March 31, 2024 • 45 mins
Ever fantasized about turning your beer-brewing hobby into a full-fledged business? So did Previn Solberg before he made it a reality with Invictus Brewing. As we recount Previn's leap of faith and the growth of a craft beer community in Blaine, Minnesota, you'll get a taste of adventure and the warmth of a shared dream. We're serving up a frothy mix of stories — from the tantalizing hops of Invictus's Hazy Crazy IPA to tips on how to survive the homebrewing jungle.
We've all had that moment when the universe seemed to conspire against us, only to prove that it's leading us to a greater path. After a serendipitous encounter at a kindergarten class, we follow the tale of two budding brewers who embraced the challenge, and we invite you to pull up a chair and join the banter. This episode is not just about clinking glasses; it's about connecting lives. Learn about the innovation behind Invictus, a brewery that champions the pet-friendly movement and tickles your taste buds with the Tipsy Steer's 'local sassy brew food.'
To wrap it all up, we don't shy away from asking the quirky questions you never knew you had, like what if you could plummet through an Earth tunnel? And if that's not enough to quench your curiosity, we share some laugh-worthy anecdotes that are sure to stick with you longer than a lost wallet in the ocean. Remember, we're more than just two guys talking beer—we're a gathering of enthusiasts eager to hear your stories and recommendations. So, raise a glass to the unexpected and join us on this fermented journey that promises more than just a good pint. Cheers to that!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
and welcome in sports fans.
Sports fans beer fans I'm asports fan.
There we go that is kind ofwhere it kind of was born out of
the sports and moving aheadfrom sports into something else,
I guess to a certain extent.
Sports and beer.
Welcome in.
Beer fans, two Guys and BeerPodcasts Yet another episode
(00:32):
here on the airwaves, whether itbe on the podcast platform of
Buzzsprout or Rumble or YouTubeor TikTok or wherever you're
consuming it from Spotify, apple, itunes we're all over the
place.
Exactly, yeah, we appreciateeverybody tuning in and helping
us grow this, and then we'veseen numbers kind of go up
(00:53):
lately and it's kind of fun tobe able to see that.
So we appreciate each and everyone of you checking it out and
subscribing and apparently mesaying tell your friends, tell
your enemies, tell yourcoworkers, tell your friends,
tell your enemies, tell yourcoworkers, tell your neighbors.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's helping a little bit.
It must be working.
Check out the YouTube.
The YouTube's got all ourlittle shorts that our tech
guy's been doing.
He's been kicking some ass withthe shorts.
We're actually recording thevideo again this time.
Maybe you'll see us on YouTube,maybe you won't.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I guess we'll find out.
This is kind of a test run here.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
We'll still probably put it up on YouTube, if it goes
all right, just to kind of showwhere we started and then
someday in the future, when wehave our own studio and the
Ideas Tower in Minneapolis, thenwe'll have a real set.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yep, that'll be one floor above the actual brewery
that we have as well.
That could be like a mob craftwhere we're crowdsourcing ideas
for brews.
So I don't know so manydifferent things I'm sure that
we'll have that'll.
Spout off from here, spurn offfrom here.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Never had a bad idea after drinking a couple beers.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well then, let's get to it.
Let's do it.
Today's brewery we're going tobe talking about Invictus
Brewing.
It's a Minnesota brew.
It's in Blaine I believe it'sstill technically Blaine at that
point in time Just kind ofright down the road from where
we're located.
Even from here it's probablyabout 45 minutes from where I am
here and a little bit less fromwhere Sean is a little bit
(02:14):
closer.
But it's kind of a cool place.
It's a nice, fun little brewerythat hangs off of not 109th,
maybe it is 109th, it's prettyclose to there.
Yeah, it's 105th there we go105th between 65 and Radisson.
It's closer to Radisson Roadbut it's right by the Blaine
(02:36):
Soccer Complex.
So if you're coming to the areathey have the soccer complex,
the Blaine Super Rink.
There's a lot of hockey thatgoes on at the Super Rink but
just looking at a map, there'sabout 30 fields there.
They've had nationaltournaments, they've had
international tournaments therefor soccer.
So lots of stuff kind of goingon in that area.
Lots of different.
You know it's obviously a kindof urban area, so lots of
(02:57):
different things to be able tohappen in that area as well.
There's a Chipotle there, whichis always fun.
A couple of places to be ableto go check out.
You know Target.
Who doesn't love going toTarget?
Everybody loves the Target.
But also in that area is theInvictus Brewing Company just
south of TPC Twin Cities.
So if you're also a golfer it's, you know, just a couple blocks
away from that.
(03:17):
So kind of a fun place to beable to kind of drop a brewery
into the middle of a lot ofstuff.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
You know that's a good place to put it right
across from the National SportsCenter there, because when you
drop the kids off for theirhockey practice, their soccer
practice, or I don't know ifthat Thunderdome is still there
where they ride the bikes inthat dome around the circle
there.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I feel like they took that down.
I'm not 100% sure, but Ithought they did.
But it might still be there.
I don't know, but it mightstill be there.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I don't know, I haven't been there for a little
while?
Yeah, I haven't been.
Well, we went to Invictus nottoo long ago, but I don't recall
I wasn't really looking acrossthe street.
But after you drop off thoseRugrats, you know, you just stop
over in Invictus while they'reover there running around and
you can go to Invictus and grabyourself a beer.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
On the Google Maps it appears to be right directly
across Lot 1.
So if you're dropping somebodyoff and they're going to be
playing, you'll be able to justmove your way right across and
be able to just go to thebrewery.
You can park there, you canjust cross the street I believe
there's walkways in differentplaces Be able to just skip
(04:18):
across there and there you go.
Now you're into the brewery.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Watch out for traffic .
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yes, definitely Like playing Frogger going across
that road Safety first there,folks.
So make sure you check that out.
But yeah, so that's kind of thelocation.
That's what we're doing today.
The beer that I've selected isthe Hazy Crazy IPAZ.
That sounds very tasty-y.
Mostly I just thought the namewas fun.
That was really kind of what itcame down to.
(04:43):
It's like this sounds like afun thing.
It's a New England style IPACitrus, pineapple and mango
tasting notes is what it says.
It is 16 ounces, so it's apounder.
It's a big guy 6% ABV and 60IBU and for the camera you'll be
able to see it there Invictus.
So that's kind of what.
(05:05):
Uh, what, we're looking for ablack can, which is kind of fun
yeah, it's a little different,something different.
All right, so now the best partof the podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Cracker open oh, are you struggling over there?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
buddy.
I got all sorts of problems,but I got her open, though I
overcame.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Problem solving.
There we go.
Hmm, I think this could solve alot of problems after a can or
two of this.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Absolutely.
It's got all sorts of detailsright here on the can too.
The malt is a two-row Munichcrystal, 10 oats, wheat and
carafoam, and then the hops areVic Secret, jerry Low and
Amarillo, and then the yeast isAmerican Ale.
A lot of that is those areEnglish words.
(05:54):
You know that.
I recognize I do a little bitof home brewing, but I won't lie
, a lot of it is just already inprepackaged things.
So I don't I'm not quite toexploring opening my own brewery
just yet, but it does have allthe information there.
It actually even for recycling.
A lot of breweries do a lot ofthings like that or whatever.
Obviously in aluminum can youcan be able to recycle it.
(06:15):
But they actually even have aspot on the label here.
Please peel the label to recyclethe can, so it actually even
lets you be able to take thatoff of there for easy or easier
recycling, I guess, so which iskind of a a fun deal remember
the cartoon captain planet I doremember, captain planet.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yep, that's like some type of label that would be on
there at the end of the credits.
Peel your labels before youthrow your aluminum in the bin.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Absolutely, captain planet.
That was such a.
So the the shows that happenedwhen we were kids.
I actually did a Speaking ofbrewing and you know, not
necessarily Captain Planet, butshows when we were a kid.
I did trivia at the 320 Breweryin Pine City just the other day
and, yes, we won.
We won the trivia once again,so send all the hate, that's
because I wasn't there.
Send all the hate mail to us.
(07:02):
You know like we usually dopretty well with that.
But one of the categories waslike Saturday morning cartoons.
Oh perfect, and so they wouldplay like either a clip from it
or the opening credits, theopening theme, so like there was
like Thundercats and Voltronand I guess one of them was
Josie and the Pussycats, which Ivaguely remember that one or
(07:24):
whatever.
But I Cats, which I didn'tvaguely remember that one or
whatever.
But I got there moments afterthat one was displayed and
they're like well, we got thatone wrong.
I'm like, well, what did youguess?
And they said Scooby-Doo.
And I'm like how do you confusethe two?
So I Googled it.
If you've ever looked at Josieand the Pussycats thing, it's
like Velma and what's the other?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I and what's the other?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I don't remember the two females and then like,
basically it's everybody withoutthe dog.
Wilma Velma whatever it is, Ijust know the blonde headed one
and the red headed one and solike it was like the two of them
and like Fred, the main dudewas there too and I think Shaggy
, but he didn't look like Shaggy, but there was no dog, but it
(08:03):
looked exactly like and I'm like, oh, I guess I could see.
You know where that comes from,so if you ever look up that
particular one, but anyway, yeah, so the rest of them duck tales
was on there and you know.
So like just kind of a littleblast from the past.
And me personally, voltron waslike my all-time favorite
cartoon and one of my favoriteshows altogether of all times.
Judge me if you you will, butthat's my jam, that's where I
(08:24):
live.
That was actually right.
When I got there and our group,nobody knew what it was.
They're like I have no idea.
Andy's going to know what it is, but I have no idea what this
is.
I'm like, are you guys kiddingme?
Oh my God, I got the actionfigure over in my wife's office.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I vaguely remember that cartoon, but Thundercats.
I would have been all overThundercats right away.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Thundercats are gold.
Yeah, sing it, andy.
You probably don't want me tosing too much.
Yeah, you're probably right.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So anyway.
At least not yet Give a fewmore of these Invictus in us,
and then Den will definitelyAmazing.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Not only are all the good ideas better, or all the
ideas are good.
Both of those things, but thetone even so you become yeah,
yeah.
That's when you end up all of asudden singing.
Baby Got Back at a random barin Carlton.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
It was after a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, thanks a lot, nick, appreciate that one.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Nick, we're going to put that one on you.
Then we end up in a dauberfight or something like that.
I'm glad I missed out on thatpart Long story.
We'll leave that one out thereand we'll let Nick explain that
at some point in time.
He said he wanted to be on hereas well, so we'll get him on.
We'll talk about that a littlebit.
But anyway, bringing it back.
We'll hit the rewind button andbring it back about seven
topics back to what we were athere.
(09:40):
Please be kind and rewind.
Talking about Invictus Brewingout of Blaine, minnesota, set up
in let's see here trying tofind when they actually opened
up, but 2013 is when it kind ofstarted to come together is kind
of what happened.
So it again like many differenttimes, and it actually even
says that on their bio.
(10:02):
Like a lot of startup breweries, the idea for Invictus grew out
of a home brewing hobby gonerogue Wow, that's really name a
brewery that has a.
You know like this is somethingthat I want to do.
This is a great idea.
Or you know, like even MoraBeer Club in Mora, just up the
road, is they just were makingtoo much Right, because they
(10:22):
were just a group of guys thatwould get together.
It literally was a Mora beerclub.
It was just like five guys thatwould just get together and
just brew beer and pretty soonthey couldn't consume enough.
Heck of a problem to have.
And one of the guys owned acommercial property and they're
just like, well, let's just sellsome.
And their hours for the firsttwo years were like four to nine
(10:42):
on Friday and Saturday.
That's all it was, because theydidn't care about it, they just
wanted to get rid of some oftheir beer.
So they've opened it up alittle bit more since then, or
whatever, and I think they'rehaving a little bit more success
.
But anyway, that's kind of whereso many breweries, that's where
it comes from.
You know what I mean?
Just kind of going rogue andwant to be able to make your own
(11:07):
beer.
A lot of similar stories, yepfor sure.
So the uh, the president,previn solberg, that's previn
with a p, p-r-e-v-i-n.
Previn solberg.
I'd always been a craft beerfan and, despite his desired
homebrew, found the hobby to beintimidating.
I know that feeling.
I've done it a couple of timesI don't know if you've made
years.
But uh, you don't always need todrill through the hood to be
able to do that at At some point.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
We're going to put that picture out on the social
media so that you can see that,if you've got one, do you
actually have a photo of it?
Oh, 100%.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, I came across it actually even within the last
handful of days.
Perfect, but we'll get that outthere and get a picture of that
.
But it is kind of intimidatingbecause it's like cooking in a
way, but it's very extended,just because you have to heat it
up and you have to cool it downand you have to boil it and you
have to cool it down and youknow there's a lot of steps to
go with it and I mean it takes alittle bit of commitment and
(11:50):
you know people that are reallyinto it really love it and I
enjoy doing it the times that Idid it.
But part of it is I don't havea work chiller and I don't have
certain still take like eighthours to be able to do it, you
know, just because consumingyeah, depending on you know how
you're heating it, if you'redoing it like a one gallon batch
or a five gallon batch orsomething like that.
Like it takes a while to be ableto get five gallons of water to
(12:11):
boil and then it takes anotherlarge amount of time to be able
to get it to come back down totemperature where you need it,
because you can't pitch yeastand you can't do certain things
if it's above a certaintemperature, otherwise you burn
it out and then it doesn't doanything.
So a lot of steps and a lot ofthings.
You got to hit just right withthat or whatever.
So you know, I I know thefeeling, you know what I mean
Seems to be intimidating.
So at 2013, that's when he metTroy Walter, who's also involved
(12:34):
in the brewing.
Their kids were in the samekindergarten class and found out
he had been brewing for years,just brewing, you know, doing
his own thing and enjoying that.
So Troy invited Previn.
He's like hey, come over here,come into my garage, I'll brew a
batch for you.
We'll just you can, kind of hehadn't done it.
Now you can see it, you can seethe process, you can see what
(12:55):
the intimidating parts are andhow to be able to overcome that.
So they do that and Previn bamlight switch turned.
And Previn bam, light switchturned.
I'm in.
This is great.
I need to do a bunch more ofthat.
They started hanging out a lotmore.
They started creating their ownrecipes, started trying to be
able to kind of develop theirown ideas of different stuff
like that or whatever.
So several months later hestarted becoming a little bit of
(13:18):
a researcher, researching thecraft beer industry.
This is Previn again doing that.
So he's starting to look atthat, talking to other brewers,
talking to the industry, talkingto people about you know what
their thoughts are on itcreating, starting to create a
business plan.
If you will reading articleslike doing all sorts of research
with this.
He's really getting into thisthing.
He did this all behind hiswife's back.
(13:39):
Oh boy, she did not know so.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Why would you?
Speaker 1 (13:43):
have to do it behind her back, right?
So I mean, who hasn't hadsomething where they're like
they're probably going to befine?
But I'm just going to kind ofdo this for now.
If it becomes, if I get to acertain point, then I'll loop
her in, and you know what I mean.
Like I've made decisions likethat and sometimes it works out
out, and sometimes she justrolls her eyes at me and it's
(14:06):
fine.
It's fine, I'm fine,everything's fine, you know like
I haven't, you know like shehasn't assaulted me or anything,
you know so she hasn't thrownthings at me.
So you know at least stillliving under the same roof.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
You haven't accidentally fell down the
stairs yet.
Not lately, not for.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Not lately.
So Emily's getting better aboutthe plans, knowing what's going
to be okay and what's not.
So he's doing this all kind ofbehind your back and he's kind
of getting to a certain pointwhere it's like, all right, we
either need to stop dreaming andmove on or we need to actually
do something about it, and so weneed to loop around you know
what I mean.
And so we say all this, we jokeabout all this or whatever, but
(14:43):
I'm sure there's probably beensome ladies that have had some
ideas like that at some point intime too, that I'm not going to
tell him about it.
So, before everybody startssending me all the hate mail
which you certainly can too, ifyou check out all the social
medias Facebook, twitter, x,youtube leave us comments,
definitely.
Give us some feedback.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Two guys and beer at gmailcom.
There we go.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, go ahead and send that.
That's where you can alsocontact us if you have a beer
that you would like us to do orbe able to send us beer.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Or if you want to sponsor us you know we get your
advertisement on our socialmedia and on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
It could be right here, right, and you may or may
not see this, because it may bejust audio for you, but, uh,
this is also on potentiallyvideo.
I don't know, it might not work,you know like.
So I'm waving my hand, I'mgesticulating wildly, as they
say, looks good.
So vanna white is, once he'sgotten to this point.
Now we're back to, uh, previn,previn solberg.
He's uh, all right, we need to,we need to confess.
(15:38):
So, uh, the way that thisexplains it on here.
One evening he decided toconfess the scheme to his wife.
I'm assuming this was probablyin the evening and I'm assuming
it was probably after a coupleof beers, because that's when
the courage happens, it has tohappen after a couple of beers,
for sure.
It doesn't say that, but I'mjust, I'm assuming.
I'm reading between lines, I'massuming things based on my own
(16:00):
history of smart plans.
It's a good assumption.
Usually, what happens is I'llsay something about like all
right, so I have this idea, andthe reaction is exactly what I
anticipated, or it's kind oflike a oh geez.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Like turning the bar into a brewery.
Well, you know, I mean that'ssimilar reactions, that know to
happen.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So I'm familiar.
I feel, previn, I feel yourpain, I'm with you.
I understand.
You know this could be scary,but it sounds like after long
discussion she says let's do it.
No, there's no chance to beable to turn back, let's just
get after it and go right aheadfor it.
So that's kind of where itstarted and that's where you
know the kind of things thatstarted kicking off.
(16:42):
That was 2013, 2014.
Shortly after that, previn had aname picked out and he was just
convinced of an awesome name,but it actually did kind of
latch onto everything that theywere doing.
The word Invictus is actuallyLatin for unconquerable, so if
you look in the beer, it saysbeer for the unconquerable soul
is actually Latin forunconquerable.
(17:02):
So if you look in the beer, itsays beer for the unconquerable
soul.
So that's kind of the ideabehind what they were trying to
do.
But some of the partners werejust not real hot on the idea.
His friend, sam, who was alsoan investor in it, was driving
in the car and he's like I got aname for the brewery Invictus,
and lukewarm response was kindof what it was kind of brought
back to.
He talked more about thehistory of that particular word
(17:26):
and that it's also part of apoem that was written in 1875 by
William Ernest Henley.
Oh wow, if you go to theirwebsite, they have the poem here
.
Another beer or two?
I might narrate it for youbecause then my voice sounds way
better, at least in my own mind.
But Sam also had fond memoriesof his grandfather referencing
that particular poem.
(17:47):
Didn't necessarily know thatconnection, but he's like you
know what.
I'm starting to get that.
And after reading the poem acouple of times, they started to
kind of get the idea that youknow what?
I think that we probably couldstick with that and Invictus is
going to be a solid name forthis brewery.
It also became a lot fitting tothem because when they were
trying to be able to get thisthing off the ground lots of
(18:09):
delays, lots of challenges andjust being able to get ready to
put a shovel in the ground, letalone actually be able to build
the building and make the beerand have any modicum of success
it just was so much to overcomeand so it was kind of a you had
to be an unconquerable soul, ifyou will that's a big building
they built there oh, it's apretty good size, absolutely
(18:30):
it's not like a repurposedbuilding.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
You know that's from a ground up warehouse.
Basically it's a big facility,yeah yeah, it's not a, it's not.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
There's so many breweries are in like a
warehouse kind of thing, likesomething, something that
they've taken over or repurposed.
But yeah, this is a newfacility which is really really
nice.
But it sounds like Previn wastalking to his father, loren, at
one point in time and thingsweren't looking bright for the
brewery's future and just howdifficult things are.
And Loren says, well, I guessthe name is fitting then.
(18:57):
And so they decided you knowwhat, we're going to go ahead
and stick with that and latchonto that.
And so that's kind of where allthat started and it just kind
of built from there.
They chose the Blaine areabecause they liked the area with
all of the activities going on,the sports activities.
They like to try to contributeto the economy.
They wanted to try to be partof that community.
Brewery is an obvious next step,kind of in that same area as
(19:18):
the National Sports Center.
Let's see here it lists on here.
It's located adjacent to theNational Sports Center which we
talked about before.
It's kind of right just northof that one spot and there's
even some stuff even beyondthere.
It attracts more than 4 millionpeople throughout the year to
the National Sports CenterSoccer, hockey, lacrosse,
baseball, softball, golf,ultimate frisbee rugby, football
(19:40):
and more so all baseball,softball, golf, ultimate frisbee
rugby, football and more so,all of the things all of the
time.
You know, it gets most of thenotoriety because of soccer,
partially because there's amillion soccer fields, but also
because there was the unitedthat play.
Now the, the minnesotaprofessional soccer team,
originally were a team.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
They played there they played there for a minute.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, before they got to the mls level they were I
don't know what level.
It's relegation and you move upand down and things like that.
But that was one of the things.
That kind of that's whatthey're known for, but they do
so many different things in thatarea so they wanted to be a
part of that.
They wanted to try to be ableto be part of one of Minnesota's
fastest growing cities, whichthat place has just exploded
(20:16):
over the last year.
If you go back to like 2013,.
Like there's still a lot ofstuff there, but not quite what
it is.
Now it's sold, built outeverywhere.
So that's kind of why theychose that area.
They kind of really liked thatarea.
Their mission, the way thatthey describe it here on their
website, Invictus BrewingCompany's mission is to produce
high-quality beers for adults toenjoy, while also being good
(20:36):
stewards of our earth andresources.
So, like we've talked manytimes, coming back to brewers
tend to, generally speaking, theone in Kansas City.
We're going to create Colorado.
Yeah, we're going to createrecycling.
We're going to really push onthings like that.
You know what I mean Trying tobe able to be good stewards as
much as they possibly can.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
It's kind of ingrained in the craft beer
brewery culture, it seems youknow, all the sustainability
that most of them seem to do Allof them that we've ever been to
, not just on this podcast thoseseem to give back in some way,
shape or form.
You know, I've seen somebreweries where they do a
different charity every monthand they just have it right up
(21:18):
on top of their bar.
You know, this month we'regiving to this charity, next
month we're giving to thatcharity, next month we're giving
to that charity.
So if they're not fullyinvolved in the sustainability
of everything they're givingback to the community through
various charities throughout thecommunities they're in.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, the brewery in Pine City 320, which we are
going to have them on at somepoint in time.
I'm kind of working with theowner to be able to be a part of
it, so I've talked about thatmultiple times.
So some free advertising forthem but they do.
I believe it's Thursdays, Idon't remember which day it is,
but they do a Pints for Pine.
So the Pine City area, acertain organization, gets
(21:53):
portion of the profits oneverything that they sell during
that course of time.
So, yeah, same kind of deal.
It's, you know, quite amazing,like the amount that breweries
typically aren't I'm going tosay typically, because I think
that there's probably a couplethat are, but they're not just
major players that are just likewe're just trying to win
capitalism.
You know what I mean Try to getall of the money and expand to
an overwhelmingly large thing.
(22:14):
You know a lot of them are.
We're okay, just we're going tobe this big and that's fine.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
We could grow more, but we're okay being right in
here, you know that's the craftbeer culture, though, too, there
really isn't any massive,massive craft brewers.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I mean there's a couple here and there, but most
of them are more locally centricyou know what I think that part
of that is also like you get,you almost get too big, you know
.
I mean you start losing some ofyour quality because you're
starting to like, get into likeminutia on such a large level
that now we're not making fivegallons and making it taste just
so, now we're making thousandgallon batches and trying to
(22:50):
like you know what I mean Like,oh, do I put five buckets or six
buckets of this hop?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
in.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
You know, like certain things, like that.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Then to get distribution and all that.
You know that's another step inthe process where if you don't
really do that, then it cutsdown on your overhead and then
you can just serve locally, youknow.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
And a lot of the people that I know that have
done it and been involved in itor whatever they like to be,
they like to be a part of it.
You know, and you get too bigNow all of a sudden.
Now you're just in a boardroom,you're just in a office, you're
.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
You know, I mean they you start losing some of that.
Oh exactly, the whole point isto enjoy the process of brewing
and, of course, drinking withpeople around you yeah, yeah, so
that's, I don't know that's.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I think that it's just.
The culture is amazing, but Ithink that that's not breaking
news at this point in time.
So quick hitters on their.
Tap room features a meetingroom that can seat up to 50
people.
Total seating is about 200people, with six fermenters as a
focal point.
So you know you're in a brewery.
So you come in nice tables,long benches, lots of chairs,
(23:53):
lots of seating, and then youcan see everything through the
glass off of the other side, sothe production facility right
there on site.
They're not sending anything youknow too crazy all over the
place.
One really cool thing that I dolike about that they have kind
of a patio that wraps around theoutside of the building and
they actually have an area wherethere's like a bar that you can
pull a chair right up to thebar like you would on the inside
(24:14):
, but there's like a garage doorthat opens looking in to the
brewery just sitting on thepatio.
So they got kind of that innerindoor outdoor area.
That kind of works kind of nicewith that.
So kind of fun to be able tocheck that out.
I definitely recommend it.
They do say just on theirwebsite, just as a word of note
to anybody or whatever.
As far as pet policy, we'vetalked a little bit about pets
(24:34):
on the podcast before a fewtimes, a few times.
They have some opinions there,but they they have some opinions
there but they do welcome petsbut they do prefer them just to
be on the patio only.
So that is not something theydon't that's where they want
them you don't want them poopinginside.
Yeah, they do say service dogsare welcome, but they have to be
service dogs that are working,as we've talked about before.
That doesn't say that on here,but that just says service dogs.
(24:58):
But they do a lot of dogs sothey are dog-friendly to a
certain extent on the patiooutside.
So it's a nice little patioarea.
It's kind of a little bit thinon the one side but if you get
to the back part it opens up toa nice yard area and you can
play bags or just hang out backthere.
They also do yoga at thebrewery one Sunday per month at
(25:18):
10 am and then they also on thelast Monday of every month at
6pm.
They also do paint your own petclass where you get a picture,
you submit a photo and then youactually paint your animal.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Well, it might be a little funner to bring the
animal and paint the animal?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I would think so.
I don't think that I'd be ableto do that with my dog, though,
because he wouldn't sit stilllong enough for me to be able to
A little spray paint.
Well, I mean, he's Dalmatian,so you just kind of like draw an
outline and then you know, hey,take the black spray paint.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
He's kind of already painted.
Now he's got dots.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
That's kind of you know what it is.
I will also say one other thingabout the brewery.
That is really cool.
That's a lot of fun.
So they have the full brewery,all the different selections.
If you go onto their websitethey have tons and tons of
different beers, different kinds.
That's something for prettymuch every kind of palate,
whatever you're kind of lookingfor.
They do distribute a little bit, mostly kind of upper Midwest
Minnesota.
They don't go nationwidenecessarily, but they do
(26:10):
distribute pretty decent.
I was able to get this down inSt Paul, but I've seen it in
Bram and Mora and Alaka.
You see it kind of aroundpretty good.
But if you go to their locationthey do have a full-time
kitchen there.
It is not the invictus kitchenor anything, it is called the
tipsy steer and I think there'sa couple of locations.
But it is a locally owned andmanaged kitchen that has a
(26:34):
permanent spot within thebrewery.
So they do what they call it islocal sassy brew food.
So it's a lot of like barbecueand things like that.
So they do have brick ovenpizza, hand-panty burgers, but
things like that.
So a really, really good food.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
It is really good, very, very good.
Had it there a few times too,and it is really good food.
And what's nice is it's uniquethat there's actually a full
restaurant in a brewery?
Yeah, it's not.
It doesn't happen very often.
Yeah, food truck out front or apizza or or your favorite
pretzel, but uh, yeah it's, it'spretty nice place.
You're gonna bring up thosepretzels again.
I said your favorite pretzeland what's the thing about this
(27:17):
too, I don't know if you'regonna bring this up, but when it
comes to that restaurant, andeven you're ordering beer, when
they see your table, you canliterally order whatever beer
and food you want from yourphone and they bring it to you.
If you need another beer, youjust couple clicks on your phone
and a few minutes later,another beer is coming right at
you.
So it's hard to beat that sothat technology is pretty nice,
so you're not.
If you're ready for your beerand they're busy, you're not
(27:37):
waiting on the waiter orwaitress to come to you.
You just pick up your phone andclick, click and next thing you
know, a couple of minutes later, you got a beer in your face.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, usually I just raise my hand and give the
international signal, for I needanother one.
But yeah, it's a great place,cool place, a lot of different
stuff, a lot of information ontheir website.
That's one of the things that Ialso really like about them too
A lot of information there.
You can find out just aboutanything.
They do have a frequently askedquestion that talks about
kid-friendly,wheelchair-accessible smoking on
(28:06):
the patio, things like that.
It does talk about a lot ofthat stuff.
They do have a section on theirwebsite that also is a place
where they show where theydistribute and where it's on tap
.
I have not seen it necessarilyon tap, but it is at different
(28:26):
times.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Let's hear McGregor north of there, up in Duluth,
see some places down in the city, but you think it'd be closer
to the cities and have it up inDuluth, mcgregor, that's quite a
ways away from Invictus yeah,there's a handful of them that
are up kind of in the BrainerdLakes area, up by a black duck
and Alwood and things like that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
So yeah, a lot of good places to be able to find
Invictus and I don't know.
I really recommend it becauseit's a solid brewery.
They've got some really goodbeers.
You know that they've had.
This one is pretty solid,pretty good, pretty smooth, easy
drinking.
You know it's not super hoppy.
It is definitely a hazy IPA,though it does have that.
So my brother-in-law, alan,probably won't like it because
(29:03):
he's not in the hazy world, butthat's fine.
That's fine, we'll find anotherone for him.
We'll go there.
He used to live next to it, sohe's familiar.
We'll find a beer for him.
We'll be all right.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Hazy, crazy IPA-zy Yep Good, I'd recommend anybody
try it.
If you ever get a chance to getsome Invictus beer, definitely
give it a shot.
It is pretty good, pretty tastybeer.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
And just informationally.
I mean, obviously you canGoogle it, you can look them up,
you can find their website, butyeah, 2025, 105th Avenue in
Blaine, so, as I mentioned, on105th, right between 65 and
Radisson Road.
So really easy to find,although super easy to find.
But one tip if you can come inon Radisson road, because if you
(29:46):
come in from 65 and you'regoing East, you can't turn left,
so you have to go past it andloop around, which isn't that
big a thing.
But if we want to get into likethe very small minutia of
inconveniences, it's a prettysmall inconvenience, it's really
not that big a deal.
But there isn't just becausethere's so many roundabouts and
other things and it's a splitroad there.
Through there it you gotta godown to like the next road or
(30:08):
whatever and and turn around, sobut it's pretty easy to find.
You know like hundred and fifthand then just go kind of
between there and Radisson road.
You know, google it put, put iton Google Maps, put it on Waze,
put it on what's the Appleversion?
I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Apple Maps?
Okay, yeah, we'll do that.
Apple's terrible.
If you have an iPhone, I'msorry it's terrible.
But when you go to Invictus onyour Android, tell them the two
guys in beer, andy and Sean, andsee if they say anything.
Maybe you'll get a free beer orsomething.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
There you.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So yeah, I don't think so, but we do have a
couple of our cards posted therewith our QR code.
So while you're there if youwant, you can scan the QR code
and listen to this fantasticpodcast.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, and even you know whether it be Invictus or
any of the other breweries thatwe've had on the podcast to this
point.
We're pushing our way closer to20 here, pretty soon, we're
getting up there.
You know like definitely mention.
You know if you go to a brewerymake sure you mention that you
heard about it from.
You know the podcast, you knowjust to let them know that
(31:07):
people are talking about it.
You know we want to make surethat the business really we want
to make sure the business getsin a way they're due you and
discussing the various beers Ilike drinking it, absolutely.
That's the best part of theentire thing.
So, yeah, again, like we saidbefore, if you have any beers
that you're looking to be ableto have or anything like that,
(31:29):
definitely reach us out, reachus out.
Reach out to us is probably theEnglish way to be able to put
that.
Reach out to us on our socialmedia platforms Facebook,
twitter, X, youtube, rumble,instagram, tiktok we're
everywhere.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Yeah, iheartradio Pandora PodAddict.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Wherever you want it, it's there Spotify, it's all
the things, all the things.
So yeah, but if you get achance, definitely give us some
feedback, give us some thoughts.
Recommend a beer, maybe in yourhometown, because we got some
people that have checked in fromTexas.
We got some people that havechecked in from Washington,
we've got.
I think you said at one pointwe had some people that checked
in from, like England orsomething there's.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
England, there's Australia or pretty much
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So yeah, if there's something that you have there or
whatever, definitely recommendsomething If we can source it.
That's the one challenge, Iguess.
To a certain extent we can getsome good Canadian beers from
where we're at, but Australianbeer might be a little tricky to
be able to get a hold of.
We'll definitely give it ourshot.
If you recommend something thatwe'll absolutely try to be able
to do what we can to be able todo that.
So if you want to hear the kindof background of a certain
(32:32):
place, just let us know.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
So that's kind of my story.
That's my portion of thepodcast here with Invictus
Brewing, so I will continuedrinking.
Now, sean, what do you got Somefun and fantastic info.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I do.
I got a couple interestingstories I kind of came across
this weekend Kind of interesting.
I'll tell you the fact that Ifound Actually, I found it a
while ago, but we'll share itnow.
So if you were to drill atunnel from one side of the
earth to the other straightthrough the core, drill here,
come out on the other side,wherever that is, which I don't
think has been done.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think it has been
done, not yet.
We should probably try Actually.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
I think Russia has the longest bored tunnel.
And then they heard noises andthey filled it with cement.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Well, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I mean that sounds right.
That's kind of how thathappened.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
But if you were to dig a tunnel?
From one side of the earth tothe all the way through to the
other and jumped in it.
Guess how?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
long it would take you to reach the other side
forever, because gravity do youkeep you in the middle?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I don't know, I feel like I've maybe heard this at
one point in time fall, let'ssay, two hours 42 minutes and 16
seconds wow I mean that fall, Imean that's a I don't know how
fast a free fall is.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I probably should have looked that up.
Right, I mean don't you hitlike terminal velocity at some
point in time.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, you can only fall so fast.
Yeah, you can only get so muchfaster.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
School was a long time ago so I just don't
remember all that.
But I do remember somethingabout velocity.
Everything Remember somethingabout velocity.
Everything will hit a certainspeed and that's as fast as
it'll go.
I'd assume through this tunnelthat would be about as fast as
you go.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Sounds right.
Yeah, uh-huh.
So 42 minutes, 42 minutes,that's a little bit quicker than
what we were talking aboutpreviously about going to the
Oktoberfest.
It's going to take a little bitmore than 42 minutes for me to
get from MSP to Berlin.
A little bit more than 42minutes for me to get from MSP
to Berlin.
A little bit longer.
I don't know about your flight,if you've got something else
going on, but it's going to takeme a few more minutes than 42.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
About 10 to 15 hours is what I've been seeing on
there.
I'm close to booking, but wejust haven't quite booked yet.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, I almost booked it actually earlier today.
We've got a couple of detailswe're just making sure are set
to another, but otherwise, youknow, I think we're going to
have that booked on our side.
So the one I'm actually doingis actually going to have
ironically, it's going to giveme a little second little mini
vacation, because the layover isabout a nine to 10 hour layover
in Dublin.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh, I was looking at one of those so.
I was like well, I mean, whynot?
Yeah, we haven't booked yet Iyeah, we haven't booked.
Yet I haven't decided if we'regoing to fly into Berlin or
Munich, because you can fly intoeither one of them.
It's actually cheaper to flyinto.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Berlin as opposed to Munich, but we'll see.
It's like a $100 train ride orsomething like that.
I think we're going to rent acar and drive down, but to be
determined.
Lots of details, logistics toget two guys and beer to
Octoberfest in Munich.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Back to the stories here.
Have you ever lost your wallet?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I have.
It is an awful feeling.
I'm not sure what's worse youlose your phone or you lose your
wallet.
I understand that there's asignificant difference on how
much stuff you Overall.
It might be worse for you tolose your wallet, but panic-wise
I think you're losing yourphone.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
But yes, I have lost my wallet.
Everything on your wallet youcan access on your phone Right
Electronically.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, but yes, I have done that and it's not a great
thing, it's not fun.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
So I can say I've never lost my wallet, but it
seems like every two years Imanage to wash it through the
washer Because apparently I feelthe need to wash it with my
jeans.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Laundry money.
You're laundering money.
That's what you're saying.
It's pretty good.
Yeah, all right, if anybody'slistening on the podcast, do not
tell the feds, don't alertanybody, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
And you open the washer and of course there's
dollar bills all over and yourlicense and your credit cards
and your wallet shrunk up thisand that Well cards and your
wallet shrunk up this and that.
Well, this lady's wallet reallywould have shrunk up.
So this lady in britishcolumbia lost her wallet as she
was getting off a dock andgetting into a boat.
She had her wallet in thisbackpack that she's carrying
with her over.
(36:39):
It fell out.
She had the zipper open.
It fell out, fell in the ocean,went down and she didn't know.
She lost her wallet to get thaton yeah no idea she had lost
her wallet right away.
But she come to realize she lostit.
And then she realized thesplashing she heard when she's
(37:00):
getting to the boat was herwallet falling in the ocean,
right.
Well, she paid a diver.
Once they got back, she paid adiver to go down there and try
to find it.
You think it wouldn't be toohard to find when you're on a
dock, you would just be lyingright there.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, five, ten feet, I guess I don't know how you
know however deep it is rightthere or whatever.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
But to no avail.
They couldn't find her wallet.
Fast forward, about a year anda half later, she's walking out
along the beach with her dog andwhat does she come across?
That washed up ashore a messageto mama, dollar bills in her
wallet.
Her wallet had washed ashore ayear and a half later, on the
same beach she was walking along.
(37:37):
How about that?
Opened it up.
All her money was in there herlicense, her credit card,
everything was in there wow,that is.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
It's fun to hear stories like that you know, like
the randomness of like how youknow, just stuff just works out,
like how does that even happen?
Speaker 2 (37:52):
right, she said, everything was in relatively
good condition except for themetal zipper, and the zipper was
corroded a little bit from thesalt water.
But otherwise, what are theodds?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
yeah, well, you had to be in the exact same spot or
the same area.
You know, but then, like youknow, like that's what I could
find, because they washed itlike, where would it even have
gone?
Speaker 2 (38:12):
did it actually like get carried out to sea, or was
it just kind of there the wholetime?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
probably got buried in a little bit of silt and we
got moved around with the uh,the motion of the ocean, or the
tide, or you would think so,whatever it be yeah, that's uh,
huh, yeah, that's uh, yeah.
So she recovered, she recovered, she found it, but yeah she
recovered everything there.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
So that's the first story.
That was kind of interesting, Ilike that, just the odds.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Do you know that sign language has tongue twisters?
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Really.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, I don't know what they are, but they are
certain sequences that I can'tdo much for signing.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Thank you, yes, I can Thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Thank you.
You got to make sure you stayover the top, though Don't get
the chin, because that's a verydifferent sign language.
That's more Italian there.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Guinness Book of World Records.
You've read that book Multipletimes I've read that book.
They come out once a year, if Irecall.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah, typically there's a couple people that are
in there that they like that'sall they do.
I don't know if they do that asa job, but they're in there all
the time they have like Justtrying to break any random
record.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, they're just trying to.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Because really all it has to do.
What did I read somewhere thatit's reasonable means.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I wonder if we can get in there for drinking beer
on a podcast.
How many beers can you drink ona podcast?
I wonder if that would be acategory.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
I think I've had two on certain ones, maybe three on
the one where we had theMobcraft.
Yeah, the Advent Calendar one.
I think we maybe got up to that.
That was fun.
Those are pretty good.
From what?
Speaker 2 (39:46):
I remember the last one.
I those are pretty good.
From what I remember.
The last one I had was prettygood, that juicy one Right that
Amanda didn't like.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah Well, she's kind of judgy Aren't they all Don't?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
tell her.
I said that Aren't they allDon't?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
tell her.
I said that.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
So Guinness Book of World Records.
I don't know where they come upwith these, these things.
You know, we just kind of justtalked about how random people
just try to get in there forstuff.
But a danish man earned anunusual guinness world records
title and he managed to stuff 68matchsticks into his nostrils.
It comes up with this you justgrab some matchsticks and just
(40:23):
shove them up, and each you haveto like pull it open and shove
them in there 68.
Uh-huh.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Peter von tangent buscoff he is 39 years old was
awarded the title for mostmatches held in the nose when he
surpassed guinness worldrecords goal of 45 match sticks
I mean that is a really randomone, but I mean how many times,
if you wait, have you, because Iknow how you routinely thumb
through the old Guinness book inyour spare time how many times
(40:53):
have you come across?
something and you just look atit and you're like, well, I
could do that there's been acouple of times where I'm like,
oh, I could do that, and then Itry to do like part of something
like that and you're like, oh,I absolutely can't do that, it's
almost immediately.
You're like, oh, I absolutelycan't do that, it's almost
immediately.
You know like this wasregretted.
Yeah, it's.
I mean, you'd still give it ashot.
I wonder how many I could fitin my mouth, my mouth, not my
(41:15):
mouth, my nose.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Try it.
Try it in the break here andfind out.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, I don't think my nostrils are especially large
.
I mean, I guess I've neverreally thought about it.
But how many did he get to get68.
68.
He shoved up in his nostrils.
Now I wonder what thequalifications are for that.
Are they like?
Because technically isn't likethose.
You know that matchbook, youknow little flat cardboard ones.
(41:41):
Technically that's kind of amatchstick, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (41:43):
So I mean I think it would have to be like those
square wooden ones.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
You know what I mean.
I think it would have to belike those square wooden ones.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
You know what I mean.
Like the standard matchstick,but that's what the photo of
them showed.
Was the standard Cause thoseflat cardboard ones?
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I could probably be fit.
You know like 85 of them orsomething.
Try it.
I mean they're pretty flat.
You should try it.
I'm like somebody light the endon fire on me.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
That's actually the first thing I thought when I saw
the picture.
I'd be like I'd like to justhold the lighter up just light
something towards it.
Oh yeah, mr buskoff.
Surprisingly he said it didn'treally hurt.
He said he has fairly largenostrils and quite stretchy skin
he must moisturize he thinksthat helped him a lot.
(42:28):
He says he chose the matchstickchallenge after researching
different world records he couldattempt.
He said he didn't think he cancurrently beat his own record,
but he hasn't ruled out tryingagain in the future.
In quotes, this is what he says.
For me, an increase in capacitywould require some training, or
perhaps my nose will grow as Iget older.
How do you train for that?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
So is it kind of like you've seen, you know like the
kids that gauge their ears.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
you know what I mean.
Slowly, but surely that's whatI'm saying Like pumped it up, or
something.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah, blast it out pretty soon.
You look like Nat Geo nose, youknow, like that'd be really big
nostrils.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
That's a lot of big nostrils, that's a lot of that's
all I got for stupid news.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Did you know that Minnie Mouse, her name, is
actually not Minnie, it'sMinerva.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Just random facts we're just throwing things out
there at this point in time.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I'm going to take another drink of beer.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
There we go.
I like it.
It's a good beer.
It is a solid one, invictus outof Blaine.
I recommend it.
The one we did today, the HazyCrazy IPAZ New England Style IPA
.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That's good stuff.
Go out and get yourself someInvictus, if you have it
available in your area for sure.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Absolutely.
I think that pretty much is thelong and the short of our
episode today.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Long and the short of the matchstick, there we go.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Yeah, and if you're looking to try, to try, you know
the matchstick thing orwhatever, let us know.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Maybe we'll do it on, send us some photos.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Yeah, maybe we'll even have you on the podcast or
something.
Why not Podcast challenge?
Or if you have, maybe you havea world record.
If you have, oh, there you go,let's get you on there.
Let's see if you can beat it.
Beat your own world record orjust talk about it.
You know that's fun too,Especially if it's beer related.
(44:15):
That'd be even better, so we'lltry to maybe see if we can't get
something figured out with that.
So I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Speaking of Invictus Brewery,we talked about the Hazy, crazy
IPAZ, and I hope you're going toget a chance to be able to
check out all the rest of ourepisodes, like share, subscribe
all of the things, follow us oneverything and make sure you
share it and tell all yourfriends and loved ones, and even
(44:37):
your not loved ones.
Tell everybody about it, get itout there as much as we can and
definitely give us feedback.
Recommend something.
If you want to be able to talkabout something in particular,
or if you want us to try acertain beer or just be able to
do some research with thehistory of one, we're happy to
be able to do it.
That's part of why we're here.
So, sean, what else have yougot today?
Speaker 2 (44:57):
That's about it.
Thanks a lot everybody.
Appreciate everybody listening.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
God bless all of you out there and cheers and we'll
talk to you next time here onTwo Guys and a Beer Cheers.
and welcome in sports fans.
Sports fans beer fans I'm asports fan.
There we go that is kind ofwhere it kind of was born out of
the sports and moving aheadfrom sports into something else,
I guess to a certain extent.
Sports and beer.
Welcome in.
Beer fans, two Guys and BeerPodcasts Yet another episode
(00:32):
here on the airwaves, whether itbe on the podcast platform of
Buzzsprout or Rumble or YouTubeor TikTok or wherever you're
consuming it from Spotify, apple, itunes we're all over the
place.
Exactly, yeah, we appreciateeverybody tuning in and helping
us grow this, and then we'veseen numbers kind of go up
(00:53):
lately and it's kind of fun tobe able to see that.
So we appreciate each and everyone of you checking it out and
subscribing and apparently mesaying tell your friends, tell
your enemies, tell yourcoworkers, tell your friends,
tell your enemies, tell yourcoworkers, tell your neighbors.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
It's helping a little bit.
It must be working.
Check out the YouTube.
The YouTube's got all ourlittle shorts that our tech
guy's been doing.
He's been kicking some ass withthe shorts.
We're actually recording thevideo again this time.
Maybe you'll see us on YouTube,maybe you won't.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
I guess we'll find out.
This is kind of a test run here.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
We'll still probably put it up on YouTube, if it goes
all right, just to kind of showwhere we started and then
someday in the future, when wehave our own studio and the
Ideas Tower in Minneapolis, thenwe'll have a real set.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yep, that'll be one floor above the actual brewery
that we have as well.
That could be like a mob craftwhere we're crowdsourcing ideas
for brews.
So I don't know so manydifferent things I'm sure that
we'll have that'll.
Spout off from here, spurn offfrom here.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Never had a bad idea after drinking a couple beers.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Well then, let's get to it.
Let's do it.
Today's brewery we're going tobe talking about Invictus
Brewing.
It's a Minnesota brew.
It's in Blaine I believe it'sstill technically Blaine at that
point in time Just kind ofright down the road from where
we're located.
Even from here it's probablyabout 45 minutes from where I am
here and a little bit less fromwhere Sean is a little bit
(02:14):
closer.
But it's kind of a cool place.
It's a nice, fun little brewerythat hangs off of not 109th,
maybe it is 109th, it's prettyclose to there.
Yeah, it's 105th there we go105th between 65 and Radisson.
It's closer to Radisson Roadbut it's right by the Blaine
(02:36):
Soccer Complex.
So if you're coming to the areathey have the soccer complex,
the Blaine Super Rink.
There's a lot of hockey thatgoes on at the Super Rink but
just looking at a map, there'sabout 30 fields there.
They've had nationaltournaments, they've had
international tournaments therefor soccer.
So lots of stuff kind of goingon in that area.
Lots of different.
You know it's obviously a kindof urban area, so lots of
(02:57):
different things to be able tohappen in that area as well.
There's a Chipotle there, whichis always fun.
A couple of places to be ableto go check out.
You know Target.
Who doesn't love going toTarget?
Everybody loves the Target.
But also in that area is theInvictus Brewing Company just
south of TPC Twin Cities.
So if you're also a golfer it's, you know, just a couple blocks
away from that.
(03:17):
So kind of a fun place to beable to kind of drop a brewery
into the middle of a lot ofstuff.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
You know that's a good place to put it right
across from the National SportsCenter there, because when you
drop the kids off for theirhockey practice, their soccer
practice, or I don't know ifthat Thunderdome is still there
where they ride the bikes inthat dome around the circle
there.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
I feel like they took that down.
I'm not 100% sure, but Ithought they did.
But it might still be there.
I don't know, but it mightstill be there.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
I don't know, I haven't been there for a little
while?
Yeah, I haven't been.
Well, we went to Invictus nottoo long ago, but I don't recall
I wasn't really looking acrossthe street.
But after you drop off thoseRugrats, you know, you just stop
over in Invictus while they'reover there running around and
you can go to Invictus and grabyourself a beer.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
On the Google Maps it appears to be right directly
across Lot 1.
So if you're dropping somebodyoff and they're going to be
playing, you'll be able to justmove your way right across and
be able to just go to thebrewery.
You can park there, you canjust cross the street I believe
there's walkways in differentplaces Be able to just skip
(04:18):
across there and there you go.
Now you're into the brewery.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Watch out for traffic .
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yes, definitely Like playing Frogger going across
that road Safety first there,folks.
So make sure you check that out.
But yeah, so that's kind of thelocation.
That's what we're doing today.
The beer that I've selected isthe Hazy Crazy IPAZ.
That sounds very tasty-y.
Mostly I just thought the namewas fun.
That was really kind of what itcame down to.
(04:43):
It's like this sounds like afun thing.
It's a New England style IPACitrus, pineapple and mango
tasting notes is what it says.
It is 16 ounces, so it's apounder.
It's a big guy 6% ABV and 60IBU and for the camera you'll be
able to see it there Invictus.
So that's kind of what.
(05:05):
Uh, what, we're looking for ablack can, which is kind of fun
yeah, it's a little different,something different.
All right, so now the best partof the podcast.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Cracker open oh, are you struggling over there?
Speaker 1 (05:17):
buddy.
I got all sorts of problems,but I got her open, though I
overcame.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Problem solving.
There we go.
Hmm, I think this could solve alot of problems after a can or
two of this.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Absolutely.
It's got all sorts of detailsright here on the can too.
The malt is a two-row Munichcrystal, 10 oats, wheat and
carafoam, and then the hops areVic Secret, jerry Low and
Amarillo, and then the yeast isAmerican Ale.
A lot of that is those areEnglish words.
(05:54):
You know that.
I recognize I do a little bitof home brewing, but I won't lie
, a lot of it is just already inprepackaged things.
So I don't I'm not quite toexploring opening my own brewery
just yet, but it does have allthe information there.
It actually even for recycling.
A lot of breweries do a lot ofthings like that or whatever.
Obviously in aluminum can youcan be able to recycle it.
(06:15):
But they actually even have aspot on the label here.
Please peel the label to recyclethe can, so it actually even
lets you be able to take thatoff of there for easy or easier
recycling, I guess, so which iskind of a a fun deal remember
the cartoon captain planet I doremember, captain planet.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yep, that's like some type of label that would be on
there at the end of the credits.
Peel your labels before youthrow your aluminum in the bin.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Absolutely, captain planet.
That was such a.
So the the shows that happenedwhen we were kids.
I actually did a Speaking ofbrewing and you know, not
necessarily Captain Planet, butshows when we were a kid.
I did trivia at the 320 Breweryin Pine City just the other day
and, yes, we won.
We won the trivia once again,so send all the hate, that's
because I wasn't there.
Send all the hate mail to us.
(07:02):
You know like we usually dopretty well with that.
But one of the categories waslike Saturday morning cartoons.
Oh perfect, and so they wouldplay like either a clip from it
or the opening credits, theopening theme, so like there was
like Thundercats and Voltronand I guess one of them was
Josie and the Pussycats, which Ivaguely remember that one or
(07:24):
whatever.
But I Cats, which I didn'tvaguely remember that one or
whatever.
But I got there moments afterthat one was displayed and
they're like well, we got thatone wrong.
I'm like, well, what did youguess?
And they said Scooby-Doo.
And I'm like how do you confusethe two?
So I Googled it.
If you've ever looked at Josieand the Pussycats thing, it's
like Velma and what's the other?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I and what's the other?
Speaker 1 (07:43):
I don't remember the two females and then like,
basically it's everybody withoutthe dog.
Wilma Velma whatever it is, Ijust know the blonde headed one
and the red headed one and solike it was like the two of them
and like Fred, the main dudewas there too and I think Shaggy
, but he didn't look like Shaggy, but there was no dog, but it
(08:03):
looked exactly like and I'm like, oh, I guess I could see.
You know where that comes from,so if you ever look up that
particular one, but anyway, yeah, so the rest of them duck tales
was on there and you know.
So like just kind of a littleblast from the past.
And me personally, voltron waslike my all-time favorite
cartoon and one of my favoriteshows altogether of all times.
Judge me if you you will, butthat's my jam, that's where I
(08:24):
live.
That was actually right.
When I got there and our group,nobody knew what it was.
They're like I have no idea.
Andy's going to know what it is, but I have no idea what this
is.
I'm like, are you guys kiddingme?
Oh my God, I got the actionfigure over in my wife's office.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I vaguely remember that cartoon, but Thundercats.
I would have been all overThundercats right away.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Thundercats are gold.
Yeah, sing it, andy.
You probably don't want me tosing too much.
Yeah, you're probably right.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
So anyway.
At least not yet Give a fewmore of these Invictus in us,
and then Den will definitelyAmazing.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Not only are all the good ideas better, or all the
ideas are good.
Both of those things, but thetone even so you become yeah,
yeah.
That's when you end up all of asudden singing.
Baby Got Back at a random barin Carlton.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
It was after a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yeah, thanks a lot, nick, appreciate that one.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Nick, we're going to put that one on you.
Then we end up in a dauberfight or something like that.
I'm glad I missed out on thatpart Long story.
We'll leave that one out thereand we'll let Nick explain that
at some point in time.
He said he wanted to be on hereas well, so we'll get him on.
We'll talk about that a littlebit.
But anyway, bringing it back.
We'll hit the rewind button andbring it back about seven
topics back to what we were athere.
(09:40):
Please be kind and rewind.
Talking about Invictus Brewingout of Blaine, minnesota, set up
in let's see here trying tofind when they actually opened
up, but 2013 is when it kind ofstarted to come together is kind
of what happened.
So it again like many differenttimes, and it actually even
says that on their bio.
(10:02):
Like a lot of startup breweries, the idea for Invictus grew out
of a home brewing hobby gonerogue Wow, that's really name a
brewery that has a.
You know like this is somethingthat I want to do.
This is a great idea.
Or you know, like even MoraBeer Club in Mora, just up the
road, is they just were makingtoo much Right, because they
(10:22):
were just a group of guys thatwould get together.
It literally was a Mora beerclub.
It was just like five guys thatwould just get together and
just brew beer and pretty soonthey couldn't consume enough.
Heck of a problem to have.
And one of the guys owned acommercial property and they're
just like, well, let's just sellsome.
And their hours for the firsttwo years were like four to nine
(10:42):
on Friday and Saturday.
That's all it was, because theydidn't care about it, they just
wanted to get rid of some oftheir beer.
So they've opened it up alittle bit more since then, or
whatever, and I think they'rehaving a little bit more success
.
But anyway, that's kind of whereso many breweries, that's where
it comes from.
You know what I mean?
Just kind of going rogue andwant to be able to make your own
(11:07):
beer.
A lot of similar stories, yepfor sure.
So the uh, the president,previn solberg, that's previn
with a p, p-r-e-v-i-n.
Previn solberg.
I'd always been a craft beerfan and, despite his desired
homebrew, found the hobby to beintimidating.
I know that feeling.
I've done it a couple of timesI don't know if you've made
years.
But uh, you don't always need todrill through the hood to be
able to do that at At some point.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
We're going to put that picture out on the social
media so that you can see that,if you've got one, do you
actually have a photo of it?
Oh, 100%.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, I came across it actually even within the last
handful of days.
Perfect, but we'll get that outthere and get a picture of that
.
But it is kind of intimidatingbecause it's like cooking in a
way, but it's very extended,just because you have to heat it
up and you have to cool it downand you have to boil it and you
have to cool it down and youknow there's a lot of steps to
go with it and I mean it takes alittle bit of commitment and
(11:50):
you know people that are reallyinto it really love it and I
enjoy doing it the times that Idid it.
But part of it is I don't havea work chiller and I don't have
certain still take like eighthours to be able to do it, you
know, just because consumingyeah, depending on you know how
you're heating it, if you'redoing it like a one gallon batch
or a five gallon batch orsomething like that.
Like it takes a while to be ableto get five gallons of water to
(12:11):
boil and then it takes anotherlarge amount of time to be able
to get it to come back down totemperature where you need it,
because you can't pitch yeastand you can't do certain things
if it's above a certaintemperature, otherwise you burn
it out and then it doesn't doanything.
So a lot of steps and a lot ofthings.
You got to hit just right withthat or whatever.
So you know, I I know thefeeling, you know what I mean
Seems to be intimidating.
So at 2013, that's when he metTroy Walter, who's also involved
(12:34):
in the brewing.
Their kids were in the samekindergarten class and found out
he had been brewing for years,just brewing, you know, doing
his own thing and enjoying that.
So Troy invited Previn.
He's like hey, come over here,come into my garage, I'll brew a
batch for you.
We'll just you can, kind of hehadn't done it.
Now you can see it, you can seethe process, you can see what
(12:55):
the intimidating parts are andhow to be able to overcome that.
So they do that and Previn bamlight switch turned.
And Previn bam, light switchturned.
I'm in.
This is great.
I need to do a bunch more ofthat.
They started hanging out a lotmore.
They started creating their ownrecipes, started trying to be
able to kind of develop theirown ideas of different stuff
like that or whatever.
So several months later hestarted becoming a little bit of
(13:18):
a researcher, researching thecraft beer industry.
This is Previn again doing that.
So he's starting to look atthat, talking to other brewers,
talking to the industry, talkingto people about you know what
their thoughts are on itcreating, starting to create a
business plan.
If you will reading articleslike doing all sorts of research
with this.
He's really getting into thisthing.
He did this all behind hiswife's back.
(13:39):
Oh boy, she did not know so.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Why would you?
Speaker 1 (13:43):
have to do it behind her back, right?
So I mean, who hasn't hadsomething where they're like
they're probably going to befine?
But I'm just going to kind ofdo this for now.
If it becomes, if I get to acertain point, then I'll loop
her in, and you know what I mean.
Like I've made decisions likethat and sometimes it works out
out, and sometimes she justrolls her eyes at me and it's
(14:06):
fine.
It's fine, I'm fine,everything's fine, you know like
I haven't, you know like shehasn't assaulted me or anything,
you know so she hasn't thrownthings at me.
So you know at least stillliving under the same roof.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
You haven't accidentally fell down the
stairs yet.
Not lately, not for.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Not lately.
So Emily's getting better aboutthe plans, knowing what's going
to be okay and what's not.
So he's doing this all kind ofbehind your back and he's kind
of getting to a certain pointwhere it's like, all right, we
either need to stop dreaming andmove on or we need to actually
do something about it, and so weneed to loop around you know
what I mean.
And so we say all this, we jokeabout all this or whatever, but
(14:43):
I'm sure there's probably beensome ladies that have had some
ideas like that at some point intime too, that I'm not going to
tell him about it.
So, before everybody startssending me all the hate mail
which you certainly can too, ifyou check out all the social
medias Facebook, twitter, x,youtube leave us comments,
definitely.
Give us some feedback.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Two guys and beer at gmailcom.
There we go.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, go ahead and send that.
That's where you can alsocontact us if you have a beer
that you would like us to do orbe able to send us beer.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Or if you want to sponsor us you know we get your
advertisement on our socialmedia and on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
It could be right here, right, and you may or may
not see this, because it may bejust audio for you, but, uh,
this is also on potentiallyvideo.
I don't know, it might not work,you know like.
So I'm waving my hand, I'mgesticulating wildly, as they
say, looks good.
So vanna white is, once he'sgotten to this point.
Now we're back to, uh, previn,previn solberg.
He's uh, all right, we need to,we need to confess.
(15:38):
So, uh, the way that thisexplains it on here.
One evening he decided toconfess the scheme to his wife.
I'm assuming this was probablyin the evening and I'm assuming
it was probably after a coupleof beers, because that's when
the courage happens, it has tohappen after a couple of beers,
for sure.
It doesn't say that, but I'mjust, I'm assuming.
I'm reading between lines, I'massuming things based on my own
(16:00):
history of smart plans.
It's a good assumption.
Usually, what happens is I'llsay something about like all
right, so I have this idea, andthe reaction is exactly what I
anticipated, or it's kind oflike a oh geez.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Like turning the bar into a brewery.
Well, you know, I mean that'ssimilar reactions, that know to
happen.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
So I'm familiar.
I feel, previn, I feel yourpain, I'm with you.
I understand.
You know this could be scary,but it sounds like after long
discussion she says let's do it.
No, there's no chance to beable to turn back, let's just
get after it and go right aheadfor it.
So that's kind of where itstarted and that's where you
know the kind of things thatstarted kicking off.
(16:42):
That was 2013, 2014.
Shortly after that, previn had aname picked out and he was just
convinced of an awesome name,but it actually did kind of
latch onto everything that theywere doing.
The word Invictus is actuallyLatin for unconquerable, so if
you look in the beer, it saysbeer for the unconquerable soul
is actually Latin forunconquerable.
(17:02):
So if you look in the beer, itsays beer for the unconquerable
soul.
So that's kind of the ideabehind what they were trying to
do.
But some of the partners werejust not real hot on the idea.
His friend, sam, who was alsoan investor in it, was driving
in the car and he's like I got aname for the brewery Invictus,
and lukewarm response was kindof what it was kind of brought
back to.
He talked more about thehistory of that particular word
(17:26):
and that it's also part of apoem that was written in 1875 by
William Ernest Henley.
Oh wow, if you go to theirwebsite, they have the poem here
.
Another beer or two?
I might narrate it for youbecause then my voice sounds way
better, at least in my own mind.
But Sam also had fond memoriesof his grandfather referencing
that particular poem.
(17:47):
Didn't necessarily know thatconnection, but he's like you
know what.
I'm starting to get that.
And after reading the poem acouple of times, they started to
kind of get the idea that youknow what?
I think that we probably couldstick with that and Invictus is
going to be a solid name forthis brewery.
It also became a lot fitting tothem because when they were
trying to be able to get thisthing off the ground lots of
(18:09):
delays, lots of challenges andjust being able to get ready to
put a shovel in the ground, letalone actually be able to build
the building and make the beerand have any modicum of success
it just was so much to overcomeand so it was kind of a you had
to be an unconquerable soul, ifyou will that's a big building
they built there oh, it's apretty good size, absolutely
(18:30):
it's not like a repurposedbuilding.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
You know that's from a ground up warehouse.
Basically it's a big facility,yeah yeah, it's not a, it's not.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
There's so many breweries are in like a
warehouse kind of thing, likesomething, something that
they've taken over or repurposed.
But yeah, this is a newfacility which is really really
nice.
But it sounds like Previn wastalking to his father, loren, at
one point in time and thingsweren't looking bright for the
brewery's future and just howdifficult things are.
And Loren says, well, I guessthe name is fitting then.
(18:57):
And so they decided you knowwhat, we're going to go ahead
and stick with that and latchonto that.
And so that's kind of where allthat started and it just kind
of built from there.
They chose the Blaine areabecause they liked the area with
all of the activities going on,the sports activities.
They like to try to contributeto the economy.
They wanted to try to be partof that community.
Brewery is an obvious next step,kind of in that same area as
(19:18):
the National Sports Center.
Let's see here it lists on here.
It's located adjacent to theNational Sports Center which we
talked about before.
It's kind of right just northof that one spot and there's
even some stuff even beyondthere.
It attracts more than 4 millionpeople throughout the year to
the National Sports CenterSoccer, hockey, lacrosse,
baseball, softball, golf,ultimate frisbee rugby, football
(19:40):
and more so all baseball,softball, golf, ultimate frisbee
rugby, football and more so,all of the things all of the
time.
You know, it gets most of thenotoriety because of soccer,
partially because there's amillion soccer fields, but also
because there was the unitedthat play.
Now the, the minnesotaprofessional soccer team,
originally were a team.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
They played there they played there for a minute.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah, before they got to the mls level they were I
don't know what level.
It's relegation and you move upand down and things like that.
But that was one of the things.
That kind of that's whatthey're known for, but they do
so many different things in thatarea so they wanted to be a
part of that.
They wanted to try to be ableto be part of one of Minnesota's
fastest growing cities, whichthat place has just exploded
(20:16):
over the last year.
If you go back to like 2013,.
Like there's still a lot ofstuff there, but not quite what
it is.
Now it's sold, built outeverywhere.
So that's kind of why theychose that area.
They kind of really liked thatarea.
Their mission, the way thatthey describe it here on their
website, Invictus BrewingCompany's mission is to produce
high-quality beers for adults toenjoy, while also being good
(20:36):
stewards of our earth andresources.
So, like we've talked manytimes, coming back to brewers
tend to, generally speaking, theone in Kansas City.
We're going to create Colorado.
Yeah, we're going to createrecycling.
We're going to really push onthings like that.
You know what I mean Trying tobe able to be good stewards as
much as they possibly can.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
It's kind of ingrained in the craft beer
brewery culture, it seems youknow, all the sustainability
that most of them seem to do Allof them that we've ever been to
, not just on this podcast thoseseem to give back in some way,
shape or form.
You know, I've seen somebreweries where they do a
different charity every monthand they just have it right up
(21:18):
on top of their bar.
You know, this month we'regiving to this charity, next
month we're giving to thatcharity, next month we're giving
to that charity.
So if they're not fullyinvolved in the sustainability
of everything they're givingback to the community through
various charities throughout thecommunities they're in.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Yeah, the brewery in Pine City 320, which we are
going to have them on at somepoint in time.
I'm kind of working with theowner to be able to be a part of
it, so I've talked about thatmultiple times.
So some free advertising forthem but they do.
I believe it's Thursdays, Idon't remember which day it is,
but they do a Pints for Pine.
So the Pine City area, acertain organization, gets
(21:53):
portion of the profits oneverything that they sell during
that course of time.
So, yeah, same kind of deal.
It's, you know, quite amazing,like the amount that breweries
typically aren't I'm going tosay typically, because I think
that there's probably a couplethat are, but they're not just
major players that are just likewe're just trying to win
capitalism.
You know what I mean Try to getall of the money and expand to
an overwhelmingly large thing.
(22:14):
You know a lot of them are.
We're okay, just we're going tobe this big and that's fine.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
We could grow more, but we're okay being right in
here, you know that's the craftbeer culture, though, too, there
really isn't any massive,massive craft brewers.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I mean there's a couple here and there, but most
of them are more locally centricyou know what I think that part
of that is also like you get,you almost get too big, you know
.
I mean you start losing some ofyour quality because you're
starting to like, get into likeminutia on such a large level
that now we're not making fivegallons and making it taste just
so, now we're making thousandgallon batches and trying to
(22:50):
like you know what I mean Like,oh, do I put five buckets or six
buckets of this hop?
Speaker 2 (22:54):
in.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
You know, like certain things, like that.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
Then to get distribution and all that.
You know that's another step inthe process where if you don't
really do that, then it cutsdown on your overhead and then
you can just serve locally, youknow.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
And a lot of the people that I know that have
done it and been involved in itor whatever they like to be,
they like to be a part of it.
You know, and you get too bigNow all of a sudden.
Now you're just in a boardroom,you're just in a office, you're
.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
You know, I mean they you start losing some of that.
Oh exactly, the whole point isto enjoy the process of brewing
and, of course, drinking withpeople around you yeah, yeah, so
that's, I don't know that's.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I think that it's just.
The culture is amazing, but Ithink that that's not breaking
news at this point in time.
So quick hitters on their.
Tap room features a meetingroom that can seat up to 50
people.
Total seating is about 200people, with six fermenters as a
focal point.
So you know you're in a brewery.
So you come in nice tables,long benches, lots of chairs,
(23:53):
lots of seating, and then youcan see everything through the
glass off of the other side, sothe production facility right
there on site.
They're not sending anything youknow too crazy all over the
place.
One really cool thing that I dolike about that they have kind
of a patio that wraps around theoutside of the building and
they actually have an area wherethere's like a bar that you can
pull a chair right up to thebar like you would on the inside
(24:14):
, but there's like a garage doorthat opens looking in to the
brewery just sitting on thepatio.
So they got kind of that innerindoor outdoor area.
That kind of works kind of nicewith that.
So kind of fun to be able tocheck that out.
I definitely recommend it.
They do say just on theirwebsite, just as a word of note
to anybody or whatever.
As far as pet policy, we'vetalked a little bit about pets
(24:34):
on the podcast before a fewtimes, a few times.
They have some opinions there,but they they have some opinions
there but they do welcome petsbut they do prefer them just to
be on the patio only.
So that is not something theydon't that's where they want
them you don't want them poopinginside.
Yeah, they do say service dogsare welcome, but they have to be
service dogs that are working,as we've talked about before.
That doesn't say that on here,but that just says service dogs.
(24:58):
But they do a lot of dogs sothey are dog-friendly to a
certain extent on the patiooutside.
So it's a nice little patioarea.
It's kind of a little bit thinon the one side but if you get
to the back part it opens up toa nice yard area and you can
play bags or just hang out backthere.
They also do yoga at thebrewery one Sunday per month at
(25:18):
10 am and then they also on thelast Monday of every month at
6pm.
They also do paint your own petclass where you get a picture,
you submit a photo and then youactually paint your animal.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Well, it might be a little funner to bring the
animal and paint the animal?
Speaker 1 (25:33):
I would think so.
I don't think that I'd be ableto do that with my dog, though,
because he wouldn't sit stilllong enough for me to be able to
A little spray paint.
Well, I mean, he's Dalmatian,so you just kind of like draw an
outline and then you know, hey,take the black spray paint.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
He's kind of already painted.
Now he's got dots.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
That's kind of you know what it is.
I will also say one other thingabout the brewery.
That is really cool.
That's a lot of fun.
So they have the full brewery,all the different selections.
If you go onto their websitethey have tons and tons of
different beers, different kinds.
That's something for prettymuch every kind of palate,
whatever you're kind of lookingfor.
They do distribute a little bit, mostly kind of upper Midwest
Minnesota.
They don't go nationwidenecessarily, but they do
(26:10):
distribute pretty decent.
I was able to get this down inSt Paul, but I've seen it in
Bram and Mora and Alaka.
You see it kind of aroundpretty good.
But if you go to their locationthey do have a full-time
kitchen there.
It is not the invictus kitchenor anything, it is called the
tipsy steer and I think there'sa couple of locations.
But it is a locally owned andmanaged kitchen that has a
(26:34):
permanent spot within thebrewery.
So they do what they call it islocal sassy brew food.
So it's a lot of like barbecueand things like that.
So they do have brick ovenpizza, hand-panty burgers, but
things like that.
So a really, really good food.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
It is really good, very, very good.
Had it there a few times too,and it is really good food.
And what's nice is it's uniquethat there's actually a full
restaurant in a brewery?
Yeah, it's not.
It doesn't happen very often.
Yeah, food truck out front or apizza or or your favorite
pretzel, but uh, yeah it's, it'spretty nice place.
You're gonna bring up thosepretzels again.
I said your favorite pretzeland what's the thing about this
(27:17):
too, I don't know if you'regonna bring this up, but when it
comes to that restaurant, andeven you're ordering beer, when
they see your table, you canliterally order whatever beer
and food you want from yourphone and they bring it to you.
If you need another beer, youjust couple clicks on your phone
and a few minutes later,another beer is coming right at
you.
So it's hard to beat that sothat technology is pretty nice,
so you're not.
If you're ready for your beerand they're busy, you're not
(27:37):
waiting on the waiter orwaitress to come to you.
You just pick up your phone andclick, click and next thing you
know, a couple of minutes later, you got a beer in your face.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
Yeah, usually I just raise my hand and give the
international signal, for I needanother one.
But yeah, it's a great place,cool place, a lot of different
stuff, a lot of information ontheir website.
That's one of the things that Ialso really like about them too
A lot of information there.
You can find out just aboutanything.
They do have a frequently askedquestion that talks about
kid-friendly,wheelchair-accessible smoking on
(28:06):
the patio, things like that.
It does talk about a lot ofthat stuff.
They do have a section on theirwebsite that also is a place
where they show where theydistribute and where it's on tap
.
I have not seen it necessarilyon tap, but it is at different
(28:26):
times.
Speaker 2 (28:27):
Let's hear McGregor north of there, up in Duluth,
see some places down in the city, but you think it'd be closer
to the cities and have it up inDuluth, mcgregor, that's quite a
ways away from Invictus yeah,there's a handful of them that
are up kind of in the BrainerdLakes area, up by a black duck
and Alwood and things like that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
So yeah, a lot of good places to be able to find
Invictus and I don't know.
I really recommend it becauseit's a solid brewery.
They've got some really goodbeers.
You know that they've had.
This one is pretty solid,pretty good, pretty smooth, easy
drinking.
You know it's not super hoppy.
It is definitely a hazy IPA,though it does have that.
So my brother-in-law, alan,probably won't like it because
(29:03):
he's not in the hazy world, butthat's fine.
That's fine, we'll find anotherone for him.
We'll go there.
He used to live next to it, sohe's familiar.
We'll find a beer for him.
We'll be all right.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Hazy, crazy IPA-zy Yep Good, I'd recommend anybody
try it.
If you ever get a chance to getsome Invictus beer, definitely
give it a shot.
It is pretty good, pretty tastybeer.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
And just informationally.
I mean, obviously you canGoogle it, you can look them up,
you can find their website, butyeah, 2025, 105th Avenue in
Blaine, so, as I mentioned, on105th, right between 65 and
Radisson Road.
So really easy to find,although super easy to find.
But one tip if you can come inon Radisson road, because if you
(29:46):
come in from 65 and you'regoing East, you can't turn left,
so you have to go past it andloop around, which isn't that
big a thing.
But if we want to get into likethe very small minutia of
inconveniences, it's a prettysmall inconvenience, it's really
not that big a deal.
But there isn't just becausethere's so many roundabouts and
other things and it's a splitroad there.
Through there it you gotta godown to like the next road or
(30:08):
whatever and and turn around, sobut it's pretty easy to find.
You know like hundred and fifthand then just go kind of
between there and Radisson road.
You know, google it put, put iton Google Maps, put it on Waze,
put it on what's the Appleversion?
I don't even know.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Apple Maps?
Okay, yeah, we'll do that.
Apple's terrible.
If you have an iPhone, I'msorry it's terrible.
But when you go to Invictus onyour Android, tell them the two
guys in beer, andy and Sean, andsee if they say anything.
Maybe you'll get a free beer orsomething.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
There you.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
So yeah, I don't think so, but we do have a
couple of our cards posted therewith our QR code.
So while you're there if youwant, you can scan the QR code
and listen to this fantasticpodcast.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, and even you know whether it be Invictus or
any of the other breweries thatwe've had on the podcast to this
point.
We're pushing our way closer to20 here, pretty soon, we're
getting up there.
You know like definitely mention.
You know if you go to a brewerymake sure you mention that you
heard about it from.
You know the podcast, you knowjust to let them know that
(31:07):
people are talking about it.
You know we want to make surethat the business really we want
to make sure the business getsin a way they're due you and
discussing the various beers Ilike drinking it, absolutely.
That's the best part of theentire thing.
So, yeah, again, like we saidbefore, if you have any beers
that you're looking to be ableto have or anything like that,
(31:29):
definitely reach us out, reachus out.
Reach out to us is probably theEnglish way to be able to put
that.
Reach out to us on our socialmedia platforms Facebook,
twitter, X, youtube, rumble,instagram, tiktok we're
everywhere.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Yeah, iheartradio Pandora PodAddict.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Wherever you want it, it's there Spotify, it's all
the things, all the things.
So yeah, but if you get achance, definitely give us some
feedback, give us some thoughts.
Recommend a beer, maybe in yourhometown, because we got some
people that have checked in fromTexas.
We got some people that havechecked in from Washington,
we've got.
I think you said at one pointwe had some people that checked
in from, like England orsomething there's.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
England, there's Australia or pretty much
everywhere.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So yeah, if there's something that you have there or
whatever, definitely recommendsomething If we can source it.
That's the one challenge, Iguess.
To a certain extent we can getsome good Canadian beers from
where we're at, but Australianbeer might be a little tricky to
be able to get a hold of.
We'll definitely give it ourshot.
If you recommend something thatwe'll absolutely try to be able
to do what we can to be able todo that.
So if you want to hear the kindof background of a certain
(32:32):
place, just let us know.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
So that's kind of my story.
That's my portion of thepodcast here with Invictus
Brewing, so I will continuedrinking.
Now, sean, what do you got Somefun and fantastic info.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I do.
I got a couple interestingstories I kind of came across
this weekend Kind of interesting.
I'll tell you the fact that Ifound Actually, I found it a
while ago, but we'll share itnow.
So if you were to drill atunnel from one side of the
earth to the other straightthrough the core, drill here,
come out on the other side,wherever that is, which I don't
think has been done.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think it has been
done, not yet.
We should probably try Actually.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
I think Russia has the longest bored tunnel.
And then they heard noises andthey filled it with cement.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Well, you know.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
I mean that sounds right.
That's kind of how thathappened.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
But if you were to dig a tunnel?
From one side of the earth tothe all the way through to the
other and jumped in it.
Guess how?
Speaker 2 (33:30):
long it would take you to reach the other side
forever, because gravity do youkeep you in the middle?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
I don't know, I feel like I've maybe heard this at
one point in time fall, let'ssay, two hours 42 minutes and 16
seconds wow I mean that fall, Imean that's a I don't know how
fast a free fall is.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
I probably should have looked that up.
Right, I mean don't you hitlike terminal velocity at some
point in time.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, you can only fall so fast.
Yeah, you can only get so muchfaster.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
School was a long time ago so I just don't
remember all that.
But I do remember somethingabout velocity.
Everything Remember somethingabout velocity.
Everything will hit a certainspeed and that's as fast as
it'll go.
I'd assume through this tunnelthat would be about as fast as
you go.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Sounds right.
Yeah, uh-huh.
So 42 minutes, 42 minutes,that's a little bit quicker than
what we were talking aboutpreviously about going to the
Oktoberfest.
It's going to take a little bitmore than 42 minutes for me to
get from MSP to Berlin.
A little bit more than 42minutes for me to get from MSP
to Berlin.
A little bit longer.
I don't know about your flight,if you've got something else
going on, but it's going to takeme a few more minutes than 42.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
About 10 to 15 hours is what I've been seeing on
there.
I'm close to booking, but wejust haven't quite booked yet.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Yeah, I almost booked it actually earlier today.
We've got a couple of detailswe're just making sure are set
to another, but otherwise, youknow, I think we're going to
have that booked on our side.
So the one I'm actually doingis actually going to have
ironically, it's going to giveme a little second little mini
vacation, because the layover isabout a nine to 10 hour layover
in Dublin.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh, I was looking at one of those so.
I was like well, I mean, whynot?
Yeah, we haven't booked yet Iyeah, we haven't booked.
Yet I haven't decided if we'regoing to fly into Berlin or
Munich, because you can fly intoeither one of them.
It's actually cheaper to flyinto.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Berlin as opposed to Munich, but we'll see.
It's like a $100 train ride orsomething like that.
I think we're going to rent acar and drive down, but to be
determined.
Lots of details, logistics toget two guys and beer to
Octoberfest in Munich.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
Back to the stories here.
Have you ever lost your wallet?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I have.
It is an awful feeling.
I'm not sure what's worse youlose your phone or you lose your
wallet.
I understand that there's asignificant difference on how
much stuff you Overall.
It might be worse for you tolose your wallet, but panic-wise
I think you're losing yourphone.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
But yes, I have lost my wallet.
Everything on your wallet youcan access on your phone Right
Electronically.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yeah, but yes, I have done that and it's not a great
thing, it's not fun.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
So I can say I've never lost my wallet, but it
seems like every two years Imanage to wash it through the
washer Because apparently I feelthe need to wash it with my
jeans.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Laundry money.
You're laundering money.
That's what you're saying.
It's pretty good.
Yeah, all right, if anybody'slistening on the podcast, do not
tell the feds, don't alertanybody, it's fine.
Speaker 2 (36:18):
And you open the washer and of course there's
dollar bills all over and yourlicense and your credit cards
and your wallet shrunk up thisand that Well cards and your
wallet shrunk up this and that.
Well, this lady's wallet reallywould have shrunk up.
So this lady in britishcolumbia lost her wallet as she
was getting off a dock andgetting into a boat.
She had her wallet in thisbackpack that she's carrying
with her over.
(36:39):
It fell out.
She had the zipper open.
It fell out, fell in the ocean,went down and she didn't know.
She lost her wallet to get thaton yeah no idea she had lost
her wallet right away.
But she come to realize she lostit.
And then she realized thesplashing she heard when she's
(37:00):
getting to the boat was herwallet falling in the ocean,
right.
Well, she paid a diver.
Once they got back, she paid adiver to go down there and try
to find it.
You think it wouldn't be toohard to find when you're on a
dock, you would just be lyingright there.
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Yeah, five, ten feet, I guess I don't know how you
know however deep it is rightthere or whatever.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
But to no avail.
They couldn't find her wallet.
Fast forward, about a year anda half later, she's walking out
along the beach with her dog andwhat does she come across?
That washed up ashore a messageto mama, dollar bills in her
wallet.
Her wallet had washed ashore ayear and a half later, on the
same beach she was walking along.
(37:37):
How about that?
Opened it up.
All her money was in there herlicense, her credit card,
everything was in there wow,that is.
Speaker 1 (37:46):
It's fun to hear stories like that you know, like
the randomness of like how youknow, just stuff just works out,
like how does that even happen?
Speaker 2 (37:52):
right, she said, everything was in relatively
good condition except for themetal zipper, and the zipper was
corroded a little bit from thesalt water.
But otherwise, what are theodds?
Speaker 1 (38:01):
yeah, well, you had to be in the exact same spot or
the same area.
You know, but then, like youknow, like that's what I could
find, because they washed itlike, where would it even have
gone?
Speaker 2 (38:12):
did it actually like get carried out to sea, or was
it just kind of there the wholetime?
Speaker 1 (38:15):
probably got buried in a little bit of silt and we
got moved around with the uh,the motion of the ocean, or the
tide, or you would think so,whatever it be yeah, that's uh,
huh, yeah, that's uh, yeah.
So she recovered, she recovered, she found it, but yeah she
recovered everything there.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
So that's the first story.
That was kind of interesting, Ilike that, just the odds.
Speaker 1 (38:33):
Do you know that sign language has tongue twisters?
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Really.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, I don't know what they are, but they are
certain sequences that I can'tdo much for signing.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
Thank you, yes, I can Thank you.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Thank you.
You got to make sure you stayover the top, though Don't get
the chin, because that's a verydifferent sign language.
That's more Italian there.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Guinness Book of World Records.
You've read that book Multipletimes I've read that book.
They come out once a year, if Irecall.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah, typically there's a couple people that are
in there that they like that'sall they do.
I don't know if they do that asa job, but they're in there all
the time they have like Justtrying to break any random
record.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Yeah, they're just trying to.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Because really all it has to do.
What did I read somewhere thatit's reasonable means.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
I wonder if we can get in there for drinking beer
on a podcast.
How many beers can you drink ona podcast?
I wonder if that would be acategory.
Speaker 1 (39:34):
I think I've had two on certain ones, maybe three on
the one where we had theMobcraft.
Yeah, the Advent Calendar one.
I think we maybe got up to that.
That was fun.
Those are pretty good.
From what?
Speaker 2 (39:46):
I remember the last one.
I those are pretty good.
From what I remember.
The last one I had was prettygood, that juicy one Right that
Amanda didn't like.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah Well, she's kind of judgy Aren't they all Don't?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
tell her.
I said that Aren't they allDon't?
Speaker 1 (39:58):
tell her.
I said that.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
So Guinness Book of World Records.
I don't know where they come upwith these, these things.
You know, we just kind of justtalked about how random people
just try to get in there forstuff.
But a danish man earned anunusual guinness world records
title and he managed to stuff 68matchsticks into his nostrils.
It comes up with this you justgrab some matchsticks and just
(40:23):
shove them up, and each you haveto like pull it open and shove
them in there 68.
Uh-huh.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Peter von tangent buscoff he is 39 years old was
awarded the title for mostmatches held in the nose when he
surpassed guinness worldrecords goal of 45 match sticks
I mean that is a really randomone, but I mean how many times,
if you wait, have you, because Iknow how you routinely thumb
through the old Guinness book inyour spare time how many times
(40:53):
have you come across?
something and you just look atit and you're like, well, I
could do that there's been acouple of times where I'm like,
oh, I could do that, and then Itry to do like part of something
like that and you're like, oh,I absolutely can't do that, it's
almost immediately.
You're like, oh, I absolutelycan't do that, it's almost
immediately.
You know like this wasregretted.
Yeah, it's.
I mean, you'd still give it ashot.
I wonder how many I could fitin my mouth, my mouth, not my
(41:15):
mouth, my nose.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Try it.
Try it in the break here andfind out.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, I don't think my nostrils are especially large
.
I mean, I guess I've neverreally thought about it.
But how many did he get to get68.
68.
He shoved up in his nostrils.
Now I wonder what thequalifications are for that.
Are they like?
Because technically isn't likethose.
You know that matchbook, youknow little flat cardboard ones.
(41:41):
Technically that's kind of amatchstick, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (41:43):
So I mean I think it would have to be like those
square wooden ones.
Speaker 1 (41:47):
You know what I mean.
I think it would have to belike those square wooden ones.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
You know what I mean.
Like the standard matchstick,but that's what the photo of
them showed.
Was the standard Cause thoseflat cardboard ones?
Speaker 1 (41:54):
I could probably be fit.
You know like 85 of them orsomething.
Try it.
I mean they're pretty flat.
You should try it.
I'm like somebody light the endon fire on me.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
That's actually the first thing I thought when I saw
the picture.
I'd be like I'd like to justhold the lighter up just light
something towards it.
Oh yeah, mr buskoff.
Surprisingly he said it didn'treally hurt.
He said he has fairly largenostrils and quite stretchy skin
he must moisturize he thinksthat helped him a lot.
(42:28):
He says he chose the matchstickchallenge after researching
different world records he couldattempt.
He said he didn't think he cancurrently beat his own record,
but he hasn't ruled out tryingagain in the future.
In quotes, this is what he says.
For me, an increase in capacitywould require some training, or
perhaps my nose will grow as Iget older.
How do you train for that?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
So is it kind of like you've seen, you know like the
kids that gauge their ears.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
you know what I mean.
Slowly, but surely that's whatI'm saying Like pumped it up, or
something.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
Yeah, blast it out pretty soon.
You look like Nat Geo nose, youknow, like that'd be really big
nostrils.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
That's a lot of big nostrils, that's a lot of that's
all I got for stupid news.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Did you know that Minnie Mouse, her name, is
actually not Minnie, it'sMinerva.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Oh, wow, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Just random facts we're just throwing things out
there at this point in time.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
I'm going to take another drink of beer.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
There we go.
I like it.
It's a good beer.
It is a solid one, invictus outof Blaine.
I recommend it.
The one we did today, the HazyCrazy IPAZ New England Style IPA
.
Speaker 2 (43:36):
That's good stuff.
Go out and get yourself someInvictus, if you have it
available in your area for sure.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Absolutely.
I think that pretty much is thelong and the short of our
episode today.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Long and the short of the matchstick, there we go.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Yeah, and if you're looking to try, to try, you know
the matchstick thing orwhatever, let us know.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Maybe we'll do it on, send us some photos.
Speaker 1 (43:54):
Yeah, maybe we'll even have you on the podcast or
something.
Why not Podcast challenge?
Or if you have, maybe you havea world record.
If you have, oh, there you go,let's get you on there.
Let's see if you can beat it.
Beat your own world record orjust talk about it.
You know that's fun too,Especially if it's beer related.
(44:15):
That'd be even better, so we'lltry to maybe see if we can't get
something figured out with that.
So I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode.
Speaking of Invictus Brewery,we talked about the Hazy, crazy
IPAZ, and I hope you're going toget a chance to be able to
check out all the rest of ourepisodes, like share, subscribe
all of the things, follow us oneverything and make sure you
share it and tell all yourfriends and loved ones, and even
(44:37):
your not loved ones.
Tell everybody about it, get itout there as much as we can and
definitely give us feedback.
Recommend something.
If you want to be able to talkabout something in particular,
or if you want us to try acertain beer or just be able to
do some research with thehistory of one, we're happy to
be able to do it.
That's part of why we're here.
So, sean, what else have yougot today?
Speaker 2 (44:57):
That's about it.
Thanks a lot everybody.
Appreciate everybody listening.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
God bless all of you out there and cheers and we'll
talk to you next time here onTwo Guys and a Beer Cheers.
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