zero.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

No, so uh when I I'm really caught up on beer right now, I probably am gonna can more water, do some sparkling water, and some hot water. And maybe some THC water. We'll see. There we go.

SPEAKER_03:

I feel like there's been more and more that have gone that direction. Is there a lot of overhead or a lot of oversight, I guess, with that, or is it kind of this similar with other beers, just run it through the uh get the label through the state?

SPEAKER_00:

Are you talking THC? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Um, I feel like something a lot of things have changed like over the summer. I made some last winter, but it's kind of like it's such a fluctuating market that like everything's changing, including the laws. So like right now, I don't really know what's going on. So I'm gonna like pause on it for a little bit. Everybody's making it, it's very saturated. So unless like it's the only exclusive thing in the brewery, there's not really much money to be made, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. Makes sense. I feel like I like I mentioned, I think I've seen it uh so many places now. But yeah, yeah. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's been in quite a few spots.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh so uh kind of with that, uh you know, talking about uh the THC kind of ideas for the future. What are do you have some ideas or some uh let us peer into the future here with the crystal ball in front of you? Like uh maybe give us some insight. You don't have to tell us all the secrets, it's a very exclusive community, sure, and they won't tell. It's fine. So, what kind of ideas do you got? Brewing Brewin. Uh uh. I know, I'll see myself up.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so next year we're gonna do a little bit more distribution, probably see a lot more tap handles, hopefully, in the area. I don't know how far we're gonna go, but that's an idea for next year. This, like in the dead of winter, you know, trying to set up some beer dinners. Me and Travis just offered up a beer dinner at this gala for a place for you, the homeless shelter in Pine City, and it went for almost five thousand dollars. Oh wow. Yeah. Four course meal for uh eight people. Pretty crazy. We did it last year, it was super fun. So it's kind of like a fun winter activity. Kind of like combines both worlds. Also, like kind of looks into the future, like you were saying, because like, yeah, I think that place food is the future. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So we have the cans here in the past. I I I had mentioned, I think, before we went on air, that I have a growler from over there, and you still fill growlers, but you're doing more cans now. You don't have a canning line.

SPEAKER_00:

We don't have a canning line. We have this uh machine from it's called October Seamers. They make seamers for all different things and sizes, and they have it so I can do I can can twelve, uh sixteen, or nineteen point twos in this one little machine that's about as big as just mic stand. Um so it's pretty convenient. The shelf stability is, you know, maybe a little bit less than if you were running a canning line, but like that takes up you know bigger than my more more room than I think.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So you mentioned like some tap handles, is canning something you're looking at too, or is that mostly getting to just an in-house canning right now, like so the cost of aluminum is if you don't buy like a pallet or a truckload, you're paying a lot for cans. And that's just how it is right now. Same with like labels. If you're not like buying a bunch of them, you are paying a pretty penny. So right now I'm trying to get like my cast my cost down on cans and labels just for to sell them out of the tap room before I even think about selling them to liquor store.

SPEAKER_03:

Would it help if I saved all of the cans of water? Of water, all the cans that I have. Would that help at all? Can't reuse them, unfortunately. It's worth a shot. You never really know.

SPEAKER_01:

So what's your what's the annual barrel capacity of your brewery 320? How many barrels can you brew a year there?

SPEAKER_00:

I've been going off this number that it's a it's a batch a week. The brewery could probably push more.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. How much is a batch a week? Gallon wise or barrel size? Seven barrels.

SPEAKER_00:

Seven seven times thirty-one is should probably know this. 200.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, closer. Yeah. Sounds like sounds right. Okay. I don't know, make it a number. Just throwing over something. Yeah. So you're not quite maxed out though. And folks, you you could probably push more, you said if you had to or wanted to.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. Definitely. But yeah, the problem that I run into all the time is I think I'm like two people when in reality I'm like one person. I don't know what that's like at all. So I'm like, oh yeah, I can bartend at night. Well, we have you in the kitchen that night. Oh, you're cool. Oh, yeah. Well, maybe I can bartend the morning and then hop back in the kitchen. It's like, dude, you're gonna like run yourself dry.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's a small business owner, though. My wife owns a small business and it's 24-7, 365, you know. Yeah, it's never turn it off. Never ends. Absolutely. Nope. So is there any metrics that you watch on a PL by month if you do your own PL or how many different ingredients you buy every week, or any anything specific that you watch on a weekly basis or a monthly basis as far as metrics goes, numbers wise, or you're just uh letter rip?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh last year I was having a letter rip, but this year the taper manager I promoted the general manager, and he really likes spreadsheets and numbers and all that stuff. Um so Nick Sebak does all that.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, okay. Uh Nick, Nick's a good guy.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. But I have a very like very loose rule, I guess, is the bank told me that if I can match 2022 numbers, then I'm gonna make it.

SPEAKER_02:

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what we're shooting for. So I have like a poster of that. And then if at the end of the month I come in over that, I'm like feeling pretty good about myself.

SPEAKER_03:

Do we have like a thermometer in the back room somewhere?

SPEAKER_00:

Tensions were pretty high last week. I bet. Yeah. September kind of sucked until this last weekend was great. Nice. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Really glad to hear it. So I mean, we got some other questions here, but I guess probably one of the last questions that I have. You know, we can get into this, that, and the other thing, but I'll give you kind of a little platform, a little soapbox, if you will. Oh, sure. Um, what is something that either we haven't asked or just something that you want to talk about of the brewery that uh people either may not know or that you just really want to get out there?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I don't know. I think like from like past, I don't know if like what past customers like have thought or whatever, but like there's a lot of people I feel like in the Pine City area that haven't like stopped in and checked out the new thing, um, or like had the food, had the tacos, anything. So they're amazing, by the way.

SPEAKER_03:

The tots are amazing, the tacos are amazing, the dogs are amazing, the burgers are amazing. Yeah, the beers it's beer, so it's good. It's very good. This IPA is fantastic.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't know, I don't know like if there's a like a conception that like we're too bougie or like I don't I don't know. I just like would like everyone to like give it another try if they like haven't been in here since I took over. Because I think I win everybody over eventually. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

I like it. Well, if nobody has tried 320 beer, uh just one sip of any of it should win them over. I I think this beer is really good, definitely above average from most of the breweries you go to. You know, it's it's super good beer. Thank you. There's a very good job with it.

SPEAKER_03:

A lot of places have good variety, but this is definitely the whole gamut of everything, too. A lot of really good options. So I don't know if you were there the day. Well, you were there the day, the uh the the three the beer run that uh you guys had done there, the uh brewery running series uh group that had come in. That was when the frilly toothpicks had first come out. Yeah. Sean, I don't know if you know this story, if Amanda had told you this story, but uh I had come in to just kind of check on things and I don't know how I was doing or whatever, but I had asked Krista, I'm like, Do you need anything? Because I like want to try to you know help because yeah, there's a group that we've done a lot of stuff with a brewery running series, actually, right there. Um, and we were like, Oh, we gotta get him here to Pine City. And I'm like, I want to try to help anywhere that I can. And so she's like, Well, we just have this new beer. Can you write the name on here? Because she was nervous to do that or didn't want to, she was busy or whatever it was. And I'm like, I've seen my handwriting, absolutely not. So I had Amanda, I was like, Hey, come in here, can you write this or whatever? And she's like, Absolutely. And she was like, she said she was so nervous to make sure that she wrote it cleanly enough that people could read it, yeah, that she forgot to spell it right. Yeah. So instead of frilly toothpicks, it was frilly toothpicks. So, but then it stayed there for like I don't know, a couple months or something. Oh, we left it for that entire batch. Yeah. Yeah. So people got to get on that. Like to make fun of her about that. It was kind of funny. She, you know, rolls her eyes at me, but she does that all the time anyway.

SPEAKER_00:

So also the funny thing about that story is like I am severely dyslexic, so I spell things wrong all of the time. And so like I get made fun of all the time. Uh the original batch of like flight cards. You know, if you get a flight, you can like fill out your own things. It was uh fight cards.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh there we go.

SPEAKER_00:

Perfect. Let's hear uh Krista and It was months before anyone found out. It was AL flight cards.

SPEAKER_03:

That's excellent. I suppose that could be the next round of the next next event, yeah. The main event, yeah, if you will, coming up.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure could be.

SPEAKER_03:

Sean, what else you got going on?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, as I was doing some digging on the local Pine City, I don't know if you knew this, I didn't know this, and I've worked in Pine City now for I don't know how many years, six, seven years now. But on my notes here, there's been a brewery in Pine City prior that I found out, but of course it closed in according to the good old interweb, it closed in 1915 uh due to prohibition. So I didn't make it to that one. That was kind of interesting. Um so you clearly knew about it. Um started in 1882, and I'm probably gonna butcher the name, but Bullsmeyer Brewery in Pine City, if I'm saying that correctly. And according to this, it produced about four thousand barrels a year. And this guy had his house right next to it and put a pipe from his house into his brewery to have beer run right into his house.

SPEAKER_03:

Dang it's a brilliant move in my mind. That's absolutely a brilliant move.

SPEAKER_01:

But I don't know if that's all true, but according to the interweb, that's what came up. So I thought that was kind of interesting.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I haven't like looked into it too much. I found a bunch of old photos when I took over, like down in the basement of like framed photos, and a lot of it is like from probably that time in Pine City. Oh, nice. Um, so there's a kid's room in the back uh for there's big screen TV and a switch, and like kids can just like hang out and whatever, but I put a lot of those old photos up there.

SPEAKER_01:

I haven't been back in that room. I'm gonna have to go back and check that out.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you weren't going back there to play sorry.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I I wasn't, or Pine Cityopoly, you know. Right.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So do you have is that uh those photos you have? Are they from the tap room that was in town or the actual brewery that was just a little out of town?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh it I've seen a couple from that brewery. Oh, okay. And I think like it's just like a picture of a sign. And I don't know, I haven't like dug too deep into it. Um, but there's like a bunch of photos of like just old guys hanging by what looks like brewing equipment.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. I don't really know about it. Uh I didn't find any photos online. I was trying to search quick, but I didn't go down the rabbit hole too far.

SPEAKER_03:

I wonder if it's just a collection of pictures. That can't be the same location, would it? No, no, no. More downtown or something. No. Interesting. That'd be kind of wild if it was the same place. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

No, that that location was like uh I forget if it was an auto body place or if it was just a storage for an auto body place, but the muffler shop behind me used to own like that whole lot, that whole block.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah. It used to be that, and then Pizza Pub's original location was there.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah, according to this, the saloon, the Tide House saloon, was 255 Main Street South. It was supposedly where their saloon was. If this is accurate, I have no clue, but it was on the internet.

SPEAKER_03:

It's it's got to be true. Everything's true. Why would you even question it?

SPEAKER_01:

Everything's super true. Uh that was kind of neat, and I never knew it existed prior. So I'm like, oh well, that's cool. And if you have some photos, I'm gonna go back in the kid room and check it out. Hell yeah. I'll be able to see it back there.

SPEAKER_03:

Where's Sean? We're out here playing trivia.

SPEAKER_01:

Check it out, yeah. So I have one more question for you. Uh we anybody looking for the viewers out there, listeners out there, whomever, anybody looking to get started in brewing or owning a brewery, uh, is there any advice you can give to them that to get into the industry or how they should start, or what do you think? Because you have a different path of getting into it than yeah stories we've heard.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, it's always been a job. Yeah. So yeah. It's always been a job that like has to work. I don't know why, but yeah, I don't know. There's been a couple people that have asked me if like they found a brewery or they wanted to start a brewery, and like I kind of like ask them all the questions and pretty much say, like, should you? Like, do you really want to right now? Because like, I don't know, there's brewery closing left and right. If you want to like buy one of those for cheap, like go ahead, but like you're not gonna pull money from it for a while. So gotta figure that out first.

SPEAKER_03:

Cool. Trying to re read through my notes here. But I don't know that I got much more, Sean. No, I don't think. Sean just got back from vacation, so he's kind of fried here.

SPEAKER_01:

Pretty much covered everything. I went down to St. Not at St. Louis.

SPEAKER_03:

It's Kansas City. Kansas City. We were talking about St. Louis on that same trip.

SPEAKER_01:

So I went down there for a NASCAR race where we stopped at uh um Boulevard Brewing Company when we were down there. I went to the tap house. The tours were sold out, but I was trying to ask Annie. We did an episode on one of their beers, and I couldn't remember. I think it was the Nutcracker Beer. That sounds really good. I swear it's the Nutcracker Beer for Christmas that we did, but where was it again? Boulevard Brewing in.

SPEAKER_00:

No, where was the race? Kansas. It was Kansas Speedway this weekend. Oh, really? Uh if you have to go back, find a place called Earthbound Brewing. Okay. About the size of 320, but it's like really, really old building, and they have like caves in the basement. And so like they do their tours are awesome. There's like a river down in the cave, like, and it's all like lit by these like old Edison bulbs. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that'll be fun. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and the owners there are just like the best people. So you talked me into it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm sure I'll go to another race there again at some point. I'm gonna keep that in my earthbound brewing.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, tell us tell Stuart hi for me. All right, absolutely we'll do. We'll reach out, maybe we'll get uh some beer for the podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe he can come on the podcast. There we go. Maybe we can travel for once.

SPEAKER_03:

We'll take that out when we do our we have this plan that we're gonna do a whole nationwide roadshow and go to all the different places we've talked about before and go and meet him there. So we haven't quite figured out the logistics of going places yet, but you know. That's fine. The cozy confines of the studio here, just great. We'll get there. Well, cool. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have a whole lot else going on. Twins fired their manager today because it, you know, obviously it was coaching that had to do with uh you know poor performance, but they did? Yeah, just this afternoon. I uh had nothing to do with ownership or lack of spending money at all, but you know, yeah, have my own opinions about that. So Sean, what else you got? Anything else?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't have anything.

SPEAKER_03:

All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Lee, anything else you'd like to add at all? Uh I don't think so. No. All right. Uh come up for Oktoberfest. I don't know when this is gonna go out, but uh couple weeks.

SPEAKER_01:

It'll be probably about two weeks.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, well then you too come up for Octoberfest Saturday, get some cheap Oktoberfest in a Stein.

SPEAKER_03:

If nothing else, come out and have the Oktoberfest. Yeah, there you go. Go look for that Oktoberfest. And then of course this one too, the juicy pale ale. The Mind Burst. Yep. I like that. This is very good. Like Alan, you're gonna like this too. Yeah, brother in law. I'll message him in about three minutes. Yeah. Tell him about that.

SPEAKER_00:

So I made that with uh Kvike yeast. I don't know if you know anything about Kvike yeast, uh, but it's Norwegian yeast. It's technically an ale, but it ferments at like really high temperatures uh that can withstand it and it puts it out like it gives it that kind of juicy character that goes along with the hops, but it was it wasn't mind burst, but I read it as mine burst because I'm dyslexic. Fair enough. So every time I was like, oh, if you use this mine, I was talking to my other brewer friends and I was like, oh, if you use this mind burst uh yeast, yeah. And they're like, what are you talking about? It's a special yeast. Yeah. Yeah. Exclusive.

SPEAKER_03:

Exclusive. Here we go. Yeah. Perfect. It's almost like being a chemist, then, really, with all the uh the profiles of you know how it mixes together and different the way it creates the flavors.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. People say it's science. I don't know. Fair enough.

SPEAKER_01:

I was reading a description, I'm like, that sounds good. I like it. So another question just popped into my mind here because you went to culinary school, yeah. Have a culinary background. Did anything from that transfer into brewing beer or any ideas, creativity coming from culinary background into Oh, like 100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Yeah, just like the the like natural, like trying to balance things always and or trying to be like aggressively one way or the other. So yeah, and uses the flavors. I don't know. So when I started at Lin Lake, I was just doing infusions and cast beer or whatever. That was like how I started. So like taking just like a base beer, like just that, and mixing it with something else to like create a whole different beer. Um so that was kind of like my like playground, I guess. Like didn't really have any restraints. I was just like go to the grocery store with a credit card and like buy some stuff to infuse with. So that's like I don't know, that's kind of how I learned to make beer. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I think a lot actually. So nice. I like the idea of it just being kind of um this is the idea we're gonna have, and we're just gonna do it. You know that's kind of uh an interesting thing. So very cool. Well, Lee, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you. It was a lot of fun to have you over here and be able to obviously drink the beer. You know, that's always my favorite part of the thing. So uh well, Sean, uh thanks for uh being here once again and uh another episode in the books. There we go. So 320 brewing, Pine City, Minnesota. Like, share, subscribe, all the things, tell your friends, tell everybody about it, and until next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Cheers.

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Andy

Host
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Shawn

Host
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Lee Ankrum

Guest