In the Taproom with Jan Chodkowski of Our Mutual Friend Brewing

Greg took the Craft Beer Republic mics on the road to Denver for a sit-down with Jan Chodkowski, head brewer and co-owner of Our Mutual Friend Brewing Company (aka OMF). What started as a casual morning tasting turned into a full-on deep dive into Jan’s beer journey, from knocking back High Life in high school to running one of the most respected breweries in Colorado.

Over a lineup of OMF’s finest pours, including their fresh-from-the-tank Keller Pils, sunshine-in-a-glass Sunny Kölsch, dangerously drinkable Stingray Jesus West Coast IPA, pillowy Neon Nail Hazy IPA, and Little Character, a silky Southern English Brown Ale collab with Fort George, Greg and Jan swapped stories about how OMF grew from a scrappy one-barrel setup into a polished, award-winning, neighborhood staple.

Jan shares why OMF champions Colorado-grown malt and hops, the art of brewing beers they actually want to drink, and why chasing trends isn’t their style. We talk collaborations, dream brews, Denver’s evolving beer scene, and the magic of keeping things local. There’s plenty of brewer nerd talk (floor malting, hop selection, and water chemistry), but always with a pint in hand and a laugh in between.

Beyond the brewhouse, Jan talks about OMF’s work in the community, from partnering with nonprofits to creating Pride merch that benefits local LGBTQ+ organizations. And because no Craft Beer Republic chat is complete without a little fun, Greg puts Jan through a rapid-fire round covering guilty pleasure beers, dream beer trips, and his go-to hangover cure. It’s the kind of conversation that feels less like an interview and more like hanging out at the bar with a friend who just happens to make incredible beer.

Our Mutual Friend Brewing: OMFBeer.com

• Instagram: @OMFBrewing
• Facebook: OurMutualFriendBrewing
• 2810 Larimer Street, Denver, CO

Craft Beer Republic: CraftBeerRepublic.com

• Instagram: @CraftBeerRepublic
• Facebook: CraftBeerRepublicPod
• Threads: CraftBeerRepublic
• Voicemail: [phone]

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
All right. Welcome in, everybody.Greg here from the Craft Beer
Republic on a bit of a field triptoday we are in one of my favorite
beer cities, and that's Denver.And we're at our Mutual friends
brewing.If you're telling people about it,
call it OMF because you willconfuse the heck out of them.
I'm with head brewer, co-owner, anduh, real beer nerd Jan Chodkkowski.
Thanks for joining us, man. Yeah.Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah.

(00:33):
Thanks for, um, having some beerearly in the morning. No.
No problem. Yeah.This is a good excuse to, uh, have
a few. Have a handful of tasters.Yeah, yeah.
It's always nice to tell peopleit's a hobby and not a problem.
Yeah, well. And our job. Yeah.For you. Job. For me, it's.
It's like a hobby sort of job.Yeah. So it's great.
Well, like I said, thanks forhanging out. Uh. It's early.
We're gonna drink some beers foryou guys, walk through a little

(00:55):
bit of their lineup,we'll do some beer tastings.
We'll find out about Jan, uh,his history, his history as a drinker
and some of the nerdy stuff thatthey got going on here at our mutual
friends. I want to say stumbled.I was told to come in here last
time we were here at Gabf is 2023.Somebody said,
you got to go check out OMF.And we're like, all right, dude,
we came here the day they weredoing the awards.
We're watching the awards on TV.That's awesome. And that was cool.

(01:17):
And it was our first time hearingof the place and we loved it.
So I had to stalk you and annoyyou to try and get you on the
show the next time.I was in Denver, which is to do it.
Yeah. So this is really cool.Um, if you don't mind,
before we get into some history,can we try our first beer? Yeah.
The first beer we got, uh,today is our Keller Pils, which is

(01:38):
served straight from our Lager tank.So it is, uh, not a unique recipe.
It's actually just our pilsnerbeer served off the lager tank
before we package it. Yeah.So it gives our consumers who
come into the taproom a uniqueopportunity to try.
Try some Keller beer straightfrom the Lager tank.
Yeah, yeah, people often don'teven know what that means.

(01:59):
Really? Kellerbier. Yeah.So traditionally, you know,
Kellerbier might be like beer.That was, you know, lagered in
underground or in a cave or whereverGermans might lager a beer for a
long time to save for a little bit,and then served maybe off of, like a
cask or a foster straight from it,you know, like tapping, like a,
like a firkin or a pin. But, yeah.Uh, this beer is brewed with

(02:21):
100% Colorado ingredients.So all the malt is from troubadour
malting up in Fort Collins.And the hops are tettnang crystal
and cascade grown in Pelletizedhere in Colorado. Wow. Yeah.
And you guys, I thought I readsomewhere that you used to do
your own grains like you used to.We used to roast some of our own
malt. Yeah, yeah, yeah.There was great ideas at the

(02:43):
beginning to maybe try to malt somestuff, but the scale didn't work.
And then the scale stopped workingonce we grew more for roasting.
So we don't even really roast ourown. We don't at all roast any.
Too hard to keep. Up. Yeah, yeah.And it would smoke out the whole
building in taproom, and you just.You'd reek like it for a day or two.
The clothes had to be instantlywashed, but it did create a unique
profile to our darker beers,which was really fun.

(03:05):
And I'm sure the neighboringbusinesses loved those days too.
For a long time there was acoffee roaster next to us, and,
uh, fresh roasted coffee cankind of be stinky, too, so they
masked it a little bit, right?Kind of. Competing. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, this is really nice.This is light.
A little bit of effervescence.It's not super carbonated yet, right.
A hint of, I don't know, maybe alittle sweetness on there too.

(03:27):
A little bit. Yeah.Like not overly sweet. Sweet.
Very, very crisp. Very clean.Just a hint of sweetness from
not quite finishing up yet.Yeah, it's a fun thing.
We have it on like, uh, not a properliquor side pole, but another one.
So we were able to pour like,nice foamy head on it, conserve it
in like, you know, mugs and stuff.It's just a fun beer to offer.
We light up a sign behind the taproomthat says killer beer is pouring

(03:47):
whenever we have it, because it's notin every everyday thing. Yeah, yeah.
You know, you kind of only seethem at maybe places like, uh,
like a beer type of place that Yeah,specializes in German beers and
lagers and that kind of stuff.So it's fun to see out in the wild.
Yeah.Um, all right, let's let's get
into you a little bit.Um, before we talk about OMF,
let's go into your history as aas a drinker.

(04:07):
Where did it all begin for you?Was it, you know, PBR in college
or Miller Lite in high school or.A lot of high life?
Uh, yeah,high school going into college.
And then I do remember, though,that that, you know, like, you know,
the light bulb beer that changedeverything for me was just a Guinness
in my driveway when I was like,you know, underage a little bit
probably. You were.Definitely 21. I was 21. Yeah.

(04:28):
And I was like, oh,beer can be totally different than,
you know, American light lager.So, uh, that totally changed my mind.
And then it was off, off from there,you know, just trying to explore
the whole world of beer.It really started when I moved out to
Colorado, though, when I was 20, 21.And when I turned 21,
I instantly started going to like thebeer stores out here and trying,
you know, everything from Averyand New Belgium and Odell and all

(04:50):
those all the classics. Yeah.And then exploring all the great,
uh, California breweries and stuff.Getting everything and then,
you know, really kind of found alot of passion early on in
enjoying and homebrewing.Um, like Belgian style beers.
Okay. Yeah, yeah.There was a great Belgian beer bar
here called Cheeky Monk that I liveda block away from, for better or
worse. It was kind of trouble.It's probably good for them.

(05:12):
Yeah? Yeah. Kept the lights. On.Yeah, yeah.
Well,they had a crazy deal where it was
half off all drafts for happy hour.And so being a young guy and going
into that beer bar, some of those,that was the end of my day.
Sometimes, you know,you go in for three hours and drink
10% Belgian beers. That was it.I could do some damage during
happy hour. Yeah. No doubt.Yeah, yeah yeah yeah.
So just, you know, really enjoyed,you know, like, all the Colorado

(05:34):
beers and then a lot of Belgianbeers early on too. Yeah, yeah.
So as a beer drinker, that kind ofwas like what I gravitated for.
Started drinking, you know,like lambic really early on to
in my early 20s.I remember buying Cantillon off the
shelf, you know, like, yeah, yeah.That's not where a lot of people. Go.
Yeah. Yeah, especially early on.Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pretty good.

(05:54):
And it's not our main focus here,but at OMF.
But we do make a lot of mixed culturebeer and Saison and stuff as well.
Yeah. You got some fritters.Yeah,
we have fooders and stuff like that.But then, you know, started home
brewing and, uh, you know,I was a mediocre homebrewer but
found success making, you know,Saison I'd never even made it to,
like, temperature control,fermentation as a home brewer.
Just had a one bedroom apartment.So I was doing whatever I could

(06:15):
there.But, yeah, was, uh,
making some decent Saison.And then, you know, I wasn't
really enjoying what I was doingbefore I started brewing beers.
So I had a little bit of time inwinter to try.
I was trying to get into theindustry, and there weren't that many
breweries that were hiring back then.So like, the options were maybe
try to get in at the canning andbottling line at Great Divide.

(06:36):
Sure. Maybe like. Rip. Great rip.Great divide. Yeah. Just got sold.
The brand will live on, but theproduction facility shut down.
It was really difficult to finda job in the beer industry.
I didn't even really know aboutbrewing school. It was late.
20s. Chinese. Yeah.There was yeah, there was UC
Davis maybe and Siebel and. Yeah.And then yeah, there wasn't that

(06:58):
I didn't even really know aboutthose programs. So yeah.
So I would go around to breweriesand see if they had anybody,
if they needed any help, anything.Uh, sweep the floors. Yeah, yeah.
Got to be friends with my nowbusiness partner, Brandon,
who was one of the founders of ourMutual Friend Brewing company.
And he's like, oh, yeah, we coulduse some help in the taproom.
And so I started in the taproom here,worked for free in the back part

(07:18):
time, getting paid in the back,part time in the front,
full time in the back, and thenhead brewer and then also became
a partner here at OMF maybe five,six years ago. Yeah. Oh, okay.
So you weren't the original brewer.No, no, no,
there was another head brewer.Yeah. To start out the brewery.
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah.But now we're going on 13 years here.
So yeah this has been my onlyone and only beer beer job.
And no formal training other than.No, just just learning from the

(07:41):
kindness of other brewers who Ihave a question they're willing
to help out. Yeah, yeah.Doing all my own research, constantly
educating myself. Yeah, sure.Yeah, yeah, I've heard from just
about every brewer I've talked tothat if you've got questions, they'll
answer them. Oh, totally. Yeah.Yeah. We have a great community.
Yeah, yeah.The original crew when I first
started here at OMF, you know,at Great Divide, the original crew
at Great Divide that I knew, um,they were instrumental in helping

(08:03):
us get our beer right and,and and figure out how to make
beer professionally. Yeah.That's amazing. Yeah.
And before that,what was your civilian job?
I was a project manager for,like, a house service company.
So house painting, all sorts of oddjobs, going to houses and fixing
stuff and painting houses, interiors,exteriors, whatever they needed done,
basically. So nothing at all related?Not at all. No.

(08:24):
Other than, you know,managing a lot of people. Sure.
Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah.Yeah, I hear some people.
Oh, I had a chemistry background.No no, no. Yeah. None of that. Yeah.
I went to school for marketing so.Yeah. Yeah.
Which helps now that I'm a partof the business actually. Yeah.
Yeah yeah I get to flex, you know,creativity and, you know, designing
and brewing our beers but also alittle bit help with my business
partner Brandon who does all of ourart and graphic design but help,

(08:46):
you know, awesome name our beersand what direction we want to go
with you know, beer labels andart and stuff and how we want to
market those as well. Yeah.It's nice to have, uh,
you have the marketing side.He has the artistic side.
So basically you're the dreamcrusher he has. Yeah.
You can tell him like, no,that graphic is not going to sell
beer. Yeah, he never does it.Nail it. He always nails it.
He knows what's going on.He's a better marketer than I am,

(09:07):
too.But, yeah, it's nice to have at least
a little bit of experience in that.Yeah? Yeah. Perfect.
All right, well, speaking of beer,let's let's move on to number two.
Yeah. Sweet.So number two, uh, second beer
we have is called, uh, sunny,and it is a kolsch we just launched
last week. Love a. Kolsch. Yeah.And it is brewed with Leopold
Floor malted pilsner malt.So Leopold Leopold Brothers is a
distilling company here,but they also malt as well,

(09:31):
which is really cool.And so they also make pilsner malt,
and we use that in some beers.And this will be a hopefully a year
round regular core beer for us.Yeah, yeah.
And we rolled it out in 12 ouncesix packs instead of our usual
four pack pint.So just kind of like a sunny pun
intended.It's always sunny in Colorado.
The sun is always out.And just an easy crushing beer.

(09:52):
Yeah, you could take it out withyou on a hike or a bike,
you know, or take it up with you.Ski and snowboarding in the
winter and enjoy a nice,easy drink and Kölsch. Yeah.
And I appreciate the hell out of12 ounce cans. Me too. Yeah.
As you get older, you're like,yeah, okay,
I can crush a couple of these. Yeah.Last couple years, I'm like,
do I need to 16 ounce cans? Yeah.Usually just end up opening one

(10:14):
and you're like, all right.Right now I'm full.
I feel like I just drank a meal.Yeah. Getting old sucks. Yeah.
Yeah. Getting old is tough. Yeah.For sure. But this is nice.
I mean, just like the last one.Very clean drinking. Very.
I mean, like you said, just.It's a chuggable. Yeah.
Sunny day. Yeah.If you're going to go tailgate
or something. Absolutely.For sure. Perfect for that.

(10:34):
Very easily put down a lot of these.Yeah. People barbecuing.
Oh my God. Yeah.People I feel like on the Kölsch
train try to, I don't know,impart too much flavor into a
Kölsch like, oh, we're gonna dryhop the shit out of this.
It's like, hey, you guys, leave theKölsch alone and save that for your
IPAs or something. I'm on a boat.Yeah, yeah, I'm on the same boat
with you. Yeah. Like on board.We we wanted to just make a

(10:56):
straightforward, really enjoyableKölsch that incorporates some
Colorado ingredients.It also has Colorado teenager, but
German hersbrucker is the main hopin that as well. Okay. Yeah, yeah.
Super nice to. Drink. Yeah, yeah.We always like to incorporate
Colorado ingredients wheneverpossible in a lot of our beers
and most of our beers.So we we partner with a lot of
Colorado malt companies and hopproducers as well.

(11:17):
Hop farms tell us get nerdy alittle bit.
Tell us about the floor maltedand all that stuff and what that
actually means.Floor malting is different than
tank malting, which is how themajority of malt is produced.
So floor malting is the oldoriginal old world way of
malting barley and wheat.The grain is steeped in a giant
tank with water and then allowed tolightly germinate, sprout and then or

(11:43):
it's spread across the floor first,and then it germinates and sprouts as
soon as it germinates and sprouts.They kill it with heat and then
kiln it.So okay, during that malting process
on the floor, they're trying to getthe enzymes to convert some starches.
Yeah. To convert starches into sugar.And that doesn't normally happen

(12:03):
through the regular malting process.It's the same process.
But floor malting is kind of just itsown unique characteristic rather
than a giant tank. Yeah, yeah.So it might be different in flavor
profile than than tank malting.Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
It's it's a little gentler.Can create maybe some more
nuanced flavors, uh, if they'redoing it right. Yeah. Yeah.

(12:24):
But it's just a really cool, classicold, old world style malting. Yeah.
Sounds kind of like roastingcoffee beans. Really.
You know,if you do it a little differently,
this way might be the same bean, butyou're gonna get different flavors.
Absolutely different outcome.Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Yeah.
It is very hands on process.Yeah. Labor intensive. Extremely.
Yeah, yeah. All those things. Yeah.The equipment is inexpensive.
You just need a floor Really?But yeah. That's true.

(12:46):
Uh, then you need a kiln. All right.Let's go back with OMF a little bit.
When when they first opened, it wasI did some stocking a 31 gallon
like basically homebrew system.And is that when you were you were
you brewing on that system or.I was at the head brewer during then,
but I was in the back helping outand stuff so quickly after that.
Yeah, I started on like a bigone barrel home built, you know,

(13:07):
like built rack and with burnersand stuff. Turkey fryer.
Totally. Yeah. Yeah yeah, yeah.Like walk, walk burners. Yeah.
And then quickly went to a threebarrel system after that,
realized one barrel isn't goingto last too long.
And then after that,a seven barrel Franken brew system,
which is like a dairy tank kindof cobbled together system.
And then now we have a ten barrelfully plumbed system, really nice

(13:30):
traditional kind of craft system.So two vessel mash tun lauter tun and
then boil kettle whirlpool okay.Fire. Yeah.
How hard was it to keep up withthat old system?
It was really, really hard.It was really manual too.
So every day.Just we had to dig out from the
top of it with a shovel.No rakes or plows or anything.
It's really messy.It was a lot of work,

(13:50):
moving hoes around every day.You know, every process.
You needed to move differenthoes around and stuff.
That was basically, you know,the one barrel, the three barrel and
the seven all operated in the samemanner. Standalone heat exchanger.
It was really, really hard.So really scrappy brewery,
the guys who, you know,the founders, they they opened
the brewery with like no debt.Really. So that's impressive.

(14:11):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.It didn't cost them very much to
open the brewery.But you know, over time, you know,
it gets worn out and you're like,oh, we can't keep this up.
So we had to, you know, over timewe've upgraded a lot equipment. Yeah.
What was the transition like toyour current system?
Was it easy to scale up or was it,you know.
Yeah, we've scaled up so littleover time that, you know, like it
was really, really easy to do it.And we were really happy to get,

(14:31):
you know, a proper brew house.Yeah I bet. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Little automation in. There.Yeah yeah yeah.
It was, it was really nice to tohave all that.
When uh, OMF first opened,What was the focus beer wise?
The focus was like kind of ale.Uh, you know, the previous head
brewer was really passionate aboutusing Colorado local ingredients.

(14:52):
So that was always the case as well,working with a lot of producers in
Colorado and then focusing in onlike kind of more English leaning,
like dark Brown porter Englishsummer ale. It was, you know, 2012.
So people were still makingmalty beer.
You know,there was a lot of that still around.
Drinking loaves of bread.Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So there were the IPAs and paleales were a little hardier than,

(15:15):
than today's versions.But yeah,
that was kind of the focus then.You know, as soon as I became head
brewer, we started branching outto mixed culture and Saison and
stuff and fruity beers and barrelaged beers and try to modernize the
hoppy beers a little bit as well.Lighten them up a little bit. Yeah.
Lighten them up a little bitearly on.
You know, we started you know, we'relike, okay, what have we got to do?
Well, let's just start usingpilsner malt in our IPAs, which is,

(15:37):
you know, extremely commonplace.Now,
nobody uses pale ale malt in IPA.Maybe they use a blend,
but sure, very rarely.Modern IPA brewers are using all
pale malt in their IPAs, so.And I'm here for it.
Yeah, yeah, me too as well. Yeah.Nice light body in the modern
West coast is crucial. Yeah.Back to our earlier discussion.
Getting older sucks.And it also means I don't want a loaf

(15:58):
of bread with every beer I drink.Yeah, not every beer.
Yeah, I like the clean and the crisp.Absolutely like how it sits in me.
This area, they call it RiNo. Right?When OMF first opened in this area,
was it nearly as cool as it is now?I mean,
it was there all this stuff going on?No, there was very little when
we first opened, you know,the the name of this neighborhood,
you would probably call it FivePoints, which is just, you know,

(16:20):
only four blocks, um, east of us.And that's still five points
that still exists. Okay.Over the years, the neighborhood
started to turn over gentrification,if you want to call it.
It was mostly warehouses andauto parts yards and stuff.
There wasn't a lot of residentialin this neighborhood.
It was pretty industrial,actually, but there wasn't a ton
in the neighborhood.When the brewery opened,
there was like 3 or 4 retailbusinesses you could walk into.

(16:43):
There was Larimer Lounge,a music venue a block away from us,
Crema, the coffee house on the cornerof our block, and then Walnut Room,
which is a bar venue. Oh, okay.And other than that,
there was nothing going on down here.All the streets were one way.
There was people drag racing downhere all the time. Oh, really?
Our parking lot was dirt still beforethe city made our landlord pave it.
River North was nearby.They were maybe more ballpark.

(17:05):
Their original location at GreatDivide was there.
So there were breweries nearby,for sure, but we were pretty much the
first brewery in the neighborhood.That's pretty good.
Yeah, maybe infinite Monkey Theorem,which was a winery, uh, urban winery
down here. But they're gone now.I think that's a name.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.Infinite monkey theorem. Yeah.
They might have been open andare open in the same year,
but then over time, you know morebreweries came in ratio. Bierstadt.

(17:28):
Odell some have come and gone,you know River North came back to the
neighborhood, which is awesome. Yeah.It's just been insane to watch
the neighborhood grow.And, uh,
we're happy to have as many peoplestop by the taproom as possible.
We want to share this beer witheverybody.
Yeah, and now it's not super farout of the way. It's. No.
Yeah, it's central, pretty much.Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Is it fun having other spotslike Bierstadt so close or is it

(17:52):
competitive? It's never.No, it's not competitive in a way,
really.It's only actually helped foot
traffic and bring more people tothe neighborhood.
That's how we see it. Yeah. No.It's good. It's always a good thing.
You need, like, a little, uh, aletrail or something. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
If you were here from the beginning,would you have done any other
than maybe a bigger brew system?Would you have done anything

(18:12):
differently? Proper brew house.That's about it. Yeah.
Proper brew house.You know, like just equipment stuff.
You know,OMF is on the production side.
Made a lot of we've had a lot oflearning experiences over the years.
So you know, you got to gothrough through those to,
to make better beer.So it's tough to tough to say, you
know, like you know like you want to.We always learn from our mistakes.

(18:33):
So we've made a lot of mistakesover the years.
But we've always learned from them,so it's tough to pick them out.
Would it have been nice to have,like, maybe more thought out cellar
and brewhouse from the start?Yes, 100%, yeah.
Uh, other than that, though,I probably wouldn't change too much.
Yeah, that's pretty good.It's been pretty great. Yeah.
Uh. All right.Can we try our next? Yeah. Cool.

(18:56):
Uh, next one is a West Coast IPAwe launched last year.
The name is called Stingray Jesus.And it's about the name.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.And it's hopped with Riwaka,
Centennial and strata. I love it.Yeah. Smells delicious.
Really tropical berry forward.Little bit of pine citrus hitting
all those notes and then, like,really dry, crisp body. Yeah.

(19:18):
And this is maybe the runawaybeer for us this year.
This might be the leader inwholesale. What's the ABV on this?
Oh, in the sevens. Yeah.Because it drinks more like a West
Coast pilsner. It is so. Crisp.Really light and dry and crispy.
Yeah, yeah.It's got great hop flavor.
All those tropical and berry notes.but it is super crushable and does
not drink like seven. No. Yeah.You know, for whatever reason we

(19:41):
are able to hide ABV decentlywell at our brewery.
I don't know what people talk tous about that.
And we're like, I don't know whatit is. Uh, it must be our water.
I don't know what's going on.That's funny.
I've never been able to pinpointthat. Your new tagline.
You know, we secretly get you drunk.Yeah, totally.
No, no, it can be a problem.And then a lot of our IPAs are
kind of stronger, too.So, you know,
like they're in the seven 7% range.I would have never guessed that

(20:03):
was in the sevens.Yeah, I would have told you.
Five tops. That's that's delicious.Super, super crushable.
Just like the other two so far. Yeah.Um, the berry notes really shine
through on the end. Yeah.Not overly bitter at all.
And then, like we were talking about.So clean.
No malty,bready bloating afterwards. No, no.
Just dry nice nice maltcharacter though.
You can taste the malt characterthere for sure.

(20:25):
A little bit of honey,maybe a little bit of like Cracker
Biscuit maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah.It's just got a nice,
nice character through there.Yeah. To back up the hops. Yeah.
You can't make too thin of a,you know, IP based malt character.
So the malt does have to be there,but.
It needs to have a little body to.Yeah. Yeah. Delicious. Yeah. Thanks.
How do you go about, you know,coming up with these?
You're like, oh,I just feel like having a clean

(20:48):
hoppy something to drink today orwhat's your creative process when
you're coming up with recipes.Really inspired by, you know,
a lot of try to start in what Iwant to drink in my head first and
then kind of work that backwards,or maybe what we need in the lineup,
you know, like so we we alsohave another core IPA,
West Coast IPA called Time Zero.That's a little more old school.

(21:09):
It's still a very dry, not overlymalty beer, but it has more piney,
danky citrus leaning stuff thanmore berry citrus like like
Stingray Jesus more Seahawks.So we need yeah, we need it.
Yeah, yeah, we needed, uh,maybe a modern, really modern take on
a West Coast IPA in the core lineup.And this is what fit always inspired
by what other breweries do you know,as long as it's if it's like a

(21:31):
new beer style, you know,we don't chase trends really too
much at our brewery.We, you know, unless I'm inspired
to brew it, if I'm, like,enjoying this style of beer. Sure.
You know, we'll give it a whack.Try to put our own spin on it.
If it's something that's,you know, a trend where I'm like,
I'm this isn't me.And, you know, I, you know,
so the beer is really all of thebeer we make is a really

(21:52):
representation of us.You know, it isn't something forced,
you know?So the beer you're drinking is really
just our mutual friend's beer.It's what you guys want to drink?
Yeah.Yeah, it's what we want to drink.
It's what we want to make.It's what we think.
You know, we do absolutely considerthe the consumer for sure as well.
But I've always found it hard to try,you know, try to force a beer in our

(22:12):
lineup that I'm not passionate aboutand don't enjoy making and drinking.
So when if you can't sell it topeople. Yeah.
You know, if you can't be excitedabout it. Yeah. Then that comes out.
You know, we're really hard atfaking the funk too, so. Yeah. Yeah.
Uh, talk about not chasing trends.Were you late to certain things?
Like, were you late to the hazygame or anything?
We were probably a little lateto the Lager renaissance,

(22:34):
which we've always enjoyed, but.And we've made Lager,
but we never had enough dedicatedtank space to make it so.
When was this? 20. A few years ago.We got a 20 barrel or a ten barrel
brewhouse, so we got a 20 barrelconical and a 20 barrel lager tank
just to make our pilsner. Oh, okay.So that we were a little late to
that.You know, we weren't able to keep
up with that production. Sure.And honestly, we're still

(22:55):
struggling to keep up with that.That's what we hear from a lot
of smaller breweries.So making lager consistently,
you know, Bierstadt opened up andwe're like, oh yeah, we've had
great lager breweries here as well.You know, they came from doing
Prost and we're like, oh yeah.Always drinking good lager.
Yeah, we don't get to make as muchof that as we would like to here,
but we have a couple lagers.We have some smoked in the
fermenter right now about tocrash and start logging.

(23:18):
And then, uh,we're also brewing our American
dark lager called rainy tomorrow.Yeah, we're still making them.
It's just not as frequentlyother other styles. Yeah.
And do you find that they're theones that go first? Yes. It's hard.
To keep people drinking reallyquickly.
Especially in the summer, I would.Imagine. Yeah, absolutely.
Um, talking about beer styles andjust the beer area around us, it's

(23:38):
been a huge shakeup in craft beer,especially since Covid. Totally.
How has it changed around here?There has been quite a lot of
closures this year in Denver,which has been kind of unfortunate.
A lot of a lot of breweries have soldto larger, you know, groups as well.
You know, hopefully those largergroups can honor the the breweries

(23:59):
that they bought and keep thosethe beers that Coloradans love
and people from out of statelove if they distribute.
You know, it is it ischallenging times for sure.
But, you know,we're here to offer our experience of
beer drinking and beer enjoymentto anybody who wants to come by or
anybody who wants to try our beer.In and around restaurants.
We distribute quite a bit of beerhere and out-of-state as well.

(24:22):
We distribute to, you know,Washington and Oregon a little
bit and Utah a little bit.And could you come out a little
more west?We used to come to California,
but we've lost all ourdistributors there. Yeah, yeah.
Not frequent enough ordering.But, yeah,
the beer industry is different.You know, I think I think if you
can just be true to yourself,offer an honest product,
I think that goes a long way. Yeah.You know, as long as you're not

(24:43):
overextending yourself business wise,I think you might probably be in
a good spot.What's more important these days?
Is it the taproom or is it thedistro?
Taproom has always been our numberone point of sale, for sure,
because we're a smaller brewery.We did 1100 barrels last year. Okay.
And we'll probably be aroundthat this year as well.
But we also focus on distribution.You know we love we love our on prem,

(25:05):
you know, accounts that we havein and around Denver.
It's really fun to go into agreat restaurant.
Our sales manager, Corey, does anawesome job picking accounts and
servicing our our on prem accounts.And and then we love being in,
you know, the craft focused liquorstores in Colorado as well.
That was a bit of a shake up inColorado, where we were a little
bit different than other stateswhere beer, full strength beer and

(25:27):
wine couldn't be sold in Coloradoup until a year or two ago.
And so we actually had anamazing amount of mom and pop.
We call them liquor stores thatsold beer, wine and liquor.
But we're able if they wanted to,you know, focus on craft beverages
and really curate their selection,you know.
And now that it's open togrocery stores that, you know,
like those mom and pop storesare really having a hard time.

(25:47):
And so they're not able to maybecommit to buying as much craft
as they used to.They're still a lot of great,
you know, local craft liquor storesin Colorado that do focus on that.
But you kind of have to hunt a littlebit harder to get really cool stuff.
I read that they opened it up togrocery stores,
but isn't there weirdness aroundit like it's only so much?
Can go to grocery stores or somethinglike that? It is. I'm not 100% sure.

(26:11):
So like eventually they'll have allgrocery stores will be able to sell.
It was a slow rollout, so likethey could have like a few spots,
like our chain grocery stores couldhave a few locations, but I think
all of them can now have all thewine and beer they want, okay?
They can't have all the liquorthey want.
That's still rolling out slowly.Okay.

(26:32):
Um, but those stores are prettyimpossible for a small brewery
like us to get placement on.They also don't generally stock
pints either.So in those in the four pack,
pint is our best margin forpackaged beer. Yeah.
And we still see that as the numberone package size for IPA for sure.
Makes sense. Um, yeah.So those are kind of some of the

(26:52):
challenges that have been,you know, coming up over the years.
It's craft beer is always in thatten year, ten, 12 year cycle.
You know, you talk to some peoplewho've been in the industry for
30 years and they're like,oh yeah, we saw this in oh eight.
You know, like big time.The brew pub collapsed in the 90s,
you know, so it goes up and down.You just kind of try to ride the
wave the best you can.Try to be as consistent as those
great divide type places. Totally.Who weathered a lot. Of those storms?

(27:15):
Sierra Nevada. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.Um, because of all the change.
Have you had to say make anythingthat you didn't really want to like?
Oh, now we have to make seltzersor slushies.
We put seltzer on tap for thefirst time this year. It did okay.
You know, we're just we'll putit on here and there when we.
When we need to. Yeah.And people like it.
They were doing okay with it.It's not something we're known

(27:35):
about at all.So it was just trying to keep
some people in the seats.I've heard so many different
stories of, like, you know,our slushy machine at this brewery
is what's keeping our doors openright now. Right. Yeah.
And other places get so muchcrap for it because there's such
a good beer place.All the beer nerds are like, what are
you doing? Putting seltzers on tap.Right. So it can be.
No, no, everybody's got to dowhat they got to do, you know?
So yeah. No judgment.Um, in 2022, we got a really awesome

(27:58):
counter pressure canning line, justin case we needed to make a pivot
in what we make here so we couldput anything we want in the can.
So we we also make hot water so wedon't have any right now to try.
Sorry, but maybe we could pullsome off the tank after.
But we're going to package ittomorrow. That's awesome. Hop water.
So you know you definitely needa counter pressure system to
package hop water.Yeah, because it's really highly
carbonated.It jumps out of the can really fast.

(28:20):
So it's awesome to have thatflexibility in our on production
side to be able to do that.Yeah. Have you.
Have you ventured into the na.Besides hot water, any Na stuff? No.
No, we haven't tried any of that yet.We'd probably need to invest in some
other equipment to do that properly.And it's really,
really expensive to do. Yeah.Yeah. Um. I love na beer, though.
My parents don't drink. In fact.So my dad crushes na beer,

(28:42):
and he loves na craft beer, too.So I'm always trying different
na beers we have. Best day.I believe in our in our cooler
for people to drink na beer.We have na options for people to
drink here as well as well askombucha.
And then we also have, um, holidays.Uh, gluten free beer too,
in our cooler. Yeah. Yeah.The na beer is really taking off.
Oh, it's gotten way better too.Yeah, it used to be terrible.

(29:04):
It used to be garbage.Yeah, yeah, yeah. So bad.
Same with gluten free beer.Gluten free beer is amazing.
Holiday. Holiday is awesome. Yeah.Yeah, I haven't had that one,
but I've had a few where it's like,oh, this just tastes like normal
beer. They're great.They're one of the better,
better producers in the world.Oh, okay. For gluten free beer. Yeah.
It's amazing all the the advancementsand, I guess beer technology.
Yeah, yeah. You guys, your beard.Let's get away from the seltzers.

(29:24):
Your beer, uh, is, like we said,amazing. It. Thank you. It has this.
And I don't know how to describethis.
Even my notes here are garbagefor this question.
Has this, like,professional ness to it or, uh,
you know, like, it's just some,some small breweries has sort of like
a home brew taste to it. Yeah. Where?This is definitely not the case here.

(29:47):
First of all, if you can at alldescribe what I'm saying to you,
you've won $1 million.But also, is there something that
goes into your process that maybeother breweries aren't doing?
Is it you have the best water in theworld? Like what? What's going on?
Am I making any sense at all?No. Thank you.
Uh, I'm happy to hear our beertaste professionals, because we we
treat our production, you know,brewing the beer. Very professional.

(30:08):
I don't want to say like,other people aren't professional.
It's just it's, you know, a millionlittle pieces. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So learning over the years,you know, we're almost 13.
We've learned a lot over the years,and we're always striving to
make the best beer we canpossibly make for sure.
You know, whether that is fromrunning a sensory panel.
You know, I think that's prettycrucial for breweries to do.
If you know, a little breweryisn't doing a sensory panel,
start doing it. Yeah.Get your taproom staff involved.

(30:29):
Get your production staff involved.Start tasting beer from the previous
batch versus the new batch, you know,or if you change ingredients,
definitely compare those as well.You know,
like just always tasting your beer.You know, also, you know,
keeping great logs of how yourbrewer production, you know,
it's a lot of it's kind of,you know, stuff that doesn't even
cost you money to make better beer.Yeah, yeah.

(30:51):
Water chemistry is a good one.You know, like,
you definitely want to get yourwater analyzed probably two, three,
four times a year, if you can. Yeah.Get your water tested because
your water will change throughoutthe year. Especially here.
Probably more than other places here.More than other places,
for sure, because. Runoff.Snow runoff, different
reservoirs they pull from. Yeah.It could be even, you know,
like groundwater at some pointin the year. Yeah.

(31:12):
So it's a million different things.We care quite a lot about quality.
You know, we started packagingbeer our own beer.
We were mobile canning throughthe pandemic. And then in 22.
We got our own canning line.And so we also invested, you know,
like in a C box and a can piercerbottle piercer to make sure our
do's and our carbonation areproper and all set.
So when we started packaging,we really even dialed in more on

(31:35):
quality and making sure ourproduct lasts up on the shelf.
Yeah, especially if you'resending out to those places.
Absolutely. You can't try it.No, you can come in in the morning,
test it real quick. Whatever.You can't try it when it's
sitting on the shelf. Yeah.Making sure you're purchasing
good hops.You know, we actually contract
hops as well for a small brewery.Not a lot of small breweries.
Maybe contract hops.It's a little more expensive
probably to do that.Yeah, but we're getting a consistent

(31:56):
product throughout the year,able to do a little bit of selection
on a lot of our varieties as well.That's that's instrumental too.
Yeah. Yeah.Well, speaking of hops, looks like we
have a next one. Is our core hazy.It's called Neon Nail.
It's the hops in this are GalaxyCitra and Vic's secret. Once.
Again really tropical sweetsweet fruit notes. Yeah, yeah.

(32:18):
Greg. What are you getting?Yeah, well, I would say for our
listeners out there,this is the perfect color.
We always talk about hazy colors.Yeah.
This is this is what it shouldlook like.
This is on the paler end for sure.I almost personally like a
little more orange,but just really not overly sweet.
Still has some hop character,you know, some hop bitterness in
it as well. Yeah.We've been making this beer for
a long time as well.This this beer has been we've

(32:39):
been making this for seven,eight years probably. Oh, wow.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the nose buds.You definitely get the tropical
notes.Just real, real soft on the mouth.
Yeah, yeah.Soft, soft mouth profile is awesome.
Yeah. In hazies. I really love that.Yeah, it's very important.
Um, enough carbonation to to getit down, but not overly bubbly
or anything like that.Uh, the I'd say the flavor profile

(33:02):
follows the nose pretty well,which is a real nice drinker. Yeah.
Thanks. Is this another dangerous?Like, is this 10%?
Something like that? Is 7.3 okay?Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah.
You were lying.You like to hide that stuff?
Yeah, yeah.We talked about this a little
bit off air.You guys are somewhat known for
doing some funkier styles,some less popular styles.

(33:24):
You'll do a Roush beer here andthere.
You're talking about the footers andthe saisons and that kind of stuff,
you know.Do you enjoy the less mainstream
styles? For sure.And I love having a varied tap
list as well.I want to usually, you know,
our tap list, you know, maybe isn'tas varied today when you came in.
Apologize for. That. Okay.A lot of times we do have mixed

(33:44):
culture beer Brett beer andsmoked beer on as well as all of
this type of offering as well.So we do our best, you know,
to offer, offer, you know,interesting, unique beer styles
that not everybody brews.You know, I kind of come from a
little bit older beer culture where,you know, going into a beer bar or,
you know, a brew pub, they wouldhave all different types of beer.

(34:05):
They wanted to serve a beer foreverybody.
And that's I still kind of carrythat through, for better or worse,
into our taproom. Yeah, yeah.So, you know, it can look kind
of broad our tap list sometimesin our offerings, but it's.
But I'm really passionate aboutall these styles.
So and it's good for the nerdsbecause like, we'll go into new
breweries and we'll,we'll always do flights first,
which I'm sure the beer tenders hate,but we'll try and pick across the

(34:26):
board like, all right, give us your,you know, your lager, your pale,
your whatever, your Saison.Let's try one of each style that you
got. And sometimes we get looks.We've we've walked into breweries
that say, you know, have eighton the board and we'll go, uh,
two flights, one of everything. Yeah.And they look at us like we're
either nuts or alcoholics,but just want to try everything.
I love doing that.I'm maybe the odd brewer out who?

(34:46):
You know, if it's a new place.Definitely love a flight.
I love a flight.I love a flight, just like, you know.
Then of course, go back forpints afterwards, for sure.
But I want to try everything yougot if I've never been there.
Yeah. It's fun.So, uh, we talked a little bit.
A little bit about it earlier.Um, your focus on using Colorado
ingredients.Why is such a focus on on
keeping it local like that?You know, it's always been a
focus of the brewery.Even before I was head brewer

(35:08):
and co-owner.It's really important me to keep,
you know, these relationships withour producers close and tight.
You know,I get to talk to these people.
I can drive 40 minutes to the farm.You know, like. That's cool.
I know what varieties, you know.They're growing.
I know, I know these ingredients,like when they planted them,
when they're harvesting them,when is it going to be available?
It's just awesome.There's like a lot more flexibility.
It also a lot more opportunityto be creative with local

(35:30):
ingredients than maybe, you know,ingredients from elsewhere.
We do use ingredients from elsewhereas well, but the majority of the
malt we use is from Colorado.I'm also on the board of the craft
Maltsters Guild, so it's something Ireally champion and try to promote.
You know, I love the craft maltstersfrom all over the country.
You know, we brewed with craft maltfrom a lot of different states here.

(35:50):
That's fun. On collabs and stuff.So I like to keep our dollar
close to sure.It keeps our yeah,
it keeps the local economy going.And also, you know,
like our malt doesn't have to go intoa shipping container and cross the
ocean and then get here as well.It keeps it a little greener, you
know, in a way. I'm trying to think.Less chance of finding rats in it.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.And also, there's a lot more

(36:10):
flexibility in ordering.I can order short notice as well,
you know, like they usually have it.Yeah. Keep those relationships.
Yeah yeah yeah. Yeah.And also passionate about
Colorado hops.You know, like I'm really
passionate about using.If nobody's buying these Colorado
hops then they won't be grown, right.You know, I love incorporating
USDA public variety hops.Not your whenever possible.
You know, we use a lot of cool hops,you know,
that are trademarked and only certainfarmers can buy and grow them.

(36:33):
Um, those are the hops that welike in all our IPAs, for sure.
And they're great.They're the ones everyone's heard of.
Yeah, yeah.But the public variety hops are
also pretty great, too.You know, you can find unique ways
to incorporate them in differentstyles of beer, like our lagers
and our kolsch and pale ales.And we've even made all Colorado
Hazy IPA, which is pretty cool.Yeah, yeah.
Because of those relationships,you get to do fun things like, uh,

(36:53):
like fresh hop beers and that.Oh, totally. Yeah.
I made the best fresh hop beer I'veever made with Colorado Cascade last
night. It was amazing. Yeah. So fun.Yeah. Let's let's brag a little bit.
You guys have racked up somehardware, some awards over the years.
We've we've gotten lucky.You know,
it's always a roll of the dice.We've had a bit of a dry spell here.
We're always still trying though.But but it's quite the impressive
pile Pyle nonetheless.What is that like for.

(37:14):
Is it is it uh pressure adding.Is it validation for your work.
Is it just a bonus on top ofeverything else?
It is validating, you know,in a way for our, you know,
especially my brew team.You know, everybody.
You know, I'm not the one makingall the beer here.
So we have a team of people. Yeah.There's some people back there
right now. They're brewing.Right now they're doing transfers.
Yeah. Kaylee. Matt. Brad.They're they're awesome.

(37:35):
They're killing it for us.Uh, we're just out here drinking.
Yeah, we're just out here chatting.But, yeah, it's really,
really awesome to be able tocelebrate our beer.
And when it when it is honored,you know, with a medal, uh,
regardless of what it is, you know,we're always feeling like, okay,
we did a great job on this one,you know?
And then our peers who are the judgesrespect all the judges out there.
They appreciated what all thehard work we put into into

(37:56):
making these beers. Yeah.Have you got to do any judging? No.
Uh, it is a little moredifficult here for Gabf.
You know,Jbf is the main focus of our our
competition entries at this point.We're not doing too much World
Beer Cup anymore because justwe're not going out to world
beer cups every year.If it was every other year,
I'd probably enter.But it's tough to adjust our

(38:17):
brew schedule.Maybe we'll see if we enter it.
It's been a few years sincewe've entered it.
Last one was Nashville that weentered, but gabf every year we
enter. I mean, it's down the street.Yeah, but judging is tough because
it's local and it takes it takesa lot of time. I like I'm here.
It's leading up to it.We're brewing a lot of beer for Gabf
and all the people who come intotown for it and drink a lot of beer.

(38:39):
So we're ramping up production.Yeah, we do have to stock up.
So it's a really busy time of yearfor us leading up to it. Yeah.
So it's hard to break awaybecause it's a big time
commitment to judge these beers.You know, like it's long days, you
know, like three, eight hour days.I think I've talked to some people
who've done it and, you know, youwould think like, oh, how glorious.
I get to sit here and drink beerfor free. It's hard. Work.
No, you're getting 50 beers at atime and you have to go.

(39:01):
And obviously you can't drink all50 beers or you'd be just gone.
Oh, totally.Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of hard work.
I've done other random beer judginghere and there, but it's something,
you know, like maybe some yearthere's the Colorado Brewers Cup put
on by the Colorado Brewers Guild.That's in January.
Um, maybe try to do that.But yeah, it's fun.

(39:22):
Um, we talked a little bit about it.I think Brandon does all your
artwork, right? Yeah.How does how does he come up with
the labels? What's the inspiration?Do you guys get together and go,
hey, this beer would be reallycool if they were, you know,
two dudes playing basketball onit or whatever it is. Yeah.
We try to come up with a name.You know, we're really sticklers
to naming these beers, you know,like, okay, so nobody's really
using this beer name.You know, we don't want to step

(39:44):
on anybody's toes. You know, if.It takes off, you don't have to deal
with the legal side. Yeah. That too.So we that's really difficult.
And then Brandon takes the lead onall the design for the most part.
Maybe if I'm thinking of somethingand was like, okay, he shot me
something over some design ideas.It's like, oh, that would be cool
with this or something, you know,like just we bounce back and forth
a little bit on some of them,some most of the time, though,

(40:05):
it's Brandon taking the charge justfrom the beer name. He's like this.
He could he can grab a lot ofinspiration just from the beer name,
and that is kind of really thebest way to start,
because the beer name already sayssomething true. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Who does most of naming?Is it you or.
I've named a lot of our beers.Yeah, yeah.
So they're they're really nerdy.There's a lot of, like,

(40:25):
Star Trek and, like,Dune references or Star Wars even.
Where did, uh,Stingray Jesus come from?
That is a really random like memefrom a couple of years ago about,
like a stingray and like North orSouth Carolina having an immaculate
conception that wasn't real.And then, like the meme,
it should be like Stingray Maryinstead of Stingray Jesus.

(40:46):
But then the internet took itoff and then started calling it
Stingray Jesus articles and stuff,and we're like,
that just went in the name back,and then one day we're like,
that's really kind of funny sounding.Yeah, in a way to us.
And we're like, yeah.And then Brandon came up with the
art for it, which is pretty sweet.It's, uh, Jesus hugging a stingray
very lovingly. Yeah, yeah.As one does. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

(41:07):
Uh, is there a hop that you'recurrently crushing on you.
I'm not the, like,newest hop adopter or adapter. Sorry.
So, like, I'm really loving,you know, New Zealand hops right now.
You know, you know,like riwaka and nectarine and
matuka are really awesome.I'm really loving the Citra and
Mosaic.I was able to select for our 24
crop years from Yakima Chief.I was like,

(41:29):
these are exactly what I want. Yeah.And in those hops,
we've been playing around a littlebit with Alani, which is cool,
which I think used to be called 1320.That's Yakima Quality Group or I
forget.Sorry I'm butchering that guys.
Yeah, they're awesome though.And Alani is really cool.
I think I've heard of that. Yeah.Yeah, that one's really nice.
And then some new public varietyhops.

(41:50):
Uh, McKenzie and 102 that my friendEric has been really championing in.
Those hops are really beautiful.102 is like an incredible public
variety hop that is like tropicaland citrusy, which, you know,
you don't get in a lot of thesepublic variety hops, you know,
like uh, they usually they werekind of bred to do a lot more,

(42:11):
like bittering and stuff like that.Yeah. Old school. Yeah.
I really love Vista.That was kind of like the last
big public variety hop that waswas promoted.
That hop is really great as well.What do you think the next hot
or cold thing in beer will be?That's really hard.
As somebody, you know,like friends are kind of slowing
down a little bit.I think different packaging formats

(42:31):
is really cool to play around with.I just saw, you know,
Sierra Nevada putting their pills ina 12 ounce Red bull can. Oh, really?
I think I yeah, I think it was a Redbull can. I was like, that's sick.
I gotta go get that. Yeah.Playing around with different
packaging, offering sizes, differenthot products, you know, like your
terpene products like abstractand stuff are really popular.
And there's a lot of coolopportunities to create new beer

(42:53):
flavors with those.I think, you know,
if you see a lot of, you know,newer breweries or breweries that
have opened that focus on one style,which is really awesome to see
as well. It's really cool.I love seeing that, you know,
like, we've been around 13 years.I'm like, oh, that's really cool.
In the back of my mind,I was like, I'd love to open just
to Saison Brewery, but, you know,or something like that. But, uh.

(43:15):
But you want to make money too.Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Maybe say zombies are the bestexample to make money, but, you know,
all the Lager breweries andbreweries that, you know, focus in
on certain different individual,you know, like we just make this
type of beer. Must be nice. Yeah.No, it's it's got to be really
simplified, you know.And it's like the In-N-Out model of.
Beer. Yeah, totally.And then dialing in those beers to be
the best beers, you know, like wehave a couple of great examples of

(43:37):
lagers here Bierstadt and Cohesion.It's just rad to have those
breweries around us.Yeah, cohesion is another one we
tried on our last trip out here.Somebody told us,
same person said, come here,go to cohesion. Great beer.
We also have hogshead,which is all you know,
they do have CO2 beer, keg beer.But they also, you know, they're
known for cask beer, that's all.Like British beer. Like it's amazing.

(43:57):
Uh, so super rad to have that here.You know, you see those type of
breweries opening up all overthe country slowly,
but they're around. Yeah, yeah.Any dream collaborations with
other breweries or.You know,
I got to check off a cool one here.Not too long ago, we got to brew
Brett beer with Crooked Stave.They kind of led the charge in
brewing mixed culture and Brettbeer and spontaneous beer as well,

(44:18):
so that was really cool.Any other breweries that we all kind
of have leaned on to learn from?You know, any of the old school
big breweries would be really rad.New Belgium would be cool someday.
Yeah, that would be sweet.That'd be. Fun. Yeah, yeah.
Any plans for expanding OMF,whether it's another taproom or.
Yeah, we're we are in theprocess of looking to, you know,
try to find a space in and aroundDenver for a second taproom,

(44:41):
hopefully within the end of the year,we'll try to get that project
wrapped up. Yeah.And you're gonna keep it within
Denver. Denver the suburbs of Denver.Yeah. Denver area. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I was doing some stalking onthe website.
And you guys support some really coolorganizations. Yeah, absolutely.
You talk about them a little bit.Yeah. We have.
So learn your rights is brandedmy business partner's wife.

(45:03):
Hannah's nonprofit that is educateskids in school and high school
and stuff about your rights as anAmerican and how you know how to, you
know, if you're a person of color,how to talk to police and stuff,
you know, make sure you're notgetting abused by the law system
in our country. More important.Than ever. Quite a lot, you know.
And then Inside Out Use is aorganization in Colorado Springs that
gives help to LGBTQ plus people.And we always usually have a

(45:28):
pride shirt on.We're sold out of it right now,
but year round we have a t shirtthat gives funds to the to them.
And they're an amazing organization.And then, you know,
the Michael Jackson Foundationis our beer focused nonprofit
that promotes and helps educatepeople of color or other types of
backgrounds that aren't, you know,as common in the brewing industry.

(45:48):
It helps give them educationalfunds and stuff. Yeah.
That's amazing. Yeah.Um, before we wrap up with rapid
fire questions,we have one more beer to try.
Yeah, we've got a collab herewith our dear friends Fort
George out of Astoria,Oregon and Ephemeral taproom, which
is a rotating taproom here in Denver.And they were the Fort George was the
brewery the month in July there.Uh, and so this is a southern

(46:11):
English brown ale brewed with someLeopold whiskey malt, actually,
which is like a Vienna malt and thensome troubadour roasted malts and
then hopped with Colorado hops,I think probably Willamette and
something else.Yeah, just really easy drinking.
Nice classic English brown ale.And by by whiskey malts.
Do you mean it's the same maltthey would use in a whiskey?
They do use it.It's a malted whiskey malt.

(46:33):
And they do use it to make someof their some of their stuff.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.They call it a whiskey malt though.
That's just the name they use.Yeah, but it's more like a Vienna.
Yeah. This is real nice. Um.Real light. Really light. Yeah.
Very light. Not roasty.Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sometimes you get the browns thatare like a chocolate milkshake.
This is not that. Yeah.This is real light, real easy.
Going brown ale. Not brown porter.Not porter. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(46:54):
Not a double nut.Nothing like that. Yeah yeah, yeah.
But it was fun to brew that with,uh, Fort George there, you know,
a really large brewery in thePacific Northwest, and we've
done a lot of collaborationswith them over the years.
They make a we make a beer with themthat comes out almost yearly called
Crysknife, which is a reference,but it's a hazy IPA, and they make,
I think, more of that one beerthan we make in a year. Oh really?

(47:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah,which is a funny thing.
So but if you guys ever get achance to go out to Astoria,
Oregon, on the coast of Oregon,it's not far from Portland. It's.
It's amazing brewery. Yeah.Our very good friend of the show,
Erika, is from out there.Oh, awesome.
Yeah, she'll have to go do someresearch for us. Bring it back.
Um. All right.I always like to wrap up interviews
with rapid fire questions.Okay, cool.
They're really do my best.Yeah, just quickest thing that

(47:37):
comes to your mind.Don't overthink it,
because they're really stupid.What's the first beer you ever drink?
Coors light.First beer you ever brewed?
Uh Saison.Do you have a favorite style to brew?
Uh Saison.Least favorite style to brew?
Thick, big adjunct stout.Just because it tastes so long.
But I love those beers, too. Yeah.So much cleaning. Yeah, yeah.

(47:58):
Uh, favorite beer and food pairing.Oh, I love drinking lambic and
eating the crab. Oh, yeah.Lambic and seafood.
Lambic and crab like. I wondered.Where you were going to go with
the food. On that. Yeah.Yeah, yeah. Interesting.
Yeah, I got a new lambic.And bread is good.
Just bread and butter and cheese.Yeah, yeah. Honestly.

(48:20):
Lambic and saison with cheese. Yeah.A charcuterie board is my all
time favorite, for sure.Like having wine and charcuterie.
It's my favorite.That is my favorite.
Yeah, it's Wednesday night.What are you drinking?
I am drinking an IPA.A West Coast IPA, probably.
Yeah, I say I'm a saison guy,but I probably honestly reach
for an IPA more often than notif I'm cracking just one beer.

(48:40):
Yeah. Makes sense.What is your vacation destination?
I really like Belgium and Ireally want to go.
I haven't been to Wallonia yet todrink all the Saison breweries
in France and down there.Yeah, so that that that would be my
dream. Yeah. What's your favorite.So non OMF outside beer. Ooh.
That's tough.My favorite like,

(49:03):
bigger brewery in Colorado is Odell.IPA is like perfect IPA and
they're always improving.It's unreal how good it's always
been. Yeah, yeah.And then it's not slept on.
But like, people like it's justtheir standard IPA like go drink
that beer. It's perfect. I mean.It's it's not slept on,
but it kind of is slept here.You know, like it's not like nobody.
Gets excited over flagship.It's amazing. Yeah, yeah.

(49:25):
Uh,your favorite non-beer related hobby?
Oh, yeah. Uh, snowboarding. Yeah.And hanging out with my son and
my family. Yeah, yeah. My wife.Yeah. Most underrated beer style.
Saison your favorite guiltypleasure beer.
This is where we find out you drink,like,
a ton of Coors Light or something.Oh, I mean, I really love hazy IPA,

(49:45):
you know, like a juicy bits fromWeldwerks is awesome. So good.
Yeah, yeah yeah yeah.I held off so long on Hazies.
I was such a staunch, like,West Coaster diet. Kind of.
Right. Yeah, yeah.And now I'm such a haze whore.
I love Hazy Hazy The iPad two.I love a mix of them, you know,
like both styles, but like, there'sso many applications of, you know,
certain hop varieties that don't workwell in work as well in a West Coast,

(50:06):
but they work so well in a hazy.What's your favorite hangover cure?
Pellegrino. San Pellegrino.Bubble water. That's about.
That's about it.Getting hydrated with bubble water
that maybe has a little bit ofminerals in it. Nothing greasy.
Anything like that.That's impressive, I like it.
No, no, I'll eat a bagel. Yeah, yeah.Get some carbs back in. Yeah.
And finally, what's your favoriteword or slang for being drunk?

(50:28):
Hammered. Easy. Classic. Yeah.Jan. Thank you so much for.
Thanks so much. For having me, Greg.Cheers. Cheers, buddy.
Thanks for sharing. Beers.And if you guys are in Denver,
our mutual friends, 2810 LarimerStreet, OMF brewing on the socials,
OMF Beer.com. Come check them out.Thank you sir. Awesome. Thanks.