Episode 58 - Villains Brewing w/ Isaias, Brad, and Mitch

In episode 58 of the Taproom Podcast, we take you behind the scenes of Villains Brewing, an awesome brewery born out of grit, passion, and a strong love for craft beer. We introduce you to the inspiring personalities behind this thriving brewery. The episode recounts their heartening journey of overcoming the highs and lows, from their beginning of their journey to the start of Villains.

 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Music.

(00:26):
All right, and we're back. This is episode 58 of the Taproom Podcast, and I am your host, Mike.
I've got a good one for you today. This one's about almost a year in the making,
but we, you know, had such a blast over at Villains, you know,
a few weeks ago with Isaiah, Mitch, and Brad,
just really good people, and they were the best host that, you know, that I could ask for.

(00:51):
We had a great conversation, you know, we'd actually recorded over at the Craftsman
Building right next to villains.
It was just, it was a really fun time. We talked beer, we had some shots during
the show, a lot of fun stories, stuff like that. We had a great, great, great time.
And it's honestly, it's just such a cool, unique brewery. When you go over there,

(01:13):
they honestly, the artwork is awesome.
The food was phenomenal. They have brunch every weekend, I think starting Starting
at 10 a.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
So you can go over there and get your drink on and get your eat on.
So definitely check that out.
They're right by the packing district just down the street from Unsung.
So definitely get down there if you have a chance. I'm really looking forward

(01:37):
to you guys hearing the interview. I will put the timestamp in the description.
Also, sorry if my voice sounds a little off. Just getting over being sick.
So yeah, I got one brewski here that I'm going to be doing for the brewer.
Bruce gear review on the don't believe villains has cans out yet so once they
do i mean i'll definitely get one of their beers to review on the show but all

(01:59):
the ones i had while i was there were phenomenal.
This specific one though is from Arrow Lodge and shout out to Amber that works for Arrow Lodge.
She hooked me up with some beers. I also got to talk to him and kind of talking
a little bit with Mike from Arrow Lodge. We might make something happen.
We're trying to work out a date right now. So stay tuned for that.

(02:22):
This one's called Arrow Light. It's one of their brand new ones just came out.
Arrow Light Lager. It says America's Lager.
It's coming in at 4.5%. Let's go ahead and crack crack her open.
It's a really cool can as well.
Cause it almost reminds me of like, like almost like an amalgamation of like
old bud and like old Miller kind of cans from like, you know,

(02:42):
way back when, but it looks really, really cool.
So I'm gonna go ahead and crack it open here. See how she pours.
Ooh, yeah, that looks good. Haven't had a beer all week. I mean,
other than Monday, I'd take that back.
I haven't had a beer all week. I had one on Monday with with Greg.
We're actually a couple with Greg from Brewery X.
Got to record with him at Hoppy Chulo on Instagram.

(03:05):
One of the brewers at Brewery X. I've known him for a couple of years now.
So that episode will be out, I believe, in about a month.
So I'm like way ahead of the game right now. So stay tuned. I'll give you guys
a preview of the episodes that are upcoming in the outro.
But for now, let's jump into this beer from Arrow Lodge. Oh, that's good stuff.
Pretty, I mean, that's like a thick head to it too.
But obviously a crystal clear you get you know it's like really refreshing and

(03:31):
also you get like this almost like a sweetness like a hint of sweetness don't
don't don't sorry i'm gonna leave that in just a hint of sweetness at the end
it's it is really good though these are super crushable.
I'm probably, for WrestleMania in a couple weeks, I'm probably going to go back
to Arrow Lodge, get as many four packs of these as I can because I'm going to

(03:55):
be cooking all day and I'm going to need something light.
And then towards the end of the night, they also have a new double West Coast
and it's called Weston Class. It is delicious.
So I'm going to start off with these, finish with those. Also got some beers
from Hamilton. The beer fridge right now and also beers from Noble.
The beer fridge is stocked. right now. So I can't wait for that.

(04:18):
Can't wait for Mania in a couple of weeks and hopefully it stays stocked in
between then, but we'll see.
All right. So before we jump into some headlines, I did have a question of the week on Instagram.
I put out there, what other SoCal brewery should I reach out to?
Got a few of them, sir.sips.a.alot. So sir.sips.alot suggested Figueroa Mountain

(04:42):
Mountain Brewery in, I'm going to assume it's Buelton, California.
But honestly, I've heard of Figueroa.
I don't know why I can't talk today, but I'll definitely have to check them out.
Peter Panda, my dog, Peter said, hit up my homies brewery in Walnut Common Corners.
I've reached out to them a couple of times.
We did have like a little bit of a conversation about a year ago,

(05:04):
but yeah, we'll see if we can get them.
My boy, Mr. Chains, Super Mario said Stout House I believe that's in Upland
so I'll have to check them out and there's my boy Chew we had three different
ones Glendale Tap the Bottle Shop Eagle Rock Eagle Rock Brewing in LA.
Also said Lawless Service Service Seria del Pueblo Shadow Grove see an 818 so

(05:28):
definitely got to hit those ones up working on trying to get Highland Park as
well so got some other ones coming up.
We also have one Project Barley, Beer with Billy said all of them,
Tall Boy Sunday, a shout out to the boys at Tall Boy Sunday,
San Fernando Brewing, Bone Shack Barbecue, Gun Whales, and Costa Mesa.
So definitely going to have to check those out and we'll see if we can get them on the show.

(05:51):
All right. So headlines, baseball starts next week.
Well, technically started with the Dodgers and the Padres. So the regular season started for them.
But yeah, they played, and then, yeah, so the Bravos start next week.
So next week's episode, I'm going to do a preview of baseball season in the intro.
And yeah, that'll be good. March Madness is going on right now.

(06:13):
Things are getting crazy. The women and the men are playing.
I haven't watched a ton of it yet. Since I've been sick, I've just been sleeping,
pounding medicine, taking vitamins, doing all that good shit.
But yeah, I'm definitely going to start watching it today, have a couple beers
since I haven't been able to really drink all week.
Yeah. Yeah. And then also there's some allegations going on with Shohei Otani.

(06:37):
And it's weird because from what I've seen, the story's changed like a few times.
So now I think, made me think they said that Major League Baseball is opening
their own investigation looking into this.
So, I mean, that could get crazy, but I mean, I honestly doubt they would do
anything really to Otani.
He draws too much attention to the league, you know, and he's worth too much to the league.

(06:58):
So I mean we'll see what happens but I mean
it's just kind of crazy reading through like the threads of like one you
hear the first story that came out like you know about with the interpreter talking about
DSPN and then all this other stuff coming out after so I mean we'll see how
it all plays out but I'm excited for baseball hockey's you know almost I think
the abs have like 12 games left playoffs are just around the corner so I'm getting

(07:21):
super excited about that I'm a huge hockey guy guy.
So it should be really good. And the NBA, no, is winding down.
But I mean, I only really watch the NBA when it's playoff time.
So it should be pretty exciting down the stretch.
But yeah, I'm going to jump in here for one more drink of this beer before we start this interview.
Oh yeah, that's good stuff. That is some good, good stuff.

(07:42):
All right. Well, like I said, I hope you guys enjoy the interview with Isaiah,
Mitch, and Brad from Villains Brewing.
Make sure sure you follow them at villains brewing co. I want to say that's
what it is. Let me just make sure.
Yep. It's at villains brewing co. Had to edit a little bit there, but yeah.
So make sure you follow them at villains brewing co on it, on IG and honestly,

(08:06):
just get out there and check out the brewery. It does get really crowded.
So definitely, you know, if you want to get there for your brunch,
get there early, but you know, it's just such a cool place. You got to get down there. All right.
Well, I hope you guys enjoy the interview and stay tuned for the outro.
All right, guys, we're back in the tap room and I'm your host,
Mike. I have three very special guests on the show today.

(08:27):
I have Isaiah Hernandez, Brad Komenick, and Mitch McDuff, or McDuck,
depends on how you say it, from over here at Villains Brewing over in Anaheim.
What's going on, fellas?
You sound like a gang, huh? Yeah, yeah. All right. Absolutely.
I don't know. We're just, you know, enjoying the day. I think we're all excited

(08:48):
to be here. And I think all of our wives are mad.
I mean my wife she's if anything i'm
an excuse for you so yeah well like we just
said otherwise i'm gonna roll out of bed and just done this anyway i'm i'm
only engaged so she can still back out there is time
i know laura back out yeah you're gonna lock that one
in so you highly recommend no i can try i i'm in the process believe me yeah

(09:10):
i had a friend tell me that i outkicked my coverage and uh oh yeah so i gotta
put a ring on it so i did i don't really i don't know baseball at all but you
know i'm doing the best that i can with that there you go i don't what he was
referring to as it, by the way. That's it.
Putting a ring on it is always weird to me. Yeah, it's a weird...
I know. Well, he didn't...

(09:32):
I don't know the answer to that. This is basically every manager meeting.
Oh, there you go. That's how it starts. It just goes sideways and nothing gets
accomplished. I thought this was serious business.
Yeah. Yeah, it's all right. You're getting a very authentic window into what we do.
Oh, but that's great, though, because I love that aspect of it.
Like getting able to just, you know, I always refer to this as just sitting

(09:52):
across from the bar at somebody with somebody or somebody bugging Mitch over
at everywhere, you know, and having a 30 minute conversation.
No, I, I, uh, I'm, I'm good at, I'm a fast runner.
I know I don't look at, but I, if I don't want to talk to you,
I would just run away. But I, I, I was there. I want to be there.
Yeah, no, it was fun. So with everybody, so Isaiah's,

(10:13):
you know, and Brad, you know started villains brewing and mitch is i was going
to say mr mcduck is uh one of the brewers here and you know so can you guys
tell us a little bit about your guys journeys,
wherever you want to start just journey in general yeah like your journey in
craft beer oh in the craft beer got in the car this morning i know yeah uh yeah

(10:33):
getting a kid in the car is hard during the craft beer let's see okay so i started
washing kegs early early on taps corona and I worked at Noble Ale Works,
but yeah, worked there for quite a while.
I got hired on to just, you know, do that kind of stuff.
I worked in, I worked in marketing, finance marketing for 10 years before that. I'm really old.

(10:58):
So at 30, I got decided to just drop all that and then get into craft beer.
I guess you want, if you want to call it that a craft beer. Yeah.
Brewery Nobles, Noble had been around for about less than a year,
about a year at the time and I knew that I hung out there a bit,
knew the guys and they brought me on to help yeah do just
you know this the the grudge stuff and then a handful

(11:20):
of months after i started doing that evan price came on
and uh and then we did our thing for quite a while till he left and then i did
my thing for quite a while till covet or so and then and then yeah and then
it was on the couch never got covet but during covet i uh with my daughter's
high risk she has cystic fibrosis,

(11:41):
so I didn't, yeah,
I was just sitting on the couch, which was like super great actually.
It was like sitting on the couch was awesome.
And but then Evan called me a green cheek and said, Hey, you want to head up the orange facility?
And I couldn't think of an excuse not to, not to do that. I,
it was, everything was winding now COVID is winding down.

(12:04):
So getting off the couch and going to, going back to work was what I had to
do. There you go. And then.
Yeah, well, I would do that for like a year, I did that for like a year and change.
And then I see my, so I, my brewer at Noble for Matt, Matt Fonts,
who's a nurse now he's, he's out. He's, he, he did the smart thing.

(12:25):
I got a nursing degree and, but I hit him up cause I knew he had a barbecue
buddy and I run this, I help run the beach brews and barbecue event for the 65 Bros Foundation.
That's awesome. And so I said, hey, do you think your barbecue buddy would want
to come and barbecue at the event?

(12:46):
And Isaiah said, yeah, he came out, he auctioned off a lot of his time and efforts
as well for the foundation.
It was really big. And this was when I was at Green Cheek still,
and Green Cheek was such a great supporter of the cause as well.
And so what I heard, I think I heard that Brewery X was backing out of this spot.

(13:10):
And I hit up Matt after all that was done, the event was done.
And I go, hey, you want to see if your barbecue buddy wants to start a brewery?
We've been back 15 minutes, you know. Yeah. But we hit it off already,
you know. And for those that know me, I'm like the biggest flake.
So when Matt called me, he said, hey, man, I know you're the biggest flake. That's out of the truth.

(13:31):
He's like, but you can't screw over my friend. this guy's important like he's
an important person in my life i need you to actually show up and make the
food i said okay if it was anybody else i
would have been like go kick rock i would say yes never showed up just left
them high and dry but you know
brad showed up to a craft by smoke empire in in anaheim and you know he blew
me away with his story and he showed up with somebody else from the organization

(13:53):
yeah yeah and the entire time i was like wow you guys are doing this for for
your children and for for good people so yeah why not do it that's awesome so
yeah and then and And then, yeah, the brewery thing.
The brewery thing, I mean, we've known each other for 50 minutes.
We've looked at Simpsons. Let's just be business partners. Why not? Yeah, that was wild.

(14:14):
Honestly, that was just kind of like throwing that out there.
See, if your buddy wants to just take over this massive, ridiculous thing over here in Anaheim.
A massive commitment for the next 10 years. Huge commitment.
Yeah, exactly. With a pool.
People don't understand how easy it is to create a business. it's
kind of like getting married right yeah you get married in 30 minutes in a

(14:35):
walk but it takes you three months to get divorced yeah
i think it's like a 30 fee to get married it's
like a 10 dollar process right yeah same thing
with starting a business when we started and did our llc and signed off he's
like so his idea like well i am there's gotta be some things
i have to do i just like literally signed a paper and it was
at the end it was just gonna well yeah it didn't make me have to

(14:57):
read anything which is the you know the best part about contracts you don't
i just have to read them there you go yeah you just signed them you don't even
think about it yeah yeah so anyway so then so yeah so we've i i started february
1 technically i think right and
you know dove into that that browse and uh literally i just was in that,

(15:19):
inside it and i go i can barely
fit to the man ways and this was a year ago and i put on
of many many many pounds since
the starting here so i don't know if i
can fit in that way i send little little mitch mcduck in
there and there you go yeah yeah he's he's i
go in there and i i feel yeah i just i fill the kettle with with gold coins

(15:41):
and i end up right in yeah like jump on in water fine turn this turn the jackets
on yeah yeah lockout tag out who's what's that's fun yeah but yeah yeah that
was yeah getting this girl was fun it was such as young.
Re-commissioning a brew house is fun. Commissioning a brew house is interesting.
Anytime we get that, it's an interesting, it's a lot of work and you die in,

(16:07):
but it's also interesting.
At least it's interesting. Well, I mean, for me being on the restaurant side,
just coming into the endeavor, I'm accustomed to being like the hardest worker.
First one in, last one out.
Yeah. And just seeing Brad here doing the exact same thing, it was beyond encouraging.
And our opening actually was delayed by four months. So imagine four months of dead rent.
Dead rent for anybody that doesn't

(16:28):
know, it's when you're paying rent on a property and not seeing sales.
Yeah. So four months of dead rent, four months of being told,
hey, you're going to open next month, next month, next month.
It kind of wore us down.
It was getting rough there. It was getting rough for a while.
But seeing him in the tank scrubbing, getting here at 6 in the morning,
talking to boiler guys at 5 a.m., it really encouraged us to get this process going.

(16:50):
And we were able to do a lot of creative things to really create some buzz and
market the brand and start like, you know, launching private parties.
So we were just blessed to have a great team, you know, bringing Mitch on board.
I pulled my best Wolf of Wall Street. There you go.
The week we opened, we realized how busy we were going to be.
Brady did help. And, you know, seeing how hard Brad worked when he said,

(17:12):
hey, man, I need help. I need this guy.
Yeah. Went into the bathroom, you know, slicked my hair back a little bit, came outside.
Always be closing ABC. Yeah. I'm like, Mitch, what's it going to take?
Write down your number right here. He wrote a higher number than I ever thought.
He said yes. And he was here like a week later.
Let's not leave Dave out of the picture. Yeah, I was going to say,
Dave was here before. All right.

(17:35):
He's no longer with us. Yeah, he flew back to Vegas. He's alive.
Yeah, because he said RIP. No, no, he's still actually working.
He's just not physically with us. That's what we had.
Got it. Yeah, I don't know what else I would mean.
I would say in my 42 years on this earth, I've met a lot of cast of characters,

(17:57):
and David's the most unique person I've ever met.
He's also the hardest working. He has the biggest heart. He has the biggest
mouth when he drinks, and he has the biggest heart when he goes to bed.
So he's a perfect yin and yang. Shout out to David. He'll soon be one of our
business partners. We're going to give him some equity in our next project.
Awesome. He literally lives in Vegas and commutes down here to work here.

(18:18):
Wow. Wow. That's how body knee is to villains and to Brad and to Mitch and their
brewery program. So, I mean, that's huge.
That's, I mean, that's awesome just because, I mean, you could,
I mean, you talk about his work ethic, your work ethic, and obviously like I
know Mitch just, you know, works his ass off, but I mean, you have to have that.
I'm sure that like, you know, when you see that kind of like from the top,
like for the people that really care about it and then own, you know,

(18:38):
like actually own the business,
it kind of, you get that trickle down effect because if people like,
you know, they, even if it's like the beer tenders, anything like that,
when they see somebody work that hard, They want to work that hard because of,
you know, they really believe in, you know, what you're doing and what you guys are selling.
I mean, I, I'm a, I'm a big believer in the idea that, you know,
anyone can go and drink whatever beer they want, whatever they want to do.

(19:02):
But if these people are coming into a place, the place where this thing is made,
you know, and you know, these people are inherently looking for a little bit
of an elevated experience.
And so, you know, when there is just, when there's passion in the place and
when people believe in what they're doing, I think it just, it directly translates to the customer.
So yeah, yeah. We have a really solid group of guys, and yeah, it's a great place to be.

(19:27):
Yeah. And I've been hounding you a little bit for a while.
Could you tell us your story too, Mitch? Oh, yeah. So I just had my 31st birthday,
which I realized meant that I brewed my first batch of beer at home actually on my 21st birthday.
Oh, awesome. I had some friends who, when I was actually, yeah,

(19:49):
when I was 20, a few months before I turned 21, they started getting into the idea of homebrewing.
I, of course, didn't drink any of it. I just hung out with them because I wasn't
21. So I didn't drink anything.
I just hung out with them and enjoyed, you know, from the beginning.
I was, I was there just for the craft of it, you know? Yeah.
But so for my 21st birthday, I asked my parents for a kit to brew beer.

(20:12):
Yeah. And so I got that and, and yeah, brewed my first batch on my 21st birthday.
And so, yeah, homebrewed for a few years.
I had a great group of friends, these, these two brothers actually that I did it with.
Shout out to Tavis and Aaron. And they, yeah, they, they, Aaron actually,
he works for Boeing now. I mean, he's, he's an degree in mathematics.

(20:34):
Aaron Tavis is just as smart and just as awesome.
And he works at Applebee's. Yeah, he, well, he sweeps at Applebee's.
He's between jobs right now, but no, but no.
And so I was really lucky to be with these dudes that were just so smart.
And, you know, and I've, I've, I have a degree in computer science.
And so I kind of have that sort of analytical mind as well too.

(20:56):
And so I was lucky that, you know, we were homebrewing, but we took it very
seriously and we're always working on, on, on perfecting it and figuring out what we could do.
And so then I started working, I believe in 2017 at a brewery in San Clemente called Lost Winds.
I started going in there right when they opened. I heard about them.

(21:17):
I was like, oh, that's awesome.
So I started going to this new brewery and it was the owners behind the bar,
Tim and Erica and yeah, just hit it off with them. They're just,
I mean, they're amazing people.
And yeah, just started talking to him and, and yeah, I remember I brought Tim
my home brew and he was trying it and he gave me some advice and stuff.

(21:37):
And I was like, I was like starstruck that this dude that owned a brewery was
having my beer and, and that was really cool.
And so then a few months into them being open, they're hiring another bartender.
And so I was like, all right, it was my foot in the door. I,
and so I, yeah, I, I, I got a job bartending there. I also at the same time
to apply to the UCSD brewing extension program, which is a great program. That was really cool.

(22:03):
And so, you know, I was able to learn some from some really great people there.
Some, yeah, some big people in the industry that I really respected.
And so that was an awesome thing to learn from those guys.
And then yeah from day one i just i started hanging
out with the brewer brandon at lost winds and he just was showing
me i just i wanted to learn everything i could because i knew how

(22:24):
to you know it's when you have five gallons of liquid in
a bucket it's easy to just dump it from one bucket to another but when you do
it on a professional scale yeah you know if you have hundreds of gallons or
thousands of gallons you have to use pumps you know and there's a whole different
and so you know there at lost winds i was able to learn the you know how to
do all the the same things, but how to do it on a commercial scale. So that was great.

(22:46):
And then, yeah, a while into that, I applied to Green Cheek just,
you know, they, they had a posting, Hey, we're hiring an assistant brewer.
And, you know, I wasn't even technically
getting, you know, I wasn't even technically a brewer at Los Wends.
I was just kind of hanging out and learning from the brewers.
I was doing sales and taproom for them. And it was almost kind of like an apprenticeship thing.

(23:07):
And, and so I didn't feel like I was qualified in any way because Green Cheek was,
you know, one of if not my favorite brewery and the
beer they made that i just didn't understand how to make beer like that
yeah and so i just applied for you know
for funsies and ended up getting the job there and you know like brad was saying
just started out doing grunt work washing kegs and all that and and you know

(23:28):
i i realized what an opportunity it was to have my my first brewing position
be at a place like green cheek and so i just i worked as hard as i could just
learning as as much as I could and Evan was great about, you know.
Just teaching me everything that I wanted to know.
So yeah, I was able to work there and then, yeah, knew Brad because Brad was
friends with Evan and he was from Noble, you know, and Brad started working

(23:49):
there and, you know, and so then that was great, you know, it's great to work with Brad.
So anyway, long story short.
Long story long, when, yeah, when they, when Villains got started,
when they're, you know, I hit up Brad and I said, hey,
You ever, you need a little bit of help? Yeah, the friends and family.
You came out and you're a friend and or family. Yeah, exactly. And you were invited.

(24:12):
And yeah. Yeah. I worked one shift behind the bar here.
Yeah. You know, because we were talking about Ebron.
Maybe, you know, and they still figured it out. But they were super slanted.
So Brad said, hey, I don't know if you want to do this at all,
but could you want to work the shift behind the bar? And I was like,
yeah, anything you want. I'll come on in.
And then, yeah, after one shift, then, you know, Isaiah C. Wolfe of Wall Street

(24:35):
in me, you know? There you are.
He pulled the whole, Wolfe, Wolfe. I know he's still listening.
Thank you for getting through that, anyone who's still listening hasn't turned
it on. Oh, no. He'll be able to do it.
IPod out the window, you know? It's hard not to love Mitch. He's like,
that's the dumbest person I've ever met.
Oh, no. Even the first time I ever met you was at Lost Winds, and you poured my beer.

(24:59):
And we were talking, and you and I, I gave you a bunch of some stickers,
And then we were talking about stuff. And then I was like, that's when the hounding kind of started.
I wouldn't call it hounding. No, but Mitch. I missed a really bad text there.
It's nothing personal. No, Mitch is a player.
I'm sorry to say, I'm glad you're getting married, man.
Anytime Mitch is around my wife, my sister, I'm always like,

(25:20):
you know, a little cautious because he's so smooth, right?
And when you see Mitch, you're like, who's this guy? He has a,
you know, grizzly red beard. But he's one of the most charismatic people I've ever met.
He's well-spoken. He understands craft.
He pours a commitment to values and standard operating procedures that most people don't.
And it's, it's just exciting to be next to him and to hear him talk and to hear

(25:42):
his passion. Like this guy's going to grow with the industry so much. Oh yeah.
And like, that's one of the things I love about brewers, like is they,
they can make the best hazy or they can make the best West coast.
They can make the best thing.
But then when they, when they like try it or like you're there,
someone's like telling them like, oh, this is amazing.
They're like, yeah, but it could be better. Or yeah.
Yeah, I can take, I'm going to take it here. I want to take it there.

(26:04):
And some people don't understand that. Like people just think like, you know, oh, what?
You can't rest on your laurels. Like you can't like, you know,
keep doing the same thing over and over again.
You have to continue to strive to want more, you know?
Well, that's what's so refreshing being in the craft beer segment is,
you know, as a chef, like as somebody that works in the kitchen mostly.
I've never had an experience where Brad says, this is an amazing taco. Good job.

(26:26):
Yeah. If he's trying something that I'm making for the first time,
it needs more acid, it needs more heat, it needs more fat, it needs something umami.
There's this constant pursuit of perfection in the beer community that's so
refreshing coming from the restaurant segments. I really do want an amazing taco.
I just want an amazing taco. He's like, what are they? I just want a bad shrimp. I put all the time.

(26:49):
Hey, well, we should own our own beer, you know, so that's only fair.
My third percent of bringing up the joking matter.
We're talking about starting the joking matter, and then we can actually talk
about that. Not good enough for you guys.
And I just have to tell someone.
Like how that all started. You know, it started as a passion project.
For me, food's always been like the hero. Yeah. Growing up, like we didn't have sandwiches.

(27:10):
Yeah. We didn't have, like we didn't have Disney then as an alternative.
Like our parents wouldn't buy us a Disney. Yeah. Because we were so poor it didn't exist.
You know, so for us, it was always like, hey, you're about to graduate from
middle school. Where do you want to go eat? You know, Boys Burgers,
Huntington Park. Shout out to Boys Burgers. That's a burger in town.
Nice. We opened Rampart. Eventually moved to Huntington Park. I landed in Downey.
Okay. I started working at Red Robin when I was 15 years old.

(27:33):
Oh shit. I was a dishwasher, moving my way up to every position in the back
of the house. Was that the one in the Stonewood Mall?
Stonewood Mall. No, I read Ross, Cerritos Mall. Oh, Cerritos Mall.
I knew there was one. It was at a mall, but I couldn't remember because I knew
I'd been there. Cerritos Mall.
You know, eventually I got moved to the front house position when I was 18.
Okay. I was able to become a server and I trained with this guy named Josh Bentram,
one of our business partners.

(27:53):
He was actually a bird. I would walk Josh around. Oh, really?
By the time I was 19, I got kind of like bored and tired of it.
Yeah. Eventually, I led Josh into a Victoria's Secret, removed the leash, and left him there.
Six hours later, I'm on security. It took him six hours to get back.
He came back, and I said, hey, man, I know that was a really bad experience.

(28:16):
If we open up a business, I'm going to make sure you're going to be my business
partner, and that's why Josh is with us.
Shout out to Josh. Love you. That's awesome. It was his birthday yesterday.
Happy birthday. Yeah, happy birthday. Eventually, I stumbled upon a company
called Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers. Okay, never heard of them. No, I'm just kidding.
Do they make tacos? Yeah. Is it a taco place? They hit me up in 2014,

(28:36):
offered me like a really low ball salary, said no.
2016, they said, hey, we opened up Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers in Stonewood
Mall, and it's so busy, and none of us want to do business in California.
How about you come on board, create a team, and open up every location for the
next two years? Oh, shit.
So I did that, hired Josh, Sean, some of the people that have worked with me
in the past, and we opened up Every Raising Cane's in California between 2017 and 2019.

(29:02):
Dang, yeah, because it's growing like crazy. Grew like crazy.
During that time, they're a Texas-based company. I visited Texas once a month. Fell in love with.
Barbecue, you know, and Aaron Franklin barbecue blew my mind.
I'd go there at least one time. Every time I visit, I'd go to Aaron Franklin.
Yeah. The experience, the camaraderie.
Brisket's phenomenal. To create a product that's so, that's so loving that somebody's

(29:23):
willing to wait a night for five hours. Oh yeah.
And like buy community beer, like throw it down and just hang out in the parking lot. Yeah.
There was something special about that. And so when I got back home after two
years of just traveling, my wife said, Hey, I got this statement from American Airlines.
Congratulations, you flew around the world seven and a half times.
Oh, shit. You haven't been home in two months.
Wow. I want a husband. I don't want a part-time husband. So she said,

(29:46):
hey, let's open up the business. And she poured her credit cards out.
Wow. Put everything in her credit. My credit score at the time was like a 586.
586, right? I thought I was, right? Christmas is good.
You know, so shout out to my amazing wife, Maya.
She put everything on the line for us. My brother was like, just,
have you ever had one of those people that just doesn't let anything go?

(30:08):
Oh, yeah. So my brother had this seed planted that we should open up a restaurant
and he wouldn't let it go.
Yeah. So for six months straight, he would call me. Yeah. Call me at two in
the morning. He's like, hey, 911, I need you. And I'd pick up the phone.
He'd be like, hey, man, we should open up a restaurant.
So it went insane. From my brother, from Josh, from my wife,
from myself. And we opened up a restaurant called Smoke and Fire Social Eatery.

(30:30):
Okay. We decided to open up June 12th, 2020, which is a month after the national shutdown.
And the community responded with like an overwhelming demand for our food.
And we just grew. And it's off of Alondra? It's on Weir Boulevard in La Habra. Oh, okay.
I thought that was another one. Right next to the Northgate supermarket.

(30:50):
Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay, that's the one, yeah. So over the course of a year,
we went viral, opened up three locations.
On the fourth location, we said, let's do a full service model,
which is craft by Smoke and Fire in Anaheim. Okay. Grew that location by three.
Eventually, Matt called me and said, hey, this crazy guy, Brad,
that you met said that this brewery is available.
I called our landlord, who was our landlord in Anaheim, happened to be the landlord

(31:12):
here. Oh, wow. He loves the way we operate. You know, we keep a clean restaurant.
We pay our bills on time. You know, we do our due diligence.
Yeah. I said, I'd love to have you as a tenant. We did a walkthrough.
I remember I came here because I really want to impress Brad.
You know, I hear all these things about Brad being this badass brewer.
Yeah. His commitment to standards and values. so i got
here an hour early started sweeping right outside the courtyard where that table

(31:33):
is yeah i came inside open the door and there's a homeless guy taking a nap
oh no this place in this i saw that guy yesterday he was on the bench over there
yeah he's like super good dude he's got some things going on but otherwise like super good dude.
Charlie, the Marlboro guy, if you ever get a picture of him.

(31:53):
If you have a cigarette, a lighter, or a dime, he wants one of those three there. Okay.
Good dude. Some American sense for you. The long-winded, it's not Charlie. Scared him off.
The time that this place was closed was two months, and it just turned into
a really dilapidated, worn-down building.
Yeah. Walked him in here. His family loved it. We loved it, and he struck a deal.

(32:13):
And now we're here a year later, working our butts off to make it successful.
Oh, man. Man, clearly it's working, but how cool is that, that everything kind of comes full circle?
You had your landlord at one place just so happened to be the landlord here,
and how often does that kind of happen?
Because you already had a working relationship, if it was somebody else,
maybe they would have said no or whatever, anything like that.

(32:37):
But that's pretty, the coincidence and all that kind of thing, that's pretty awesome.
A hundred percent. I think Linda,
Shaheen, they both chose us as a tenant because of our relationship.
Yeah. Those are the landlord owners. They also own pet industry, other projects.
Spotscoop, the base serum lab. Yeah.
Heavy movers, heavy movers. But I would say that, you know, a testament to our

(32:57):
success and where we're at as our team, much like Brad has, you know,
David and Mitch, you know, we have, uh, my brother, myself,
Russell, Dominic, Rafa, we just added on Mark to our operations team.
So, um, seeing this concept expand is kind of like why that's my why.
Yeah. You know, when I, when you talk about like, what's your why for wake up
in the morning, it's seeing the team grow and seeing what we can do.
Can do yeah and like if you're not like I

(33:20):
always say get busy living or get busy dying because I love Shawshank but
you know that's what that's life though I mean like
you know like if you're not willing to put in the work like everybody nowadays
I feel like one should hand into them that's no you got to work your ass off
you want something really that or if you want something that bad put in the
work and you'll get it when I first started I I had a bunch of beer recipes

(33:41):
and I I just got on the brew deck and I started to.
Putting water in the mash, mashing in.
And then, yeah, the original brewer told me to keep going off.
And, yeah, I didn't. It turns out I just needed to wash cakes.
But I wasted like a pallet of grain that day. Did you actually? No. Oh, shit. What?

(34:01):
No, I knew I needed to come in and just eat shit forever. I was like, no way.
I'm always willing to eat shit. I'm a fat guy, so.
You got to eat, right? Yeah, you got to just do it. Oh, yeah.
I mean, I didn't go to college. Unfortunately, I did.

(34:24):
What a waste of money. I got it. Although, I do need some. He's the guy who
rolls in my alleys. Oh, yeah.
I paid money. Did you forgive your... I had like an extra three or four grand
after my grants or whatever that I got from the government.
Yeah. And, yeah, I ended up just investing that in Apple and doubled it.

(34:45):
And so, yeah, I actually, I made money in college. Yeah. So,
yeah. It was kind of a waste of time.
Yeah. But at least I ended up getting. Actually, my wife does that.
But she's a professor. Yeah. I got four figures. Yeah.
Four figures. I know. I know. Hey, something, something. It's a lot more money than I have now. Yeah.

(35:08):
Oh, that's awesome. So do one more thing about the barbecue. Cause I love barbecue.
What's your favorite like thing to like to smoke? I love everything that there
is about barbecue. I don't want to take over the segment, but, uh, for me,
Even the word barbecue stems from a Latin phrase, the barbacola,
which is from beard to tail. And it's the indigenous way of cooking whole hogs, whole animals.

(35:29):
So when I started working for Wood Ranch and I found out it was like a Latin
thing and the roots and the community behind it, I really started geeking out over it.
And then I fell in love with the cowboy way of doing it, which is Texas barbecue.
It's one of the worst cut of meat, brisket, the toughest cut of meat,
you know, which is like lomo in Spanish. And you make it something so soft and so tender.
Currently here, we offer our brisket, our tri-tip. I would say our tri-tip is my favorite cut here.

(35:53):
Okay. We cold smoke it for about 45 minutes. Oh, wow. We smoke it until it's 130 degrees.
We pull it, we let it rest. It's a perfect mid-rare.
And then we slice it and we cook it with barbecue sauce, caramelize it,
make sure it's perfect. Nice. I would say it's something I'm super proud of,
something from my Wood Ranch days.
When we opened up, I recruited the best barbecue guy I know,
rest in peace, Oscar. Uh, he was this big, jolly guy that like just loved food.

(36:18):
Oh, that's cool. He's one of the few people that like could put a smile on my face instantly.
Yeah. But he's also one of the few people that like, much like Brad, like he had standards.
And if you had also standards, regardless of his relationship with you,
he would stop me in my tracks and say, but chef, that's not the way we do things.
So when we first opened up, he came up with a menu.
We're focused a lot on like bar food, but a little bit more elevated. Yeah.

(36:40):
Again, Brad's feedback and coming down on me. He's like, hey,
man, some of these burgers are coming out a little chewy.
Yeah. We decided to switch over to Wagyu ground beef. Okay. Which is something
we're carrying at our new distillery. Awesome.
Twice the cost. We're not increasing prices, but twice the flavor.
Yeah. So I'm really proud of those burgers. I'm looking forward to launching them here.
But if you ever come down, we sell a barbecue platter. It's a half chicken.

(37:02):
It's tri-tip. It's brisket.
A little bit of everything. I'll make you one as soon as we're done here.
Oh, thank you. But it's made with a lot of love. He's a solid,
bright smoker. We use the best of the best in terms of equipment.
Yeah. You're always welcome to come into my kitchen and check it out.
Those guys back there put a lot of love, a lot of sweat, blood, and tears.
We're a very busy, high-volume restaurant. Anybody at barbecue will tell you

(37:22):
that high-volume barbecue places are hard to run because you can't cut corners.
That brisket's not tender. Oh, yeah. It's not 205 degrees.
Forget about it, but you're still in trash. Oh, yeah. I think one of my favorite
things, and I feel like it's not as popular as pork tenderloin.
Oh, yeah. But if it's done right, it's so good.
We're thinking about putting pork tenderloin here at The Craftsman. The Craftsman's 1904.

(37:47):
It's called Craftsman 1904. It's a historic house where we offer a speakeasy
vibe and an eight-course prefixed menu.
Yeah. But we're starting to play around with carnitas. We're going to have our
first batch of carnitas this week.
My family sent me chocon, so we take a lot of pride in our pork and cooking
it the right way in copper pots.
We're also thinking about adding different ribs, different varietals of beef.

(38:07):
So I think in the next month or so, if you guys are able to make it out of villains,
We're going to have a lot of new food items to check out. Awesome.
Definitely. That sounds delicious. Yeah. Man, I'm excited. That's good.
Every day I come to work, I have the same routine. Yeah. Come in,
I check the rest room, see how everybody, knuckle everybody,
thank them for being here.
Yeah. And then I go in the back and just have Mitch shit all over my food.

(38:30):
And then I go out the kitchen and let me fix it and let me make it better.
That's awesome. It's a team effort, man. Yeah.
If you want to be the best, you got to pay the cost to be the boss and you're
always looking at how you can make it a little bit better. My uncle used to
say that to us when we were kids. You got to pay the cost to meet.
And it always still makes me laugh to this day. That's awesome.
Isaiah doesn't know this, but I, I, I've actually never even had the food.

(38:53):
I just, I just tell him I don't. Yeah.
Oh no, no. Yeah. It's a little dry today. No, I don't know. I haven't had it.
I don't know what you were thinking when you served that.
I don't know what he's going to figure out that I've just been in his wheels.
I don't know. It's a mind game.
Yeah. So if you see a bunch of holes in the walls, that's because of Mitch.
No, yeah. The food's fine. I'm just fine. It's man.

(39:14):
It's a fun place. If you, Hey, if you don't like fun, if you don't like good
things, you know, then yeah, I, I would say definitely steer clear,
but if you like having a good time and, and having a good thing,
then, you know, consider coming here, you know? Yeah. Just consider it.
Put it on the list. Yeah. Yeah. You know, put us somewhere on the list.
There you go. And, but I did want to hear like the story behind like the villains

(39:36):
name, like, like how, how you guys like, what, like, like what did you guys,
cause I mean, I mean, I would say I love villains, and I want to talk about
– because you're a wrestling fan, I'm assuming, right, Brett?
I am a wrestling fan. Okay, so am I. Oh, really?
Okay. Oh, yeah, no, hard to correct. We're on the road to WrestleMania right now.
The buildup is getting exciting. This could turn into a wrestling podcast real

(39:56):
fast. I mean, wow. What's the beer that we're drinking right now? Yeah.
It's called Gayfabe. Yeah, so you're the first person that I've told about that
actually appreciates the name.
Yeah. But, I mean, presumably. Yeah, you got a KK, babe.
Yeah, it's dead, but, you know. Oh, yeah, it's been dead.
Anyway, yeah. He was so happy when you got that.

(40:17):
You know, I forgot what we were talking about. I walked away,
and he, like, threw a fist bump into me. Like, I told you guys.
Dude, I have the winged eagle. Oh, you got the belt? Yeah, yeah, yeah. My favorite belt.
We have it hanging in the brewery now. Oh, dang. Yeah, that's Dave's.
He's left it. I have a small one in my car. I have a mini one,
which I didn't bring today, because I figured I'd be drinking beers.

(40:38):
You should always have a WWE wrestling belt in your car.
I always have one, yeah. You never know when a match is going to break out.
All I have is my yellow belt for my team.
There you go you gotta appreciate i was a little appreciate
the the scott hall you know in that oh yeah
in the in the restroom yeah and here's the
thing everything everything in there's been tagged up yeah except

(40:58):
for except for him all those love wrestling apparently because it's never been
touched yeah i've never seen it like yeah uh that cowboy that cowboy i wish
i i white herb he got white is white whiter he got to i'm just punched in the
gut he's his drywall you know Yeah.
Tombstone. Yeah. That's a great tombstone. Yeah. Phenomenal.

(41:20):
When it comes to Razor, bro, no one touches Razor. No one touches Razor. Yeah. Chico.
Actually, my buddy Jay did the Bob Burgers. Yeah.
In the box in there. He did those. And we're saying like, God,
I hope it doesn't get tagged up. Don't be tagged for shit.
Everyone respects my shit. Don't be tagged for shit. So, I mean,

(41:41):
I think there's some people, you know, people have to respect certain things,
you know that that razor is one of them you know yeah i mean
like punch a cow and r.i.p to razor but he'll always have the greatest hall
of fame speech to me of all oh yeah it was like what seven words or 11 words
or whatever it was at the end the yeah like yeah hard work pays off dreams come

(42:02):
true bad times don't last but bad guys do fucking bad.
I'll look for that oh yeah me too it's it's like
to get your chills oh yeah my brother doesn't he would like wrestling but he
will quote that all the time yeah that's great still like Ric Flair but it was
like a three hour hall of fame speech and I peeped for his final match too oh
that was a tough it's not going to be his final match either he said that how many times yeah I did,

(42:29):
Stinger that was,
the way they did that was pretty cool we can just stop wrestling forever last
podcast I was on was Stone Cold Steve Austin yeah I thought I'd just mic drop
podcast at that point because what else is there but yeah but here i am there
we go yeah and now you're back on back on podcast,
and you know like i said that we may have to

(42:51):
just do like a separate show one day just talk about i mean
i'm down i'm always the villain's name
like what made you guys go to that okay so one
time in the tasty room at
noble back you know this was years ago a guy
came up to me who had been having.

(43:11):
Bad price several ipas and comes
over he's like oh dude man it's so
nice to meet you you guys just
you guys did all this shit from from nothing
man you guys are like the villains of this shit yeah and
and i and uh and i
i kind of like i got what he was saying because

(43:34):
it you know it was like we did we we got i don't
know this i mean it's silly it's a silly thing to think about or care care about but
i we went we know our social media and instagram
and noble was went from zero to 55
000 all organically like it was us
just doing stupid shit on the on on
that on the on that platform yeah and just

(43:56):
doing this silly stuff posting beer stuff and yeah
we did we did it from it was all just us
putting ourselves out there you know and a real
organic and yeah so i
i feel like i got what he was saying with that and that
guy just stuck you know to me because yeah
we're just like we did what we wanted to do it wasn't it wasn't we didn't have

(44:18):
the time in much influence from anybody was just you know me having matt and
then it was what jerry the original guy and brought me on so you know uh he's
not no i don't know i'm not sure he's right now but then brian.
So yeah, yeah. So that's where that came from, was just that customer.

(44:41):
That's awesome. Yeah, yeah.
And it's always more fun to be a heel than a babyface. Always.
Yeah, always. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll always be a heel. Yeah, exactly. That's a heel. Shawn Michaels is my favorite
of all time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He rocked. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right.
But anyway, so, and then I said to you, and then we just ran with it.
Yeah. I said, what do you want to name the brewery? He said,

(45:03):
Villas. I said, okay. Yeah.
Well, I mean, it's interesting too, because, and I kind of, I kind of warned
Brad, I'm like, you have this interpretation or vision of your concept.
Yeah. And then you open and get slapped in the face and realize what it actually is.
So when we first opened up, we thought like villains, like anti-heroes in movies,
culture, you know, stories.
And then sure enough, the first week you showed up, we like look around and

(45:25):
it's like, everybody has these horror villains.
Like there's a lot, there's a lot of horror and then death metal shirt, metal shirt.
I'm a lot of our guests. and what what you know so walking around
when we're busy when we're like just packed right
on weekends i see all that stuff and people just
having a good time and it reminds me of like the old days of
when people were like super stoked on

(45:47):
craft beer right like and it's it's it's it's
funny to have that vibe because i you know
generally a lot of times you go to a case room it's kind
of like you know people just appreciating beer but this is
like the vibe of the people that are here are like like
really up you know yes it's pretty
cool that's awesome you know just outside today there

(46:08):
was somebody wearing a villains like jersey and oh they're
coming before disneyland they're coming to hang out yeah we're definitely uh
we're definitely like a home base for like misfits oh yeah i mean we are misfits
so it's kind of cool like i mean i never fit in my my wife was at the madonna
concert last night she saw a villain shirt there oh this This is just a guy
just hanging out. It blows my mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(46:30):
How cool is that? It's a La Bamba Bob.
Hey movie still makes me cry i love bro every every family has a bop oh yeah
especially every hispanic family but no doubt that definitely but yeah that
movie still makes me cry to this day and i've seen it oh i know richie richie

(46:51):
like just anytime that's a one sorry i don't think,
yeah oh yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah there
for sure wake up motherfucker yeah man that's
i mean that's like the the ultimate experience is having somebody wear
that shirt oh that's cool man no that's adam madonna

(47:12):
there you go shout out to madonna yeah
she's an up-and-coming hey madonna
hey madonna yeah she's an up-and-coming artist
yeah yeah i think she'll she'll get a
break she's gonna catch a breaker yeah yeah she's so talented one
day one day one day um and shout out that
honestly shout out to to josh for getting us that awesome

(47:34):
merch we have terrible merch so if people are worried that means we're doing
something right uh yeah right i mean they're at least coming yeah well if you
need a merch guy or art guy just let me know oh yeah yeah i will i will i will
shamelessly plug my brother so and i'll show you some of his stuff oh man josh is out of a job now.

(47:56):
Well it was yesterday yeah it was my
birthday this year too and when this
gets released they'll be like oh it was two weeks ago so that's what happened
yeah everyone listening right now is doing the math like well let's see so josh's
birthday was then so they recorded yeah what day was that um one thing i was

(48:16):
up to ask people was like the like was it like what was the craft that you tried and you're like,
this is, wait, hold on, wait a second, this is what beer can be?
Like, what are your guys' Well, for a minute I know it was Sierra Nevada,
like, everybody's, wait, was it actually just the regular? I feel like you told me, you know,
Sierra Nevada might have been the first one. It's hard to remember the first,

(48:37):
but I was just like such a Firestone Walker fanboy. I mean, I still- But definitely Sierra Nevada.
But Sierra Nevada, I feel like, was probably my first one where I had it because
I was never much of a, I didn't drink or party or whatever in high school and
I just didn't have an interest in it.
And I remember when my buddy started getting into craft beer.

(49:01):
And then, yeah, having, I want to say it was Sierra Nevada. I was like, whoa, this is...
I'm just saying it because that's what everybody says is Sierra Nevada. It was.
Not me. My go-to thing I used to say was instead of picking up a 30-rack or
whatever, I would bring 24-packs to Sierra Nevada parties.

(49:22):
I'd bring a 24-pack to Sierra Nevada. You'd be the guy that walked in with a
steak stacker. I brought one bomber for myself.
No, but I know you're You're a big Fireside. Oh, Fireside. Yeah,
Fireside. Show Matt Burleson the L.A. that one time. But otherwise.
Yeah, Matt Burleson. Yeah, he put me in this hole, this big old thing.
He said it rubs lotion on its skin.

(49:43):
No, no. That one time he grabbed his dog, though.
And that worked out well. It does as it's told. No, no. Firestone Walker was, I mean, especially.
I mean, actually, yeah, early on, I just, I love Firestone Walker beer.
They're my favorite brewery. And actually, it's funny. Last night,
I was drinking a 2016 vintage Firestone Helderado. Oh, nice.

(50:06):
I love, yeah, that was my brewery that was and still is just like, I love Firestone.
That's awesome. And how about you guys?
I would say a caramita and a margarita. Okay. Yeah.
Yeah. Shout out to Corona for making mini Coronas. The small Corona.
Brilliant. For me, I would say it's, I'm taking you guys back to 2008,

(50:30):
a brownie restaurant in Culver City called Father's Office.
Okay. Zero substitutions. You can only order a burger.
They don't sell ranch and there's no sides and it's fast casual and they only
serve beer, no alcohol. Yeah. And it was delirium tremens.
Okay. Classic. The Belgians. The Belgians. And then it was 2011 after I met

(50:51):
Jim Cook from Boston Beer Company, Great American Beer Festival.
Went down there with my old boss, Victor, and we tried Alec Ashcurio.
And that just blew my mind. Wow.
The layer of flavors. It was like a dish. Yeah.
You start off tasting this, and then you taste bananas, and then citrus,
and then bitterness, and it was just an explosion of flavor in my mouth.

(51:13):
It just exploded. Yeah, it just exploded. And, but that was like the second
time where I thought to myself, like, this is something freaking cool.
Yeah. I still don't know how to make it obviously, but I understood at that
point that it could be something special, you know? Yeah.
Also shout out to Chris who just very quietly brought us a Oh yeah, he was super quiet.
It's like he was such a good guy. Yeah. Stuck in, stroked away.

(51:34):
Yeah. I had an empty glass and I was worried about him and I don't know where
just, just a beater guy comes in with new beers.
Was it like, what was the, was it Kazam? What was it?
Oh, it was Shazam. Shazam. Was it though? Was it Shazam? Yeah.
I think it was Shazam, right? I think it was Shazam, yeah.
Maybe. I don't remember. I thought it was Shazam. Was it Shazam or was it the rapper? Remember?
That's like the whole. Oh, it was Sinbad? I think Sinbad was Shazam.

(52:00):
And I think Shazam was Shack. Whoa. Yeah, like I said. Yeah. That's so.
That's really weird. They were the same movie overall. Pretty much. Huh.
Sorry. I don't know why I brought that up. No, no, no.
Movies that's that's how me and my brother learned english like oh movies
on the dick clark collection oh back in the days you would order the
dick clark collection and you would get these cvs from like 1940 to 1970 oh

(52:24):
yeah genuinely that's how we learned english man dang yeah for those of you
guys who don't know shack he was in the movie good burger there you go that's
the original good burger the original good burger yeah i don't know if he was
in the sequel i didn't see it i haven't seen the sequel but you know it was a i'm a dude song.
I mean, that song's still in my head.
Shamelessly plugging Good Burger right now. Dude, do you know every reference

(52:47):
ever? There's a lot of them. Wow. I always say I'm a vessel of useless knowledge.
What about I'll buy that for a dollar? Oh, Price is Right? No.
I'll buy that for a dollar. What was it?
Robocop. Oh, Robocop. Phenomenal movie. Well, Price is Right was one dollar.
How about this? Where's this movie from? This must be some kind of a hot tub

(53:07):
time machine. What's that from?
I don't know i mean it's a shawshank you said shawshank oh yeah adventures of babysitting,
hey classic movie i have to discover the whole last thing
with the that's the first time i've thought of man that opening scene where
she's like dancing oh yeah who was it elizabeth shoe elizabeth shoe yeah shout
out to elizabeth shoe i'm married now but uh yeah out there in podcast land

(53:31):
there we go uh what are we talking about you know what was your favorite what
was your beer that didn't. Oh, that's right. Yeah.
This is my first beer. The one I made. No, let's see. I distinctly remember...
Eric a bastard back when I was in high school or after, right after high school.

(53:55):
I can't remember. I wasn't 21 for sure.
I think I smoked a bunch of weed. Then there you go. I had that.
So it was like, it was, I had the time. I was like, this is like an ass. It's an ass tray.
And so I wasn't, I wasn't worthy.
That was probably my number five. It was totally. That was my first.
That was my first craft beer ever.
I want to say, and this was like, yeah, in the late 90s

(54:18):
and then i'm old and then
uh i got to belgian beers for
a little bit and that was kind of a fun
direction but yes stone and then it wasn't
it was the the brewery of bassetti was what
got me into like actually realizing that beer could
be something more than

(54:39):
or more than what you picture beer as right
so like the adjuncts that they were using and that sort of thing was that was
where i was like oh shit this could you could actually like this you could you
kind of could do whatever you want yeah and that and that's what that's what
got me into it okay so and that's what got me that's what got me home those
guys are the ones that got me homebrewing so,

(55:01):
shout out to all those nerds little bit you know patrick grew on on down you know kevin hammonds,
and you know tyler sockhead all those guys
over there it's you know they're the ogs man and to me i mean in this area like
i grew up down the street from here so okay i yeah going i went there i was

(55:25):
going to that origin the og tavern which was the brewery the brew house yeah yeah.
A while for me oh i haven't been for i haven't been forever recently but that
was we would be We'd be there every weekend.
Am I Jared there? Who he loves? No.
No, no. The other questionable character. Can we talk about that? No.

(55:49):
We can't talk about it. I do have an amendment to my,
If I have it used up all the time. No, I'm sorry. You're out of time.
Okay. No. Okay. No, man. I'm in the way. Please. Yeah. Let's get off Subway.
You jogged my memory talking about the brewery and beers like that.
I actually, now I truly remember when I first realized what craft beer was.

(56:10):
I had some, so separate from Tavis and Aaron, I had some friends that at almost
the same time were getting into craft home brewing.
Yeah. And so my friend, Dale, Dale Nordberg and- Dale's Pale Ale.
Yeah it's different dale oh yeah he actually taught this
dale the deal no so my friend dale and and randy

(56:30):
it was he he was a family friend
that i've known forever and and randy started getting dale
in a in a homebrewing so i was hanging out at their
place and and they were drinking their homebrew they had this like kind
of old recipe sort of russian pure
stop they made okay and they did
this well yeah they did this this fruit beer that

(56:50):
they added mango to and stuff at that and so i remember drinking the mango fruit
beer and we're drinking the the imperial stout that dale just made over and
over again just it was this awesome beer and i remember drinking that and it
was their homebrew and just being like oh whoa this is this is so different than you know.
The first beer that i ever had back when i was in high school which was you

(57:11):
know a miller 64 i was like this is this imperial stout is so different than
that and i that was actually the moment i I remember was that I,
that I realized what craft beer could be. Yeah. And then, you know, and went from there.
That's awesome. I mean, I think for me, it was a double bastard for me.
And I was double bastard, but I was worthy.
No, but I tried it and I was like, like, I'm going to, I'm going to sell that

(57:34):
deck of door, but I was like, gross.
I was like, this isn't for me. I smashed my bomber of Eric and bastard,
but I, I, the end I was, I was, you know, but then, then I tried their regular
IPA or their stone IPA. And I was like, oh, this one I did good.
And then I went to, like, I found myself at, you know, in a Adido.
Oh, yeah. That is a great debt spot, by the way. Oh, yeah. And that was,

(57:57):
we got the toes of heaven on earth. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
And my, but like the beer that did it for me was over there.
It was Midas Touch by Dogfish Head. Okay.
That's the beer that I had when I drank that one. I was like,
what the fuck? I called my brother like immediately.
And granted, I was 21 at the time. My brother was only 18. I was like,
I just tried the greatest beer of my life.

(58:17):
And it was the minus touch and he was just like so excited he's like can you
get a six pack you know I'm not condoning underage drinking he wanted to just
look at it I mean the statute of limitations is long.
Yeah yeah it was that one like the Midas touch and like
I was I just thought like man it's like and it's like one of the oldest beer
recipes you know ever so it's like

(58:40):
you know it's like man that was like the the ancient ales I mean that that was
really cool that and then I guess this was like how long how long dude that
was like 2008 maybe 2009 yeah yeah yeah yeah but I mean the another groundbreaking
brew like they were like the brewery back east yeah you know it was It was like, and you have like,
you know, breweries like that where they were like, you know,

(59:01):
because craft beer was still in its infancy kind of really during that time.
Yeah. I mean, the way that we think of it now, right?
I mean, there was before that. You had to drive to Escondido or you had to drive
to San Diego to go to Carl Strauss or to do something.
That's another one that like Red Trolley. Yeah. Well, Red Trolley for me was, yeah.
Like Fresh Red Trolley, I still mark out.

(59:24):
Oh, yeah. at disney it moves so fast generally it's really fresh so down there
you get one and that's why i make a red yeah because well victor novak because
that was another one taps in brea oh yeah yeah was.
The other kind of like mind-blowing sort
of beer thing to

(59:46):
me uh was the red and the half half victims
half was bad you know i mean i'm sure
you basically have now but that was those are the
the red and the half were the two that i remember
back to and it wasn't you know that was
actually probably pre-brewery for me like potential brewing but yeah that was

(01:00:07):
when i was like you know before i knew what beer was and people like there's
people that make beers not just like a factory or something just a machine yeah
yeah yeah i guarantee if you ask anyone when I'm walking down the street. Yeah.
Like, who's your... If you ask the question, who's your favorite brewmaster
who makes... What's your favorite brewer who makes... You know,

(01:00:27):
who's... They would say...
And people make beer? Yeah. That's the mark. Yeah. Nobody.
This is a very, very niche. Oh, yeah. Really niche stuff here.
But yeah, it's 5,000. Where are you at now?
6,500, yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah. 6,500.

(01:00:49):
So I mean, there's 6,500 people that know that people make beer,
not a robot, a machine, AI.
I'm assuming pretty soon we'll just have AI making beer. But that's what I love
though, because you guys, you can, you like, you get that human element from it.
Like you get to hear somebody's story and like, you know, because I would say
like the destination is the same.
Everybody, you know, like if you're a brewer, like you want to eventually have

(01:01:11):
your own brewery, right?
Like everybody's destination is the same, but the journey is different.
Like, you know, you can have two different stories.
Like you were at Noble and shout out to the guys at Noble. Like,
you know, they're all my butts.
And, you know, you being at like, you know, Homebrewing, Lost Winds, all that sort of stuff.
Like you have that day even with your story with
your barbecue like like you and your wife telling you like hey let's do this

(01:01:31):
and her willing to sacrifice all of her stuff you know you know
for you and like when you have the like you know that
kind of want and you know and just like i'm not
going to stop until i can you know until i'm going
to accomplish this like i love that like to me
that's like the ultimate thing like
like what more what can you ask for i think it's i think it's a

(01:01:52):
lack of fear now i would say i'm
afraid of a lot of things but like i'm only i worry about
everything but i fear nothing yeah so like
i worry about the growth i worry about making great
beer i worry about the competitive beer i
worry about competitive food i worry about service i worry
about the way people feel when they're here but i

(01:02:13):
fear nothing but you want to be the best so i think anybody out
there that wants to open up a brewery stop fearing things start
educating kidding yourself yeah do you do diligence and then
if the opportunity comes just shoot your shot yeah wake and
work your ass off if you think about it we're like we're entering
like our middle life right like we're i'm in
my 40s now right yeah the time for me to fail is now yeah i'm 50 now when i'm

(01:02:36):
60 now when i'm 70 yeah and i'm relying on somebody else if you're gonna do
it just do it and do it with a bunch of people don't think about it in terms
of like i need more numbers i don't need a lot of friends i need three badass
motherfuckers oh They're going to show up every day and say, hey, man.
We're about to get our asses kicked, but this is who we are. Stand your ground.
Fight your fight. And if you can find those two people to trust,

(01:02:57):
like, that's the hardest part. Yeah.
And that's why for us, like assembling this team of like restaurant Avengers,
it was such a huge relief for me to find somebody like Brad,
who brought in Dave, who brought in Mitch.
And we're all like, my dude, because it's so easy to work with people like that.
Like that's their silo. I'll be honest with you right now.
Like Brad controls a hundred percent of production and brewing.

(01:03:18):
Yeah. I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to look at it.
So if you can find those people, it helps you out so much.
Because then I can worry, with a facility this big, with a 9,000 square foot
brewery, you have to focus on food, you have to focus on service,
execution, you have to focus on human resources, business, growth and development, marketing, strategy.
If you can find somebody that will complete a silo, it's one less thing you have to worry about.

(01:03:40):
And I think that's why we've been successful is he trusts me with the food and service.
I listen to his feedback. He wants to make adjustments.
I trust him with the beer. He listens to our feedback, makes adjustments,
and together we're kind of growing the concept.
Yeah. and you just have to keep on working on that making that amazing
taco yeah and the blueberry wheat
you know you have a blueberry

(01:04:01):
wheat beer that brad hates making but our guests love it man
like my mom loves it isn't that
no but isn't that like the the whole thing like because
you know like when it comes to brewers and stuff like sometimes like even like mike over
at unsung like we were the first time he was on the episode
one and him and i talked about how like he's like
i don't want to brew this stuff like i don't want to brew seltzers i don't want

(01:04:21):
want to brew you know hazies he's like but i have
to because i'm a business i'm a small business owner like i
have to appease like the people that are coming in right it's
always like the brewing what you want like we're making one for you
one for them kind of thing there's always a layer of that ideally you're making
something that you it i to me it's like a compromise like you know with the

(01:04:45):
i i pretty happy with like a lot of those wacky things that we're doing like.
And i'm not even that big i'm still not i mean i went
through like a actually the haze craze happened
and i and i really like got really
into it i'm like okay i realize i know what
this felt like i know what this was about and everything i really dug it

(01:05:07):
and then i got really well eventually get really
well there's a lot of layers to it
but you don't know when you're chasing something you're
getting a in brewing there's there's you you change one thing it changes five
other things in the process and then you realize okay what did i do and and
and and and then you either real scale that back or figure out another alternative

(01:05:31):
way and to do something and,
like hazy was like i i have this idea of my mind of what should be but arriving
there was very difficult and that and this is back this is back you know back
in noble when i was doing those the hazies there and it virtually gives you
a point where it's like not I,
am having such a hard time,

(01:05:52):
arriving at where I want to arrive and I'm starting to hate this you know.
And since deviated from that perspective, but now like what we're doing with
hazy, I feel like I'm at a spot where I like, even though I don't love it,
I like West coast IPA more.
I love West coast IPA, but I'm really happy with where hazies are.

(01:06:17):
Yeah. And that's a compromise that like, and, and you know, I think, yeah, I don't know.
I think that I feel like when I talk to customers, they seem pretty cool.
They, but it's like, it's a it's a compromise i feel like it's a
compliment it's like i'm trying to arrive at a spot that we like
or shit too oh yeah i mean
i i think yeah it's like you know there's kind of this

(01:06:38):
constant conversation of you know
on one hand you know it's hey i'm
i'm a brewer i know what i'm doing i've been
doing this for a very long time i'm you know
i'm someone who has an elevated idea idea of what we're doing
here yeah and who is somebody who just walks in
to the tap room who doesn't know anything about beer to

(01:06:58):
tell me how what kind of beer to make or what i should do you know
yeah that's one very extreme side of it i think
the other extreme side is you're not an artist you are a person that owns a
business just give the people what they want you know yeah and i and you know
and i i think that they're i i i commend both both of those opinions i think

(01:07:20):
that They both make a heck of a lot of sense in certain contexts.
But for me, I think it's somewhere in the middle where, you know,
maybe there is a style that isn't that if I walk up to a bar,
I'm, you know, to talk, you know, to agree with Brett on the hazy thing.
There are some hazies that I'll have that I enjoy, you know,

(01:07:40):
of course, it's not necessarily the style that I would order,
you know, if I was going to pick one beer.
But I think that that's part of the secret sauce is, you know,
you don't just try to make some sort of beer that you think is going to make
people happy when it comes to making a hazy or something.
But it's, hey, even though this isn't my favorite style, what's something I can get excited about?

(01:08:01):
What's something that I actually do truly believe in, you know,
and how can I make something that I actually am really proud of?
You know, I think that's almost more of the challenges. If you don't really
drink a certain kind of beer and it's not your style, if you are able to make
something that you are excited about, that'll probably lead to a pretty good
thing, you know, because it's not even your cup of tea.

(01:08:22):
And if you like it, it's got to be, if, you know, if Jimmy likes it,
it's got to be good. Or if Mikey likes it, it's got to be good. Yeah.
So, you know, I don't know. No, I think from like a business aspect of it. Yeah.
If you want to be successful, you have to protect your artists.
Oh, for sure. Ability and your artists. Yeah. Feeling like if Brad feels that
he's making beer for the sake of running a business or to appease like a crowd,

(01:08:45):
I failed because it's my job to protect him.
Yeah. The, the artist's integrity should always be there. Like they should always
feel that they can create because that's what's made it successful.
Oh yeah. It's up to us to like bottle that energy, you know,
bottle those tasty notes, bottle what makes it unique and then package it to
our servers who can then explain it to like the customers, right? Yeah. That's coming in.

(01:09:07):
But it's tough because the beer game is evolving so quickly.
Yeah. And if you look at it in terms of like years, like go back to 2005, what were you drinking?
Pyramid half and we put fruit in everything i mean
i remember
putting orange wedges and everything man oh yeah and

(01:09:30):
then 2009 like shocked out yeah 2009
high bb belgiums yeah and then 2012 flavored
stouts like for me like what excites me
the most is like understanding that none of
us here know know what the next trend is oh yeah how
fast can we react to that trend how fast
can we absorb that trend yeah how fast can we make it better oh

(01:09:51):
and when it comes to trends too like because you like we talked about the
haze graze there's a seltzer thing oh like oh they call the summer of
seltzer all that sort of stuff the seltzers are still popular but like i'm glad
that like pilsners and loggers are making their way back especially with what
we go west coast and that's why i always love a good pilsner and i was at hamilton
yesterday and i was talking about how i like The reason why I always order a

(01:10:14):
Pilsner or a Lager is because if that's good,
I know everything else is good.
Because you can't hide behind anything.
And that's the best part.
Give it to Chris over here. Oh, yeah. You know, Chris. Can you say your name?
How long have you been with them? I mean, there you go.
There you go. Chris Phillips. I've been with the company since March of 2023.

(01:10:36):
He's actually team member number one there. Oh, awesome. And now the general
manager. So started from the bottom. Shake your hand.
The reason for the shadow is he's just brought us shots.
Tremendous, like, five-figure shots. They're very respectful.

(01:10:56):
Thank you so much. I love that.
That is freaking sweet. Thank you. Don't be any, we don't need any more kindness,
but thank you. That's it. That's great.
We appreciate you. To the future of beer. Oh, yeah. What do you think?
Yeah, to the craft beer industry. Sunday's your full house. Well,
that's the thing. So like, yeah.

(01:11:18):
Who knows? Oh, hey. Hi, I'm. To the old guy, as they say in the old country.
My brother says that for every, like anytime, because he quotes wedding crashes
all the time. Oh, I love it. Yeah.
It's a banger no i yeah i'll say
the fact that it seems like seltzer west
coast and lager are things that are you

(01:11:40):
know really peaking right now but red and black those are
like my three favorite things to drink but yeah reds and blacks i just want to well like
as an outsider coming in and then becoming an insider i
think overall there's a there's a there's this demand for
like nostalgia oh definitely the seltzers that
are selling and like and why seltzers are selling yeah it's it's
flavors that you're reminded of youth like one thousand percent almost

(01:12:02):
like cocktail based seltzers same thing with food people
want to like feel comfort food i think comfort food for
the first time in american history comfort food is number one in
terms of like what the nation wants oh yeah go favor that over fine dining just
saw it on a report like so i think right now right now like our generation is
standing up and say hey we want some of those like wholesome flavors wholesome

(01:12:23):
yeah memories that we had had growing up and for people that are regionals that's
what makes us successful you oh for sure,
definitely i mean i feel like like nowadays we we
all kind of need that like it may sound corny or cheesy but we all need a little
bit of that nostalgia yeah like we need to kind of go back to what we were when
we were kids like even like you know and we'll talk we'll talk a little wrestling
at the end but uh but like i love like people ask me like why are you still

(01:12:47):
watching it was like because like it's still like it takes me back like i'm
still always i'll always be a kid hit it hard,
but I, you know, I'd love to be able to, like, do stuff like this and be able
to talk to you guys and, like, be able to just.
Nerd out for a little while. Like, you know.
You've seen Fang growing up? Huh? But in 1996...
The referee somehow fell asleep and the ultimate warrior beat Hulk Hogan.

(01:13:07):
So my brother and I gave up on it. That was the last year of my career. Oh, that's all right.
I mean, that was, you know, that was the battle of like the clash of the,
what do they call it? The clash of fricking whatever it was.
Well, that broke my heart.
And then Magic Johnson, you know, got a, I have deeds.
And it was just a terrible year for me as a freshman in high school.
To quote Tropic Thunder. Survive. Survive.

(01:13:28):
I didn't end up either. Nirvana, you know, Kurt? Oh yeah, you know.
Courtney loved it. Courtney loved it. Yeah, Courtney Love did it.
Courtney Love did it. Dig in.
He said he didn't have a podcast. Hey, Courtney, if you're listening,
we know you did it. We know you were sending the police right now.
Kurt said he didn't have a gun. He's stated it multiple times. He did. Yeah.

(01:13:48):
Even now, I've heard him say, yeah. I still hear it. Posthumous.
From the ground. What happened there?
Well, I think it was probably because he's drunk. Yeah. That one was real. A little black tar hair.
He had a pretty traumatic childhood. it
like you name an artist that things happen yeah oh the
big bopper what oh oh the bomb

(01:14:08):
we're making it we're coming you know what's crazy
is uh the day the music artist was one
of the guys wasn't that the dude that thing he lost the coin toss right yeah
and then so he i already never recovered from that yeah i'll never financially
recover from that yeah yeah the name of our right that's true that's yeah that's

(01:14:29):
the name of the run i Right. Well, this actually, this is proof.
I'm, I'm not an RSI. I don't know what I've done. Cause I had a good childhood.
See that wow no no yeah you love your parents yeah i
love this podcast my
parents are awesome they're they're the best parents i've had both parents yeah
the best though yeah yeah you had multiple parents i love school no it's probably

(01:14:51):
oh that's cool that's yeah yeah no i i love my parents and great childhood yeah
you know it's fine i did want to ask you guys too because i mean obviously you
guys have like you have food you have brunch you have all these different different things here.
Like I know it's the amazing beer, but like some of your food,
like what are your favorite, like food pairings? Like if you were going to have
like something on your menu, like, you know, whether like the beer where we can pair with it.

(01:15:14):
We're looking forward to like our first collaborative brewer slash Jarrett, his friend. Yeah.
Is a mixologist slash cocktail maker slash distiller slash everything.
Just an artist. He's an artist. Yeah. His all kinds of stuff.
Yeah. So we're going to do like a pairings dinner.
So I'll let him to kind of talk about that. But for me, I would say, That's focaccia.
For beer, beer pairing.

(01:15:36):
Let's see, what am I doing? The Mexican lager kind of goes with most stuff.
Sorry, Mexican lager is Sacalabrocita? Yeah. Which is the ultimate name.
The reason we chose that name is I grew up in Huntington Park,
right? Where'd you grow up? Pico. Pico, where'd you grow up?
Norwalk. We have a phantom guest from Norwalk. There you go.
In those three areas, right, we're away from each other. None of us have known each other.

(01:15:57):
Yeah. But sometime between the time that we were kids until we were 18, team
you heard saca la basita right okay yeah i would
say the only thing like like business-wise that we
should not forget to mention is if you ever want to have a private party
or venue it's always free okay i still want like
that it's that part out yeah i don't think that's right yeah i think for your

(01:16:17):
birthday you want to like run out to the pool yeah you can do that for free
and it all of this out this is the shameless plots for what are you because
i think that's So you're saying covering it because of the,
you pay for the food and all that stuff.
Yeah. So let's say you want to have your, your 40, 30th birthday. Yeah.
Uh, 37 now. I just turned 37 a couple of weeks ago. So like,

(01:16:39):
if you want to have a bricky party or you can literally say,
Hey, I'm bringing a hundred people. I want all separate checks.
They're going to order individually. Like let me reserve the pool.
You can do that. Okay. Cool. Accommodate that. Yeah. No matter what.
Awesome. It has to have a cover on the pool.
But you can be over the bull. So I can't just like Will Ferrell when he gets
a trank in his neck and old school and just like, can't do bull?

(01:16:59):
You're crazy, man. And then your future, what can you do? It's not for liability purposes.
Well, the company has to ask you. Yeah, we can't do it yet. I think in a month.
Sorry, but I do want to ask you, so usually the week of Mania,
like the weekend of Mania, I like to record like, you know, like a longer intro,
like maybe like 15, 30 minute intro.

(01:17:21):
But to talk about all the matches, predictions. What's coming up. Yeah.
So if you'd be willing to do that when that time comes, we can.
So you're up for it. You're saying you want to do a podcast where we.
We can do it like on a, like we can do it a Saturday morning or a Friday night before.
Romania. Yeah, before. Romania is blocked off. Yeah. There's a kids club there party.

(01:17:42):
Yeah. I'm not going to that. Yeah. I'm sitting home for mania.
Oh, I love it. I mean, you know, that's like, we can, you can do it at your
home. We can do it remotely. Yeah.
So every year you're saying you do this? Yeah, I do this. So I'll do a predictions.
I'm going to do it this year. I'm down. That's so cool. We should have it here.

(01:18:03):
I would love to do it.
I think it's going to cost some dough. The only thing is I am cooking.
I'm cooking on my own because we have a thing every year.
But if you guys want to, come over. Let's do that.
Come over and watch WrestleMania. to watch Wrestlemania I would say which name
either so night one I'm going to do pork belly burn ins I'm going to cook.

(01:18:26):
Right tip I don't know who's listening you're invited yeah
anybody who's listening or Billy or Bernan's are
a good category oh no they're great and they could make a little Sammy out
of it but yeah like so I do like you know like maybe an
inch and a half two inch cube do that and then do
like I don't do any binder I just kind of you know you know oh yeah for sure

(01:18:47):
so I do that that one I'm gonna do ribs I'm gonna do chicken sausage I don't
know if you've ever been to mama's kitchen or mama's chicken of course yeah
yeah so I'm gonna But I'm going to make the chicken sausage burn-ins.
But I don't want to, because they're already salty, so I don't want to overdo
it on the salt. So I thought maybe I'm going to do like a maple rub on it.
Yeah, sweeten it up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, we counted that.

(01:19:08):
The pork belly burn-ins, I love when you can put them into a fryer or like flash,
hit them at five degrees in an oven, just to get the skin like crispy.
Oh, yeah. So I just do it like I do it by like 200 to like, you know,
on the smoker and then take them off, toss them in the tin, with a little butter
just to get a little extra fat in there, a little fat content.

(01:19:31):
And then hit it with some brown sugar or whatever, barbecue sauce or maybe a little bit more rub.
Fat content is what they called me in high school. There you go.
When's the anniversary of your podcast? It was actually just two weeks ago.
If you ever want to have a good event, we should do something here.
Oh, I'm down. What do you do at the right moment? Oh, dude. Our new set.

(01:19:55):
I'm down. down cutting it and
putting a smoker i'm down let's do it okay before
we end so it's been almost a year right so what
are some funny tap room stories that you guys have had or have
there been no there's no funny we've we don't
laugh ever oh you know first thing that we
erected that private room you erected it the

(01:20:16):
first thing that we built the private room the
private room you guys were a part of remember that we said the music sucked yeah uh
i'm like hey guys no matter what don't break into this room this room's
expensive it's bad glass it's the smallest beer grinder you've
ever been to dave can just get super hungover he's
like just reeking of jameson vodka been there
and then he jumped inside inside of a forklift he immediately beswallowed those

(01:20:39):
i don't know what we're gonna do you tell me you don't have to do anything i
know about i know it's up to you guys tell me what you want me to do oh we'll
review it we We get a final review. Funny stories? What else?
Or do you guys have any events coming up like you know something you guys have planned or

(01:21:00):
because I know obviously the biggest thing is mania but you know yeah mania
is big but that was gonna be just a house I think you guys got us with mania
to do something big I'm gonna stand up for my bachelor party that's a big issue
for me just have it with the other guys the wedding the wedding will be cool
but the bachelor party that's a big thing St. Patrick's Day we're doing a St.
Patrick's Day themed brunch okay so we'll have a bunch of cool stuff beef and
hash and all that stuff green ham and regular love eggs there you go.

(01:21:25):
Are gonna be bad yeah don't get
the form of tacos they're gonna be terrible yeah yeah you're gonna
eat no they're gonna be good but they're gonna be good they're not you know i'm
just never gonna tell them these tacos are good yeah yeah i'm not
allowed to it's i'm contractually obligated to tell them that
it's gotta work what's honking makes he's got to work on those tacos yeah come
on i would say the coolest stories ever

(01:21:45):
i would say uh me brad
david working like 35 days street yeah he first
opened up our executive chef oscar who
passed away he was with us for three months but like
seeing him like he was a bigger guy like he would
painfully move and like get things done but like he was
kind of a he was like a rally monkey you know like he was like a

(01:22:06):
he was like an icon to us for like rallying because
he worked so hard but yeah i would say like i would want
him noted as like part of the reason we were successful for you
know things well shout out to oscar yeah oscar i mean this is
a good dude we i mean joked on a day but that is actually
yeah i'll write a day but like that was a joke that was uh oscar is actually

(01:22:26):
all right yeah yeah what a guy but i mean i wish i wish you would have met him
bro because he comes like from a similar background he grew up in oxnard what
really impressed me about the whole situation following is,
you know, him passing away was the staff raised 25,000 for his mom. Wow.
It paid off every obligation she had. It's like a roofing company,

(01:22:49):
which is like his last thing.
He was very vocal. He would tell people like what was going on in his life,
but he literally moved here from Oxnard to work for us.
That's awesome. When I talk about our team, like.
I'm worth shit without my team. Yeah. Like, you know, David working here from
Vegas, he drives here from San Clemente. Yeah. Oceanside.
I won't, I won't go to my wife's dad's birthday. Cause it's in West LA.

(01:23:12):
Yeah. It's like four miles away, you know, like this guy, you know,
Oceanside, drives here from Oceanside, like Oscar coming from Oxnard,
like people like drive to be a part of this process.
And I think it's something special. And I think that like that vibe,
Brad takes it and he bottles it up and he cans it up and he puts it in cans
and bottles and glasses.
And I think it's like, it's worth you guys checking out because it's something

(01:23:35):
special. Yeah. I've worked at a lot of restaurants.
I've eaten a lot of restaurants. I've worked at a lot of places.
I've never worked at a lot of breweries, but like I've been to a lot of breweries
and there's something special about this concept that I think it's worth trying.
You know what I always feel like it's kind of crazy tonight because I have a,
I mean, I have another, a second podcast.
I don't plug it as often, but what I say on there, like the mantra of that show

(01:23:58):
is is just because you've been doing something your whole life doesn't mean
you have to do it for the rest of your life.
And that applies to life in general. And like, you don't have to like,
you could have like a cushy job.
And how often, I mean, honestly, and how often I, when I talk to people,
like little brewers or owners, like they had a, like, you know,
a really like a job that paid more, but they're like, this isn't what I want though.

(01:24:19):
I have a degree in beer science and I chose to be a janitor for Asian Makes Beer.
And you're willing to like, yeah, but you're willing to give that up to like,
Like to do something you want to do and something that you love.
And to me, that's like the passion there. I just love cleaning.
Beer is okay, but I love cleaning. Yeah. There it is. Earlier I said I fear chinkos. I lied.

(01:24:40):
I fear my mom, right? Yeah. And so my mom said never get a tattoo.
And I got a tattoo of this villains.
Yeah. Sorry, I got loose lightsaber from Return of the Jedi over here.
How much time is this? Is this Jaws new? Are we just pulling out,
like are we just pulling out Lost Wings?
Is it the Lost Wings? The Lion's Palm Tree? That's our logo I was so scared
when I went home Because this happened about February 7th So like last month It looks like a plaque.

(01:25:05):
Moment i'm like mom look at this tattoo she like just started hitting me you
know like did she paint the iron too it's our home we
have a room for her and like she stays with us and she
just like came back after she's like yeah fucking leave right now yeah i'll
leave right now i don't need to be here i'm like stop but honestly
it felt like we were doing like the thing from jaws like when everybody pulls
out their scars you know you you

(01:25:27):
lifted up your leg like richard right just in that that is funny
classic oh no they're coming again oh but it's
been i mean this is kind of who we are you know yeah this is right
yeah yeah well honestly
man like and i'm honest i just want to tell you guys like
i am super grateful for you guys opening up the place for me and be able to
to have this conversation i just i honestly i just love hearing success stories

(01:25:50):
man like i love like hearing people like you know doesn't matter what walk of
life they're from somebody that like you know had like you know saying i have
a dream i just happened to look at martin luther king's you know,
thing over there or a photo over there that, that, uh, Brad took.
I didn't hear that phone. Yeah. I was there. Brad's a great.
I said, look, Pensive. Yeah.
MLK. And you were like three years old. He was a little young. I really took the photo.

(01:26:13):
Yeah. I will say that it's, it's a sheer miracle that we're able to provide
like the opportunity for other people to work here.
Like you have here, we have 87 employees, like which are most of them are from
Anaheim or at least Orange County.
Yeah. Uh, of those 87 employees, like most of them are full-time,
at least have like three or four days of work.
We have three managers on board. We have two salary managers.

(01:26:36):
We have a salary kitchen manager. I think we're able to do that,
man. Yeah. It's a dream come true because times are tough. This is an election year.
We're not going into politics. This is an election year. Like the SAG strike
really impacted LA County.
Oh, I bet. Yeah. If you're hearing, if you're hearing this right now,
you're like live in LA or like have a bird in LA.
Sorry. It was nine months of like not having any income come in.

(01:26:58):
Yeah. It was a three billion.
They estimated that $3 billion were lost last year in LA because of that. Wow.
And if you factor in like the 10 freeway burning down for what,
a month? Yeah. After that, it was a really bad year for LA.
Hanging in there. Good times are coming and.
If you ever need anything, advice, help. If you're out there and you're a brewer
or you're like an owner of a brewery and you're struggling, reach out to us,

(01:27:21):
man. Yeah. We're very communal.
For me, I don't have a formal education.
If I like you or if you come up to me, I will teach you everything I know.
That's what I love about the craft beer community, though. Because like everybody's
like, you know, say 95%, 95% of the craft beer community is really like,
hey, yeah, let's do this. Or like, hey, well, I'm having a hard time dialing
in this hazy or dialing in this pilsner. or stuff like that.

(01:27:44):
You reach out to one of your buddies and, you know, on another brewery,
they respond and they're like, yep, oh, have you tried this?
And it's, sometimes it's a simple fix, sometimes it's not a simple fix.
But I mean, you can, you know, you have that community and you,
when you look at like communities like the wine community.
Yeah. Like everybody's like, oh, no, get off, this is my thing, get the fuck out of here.

(01:28:05):
But like with the craft beer community, it's like, dude, like I want to help you, help you succeed.
And, you know, and I love that. Like, I mean, I don't, that's why I said the
craft beer community is the best because I don't think there's any other community
out there where like everyone wants to compete with each other.
And don't get me wrong. Like there's not competition, but like you're willing
to, you want us all to succeed because was it the last time I said it was like

(01:28:27):
90% of the market was, you know, obviously the big boys. Yeah.
But you know, it's, it's getting better and better. Well, for me,
I'm, I'm most part of the craft craft beer community because they took on big beer.
Oh yeah. They beat, we beat Bud Light. Yeah.
I think about that for the first time ever, Bud Light's backing off their campaign
to Bud Light. Yeah. Nice, Josh. I'm going into a practice.

(01:28:49):
It's like, my job's Shane Gillis. Like, think about that. Like,
yeah, like Roasters. Like, something with the internal programming of the big
manufacturing companies like AB is redirecting their energy because they're
realizing they're losing it.
So we're gonna finish Chris brought us one more round of shots he's great yeah now I'm used,

(01:29:10):
finish her off finish her off you hoser so like I said I'm super appreciative
of you guys thank you for opening up the place to be able to do something like
this here at the Craftsman building,
or house I can't wait to talk a little wrestling with you whatever.
Oh yeah Yeah. Oh, yeah. And on this special.

(01:29:34):
It'll be a special. It'll be like a, well, it'll start off as supposed to be like a 15 minute intro.
Then I'm sure with me and you talking wrestling, it'd be like an hour long. Oh, no, I know.
I mean, that's, well, that's why, that's why the Sogo podcast I did.
Yeah. It turned, cause he realized like I was in the wrestling.
So we, we did, it just turned into two episodes.
What am I? Oh, go ahead. Sorry. What, uh, no, it was, we, we went like deep,

(01:29:58):
you know, there was a lot of cut out.
I wish we could have a whole podcast could have been played but he's a he's
a WWE guy oh yeah no for sure like I really I mean I got to meet him once at
at at the Gunda yeah at El Segundo my fucking eyes were closed like a dumbass
like I didn't realize like we took a picture and I'm like,
I thought my eyes were open but I was kind of that's why God invented Photoshop

(01:30:21):
yeah exactly but even then I was like fuck it was like I got to meet one of
the goats but real quick before we finish what's your your Mount Rushmore of wrestling? Yeah.
See, that's a terrible question. I know, it's tough.
Do you got it? I don't know. So, Rushmore is, what, five? It's the presidents. Yeah.

(01:30:43):
It's like, there's four, I think. Watch the Wimbledon. We'll say your top five.
And it doesn't have to be, like, you know, it's whatever you want it to be. So, Rock, Austin. Okay.
Okay and then you get to seattle what no
no the police all of them there yeah i

(01:31:05):
nailed it the police like hunter
i think yeah hunter's one of the greatest heels of all time right uh yeah oh
no of course nature uh so is your four taker probably yeah but taker has to
be on the list no matter what so there you go that was five right there yeah
it's easy you're welcome i guess that That is easy. Yeah. I mean.

(01:31:27):
But there's so many more.
Sean's my goat. Sean? Yeah, Sean will always be my goat because he may have,
like, he was, even when they were getting their ass kicked in the ratings by
WCW, like, he was still the guy that was, like, you know, steering.
If he wasn't there during that time.
Probably mean who knows they may have went under before before stone
cold took off yeah you're saying you're saying in the

(01:31:49):
in the in the in the rainy war yeah you gotta
save this in the wrestling podcast oh yeah no no
i'll just i'll give up i just i i like i love look
i love sean michaels yeah i don't love his wrestling
stuff oh yeah but he was but i i don't know i always felt
like he was the kind of guy that like he could stand in there with a guy
like he could do whatever and he can do anything you're right yes but god I

(01:32:11):
mean I don't know but it's all subjective too everybody has their guy probably
Sean Austin's gotta be in there Nature Boy the Bushwhackers Triple H.
I love Edge I've loved freaking Edge who doesn't love Edging Adam Copeland themselves yeah,

(01:32:36):
yeah see i i got it way in aw yeah and then i can't i can't watch the i can't
watch it anymore yeah just the the just it's not this i don't know it's not
the same as when it started i feel like style is just it's not my style like
there's a lot of just leaning it there's two is two predictable.
Too big yeah it's like when it comes to the actual wrestling

(01:32:58):
like you lean in wait for the chair shot
yeah you know okay dropping the ground
means there's too much to me like
the style is problematic oh yeah i do love like
but i love a lot of the old wb guys
yeah that are in it yeah and oh
they just sell it people the way that wb sells yeah

(01:33:20):
because that's and they're doing the wcw they're
doing the wcw thing they're like they're getting the guys from
wb but and then but they're not using them the
right way and i'm sorry we're going off rails and i know but i
actually agree with that yeah yeah yeah anyway we'll
do the wrestlemania oh yeah we're gonna do that it's gonna be fucking
phenomenal i can't wait all right so oh thank you guys again this has been super

(01:33:43):
fun thank you so much this is this is fun this is i yeah this is probably one
of the it is 2 15 on sunday march 10th and i'm drunk there it is and don't worry
we get to have we got to have have a fun conversation.
I got to hear and hear your, like every one of your guys stories.
And to me, like what's, what's better than that? What's, what's better than
hearing somebody like being willing to like, you know, put all their shit on the line to, you know.

(01:34:08):
Take a risk and you know you took it and it clearly it's paying
off anybody who's still here thank you yeah thank
you she's
our aesthetic thank you madonna there you go
yeah you know what and you one day you're gonna get your big break i
promise madonna just keep working at it you'll get
there i put some money on that yeah yeah i

(01:34:29):
i yeah i'll wager that there's no reason there's no reason
i think madonna might make it yeah she's talented enough to
not go smutty like don't they
dirty just like don't go with the you know the
kid the kid watch out for chairs do not don't trust
chairs don't trust those or don't today is it
shares or chairs chairs oh shares yeah no
chairs no way i sit in yeah all right watch out for all right well thank you

(01:34:56):
guys so much i really appreciate it this has been a blast i mean we can you
know i probably i'm sure we can probably go for three hours if you want to at
least yeah But like the longest episode I ever had was with the Dov from Long Beach Beer Lab.
Shout out to the Dov. He's moving back to Israel to be the director of brewing
operations. He should probably be. Oh, no way.
Yes. He's leaving. Yeah, he's going April 1st. He's leaving.

(01:35:16):
And it's not a joke. It's April Fool's Day, but he's not. It's not really a
joke. He's really leaving.
But shout out to him. He's leaving
April 1st to be the director of brewing operations for Beer Bazaar.
All right. So he's going back home. Super proud of him. That's super awesome. That's huge. Yeah.
Well, thanks for having us, man. Oh, thank you guys. I appreciate it.

(01:35:36):
Thank you guys. This is, oh no, I was going to quote Euro Trevor, like these are magical.
Cheers, everybody. We got to turn the mics on. There we go.
All right. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that. Like I said, it was really fun for me.
Being able to hear all their stories, you know, and do something like that was a real blast.

(01:35:57):
Having the two, having Brad being, you know, the head brewer,
and Mitch being there, one of the other brewers, you know, and hearing his story
and kind of how him and I came full circle,
you know, meeting him at Lost Winds and then, you know, know
fanboying out over at everywhere and and
honestly like you know seeing isaias too like we're meeting isaias
like honestly opening like them opening their doors to me

(01:36:18):
just made me you know just made
me feel like a million bucks man they were they were super cool their
beer is really good like i said their food is bomb as well and isaias when it
comes to you know all three of them like they're masters of their craft and
no pun intended there but yeah all right so So upcoming shows next week will

(01:36:40):
be the No Rock Brewhouse episode with Ray Ricky Rivera.
The week after that is going to be the Hamilton episode.
And then also then it will be the man.
I got to remember all my shows. I got so much crap going on.
We have No Rock Brewhouse, Hamilton and then OK.

(01:37:02):
And then it will be OK. okay then brewery x so yeah i'm gonna leave all this
in whatever it'll be fine and then.
Shortly so i'm going to be recording pretty soon
i think on thursday this week on the 28th i'm
recording with with tommy over at asylum so i'm super excited about that and

(01:37:24):
then next saturday i will be recording with jonathan over at frog town that
should be a good one i'm gonna hang out with LA Brew Life for a little bit. So shout out to Art.
And then I think the week after Momentum Cider, she is a member of Pink Boots.
So I'm super excited to talk to her as well.
And then I believe there's some more, there's some other ones coming up.

(01:37:47):
There's a ton, there's a ton of stuff going on. I'm trying to knock out,
knock out, knock out a lot of these, but it should be a good time.
All right. So I'm going to end the episode with a quote today from one of my
favorite shows of of all time.
And I figured it was kind of fitting because it's from Smallville.
And, you know, obviously I talked to the guys at Villains Brewing.

(01:38:09):
So, and this is from Lex Luthor, who is one of my favorite villains of all time.
So the quote is, the great men and women of the world have always been defined
by their enemies. All right.
Music.