July 29, 2025 • 52 mins
Charles and Clay Gridley, the father-son duo behind Six Bridges Brewing, share their journey from homebrewers to successful craft brewery owners with two locations in Georgia's Johns Creek and Milton areas. They reveal how strategic infrastructure planning, distribution partnerships, and community engagement have helped them thrive for seven years in a competitive market.
• Started as homebrewers before investing Charles' retirement savings to launch Georgia's first father-son brewery
• Built larger infrastructure than initially needed to avoid costly upgrades later, making expansion easier
• Navigated Georgia's three-tier distribution system by carefully selecting the right distributor partner
• Boldly expanded to a second location during November 2020 despite pandemic uncertainties
• Created community gathering spaces with events, special releases like the popular "Love Tractor" peach IPA
• Integrated family throughout the business, with Clay's wife managing the Milton location and Charles' brother handling production
• Constantly adapting to industry trends while maintaining core business principles
• Named "Six Bridges" after the six roads with "bridge" in their names throughout Johns Creek
Come visit one of our two locations in Johns Creek or Milton to experience our craft beers, spirits, and community atmosphere. If you can name all six bridges without looking at our mural, your first pint is on us!
www.sixbridgesbrewing.com
https://www.facebook.com/6BridgesBrewing
https://www.linkedin.com/company/six-bridges-brewing/
https://www.instagram.com/sixbridgesbrewing/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/sixbridgescrabapple/?hl=en
#beer#love#money#distillery#taproom#beergarden#dogfriendly##packagebeer#livemusic#foodtrucks#beerdistribution#entertainment#patio#IPA#tiptop#lovetractor#sours#bourbon#rum#singlemaltwhiskey#whiskey#barbeque#prohibition#keylimepie# casualatmosphere#family
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're still feeling the effects of prohibition.
Is that what I just heard?
Absolutely yeah, they ruined itand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I just heard he won't even say the name, but he's
definitely doing a shout outalready to the distributor who
holds all the cards.
I heard that loud and clear.
My friend, you know I'm goingto start my own business because
I want to be my own boss.
I don't want to have to answerto anybody and you get your own
(00:26):
business.
What do you answer to a lot ofpeople and they're not?
There's like a lot more bosses.
Yeah, we've all got them.
Welcome to the small businesssafari where I help guide you to
avoid those traps, pitfalls anddangers that lurk when
navigating the wild world ofsmall business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
(00:48):
and professional goals.
So strap in adventure team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
If you did listen to our lastepisode, we had the charcuterie
(01:09):
board lady on who is thegathering board duck co and she
brought us food.
And Alan said Chris, for nextweek I'm going to save my
charcuterie board and come back,so I put it in the fridge here
in the house.
And what's he doing?
Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop,chop.
And after I told him, don't,chop, chop, chop, chop, chop,
chop it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'll be right back.
All right, I'm telling youwe're going to put I'm a food
snot and it's fantastic, Right?
I mean, every single ingredientis fantastic.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So Alan has been chewing on this stuff for a
little bit.
Guys and I'm telling you thatlast episode a lot of fun.
These guys have a lot of greatideas, but, more importantly,
they have some great food.
I'm not lying, I had some too.
But what goes best with food?
Something cold, something cold,something Hopped Hopped,
(01:59):
something Carbonated.
They like carbonation.
And where do we start thispodcast?
Three and a half years ago,drinking beer, talking about
business.
And we're right back here threeand a half years later drinking
beer and talking about business.
And what are we drinking, alan?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We are drinking Six Bridges and I've got my favorite
beer.
There's Medlock IPA and you'vegot Suburban Sombrero.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's a Mexican lager, I believe you know.
I really think Six Bridgesshould sponsor the show.
I really think they should comeon the show.
How many times have I said thatabout a beer, light beer, every
beer we've ever had,anheuser-busch Nobody's bit yet,
nobody's bit yet.
But guess what we've done?
Brought them in-house.
We brought them in-house.
Guys, the owners and foundersof Six Bridges Brewing Companies
(02:43):
, charles and Clay Gridley, arehere and they're her local.
They started a brewery and thisis going to be fascinating
because if you follow anythingin the podcast, you'll know one
thing about Alan he is not onlya food snot, but he is
definitely a craft beer snob.
So, alan, Double snot.
All right.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
No, I will tell you, I've lived in it.
So Johns Creek was justrecently voted the best.
Was it the best suburb in thecountry to live in?
Something like that?
And I've lived here for 30years and I will say the schools
are amazing, it's safe, there'srestaurants from all around the
world, but it's kind of boring.
And then, how many years agodid you guys open up Almost
(03:24):
seven, seven, kind of boring.
And then how many years ago didyou guys open up Almost seven?
Seven years ago.
I get this email and it wasthis I think you had kind of a
sneak preview night or something, and somehow I got on that list
.
I'm like there's a breweryopening in John's Creek that's
walking distance to my house.
I was so excited I could hardlystand it.
So today's a big day for me.
And now they've got two.
They're kind of moving awayfrom me, though.
What?
Yeah, they've got another oneover.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
They've expanded to two locations.
Yeah, you mean, you tell methey're making-.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And the other one's got barbecue.
I've got to drive all the wayover to Crabapple for barbecue.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
All right, I've got to hear the story, okay, so how
do we get started in this thing?
There's probably two differentversions of the, so how far back
do you want to go Starting thebrewery?
Let's go back to who thoughtthey had a great beer, that they
wanted to produce Probably myson.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
We were both home brewers, Okay, and so we were
going down different paths.
I was on the dark IPA world andClay was looking at everything
else Try this, try that, trythat.
And then we got to a pointwhere we were having fun doing
it and I was getting ready toretire.
He was ready to not be afireman and the laws changed in
(04:33):
Georgia that breweries could dothis.
And so, as I was retiring, Claycomes up and says Dad, I've got
a great idea on what to do withyour retirement money.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
On what to do with your money, With my money.
Yes, Kids don't change, do theyCharles?
No, they don't.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Kids just don't change, and so we formed this
business together, and it's beena blessing since day one.
We found out we were the firstfather-son brewery in the state
of Georgia.
So another little check on thebox to enjoy.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So what'd you do for a living before the home brewery
?
I mean, what was the paycheckand retirement money coming to
see this from?
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I was always born an engineer and so I was always
making the widgets, change thewidgets, but still a
manufacturing process, and mostof my life I worked for in the
telecommunications industry andso I was able to do very well in
that and squirrel away somebucks.
And when the day came myadvisor said go for it.
And then Clay caught wind of itand said dad, friend, buddy,
pal.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Friend buddy pal yeah .
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You know, when your kid comes to you and wants to do
anything, how do you say no?
I always said, if my son said,hey, dad, let's rob a bank, I'd
be like okay.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Well, we were tailgate buddies to begin with
and so we were always joined atthe hip and chicanery and stuff
like that.
So it was easy to say yes.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
All right, so here we go.
We got the idea here.
So, clay again, thank you againfor being a firefighter Again.
I think I don't think a lot ofpeople understand just the
dangers you guys went through.
How many years did you do that?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Nine.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, and which branch were you in?
I was with Cherokee County,okay, yeah, okay, so you saw
some stuff then.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, when people call 911, they're not having a
good day.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, yeah.
So here we go.
So now we're going to go beer.
Did you have a business plan?
Because it's one thing to makea beer that tastes good which,
by the way, guys, it tastesphenomenal.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Got my first swig in.
But did you have a businessplan or idea and talk us through
that idea?
Let's see.
You know, at the time we weregoing around to um different
craft breweries in the area andthey were saying we can't make
it fast enough.
You know and they were they hadall these bottlenecks in place
because they were not preparedto grow.
So, with my father's backgroundbeing in manufacturing and all
that he's done, we were able tolook at their processes and say
(06:54):
we can do better with this.
So, you know, we laid it outfrom the beginning where we were
able to meet demand and kind ofpivot with things and still be
nimble at the same time.
So, you know, definitelythought we'd be a little more
hands-on than we are.
We end up being keyboardjockeys most of the time, like
running a business, and it's nottoo often we get to brew.
I will say he does get todistill when he has some free
(07:17):
time.
But yeah, I think we at leastmyself, I underestimated that.
I thought I would actually bebrewing a little bit more and
know I'm behind a computer allday.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Oh, you're distilling too.
Yes, is that available in thebreweries?
Not yet, okay.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Our cocktails are, but as far as our bottled stuff,
we're still working on that.
We're aging some stuff rightnow and we're working our way up
.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
What are you working on?
A bourbon single malt whiskey,Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And then a bourbon.
We've got some rum aging aswell, so nice.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Alan, get back here, Alan you can't get it yet, get
back, sit back down.
Oh my God, he's already back init.
What were some of the thingsyou learned from the people that
you spoke?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
to before you opened the other brewers.
Let's see Just being ready togrow with a lot of the existing
breweries out there.
They were having problems whenthey had to grow.
It cost them two or three timesas much because they would have
to go back and redo some of theinfrastructure.
So we looked at it and planneda larger infrastructure than we
needed.
It was a big bite in thebeginning.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, so you're taking a bigger leap, absolutely
yeah, capital intensive upfront.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
But here we are.
We've been open seven years andwe still have a little bit of
room to grow with it.
So stuff like you know, theheating, the cooling, the cold
storage, the plumbing and all ofthat, all the key components
with it.
It was a huge bite in thebeginning but still now,
whenever we want to grow, it isliterally plug and play.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
So how long before you got into the distribution
game?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
We had been open about seven months before we
started distributing and we knewthat we were going to do that.
We were built out to meetdistribution throughout the
state and we were interviewingdistributors for about six
months and trying to get thatrelationship down because it is
so key, especially in the stateof Georgia because of the way
(09:14):
that the laws are formed.
It's a three-tiered systemthroughout the country as a
result of prohibition, but themiddle tier is the distributor
and they hold all the cards.
So you've got to have a greatrelationship and we're happy
with the relationship that wehave with our distributor.
So it's another family runbusiness.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
We're still feeling the effects of prohibition.
Is that what I just heard?
Absolutely yeah, and theyruined it.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And I just heard he won't even say the name, but
he's definitely doing a shoutout already to the distributor
who holds all the cards.
I heard that loud and clear.
My friends know I'm gonna startmy own business because I want
to be my own boss.
I don't want to have to answerto anybody and you get your own
business.
What do you do?
Answer to a lot of people andthey're not.
They're like a lot more bossesall of a sudden.
Yeah, we've all got them.
(09:55):
Yeah, so you guys knew and Ithink that's a big, just uh,
delineation you knew that youdidn't just want to brew the
beer and have a location peoplecame to.
You wanted to be in thedistribution business.
So your first location wheredid you pick and why did you
pick that?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
you know, initially I was looking in cherokee county
where I was living at the time,and I wanted an old mill
building, you know, brick wallsand the heavy timber and
everything.
But the fire department told methat it had been grandfathered
so many times, it was going tobe brought up a code, sprinklers
, electrical, all that stuff,and we were looking at like two
(10:31):
million in reno sayingabsolutely not not going to
happen.
So we started lookingthroughout the the north side
and john's creek came up on themap because literally it's
between both of our homes and wefound this space that was
available.
And then we spoke with the cityabout it and they interviewed
us and said, hey, wait, we, welove it, let's do this, so you
got the city behind you.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So I think that's a great lesson learned too is
don't be afraid to go talk toyour local politicians, your
local city officials, and not beafraid of them, because I would
say my first call would nothave been to the fire department
going hey guys, what do youthink of this?
Oh, my God, clay, you're goingto have to do everything to it.
I would have been hey guys, I'mgoing to buy the building next
to it and meanwhile I'm overthere brewing beer in the other
(11:13):
building.
Don't worry, you guys got hoses, we'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Which is why they're so much more successful after
seven years than you have beenafter 17.
I know.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I know I'm thinking the same thing.
I should have just gone andtalked to the city, said, hey,
this is what I'm thinking ofdoing, maybe somebody would slap
me, and Johns Creek had nothinglike this Right.
So they definitely werereceptive.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Absolutely.
And in 2017, the communitydevelopment director told us at
that conversation.
She said wait, stop, we lovethis, you're going to go right
there.
They had long-term plans ofbringing the town center to that
area.
So they told us then becauseCity Hall was still off of
Finley Road.
So they said, hey, we'reactually going to buy this
building and move in there andrenovate it.
(11:54):
And then the State Farm Complex.
They said that's going to turninto something.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So for our friends in Australia and Canada and
everywhere else, johns Creek isa suburban community, very
affluent, very diverse peoplefrom all over the world and not
a lot to do.
And their brewery opened inwhat is called our technology
park and you kind of had to knowwhere it was.
But what's happening now is abig developer is developing a
(12:23):
over a half a billion dollartown center, so there's the
whole retail.
There's some big companies thatare coming in, but they're
combining it with a prettyimpressive they're calling it
the boardwalk park system.
So it's not just a commercial,it's really going to be a
livable space and when you'reout in your cool little uh I
(12:45):
don't know what you call theoutdoor area with the lights and
the picnic tables, you'reoverlooking it right now.
Yeah, the beer garden, yeah.
So what a change that's goingto be for you guys, that is that
?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
did you know that was going to be that awesome and,
uh, different?
Speaker 4 (13:03):
No, it exceeded those expectations, because you're so
used to what that campus lookedlike and when they just started
moving things around, said, wow, it's really taking shape and
it really looks interesting andwe're excited.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Well, and a lot of people are going to go oh, lucky
you, or whatever.
But you also had to put up withokay, you're on the back end of
this technology park that's notsuper vibrant, and then State
Farm moves, Right, and so thebiggest employer in the area all
the employees that would comehave a beer after work are
suddenly not there anymore,right?
So you've had to go throughsome rough patches, I would
think.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
No, absolutely, and you know everybody's seen the
class A space that's availablearound town, so there was that
lull and then you know,everything has happened since
2017, but I think they've got agreat, you, you know a great
concept there, everything thatthey're putting together, so
we're excited about it.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I gotta ask you so, uh, this chris and I talked
about this beforehand so I comefrom portland, oregon, which I
will argue was where it allstarted, and, uh, you go to a
town of bend, oregon, which,which has got shut up Chris 80,
for once it's going to be aboutme yeah, 80,000 people, and
they've got a gazillionbreweries.
And so finally, they changedthe laws here in Georgia and a
(14:17):
few breweries opened up and, tobe honest with you, the beer
wasn't even that good, but I wasjust happy that it happened.
And now, all of a sudden,you're reading all these
articles about all thesebreweries that are closing and
the trouble in the craftindustry, and I'm like we still
don't even remotely have thepenetration here in Georgia that
we have.
And you guys spent time inColorado that you hadn't caught
(14:39):
in Denver or in Portland.
What is your opinion?
I mean, I think there's peoplewho probably opened a brewery
that didn't know how to makebeer.
There are people, like you knowyou were had the foresight to
have the space to expand andthought about distribution.
Part of it is, in my opinion,you just have to have a place
that people want to hang and, uh, you know, and you've created
(15:00):
that in your brewery, I mean,and so there's so many breweries
that closed down, I'm like,yeah, but beer wasn't that good
and the location wasn't thatgood, but I mean, but I still
see these articles, like youknow, doom and gloom, what.
What's your opinion on the, onthe industry itself?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
You know, first of all, georgia is, uh, when you
talk about breweries, per capita, I believe it's at 48 and
correct me if I'm wrong.
So, even though there's, youknow, per capita, I believe it's
at 48 and correct me if I'mwrong.
So, even though there's, youknow, 12 million people in the
state of Georgia, um, when youtalk about, uh, per capita, it's
very low on the list.
And then also, the consumptionper person is quite low as well,
as it tends to be throughoutthe Southeastern United States.
(15:39):
So, um, you know, I know you'lllook at it and say, okay, you
know there's a lot of people saythere's too many breweries, but
I think it's actually just kindof that equilibrium point.
It's getting there, it'sswinging how the market does
with the sector.
But with my position, or with us, we were homebrewers but I
think better now, we'd be betteroff having an MBA in the
(16:01):
positions that we have runningour business instead of a
background brewing.
So you know, there's a lot ofpeople that make that jump from
a home brewer to this and we'refortunate.
We have a fantastic team, hisexperience in the corporate
world, and you know, everybodyin our team making it happen.
So we're fortunate there.
But I think the sector is justkind of balancing out a little
(16:23):
bit.
You know it's been pretty toughthe last few years with
everything that's going on inthe world and that's for all
businesses but especiallybrewing.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So in your positions you guys really aren't doing the
brewing, the thing you thoughtyou were getting into business
to do.
But to Alan's point, do youfind that to be successful, to
get beyond distribution, you'veopened up a second location.
Do you have to have somethingelse to offer people?
Is it the location?
Is it the offering?
What is it?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I think you need to check a lot of boxes.
Honestly, we got intodistilling because we saw a
demand for spirits and thegluten-free and everything with
that.
We're looking at getting a winelicense, a farm winery license,
which is someone in Georgiawhere it's related to the
agricultural product, and youknow we do events live music,
(17:11):
trivia music, bingo, all kindsof stuff.
Trivia night is huge at yourplace.
It's very popular.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It's quite competitive too it is.
I got asked to go on a triviateam.
Normally I'm pretty good at it.
I didn't help at all.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, it was tough so , uh, I I can't remember the
last time I went I I canabsolutely remember, but I
remember, uh, yeah, I've notbeen asked back.
I was asked.
They're like, hey, chris, youknow sports.
I'm like, yeah, sit down, boom,sports section, right, all this
arcane stuff.
I was like nope, nope, nope,nope.
They uh star wars comes up.
We're like bang, bang, bang,bang, bang.
They're you didn't help much.
(17:45):
I'm like, but I didn't know theStar Wars stuff.
I mean I got that, but you'reright, in sports we sucked.
So, no, I've not been askedback.
So you guys have figured out.
Is that what you're in yourpositions?
Is that what we're doing?
I mean, obviously, charles,you're working on distilling
some, but on how to keep theexisting concerns going, I mean
it sounds like they're reallystaying a step ahead.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I mean, they're thinking about what's next.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Absolutely, and you know, keeping one of the things
with my job is keeping leaninventory.
You know lean practices withour stuff because there's so
much cash floating around andjust you know our business.
As an example, everybody canprobably relate it to their own.
I assume your audience is is alot of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Entrepreneurs guys either starting to start a
business or guys trying to scalea small business.
Girls, too, and gals I saidguys because I'm from the
Midwest.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
But with us it's all about cash flow.
We talk about this constantly.
Where we've got cash on theshelves, that's cans of raw
materials.
The cans are there, the grain,the hops are in the cooler, then
the beer that's in the tankthat's fermenting, the beer
that's packaged in our coolerand the beer that's at our
distributor.
I mean, it's all just cashsitting there.
(18:57):
So unless you just have tons ofit, just piles of it, laying
around, you've got to keep itlean and we try to do that as
best as possible.
He's got great experience andI've learned a ton from my
father, so grateful for that.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Is the engineering background coming in handy with
all this?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
When he lets me.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Oh, let's talk.
Dad you and me.
Right, let's put the kid onmute for a minute.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Well, let's back up just a little bit, because when
we got started, I think theGeorgia Craft Brewers Guild was
putting out a seminar.
I do it once or twice a year.
It says so you want to open abrewery, and it was basically
exposing you to all the thingsthat you would have to consider.
You know, you got to do thebusiness plan and so we did
straws and I got the short straw.
(19:39):
But I got with the SmallBusiness Development Center out
of Athens and got with them andthey helped me write a business
plan, which I had never donebefore.
That turned out to be receivedreally well by our financer.
We had the right contractor, wehad a good architect, so we had
all the plans in place to saythese guys know what they're
(20:00):
doing, I've got a good businessplan, the economics are there,
you've got a good design, we'llgo with it.
And so it's worked out fromthat.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Let me ask about the business plan a little bit,
because I've asked this questiona couple of times and the
answer is always interesting.
You wrote the business plan.
It got you the money.
Have you looked at it since andhave you followed it and do you
refer to it?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
We've looked at it for our expansions and modified
it for that, so it goes to amuch higher level when you're
starting to add on to your Well,the follow-up on that is now
that you're in seven years.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
And if you were to go back seven years and rewrite
the business plan, what would bedifferent?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I don't know if I have long enough to answer my
side.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
You know one thing that we likely didn't anticipate
.
I think when we got ourbrewer's permit, we were the
86th brewery in Georgia and whenit topped out before this
recent contraction I think itwas at 168, something in there,
so virtually double.
So we did not anticipate theamount of competition that came,
(21:19):
and it was pretty much allaround the Atlanta area.
So that shows you the impactthat the law that went into
effect in late 2017, what thatdid.
It was quite encouraging, butwe were one of the last
breweries of our size to open up.
There might've been one or twoafter us that were our size.
The rest of them were muchsmaller town center type
(21:40):
locations, lower volume, nodistribution, a lot less
overhead too.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
So right.
So you said, boy, what wouldyou have done different after
seven years?
So a short story.
17 years into it, I did uh, Idid refer back to my business
plan and every year I use as anannual review technique for me,
um and I I pretty much shelvedthat program in about 10,
(22:07):
technique for me I pretty muchshelled that program in about 10
.
After 10 years I stopped doingit because I had outgrown where
I thought I was and the pivotpoints didn't even look like my
original business plan.
And kudos to you for doing thesmall business plan, because I
did the same thing.
I went to score before Istarted mine and I learned so
much.
It wasn't that I had to have anA paper, it was the fact that I
had to go through the mentalgyrations to get there.
(22:28):
And as a fellow engineer goingthrough those the details is
where I was able to solveproblems beforehand and save
myself money.
Now, in my case I solved about10% of the problems, so I cost
myself 90% of the money.
I think in your case it'sprobably the exact inverse.
So kudos to you guys for doingthe way you did it.
But when you look at it now, doyou go back and do an annual
(22:50):
planning process.
Do you guys sit down and say,all right, what's pie in the sky
?
What's this next year going tolook like?
Do you guys have that program?
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I think we review what we read in the information
on a national basis and then aregional basis as to where the
business is trending.
That helps us out in guiding.
But we've even learned we haveto get it down to the macro
level because of thedemographics and the sales
(23:18):
patterns from our two differentlocations are very different
from each other.
So we're having to.
Okay it's not one egg in onebasket solves the problem.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
And I want to ask about the two locations, because
you've got the absolute perfectAB testing scenario going on.
You've got your originallocation that was a little bit
buried.
You have your second location,which is kind of front and
center in a more of a walkingarea, kind of like what's about
to develop around you.
The second location has food,you know.
(23:50):
So are you seeing higher salesper ticket because somebody's
sitting around longer becausethey're eating?
You know?
I mean, what are you seeing inthe when you compare and
contrast the two locations?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
I would say what?
Let's go over the evolution,because at the time the law
changed, everybody wanted to bea brewery and then people said,
well, this is fun, Now I want toeat.
So the next step in the processwas a food truck, which was
novel and creative and all that.
Some people said I don't likebuying my food from a place that
(24:23):
has wheels underneath it.
So some breweries decided toinstall a kitchen.
However, breweries have to bein a place that's zoned for
manufacturing, so it's a littlebit out of sight.
But once you startincorporating a kitchen and you
expand, you can go into thosehigh-traffic areas.
So there's been an evolutionwithin the last five years of
(24:44):
the industry.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So the state regs have a certain percentage.
It has to be a certainpercentage, alcohol versus food
or no no, it doesn't not withbreweries, since we're
considered manufacturers.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
There's you don't have to have food at all.
So you just run into a littledetails and you've got to kind
of educate the local governmentson that too, saying, hey, we're
not a restaurant, okay, wedon't follow under those things.
We're kind of quasi where we wecan manufacture alcohol, we can
sell it wholesale, we can sellit in-house, we can sell it to
go, we can do crowlers, we canbe open on Sunday, all this
(25:15):
stuff.
So it's really several licensesput together and what we
experienced with John's Creekand Milton that they kind of had
to figure out.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
okay, we've got to start a new category for you
guys, as you made the expansionto the second location, what
were the struggles you guys wentthrough?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
You know, it was November 2020, when we looked at
the location, we got a callfrom the developer saying hey,
come check it out.
And everybody remembers thetime and what was going on and
you know, we hope not toremember it, but uh, we went
there toward the site and wesaid, man, we love this.
And, um, you know, afterwards,uh, they said, what do you think
(25:52):
?
And we said, yeah, we reallylike it.
And they stuck their hand outto shake hands and I just looked
at him and said, you know, Ihaven't shaked anybody's hand in
seven months.
And, uh, they said put.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
They said let that thing away.
Holds to that sidearm, son,because November you say you
remember, but that wasabsolutely a flashpoint for you.
Back to what Malcolm talksabout, and that was a flashpoint
Right November 2020, you'relike, hey, how about another
location?
I'm like, dude, we're still inthat every two weeks shutdown
thing and I can't shake yourhand, I can't touch you, I can't
.
No, people aren't going out anddoing nothing, right, so I'm
(26:22):
not.
Why would I do that?
Because it may never happen,ever, ever again.
I don't know if that's howdraconic you guys were, but I
mean, it's hard to look atoption B when you're staring at
option A.
Did?
Speaker 1 (26:32):
you make up a new word, draconic.
Yeah, I got lots of words.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
No, we actually we absolutely had that conversation
because you know there wasthere was a lot going on in the
market at the time and you know,with the shutdowns and
everything just pivoting around,but, um, you know, we knew that
we were going to get out of itand we had talked about it and
we really loved the area and thedeveloper was aligned with a
lot of things we had in mind, soit worked out so you guys
(26:58):
really just want everybody tohear this.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
All right, uh, I got birdie putt going, so I got the
um.
I would say I haven't tried ityet.
November of 2020, for me and mybusiness being in remodeling
and handyman.
When it first happened, I didthe three phases of truth and
that was back in.
I'm going back to March.
First, I uh, I completelyignored it.
I had a guy call me and say,chris, uh, man, I can't come
(27:21):
meet you today Cause, uh, he wasa consultant in marketing.
He says, man, my business isgoing to shut down.
I'm like, hey, dude, what can Ido to help?
He goes, help me, he goes,you're done too, man.
He said the whole world'sshutting down.
I'm like, dude, you are chicken, little, you've lost your
flipping mind.
What's going on?
No way.
One week later, shut everybodydown, sent everybody home,
(27:48):
accepted it.
So, three phases of truth youignore it, you vehemently deny
it, and then you accept it asintuitively obvious.
And then you had to go withthat.
And then I was like, all right,how am I going to dig out of
this?
And then, when our, our greatgovernor said it was time in
memorial day, around for the endof may.
He said you can go out there,get your hair done, get your
nails done, go bowling, don'tcare, just follow these things,
you know.
And I said rock and roll, man.
Our, our phones didn't stopringing.
I was like man and I toldpeople for the first time ever
I'm in the best place ever.
(28:09):
And then what I couldn't do, Icouldn't find material.
So it's always a struggle whenyou're running your own business
and think you're getting thereand by the time November hit, we
still weren't steady state.
And back to that.
I love how you said that,because I still think somebody
like me too I'm a hugger, I'm anextrovert, I'm all out there.
(28:29):
I think we forgot how to talk topeople and it took me like a
full year to get back to likenormal of doing that.
So you had the foresight to sayI think people will start going
back to restaurants Becauseabout that time is about the
time I said you can go out, butyou got to go out, but you can
only be like every other booth.
Or then you had to have theglass and you had to have this
(28:50):
and you never thought.
Actually, about that time isabout the time I thought it
would go back to all.
Right, we're going to get backto normal.
I mean, this is not going to beforever, because we just can't
do this.
So is that what you know?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
not only that, we had several people within the
community that jumped on boardwith us to wait to raise a
little bit of capital for thisnew location.
And we had locals that saidthat the same things and you
know we, we believe in y'all andwe are going to get through
this.
So and they jumped on our team.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Well, you guys, again we're here at John's Creek,
which I think it was voted thenumber one city.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I said that a minute ago.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Right, you said it, but you said suburban something,
something, something.
I thought it was like thenumber one city to live in.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
I don't know Whatever .
There's a good reason for that.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
The beer, it's the beer it's the beer, hardly is
because we weren't number oneuntil six bridges I just say
they connect the dots that wayjust saying and now look what
happened.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You go out to that milton area and you go around
that roundabout and then bam, Iran into another six bridges.
I'm like what the hell is thisthing doing on here?
So?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
you guys have.
I was a little pissed.
I'm like I thought that was ourthing here in john's creek.
But you know, I got over it.
I was happy for you, are yousure?
Well, they had the food.
Well, they brought you, theybrought you the beer.
So was that a partnership or itis okay?
Talk about that a little bit.
That's kind of an interestingmove well, uh, let's see we knew
we had.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
They both looked at each other.
Go no, you know, you take it.
No, no, you take it.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
We knew we had to have food there, but at same
time we didn't want to take onthe kitchen.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Why did you know you had to have food there?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
We spoke with a broker who had aggregate data
and he said that when you lookat revenue per square foot and
he had it for non-food breweriesand then with food so there was
a 25% difference with that.
But at the same time we knew wedidn't want to run a kitchen.
We started thinking about itand what we were going to do.
We brew beer really well and wewere just like I don't think we
(30:47):
have it in us.
So we started asking around andwe landed with this barbecue
company.
It was actually turned aroundwith our I'm sorry introduced us
from our landlord and we wentand checked them out.
We ate at their place and itwas really good.
And here we are, almost threeyears later.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So are you thinking about doing another one, or
going more and leaning intodistribution?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
We've got one in the works right now.
Oh, this is a high story.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Here it is on the small business Safari.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
We're working on it.
We'll see.
I hope it'll happen.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
All right, I actually have a very cool location for
you, I can tell you offline.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, we'll have Alan hook you up because you're
going to get the commercial realestate extraordinaire on it.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Are you thinking about bringing food to Johns
Creek?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
We've looked at it, we want to do it.
It's just very expensive.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
So, speaking of expense inflation, how have you
dealt with, I mean, the cost ofthese cans?
I don't know where you get yourgrain from, but you know hops,
all that stuff.
Talk about how you've navigatedthose waters the last couple of
years.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
I think we've been able to navigate it by buying in
bulk.
Excuse me, when we started off,we were buying in very small
quantities and so we were ableto.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, because you were running lean based on what
Very lean Okay.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
And we're still running very lean.
You look at our ingredientshelves and the only thing on
there is what we're going to usethis week, but we've been able
to buy things in bulk.
Instead of buying it in a50-pound sack sack, you're now
buying in a 2 000 pound sack.
Or instead of buying 200 cans,you're buying 8 000 cans, so
(32:28):
multiples have compensated forthat.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
That's got to be a hard thing to do, though right
you're.
You're used to one size and onenumber and then stroking that.
Check for the next number.
Who's the one who has to makethat call?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Me, oh boy, so he knows when there's going to be a
rough week, because I get veryquiet Okay.
And just kind of groan and makethose old man noises the old
man noises come out.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yeah, so our office we actually share a desk.
We have a large Go bug it whenyou hear old man noises fucking
run Exactly Go bug it when youhear old man noises fucking run,
exactly Right, run.
But we share an office andwe've got a big conference table
for a desk and we see it, rightthere we're bouncing it off of
each other.
I hear those grunts and hehears me beat my keyboard and so
(33:14):
we're every day Same room, huh.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, this is the first time I've had their light
lager.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
It's good, I'm enjoying my birdie putt because
I'm thinking it's going to bringbirdie putts.
That's why I gave it to youwhen we go on the rain, when we
go on the course, when I finallylet you play somebody else's
course well, the medlock is dryfor show and the birdie putts
yeah, the uh, the uh medlock isaiming fluid for me.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Aiming fluid, yeah just get.
You get wing oil yeah, swingoil getting nice and loose,
don't need to hit the range,just a couple medlocks and then
you maintain with the, the lightlogger or the birdie putt.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Right, that's what I said.
Time for me to sober up.
Gotta switch the light.
Beer you're gonna drive soon,what?
All right, that's new.
Don't worry about that.
Don't worry, chris, I alwaysUber and or I do my podcasts in
my basement.
So, uh, what's next for youguys?
You're talking about expansiondistribution.
Um, is there an exit strategy?
(34:11):
Is there a play where you'retrying to get out?
You think you guys were justwant to ride this thing out and
this is your long-term game.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Well, there's two of us and there's a day or two
difference in age between us.
I probably have an exitstrategy at some point, but it's
no time soon.
We have a couple of gentlementhat are rather large CFOs in
large companies and they'rehelping us determine that value
and giving us a feel for whatit's like out in the market
(34:38):
should we want to, you know, bereceptive to an offer or
something like that.
But right now there's too muchblood, sweat and tears on the
floor and in the production areathat what's the favorite time
of your week?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
what's the favorite thing you do?
Speaker 1 (34:53):
every week.
I'm going to tell you what myfavorite thing that they do is.
Yeah, because I appreciate it.
My son is a high school teacherand on thursday you've got $5
pints for teachers.
And I just think that's thecoolest thing, and they just go
hang out and it makes them sohappy, and so I want to thank
you for that Sure.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
My favorite is Saturday afternoon.
I will come and not standbehind the bar or go in the
office.
I come as a customer and I goaround and talk to people at the
table and they look at me I'mone of the owners here and then
they warm up and then they wanta tour, want to hear the story,
and that's the connection thatwe wanted Before we started.
(35:33):
We would meet at a restaurantand one of the owners would come
out and talk to you andentertain you.
So it was I want to go thereand talk to CT and get something
to eat and drink.
You would go for thatinteraction with him and so we
wanted to bring that along withour presentation.
(35:54):
Anybody can make beer, anybodycan sell it, somebody can give
you a table and chair, but tomake that connection with your
customers and they remember youand they ask oh, I heard you on
vacation, or you did this, orplease make this beer back, they
have that nice, intimate,one-on-one conversation.
That's your favorite time.
All right, clay.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
I would say Thursday morning honestly, and he knows
why because we're not at work atthat point.
We go to a men's group onThursday morning.
It's a faith-based men's groupdiscussion and instead of
reporting to work first thing inthe morning, we'll go there and
it's about a dozen of us andwe'll have a conversation.
It can be topical, whatever'sgoing on, but it is faith-based.
(36:38):
So just that and it's.
It's an easy morning for mebecause I'll go in, we'll have
breakfast, we'll have anhour-long discussion there and
then afterwards I'll go to ourmilton location and we're
brewing that day, and so it'sjust a nice easy start for the
day rather than hit the groundrunning and I think that's one
that a lot of people miss.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Is that the way to start your day?
We talk about this like hey, I,hey, I'm Mr 530.
Get up, get a workout.
Hey, I'm David Scroggins andI'm the same guy, you know.
I actually get up, I work out530, 6 o'clock.
But there are days when you dothat it's because this bod
doesn't come by accident.
Hey, because this bod eats anddrinks a ton, and that's the
only reason I'm still Earn yourbeer.
(37:16):
I earn every ounce of it, myfriends, but there's something
to be said about that, becausethat gives you time to
introspect and respect Verygrounding and it is and it's
very grounding, and you knowwhether you do it with faith or
whether you do it withmeditation or whatever it may be
for you.
I think a lot of people missthat is that we feel like we've
got to run 100 miles an hour.
And I'll never forget my dadsaying this to me, saying this
(37:41):
to me it's that first time hecame to meet me and see me in
Charlotte and I was going totake him to a restaurant and I
missed my exit.
But I missed my exit, going 80miles an hour, and we did the
loop around Charlotte and cameback and he goes you may know
where you're going, but we'renot getting anywhere fast.
Atta, boy, sam, that's my dad.
So that's the thing, right.
Sometimes you just got to slowdown.
And I say it to my sales guysslow down and speed up.
So that's great that you saythat.
(38:02):
All right, you guys got intothis because you were craft
brewers.
Are you doing any craft brewingother than are you doing your
distilling over there in thedoctor shop?
Are you doing any more brewing?
What?
Speaker 3 (38:13):
are we doing so?
I still write all of ourrecipes and I do that every day
for both of our locations.
I enjoy doing that.
The distilling is all hisproject there, where I might
source the ingredients, but he'sthe one doing the recipe and
getting everything planned out.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Yeah, I get crap from the brewers.
They say they spend all dayputting the alcohol in and you
turn right around, pops and takethe alcohol out.
What gives Love?
Speaker 1 (38:38):
it.
I love it.
So how do you so the trends Imean like Sours, for example
kind of became a big deal for awhile, not for me, but for a lot
of people.
I mean, are you you notice Ihaven't opened that one yet Are
you kind of looking at thelandscape and seeing what's out
there?
Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yeah, absolutely, and our sales manager is really
good at that.
He's got his hand on the pulsewith that and it's a dynamic
market right now.
You know, in um, you know wegot into spirits around 2020 and
at that time, uh, rtds werebecoming a thing you know, ready
to drink cocktails, and nowthey're everywhere.
So we we try to get into thatmarket.
Didn't have a whole lot of six.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Those are the cocktails in a can right.
I've had some of those.
I'm like I'm shocked at howgood they are, yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Yeah, they do a good job with them.
There's a great company herearound Atlanta called tip top
that does a fantastic job.
A little plug there for them,um, but yeah, the can cocktails.
Seltzer became a thing Now.
Na is really popular, so youjust got to stay nimble with it.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
Be really flexible.
Going back to the sours, wejust put out my favorite sour.
It's key lime sour and I liketo brag that Publix makes their
pie taste like our beer.
Ooh.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I may have to have that sour because I'm with Alan.
I am.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
I'm not a sour guy, but I suppose if it was 1,000
degrees in August here inGeorgia, have you had a key lime
pie from Publix.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I have, and they're yummy yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
So maybe a key lime sour might be good on that hot
van.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
We make it just like the pie, so we'll put graham
cracker in the mash.
We use key lime puree.
Are you kidding me?
We do milk sugar, vanillalactose.
We'll add vanilla to it, themilk sugar, and then there's
even a little whipped creaminvolved.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
So are you.
How do you Alan?
Speaker 2 (40:36):
are you not hungry right now?
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Well, I'm just kind of curious.
Okay, so you're not hungryright now.
Well, I'm just kind of curious,okay, so you're kind of set up
for volume and distribution andyou have a crazy idea like this
you don't know if it's going totaste good, so do you do a small
batch before you?
Speaker 3 (40:51):
I mean, how do you do that?
So our Milton location has aseven barrel system, which is
about 210 gallons.
Our system in John's Creek is930 gallons.
So yeah, we can test somethingover in milton and try it out,
see how it is.
We've made the key lime pieseveral times before and people
ask for it again and again.
We usually make it when itstarts to heat up.
So yeah, but yeah, you don'twant to, there you go.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
You don't want to.
There's a thousand degrees.
You and me are drinking one ofthese.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
I think so you definitely want to do a pilot
batch.
You want to.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
You don't want to do a thousand gallons down the
drain no interesting and thentell them about our other most
popular summer beer love tractoroh yes, who's in charge of the
names?
Speaker 1 (41:29):
I want to know that.
It's a pretty put in love truckthere is a secret committee.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Yeah, now it's a group effort with the names, but
love tractors are annual.
Uh, peach ipa where we'llsource ge.
Ipa where we'll source Georgiapeaches.
We'll get fresh peaches from afarm, We'll process them
in-house and then add it to anIPA and it has vanilla in it as
well and people love it.
I mean they'll be lined up atthe door when we open that day.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Oh, that sounds awesome.
It is Clay, I love that too.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
And yes, I'm laughing a lot because I'm not as clean
as you are, and that's great.
Yeah, people love it.
We actually have people on awaiting list wanting to come and
peel the peaches.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
We've gotten calls from California if we can ship
it and, yeah, people come in andvolunteer their time to peel
the peaches.
So community effort, do youtake them up on that?
Absolutely yeah, because ittakes about a dozen people a
full day.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
So that reminds me I was out in Phoenix visiting a
buddy and there was a breweryout there and everybody in
phoenix has a lemon tree out intheir yard and you know citrus
trees, and so they just had adeal where people would bring in
the citrus from and then theywould put it in their beer.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I think that's really cool yeah, it's our most
popular release of the year.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
I haven't had that how fun is there one of those
here?
See, that's, that's the kind ofstuff I think.
That's when we go kind of.
You know what that's fulfillingfor me.
I love that I'm doing this job.
I love that you get to walkaround on saturday afternoon, so
I'm going to come haunt youdown.
I'm going to be out there going.
Hey, I'm over here that.
Come talk to me.
Who's this guy?
Hey?
Speaker 3 (42:53):
hey, the old guy's father, but get him out of here
oh, he's the owner shit.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Um, that's great all.
So is any other family membersin it?
We've got a couple.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
We've got a couple Actually we have another family
that I think they're trying tosolely take over the business.
Uh, initially when we started,there was a young man that would
they live nearby and he came byand had some of our beers and
enjoyed it so much he wanted towork for us, so he initially
started off as a bartender andthen we found out he had other
(43:24):
skills, so we put him in as asalesperson go out on the street
, sell the stuff.
Then we gave him an opportunityto be a general manager in the
brewery and right now he isactually doing all of our
marketing, label design, socialmedia.
That's his wheelhouse, and sothat was one of the key things
that we've done is we've foundpeople and utilized what is
(43:48):
their strength.
And then later on we hired hismom to be our general manager
and she is, as we say.
She's now the mom of the place.
It used to be just a frat house.
It looked and smelled like afrat house and she's come and
chopped off those sharp edgesand put the woman's touch on it,
(44:08):
so, and then she hired herdaughter also to be part of a as
a bartender.
So there's kind of this familykind of moving slowly, you know,
pushing you into the corner ofthe elevator to take over.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
You don't seem too opposed to it.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
No, they're great people.
We're lucky to have them.
But you know, as far as otherfamily my brother is, he works
in the back as well.
He's part of our productionteam.
He does all of our brewing inMilton.
He operates our canning line inJohns Creek and then my wife
she runs our Milton location.
She's the general manager overthere.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Okay, over there.
Okay, all right, so it is trulya family event.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Family effort.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Yeah, that's awesome, and you actually brought up
something I think is incrediblykey, and that's diversity in the
management team.
You know, I think it's easy tobe a bunch of old white guys
sitting around, but you don'tmake the better decisions.
Have you found that with herinvolved, you make better
decisions?
Speaker 4 (44:55):
She thinks differently from we do, which is
I'm grateful for because youdon't want everybody thinking
the same way.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
It doesn't feel good when you're going through the
decisioning process sometimes,but I think you get a way better
outcome.
Yeah, yes, agreed.
Yeah, that's awesome.
All right, ben, you guys arerocking and rolling.
Did we ever get to the reasonthey called it Six Bridges?
Because I was trying to countthis thing.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
We did not.
I'm dying to know because I wastrying to come up with.
I know the answer, but I thinkeverybody else should know.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
All right, let's know the answer.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
So we go to the city and pitch our deal and halfway
through, we didn't even finishour presentation, they say stop,
we love you.
And I said okay.
And they asked what can they dofor us?
I said give us a landmark orsomething that we can tie into
our name to associate ourselves,to make that connection with
(45:42):
the community.
And they came back 10 dayslater and said six bridges
Interesting, where did that comefrom?
So, where the word originallycame from, there are six roads
in John's Creek with the wordbridge Trivia question, alan.
And to this day nobody's gottenall six.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Alan the actual the the the actual names, and so
these were the founding familiesand settled the area yeah,
abbots kimball no all right, heyguys, uh, we're not going to
tell you, because what you gotto do is you got to come all the
way to john's creek.
Yeah, make yourself a trip.
(46:19):
Because, by the way I found outI was listening to a national
tv the number three searchdestination in the us to go
visit was atlanta, georgia.
How about that?
How about that?
Right, so pretty interesting.
Um, people are starting to pullback a little bit from going
overseas and, uh, it's atlanta'sbecome number three on the
(46:41):
destinations.
Think about that.
You got new york, you've gotchicago, you've got la, you've
got, uh, dallas, texas and miami.
You've got all these places.
I mean, I'm not naming them inorder, excuse me, but it's
atlanta.
So you guys got to come to sixbridges and, um, if you get it,
I'm not gonna say anything butthen you mentioned oh, chris,
this is where Chris is going toactually make an offer for you
(47:03):
guys.
You guys are going to go out toget an offer.
Thank you, but I did.
I will say, if you said I knowall six bridges and I listened
to you on the small businessSafari, they said they would
give you a six pack for free.
Not a six pack, just a, Just apint.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
I'm getting a six pack.
Hey, if they know all sixwithout looking at the mural in
our tap room, that's what I mean, which is a very cool mural, by
the way.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Thank you, Can I double down?
And if you mentioned that,chris said it Chris will buy you
another six pack and give you aDelta voucher for your drink
ticket back out.
I'll keep you completelyinebriated the whole way.
Guys, this has been amazing.
You guys, obviously you guys donot have that crazy up and down
(47:47):
mentality.
I mean, when I talk about that,is that I have that.
I'm super high, I'm super low,I'm super high, I'm super low.
You mentioned you hit akeyboard.
I bet you have not hit akeyboard as hard as I have.
You definitely haven't hit awaist back as hard as I have.
So how do you guys keep youreven keel?
Is that the makeup?
Is that the way you guys roll?
How do you guys keep yourselfthere?
Speaker 3 (48:09):
I will say I definitely don't stay, even at
work.
I mean, it is just there'shighs and lows with it, and the
last place I was at, the waythey put it is managing the
highs and lows with businessCause it's a rollercoaster, you
know.
Same thing goes for cashflow.
I mean it comes in and then itgoes, and there's again and
again.
So those emotions are there too.
So, having a little bit ofperspective, saying okay, this
(48:31):
has happened before.
You know, if you get an accountto 10 or whatever, take a
breather.
Speaker 4 (48:36):
but throw a beer can?
Yeah, throws?
Oh, my goodness Pick a wastecan.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Yeah, I'm on my 10th one.
Actually, they've given me onewith a target on it now and this
one's plastic.
It's given a lot more, but I'vestopped kicking a lot because
after 17 years I'm just gettingolder and tired.
So I just start taking mydamadol out and just slam it
across the table a little bitmore.
Speaker 4 (49:01):
And they let me go.
What also helps.
I remember there was someconfirmation that we're doing
the right thing, we're makingthe right connection.
A gentleman had lost an adultchild and was really grieving,
and the community tried to getaround him to comfort him.
And the one thing they askedwell, what can we do?
And he said just take me up tothe brewery, Just get me out of
(49:22):
the house, but take me there.
I feel relaxed and I'm able todeal with it from there.
And so, that said, if we'vedone one thing right, that was
provide a place for somebody tofeel comfortable.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Wow, that's pretty cool.
That was very powerful.
That would be so fulfilling tothat story.
Yeah, it should be.
Yeah, well, guys, you guys havedone a great thing.
Awesome what you guys are doing.
Let's get a shout out.
How does everybody find you?
How do they find your beer?
Speaker 3 (49:52):
So six bridges of brewingcom Instagram, facebook,
check us out.
Come to the brewery.
We're always active on socialmedia.
Sign up for our emails.
When you go to our website,you'll hear about.
We send out an email weekly.
We don't sell your information,we just try to sell you our
beer.
So I hope you come check us out.
Come thirsty, be ready to havesome fun.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Love it hey we've drank the beer.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
We have.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
It's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
We're going more good job it's good and I know you
were excited about this veryactually kept this one a little
bit from alan until just twodays ago because we knew excited
if you'd be, I don't know, andhe knew more about you guys, uh,
that you probably even knew,you know about yourselves,
because he's been researchingthis creepy, but that's, he is
creepy.
Restraining order, right, uh,so you're like and I'm chris's
(50:36):
basement and it's rainingoutside because we're in atlanta
, are going to make it out ofhere, I don't know.
Guys, we got to get these guysto a taco truck because they got
to go take care of their biz.
They're doing a great thing.
You got to keep doing the samething.
It's not all sunsets and roses,but it is always a birdie putt
you have a chance to make.
Let's go make it happen.
Get out of here.
We got to.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Small Business
(50:59):
Safari.
Remember, your positiveattitude will help you achieve
that higher altitude you'relooking for in the wild world of
small business ownership.
And until next time, make it agreat day.
You.
We're still feeling the effects of prohibition.
Is that what I just heard?
Absolutely yeah, they ruined itand.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I just heard he won't even say the name, but he's
definitely doing a shout outalready to the distributor who
holds all the cards.
I heard that loud and clear.
My friend, you know I'm goingto start my own business because
I want to be my own boss.
I don't want to have to answerto anybody and you get your own
(00:26):
business.
What do you answer to a lot ofpeople and they're not?
There's like a lot more bosses.
Yeah, we've all got them.
Welcome to the small businesssafari where I help guide you to
avoid those traps, pitfalls anddangers that lurk when
navigating the wild world ofsmall business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
(00:48):
and professional goals.
So strap in adventure team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
If you did listen to our lastepisode, we had the charcuterie
(01:09):
board lady on who is thegathering board duck co and she
brought us food.
And Alan said Chris, for nextweek I'm going to save my
charcuterie board and come back,so I put it in the fridge here
in the house.
And what's he doing?
Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop,chop.
And after I told him, don't,chop, chop, chop, chop, chop,
chop it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
I'll be right back.
All right, I'm telling youwe're going to put I'm a food
snot and it's fantastic, Right?
I mean, every single ingredientis fantastic.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So Alan has been chewing on this stuff for a
little bit.
Guys and I'm telling you thatlast episode a lot of fun.
These guys have a lot of greatideas, but, more importantly,
they have some great food.
I'm not lying, I had some too.
But what goes best with food?
Something cold, something cold,something Hopped Hopped,
(01:59):
something Carbonated.
They like carbonation.
And where do we start thispodcast?
Three and a half years ago,drinking beer, talking about
business.
And we're right back here threeand a half years later drinking
beer and talking about business.
And what are we drinking, alan?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
We are drinking Six Bridges and I've got my favorite
beer.
There's Medlock IPA and you'vegot Suburban Sombrero.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's a Mexican lager, I believe you know.
I really think Six Bridgesshould sponsor the show.
I really think they should comeon the show.
How many times have I said thatabout a beer, light beer, every
beer we've ever had,anheuser-busch Nobody's bit yet,
nobody's bit yet.
But guess what we've done?
Brought them in-house.
We brought them in-house.
Guys, the owners and foundersof Six Bridges Brewing Companies
(02:43):
, charles and Clay Gridley, arehere and they're her local.
They started a brewery and thisis going to be fascinating
because if you follow anythingin the podcast, you'll know one
thing about Alan he is not onlya food snot, but he is
definitely a craft beer snob.
So, alan, Double snot.
All right.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
No, I will tell you, I've lived in it.
So Johns Creek was justrecently voted the best.
Was it the best suburb in thecountry to live in?
Something like that?
And I've lived here for 30years and I will say the schools
are amazing, it's safe, there'srestaurants from all around the
world, but it's kind of boring.
And then, how many years agodid you guys open up Almost
(03:24):
seven, seven, kind of boring.
And then how many years ago didyou guys open up Almost seven?
Seven years ago.
I get this email and it wasthis I think you had kind of a
sneak preview night or something, and somehow I got on that list
.
I'm like there's a breweryopening in John's Creek that's
walking distance to my house.
I was so excited I could hardlystand it.
So today's a big day for me.
And now they've got two.
They're kind of moving awayfrom me, though.
What?
Yeah, they've got another oneover.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
They've expanded to two locations.
Yeah, you mean, you tell methey're making-.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
And the other one's got barbecue.
I've got to drive all the wayover to Crabapple for barbecue.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
All right, I've got to hear the story, okay, so how
do we get started in this thing?
There's probably two differentversions of the, so how far back
do you want to go Starting thebrewery?
Let's go back to who thoughtthey had a great beer, that they
wanted to produce Probably myson.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
We were both home brewers, Okay, and so we were
going down different paths.
I was on the dark IPA world andClay was looking at everything
else Try this, try that, trythat.
And then we got to a pointwhere we were having fun doing
it and I was getting ready toretire.
He was ready to not be afireman and the laws changed in
(04:33):
Georgia that breweries could dothis.
And so, as I was retiring, Claycomes up and says Dad, I've got
a great idea on what to do withyour retirement money.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
On what to do with your money, With my money.
Yes, Kids don't change, do theyCharles?
No, they don't.
Speaker 4 (04:47):
Kids just don't change, and so we formed this
business together, and it's beena blessing since day one.
We found out we were the firstfather-son brewery in the state
of Georgia.
So another little check on thebox to enjoy.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
So what'd you do for a living before the home brewery
?
I mean, what was the paycheckand retirement money coming to
see this from?
Speaker 4 (05:13):
I was always born an engineer and so I was always
making the widgets, change thewidgets, but still a
manufacturing process, and mostof my life I worked for in the
telecommunications industry andso I was able to do very well in
that and squirrel away somebucks.
And when the day came myadvisor said go for it.
And then Clay caught wind of itand said dad, friend, buddy,
pal.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Friend buddy pal yeah .
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You know, when your kid comes to you and wants to do
anything, how do you say no?
I always said, if my son said,hey, dad, let's rob a bank, I'd
be like okay.
Speaker 4 (05:46):
Well, we were tailgate buddies to begin with
and so we were always joined atthe hip and chicanery and stuff
like that.
So it was easy to say yes.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
All right, so here we go.
We got the idea here.
So, clay again, thank you againfor being a firefighter Again.
I think I don't think a lot ofpeople understand just the
dangers you guys went through.
How many years did you do that?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Nine.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, and which branch were you in?
I was with Cherokee County,okay, yeah, okay, so you saw
some stuff then.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, when people call 911, they're not having a
good day.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, yeah.
So here we go.
So now we're going to go beer.
Did you have a business plan?
Because it's one thing to makea beer that tastes good which,
by the way, guys, it tastesphenomenal.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Got my first swig in.
But did you have a businessplan or idea and talk us through
that idea?
Let's see.
You know, at the time we weregoing around to um different
craft breweries in the area andthey were saying we can't make
it fast enough.
You know and they were they hadall these bottlenecks in place
because they were not preparedto grow.
So, with my father's backgroundbeing in manufacturing and all
that he's done, we were able tolook at their processes and say
(06:54):
we can do better with this.
So, you know, we laid it outfrom the beginning where we were
able to meet demand and kind ofpivot with things and still be
nimble at the same time.
So, you know, definitelythought we'd be a little more
hands-on than we are.
We end up being keyboardjockeys most of the time, like
running a business, and it's nottoo often we get to brew.
I will say he does get todistill when he has some free
(07:17):
time.
But yeah, I think we at leastmyself, I underestimated that.
I thought I would actually bebrewing a little bit more and
know I'm behind a computer allday.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Oh, you're distilling too.
Yes, is that available in thebreweries?
Not yet, okay.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Our cocktails are, but as far as our bottled stuff,
we're still working on that.
We're aging some stuff rightnow and we're working our way up
.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
What are you working on?
A bourbon single malt whiskey,Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
And then a bourbon.
We've got some rum aging aswell, so nice.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Alan, get back here, Alan you can't get it yet, get
back, sit back down.
Oh my God, he's already back init.
What were some of the thingsyou learned from the people that
you spoke?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
to before you opened the other brewers.
Let's see Just being ready togrow with a lot of the existing
breweries out there.
They were having problems whenthey had to grow.
It cost them two or three timesas much because they would have
to go back and redo some of theinfrastructure.
So we looked at it and planneda larger infrastructure than we
needed.
It was a big bite in thebeginning.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Yeah, so you're taking a bigger leap, absolutely
yeah, capital intensive upfront.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
But here we are.
We've been open seven years andwe still have a little bit of
room to grow with it.
So stuff like you know, theheating, the cooling, the cold
storage, the plumbing and all ofthat, all the key components
with it.
It was a huge bite in thebeginning but still now,
whenever we want to grow, it isliterally plug and play.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
So how long before you got into the distribution
game?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
We had been open about seven months before we
started distributing and we knewthat we were going to do that.
We were built out to meetdistribution throughout the
state and we were interviewingdistributors for about six
months and trying to get thatrelationship down because it is
so key, especially in the stateof Georgia because of the way
(09:14):
that the laws are formed.
It's a three-tiered systemthroughout the country as a
result of prohibition, but themiddle tier is the distributor
and they hold all the cards.
So you've got to have a greatrelationship and we're happy
with the relationship that wehave with our distributor.
So it's another family runbusiness.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
We're still feeling the effects of prohibition.
Is that what I just heard?
Absolutely yeah, and theyruined it.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And I just heard he won't even say the name, but
he's definitely doing a shoutout already to the distributor
who holds all the cards.
I heard that loud and clear.
My friends know I'm gonna startmy own business because I want
to be my own boss.
I don't want to have to answerto anybody and you get your own
business.
What do you do?
Answer to a lot of people andthey're not.
They're like a lot more bossesall of a sudden.
Yeah, we've all got them.
(09:55):
Yeah, so you guys knew and Ithink that's a big, just uh,
delineation you knew that youdidn't just want to brew the
beer and have a location peoplecame to.
You wanted to be in thedistribution business.
So your first location wheredid you pick and why did you
pick that?
Speaker 3 (10:11):
you know, initially I was looking in cherokee county
where I was living at the time,and I wanted an old mill
building, you know, brick wallsand the heavy timber and
everything.
But the fire department told methat it had been grandfathered
so many times, it was going tobe brought up a code, sprinklers
, electrical, all that stuff,and we were looking at like two
(10:31):
million in reno sayingabsolutely not not going to
happen.
So we started lookingthroughout the the north side
and john's creek came up on themap because literally it's
between both of our homes and wefound this space that was
available.
And then we spoke with the cityabout it and they interviewed
us and said, hey, wait, we, welove it, let's do this, so you
got the city behind you.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
So I think that's a great lesson learned too is
don't be afraid to go talk toyour local politicians, your
local city officials, and not beafraid of them, because I would
say my first call would nothave been to the fire department
going hey guys, what do youthink of this?
Oh, my God, clay, you're goingto have to do everything to it.
I would have been hey guys, I'mgoing to buy the building next
to it and meanwhile I'm overthere brewing beer in the other
(11:13):
building.
Don't worry, you guys got hoses, we'll be fine.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Which is why they're so much more successful after
seven years than you have beenafter 17.
I know.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I know I'm thinking the same thing.
I should have just gone andtalked to the city, said, hey,
this is what I'm thinking ofdoing, maybe somebody would slap
me, and Johns Creek had nothinglike this Right.
So they definitely werereceptive.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
Absolutely.
And in 2017, the communitydevelopment director told us at
that conversation.
She said wait, stop, we lovethis, you're going to go right
there.
They had long-term plans ofbringing the town center to that
area.
So they told us then becauseCity Hall was still off of
Finley Road.
So they said, hey, we'reactually going to buy this
building and move in there andrenovate it.
(11:54):
And then the State Farm Complex.
They said that's going to turninto something.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
So for our friends in Australia and Canada and
everywhere else, johns Creek isa suburban community, very
affluent, very diverse peoplefrom all over the world and not
a lot to do.
And their brewery opened inwhat is called our technology
park and you kind of had to knowwhere it was.
But what's happening now is abig developer is developing a
(12:23):
over a half a billion dollartown center, so there's the
whole retail.
There's some big companies thatare coming in, but they're
combining it with a prettyimpressive they're calling it
the boardwalk park system.
So it's not just a commercial,it's really going to be a
livable space and when you'reout in your cool little uh I
(12:45):
don't know what you call theoutdoor area with the lights and
the picnic tables, you'reoverlooking it right now.
Yeah, the beer garden, yeah.
So what a change that's goingto be for you guys, that is that
?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
did you know that was going to be that awesome and,
uh, different?
Speaker 4 (13:03):
No, it exceeded those expectations, because you're so
used to what that campus lookedlike and when they just started
moving things around, said, wow, it's really taking shape and
it really looks interesting andwe're excited.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Well, and a lot of people are going to go oh, lucky
you, or whatever.
But you also had to put up withokay, you're on the back end of
this technology park that's notsuper vibrant, and then State
Farm moves, Right, and so thebiggest employer in the area all
the employees that would comehave a beer after work are
suddenly not there anymore,right?
So you've had to go throughsome rough patches, I would
think.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
No, absolutely, and you know everybody's seen the
class A space that's availablearound town, so there was that
lull and then you know,everything has happened since
2017, but I think they've got agreat, you, you know a great
concept there, everything thatthey're putting together, so
we're excited about it.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
I gotta ask you so, uh, this chris and I talked
about this beforehand so I comefrom portland, oregon, which I
will argue was where it allstarted, and, uh, you go to a
town of bend, oregon, which,which has got shut up Chris 80,
for once it's going to be aboutme yeah, 80,000 people, and
they've got a gazillionbreweries.
And so finally, they changedthe laws here in Georgia and a
(14:17):
few breweries opened up and, tobe honest with you, the beer
wasn't even that good, but I wasjust happy that it happened.
And now, all of a sudden,you're reading all these
articles about all thesebreweries that are closing and
the trouble in the craftindustry, and I'm like we still
don't even remotely have thepenetration here in Georgia that
we have.
And you guys spent time inColorado that you hadn't caught
(14:39):
in Denver or in Portland.
What is your opinion?
I mean, I think there's peoplewho probably opened a brewery
that didn't know how to makebeer.
There are people, like you knowyou were had the foresight to
have the space to expand andthought about distribution.
Part of it is, in my opinion,you just have to have a place
that people want to hang and, uh, you know, and you've created
(15:00):
that in your brewery, I mean,and so there's so many breweries
that closed down, I'm like,yeah, but beer wasn't that good
and the location wasn't thatgood, but I mean, but I still
see these articles, like youknow, doom and gloom, what.
What's your opinion on the, onthe industry itself?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
You know, first of all, georgia is, uh, when you
talk about breweries, per capita, I believe it's at 48 and
correct me if I'm wrong.
So, even though there's, youknow, per capita, I believe it's
at 48 and correct me if I'mwrong.
So, even though there's, youknow, 12 million people in the
state of Georgia, um, when youtalk about, uh, per capita, it's
very low on the list.
And then also, the consumptionper person is quite low as well,
as it tends to be throughoutthe Southeastern United States.
(15:39):
So, um, you know, I know you'lllook at it and say, okay, you
know there's a lot of people saythere's too many breweries, but
I think it's actually just kindof that equilibrium point.
It's getting there, it'sswinging how the market does
with the sector.
But with my position, or with us, we were homebrewers but I
think better now, we'd be betteroff having an MBA in the
(16:01):
positions that we have runningour business instead of a
background brewing.
So you know, there's a lot ofpeople that make that jump from
a home brewer to this and we'refortunate.
We have a fantastic team, hisexperience in the corporate
world, and you know, everybodyin our team making it happen.
So we're fortunate there.
But I think the sector is justkind of balancing out a little
(16:23):
bit.
You know it's been pretty toughthe last few years with
everything that's going on inthe world and that's for all
businesses but especiallybrewing.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So in your positions you guys really aren't doing the
brewing, the thing you thoughtyou were getting into business
to do.
But to Alan's point, do youfind that to be successful, to
get beyond distribution, you'veopened up a second location.
Do you have to have somethingelse to offer people?
Is it the location?
Is it the offering?
What is it?
Speaker 3 (16:49):
I think you need to check a lot of boxes.
Honestly, we got intodistilling because we saw a
demand for spirits and thegluten-free and everything with
that.
We're looking at getting a winelicense, a farm winery license,
which is someone in Georgiawhere it's related to the
agricultural product, and youknow we do events live music,
(17:11):
trivia music, bingo, all kindsof stuff.
Trivia night is huge at yourplace.
It's very popular.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It's quite competitive too it is.
I got asked to go on a triviateam.
Normally I'm pretty good at it.
I didn't help at all.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, it was tough so , uh, I I can't remember the
last time I went I I canabsolutely remember, but I
remember, uh, yeah, I've notbeen asked back.
I was asked.
They're like, hey, chris, youknow sports.
I'm like, yeah, sit down, boom,sports section, right, all this
arcane stuff.
I was like nope, nope, nope,nope.
They uh star wars comes up.
We're like bang, bang, bang,bang, bang.
They're you didn't help much.
(17:45):
I'm like, but I didn't know theStar Wars stuff.
I mean I got that, but you'reright, in sports we sucked.
So, no, I've not been askedback.
So you guys have figured out.
Is that what you're in yourpositions?
Is that what we're doing?
I mean, obviously, charles,you're working on distilling
some, but on how to keep theexisting concerns going, I mean
it sounds like they're reallystaying a step ahead.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I mean, they're thinking about what's next.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Absolutely, and you know, keeping one of the things
with my job is keeping leaninventory.
You know lean practices withour stuff because there's so
much cash floating around andjust you know our business.
As an example, everybody canprobably relate it to their own.
I assume your audience is is alot of entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Entrepreneurs guys either starting to start a
business or guys trying to scalea small business.
Girls, too, and gals I saidguys because I'm from the
Midwest.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
But with us it's all about cash flow.
We talk about this constantly.
Where we've got cash on theshelves, that's cans of raw
materials.
The cans are there, the grain,the hops are in the cooler, then
the beer that's in the tankthat's fermenting, the beer
that's packaged in our coolerand the beer that's at our
distributor.
I mean, it's all just cashsitting there.
(18:57):
So unless you just have tons ofit, just piles of it, laying
around, you've got to keep itlean and we try to do that as
best as possible.
He's got great experience andI've learned a ton from my
father, so grateful for that.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Is the engineering background coming in handy with
all this?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
When he lets me.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Oh, let's talk.
Dad you and me.
Right, let's put the kid onmute for a minute.
Speaker 4 (19:19):
Well, let's back up just a little bit, because when
we got started, I think theGeorgia Craft Brewers Guild was
putting out a seminar.
I do it once or twice a year.
It says so you want to open abrewery, and it was basically
exposing you to all the thingsthat you would have to consider.
You know, you got to do thebusiness plan and so we did
straws and I got the short straw.
(19:39):
But I got with the SmallBusiness Development Center out
of Athens and got with them andthey helped me write a business
plan, which I had never donebefore.
That turned out to be receivedreally well by our financer.
We had the right contractor, wehad a good architect, so we had
all the plans in place to saythese guys know what they're
(20:00):
doing, I've got a good businessplan, the economics are there,
you've got a good design, we'llgo with it.
And so it's worked out fromthat.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Let me ask about the business plan a little bit,
because I've asked this questiona couple of times and the
answer is always interesting.
You wrote the business plan.
It got you the money.
Have you looked at it since andhave you followed it and do you
refer to it?
Speaker 4 (20:24):
We've looked at it for our expansions and modified
it for that, so it goes to amuch higher level when you're
starting to add on to your Well,the follow-up on that is now
that you're in seven years.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
And if you were to go back seven years and rewrite
the business plan, what would bedifferent?
Speaker 2 (20:52):
I don't know if I have long enough to answer my
side.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
You know one thing that we likely didn't anticipate
.
I think when we got ourbrewer's permit, we were the
86th brewery in Georgia and whenit topped out before this
recent contraction I think itwas at 168, something in there,
so virtually double.
So we did not anticipate theamount of competition that came,
(21:19):
and it was pretty much allaround the Atlanta area.
So that shows you the impactthat the law that went into
effect in late 2017, what thatdid.
It was quite encouraging, butwe were one of the last
breweries of our size to open up.
There might've been one or twoafter us that were our size.
The rest of them were muchsmaller town center type
(21:40):
locations, lower volume, nodistribution, a lot less
overhead too.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
So right.
So you said, boy, what wouldyou have done different after
seven years?
So a short story.
17 years into it, I did uh, Idid refer back to my business
plan and every year I use as anannual review technique for me,
um and I I pretty much shelvedthat program in about 10,
(22:07):
technique for me I pretty muchshelled that program in about 10
.
After 10 years I stopped doingit because I had outgrown where
I thought I was and the pivotpoints didn't even look like my
original business plan.
And kudos to you for doing thesmall business plan, because I
did the same thing.
I went to score before Istarted mine and I learned so
much.
It wasn't that I had to have anA paper, it was the fact that I
had to go through the mentalgyrations to get there.
(22:28):
And as a fellow engineer goingthrough those the details is
where I was able to solveproblems beforehand and save
myself money.
Now, in my case I solved about10% of the problems, so I cost
myself 90% of the money.
I think in your case it'sprobably the exact inverse.
So kudos to you guys for doingthe way you did it.
But when you look at it now, doyou go back and do an annual
(22:50):
planning process.
Do you guys sit down and say,all right, what's pie in the sky
?
What's this next year going tolook like?
Do you guys have that program?
Speaker 4 (22:57):
I think we review what we read in the information
on a national basis and then aregional basis as to where the
business is trending.
That helps us out in guiding.
But we've even learned we haveto get it down to the macro
level because of thedemographics and the sales
(23:18):
patterns from our two differentlocations are very different
from each other.
So we're having to.
Okay it's not one egg in onebasket solves the problem.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
And I want to ask about the two locations, because
you've got the absolute perfectAB testing scenario going on.
You've got your originallocation that was a little bit
buried.
You have your second location,which is kind of front and
center in a more of a walkingarea, kind of like what's about
to develop around you.
The second location has food,you know.
(23:50):
So are you seeing higher salesper ticket because somebody's
sitting around longer becausethey're eating?
You know?
I mean, what are you seeing inthe when you compare and
contrast the two locations?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
I would say what?
Let's go over the evolution,because at the time the law
changed, everybody wanted to bea brewery and then people said,
well, this is fun, Now I want toeat.
So the next step in the processwas a food truck, which was
novel and creative and all that.
Some people said I don't likebuying my food from a place that
(24:23):
has wheels underneath it.
So some breweries decided toinstall a kitchen.
However, breweries have to bein a place that's zoned for
manufacturing, so it's a littlebit out of sight.
But once you startincorporating a kitchen and you
expand, you can go into thosehigh-traffic areas.
So there's been an evolutionwithin the last five years of
(24:44):
the industry.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
So the state regs have a certain percentage.
It has to be a certainpercentage, alcohol versus food
or no no, it doesn't not withbreweries, since we're
considered manufacturers.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
There's you don't have to have food at all.
So you just run into a littledetails and you've got to kind
of educate the local governmentson that too, saying, hey, we're
not a restaurant, okay, wedon't follow under those things.
We're kind of quasi where we wecan manufacture alcohol, we can
sell it wholesale, we can sellit in-house, we can sell it to
go, we can do crowlers, we canbe open on Sunday, all this
(25:15):
stuff.
So it's really several licensesput together and what we
experienced with John's Creekand Milton that they kind of had
to figure out.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
okay, we've got to start a new category for you
guys, as you made the expansionto the second location, what
were the struggles you guys wentthrough?
Speaker 3 (25:31):
You know, it was November 2020, when we looked at
the location, we got a callfrom the developer saying hey,
come check it out.
And everybody remembers thetime and what was going on and
you know, we hope not toremember it, but uh, we went
there toward the site and wesaid, man, we love this.
And, um, you know, afterwards,uh, they said, what do you think
(25:52):
?
And we said, yeah, we reallylike it.
And they stuck their hand outto shake hands and I just looked
at him and said, you know, Ihaven't shaked anybody's hand in
seven months.
And, uh, they said put.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
They said let that thing away.
Holds to that sidearm, son,because November you say you
remember, but that wasabsolutely a flashpoint for you.
Back to what Malcolm talksabout, and that was a flashpoint
Right November 2020, you'relike, hey, how about another
location?
I'm like, dude, we're still inthat every two weeks shutdown
thing and I can't shake yourhand, I can't touch you, I can't
.
No, people aren't going out anddoing nothing, right, so I'm
(26:22):
not.
Why would I do that?
Because it may never happen,ever, ever again.
I don't know if that's howdraconic you guys were, but I
mean, it's hard to look atoption B when you're staring at
option A.
Did?
Speaker 1 (26:32):
you make up a new word, draconic.
Yeah, I got lots of words.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
No, we actually we absolutely had that conversation
because you know there wasthere was a lot going on in the
market at the time and you know,with the shutdowns and
everything just pivoting around,but, um, you know, we knew that
we were going to get out of itand we had talked about it and
we really loved the area and thedeveloper was aligned with a
lot of things we had in mind, soit worked out so you guys
(26:58):
really just want everybody tohear this.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
All right, uh, I got birdie putt going, so I got the
um.
I would say I haven't tried ityet.
November of 2020, for me and mybusiness being in remodeling
and handyman.
When it first happened, I didthe three phases of truth and
that was back in.
I'm going back to March.
First, I uh, I completelyignored it.
I had a guy call me and say,chris, uh, man, I can't come
(27:21):
meet you today Cause, uh, he wasa consultant in marketing.
He says, man, my business isgoing to shut down.
I'm like, hey, dude, what can Ido to help?
He goes, help me, he goes,you're done too, man.
He said the whole world'sshutting down.
I'm like, dude, you are chicken, little, you've lost your
flipping mind.
What's going on?
No way.
One week later, shut everybodydown, sent everybody home,
(27:48):
accepted it.
So, three phases of truth youignore it, you vehemently deny
it, and then you accept it asintuitively obvious.
And then you had to go withthat.
And then I was like, all right,how am I going to dig out of
this?
And then, when our, our greatgovernor said it was time in
memorial day, around for the endof may.
He said you can go out there,get your hair done, get your
nails done, go bowling, don'tcare, just follow these things,
you know.
And I said rock and roll, man.
Our, our phones didn't stopringing.
I was like man and I toldpeople for the first time ever
I'm in the best place ever.
(28:09):
And then what I couldn't do, Icouldn't find material.
So it's always a struggle whenyou're running your own business
and think you're getting thereand by the time November hit, we
still weren't steady state.
And back to that.
I love how you said that,because I still think somebody
like me too I'm a hugger, I'm anextrovert, I'm all out there.
(28:29):
I think we forgot how to talk topeople and it took me like a
full year to get back to likenormal of doing that.
So you had the foresight to sayI think people will start going
back to restaurants Becauseabout that time is about the
time I said you can go out, butyou got to go out, but you can
only be like every other booth.
Or then you had to have theglass and you had to have this
(28:50):
and you never thought.
Actually, about that time isabout the time I thought it
would go back to all.
Right, we're going to get backto normal.
I mean, this is not going to beforever, because we just can't
do this.
So is that what you know?
Speaker 3 (28:59):
not only that, we had several people within the
community that jumped on boardwith us to wait to raise a
little bit of capital for thisnew location.
And we had locals that saidthat the same things and you
know we, we believe in y'all andwe are going to get through
this.
So and they jumped on our team.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Well, you guys, again we're here at John's Creek,
which I think it was voted thenumber one city.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
I said that a minute ago.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Right, you said it, but you said suburban something,
something, something.
I thought it was like thenumber one city to live in.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
I don't know Whatever .
There's a good reason for that.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
The beer, it's the beer it's the beer, hardly is
because we weren't number oneuntil six bridges I just say
they connect the dots that wayjust saying and now look what
happened.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
You go out to that milton area and you go around
that roundabout and then bam, Iran into another six bridges.
I'm like what the hell is thisthing doing on here?
So?
Speaker 1 (29:53):
you guys have.
I was a little pissed.
I'm like I thought that was ourthing here in john's creek.
But you know, I got over it.
I was happy for you, are yousure?
Well, they had the food.
Well, they brought you, theybrought you the beer.
So was that a partnership or itis okay?
Talk about that a little bit.
That's kind of an interestingmove well, uh, let's see we knew
we had.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
They both looked at each other.
Go no, you know, you take it.
No, no, you take it.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
We knew we had to have food there, but at same
time we didn't want to take onthe kitchen.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Why did you know you had to have food there?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
We spoke with a broker who had aggregate data
and he said that when you lookat revenue per square foot and
he had it for non-food breweriesand then with food so there was
a 25% difference with that.
But at the same time we knew wedidn't want to run a kitchen.
We started thinking about itand what we were going to do.
We brew beer really well and wewere just like I don't think we
(30:47):
have it in us.
So we started asking around andwe landed with this barbecue
company.
It was actually turned aroundwith our I'm sorry introduced us
from our landlord and we wentand checked them out.
We ate at their place and itwas really good.
And here we are, almost threeyears later.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
So are you thinking about doing another one, or
going more and leaning intodistribution?
Speaker 3 (31:08):
We've got one in the works right now.
Oh, this is a high story.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
Here it is on the small business Safari.
Speaker 3 (31:16):
We're working on it.
We'll see.
I hope it'll happen.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
All right, I actually have a very cool location for
you, I can tell you offline.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah, we'll have Alan hook you up because you're
going to get the commercial realestate extraordinaire on it.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Are you thinking about bringing food to Johns
Creek?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
We've looked at it, we want to do it.
It's just very expensive.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
So, speaking of expense inflation, how have you
dealt with, I mean, the cost ofthese cans?
I don't know where you get yourgrain from, but you know hops,
all that stuff.
Talk about how you've navigatedthose waters the last couple of
years.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
I think we've been able to navigate it by buying in
bulk.
Excuse me, when we started off,we were buying in very small
quantities and so we were ableto.
Speaker 1 (32:03):
Yeah, because you were running lean based on what
Very lean Okay.
Speaker 4 (32:05):
And we're still running very lean.
You look at our ingredientshelves and the only thing on
there is what we're going to usethis week, but we've been able
to buy things in bulk.
Instead of buying it in a50-pound sack sack, you're now
buying in a 2 000 pound sack.
Or instead of buying 200 cans,you're buying 8 000 cans, so
(32:28):
multiples have compensated forthat.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
That's got to be a hard thing to do, though right
you're.
You're used to one size and onenumber and then stroking that.
Check for the next number.
Who's the one who has to makethat call?
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Me, oh boy, so he knows when there's going to be a
rough week, because I get veryquiet Okay.
And just kind of groan and makethose old man noises the old
man noises come out.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
Yeah, so our office we actually share a desk.
We have a large Go bug it whenyou hear old man noises fucking
run Exactly Go bug it when youhear old man noises fucking run,
exactly Right, run.
But we share an office andwe've got a big conference table
for a desk and we see it, rightthere we're bouncing it off of
each other.
I hear those grunts and hehears me beat my keyboard and so
(33:14):
we're every day Same room, huh.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Yeah, this is the first time I've had their light
lager.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
It's good, I'm enjoying my birdie putt because
I'm thinking it's going to bringbirdie putts.
That's why I gave it to youwhen we go on the rain, when we
go on the course, when I finallylet you play somebody else's
course well, the medlock is dryfor show and the birdie putts
yeah, the uh, the uh medlock isaiming fluid for me.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Aiming fluid, yeah just get.
You get wing oil yeah, swingoil getting nice and loose,
don't need to hit the range,just a couple medlocks and then
you maintain with the, the lightlogger or the birdie putt.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Right, that's what I said.
Time for me to sober up.
Gotta switch the light.
Beer you're gonna drive soon,what?
All right, that's new.
Don't worry about that.
Don't worry, chris, I alwaysUber and or I do my podcasts in
my basement.
So, uh, what's next for youguys?
You're talking about expansiondistribution.
Um, is there an exit strategy?
(34:11):
Is there a play where you'retrying to get out?
You think you guys were justwant to ride this thing out and
this is your long-term game.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
Well, there's two of us and there's a day or two
difference in age between us.
I probably have an exitstrategy at some point, but it's
no time soon.
We have a couple of gentlementhat are rather large CFOs in
large companies and they'rehelping us determine that value
and giving us a feel for whatit's like out in the market
(34:38):
should we want to, you know, bereceptive to an offer or
something like that.
But right now there's too muchblood, sweat and tears on the
floor and in the production areathat what's the favorite time
of your week?
Speaker 2 (34:51):
what's the favorite thing you do?
Speaker 1 (34:53):
every week.
I'm going to tell you what myfavorite thing that they do is.
Yeah, because I appreciate it.
My son is a high school teacherand on thursday you've got $5
pints for teachers.
And I just think that's thecoolest thing, and they just go
hang out and it makes them sohappy, and so I want to thank
you for that Sure.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
My favorite is Saturday afternoon.
I will come and not standbehind the bar or go in the
office.
I come as a customer and I goaround and talk to people at the
table and they look at me I'mone of the owners here and then
they warm up and then they wanta tour, want to hear the story,
and that's the connection thatwe wanted Before we started.
(35:33):
We would meet at a restaurantand one of the owners would come
out and talk to you andentertain you.
So it was I want to go thereand talk to CT and get something
to eat and drink.
You would go for thatinteraction with him and so we
wanted to bring that along withour presentation.
(35:54):
Anybody can make beer, anybodycan sell it, somebody can give
you a table and chair, but tomake that connection with your
customers and they remember youand they ask oh, I heard you on
vacation, or you did this, orplease make this beer back, they
have that nice, intimate,one-on-one conversation.
That's your favorite time.
All right, clay.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
I would say Thursday morning honestly, and he knows
why because we're not at work atthat point.
We go to a men's group onThursday morning.
It's a faith-based men's groupdiscussion and instead of
reporting to work first thing inthe morning, we'll go there and
it's about a dozen of us andwe'll have a conversation.
It can be topical, whatever'sgoing on, but it is faith-based.
(36:38):
So just that and it's.
It's an easy morning for mebecause I'll go in, we'll have
breakfast, we'll have anhour-long discussion there and
then afterwards I'll go to ourmilton location and we're
brewing that day, and so it'sjust a nice easy start for the
day rather than hit the groundrunning and I think that's one
that a lot of people miss.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
Is that the way to start your day?
We talk about this like hey, I,hey, I'm Mr 530.
Get up, get a workout.
Hey, I'm David Scroggins andI'm the same guy, you know.
I actually get up, I work out530, 6 o'clock.
But there are days when you dothat it's because this bod
doesn't come by accident.
Hey, because this bod eats anddrinks a ton, and that's the
only reason I'm still Earn yourbeer.
(37:16):
I earn every ounce of it, myfriends, but there's something
to be said about that, becausethat gives you time to
introspect and respect Verygrounding and it is and it's
very grounding, and you knowwhether you do it with faith or
whether you do it withmeditation or whatever it may be
for you.
I think a lot of people missthat is that we feel like we've
got to run 100 miles an hour.
And I'll never forget my dadsaying this to me, saying this
(37:41):
to me it's that first time hecame to meet me and see me in
Charlotte and I was going totake him to a restaurant and I
missed my exit.
But I missed my exit, going 80miles an hour, and we did the
loop around Charlotte and cameback and he goes you may know
where you're going, but we'renot getting anywhere fast.
Atta, boy, sam, that's my dad.
So that's the thing, right.
Sometimes you just got to slowdown.
And I say it to my sales guysslow down and speed up.
So that's great that you saythat.
(38:02):
All right, you guys got intothis because you were craft
brewers.
Are you doing any craft brewingother than are you doing your
distilling over there in thedoctor shop?
Are you doing any more brewing?
What?
Speaker 3 (38:13):
are we doing so?
I still write all of ourrecipes and I do that every day
for both of our locations.
I enjoy doing that.
The distilling is all hisproject there, where I might
source the ingredients, but he'sthe one doing the recipe and
getting everything planned out.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Yeah, I get crap from the brewers.
They say they spend all dayputting the alcohol in and you
turn right around, pops and takethe alcohol out.
What gives Love?
Speaker 1 (38:38):
it.
I love it.
So how do you so the trends Imean like Sours, for example
kind of became a big deal for awhile, not for me, but for a lot
of people.
I mean, are you you notice Ihaven't opened that one yet Are
you kind of looking at thelandscape and seeing what's out
there?
Absolutely Okay.
Speaker 3 (39:00):
Yeah, absolutely, and our sales manager is really
good at that.
He's got his hand on the pulsewith that and it's a dynamic
market right now.
You know, in um, you know wegot into spirits around 2020 and
at that time, uh, rtds werebecoming a thing you know, ready
to drink cocktails, and nowthey're everywhere.
So we we try to get into thatmarket.
Didn't have a whole lot of six.
Speaker 1 (39:20):
Those are the cocktails in a can right.
I've had some of those.
I'm like I'm shocked at howgood they are, yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
Yeah, they do a good job with them.
There's a great company herearound Atlanta called tip top
that does a fantastic job.
A little plug there for them,um, but yeah, the can cocktails.
Seltzer became a thing Now.
Na is really popular, so youjust got to stay nimble with it.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
Be really flexible.
Going back to the sours, wejust put out my favorite sour.
It's key lime sour and I liketo brag that Publix makes their
pie taste like our beer.
Ooh.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
I may have to have that sour because I'm with Alan.
I am.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
I'm not a sour guy, but I suppose if it was 1,000
degrees in August here inGeorgia, have you had a key lime
pie from Publix.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I have, and they're yummy yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
So maybe a key lime sour might be good on that hot
van.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
We make it just like the pie, so we'll put graham
cracker in the mash.
We use key lime puree.
Are you kidding me?
We do milk sugar, vanillalactose.
We'll add vanilla to it, themilk sugar, and then there's
even a little whipped creaminvolved.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
So are you.
How do you Alan?
Speaker 2 (40:36):
are you not hungry right now?
Speaker 1 (40:37):
Well, I'm just kind of curious.
Okay, so you're not hungryright now.
Well, I'm just kind of curious,okay, so you're kind of set up
for volume and distribution andyou have a crazy idea like this
you don't know if it's going totaste good, so do you do a small
batch before you?
Speaker 3 (40:51):
I mean, how do you do that?
So our Milton location has aseven barrel system, which is
about 210 gallons.
Our system in John's Creek is930 gallons.
So yeah, we can test somethingover in milton and try it out,
see how it is.
We've made the key lime pieseveral times before and people
ask for it again and again.
We usually make it when itstarts to heat up.
So yeah, but yeah, you don'twant to, there you go.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
You don't want to.
There's a thousand degrees.
You and me are drinking one ofthese.
Speaker 3 (41:13):
I think so you definitely want to do a pilot
batch.
You want to.
Speaker 4 (41:15):
You don't want to do a thousand gallons down the
drain no interesting and thentell them about our other most
popular summer beer love tractoroh yes, who's in charge of the
names?
Speaker 1 (41:29):
I want to know that.
It's a pretty put in love truckthere is a secret committee.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Yeah, now it's a group effort with the names, but
love tractors are annual.
Uh, peach ipa where we'llsource ge.
Ipa where we'll source Georgiapeaches.
We'll get fresh peaches from afarm, We'll process them
in-house and then add it to anIPA and it has vanilla in it as
well and people love it.
I mean they'll be lined up atthe door when we open that day.
Speaker 2 (41:53):
Oh, that sounds awesome.
It is Clay, I love that too.
Speaker 4 (42:02):
And yes, I'm laughing a lot because I'm not as clean
as you are, and that's great.
Yeah, people love it.
We actually have people on awaiting list wanting to come and
peel the peaches.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
We've gotten calls from California if we can ship
it and, yeah, people come in andvolunteer their time to peel
the peaches.
So community effort, do youtake them up on that?
Absolutely yeah, because ittakes about a dozen people a
full day.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
So that reminds me I was out in Phoenix visiting a
buddy and there was a breweryout there and everybody in
phoenix has a lemon tree out intheir yard and you know citrus
trees, and so they just had adeal where people would bring in
the citrus from and then theywould put it in their beer.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
I think that's really cool yeah, it's our most
popular release of the year.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
I haven't had that how fun is there one of those
here?
See, that's, that's the kind ofstuff I think.
That's when we go kind of.
You know what that's fulfillingfor me.
I love that I'm doing this job.
I love that you get to walkaround on saturday afternoon, so
I'm going to come haunt youdown.
I'm going to be out there going.
Hey, I'm over here that.
Come talk to me.
Who's this guy?
Hey?
Speaker 3 (42:53):
hey, the old guy's father, but get him out of here
oh, he's the owner shit.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Um, that's great all.
So is any other family membersin it?
We've got a couple.
Speaker 4 (43:02):
We've got a couple Actually we have another family
that I think they're trying tosolely take over the business.
Uh, initially when we started,there was a young man that would
they live nearby and he came byand had some of our beers and
enjoyed it so much he wanted towork for us, so he initially
started off as a bartender andthen we found out he had other
(43:24):
skills, so we put him in as asalesperson go out on the street
, sell the stuff.
Then we gave him an opportunityto be a general manager in the
brewery and right now he isactually doing all of our
marketing, label design, socialmedia.
That's his wheelhouse, and sothat was one of the key things
that we've done is we've foundpeople and utilized what is
(43:48):
their strength.
And then later on we hired hismom to be our general manager
and she is, as we say.
She's now the mom of the place.
It used to be just a frat house.
It looked and smelled like afrat house and she's come and
chopped off those sharp edgesand put the woman's touch on it,
(44:08):
so, and then she hired herdaughter also to be part of a as
a bartender.
So there's kind of this familykind of moving slowly, you know,
pushing you into the corner ofthe elevator to take over.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
You don't seem too opposed to it.
Speaker 3 (44:20):
No, they're great people.
We're lucky to have them.
But you know, as far as otherfamily my brother is, he works
in the back as well.
He's part of our productionteam.
He does all of our brewing inMilton.
He operates our canning line inJohns Creek and then my wife
she runs our Milton location.
She's the general manager overthere.
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Okay, over there.
Okay, all right, so it is trulya family event.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Family effort.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Yeah, that's awesome, and you actually brought up
something I think is incrediblykey, and that's diversity in the
management team.
You know, I think it's easy tobe a bunch of old white guys
sitting around, but you don'tmake the better decisions.
Have you found that with herinvolved, you make better
decisions?
Speaker 4 (44:55):
She thinks differently from we do, which is
I'm grateful for because youdon't want everybody thinking
the same way.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
It doesn't feel good when you're going through the
decisioning process sometimes,but I think you get a way better
outcome.
Yeah, yes, agreed.
Yeah, that's awesome.
All right, ben, you guys arerocking and rolling.
Did we ever get to the reasonthey called it Six Bridges?
Because I was trying to countthis thing.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
We did not.
I'm dying to know because I wastrying to come up with.
I know the answer, but I thinkeverybody else should know.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
All right, let's know the answer.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
So we go to the city and pitch our deal and halfway
through, we didn't even finishour presentation, they say stop,
we love you.
And I said okay.
And they asked what can they dofor us?
I said give us a landmark orsomething that we can tie into
our name to associate ourselves,to make that connection with
(45:42):
the community.
And they came back 10 dayslater and said six bridges
Interesting, where did that comefrom?
So, where the word originallycame from, there are six roads
in John's Creek with the wordbridge Trivia question, alan.
And to this day nobody's gottenall six.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Alan the actual the the the actual names, and so
these were the founding familiesand settled the area yeah,
abbots kimball no all right, heyguys, uh, we're not going to
tell you, because what you gotto do is you got to come all the
way to john's creek.
Yeah, make yourself a trip.
(46:19):
Because, by the way I found outI was listening to a national
tv the number three searchdestination in the us to go
visit was atlanta, georgia.
How about that?
How about that?
Right, so pretty interesting.
Um, people are starting to pullback a little bit from going
overseas and, uh, it's atlanta'sbecome number three on the
(46:41):
destinations.
Think about that.
You got new york, you've gotchicago, you've got la, you've
got, uh, dallas, texas and miami.
You've got all these places.
I mean, I'm not naming them inorder, excuse me, but it's
atlanta.
So you guys got to come to sixbridges and, um, if you get it,
I'm not gonna say anything butthen you mentioned oh, chris,
this is where Chris is going toactually make an offer for you
(47:03):
guys.
You guys are going to go out toget an offer.
Thank you, but I did.
I will say, if you said I knowall six bridges and I listened
to you on the small businessSafari, they said they would
give you a six pack for free.
Not a six pack, just a, Just apint.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
I'm getting a six pack.
Hey, if they know all sixwithout looking at the mural in
our tap room, that's what I mean, which is a very cool mural, by
the way.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
Thank you, Can I double down?
And if you mentioned that,chris said it Chris will buy you
another six pack and give you aDelta voucher for your drink
ticket back out.
I'll keep you completelyinebriated the whole way.
Guys, this has been amazing.
You guys, obviously you guys donot have that crazy up and down
(47:47):
mentality.
I mean, when I talk about that,is that I have that.
I'm super high, I'm super low,I'm super high, I'm super low.
You mentioned you hit akeyboard.
I bet you have not hit akeyboard as hard as I have.
You definitely haven't hit awaist back as hard as I have.
So how do you guys keep youreven keel?
Is that the makeup?
Is that the way you guys roll?
How do you guys keep yourselfthere?
Speaker 3 (48:09):
I will say I definitely don't stay, even at
work.
I mean, it is just there'shighs and lows with it, and the
last place I was at, the waythey put it is managing the
highs and lows with businessCause it's a rollercoaster, you
know.
Same thing goes for cashflow.
I mean it comes in and then itgoes, and there's again and
again.
So those emotions are there too.
So, having a little bit ofperspective, saying okay, this
(48:31):
has happened before.
You know, if you get an accountto 10 or whatever, take a
breather.
Speaker 4 (48:36):
but throw a beer can?
Yeah, throws?
Oh, my goodness Pick a wastecan.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
Yeah, I'm on my 10th one.
Actually, they've given me onewith a target on it now and this
one's plastic.
It's given a lot more, but I'vestopped kicking a lot because
after 17 years I'm just gettingolder and tired.
So I just start taking mydamadol out and just slam it
across the table a little bitmore.
Speaker 4 (49:01):
And they let me go.
What also helps.
I remember there was someconfirmation that we're doing
the right thing, we're makingthe right connection.
A gentleman had lost an adultchild and was really grieving,
and the community tried to getaround him to comfort him.
And the one thing they askedwell, what can we do?
And he said just take me up tothe brewery, Just get me out of
(49:22):
the house, but take me there.
I feel relaxed and I'm able todeal with it from there.
And so, that said, if we'vedone one thing right, that was
provide a place for somebody tofeel comfortable.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
Wow, that's pretty cool.
That was very powerful.
That would be so fulfilling tothat story.
Yeah, it should be.
Yeah, well, guys, you guys havedone a great thing.
Awesome what you guys are doing.
Let's get a shout out.
How does everybody find you?
How do they find your beer?
Speaker 3 (49:52):
So six bridges of brewingcom Instagram, facebook,
check us out.
Come to the brewery.
We're always active on socialmedia.
Sign up for our emails.
When you go to our website,you'll hear about.
We send out an email weekly.
We don't sell your information,we just try to sell you our
beer.
So I hope you come check us out.
Come thirsty, be ready to havesome fun.
Speaker 1 (50:12):
Love it hey we've drank the beer.
Speaker 2 (50:15):
We have.
Speaker 1 (50:15):
It's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (50:16):
We're going more good job it's good and I know you
were excited about this veryactually kept this one a little
bit from alan until just twodays ago because we knew excited
if you'd be, I don't know, andhe knew more about you guys, uh,
that you probably even knew,you know about yourselves,
because he's been researchingthis creepy, but that's, he is
creepy.
Restraining order, right, uh,so you're like and I'm chris's
(50:36):
basement and it's rainingoutside because we're in atlanta
, are going to make it out ofhere, I don't know.
Guys, we got to get these guysto a taco truck because they got
to go take care of their biz.
They're doing a great thing.
You got to keep doing the samething.
It's not all sunsets and roses,but it is always a birdie putt
you have a chance to make.
Let's go make it happen.
Get out of here.
We got to.
Thank you for listening to thisepisode of the Small Business
(50:59):
Safari.
Remember, your positiveattitude will help you achieve
that higher altitude you'relooking for in the wild world of
small business ownership.
And until next time, make it agreat day.
You.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.