EPISODE S.3, E.10

[LIQUID PRIDE WITH A PURPOSE]

Tucker:
Happy Pride, everybody! Happy Pride Month, I should say as well. Today, we’re going to be talking to some amazing breweries from across North America that have brewed a beer specifically for Pride Month with proceeds benefiting LGBTQIA charities in the area. But before we dive into beer, we want to acknowledge how important Pride Month is and talk a little bit about how it all began. Now, Pride hasn’t always been a celebration of people coming together in love and friendship to celebrate the LGBTQIA community. Pride actually began with an uprising.

Heather:
That is correct. So in 1969, a gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York City called The Stonewall Inn was raided by the police. This was a very common occurrence at the time as homosexuality was actually considered illegal in every state in the US except for Illinois. The patrons were fed up with the constant oppression they were experiencing and actually just fought back, and this led to an uprising that lasted multiple days, and it’s now widely known as The Stonewall Uprising. So the following year, to mark the anniversary of The Stonewall Uprising, the very first Pride Parade was held in New York. And since then, Pride has grown to have become widely celebrated in countries and communities, not just in the US but in a lot of parts of the world. So, this is, of course, a very brief description of The Stonewall Uprising. I highly encourage everybody listening to spend some time researching it and learning about it, especially for this Pride Month.

Tucker:
Yes. Thank you, Heather. And with that said, we are excited to have four participants from various breweries here in North America to talk about their participation and the Pride beer that they have brewed, you name it. So, looking forward to chatting with 7venth Sun’s Brewing, Devon Kreps, Little Brown Jug Brewing, Rob McWhinney, Kristin Sheffield, Trophy Brewing, Chris Powers, and Spearhead Brewing’s Josh Hayter. So, let’s get right to it. Well, we’re super stoked to have this individual on the podcast today. She’s a legend in her own right. And I know we’ve been super excited to have her come on board and talk about the topic at hand. So without further ado, let’s introduce our guest in waiting here. It’s Devon Kreps, the founder of 7venth Sun Brewery. How are you doing, Devon?

Devon Kreps:
Hi. Yeah, I’m great. Thank you. Wow, a legend. That’s quite an introduction.

Tucker:
It’s a leading question to start off by telling the listeners and us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be where you’re at now with 7venth Sun.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah, so it was part accident, part luck, I guess. I grew up in Michigan, and Bell’s beer was all around, and I ended up getting into craft beer at an age I won’t divulge. But yeah, I was interested in it, and I actually wasn’t really sure where I wanted to study for school. So I ended up going to Colorado for my first year and was still looking for a major, “What do I want to do? What do I want to do?” And I met somebody on spring break that was from Corvallis, Oregon. And then he was like, “Well, if you like beer, there’s a beer brewing degree in the town where I’m from at Oregon State.” And I was like, “Are you serious? Really? That’s like a thing?” And so I went and looked it up, and it was pre google times, it was Yahoo, I’m pretty sure, and it was a real thing.

Devon Kreps:
I looked into it, went, and I was like, “This is it, this is what I want to do. I want to open a brewery; I love craft beer. I like the fact that it’s science and math, but it’s also creativity.” I wanted to really kind of have that in my life, in what I did for a living. And so I started there, and my intention, as I said, was to open a brewery and definitely work in the craft world. That was more my focus. And then, I had this opportunity to interview with Anheuser-Busch, and it was great. The interview went well, and I thought, “It can’t be a bad place to start. It’ll be good on my resume, if anything.”

Devon Kreps:
And actually, it was wonderful. I learned a ton, not only about the process but about management and things like that. And so, I was with them for about four years until I moved on to a SweetWater Brewing Company in Atlanta. I became their production manager and really handled everything on the process side, scheduling-wise, brewing-wise, supplies, everything. And so, that gave me a lot of really good. What’s the word I’m looking for? Sorry, my brain is fumbling. Just good experience in general as well. And then I realized it’s time, I think I have the experience, and Florida seemed like a really good opportunity because there weren’t many beers here, but there were a lot of beer lovers, a lot of craft beer lovers.

Devon Kreps:
It kind of got late in the game here because of some restrictive laws in the state that kept out a lot of European beers and kind of more interesting and unique things you could get back in the day, and so, I think it slowed things down and. Anyway, so yeah, I decided that it was going to be Florida and wound up in Dunedin, falling in love with Dunedin, and then opened the first location of 7venth Sun there at the end of 2011. Well, technically end of 2011, the official day was January 7th, 2012. And yeah, that’s kind of where I got to where I am. In 2017, we opened a second location in Tampa.

Tucker:
Nice. Going back, I’ve never heard of Anheuser-Busch. Can you tell me a little bit about it? I’m just kidding.

Devon Kreps:
Never heard. This little beer you might have heard of it, somewhere, in some corner somewhere, I think it’s called Budweiser maybe.

Tucker:
Interesting. Well, it’s awesome to have you on. I think the statute of limitations is far beyond that. It’s funny that you mentioned that you got into craft beer at an early age. I was thinking about this while you mentioned that, Grant and Heather, do you remember the first craft beer you partook in?

Grant:
Yeah. I’m also not at liberty to discuss that age.

Tucker:
Let’s not talk about age. What was it, Grant? Do you remember?

Grant:
Shiner Bock.

Tucker:
Oh, nice.

Grant:
Yep.

Heather:
Grasshopper from Big Rock Brewing in Calgary.

Tucker:
Gosh, mine was such a fog, with many a craft beer, I couldn’t tell you.

Devon Kreps:
Mine was Oberon. It was … Sorry, I totally cut you off. It was Oberon, but it was so old; back in the day, it was called Solsun back then. They had to change the name a couple of years later.

Grant:
It’s a hell of a starter beer.

Devon Kreps:
Yes.

Tucker:
Devon, don’t worry about cutting me off. Nobody wants to hear me talk anyway. So, I’ve been doing this for three seasons, and it’s quite obvious that nobody wants to hear me. So, it’s all good.

Heather:
Well, congratulations on ten years. That’s amazing.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, we just had our ten-year anniversary; this year is crazy. And then Tampa’s about to have the five-year anniversary in August, so-

Tucker:
That’s great.

Devon Kreps:
Kind of unreal.

Tucker:
Very good. Well, let’s talk about the Pride Beer. What did you brew for Pride Month here?

Devon Kreps:
This is actually a beer that we’re bringing back. Originally, it was a collaboration beer that we did with something called the Queer Brewing Project, which is a friend that I met through serendipity over in England. Her name’s Lily Waite. And she basically started the project trying to just bring more awareness and more diversity and also just bring more people from the LGBTQ community into the fold, into the craft beer world, and let them know that they’re welcome, they’re present, all of that. So, she got that going several years ago, and I think we did the club in. I could be wrong, but I think it was originally in 2019. And it’s a great fruit, a pale ale that was dry-hopped 100% with lemon drop hops, is super light, refreshing, and easy to drink. And that was just a brainstorm between us. I think she actually came up with the lemon drop idea. I think she loved those hops and was like, “We should do a beer with this.” And I was like, “Okay, great.”

Devon Kreps:
So, we did the beer. It was just meant to be a one-off, and I’ve had people asking about it ever since. And it’s always been kind of like in my mind to bring it back, and so I touched base with her, and I was like, “Hey, do you mind if we do this again for Pride?” And she was like, “Absolutely. Yeah.” So, we brought it back, and we originally. We chose the Trevor Project back in the day to donate to, and that’s what we’re going to do again this year. I just think they’re such a great group. They help in so many ways. And while maybe one of these times coming in the future will pick something that’s more of a local charity because I really do like giving back locally, but from a more global perspective or especially national perspective, the Trevor Project is an awesome thing that I’m happy to assist in what they’re doing.

Tucker:
Well, can you tell us a little bit more about the Trevor Project because, honestly, I’m not really familiar with it?

Devon Kreps:
Yeah. Now, hopefully, I don’t get this wrong, but I do believe that it was originally kind of started along the lines of just being a helpline for teen LGBTQ kids in crisis. We saw, and I don’t know the stats now, but there was a point in time where it was just kids literally committing suicide. One time is too much, but it was happening a ton. And so it was a way to let them know like this is going to be okay, and you don’t have to take this route. There’s help for you. And I think that they started out kind of that way, but they’ve since grown on to do anything from assisting with legislation and helping to protect the rights of trans kids being able to play sports on the proper team that they belong on, which is the way that they identify. And they also provide education for teachers, faculty people, for people who have direct interaction with these kids all the time to be supportive of them. And then they still do have a helpline you can call if you’re ever just feeling alone, feeling isolated, feeling like there’s no other way out for you. They really hit everything. And so it’s just a great organization.

Heather:
That’s amazing. Just so, so important right now.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah.

Tucker:
I mean, you mentioned a little bit about how this beer came about, was there a particular original inspiration for the recipe?

Devon Kreps:
I mean, really, we just wanted something that would be very crisp, easy-drinking, and kind of appeal to everyone. And I know not everybody loves hoppy beers, but it’s definitely more of an approachable one. Then it’s also got grapefruit in it. So it’s got that kind of citrus appeal. And I think if I remember correctly, the lemon drop hop was like the kind of let’s build something around this hop because it’s a really cool hop. So, that was sort of the original idea. And then, I don’t even think if I mention the name of the beer. It’s called Love. And the name is just inspired by the fact that we should. I’m going to sound like a hippie, but it’s the way to be. We should all love each other. And there’s just so much hate in the world, and people hate for such ridiculous reasons.

Devon Kreps:
You shouldn’t ever judge somebody based on who they love. And if you just take five minutes to get to know somebody, that’s also not the only thing about who they are. It’s just about kind of having more love in your life, having understanding. The way other people love might be different than yours, and that’s okay. And yeah, that was sort of why we called it that. I’m pretty sure that the copy that I wrote for the back of the can is much more succinct than what I just said.

Tucker:
No. Hitting the heartstrings over here. That’s that was very well said.

Grant:
That was a great one.

Heather:
A great 100%. Yeah, sneezing. Is this available outside of your tap rooms or?

Devon Kreps:
It’s actually getting canned and kegged middle of next week. And so it’ll be available in both my tap rooms, assuming no issues with can line, which you can never bet on that. So-

Heather:
Knock on wood.

Devon Kreps:
I’m just knocking on wood over here. Hopefully, my can line can’t hear me telling it that I have promises that it’s making. But no, next week, we’re going to have it in the tasting rooms at both locations on Thursday, and then we’ll be sending it to our distributor at the end of the week. So, looking like the following week, it’ll be available for distribution. And then, running two businesses, I’m always kind of like everything’s very last minute with me. My goal is to have maybe a couple of key accounts in St. Pete’s, pick up some of the drafts, or maybe some of the cans as well for St. Pete Pride, which I believe is on the 25th, Saturday. So, I’d like to have it there as well.

Tucker:
Is that something that you guys will communicate to the broad audience of who will pick that up and where they can expect that to be?

Devon Kreps:
Yeah. So, if you follow our Facebook or Instagram, we’ll be putting information about where it’s going to be. Basically, I just need to kind of talk to some people and be like, “Hey, you want to put this on?” Which I think they’ll say yes. My friend Christie, over at the independent, I’m pretty sure she’d be all about it. Totally calling her out by putting this out right now, and I haven’t even talked to her, but yeah, I’m hoping like a few spots in St. Pete, and we’ll definitely communicate it and let people know, “Hey if you’re down for the parade, you can grab the beer here.” And not only will you have something delicious to drink, but you will be helping a great cause as well.

Tucker:
Yeah, absolute support for sure.

Grant:
I wanted to. I don’t know if you said it and I just missed it, but grapefruit puree or zest or-

Devon Kreps:
So, actually, I didn’t say it, but we actually used this. It’s like a concentrated oil that light comes from the zest that we use. And it’s really cool because it’s super fragrant. Get that word out. Super fragrant, and so it really hits you in the nose right off the top. But it doesn’t add any residual sweetness or anything like that. It’s more of an aromatic approach.

Grant:
It’s like somebody rung out the vine or like the zest, right? The oil?

Devon Kreps:
Exactly.

Grant:
Cool.

Devon Kreps:
Does the exact same thing that zesting does. It’s just a little bit more like of a for sure clean way for us to add it to our process because-

Grant:
Gotcha.

Devon Kreps:
Not saying what an orange peel or a grapefruit peel is like. It has naturally occurring yeast and bacteria and things that we don’t want to introduce to the beer after it’s been boiled. That’s why we opt for this. And it’s effective, and it works really well.

Grant:
I take it like cold side edition.

Devon Kreps:
Yes. The beer is completely finished. We put it into the bright take.

Grant:
Excellent.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah.

Grant:
Sounds lovely.

Tucker:
Yeah, it does. So, the lemon drop hop, I don’t. Grant, maybe you or Heather have a little bit more familiarity with it, but is that something you use in other beers as well? I mean, you got to just really kick a lineup of stuff offering very unique and interesting stuff, but is a lemon drop in a lineup or in some of your other core brands as well?

Devon Kreps:
No, this is. Literally, I believe the only beer we’ve ever made with it in.

Tucker:
Oh, that’s cool.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah. So, I mean, it’s definitely the only thing we’ve made in recent history. I could be forgetting something we piloted a million years ago, but yeah, no, it’s just for the spear, and it’s as the name implies, like very lemon drop candy, citrusy, lemony, and delicious.

Grant:
Awesome.

Devon Kreps:
No hard candy shell, unfortunately.

Grant:
No hard candy shell. I really like that hop. It kind of reminds me of laurel a little bit. I think it came out before laurel, but it’s along that same line. Exactly like what you said, the lemon candy thing just dominates. So yeah, that playing with grapefruit. And I think you said it’s pale ail, that does sound very summery, sounds great.

Devon Kreps:
Perfect fruit. Perfect for June. Perfect for being at a Pride Parade and needing something that hits the spot a little bit, you know?

Grant:
Sure. Very good.

Tucker:
That’s really awesome to have you participate. And others as well, I mean, you see, every year it gets more and more people participating in this particular month and Pride and brewing some really, really unique and interesting and cool beers for the month. But can you tell us a little bit about some of your other brews and some of the stuff that you’re proud of, and what some listeners can be looking out for?

Devon Kreps:
Yeah. So, we have like a few things on our kind of regular lineup, which is headbanger is our just straightforward IPA. It’s a Citra and mosaic, and it’s like six and a half percent. That’s one of our kind of go-to that’s definitely a fan of … One of our regulars, they’re a big fan of that beer. One of my go-to’s as well. And we also do graffiti orange, which is a creamsicle wheat beer. And we actually use the orange oil in that as well, and vanilla, a lot of vanilla bean. So, it gives you that kind of creamsicle aspect, super crushable and kind of like in. For those who are a little bit more nervous and don’t really know what their palate likes yet, it’s a good kind of starter beer, especially.

Devon Kreps:
That beer actually has kind of a fun story. Made it just like the kind of like a one-off initially right after the first opening, and it kind of was. People were like, “You got to make that again. That was so good, blah, blah, blah.” Like, okay, okay. We’ll make it, and we need a name for it. I think we were just calling it creamsicle beer or something like that. And so we did a little contest on Facebook, and we had a prize for whoever could come up with the name. And so this woman was like, “You should call it …” And it’s terrible I don’t know her name. I should totally be giving her a shout-out right now, but it was like ten years ago. So, she was like, “You should call it Graffiti Orange after all the graffiti oranges that are painted all over Dunedin,” which is a thing that maybe not everybody knows about, but in Dunedin, all the buildings have these oranges painted all over them.

Devon Kreps:
And it was an artist named Steven Spathelf, who actually went out at night with a friend of his and painted oranges in the middle of the night, and the next day, the town hall or city hall or whatever was like, “Hey, paint an orange here.” They literally put up a sign that said, “Paint an orange here.” And he was like, “Oh, I thought it was going to get in trouble and think they did some kind of mock moment of like slap him on the wrist. Like, yes, don’t do your graffiti, but okay, we’ll pay you to paint. I’m on the buildings now. Anyway, so that beer was named after that whole thing, and it’s kind of fun, and I think it’s nice that we have a beer that harkens to the original location in Dunedin and everything.

Devon Kreps:
So those are like kind of our two main ones. I’ve got a couple of specialty collab beers available at both locations right now. One is barely aged out that we did with Voodoo Brewing called Edmond’s Heirloom. And it’s like we had eight barrels. I did three different blends. And then, I chose three different types of vanilla varieties. And then we put those on each of the varieties. And so, there’s three of them. There’s T, E, P, and G and then V, and that’s just based on the vanilla-like where it came from. And that’s another one with a story behind the name. There was actually a 12-year-old slave kid who figured out the pollination process of vanilla. Vanilla would pollinate naturally sometimes but only in like one country. And I didn’t even know if it was Madagascar, and maybe it was Madagascar, but as Europeans came over, they were trying to bring it over to Europe, but they couldn’t get it to pollinate.

Devon Kreps:
And this kid was just like he observed the plant, and he did this one thing, and it worked. And that’s still how the plant is pollinated today. The guy, it’s horrible to say, like the guy who owned him, released him, gave him his freedom, and then actually advocated for him and was like, “The country of Madagascar like made a bunch of money off of this product,” and this guy was impoverished and the other guy wrote and said, “You should be giving him something. He is the reason that you have all this wealth.” And they did nothing for him. It was really sad. But because of those letters being written, we at least know the history, and he gets the credit for discovering this. It’s major. I mean, it’s part of why we get vanilla across the entire world. So, we wanted to honor him and give him the credit that he deserves. And so that’s why we named it after him, Edmond Elvis. We named it Edmond’s Heirloom.

Grant:
That’s cool.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah.

Grant:
Vanilla’s like an orchid, I think.

Devon Kreps:
Yes, it is.

Grant:
Yeah. So very hard to grow. I think it grows in a vine, right? But I could have sworn it was from somewhere like South America or Central America, something like that. I don’t know. Maybe it is Madagascar. I’m not sure.

Devon Kreps:
I could be wrong about the original country, like where it was before, but essentially it’s just amazing how it’s the only fruit-producing orchid, apparently.

Tucker:
It’s really cool.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah.

Grant:
So you mentioned the three types of vanilla beans in that beer. I know a little bit. I know enough to be dangerous, right? But there’s one that’s called Red Fox, which I think is one of the types. Is that?

Devon Kreps:
I haven’t heard of that one.

Grant:
No?

Devon Kreps:
I’m probably going to butcher the pronunciation on some of these, so apologies in advance, but the PNG stands for Papua New Guinea. Basically, the names are all based on the countries that they’re from. And so they’re different strains based on that. And then there’s an Ecuadorian one that’s like. So apparently, there’s a Tahiti-like version, which is called Tahitensis, I think. I could be pronouncing that wrong. The TE is for Tahitensis Ecuador. So it’s like that style of vanilla bean, but it was made and grown in Ecuador, and then the other one is Vanuatu, I believe.

Grant:
It’s all way out there, small Pacific Island.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah. It’s like a really, really tiny place that I’d never even heard of.

Tucker:
Grant, you honestly have heard of that place once she mentioned that?

Grant:
Yeah. The only reason I know is that there are volcanoes there, it’s famous for volcanoes.

Tucker:
Dude, you’re like a well of knowledge. Every time we come on here, it’s like, “Man, Grant, he knows everything.”

Heather:
He knows everything. We need a trivia night with Grant.

Grant:
There’s an awesome Werner Herzog documentary about volcanoes. I’d recommend anybody go watch. I think it’s on Netflix, but yeah, they go to Vanuatu.

Tucker:
Man! I learn something new about this guy every time I have this. Gosh! Oh, sorry, Devon. Sorry to cut you off through this.

Devon Kreps:
No, no, that was interesting. I’m like, “I’m going to go check out that …” You said it was a video?

Grant:
Yeah. It’s a Werner Herzog documentary. He has that kind of hilarious, funny voice. It’s not really funny, but it’s like. I don’t know. It’s just great. You just have such a presence-

Tucker:
It’s here. I don’t know which episode. Let’s hear the rendition of the voice.

Grant:
Don’t put me on the spot like that. I can’t. It’s kind of like a German accent, but it’s fantastic.

Tucker:
You’re awesome, Grant. Completely awesome.

Devon Kreps:
I’m impressed without even hearing the voice.

Tucker:
Oh, man! Well, Devon, it’s awesome that you got some really cool stuff happening down there. And next time I’m down there. I need to come and visit one of the locations there. I appreciate you coming on and really appreciate the efforts and contribution y’all make with Pride Month and producing a beer that’s, as you mentioned, brewed specifically for the month. It and really cool having you on. So, we appreciate it.

Devon Kreps:
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

Tucker:
No problem. So now we could talk about Kevin Lowe, your salesperson down there. No one’s listening. So, you got any bad things to say about him?

Devon Kreps:
He’s the worst person ever. The biggest mistake I ever made was hiring him at Sweetwater.

Tucker:
Oh.

Devon Kreps:
I never let him live it down. No, I’m kidding.

Tucker:
That’s fired.

Devon Kreps:
He’s lovely. I hired him way back in the day, and he basically loaded all the trucks. He ran the forklift. And I feel like I helped start the amazing thing that became Kevin Lowe in the spear world.

Tucker:
Look at him now.

Devon Kreps:
I feel so lucky.

Tucker:
It’s all you, it’s all you. So thank you for-.

Devon Kreps:
I take all the credit.

Heather:
You should take all the credit.

Devon Kreps:
So when you see him, just walk up to him and just say, “We really appreciate Devin. We appreciate it.”

Tucker:
I appreciate you. All good. All right, Devin. Hey, thanks so much for your time. And for the listeners out there, go support. And if you’re out in that neck of the woods, go by and say hello and try some of the great beer they’re making over there.

Heather:
Yeah. And check out the Trevor Project online. You can donate there, and you can see all the awesome things that that organization does.

Grant:
Follow 7venth Sun Brewery on Facebook and Instagram and find out when the beer comes out when Love debuts here soon.

Devon Kreps:
Yes. And I should mention that we spell our name very weirdly. It is the number seven, and then V-E-N-T-H for anyone Googling.

Tucker:
I’m excited to do the BrewDeck Podcast all the time. I get the opportunity. I’m way down south. As Heather knows, I’m in Texas. It’s awesome when we have the opportunity to bring on some of what I call the friendly neighbors to the north from Little Brown Jug Brewery up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Did I say that right?

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. The inflection was great.

Kristin Sheffield:
That’s how we prefer it.

Tucker:
That’s right, Manitoba. Rob McWhinney and Kristin Sheffield, how are y’all doing today?

Kristin Sheffield:
Good.

Rob McWhinney:
Great.

Heather:
Thanks for joining us, guys.

Tucker:
Yeah, absolutely. So, I guess I’m going to start off real quick. I got a lot of questions because I just enjoy talking to other people other than myself, most of the time, which is what I do here, but Little Brown Jug is an interesting name. Can you tell me a little bit more about how that name came about?

Rob McWhinney:
Oh, gosh! Full disclosure, neither Kristin nor I have been fair since the beginning, but when we first started up around five and a half years ago or so, at that point, we were just producing one beer called 1919, a Belgian pale ale. And our methods of distribution at that point were kegs. So we had our draft accounts, and the only form of packaged goods we had at that point was a little. Pardon me; I’m going to give away that we’re in Canada, a 750-milliliter jug for one of these little mini growlers that we’d sell-off. And I mean, it’s literally a little brown jug, so that’s kind of where the name came from.

Tucker:
Nice. I’m like doing the math in my head, trying to figure out the conversions.

Kristin Sheffield:
I think it’s 32 ounces.

Tucker:
A bunch of weirdos.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah. I was going to say you’re the weirdo.

Tucker:
I know, I know. That’s awesome.

Kristin Sheffield:
I mean, Britain’s going back.

Tucker:
True. True. So, let me back up here. That’s cool. So Rob, tell me about yourself, what you do there at the brewery, and then we’ll jump over to Kristin.

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. My title is Head of Brewery Operations. I’m basically like the production manager here. So, I started here just over four years ago as a brewer. And I’ve been doing my role now for, I’d say, just over a year and a half, so I don’t get to make much beer anymore. I just tell everybody else what to do and try desperately not to write out a product.

Tucker:
It’s always important.

Rob McWhinney:
Very.

Tucker:
Kristin, hi.

Kristin Sheffield:
Hi. I’m head of corporate operations at Little Brown Jug. I’ve been with the team for about two years. So, Rob and I are kinds of counterparts in the sense that I manage the sales team, the marketing team, I oversee finance, some really fun aspects when we look at how we’re going to sell beer and sell it well, and then aspects of the business that just keep the business running right.

Tucker:
Nice. That’s great. I would assume Kristin, that kind of position in another industry may not be as fun, right? What’s better than doing what you’re good at in a fantastic industry like brewing?

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah, exactly. It’s so fun. And our culture is amazing at Little Brown Jug. No matter who you talk to, one of the things that they would say is just that the team is. It’s such an enjoyable place to be, and we all work so well as a team. That’s what kind of makes us who we are at our core.

Tucker:
Yeah. Well, let’s talk about what probably also makes you enjoy is just what you’ve done as far as inclusion and specifically. And I jumped on a little bit late when y’all were talking prior to hit and record here, but y’all were talking a little bit about your Pride beer. So, what’d y’all brewed? Tell us more about that.

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. So, I can talk a bit about the beer. Kristin will talk more about the lead-up to that, but we made the official beer for Winnipeg’s Pride Festival this year that is called Appropriately Queer Beer. As it’s being poured at the festival, we kind of wanted to make a festival beer, and many of those tend to end up being on the light logger scale lifting. We were a brown ale, pardon me, Lawndale, opposite of brown. And so when we were awarded the contract for this, I wanted to come up with something that was nice and drinkable and something that you can have a lot of an aha day in the sun and not get super sick of, but also make unique enough that. We don’t want to make something super boring for the community. We’re doing something custom for them, so we don’t want to just have a light knock-off or anything like that.

Rob McWhinney:
What we settled on is it is light longer, but it’s got a tiny bit of mint malt in there just to kind give it a little bit of depth, a little bit of sweetness that comes out, especially once it kind of warms up but then it dies a little bit down. And then to kind of stick around. The original tagline for the beer before we had the contract was fruit and fabulous. And so, didn’t want to necessarily throw a bunch of raspberry puree in there but have some sort of tie it into that. So, the fruitiness is coming from a bit of a late cattle whirlpool edition of Samarina Bavaria to get some of those like kind of melon herb, sweet citrus notes, and then watermelon to get some of those out melon known side of it. So, kind of a nice, fruity, light lager that’s accessible and easy to drink on a hot day.

Tucker:
Nice. Well, going back-

Heather:
Sorry. I will say I drank like one to 10 of those when I was in Winnipeg, somewhere in between that number. It could be a little higher when I was in Winnipeg last weekend, and it is anything but boring. It is absolutely delicious.

Tucker:
The statute of limitations doesn’t apply here. Well, let me jump back here. You mentioned brewing it for the festival. Tell me about what the festival is.

Kristin Sheffield:
Do you want me to jump in, Rob?

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. You did more of the legwork for actually showing that part up.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah, so I’m guessing maybe the two of you aren’t aware this was a contract that we were awarded. So, Queer Beer precedes us as far as a name goes, and the name Queer Beer is, I’m sure, used in so many places. But here, Pride Winnipeg, over a decade ago, started calling the beer Queer Beer and had a different brewery making it for them for a long time. And so, they put just an RFP out to local breweries. They wanted to give the contract to a different local brewery to give them a shot at it. And we won that contract. What that meant was that the beer had to be available at the festival. Here in Winnipeg, Pride is a pretty well-attended significant celebration. We shut down streets for the march or parade, depending on how you want to look at that, and everybody makes their way to a festival site here that’s in kind of the core of Winnipeg. It’s a historical area. And there’s. It looks like a festival; there are giant beer tents; we, of course, had Queer Beer pouring there. And then, we also worked into this agreement with Pride Winnipeg. We have a great relationship with them to sell the can that we had come up with. And so, that was kind of a secondary part of it that led up to the festival.

Tucker:
Very good. Well, makes sense. And I’m glad you explained that. Really, really cool.

Heather:
And you had a pretty kick-ass pride party as well.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah. Were you here?

Heather:
I was, yeah.

Kristin Sheffield:
Oh, no!

Rob McWhinney:
I didn’t see you. I would have come and said hi. I feel bad now.

Heather:
No, we came in a little later in the evening. A couple of other people and I were in town for the Pride Beer Awards. Like, “Oh, we got to go to Little Brown Jug. They’re having a big party tonight.” And it was pumping.

Kristin Sheffield:
So far, that was the only night that I’ve had to actually work the bar. We were so packed. Every single one of us was just like pouring beers. It was amazing.

Heather:
It was awesome.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah.

Rob McWhinney:
I only switched to keg. I didn’t pour any beer, just-

Kristin Sheffield:
That’s true.

Rob McWhinney:
In case anybody thinks I did more work than I actually did.

Kristin Sheffield:
Actually, Rob, at one point, you were moving vehicles for me.

Rob McWhinney:
No, I guess I did do that.

Kristin Sheffield:
There’s a lot going on.

Heather:
You put in the extra work.

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah.

Heather:
Is that the first time you’ve done a Pride Party?

Rob McWhinney:
No, the pride party has been. It’s been the first time we’ve done in a couple of years because of COVID, but we’ve done a party kind of a Friday night of Pride, of the weekend of the Pride Festival. Definitely, since I’ve started working here and I think since before that, it’s a big annual thing. This is probably the biggest one we’ve had here; as you probably could tell, we were in the middle of patio renovations. So, it’s a little expanded if not finished, but it managed to come together relatively well. And we’ve done. Sorry, go ahead, Kristin.

Kristin Sheffield:
No, go ahead.

Rob McWhinney:
I was just going to say we do some events throughout the year as well. The DJs that were performing that night, we often have them in to do what we call our [inaudible 00:39:17] Fridays, and bring in some drag queens, pretty shows, brewhouse. Yeah. So it’s kind of like a bigger version of stuff that we pepper throughout the year.

Kristin Sheffield:
So a point of interest here is like, that we always say that Little Brown Jug is the gayest brewery in the world. And there’s no way to know that, but you should know that this podcast will care. Why are we so invested in all of this? The people who started Little Brown Jug just in terms of corporate structure, stakeholders, and then our founder, the majority of those folks are gay, and Rob and I are also both queer part of the community. And so, between the founder, Rob, and I, we’re the three. I mean, can you ever use the word executive in a brewery? Probably not. But we are the three kinds of.

Rob McWhinney:
Management folk?

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah. Leading it all, and so we’re all queer. This is our community. These things matter to us so much. I’ve written a whole lot of proposals for contracts for sponsorships, and none of them come anywhere near what this one meant to me. So, it matters a lot to get to participate in the community this way, to have a local brewery show up, and provide a welcoming space. And especially in the brewing industry, which isn’t always welcoming to queer folks, we’ve been able to have a space that has that safety, that inclusivity, been really careful around, whether it’s general neutral washrooms or being sensitive to pronouns, whatever it might be, that’s just completely baked into our culture.

Tucker:
Yeah. That is awesome. Really, really cool to hear. And the beer industry itself, and beer. Just what beer in general means. I mean, the fact that you can sit down with other people and enjoy their company and talk and just be social around all different types of individuals regardless of background, what they do, who they are, and what they believe in. And it’s pretty cool that y’all have a location where people can come and feel accepted regardless of who they are and what they do, and what they prefer. It’s really cool. That’s good to hear. I’m looking at the packaging on the can. Y’all are just kicked out. That stuff really looks cool. Something unique about it looks like all your cans and all your packaging is really nice, but particularly the queer beer in the can that I’m looking at, it’s cool.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah. Thanks. We have gotten so much recognition for the artwork on that can, which is not ours. We hired a queer artist out of Toronto to make-

Tucker:
Oh, awesome.

Kristin Sheffield:
To make that for us, and he’s remarkable. We are all so thrilled. We couldn’t be happier. It’s striking, it’s beautiful, and in a lot of ways, I think it reflects the community. So, yeah.

Rob McWhinney:
Well, and you see, one of the things I really like about it, you see so many labels come out for pride products that just feel like the same kind of a rehash of a rainbow-

Kristin Sheffield:
Put a rainbow on it.

Rob McWhinney:
And a corporate-looking background. It all feels very kind of bland, and just see something that feels uniquely clear in that way.

Tucker:
It’s kicking.

Kristin Sheffield:
And it’s also accessible, right? You don’t have to be a part of the community to get it. I mean, rainbows are great, and they signify a lot, but we did love being able to create something that people would be like, “No, this is actually really cool.” And regardless of your affiliation with the community, you’d be like, “Yeah, of course, I want queer beer. Look at how cool that can is.” That’s it, right?

Rob McWhinney:
Also, that Bison.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah. Our drag queen, Bison.

Rob McWhinney:
For those from the outside of Canada, the Bison is a big symbol of Manitoba. It’s on a flag.

Kristin Sheffield:
And you said you’re almost sold out of it.

Rob McWhinney:
Yes.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah. We basically are.

Heather:
That’s crazy.

Rob McWhinney:
We got a bit of drop left over from the festival, just because we don’t want to run out of beer during the festival, but our cans are in very short supply.

Tucker:
I might miss it, but how much did y’all brew with it? Or how much did y’all produce?

Rob McWhinney:
Brew-wise, we did a hundred for it. Oh, gosh! I have to convert into barrels now because we might not only be Canadians.

Kristin Sheffield:
Because of America.

Rob McWhinney:
Because of America. 70, 80 barrels.

Tucker:
That’s a lot. That’s great. Really awesome what y’all are doing. It’s impressive. Well, it’s almost one o’clock here, but I would say that it’s about closing time. I would definitely come up and enjoy one of those or 10.

Kristin Sheffield:
I was telling Rob earlier that I’ve got one left in my fridge that I will be cracking, probably not now because it’s not even noon where I am, but we’re getting there.

Rob McWhinney:
I won’t lie. I’ve already had a beer today. So, I can’t judge.

Kristin Sheffield:
It’s Friday.

Tucker:
We already had a discussion with somebody else that joined us that was talking about their crafty technique in a coffee mug.

Kristin Sheffield:
Oh, the whiskey in the coffee mug, for zoom calls and just blowing on it even if it’s just whiskey, everybody will still just think it’s coffee.

Tucker:
Think it’s coffee. It’s like that is genius.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah.

Tucker:
Absolutely genius. Well, Rob, Kris, anything else?

Rob McWhinney:
[inaudible 00:45:18] ice in there.

Tucker:
You’re right. There you go.

Kristin Sheffield:
Ooh!

Rob McWhinney:
That might look not enough like an actual scene coming off from a coffee cup, though.

Heather:
Full of fact.

Tucker:
There’s a lot that I want to ask, but is there anything Rob or Kristin that, on top of the queer beer and what you guys are doing particularly for this beer and Pride, but anything else you want to plug? Is anything else on the horizon?

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah.

Rob McWhinney:
Oh, gosh! Do we have plugs, Kristin?

Kristin Sheffield:
I mean, Rob, you could definitely talk about Folk Fest Lager. We’re the big supplier for a festival called Folk Festival, which is huge in Manitoba. Our largest festival by far, the largest provincial event. And we are their beer supplier this year, but Folk Fest Lager, don’t get me wrong, Queer Beer is delicious, but nothing right now gets me as excited as Folk Fest Lager. I’ve never tasted anything like it. I can’t explain it, but Rob certainly can, but just, yeah. I mean, it’s only helpful if you can get your hands on it, but my goodness, is it delicious.

Rob McWhinney:
It turned out remarkably well. I don’t know if I’ve been as proud of like how a beer turned out on a first try as Folk Fest Lager. Pretty close with Queer Beer. It’s a couple of tweaks I want to make, but Folk Fest Lager somehow. It’s like the simplest recipe we’ve ever done. Heather, was it you who quoted Jeremy on the, “It’s just superior pills?”

Heather:
It’s literally just superior pills. [inaudible 00:46:56] It was a hashtag that became viral.

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. So at the Queer Beer Awards, we put that one in, and it got gold in the international logger category. And I think third overall at the Queer Beer Awards, which is really exciting. But yeah, it is literally superior pills, and it’s got some [inaudible 00:47:20] tradition in the world pool, and that’s the recipe. I guess we also bided it as well. It’s not just a zero view here. That would be bad.

Tucker:
Compliments to you, Rob, and your team because that’s pretty wild. Like you don’t hear a lot about it. There are a lot of successful beers out there using just a single malt, but wow, that’s great. Goes to show what you and your team are working with and the expertise there to come out with a product using the single malt there. That’s awesome.

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. It’s a little more of a complicated match, 65-degree water or whatever that is in Fahrenheit. It made a really good beer. So I guess we’ll chill a little bit for the Canada pills in there. Incidentally, also our baseball for Queer Beer. So, does a good job.

Heather:
And makes an excellent hashtag. Just such a good hashtag. I was just looking at the lineup for the Winnipeg Folk Fest. That looks amazing.

Kristin Sheffield:
Yeah. You might have to come back.

Heather:
I might have to come back. Buddy Guy and Kurt Vile are a ridiculously good lineup.

Rob McWhinney:
I think I was looking at the Calgary Fest lineup, where I know you’re not in Calgary anymore, but the Calgary lineup looks good this year, too.

Heather:
I love me some Calgary Fest. I should probably check at the Manitoba one too soon as I live here. That might be a good idea.

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. We do incidentally have some other beers as well. We don’t make just lagers, although we are slowly becoming a larger brewery, it seems. Jumping on that trend.

Tucker:
Yeah.

Heather:
Nothing beats a well-made lager.

Rob McWhinney:
I do like to say that we hopped on the trend slightly before it actually became a trend. I don’t know if that’s true, but when things started, a couple of things we did.

Tucker:
Is what you’re saying. Yeah, of course.

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. I’m taking full credit. Apologies to Germany.

Tucker:
Apologize to the whole nation. Sorry.

Rob McWhinney:
The whole nation of Germany just deserves so much of my holidays.

Kristin Sheffield:
It is really a shift for us, though, because I mean, Little Brown Jug got its name, as Rob said, from making 1919, which is a Belgian pale ale, and it is the most widely sold craft beer in the Manitoba market. And you can’t really miss it. We’re even starting to be able to get it into larger sports arenas, and it’s everywhere. So, it’s funny. I think a lot of us, there are things that maybe we’ve just thought, “No, that won’t ever be us.” And then even the shift to paler or really just light, easy-drinking lagers. I’m like, what’s next? Like, as long as it’s not an actual fruited sour, that’s just not us. So even working with queer bee, it had the tagline fruity and fabulous, and we wanted to stick with that. We wanted it to have a fruity profile. We did not want to fruit it. And so, that’s just not what you’re seeing right now, which I love that we’re maintaining that uniqueness.

Tucker:
Yeah. That is really cool.

Heather:
And doing it so well too.

Tucker:
Sounds like it. Anyways, all right, well, Hey Kristin, and Rob, thank you so much for joining us, and it’s really great to learn a little bit more about the brewery and what you guys are doing for Pride. And I appreciate you coming on and joining us.

Rob McWhinney:
Yeah. Thank you for having us, and yeah, Pride Festival in Winnipeg is the first weekend of June every year, I believe. So, anybody’s listening wants to come to a pretty good Pride Festival, come up at the beginning of June. It’s a fun place. Great location.

Heather:
Winnipeg in June.

Rob McWhinney:
And good beer.

Heather:
And really good beer.

Tucker:
That’s right.

Heather:
Awesome. Thank you both so much.

Tucker:
We’ve got another really cool opportunity to talk to Chris Powers. It was actually sent over to us as a referral. I said referral. It’s like we’re hiring somebody or something, but Chris loves it, right? And we’ll talk about the pros and cons of Mr. Lovet sometime, maybe after we hit stop recording. But yeah, Chris Powers over at Trophy Brewing out of Raleigh, North Carolina. So, yeah, Chris, welcome to the show. I appreciate you coming on. Tell me a little bit about yourself, your brewery, and what you guys are up to these days.

Chris Powers:
Yeah, for sure. My name is Chris powers. I’m the co-owner of Trophy Brewing Company here in Raleigh, North Carolina. We’ve been open since 2012. We started off as a three-barrel brewery, and we’ve slowly, well, not so slowly, we’ve grown into filling up a 20-barrel brew house pretty regularly. This year we’ll brew about 6,000 barrels of beer. So, we have a pretty small footprint. We do North Carolina only. We do Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, we go out to the beach, but we are making as much beer as we possibly can. And people are luckily drinking it all. So we’re in a good position.

Tucker:
Sounds like it. And it looks like you are you’re from the hospitality, I want to say hospitality, the restaurant bar industry, right? I mean, looking-

Chris Powers:
Yes. Yeah.

Tucker:
Yeah.

Chris Powers:
I fell in love with craft beer in working for a restaurant concept in Upstate New York. The first project I got to work on with that company is I got to work on a custom beer with a brewery up there called Custom Beer Works. So they would do these specific recipes for each individual restaurant and really got to be a part of the process and really enjoyed that. And that’s really where the craft beer bug bit me. I could really get an idea of what beer could be. Craft beer wasn’t just fizzy yellow stuff that you had to steal from your dad’s cooler or your dad’s fridge. But there’s so much opportunity and so much flavor, and so many possibilities.

Tucker:
Yeah, absolutely. What was yours, Chris? Do you remember your first craft beer?

Chris Powers:
Yeah. My first craft beer was a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat.

Tucker:
Nice.

Chris Powers:
Yeah, it was really big in Upstate New York at one point, and it was something that I had never even considered, but I was like, man, I think it was at a party or something. A friend had it. And I was like, “Man, I’ll give this a try.” This is the last thing left. Everybody had drunk the Labat Blue Lights Up because I am from Upstate New York, and that’s what everybody drinks. But all the beers were gone. I was like, “Man, I’m going to give this a shot.” I tried. I was like, “Man, this is awesome. Is this really …” Take a second, look at the label, and get an idea of what is actually in this beer. Then it started that spiral that we’ve all gone through a called that the epiphany beer, right? When you have had that beer and like, “Damn it, this is what beer can be!” And really embrace that and start that tour. Yeah, for sure.

Tucker:
Beer actually tastes good, doesn’t it?

Chris Powers:
Beer does taste good. And there are so many opportunities to make it different. And there’s just all the crazy things that can go into it. Started that, and I worked with quite a few beer-focused concepts. I worked for some restaurant groups in New York, and then they transferred me to North Carolina. And my partner and I opened up our first place in 2009, and that was called the Busy Bee Cafe, a craft beer-focused bar and restaurant, where we did our best to educate people about craft beer and teach them. They go out, they have a Blue Moon, this is the beer that inspired Blue Moon, and this is why. Tell them the story about Belgian wits and that kind of style of beer, and teach them a little bit and really kind of deputize them to go out and talk about what you’re doing there.

Chris Powers:
The decanting beer, the famous thing in North Carolina, we couldn’t get new Belgium for the longest time. And then, after they popped the cap in 2008, all these new craft beers were coming to the market. People would say, “Oh man, I love this beer!” But man, have you ever had a flat tire? So what we started doing was started buying Decanic because that is supposedly the beer that inspired Kim Jordan and her partner when they were traveling through Europe. So, we started teaching people about craft beer. And then we started working with breweries to kind of push the boundaries of what craft beer could be in our area. At the time, there were probably only about eight breweries in our area in North Carolina, and that was in 2009, and now it’s like 500. But it was our opportunity to kind of work with creative people, to put together incredible beer and really help tell a story of where this beer came from or what the ingredients or the process or the people involved.

Chris Powers:
So we did this kind of small-scale collaboration with local breweries. They eventually got larger, and to reassure people that we’re in the business, we’d say, “Hey, listen, we’ll buy the entire batch. I know you don’t trust me that we’ll buy 40 barrels of Berlin or Vice, but trust me, we’ll buy it all.” And we’ll put it in front of people, give them a little syrup on the side, tell them the story and really get them excited about what beer can be. Our goal has always been to kind of be out there, spread the good word about craft beer, and tell the story of the people making it, the hard work that goes into it, and the differences that are presented.

Chris Powers:
So, we did those collaborations with local breweries and even some out-of-state breweries at the time. We had relationships with breweries in Kentucky and California, and of course, New York, but we decided we wanted to do it on our own. And that’s where Les Stewart came into play. He was a friend of ours at the time. We always drank craft beer together, always talked about what beer could be when Woody and I would be traveling for work, we’d always be collecting special and rare beer and bringing it back and sitting down and sharing them and talking about the process and talking about ingredients and the size and shape of the bottles, and all the things that go into presenting and tasting a really great beer. And then, at the time, Les was a prolific home brewer. We say prolific because he wasn’t just a guy working with a Mr. Beer kit. He was the guy that had six or eight brewing practices going at a time. He was lagering in the crawlspace under his house.

Chris Powers:
He was inviting other local home brewers over to do crazy, intricate beer brew days where they’d come out, and they’d do this process. They all brew us the same. Start with the same recipe but everybody rifts on it and then comes up with their own version of this beer to be served later on and just really understood what we wanted to be doing and the kind of beer we wanted to be making. And that’s where Trophy started. We started on a three-barrel system at our original location on West Morgan Street in a bail bondsman closet and grew from there.

Tucker:
Man, I’m doing the applaud here. Heather, this is why I love our industry. You meet people like Chris and other folks we talked to on a podcast just, and I’ve known it. I’ve been with country mockery for ten years, but the passion in the industry is always awesome. And what individuals like yourself and Woody and other breweries and individuals that are passionate about it, they drove education, and you got the word about craft beer and educating people. A lot of that of where we are today with craft beer is because of folks like yourself. So, that’s awesome.

Chris Powers:
Well, man, thank you. It’s truly labor love. It’s us being excited about trying something new and then trying to get other people excited about it. We used to joke about having to tell people what a sour beer was when we first put those things on draft. And now it’s in any of our locations, people come in, and that’s what they ask for. They’re like, “Do you guys have a sour beer? Oh, you don’t have a sour beer on draft.” It’s like times have changed, which is great.

Tucker:
I’m going to guess, and maybe I could be wrong here, but would you have the same kind? I’d like to hear how you’d sell vacuum cleaners. Is that-

Chris Powers:
Oh, man!

Tucker:
Really? Like, “Check out this Dyson. It’s awesome. Here’s how it was produced, and check out the amount of lint. It picks up off the floor.”

Chris Powers:
“This is why you need it.” Yeah.

Tucker:
No. Well, let’s get to the good stuff. It is good stuff, sorry. It’s great stuff. But really interested in the Pride Beer and what you’ve done with that, what you brewed, and the inspiration behind all of that. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Chris Powers:
Yeah, for sure. So this year, we brewed- Well, it’s another batch of our Trophy partners, the name of our beer. We brewed every single year. This year we brewed 40 barrels of it. We release it the week right before we host this thing called the run for love, in which we partner with the chronology, which is a local run shop that helps us run it. We release this beer, and ideally, we raise a bunch of money for the LGBTQ center of Raleigh. This year, it looks like we’re going. The attendance at the race is going to be about 1500 people.

Tucker:
Wow!

Heather:
Wow!

Chris Powers:
Which, is going to be pretty awesome. So, this is our fourth year running it. The fourth-year was brewing the beer, and the third year was doing the chronology run. But it’s a huge opportunity for us to connect with our community and really welcome people into our doors that maybe breweries can tend to be a little bit hesitant about putting their hearts on their sleeve and letting them know what they’re passionate about as far as like their community.

Chris Powers:
But we strive to wear our hearts on our sleeves and let people know we’re welcoming. We want people in our doors. We want to get to know you as a community. And we want to do our best to support those people out there that are doing the hard work, in the best way that we know how, really, and that’s through throwing good events, raising money, raising awareness, and then sharing that money. So this year, we brewed a Trophy Partner, which is a West Coast-inspired IPA. So, it has a little bit of that Dan resonance hop characteristic, but it has enough juicy character to it to really make it approachable to people that both like West Coast and East Coast IPAs. As I mentioned before, we brewed about 40 barrels of that this year. And with that, we think we’ll raise about $30,000 for the LGBTQ center.

Tucker:
Wow!

Heather:
That is fantastic. Can you tell us a little bit about the LGBTQ center and why this was your choice of organization to donate to?

Chris Powers:
We love the LGBTQ center for a lot of different reasons. One of them is their integrity. These folks are constantly out there talking about community, talking about connection, talking about- We call them activations where they either are hosting a health fair, or they’re hosting a drag brunch, or like kids reading forum or like just doing a ton of different community events to connect with their friends and neighbors, and doing a lot of the things that lead to authentic connections. And that’s our goal to help support them. The [inaudible 01:02:38] comes from a seemingly endless well of all the people that are there working, doing their best to make and to connect people with mental health services or people do who need are dis emerging from homelessness, any single facet of life that you need connection with. These folks are there to do it. Our goal is to help raise money, raise awareness, and help these people that are doing that kind of work.

Tucker:
So I’m anonymous. What was the name of the beer again?

Chris Powers:
We call it Trophy Partner. Oh, we make a beer all the time called Trophy Wife, we make a beer all the time called Trophy Husband, and this is Trophy Partner.

Tucker:
That’s great.

Chris Powers:
Yeah.

Tucker:
So tell me about some of these- Obviously, it’s an important beer, but what else is kind of like your mainstay there at Trophy?

Chris Powers:
So we have three beers that are considered kind of our front-running beers. And the first one is Trophy Wife. It’s our 12-ounce session IPA, citrus mosaic, just an easy pale ale session IPA kind of crusher. Hop forward; there’s enough characteristic on it with a nice honey malt characteristic on the body and really easy drinking and refreshing. Every single time we think that sales are slowing down in this beer, they surge right back up. That’s our number one selling beer. And we also have a beer called Cloud Surfer, which is our 6.1%. We call it a modern IPA because it’s not necessarily hazy IPA or that far east of a New England, but we tip our toes in that water. Much more approachable for somebody who likes a normal or a traditional IPA, but also somebody who is going to appreciate the fruitiness of a more modern pop bill.

Chris Powers:
And then we also so brew Morts, which is our classic lager. It’s inspired by the location that was our ideal location for opening our first place. Morts was an old Trophy Shop downtown, and we envisioned this beer being the beer, like every person’s everyday drinking kind of beer. We use a ton of North Carolina malt in this beer. It’s crisp and has a little bit of a hot characteristic on the back, but it’s really full-flavored and easy to drink. We just kind of wanted it to be the beer you walk into any bar in town and say, “Give me a Morts.” And that has quickly become our third best-selling beer.

Tucker:
So, going back to the Pride beer Trophy Husband, is it available only at the brewery? Are you guys packaging it? What?

Chris Powers:
No. So Trophy Partner goes out wide distribution. The goal with that package is to kind of put it out there in front of people, and it’s replacing that beer in places that may or may not have conversations around that kind of packaging. So, we want it to be a connection. So it goes into distribution at like total wine and Wegmans and a lot of the craft beer bottle shops because they know our mission with it. They want to help us raise money, and they want to put that out there to share with their guests. So, I’d say about 80% of this beer goes into a package and then about 20% on draft. We’ll have it on draft the day of the run, and we’ll have it in some locations. But most of it went out in 16-ounce cans.

Heather:
When is the run?

Chris Powers:
The run for love is actually happening on Saturday, June 11th. We always do it, kind of like the second week in June.

Heather:
We’ll get to check out social media and see how that went.

Chris Powers:
Yes. Oh, it’s a 5k, and we also do a stroller division. So, if anybody’s out there with a family, they can bring their kids. It’s really awesome. The center point, the starting point, is over at our brewery on Maywood Avenue. And then the courses actually run through Dorothea Dix Park, which is a really beautiful urban park, just about half a mile from the brewery. So people can see a view of the downtown race through and then finish the race with a Trophy beer.

Tucker:
Oh, that’s great. You mentioned a stroller division. Is it like a speed stroller? Are there awards for whoever’s the fastest?

Chris Powers:
There is, but it’s more like being inclusive and letting some folks- It’s fun to have a kid out there and with a stroller. Most folks that bring a stroller out there tend to run with a stroller usually. And it’s just fun to bring kids out there to enjoy the day. We make an event out of it. So we’ll have the race. The first people to get back from the race around 9:30. So it starts at seven. Most folks get back around 9:00 to 9:30, and then we have vendors out there. We’ll have performers out there. We have a drag brunch kind of event going on. We’ll have a bunch of different nonprofits out there being represented, and it’ll be a nice morning and afternoon event to kind of celebrate Pride.

Tucker:
Sweet. I’m just thinking about running with my stroller. I’ve got a youngin, and he tends to like to just bail completely out, just jumps out of the stroller while running, which is dangerous.

Heather:
That could be a danger.

Chris Powers:
Yes.

Tucker:
Like, “See you, dad!” And he rolls off the side. Next thing you know, he’s in the bushes running away.

Chris Powers:
Is he a tuck and roll yet? I mean, I think that’s a developmental milestone.

Tucker:
That’s right.

Chris Powers:
A tuck and roll.

Tucker:
I taught him that, yeah. Well, my last name is Tucker, so it makes sense.

Heather:
It’s true.

Chris Powers:
Perfect.

Tucker:
Chris, it sounds awesome. And the participation that you all have and this particular beer and just being inclusive, inviting any and all up to enjoy beer and over beer. And for those listening that are in that North Carolina area, certainly, look out for a Trophy Partner. And if you’re out in Raleigh and can go out and see Chris and his team up at Trophy Brewery, we would absolutely support that and force you to do that.

Chris Powers:
Yes, please do. Our goal is always to have our doors open, and it’s open to everybody. We’re about inclusion in our community.

Heather:
Bear is for everybody.

Chris Powers:
That’s right. Beer is better shared, yeah.

Heather:
Agreed.

Tucker:
Yeah. All right, Chris, thanks so much for your time today.

Heather:
Thank you.

Chris Powers:
Appreciate it. You guys have a good afternoon. Thank you so much.

Heather:
We are pleased to now be joined by Josh Hayter, who’s the president of Spearhead Brewing in Kingston, Ontario. And Josh is here to tell us a bit about the Queen of Wheat Beer that they brewed for Pride. Hi, Josh. Welcome.

Josh Hayter:
Hey, thanks for having me.

Tucker:
Well, man, awesome to have you on. And I’m really excited, as well as Cheyenne and Heather’s, to hear about what you guys are doing, your participation in Pride Month, and specifically about the beer and contributions of beer sales and how that works out. So, tell us a little bit about yourself, your brewery, and how you guys came to be.

Josh Hayter:
Sounds good. So, we started out as a contract brewer, and for anybody who doesn’t know what that is, it’s just a brewer that rents space in another brewery to produce their product. It’s kind of like a catering company that rents out a commercial kitchen. And we started out in 2011. And around 2013, we started getting to be around the size that we really needed to look for our own space. So, we looked all over the province, and we found the perfect home in Kingston, Ontario. Its community welcomed us. The building was a perfect size, and it’s got some room for us to grow and expand. We couldn’t be happier to be in Kingston. It’s also for anybody who does like to sail, and we have the best freshwater sailing in the world.

Tucker:
I like sailing.

Heather:
I didn’t know that.

Tucker:
Yeah, me neither. It’s a little too windy down here for that most of the time. We do a lot of capsizing. Cool. So what beer did you brew for Pride Month?

Josh Hayter:
So, this year actually has got a bit of history to it. It goes back to 2020. So, probably in late 2019, our sales team came to us, and they said one of the things that are really missing in the Ontario market is a good craft, wheat beer. There isn’t one that’s around all the time. So we’re like, “Okay, let’s kind of put that on the radar.” And then February 2020 rolls around, and one of the- We had this event in our brewery. We run a lot of events, and we have a dismal track record when it comes to running Valentine’s day events. For some reason, we just threw a couple of events that no one showed up to. So, that year we decided we were going to go anti-Valentine’s day. And we called our event, Loves A Drug.

Josh Hayter:
And we had an all-ages drag show here at the brewery. So we had drag queens and drag kings performing. [inaudible 01:11:42], who’s a local drag queen and activist, was the headliner and organizer of the event. And there had been some drag shows in Kingston before, but this was the first all-ages show that had been put out there. And we saw there were some folks that bought tickets and sat in a front row, and they brought their kids with them, and their kids were going through some stuff, and they brought their kids out to show them like, “This is okay. You can be who you are.” If this is who you want to be, and this is who you are, this, this is okay. Look at these people. They’re successful. They’re performing, and they’re doing great things.

Josh Hayter:
And the interaction between those kids, I call them kids, they’re probably like late teens, interactions with them and with the performers were just so powerful. We’re like, “Okay, we need to do something here.” We need to find a way to help out in any way that we can. Part of our mantra since we started in 2011 is beer without boundaries. We always make crazy beers, and we make fun beers. And the essence of our company is just about being who you are and doing your own thing and finding a good way to be part of the world, but also be yourself. And it resonated so much with us. So we’re like, we got to do something. We talked to Rowena, who was happy to work with us.

Josh Hayter:
Our brewers got to work on a recipe, and that’s how the Queen of Wheat was born. Rowena is actually on the cans. She is the first drag queen to ever grace the can in the LCBL, which is the largest liquor fire in the world here in Ontario. So the Queen is on all of the shelves. And we also are partnering with the Canadian center for gender and sexual diversity. They’re an organization based out of Ottawa, but they’re a national organization in Canada, where they are- Basically, they provide a lot of educational services. They work directly with youth, but they also work with a lot of educators and school boards across the country to help educate on gender and sexual issues and help the educators deal with the youth and the young folks in their schools.

Josh Hayter:
So, it’s been a great thing to be a part of. 5% of all of our sales go back to help the CCGSD. Rowena’s been an amazing partner working with us tirelessly to help push this cause. Now, it’s actually kind of timely talking to you guys. We’re going to be in the United States very soon with this beer. We’ve got our first quarters shipping out to Ohio in two weeks, and we’re also speaking with distributors down in Florida. This beer is going to be getting out there and hopefully educating some people. And also, it’s a damn good week here. We just won the gold medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards for the best Belgian Style Week. So, sorry that was a little long-winded.

Heather:
No, that was amazing.

Josh Hayter:
It’s a long story.

Heather:
I love that story. Also, congratulations on the gold, and I guess that probably gets you a vest.

Josh Hayter:
Yeah. For this year, it’s literally the best Belgian-style wheat in Canada.

Heather:
That’s awesome. And so you said it’s at the LCBO; obviously, it’s also at the brewery. You can pick it up, and you’re shipping it down south, which is fantastic. Anywhere else? That’s maybe got it on tap and cross Kingston-

Josh Hayter:
We’re on a lot of taps across Ontario with the Queen. Almost every bar at Kingston’s got it, but we’re right across Ontario on tap. We’ll also be on tap in Ohio. People anywhere in Ontario can buy it online. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to ship across the country. It’s actually easier to export to the US than it is to another province. The way our federal government has things set up.

Heather:
Yeah. Canadian liquor laws are weird.

Josh Hayter:
They are. But to be fair, the US liquor laws are pretty strange too. They all date back to just after prohibition. But we ship province-wide in Ontario. Kingston is free. Same day delivery, everywhere else, there’s a nominal delivery fee, and our shippers guarantee it within seven days, but it’s usually the next day. We’ve got some pretty good folks that we work with there. And it’s also available in LCBO convenience outlets and grocery stores across the province as well.

Tucker:
Yeah. That’s awesome. Really cool that you guys participate that well and it so a really awesome story. So, what else do y’all have up the brewery? Anything else you want to let the listening community know about?

Josh Hayter:
Sorry. Our whole kind of mission is to create a beverage for everybody. We thought that like just because- I love our Hawaiian style doesn’t mean everybody else does because some people don’t like the hops that are in it. We’ve got a very good lineup that goes from a very light lager all the way to hoppy IPAs, just to have something for everybody. But we also put out a lot of really fun one-offs. We do at least one new beer a month that we celebrate across the province. I’m actually really excited for July. We’ve got a sparkling rose coming up. That is something that we haven’t tried before. We have done Chardonnay Beer before. So, hopefully, that’ll work out, and that’ll be on sale if it- Unless we have to dump the whole batch, which we’ve never had to do yet because we’ve got a great brewmaster. But we are really excited about that. And we’re also really excited about the fall coming up. We support Ducks Unlimited, which is right across- well, Ducks Unlimited Canada. There’s one in the US as well, but we’ve got another beer or decoy longer where we work with them, and we raise money for conservation efforts right across Canada.

Tucker:
I saw that. And I was going to mention that in our conversation. That’s pretty cool. I mean, Ducks Unlimited obviously is a big organization, and it does a lot down here and obviously in a hunting community as well. We’re big on conservation, and I’m really excited about that as well. You guys are doing some really cool stuff.

Josh Hayter:
It’s a lot of fun. And I mean, one of the things, because a lot of people see Ducks and they think, “Oh, it’s just hunters.”

Tucker:
No, it’s not.

Josh Hayter:
And it’s not. There are tons of hunters that are involved, but the membership, at least in Canada, is less than 50% hunters. It really is a conservation organization that was started by hunters. We were starting out with that beer. I had a few of them sitting back. We were trying to figure out what to put on the can. And it was, I think, one of my favorite taglines we’ve ever come up with, “Drink a beer, save ducks.”

Tucker:
Yeah. That’s awesome.

Heather:
That’s great.

Josh Hayter:
One other thing I mentioned about the Queen of Wheat, too, is, yeah, we are really kind of pushing it out there for Pride, but this is a full-time beer for us. We decided that having this beer out for a month wasn’t good enough to be able to help the community. So this is a full-time beer now. It’ll be in the LCBO for the spring and summer. It’ll probably go back next spring and summer because it is more of a summer skew for them, but we have it available here year-round, and it’s available in the LCBO convenience outlets and the grocery stores. So, people can help year-round.

Tucker:
That’s great.

Heather:
That’s fantastic.

Tucker:
I’m curious going back to the actual beer, and I don’t want you to give away any trade secrets here, but can you tell us a little bit about what goes into that as far as ingredients?

Josh Hayter:
Yeah, I mean, it’s real simple. It’s just water hops, barley wheat, and we use a Belgian style rebuilding yeast, and you’ll notice there’s a little bit of sweetness to it. When we can get them, we use Niagara peaches, but we infuse them with peaches when we brew. So it just gives it that little hint of sweetness.

Tucker:
Nice. How does that work infusing it with peaches as opposed to like so extract and flavor?

Josh Hayter:
We don’t really use a lot of extracts. We like to use actual fruit, and we had our engineers that built our brewhouse create this; they call it the Depth Charge. It’s just this big mesh metal cage that we will fill with whatever we’re infusing with, and we’ll pop it right into the boil while we’re making the beer. That way, it keeps the little bits of fruit from getting everywhere. And depending on the type of what we’re infusing with, these things like raspberries, they’ll just disintegrate when we put them in. So those we can just put right into the boil. And that also works as a pasteurization method, too, so that if there’s anything on the fruit, it’s sanitized before it becomes beer.

Tucker:
Sounds very tasty.

Josh Hayter:
It is.

Tucker:
Typically we do these things like Friday afternoon, and it’s a trainer wreck because everyone gets so thirsty and-

Heather:
Hungry.

Tucker:
For the rest of the day. Oh, yeah, hungry.

Heather:
We talk food and beer on Friday afternoons. It’s never a good scene.

Josh Hayter:
Well, I’ll give you a pro tip for all these zoom calls that everybody’s doing these days. If you keep your coffee mug and it’s half full of whiskey, if you just blow over the top, people think you’re trying to cool your coffee down.

Heather:
It’s a good work-from-home tip.

Tucker:
Gosh! I guess you could like drinking from a straw and people think it’s a soda or something.

Josh Hayter:
Yeah. It’s a coffee cup across the top. Every time, they think it’s coffee.

Tucker:
Oh my gosh! What are we doing?

Heather:
I think our Friday afternoon ones are going to get real sloppy.

Josh Hayter:
Hey, it’s got to be 2:00 AM somewhere.

Heather:
It’s true. It’s true.

Tucker:
Yeah. Well, Josh, thank you so much for joining us. Again, very impressive what you guys are doing up there at the brewery and the contributions you guys are making in a lot of different areas of the community and organizations. So, pretty cool. I think we need more of that across our industry, and I’m glad you guys are putting forth a giant effort and doing a lot there, especially for Pride Month. So, I appreciate you coming on and letting us know a little bit about you and your brewery. Congrats on what you guys are doing and the CBA awards.

Josh Hayter:
Hey, thanks for having us,

Tucker:
Heather, another awesome episode and really kick subject we talked about today. So, thanks for hanging in there with us. Want to thank you again, Devon Kreps, from 7venth Sun’s Brewing, Rob McWhinney and Kristin Sheffield at Little Brown Jug Brewing, Chris Powers over at Trophy Brewing, and Josh Hayter at Spearhead Brewing for joining us today and sharing what they had going on with the Pride Beers. Tune in. In the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be talking about the ultimate summer beer style, and I think there’s going to be some battles to be had between folks and what their ultimate summer style beer is and what it should be. So, if you’re not already subscribed to the BrewDeck podcast, do it. Wherever you listen to podcasts, we look forward to having your ear on the next episode. Thanks. See you, Heather.

Heather:
Bye.