Episode 178: New Helvetia Brewing's New Co-Operative Model (w/ current owner Dave Gull)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Something. They call it functional alcoholism. But if you know anything about Ben,
he's got vision with precision microphones andthe tinkle love derision. Here about
to hear what be n be.It's time for Barley and Me. Welcome

(00:28):
to Barley and Me. I'm yourhost. Benn Riisper here today in Sacramento,
California, had New hel Visha brewingwith me today is the owner of
New Helvisha. Dave Go the currentowner of New Helviusha. We'll get to
a Dave, don't jump ahead ofthis. You probably knows. I didn't
say what episode was because I forgotto check, and it'll be there in
the show notes. That's what editing'sfor, right, And my voice sounds

(00:49):
like this because I'm trying a newradio voice, and also I am very
racipy. It's a little bit ofWill Forte. Yeah, that's what I'm
hearing with from you. Yeah,it's weird. We're gonna jump right.
A friend tim me a text.She's like, Hey, do you have
a secret cooking YouTube. I'm likeno. She's like, there's there's this
guy on YouTube who never shows hisface and he sounds like a mix of

(01:11):
you and Will Forte. And it'sgreat. I'm like, so, if
you're doing it, you're doing greatwork. I'm like, it's not me.
Well, what are you cooking onyour secret cooking show? But I
think I saw a Tater Todd cashcast role because it was like a holiday
thing. Okay, but uh yeah, we sounded very very similar. Can
you tell the difference? Can youtell what your voice sounds like? I

(01:34):
think to others, I think sobecause I do the podcast, right,
so I have to hear it,and I do the comedy. I have
to hear it. And one timeI had a when I was doing music
writing. There's another guy on staffthat he was working in Arizona, and
we call each other to discuss somethingwe're working on, and we're like,
we have the same voice. Waita minute, have we completely skipped over

(01:55):
the fact that you used to bea music writer? Yeah? I skipped
over it all the time. Ithink there's a story there. Not really.
Oh, I want to hear alittle bit of the early two thousands,
you know, webzines were very popular. I got access to a record
early because I knew the band.One of the editors was looking for it.
I had made a post about iton a music message board and he's
like, hey, can you sendme that? And I I got to

(02:17):
talk and I'm like, you know, here's some of my Because I've been
trying to get into the industry alittle bit. I've written like a few
reviews and interviews and stuff. Andhe's like, this is a great Uh
you want to just write for usand wrote yourself into a job. Yeah,
by by having a physical CD.Really nice way to do it.
Yeah. It was a Sacramento band, Quitter. You may remember Quitter Sender

(02:39):
Receiver. Great album, still great. I'd like to say I remember that.
It's so good. It's so good. Do you have a theme song
yet for the pod? Yeah?We have it from a B Bold Gray
Robot. Oh yeah you can't.I mean they're there, I know them.
Yeah, they're awesome. Yeah.Yeah, Dean is amazing. Yeah.
I had Dean on. He likeshowed up to the podcast, like
I wrote you with the song.I'm like, what the fuck? No,

(03:01):
he ain't even been on it yet. He showed up too, and
like, I have a theme songfor you. We had Dean come out
and do a do a set hereand he did some of his robot songs
and some of his like just otherstuff, and there were like three people
in the courtyard. I was oneof them, and he let me do
one of his songs with him andit was amazing. Nice. Yeah,

(03:21):
that sounds very much like him,very bohemian. Like the band's what it
is today. Whoever's on stage isthe band. That's fine. One of
the I think it's one of thebest songs to come out of Sacramento that
nobody knows about. And it's calledRecipe and it's one of the be Brave
Bold Robot songs. It's kind ofit's on YouTube. It it's just a
beautifully composed piece of music. Andhe let me do the second stanza of

(03:45):
that that song in front of well, since I was now up on behind
the mic in front of two audiencemembers in the courtyard at New Helvisha.
Nice. Yeah, Yeah. He'llplay anywhere with anybody, and I think
his whole group will. They'll allbe like, what do you have an
instrument? I have an instrument.If you don't, we can clap,
we can play on our legs.We can just sing, like bang on

(04:09):
this shovel in this trash can.Yeah, whatever's around if you want to
you want to get down, we'llget down. But yeah, I did.
I did that for a few yearsuntil there was a big falling out.
There was a divide at the atthe website because I had joined when
it was like a underground punk thing, which was not what I listened to,
and it wasn't what my editor reallylistened to. But he like knew

(04:30):
the guy and they started. Sobasically the guy's like, hey, I
think we're going too far away frompunk and he let go of anybody who
wasn't writing about punk music. Andwe had a guy on staff who was
like the guy in the world forpost rock stuff, Like he like knew
every post rock band. They allknew him, Like he was like really
into it. So like that waswhere a lot of our traffic was coming

(04:51):
from. People like wanted to findout about that stuff. Do you know
post rock stuff like explosions in theSky and no, okay, it's instrumental
discovering how way cooler you are thananybody had any idea about. Yeah,
I do a lot of stuff,but so that he was like the guy
in the world for that, andit was we're all traffic came and you

(05:11):
guys like and the owners like madabout it and fired everybody because it was
working, because he wanted Yeah,he's like I wanted to do punk.
And he also he fired us afterhe had deleted all of our email addresses.
We couldn't bring any contacts with us. He deleted all of our contents.
We couldn't pull anything to give toother people showing that we'd done work,

(05:32):
like real bullshit. Yeah to classicdick move. What was the name
of the scene. It was adecoy music dot com? Yeah, and
where is it now that's gone deadand gone dead and gone Yeah? Could
have been something. Yeah. He'dalso hired a third editor that couldn't even
write. I had to do aweekly article where we did like things that
aren't current, but like we're listeningto him really enjoying, and we do

(05:54):
a little write up and I wouldspend like two hours on like a three
paragraph right up. I'm like,this is incomprehensible and so poorly worded,
and so how is this guy aneditor? He can't even put in punctuation
properly. I was so so mad. I like, yeah, I would
refuse to put up his posts,although nowadays, what's punctuation? No,
this was a nightmare, but greattime. Got a lot of uh you

(06:18):
know, made some made some friends, got some connection. Was it all
based here in the Sacramento area orthis was all over? The guy that
owned it was an a Taska Darro. Uh. The I reported to is
in North Carolina. Yeah. Ihad guys in Minnesota, Texas. Yeah,
just a guy in Baltimore who hatedme and the feeling was mutual.

(06:41):
It was great, good times memories. It turns out all dicks, but
yeah, it was really cool becauseI got to like kind of hone my
interview skills from that. I gotto interview This is right around the time
High Fidelity came out, isn't itlike ninety seven, So it's like a
five or six years later. ButI got to interview Trey Spruance from Mister

(07:02):
Bungle and Faith No More. AndI thought it would be like a twenty
minute conversation that it'd be in threeand a half hours. We had a
great time. Yeah, just sleepytime. Gorilla Museum. I got to
sit down on their bus that wason there. Another I'm like, there's
somebody else like their coolness vibe isjust way out shining mine. Yeah.
Yeah, So I had this jobwhere I did do like phone calls,
like I don't think you're gonna begood on the phone, because I was

(07:24):
like mail clerk, and like,I don't think it'd be good on the
phone. Like I've interviewed like myfavorite musicians of all time with no problem.
I think I can handle a fuckingstranger. You know. I mean
you weren't phone banking famous musicians,right, yeah, I mean that that
job genuinely sucks. Yeah. Yeah, And I just, uh, anyways,
kind of like the podcast, youjust kind of we just kind of

(07:45):
would go wherever, you know.Damn, I'm trying to remember who else
I it was, what it is. I used to have some very cool
numbers, and then I didn't havea cell phone and I was at the
bar of friends because I was likeI'm never going to get one, and
I'm like I need it for thisphone call. Oh it was Greg Edwards
from Failure and Auto Lux, whodoesn't give interviews. It's notoriously shy.

(08:07):
Did you get one? Yeah?Okay, yeah, so that was pretty
dope. That is pretty dope.Yeah, damn, let's see. I
met the actor who played Larry fromThree's Company once yeah. Yeah, nice
that. I was like ten yearsold walking through unions, wasn't it Union
Square? San Francis Sclary, Yeahyeah, and I recognized him. Yeah

(08:28):
yeah, I got to see Igot to meet Giovanni Rubezi at that Auto
Luck show. I remember him becausehe was they said friends of the band.
I'm pretty sure he was dating thedrummer at the time. I think
they're still together, but whatever.I was like, hey, Giovanni Rubezzi.
Yeah, that's all right. Cool, but yeah, a tons of

(08:48):
stuff. I've done so many things, Dave, that's cool stuff. I
didn't know. But that's the past. That's all the past. Well,
you're doing cool stuff now, alwaysdoing cool stuff. Yeah, like hosting
a comedy show at Fort Rock followedby a nightcap at New Helvisha. Yeah,
two in a row, two freecomedy shows in a row. Week
ago. And my voice still isnot recovered. Okay, can we recap

(09:13):
that a little bit? You canyou can do whatever you want to do,
Dave. I had a blast.I had a blast. It was
a wild lineup. That was awild show. It was fun to see
how the comics responded to the roomsetup because it's it's l shaped and they
were in the elbow of the lfacing basically two different directions, so they
almost had two audiences at the sametime, and they were distinctly different,

(09:37):
and then they could play them offof each other. Yeah, because they
were distinctly different energies. And Iwas on the boring side of the audience,
the bigger side, well, theside that nobody would walk to because
it was sort of blocked off bythe comics, So everybody gathered in the
easier side to get into, whichwas the loud, rambunctious, fun side
that included the Heckler, who wasalso a play But hey, not the

(10:03):
first time, won't be the last, that's fine, but yeah, I
had a blast. It was.It was the biggest comedy show I think
we've ever had here. Nice,and we were able to do it indoors,
which we usually kick everything out intothe outdoor courtyard area where we tend
to host most of our live performancestyle events. But a nine to thirty
show on a Friday in the winteris really conducive to an outdoor in a

(10:26):
place that's not known for having hostingcomedy shows. Yeah, and also is
right next door to a residential area. Yeah, and also right next door
to a comedy club. Oh yeah, also in the way, yeah yeah.
And that was tricky because when Ibooked people, I was like,
I saw who they had. I'mlike, oh see if I can just
bring somebody who's finishing up a show. And so I messaged, I'm like,

(10:46):
oh, this is great, notas in fight all of them.
They all agreed. I'm like,oh shit, okay, and then I'm
like, do not promote this showbecause it's free, that one's paid.
They're always struggling. Yeah, respectneighbors, respect the craft, take care
of the And then one person did, I'm like, you need to take
that down. You need to takethat. No, No, there's no

(11:07):
need to promote that. We don'tneed it, don't need it, don't
need it. I do not needanybody. You don't need to be a
bringer for this. It's a freeshow. It's an anniversary party. It's
gonna be people are gonna be there. I don't need you to promote it
individually. It's a secret lineup,it's noble. Yeah. I'm like,
I'd rather they get anybody who knowsthe show's happening to get there, like
ten dollars because it's one person runninga comedy club on Broadway. You respect

(11:30):
the craft and those who present thecraft to the public. Yeah, and
I got a mess. I bookedthe booker for that particular show, and
he messaged me. He's like,thank you so much for booking me.
The money you paid me allowed meto break even on that show, so
we didn't lose any money. I'mlike, hell, yeah, all right,
it worked out. Yeah, yeah, And then one of the acts
came over and she was like,I don't I don't want to go up

(11:50):
anymore. Like why, She's like, I just had a really bad set
over there. I'm like, okay, well this isn't there and you're great.
Here's what I want. I wantyou to give me thirty seconds and
if you feel pretty good, doa minute that feels pretty good. Do
two minutes, still feeling good,do three, do five, don't do

(12:11):
more than ten. And if youever, at some point you think you're
done, just say Ben, comeget me and I'll come get you.
And then she crushed, crushed,she crushed, Yeah she did yeah.
Yeah. Also now and you're nowa life coach, inspirational speaker. Yeah,
I do it all. Yeah.I'm like just hey, it's just
like if you can run, youcan walk. You don't know if you

(12:33):
can walk, it can run,you know that kind of thing, just
baby steps. Yeah, but itwas it was fascinating to watch sort of
the craft of it and comedians thatwent up and kind of owned the room,
and comedians that went up and struggledwith the room. Yeah, and
and sort of who was connecting andwho wasn't connecting. Yeah, and just
seeing that play out in real time. That wasn't something that I had experienced

(12:56):
sort of as the host facility ofa comedy show before. It was like,
it was fascinating just to not bean audience member, which is only
that's been my only role ever,used to just be an audience member.
But in this case, I waslike, I'm like, I'm gonna sort
of pay attention, yeah, interest. Yeah, So it was That's why
I'm saying I loved it. Ididn't care if somebody bombed. I didn't

(13:18):
care if somebody killed. I justlove to see the dynamic of how they
were they were sort of navigating theirset and the crowd and what was happening.
It was. It was a veryweird crowd. Yeah, it was
very fun. Like I thought,since there our show started at nine thirty
and the one next door started atnine that, like, you know,
a person who goes first would comeover after they're set and do it.
So I was like, we'll befine. And they all refuse to leave

(13:41):
the venue, and I'm like,well, fucking everybody that's here that's performing
is like a national headliner. I'mnot gonna put them. They opened,
Yeah, they ended up coming.All right, Well, I guess that's
what we're doing. All right,that's who's here. It's who's here at
this point, you know, likeit was a good pivot. You had
to call an audible in real timeand then it was and Shay is great

(14:01):
and very reliable, so yeah,I could probably even say the lineup at
this point. It was a secret, you know. It was Dorian Foster,
Shay Bell, it was Joeja Frey, it was Corey Benger, it
was Mario Mussavii, it was WillieTravis, it was Tony Kamen, it
was Fat Joe, it was meand then lord selet I own it's all

(14:24):
eleven, yes, eleven eleven onthe eleventh anniversary, ending at eleven took
it to eleven yeah, this onegoes to eleven. I did it.
You know, I failed in mymarketing effort. This is where I'm not
a marketing genius. Okay, inour on our eleventh anniversary, why we
didn't just be open from eleven toeleven? But had you open twelve?

(14:45):
You idiot? Seriously, I waskicking myself already for not having done that.
Well, that was just we wouldhave had one more hour of fun.
Yeah, but then you'd be likeone more hour tired. I meant
I slept great, perfect. Iwonder no way to know, which leads
me to the question, my firstquestion of the day. Wait, hold

(15:09):
on, first, Dave, happybirthday. Ah, thank you. You're
the oldest man alive. I thinkit's the official record. I'm older.
I'm older than I have ever been. Holy shit, that's the wild's personal
record. That's for sure the oldestyou've ever been. So not the oldest
ever, the ever oldest for youin this vessel, I've misunderstood it's a

(15:33):
record. Nice. Yeah, okay, great, so we're not ruling out
I planned to keep breaking this recordperfect. Yeah every well, yeah,
just as science advances, because likebefore, like thirty was unheard of.
Yeah, so obviously, and thatwasn't even that long ago. So maybe
that's two two incarnations ago. That'sthe oldest you could have gotten with thirty
perhaps, Yeah. Yeah, timesweren't good before clean water and yeah and

(15:58):
uh, flushing toilets. Yeah.Now, since we're already talking about reincarnation
and age, what what do youthink they thought a year was in Biblical
times? When they're like this guy, there'd be three hundred and forty years
old. What do you think thatthat meant? Then? Do you think
it's months? What do you thinkdo you think it's moon cycles? What
do you think a year is inthe Bible? Have you ever read Cosmos

(16:21):
by Carl Sagan? No, it'sit's amazing, amazing book and it's entertaining.
But it also ties in how howreligion and the largely the Church had
such a big role in the developmentof science in those in those early centuries,
but largely the calendars were pretty wellestablished by then, and so a

(16:45):
year was a year. There's reallyno difference. I mean, they could
tell by I don't know, scienceyshit that was it had come around.
Yeah, and so they did youknow, they that wasn't that wasn't the
big buzzon up for debate that nowthree and forty years was three or forty
years? Yeah, well how didthat happen? All right, great,
so we've solved that. We solvedthat. But just uh so we went

(17:07):
from living three or forty years toliving thirty years. I heard there used
to be thirteen months though, thatmakes sense because you just it's easier four
weeks. Like, I don't knowwhy we don't do that. And then
there were there was a thirteenth zodiacsign. Are you familiar with this?
No, it was called it wascalled Ophiucus. It kind of looks like,
oh fuckus, yeah right, andit's a pH and the U see
and all it's weird spelling, andit's two seas. He's the snake wrangler

(17:30):
and it's this dude who just hasa giant python that he's kind of riding
a giant python in the sky andthe stars or whatever. Yeah, his
constellation and it's coming up. Itwould have been right about now, yeah,
through the end of the year wherethey would have the thirteenth month.
The final was the the Ophiucus.And I'm probably butchering that pronunciation. That's

(17:52):
how they got old old Feziwig wasjust the confusion? Is that for real?
I have no idea. I've neverheard of your thing until right now.
I might be completely making that up. I think it's true. Yeah,
no that it just makes more senseanyway. Every once in a while,
I will write down the wrong monthnumerically because our months are wrong because

(18:18):
of the June and July, youknow. So I'll be like October,
all right, eight twelve, LikeI'm writing a date, I'll put down
age s out of ten because likeoct that's eight, Like why why is
this wrong? Like December? Yeah, why is that twelve? Because of
Julius Caesar being an egomaniac? Ohyeah, Zuck I mean yeah old day

(18:41):
is zucker Zuckerberg. Yeah yeah,just crazy people wanting to put their legacy
on the entire world forever. Soit completely changed how time is tol Yeah
yeah, he's like in the calendarI need. I needed July for Julius
and June for shut up. Itmakes sense to me. Yeah, And

(19:02):
I'm in charge for Junius, apost rock band out of Boston. Since
Martyrdom of a Catastrophist is a greatrecord, kind of like what if the
cure did post rock anyway, nicecircle back. I know I'm very good
at this. The point is Ihaven't asked the question first question. I

(19:26):
think this one is going to bea more complex answer than I usually get,
given what we know you've recently announced. But how's business here at New
Albisha, Well, business is interestingto say the least. Yes, so
eleven years, having just celebrated elevenyears, one location, one spot,

(19:47):
doing essentially the same thing from dayone through year eleven, at the corner
of eighteenth and Broadway, brewing beer, packaging beer for bars and restaurants and
grocery stores, and largely having atap room. And that's sort of the
main focus of our business is thetap room, recently adding a kitchen to
add food service. And the truthof it is, it's tougher than it's

(20:10):
ever been. We have, youknow, I think as a brewery,
as a facility, as a businesswe have, we have all the pieces
in place, but we're still findingfinding it very difficult to succeed financially.
And you know, I think partof that is, you know, of
course, we have to admit afailing on our own part in sort of
not being able to afford and putout you know, proper marketing that can

(20:34):
really get the word out about us. But we're not unknown, and you
know, we do have a reachthat definitely is should be supportive of a
business of our size and location.But I think part of it is also
our location. I think we're atthis weird not just location but also location

(20:56):
in time. We're in this weirdspot in time on the development of the
Broadway Corridor where it's making things veryvery difficult for small businesses like ours and
some of our neighbors as well.It's not just us. We're not crying
poor like exclusively. We know thatthis is affecting the up and down,
and also we got to admit that, like the just business in general is

(21:19):
sort of experiencing this hospitality of ours, restaurants, everybody, all the breweries,
everybody's kind of seeing this downturn andhow businesses choose to navigate that and
the challenges that are happening right nowis going to be completely unique to them.
And the solution that we and Isay we because my team of employees

(21:42):
and I have all come together andcome up with a concept that I think
is really cool in converting the ownershipof the brewery into a cooperative. So
if you're familiar with the sac Foodsco Op, bigger ones being like ARII
that people might be members of.I'm trying to think of other co ops
that are pretty well known out there, but locally, the Sack Food co

(22:02):
Op is probably the closest, closestexample that makes sense that people can understand.
And we would essentially transition to anemployee and community owned co op,
meaning I and my small team ofearly investors will no longer be in charge
of New Hobsha Brewing Company. Itwill become New Hooby Sha Brewery Cooperative,

(22:23):
and it will be owned by thecrew here and whoever comes on board later
and the community that joins in onthis adventure. Yeah, so how does
that work? So, like Isaid, a great example to look at
is the Sack Food co Op becausethey've they've been doing this for fifty years

(22:44):
at least. And you basically becomea you buy a membership and then that
membership gets you a voting right,you can run for board positions. Employees
will be members as well. There'syou know, there's still a lot of
rules of how that membership gets vestedin employees and sort of the the nerdy,

(23:07):
wonky, behind the scenes nuts andbolts of how the bylaws get written
in the structure of the of thecorporation of the new co op Corporation will
largely be determined by the new membersof the co ops. So I think
that's cool. It's self governance,it's it's a it's democratic, and the
members will ultimately be in charge ofthe direction of this brewery and what we

(23:32):
started here eleven years ago. AndI you know, I started this as
a homage to Sacramento. It wasI've actually written this before in like probably
a Facebook post or something about howNew Jovisha was my love letter to Sacramento.
It was I wanted to bring backa piece of history in the Buffalo
Beer and the old Buffalo Brewing Company, which was this, you know,

(23:56):
staple of Sacramento's business scene and sortof industrial capacity from the turn of the
century. It started in eighteen ninety, went through Prohibition, grew to become
one of the largest breweries west ofthe Mississippi, and distributed throughout the US
and most of the Pacific rim,so pretty close to global distribution. At
a time when Sacramento had forty thousandpeople perhaps and no modern shipping of any

(24:22):
kind, you know it. Youknow, maybe there was a steel steamer
out there that was moving stuff,but they were throwing stuff into wooden casks
and shipping it on railways and whateverfloated, I guess at that time,
and I thought that was a coolstory that, you know, Sacramento had
this major brewery that you know,prohibition ultimately killed it, but you know,

(24:49):
there were some other things that preventedit from really coming back after the
repeal of prohibition in nineteen thirty four. The biggest thing was probably succession planning.
The next generation of a of afamily owned brewery went on to do
other things, so there weren't thepeople in place to jump in and take
the lead. And then of courseour hop farms also, so there's a

(25:11):
prohibition, they discontinued that crop andstarted growing other things, a lot of
them, but there was still plentythat kept going and were easy easy to
come back because those hop farms theymaintained through like the sixties and seventies up
into the eighties and some locations andthat's one of the coolest features of you
know, the delta and all theriver lands around Sacramento is that there are

(25:33):
all these hot farms, and youknow, hot farms have to grow vertically,
and it's a cool site when yousee them, it's very different.
But we don't we don't really havemuch of that going on around here anymore.
There's the Roosolar Farm on eighty andDixon, which when it was like
kind of happening, it was reallycool to see how that how those hops
grew vertically. But yeah, itwas a reminder to the old Buffalo Brewing

(25:56):
Company that once upon a time,Sacramento could accomplish big things, and wouldn't
that be cool if somebody, eventually, I decided that somebody should be me,
brought back Buffalo Beer. And theroute to do that was through New
Helvisha, And New Helvisha was away to celebrate kind of Sacramento's unique history
and character and flaws and successes andall the things that I think Sacramento sometimes

(26:23):
fails to recognize about themselves that we'vedone right over the years. We've done
some wrong over the years, butwe've done We've we've accomplished a lot.
And Buffalo Beer was kind of thatthat, like, look, we used
to be almost a globally distributed beercity way way back in the day.
Why couldn't that happen again? Well, and then the time has been very

(26:45):
clear that no, that age haspassed for everyone. Essentially true, unfortunately.
But I think to me, itfeels like you guys kind of realized
that also, Like we're just goingto focus on the local stuff. We
got so much good to talk aboutin Sacramento. We got such a unique
market here. I think, yeah, you know, because we are we're
the capitol of California, but nobodythinks of Sacramento. Want think of California.

(27:08):
I mean this, we could beatthis dead horse about Sacramento's not you
know, we're a valley town ornot a coastal cow town Sacramento or whatever.
We're not La or not the BayArea. Yeah yeah, And like
but in comedy, Hacramento, that'sa that's kind of cuts like a knife.
Man. It's pretty rude, especiallywere I went to a San Francisco

(27:29):
open mic where everybody had a jokeabout brunch and riding the bus. I'm
like, all of you are doingthis, all of you. Not one
of you failed to tell a jokelike this like. Also, one person
told the breast brunch joke I've everheard of, Like, why are we
still that's the best one? Whywould you ever try to tell a brunch
joke again? Some people followed that, yeah, with more brunch jokes.

(27:51):
I'm like, no, that's thebest one. What are you doing to
stop that? You're not if it'snot better than what we've already heard,
why are you doing? You know, surely there's another topic to cover sides
brunch and the bus do Sacramento comicskind of do the same thing where they
know that's the thing. I thinkthere's a lot more variety here as far
as comedians are concerned, all differentstyles and we because of the fact that

(28:18):
you may know this, Sacramento audiencesare awful. I did not know that
we are than what I experienced withour No No or Night West. We
are nationally reviled as a live entertainmentcity. Watch any comedian who goes on

(28:40):
a late night show that had recentlydone Sacramento. They will tell you how
bad it is. Talk to anybands and why this gives Sacramento. I've
had a band threatened to fight theaudience for being so passive it's just our
reputation is terrible. And part ofthe reason why I do what I do
is to like, we have somany talented people, but nobody cares.

(29:06):
And I'm like, we can justget some people to realize that there's something
going on. Yeah, it's likeimportant, and what's the fix for that?
Like, you just got to keephim self correct, dude, I
just got to keep doing it.And here's the thing that gets lost to
history. You know Dave Chappelle.Yeah, you know how he famously disappeared
from the world for like ten years. And you're like, because he had
a deal with the Comedy Center hedidn't like and he left the deal and

(29:27):
he quit comedy and he moved toAfrica or whatever. What actually made him
leave the United States was not theComedy Central deal. What made him leave
comedy for eight years was Sacramento.How can that be true? He did
a show at the Memorialaudatorium and hewas trying to do a stand up and

(29:53):
people kept yelling out catchphrases from Chappell'sshow, and he he has talked about
the thank you so much for enjoyingthe show. But that's my sketch show.
This is my stand up comedy.It's a different thing. I appreciate
it, but please let me domy thing. And you just respond to
that. I appreciate you watching theshow, but please stop doing that.
And so they keep doing it,and he's like, hey, you keep
doing this. I'm gonna stop doingthe stand up. I'm just gonna read

(30:15):
a book. Maybe it's out loud, maybe it's to myself, but I'm
going to read a book if youguys keep doing this. And they just
keep doing it, and he justopens a book, reads it for like
two minutes, and walks off stageand quits comedy. Oh my god,
I did not know we were thestraw they broke with the camel's back.
And it's a dubious distinction. Yeah, And I always wonder how many,

(30:38):
like, if you look at it, how many bands are from Sacramento that
had to move somewhere else to makeit because Sacramento doesn't support live music.
I've seen a band two nights ina row. I've gone to see a
band in San Francisco and the placeis packed and we're bouncing off the balls.
Everyone's just dripping sweat. Just goin fucking nuts because it's a very
high energy band. Then I comesee him in Sacramento. It's a Blue

(30:59):
Lamp is a venue I really enjoyedbecause they always brought really interesting bands,
even though their beer was often warmbecause they could never get the refrigeration right.
I just really enjoyed that they alwayshad cool bands. Uh. But
I go to the same show,same energetic audio band. They're like they
have time, Like the drummer's jumpingout of his seat while he's playing,
like there's just high energy, andthey were just standing there with their arms

(31:21):
crossed. Song ends every song,and it's just like so disappointed in my
hometown. It's and it's every showI've ever been to. It's just like
nobody they nobody wants they want tobe cool guy. They don't want everyone
to be like, oh I actuallycare about this band. Nobody wants to
show that. It's so like whenwe do with comedy. It's like people
are like they smile, but theydon't laugh. It's like Jesus, just

(31:42):
have an emotion. Just it's okayto be in the moment. It's I
remember on our show, you youtried to preface the audience. Yeah,
I tried to prime them a littlebits just you know, you're allowed to
laugh. It's we respond to that. Yeah, yeah, and it's I
wrote that joke so many years agobecause it helps sometimes, you know,

(32:02):
because again, our audiences sucks,so they're often small, and it's like
they don't want to sit up front, so they're always like there's like a
person like three feet to your left, and then the next person is like
twenty two feet away, and thenthere's another person like forty feet past that.
I'm like, just come to thefront, Jesus, Like, it's
it's more obvious that we should pickon you and you're far away because you

(32:22):
have the option and you're refusing it. It's like I have a joke about
how we don't make fun of thefront row in Sacramento because we all know
those people are heroes and everybody else'scowards. Like they don't deserve it.
They put themselves on the line offinal so we're not gonna shoot at them.
You know. It's just like butyeah, it's the city's weird about

(32:43):
passion, and I think I don'tknow what comes from, but it's been
going on as far as I cantell forever. Yeah, it seem to
get animated for the Kings, yes, but not for live performance, right,
that's because that's different. You know, sports are always going to be
a thing that drives people that you'repassionate about sports. That's just like yeah,
but like just this idea that likewe have all these great art scenes,

(33:07):
we have great painters and writers andmusicians and like all this stuff,
and like you're like, I'm afan of the band, and then I
go see them and I stand there, or like I go, I go
to the coffee shop where they're displayingthe art, and I drink a coffee
and I leave. Like it's justlike nobody wants to show that they're actually
excited about something. And it's verystrange and I don't know what causes it,

(33:31):
which I think is why I've beenable to have all the connections I
have, because I actually like showthat I enjoy the things that I enjoy,
you know. So I'm like I'llalways go talk to people and tell
them I appreciate it. You know. I used to sell merch for local
bands because like, you know,I'm like, you're busy, you guys
are getting rid for the show.I'll take the merch table, you know.
Like so when the comics are talkingabout how Sacramento has this vibe,

(33:52):
this lack of energy. Yeah,what are the other cities that they compare
us to that also have that sortof negative I don't know. I I
mean, I went to Chicago fora week and a half like eight years
ago, and here I'm maybe likea top seventy comic and Chicago's considered one

(34:13):
of the best five cities in Americafor comedy. I went there and I'm
like, I could run this city. Like I went there for a week
and a half and I never toldthe same joke twice and I crushed everywhere
I went. I went to ashow where nobody was doing well. I
did a I did like a tenminute set, and like people were like
kind of want to drink. They'regive me high fives. Like it's like
just like where you're going to LikeI have another show to get to,

(34:34):
you know, Like but like they'relike, what do you do? This
is what comedy could be. Itwas like, this is not even my
best stuff, Like and this isthe city that's known for comedy. It's
just so weird because I can goto San Francisco and I can murder I
come here. I bomb my dickoff everywhere I go, and I go
anywhere else and it's just I crashed. Like there's people who have like,

(34:54):
uh, you know, they've beenon Comedy Central, they've been on Vice
and Go do a set for them, and they're like, oh my god,
like and I'm like, it's soweird. There's nothing I can compare
it to because it's just like noone here cares, and it's just really
frustrating. But that's what we're talkingabout. We're talking about a cola.
You said we can talk about anything, right, It's true, It's true,

(35:15):
and but yeah, it's just Ithink that also comes down to this
stuff. You know, It's justnobody wants to tell you what they like.
They're like, here's a picture ofa beer I'm joining, but they
don't want to say how great theyare. They don't want to talk about
the people that are there or whyyou should care, Like this beer tastes
good. It's like, yeah,most beard tastes good. If you're like

(35:36):
beer, what else is there?You know? And so that's I think
also part of why I do this. It's for me. I like it
as a historical marker, keeping trackof what's going on and people getting to
tell their stories because the most beardpodcasts like how did you make this beer?
I'm like, fucking the same wayto make every other beer. It's
just a different levels. What newtechnology. There's a million podcasts that tell
you what the new technology is.I don't need that. Yeah I don't

(35:59):
care. I do care, butI don't care enough to make it a
fun There's gadgets, but there's Imean, beer has made the same way
it has been for centuries. Yeah. Yeah, And then like I listened
to one and it's like these areall professionals, allegedly right that they only
focus on beer making and a guyI listened to a guy say, oh,
you made a saysan that's like fourpercent and they're like no, say

(36:20):
songs are like seven or eight percent. And he's like no, no,
no, they're like a lighter beer. Like, oh my god, aren't
you professional? Shouldn't you know thata seysan is seven to eight percent?
I know that I'm not a professional. Like I was like, how's supposed
to take you seriously at this point? Like, but that's that's like a
major podcast, and so I'm justlike there's enough people out there doing that.
I don't need to do that,so I do this, which is

(36:45):
where I just talked to people todo this well. About what we're doing.
I think, you know, thecomedy thing and the Sacramento audience,
there's probably some crossover in the Sacramentobeer audience as well, because you'll see
some some different cities that have youknow, we we definitely have a very
vibrant brewery scene here and and Ithink people are proud of it. Yeah,

(37:08):
but it's it's odd how that's shownand supported in Sacramento compared to other
places. Yeah, you know,the Bay Area, which is sort of
in some ways they fell behind Sacramentoon the on the beer scene. They've
now come roaring back and are obviouslypopping up a lot of great breweries putting
out great product, have a greatscene and a great vibe, but a

(37:30):
population that that really wants to justand seems to like get after it and
support it. And I see that. I used to live in Portland.
I'm in San Diego several times ayear, Denver several times, you know,
JABF every couple of years. Yousee sort of the the difference in
the beer market. And I don'twant to like rip on our hometown market,

(37:52):
but we experience it as business owners. We experience how how sort of
the consumer side of of our beerfandom is different from other cities. So
I'm saying, yeah, yeah,it's in everything and anything that is a
creative pursuit, Sacramento shows up weird. Like we're saying, keep Sacramento weird.

(38:13):
I don't want this. I don'twant this weird way of showing up
for the things that are cool.And then you see it on like like
there's you know, the online Facebookgroups and forums that that kind of are
focused on Sacramento area craft beer andand there's just a lot of negativity on
there, and that doesn't doesn't seemto exist in other markets in the same
way that it does here. It'slike it's like you feel better about yourself

(38:34):
by ripping somebody else down, andI'm disappointed by that. Yeah, it's
like I said, it's like youtake a picture and it's like, but
you don't do anything to like vouchfor the people behind it. Yeah,
it's just like it's like very passiveway of experiencing it. It's like crossing
your arms like yeah, I wasthere, but you didn't do anything while
you were there. You drank yourbeer and you left, Like it's you

(38:57):
didn't do anything to push that businessforward besides mentioned that you had a beer.
But we're out here. You're outthere doing comedy, we're out here
doing beer. There's a bunch ofus. Yeah, there's many of us
out here, like like putting thecreativity out there for the for the public
to enjoy. It's okay to tellpeople about things you enjoy. Like I
find like my Facebook is scattershot.It's but like if I post about a

(39:22):
band, I'm really enjoying it,there's no traction on it at all.
Nothing, I get nothing back.I'm like, this is like a really
cool song I just found and nobodycares because it's my friends are all sacrament
on people. And it's just likejust like if you tell somebody something you
care about, nothing you put somethe negative tons of stuff. You know.
It's just a really weird space tobe in. And I think that's

(39:43):
affecting businesses because businesses. You know, if you a restaurant across the street,
they're making food. That's an art, you know, I know,
there's a science stupid. It's likebeer but there's an art to it,
there's a heart that you put intoit, and people are just so passive
about that aspect of it here.And I don't know why if it's like
the small are we in Yelp City? Is it like is it like we've
just been like that religion of Yelp. We've just it's been like that since,

(40:06):
Like I talked to people who havebeen here since the ages, Like
it's been like this forever, Likeit's just always been like this. So,
uh, I don't know if it'slike this small man syndrome showing that
you're so big you don't care anymore, like we're the capital. It's an
interesting I don't know what it is. You know, I'm not from here.
You know, I wasn't born here. I was I wasn't that that

(40:28):
sort of exists. Yeah, that'sprobably you know, it's probably a factor
in that that behavior. Yeah,is that we've always been sort of the
lesser of the California cities. Yeah, so you're you're not viewed as cool.
You're like, no, I'm toocool, too cool. I'm too
cool. I don't have to care. I'm not uncool. I'm too cool.
I got real ship to deal with. Yeah, I think that that

(40:51):
might actually be the best way tosummarize it. People say, you're like,
no, I'm too cool, soI won't react to anything that's happening
because I'm too cool for that.There's got to be somebody smart out there
who can do a social science studyon this. I mean, me and
Johnny Floor has almost started a podcastgoing through like music history and Sacramento.
Then I bought a house and hada baby and it's just time didn't exist
anymore for that. But I wantedto reach out to like people who've moved

(41:14):
away and been like, why didyou decide that this was not the city
for you to pursue? I mean, I know the answer, but like
you know, like in your ownwords this or something about it and kind
of figure out what that threat is. But that's a product for another day.
This is fun for me, bythe way. I know, I
could talk about brewery and New Alvishaand Sacramento history and the co op concept

(41:35):
all you want, but this ismore fun. I mean, I do
want to get to it because Ido think just as a person in the
public, the question is if you'rea co op and you're starting out,
how does the day to day stuffget decided? Like, is that you
shut down for like a week whileyou guys get the bilass together and be
like, okay, this is theperson we trust to make decisions or we

(41:59):
vote on all these and then wecome yeah. Not every decision obviously can
be voted by the membership. Sothere will be a governing board of directors,
which is largely made up of theemployees as I understand it, And
so the employees are in the trenchesday to day already essentially operating the business,
will be also making most of thoseday to day decisions on on you

(42:22):
know, whatever happens, uh throughoutthe course of regular operating a business,
regularly operating a business conjugate correctly,Yeah, editor just came out. Yeah.
But but then also things will haveto happen, like, you know,
hiring of staff like a you know, and staff will of course have

(42:43):
the option to become members or earnin membership that has yet to be determined
yet, But I think that's that'scool. Also is that the members will
decide how all of this plays out. But you know, somebody in the
role of a general manager who kindof is considered. You know, like
the GM of a of a sportsfranchise. They don't own it, they
don't have they're a part of it, and they're expected to perform and make

(43:05):
decisions. You know, we'll havesort of the same thing here, and
then you have to have all theother you know, specialty positions that just
keep a business operating and now creatinga new one that is managing memberships and
making sure the members are are youknow that the member that the co op
is adhering to buy laws and statelaws and I r S rules and all

(43:27):
the things, all the all theboring behind the scene ship that nobody wants
to think about, has to stillbe managed and maintained. Meanwhile, we
still have to make beer and runa tap room and package beer and sell
it and host events and you know, be fabulous above and beyond what any
other brewery is potentially doing. Becausenow we are beholden to the member public

(43:52):
who owns us so it it doesn'tit's not like a quick fix or anything.
It's actually creating a lot of othercomplexities I think that need to be
hashed out and solved as we makethis transition into a co op. But
I think it also is it's probablythe right move for New hel Visha since

(44:16):
we've always just been this you know, love letter to Sacramento type brewery and
how we've i think tried to conductourselves as a business and and the causes
that we've supported and just being amember of the community, and you know,
I think you know, for example, we've for several years in a

(44:37):
row, we did a beer withFairytale Town. You're familiar with Sacramento,
You're probably familiar with fairy Tale Townin william Land Park. It's a storybook
themed a miniature amusement park for smallchildren essentially, so its target market for
beer future future be their parents,absolutely, but just that sort of of

(45:00):
community connection where we did a youknow, a beer project with them that
was a complete donation. The proceedswent to them, and you know,
there was maybe a little excess leftoverthat we were able to sell or to
make up our costs, but itwasn't wasn't a money maker. It was
more of philanthropic endeavor and community partnership. We've done that with the Zoo,
We've done that with the French StreetAnimal Shelter, with Capital Public Radio.

(45:25):
There's a. There's a list oflocal organizations that we've been a part of
supporting and helping, and really it'sall and it's all like hyper Sacramento,
right, And that's I think wherewhere our vibe and our our ethos is
like we are. We're not aSacramento brewery. I think we are trying
to be the Sacramento brewery that isabout Sacramento. There are bigger breweries making

(45:46):
more beer, making fabulous beer,have great marketing and great people behind the
scenes. And and I'm honestly I'mnot just blowing smoke. I'm fans of
my neighboring breweries or mere I've howcan you not see that we are making
some of the best beer in theworld with like very few people who are

(46:07):
legit dicks, And we've had we'vehad them, and they've left all within
like five miles. I've here too, by the way, like we have
just this amazing scene of care andquality and passion and community and always giving
back, always supporting. Yeah,and by the way, every brewery is
supporting the community in some way.Every single brewery is doing something along those
lines. So we're not unique inthat regard. But I do think We're

(46:30):
unique in how how hyper focused weare in the Sacramento kind of like elevating
Sacramento is kind of our goal,and the co op really is legitimizing that
and making it in something that thecommunity now, well, you know,
they'll own, they'll support, they'llbe able to have opportunities to get active
in those roles that we're doing outin the community. So our new member

(46:53):
owners, co op member owners,will you know, lead that charge now.
And I think that's sort of acool, unique way to do it.
There are very few co op breweriesin the US, and New Belgium
comes to mind, so well itmust be the new thing. There's a
couple. There's some nerdy distinguishing,right because they're just employee owned. So
that's called an ESOP employee stock optionplan. They so they're still you know,

(47:17):
they're not open to the public.What is it called some some like
financial company owns half of it andthen the ESOP the employees on the other
half. I know, modern timeswent down that road. Like the true
co op owned breweries that are youknow, uh, there's not many of
them. There's Flying Bike in Seattleand Black Star in Austin, Texas and

(47:40):
you know, there's there's only there. There's a handful of them and they're
you know, it's it's a moredifficult way to operate a business because you're
you have a lot of cooks inthe kitchen and you have to have the
structure in place and the you know, the by laws on the board and
all of that has to happen.But then you also have that that larger
pool of support. Yeah, it'sokay. So I've been in my head

(48:05):
while we're talking. I'm not listeningto you at all. I'm just thinking.
And so I know that you havevery limited space on how you can
advertise and put signage on this buildingbecause it's a finite building. But I
feel like if you're going to doa co op, it's very Sacramento focused
and with the staff that you havethat helps make your labels and works the
bar and all their skill sets.Here's what I was thinking, just pitching

(48:30):
it out there. It's going tobe out there. You can do what
you want like new helpers and brewingand community craft co op. What does
that mean? What it means isthat this is a place where you have
your brewery, but it's also aplace for a community and craft so you
can learn crafts because we've got greatartists on staff. They can help with

(48:51):
that stuff. It's like a placeto bring your family and learn new skill
sets well around this same brewery atmosphereand make it more of a community space
most just a drinking space. It'sa lot, it's a long name,
it's a what it's really what Isaid, I practiced it with like I
know you don't have the space,yes, but you know when like you're

(49:12):
like you see like i mean,look elementary school paper the word brewing.
But I'm like, well that's goingto be a little bit tougher. So
you know, honestly, why notjust Knew Hobe should co op? Yeah,
co op? Well, just NewHobe should co op, and we
can we can define the community andthe craft and the beer part of it
to have it be assumed or rightinherit to to the name. So New

(49:36):
Hoby should co op. Just becomesa a Sacramento based cooperative that you know,
yeah, beer is probably our mainbusiness, but we actually are going
to like have you know, apush into education and and volunteer opportunities and
good question. Okay, you know, just the other things that are that
are really bringing all of the communityaspect to it, giving it more more

(50:00):
life and vibrancy and action. Sothe community part of it. You know,
you're a member of a co op, but we'll partner with other nonprofits
or activism or I don't know,I'm trying to think of like a generic
one, like like a river cleanup. You know, we're surrounded by rivers
and and that has to happen acouple times a year. You know,
there's always the park cleanups, butlet's focus on things that are a little

(50:22):
a little more universally loved and Sacramentothan like one or two neighborhood parks.
Which leads me to this question thatI forgot to ask the co op.
When you're a member of the coop over there, you're supposed to like
work a certain amount of shifts.Is that going to be part of the
process here. No, there's there'sno demand for labor. There's no demand

(50:42):
for labor. Yeah, I thinkthere'll be volunteer opportunities in the community,
but employees will be employees. There'sreally there's there's I don't think there's a
way around, and we're not tryingto like have free labor. We want
everyone has to be safety certified.Yeah, and we want to make sure
that you know, you know,one of the aspects of this is a
living wage and making sure that employeesare well taken care of and that you

(51:07):
know, we have all the toolsin place so that employees are safe,
happy, healthy, and you know, want to love and be here.
And you know, as a breweryin our current status, we're struggling with
that. We're not able to affordsome of the some of the perks and
the benefits that really we need tohave in place to keep people. People

(51:28):
love being here, but you know, quite honestly, they could do better
elsewhere. And I know that.Yeah, and I know that, and
I know that, you know,just having having that community mindset already is
probably why we are in this positionto convert it to a co op and
why the current employees and crew areso on board for doing this. Yeah.

(51:52):
And I think I've talked about this, it's not on the podcast,
I don't think too much or atall. Just this idea that if you
want to be a positive aspect inyour community, if you want to make
change in the world, you haveto struggle financially to do that because you're
like, well, if you couldreally care, you do it for nothing,
you know, And so they takeadvantage of that, and like you

(52:15):
kind of have to because there's noway to make a positive change and make
money. It's just like the worldset up to like kind of screw you
on that. That's yeah, it'sa very weird thing because like people get
paid hundreds of thousands of dollars likelike hey, we're gonna destroy the wetlands.
We're just gonna wipe them out,and like, oh, we'll give
you four and fifty thousand dollars todo that, Like we're gonna save the
welands. You can have like asandwich, you know, like when you

(52:38):
come out here, will give youwater, Like Ben, right, are
you suggesting that the deck is stackedagainst I don't know if I'm saying that.
I'm saying yeah, good, yeah, yeah, you know it wouldn't
it be nice if it's like justyou don't have to worry about the cost
of health care for your employees becauseit's just covered nationally. Wouldn't that be
just a beautiful easy thing for allemployers that make you Maybe then you don't

(53:00):
have to make so much profit inorder to pay for like the basic things
so your employees can survive and cometo work the next day, which,
by the way, has always baffledme why business groups haven't been more interested
in supporting, you know, somesort of universal health care. It never
makes any sense, doesn't make senseto me as a small because you complain
about the cost you's to pay forit, and you complain that you can't

(53:21):
afford it for your employees. Thehey, fun fact, when you're buying
health in church, you're paying apremium and it's almost equal to what it
would be to just nationalize it.And there's a whole because the premium is
based on what it would generally costthe nation to have this care. So

(53:42):
what are we fucking doing? Likethe the math is out there. We
pay the most for the worst healthcare. We can't do worse. Also,
you're like, oh, it's soexpensive, we'll be so expensive.
Here's the thing. When it's nationalized, you can start setting prices because the
prices are just they're made up ata thin Like you can go get an
X ray at one spot and it'sthree hundred dollars and can go somewhere else,

(54:02):
and it's two thousand dollars, right, Like if you nationalize, it's
like, this is the cost ofdiscare, Yeah, and you save money
from that. It's just it's asinine. This is a great podcast. I
think we're gonna touch everything everything.Have we talked about space and rocket ship
sht? Well, I mean that'sthe next frontier. Obviously we've got our

(54:24):
Mystery Airship series. Look at metying it all in very good, which
I think you know, I knowwhat that means. But the listeners,
I mean, we've talked about itin past episodes, but maybe you should
tell them what mystery is. SoMystery Airship is our anniversary series of beer,
our anniversary. We decided it wouldbe Black Friday, the day after
Thanksgiving, So as of this recording, that was just about a week ago.

(54:49):
And the history behind that is oneof the very first widely publicized UFO
sightings was in Sacramento, and itwas in and no one cared. When
you hear this, that's probably goingto prove to be true. So the
story goes it's November of eighteen ninetysix, and it's nighttime and there's a

(55:15):
craft floating above Sacramento with lights andthe residents of Sacramento. And this is
mostly kind of downtown. I'm guessingkind of around the Capitol and K Street,
because one of the historic depictions ofit shows the cathedral spire at the
Cathedral of the Blessed sacrament on KStreet, and the descriptions are there was

(55:39):
a craft with lights and people aboardenjoying merriment, blanking drinks and having a
jolly old time. So the peopleon the ground were probably so hammered they
thought that the people in the skymust have also been hammered, and we're
just throwing a party in their spaceshipor hot air balloon or dirigible or whatever

(56:01):
the heck it was. But itwas also reported that law enforcement and some
of the state elected officials, youknow, harbingers of trustworthiness amongst all,
we're witnesses to this event, quotedin the news story. So I think
that's kind of interesting that that Sacramentohad this mystery airship sighting in eighteen ninety

(56:24):
six, And so we decided toname our also November release occurrence of our
Mystery Airship at our anniversary party,And so far that series has garnered us
a couple of gabf boards. Yeah. Yeah, the great beers, great
beers, I love them. Iman that Ginger Elizabeth Spicy. Oh my
god, such a fantastic beer.It's one of my favorite beers. Yeah,

(56:46):
like anywhere Mexican Hot Chocolate Porter.God. Ah, that's a good
one. I'm sending you home withone, by the way. Okay,
thank you, Well, I loveit every time. I'll take I'll take
the whole badge. All right,we've gone too long. I mean old
school barleying me. We're going short, but new school Barley and me,

(57:06):
the one who has no time forthis shit. We've gone too long because
the alternative is parenting. Yeah,yeah, I am baby free today.
Those Okay, so I stayed uptill four yea, like an adult would.
We're stupid. All right, let'ssee, so co op, so

(57:29):
the co Op. Let me justgive you an update on the process.
Oh I did what? Yes,we only just announced it last week.
We're we're at about three hundred registrantson our on our like sign up lists.
Okay, so we haven't sold asingle membership right, just the we're
just taking names and we're going throughthe legal process to to create the co
op entity, and once that happens, then we can actually start bringing over

(57:52):
uh you know, selling actual membershipsand and formulating the final version of the
co op and it will be ayou know, worker and community led effort.
I'm not in charge of this.I'm promoting the heck out of this,
but I am not in charge ofthis. I'm gonna but you're the
face of the franchise. I'm theface of the current brewery, and I'm

(58:13):
hopeful that, you know, ifI get hired back, that I can
continue to do some good in thecommunity. But I have to understand and
accept that I'm I don't have thatcontrol or I won't have that control once
this all takes place. And bythe way, I'm perfectly okay with that,
because I want this to fulfill itsits greatest good potential of being a

(58:36):
true Sacramento owned brewery, you know, essentially owned by Sacramento, and I
think that's the coolest thing. We'dbe the Green Bay Packers of Sacrio Breweries,
the you know, the brewery ownedby the community. I think that's
that's unique and I'm excited about this. It's three hundred dollars, right,
It's three hundred dollars lifetime membership lifetimenext question. But just like the Sack

(59:00):
Food co op, you know,there's sort of an expectation. I don't
know if it's an obligation or howthey word it, but but it's a
you know, patronage. They youknow, the members are expected to come
in here once in a while andconsume, yeah, and be part of
the financial support ongoing of the business. But that doesn't mean we're a member
only brewery. It's still open tothe larger community. Got to pay more

(59:22):
to be here, though. Ifthey're not a member, they don't get
the member perks, and the membersget discounts on just about everything, and
you know, early access, exclusiveaccess, you know, all the fun
stuff that you know breweries are doingnow in their membership clubs. Well,
you know, be similar to whathappens that's as the co op member.
But the other perk is you're anowner, right and at some point in

(59:44):
the future we can't we're not reallypromoting this as a selling point because you
don't know what the finances are goingto be, but there could be that
potential for a dividend. Sure,yeah, that's the idea. That's the
idea, it might make your moneybad. And then can you sell the
membership if you decide you're out youYeah, basically it's it's three buy the
n three hundred dollars. You cansell it out for three hundred dollars because

(01:00:06):
you can't make profit on it.You can't. It's not a it doesn't
appreciate now hell yeah, okay,yeah, so all the people, I'm
gonna buy it now and I'll sellit when it's going. Then the keyword
here is equity. It's an equitabletransaction. It's sure, yeah, because
there's people out there that like,I'm gonna buy. Can you buy multiple
shares? You can? But youso only get one vote one vote.
Perfect, Yeah, it doesn't.It doesn't give you more control. Perfect,

(01:00:29):
So you can invest more money andjust kind of how the by laws
and everything. I appreciate it forour operating expenses. But and then you
know, maybe that's set up separately, and this is nerdy finance talk,
of course. You know, ifyou're a preferred shareholder, you probably you
get sort of first crack it areturn down the road versus the common or

(01:00:50):
vote or co op regular members votingmembers. You don't. Yeah, until
all the other obligations of met you'resorting to last in line. But yeah,
that's that's sort of it. It'slike, yeah, you can give
more, but you don't get anymore control for that, right, And
I think that's an I boorand question, Like I feel like there's questions that
are still unanswered, and I thinkthat's important. The question I keep getting
is who's going to be in charge? And it's like that's to be determined,

(01:01:13):
and I go, there's going tobe the board will be in charge,
But who's going to be the personmaking all the decisions? Well,
the day to day stuff that willbe figured out by the board and if
they if they assign it to ageneral manager, it's kind of the executive
director of a nonprofit, right,right, Yeah, they're they're kind of
doing that daily decision making part ofthe business. But ultimately the board is
going to be the one in chargeof all the major decisions. And then

(01:01:37):
major major like financial decisions, lending, like selling, buying, getting new
equipment. That's the entirety of themembership, right and also voting on the
board members is the entirety of themembership. Yeah, or like if you're
going to completely shift your marketing procedures. Yeah, uh yeah, so I
think that, and you're doing aQ and A tomorrow. We're going to
do it to Q and A here, which is yesterday for those listening.

(01:01:59):
Very helpful. So you heard ithere second, but it was said first.
It was said first exclusive Barley me. It's like a time traveling episode.
I'm just gonna go ahead and endthis to day. Get it out
that way I can be like,first, no need to go, No,
don't support them, don't buy beers, edit it today, but still
don't release it till Monday. Yeah, exactly, because I want you know,

(01:02:20):
you want people who in the doorand we all know if it goes
on Barley and me, that's worldwide. It's definitely not thirty two people.
I mean it's it's like the coldBear bump, right, yeah. Yeah,
it definitely is not just like twelvepeople and then somebody finds it months
down the road. Definitely not thatstally, not other brews you've already talked

(01:02:40):
to about that exact stuff. Bythe way, thank you for listening.
Anybody who's listening, I appreciate you. Feel free to ever share it.
Okay, it's a little it's alowd I know we're in Sacramento and it's
not cool, but you can totallymention that you listen to this potest out
loud. You say it out loud. You can very loudly greet me if

(01:03:05):
you see me at a bar.You can just go, oh my god,
it's been right from the Barley inMe podcast. You guys, you're
another guy who runs the comedy show. You can just do that. You
can. It's allowed. And onethere's one person who does it, and
it's Kenny Hotchkins. Kenny Hotchicks willalways yell it out, but I feel
like it's facetious. No, notfor Kenny, but you're allowed to do

(01:03:30):
it anyway, Dave. It isyour birthday. You need to like nap
up for all the old man stuffyou're gonna do later. Yeah. And
I didn't say it would be fast, and we're going real slow. That's
okay, that's okay. I feellike I can eat some pudding. Okay,
some pudding, and so just gumit down. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:03:51):
yeah, beautiful party, beautiful.It's gonna be a real sleeper, yeah,
which is how I roll these days. Yeah. Man, it's like,
what do you want for birthday.I didn't you know when your kid,
You're like, why would it's sohacky to get your dad to tie
or socks or whatever? And thenI'm like, what do you want for
your fucking shirts? Like I don'tknow, Like here's the thing we have

(01:04:12):
When you're a kid, you don'thave a job. Like you're like,
oh my god, gifts when areyour adult? Like I just if I
need something, I can just gobuy it. With kids now, I
can tell you they don't do thatanymore. They don't care about buying their
dad or mom or other people gifts. I don't even know. Yeah,
they barely acknowledge that. They they'llsend them emoji on a text and that's
that's your happy birthday card. Ohyeah, that's what I get from my

(01:04:32):
mom all time. We do voicemailswith we sing happy birthday on voicemails.
It's a lot of time. Butlike it's like, I personally would rather
have a conversation, but I'm like, I know this is our feet we
do and nobody inswers their phone ontheir birthday and we all you see a
family member, you're like, decan leave a message, just let that

(01:04:55):
go to voicemail. Yeah, andI'm like they later you can talk to
me. It's okay. Yeah,but you also know how it's going to
end. Yeah, yeah, I'mgoing to call you back. I heard
that one before. Yeah, soI'm going to call you back and leave
you a voice falling all right,But yeah, but I'm like, yeah,
it's like like my girlfriend's like,what do you want for your brother?
Like shirts? I think I askedlike the last I was like pants,

(01:05:18):
Like it's because I forget to buythat for myself, you know,
like like oh yeah, you knowthat's the staples. I've lost sixty pounds
since COVID started, So I'm like, oh, yeah, I could use
shirts that fit properly, don't hangoff me. It looks like you should
you start a workout routine. Ididn't. You should. Like. My
workout routine is throwing around my giantass baby. She's a ninety nine point

(01:05:39):
eight percentile height and weight, massivefucking baby. So I just uh,
and she wants to be off theground at all times. So it's just
so you're just lifting, lifting,lifting, lifting. Yeah, it's a
workout. It is a good workI respect. Yeah, And it's like
six hours a day really putting inthe work. But no, no,
no actual gym work, no running. And boy I had to walk San

(01:06:01):
Franisco Hills last night and that wasa reminder that I don't do that.
I went up one street. Mythighs might collapse on my But okay,
the point is I'm leaving. That'swhat another long outro because always been right
special. Don't know how to saygoodbye. Anything else we need to know
about this co op, about newhobby, things you haven't mentioned, things

(01:06:24):
you think are important to know.Well, right now, it's only informational
and we're only taking sign ups,we're not actually selling the membership. So
at this point in time, youcan go to the new hoby ship brew
dot com website and look for theco op membership button and that'll give you
all the information you need to knowto sign up and get on our list
for for when we do launch theactual membership, when we open actual memberships

(01:06:46):
for sale and bring members in tojoin. So that's probably, you know,
hopefully we're we're only a short weekor two away. But that's a
process that honestly, the the crewthat's putting it together on the on the
employees here as in charge of andthere's also all the little red tape.
We'll get there when we get there, and if there's anything we know about

(01:07:08):
government and by laws and all that. They're easy to work with, easy
to work with, joy quick,cheap, accurate, They smile, they
smile. They actually they're exuberant,unlike the typical Sacramento audience. And they
will tell you everything that's wrong withyour idea immediately instead of one at a
time and start over. And like, by the way, this was also

(01:07:28):
a problem then we didn't tell youabout. But then they'll also offer you
help on how to solve that.Correct every time, yeah, correct,
And there's not an additional charge foreach attempt and just it's like a bullet.
That's why we are the best cityto do business in California. Ye.
And that's coming for me, specificallyme all those words I was talking

(01:07:49):
the whole time. I know itsounded like day for a second there,
but it was just me, uh, just a person in the public making
those statements based on my observations whenI'm walking by work sites. And it's
not anything I've heard from business ownersor people who've attempted stuff. It's just
my observations out in the world.Could be true, could be false,

(01:08:11):
could be just you could just bemisunderstanding the situation, you know, because
I'm just I'm an outsider looking infor a couple of seconds, over and
over again. So yeah, Soonce all the legal stuff is done and
we can open up memberships, wewill. Yeah, and if we can't,
and you shin out about that bysigning up on the sign up list
on the website and we'll get youall the information in a chance to become
a member of the new New Hopeshok co Op. You'll be a founding

(01:08:33):
member. Probably include a beer withit, yeah, maybe maybe even like
a crowler. Nobody wants growlers anymore. They kind of gone away, haven't
Yeah, all that push to getthem legalized and they're like now they wanted
them to like fill them at gasstations. Yeah, yeah, it's like
put tape over them and the like. Well, now that we've done that,
there's this thing called a crowler.Yeah, way cooler. You got

(01:08:56):
to buy a five thousand dollars seemingmachine. Yeah, but it's better,
but better. Everybody. Everybody likesit. It feels cooler. It lasts
about a week longer than a growler. Yeah, and you don't have to
remember to bring it with you andwash it out and then have them wash
it out and then they tell youdidn't wash it out properly. Please don't
bring your crowler back. We don'twant it. Yeah, just crack that

(01:09:16):
top off, but keep it thereand then so we can receive it.
But fun fact, we are stillfilling growlers. If you've got an old
glass growler, bring it in.We will fill it happily. Yeah,
most of the breweries still do.Yeah, it's like we're ready for it.
It's a fun thing to take toa holiday party. It is,
and it's it's like an old throwback. Oh yeah, a like a bottle
share and somebody a growler freshly filled. It's got to be consumed right then

(01:09:39):
and there. Yeah, and it'slike, oh, it's not worth sharing
a twelve ounce bottles sixty four ounces, ben Rice. We just solved the
folded arms at the comedy show.Problem was that everybody has to bring a
growler. Oh yeah, Edward sixtyfour hands and you're drinking that growler and
you're you're hooting it up and havingthe best time of your life. That's
what I say, music, comedy, all the art shows. Yeah,

(01:10:02):
you have to have a growler inhand. You got to have a little
bit of in ambition down. Opencontainer laws be damned. Yeah, if
we're gonna do art walk, itshould be a boozy artwalk. Yeah,
I mean, nobody knows what's inthat art stagger that Stanley you know,
Yeah, it's true. You know, I've managed to not go back to

(01:10:23):
my old habits but when I wasyounger. Yeah, dog parks with a
coffee munk. Absolutely. One ofthe benefits of working in a brewery is
that a brewery that cans, youend up with a lot of short fills,
short fills that don't get labeled andcould be anything. Nobody knows what

(01:10:43):
that is. Yeah, could bean energy drink, could be water.
In fact, it is an energydrink. Yes, officially it's an energy
drink. All right. The pointis all right, New Hobe you should
brew dot com, New Hope Brewon Instagram. You can follow Barley and
Me across social media. Barley meOdd. Go to Barny mepod dot com
for all my shows that I'm performingat, all the shows that I'm running,

(01:11:08):
all the podcast episodes, so manythings. Don't forget to check out
my recent appearance on the Roach Coachpodcast. It's a new metal podcast.
We broke down the two thousand,nineteen nine two thousand album Apartment twenty six
Hallucinating. It's a Geezer Butler fromBlack Sabbath's sunspand I had a lot of

(01:11:32):
fun. It's one of my favoritepodcasts. If you ever experienced new metal
at any point in time, it'sgreat. It's three improvisers out of Detroit.
They're a blast. They're who Oneof their members just left because she
had a baby, and one oflike spend time on her baby. So
they have like guest hosts. Idid one and it was a blast.

(01:11:56):
I think that's I don't know showsI have them. Mike Kaplan at The
Sophia December twenty third. Get ticketsMike Kaplan, Keith lill Jensen, and
Becky Lynn December sixteenth. Crooked LaneComedy. Crooked Lane comes back for its
seventh season. We've got Insane Wayne, who is a comedian in a wheelchair.

(01:12:24):
You can't He's one of the best. There's an energy in that set
that like can't be topped. AnytimeI see him on to show him like,
well, I guess everyone else isgonna eat a bag because this guy
is gonna level everybody along with himis mister Tay and Cookie Williams. It's
a great lineup. Those are theticketed shows that I can remember. I
have oh Art Mixed December twenty eighth, Happy Humbugs, me and Ebanen here

(01:12:48):
at New Havisha. We worked onsome comedy stuff for that, so that'll
be fun. Kevin Kamia, MerylDavis, shaman, Ja Hall, Mariam
zby me an unnamed guest that we'refinalizing. Ah, yeah, it'll be
fun. And our friends at artMix and yeah a Been is also bringing

(01:13:12):
in the be Brave Bold Robot Yeahthis month, right, Yeah, it
makes sense for the Also, nobig deal Happy Homebugs my idea for a
name, but yeah, me andhim been working together for a few months
on like they want to being comedyand it's been a lot of fun with
that and it felt really good toget that recognition to somebody that was worth
reaching out to to help with thatbecause I never had hidden miss or in

(01:13:39):
like, not as much variety andaccess they would have liked to have had.
So anyway, you're good people,Ben Race, you hang out with
good people. Yeah, you dogood things, all right, this is
episode whatever number it is, Barleyand Me. Dave gol knew he'll be
shu brewing. Thank you, sowe hold you to cooperative, but maybe
one part of that so that maybenot. Thank you so much, glad

(01:14:02):
to do it. Happy birthday,Thank you, Thank you and for the
listeners, Tome, thanks so muchfor listening. Get home safe,

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