October 7, 2025 • 39 mins
Today on Brewsers, we talk to Nick Smith with Lumpy Ridge Brewing. We talk about how he got Lumpy Ridge started, what they’re doing different, and so much more. Follow us on instagram and twitter at Brewserspod. Like, share, review, enjoy and cheers. #brewsers #brewserspod #Enjoylife #DrinkLocal #Cheers
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze and bruisers.
I am your host, Roddy John and today we talked
to Nick Smith with Lumpy Ridge Brewing. We talk about
how he got Lumpy Ridge started, what they're doing different,
and so much more. This is such a fun conversation.
I love what they're doing over at Lumpy Ridge and
you're gonna obviously love it too. So without further ado,
here is Nick Smith with Lumpy Ridge Brewing. I would
(00:56):
like to welcome the show Nick with Lumpy Ridge Brewing.
How you doing today, sir?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you? How are you so?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
For those listening, kind of paint as the word picture,
where are you at? What's going on around you?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
We are in Estes Park, Colorado. It's the gateway to
the east portal of Rocky Mountain National Park. So I'd
say that's our biggest claim to fame. And right now
it's another beautiful sunny day in the mountains. I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well, let's go all the way back in time. What
is your earliest memory of beer?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Woof real beer or.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well well beer beer? And then I was going to
ask what yours gateway craft beer? So whichever one you
want to go first, you.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Know, i'd say Gateway American beer was probably lou Moon, okay,
and early two thousands back in Indiana. But before that,
I was pretty well bounced around with the harps and
the newcastles and the occasional Guinness and you know that
(02:06):
at that time, and what we used to call the
diet beer belt was the only thing different from you know,
the macros. So but I would say, honestly, for better
or worse, Blue Moon was the first. Even though it
came from a macro, it was the first different. It
(02:28):
led to a lot of other tastes, more so than the.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Euros, right, yeah, I mean those Euros they definitely have
that history behind it. But then once America was like,
oh we'll try this, then there's like, oh even better.
I'd snailed that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, so yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, so I had read that. You know, like you said,
you guys are in Sspark, but you guys didn't have
any breweries, wineries or distilleries before twenty fourteen, which you
helped start get that into the city. Can you talk?
Can you walk us through this because it seems weird
and I understand that there are probably still places that
have dry counties or dry areas, but when just not
(03:10):
having anything in general, how does that even happen?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, yeah, I well, certainly in a Larimer County, which
includes Fort Collins and Loveland and berthet and you know,
all the and then just the front range of Colorado
having blown up, there were actually there was actually one brewery,
the Estes Park Brewery, and it started in the early boom,
I think around ninety seven or ninety eight, and it
(03:37):
has a really cool pedigree. Gordon Knight of Oscar Blues
fame was in on that and early on it was
a really well regarded brewery and existed and still exists today.
It actually just got bought and has a brand new energy.
But it certainly went through some very casual years. And
(04:01):
so at the time as this Park Brewery existed, it
had been underway for you know, at that point twenty years. Yeah.
And then Snowy Peaks Winery existed as well, so also
a very small niche winery. And so as it were,
(04:24):
I moved here from Long I moved around a bit,
but I moved here from Long Island, New York. And
with everywhere I went, I had this mission of starting
a brewery somewhere, and like where that came from is
back in Terre Haute, Indiana. I went. I worked for
(04:44):
the Terrehote Brewing Company, which at one time was like
the fifth largest brewery in the country and just a
monster antique campus that started in the eighteen It got
big in the eighteen nineties. It was I think it
stated Giindling by two years and Budweiser by two years.
(05:06):
Are it is? Yeah, it was. It was bought out
in the sixties by American Brewing Group, which was out
of Chicago, and they just pieced it out and sold
it off. But it used to have its own rail
line coming through and supported the Pacific theater of World
War two and and all this really really rich history.
(05:27):
And it went down back then and then was restarted
as a craft brewery around two thousand and one. And
I got with them in two thousand and three, and
I was just doing tap room stuff and outside sales,
and I was just curious and all the things that
(05:48):
I don't know. I was like, can I clean that?
Can I do? Of course the brewer, yeah, yeah, get
right in there. But by the time I started brewing,
we had a twenty barrel DNA system and yeah, and
but I just fell in love with all the things
I avoided through school, the math and science. And I
(06:09):
was a recon sport management major. So it wasn't like wow,
you know, it wasn't even you know, I was being adjacent,
but not like into it. And and I just absolutely
fell in love. And so when I moved from there
to Wyoming and then to Long Island, all of those
moves were partly to find a place to do my
(06:32):
you know, make my expression. And so fast forward moved
out here in UH nine and I bought a restaurant
that I intended to put a basically convert into a
group hub and got a great opportunity to sell it.
So I sold it, and and then came across this
(06:56):
old defunct gas station here in town, and and so
I was ready. And then I was like, well, wait
a minute, why aren't there any other breweries in town?
And so, being a small town, I just scheduled a
meeting with the town administrator, who was basically retired from
the Fort Collins UH City and was was our town
(07:18):
administrator at the time, Like why don't you have more
breweries here while all these other communities are you know
at that time growing with them or really well saturated.
And we looked it up and it was just an
old law that required a kitchen and a percentage of
food and it used to be statewide, and they went
(07:39):
in to the music, went to the municipalities and it
was never changed in our No one asked so I
just asked man, and we started down the road. He
was obvious, he was super supportive. And then you know,
we really had to educate our town trustee and building
(08:01):
department and things like that. So it was about an
eight month process. And you know, the thing that we
did near the end, which I wish, you know, hindsight,
but we chartered a bus and we took the planning
commissioners and the trustees and you know, some like the
town leaders, and we went down and Frank the Lancaster,
(08:23):
the administrator at the time, he knew all these folks
in Fort Collins, so he arranged tours of Odell, which
would be not we don't even have land, you know.
Estes Park is thirty two square miles surrounded by reality,
you know, so there's not even land to build a
brewery of that size, even fifteen or ten years ago. Yeah,
(08:45):
and so so we went there and we went to Equinox,
and we by that time another group that wanted to
do a distillery had jumped on board, and it was
full support all the way. But you know, the wheels
of government turned slow. But that was that was the
that was the clincher, and just the whole bus ride back,
(09:05):
I just knew we had it because all the the town,
you know, the trustees and some of the elected officials.
It's not like it was a lot of retirees. I
used to refer to them as the ancients. But but nevertheless, uh,
you know, they they got it, you know, because they
were just not They had no idea what breweries and
(09:29):
distilleries and and just makers were all about. It's not
about more bars. It's about and gathering spaces, thoughtful spaces,
and and science and art and all the entrepreneur all
the things that go into doing this.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So y no good. I love that you could still yeah,
the passion is palpable here. Uh but I love that
because you are showing them that, look, you can build
a community out of a brewery. Like that's just what
all the answer really for is you're bringing people to
the place that they didn't think that. They first off
may not even known you were there. But then also
(10:06):
like they would just be like, oh, this place is
so cool, I'm gonna come back here on a regular basis,
or I could host some other event or whatever it is.
But then also, you know, again more income to the city.
That's not a bad thing. Like it's so upsetting still
that breweries have this, Like you said, breweries distilleries have
this like, oh, only drunkards go there, and that's why,
(10:28):
you know, people just want to get drunk and whatever.
It's like, No, that's that's why people go to bars.
That's not why they go to breweries or distilleries. They
just again, it's that beautiful merging of science and art
and that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah. Yeah, And you know Estes Park is as far
as Colorado Mountain towns go, it's we don't have a
traditional ski area. We have a bunch of backcountry skiing.
We're very summer centric in our economy. And as far
as the visitors that we get, we get about four
(11:01):
and a half million a year being the gateway to
the National Park. And it's families, you know, and that's
what we serve. You know, primarily we have families, we
have kids, we have you know, all different types of
folks and it's it's it's fun. And but since we
(11:23):
once we broke around, there was another brewery in town
called rock Cut that was they actually won a few metals.
They they were right behind us. They had a lot
more money than I did. I don't recommend doing it
the way that I did, but whatever, I don't betray
them that they make great beer. And but they they
(11:43):
were about six weeks after us they popped up, and
then about three years later another brewery, Avant Garde, popped up.
On our town is kind of split by a mountain.
So on my side of the mountain is us the
and the the newest I think there's six years old now,
(12:04):
Avant Garde Brewery, and then on the other side of
the mountain is Estas Park Brewery and rock Cut. So
we kind of have you know, split the town. But yeah,
four breweries a winery, and you know, we're starting to
find our you know, craft element in a state that's
(12:25):
super conducive to and known, you know, synonymous with the
mountains and the skiing and all the other things traditionally.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Well in craft beer too. There were so many fantastic
breweries that came out of Colorado. We're still in Colorado
that people were like, I've never had craft beer, but
this is it, Like this is what like obviously the
West coast, whether it be you know, Sierra Nevada or
you go up to what they were doing up in Portland, Seattle,
and there was so much going on over there. But
Colorado itself was just like holy shit, how did all
(12:56):
these breweries pop out of this one little area and
Colorado all places Back then, color like you said, was
just known for like skis and the Rockies, but they,
you know, all of a sudden, all these fantastic breweries
start popping up.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
You know, I think the well, I know that the
state like government got pretty proactive pretty early. When we
received our licensing, before we actually you know, poured our
first beer, a state legislator came in. He's like, hey,
my name is I can't remember it, but he was
(13:30):
he was like, he's like, hey, we have this thing
in the Colorado state legislature called the the Beer Congress,
and it's a bipartisan group that meets once a month.
They do a home brew and they pour over all
the old blue laws and look for things that either
(13:51):
catch their attention or people like me, he invited, you
know me, new little guy too. If you have anything,
or you'd come across any laws or rules that you
think are prohibitive to your progress, let me know and
we'll look at it. And if it's changeable, we'll change it.
If it isn't, you know, if there's but they'll work
(14:12):
on it. They'll look at it. And that's how they've approached,
you know, this industry, and so it's certainly made it
a very friendly place to get underway.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, I'm going to say something I've said on this
show multiple times, and whoever hears it again is going
to be annoyed. But as much as we are supposed
to be fifty quote unquote countries all together as the
United States, almost everybody consumes alcohol, almost everybody makes alcohol
roughly the same way. I don't understand why, besides money,
(14:45):
that and religion for some places, why there are still
so many different liquor laws and alcohol laws across these
fifty fucking states. Like, what are we doing? I don't
get it.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I nick facts, So you know, however they lie, but
you know when they repealed prohibition and you know, starting
in Indiana and working in in a little bit in
New York and in Wyoming. You know, when they repealed prohibition,
(15:16):
you know they still as these fifty different states had
to appeal to their constituencies. A lot of the prohibition
was born out of the South of the Southeast in particular,
and so you know, as it goes and as you
probably see, like demographically, like people are more chill and
(15:38):
it was a big religion thing, but more really just
people are more chill out. You know, as you as
you keep moving out and you know, I think that
you know, when they repealed it nationwide, it's like marijuana,
right well it's not recreated nationwide, but in a sense
that like when they do, you can bet your ass
(15:59):
that South Carolina, Georgia, you know, Mississippi is and they're
going to be the last ones to the table because
they have a constituency to please. And if they have
the choice, it's you know too, if given the states choice,
they're going to do it in a way that suits
(16:19):
their states. The bulk of their states wishes right as
they should of course inno sence right right then.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Also it's interesting because you can then we all love
money and whether or whatever it is. Yeah, who doesn't
love money? I can go do things because I have money, right, Yeah,
But just looking at what Colorado did that first year
of being legal, like absolutely insanity and then I am
I'm obviously the numbers probably went down because they were
(16:49):
the first states or if they went there. Obviously you
can't just keep going up and up and up as
much as people in sales for everything that you can,
but just that much money, especially like some of these states,
it's like, what is your what's the number one thing
that you were getting cash from? Oh, it's probably tickets, prison,
stupid things like that. But if you have these things
(17:09):
that it's not just for being high. It's not for
being watching a movie and fully getting it because you
actually are putting yourself in the spot of Batman or
the Joker or whatever it is. But it's literally what
it's doing for medicinally and what it's like, what we
can do with the crop itself, where they make paper,
help get rid of plastics, clothes, just so many different things.
(17:32):
And we're also now seeing that it's helping with athletes
when it comes to recovery because these cannabinoids you can
break down to so many different layers that you know,
Lebron James is looking into it, and I imagine that's
why NBA doesn't test anymore because a lot of their
real you know, the rehab is coming from some of
these cannabinoids, from you know, the CBD side or the
(17:52):
TAC side. So it's just there's just so much into
it that makes again, other than money for prisons or tickets,
that just why what are we doing. We're just spinning
our wheels for stopping that. You know, nobody's eating babies
because they got high, like they were jumping out of
windows like this is not a thing, right.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, I just want to say respect to being wired up.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah. Oh I'm in an old laptop, so yes, being
fired up is the only way I could really do it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That's a nice to shiba rebuild. But but but as
it were, like you know, getting back to you know, breweries,
alcohol industry in general. I you know, yeah, I mean
the West was called wild for a reason, and the
farther west of the more when I when I lived
(18:40):
in Long Island, my wife at the time would have
to go work with matter of fact, she went to
the Google offices and and she showed up in like pants,
you know, New York business attire, and she went in
and everybody's like casual. You know, Hawaii in great business,
(19:00):
but like not, you know, in in a totally different way.
And and so yeah, it's just uh the ways of
our you know country in terms of what people I
want to do. But yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
What what was it that kept you moving around?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I was I reckon a little nomadic I in in
the sense that ah, it was just kind of serendipity
in a bit, in a sense that I did a
for hotel management. It was my emphasis and recon sport.
You know, I went to I didn't want to go
(19:41):
to a Marriott or like a you know, or a
cruise ship or whatever. So I went to a guest
ranch in Wyoming and absolutely loved it. You know, where
I grew up in near Terorhood, Indiana. Our trips were
South Tennessee and or Myrtle Beach or you know, things
(20:05):
like that. So it was just kind of a new
adventure for me and absolutely fell in love with it.
And I went back to Terre Haute and that's when
I got into brewing. And so, uh, through that time,
I went back to the ranch for another season, and
(20:26):
but then I had a new mission. I was looking
at Saratoga, Wyoming. We were not terribly far from Steamboat,
Colorado and her park, and so I was looking, and
I was searching for a place and the you know,
the right opportunity and circumstances to again make my do
(20:46):
do my brewery. And at some point my wife at
the time hated ranch life, so uh and and she
was she was in you know, bigger business always, and
so she got a job in Long Island and it
was her turn to pick. So we went to Patricog,
Long Island, and serendipitously were five blocks away from Blue
(21:12):
Point Brewery with Mark Burford and all that gang you
know before they and then Brickhouse Brewery was right there.
And at the time, honestly, New York was a big move.
I grew up in a small town. I spent my
times in a small town, in small towns or no
(21:33):
towns as it were, with the ranch, and you know,
but but it was it was crazy, it was cool,
and I didn't get to work with them per se,
but we became pretty good pals. And they did the
brewing for a Brickhouse brewery. So I got to do
a doppel bock Terhoe Brewing company. At in my time,
(21:55):
all we did were German loggers and so we h,
So I got to I call it gym riting, you know,
just like when I started, I just like hung around
all the time, and I wasn't annoying enough not to
get invited to their parties at GABF and things like
(22:15):
that later, So I guess, I guess it went all right,
but like keeping chops up and learning things and watching
and you know, and I fancy doing it there. But
good lord, New York even now, sixteen years ago was
a spending place to take on this endeavor.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Oh yeah, you're trying to build any business, they're good luck.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Well when you came out here, who were some I
mean you kind of touched on you guys, went on
a field trip to kind of see what the other
breweries and discilayers were doing. But who were some breweries
that kind of helped you or was it just something
that you kind of assembled all this information.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Along the way. No, I definitely. You know, the the community,
the brewering community here is very yeah, very really cool,
and I think Uh, oh crap. They were out of Loveland.
Dang it. They they sold, they got sold. But I'm
(23:22):
sorry I'm spacing their name right. I shouldn't be. But nevertheless,
there was a brewery down there.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
That we remember what it started. I can start naming
some if that helps. Oh Man, there's quite a bit.
There's a lot good for them.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I want to say a sea, but Crooked Beach. No,
no city Star. It wasn't City Star. Although I got
to uh hang with those guys.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
D c Oaks brew House, I don't think that was
its crow Hop.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Crow Hop yesh Dustin Dustin, I knew dude's name. But
but nevertheless, I feel like I gained a lot of
inspiration and he gave you know, self distributing up here.
We're about thirty miles apart or so he would stop
(24:21):
in and definitely a wealth of information and super handy.
And then from then on it was I had a
couple buddies at New Belgium pre sale that I was
able to kind of ask around Oscar Blues and Lions
at the og spot. It was, Uh, they're really cool.
(24:45):
I'd borrow their like smoker for a pig fest and
things like that. And then uh, and you know, currently
it's it's nice, it's you know, after ten years in business,
it's uh, it's kind of a reach out. Two. You know,
I have a really nice relationship with Odell's. And then
(25:07):
trying to think of the Woods Boss and Denver and yeah,
and we picked up distribution along the way out at Denver.
So I like to say we're a little in a
lot of places around the state. But through that and
through just that portfolio which they kind of focus on,
(25:31):
it's called Colorado Craft Distributors. So you know, with those guys,
they would have meetings and tasting events and whatnot where
we all got to hang out and be uh, you know,
trade ideas, make friends, network and catch each other when
we need something.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
That's awesome. Yeah, I've always heard that about the every
brewer talked to you said that that everybody has. It's
not a lobster pot. Everyone's wanting to help each other.
They're out there not you know, trying to push each
other down. I'm not saying everyone there are from what
we hear, the some breweries that are, you know, may
not want to be as helpful as others, but for
the most part, everybody is that it has that mindset
of like, no, we're here to help each other. We're
(26:14):
not competition. Yeah, you do sell beer, I sell beer,
but we sell different beer and we're giving giving everybody
a different experience whenever they do go to these breweries.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, and and honestly in the you know, in the
recent years, just our neighbors right here in town, like
we all support each other. I do a lot of
I said, nonprofit work and where events with beer on
site are are a big money maker. And I'll invite
(26:44):
I'll have all of the local makers brewery winery or
breweries and winery together just but we do. We do
a lot of stuff together and borrow ingredients. One of
the guys just bought a a grip of College from
(27:05):
a Pennsylvania brewery. So it's Matt's store. I go down
there and shop sometimes and you know, catch a couple
triclamp connectors or valves or just random things as we go.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Well, I mean, being like you said, you guys just
celebrate your ten year anniversary, which congratulations. By the way,
that's huge considering we've seen the swell of craft beers
and now it's like it's like when you take a breath,
like everything's going back. So we're unfortunately contricting, constricting, which
unfortunately means there are a lot of breweries that aren't
making it two ten years, sometimes I even making it
(27:43):
to two or three years. What do you guys? What
are you guys seeing where you are that you know
has kept you in business for ten years and keep
having people come back and want to try you guys.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Stubbornness. I like to say, I'm dug in like a
sick but but honestly, for us, you know, starting I
mean bootstrapping all the way to this very moment has
been a you know, a humbling but very valuable way
(28:20):
to go. And in terms of we have constricted ourselves.
You know, we we have a we have the Gossling
canning machine, and we were putting cans through the distributor
throughout the state and and local UH liquor stores and
things like that, and that's it's it's a very energy,
(28:46):
you know, it's it just takes a lot to do
all that. And with the the downturn and alcohol consumption
in general, and I feel like at least from where
I sit, beer kind of gets the first slash. It's
the highest and galeries and you know, and and but
as it were, we've we've pulled cans out and we
(29:07):
just sell them at our tap rooms. We opened another
tap room about three years ago downtown, well Toby three
years on Saturday. But in downtown, as this park, we're
kind of everything. I take the hardest path possible, but everything,
you know, we're off the beaten path in terms of
(29:28):
a town that facilitates so much visitorship and whatnot, and
so putting a place downtown, you know, we're hoping to
grab that that volume business. And I mean it's been
cool out here. I redid an old gas station, so
you know, out here it's cool because you get a
(29:51):
the perfect customer. They have to They seek you out,
they make an effort to come see you. So there's
like an automatic mutual respect for Hey, they made their
way out here and they're interested in you. And it's
not like you know, in a more volume part of
our town. It's just folks, you know, just walking from
(30:14):
storefront to storefront and not even sometimes not even knowing
what they're walking into. But there's a shitload of them.
And so that's uh, you know, that's the logic there.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
But yeah, so what when you were converting this gas station?
What is the weirdest thing you found when you were
converting it.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I can't say that I found anything overly strange. Just
the obstacles. You know, we had to the tanks that
that the fuel tanks in the ground had already been mitigated,
so it was environmentally okay, but it still had a
different use and has it is material use. I had
(31:01):
to change that on the building. The oil changing pit
was interesting. There was a lot of I was just
a gnarly place for oil changing pit. Yeah, And you know,
at first I built this platform over it and and
had it and we were building out the other things,
(31:23):
putting in the brew house and whatnot. And I got
under there because I was going to barrel age under there.
I was like, cool, well, little barrels in there and
and you know, have that going. And I got in
there and it was full of mold. I had to
peel up the platform that I had made and fill
it in with like thirty five pounds of fill in
(31:44):
a four inch slab on the top. And but you know,
I think probably it's more like what we brought to
the table. Again, don't do what I did, kids, But
you know, I bought this defunct brewery out of Duluth, Minnesota,
(32:06):
and it was comprised of all milk equipment. Even the
ferm enters were the horizontal muler tanks and not the
cool ones with the manway on this not like proper
laudering tanks. It was straight up a milk tank. So
we did a lot of of of home engineering to
(32:29):
make those work. And I mean they ran off of
like our four nineteen or whatever, the coolant that you
used to like freeze things or cool your home. Yeah,
and so we yeah, it was wild and we had
to build. We built. We had three of them, which
(32:51):
took up all of our space and built this rack
out of steel that I like to recover things and
remake them, sometimes out of necessity, ideally out of fun,
but this was a necessity. But yeah, it was wild
back here, and we had definitely mixed results. You know,
(33:12):
it was a rough start. You know, we weren't making
many hitters. There was a lot of infection, There was
a lot of things involved that you know, I don't
know how we made it to about twenty eighteen, I
found an investment and bought five chronicle fermenters and a
new black all chiller and got proper on that. And
(33:36):
the brew house is still old milk tanks that are
retrofitted and they're fine, you know, they it does it's
not convenient, but it's not you know, we're we're we
do fine with it. But so yeah, it was. It
was an evolution. And again with the stubbornness, it was
(33:56):
like no, no, no, we're gonna we'll get to these
right things. And I went through a couple of you know,
I pretty much take on I would say on the
brew master. But uh, through the years, I tried to
have brewers come in and and really good folks and
we learned every time from them. But in those early years,
(34:18):
those milk tanks for really holding everyone back from them
to of course, I was.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah, I mean, you work with what you've got and
then you know, like you said, when you get money later,
you can buy something better. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah. I run around Jamaica some and they say little
by little, little by little, So that's kind of how
we roll.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I love that well. I have a segment of the
show I call it The Five Counts's five Random Questions.
Oh boy, number one, what song do you car karaoke to?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I think it was one of last. The first thing
that pops into my head is band on the run By.
It's a good one, yeah, but it's usually Metallica or
something pumping me up with the next challenge.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Number two, if you were a progress or MMA fighter,
what would your name be?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Oh? Shit, Nicky dread Oh I love that.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Number three Who is your first celebrity crush?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
First?
Speaker 1 (35:21):
What celebrity crush.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
I really like? I think it was Alyssa Milano and Commando. Okay, wow,
that's a good one. Preteen. She's preteen, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
She ended up growing to be a beautiful woman always.
Number four, Who are what inspires you?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Man? Ah? Also, I don't think I have one word
answer for that.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
You don't have to have a one word answer.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
I find it everywhere, you know, in terms of you know,
from other beers to I have a bit of a
culinary background, So just flavor that I taste to get
I get stuck in my head and or a variation
of it, and then I chase it. So I gosh,
(36:11):
you know, music, art, people, life, the outdoors, the you know.
The thing with Estes Park it you know, we're so
tourism heavy and for a town of essentially about ten
thousand people to'll host all those people. You hear all
the gripes and grinds, But I see it differently. I
see like people seeing things that we see every day
(36:34):
for the first time, and they're stopping because there's elk.
There could be elk right outside right now, there are
you know there, The mountains are brilliant here, and so
I'm inspired by seeing people just stoked on the you know,
this little world that we're lucky enough to live in.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I love that so much. And number five, what would
you tell your seventeen year old self?
Speaker 2 (37:01):
H oh man, it's a tough one, that's uh because
no regirts right, Yeah, you know, but I think, uh,
you know, keep keep your mind open, your eyes open,
be uh you know, be kind and be uh you know, gracious,
(37:26):
and try to, you know, make the world the better
place where however you fit into that algorithm.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, that's perfect device for everybody at every age.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Now, if people wanted to find out more about y'all,
visit you guys, see you guys online, how could they
do all the things?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Yeah? Uh so we are Lumpy Ridge brewing, I n
g uh dot or dot com and then at Lumpy
Ridge Brewing and then at Lumpy Public House. That's our
downtown tapron So that's pretty much. Yeah, that's our presence.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Well, Nick, thank you so much for your time. I've
loved this and I have a I'm long overdue for
a trip to Colorado, so I will definitely swing by
and see you guys whenever I do.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Oh, please do Yeah, I may not remember your name,
but i'll remember your face, so.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Well, good, we'll do that. Yeah, I do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
And thank you for seeking it out.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Thank you so much to Nick Smith for being on
the show again. Definitely go check out lump your Ridge Brewing,
check them out online. Make sure you know what's going
on before you even get there or just going there blinde.
I love that too. Checking out a new brewing is
always a fantastic idea. While you're doing that, make sure
to tag us and follow us on social media. It
is bruisers Pod. That is be R E W S
c R S p O D on the Instagram of
the threads and the Twitter. If you want to send
(38:56):
us an email, it is Brewisierspod at gmail dot com.
If you want to follow me, it is Rody John.
That is R O D I E h oh and
Rody John is the name on the Twitter and on
tap in case you want to find out what I'm drinking.
Maybe were gonna have a beer together. If you're want
to follow me on the threads or the Instagram, it
is official Rody John sound. Until next time, make sure
to enjoy life, drink local and cheers
Welcome to Bruisers, a podcast about beer, coffee, booze and bruisers.
I am your host, Roddy John and today we talked
to Nick Smith with Lumpy Ridge Brewing. We talk about
how he got Lumpy Ridge started, what they're doing different,
and so much more. This is such a fun conversation.
I love what they're doing over at Lumpy Ridge and
you're gonna obviously love it too. So without further ado,
here is Nick Smith with Lumpy Ridge Brewing. I would
(00:56):
like to welcome the show Nick with Lumpy Ridge Brewing.
How you doing today, sir?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you? How are you so?
Speaker 1 (01:02):
For those listening, kind of paint as the word picture,
where are you at? What's going on around you?
Speaker 2 (01:07):
We are in Estes Park, Colorado. It's the gateway to
the east portal of Rocky Mountain National Park. So I'd
say that's our biggest claim to fame. And right now
it's another beautiful sunny day in the mountains. I love it.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well, let's go all the way back in time. What
is your earliest memory of beer?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Woof real beer or.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well well beer beer? And then I was going to
ask what yours gateway craft beer? So whichever one you
want to go first, you.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Know, i'd say Gateway American beer was probably lou Moon, okay,
and early two thousands back in Indiana. But before that,
I was pretty well bounced around with the harps and
the newcastles and the occasional Guinness and you know that
(02:06):
at that time, and what we used to call the
diet beer belt was the only thing different from you know,
the macros. So but I would say, honestly, for better
or worse, Blue Moon was the first. Even though it
came from a macro, it was the first different. It
(02:28):
led to a lot of other tastes, more so than the.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Euros, right, yeah, I mean those Euros they definitely have
that history behind it. But then once America was like,
oh we'll try this, then there's like, oh even better.
I'd snailed that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, so yeah, that's nice.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, so I had read that. You know, like you said,
you guys are in Sspark, but you guys didn't have
any breweries, wineries or distilleries before twenty fourteen, which you
helped start get that into the city. Can you talk?
Can you walk us through this because it seems weird
and I understand that there are probably still places that
have dry counties or dry areas, but when just not
(03:10):
having anything in general, how does that even happen?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well, yeah, I well, certainly in a Larimer County, which
includes Fort Collins and Loveland and berthet and you know,
all the and then just the front range of Colorado
having blown up, there were actually there was actually one brewery,
the Estes Park Brewery, and it started in the early boom,
I think around ninety seven or ninety eight, and it
(03:37):
has a really cool pedigree. Gordon Knight of Oscar Blues
fame was in on that and early on it was
a really well regarded brewery and existed and still exists today.
It actually just got bought and has a brand new energy.
But it certainly went through some very casual years. And
(04:01):
so at the time as this Park Brewery existed, it
had been underway for you know, at that point twenty years. Yeah.
And then Snowy Peaks Winery existed as well, so also
a very small niche winery. And so as it were,
(04:24):
I moved here from Long I moved around a bit,
but I moved here from Long Island, New York. And
with everywhere I went, I had this mission of starting
a brewery somewhere, and like where that came from is
back in Terre Haute, Indiana. I went. I worked for
(04:44):
the Terrehote Brewing Company, which at one time was like
the fifth largest brewery in the country and just a
monster antique campus that started in the eighteen It got
big in the eighteen nineties. It was I think it
stated Giindling by two years and Budweiser by two years.
(05:06):
Are it is? Yeah, it was. It was bought out
in the sixties by American Brewing Group, which was out
of Chicago, and they just pieced it out and sold
it off. But it used to have its own rail
line coming through and supported the Pacific theater of World
War two and and all this really really rich history.
(05:27):
And it went down back then and then was restarted
as a craft brewery around two thousand and one. And
I got with them in two thousand and three, and
I was just doing tap room stuff and outside sales,
and I was just curious and all the things that
(05:48):
I don't know. I was like, can I clean that?
Can I do? Of course the brewer, yeah, yeah, get
right in there. But by the time I started brewing,
we had a twenty barrel DNA system and yeah, and
but I just fell in love with all the things
I avoided through school, the math and science. And I
(06:09):
was a recon sport management major. So it wasn't like wow,
you know, it wasn't even you know, I was being adjacent,
but not like into it. And and I just absolutely
fell in love. And so when I moved from there
to Wyoming and then to Long Island, all of those
moves were partly to find a place to do my
(06:32):
you know, make my expression. And so fast forward moved
out here in UH nine and I bought a restaurant
that I intended to put a basically convert into a
group hub and got a great opportunity to sell it.
So I sold it, and and then came across this
(06:56):
old defunct gas station here in town, and and so
I was ready. And then I was like, well, wait
a minute, why aren't there any other breweries in town?
And so, being a small town, I just scheduled a
meeting with the town administrator, who was basically retired from
the Fort Collins UH City and was was our town
(07:18):
administrator at the time, Like why don't you have more
breweries here while all these other communities are you know
at that time growing with them or really well saturated.
And we looked it up and it was just an
old law that required a kitchen and a percentage of
food and it used to be statewide, and they went
(07:39):
in to the music, went to the municipalities and it
was never changed in our No one asked so I
just asked man, and we started down the road. He
was obvious, he was super supportive. And then you know,
we really had to educate our town trustee and building
(08:01):
department and things like that. So it was about an
eight month process. And you know, the thing that we
did near the end, which I wish, you know, hindsight,
but we chartered a bus and we took the planning
commissioners and the trustees and you know, some like the
town leaders, and we went down and Frank the Lancaster,
(08:23):
the administrator at the time, he knew all these folks
in Fort Collins, so he arranged tours of Odell, which
would be not we don't even have land, you know.
Estes Park is thirty two square miles surrounded by reality,
you know, so there's not even land to build a
brewery of that size, even fifteen or ten years ago. Yeah,
(08:45):
and so so we went there and we went to Equinox,
and we by that time another group that wanted to
do a distillery had jumped on board, and it was
full support all the way. But you know, the wheels
of government turned slow. But that was that was the
that was the clincher, and just the whole bus ride back,
(09:05):
I just knew we had it because all the the town,
you know, the trustees and some of the elected officials.
It's not like it was a lot of retirees. I
used to refer to them as the ancients. But but nevertheless, uh,
you know, they they got it, you know, because they
were just not They had no idea what breweries and
(09:29):
distilleries and and just makers were all about. It's not
about more bars. It's about and gathering spaces, thoughtful spaces,
and and science and art and all the entrepreneur all
the things that go into doing this.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
So y no good. I love that you could still yeah,
the passion is palpable here. Uh but I love that
because you are showing them that, look, you can build
a community out of a brewery. Like that's just what
all the answer really for is you're bringing people to
the place that they didn't think that. They first off
may not even known you were there. But then also
(10:06):
like they would just be like, oh, this place is
so cool, I'm gonna come back here on a regular basis,
or I could host some other event or whatever it is.
But then also, you know, again more income to the city.
That's not a bad thing. Like it's so upsetting still
that breweries have this, Like you said, breweries distilleries have
this like, oh, only drunkards go there, and that's why,
(10:28):
you know, people just want to get drunk and whatever.
It's like, No, that's that's why people go to bars.
That's not why they go to breweries or distilleries. They
just again, it's that beautiful merging of science and art
and that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Yeah. Yeah, And you know Estes Park is as far
as Colorado Mountain towns go, it's we don't have a
traditional ski area. We have a bunch of backcountry skiing.
We're very summer centric in our economy. And as far
as the visitors that we get, we get about four
(11:01):
and a half million a year being the gateway to
the National Park. And it's families, you know, and that's
what we serve. You know, primarily we have families, we
have kids, we have you know, all different types of
folks and it's it's it's fun. And but since we
(11:23):
once we broke around, there was another brewery in town
called rock Cut that was they actually won a few metals.
They they were right behind us. They had a lot
more money than I did. I don't recommend doing it
the way that I did, but whatever, I don't betray
them that they make great beer. And but they they
(11:43):
were about six weeks after us they popped up, and
then about three years later another brewery, Avant Garde, popped up.
On our town is kind of split by a mountain.
So on my side of the mountain is us the
and the the newest I think there's six years old now,
(12:04):
Avant Garde Brewery, and then on the other side of
the mountain is Estas Park Brewery and rock Cut. So
we kind of have you know, split the town. But yeah,
four breweries a winery, and you know, we're starting to
find our you know, craft element in a state that's
(12:25):
super conducive to and known, you know, synonymous with the
mountains and the skiing and all the other things traditionally.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
Well in craft beer too. There were so many fantastic
breweries that came out of Colorado. We're still in Colorado
that people were like, I've never had craft beer, but
this is it, Like this is what like obviously the
West coast, whether it be you know, Sierra Nevada or
you go up to what they were doing up in Portland, Seattle,
and there was so much going on over there. But
Colorado itself was just like holy shit, how did all
(12:56):
these breweries pop out of this one little area and
Colorado all places Back then, color like you said, was
just known for like skis and the Rockies, but they,
you know, all of a sudden, all these fantastic breweries
start popping up.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
You know, I think the well, I know that the
state like government got pretty proactive pretty early. When we
received our licensing, before we actually you know, poured our
first beer, a state legislator came in. He's like, hey,
my name is I can't remember it, but he was
(13:30):
he was like, he's like, hey, we have this thing
in the Colorado state legislature called the the Beer Congress,
and it's a bipartisan group that meets once a month.
They do a home brew and they pour over all
the old blue laws and look for things that either
(13:51):
catch their attention or people like me, he invited, you
know me, new little guy too. If you have anything,
or you'd come across any laws or rules that you
think are prohibitive to your progress, let me know and
we'll look at it. And if it's changeable, we'll change it.
If it isn't, you know, if there's but they'll work
(14:12):
on it. They'll look at it. And that's how they've approached,
you know, this industry, and so it's certainly made it
a very friendly place to get underway.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yeah, I'm going to say something I've said on this
show multiple times, and whoever hears it again is going
to be annoyed. But as much as we are supposed
to be fifty quote unquote countries all together as the
United States, almost everybody consumes alcohol, almost everybody makes alcohol
roughly the same way. I don't understand why, besides money,
(14:45):
that and religion for some places, why there are still
so many different liquor laws and alcohol laws across these
fifty fucking states. Like, what are we doing? I don't
get it.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
I nick facts, So you know, however they lie, but
you know when they repealed prohibition and you know, starting
in Indiana and working in in a little bit in
New York and in Wyoming. You know, when they repealed prohibition,
(15:16):
you know they still as these fifty different states had
to appeal to their constituencies. A lot of the prohibition
was born out of the South of the Southeast in particular,
and so you know, as it goes and as you
probably see, like demographically, like people are more chill and
(15:38):
it was a big religion thing, but more really just
people are more chill out. You know, as you as
you keep moving out and you know, I think that
you know, when they repealed it nationwide, it's like marijuana,
right well it's not recreated nationwide, but in a sense
that like when they do, you can bet your ass
(15:59):
that South Carolina, Georgia, you know, Mississippi is and they're
going to be the last ones to the table because
they have a constituency to please. And if they have
the choice, it's you know too, if given the states choice,
they're going to do it in a way that suits
(16:19):
their states. The bulk of their states wishes right as
they should of course inno sence right right then.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Also it's interesting because you can then we all love
money and whether or whatever it is. Yeah, who doesn't
love money? I can go do things because I have money, right, Yeah,
But just looking at what Colorado did that first year
of being legal, like absolutely insanity and then I am
I'm obviously the numbers probably went down because they were
(16:49):
the first states or if they went there. Obviously you
can't just keep going up and up and up as
much as people in sales for everything that you can,
but just that much money, especially like some of these states,
it's like, what is your what's the number one thing
that you were getting cash from? Oh, it's probably tickets, prison,
stupid things like that. But if you have these things
(17:09):
that it's not just for being high. It's not for
being watching a movie and fully getting it because you
actually are putting yourself in the spot of Batman or
the Joker or whatever it is. But it's literally what
it's doing for medicinally and what it's like, what we
can do with the crop itself, where they make paper,
help get rid of plastics, clothes, just so many different things.
(17:32):
And we're also now seeing that it's helping with athletes
when it comes to recovery because these cannabinoids you can
break down to so many different layers that you know,
Lebron James is looking into it, and I imagine that's
why NBA doesn't test anymore because a lot of their
real you know, the rehab is coming from some of
these cannabinoids, from you know, the CBD side or the
(17:52):
TAC side. So it's just there's just so much into
it that makes again, other than money for prisons or tickets,
that just why what are we doing. We're just spinning
our wheels for stopping that. You know, nobody's eating babies
because they got high, like they were jumping out of
windows like this is not a thing, right.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, I just want to say respect to being wired up.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Yeah. Oh I'm in an old laptop, so yes, being
fired up is the only way I could really do it.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That's a nice to shiba rebuild. But but but as
it were, like you know, getting back to you know, breweries,
alcohol industry in general. I you know, yeah, I mean
the West was called wild for a reason, and the
farther west of the more when I when I lived
(18:40):
in Long Island, my wife at the time would have
to go work with matter of fact, she went to
the Google offices and and she showed up in like pants,
you know, New York business attire, and she went in
and everybody's like casual. You know, Hawaii in great business,
(19:00):
but like not, you know, in in a totally different way.
And and so yeah, it's just uh the ways of
our you know country in terms of what people I
want to do. But yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
What what was it that kept you moving around?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
I was I reckon a little nomadic I in in
the sense that ah, it was just kind of serendipity
in a bit, in a sense that I did a
for hotel management. It was my emphasis and recon sport.
You know, I went to I didn't want to go
(19:41):
to a Marriott or like a you know, or a
cruise ship or whatever. So I went to a guest
ranch in Wyoming and absolutely loved it. You know, where
I grew up in near Terorhood, Indiana. Our trips were
South Tennessee and or Myrtle Beach or you know, things
(20:05):
like that. So it was just kind of a new
adventure for me and absolutely fell in love with it.
And I went back to Terre Haute and that's when
I got into brewing. And so, uh, through that time,
I went back to the ranch for another season, and
(20:26):
but then I had a new mission. I was looking
at Saratoga, Wyoming. We were not terribly far from Steamboat,
Colorado and her park, and so I was looking, and
I was searching for a place and the you know,
the right opportunity and circumstances to again make my do
(20:46):
do my brewery. And at some point my wife at
the time hated ranch life, so uh and and she
was she was in you know, bigger business always, and
so she got a job in Long Island and it
was her turn to pick. So we went to Patricog,
Long Island, and serendipitously were five blocks away from Blue
(21:12):
Point Brewery with Mark Burford and all that gang you
know before they and then Brickhouse Brewery was right there.
And at the time, honestly, New York was a big move.
I grew up in a small town. I spent my
times in a small town, in small towns or no
(21:33):
towns as it were, with the ranch, and you know,
but but it was it was crazy, it was cool,
and I didn't get to work with them per se,
but we became pretty good pals. And they did the
brewing for a Brickhouse brewery. So I got to do
a doppel bock Terhoe Brewing company. At in my time,
(21:55):
all we did were German loggers and so we h,
So I got to I call it gym riting, you know,
just like when I started, I just like hung around
all the time, and I wasn't annoying enough not to
get invited to their parties at GABF and things like
(22:15):
that later, So I guess, I guess it went all right,
but like keeping chops up and learning things and watching
and you know, and I fancy doing it there. But
good lord, New York even now, sixteen years ago was
a spending place to take on this endeavor.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Oh yeah, you're trying to build any business, they're good luck.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Well when you came out here, who were some I
mean you kind of touched on you guys, went on
a field trip to kind of see what the other
breweries and discilayers were doing. But who were some breweries
that kind of helped you or was it just something
that you kind of assembled all this information.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Along the way. No, I definitely. You know, the the community,
the brewering community here is very yeah, very really cool,
and I think Uh, oh crap. They were out of Loveland.
Dang it. They they sold, they got sold. But I'm
(23:22):
sorry I'm spacing their name right. I shouldn't be. But nevertheless,
there was a brewery down there.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
That we remember what it started. I can start naming
some if that helps. Oh Man, there's quite a bit.
There's a lot good for them.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
I want to say a sea, but Crooked Beach. No,
no city Star. It wasn't City Star. Although I got
to uh hang with those guys.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
D c Oaks brew House, I don't think that was
its crow Hop.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Crow Hop yesh Dustin Dustin, I knew dude's name. But
but nevertheless, I feel like I gained a lot of
inspiration and he gave you know, self distributing up here.
We're about thirty miles apart or so he would stop
(24:21):
in and definitely a wealth of information and super handy.
And then from then on it was I had a
couple buddies at New Belgium pre sale that I was
able to kind of ask around Oscar Blues and Lions
at the og spot. It was, Uh, they're really cool.
(24:45):
I'd borrow their like smoker for a pig fest and
things like that. And then uh, and you know, currently
it's it's nice, it's you know, after ten years in business,
it's uh, it's kind of a reach out. Two. You know,
I have a really nice relationship with Odell's. And then
(25:07):
trying to think of the Woods Boss and Denver and yeah,
and we picked up distribution along the way out at Denver.
So I like to say we're a little in a
lot of places around the state. But through that and
through just that portfolio which they kind of focus on,
(25:31):
it's called Colorado Craft Distributors. So you know, with those guys,
they would have meetings and tasting events and whatnot where
we all got to hang out and be uh, you know,
trade ideas, make friends, network and catch each other when
we need something.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
That's awesome. Yeah, I've always heard that about the every
brewer talked to you said that that everybody has. It's
not a lobster pot. Everyone's wanting to help each other.
They're out there not you know, trying to push each
other down. I'm not saying everyone there are from what
we hear, the some breweries that are, you know, may
not want to be as helpful as others, but for
the most part, everybody is that it has that mindset
of like, no, we're here to help each other. We're
(26:14):
not competition. Yeah, you do sell beer, I sell beer,
but we sell different beer and we're giving giving everybody
a different experience whenever they do go to these breweries.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Yeah, and and honestly in the you know, in the
recent years, just our neighbors right here in town, like
we all support each other. I do a lot of
I said, nonprofit work and where events with beer on
site are are a big money maker. And I'll invite
(26:44):
I'll have all of the local makers brewery winery or
breweries and winery together just but we do. We do
a lot of stuff together and borrow ingredients. One of
the guys just bought a a grip of College from
(27:05):
a Pennsylvania brewery. So it's Matt's store. I go down
there and shop sometimes and you know, catch a couple
triclamp connectors or valves or just random things as we go.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Well, I mean, being like you said, you guys just
celebrate your ten year anniversary, which congratulations. By the way,
that's huge considering we've seen the swell of craft beers
and now it's like it's like when you take a breath,
like everything's going back. So we're unfortunately contricting, constricting, which
unfortunately means there are a lot of breweries that aren't
making it two ten years, sometimes I even making it
(27:43):
to two or three years. What do you guys? What
are you guys seeing where you are that you know
has kept you in business for ten years and keep
having people come back and want to try you guys.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Stubbornness. I like to say, I'm dug in like a
sick but but honestly, for us, you know, starting I
mean bootstrapping all the way to this very moment has
been a you know, a humbling but very valuable way
(28:20):
to go. And in terms of we have constricted ourselves.
You know, we we have a we have the Gossling
canning machine, and we were putting cans through the distributor
throughout the state and and local UH liquor stores and
things like that, and that's it's it's a very energy,
(28:46):
you know, it's it just takes a lot to do
all that. And with the the downturn and alcohol consumption
in general, and I feel like at least from where
I sit, beer kind of gets the first slash. It's
the highest and galeries and you know, and and but
as it were, we've we've pulled cans out and we
(29:07):
just sell them at our tap rooms. We opened another
tap room about three years ago downtown, well Toby three
years on Saturday. But in downtown, as this park, we're
kind of everything. I take the hardest path possible, but everything,
you know, we're off the beaten path in terms of
(29:28):
a town that facilitates so much visitorship and whatnot, and
so putting a place downtown, you know, we're hoping to
grab that that volume business. And I mean it's been
cool out here. I redid an old gas station, so
you know, out here it's cool because you get a
(29:51):
the perfect customer. They have to They seek you out,
they make an effort to come see you. So there's
like an automatic mutual respect for Hey, they made their
way out here and they're interested in you. And it's
not like you know, in a more volume part of
our town. It's just folks, you know, just walking from
(30:14):
storefront to storefront and not even sometimes not even knowing
what they're walking into. But there's a shitload of them.
And so that's uh, you know, that's the logic there.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
But yeah, so what when you were converting this gas station?
What is the weirdest thing you found when you were
converting it.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I can't say that I found anything overly strange. Just
the obstacles. You know, we had to the tanks that
that the fuel tanks in the ground had already been mitigated,
so it was environmentally okay, but it still had a
different use and has it is material use. I had
(31:01):
to change that on the building. The oil changing pit
was interesting. There was a lot of I was just
a gnarly place for oil changing pit. Yeah, And you know,
at first I built this platform over it and and
had it and we were building out the other things,
(31:23):
putting in the brew house and whatnot. And I got
under there because I was going to barrel age under there.
I was like, cool, well, little barrels in there and
and you know, have that going. And I got in
there and it was full of mold. I had to
peel up the platform that I had made and fill
it in with like thirty five pounds of fill in
(31:44):
a four inch slab on the top. And but you know,
I think probably it's more like what we brought to
the table. Again, don't do what I did, kids, But
you know, I bought this defunct brewery out of Duluth, Minnesota,
(32:06):
and it was comprised of all milk equipment. Even the
ferm enters were the horizontal muler tanks and not the
cool ones with the manway on this not like proper
laudering tanks. It was straight up a milk tank. So
we did a lot of of of home engineering to
(32:29):
make those work. And I mean they ran off of
like our four nineteen or whatever, the coolant that you
used to like freeze things or cool your home. Yeah,
and so we yeah, it was wild and we had
to build. We built. We had three of them, which
(32:51):
took up all of our space and built this rack
out of steel that I like to recover things and
remake them, sometimes out of necessity, ideally out of fun,
but this was a necessity. But yeah, it was wild
back here, and we had definitely mixed results. You know,
(33:12):
it was a rough start. You know, we weren't making
many hitters. There was a lot of infection, There was
a lot of things involved that you know, I don't
know how we made it to about twenty eighteen, I
found an investment and bought five chronicle fermenters and a
new black all chiller and got proper on that. And
(33:36):
the brew house is still old milk tanks that are
retrofitted and they're fine, you know, they it does it's
not convenient, but it's not you know, we're we're we
do fine with it. But so yeah, it was. It
was an evolution. And again with the stubbornness, it was
(33:56):
like no, no, no, we're gonna we'll get to these
right things. And I went through a couple of you know,
I pretty much take on I would say on the
brew master. But uh, through the years, I tried to
have brewers come in and and really good folks and
we learned every time from them. But in those early years,
(34:18):
those milk tanks for really holding everyone back from them
to of course, I was.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Yeah, I mean, you work with what you've got and
then you know, like you said, when you get money later,
you can buy something better. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
Yeah. I run around Jamaica some and they say little
by little, little by little, So that's kind of how
we roll.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
I love that well. I have a segment of the
show I call it The Five Counts's five Random Questions.
Oh boy, number one, what song do you car karaoke to?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
I think it was one of last. The first thing
that pops into my head is band on the run By.
It's a good one, yeah, but it's usually Metallica or
something pumping me up with the next challenge.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Number two, if you were a progress or MMA fighter,
what would your name be?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Oh? Shit, Nicky dread Oh I love that.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Number three Who is your first celebrity crush?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
First?
Speaker 1 (35:21):
What celebrity crush.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
I really like? I think it was Alyssa Milano and Commando. Okay, wow,
that's a good one. Preteen. She's preteen, you know.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
She ended up growing to be a beautiful woman always.
Number four, Who are what inspires you?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Man? Ah? Also, I don't think I have one word
answer for that.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
You don't have to have a one word answer.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
I find it everywhere, you know, in terms of you know,
from other beers to I have a bit of a
culinary background, So just flavor that I taste to get
I get stuck in my head and or a variation
of it, and then I chase it. So I gosh,
(36:11):
you know, music, art, people, life, the outdoors, the you know.
The thing with Estes Park it you know, we're so
tourism heavy and for a town of essentially about ten
thousand people to'll host all those people. You hear all
the gripes and grinds, But I see it differently. I
see like people seeing things that we see every day
(36:34):
for the first time, and they're stopping because there's elk.
There could be elk right outside right now, there are
you know there, The mountains are brilliant here, and so
I'm inspired by seeing people just stoked on the you know,
this little world that we're lucky enough to live in.
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I love that so much. And number five, what would
you tell your seventeen year old self?
Speaker 2 (37:01):
H oh man, it's a tough one, that's uh because
no regirts right, Yeah, you know, but I think, uh,
you know, keep keep your mind open, your eyes open,
be uh you know, be kind and be uh you know, gracious,
(37:26):
and try to, you know, make the world the better
place where however you fit into that algorithm.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Yeah, that's perfect device for everybody at every age.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
Now, if people wanted to find out more about y'all,
visit you guys, see you guys online, how could they
do all the things?
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Yeah? Uh so we are Lumpy Ridge brewing, I n
g uh dot or dot com and then at Lumpy
Ridge Brewing and then at Lumpy Public House. That's our
downtown tapron So that's pretty much. Yeah, that's our presence.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Well, Nick, thank you so much for your time. I've
loved this and I have a I'm long overdue for
a trip to Colorado, so I will definitely swing by
and see you guys whenever I do.
Speaker 2 (38:15):
Oh, please do Yeah, I may not remember your name,
but i'll remember your face, so.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Well, good, we'll do that. Yeah, I do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
And thank you for seeking it out.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Thank you so much to Nick Smith for being on
the show again. Definitely go check out lump your Ridge Brewing,
check them out online. Make sure you know what's going
on before you even get there or just going there blinde.
I love that too. Checking out a new brewing is
always a fantastic idea. While you're doing that, make sure
to tag us and follow us on social media. It
is bruisers Pod. That is be R E W S
c R S p O D on the Instagram of
the threads and the Twitter. If you want to send
(38:56):
us an email, it is Brewisierspod at gmail dot com.
If you want to follow me, it is Rody John.
That is R O D I E h oh and
Rody John is the name on the Twitter and on
tap in case you want to find out what I'm drinking.
Maybe were gonna have a beer together. If you're want
to follow me on the threads or the Instagram, it
is official Rody John sound. Until next time, make sure
to enjoy life, drink local and cheers
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