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Craft breweries have evolved into must-visit destinations for travelers seeking authentic cultural experiences across America. In this episode, we dive into why these local establishments offer so much more than just great beer—they're gateways to understanding a community's character, history, and values.

We share personal stories from breweries that left lasting impressions, from a plant bingo night in Minnesota to a pig farm brewery connection in Duluth where we tracked our dinner from farm to table. Through these experiences, we illustrate how breweries foster connections between travelers and locals in ways that traditional tourist destinations simply cannot match.

The conversation explores the unique atmospheres that make breweries special travel stops—rustic décor featuring local materials, bar tops made from single slabs of timber, outdoor patios perfect for stargazing, and game areas that encourage social interaction. We discuss how even non-beer drinkers can enjoy these spaces, with many breweries offering family-friendly environments, pet-friendly policies, and excellent food options through rotating food trucks showcasing local culinary talent.

For the more tech-savvy traveler, we examine how the Untapped app enhances brewery experiences by gamifying beer sampling while connecting enthusiasts worldwide. RV and van travelers will appreciate our deep dive into Harvest Host, a membership program that connects travelers with breweries offering overnight accommodations in exchange for patronage—a perfect way to support local businesses while experiencing America's craft beer scene.

As Oktoberfest approaches, there's no better time to add breweries to your travel itinerary. Whether you're seeking insider knowledge about a community, a place to socialize with locals, or simply a comfortable space to relax after a day of exploration, craft breweries deserve a prominent place on every traveler's map.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
We've got some great news to share with everyone that
happened this week.
And I do believe it's it's bothour upgrades, mate.
Both our upgrades.

SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Yes.
Do you love to travel?
Do you love road trips?
Do you love finding hiddentreasures in towns all over the
USA?

SPEAKER_02 (00:22):
Hi, I'm Josh.
And I'm Craig.
Welcome to Treasures of OurTown.
It's the podcast that exploresunique and charming towns
scattered throughout the UnitedStates.

SPEAKER_00 (00:29):
Sky the buyer love for location-based games like
geocaching.
Join us into venture into someof the country's most intriguing
destinations, uncovering hiddengems and local secrets along the
way.

SPEAKER_02 (00:38):
On today's episode, Josh, oh, this is so close to my
heart.
When you said to me we're goingto talk about this, I thought to
myself, oh Josh, you're you'rereally, you're really getting
tugging on my heartstrings here.
Basically, we're going to talkabout um traveling guided by
your love of beer today.

SPEAKER_00 (00:57):
Beer or breweries.

SPEAKER_02 (00:59):
Yeah, and beer or beer.
Like it's up to you.
So beer.
Beer.
Yes.
Beer or beer.
That's the one.
That's the one.
Oh, mate.
So uh first and foremost,though, we've got to get to uh,
you know, we've got some you andI, I think personally, we've got
some great news to share witheveryone that happened this
week.
And I do believe it's it's bothour upgrades, mate.

(01:19):
Both our upgrades.

SPEAKER_00 (01:20):
Yes.
We finally get to announce it.
We've known this for about threeweeks now.
I know.
And you know, when we did ourlast Gilby show, we talked about
that's where we were filming ourgeocaching international film
festival submission.
Both of us have been finalistsuh at one time or another.
Uh Craig has been a finalistnow, six times.

(01:44):
That's gotta be a record, Craig.
You are you are the king, youare the king of gifts.

SPEAKER_02 (01:50):
But I don't get any gifts for it.
So uh yeah, I've I'm actuallystill quite humble in regards to
it as well.
Uh when it did be announced,Josh, that you and I were uh
finalists, you know.
Uh we are both excited for it.
We're both happy for it, we'reboth pleased about it.
I told some people, and somepeople weren't even like phased
by it.
They're like, Yeah, we knew yougo in the final.
I'm like, don't be like me, likeScott Burks.

(02:12):
I'll I'll I'll shout him out.
Scott Burks, especially.
He's like, he said to me, Craig,you surely you would have known
that you and Josh togethercombined now, you're definitely
gonna be in the final.
I go, you're not guaranteed,Scott.
It's never guaranteed.
And so I never guaranteeanything in my life, Josh.
Um, that's one thing I do is Ilive by day by day.
I mean, that's part of my vanlife as well, and we're gonna

(02:33):
talk more about that uh intoday's episode.
But living day by day, it youhave a different outlook on
life.
You know what I mean?
You don't uh because you thinkabout it, if if you and I were
going, oh yeah, we're definitelygonna be in it, we're
definitely, and then we weren't,then can you imagine how much of
a down play that is?
How how you come off that thatthat you fall literally you fall
off that cliff.

(02:53):
Um whereas if you if you're ifyou're hopeful, hopeful,
hopeful, and you don't make it,then you go, Oh, gosh, darn, I
missed out.
You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 (02:59):
It's not as bad.
The fall isn't as bad.
So yeah, so we had a reasonable,we reasonably had our hopes up.

SPEAKER_02 (03:06):
Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (03:07):
We were we were confident, yes, and here's the
bottom line we were reallyproud.
Yeah, like a person is proud oftheir town.
Oh, wow, really proud of thissubmission.
You get in early again today.
Jeez.
Well, you know, have to get it,get it in there.
I don't want to forget.

SPEAKER_02 (03:25):
Like yeah, like have in the past.
Um, but yeah, no, so a big, bigshout out and big thank you to
everyone who helped us thoughtoo, Josh, for this gift uh
entry, including none other thanTricassius, the man of Gilby,
the the Walt of Disney, theWalt, the Walt of Uh the Walt of
Gilby.
The Walt of Disney, the Walt ofUh Gilby.
He is Walt of Gilby.

SPEAKER_00 (03:46):
You know what?
That that's a good idea foranother GIF film, actually, if
you think about it.

SPEAKER_02 (03:51):
It is.
So we just gave it away.
I know, but a big shout out tohim and a big shout out to
everyone who joined us as well,Josh, for that event that we
hosted in Gilby and uh helped usout with everything, uh, taking
directions from both of us, youknow.
No, walk this way, walk thatway, you know, look at your
phones here, look at your phonesthere, and you know, find the
cash this way, pretend, pretendthat you've never seen this

(04:12):
before, and pretend to beexcited, you know.
So uh yeah, big shout out toeveryone who helped us too.
I will say that.

SPEAKER_00 (04:18):
So people had a lot of fun, I think, joining our GIF
film.
And I think they had confidencein us too, or else they probably
wouldn't have shown up and giventheir time for us to point a
camera at them.
Sure.
So our film is called, I don'tthink we've told anybody on the
podcast what our film is called.
It is called If You Hide It.

(04:40):
If you hide it.
That's it.
Sounds very that's all we'regonna give.
That's all we're gonna giveaway.
If you hide it.
And we were listed, I thinkwe're listed.
I'm not sure, Craig, if they'regonna show the films in the
order that they announced, butwe're they are.
I think we're in a goodposition.
I think we're we're kind oftowards the middle.

SPEAKER_02 (04:58):
No, we're fifth out of 20.
There's 20.
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (05:01):
So we're like in the first order.
Yeah, so the people will stillbe excited about it.
Like they'll be they, you know,they won't be tired of watching
gifts, they won't be thinking,oh, when is this gonna be over?
Yes, they're gonna be still init at that point.
So I think our position, fifth,fifth is pretty strong.
I think that's a good position.

SPEAKER_02 (05:18):
It is, it is.
Uh my only uh worry though,Josh, with uh being in the first
half is that we'd be forgottenby the end of it.

unknown (05:26):
True.

SPEAKER_02 (05:27):
So that's what I worry about.

SPEAKER_00 (05:28):
But either way, let's hope that it sticks out
well enough that people will belike, oh, that one was quality.

SPEAKER_02 (05:34):
Yeah, it was a quality.
Yeah, I will I will say though,Josh, as always, like every
single time the last five yearsand six including this one, I
was uh excited just to be in thefinal mate.
I don't, I'll be honest withyou, I don't care any further in
regards to winning or any ofthat sort of stuff.
Uh for me, I we are already awinner because we made it into
the finals, and everyone aroundthe world gets to see our uh our

(05:55):
creative creative side of us,which they see a lot anyway.
But this is different though.
Do you find this a this is adifferent video that compared to
what you normally make?

SPEAKER_00 (06:05):
Oh, yes.
Yeah, I mean this is you ifyou're ever submitting a gift
film, you gotta kick it up anotch.
Yeah, you do, right?
You can't just I put post a fullvideo every week.
I've done it for 14 years, andthis this needs to be kicked up
a notch, and this certainly is.
This kicked up more than onenotch, it's kicked up five, ten
notches.
It's we took took a lot of time,a lot of thought, a lot of

(06:28):
effort.
Craig drove all the way up here.
Craig drove practically toCanada to get on site.
We couldn't just do thisanywhere, no, and so I'm
excited.
And and I'll announce this rightnow for the first time.
I'm gonna have my own GIF eventhere in Minneapolis.
Yes, it'll be November 8th.
And get this.

(06:49):
I thought, if I ever make thefinals of GIF again, I am going
to host it in a movie theater.
So it's gonna be a movietheater.
I've already got it booked, anduh it's really excited.
So if you're around Minneapolison November 8th or somewhere
near here, um, come on down,come on down.
It's gonna be cool.
You're gonna get to watch thewhole reel on uh on the big

(07:09):
screen in a nice chair.

SPEAKER_02 (07:11):
And if you're in the southern part of the good old US
of A, then there's a possibilitywhich I can't confirm nor deny
at this point in time becauseit's still in the works, but I
am looking at hosting uh a GIFuh event too down here in
Alabama.
Sweet home wow, Alabama.
Um yeah, in the that GIF week aswell for that time frame, also.

(07:31):
And I'm also Josh in talks rightnow with a theater as well, a
movie theater.

SPEAKER_00 (07:36):
So yes, so we might have to make a little like intro
video that we could use at bothof our events.
I don't know, I don't know.
It's like welcome, like awelcome.

SPEAKER_02 (07:48):
I don't know if you can do that because it depends
on the movie.

SPEAKER_00 (07:51):
You can do whatever you want.
No, you can do whatever youwant.
No, I'm talking about a movietheater.

SPEAKER_02 (07:54):
Give them the real you need the real for the movie
theater.
Yeah, and the movie theaterformat.
Exactly.
You can't just play it from yourcomputer, Josh.
So it's a certain format.

SPEAKER_00 (08:03):
Maybe I should maybe I should hold it my driveway on
a on a sheet.

SPEAKER_02 (08:07):
No, no, no.
Anyway, Josh, I will say I'vegot one more.
I've got one more uh upgrade.
I have one more too.
Oh, you do?
Wow.
So let's just do two upgradestoday and no and no delays.
No, no delays, no delays, twoupgrades each.
That's cool.
I like that.

SPEAKER_00 (08:24):
What's your what's your upgrade?

SPEAKER_02 (08:25):
Okay, my other upgrade is um Josh.
I do believe that you've heardabout the turkey trot coming up
in uh in November as well.
The turkey trot.
If you haven't heard about theturkey trot, what the turkey
trot is is uh I'm on anotherpodcast, the geocaching podcast,
the GCPC, uh the only livecall-in geocaching podcast in
the world.
That's every Wednesday night.

(08:45):
They are we are hosting uh overthe what's it called, the
Thanksgiving long weekend.
Yeah, we're doing the ET Highwaywhere we're all going so much
fun.
And and Josh, I'll say this isnow this is this is not caching
for everyone because we're allin separate cars, we're all
doing the big leapfrog thing.
So, you know, we're gonna findthree, four, five hundred caches

(09:07):
each car and then log fourthousand, you know.
That's the thing because they'reteam stamps.
That's as a team, as a team,team.
It's a team, team stamps.
Um, but if you if that's not theway you cache, that's fine.
It's not normally the way I cashat all.
I've never done it before, soI'm actually looking forward to
something different.
But in preparation for that,Josh, I got myself some flash
tags.
Nice.

(09:27):
So so yeah, so if you'reawesome, if you come along to
the uh the turkey trot uh inNovember, you because I only got
enough for those peopleattending the turkey trot too.
So you got did you get 88?
88.
Is that the number?

SPEAKER_00 (09:39):
That's the number eight miles per hour.

SPEAKER_02 (09:40):
88.
That's I thought you'd likethat.
So that's my upgrade, Josh.
It's a really cute uh looking uhflash tag, very, very different.
Uh I'm actually sharing theflash tag with another player,
Josh.
So there's uh I'm sharing itwith someone else too.
So there you go.
If you want to find out who,then you've got to come to the
turkey trot and get one foryourself.

SPEAKER_00 (09:57):
Does it have a turkey on it?

SPEAKER_02 (09:59):
Uh yes, yes, yes, it does.
It does have a turkey on it, buton the side, on the turkey's got
on the sides.
So that's right.
So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 (10:07):
I got another question.
Are you gonna stay at the creepyclown hotel?
We've talked about that hotel onthis podcast.

SPEAKER_02 (10:13):
We did, we did, and uh, I'm still awaiting uh the
final numbers.
Uh October 1st, the finalnumbers come through, and then
Scott's organizingaccommodations for like the
locations for everyone in termsof where to book.
So I do believe some people havealready booked the clown hotel.
Um, so good good work to them.
And I still would like to go andsee it.

(10:33):
If I even if I can't stay there,I still like to go and see it
too.

SPEAKER_00 (10:36):
I looked on the map at the clown hotel.
There's the hotel, but attachedto it, of course, there's a
haunted house attached to it.
There has to be.
There has to be.
I didn't know that.
I saw that on Google Maps,actually, because I was like, I
wanted to see like what itlooked like from the from space.
Craig, I have a travel updatefor me.
Oh, yeah.
I get to, I'm gonna get to getout of this state next next

(11:00):
weekend.
So it'll be on October 2ndthrough the 5th.
I'm flying on down to San Diego,California for the very first
time in my life.
This is a bucket list location.
I've wanted to go to San Diegomy whole time.
You've never been to San Diego,Josh?
Never been to San Diego.
Never been down there.
Yeah, I've been to California,but many spots in California,

(11:21):
but I've never gotten to saysunny San Diego, uh, California,
the home of Podcacher, anothergeocaching podcast.
And so down there, there's ablock party that I'm going to.
It is called uh Signals Island.
The theme is Gilligan's Island.
Yes, the theme's Gilligan'sIsland.

(11:42):
I like it.
Yes, that's really cool.
So I'm I'm going down there.
I'm I'm gonna see the sites.
I've I've booked Craig on my I'mtraveling on my own.
I don't mind traveling alone.
Both of us, we've had a podcastabout traveling along.
Yeah, we have, and so I ofcourse I'm gonna do all the
geocaching stuff, but I'm in SanDiego.
Like I need to do the things.
Balboa Park, everybody tells me,is a is a big location.

(12:04):
You have to go.
That's very close to the SanDiego Zoo, the world famous San
Diego Zoo.
Not sure if I'll get there, butI'm gonna do some cave kayaking.
Oh right off right off theocean.
Oh, so I booked a tour formyself, yeah, where we get to uh
kayak through through thesecaves.
So I'm really excited aboutthat.
The pictures look amazing.
And if you're going to signalsisland, meet me there.

(12:27):
I'm gonna be there.
Yeah, and if you're thinkingabout going, you got you know,
it's Monday now, as you hearthis, and Thursday, I'll be on a
plane heading to sunny SanDiego.
They say the weather's beautifulthis time of year down there.
So that is a big upgrade for me.
I'm really excited about that.

SPEAKER_02 (12:42):
You did you did invite me along, Josh, but
unfortunately, I'm actuallyhosting my own event here in
Alabama uh next weekend as well.
So on uh on Sunday, uh in uhwhere you if you've haven't been
to Bamara, um the mega eventthat they've hosted here the
last four years in Alabamaitself, then you're missing out.
I'll say that.
But one of the side events theyhave at Bam Rama is at the two

(13:04):
Laura's bonfire.
You remember that, Josh.
Yeah, oh yeah, so greatlocation.
That's where my event is on theSundays.
Two Laura Bonfire.
That's gonna be so fun, so muchfun.
Um Laura at the moment, she'sone of the Laura's because there
are two Laura's and they'retogether, they're a couple.
Um, they're redecorating,they're redoing their fire pit,
their firing.
So I'll be interested in that.

(13:25):
It's already nice.
I know, but it's gonna getbetter.

SPEAKER_00 (13:28):
Wow, it's gonna get better apparently.

SPEAKER_02 (13:29):
So, or either that or it's just gonna be different.
So we'll soon see.
We'll soon see.
Anyway, mate, because I canthink to myself, you know, one
more thing.
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (13:37):
This is another upgrade for me because I just
realized this.
Oh, yeah.
I'm gonna get uh geocachingsouvenir at Signals Island that
you're not gonna get.

SPEAKER_02 (13:46):
I know.
I thought about that too, but Iwasn't gonna say you're gonna
brag about it.

SPEAKER_00 (13:51):
And here's the thing Craig, get this.
It might be my 400th souvenir.

SPEAKER_02 (13:56):
Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 (13:56):
Souvenir 400.
That's a milestone souvenir forme.
Yeah, yeah, that's a lot ofsouvenirs.

SPEAKER_02 (14:00):
That's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 (14:01):
It's more than most.

SPEAKER_02 (14:02):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (14:02):
So I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_02 (14:03):
More than me.
I've only crept on you um only ahandful over these last 12
months.
Only a handful.

SPEAKER_00 (14:08):
Uh, you've crept you've crept.
I mean, you've been to a lot ofblock parties.
Seven, seven block parties.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (14:14):
Seven block parties meeting totally.

SPEAKER_00 (14:17):
I think I've been to one.
I think I just went to West End.
I think that's it.
Now it's gonna be Signal, yeah,signal islands.
So it'll be two.
Yeah, yeah.
Anyway, we should get to ourtopic.

SPEAKER_02 (14:27):
I was gonna say, here you are, you're gonna have
some beers when you go to SanDiego.
I'm gonna have some beers at theTulores Bonfire.
Now, speaking of beers, Josh,we're gonna talk about craft
breweries, travel, how theycoincide with each other.
Uh, let's get into it.
Let's dive deep and let's have abrew to enjoy it too.
So, what are your thoughts,Josh, on craft breweries and
travel?
How do they stick together?

SPEAKER_00 (14:48):
Well, it's just really interesting because we
have very different kinds of Idon't know how to say it,
attitudes, approaches, tastes,tastes, for certainly tastes,
when it comes to beer.
But yeah, we have a little bitdifferent approaches, but at the
same time, we have some similarapproaches.
So here's the thing I'm notashamed to admit it.

(15:10):
I, first of all, I lovebreweries.
Yeah.
So anytime both you and Itravel, we always check the app
untapped, or we just actuallyjust Google brewery breweries
nearby.
Yeah.
And we we check them out becauseum I love breweries.
And we're we're gonna talk aboutmany of the reasons I love to go
to breweries, especially whenwe're traveling.

(15:31):
But here's the thing, and Idon't know if there's anybody
out there that can relate.
But I don't love beer.

SPEAKER_02 (15:40):
You go to the breweries for the ambiance.

SPEAKER_00 (15:44):
For the ambiance, for a lot of reasons.
Yeah, a lot of reasons.
And I you know what, I thinkthat's okay because there might
be some people listening herebeing like, ah, I don't go to
breweries, I don't really likebeer.
It's not just about the beer,no, it's about other things as
well.
So I love I love going tobreweries.
I don't love the beer.
I drink the beer, and basicallyI drink the beer just because I

(16:05):
just want to be a part of the,you know, I it's peer pressure.
I just want to be a part of coolkids.
Is it peer pressure or part ofthe crowd?

SPEAKER_02 (16:10):
Or is it bee pressure?

SPEAKER_00 (16:11):
So they all yep, it's beer pressure.
It's beer pressure.
I like it.
I like it.
Um, so so I love going tobreweries, but I don't I don't
love beer, but that's okay.
Yeah, because not only do I do Ium love breweries, I also love
the app untapped.
I love the gamification ofbreweries, and we're gonna talk

(16:32):
about that too.
That's so those are the tworeasons.
I love lots of aspects ofbreweries, but then I I love
logging my beers and logging mylocations.
That's so fun for me.

SPEAKER_02 (16:41):
And if you're anything like me on the other
side of the coin, and that isthat I really enjoy the
different types of beer.
I will drink when I go tobreweries, Josh, and they say to
me, if I want a flight, and theyask me, you know, here's a
here's a list.
I say to them, sometimes I'llsay, You pick for me.
Like, and I'll get the the thebeer tender actually to choose.
And they say that they shockedface, what do you like?

(17:03):
I said to I always say cold andwet.
Anything that's cold and wet,I'll drink.
Exactly right.
Um, to the point where if you'relike me and you enjoy that too,
and you like listening aboutbeers as well, don't forget,
Josh, there's another podcastout there which I'm proudly a
part of as well, along withCourtney Mecha MN, and that is
the Brewery Adventure Podcast.
And uh that specifically talksjust about breweries though, and

(17:26):
and they talk about the ambiancethere too.
So they're the same, they're thesame.
They love the ambiance, theylove the culture of craft
breweries.
Um it's very, very different,Josh, to like a restaurant.
You know what I mean?
Like a restaurant you have tosit down, or even at a bar, you
know.
Some bars aren't too breweries.
I find are very more, they're alot more open, they're a lot
more spacious, they're a lotmore fresh feeling, they're a

(17:47):
lot more um, yeah.
I feel like they're even cleanerthan some bars.
I'll say that as well.
Like, you know, they really are,they look after their place too.

SPEAKER_00 (17:55):
So yeah, and different than restaurants too,
and we're gonna talk about that.
They're much more social.
Yes.
Like when you're in arestaurant, you just go to your
table, you sit down, you order,and you talk to the people that
you came in with.

SPEAKER_02 (18:06):
That's it.

SPEAKER_00 (18:07):
At breweries, you grab a beer and you kind of walk
around and you kind of talk topeople.
Yeah.
And if you're alone, I know Iknow you do this almost every
day, Craig.
You just talk to strangers.
Talk to strangers.
And we're gonna talk a littlebit about that because there's a
lot you can learn about thecommunities that you're
traveling to by going to some ofthese bars.
So that is our approach withbreweries, and we're gonna talk

(18:30):
a little bit about um what whatabout breweries?
How can breweries enhance yourtravel?
Why do craft breweries belong onyour travel list of places that
you need to go?
And and we'll talk about acouple other different things.
We're gonna talk about the theapp untapped, and then we're
gonna talk about Harvest Host,which is something that you are

(18:52):
a part of that has, I mean, ifyou're talking about breweries
and travel, that's it.
I mean, we could have a wholeshow just about Harvest Host.

SPEAKER_02 (19:00):
So yeah.
Not sponsored.

SPEAKER_00 (19:01):
We can't have an episode, not sponsored, but if
you're listening.

SPEAKER_02 (19:06):
Well, why don't we start off Josh with uh why craft
breweries belong on our travellist?
I can I can say that right now,as I said before, and that is uh
you go to places where otherlike-minded people are and other
friendly atmospheres, it's neverdark and dingy.
There's it's always a way toother travelers are normally
there as well.
So there's other people therewho are by themselves, whether

(19:26):
they be solo like me, or in acouple, like in an RV sort of
style too.
So you get a lot of that, andyou also then get a lot of um
the uh the locals turn up thereas well.
Yes.
So absolutely.
Yeah, just quick story then whenwe go on that is one of the
breweries I went to in Colorado,Josh.
It was a harvest host.
That's one of the reasons why Iwas there.
I turned up early in theafternoon.
I sat in the bar, I spoke to theuh the barman, and the owner was

(19:50):
there too.
I had a lovely chat with all ofthem in regards to the beers,
and then all of a sudden, Josh,he he he it's a big uh big
roller door there at the side,and he's like, Oh, here's Jim
now.
And Jim pulls in.
Jim comes up, he says, Here'syour beer, Jim.
Doesn't even say just literallyhis own mug, his own beer,
doesn't have to have to orderit.
Here it is, Jim.
And as Jim's starting drink his,he looks out and goes, Oh,

(20:10):
here's Lou.
Oh, here's Joe, here's and allthe locals come in one by one by
one, and they all knew eachother.
And so I'm there as the outcast,and they're like, Who are you?
Why do you sound funny?
And uh, and so we startedtalking from there.
But yeah, it's meeting thelocals for me as well, and the
the friendly atmosphere thatthey belong to.
So for me, it's yeah, gatheringin places too.
What else do you think?

(20:30):
And why does it belong on yourtravel list, Josh?

SPEAKER_00 (20:33):
Well, apart from meeting the locals, you know,
when you go to a hotel, like afancy hotel, they have the
concierge.
You're the concierge, yes, thatthe person that stands there,
and they know everything, theyknow all the restaurants, they
all know all the places youshould go.
So the value of being able tointeract with the locals is that
they know their community, theyknow the restaurants, they know

(20:53):
the places, fun things to do.
So, this is a place to getstraight from the horse's mouth
what is unique and great abouttheir about their community.
So that is really um a greatplace to meet locals.
In a restaurant, it's different.
You're gonna be just sittingwith your party, you're not
gonna be mingling, you're notgonna be yeah, or you're by
yourself and you're not gonna bemingling with the community.

SPEAKER_02 (21:13):
No, no, definitely not.

SPEAKER_00 (21:14):
Um, another reason, Craig, yeah, that I love
breweries, and this is just alsodifferent than restaurants.
These are entertaining, creativehubs.
Yes, every time I go to abrewery, there's always
something going on.
There's music sometimes, there'sopen mics.
There's oh my gosh, Craig, wegot a story.
We I don't know.

(21:35):
Did we talk about this on thelast podcast?
We went to Hacklemore Brewery inChan Hassan, Minnesota.
Yeah.
If you remember this, yeah.
And we walk in there, we havethe beer, there's a bar area,
and we peek around the corner,and there's a bunch of basically
moms, suburban moms, with eggs,some of them with actual baby
babies in strollers as well.
Yes, suburban moms drinkingtheir beer playing bingo.

(21:56):
And you might think, oh, bingo,that's normal.
No, this was plant bingo.
They were playing for plantslike house plants.
And the guys, the guys that werewere um could the callers were
wearing, were they were plants.

SPEAKER_01 (22:10):
They were plants.

SPEAKER_00 (22:11):
And Craig, now that I'm talking about, we've already
talked, we talked about this onthe last episode.
We remember I posted thepicture.

SPEAKER_02 (22:16):
Yeah, we only touched on it because you posted
the picture, but we onlyabsolutely just touched on it
too.
But that's a good point, andthat is that nowadays, gone are
the days where breweries arejust for men.
You know what I mean?
They are for they are for women,they're for couples, they're for
everyone, they're for young,they're for old.
Um, they're even for theirfour-legged furry friends in
most cases as well.
They can bring your dog along tobreweries too, you know.

(22:37):
So that's it's nice, it's sonice in comparison.
So uh, and again, if you're atraveler, then that's always a
good thing.
If you travel with a pet, youknow, that sort of thing too,
then you can always bring yourpet in 90% of the time to a
brewery as well.
Or there's a some area orlocation.
Just to give you an idea, Josh.
Again, I was recently out at uhone of the breweries, I can't
even tell you where I was now.

SPEAKER_00 (22:58):
I've been everywhere, man.

SPEAKER_02 (23:00):
I've been everywhere.
There's so many.
But this one was the I rememberit's called the Bassett, the
Bassett Brewery.
And they had like you walk inone area and that fully dog
friendly.
Everywhere in there was dogfriendly.
Josh, they had, you know, how inthe corner of a uh, you know,
like McDonald's, so you havelike the kids' play area and
stuff too.
They had a dog play area wheredogs could just go and play with

(23:23):
each other dogs and so on, too.
And it went to an outdoorsection for the dogs.
They had the ramps going up anddown and the and the little
tunnels so the dogs can gothrough the tunnels and also so
they actually had a dog playarea and outdoor area too.
So uh yeah, Bassett.
Bassett, Bassett Brewery, Ithink it was called.
Um loved that too.
Love that.

SPEAKER_00 (23:41):
You know, so here's also another reason why
breweries are great for travelis because a lot of times the
breweries, I love when thebreweries are themed.
Oh, and often these themes,yeah, these themes represent,
you know, they represent whereyou are.
So a lot, there's up here in theNorthland, there's a lot of
breweries that are like Nordicand like you know, represent

(24:04):
represent our community and ourheritage, our Vikings and our
heritage, and the Swedish, theSwedish men out in the fields
getting the wheat to make theirbeer and the yeast.
Anyway, uh I have no idea whatI'm talking about because I
don't know anything about beer,but um, but yeah, it it gives
you give it you get a sense oflike, oh, this is what's

(24:25):
important to this community.
So you can actually learn a lot,you can learn about the
community at some of thesebreweries.

SPEAKER_02 (24:31):
Yeah, I find the same thing, Josh, down south.
So uh around you know, Alabama,um especially around the Gulf
Shores, Alabama at the moment,that's where I am, but also
around Florida as well,especially around the keys and
that sort of thing, too, is youget a lot of that that uh that
ocean look with this.
So there's seashells on the onthe thing on the walls and stuff
too.
It's very there's big um uhfishing nets and stuff hanging

(24:52):
and draped over everywhere, andoars and whatever, life jackets,
life vests, all that sort ofthing, too.
But also, Josh, most of thesebreweries they take pride in
their brewery itself, they takepride in how it looks, and they
also take pride in naming thebeers.
Yeah, and that's one thing Ilove is the uh the originality
of a lot of these brewers outthere who name their beers

(25:15):
different things.
There's Josh, there was onebrewery I went to down south in
Florida, and I'll tell you now,it was because you know,
breweries they're mostly meantfor people who can drink
alcohol, so 21 plus here in theUS.
Right, and so they're adult, youknow, 99% adult.
So these were all non not safeat work names of beers.
We'll just say that.
Oh my gosh.
Every brewery had a field day.

SPEAKER_00 (25:36):
Oh, I did.
You had a field day on untapped,I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 (25:39):
I had three.
We'll talk about that in a threeflights.
I had three flights becausethere were 15 taps there
available.
So I had to have three flightsof five, three or five each.
All 15 beers, all 15 beersbecause I wanted them all on my
untapped.
So my gosh.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (25:52):
Yeah, if you're if you're not a beer drinker like
me, primary, I and I I'mexaggerating.
I drink beer every time I go toa brewery, but if you're not
like if you're not a beerconnoisseur and you're
wondering, what should I drink?
Just pick your favorite name,just pick the favorite name uh
beer.
There's uh a beer here locally,Bricksworth beer here in
Burnsville, and they had asummer shandy.

(26:13):
And I've talked about beforethat I love the Andy Griffith
Show, like it's one of myfavorite old shows.
Yep, and they named that beerthe Shandy Griffith Show.
Oh and I was like, I was like,I'm ordering the Shandy Griffith
show every time I uh I go here.
And it was a really good beer,it was like more lemonade than
beer almost.
Yeah, and that's the kind ofbeer I I like.

(26:34):
The more beer is like Kool-Aid,the more I love it.

SPEAKER_02 (26:36):
Yeah, and and I will say that and again, every single
brewery that I've been to, theyoffer tasting beforehand as well
before you order your beer.
So if you go up there and youlook, you say to them, I know
I'm not really a beer drinker,they'll I always ask you, you
know, what do you drinknormally?
Yeah, what's all your flavors?
And then they'll offer you anactual sample of that beer
itself, um, you know, ofdifferent ones, and they'll give

(26:57):
you different uh differenttastes and different flavors,
and then you can pick which oneyou want as a full full beer.
So that's pretty cool too.
Um but also going on to that,Josh, as well.
Do you you recall that uhrecently when I was up in
Minnesota for the Munsee Mania,and uh you, myself, uh Minnesota
boy, Minnesota boy, Minnesotaboy, and uh Rob uh Varterman,
the president of Munsey, we sataround because I got some

(27:20):
takeaways, Josh.
Remember those takeaways?
Now there was uh big a bigbottle.
I got a big bottle of one beer,cost me$35 for a bottle of beer.
Yes, you heard that correctly.
Yeah,$35 for a bottle of beer,but it was worth what was the
name of that, Josh, too, becauseit was um that beer was holy
shnikes.

SPEAKER_00 (27:40):
Holy shnikes, that's right.
From because it was based off ofuh Tommy Boy and uh Chris
Farley.

SPEAKER_02 (27:46):
That's right, Chris Farley.
And it's and it was actuallyChris Farley on the label too.
So yes, plus it was great.
Plus the label was numbered too,so you knew and it was and it
was the the lid was wax dippedas well.
So the lid was actually waxdipped too.
So it was and it was a very,very deep, thick beer.
It was a 15.5%, so it was it wasquite a heavy beer.

SPEAKER_00 (28:09):
I I had it.
It was it was basically likedrinking uh whiskey neat, just
straight up whiskey.

SPEAKER_02 (28:16):
That's true, that's true.
But Josh, how can people this isanother question then?
How do people go about lookingfor an actual good brewery
whilst they're traveling around?
What do you what do you do?
You said before you either youknow you look up Google or the
or untapped, what what else dowe do from there?

SPEAKER_00 (28:31):
I mean, uh it's as simple for me.
I just use my Apple apps, yeah.
I just do brewery breweries nearme and them and it pops up.
Yeah, and what's so cool aboutbreweries is that almost no
matter what the size of thetown, if the town is 10,000
people or more, it likely has abrewery.
And so um, you know, and that sothat's the main way I find them.

(28:55):
And then and then I'll click onit and I'll I'll maybe read some
of the reviews or I'll see if ithas food because you know,
pairing some some of thesebreweries have really great
food.

SPEAKER_02 (29:06):
I was gonna say if it's others, some of the
breweries and the food they haveare the ones I love the most,
Josh, are actually the foodtrucks that come out the front.
Yes, I was just gonna say theyrotate, they rotate their food
trucks sometimes because I feel,and here I go, I'm gonna take
your line, Josh.
Well, no, I'm not, but youunderstand what I'm saying, and
that is that these food trucks,they are really good at what
they do because they are veryproud of to have these things,

(29:27):
whether it be a Mexican feel,whether it be a you know, Indian
feel.
I've had Indian, I've had uhwhat else I had there,
Vietnamese, even at one time.
I had like those faux bowls, youknow, all those.
Um yeah, and you think toyourself, how does that mix with
beer?
Absolutely, it all mixes in withyour belly, so it's okay.
It all tastes delicious.
So but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (29:46):
What's really cool about supporting those food
trucks is that you are that'sthat's like supporting a local
diner.
You know, we always talk aboutlike don't go to the chains,
like experience, like experiencethe the home businesses.
The the mom and pop places andthese food trucks, they are not
chains.
They are they're people thatpull up and they um and it's

(30:07):
you're it's usually very goodfood because whatever they do,
they do it well.
Yes, you know, it's like they dothat one thing well.
And you know, whether it's ppizza or yeah, um tacos or Asian
Asian food, tacos, whatever itmight be, whatever it may be.
So yeah, the food that that'sanother reason.
It's like you could go out todinner or you could double dip

(30:28):
and go to a brewery and alsohave dinner.
So so when you said when I'mlooking for it, yeah, I'm saying
if I'm hungry, yeah, if theplace has food.
And we, you know, we've been tosome places where where they
said it's a brewery.
We the we've talked about thison on our Geo Woodstock episode.
They said it's a brewery, but itwas mainly a restaurant.
Yes, that's right.
It was too.
But most places are breweriesfirst, yeah, and then and then

(30:51):
there's something they do reallywell.
So Bricksworth here inBrunnsville, for example, they
do wings, it's like the wings,and they're so good.
And that's they do wings andpizza, and they do that really
well.
And so, yeah, that's that'sthat's how I pick is um I I
check out all the breweries andthen I then I go through the
reviews and see what they got.

SPEAKER_02 (31:09):
Because in most cases as well, I find that when
you do do that Google lookup orthe Apple Maps, whatever it
might be, then they've gotsometimes they've got photos
there as well.
I always say this if you see oneof those big silver vats inside
the brewery where they actuallybrew the beer, yeah, it's gonna
be a good time.
Yeah, it's gonna be a you're ina good place.
You're in a good place.
That's exactly right.

(31:29):
I mean, you're not gonna be in arestaurant.
There's no such thing asrestaurants when they've got big
silver vats in the corner, youknow, that's the thing, too.
So, or behind a big, big glassdoor, and and uh and you sit at
the bar and you look through theglass and you can actually see
the the brew, the brewersthemselves are there testing the
beers while you're then drinkingone.
Like that's pretty cool.
Yeah, that's pretty cool, veryauthentic, yes, very local.
You can't get any fresher thanthat either, you know.

SPEAKER_00 (31:52):
So yeah, they're not yeah, but that's a it's a
product, yeah.
It's a product of that town.
Yes, exactly.
It's different than like I'llhave a Budweiser, you know what
I mean?
Like I know you're you're you'resupporting their town.
This is actually something fromtheir town, which that's what I
really like.
It's like kind of different thantap rooms, and tap rooms are
fine too, but even if I go to atap room or if I go to a bar,

(32:15):
Craig, what do we usually do?
Uh this is what I do.
I'm like, what's the what's thelocal beer?
What's the closest brewery?
Yeah, yeah.
And because um, you know, wecan't always get to the brewery,
but I want to have I want tohave that beer from that place.
We were in Pittsburgh, I thinkwe were Pittsburgh at that tap
tap house.
Oh, you weren't with us.
That was just Robin, yeah.
Rob and Minnesota boy, but wewere we were at a tap house, and

(32:37):
we're like, we want the beerthat's local to here.
So that's one thing um I findmyself doing also with food.
I'm gonna back up a little bit.
Up here in Minnesota, it is socommon to have give like prizes
and giveaways, and the biggestprize and giveaway at breweries,
at least up here in theNorthland, I don't know if it's
like this all over the country.
Meat raffles.

(32:58):
Yeah, meat raffles.
I don't know.
You're Craig, you were up hereand we ran into a couple meat
raffles, just like and andbasically what a meat raffle is,
if you don't know what it is, alow it the brewery works with a
local butcher or uh and and thebutcher comes in and they just
bring slabs of steak and beefsticks and sausage, you name it,
beef jerky, just sausages, andsometimes cheese as well.

SPEAKER_02 (33:20):
Like they get the local cheese too.

SPEAKER_00 (33:22):
Yeah, yeah, and they raffle it off, and you could
walk away.
You could walk away for somewith some local meat.
It's very common.

SPEAKER_02 (33:28):
And what I like the way they do that too, Josh, is
basically you buy a beer and youget a ticket in the raffle.
You don't have to go and buy theraffle tickets separately.
Some places you may have to, butuh in the ones I've seen, no,
you buy a beer and you get oneraffle ticket for that beer.
And so, you know, you you'reyou're supporting everywhere
there, and the brewery'ssupporting the butcher, the
butcher's supporting, you know,the locals as well.

(33:49):
Um, so absolutely.
And even to the point whereJosh, I recently stayed up near
Duluth in Minnesota as well.
A great place, Duluth, up thatway.
But I stayed, I stayed at aharvest host.
Now, the harvest host wasn't abrewery, it was on a farm, and
it was a working pig farm, ofwhich I stayed in in the uh in
the open area paddock near nearthe the portable pig pens that

(34:12):
they had.
No smells, no smells at all.
It was actually beautiful, itwas really gorgeous.
And uh, you know, I went andwalked around the pig's pens for
a little bit there and whatnot,and then came back and started
cooking my dinner, and then Iheard out the side of the van
what happened?
A whole bunch of them got out oftheir pens.
So I had to message funny, I hadto message the farmer and say,

(34:33):
Um, are these supposed to berunning around open?
And he's like, Oh no, I'll be upin a sec.
So him and his son came up andthen I spent the next hour
laughing, watching them wranglethese pigs back into their pens.

SPEAKER_00 (34:45):
So You're not gonna get that experience at Apple
Bees.

SPEAKER_02 (34:48):
You won't.
But to then push it to thebreweries, he asked me as well,
because he's obviously a local,he said, What are you what are
you up to tomorrow and stufftoo?
And I said, Oh, I love breweriesand I wanted to go to a brewery
in Duluth tomorrow.
He said to me, You've got to goto this particular brewery, I
think it was uh Elsa orsomething it was called.
He said, Elsa brewery.
There's three or four in Duluth,but go to Elsa.
And the reason for it, he says,because they buy all my meat,

(35:11):
you see, and they do deliciouspizzas.
And and he said they they havemy sausage on one of their
pizzas.
So what do I do the next day,Josh?
I go up to Duluth.
I do the I do a few geek ashesaround Duluth and the Munsies
around Duluth go into Elsa and Isit there at the bar and I was
there to talk to the bar ladyand I said to her, you know, I
want that pizza.
And she's like, Oh, yep, noworries, that's a that's a fan

(35:32):
favorite.
I said, I stayed at that farmlast night.
She's like, What?
I said, That that farm where themeat came from, you know, like
Porky Pig.
I was patting Porky Pigyesterday, and now I'm gonna eat
him today.

SPEAKER_00 (35:44):
So Yeah, you're a wrangle, you're wrangling him.

SPEAKER_02 (35:47):
Yeah, exactly.
Making sure they get theirexercise in.
See, so but that's that's what Imean in terms of uh, and we talk
about locals knowing locals,doing local things, and
supporting locals in generaltoo.
So I had a great time.
Craig, good memories, Josh.

SPEAKER_00 (36:01):
Good memories.
Yes.
What is your favorite part ofthe atmosphere of a of a
brewery?
Like what about it when youthink of a brewery that you
really enjoy?
What do they have inside there?
Like, what is it like?
We've talked a little bit aboutthat, yeah, but I can think of a
couple things that is kind ofcommon to breweries that that I

(36:23):
really enjoy.
Is there anything that comes tomind for you like right away?

SPEAKER_02 (36:27):
For me, it's always to be rustic.
I like the rustic look, whetherit be open brickwork, for
instance, like you feel likeyou're down in a dungeon, you
know, that sort of thing, too.
I was in I was in a brewery inWisconsin and I felt like I was
actually in a dungeon.
The bricks themselves were oldschool bricks, like open
brickwork.
Uh, they looked absolutelygorgeous.
So uh yeah, anything rusticlooking like that.

(36:48):
But the one that I went to inWisconsin, and gonna divert just
a little bit here, what they hadon the wall.
But have you heard of the mugclub, Josh?
Because some some of thesebreweries have these mug clubs,
they're for locals.
They are for locals.

SPEAKER_00 (37:00):
Yeah, you buy a mug and then you can go in, and then
when you get your beer, you getit like discounted.

SPEAKER_02 (37:04):
Yeah, you get a dollar off your exactly right,
you get a dollar off your beerevery time.
Uh, and you have your own mug.
So I've seen it a lot, andsometimes the mugs, they're all
like Stein sort of style, likethey're silver stein, they're
you know, um glass.
I've seen glass ones as well.
But these ones, Josh, they wereall hand spun pottery.
Every single one lookeddifferent, every single one had

(37:26):
the actual uh their name onactually in the pottery,
engraved in the pottery itself.
And the reason for it is nextdoor is the lady who does all
the pottery and hand spins ofpottery.
So again, they that's localsupporting local, supporting
local.
Um, and to the point where I wasactually talking to this one
gentleman, and he's there, he'sa he's a local, he's part of the
beer mug club as well, and he'shad his, but his didn't have a

(37:48):
handle on it.
It looked kind of like a it'sjust like a like a pottery
glass.
And I said to him, I said, likeyours look, I was talking to him
about the the mugs and stuff.
I said, Yours looks different.
And he said, My handle brokelike after the first week, my
handle broke and the whole therest of it bounced on the floor.
He said, but none of it broke.
He said, But I love this somuch, I'm not gonna replace this
at all.
So they offered they offered hima new mug.

(38:09):
He's like, No, no, no, this isthe one I want.
So now he just has no handle onhis stein.
And but but again, he says,That's unique to me.
That's me, you see.
So there you go.
Right, so yeah, locals again,but no, very rustic.
Getting back to your question,Josh, very rustic sort of style,
whether it be open bricks, Ilike woodwork as well, like all
timbers and the and the openceilings, for instance.

(38:30):
I've said before, I like to seevats, silver vats as well.
Um I like to see that sort ofstuff too.
And um, I will say I've been toa few breweries where they have
the open bar area, the bar top,and the bar top has been
absolutely magnificent lookingbar top.
I'm talking like a full slab oftimber, cut literally cut from

(38:51):
top to bottom of a uh of amassive tree, and it starts as
really wide and gets really thinas it goes all the way down to
the tip of the bar.
Things like that.
That that that for me, that'sthat's that's what makes it a
brewery as opposed to anythingelse.

SPEAKER_00 (39:04):
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (39:04):
Yeah, what about you?

SPEAKER_00 (39:05):
I think I think for me, because I live up here in
the north, we have we spend alot of time indoors in the
winter.
So I'm a real big fan of areally nice patio.
Oh, yeah.
Be able to sit out um under thestars on a nice night.
Um, so I'm a fan of patios andbeer gardens.
Anytime we can get outside inMinnesota, that's that's a big

(39:27):
plus.
That's fair enough.
I I also love breweries wherethere are things to do.
Oh so a lot of breweries havelike bags or cornhole, cornhole
games.
Um, I really you know this,Craig.
And this is pretty common tobreweries, um, and almost
different than arcades.
Like I used to like arcades, butI really love pinball, Craig.

(39:50):
And for some reason, a lot ofbreweries have pinball machines,
yeah, because they're old, whichis really like, yeah, it's just
really kind of old school.
So we've we've done a many apinball game in breweries, even
like when we went to West Bendto the last brewery, we did we
played pin pinball.
I don't know.
I I think it's kind of unique tobe able to play play
old-fashioned pinball, and itseems like a lot of breweries

(40:11):
have that.
So I do like I do like brewerieswhere I'm able to like have
things to do.
I liked a good trivia night fromtime to time.
Yes.
Um, trivia night is very, youknow, very common in breweries.
Um I love touch tunes.
I love the D the DJ for TouchTunes.
I've heard you done that.
For the brewery I'm at.
I love that.

(40:31):
Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 (40:32):
Well, uh that reminds me as one of my stories
as well.
And that is I went to obviouslyanother Harvest Host brewery, it
was.
And again, I think it may havebeen in Colorado.
I'm not 100% sure.
It might be in Iowa.
Anyway, um, I went there as a uhharvest host, walked in, it was
quite a large brewery, it lookedreally nice, it had a massive,
big, big garden area, beautiful.

(40:52):
The night was it was gonna be astunning night as well, and then
of course, you know, it startsto get more full and more full,
and the the bartender said tome, 'Look, yeah, there's trivia
on tonight as well.' I said, Oh,okay.
And she said, like, mingle in.
And I went, Oh no, I'm I'mright.
I said, I'm right, I'll just sitand watch, you know.
And so I sat out and whateverfor a while.
And then the uh the DJ guy cameover, the the host of the and he
comes over to me, he's like, youknow, are you you here alone?

(41:15):
I said, Yeah.
He goes, Do you want to join inwith someone?
And he goes, There's a team overthere.
And so he then introduced me tosomeone else.
And I went over to the otherteam.
I said, You know, G'day they'relike, Where are you from?
And so and push comes to shove,Josh.
We got three questions all aboutAustralia or New Zealand that no
one else got that I found was soeasy, it was perfect.

SPEAKER_00 (41:34):
So I felt like I was actually contributing then to
the team because you know Yeah,because you were struggling on
the American pop culturequestions, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02 (41:43):
No, the American football questions I struggle
more on, and American baseball,American sports I struggle more
on than pop culture.
But yeah, I know what I knowwhat you mean.
I know what you mean.
So things like that, Josh.
Yeah, they they have those atbreweries again.
Yes, you don't see those at barsor at restaurants.
So yes, for sure.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 (42:00):
Craig, let's talk a little bit about the two things,
and you are really an expert atthese two things, and that is
Untapped, Untapped, and HarvestHost.
Let's talk about Untapped firstand like how do you use the app
Untapped for your travel and foruh looking at breweries and
finding what beers to drink.

(42:20):
And if if for those who havenever heard of Untapped, and
we've talked about it a lot hereon this podcast, but basically
it's it's kind of like a it's asocial media app for drinking
beer and finding breweries andrating beers, yes, basically.
That's what it is.
Yeah, and so talk to us a littlebit, talk to me a little bit
about how you use it in yourtravels and and when you're
going uh to breweries.

SPEAKER_02 (42:40):
The best part or the easiest way to use it for the
sake of finding breweries isthat Untapped have a paywall, of
course, you know, whereby it'sit's free, it's free.
You can use it as a free,there's a free option, but
there's a premium option aswell.
I'm a premium member.
Um and so those premium membersgive you extra things and extra
statistics and extra badges andall these extra little bits and

(43:02):
pieces, they gamify it more.
Um, but also at the same time,some breweries also pay into
Untapped to become certifiedmembers of Untapped, and so you
get extra badges if you drink atthose particular breweries, that
sort of thing, too.
Um, I find Untapped does have anmap feature where it features
all like where you can buyalcohol from, basically, and

(43:24):
beers from, or there's a buttonwhere it's specifically for
breweries only, and so so youcan then have a look at the town
in which you're in, and you canflick around the three or four
or five breweries that areactually in that town, and then
if there's the the little checkmark basically next to one, you
go, you know what, that's whereI'm gonna go because it's it's a
check mark from Untapped.

SPEAKER_00 (43:44):
So yeah, and the what's really cool about those
verified locations is thatsometimes I believe untapped
like give maybe gives them ascreen or it's maybe a part of
it.
I don't know if they give them ascreen, but anyway, you check
into a beer and then your littleavatar shows up on the screen.
Yeah, I don't know why I lovethat.
I kind of geek out over that.
I don't know.
I'm like, there's a I feel so Idon't I feel so cool, especially
people that don't know aboutuntapped.

(44:05):
I'm like, hey, check that out.
Like, hey, look at that screen.
My picture is up there.

SPEAKER_02 (44:08):
You know how many times how'd you do that?
You know how many times, Josh,that I've filled that screen
with just me, just me on thebottom of that screen.

SPEAKER_00 (44:15):
Nobody else does, nobody else uses it.

SPEAKER_02 (44:18):
But uh, but yeah, as you said before, it is a social
media app for beer drinkers, anduh being a social media, being
social, means that you can havefriends on untapped as well.
Uh, you and I, Josh, we'refriends.
I'm friends with you know, Roband Courtney and Tim.
There's so many friends thatI've got out there, but I've
also got distant friends too.
Like I've got friends inCalifornia, friends in New
Jersey, friends throughout theworld, even in Australia, that

(44:40):
are on Untapped.
And so when you drink a beer onUntapped, you can actually give
it a rating, you can uh you cangive it a description, what you
liked about it, what you didn'tlike about it, whatever it might
be.
You check in where you are,where you bought it from, what
type of beer it is, the name,the whole lot.
And so once you click OK and itsends through, you take a photo
as well, and it goes through,then it goes on to the feed of

(45:03):
all your friends' logs.
And so I have many friends outthere, Josh, you know where I'm
going now, that that read mydescriptions because Josh,
normally if I'm by myself,especially if I'm by myself,
I've got time on my up mysleeve.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, I don't have to be socialwith everyone around me because
there's no one else around mesometimes.
And so to amuse myself, I'll usethe description part to

(45:24):
actually, you know, I'll ratethe beer, of course, but I'll
also uh the flavours, profilesthat are there, I'll try and be
a bit more authentic with thewhat it tastes like.
But at the same time, I Iinteract where I am, the brewery
that I'm at, and also the nameof the beer into a little story.
So I find a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 (45:43):
And usually they involve some sort of innuendo.
Oh yes, which makes it funny, orpuns, puns, or puns that are
innuendos as well.

SPEAKER_02 (45:50):
Or or literally they some of them are actual just uh
a ver a full verse of a song,and you've got to work out where
the song is from, you know, thatsort of thing too, because the
song, the verse of the songrelates to the actual name of
the beer sometimes.
So things like that too.
So that's how he's untapped.

SPEAKER_00 (46:05):
Yeah, another thing too, from a person that doesn't
really is not really I don'thave a lot of knowledge about
beer.
Yes, I one of the things I'vebeen doing lately, and I haven't
been doing it as much, but I'venow been doing it lately, is
I'll I'll actually click on thebrewery first, and then I'll
read through all the beers andlook at the actual ratings and
just because every time I go toa restaurant, what do I say to

(46:27):
the the server?
Usually I say, what do peopleget here?
Yeah, like or what's specialhere?
And that's a way for me to knowwhat beer there is special based
on on the ratings.
Yeah.
So that's that's a feature thatI use um too.
And oh, a premium feature thatI'm very jealous of because I'm
not a premium member foruntapped.
You shouldn't be.
Um, Craig, this is very attachedto travel.

(46:47):
Yeah, Craig, you there's asection where you can open up
the like a map of the UnitedStates and it's like a it's like
a heat map, and you can seethere's like bright, it looks
like a bomb went off.
Like you're like, I wasn't, Iwas like, wow, Craig, you've
drank a lot in Colorado.
There's like just this big blowred splotch.
Yep.
Um, so you can so it kind of ittracks where you've been, it

(47:08):
tracks where you've drank themost, pretty much.
Yeah, but just kind of I don'tknow, it's a cool feature.

SPEAKER_02 (47:13):
But what one of the features I like as well, and I
always lead people when they seemy numbers, my actual raw
numbers, how many beers thatI've actually consumed in the
past three or four years, it's alot.
It is.
Um, you know, I'm over thethousand, for instance, you
know, in the last three years.
It's a lot.
But in saying that, it also saysthe size of the beers that you
have.
And so you know me, Josh, I lovea flight of beers.

(47:35):
Now, a flight is a taster sizeof beer.
I have five in a flight, that'salmost like just the same as one
pint of beer.
So, and then I can log fivedifferent styles of beer uh and
five logs for instead of just aone.
So that's how it works for me aswell.
So that's it.
Uh I'm just a bit of adisclaimer there, too.
That's I don't drink all likegallons and gallons of beer.

SPEAKER_00 (47:56):
I'm trying to find, I'm looking on on tap right now,
I'm trying to find your latestcheck-in to find here.

SPEAKER_02 (48:03):
And uh so you can check in as well at what they
call at home.
You can you take you get get auh a beer or something from from
a store or whatever, and you canactually log it at as you're
drinking it at home as well.
So me, my home is in my van, andso overnight I'll have a beer at
uh sometimes in the van and youknow enjoy it and log it from
there.
So that would have been the lastone I've logged.
It might even might have evenbeen an Aldi beer, to be honest

(48:26):
with you, from a supermarket.

SPEAKER_01 (48:28):
Oh, really?

SPEAKER_02 (48:28):
Yes.
That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 (48:31):
So un untapped, it's it's a lot of fun.
And if you it's a great way tofind breweries wherever you're
traveling, it's a great way tokeep track.
When I went to Germany, it wasreally cool because I was at a
different beer garden everynight in a different location in
Bavaria, where like this iswhere this is where the birth of
beer is, and it was really coolto be able to, I can go back and

(48:52):
look at all the actual Germanbeers that I got in Germany,
which is just like really cool.
It it makes me very tempted togo premium because then I can
see my heat app and I have someheat heat.
I got some heat in Germany,which is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 (49:05):
One thing is well, we will before we move on to uh
uh Harvest Host, and that is Iknow Rob Vartman.
Now, what what he loves, he's apremium member as well.
But what he loves about it isthat he'll look at the beer
before he even uh drinks ititself, and he goes to log it.
But before he logs it, you canactually check to see what other
people have rated it in terms ofoverall.

(49:25):
But not just your friends, butoverall everybody around the
world.

SPEAKER_00 (49:29):
Your friends too.
You can see, oh my gosh.
You say Craig, Craig actuallydrank this beer, he liked it, so
maybe I'll like that too.

SPEAKER_02 (49:35):
Yeah, so so he does he does that a lot.
He will before he he looks orrates his beer or even tastes
his beer, he'll actually see,oh, this has got an average
rating of, you know, it's alwaysout of five.
So he's got oh, this one's gotan average rating of 4.1, which
is actually a good rating uhaverage, and then he'll drink it
and go, Oh, yeah, that's a goodbeer, and he'll rate it from
there too.
So, yeah, that's one of the goodfeatures, too.
So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 (49:55):
Um, just so everybody knows, just for the
record, you have logged 1,534beers.

SPEAKER_02 (50:04):
Oh, I'm over 1,500 now.
There you go.
I didn't even since since 2022.
2022, three years.
That's only three years.
Wow.
What's so divide that by 365 andtell me how many, or do you
divide that by three and tell mehow many beers per year?
Beers a day.
Yeah, how many beers per day?

SPEAKER_00 (50:24):
So uh three six.

SPEAKER_02 (50:26):
Remember, uh remember we're talking testing.

SPEAKER_00 (50:28):
Four beers a day, right?
No, that's no, that's for just ayear.
That's for just a year.
Yeah, then divide.
So it's at least one beer a day.

SPEAKER_02 (50:35):
Yeah, at least 1.5 beers.
Average.
1.5 beers average.
But that includes taster sizesas well, like flight sizes.
I'm just my disclaimer.

SPEAKER_00 (50:45):
Like, yeah, you went to that one place, you had 15,
15 check-ins, which istechnically three three pints of
beer.

SPEAKER_02 (50:51):
You know, that's the link to you.

SPEAKER_00 (50:53):
You're not a drunk, you're not an alcoholic.
We're not advocating alcoholism.
No, no, no.
No, no, no, it's about travel.
Um, let's talk speaking oftravel, let's talk about harvest
hosts.
Yes.
Uh explain, you've explained iton the podcast before.
Explain it just briefly.
What is it and um how is itconnected to travel and how is
it connected to breweries?

SPEAKER_02 (51:12):
Harvest host is another app on your phone as
well.
And uh you pay for membership, ayearly membership to be part of
that harvest host.
And the harvest hoststhemselves, the people out there
who own the businesses, theyalso uh pay a slight fee to get
on the app as well at the sametime.
And then connects the two of youtogether.
What that means is that uhyou'll have at least one free

(51:35):
night's accommodation in yourvan, your RV, your bus, wherever
you, whatever you stay in,you'll have one free night's
accommodation in their parkinglot, in on their farm, wherever
the space is that they have.
Um uh, some sometimes they'llhave hookups, you know, in terms
of electricity and water, etc.
Other times they have hookupsfor for you know ten dollars or

(51:56):
whatever.
Uh, but yeah, you always get onenight's free accommodation.
Now, part of that is that uhthey ask you, they say, you
know, look, if you're gonna stayone night for free, then why
don't you come and partake in uha beverage or something to eat
or something like that?

SPEAKER_00 (52:10):
Darn, what a what a sacrifice.

SPEAKER_02 (52:12):
I know, I know.
Now, Josh, I'll tell you this,I'll tell you this right now,
and that is a lot of campsitesaround the US, they're charging
$50 and up per night just asjust a park on their campsites.
So why not use Harvest Host andspend$20 or$30 on a meal and
drinks, which you would normallydo anyway, and then get a free
night's accommodation.

(52:32):
Um, so that's what Harvest Hostis all about.
Now, Harvest Host isn't justbreweries, there's wineries on
there, there's farm stays onthere as well.
There's so many different types.
If you've got some open areas,uh then you can, you know,
there's places to stay.
That uh that one I was talkingabout in near Duluth as well,
the the pig farm.
The next morning I went I wentand saw him at his little farm

(52:53):
shop and bought some deliciousfresh bacon and some of this uh
bacon back, it's called as well,which is like little chunks of
uncooked bacon as well.
Oh Josh, it was so good.
And of course, he's a farm, sohe's got some fresh eggs as well
that were that weren't washed,for instance, because so they
stayed longer, fresh for fresherfor longer because they don't
take fresh eggs.

(53:14):
So yeah, so things like thattoo.
So that's what Harvest Hostdoes, it puts the traveler in
touch with those businesses outthere who allow you to to park
overnight for free.

SPEAKER_00 (53:25):
So how much is the membership a year?

SPEAKER_02 (53:29):
So as I'm not sure into if you're a host, but if
you're a member like me, it's$99a year.
You can get like$100 a year.

SPEAKER_00 (53:36):
This wow, this is the greatest, in my opinion, it
seems to me, for a van lifer.
Why wouldn't they not have this?
This is the greatest deal in vanlife.

SPEAKER_02 (53:46):
Absolutely it is.

SPEAKER_00 (53:46):
I mean, it is amazing.
Think about it.
A hotel room is you know, youcan't get a decent hotel room
for a hundred dollars for onenight.
Not at all.
Um, so this is a great deal.
It takes you to some places andyou're supporting local
businesses.
This is just this is awin-win-win idea idea.
And so if you're out there, um,if you're out there, even you

(54:10):
don't even have to be a vanlifer.
What if you I mean you couldjust be on a road trip?
You know, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_02 (54:16):
Yeah, I'm not sure about car, I'm not sure about
car, like you have to actuallyput in what your vehicle is that
you're traveling in.
Oh, really?
And I don't think they allowcars because they don't want
they need they need like an RVor or van.

SPEAKER_00 (54:27):
Even if it's converted, even if it's a
converted sleeping.

SPEAKER_02 (54:31):
Possibly, possibly, but you have to check because
it's a one of the things as wellis that you have to be
self-contained.
In other words, have a bathroom.

SPEAKER_00 (54:37):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (54:38):
So um, you know, so that you don't want to be sort
of interesting.
Having a pee behind yourvehicle.

SPEAKER_00 (54:43):
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Well, even you know, there's aand we should have one of these,
we should have these uh likeescape camper vans that you've
experienced.
We should have them on the showbecause that that would be a
great example of a of a place topark it if you would rent uh
these vans that are alreadyconverted for living in.
Um and harvest host would be agreat solution if you were uh

(55:06):
trekking across the country inuh in like a van a van life sort
of situation.

SPEAKER_02 (55:12):
Wow, and Craig?
I've I've looked at HarvestHost, unfortunately,
unfortunately.
I mean, I love them that much aswell, but they don't even have
referrals either.
So it's like they don't needthem because there's that many
people are naturally referringanyway because people just
really enjoy the app and theydon't really need any more from
it.
Um, so there's no real referralprogram.
So, you know, even if youcontact us and go, Oh, Craig, is

(55:33):
there a referral code?
Unfortunately, there isn'tbecause I can't you can't make
any money from being a referralfor a harvest host.
There's no affiliate marketingthere.
So please just look up.

SPEAKER_00 (55:42):
So the big takeaway here, and this is what we want
to do to encourage you is nexttime you're planning your trip,
next time you're visiting aplace, don't just think of the
landmarks.
No, don't just think of therestaurants.
Consider the craft breweriesbecause these places are local
treasures.
If we have not convinced you,these are great places to visit
to experience their community,their culture, um, to get inside

(56:05):
knowledge about where you'revisiting and get us and really
uh rub shoulders with localswhere you can't really do that
as much in a restaurant becauseyou are kind of sequestered to
just your own group, typically.
Yep.
And and Craig, I just realizedthis.
This is a perfect time for thisshow.
This is coming out on September29th, which means in a couple

(56:26):
days, it is October.

SPEAKER_01 (56:27):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (56:27):
And what does October mean in the world of
beer?
It means Octoberfest.

SPEAKER_01 (56:31):
Of course.

SPEAKER_00 (56:32):
This is the best time of year to visit a brewery
because Oktoberfest, there'smusic, there's fun.
These this is a time to reallyvisit breweries.
So that's our challenge for youlisteners.
Get out there, um, downloaduntapped, um, check out a
brewery.
Even if you're even if you'reeven if you don't drink, yeah,

(56:53):
they have like seltzers, theyhave they have non-alcoholic
options.
Some places make their own rootbeer.
Yes, they do, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (56:59):
Non-alcoholic root beer.

SPEAKER_00 (57:00):
So it's not just not just a place, and a lot of these
people are places are familyfriendly too, which a lot of
bars are not, but breweries are,yeah.
Which is just really cool.
That's another another coolthing is that um you can
experience if you're travelingwith your family, you can you
can bring your kids.
And that's a big that's reallyvaluable um if you're traveling
with a family.

SPEAKER_02 (57:19):
I'll say this too, Josh, and that is uh anyone out
there who hasn't got untapped ordo have untapped, uh, download
the app untapped if you want touh uh you know partake in a in a
beverage here and there and logit and gamify your drinking.
And also then you can add uhJosh, you can add you, you can
add me on your friends list aswell, especially if you're a
listener.
And especially, Josh, if you'rea patron member, because we give

(57:40):
a lot back to patrons.
So if you've enjoyed thepodcast, Josh, how can people
become a patron?

SPEAKER_00 (57:45):
Yeah, people can reach out to us at uh the
treasures of our town podcast atgmail.com or if you'd like to uh
support us continue the the freecontent, no annoying
commercials.
We're not gonna we're not gonnado any commercials for Miller
High Life.
But if you're listening, MillerHigh Life, we'll we'll talk.

(58:07):
We're not gonna do anycommercials for untapped, but
untapped if you're listening.
But till then, we are fullysupported by our patrons.
Yeah, and we have extra contentin there.
And you can go there atpatreon.com backslash treasures
of our town, and you'll get allthe the backlog of all the
golden nuggets that we haveshared over the past three years

(58:31):
as well.
And I'll say this, Craig, beforewe log off.
I think they need to know ouruntapped name.
I am Mayberry Man on Untapped.
Who are you on Untapped?

SPEAKER_02 (58:38):
See my shell.

SPEAKER_00 (58:40):
Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 (58:41):
I know, I know.
I'm seeing my shell oneverything, Josh.
Everything's the same for me.
I should convert it mine togeocaching vlogger.
But one more thing, Josh, aswell, when it comes to patrons,
and that is there may or may notbe a possibility where
something's coming to us, toJosh and I, very, very soon.
An actual physical item as well.
Several of the same physicalitems.

(59:02):
A one of our patrons who I spokewith in Colorado is is kindly
making something for us.
And we may we may or may nothave enough to sort of give out.
But we'll soon see.
We'll soon see and let you know.
Keep you posted.
If you want to be in the leak,go to patreon.com forward slash
treasures of our town.
Otherwise, Josh, how can peoplecontact us if just if they want
to chat?

SPEAKER_00 (59:22):
Yes, like I said, reach out to us at treasures of
our townpodcast at gmail.com, oryou can follow us on Facebook,
Instagram, YouTube, or aBudSprout site.
All you have to search isTreasures of Our Town Podcast.
It'll come up first on Google.

SPEAKER_02 (59:35):
Absolutely.
So that's it for our show today.
Please subscribe, rate, andreview on your favorite podcast.

SPEAKER_00 (59:39):
And as always, the channel is always leading to the
most unexpected and biggestgames the rest of the world.
See you next time.