July 2, 2025 • 17 mins
What does it truly take to run a successful craft brewery? The Walking Tree Brewery founders pull back the curtain on the daily realities of their business, a world where passion for great beer meets the unglamorous tasks of plumbing repairs and navigating outdated alcohol regulations.
This candid conversation reveals how Walking Tree's journey evolved from their initial focus on distribution to embracing their unexpected role as a community hub. The owners discuss how managing 17 employees, coordinating a packed events calendar, and maintaining their 80-year-old facility creates a constant juggling act. You'll hear how they've become not just brewers but plumbers, electricians, advocates, and community builders by necessity.
Beyond operations, the conversation explores craft beer's place in the broader market. Rather than competing directly with macro brewers, Walking Tree focuses on creating distinctive flavors across 23 different styles while fostering fierce local loyalty. Their "Stay Rooted" philosophy has cultivated a sense of ownership among customers, people who proudly wear their merchandise and consider Walking Tree "their brewery." Whether hosting 100-person yoga classes or carefully crafting new flavor profiles, everything centers on creating memorable experiences that transcend the beverage itself.
Discover why craft beer thrives on community connections, how Walking Tree balances creative brewing with commercial viability, and why the most successful breweries aren't simply selling beer, they're creating belonging. Whether you're a craft beer enthusiast, an entrepreneur, or simply curious about the businesses that shape your community, this conversation offers valuable insights into the passion and persistence required to build something meaningful from the ground up.
Presented by Killer Bee Marketing
Helping local businesses in Vero Beach connect with their neighbors.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast.
We are right back here at theWalking Tree Brewery and today
we're going to be talking aboutwhat the day-to-day looks like
running a brewery.
I'm just going to hand it rightover to you guys.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So it starts with a lot of coffee, yeah.
And ends with a lot of beer.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Not always.
It's fun, you know we are.
We are closed on Mondays.
Now we were open seven days aweek for our first eight years.
This is much nicer.
I mean, my week normally startswith a brewers meeting, going
through what we're going to brewthis week, what beers need to
be moved, package constructionprojects, maintenance projects.
We do the majority of our ownmaintenance around here because
(00:40):
this facility is giant, it'sfalling apart because it's 80
years old and we're constantlydoing stuff.
So you know, my day normallystarts off dealing with my staff
, getting them up and running,making sure we're on pace for
production and all the things weneed to do moving beer around.
And then you know we go into.
You know we have a Mondaymeeting with myself, brooke, who
(01:03):
runs our marketing and overseesevents, and then Ashley, our
bar manager, who oversees thetasting room.
What events are coming up, whathappened over the weekend?
We have events here all thetime.
So there's just a never-endingslew of what is happening this
week.
It's funny.
People will ask me in theafternoons oh hey, what band's
playing this week?
And it's like Tuesday, and I'mlike I don't know yet, but I'll
(01:30):
go find out for you.
My always answer is I knowwhat's in all the tanks but I
don't know what's going on inthe tasting room.
It's a lot to handle.
We have 17 employees.
We have a full-time sales guyon the road who is dealing with
bars and restaurants and publics, and ABC, total Wine,
independent liquor stores tryingto get our beer in more and
more places.
From my side it's just kind ofjuggling all the cats.
That is Walking Tree.
(01:51):
It's a lot of moving parts withdistribution and managing a you
know, active bar and tastingroom.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, my day starts with a lot of coffee.
So you know, one of the goalsof Walking Tree was to be
primarily, first and foremost, aproduction brewery, so less
about the tasting room andserving out of a tasting room
for the primary source of movingproduct and more focused on
(02:21):
being out in the world.
So one of the things that wedidn't realize when we opened
this place is how imperative thetasting room aspect was going
to be not only to the communitysocial structure here in Vero
but also to our business.
So there was this entire slewof things we didn't know we were
going to be doing, and that ismaintaining a very heavy dance
(02:44):
card of what is going on atWalking Tree, not just bands and
music schedule.
But you finish an anniversaryevent and you're already
thinking about next year, and wehave, I want to say,
unfortunately, because it reallyis our best party of the year,
but it's gotten to the pointwhere we keep raising the bar is
our best party of the year, butit's gotten to the point where
(03:07):
we keep raising the bar and Ikind of say to myself Brooke,
stop, you can't do this anymore.
How do you do better than youdid last year with our Halloween
event, which is just massiveevery year.
So you're constantly trying toevolve and because Mike and I
can tend to be a bit grandiosein some of our lofty goals, like
let's open a brewery we'reconstantly kind of pushing
ourselves.
(03:27):
So there's keeping the dancecard filled.
There's dealing with themarketing.
There's dealing with a lot.
You know, we have a retailstore.
We sell merchandise more thanwe ever thought we would.
So, maintaining a retail, youknow merchandise line and an
online presence.
And then really what's mostimportant to us is trying to
dial in community outreach andbeing a good partner for
(03:49):
community members.
That kind of align with who weare at Walking Tree and the
State Rooted Promise.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, that's a lot.
Dealing with Florida law citymunicipalities, county is one of
the things that I didn't thinkwe would have to deal with as
much.
But I have the cell phonenumber of everybody on city
council Right Like I'm at citycouncil meetings not everyone,
but most of them.
You know Brooke ended upbecoming the president of the
(04:15):
Florida Brewers Guild to try tohelp change the laws in Florida.
The laws in Florida when it'spertaining to malt beverage are
archaic and kind of it's likethe mob, it's stupid, it's
really bad.
So you know, we focus a lot ofour time on changing legislation
, changing city codes and countyand how they operate, because
(04:36):
there wasn't a brewery like thisOrchid Island who closed during
COVID had opened.
But they were, you know, alittle tiny one out on the beach
.
They had a little storefrontright.
We're a big facility, we have1.7 acres of land and we want to
do a lot of stuff.
So navigating the legalities ofhow we can do this is a major
(05:00):
part of what we do.
It's wild the things that wehave to deal with.
Um, I've become a plumber,electrician, I'm getting better
at hvac, you know, uh, mechaniclike pretty much if if it breaks
we have to fix it.
You know I can bring acontractor in to fix something,
but it's going to cost me, youknow, 800 bucks for someone to
show up here.
You learn how to do thatbecause everything breaks all
(05:24):
the time, and if we relied onoutside contractors to fix all
our problems, we would have goneout of business a long time ago
.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And you had to learn to do them right because they're
expensive mistake.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Mark Cuban even talked about that.
He was talking to people aboutrunning a business and he said,
when you first get started, no,you don't need to find someone
to help you from marketing as anowner.
You're going to figure out howdo I, how do I market my
business, because there's moneythat you don't need to spend.
You can't just go and pay forall these contractors to come
and handle everything for you.
You have to get in there andyou have to get your hands dirty
.
You have to learn how it worksand do it, because it helps you
(05:54):
support the business.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
How much overall disruption are you seeing to the
big producers like theBudweiser Miller?
How much disruption are youseeing in their business how
things are going because ofcraft brewers?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
If you would have asked me that eight years ago, I
would have said man, we'rereally making a dent.
We're taking market share fromthe big brewers.
We didn't Craft beer, I think.
In Florida we're a 6% to 7%market share national.
It's like low teens.
10 years ago, the brewersassociation the national brewer
association said that by 2020,craft beer would be 20% of the
(06:31):
market Not even close.
They were wrong.
Yeah, um, craft beer has reallyhit a plateau over the last
couple of years.
Um, I think there's a handfulof reasons why.
Um, this is a luxury product.
Um, you know, you're going togo out to a bar and spend $7
beers.
You're going to go to Publixand buy a 12-pack of Miller Lite
for $14.
That's not as much of a luxuryright?
(06:53):
So, going out, a lot of theworld's changed since COVID and
people aren't going out drinkingand listening to live music
like they used to and listeningto live music like they used to.
So we've seen a shift in howpeople perceive craft beer and
also their spending habits since2020.
And it has affected craft beerall over the country.
(07:14):
There are more breweries closedlast year than opened for the
first time in like 18 years.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Wow, Well, and there's also the.
You know, I guess the best wayto kind of liken it is there's
truffle French fries and thenthere's McDonald's French fries,
and not to bring a branch namein, but pick your fast food, you
know French fry that you like.
Everyone's got one that they'relike religiously, that's the
fry, and we like the fry.
They move millions and millionsand millions of that French fry
(07:42):
from that Right, and so that'swhat you've got is very
different products.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, that makes sense We'll never take over the
macro lager market as craft beerin general.
It's just not going to happen.
But what has happened over theyears is it's become hyper-local
.
So our IPA in distribution doesreally well in the Treasure
Coast.
It does not outside of ourmarket, Outside of our home
(08:08):
market.
Baby Cakes, our oatmealchocolate stout is our best
seller because there's not a lotof oatmeal chocolate stouts out
in the market.
There is a local IPA in everytown and people like their local
beer.
They've been to the brewery,they go there all the time so
they are tied to that place.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Let's talk about that for a second.
What I so that obviously thatmeans your goal really isn't to
take out the the big dogs,because you're like that's not
really.
If your focus was trying totake out the big dogs, you
probably you're never going toachieve it, you're just going to
waste so much energy and yeah,someone would have done it
already.
Yeah, that's a great point.
Great point.
So for those listening, what,what would you say, makes a
(08:46):
craft beer different from acommercial beer?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Flavor primarily.
You know, my goal as a breweris to make a drinkable,
delicious beer that has enoughflavor for the style that you
you want to keep coming back.
Macro lagers are made to besuper light, super easy and as
cheap as possible.
I'm trying to make so manydifferent styles.
(09:09):
We have 23 different beers onright now that we make right and
that's constantly moving fromlike.
We have an Imperial Porter on,I have three different sours on.
I have a handful of easy todrink lagers.
I have a new Saison that'ssuper delicious.
You know we have our course,which is our core IPA.
(09:29):
We have a hazy IPA, we have ouroatmeal stout.
So I'm trying to make a variety.
So I touch a lot of people andexpose a lot of people to
different things.
One of the stories I tell allthe time is when Brooke and I
first met, she did not like beer.
No, I don't like beer.
So I gave her a beer from abrewery up in Georgia called
(09:55):
Terrapin and it's called MoohooStout and it is a chocolate,
it's a chocolate milk stout, sochocolatey, creamy, really
delicious.
You know stout, dark beer.
And she loved it and I was like, cool, well, I'll make you one.
So I made baby cakes, which isnow our second bestseller.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
I've had it.
It is delicious.
I had it at Kilton Mermaid.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Exposing people to all the styles that can be beer.
There's hundreds of beer stylesand I think that really sets
apart craft is that I'mreplicating styles from Germany
and England and from all overthe United States, and we're
just the ability to bring avariety to.
(10:35):
You know, the public is reallywhat makes craft beer awesome.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
That's what won me over to craft beer is sours.
I had never had a sour until wemoved to a place that had a
brewery and then any kind ofsour.
I love them.
They're so fresh and fruity and, living in Florida, refreshing,
you know, delicious.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
So absolutely, and that's a German style the base.
So they're Berliner Weisses,which in Germany and Berlin they
would make this light sour beerand they would put syrups in
them.
Um, and they do it at the barright.
So they'd make one base andthen you'd have three or four
syrups, like raspberry orwoodruff or whatever they'd put
in the beer.
And then Jay Wakefield down inMiami started the fruited sour.
(11:16):
He called it a Florida vice,and that's where people started
pitching fruit into fermentation.
And so we're actually makingthe beers with the fruit to
begin with instead of syrupingat the end, and we have three
different ones on right now.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I think my version of what the difference is would be
I'd love to say that youraverage consumer really cares
first and foremost what's in thecan.
Ultimately, what's in the canis really important.
You can lose a craft beverageconsumer real quickly based off
of what's in the can.
Ultimately, what's in the canis really important.
You you can lose a craftbeverage consumer real quickly
(11:49):
based off of what's in the canand maybe never get them back.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
When you say what's in the can you mean like the
ingredients?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
The liquid right?
Does it taste?
Does it taste good?
Does it bring me where I want?
Is it the experience I wantedto have?
Is it too much of an experienceI can't handle?
Was I ready for what I'mgetting ready to taste?
Because there's a whole gamutthere, right Then?
This is the difference betweenus and the job that we have to
do here, as well as why wedecided to do this.
(12:15):
I think people want to connectwith the experience.
I think that the brand resonateis important, that your brand
resonates.
I think that it's importantthat people want to belong.
We want to belong to theconsumer.
I think they have.
You have to.
They have to want to belong toyou.
We want people to feelownership of this space, like
(12:39):
that's oh, that's my brand, oh,that's my brewery, oh, that's my
flavor, oh, that's my IPA or myculture.
It's theirs and it's visceralfor them.
And most of those people doactually have a really good
palate and appreciation for whatthey're drinking and might be
able to tell the differencebetween some that are very close
(13:02):
, but most can't.
And they know it's good, theyknow they like it.
It might not be sure exactlywhy they like it, but they know
that the brand is theirs, theyfeel like they belong to it, and
that's what a local brewerydoes for a community of people.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And when you do.
I think that's why you'reselling so much merch, because
it's like they want to wear itLike this is them, Like they're
proud.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
The stay rooted has.
Mike and I were on a hike inWashington state, walking down a
trail at Rainier.
Yeah, and it was a switchbackand we heard someone yell from
the bottom of the mountain likestay rooted.
And it was like that is justwild.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah, they saw my shirt from a you know a couple
of switchbacks down and I'm like, oh we've.
We were in Vero not too longago.
We came to the brewery and Iwas like, awesome, we're the
owners and they were like Whoathat's awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
You guys are doing some unique things too, cause I
saw on your Instagram that youhave yoga class.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
So Samantha has been doing that class for a handful
of years now and it's probablythe largest yoga class in town.
I mean, even yesterday I'dgotten here just before it ended
and there was 50, 60 people in90 degrees out here in the
tasting room doing yoga everySunday morning and during season
(14:22):
in March there's easily ahundred 120 people here that
show up for that class everySunday morning.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
It's wild A lot of smart aspects happening there
because the donation base.
But then also that it's warmalready.
You know most yoga studios haveto like crank up the heat to
get that hot yoga experience.
You're already hot hot.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
You're also like this place is becoming, even to
those people doing the yoga,like this is their brewery, this
is their place.
Next episode I want to get intothe uh, the rooted.
I want to get into that becauseI know there's some stuff there
about staying rooted, so we'regonna.
We're gonna get into that.
When we talk about vero, isthere a process that you go
through when you're trying tochoose new flavors or anything
like new types of new drinks?
(15:02):
I guess mixes and sours andstuff.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah, absolutely there.
There's a process to it.
Um, there's two sides of it.
One I'm trying to come up withsomething that everybody will
like and I'll sell tons of right.
There is that side of it.
The other side is that I wantsomething.
This is what I want to drink,so I'm going to make it, and if
other people like it too, that'sgreat.
(15:25):
But that's not why I'm makingit.
I'm making it because I want todrink it, so I can just make my
own beer.
And that's the cool part aboutbeing owner brew master is that
no one can tell me no like hey,my little red wagon yeah.
Right, like the other side, I amtrying to find always trying to
(15:47):
find that beer that people aregoing to be like that's
delicious.
I want four packs to go.
When I see it in Publix, I'mgoing to take it home with me.
Anywhere I find it on draft,I'm going to drink that while
I'm out.
That is, you know, the goal.
I mean, we are a for-profitbusiness, so how do you make the
(16:10):
product that just drives sales?
So there, there are both sidesof that.
The more fun side is I want todrink this, so I'm going to make
it.
The ultimate goal is to combinethose two and find the thing
that I really want to drink, andso does everybody else.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I did notice.
I think you guys offer flightshere too.
Correct, absolutely so.
If there's anybody that hasn'tbeen like well, I don't really
know what beer I would want totry- we can help you figure it
out.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
We can certainly help you figure it out and we have
some pre-made ones that we'restarting to do so like.
Here's our core flight and wehave a summer flight right now.
That's the Sours and the Saison, so like light, fruity beers,
great for summer, so you don'teven have to pick, we can just
make them for you that's awesome, that's awesome well, that
wraps up episode two.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
We're excited to get to episode three and talk about
staying rooted and what thatmeans to you guys and what the
community of Vero Beach means toyou.
So with that, we'll catch youguys next time.
Thanks for listening, neighbor.
All right, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast.
We are right back here at theWalking Tree Brewery and today
we're going to be talking aboutwhat the day-to-day looks like
running a brewery.
I'm just going to hand it rightover to you guys.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So it starts with a lot of coffee, yeah.
And ends with a lot of beer.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Not always.
It's fun, you know we are.
We are closed on Mondays.
Now we were open seven days aweek for our first eight years.
This is much nicer.
I mean, my week normally startswith a brewers meeting, going
through what we're going to brewthis week, what beers need to
be moved, package constructionprojects, maintenance projects.
We do the majority of our ownmaintenance around here because
(00:40):
this facility is giant, it'sfalling apart because it's 80
years old and we're constantlydoing stuff.
So you know, my day normallystarts off dealing with my staff
, getting them up and running,making sure we're on pace for
production and all the things weneed to do moving beer around.
And then you know we go into.
You know we have a Mondaymeeting with myself, brooke, who
(01:03):
runs our marketing and overseesevents, and then Ashley, our
bar manager, who oversees thetasting room.
What events are coming up, whathappened over the weekend?
We have events here all thetime.
So there's just a never-endingslew of what is happening this
week.
It's funny.
People will ask me in theafternoons oh hey, what band's
playing this week?
And it's like Tuesday, and I'mlike I don't know yet, but I'll
(01:30):
go find out for you.
My always answer is I knowwhat's in all the tanks but I
don't know what's going on inthe tasting room.
It's a lot to handle.
We have 17 employees.
We have a full-time sales guyon the road who is dealing with
bars and restaurants and publics, and ABC, total Wine,
independent liquor stores tryingto get our beer in more and
more places.
From my side it's just kind ofjuggling all the cats.
That is Walking Tree.
(01:51):
It's a lot of moving parts withdistribution and managing a you
know, active bar and tastingroom.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, my day starts with a lot of coffee.
So you know, one of the goalsof Walking Tree was to be
primarily, first and foremost, aproduction brewery, so less
about the tasting room andserving out of a tasting room
for the primary source of movingproduct and more focused on
(02:21):
being out in the world.
So one of the things that wedidn't realize when we opened
this place is how imperative thetasting room aspect was going
to be not only to the communitysocial structure here in Vero
but also to our business.
So there was this entire slewof things we didn't know we were
going to be doing, and that ismaintaining a very heavy dance
(02:44):
card of what is going on atWalking Tree, not just bands and
music schedule.
But you finish an anniversaryevent and you're already
thinking about next year, and wehave, I want to say,
unfortunately, because it reallyis our best party of the year,
but it's gotten to the pointwhere we keep raising the bar is
our best party of the year, butit's gotten to the point where
(03:07):
we keep raising the bar and Ikind of say to myself Brooke,
stop, you can't do this anymore.
How do you do better than youdid last year with our Halloween
event, which is just massiveevery year.
So you're constantly trying toevolve and because Mike and I
can tend to be a bit grandiosein some of our lofty goals, like
let's open a brewery we'reconstantly kind of pushing
ourselves.
(03:27):
So there's keeping the dancecard filled.
There's dealing with themarketing.
There's dealing with a lot.
You know, we have a retailstore.
We sell merchandise more thanwe ever thought we would.
So, maintaining a retail, youknow merchandise line and an
online presence.
And then really what's mostimportant to us is trying to
dial in community outreach andbeing a good partner for
(03:49):
community members.
That kind of align with who weare at Walking Tree and the
State Rooted Promise.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah, that's a lot.
Dealing with Florida law citymunicipalities, county is one of
the things that I didn't thinkwe would have to deal with as
much.
But I have the cell phonenumber of everybody on city
council Right Like I'm at citycouncil meetings not everyone,
but most of them.
You know Brooke ended upbecoming the president of the
(04:15):
Florida Brewers Guild to try tohelp change the laws in Florida.
The laws in Florida when it'spertaining to malt beverage are
archaic and kind of it's likethe mob, it's stupid, it's
really bad.
So you know, we focus a lot ofour time on changing legislation
, changing city codes and countyand how they operate, because
(04:36):
there wasn't a brewery like thisOrchid Island who closed during
COVID had opened.
But they were, you know, alittle tiny one out on the beach
.
They had a little storefrontright.
We're a big facility, we have1.7 acres of land and we want to
do a lot of stuff.
So navigating the legalities ofhow we can do this is a major
(05:00):
part of what we do.
It's wild the things that wehave to deal with.
Um, I've become a plumber,electrician, I'm getting better
at hvac, you know, uh, mechaniclike pretty much if if it breaks
we have to fix it.
You know I can bring acontractor in to fix something,
but it's going to cost me, youknow, 800 bucks for someone to
show up here.
You learn how to do thatbecause everything breaks all
(05:24):
the time, and if we relied onoutside contractors to fix all
our problems, we would have goneout of business a long time ago
.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And you had to learn to do them right because they're
expensive mistake.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Mark Cuban even talked about that.
He was talking to people aboutrunning a business and he said,
when you first get started, no,you don't need to find someone
to help you from marketing as anowner.
You're going to figure out howdo I, how do I market my
business, because there's moneythat you don't need to spend.
You can't just go and pay forall these contractors to come
and handle everything for you.
You have to get in there andyou have to get your hands dirty
.
You have to learn how it worksand do it, because it helps you
(05:54):
support the business.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
How much overall disruption are you seeing to the
big producers like theBudweiser Miller?
How much disruption are youseeing in their business how
things are going because ofcraft brewers?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
If you would have asked me that eight years ago, I
would have said man, we'rereally making a dent.
We're taking market share fromthe big brewers.
We didn't Craft beer, I think.
In Florida we're a 6% to 7%market share national.
It's like low teens.
10 years ago, the brewersassociation the national brewer
association said that by 2020,craft beer would be 20% of the
(06:31):
market Not even close.
They were wrong.
Yeah, um, craft beer has reallyhit a plateau over the last
couple of years.
Um, I think there's a handfulof reasons why.
Um, this is a luxury product.
Um, you know, you're going togo out to a bar and spend $7
beers.
You're going to go to Publixand buy a 12-pack of Miller Lite
for $14.
That's not as much of a luxuryright?
(06:53):
So, going out, a lot of theworld's changed since COVID and
people aren't going out drinkingand listening to live music
like they used to and listeningto live music like they used to.
So we've seen a shift in howpeople perceive craft beer and
also their spending habits since2020.
And it has affected craft beerall over the country.
(07:14):
There are more breweries closedlast year than opened for the
first time in like 18 years.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Wow, Well, and there's also the.
You know, I guess the best wayto kind of liken it is there's
truffle French fries and thenthere's McDonald's French fries,
and not to bring a branch namein, but pick your fast food, you
know French fry that you like.
Everyone's got one that they'relike religiously, that's the
fry, and we like the fry.
They move millions and millionsand millions of that French fry
(07:42):
from that Right, and so that'swhat you've got is very
different products.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, that makes sense We'll never take over the
macro lager market as craft beerin general.
It's just not going to happen.
But what has happened over theyears is it's become hyper-local
.
So our IPA in distribution doesreally well in the Treasure
Coast.
It does not outside of ourmarket, Outside of our home
(08:08):
market.
Baby Cakes, our oatmealchocolate stout is our best
seller because there's not a lotof oatmeal chocolate stouts out
in the market.
There is a local IPA in everytown and people like their local
beer.
They've been to the brewery,they go there all the time so
they are tied to that place.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Let's talk about that for a second.
What I so that obviously thatmeans your goal really isn't to
take out the the big dogs,because you're like that's not
really.
If your focus was trying totake out the big dogs, you
probably you're never going toachieve it, you're just going to
waste so much energy and yeah,someone would have done it
already.
Yeah, that's a great point.
Great point.
So for those listening, what,what would you say, makes a
(08:46):
craft beer different from acommercial beer?
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Flavor primarily.
You know, my goal as a breweris to make a drinkable,
delicious beer that has enoughflavor for the style that you
you want to keep coming back.
Macro lagers are made to besuper light, super easy and as
cheap as possible.
I'm trying to make so manydifferent styles.
(09:09):
We have 23 different beers onright now that we make right and
that's constantly moving fromlike.
We have an Imperial Porter on,I have three different sours on.
I have a handful of easy todrink lagers.
I have a new Saison that'ssuper delicious.
You know we have our course,which is our core IPA.
(09:29):
We have a hazy IPA, we have ouroatmeal stout.
So I'm trying to make a variety.
So I touch a lot of people andexpose a lot of people to
different things.
One of the stories I tell allthe time is when Brooke and I
first met, she did not like beer.
No, I don't like beer.
So I gave her a beer from abrewery up in Georgia called
(09:55):
Terrapin and it's called MoohooStout and it is a chocolate,
it's a chocolate milk stout, sochocolatey, creamy, really
delicious.
You know stout, dark beer.
And she loved it and I was like, cool, well, I'll make you one.
So I made baby cakes, which isnow our second bestseller.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
I've had it.
It is delicious.
I had it at Kilton Mermaid.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Exposing people to all the styles that can be beer.
There's hundreds of beer stylesand I think that really sets
apart craft is that I'mreplicating styles from Germany
and England and from all overthe United States, and we're
just the ability to bring avariety to.
(10:35):
You know, the public is reallywhat makes craft beer awesome.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
That's what won me over to craft beer is sours.
I had never had a sour until wemoved to a place that had a
brewery and then any kind ofsour.
I love them.
They're so fresh and fruity and, living in Florida, refreshing,
you know, delicious.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
So absolutely, and that's a German style the base.
So they're Berliner Weisses,which in Germany and Berlin they
would make this light sour beerand they would put syrups in
them.
Um, and they do it at the barright.
So they'd make one base andthen you'd have three or four
syrups, like raspberry orwoodruff or whatever they'd put
in the beer.
And then Jay Wakefield down inMiami started the fruited sour.
(11:16):
He called it a Florida vice,and that's where people started
pitching fruit into fermentation.
And so we're actually makingthe beers with the fruit to
begin with instead of syrupingat the end, and we have three
different ones on right now.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I think my version of what the difference is would be
I'd love to say that youraverage consumer really cares
first and foremost what's in thecan.
Ultimately, what's in the canis really important.
You can lose a craft beverageconsumer real quickly based off
of what's in the can.
Ultimately, what's in the canis really important.
You you can lose a craftbeverage consumer real quickly
(11:49):
based off of what's in the canand maybe never get them back.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
When you say what's in the can you mean like the
ingredients?
Speaker 2 (11:54):
The liquid right?
Does it taste?
Does it taste good?
Does it bring me where I want?
Is it the experience I wantedto have?
Is it too much of an experienceI can't handle?
Was I ready for what I'mgetting ready to taste?
Because there's a whole gamutthere, right Then?
This is the difference betweenus and the job that we have to
do here, as well as why wedecided to do this.
(12:15):
I think people want to connectwith the experience.
I think that the brand resonateis important, that your brand
resonates.
I think that it's importantthat people want to belong.
We want to belong to theconsumer.
I think they have.
You have to.
They have to want to belong toyou.
We want people to feelownership of this space, like
(12:39):
that's oh, that's my brand, oh,that's my brewery, oh, that's my
flavor, oh, that's my IPA or myculture.
It's theirs and it's visceralfor them.
And most of those people doactually have a really good
palate and appreciation for whatthey're drinking and might be
able to tell the differencebetween some that are very close
(13:02):
, but most can't.
And they know it's good, theyknow they like it.
It might not be sure exactlywhy they like it, but they know
that the brand is theirs, theyfeel like they belong to it, and
that's what a local brewerydoes for a community of people.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
And when you do.
I think that's why you'reselling so much merch, because
it's like they want to wear itLike this is them, Like they're
proud.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
The stay rooted has.
Mike and I were on a hike inWashington state, walking down a
trail at Rainier.
Yeah, and it was a switchbackand we heard someone yell from
the bottom of the mountain likestay rooted.
And it was like that is justwild.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Yeah, they saw my shirt from a you know a couple
of switchbacks down and I'm like, oh we've.
We were in Vero not too longago.
We came to the brewery and Iwas like, awesome, we're the
owners and they were like Whoathat's awesome.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
You guys are doing some unique things too, cause I
saw on your Instagram that youhave yoga class.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
So Samantha has been doing that class for a handful
of years now and it's probablythe largest yoga class in town.
I mean, even yesterday I'dgotten here just before it ended
and there was 50, 60 people in90 degrees out here in the
tasting room doing yoga everySunday morning and during season
(14:22):
in March there's easily ahundred 120 people here that
show up for that class everySunday morning.
Speaker 4 (14:29):
It's wild A lot of smart aspects happening there
because the donation base.
But then also that it's warmalready.
You know most yoga studios haveto like crank up the heat to
get that hot yoga experience.
You're already hot hot.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
You're also like this place is becoming, even to
those people doing the yoga,like this is their brewery, this
is their place.
Next episode I want to get intothe uh, the rooted.
I want to get into that becauseI know there's some stuff there
about staying rooted, so we'regonna.
We're gonna get into that.
When we talk about vero, isthere a process that you go
through when you're trying tochoose new flavors or anything
like new types of new drinks?
(15:02):
I guess mixes and sours andstuff.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Yeah, absolutely there.
There's a process to it.
Um, there's two sides of it.
One I'm trying to come up withsomething that everybody will
like and I'll sell tons of right.
There is that side of it.
The other side is that I wantsomething.
This is what I want to drink,so I'm going to make it, and if
other people like it too, that'sgreat.
(15:25):
But that's not why I'm makingit.
I'm making it because I want todrink it, so I can just make my
own beer.
And that's the cool part aboutbeing owner brew master is that
no one can tell me no like hey,my little red wagon yeah.
Right, like the other side, I amtrying to find always trying to
(15:47):
find that beer that people aregoing to be like that's
delicious.
I want four packs to go.
When I see it in Publix, I'mgoing to take it home with me.
Anywhere I find it on draft,I'm going to drink that while
I'm out.
That is, you know, the goal.
I mean, we are a for-profitbusiness, so how do you make the
(16:10):
product that just drives sales?
So there, there are both sidesof that.
The more fun side is I want todrink this, so I'm going to make
it.
The ultimate goal is to combinethose two and find the thing
that I really want to drink, andso does everybody else.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
I did notice.
I think you guys offer flightshere too.
Correct, absolutely so.
If there's anybody that hasn'tbeen like well, I don't really
know what beer I would want totry- we can help you figure it
out.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
We can certainly help you figure it out and we have
some pre-made ones that we'restarting to do so like.
Here's our core flight and wehave a summer flight right now.
That's the Sours and the Saison, so like light, fruity beers,
great for summer, so you don'teven have to pick, we can just
make them for you that's awesome, that's awesome well, that
wraps up episode two.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
We're excited to get to episode three and talk about
staying rooted and what thatmeans to you guys and what the
community of Vero Beach means toyou.
So with that, we'll catch youguys next time.
Thanks for listening, neighbor.
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