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June 3, 2025 • 15 mins
We talk with podcast host Kali-Kat, who tells us about her new craft beer show and discusses the story behind a couple of memorable episodes.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, and welcome to the Beverage Chronicles, where we tap
into the stories, voices, and passions that make life a
little more interesting. I'm your host, Gary Monterroso, and today
we're pouring something special into your ears. Joining me is
the host of one of California's most finest beer podcasts,
Kathleen Gaston church Will from Calikat's tap Talks podcast. So

(00:25):
grab your favorite brew and stick around as we dive
into the world of craft beer podcasting and California's vibrant
brewing culture. And we're traveling out to the West Coast
today on Beverage Chronicles. I'm interviewing a friend of mine,
person I actually met online in part because of her
interest in craft beer. We had that in common. There's

(00:46):
no question about that. Calikat the host of a show
that I really am impressed with. It's Cali Cat Tap Talks. Kathleen.
How you doing today? And we have to mention that
your website is Calikat tap Talk. I want to spell
that k A L I k A T and then
tap talks dot com. How you doing today?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm doing great? How are you doing? Gary?

Speaker 1 (01:09):
We are so happy to have you here because we
love what you're doing on your show because I feel
it's it's kind of different from so many other podcasts
that are out there on craft beverages. And I'll get
into that a little bit later, but I wanted to
start by asking you what inspired you to start a
show focused on craft beer?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
What inspired me? Is I really enjoy I really enjoy it.
I really and enjoy the good taste of beer, and
I enjoy letting others. Hey, there's different types of beers
out that they can try not just to stay home,

(01:48):
but get out and support the community. So it's it's
about enjoying a great taste of beer and enjoying people
surrounding you and supporting your And.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
When did you make the decision you wanted to launch
a podcast.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Oh, I made a decision just a few months ago
m that I wanted to launch this podcast, and it's
China doing really well right now.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
How many episodes have you put out?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
I put out over eleven episodes. Now.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
I listened to several of them, and there was a
couple that stood out. Can we talk about them? Oh?

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Absolutely all right.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
One that I found particularly interesting was a segment that
you did with a person by name of Mike Norris,
who was the co founder of Designated Drinks. There was
a pretty powerful story going on there. You want to
share part of that with us, please?

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Oh the powerful story was it kind of caught me
off track.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
So Mike and Chris, they're out of Canada.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
They started in their garage and he the reason why
he started this is because he was an alcoholic, but
he didn't know he was an alcoholic, and he was
going through some issues and he just loved the taste
of a good tasting beer. So one day he got
this helofresh box. Inside the hell of press box was

(03:09):
a Heiniken zero. He tried it, he liked it, and
so and He's like was on the hunt to go
to different breweries and saying, hey, do you have a.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Non alcoholic beer?

Speaker 3 (03:22):
And most of them said no, And then they started
to producing non alcoholic beer. And then he just enjoyed
it to the point that because hey, there's other people
out there like camp and he wanted to share you know,
his Hey there's another drink out there that people still njoin,

(03:44):
that has that taste, that is trying to fight the alcoholism.
So he started in his garage and then from his garage,
it went to a storage facility, and then from a
storage facility, it went to a warehouse. He's the number
one in Canada just as a distributor when it comes

(04:04):
to selling non alcoholic drinks to people that.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Enjoy the taste of beer.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
And through his process, he's found that it's not just
people that have a drinking problem, but there's other people
that give themselves a break from drinking regular beers to
drinking non alcoholic beers and his businesses.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Now, that was a powerful episode and I don't know
if you had a feeling it was going to go
in that direction, but you really made an impact that
I think this kind of from what I've heard of
your show, separates you from so many other beverage podcasts.
You kind of go off the beaten track and you're
not afraid to push the envelope and go into different areas.

(04:47):
I want to tell you another episode that I really
enjoyed also, and by the way, that episode I believe
was called Beyond the Poor the comeback Blueprint of staying afloat,
But you did another episode that I really enjoyed also
with Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company. You dropped that about I
think it was in early May. Tell us a little
bit about that if you would.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, look at intrusion and that is Drew and Jasmine
and I really didn't even know that that.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Bury existed, so and I was just looking and I said,
you know, let me give these people a try. And
they got back immediately and they were like, hey, you know,
people need to hear my story.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
And I said, well, I'm here.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
So we set it up and with them is they
are a couple. They met in high school, they went
to college. Drew's background is he was a distributor, he
worked in a farm, he worked in a taproom, and
she's got an IT degree. And just one day and
they decided that they wanted to brew bear, but they

(05:51):
didn't have the equipment, so they went on Facebook. They
looked around and then they found a lady that was
selling her husband's equipment. And but they asked about it
and the lady said it was taken. So but they
still persist about it because she still didn't get rid
of it. So they went to her house visitor, they

(06:13):
told her story and she ended up giving it to
him and she said, hey, I believe I'm going to
give it to the right people, because my husband passed
away of cancer.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
So make a long story short.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
So they take this equipment if they go home, and
they don't know anything about broom beer. So they did
their bed brewing the beer and the first one came out,
you know, wasn't all about that. And then they just
started learning and now they're like the number one brewery
in in in Maryland.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
So, but not only that, they bruce specialty beers.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Like Jasmine's favorite is a creamle so Drew says, Hey,
Bees was going to brew keep her excited about brewling
to convince her to to build a business, which is lipco. Hey,
he wanted to brew her a her favorite beer, which

(07:12):
is a cream el Bear and so that got popular.
They've got quite a few popular beers. They're very active
in their community. They brewed a beer for the mayor
in that town.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
He loved it.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Uh, it's just it's just an amazing, amazing story. They
actually if anybody reaches out to him, they're willing to help.
They're willing to let them know what struggles they had
and what they can do to bypass the struggle and
understand it and most importantly, basically to get back to

(07:51):
their community. They do a lot for scholarships with the HBCU,
so there's a there's a lot going on.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
They also help.

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Students get scholarships, get them into college, and let them
know about Hey, education is very important.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
So yeah, that that story didn't.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
Turn out what I wanted to be, but it turned
out the way it was supposed to be.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
That's exactly right. I'll tell you. Those were I have
to say, probably my two favorite episodes. I really enjoyed
listening to them because they were powerful, powerful stories. It's amazing.
You're right, how sometimes when you expect an interview to
go in a certain direction and it takes a left turn,
but it ends up being better than what you perhaps hoped.
These were two really really good stories. And this is

(08:40):
not atypical. This is the norm I noticed for the
type of episodes that you're putting out. It's easy to,
I think, put out a show and say, well, this
is a Pilsner beer, I'm gonna tell you all about that.
We've heard that a million and one times. But you
like to delve into the story. You dive deep into
what's going on. I think this is what separates Cali
Ca Tap Talks from so many other podcasts out there,

(09:02):
so and we have so much respect for you. We've
put you, we've listened your show on our Beverage Chronicles
web page at the bottom of our page that you
can link directly to Calikat and where can people if
people can find your podcast on not just your website,
but also on many of the podcast platforms correct, yes,

(09:22):
such as you right, okay exactly, such as like Spotify,
I guess, some of the.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Other on Spotify, on Amazon, I'm on Apple, so most
of the podcast I am.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
On Great, This is great, and that's where you can
find there, as well as the website, as I mentioned,
which is wonderful. What do you want your listeners to
take away from each episode? When when a person signs
onto your episode and listens to it, what do you
want them to take from it?

Speaker 2 (09:49):
You know?

Speaker 3 (09:49):
What I want them to take from it is understanding
that their dream is possible and that they're not the
only ones out there, and if they just listen, they
might hear their story within it, their struggles and Okay,
well they're not doing it this way. Let me try

(10:10):
to do it a different way, and they will make it.
They just can't give up. And that's what I want
them to get out of my podcast is other people
have a story to tell and they need to listen
and understand and pursue their dream.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Where do you see your show going in the next
year or two. What do you hope to happen?

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, that's a really good question, but.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Because right now it's I'm getting a lot of people
signing up, a lot of people telling the story. So
I'm hoping to be on top of things, you know,
That's what I'm hoping to be on top of things.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
I'm hoping that a lot.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Of people just follow my lead and and and follow
their dream.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, you're off to a great start. I have to
tell you that for putting out like you said, about
eleven episodes, I think really make me an impact on
the industry. So I enjoy what you're doing. I certainly
encourage you to keep it up, and you know, don't
be safe, take a chance to go after things as
you've as you've been doing really give you a lot
of credit. Do you have a dream brewery or brewer

(11:16):
or someone in the industry that you haven't interviewed yet
but would love to.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
I have two of them, and I would love to
interview them. And Russian River Brewery into northern California. They've
got two once in Santa Roses, the very first one,
and the other one is in Windsor that they open
up very beautiful facility. And the second one is Penthouse,

(11:39):
is also in northern California. And the reason why I
say to both of them is because they're marketing and
what they do to their community and what they do.
They brew this special beer once a year and it's
both of them. Your Henhouse does the Big Chicken comes

(12:03):
out January twenty twenty five, People fly in line up
in line for days.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Just to get that bear.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Wow, that you have Russian River that does the younger
people fly around the world and line up for days.
The longest I've stand in line for the younger was
eighteen hours.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
For a beer and communicating with the people in line.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
I mean, I would love to sit down and interview
and just see, you know their angle and how do
they keep us as beer heads keep coming back and back.
I think they got a great marketing scheme. I was
gonna say scheme, but that other people need to look

(12:49):
at and see what they're doing to stay afloat there's
a lot of breweries out there. They have some beautiful bears.
Our palates really love them, and but they go under
maybe because they don't understand the marketing scheme on what
they need to do, the collaboration that needs to happen,
being part of the community that keeps them afloat.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
No, those two would be my dream.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
I have a suspicion that it's going to happen for you.
I believe as things move on, because again, you're doing
really a remarkable job, and we hear Beverage Chronicles are
very impressed with your show, so we have been talking
with I'm gonna call you Kathleen, that is your name,
but it's Callikat who is the host and the founder
of callikat Tap Talks. Again. I'm gonna give that website,

(13:39):
which is callikat tap talks dot com and you can
find her again at the bottom of our Beverage Chronicles
website because we have a lot of respect for her
and CALLI thank you so much for giving up. What
is your morning. It's in California. I'm talking to you
in the afternoon here in New Jersey, but it's your morning.
Giving it up to chat with us, and I will

(14:02):
add this that we're going to be providing every so
often a minute of beverage updates for your show as well,
and we're very happy to be affiliated with you, and
maybe you could do something like that for us as well.
And I think I'm going to be appearing on your
show at some point right. Yes, absolutely, Thank you so
much for taking time to talk with us. Really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
You can hear Beverage Chronicles every Saturday at eight forty
five am on Garden State Radio, then on virtually all
top podcast platforms such as Apple, Spotify, and many many more,
and we're also on websites such as Hopped Up Network.
So that's it for this week's episode. I'm Gary Montroso

(14:50):
we will be back next week. Everyone stay well
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