Episode 62 - w/ Brewers Jonathan and Josh of Frogtown Brewery

In this episode introduces Jonathan and Josh, the brewers behind Frogtown Brewery in Los Angeles, sharing their fascinating transition from conventional careers to the craft beer industry. They talk about their passion, their brewing journey, and how they've turned their dreams into reality with persistence.

Frogtown Brewery is a testament to relentless passion, lifelong learning, and strategic thinking. Their story inspires not to give up on dreams and pursue what you love most. Don't miss out on this revealing and fascinating conversation about craft brewing!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey everyone, it's Mike. Before we start the episode, I have a cool question
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(00:20):
of regulars, because we all need our norms, cliffs, and all that.
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That's geekswhodrink.com slash taproom promo code taproom. And now onto the episode.

(00:45):
Music.

(01:11):
All right and we're back this is episode 62 of the taproom podcast and i'm eros
mike got a this one was really really fun for me at least who i have on the
interview with jonathan and the head brewer and his assistant brewer,
Josh, from Frogtown over in L.A.
You may hear a little snoring in the background. That is my new dog, Morgan.

(01:35):
She is the brew dog, and I'm taking her to her first brewery today.
So I figure her first brewery, I'm going to take her to Noble,
then come back and watch the Avs and my Bravos play.
But yeah, I had a great conversation with Jonathan and Josh,
two honestly really great people and like, you know, kind of having different,
you know, each of them having different journeys.

(01:56):
Like, I mean, then that's what this is all about, you know, and like how they
both felt like they were destined, you know, to do this, like to do this with their life.
So it was a really, really fun episode. I hope you guys enjoy it.
But yeah, let's see. I don't have a beer this week. I'm going to actually run
a little low. I drank, but I was, I had a war on sobriety.
One of their doubles from Frogtown might've drank that because it's damn, damn good.

(02:21):
We had a good time last night. I got Morgan. My sister brought her down.
We had a barbecue, made some shrimp tacos, made some masala tacos, drank so much beer.
Might've done a couple of shotguns, maybe a couple of shots of tequila too, but it was a lot of fun.
Let's see, what do we got this week? The NHL playoff started,
the NBA playoff started.
I'm not going to pretend like I have watched enough basketball to know what's

(02:45):
really going on I mean when I do watch another Lakers played I did watch the
Lakers on the Nuggets yesterday,
man Denver just looks just as good this year as it did last year so I mean I
kind of feel like with Jokic and those guys I feel like they like they kind
of have to be you know the team to beat but like I said I don't watch it enough

(03:05):
and I feel like Boston could maybe do something too too.
But that's about all I got. I am excited, though, about the NHL playoffs.
My Avs start today against Winnipeg.
Not going to lie, not the most confident right now.
I think they have a hell of a team, but losing Jonathan Druin for the first
round. So, I mean, if they don't make it out of this round, that's not going to play anyway.

(03:29):
But, I mean, I'm still excited. I still think they have a really good team and
they're playing the Winnipeg Jets.
The only thing is they didn't beat they played Winnipeg three
times this year didn't beat them once so that should
be pretty we'll see how it goes but yeah yesterday
the Islanders lost to the Hurricanes and Boston Boston just went in there and
thumped thumped Toronto and kind of like with Toronto though like until they

(03:51):
get over that hump I mean I'm not really buying into them but I do really like
Boston this year out of the east I mean the Rangers I mean I think the Rangers
are going to be right there as well.
Out of the West, I mean, Dallas. Dallas looks really good. I mean,
I don't see the Knights beating them.
And then in the Lightning series, I mean, I like Florida. I like the Panthers.

(04:15):
I still think, I mean, until the Lightning go down again, like,
I mean, they're just so tough in the playoffs.
And you got a guy like Nikita Kucherov, who's just a bad motherfucker.
But, I mean, you know, that's not to say Florida doesn't have,
like, a bunch of really good players. But I still, I'm going to go with,
I'm going to go with the Lightning in that series.
Caps and the Rangers, going Rangers all the way. The Predators and the Canucks.

(04:40):
Predators are playing really good hockey down the road. I mean,
down the, down the stretch. But I still think Vancouver probably wins that series.
Don't have a ton of upsets. I mean, the one I feel like that could be is the Kings and the Oilers.
Kings did stumble a bit, but honestly, so did Edmonton. Edmonton has not been
playing their best hockey.

(05:01):
So I could see the Kings winning that series. I think the Kings definitely did
not want to play Dallas, but yeah, I got the Kings winning, Kings beating the Oilers.
But yeah, should be pretty good. What else has happened this week?
Oh, the NHL approved the Coyotes move to Utah.
I saw a mock-up of someone did the Utah Yetis, and that showed the mock-up of

(05:24):
the Jersey looked pretty badass. So that would be pretty cool.
What else going on this week? Well, next, well, this coming week is the World
Beer Cup. So over in Vegas.
So good luck to all the brewers out there and all the breweries that submitted their beer.
I mean, I can't wait to, you know, to hear all the winners. That should be fun.
And hopefully, you know, some local ones, you know, take home,

(05:45):
take home some gold or take home a medal.
All right. What else do I have this week? Oh, we did have the,
a couple of things that I did on Instagram.
Let's see. We did the, oh, first we'll do the, yeah, first we'll do the Geeks
Who Drink Trivia question of the week.

(06:05):
And that question was regarding Orval and Trappist.
So I said Orval and Shemay are still brewed by what monks?
And the question, I mean, the answers were, or the choices were Franciscans,
Shaolans, and Trappists. So that answer was Travis.

(06:50):
Trivia question and then also I did ask a question as well.
I asked what was the beer that got you into craft beer?
I am going to say Sierra Nevada was probably about over 70% of people's answers.
And there was so many of them.
So I'm not going to go through all those.

(07:11):
But I will mention some other ones that people said.
Foodies Unite, CA said The Patsy from Barley Forge. Batman underscore LeBron said Lagunitas.
Chew, my boy, said DBA Firestone Walker.
Let's see, Brewski said Fat Tire. than arrogant
bastard rambling alcoholics podcast shout out

(07:33):
to those guys said barrel brothers sour skittles sounds
pretty delightful haha mayo munch said let's see here he said bar squash by
rope but then he said oh jesus i meant bad squash that one made me laugh when
i saw that one my buddy bone shack what's going on brother said samuel smith
oatmeal stout and the bearded underscore brewer,

(07:56):
Sierra Nevada, another Sierra Nevada, and Widmer was kind of like the beer that
kind of got them into stuff like that.
But yeah, there was tons of responses, but like I said, a ton of them were Sierra
Nevada. Beer Belly, shout out to Beer Belly Pod as well. They put that on there.
And they said, let's see, because I didn't want, that was a longer answer,
so I just wanted to read that.
It says, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale paved the way for us to gain a liking for more

(08:17):
hoppy flavors, which led to falling in love with IPAs,
and excited us that they continue to evolve to this day thanks to Sierra Nevada.
I thought that was a cool answer, but like I said, a ton of people said Sierra
Nevada, so I'm just grateful for you guys interacting and stuff like that.

(08:37):
I like to do that stuff each week.
But see, I don't have anything else. So what do you say? Let's just jump into the interview.
Like I said, it was a blast. And honestly, shout out to Art LA Brew Life on
Instagram, who kind of connected Jonathan and I, which was, you know,
it was a really fun, you know, conversation.

(08:59):
And Art was actually there when we recorded. And there's also a bonus beer review
at the end of the interview with Art and his brother.
So stay tuned for that. But all right. Well, I hope everyone has a good,
well, you're going to talk to me at the end of the outro anyway,
so I don't even know what I'm saying. All right. Enjoy the interview.
All right. And we're back. Back in the tap room.

(09:22):
And I have a couple of very special guests on today. I have the head brewer
and the assistant brewer from Frogtown Brewing in Los Angeles off of Gilway and Ripple.
About a hop of skipping away from Dodger Stadium.
Jonathan and Josh, how you fellas doing? Doing pretty well. So great.
Awesome. So how we always normally start is, you know, asking about your craft

(09:43):
beer journey, but we got a couple of beers in front of us.
Yes, we do. Let's talk about the beers first. Well, and I am drinking the Everything
Under the Sun. Everything Under the Sun. Yeah.
Hazy coming out of, I think 5.8. 5.8. Yeah. Okay. What are you drinking?
I am drinking our award-winning Lights Out. Love it. Czech Pilser. There it is.
Can't go wrong with the Czech Pils. And what are you drinking?

(10:04):
I'm drinking coffee. Oh, there you go. Cold brew.
All right it's all right i mean technically it's yeah yeah yeah there it is
and crack that sucker right into the mic crack it we're doing asmr this morning
yeah i always do the oh there it is,
breakfast i always love seeing that little spike so let me take a drink of this

(10:26):
bad boy it's good stuff yeah it's
actually one of our first collaborations josh and i uh came up with so.
Definitely one of my favorite beers that I'm drinking. Awesome. No, that's delicious.
Love the lacing on the glass. It's always a good sign. But yeah,
tell us about your craft beer journeys. Do you want to start, Jonathan?
Sure, I can start. So for me, I've always been into craft beer.

(10:51):
I think one of my first beers was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for most people.
And I've always wanted to get into the beer industry. I used to be a banker
for 10 years before I got into it officially.
I tried to be a beer tender for so long because I just loved it. I wanted free beer.

(11:11):
And I applied so many times. I can't even tell you how many times I applied
at Stone in Pasadena just to try to get in. But they're like, you have no experience.
Which sucks. It makes sense though. I mean, they don't want
just some random guy pouring beer into to their
mouth yeah i'm sure so yeah i was a banker
for a long time and at some point
i got laid off and i didn't

(11:33):
know what my next move was going to be so one
day my buddy and i he had a homebrew kit that
he bought three years before i got laid off okay it
was just sitting in his garage and he goes i'm like
hey you still have that kit he's like oh yeah i forgot that
i have that you want to try doing it he's like
no but yeah that's sure yeah let's

(11:55):
try it out but before that we
actually went found like a local spot
that was doing homebrew teaching classes
they no longer do it now but at the time and it was a complete disaster too
like the boiler wasn't working or it was off of a like a hot plate oh yeah it
just wasn't it just didn't work we just went home with a with a jug of work

(12:19):
we didn't know what to do with yeah and that's kind of how it started.
So then but i got the bug immediately i was
like okay you know what i want to make my own beer now yeah how do i get into
it so i picked up a few books and i found a course at ucla they were doing like
brewing science oh dang and so i immediately applied and i got it maybe a week

(12:40):
later they're like hey not enough people applied so we're gonna cancel the class Motherfucker.
Yeah. So I'm like, okay, great. Well, maybe it's not meant to be.
So I looked around a few more different avenues. And my partner at the time,
she found Cal Poly Pomona. Okay.
They have Innovation Brew Works was doing a course for assistant brewership.

(13:01):
I think it was one of the first or second classes at the time.
Shout out Innovation Brew Works. Nice.
Eric. So yeah, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. opportunity and they
have a three barrel brew house at the time and I was just completely dedicated to it.
I just, you know, I was working my, my, well, I was kind of like doing like

(13:21):
part-time work here and there, but ultimately every morning at 7am I'd go in there and.
Things off help with brews as much as
I could try to absorb everything that I can to learn
how to brew and become a brewer and I
never thought that I would be doing that at all and then
sure enough after what six weeks just dedication they're like dude you're you're

(13:46):
really good like I think this is something that you can do like okay me too
this is great that's awesome so then yeah as soon as I got a certification from
them and and you know it's pretty much skyrocketed from there I kind
of started applying to different breweries and I applied
here at Frogtown and you know I think I after
a few I had an interview here and I met the

(14:06):
owners and everybody was great I just the chemistry was
just there I feel like and you know just hit the ground running I got I got
the job in February 2019 and I've been here ever since awesome man yeah that's
freaking kick ass and Josh how about you man how did it all start for you similarly
to him I had a had a funny job beforehand.

(14:27):
I was a real estate agent for five years and in Orange County and right out of college.
And I also drank a bunch of beer and I was living with my grandpa for out of college.
And he used to brew and he had this story of, of making this beer and not waiting

(14:52):
long enough and just wanting to rush it,
and coming home to just glass and beer all over the floor because he bottled
it, and it kept fermenting.
And he loved that story. And then one day it was just like, hey,
do you want to? There's a homebrew shop that we still go to every once in a while in Costa Mesa.
Is it Windsor? Windsor. Okay. So he took me to Windsor, and we got a little, just the basic setup.

(15:18):
Got one of those boxes, the $20 homebrew.
Yeah kits and did that and
he was all like anything you
make is gonna be so good yeah i used to like make a
beer cover it with the towel see what happened we got drunk so it worked it

(15:39):
was good beer and i was all scientific and i was being addicted i was like you're
doing it wrong like you gotta you gotta check the gravity it's gotta be exact
and and and he was like i think you're really into this.
But I just did it as a hobby and I would just step it up, start going into partial
grain and then all grain, stepped up my setup and a couple years of doing that

(16:04):
there and then when I moved to LA,
I don't know, I woke up one morning and I was just like, I don't want to be
a real estate agent anymore.
I want to make money making beer and I want to do it at a professional level.
But it's so hard to get a job at a brewery without experience.
Absolutely like a lot of industries but it's like how do i get experience without the job and i saw this.

(16:29):
Place that was asking for for resumes and it
just said brewery online okay it said tortilla
factory for a brewer
and i was like okay they're gonna jump into beer like i'll try maybe this is
my end yeah and i show up and it was just at this giant warehouse in downtown
like chinatown and it turns out it was a kombucha brewing place oh shit and

(16:53):
even though that's not what i wanted had to get into,
I was like, any way to get to be brewing and also get a job.
And that's a completely different animal too. Absolutely.
And I ended up getting the job and one by one, the brewers kind of left.
And I was, I was head brewer there.

(17:15):
And we had, even though it was a completely different process,
we were using the same tanks, a lot of the same different equipment.
So I figured, and giant sizes. Like they had tanks there that were a couple of 30 barrels.
And it's a really big scale.

(17:35):
So I figured as long as I'm home brewing at home, doing all grain,
doing the whole process of the brewing and then using the equipment that I'll
be using professionally, those kind of together will look good on a resume.
But it ended up not really mattering because I threw
out this idea to him that really worked

(17:55):
being like let's do a collaboration with a
brewery because I think Rogue did like a 50-50 kombucha beer product and I was
like let's do that and it'll be in my head it'll be a good way to meet some
brewers and meet some breweries so the closest one that I could see was Frogtown I come over,

(18:17):
Adam, the owner here, gave us a tour. Jonathan was there as well.
Yep. And I was like, this place is cool. And we had a few beers with them.
And then I kept coming back and like we were talking. They were down to do it.
They were like, let's go. That sounds weird. Let's go. He was. Yeah.
They should have known what was up. Yeah. He had a cot outside.

(18:37):
There you go. It's a whole thing. It's like you have a futon in the background.
And right when it was like we got the flavors, we had like three different kombuchas
that We're going to match with three different beers. We got the ratios right.
It was a really interesting, cool product.
And then the pandemic hit and the kombucha place was so small that they just

(18:59):
kind of stopped operating.
I went on unemployment. Shout out unemployment. That was great.
And a couple months into the pandemic, I reached out to the GM and the owner.
Just like hey i know this is the worst time absolute worst

(19:20):
time but to hire but you
want to hire me and they were like we're selling beard cans like one by one
out of the front door if you want to do like one day a week doing that i was
like get my foot in the door absolutely yeah did that and then a couple months
later started shadowing jonathan and then washing started up

(19:42):
yeah started with that seller person and
then assistant brewer a year after that and
then and then i just got promoted to to brewer
as well in january or last year maybe
and love it that's awesome yeah it's great dude that's i mean and kudos to your
grandpa for real because like for him to like say like man this is like you

(20:05):
know because he was just doing he's like hey let's get fucked up essentially
and like i said who doesn't want to do that my grandpa was I mean,
not about drinking beer, just about any other, any type of alcohol that's in the house.
But for him to tell you, man, this seems like something you're really into and you should pursue.
And not a lot of people have someone in their lives that are willing to,

(20:29):
hey, dude, this is what you should be doing.
Absolutely. Especially if you care that much about it. And the same to you,
Jonathan, too, I would say with your partner and stuff.
Because after going to UCLA and trying to get that, going to that course,
and then them finding out that there's not enough people to be a part of it.
Like that could be like, you know, thinking like, oh, maybe it's not meant to be.

(20:50):
But it didn't stop you. And you wanted to continue to pursue that and push forward.
And to both of you guys, like it didn't matter what like life in front of you,
whether it was a pandemic or a class getting canceled, like you still were both
willing to, you know, soldier on and freaking and do that thing and do what you wanted to do.

(21:12):
Absolutely. Yeah. I think it's in us and thank you to all the people that have surrounded me.
I'm sure it's the same for Jonathan with support and seeing, I don't know.
It's so funny talking about something that you're not passionate about.
People's eyes glaze over listening to you versus when you're passionate about something.

(21:35):
People see that spark in your eyes. Oh, yeah. You can definitely see it.
Curing your voice and the people that, the good people that you want to surround
yourself with are the ones that can really notice that and speak up and support
you in following those passions.
Yeah, because you have to have that fire in you, but having,
you know, you can still do it on your own.

(21:56):
But if you have that support system, that's, you know, that makes it even,
you know, even better because it just, it shows that you're not just like,
you know, people aren't just taking like, oh, he likes to brew.
But it's something like right when you have that like you know like this you're
passionate about this and that's something you want to do with for the rest
of your life and and if you're willing,
i always say if you're willing to work hard for something it'll happen

(22:17):
it's just a matter of you know putting in the work the dedication the you know
having that drive to want it yeah absolutely yeah i completely agree it's it's
been insane ride for sure this is never would have thought You know,
it's just one of those small dreams you think about,
like, you know, I'd like to make beer one day. Yeah.
And you're like, oh, you're doing it crazy. Yeah.

(22:42):
Insane oh yeah that reminds me of supportive people and then not the at the homebrew shop.
I remember they were they were asking me questions after i was going there for a little while.
And they're like so what's your like like what are you
up to i'm like well one day i want to open a brewery and they're like don't do
that they're like

(23:04):
master brewers and yeah and i'm and i was just
like i want to get good enough to brew beer good enough that that
you open a brewery and then that's it yeah good product right easy
yeah but they were
like don't do that and after
knowing the owners here they have
the same they love it

(23:27):
so much but they there's just always
a fire there's just always something and it's never easy but it
is the same driving force of passion and wanting need
to be in this industry and and the joys of of seeing
this place full of people drinking this product
and being in the space and enjoying what you're
making that that makes it all worth it absolutely yeah we've been given the

(23:49):
the tools to succeed here at the brewery you know we were able to push through
through the pandemic and because we had some such amazing beer amazing leadership
to guide us through the pandemic and honestly that's kind of keeps us motivated to
keep making good beer and kind of just keep going.
And I can't say thank you enough to the ownership here at Frogtown.

(24:10):
It's just so amazing. It's been, it's been like a family here and it is love
to keep it going. Absolutely.
Oh, for sure, man. You need like, it's because sometimes I feel like people
like, you know, they think of like, you know, because during the,
I shouldn't, let me, let me digress a little bit, but the.
When it comes to ownership, like sometimes people would just throw money at

(24:31):
something and think it's going to work, but you have to have the right people
in place and you have to and when you get those people because it does become like a family
like I'm sure you guys are close as shit you know when it comes to you know
like everything that you guys do,
It's crazy about like how the journey to get to where you want to go,
like where yours was like, you know, the class getting canceled.

(24:51):
Yours was your grandpa telling you to pursue it.
When you have like, you know, that drive to be able to continue and just,
I'm trying to think of the right words and I might have to edit this out,
but I'm probably going to leave it.
But just like when you can come together and it can put the right idea and you
don't have to come from the same.
Not everybody takes the same path to get right to where they want to go is what I was trying to say.

(25:14):
Get it together mike growth is
not linear oh for sure yeah because i
mean oh yeah i love that yeah but i've talked to like to even people like i
one of my favorite stories i ever heard from a brewer was uh naomi down at helia
in carlsbad she worked at a winery she never brewed before but then ended up
like like there was a local brewery like right next to the winery and she would

(25:37):
go there and she She just shadowed.
She never homebrewed, never did anything like that.
And then, you know, they, she shadowed and then Helia poached her and yeah.
And then now she's a head brewer down there. That's amazing.
Yeah. Isn't it crazy? Like everybody like, you know, cause not everybody has
the same path. Not everybody has the same journey.
The destination, everybody wants to brew good beer and put out a good product.

(25:59):
And even to the product aspect, like this hazy is amazing. And then the, was it ether?
The west coast was amazing.
Like, you can, you know, like I said, you can throw money at something that
doesn't make it doesn't necessarily.
It's not always necessary. I can't talk today.
Isn't always necessarily going to work.

(26:21):
So for you, the homebrew kit I wanted to ask you about, was it like one of those Mr. Beer kits?
Yeah, it was maybe, I think it was a three-gallon Rata Ale, and it was all extract brewing.
And we went through the whole process, and then we're like, yeah,
we're messing this up. Let's not do this.

(26:43):
That's the way we sought out for help and stuff like that. And then,
yeah, I went to Windsor, and they're like, what do you want to brew?
Brew yeah okay i want to brew like i don't know what do i want to brew yes you tell me,
he's like how about a belgian blonde like how about a belgian blonde
i'm like you know that sounds good actually i might do that what does that consist
of exactly and he's like you know you could use this hobby you could do this

(27:06):
and they're like what are hops again yeah you know it was it was a whole brand
new thing and it was amazing and it's still one of my favorite home brews that
we did with my buddy Neil.
We had Belgian Blonde with chamomile tea. And it's like very Christmassy.
It's my Christmas ale, essentially.
Bedtimes for tea. Oh, nice. One of our, my buddy's dog was Tigger.

(27:29):
And rest in peace. She was an amazing girl. So we used to call Bedtimes for tea. Bedtimes for tea.
And yeah, I named it after her. And it was, it's amazing. It's like a,
you know, blend between a Belgian Blonde with chamomile and hints of lemon.
In so just like really just in six five percent
that sounds it was it's delicious yeah i've heard good things
completely crushable i haven't brewed it in maybe three years

(27:52):
okay well it sounds like you need to brew that where christmas time absolutely
i think so right yeah i would say the closest thing is we have a wit beer belgian
wit beer here we we it's orange peel not the lemon but there is chamomile in
it nice yep and it's great.
What was your first homebrew, Josh? Mine, I think, was just a wit beer.

(28:15):
Okay. And it tasted medicinal.
Something went wrong. Some oxidization or something.
And I knew it. I knew that, like, it wasn't great.
My grandpa, it's so funny, like, four beers in, I'm doing, like,

(28:35):
coffee stouts that are, like,
partial grain and i i'm just like spending so much more time doing it so much
better my grandpa was like that but that first beer that first beer that one
hit the spot you love that grape probably,
like grape you almost like for the grape flavor things you
almost get like that medicinal kind of flavor exactly was it

(28:58):
that what it was it kind of that yeah it was it was that
yeah it was that grapey cherry the color was off robitussin yeah exactly here
the biggest thing i've learned in brewing is is to how you name it and how you
call this style you can be like oh it's supposed to taste like that,

(29:20):
that's normal it's the nyquil of beer,
the robitussin yeah yeah oh that's awesome what are your like because i know
everybody kind of like, oh, they love different things, but obviously brewing
with different styles of hops and stuff like that. What are some of your guys'
favorite styles of hops?
I feel like we gear towards, which is so popular, New Zealand. New, New Zealand.

(29:43):
Those blends are insane. Are you kidding me?
Those blends are so crazy. Take my money.
I think we heard the name Nectar and we're like, Nectar, we're on kind of deals. We need to try this guy.
And it's so crazy to think how hops have evolved and how they just continue

(30:05):
to evolve. and it's just like, we got to try all of them, you know,
and we've been trying a little bit more and more and experimenting a lot more.
Like for example, that everything under the sun, this is the second iteration of it.
And, you know, for me, I was never a really big fan of hazy beers.
And I think I looked at Josh, I'm like, I want to make a hazy beer that I actually want to drink.

(30:27):
And I think we kind of collaborated together and
just kind of came up with this recipe and the first
one was great but then we came up with a new blend
lotus okay lotus was just like orange
and vanilla flavors and then depending on
how you use it could also be like a smuckers
like jam okay so we're like well we're i mean that sounds cool yeah maybe another

(30:51):
beer that's fun but i don't want smuckers i want orange i want you know vanilla
and then we already were We're using Eclipse for this beer and just that combination
of mandarin and orange and it's just a burst of citrus.
It just became one of my favorite beers and like finally a hazy that I can drink.
And that's ultimately our goal here is to make beers that we want to drink.

(31:14):
The consumer, you know, can have their say, but ultimately, you know,
I drink more here than most consumers.
Oh, that's what they always say, like you brew one for them and one for you. Yeah, exactly.
Two for me and one for you. Yeah, there you go. But honestly,
this one, though, this Everything Under the Sun, it's like you get those citrusy
notes to it, but it's super smooth.

(31:35):
It has a really easy finish.
It's not something where it's super heavy. Because don't get me wrong,
I'm not the biggest hazy guy. I like them.
When they're done right. Right. Because it doesn't have to be like this.
Because if you have like four or five hazies, you're like, after a while.
That's why I stick to a lot of West Coast or Pilsner's lagers,
stuff like that. Right. But if a hazy's done right, like this one,

(31:56):
I could drink this all day.
Thank you. Yeah. It's super bright. Yeah.
And yeah, when we were working on the recipe, Eclipse was the main focus.
We had both tried a beer that right when Eclipse came out and it blew us away.
And we're like, all right, we need to make a beer with that. And then shelved that.
And then the conversation of like, I want to make a good hazy that like we really, really love.

(32:22):
And then those two ideas, those two like thoughts kind of came together.
And part of it was making like, there's a lot of Pilsner malt in it.
Something super simple. I can see that.
And highlighting the hops, but easy drinking, super bright.
And yeah, it worked out. It's floral, it's citrusy. Do you have a little,
you know, those, you know, those different notes to it, man? It's fire.

(32:44):
Yeah. So absolutely. Definitely. The newer hops that are coming out are very enticing.
We want to keep working with those, but also sometimes, you know,
go a little traditional, you know, don't mind using the, the CTZ Columbus, Tomahawk and Zeus.
Those are, there's still fun too, you know?
So, you know, for our home brew, I think we stick to the classics,

(33:06):
but when we do commercial stuff i think we experiment a lot more now more than
the way we used to when we started yeah,
there's new zealand hops though man like like you what you guys are doing with those like.
Anything new zealand like i would say take my money but because
i want to go so bad just go to the hot fields out there and then
also to see hobbiton because i'm a huge world of

(33:26):
the rings nerd something that killed two
birds one stone yeah with that but yeah and like
rilaka mutweka like anything with that like
yeah just just take all my money yeah it's
yours yeah so but no this is killer and you
guys can this uh yes we do all right well yeah we actually buy
one of those yeah this is the first batch it's sold

(33:48):
out oh there might be
there might be somewhere that we can find for you well okay we'll take a look
at our inventory our our wonderful gm kelly worked on on that label and we actually
all like him did some drawing and talking and, and came up with the label for that one.

(34:09):
And I think it, it really helped sell the beer and it was, it's cool. It's cool. Yeah.
No, it's great too. When I love, because you said this is a second iteration of this, right?
That one. And I, I'm sure listeners probably get tired of me saying it,
but I love, I love the fact that brewers are never, never okay with what they made.

(34:29):
You're like, all right, yeah, this is good, but I can make it better. Oh, yeah.
And that's what I love and I would never want to get to the level at a brewery
that's so big that everything is,
it's got to be perfect on the first time and there's no change or else it has to be a new beer.

(34:49):
Like, I love that we have our favorites here and we're getting better as brewers every single day.
You may think like, okay, like what else is there?
Every brew i do there's something that i know
something that i want to do differently the next time
and then and then you're getting that final product as long
as as long as you like i don't know have the notes

(35:10):
and you have everything going for you you can
go back and be like i just want to tweak this one thing yeah
and see how and it's it's so satisfying it's so
satisfying to to make those tweaks and and lights
out was one of that those for us this beer has been
basically around round since the birth of
the brewery and we won an award for it i

(35:31):
believe at california state fair like 2019 2019
was the first time we received the bronze for this lights
out check pills and then most recently runs for the brewer's cup of california
that's so big yeah it's been great it was awesome congrats to you guys yeah
thank you thank you it's it's been you know we're still a small enough brewery

(35:52):
where we can get away with you know tweaking little things and you know which is the fun part for us.
We're definitely always trying to get better and be better and very thankful
for our Czech Pils to have won an award.
And this is honestly maybe the third iteration of it, if I may say.

(36:12):
We started out in 2019 brewing this beer, and then we've kind of just like,
what if we do this? What if we do that? What if we do this?
And it still comes out amazing.
Yeah but ultimately i think we went back to basics with
this recipe and kind of just dialed in more of our
overall process and efficiency and

(36:33):
you know water and everything and kind of just you know but we're still improving
it you know we're still trying to make it better you know we're grateful for
the bronze but you know it's gotta be gold it's gotta be gold or nothing damn
right and i love that because it's never good enough yeah i mean that's even for me for this
It's to me, like, it can be a phenomenal episode, but like, all right,

(36:54):
what can I do to make the next one better?
And you guys have, I mean, that's why I love brewers. There's a never-ending
drive to want to make something even, like, you know, just like that much more gratifying.
And, you know, even for customers, like, I'm sure, like, it's probably great
for when you guys see a customer drinking the beer that you brewed and you're
like, and they're enjoying it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There's nothing like it.

(37:18):
I'm lucky enough. I'm the only one that I work one day a week.
Like, I'm working tonight. Yeah. Serving beers tonight. Starting right now.
What are you talking about tonight?
You're working right now open this up and it's
great like i as much as
i my passion is not
pouring beers it's it's

(37:41):
making beer i really really don't i wouldn't want to give up the like the day
of getting feedback of seeing people's faces uh being able to kind of take extra
time to explain beers um it's great being it's usually saturdays our busiest days and lots of times.

(38:01):
All the the beer tenders will be able to like we
actually have one of the brewers here like if
you have a question and i can step aside and have a conversation with them and
that's awesome i think that's super special and i i could talk about beer some
people like oh my god thank you so much for yeah for talking about beer i'm
like this is all i want to do so yeah thank you and beer education Education

(38:24):
is super important too, especially when you're at, when you're at a brewery and if you're working,
you know, be able to talk to somebody like, oh, did you get these,
you know, even if it's like subtle notes,
you can say, did you get this subtle note from this or from that?
Or depending on which style of beer, which beer you're pouring,
you know, it's cool to be able to, to talk to somebody like that when they have
that type of education and, you know, be able to just,

(38:46):
you know, point those things out to someone that maybe is not as familiar with craft beer.
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I think being so deep into making beer and being
obsessed with craft brewing and all that,
and knowing the process so well that you forget somebody might drink beer every

(39:07):
single day and not know anything about how it's made.
I think most people are like me in that the more you know about the process and how it's,
better something tastes and the more interesting and and i love doing i love
just beers also at its core like you can start off that conversation at such

(39:28):
a simple point like it's four ingredients,
yeah and they're like okay i can do that i can i can i can i can i can uh take that in and
understand that and i don't know i i i love just a simple amount of education
that gives a little bit more appreciation to the beer.

(39:49):
And I think most people love hearing about it. Oh, yeah.
There's a few people that their eyes just completely, they're like, I just want a hazy sir.
What's your favorite? Just give it to me, please. I asked you to just pour me a beer.
Definitely want to take a quick second to appreciate Josh. He's been a strong
asset for our brewing team.

(40:10):
And honestly, he's pushed me to be better as well. And, you know,
it's definitely because of him that we're, we're here, we're celebrating,
you know, getting awards.
I mean, awards don't mean much, but you know, the fact that we're getting them,
it's, it's really says a lot to his dedication and brewing.
And I just want to say thank you. Damn, dude. I know.
Maybe it's the beer. Maybe it's just you. Oh, we got a festival. I love you guys.

(40:33):
Looking at me. Oh my God. Yeah. We got a great team back here.
Oh yeah. And I also want to shout out to Art real quick.
Art. Down at the end of the table. Yeah. la
is it la is it underscore brew life okay la
underscore brew life because i would just say la brew life on ncm i mean
on the show i'm sorry but yeah la underscore brew
life honestly for setting this up yeah it's amazing

(40:55):
i mean he's he did it with me with john over
at over a native son he's you know we're trying to
set up some other ones too but he's been honestly he's a
great fan and he's just a great person overall and he
puts out a lot of good stuff and he he's the one that's
kind of motivating me to come down to the LA area to
talk to more breweries talk to more brewers kind of

(41:17):
more breweries and stuff like that so super appreciative of
him so shout out shout out LA underscore brew life on Instagram great yep art's
amazing thanks for coming in guys thanks for the caps oh yeah absolutely gray
hat yeah there it is perfect right in this rusty old frog town hat deadhead suck deadhead suck.

(41:39):
I have a big head there you go the truth
comes out is it fitted fitted only for your snapbacks or
what do you yeah i do both i do fitted snapbacks but yeah
my head's too big for dad's head so yeah i'm just embarrassed i like the rope
hats but i mean well it's fitted and snapbacks for me but i do love the rope
hats too oh it looks like we're sold out of ours those as well we had we had

(42:02):
a few of those yeah you're talking about the ones with like yeah yeah yeah the ones art Art gave us.
Yeah, I love those. Those are good. It's very comfortable.
For sure. Didn't want to ask you guys because I was about to ask.
Favorite style to brew and drink?
I love brewing a sour, a kettle sour.

(42:22):
Okay. We don't do them very often, but it's, I don't know.
I love the process of, I love the danger.
Hey, I'm scary. And then on the opposite end, I love like a very complicated, darker, like grist.

(42:42):
Like I love being able to work with a bunch of different malts that like,
I mean, I mean, I touch so much Pilsner malt. I touch so much Turo.
And then sprinkling in a few things here and there.
And I just love a darker beer that you can really play around with using so
many different malts in the mash temps and just seeing how that turns out and focusing on those.

(43:06):
You can really taste it before and after. Yeah. So I think those are my two
hits. When you said danger, though, I thought the song, you know that song, Danger?
Can we add that in? I don't know the song, so I can do like two or three seconds
before they come out for me.
I'm playing with dynamite. There you go. I want to stay away from you.

(43:28):
First time anybody's ever sung on the podcast. There we go. And it would be Jonathan.
No matter how hard I try, cause it's dangerous. There it is. Boom. Nailed it.
I'm going to grab it. That was my jam, dude. That's my jam. I'm going to auto-tune
your voice right there just to like, boom. You sound like T-Pain.
I'll buy you a drink. Okay. Yeah. All right. That's it. Cut them off.

(43:52):
For me, brewing, honestly, brewing just excites me.
But for me, just brewing with new ingredients is always fun for me.
Yeah. You know, the complexity of what can happen.
You're just like, you throw an ingredient in and you're like, what's going to happen?
I don't know. I'm excited. Yeah. You know? And that's the fun part for me.

(44:12):
So it's essentially any style, but just new ingredients, things that I haven't done before,
something brand new, you know, like very complex, like styles,
you know, it's, it's still something that we're working towards,
but, um, yeah, I like brewing in general, but new ingredients,
I'd say that's, that's my favorite thing.

(44:32):
And not being able to, because some people are scared of change.
So, like, when you have new stuff coming out, they're like, oh,
I might just stick with what I had.
But going back to that Brewer's thing, like, you're wanting to, like, oh, this is new.
It's like, what new toy can I use, can I play with today? Yeah.
That's craft brewing. That's micro craft brewing.

(44:54):
We have the ability to, we don't have millions of people that are expecting the same beer.
And it's kind of what we got.
We don't have scientists back here making sure that the Natty Light tastes exactly
like the last billion batches of Natty Light. Like, it's supposed to be exciting.

(45:20):
People are supposed to come in and be able to look at a menu and have a few
things that are safe if they're just looking for something that tastes like
a Modelo. Yeah, we got that for you.
But they also want to look at a menu and see something that they can't get anywhere
else, not even at a craft brewery.
And we try to keep up with that. And that's the fun.

(45:40):
It's like homebrewing. You can take it a step further where you're doing just,
something that half the time is undrinkable it's funny exactly and then here
you can when we're doing these 15 barrel batches sometimes if it's really weird
like 10 barrel batches you can get weird with it and that it's so exciting it's

(46:03):
it's alchemy like i still pinch myself sometimes,
at how cool brewing beer is yeah you you look at it and and you add these four ingredients
and and you could taste this thing
and it you just have to kind of like know what each
ingredient does because two weeks later it's something completely different

(46:24):
yeah and sometimes it's really really good yeah you gotta get drunk off of it
yeah and sometimes you like you find those like random things that hit and you're
like oh fuck like we're sold out already we gotta make yeah.
Then also people love special releases they love like
specific things like oh this is going to be out well if you're cracking one

(46:44):
i'm cracking it no absolutely and you know one of the things that we do here
that we've been trying to do more often and you know definitely come out for
the summer is we do a lot of collaborations with a lot of the tiki community
and one of my favorite beers to
also brew is the owners here at Frogtown love to give you drinks, cocktails,

(47:08):
and that's kind of what inspired Painkiller, who used to be one of those beers
that we brewed maybe once, twice a year, has become a popular,
one of our core beers because Adam loves painkillers.
So just beer iteration of these cocktails has been really fun.
So during the summer, we do a lot of these types of
beers where we get the flavors of these cocktails

(47:31):
and kind of come up with a beer recipe that complements those
cocktails and it's it's those are probably a lot of fun coming up in the next
summer or this the next coming months it's gonna be a lot of fun i know the
first one that we're doing is called spin drift so it's it's our sour seven
percent orange or lime and i think Passion fruit? Passion fruit.

(47:53):
Passion fruit. And lemon.
Yeah. And vanilla. Yeah. And it's just amazing.
It's so great. And shout out other owner, Gustavo.
He's huge in the tiki culture and going to the tiki bars.
Knows every owner. Like going out with him to a tiki bar is so fun.
Find those like Tiki Tony and all them too. Absolutely. Yeah. And...

(48:17):
We had a few we had like brown magic which
is the black magic and tiki cocktail
and that's our version and we had painkiller yeah we've
maybe like one more and then we started this tiki series
i think two years ago and this is gonna be the third year that we
do it what jonathan was saying like each month we
do a new tiki beer release yeah based off

(48:38):
a cock tiki cocktail and half of the months
maybe even more we're bringing back the like favorites
either from new ones from the previous year or
or super favorites and painkiller doesn't count painkillers
just always on yeah but we do an r and
d at gustavo's house he's a great he's
a great bartender mythologist and if if

(49:00):
you've had tiki cocktails you know these things you just like slurp them down
because they taste so good but they're four shots and a floater on top so we're
stumbling out of his house after these r and D hangouts and, and,
but we usually come out with a pretty good idea at how we can make a beer.

(49:24):
That's, that's a homage to, to that cocktail and try to mimic what you like
about that cocktail, but still be beer.
Yeah. Because we're not just trying to make, there's some breweries that,
that you go and you want to taste something and it's like, Oh,
this tastes literally exactly like carrot cake or whatever, and it's that thick,

(49:45):
and it's that sweet as well.
But I think we're trying to, why not just eat carrot cake?
Versus I think we try to take the favorites, the notes, things that people really
love about it, and make a beer version and make it beer and make it,
but still keep it being an homage.

(50:06):
And I think we have some favorites, absolute favorites.
Those have been a lot of fun and you know can't
say enough of how just delicious those beers come out sometimes it's just like
so all these fruit elements and then we you know playing with ingredients to
come up with rum flavors you know because most of these cocktails are rum based

(50:26):
so it's just playing with that idea and you know at the end of the day it's
just it's just so much fun But yeah,
I look forward to Aloha Sundays coming up starting April to October,
typically the last week of the month. We have Aloha Sundays.
We have a band that comes out and we have vendors that come out and it's just

(50:47):
amazing weekend or amazing Sunday.
So we usually have a beer release for those events as well. So definitely something that I'm very proud of.
Awesome, man. It's a good time. Oh, sounds like it. Kick ass. Yeah.
So tell us a little bit about the beers you have on tap currently.
Like are some of your favorites that you have on the menu? You want to start?

(51:11):
No, you can start. Political answer. I love them all.
Yeah, so we have a very, I love seeing how our menu throughout the seasons change.
We have it split between light, hoppy, funky slash sours and dark beer, dark malty beers.

(51:32):
And it's so funny seeing how these lists, they change.
Summer comes up. Yeah. The light section starts growing and growing and the
dark section dwindles down to one or two. I just want crispy boys all day. Yeah.
Hey, me too. Yeah. This is the season. Yeah. But coming out of winter right

(51:52):
now, I mean, I'm looking up at it and we have six dark beers on right now and I just love to see it.
And they range from 4.7 being our Dunkelweizen versus our Prince George,
which is our anniversary beer, 11.1%.
Yeah. And I just, I can't get enough of these dark beers.

(52:17):
When it's cold, when it's raining like it is today, it just warms you up.
And Prince George will always be my favorite beer, I think, of all time.
I love the label of that. I was telling Jonathan earlier, it reminded me of Mr. Toad.
Because, like, I mean, yeah, because it's a ride at Disneyland.
No one's paid sponsorship on Disneyland.
It's a good ride, honestly. But the, like the book, the wind in the willows,

(52:41):
like Toad Manor, like the crack, his crest that they described,
because you can't see it in the book, but it's described him how that,
that crest looks like on his house.
And when I saw that logo, I was like, oh, I need one of those stickers for sure.
Yeah, Jonathan gave me a couple. Yeah, so our Prince George, we do it every year.

(53:02):
Aged and bourbon, whiskey barrels for eight to ten months, depending.
And then we do a variant of it.
This year, we are doing Heaven Hill, which is amazing.
And then we're also doing a special rum barrel variant as well.
So definitely keep an eye out for that.
But yeah, it's definitely a great beer. Yeah, we try to do a little bit of everything for everybody.

(53:25):
You know like we were talking about you know we get
all sorts of walk of life that come in here and want to
try something you know beer for the first time or you
know maybe just don't want beer we offer some non-alcoholic drinks as well at
seltzer you know we're moving forward to a place where craft beer is everything
meaning like it there's no you know there's you can have whatever you want go

(53:50):
to a brewery you can have seltzer you can have cider you can have any kombucha
maybe Maybe potentially,
you know, it's like everybody's trying to do a little bit of everything to bring people in the door.
And once you get them in the door, then that's it. You know,
that's how you keep business going.
Yeah. And I think we do a really good job about that.
You know, we started doing the seltzer cocktails, which we get a base seltzer,

(54:12):
age that in rum and bourbon barrels and kind of use that as our base and just
make cocktails out of it.
You know, or mimic as close to the cocktails that we have, you know,
serve it on ice, a little lime, you know, just to create that experience that
you're at a cocktail bar when you're essentially at a brewery.
So, you know, it's just creating that environment for our customers to be able

(54:35):
to hang out, enjoy whatever you want as far as, you know, at the end of the
day, you go to a brewery to socialize. Oh yeah.
And, you know, some lubrication, you know, a little liquid courage you know
and we want to create that experience yeah and I think you and I were talking
a little bit before we started about how the.

(54:58):
There's obviously trends within craft beer. You have, you know,
you had the Haze Craze, you had the Summer of Seltzer, you had all these different things.
But I honestly feel like those craft cocktails are going to be the next one.
Because like you said, you're not just bringing in people from,
you're bringing in the craft beer people for your stuff, but then you also have the seltzer people.

(55:19):
And then you can almost combine the two and then you can bring it and then also
bring in those people that just love to go to bars and have a drink.
You know and they can have that part that they're still
getting that taste out of it like you know with being asian bourbon
barrels or whiskey barrels stuff like that or
rum barrels for that matter when you have that you're
bringing in a completely different audience because they're coming in and try

(55:40):
one thing but then they'll probably try something else absolutely and then you're
developing that trust within you know like like within that community and like
they're gonna continue like oh man we should go back there again because of
this cocktail that they had so Yeah,
absolutely. And I think that.
It's so funny, people coming in, like Jonathan was saying, we're trying to provide

(56:03):
an experience for people.
And we have events here. We got a stage outside and a beautiful little beer garden.
And people have their birthdays here.
And unfortunately, some people come in and be like, I hate beer.
So what do you got for me? Or I have celiac or whatever. Like, what do you got for me?
And we got that. We started off with the hard seltzer.

(56:25):
And then obviously with gustavo being really into cocktail culture and take you culture and,
everything any way that we can that's where
the creative juices flow and trying to
like what can we get away with like how can we serve a
cocktail something that a lot of people are more

(56:46):
comfortable holding and drinking than big
pint glass yeah full of full of liquid bread
yes and and we've we
figured that out and and we we try to make
it something that we would drink as well because hard
seltzer wasn't necessarily either of our thing but we really like tried to make

(57:10):
a craft and something that something that's interesting and really cool and
and taking taking the hard seltzer and barrel aging it and tasting that just
out in the barrel and being like wow wow, that's really interesting and cool,
which is rarely something you say about plain seltzer.
And then being able to do whatever. It's a spirit at that point.

(57:32):
Yeah, it's like a sandbox. You can do whatever you want. Absolutely.
And we serve it in a highball glass with a craft cube, ice cube, and a garnish.
And we hand that over and people are very surprised.
That's awesome, dude. And they love it. So I'm glad that we can,
I don't know, You get creative to create an experience and make somebody feel

(57:54):
at home the way that we feel when we're around here.
And it might also change, because like I said, not to just go back to.
Never being done but like you can do something
completely different at a left field that's like you know
because okay think of like 2008 when it
was like stone and carl strauss back then it was like you know you know fizzy

(58:17):
yellow beers for wussies stuff like that right where now like look where it
is now yeah right like you know how much like the industry has grown not just like Obviously,
with the amount of breweries out there, but just what people are putting out.
Because lagers are back. Pilsners are back. West Coast are back.

(58:39):
And thank God. Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, don't get me wrong. Like I said, I love a good hazy.
Take me back to Stone being 21 and Stone being like, arrogant bastard,
200 IBUs, punch you in the throat. Oh, dude.
That was the first bird crap I ever had. And I was like, what the fuck is this? Yep.
I was like, my palate was not ready for that. Nope. Not even a little bit.

(59:04):
But where craft beer is at now? Like, it's exciting for me and Art.
Shout out to Art again. Art. He knows this.
Like, for me, it's like anything crispy.
Put that shit in my mouth and take my money. Yeah. We'll come by this summer.
We have some big plans for Crispy Boys.
It's going to be a Crispy Boy summer. There we go. Crispy. Short shorts and everything. Yep.

(59:32):
I have to see jonathan in shorts there you go brewing they literally say which
jonathan that's all i gotta say.
And i totally forgot because we were talking about the beers on tap but
there's one beer in particular i wanted to talk about because
it's called the war on sobriety yeah and i
and i want you to you told me this story yeah briefly tell

(59:54):
that story war on sobriety it's it's an
amazing beer it's it's probably one of the collaborative efforts
with adam and that he
when he was in college he mentioned that there was like a fraternity
situation where you can bounce around between fraternities and it's i believe
it was a weekly event and it's called just war on sobriety they give you a shirt

(01:00:15):
i mean which is like a tea this is war on sobriety and i just go around and
just get hammered and to clarify weekly as in it lasted a week right yeah Yeah,
daily for a week. Yeah. Which I can't tell which one's worse.
But yeah, with his college friend, Rob, you know, shout out to Rob.

(01:00:36):
Yeah, they came up with this recipe and it's just been such an amazing double IPA.
It's still definitely one of my favorites. Definitely during the pandemic,
I drank a lot of it. 10% double IPA.
But yeah, it's a really fun beer, really fun name.
A lot of people come and see that name. And I'm like, oh, yeah,

(01:00:57):
we're always fighting the war on sobriety.
I'm like, well, you came to the right place, bud. That's pretty much how that goes.
Oh, man. And I love that story. And that's why I made sure I came over to put
it on my notes to bring that up.
You guys are also, like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode,
you guys are a hop, a skip, and a jump away from Dodger Stadium. Yeah, absolutely.

(01:01:21):
Tell us about what beers you have over there. Currently, we just have our Kinky
Blonde, which is amazing to have.
I know we started it a little bit last year, but yeah, we were fortunate enough
to be selected into getting our beer back there.
So it's definitely, we don't know exactly where it's at.
I know last year it was towards the barbecue spot, but I forget that it's like the right pavilion.

(01:01:42):
In but yeah we're gonna have our kinky blonde ale there and it's
it's definitely a 5.2 crushable it's
just an amazing beer it's it's our number one
seller honestly and it's just it's you know
it's it's one of those beers that just starts
you up with craft beer it just reminds you of the first beer
you had where it's just like the introduction of

(01:02:04):
it and i think we've been doing a really good job to the
point where we've had to improve our process and
we've had to do more loads of it just because the demand
is there for this style of beer and for our beer
and we're just very fortunate to have it that it's it's i
can't even describe last year just having a kinky blonde
ale watching the dyers it was

(01:02:24):
i can't i was like i made this like yeah i
yelled it out at one point i was like i did this this is
my beer yes i did this drink it it's my beer they're
losing and yeah you know you know but it's man it's just a dream come true completely
it's just oh man yeah i've been in la my whole life and yeah man that's a big

(01:02:46):
dodger fan over here it's been it's insane and break your heart yeah they'll
break you they'll break your fucking heart.
But yeah so definitely you know
we're working on a couple things to you know to to bring
that beer because that's a universal beer you know it's one
of those beers that you can have anywhere any occasion
and you know kudos to the owners

(01:03:08):
who created that beer you know we just we
just brew it yeah when it's you know i'm happy to
brew it i'm actually brewing that right after this okay so just
because the demand is so high i'm here on a saturday yeah you
know so it's it's just too good
but yeah it's it's it's that's all i can say about that and that's one
that we don't touch the recipe okay it does

(01:03:29):
not change over time well we've tweaked it to
slight modifications yeah slight modifications i
mean we're still trying to perfect it you know we're always trying to make it
better of course but the essence of it is just still there and it's it's not
going to change i think you know i think we're i think that's one of those beers
that we've been the most consistent with okay and that's honestly the hardest

(01:03:51):
part about brewing the consistency and it's just it's just a great beer we don't.
We yell to each other, don't fuck it up. Don't fuck it up. You're ruining it.
Too late. Josh, you son of a bitch.
Yeah. That's their number one rule here at the brewery. Don't fuck it up. Yeah.
Super simple. Super simple. But harder, easier said than done. Yeah. No.

(01:04:16):
But it's one of those beers that, thank God, we started getting bigger tanks.
Because when I came in, we had the five 15 barrels and a bright tank.
And kinky would always be in two of them and it
was just brewing it constantly we couldn't do too
many we'd like try to squeeze in new things but it

(01:04:39):
was mostly just focusing on the cores and yeah and every once
in a while we could like get oh let's do a new thing we got
a tank open that's crazy and then so we got the two
a year into me being here so got the
two 30 barrels and that just changed the game we could throw kinky in there
at all times and and we have these one Another 30 that's open and then five

(01:05:01):
other tanks at all times that we don't have to have two being kinky and we get to try new things.
We get to do our cores, have more of our cores on it at each time and then at
all times and then also make so many more new beers.
And so my time here has just been like...

(01:05:23):
Golden era to join a brewery because we've been
able to write so many recipes together and
and make so many new beers at the
same time as as really honing and practicing a
very well-known beer that that regulars would
taste and if it was off they would they would be able
to know it and so would we obviously i've drank no other

(01:05:44):
beer more than kinky and and being
able to like do the two different sides of of trying to
just make it as good as
as we know it should be every single time and then
being able to get weird in our other tanks yeah and we actually just got a new
and the 60 barrel outside i don't know if you saw it i didn't see it it's intimidating

(01:06:06):
it's four turns because we have a 15 barrel brew house so we do a double double
brew day it's super fun but that This summer,
that thing's going to be full at all times. Love it. Hopefully.
Keep Dodgers going. There you go. Yep.
You got to fuel Otani. There you go. Yeah.
You got to pay all that deferred money. Yep. You got to get it.

(01:06:32):
Let's get into that. There you go. One question I always love when I have brewers
on is, what's the worst brew day you've ever had?
Whether it's homebrew or it's professional level. Pumpkin.
It's always pumpkin. pumpkin so we we do our imperial pumpkin ale broken beer
it's called broken vessel,
is that why it's not broken vessel because it's stuck

(01:06:54):
mash or what now it is yeah it
breaks everything every single time it's such a great basically you add pumpkin
500 pounds or whatever we add so much where once our hands are broken vessels
our forearms because we do can't we bring open can openers. Oh, yeah, opening cans.

(01:07:15):
And it's about like 50 cans of pumpkin added straight to the mash.
Yeah, let's put it this way. A typical brew day is anywhere from five to six hours.
Whenever we brew this pumpkin ale, don't make dinner plans.
No nightcap for you. This is going to be an all-nighter.

(01:07:35):
Okay but it's such a great beer to brew
but yeah it's just dealing with pumpkin it's just
funny it's and it's a thick boy it's an
imperial imperial pumpkin ale so it's it's
definitely up there but yeah i'd say that's probably our
our hardest brew to brew just
becomes orange concrete in the mash yeah it's like

(01:07:56):
what is that that cocktail the cement mixer
that shot that shot you
put in like baileys in your mouth and like i've never heard
of that but let's go look at that cement mixer now we
have to try that so where are we going after this it's like when you're 21
and it's like can you want a shot oh yeah yeah um give my friend a cement mixer
and it just curls in your mouth and just like yeah that's yeah that sounds rough

(01:08:20):
the cinnamon challenge for adults well it was before the cinnamon it's like
the what is it the the green lizard or the Oh, Lizard Shot.
A tiki tea. A tiki tea. Shout out tiki tea. Oh, geez.
One other question I would love to ask at the end of every episode is,
favorite thing to, or favorite food to eat with a beer?

(01:08:43):
And it could be pizza, tacos, burgers, or wings.
And if there's something outside of that that you like to have with a burger,
I mean with a beer, then feel free.
I think we talked about this earlier when we were talking about Whittier, Uptown Whittier 6740,
Hot Wings Watching the Lakers Amazing IPA
That's my bread and butter That's it Just give me

(01:09:04):
Hot Wings An IPA The Lakers Yeah That's
it for me First time I read Pliny was at 6740 Yeah
That spicy with IPA Works so well Oh yeah I think it's It's gotta be a burger
Yeah I love a good burger Especially a good smash burger Like are you like a
Smash burger or thick I love a smash burger He has a saying that it goes like, fuck Smashburgers.

(01:09:29):
Okay, fuck Smashburgers. Fuck Smashburgers.
Oomph, oomph, fuck Smashburgers. I've come around.
I love a good Smashburger. Like Grumpy Old Man, okay?
But there's also this really cool food truck that comes by here that just came
by the other day, Stuck Ups.
And they kind of do, it kind of looks like an old school McDonald's labeling

(01:09:51):
or whatever. And they're called stuck-ups because they basically do...
They basically do all the corporate but stuck up versions.
Like just better ingredients.
Better ingredients, better pizza, Papa John's. Exactly.
This isn't a paid sponsorship. This is sponsorship.

(01:10:14):
Papa John's will do that in. Yeah, that's fine.
They're going to look for you, not for me. But yeah, it's so good.
So good with a lager. or just something.
Or a red ale, honestly. I love something that is a little bit sweeter,
roastier, has a little bit of body, but goes down easy.

(01:10:37):
But we actually do, we've done a couple pairings at the brewery. That's right.
And we've done, like for National Donut Day, we paired up with Donut Friend and we got a couple.
Is it like a pastry stout or what is that? So actually it's not a collaboration
in that way. It was a day where we did food pairing.

(01:10:58):
So we got, for us, R&D is like one of the best days ever, where they sent us
a bunch of donuts, like every single one that they have.
And we poured all the beers that we have and basically like went down and be
like, well, what we know about this beer and food pairing and our palates and this donut.

(01:11:19):
We would pair it to like three different beers with
that donut and choose the one that works the
best and some of them were just I would say at
the end the the flight of four four doughnuts
four beers was all of them were
just unbelievable and we did that with cheese
as well yeah and one of the one of the

(01:11:40):
best ones you think cheese and wine but yeah if
you do it right oh my god I can't see any wine pairing
with a blue cheese as well as Warren's variety does wow
it's a match made yeah oh that was a crazy pairing
so when's the next r&d day yeah yeah come
on by i'm like i'll jump in the
last time we did yeah we did the cheese pairing for our

(01:12:01):
anniversary yeah typically our anniversary is in october we
do like a four-day event five-day event depending on how how
fun we're feeling but last year we did a the cheese pairing he's talking about
right now it's it was just phenomenal but yeah occasionally we'll try to do
food pairings here and trying to get people in and you know just because our
beers are just too good to not pair with food and who doesn't love food and we,

(01:12:28):
gotta give people what they want and the good thing about food the great thing
about food other than pairing well I'll make you a good smash I'm coming around
there you go I mean trips that come down they're great I mean people are gonna
hear this because this comes out three weeks from tomorrow.
WrestleMania would have been technically where we'd be in the future when this
episode comes out. Yeah. But WrestleMania is next week.

(01:12:50):
If you want to, I'm not making smash burgers, but do you like barbecue? Oh, yeah.
And so you live in Montebello, so you're going to be down the street.
So in Pico by South Ranchito where my uncle is. Oh, hold on. I probably cut up.
Give me your address and your blood type real quick. Yeah. Social security.
I'm going to be making pork belly burn-ins.
I'm going to be making chicken sausage burn-ins from Mama's Kitchen over here in LA.

(01:13:16):
Give me your menu for Sunday because I'm definitely down for Sunday.
Sunday's boneless wings.
I'm probably going to make like
200 or 300 boneless wings. Because I am doing the LA Beer Fest the 6th.
Sunday would probably be the better one because it's going to be the end of
the show. So I'm down. The story ends.
Does it end? Does it not end?
I can cut in two different things right here.

(01:13:38):
We can say Cody Rhodes won Rocky sucks yeah
or we can say Roman won oh shit and then I can cut that yeah we should do Roman
yeah but line loops and then like the story has ended yeah the story is fulfilled
and Cody I hope he wins me too that would be stupid like how are you gonna do
two years in a row yeah it's gotta happen yeah,

(01:14:01):
wrestling's fun oh it's the best it's so good I have the winged eagle oh my
favorite yeah that's that's That's the nineties attitude era.
Right now it's sitting in Nobles taproom.
Oh yeah. Go, go, go back and get it.
Kind of. Yeah. Noble. Yeah, they're great.
It was, uh, those are my boys, my boys, naughty sauce. Oh yeah. They're naughty sauce.

(01:14:23):
They're naughty. That blonde, that blonde stout. Oh yeah. I went to school there.
So that was, and I, I graduated in 2016.
So it was before green cheek was over there before, obviously what.
That was before Brad and Evan. Everywhere. Yeah. Brad and Evan. Yeah.
And so noble was, was the spot and I was there every day, dude,

(01:14:44):
watching the Laker game, watching anything that was playing on that big screen.
Yeah. Yeah, shout out to Evan, Brad, but even Windsor, too.
Like you mentioned earlier, Windsor, if you ever just want to go have some really
good beers from all over the place, Windsor, man.
You can find so many different beers on tap from all over the country.
Yeah, what did you have and then you brought back when you went to Windsor last?

(01:15:07):
I feel like it was sold out everywhere.
Oh, Trillium. Oh, yeah. Is it Trillium? Yeah, Trillium.
Yeah, they have some amazing beers. and
honestly you know we have a small homebrew club
that we do once a month kind of just experimental five
gallon what have you and i get all
my ingredients at windsor and have a couple beers there and just kind

(01:15:28):
of coast around and coast to mesa and it's just
so much fun so yeah definitely well i want to
sort of like thank you guys thank you for being on the show
thank you this is a lot of fun yeah yeah thanks
for getting me out of bed you're welcome i would still be be there right now
yeah no but honestly i just love doing this i love hearing from you like you
know hearing from people like you like in and beyond you know even coming from

(01:15:51):
you know different you know i said different journeys to get where you wanted
to but you're both doing what you love absolutely and to me that's all that matters.
Appreciate you guys and thanks for opening up the brewery to me early on a
rainy saturday morning in southern california
as long as it's not raining at wrestlemania we're good
yeah exactly no but normally this is

(01:16:12):
probably the rainiest season we've had in the one oh by far yeah and i'm not
a weatherman or anything like that but just calm the fuck down jesus yeah just
kidding lord bye all right i'm gonna end it with that thanks guys appreciate
you hi everyone i'm art and i'm jesus Seuss, and we are LA Brew Life.
And I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of the Taproom Podcast with Mike,

(01:16:33):
in which he interviewed Jonathan and Josh from Frogtown Brewery.
And because of that, we're going to review a Frogtown beer.
And just so you know, my brother, he's here from Denver.
He's visiting from Denver, so we took the opportunity to do a dual beer beer review.
So let's see what he thinks. So the beer is Split Decision Hef coming in at 5% ABV.

(01:17:00):
And what's interesting about this one is I was talking to the brewer,
Jonathan, and he was explaining that part of the aromas and the flavors,
which are hints of bananas and clove, he gets from the yeast they use,
which is very interesting.
And that's why I had this. I actually had this a couple of times,

(01:17:20):
but I'm kind of interested to see what you think about it and let's open it up.
And, Oh, but first my brother's also graphic designer, 3d renderer.
He does all our stuff and I want him to talk about what he thinks about the can art.
Yeah. That's kind of, that's kind of, it's really cool. I definitely like the

(01:17:43):
banana and the gears. It's very clever.
And yeah, it's like, yeah, I like that kind of ink-style drawing, which is great.
Yeah, it's very cool. I like the gears also. And just if anyone wants to check
out the actual can art, it's on our highlights on their LA can,
if you guys want to check it out. But now let's open it up.

(01:18:06):
That's always a good sound. Pour it. I can already smell the aromas. All right.
So smelling it, what are you getting? Oh, yeah, I can definitely smell the banana.
Yeah, I can smell the banana. And again, it's interesting because with beer,
it's, you know, there's four ingredients and I always learn something new.

(01:18:28):
And that's why in talking to Jonathan a couple of times, it always intrigues
me because I would never know that something like the aromas of bananas and
clove would come from yeast.
So just the fact that that's, we're getting that. And my niece is also here, Rosemary.
She's 21 and we're teaching her about beer. So it's a good thing. and.

(01:18:49):
She doesn't have a mic, but thumbs up or thumbs down. She's giving a thumbs up. So, okay.
So, definitely the aromas are there. Now, let's taste it.
I've had this before, and I personally love it.
What do you think about it? I like the subtleness of the banana. It's not overpowering.
That's great. Yeah.

(01:19:10):
Smooth. Yeah, it's very good. And, again, I hope you guys enjoyed the episode with Frogtown Brewery.
And salute everyone and yeah we're going to continue tasting this and enjoying it cheers,
alright guys well I hope you guys enjoyed that like I said it was really fun
for me got to you know hanging out and talk with them definitely go down to

(01:19:31):
Frogtown it's a really cool spot and really amazing beer can't wait for you
guys to see the real it was a it was a really fun to make so yeah next week
we do have the Geeks Who Drink episode and then the week after
that will be Campsite and I'm going to be recording next week next Sunday at Asylum.
So that should be pretty fun. Got a lot of stuff coming up. So stay tuned.

(01:19:53):
Alright and go Avalanche!
Music.