Market The Brew

Back in March of 2017 we interviewed David Geary for Episode 019. In that episode David shared with us the unique program he had started years earlier. Each year he would run a competition at the local college where design students would compete to design the packaging for Geary’s annual Oktoberfest beer. Not only would the student who won have their art become the packaging for that year’s beer, but they would also receive a check for a portion of their tuition from David and the brewery. Little did we know at the time that David was also working on the sale of the brewery, and by the end of 2017, the brewery would be under new ownership and David would be working on his retirement. Listen in as we talk with Alan Lapoint, who, along with his wife Robin, purchased the Geary Brewing Company in Portland, Maine. They kept the Geary Brewing name and since the purchase have not only maintained the Geary Legacy Brands of beer, but also introducing and building their own style of beers to the Maine beer community. And, if that weren’t a big enough challenge for this young couple, they also launched a Non-alcoholic brewery named 1820 with the current brewery in 2022. Alan walks us through all of this and more in this episode. Please also check out episode 19 with David Geary where you can hear from the founder of Geary Brewing Company himself as he shares with us more about the brewery and the special competition he held each year. Cheers!

This episode’s brewery derives its name from the first two atomic bombs detonated at the Nevada Test Site. These two test explosions were codenamed after the military’s phonetic alphabet of the time, making them tests “Able” and “Baker”. The experimentation at the Nevada Test Site led to the refining of the Atomic Bomb and the ushering in of the Nuclear Age. This was a notable time in Nevada as “Atomic Blast” viewing parties were commonplace and several “Miss Atomic” beauty queens were crowned. The Atomic Age influences their artwork and concepts while allowing them to give a respectful nod to Nevada’s unique state history. The brewery has a mascot of sorts, the Atomic Duck. Legend has it, that a duck was the only animal to survive the Atomic tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site. That duck, bested the blasts, wandered off and waddled into history, becoming forever known as … the “Atomic Duck”. The duck has become a large part of their branding and has evolved over time. The first thing you see when you get close to the brewery is the large grain silo on the brewery that features a duck design. It was not part of the original brewery plan but evolved since the brewery opened. The flight handle is in the shape of a duck’s foot and even comes with a small rubber duck you can keep. They have become a collectable for many of their customers. At the time of the podcast recording, they had just ordered 50,000 more ducks as they have become that popular. The duck is a big part of this breweries branding. Listen in as Danielle and Travis enjoy their conversation with Kevin Lingley, Director of Marketing and Public Relations at Able Baker Brewing Company in Las Vegas, Nevada. Kevin shares with us a lot of the back story behind the name ABLE BAKER, the history, and the duck.

Welcome to today's episode, where we're diving into a unique and inspiring story. Our guest today has a personal connection to a rare disease that affects only 200 people worldwide—his 6-year-old son is one of them. Instead of dwelling on the challenges, our guest has chosen a different path, asking, 'How can I make a positive impact on others with disabilities?' In this episode, we'll explore how he's transforming his brewery into a more inclusive space for everyone. He's not just educating himself about his son's rare condition but also reaching out to understand the diverse needs of his community in Milwaukee. Today, our hope is that you'll be inspired to take action. Visit the rare disease website and consider making a donation, the equivalent of a beer or two, to support those 200 individuals worldwide. Let's raise a glass in solidarity, showing them they're not alone in this journey. After all, it's a reminder that, but for the grace of God, any one of us could face such challenges. Cheers to empathy, understanding, and making a positive impact together!

AS THE 19TH CENTURY ENDED, THE AIRPLANE, GASOLINE ENGINE, AND OTHER ADVANCES MADE THE WORLD A BIT SMALLER. Explorers and adventurers pushed into uncharted territories and made great discoveries. Returning to their homeland, they congregated with others of a similar nature and swapped stories and shared the artifacts they’d found. In London, New York, San Francisco and other cities, explorers’ clubs were founded for these intrepid souls to delight their peers. Lost Worlds Brewing Company borrows from the history of these original clubs. Listen in as we explore what makes Lost Worlds a unique experiential outpost of beer and adventure.

Luck number 13, that was the episode that todays guest originally joined us back on September 6, 2016. In that episode we discuss their business model called an Alternating Proprietorship. He also joined us again on October 17, 2017 as part of our series on Beer & Baseball. A 3-part series that looked at what is involved in developing a relationship with a local professional sports team. That episode, number 35, was entitled Good Ryes Wear Black at the White Sox’s U.S. Cellular Field. The Good Ryes Wear Black, a Black IPA, was inspired by their beloved South Siders and was available in single 16oz cans at the Midwest Craft Beer Kiosk. Well, it’s been a long time since we’ve had him on the podcast and a lot has happened since he first joined us back in 2016. But I will let you hear it all from him. Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay on top of new episodes before they’re released. And while you’re on Facebook and Instagram we hope that if you like the podcasts you’ll share these episodes with your family, friends and followers. If not…let’s just keep that between us! Listen in as I chat with Jeremiah Zimmer, Co-Founder of Hop Butcher for the World located in Chicago, Illinois, as he brings us up-to-date on everything at Hop Butcher. Cheers!

It only makes sense for the home of the Milwaukee Brewers to have a brewery. American Family Field is now home to the J. Leinenkugel’s Barrel Tard, which is a restaurant and brewery, that overlooks the field of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Barrel Yard is open everyday, including game days. Not only can you expect to find a long list of Wisconsin comfort foods on their menu, J. Leinenkugel’s Barrel Yard is also brewing specialty beers that can only be found at the Barrel Yard.

When his childhood dream of becoming a professional baseball player was replaced with a degree from Marquette University, he began to ask what’s next? That started the conversation with a childhood friend and eventually lead them to Milwaukee’s first craft brewery incubator. They spent time learning the fine art of brewing, along with the business end of owning a brewery. The incubator has helped to launch several successful Milwaukee area craft breweries. This set them up for success as they began to build their small brewery into a Milwaukee destination. Today’s guest has many great stories about the road he’s taken to get where the business is today. Listen in to the steamy story of their first breweries melt down…literally. And how that event put the wheels in motion, and eventually rolling them into their new location. What started out as a love of the game, has become the cornerstone of the brewery, and has opened some very interesting doors. From the indoor wiffle ball field to the Field Of Dreams, and the upper mezzanine party space to baseball stitching on the building. You won’t want to miss a minute of this podcast.

Randy Romens knew his beer was good when his 6 pack sold for $100 at a fundraiser. and with their head brewer, Mitch John, constantly creating new beers, it comes as no surprise that Keg Creek has received multiple awards at the US Open Beer Championship. Listen in as we learn more about Keg Creek Brewing in Glenwood, Iowa.

The Bridge Up Brewing story and brand is and continues to be a truly organic one. After moving back to Door County with his wife and two daughters, Trent was looking for a job that would allow him to completely immerse himself back into the culture and the community that was such an amazing part of his childhood. One day he got a call. A brief phone conversation with Jason Estes, owner of Sonny’s Pizzeria, about the brewing process and its requirements. This call led to a face-to-face meeting to look for available space for what could someday be a brewery. It felt very consultative in nature until the end of the meeting when Jason said, “Well, I think you are the right guy for the job.” At no point did Trent ever think this was any kind of an interview – but he is so grateful that it was. The next few months were filled with investigating and buying brewing equipment, building relationships with grain and hop providers and designing recipes that would become the first few Bridge Up Brewing beers However, they still needed a name, a hugely important and vital part of the business. Trent spent weeks compiling potential brewery names and filling a notebook with ideas and concepts that would someday become the brand that people know and love today.

Did you know Hot Air Brewing was originally a Hallmark store? Katie took the old Hallmark store, with apartments located above the brewery, and turned it into her dream brewery. Katie Davidson wanted a place in her hometown where anyone and everyone could gather for a drink, so she created one. Hot Air Brewing in Creston, Iowa has become a popular brewery with 13 different beers on tap with various styles. Katie has been dedicated to supporting her hometown and growing the craft beer community in her city with new craft beers. Katie and her head brewer, Jay Wilson, have made an impact on the Iowa beer community. Jay worked with the Iowa brewers guild while also helping to grow the Iowa Craft Beer Festival. More than 80 breweries and cideries can be found at the Iowa Craft Beer Festival with more than 300 craft beer samples this June. Jay has also created several craft beers of various styles at Hot Air Brewing and one of them can even be found at the airport!

Welcome to West Allis! Perspective Brewing is a new brewery that two brothers have always dreamed of becoming a reality. They went from being high school teachers to opening their own brewery in a suburb of Milwaukee. Perspective Brewing has become the place to be on Saturday mornings for soccer fans in the Milwaukee area and with a strong lineup of cocktail-inspired seltzers, this brewery is a place for everyone. Listen in as we talk to Dan, co-owner of Perspective Brewing, about their perspective on beer.

In Episode 059 we spend time with Joe Yeado, owner of Gathering Place Brewing Company in the Riverwest area of Milwaukee. Home to 4 other prominent Milwaukee breweries, with one literally just around the corner. Joe and his wife just purchased a small brewery located in another Milwaukee suburb call Wauwatosa (Tosa to the locals). And similar to the original brewery, this location is on a street with 4 other breweries. But that is where the similarities end. Both locations have their own vibe and a different set of customer demographics. Listen in as Danielle and Travis learn from Joe Yeado what makes Gathering Place Brewing so special and why they bought the other brewery.

The Post Opening Interview with Nick. Welcome to the last episode in our Opening A Second Brewery Location series. We hope you have enjoyed the different episodes describing the different challenges each faced as they opened a 2 location during a global pandemic, in a different state, across town, in your existing brewery and finally todays episode…across the state. This last episode is actually 2 episodes. The first was our interview prior to their opening and the second was several months after they had opened. We wanted to find out what their thoughts and perceptions were prior to opening and in the follow up interview what the reality was. Our guest Nick, the VP of Operations & Marketing, is someone you can have a great conversation with any day of the week, but his passion for what he does comes through in both interviews. When we met for the first interview, they had just completed painting the space and you could tell that Nick was a little worn out, but he became totally animated as he talked about the brewery, the new space and the people he had met in the community as they converted the space into a brewery.

Welcome to the last episode in our Opening A Second Brewery Location series. We hope you have enjoyed the different episodes describing the different challenges each faced as they opened a 2 location during a global pandemic, in a different state, across town, in your existing brewery and finally todays episode…across the state. This last episode is actually 2 episodes. The first was our interview prior to their opening and the second was several months after they had opened. We wanted to find out what their thoughts and perceptions were prior to opening and in the follow up interview what the reality was. Our guest Nick, the VP of Operations & Marketing, is someone you can have a great conversation with any day of the week, but his passion for what he does comes through in both interviews. When we met for the first interview they had just completed painting the space and you could tell that Nick was a little worn out, but he became totally animated as he talked about the brewery, the new space and the people he had met in the community as they converted the space into a brewery.

This brewery has been super lucky as it has grown in a Milwaukee Suburb. What started out as a house the brewer/owner and his family lived in later turned out to have been zoned as a brewery 100 plus years earlier when the house was built. This home brewer who found his passion for beer at a Friday Night Fish Fry at another Milwaukee brewery. Each Friday he would stop in for fish, ask a lot of questions and then spend the weekend brewing. The more he brewed the greater his passion for brewing grew. He finally found a job at a brewery in Illinois that would help him to experience how to run a brewery and help him on his path to his own brewery. With a brewery in his basement, licensed and permitted to sell packaged beer, he started to sell barrel aged beers in bottles out of his house on Saturdays once a month. You had to pre-buy and drive by to pick up your beer during the hours they had specified. If this sounds a little rigid, it is because they started selling beer during the global covid pandemic. If you were going to open a brewery, this was definitely the route that you’d want to take. You could almost say that the planets started to align for this brewer as he and his wife discussed the future of their home, and the business. But I don’t want to ruin the story. Listen in as Danielle and Travis talk to this new brewer about his unique entry into the world of brewing and brewery ownership.

We have all become familiar with the beer passports that many states and regions have. The process is a lot like this, stop in a brewery, order a drink, get your book stamped and head off to the next location. It is a great way to see your state, visit breweries you might not have visited without the passport, have some fun and meet some interesting people. But what happens when the passport is much more than a tool to get people to stop in for a drink to get the stamp. What is people got much more information about craft beer, your location, your history, and access to an app that supports the passport, and it never expires? Now, tie the passport, the app, and social media together and you begin to develop a digital community that meets at breweries. The Passport is only $25, but it is the best $25 you’ll spend to explore Wisconsin’s craft, distillery and food destinations. Pop for the extra $30 and begin to explore the Minnesota craft beverage community as well. Listen in as Danielle and Travis talk to the founder and curator of the Craft Drinks Passports from Craft Notes. Find out why the Craft Drink Passports are the easiest way to explore and support local craft. Uniquely curated, fun, and full of great stories, art, and complimentary drinks. Passports invite you to join friends, support the best local businesses, drink some drinks, try something new, and meet new people… what’s not to love?

You might not be able to drown your sorrow at this episodes location, but you could sure soak them away, in beer! Yes, soak away your sorrows, or just about anything else. Beer, as many of you know, has for centuries been brewed not only for our drinking enjoyment, but for its medicinal properties. The Trappist monks of Belgium first began brewing their bock styled beers to sustain them during times of fasting. But, Is soaking in beer good for you? Sorry for the pun, but Hop into a beer bath for the hops. As they contain many of natures best remedies such as an abundance of polyphenols such as kaempferol, quercetin, tyrosol, ferulic acid, xanthohumol/isoxanthohumol/8-prenylnaringenin, α-bitter acids like humulone and β-bitter acids like lupulone. 8-prenylnaringenin is the most potent phytoestrogen known to date. These compounds have been shown to possess various anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, anti-angiogenic, anti-melanogenic, anti-osteo porotic and anti-carcinogenic effects. We have only been able to find 5 beer spas in the US, and several hotel chains that boast a beer spa of sorts, but European countries such as the Czech Republic have been bathing in beer for years. Todays podcast guest and his family have been to several of the Czech beer spas and decided to bring the experience back to the US, specifically to Chicago. We hope that you will join us and share these episodes with your family and friends. Now find a comfortable place to sit, grab a glass of your favorite beer, kick back and relax and listen in as Danielle and Travis talk with Dino Sarancic of the Piva Beer Spa located in the Noble Square neighborhood of Chicago, as he shares information about himself, the beer spaand the relaxing and therapeutic effects of soaking in beer. Cheers!

As part of our series on breweries opening a second location, we have episodes with Mike Doble about opening a second location during an epidemic (episode 48) and recently we launched our episode with Morgan Halska and Ryan Bandy of Indeed Brewing as they share information about opening a 2 brewery in another state. In this episode we are talking to a brewery that opened a second brewery within their existing brewery. Sorry if I lost you there… It is more of a branding and product differentiation thing and not so much a location thing. But none the less a second set of branding, licensing, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau or TTB approvals, production runs and distribution does have its own unique set of challenges. And, in addition to having 2 breweries in one location they have also taken naming their beers to a new level of fun and creativity. Beers such as YOLO Is My Strategy, Imperial Murder Hornet is my safe word, Bluegrass Mosh Pit, and A Fine Tapestry Of Profanity. Find a comfortable place to sit, grab a glass of your favorite beer, kick back and relax and listen in as Danielle and Travis chat with Tom Dufek of Young Blood Beer Company and the Saturday Beer Company in Madison, Wisconsin, as he shares information about himself, the Young Blood Beer Company and Saturday Beer Company as well as their unique names and naming process. Cheers!

Don't drown your sorrows in beer, instead soak them away in beer. Yes beer! In this episode we speak with Dino Sarancic about the family beer spa located in Chicago. It is a new concept here in the US, but in Europe they have been bathing in beer for years. Join us for a "DEEP DIVE' into the subject!

It started out as a conversation and has evolved into a three-part series of multiple location breweries. In episode 48 we discussed with Mike Doble of the Explorium Brewpub the challenges with opening a 2 brewery across town. Not only did Mike open a new brewery across town, but he did so during the covid shutdown. The podcast we are working on now is with a brewery that is in the process of opening a new brewery in a location across the state. And, in the episode you’re about to listen to we discuss the challenges in building a new brewery across state lines. A 5-hour drive between locations on a good day Not only does the distance present some challenges, the state laws also present challenges. In their home state they are only allowed to have a single taproom. Over the past 10 years as they grew they had to decide if they wanted to become a contract brewery to push out volume as part of their growth or find a location to build a new taproom. With the success they’ve had in their original brewery they chose the later as they wanted to share the taproom experience their beers provided to a new city and the customers in that area. They chose Wisconsin as the customer demographics are similar to their home brewery with a strong midwestern ethic and blue-collar workforce. Milwaukee has many attributes that are similar, but still has a unique vibe that allows for the pilot house to develop creative new brews that are well received not only in Milwaukee, but in the Minneapolis taproom as well.