The Brewhaus

From Small-Town Charm to Craft Beer Fame: The Journey of Beard Engine Brewing Company

Brian Crum / Nate Artinger / Tiff Artinger Season 1 Episode 1

You've heard the phrase "small-town charm," but how about "small-town beer?" That's exactly what Nate and Tiff, the owners of Beard Engine Brewing Company are brewing up in the heart of Alba, Missouri. Their unique journey from saving up for brewing equipment while juggling full-time jobs to crafting beers that are creating a buzz in the craft beer world is enough inspiration for anyone with a dream. 

And how about a British telephone booth in a brewery? Or the Mayor of Alba being one of the owners of the brewery? That's right, Tiff's role as the Mayor of Alba has positively impacted their business in ways you'd never expect. Take a walk with us through the steampunk-inspired corners of their brewery, formerly the Old Miner's Inn, where every feature, every design choice echoes their love for art and history. From Nate's carpentry skills to Tiff's background in massage therapy and her father's knack for woodworking, their passion is truly tangible. 

But it's not just about the beer. Nate and Tiff are also deeply invested in their community, from safety measures for the local baseball field to planning a nine-hole disc golf course. They're brewing more than just beer; they're brewing a sense of community, camaraderie, and charm that's hard to resist. And then there's the beer. From crafting unique water profiles, experimenting with secondary fermentation and adjuncts, to tackling the challenges of sourcing hops, Nate and Tiff show us what it truly means to revolutionize a pint. Don't miss this journey of passion, perseverance, and pints with Nate and Tiff of Beard Engine Brewing Company.

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The Brewhaus is a production of Remnant Media. To learn more about The Brewhaus or its host The BeerdBro, visit http://thebrewhaus.show/

Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, what's going on? It's the beard bro and I just wanted to give a big thank you to you for listening to our very first episode here on the brew house. I'm super excited to share all this fun information with you, especially as we get going here. You know, I'm just gonna be honest. We really want your feedback. We want to hear exactly what you think of the episodes. So be sure and leave comments here on the episode, leave us a review, tell us what you think, what you hear and what you want to hear, and and I'm just really excited to have you with us.

Speaker 1:

So I'm not gonna get into a long-grown-out introduction here. I got to sit down for the very first episode with my friends Nate and Tiff, who own beard engine brewing company up in Alba, missouri. We got to hear a lot about who they are. We got to learn about Just the things that they're involved in as as individuals, and then we got to understand a lot more about their brewery, their beers and why there's a British phone booth in one of their cubbies in the brewery. So that's all I got. Enjoy the episode, cheers.

Speaker 2:

Live from the rolling hills of Northwest Arkansas. It's the show for beer lovers, beer makers and, most of all, beer drinkers. We're pouring up the best in beer, podcasting straight from the mouths of today's top brewers to your thirsty years. Get ready to hear how they're pouring their heart and soul into making the best pint possible. This is the brew house.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back, hey, yeah no right, it's been a minute. I know so I'm yeah. I've got my my own gig now, which is super fun.

Speaker 3:

I'm so proud of you.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thank you, I'm gonna be happier man. I'm excited and I'm excited that you guys are episode number one, same yeah, like you know, you got a lead with your best foot forward, right yeah? So Sitting in here, tiff, you want to, you want to lead out with, like, just tell us a little about who you are. Did you grow up like? We're here in Alba, missouri, but yes where'd you grow up, pretty?

Speaker 3:

close Joplin, so I was born in Joplin. I went to Joplin High School. Nate went to Diamond, which is not very far either, and so he went to yeah, not all 12 years in Diamond, but he finished out high school in Diamond. But we've all. We've both grew up around here.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of the tri-state area, so Like Gleena, Kansas, and then like Joplin Diamond, granby, diamond, back to Granby, back to diamond. Yeah, I'm almost all over the place but, like I said, it's 45 minute circle for me. Any town that I grew up in.

Speaker 3:

It's like right here and he's lived here the whole entire time. I actually got out a couple times, but then I got sucked back into the black hole that is your hometown.

Speaker 1:

I think everyone says that yeah, I understand that, and so now I know, since last time we've talked there's been kind of you talk about getting sucked back in, right, you kind of got like you just like finished the whole Dig, didn't share.

Speaker 3:

I think that I'm here for a while now because I am mayor of Alba.

Speaker 1:

So I'm in the presence of the mayor of Alba.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome.

Speaker 3:

You're mayour-ness well, yeah.

Speaker 4:

Mayour-ness. Madam, madam Mayor, madam mayor.

Speaker 3:

People call me that, though, when they say madam, I said just call me Mayor Tiff, so everyone just calls me Mayor Tiff and people call me mr Tiff and I don't care because, it's, it's got a nice ring to it.

Speaker 1:

They do Rolls off the tongue.

Speaker 4:

Mr Tiff, mr Tiff.

Speaker 1:

That's good.

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, nate led us into council, though, because he's been on council for two years now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, up for and so he did it first.

Speaker 3:

And then he came home one day from a council meeting and he goes the mayor, you know, seat us up and you're never going to guess who they asked to run. And I said well, you right, are you going to do it? And he goes no Tiff, they want you to do it. And I was like no way, you're like why that was a big no for me.

Speaker 3:

They just they, you know. They think I'm a nice person, they think that I'm very approachable and I'm able to talk to everyone you know. So it just kind of fit and I'm kind of good at it. I didn't know if I would be, but I promised myself a year. The first term was a year and we're approaching. I had to get on the ballot by December 28th and I went ahead and signed back up, so I'll run again for a two year term in April, okay.

Speaker 4:

All right, it's cool. I mean it's kind of neat to see, like a, when we're open, people bring their kids in here. She's kind of a role model to them, like it's all about the, you know all these young girls come up to me and I just they're like.

Speaker 3:

I want to be just like you. My daddy said you're mayor.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's so cool and, like teenage girls, think it's really neat. And I just think that's so neat because I I have a hard time as a woman sometimes speaking up for myself. I think it was like the time I grew up. I don't know, I just and I'm very timid person. So I went into this thinking I'm going to become empowered, I'm going to find my backbone, and that's exactly what's happened. Like I feel so much more confident about who I am and I'm finding out that I am capable of many things. So it's cool.

Speaker 1:

Well and I'll just say this from from the outside look in. I know that, like watching you guys interact and watching just stories that you shared and things like that, I have one thing that you know, talking about role model, you know, one of the coolest things. I think we need that, especially in today's climate. You know, as far as, with everything going on, there's a lot of anger, there's a lot of frustration, there's a lot of people who mean well, that tend to do a little more harm than good because of just feeling threatened by something, and I think that you, just from what I've seen, you've done a really great job of just just being strong. Yeah, you know, you're not ashamed or afraid to be who you are and you're not trying to be anything that you're not, but, at the same point, that is enough, you know, and that's that is fantastic for leading well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I lead with kindness and I think that's very important and you have to have compassion for people, especially there's. I mean, there's uncomfortable phone calls that I have to have sometimes with people that live here, and it's just the way that you approach them and I always I always go in with you, know an open mind, and I have to hear their side of the story. It usually ends up working itself out so much faster because of the way I approach them about it.

Speaker 4:

And it is. It's kind of different, though, because the old saying was like it's lonely at the top. You know, when you think like politics, like small towns, this is where it starts, this is where everyone makes a difference, and it just like builds up to the very top, snowballs right. We found ourselves in positions like our friends aren't going to like us anymore because we are on both sides now. So that was a very tough transition, because there were we had to tell a lot of people like you can't do this anymore. We're enforcing this, you know, and it was weird for the first prior year, but now there's a level of respect now, and everyone knows that we didn't do this to, kind of like, take care of ourselves. We did it looking for everyone else, because we do want to see that progression.

Speaker 3:

This is our hometown too. Now I mean, we live here, we moved our daughter here, we had to change her high schools, like it was a big move for us and so we don't take living here lightly, like we want to make this something for the future for a bunch of people, because we plan on being here for a while.

Speaker 4:

Madam Tiff's on her way, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And Mr Tiff is right there by our side, yes, right by my side.

Speaker 4:

I could not. I'm her little sidekick.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I could not do it without her. We're each other's sidekick.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, it kind of came out of the gate, running there with yeah. Let's just jump right in. Well, hey we got that out of the way though. Yeah, cool, right? So tell me a little bit like how'd you guys come to own a brewery? So who was interested in beer first?

Speaker 3:

Nate.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, man, it's weird, though I think the last time we talked we kind of went into a little bit about it that we were dive bar. That's what our karaoke dive bar cheap beer, cheap shots, okay.

Speaker 3:

Bushlight was my beer of choice, and he was Miller High Life. Yes, the champagne o'bears.

Speaker 4:

So pre-Dreadlock Tiff. You know, we could go out and just wash the hair after a night I mean a smoky bar and we had actually quit smoking and that was kind of the kickstart of all of it, like almost 10 years ago, was just our pals started changing. We didn't want to smell like that anymore because, you know, the fact of the matter is no one's yeah, you grow up. No one has never not came home Maybe they have and had to take a shower at 1.32 am. You know, you're just not feeling the greatest.

Speaker 4:

So that was kind of the one of the inklings in the very craft beer days, like we need to do something else. You know, more proactive. So I bought some wine equipment from a guy going to some hardships by St Louis and that was the whole thing. I jumped right into it. I didn't really do extract or partial mashed batches or kits, I jumped just. I'm going to learn. So I read, I just I read nonstop and that was kind of the big thing for me Started reading books and just was really one step ahead of myself. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And you think he's playing on his phone. He's literally reading article after article about different stuff. And he did this in the beginning and he just had this idea and he knew that he could make it happen on a small budget if he did it smart and so it did take longer than most people, because most people have backers, they've got friends and there's multiple owners.

Speaker 4:

It's just her and me. We wanted to family own business to leave behind for our daughter, which is 15. So it was one of those things like I think we can do it if we really tighten our boots up tight, you know, and we did it.

Speaker 3:

He had a job and he would. We would just work to pay for our equipment as we went. So we would pay everything in cash that we. We didn't have to take out any loans or use credit cards, and it just took us six years to save up enough and we had to have every piece that we needed to finally find a home for all of it.

Speaker 4:

So we had lots of equipment just in order to keep it. So we had stuff everywhere just kind of spread out.

Speaker 1:

Different family's house like his job had a warehouse, so he was able to keep something you do the boil at your cousin's house, and then you would go do the mash.

Speaker 3:

Well, in that day we were still on a small pilot system in the garage.

Speaker 4:

We had a little small half-burl system.

Speaker 3:

But when we were telling people that he was brewing at home. We never called it home brewing. He just said I'm at my house brewing. But he got like really good equipment. In the beginning he only did maybe two stove top batches and then he bought himself really nice stuff and started growing from there and we had as many as four or five taps on in our garage. So when we would tell people, you know, come try his beer, I think they thought that we meant like out of a jug, like it's small.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, come try some home brewing.

Speaker 3:

Right, but we had a micro brewery in our garage, a tiny little industrial little micro brewery in our garage.

Speaker 4:

We weren't able to sell it.

Speaker 3:

So that was just the time that we experimented, had all our friends, friends, friends that were from out of town came in. I mean, the word spread pretty quickly because I have friends from Georgia and they would come in town and try stuff and then go back to Georgia and just talk us all up.

Speaker 4:

and my friends are going to have a brewery one day, and so we just we had a lot of networking was a big part of in the beginning and me coming from like that being an outdoor advertising and internal advertising. You see what works, what doesn't work. So we plugged. I mean everywhere we went. We made friends, tiff's, very likable person. She talks, talks, talks. She talks more than I do, but she was a big part in the beginning.

Speaker 3:

I know right.

Speaker 4:

Right and it was always for the great, it was always for the greater good, because she always, she never missed an opportunity to tell someone like we're working on this project. A lot of those people never forgot we pay.

Speaker 3:

He would make fun of me sometimes in the line at the grocery store or something. He's like why did you tell them? I'm like, why not? They may not drink beer, but they may know somebody that does drink craft beer and they're going to. They're going to tell them. They're going to tell them. This crazy dreadheaded girl came up to me and told me she owned a brewery.

Speaker 4:

And six years later all those people kind of came back. They we saw a lot of them grand opening weekend. We still see them. Some are regulars. But it was kind of neat, just like where do I know you from? Like, oh, I met you here in my Oklahoma's. I drove on a brewery. Like I'll be damned, you actually came back. Yeah, very cool, very cool.

Speaker 1:

What's the? What would you say? Was there? Was there someone who is like the farthest away or like is there so?

Speaker 4:

we have. So honestly, her friends that drove up from Atlanta Georgia are for this. That came up here for our soft opening.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

They loaded her very sick dog at the time, which was really sad for me because I lived with them whenever I lived in Atlanta so, and her dog was my roommate she slept in bed with me every night and so she loaded her up to come like kind of say goodbye and have her last road trip and the whole brewery opening. It was such an exciting thing, I was so happy to have them there.

Speaker 4:

So they traveled afar. I've got some family on my stepmother's side. They have been a few times. They're from South Carolina, so there's a support just all across the map and obviously, like our locals, we get a lot of Kansas City traffic. We have some regular from Miami, Oklahoma. They come up here every Friday night almost and that's a long little jog to a right. That's a little track is 45 minutes from. I think might be close to an hour.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and there's a lot of weekend travelers that do Kansas City to Arkansas or Arkansas to Kansas City and back Like it's a lot. I think that's.

Speaker 4:

And we always hear that on the way so and it's humbling. And so we get a lot of people from North of Arkansas like oh, we just left Bentonville and Rogers area. We hit those breweries and they said stop here on the way home. And so, man, it's been really nice because we work with KC breweries, a lot of the NWA breweries. Tulsa gives us shots out all the time because we're in between highways. I mean we're the last stop before you get to anything in Kansas City.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're the last watering hole in the highway and, living in Bentonville, I know that you guys are well known there so you know. So there's a good, a good amount of buzz about beard engine. We appreciate that. It's awesome.

Speaker 3:

I always get excited when I hear somebody say our name one more somewhere else.

Speaker 4:

I'm just like I'm taking photos of the beard tender with a shirt on. Yeah, that's pretty cool, you know there's only need I bet those guys are pretty cool, yeah, but that's kind of how it happens. We've also had people roll in here. I don't know if we want to come in or not, because it looks like a ghost town, like no, we're, we're here, we're open, you know, we're just. We just don't have a lot of flashing open signs.

Speaker 3:

We never wanted to do that.

Speaker 4:

We're just. If you see the A frame sandwich board out front, we're open you know, that's basically that's it, that's how you know that's like the clerk's sign right.

Speaker 1:

It's like we come in, we're open. Yeah, you promise.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 4:

We are here from this time to this time. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

Very cool. Now we've touched on a couple of times here. I got to ask so when did the dread start?

Speaker 3:

I've had them for two and a half years and I wanted them for like 20. I always just thought that they were really cool and I am one to kind of do different stuff. I've always, like, wanted to push the limits and do the craziest, most outlandish stuff, I don't know why. Just to say I lived my life to like the fullest. So I decided two and a half years ago I had red hair down to my rear end. It was really really long and I dreaded it up. And I've been on this journey for two and a half years and I really like them.

Speaker 1:

You didn't see a lot of Joujee locks either. You know you really don't Like it's definitely stand out, yeah.

Speaker 3:

The color, and so I get recognized a lot while I'm out, and so I think that it's become kind of advertised.

Speaker 4:

Like your statement piece, free advertising. And you recognize her first from the brewery before me.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean it's, I understand. Oh, you're the brewery lady. I'm like yep, I am.

Speaker 1:

So if you're not familiar with Nate and Tiff, you need to go onto their Facebook page right now, during this episode, and go check out photos, because Tiff has got these incredible red dreadlocks and yeah so and of course, nate's got his fantastic beard over here.

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah, it's not dreadlocked yet, though. No, no.

Speaker 1:

Now, now have you considered doing that? You know, I don't know if she's getting inspired.

Speaker 3:

If he was thinking about ditching it at some point he'd probably let me dread it up.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, how long have you been growing that? Um? So I've given trim. So, man right, I stopped shaving after our engagement photos. So what was that like?

Speaker 3:

eight years ago. Yeah, eight years ago.

Speaker 4:

So it's been with him for eight years.

Speaker 3:

And if he wouldn't have trimmed it up it would probably be longer. But when he was still working at his day job, which was outdoor advertising, he had to harness up and climb billboards. You know, 65 to 100 feet in the air.

Speaker 4:

The shackle would just pull them down the hair out.

Speaker 3:

It would just yank all his beard hair out, so he would have to keep it trimmed. Yeah, so it's just been a year and a half since he's quit his day job and gone to brewing full time, which is pretty neat.

Speaker 4:

Pretty scary still, but you know, I think we've made it over the scary hump. Oh, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1:

I mean in similar fashion. I, my wife and I have been together for five years now and she has never seen me clean-shaven at all. So same way, yeah. And now I've gone down a little bit. You know, trimmed his order, similar thing.

Speaker 4:

What are they called? They call it beard fishing, you know. And the woman when?

Speaker 1:

you shave like oh yeah, it's beard, that's what your face yeah.

Speaker 3:

It's been eight years since I've seen it. I mean, I've seen pictures, but I haven't seen his face in person.

Speaker 1:

I tried that Snapchat filter. Did you try that one with the no beard?

Speaker 3:

His daughter did it to him and it makes you have a fatter face.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it fills in where you should have beard.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I got very low poverty.

Speaker 1:

And it's like no, it's awful, it's really terrible.

Speaker 4:

Oh my God, I look like I'm 60 years old, like who wants to marry me. Be married to me. It was very it was terrifying.

Speaker 1:

It's like if I shaved mid pandemic then that would have been exactly what I looked like.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, right.

Speaker 1:

You know, I had a couple pounds in there and I would look like school kids.

Speaker 4:

Oh, well, cool, so okay.

Speaker 1:

So now let's backtrack a little more.

Speaker 4:

So you were in advertising outdoor advertising for a little more outdoor advertising. They were the at the time they went from between first and second largest uh outdoor advertising in the nation. So I did that for 20 years. I thought that was my career job, did it from 21, you know, until, well, a year and a half ago, and I'll be 43 in March, so that kind of tells you how long I was doing it. Um, how'd you get into it, man? It it's weird. That's the craziest thing. Because I was going to Missouri Southern back when I was still at college and I was still trying to decide what I wanted to do. I worked at St John's, locally at the hospital, and you start to develop certain senses and smells of things. It kind of started bothering me like the smell of just blood and just like just dirty air. You could just I don't know, it didn't feel right and the cleaners that they tried to cover it was.

Speaker 4:

It was kind of nauseating and you see so many things. You see the paper like flesh blood. It got too much to me. I was too young for that stuff. So I found the first job that sounded odd in the paper. Back when you job hunting in the paper, yeah, it's like, oh my God, uh it's it said you can't be afraid of heights and must climb and I was like man, that sounds like a challenge. Yeah, accepted, did it, got on and it just Carried me on for 20 years but probably two-thirds through it I got into. Well, we're going to the digital route for advertising. What? Billboards, casinos, highways you see that everywhere. Mm-hmm, there wasn't a lot of people that could work on them. So they sent me to Pensacola to go to these schools to learn these three manufacturers how to repair them. It's like basically glorified TV repair man with a little bit internet involved because they're all, each individual, right.

Speaker 1:

They're all like, they're very large.

Speaker 4:

Yeah it's. You know you're working with signal and electricity, so it's cool. That's always fascinated me. My mind never stops, so I thought it was cool, did it, and what I do, like a year after a guy's bored again.

Speaker 3:

But he finished second in his class, like he's super duper smart and he likes to challenge his mind, so I'm glad that he went and did that, but yeah, he didn't make it much after that.

Speaker 4:

No, it was 24 7. You're on call. I like to love the experience because now, as they go up, I have like the basic knowledge of it that I could work on my own sign. You know if I need to, but uh this whole time.

Speaker 3:

He's hoping for a brewery and he just couldn't do both. He couldn't do both for one and for two, he I Finally pushed him to kind of like Make the leap, just do it. I think that we're gonna be okay and Obviously we're okay.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so it was.

Speaker 3:

it was crazy, so almost Gary, though to lose an entire income and just hope that this.

Speaker 4:

That's, and that's the thing, because she's in my, in my ear, or family's in my ear, like, oh no, I think you'll be fine.

Speaker 4:

You know it's still, it's terrifying, yeah, but uh yeah, I stepped out of full-time work not too long ago myself, and it's but when he's scary, and I think the last one of the last weeks I was there, I'd met a guy that was with a he just took over like a waste disposal company and he was a British guy and he kept Telling me these, these little snippets, occasional, and I saw him. You know what that? What I was afraid of wasn't really. It was no benefit to me at all.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so this perfect stranger was really kind of building his confidence to leave.

Speaker 4:

Every time you come in for something, he would always talk to me and he said what's the difference? You go on on your own, then your boss out of bed, a fire in you. What's the difference?

Speaker 1:

And I said no, job is permanent.

Speaker 4:

I said I don't know if that I'm like, no job is ever permanent and it stuck with me. I came home, told her that I like, yeah, and his name was Mads that was his first name is Mads and I was like this guy is pretty awesome and I ever thought about it like that. But really, though, there's nothing keeping someone from having a bad day and saying get out of here. So I'm blessed to have done it, I've got to experience it. And they say, once you're over that, huh, you never look back and you don't right.

Speaker 3:

It's it's harder work being your own boss like 100% way harder.

Speaker 4:

Have a lot more time to as our, as a family. That's. That's one thing that that I I love, because our kids going through that transition, through high school and now Both work from home you know being.

Speaker 3:

If people didn't know, we live on site, so our home is attached to our brewery.

Speaker 4:

Living aloft, literally building next door.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, and so, and then I moved my massage business. I've been a massage therapist for 18 years. There's a space next door that he renovated and made it beautiful yes, all by himself, while do opening the brewery and everything. It was insane.

Speaker 1:

I'm still tired. Yeah you're still catching up.

Speaker 3:

He just he's one of those if you, if it won't be done right unless you do it yourself, and yeah, I'm in time again that we should just let him do it, because we've hired out jobs before and then he just ends up Having to redo them.

Speaker 4:

So yes, and that that's that that work ethic is was important. You know, obviously had to get up bringing, you know, parents always working, always working, pushing the limits, and so that was always in the back of my head, you know. So this there, it's just not an option. When you go out on your own, you know it's to fail, it's just not no, you make it work, no matter what.

Speaker 3:

Our families have been a huge support. Yeah, our parents have been our biggest. So sure they helped us make everything you see in here possible, like his dad built all of these Tables and the bar, and then my dad did all the carvings the one that hangs out in front of the brewery and then the one behind the bar.

Speaker 4:

So family is important? Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Let's circle back to so. You know we heard a little bit about your background and advertising and stuff. So you, you mentioned massage, so you came here from that world and you're still doing that. Yeah yeah, but like, what got you into that? What's what led you going? Hey, I think I want to, you know, have a rando stranger like Some, some relief from working this, but too hard.

Speaker 2:

Like swinging a pickaxe or something, because that's what I do.

Speaker 1:

I'm. I'll do something stupid and then I'll tell my wife like I need to go get a massage is like I did too much.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, this is too bad and some people wait I until they're injured or they need it to get a massage. But I've built a clientele of people that are, you know, in need of me like once, twice a month, sometimes once a week, and I've just 18 years. I was a junior in high school when I first read about massage therapy and the effects on migraines and my mom suffered really Terribly with migraines and then I would get them from time to time and I just thought that that was really cool and but I I didn't know if I could make a career out of it. Being that young, you just don't know. So I decided to go the the route of College and I went to Missouri Southern for two years and I just it wasn't for me and I went to looking for Massage therapy schools.

Speaker 3:

I had a friend that was going to Embry Riddle in Daytona Beach, florida, to do she wanted to be a pilot. So she got accepted in that really prestigious college and she jokingly asked me one night if I wanted to come with her and I was like, oh gosh, are you being serious? And she goes I'm serious, I don't have a roommate, I already have a Apartment there. She was like Google Massage schools and I was like all right, so I did sure why not.

Speaker 4:

I said yeah I did.

Speaker 3:

I did at their next day. I Was without telling my mom. Sorry, mom, she was not happy that I did this, like Well.

Speaker 1:

I'm happy now.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, oh god, okay, oh god yes so I Applied at this college, got accepted, got all my Money in order and within like three weeks I was gone. I moved to Daytona Beach with my friend and I put myself through massage school by being a nanny. So I had two kids that I took care of. After I got out of school I would drive 30 minutes north to Palm Coast and I would pick them up from school. One of them, she jumped horses in competition and the other one was a baseball player and they were just really talented kids and I I stayed with them, or I had my own apartment, but I stayed with them a lot and she would pay me to take them to Disney World and stuff. It was just a really cool experience.

Speaker 1:

Getting a good bosses.

Speaker 3:

So she took really good care of me and it was like having family there, far away from home, and so that was my first experience living away from from home and I really liked it. And then I moved back and most of my career has been to Oasis Solana Day Spa in Joplin as a family owned business as well. They they kind of gave me a lot of really good worth, ethic and how to run a business and be kind to your employees and stuff, and Then I finally went out on my own. I waited 13 years to go out on my own and that's like he worked at his job for 20 years and I waited 13 years before I had enough confidence to Say, okay, I have the clientele and the the support group that they're going to follow me wherever I go.

Speaker 3:

And here I am, you know, years later and I have moved from Joplin To a little spot in web city for a little bit. And then when Nate got this finished for me, I told my clients I was moving out to Alba and asked them if they would come with me, and Basically all of them did. So I didn't lose, I only lost one, and it was no hard feelings, it was just the trip was going to be a little too far for. But I did end up moving a little closer to some of my clients that were already making a long trip to get to me.

Speaker 1:

So okay, so it actually ended up benefiting both of you then really well overall.

Speaker 3:

Oh, yeah, yeah, this move to Alba has been, yeah, really good for the surrounding towns.

Speaker 4:

I mean I think all of the towns combined like under Jasper County. I want to say it's like a hundred and 125,000 people. Yeah, it's not a lot compared to some areas, but there's so many little towns that her rural and most her clients were Carthage, Carle, Junction, Jasper, you know. So it's. It's crazy to think how much Uh clients like how many of them, lived out here already yeah and it's been a good Uh for our kid.

Speaker 3:

She moved school districts and she's just been kicking butt and swim and she has done really well with the adjustment. It's been good for our whole family.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, massage therapy and brewing kind of goes hand in hand, because people see the sign on the door when she had it up there and like, what's next door massage, can I get booked?

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh, if I wanted to take on more clients. I definitely could. Oh, yeah, that's good, but yeah and you touch on a great point there.

Speaker 1:

It's not often you can get a massage by the mayor of the Co-owner of the brewery too.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So that's, actually just a really cool thing. I feel like anyone listening to this. You need to come to alba just to do that experience, so I you should sell a group on for that alone. We should do it, you know just you know, the mayor will give you a massage and you'll have a beer, and that's it.

Speaker 4:

So like when our beer tender says service for the smile, that's awesome service for the smile.

Speaker 1:

So now, speaking of alba, so, like I understand, you guys have some pretty cool history facts here. As I was driving in, I noticed there's a ball field down here, the boyers boyer field.

Speaker 3:

Is that right yeah?

Speaker 1:

So if you know baseball, which I know, we've had these conversations a little bit, so you know spoiler alert there. But, um, tell me a little bit about the history of where does the boyer name come from and and what's the significance to baseball?

Speaker 4:

on that, so anyone in the area, if even all baseball, everyone kind of knew the boyers. There's kin boyer, which he was the famed st Louis Cardinal picture, and then you have cleat boyer. Was that climb?

Speaker 3:

I don't know all the names, I always there's seven, there's seven and all seven went on to either do minor league or major league baseball.

Speaker 4:

Cardinals, mets or Yankees. The most recent that has passed away Uh, was it last year? He was actually the last gig in the mlb was a coach for the kinsley royals, I believe. Wow, nice, so that this area was rich in history. It's like commerce. You know a state line over mickey mannell, uh, so the original field was actually right over here, a little bit north, so those players grazed that field. So mickey mannell is over there, uh, down here also. I can't remember when they built that field, I want to say like in the 30s or 40s, but it became pretty active. The boyers kind of Brought it to life, what they were doing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it wasn't named after them. So just a year has it been, a little over a year ago now. Yeah, I think so maybe not even a year yet.

Speaker 1:

I think you, just based on what I've seen, I think it was right around a year. Okay, all right.

Speaker 3:

So we had the name changed to the Boyerfield and we had it dedicated to the brothers.

Speaker 1:

Now, how do I got to ask, because I know the answer to this one how was that received here locally initially?

Speaker 3:

Not very good. Why not? Because the name was near and dear to a lot of people that lived here. He was a mayor previous and he did a lot of good things for the city and he had a lot of respect. And then and it was named after him and which is a good thing.

Speaker 3:

It was a great thing and I was not, and we as the council were not in any way trying to take that away from him. We were just trying to give something to somebody else that I thought was a little overdue, in my opinion, just because of what that they had accomplished.

Speaker 1:

Yeah the significant contribution to baseball. His name is.

Speaker 4:

Ike Meredith. So he was fairly recognized for the Missouri Municipal League as far as like just what he was doing as a mayor was. I mean, he was phenomenal.

Speaker 4:

He's a great guy. I still hear stories about him how good of a Mary was, but I think he kind of lived down in the your neck of the woods kind of the Arkansas area, okay, somewhere around there. But he transitioned up here and he was I don't remember how long he was the mayor, but they dedicated it to Ike Meredith. So whenever we brought the idea up and several other people, it should be Boyerfield, because there's a lot of the family still lives here in the town.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so some of the boys are one of our neighbors, right?

Speaker 3:

And one of them was still alive at the time of dedication. He has since passed away, but he was alive for the dedication, so I was really happy to have gotten that.

Speaker 4:

So he signed baseballs and.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, he signed baseballs. We had the local news come and cover it. Thankfully they showed up after my opening speech, because I hate public speaking. That's the one thing about mayor.

Speaker 1:

I understand that.

Speaker 3:

That is hard for me, but yeah, the news came out and covered it and I was just really happy that we were able to do that. And then when we got the sign up, we had it. Somebody spray painted over a few of the Boyer Brothers names and that was kind of disheartening.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, a little friend of mine who cleans. She was able to come out and she knew exactly what was going to take the stuff off the sign without hurting the sign. And she came right out, got up on a ladder and took care of it for us, so it would be ready for the dedication.

Speaker 4:

And there is some fun secured to keep moving forward on the field. I mean, there's certain things we're looking for right now, like bleachers, but it's still okay. It's a big project, yeah, but it's getting there.

Speaker 3:

If you know how we can source bleachers. Okay, I may have a phone connection I don't know, we'll see.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so if anybody's listening, then you can throw a comment down below or reach out to us here. You know brewhouseatrimnetcocom. Shoot us an email and I'll gladly put you in touch, or just reach out to Nate and Tiff directly.

Speaker 3:

Perfect. So, we've been on the lookout for a while and we just haven't found what's going to fit.

Speaker 4:

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

But we do have a budget that we're, as I said, working on doing that for the ball field, and then we're also going to put in a nine course Frisbee golf course out here or nine hole out here at our park, and so we're making it.

Speaker 1:

You got to be cautious. You got to call it disc golf, oh, because otherwise you're going to have the elites out there, oh sure.

Speaker 4:

Oh, man, yeah, so we've got a buddy that worked for the parks department in Joplin so he's supposed to come out and do like a walk to see what kind of, because they do have safety measurements, like they don't want to cross walking trails, they don't want to have your playground equipment. So we have to kind of see what the what we can get, because I guess there are family courses and there are also your, your pro level courses.

Speaker 3:

So I've not played many, many moons so we want to keep adding to the area, that we have a lot of kids out here, and so we want stuff for them to do. We want to revamp our park and make it usable and yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 1:

And then so we're talking. You know we talked to boys. We've talked. You know. I know you've had some really cool stuff. I know you've had some like cleanup days and things like that, just to really get community involvement. I think, as a as a leader, as the mayor here, I think that's that's really key. And what have you seen come from from those cleanup days? I mean, how has that gone for you? People usually embrace it pretty well, or?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. So this was something that Al has been doing for for quite some time. It just there wasn't anything in place to really help the elderly or the, the people that were maybe disabled, to get their stuff to the cleanup day, because there would be a lot of people that that did take really good advantage of of everything. But then there was those that were setting that their yards are just getting worse and worse but they physically could not do it. So I was just trying to get together a group of volunteers to to come and help those, and we did. I had a really good turnout. We got a lot of stuff cleaned up and it was really great. It was very well, well received.

Speaker 2:

We.

Speaker 3:

I think we do need to have something in place next year where we're more so watching for the people dumping the stuff they're not supposed to dump. Other than that it went very, very well.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so there was a lot of stuff that got hauled out of here. Yeah, so it's pretty cool, though I mean we were fairly busy, everyone was busy, so the people that took time to help, yeah, I mean it was awesome we were able to help people that that just didn't have a support system anymore to be able to help them.

Speaker 4:

So, yeah, so, from from that um and then, since us opening, there's several cool little, uh niche businesses all around us that you can see it like farmer markets and I think the girls across the street savory sauce. I think they might even be in some areas in Fort Smith, Arkansas and Fayetteville, aren't they?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they sell to some really like high-end restaurants.

Speaker 4:

I think they're in our uh, they're, they're everything local they're in 609, right Mm-hmm 1201, and I do know, Crabby's places like that.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

And they're just two girls. They're in their early 20s, they have their grandmother's recipe and they make her um dressing over there. And right after we moved in, I mean, they cleaned up the front of their building, they painted it, they got new uh window Signage. New signage. So everybody started kind of cleaning up business-wise oh our album machine. Yeah, they painted their building shortly after we opened and it's been.

Speaker 4:

It's been relatively cool because we all help one another, that foot traffic is important and just seeing that it kind of lit a fire under everyone you know so it's it looks a lot different than we moved here three years ago.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think whenever you see someone, someone come in that believes in what you already believe in and it reminds you that you believe in it, then that it's easier to kind of kind of get that ball rolling again. So that's really cool. Yeah, now tell me about the building we're in. So I teased a little bit in the intro about the old history, the rich history of this building. You guys have had what, like this building is known for having what Mercedes out front, or Lambert.

Speaker 4:

Keeley Lambert. Keeley, rolls Royce's Lambert Lambert.

Speaker 1:

Where in the world? Why are they coming through Albumination Unknown?

Speaker 3:

Yes it was called the Old Miners In. I opened in 1979. Max Giovanni was the chef. He's from France and he was a five star Michelin chef and he had plans to make something, a five course restaurant to beat all five course restaurants. And everybody thought he was kind of crazy to come here in a tiny little mining town, old mining town, but he did.

Speaker 4:

It was a love story really. The why he did it, yes she was from Album Yep. That's where he met his wife. You know he was working at a resort, I think in Lake of the Ozarks, before he made the transition, and it was a. It was like on fire French cuisine.

Speaker 3:

It lit up Really really fancy and he, you know, raised his large family out here while making the most amazing. Yeah, they lived in our little apartment and he just wowed this area and I heard that Garth Brooks ate here once.

Speaker 4:

Several celebrities Dr Ruth is here, you know. So there was several like celebrities over the last 30 years that they kind of that made their appearance here and there. But it was no, it was nothing out of the ordinary to see all of these cars lined up down the street, and that's insane. People still show us pictures like this is what it used to look like, you know, and so can we get it back there.

Speaker 1:

I think we can get Garth Brooks to come here.

Speaker 4:

Oh yeah, I would love to. We're gonna. How sweet would that be, oh my God.

Speaker 1:

Garth, here's your official intro Invite. Invite right here, please.

Speaker 3:

Garth.

Speaker 1:

Brooks. Yeah, if anybody knows Garth, there's always the six degrees right, oh my gosh yeah. And so it's like.

Speaker 3:

Do you remember when you ate at Old Mainers Inn?

Speaker 4:

Well, it's open, come back, come back, come have a beer.

Speaker 1:

And we do have a beer with your friends in low places.

Speaker 3:

Yes, and the coolest part about this whole like full circle thing is his daughter, his youngest youngest right, yeah, she's youngest. She has lived all over the world and she just recently moved back to Alba and bought a home here with her family. And she hit me up on Facebook and she said you know, I have a day job, I'm a teacher. She's a special ed teacher and she goes. I just want to be in that building again. I miss being there. I miss the whole feeling of it. She was like I just want to be a part of what you guys are doing.

Speaker 3:

And I was like heck, yeah, so she works for us now, and so she has filled me in on.

Speaker 4:

She's our Sunday beer tender, yeah, so she works every single Sunday.

Speaker 3:

She fills me in on all the old stories and you know different stuff that her dad did.

Speaker 4:

It's very cool she shows me old pictures.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And has really been our history buff as far as all things. Old miners in.

Speaker 4:

But that's what helped us in the very beginning was it had such a big name. The old miners in yeah.

Speaker 3:

And I don't know if we said it ran for 28 years. It was here for a long time.

Speaker 1:

You said it started when 1979 to 2007.

Speaker 3:

And for the last five years his daughter ran the kitchen. He was out of it for the last five of it.

Speaker 4:

Okay, yeah, so it's pretty incredible just what they were able to do for a small town. You got to remember small town America looked a lot different than it does now. So the kind of clientele they were bringing in and it was just ridiculous. It was reservation only, it went away, yeah. So it's just kind of nice that we can showcase that and a lot of people that never got to come in here they get to see it now, like I never stepped foot in here.

Speaker 3:

They couldn't afford to eat there, like all the people that lived here locally never ate here. It was all people from like what we're doing what we're doing bringing people from all over as a destination.

Speaker 4:

Okay when they come in, it does. It has a good energy in it. It has beautiful energy. It has like a family feel when you walk in. A lot of people say that it just feels so happy, it's very warm, yeah, it's very nice, it's happy, there's good energy in here, and how much of this was there's columns.

Speaker 1:

There's the bar, of course, up here in the front, but how much of this was here from then versus how much of you ran away?

Speaker 4:

So the daughter when she took it over, when he decided to retire, she did all of the arch work. I think the ceiling's relatively low, I think they were drop ceiling.

Speaker 3:

Okay, she explained it, yeah, so she opened up the ceiling, she added the columns, the beautiful slate tile which was covered by carpet. When we took ownership of it and we weren't really sure what was under the carpet, and when we rolled back the carpet, there was this gorgeous slate tile.

Speaker 1:

This is the original tile. Yes, oh wow, this is very cool that she put down in the 2000s.

Speaker 4:

But everything was just basically and at some point someone had done wall murals, so it was floor to ceiling wall murals and they were crazy they're crazy. There was a lot of paint. It was beautiful.

Speaker 3:

Don't get me wrong, but I felt like it really like closed the room. It made it feel tinier to me. So we were able to pick this, you know, bright. It was actually funny. We were looking for colors and I was going through this swatch and I said, oh my gosh, this is the one. I think this is really nice. And he looked at it and he goes it's called pale ale. Yeah, I was like, oh my God, how perfect that's fantastic, so that color is called pale ale. Okay.

Speaker 4:

So that was what brightened it up, and that's when we started kind of seeing like, okay, the archers were, and the archers were white, the pillars were white Like a Parisian. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And Nate had this idea to make them look like pipes, because we're a steam punk brewery. So he made them look like copperish brass pipes, and they're really cool.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so that's really the only thing that we had to do. It was a blank canvas. All the tables bar came in after Okay, so we had a blank canvas. Yeah, this whole room was just empty. That's so cool.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, they used it. They were grandparents and this was their kid's playroom, so they had a big. This was a living room. This was a ball table and like different stuff. But yeah, they put the Like it is a little echo in here because of the grand ceilings and stuff, but having screaming children running around didn't really that wasn't? Yeah, pleasing for their ear holes. So they put thick. I mean, this carpet was like every bit of that thick.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Wow, so we had no idea it was hiding underneath, so we got super lucky with that. That's so cool we got really lucky in a lot of things.

Speaker 1:

It's very well preserved too.

Speaker 3:

Yes, so it was in really good condition when we took it over.

Speaker 4:

I think now it's, I think it may have. I think it's 101 years old this year, really.

Speaker 1:

I think it's 101. So you're doing like a special beer release for that. I mean, I don't know.

Speaker 4:

Well, we do have barrel. We do have our barrel-aged beers coming out in March, march 18th. So Okay, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And we were talking about. Since we have family, we can get certain permissions. I don't know if they still have trademark on their name or what it is, but we do. She has given us permission to even make like an old Miners End Throwback shirt and we've talked about putting the menu the front of the menu, which is like a really rough, like pencil sketch of the it's the Main Street Main. Street as it looked back then and it's really neat, so we kind of wanted to put that on our barrel-aged bottles at some point.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so Like old Miners End series or something you know Absolutely.

Speaker 3:

And then with her being, you know, she has all of her dad's old recipes and stuff and I'm opening up a little micro kitchen coming up soon I hope. Okay.

Speaker 2:

We're going to leave it to that, so it is going to be.

Speaker 3:

I'm calling it a micro kitchen. Right now, what we do as far as food is we have food trucks come in, they park on the back, off the back patio. We have a nice little pad there. They can plug in and not have to use their loud generators and people can just come in and off the patio and do that. And we had the idea of being completely self-sustainable, because it is hard to get food trucks. There's not a whole lot to choose from around here, and then all of us breweries, slash wineries are using the same ones, and so you know, so it provides business for them as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

But we always had the idea of being completely self-sustainable and we wanted to make sure that we had this, you know, down to a T before we added anything else. But now we're kind of in the works of getting the little micro kitchen open, so it is attached to the brewery. It's just on the other side of the wall. We'll have an order window that's in the brew house itself, because our brew house is completely walk-through, so you have to walk through where we make the beer to get to our patio.

Speaker 2:

Which is kind of cool.

Speaker 3:

And it's really fun.

Speaker 4:

We always say make yourself a home, drink like you're on a place. You can't really go anywhere wrong.

Speaker 3:

It kind of just flows out to the outdoor space. So we'll have a little order window there and it's called the Alba Press. It is a panini and soup shop and I'm going to have, you know, five signatures sandwiches, a daily soup and pretzel bites. Just little I think I'm going to start with maybe eight menu items total To kind of get the ball rolling. And yeah, we're starting a little sandwich.

Speaker 4:

And it's kind of a spawn off of like the decor here. I mean you won't be able to go over there. It's going to be a grab and go type thing. You don't even have to come into the brewery. You like to get a beer? To get it, you just walk back there and take some food home, but it's daughter MJ.

Speaker 3:

She's going to help me kind of do the menu. And there's. I had somebody specifically come in and say, oh my gosh, if you can bring back Max's cream of carrot soup, like I will kiss your feet and buy gallons of it. And I was like okay. So I like talked to her and she goes. I think I've heard of that. Actually I'll ask my mom, and so there's certain little recipes and we'll put you know, old miners in you know, beside the holy grill, you know.

Speaker 4:

so it's nice having OMI is what she said.

Speaker 3:

We should call it. You know old miners in Moniker but was it Giovanni right? Yeah, so we'll have some of his recipes, hopefully executed by his lovely daughter. She's going to help me in the kitchen.

Speaker 1:

It's going to be awesome. That's amazing. I love seeing the history of what was pouring into, what is and where you guys are heading.

Speaker 3:

I know, and she tells me all the time how proud her dad would have been. He's since passed away and she, just she, knows that he would just think it was the coolest thing that we are bringing it back to life and that we're doing something with this building again.

Speaker 4:

And most of these little towns. They always they had so many unique little businesses back in the early 1900s, you know, during the depression era. Even so, we could not think of a name for the life of us and just kind of fell like Alba Press, you know, panini Press, and we'll play on words of like an old newspaper, you know like. So it was kind of funny. We started talking back and forth and I'm kind of corny when it comes to mottos. We're like let's do the Alba Press extra, extra, eat, all about it, you know. So the logo is almost, I think, complete. We got a pretty cool artist for the brewery and she did hers. It's like an old typewriter, steam punk English looking, but the letterhead on the form says the Alba Press.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and the top food for every type.

Speaker 1:

Right Typewriter is a.

Speaker 3:

Panini Press. Yeah, what did he say? I'm excited.

Speaker 1:

I got your food for every type. I got you yes, no royalties needed.

Speaker 4:

We're good, I'm just killing it today, right? It's like oh yeah, but no. So yeah, I'm excited about that.

Speaker 1:

And when's that opening?

Speaker 3:

We were hoping before the end of last year. But there's so many things delayed and shipping for everyone in every business avenue.

Speaker 1:

It's still outside of LA right now in the port it's hanging out.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, just hanging out in the water, the Santa.

Speaker 1:

Claus hasn't taken delivery yet in Florida.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and that's so it's basically done, everything's done, ready to go. It's just there's. There's like literally like one key piece now that we're just waiting on. But other than that, hopefully soon we'll be able to rock and roll. She's excited for it, like it's going to be her and our daughter. I want to open in February, okay.

Speaker 1:

All right, if at all possible. You do like a Valentine's Open, you know, or something like that, maybe.

Speaker 3:

I don't know. That's like two weeks.

Speaker 1:

All the lovers. That's true, it is now, oh my gosh, february is tomorrow, so oh yeah, oh shoot, okay yeah. And we have like a case. You were curious when we're recording.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, it's February 1st tomorrow, gosh.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, ready, here it comes, valentine's Day. Yeah, yeah, we're, we're there.

Speaker 1:

Well, tell you what let's. Let's pop to commercial really quick here and then we're going to come back in. I got some fun questions for y'all, okay, and we want to talk a little bit about the beer too. That's good.

Speaker 1:

You know, I'm at a brewery, so, yeah, let's talk about beer. So, all right, we'll catch you here in a little bit. Thanks for listening to the brew house. Hey, y'all, it's the beard bro.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

You're listening to the Brewhouse, the podcast for beer lovers of all types. Now back to the show. All right.

Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Brewhouse. I am your host, the Beer Bro, and I now am better because I have a beer in my hand. I'm here with Nate and Tiff over at Beer Engine Brewing Company In Album, missouri, of all places dot on the map, but amazing, rich history, as we've heard so far in the first half, and just some of the cool stuff that ties to baseball, the old miners in, you name it. So now let's get into the portion a little bit about the beer itself. Just talk a little bit about what. First of all, I got to go back. I got to go backwards because the flight board that I'm using is shaped like a giant gear. What's up with that?

Speaker 4:

So us being a steampunk inspired like English brewery. So most of our beers in the house there is their English, scottish, irish or German. So we kind of bring forward the malt driven beers. That's the English portion of it. You're in a French building that has the French architecture very Parisian in here. When we came in here we're like what are we going to do with this? What kind of brewery can we make with this without destroying the aesthetic?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, nate's an artist, so he sees with artists, clearly so me being an artist.

Speaker 4:

I said we should do a steampunk English brewery Like kind of focus on the Edwardian Victorian era with its. You know the grandiose. Here we are, this is where you're at.

Speaker 3:

I had heard steampunk and, of course, like I knew what it entailed, but not in the depth that now that we've dove into it and kind of researched it, it's a really cool thing, and if you ever read about Jules Verne, the books on steampunk.

Speaker 4:

Steampunk is basically it's everything mechanical, not electric. It's by water, it's by, it's by gears, it's just by it's mechanical. It's making something work that's not designed to work. That's kind of how my brain is half the time in here and it kind of fits.

Speaker 1:

I know a few people like that. Yeah, you have to make them work, because they don't want to work and that's why you always see these ridiculous contraptions like on steampunk sites.

Speaker 4:

It's like that would never work yeah.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's the water pipe with light bulb coming out of it, right? Yeah, exactly, it's your table lamp.

Speaker 4:

But in the book, yeah, you'll find oh, it does work. And that's kind of what we we use here is you're taking very little to make something great. Yeah, so it applies to what we do in this brewery.

Speaker 3:

So that's kind of how the whole steampunk thing was born, yeah, and his dad is a woodworker, so he made these for us.

Speaker 4:

Okay, okay, so I'm the house coppersmith artist and her dad's the woodcarver. My dad's the carpenter. When you walk in you see the umbrella. That's actually a vintage Parisian umbrella. I think it's from the late fifties, early sixties. I actually wrapped that and made like it look like skin leather, but that's just a regular umbrella. That's our chandelier. That's so cool. That's when they walk in they don't see it. When they're sitting here they look at it like is that a real umbrella?

Speaker 3:

And when people are bringing new people in there, like you have to come look at the bathroom and they're like the bathroom. Each bathroom has cool little steampunk.

Speaker 4:

Nautilus things.

Speaker 3:

And it's stuff that we all sit down as a family and made together before we opened and it's a nice.

Speaker 4:

It's a fun, quirky way to kind of display art as well, you know. So that's kind of you can't not be in here and not think steampunk, yeah, and it just worked for the space.

Speaker 1:

You got propellers on the ceiling for your fan, yeah.

Speaker 4:

It starts coming together. You just kind of have to think outside that box. But that's where the whole steampunk element came from and it fit perfectly with the beers that we knew we were going to be brewing.

Speaker 1:

Well, and you did touch on, you know a lot of English beers, you know things like that, and one of the statement pieces you'll find if you, if you walk in here to the brewery, is a gorgeous telephone booth over here. Yep, you want to tell us a little bit about that, because I heard that was kind of a surprise, right?

Speaker 3:

Yes, yes. So Nate is obsessed with those and the TARDIS. He just really it loves everything about all of that.

Speaker 2:

And so I wanted to. He's always wanted, yeah.

Speaker 4:

And my family is rich, like English Welch on one side and then native on the other side.

Speaker 3:

So I don't think there's always been fascinated by the K five booths the K two, K two's were his favorite model, and so I started looking. I was going to try to surprise him with like a reef, like a refurbish, not refurbish. But you know restore, restore and they're thousands upon thousands, upon thousands of dollars, and so, then, even finding one that was just a knockoff made of metal was even just as expensive.

Speaker 3:

So I got with his dad, who was just amazing, and I said do you think that you could do a K two? He got online, he found the whole set up for the dimension, yeah, and he put it together for him.

Speaker 1:

It looks authentic, like it looks legit.

Speaker 3:

He put that thing together in a week. That's incredible.

Speaker 4:

He worked so fast and it does light up. Like I said, we had, that was just an empty space, the alcove. That was actually one of the entrances to the old dining room. Yeah, two miners in there was two dining rooms. It was kind of a weird negative space and that was just kind of helped us with overflow t shirts and plus.

Speaker 3:

It's a great photo opportunity People come out of photos with it and then one day, whenever we do open up the space that was the second dining room for old miners in, that is going to be like a little secret path. There will be a front entrance.

Speaker 4:

Like a back of week easy time, so it'll be passed through you can walk straight through. We just don't tell everyone that, and I just told everybody it's okay.

Speaker 1:

It's all right, there's nobody listening except for, you know, hopefully a few million people by this point.

Speaker 4:

They'll never miss that. But yeah, so that's a. It all just kind of fell together and it just it worked, that's cool.

Speaker 1:

Now I understand there's also, before we get to the beer which I did just finish, one that was delicious. But before we talk about that, I heard that you if you were telling me before Nate walked in here earlier you recently found out some cool stuff about why you're so passionate about the English stuff Kind of the heritage, right.

Speaker 3:

So he grew up his dad was pretty convinced that they were Dutch. He told Nate his whole life growing up that it was. It was Dutch background.

Speaker 4:

But then you got the Started doing a lot more Ancestry. Yeah, I started going digging deep in that. My mom's always been real big into that. Just digging deep, just doing the research and pinpointing things, because in my family there's not a lot of people that look like me either one side or the other. I'm kind of the.

Speaker 3:

Native Americans don't really grow big spacious spirits like that, and I'm the guy that's in the family, that's like.

Speaker 4:

I'm the shortest in the family. I'm the only one that has like facial hair that just grows wildly, you know, and everyone else is very. They have the skin tone. I do not. My dad's the same way. He's got the ICIs and but yeah, he said you know, he thought of his whole life Dutch.

Speaker 3:

Well then he got his ancestry, Com stuff back and yeah, it's pretty rich.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so Welch English. So it's kind of crazy, but it lined up perfectly with all the art information we have for my mom's native side Okay. So it's kind of neat to see how it lined up, because I knew how much was in my it was like high 80s or something. Oh yeah, but even before then we were always I mean, I always had some kind of element of English history in my, in my home. Yeah, it was something I was always, I was just fascinated with it, the beers.

Speaker 4:

Even early on, I've just always liked, yes, natural leaning, yeah, yeah, and it was like, oh, that makes sense, that's kind of cool.

Speaker 3:

So that was kind of I was kind of shocked too, and I don't know if he ever went and got an ancestry test of his own, but he was talking about wanting to do that In the names data back into English, you know.

Speaker 4:

So it's a. It's a very odd name, artinger, so there's not many out there. So it was really cool getting these little plugs reaching out to me, like hey, I think you're my cousin and I'm like, wait a minute, where are you from? Yeah, so digging deep into that, we kind of unearthed the whole other world. Super cool.

Speaker 3:

And the reason he's been drawn to all this stuff, his whole life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's amazing what genetics can do, that we don't realize the impact that it's having on us, and it's weird and we've always so like our vehicles.

Speaker 4:

We have mini coopers, we have an Austin Healy, I got a Triumph and that's before you ever knew about it. Everything's like always been. I've always been fascinated with that whole Jaguar, Aston Martin. That's why I've always liked every time you guys go to the lake, you have to throw some tea in there.

Speaker 1:

Like it's wonderful, I do like tea, all right, good. Well, so I just finished one that's the Queens Guard London Lager. Tell us a little bit about that one, because I got to be honest. I can smash that all day at the lake easily. Why is that so easy to drink?

Speaker 4:

So that is the easiest way to explain that if you you know your craft beer, that is about as close to a Munich health as you're going to get that's not actually brewed in Germany. So what makes this one special? This showcases the East Anglia region of the UK, which is the easterly portion by Essex. It's all English malts, english hops and it's our house yeast that we use and we do logger this beer. It's super clean and it does throw off a little bit of that mild sweetness that a Munich does, but it's also crisp. We never had a light option.

Speaker 4:

Being a malt driven brewery, very medium to full bodied. The clash was our big, big seller. Being a villain of cream ale, this was something that anyone could drink and it just kind of flew off the off the rocker the minute we released it, and it did replace another brewery staple that we opened with, which was our honey logger, which was another English beer, but this one's. This was pretty easy to drink. Oh yeah, it's an all day lawn mower patio, but there's some substance to it. There's some body to it.

Speaker 3:

You're forgetting something a little important that you've been doing recently. What are you doing? We're profiling. So not only are we doing these styles from other regions, but he's pinpointing the water from that region and he's making changes to it.

Speaker 1:

So it is. We've been talking to Matt down at.

Speaker 3:

Ozark.

Speaker 1:

Mountain, Because you need to. I could send a to contact with the guys at Ozark Mountain brewing down in Fayetteville. They actually did what I think you're getting ready to talk about with recreating the water.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's what we're doing.

Speaker 1:

That's insane.

Speaker 4:

That makes the best.

Speaker 3:

And everyone has to, so London Lager was brewed with and we've always played with.

Speaker 4:

There's certain beers that we do so ESBs, your Browns, your Porters, anything drawn from the UK. They have very soft water, but they also have, like, high sulfur content. We are on a well out here. A lot of people complain about the water you know and whatnot. This and that I love it. It's good for brewing. Yeah, if you match this profile to anything in the world, it actually is the closest to Munich, germany you will find in our area. So we have tapped that resource and it actually makes incredible beers. You should keep that a secret.

Speaker 3:

I wasn't really sure, because the fact that he skipped over it. I was like does he not want people? I'm going to go ahead and, but I'm not going to tell you everything that's in this.

Speaker 4:

So so most of these like the logger's especially. That's the difference between these. When we produce these it's about as close as you're going to get to some other part of the world. We do make a few adjustments to kind of dial in what we need to shine Christmas hops malt but for what we have to work with out here it's been really easy for these beer styles and it really showcased the London logger, I think, and it just made it brought up to life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, now that's fantastic. Helles. We were chatting a little bit a while ago and Helles is definitely one of my favorite, I think. Just easily drinkable anytime. Just love a good Helles. And so the moment I tasted that I was like this is oddly close to that, and so that makes sense that it is that close to it, because we love Ozark, and it didn't have any idea that they were doing that too.

Speaker 3:

But that makes sense, because we've always kind of looked at them. Well, yeah, so he actually Like minded.

Speaker 1:

I know in Fayetteville their water comes from Beaver Lake and everything. There's a whole bunch of different things going on there. But yeah, he mentioned how they're stripping and hopefully we'll get him on the show here pretty soon too. But basically just you know they he actually strips the water down completely and then re adds the right minerals to rebuild.

Speaker 4:

That you kind of have to do. You should do that anyway. We did a little bit in the beginning just for certain beers, the ESB, especially. It's one. It's a tough beer style to nail because of the water. You don't see a lot of breweries doing ESBs or miles and I think we're one of the very few in the state of Missouri that actually does what we do and have the cast program. It's kind of like we're out here just on our own, yeah, but to get to that you got to manipulate that water to get those profiles.

Speaker 4:

I'm a stickler for tradition. A lot of people veer off the beaten path for beers, but as you taste the progression of it, what it could be, you're like oh my God, that's what I'm missing. I need more chloride, you know, or more sulfate, and so that's what you have to kind of play with. But I'm very happy with the way this beer turned out Absolutely. Now it is like one of our top three staples in the brewery house and a lot of people didn't even know London had a loggers. You have travelers that come in and they're like they are all known for ales. That's actually not true?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, not 100% there. So well, very cool. Well, I thank you for telling me that, because again, I think that was, that was a surprise right out of the gate, and now I've got another one in here. That was. I kind of took a sip before I realized which one it was the penny dreadful, yes, and that is my favorite beer up there.

Speaker 1:

Tell me about this because I know that immediately the flavor that I tasted whenever I got it. But tell them, tell the folks listening like where did this come from? Kind of what's it.

Speaker 4:

It's kind of weird. So we do a lot of cask, as you were being on our Friday night, which I know you have. We play with a lot of adjuncts, a lot of ingredients and kind of play with secondary fermentations like what will this flavor do? That was actually started out as a as a cask. Yeah, we threw a bunch of it. We call it Ferkin Fridays Ferkin.

Speaker 3:

Fridays yes, friday, come by. We love to travel and we really love and fell in love with New Mexico, and so we had just come back from a trip from.

Speaker 4:

New Mexico. That's where my mom is from Gotcha it's house.

Speaker 3:

And so we had just made a trip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe and we came back just loving I mean, he ate green chilies every single day, for every single meal. They were in every single beer, like he really did everything chili the entire time we were there.

Speaker 4:

Ice cream, yogurt, everything.

Speaker 3:

Everything. Yeah, he got ice cream with chilies in it. So we got back and he was inspired by our trip to New Mexico when he really wanted to do a chili beer and we really like Amber Lagers, and so he he built a really amazing Lee tasting beer on its own and then when he put the peppers in it, like whoa.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yes, we've got a little bit of it. So what is it? It's a poblano serrano. Yeah, so it's a lager. So green chilies is kind of something special to New Mexico and it is weird. Certains varieties are seasonal. Okay, but it's easier for me. You can get poblanos in serranos anywhere in our area.

Speaker 1:

I've grown some.

Speaker 4:

I really like them. They're very similar in heat as far as like vegetable taste, so that's basically just a clean amber lager that we just bomb with the poblanos and serranos. Okay.

Speaker 3:

And it has such complex pepper flavors without having like a ton of heat.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

So you can drink it over and over again without it being too much, and you're still getting that clean vegetal taste.

Speaker 1:

But it's not. One thing I'm noticing is it's not super green like you know, like a green pepper kind of a flavor would be, but it's super clean, like you're mentioning. Just you can enjoy the flavor without the heat, but also like it's, there's nothing overpowering about it.

Speaker 4:

And I love ambers. They have like a toasty character to them.

Speaker 3:

And he roasted the poblanos, yeah.

Speaker 4:

So everything's fire roasted, everything's done like in-house. So anytime we play with stuff like that, it's kind of a pain sometimes, like fire roasting that many Blending and doing all this. It's just an extra step. You know that we feel like that can make our beer better.

Speaker 3:

It's special touches.

Speaker 4:

So that thing, it was originally just the ale and then I started kind of playing with a little bit more and it turned into a lager. I said we should logger this thing. So now it's an amber lager. So you still get that full malt riches and the toast, but you also get that clean, crisp bite at the end and it really helps the peppers kind of really shine. Yeah, but it's not over, it's not overpowering. A lot of people are scared of it when they see the heat behind it. Yeah, serrano, like it's not. Oh, I don't want that. Yeah, I throw little samples at them.

Speaker 3:

I throw little samples at people that maybe didn't want to try it, and then they're like, oh, oh okay. This is what it is. Yeah, I was scared, but it's my favorite one. It's my go to like daily, yeah, or a weekendly drinker.

Speaker 4:

And the name was spawned from just old nudge, nudge. So we were talking about this name and the beer. I don't remember what we went through, but we started doing some research like, obviously, like the old papers, the old cartoons and like comic strips where they called them penny dreadfuls.

Speaker 2:

Okay, like your wolf man your freight sign, and they're awful.

Speaker 4:

You know, most of them were like this just ridiculous whore you know theme, whorely sketch kind of yeah. But it's like werewolves, vampires and which is very close, so the dreadful came from there, yeah, and then that was only a penny, so that's where the name came from. And then fast forward. We had a regular come in. He said you guys have watched penny dreadful on Netflix.

Speaker 3:

Is that where you got the name from?

Speaker 4:

And I was like no.

Speaker 3:

I hadn't even heard of it, so we watched film over the three seasons and it is. It's Frankenstein and werewolves, some vampires and the undead, and that's, it's everything.

Speaker 4:

It's just, it kind of went with the beer, the name like the penny. Now when I think about that name I just think it's oh, it's our, it's our paper, we always sit down together, we'll drink a craft beer, and then we'll just start.

Speaker 3:

Throwing we're just on boarding names off each other. And it's funny because we it's kind of a competition who can have the best name for a beer, and we're kind of dead even. It's like you've been naming a little more than me, I think. I think I should give you a little bit more credit. You've been coming up with some really freaking cool ones.

Speaker 4:

It's like the Queens guard. We used to play this game on our phones and our daughter is called Crossy roads. Yep, it's like Frogger, absolutely. If you got so high, you got to get like a phone box. Or you got a Queens guard when she was like six or seven she's like guard Queens guard and she would jump across. So we named that beer the Queens guard. You know, because of that it's kind of a joke.

Speaker 3:

But absolutely Well most names have hidden meanings Stories like memories.

Speaker 1:

Oh, absolutely. So yeah, I mean, I'm noticing, we got, you know, we got dude white Russian, so it's self-explanatory. Give the nod.

Speaker 4:

There we're doing a lot of English like ale styles. We do usually have at least two or three loggers on there, believe it or not? Yeah, I never really wanted to have that many on because how much space they take up.

Speaker 3:

And how much time they take. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Like how big is your system here? So we do. We do everything in three-year-old batches. Our brew house can go up to about six barrel, but right now we're just kind of like halted to. At a three barrel we're able to do small batch and flip pretty fast. But we do have new equipment on the way We'll be able to. Yeah, growing, that's always a good thing. Got a little sneak peek there. Yeah, so that's coming. But right now the way we designed the brew house was if we grow out of it too fast, we have a traditional four vessel that we can just double batch and become a six barrel, an on-demand sparge system.

Speaker 1:

Now remind me, are you open top Bring back there. I can't remember.

Speaker 4:

So we're direct fire. We're a direct fire brewery, yep, yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think that I've only ever heard of one other brewery in our region, Ivory Bill, that has the open top.

Speaker 4:

Yes, and it's very protective and they're woodwrapped, Just good. Like I said they my dad had actually made the. He made the barrel of the staves out of Missouri Black Walnut, so you kind of bring that element of Missouri here. Yeah, A local company, KMI Metals, did our bands for them so they look like actual English vessels. That was the whole the plan beginning.

Speaker 3:

It's funny. We'll go to breweries and he'll say how he has a traditional system and how he does like to be hands on. And they're like you still use a mash paddle. Oh, yeah, yeah, and they kind of giggle at him.

Speaker 4:

But caveman, you know it's all right, but I but I like it. I've always liked this. We're grain to glass. We mill everything in house all the way to the, the finals. So I like having my hands on it. It's a little bit extra work and as you grow you do find yourself getting out of that, but right now, up to seven barrel, I think it's fairly manageable. Yeah, and I live doing it.

Speaker 3:

But I feel like you can tell, you can tell that he is hands on all the way through, yeah, and you can just feel it in the beer. I know that sounds weird, but Well, no.

Speaker 1:

And the kernel?

Speaker 4:

brewery in London is like one of the was one of the places that kind of helped me in the very beginning I conspired for like I want to model my brew house of what he's doing. He was like in an old, defunct subway under a tunnel and his system looks basically just like mine, but it's got. I wanted to look like that, but he was very hands on and I just remember watching videos and interviews I'm like God man, that's, that's what I want. Yeah, I want like traditional.

Speaker 3:

Yes, and he loves his traditional. But then he'll go like he went and got, to do a collab with four by four and spring filled our buddies and he brewed on their, their system and he got really spoiled. He came back thinking he needed everything he's like oh my gosh, this is amazing.

Speaker 4:

Stress free. Yeah, so it's a there.

Speaker 3:

He may do a little updates here and there to make life a little bit easier on himself, but he works his fingers to the bone he deserves a little shortcuts here and there.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's really good and I think you know, in being in the beer space and just learning, what I've learned so far from interviews is just knowing the heart behind people who intentionally go through the traditional process. It's just, it makes, it does make the beer, it elevates the craft a lot.

Speaker 4:

There's more that you got to kind of be. You have to be there a lot more opposed to just you know systems get steam fired, man, that's that's the way to go Numatic ball valves and you get spoiled really quick, like I'm just gonna push a button and leave. But now I've got an assistant that just kind of hangs out and watches, temps it can be done.

Speaker 3:

since the last time we saw you, he actually has help. Yeah he does have an assistant.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

So he's been a really big help for him in the back and I can tell just on his face on a regular basis it's a lot less stressed, His eyes aren't so or his eyebrows aren't so furrowed all the time and being able to like kind of teach that like my method, because it does change.

Speaker 4:

Brewing is the same. They've been doing thousands of years. We make little changes, you know in life, but he loves teaching people.

Speaker 3:

I think in like a different time, if we weren't going to be doing brewing, he would have made an amazing teacher, because he does like to pass on his knowledge and anybody that's willing to absorb things that he's saying, he will teach you everything that he knows and I'm a reader, you know, like we were mentioning the first part, that I just I read.

Speaker 4:

I just want to learn, like the history of the beer, the region, what made it so different? Why is the barley tastes like that? Why is the yeast so different? So I'm constantly reading. I will never not read about it because I think that you can always expand and do better in beer.

Speaker 3:

He's not at his best yet.

Speaker 1:

No, Well, and let me ask so you're talking about that and you mentioned a lot of like local, you know sourcing and things like that Do you get your grain from here, locally?

Speaker 4:

So everything we source comes from the East Anglia region of the UK. So every most of our grains we are 100% English grains in our brew house.

Speaker 1:

So is there? Is there like have you noticed, just based on what you've started reading and what you understand about the types of grains and why they're grown in certain regions, things like that have you noticed as you've continued to order from the same place? Have you seen any shift in flavors in certain?

Speaker 4:

Yes, we've played with several different malters around the world that just have that kind of showcase the grain that we use, probably on the back. There's subtle differences. If the regular person come in and pick them out, kudos to them. Because we trial the kernels, they come in like the crunch. Is it soft, is it crunchy, is it stale? You can pick these little things up but you can always taste a nuttiness, a breadiness, sweet, not so sweet, but the grains that we use, I mean they're consistently just stellar. Yeah, like I said, and that's a little bit difficult sometimes with the way we're in in the world getting grains from overseas in. We don't have a, we don't use anything from the US for grains. So, okay, takes a little bit longer and it does. In the last few weeks it's been getting ridiculous, but we're hanging in there.

Speaker 1:

I was going to ask so during the during the whole last two years of, you know, daunting existence in this world, have you what was probably? Is there a time that was kind of the bleakest for getting grains and supplies, or is it kind of just been all a slightly slower process?

Speaker 4:

It's been so. We've never had issues getting what we need. Obviously we're going to. Craft beer is growing rapidly right now, so the bigger they get. Obviously, hop farms get stressed. If you don't have a contract for the hop farm, you're going to be on a what's called spot hop list. You get what they have left over, gotcha so. But us, being all English traditional, we don't really have a planner.

Speaker 4:

We don't have issues getting hops for the types of hops we use Okay Grains I think, since we've been opened twice how we kind of had some issues getting the grain that we need but we have had some backup options. But there's always going to be a subtle difference, you know so we never want to cut corners as far as the quality. I've never not used like English grains, so I can't speak on behalf of any other maltster. You know out there, like I don't know if it's good or bad, I just know what I know and I don't want to change that. That's awesome.

Speaker 1:

No, I think that's. That's great, you know. You know, not just saying stick to your lane, but like you, you know what works and you have you have gone through the detail to figure out what do you want to be known for, what flavors work for you and what suppliers can provide that for you, and I think that's too many people get caught up in trying to always do something different. Yeah, and they kind of lose their identity.

Speaker 3:

We're trying to be a little more traditional, and we do have people that miss the fact that we don't. We aren't a huge IPA brewery.

Speaker 4:

IPA is a big. If we've been to breweries where because, let's be honest, they're easy I'm sorry. I'm the non-brewer guy.

Speaker 1:

But I'm going to say yeah, the IPA is. From everything I've understood, it's like just making an IPA will throw in more hops. It'll be okay, Right, and that's the thing.

Speaker 3:

We just we never were going to do a ton of IPAs, but he's taken an IPAs and put his English spin on them and made them his own and every IPA that we have it is always malt forward.

Speaker 4:

I'm a very balanced brewer. I always balance hops and malt. I never go more hops, less malt, more malt. I just don't. My pal is a little bit different. Tiff is a very good tester for beer because her pal is way different than mine. I'd be malty all day long with no hops at all. We wouldn't care. But we do have some. Our New England IPA, believer or not, is one of our top sellers in the tap room. I love hazy IPAs. I love juicy IPAs, west Coast styles. We've done some good success with them. But in our area where we're at, people love stouts, they love these pub L's and that just it works.

Speaker 3:

But it's rare that we have more than one up there. But we are releasing Red Lock, which is our red IPA, and it's named after my dreadlock.

Speaker 1:

I was going to ask where that came from and that beer was named after me.

Speaker 3:

It was fun we have one named after our daughter. Her nickname was Pina, and so we had Pina, the peanut butter oatmeal salad.

Speaker 1:

Oh nice.

Speaker 3:

And then we had an Annie O, which was an orange, sour, mimosa sour, named after his mom. So we, I keep saying we need to name one after my mom. Her name's Jeanie. So I'm like I dream of.

Speaker 1:

Jeanne. Sorry, Jeanne, you know you could. You could put them in, sell those all in growlers, and then it'd be Jeanne in a bottle. There you go.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

There you go. All right, there's your name, so now we've also you touched. You said sour a while ago. I just tasted the Ambrosia, pineapple, cherry sour. So where, where did you venture into sour First of all? Yeah, absolutely delicious.

Speaker 4:

I think light. All of us growing up in the 80s know what cherry flush is or cherry fluff is, or Ambrosia salad. Yeah, our grandmas made it. Our parents probably made it at Thanksgiving. My mom still makes it at Thanksgiving. That's basically where it came from.

Speaker 3:

Okay, we number nine is our sour tap. We will. Always we've had a sour. We actually had two on in the beginning. The first few months we were open we had two sour. They go over really well with the ladies, even with the dudes. They're walking around with their little stimulus and their pink. You know sour, sometimes it's one.

Speaker 1:

Do they drink it with their pinky out, though?

Speaker 3:

I think so.

Speaker 4:

Sometimes, I have to because I have a jacked up pinky.

Speaker 1:

I just have big hands.

Speaker 4:

So that, so that beer is basically just kind of a. We always don't want to repeat anything we've done. I do a lot of search engines, searches like hey, has someone done this beer before? Yeah, so that's kind of my, that's kind of my yeah, and then we'll never do that. That's your driver there huh.

Speaker 3:

We'll never do the same sour twice, but we will repeat them throughout the year and bring them back. There's, everyone's got their favorite sour.

Speaker 4:

That one was like a. It was sort of the cast.

Speaker 3:

Another cast turned wall.

Speaker 4:

It was brewed with a. It was cherry, pineapple, marshmallow, vanilla, a lot of lactose, coconut.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so that was basically now. Where did that idea come from? I got asked because that's not something I would have done.

Speaker 3:

It was right before we were just trying to think of Christmasy beers.

Speaker 4:

We did a fruitcake IPA yeah.

Speaker 3:

We did a fruitcake one. We did an ambrosia first, and then we did the fruitcake after.

Speaker 4:

Just like what seasonal? What do you see if you go to your friend's house, your parents house, for things? What are you going to see? Yeah, christmas time, what are you going to see? So that's kind of how they were born, I'm like you know what it was out of the gravy beer. Yeah, in this past year my mom had cherry. She had cherry fluff. You know, I'm the only one that eats it.

Speaker 1:

You know it's funny you say that because I was driving up here earlier and definitely did not look at my phone while I was driving but I happened to notice that, like Martin, was it Martin House brewing out of Texas? Yeah, they always do their pickle beer. Yeah, there's like a whole spiel going right now with them and like H-E-B is like really leveling up on weird gift baskets of pickle themed beer and pickles.

Speaker 3:

See, I got really obsessed with the pickle beer.

Speaker 1:

They have a ranch beer, yes, they do, and Buffalo wing it was brewed with a lot of actual like just ranch packets. Are we going to see anything crazy like that from you guys? Yeah, you will, yeah Well the pickle beer thing.

Speaker 3:

So I'm obsessed with pickles. Peanut butter and pickles are like my favorite food. I know that sounds weird.

Speaker 1:

No, that's good Like together.

Speaker 3:

No, never together. I've never tried them together, but those are, I would say were my top two.

Speaker 1:

Well, now you have to try them together.

Speaker 3:

I'm gonna.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

But the pickle beer. So my birthday, my 40th birthday, was this past summer, in August, and I've been begging him for a pickle beer since we opened and he just didn't think that there was enough demand for one.

Speaker 3:

But I disagreed. So I made a bet with him. I said you brew me. He got his pilot system back out that he had brewed on forever. And he brewed me a 15 gallon batch of pickle beer for my 40th birthday. And I had the day to sell through all of it or I wouldn't get any more pickle beer ever again. And I did. I sold through all of it.

Speaker 3:

Nice, but then it was so at the end of the season that he was like, let's wait until spring or summer and I will brew a big batch of the pickle sour, but it was coming back.

Speaker 1:

It's coming back. It was incredible.

Speaker 4:

It was all fresh, it was all fresh and good so many pounds of cucumber in it.

Speaker 3:

It was insane.

Speaker 4:

It was delicious and everybody thought so it was labor intensive is what it was, because a lot of breweries we've been to some that they use vinegar in the brewing process and I begged him not to do anything with the yeast man.

Speaker 4:

That's the thing. I would think that it would. I would think so, but we just never. Me once again, reading, reading, reading. Yeah, Obviously the best beer for that style is the Goza. It's salty, it's got that briny character, yeah. So I was like how can I build on that using fresh? So I played with adjuncts and amounts and I finally came to it. I said this is it? Yeah, this tastes like a fresh pickle, Absolutely. And I stuck with it. Sold out. We had a lot of bicyclists in that day and they're like this is going to be back on tap. Yeah, probably next one, It'll be back.

Speaker 3:

So I think we'll probably release it earlier on this season and then have it again for my birthday, okay.

Speaker 4:

That's good, that's good. So all those things go through like a, I would say, a grueling process. We, we cook a lot, I bake a lot on top of everything else I got going on. So a lot of the beers that you drink in here are actually things in my head that never shut off. Well, I've done cannoli, I've done cannoli beers, I've done a red velvet cake beer. So we, they just go all the way down the limit. The fruit cake one was fun because Fruit cake got everything in it. Did you actually throw skittles in?

Speaker 1:

it though, and the fruit cake? Yeah, I think through the skittles, I don't know, I just feel like it'd just be the random way.

Speaker 4:

So I had everything else in it.

Speaker 3:

I mean, he threw everything yeah so it was.

Speaker 4:

It was the culmination of every freaking we've done every Friday for 2021 so.

Speaker 1:

So go back to the furkins really quick, because I was gonna, I was gonna ask that one. I've From us a statement you had said Way back, so Ferkins tell me right and you tell me from wrong here. So One, it's a smaller barrel. You do a kind of a short test match on the ferkins that you release on for in Friday, though that's usually never the actual beer that's coming out, but it usually is kind of a head nod.

Speaker 3:

So well, it's a five gallon, so we so they're their pin cask.

Speaker 4:

A ferkin is usually up about 10.8 gallons to 0.9 gallons. We use pin cask that way. You have to drink them fresh. Yeah, ten gallons. I'm not saying we couldn't blow through them, but it's that's like a Tuesday for me to serve them in that threshold of serving tip between the 50 to 58 degrees. Yeah, five gallons is the right amount for them.

Speaker 3:

Okay so, yeah, and we don't have the fancy Cast cooler jackets or whatever to keep them. We actually let them progress and get a little more up to room temperature. A lot of the flavors will really pop.

Speaker 1:

Oh, really meld together then we do traditionals, though.

Speaker 4:

I mean, that's something that was we've always done, beginning a lot of ESBs, browns milkstouts Okay, your traditional cask beer on the wall, but in the, in the cask, we get to have fun. Okay, we are in it's it's craft beer world. So, hey, what can we do to really Just push the limits on? On a ferkin Friday, what came? Oh yeah, this beer.

Speaker 1:

Well, one thing I remember was I one of the times I was here a while back was I think it was a rainbow sherbet. It was the rainbow, sure yeah, and that led to the orange cream sickle, I think, because you were playing with lactose and kind of that experimental.

Speaker 3:

So so, really so If they blow within an hour I mean we've done that where we've blown five gallons of beer and an hour. Mostly it's one to three. If it's that fast, then we're gonna probably make it in a bigger batch and put it.

Speaker 4:

To this day. I think the leader was our red velvet cream. Oh, we blew 40 pints in about 45 minutes, so that was most and that's what we kind of lean towards. Like. What would people respond to if we put it on the tap wall? Yeah, so a lot of those beers on the wall, yeah we're inspired by gas penny. Okay, that's where it was born from. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1:

So now, is there a possibility that you'll have something? Right now, we're coming up for two weeks away from the Super Bowl, yeah, you guys have any plans for? Is there a beer that's already in your brain right now for like Super Bowl release and you have to tell the name of it? Or?

Speaker 3:

anything I haven't really thought about. So it's usually on a Friday and I don't even know if we're gonna open. We don't have TVs. I don't know if you remember unplugged. So I'm sure that we'll do something fun you could do the anti Super Bowl party.

Speaker 1:

You know the anti big game. You did the little game party. That'd be great.

Speaker 4:

Yeah and I just. In our area there's not gonna be anyone watching the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1:

I don't think yeah, see, because Season just ended last night. I'm a cheese fan and I'm not bitter, but I thought I won.

Speaker 1:

I thought I was a Thought I would. When we got the coin toss for the second week in a row, like done. I was like, okay, there's, there's a good probability, we're going to the bowl. And then that didn't happen. So yeah, I will say it meant a lot to me to see Patrick my homes Kind of step up and and just kind of say, hey, that was on me. He kind of kind of just say, hey, look, there were some, there were some misses in this game. But you know, kudos to the Bengals for getting there, because they're a solid team and I think, bangle beer.

Speaker 3:

And it's sweet of you to sit here across from Nate when he bet against you.

Speaker 1:

That's okay. I was on neither I know what it's either side he just had, so okay, no. Love the chiefs no I mean, here's the thing is no matter what, they gave it their best, but I think that in this football season, I think everyone can kind of agree on the fact that, holy crap, this is gonna be a really really good game.

Speaker 4:

No, the last few weeks have been lights out, so yeah, it's, it's this is entertaining.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, this is the way of playoff season should we supposed to look like yeah he grew up in my Miami Dolphins fans.

Speaker 3:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

I was gonna ask who's your team.

Speaker 3:

So Miami Dolphins I.

Speaker 4:

You don't gotta worry about me, yeah.

Speaker 3:

I was a Falcons fan for a while because I got to go to the games all the time. Okay, and one of my friends she massages Falcons. That's kind of a backstory as to how the brewery came like really came along.

Speaker 1:

Well, come on, you save the best for last yeah, we have this nugget. We have we have to. This is the. Here, but you gotta, you gotta, give me the yep biggest nugget here.

Speaker 3:

So I lived in Atlanta for a while and you, you guys know by now I was a massage therapist and one of my friends was a massage therapist for the Alina Falcons. They don't have openings up very often. Once you get that job, you don't quit it. So I, when I lived there, I applied but I it never came open. I never got a call and I was kind of bummed about it. I moved back here.

Speaker 3:

Well, I was a few years back visiting my best friend in Atlanta and her boss had called her at the same time. We were on our way to dinner. She was just having this like cryptic conversation yeah, I do know someone. Yeah, yeah, all this stuff. And I'm like what's happening. And so she gets off the phone and she's like you are never gonna freakin believe this. And I'm like what? And she goes my dreams are coming true. I've been wanting you to come back to Atlanta and she just called me and there's an opening for the Falcons. They come be a massage therapist here. She said that she would interview you. I gave her your information, I sent it over to her and stuff, and I was like no way, like this was my dream job. So I call him. He's back here with Bailey. I call him and tell him that I got this amazing opportunity and that you know, maybe we should move to Atlanta so I can be a massage therapist for the Falcons. And he, his, he's so sweet. His immediate response was yes.

Speaker 3:

Yeah we're gonna make your dreams come true. That's free and awesome. Like We'll talk about this later. You're going to dinner like we'll talk about this later. So we did over the next couple days and when I actually got home and I was off cloud 9, we we really did talk about where we are to go ahead and that we were gonna make it happen.

Speaker 4:

So we'll do long distance.

Speaker 3:

You know we'll figure it out, yeah so we were until we could get the family because a little backstory our daughter is not mine, it's Nate's and his exes, and she had passed away from CF, which is the stiff fibrosis, and so that all kind of happened at once and.

Speaker 3:

When I got home and realized that maybe uprooting our family at this point in time wasn't the best idea, and then I needed to pump the brakes and that the timing timing is everything. And this time it just didn't really line up. And so, after I turned the job down, I came to him and I said listen, here somebody's dreams are coming true. You've literally been talking brewery, we've been collecting, you know, stuff that we need.

Speaker 3:

It's time to look for a building now's the time it's time someone's dreams are coming true, poop or get off the pot, yeah like yeah, so we started as soon as I got home and a couple weeks later we were starting to scout buildings and go look and we got a really awesome realtor and just started.

Speaker 4:

So I won over the Atlanta Falcons, like everybody does hey that's okay, it's good.

Speaker 1:

I like that Somebody send them some sass please.

Speaker 4:

We got friends down there, it's okay.

Speaker 1:

It's okay, I'm watching the Super Bowl from the same place that Tom Brady is a couch, the couch, the couch, couch yeah but yeah, so that's kind of how it really pushed him to get open.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, he knew that if I was turning down, that he better deliver on his on.

Speaker 4:

His stuff and beard engine was born.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, here we are.

Speaker 1:

That's super cool, super cool. Well, thank you guys for sure.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure.

Speaker 1:

The last note I will say about beer. The last one tasting right now is a Baltic quarter. It's called the war balloon. I gotta be honest, I'm never a fan of quarters, which is funny that you guys gave me this, because I said just pick four beers. I'm never a fan of quarters. I'm a fan of this quarter, isn't?

Speaker 3:

it delicious. Um, I, let Nate, would pick one on your flight and then.

Speaker 4:

I was my last three favorites so the Baltic is kind of a marriage between an English porter and a short spear, and it actually is a loggered. That's what makes a Baltic porter so significant different. The alcohol is a little bit high. It's a low, slow and steady.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're like a regular porter. That most people think of is what like rich?

Speaker 4:

dry most porters. Historically they're near from from four to five and a half percent. They're not real strong alcohol.

Speaker 2:

The missus is a that's why I like Baltics, kind of a kind of the black sheet.

Speaker 4:

No, that was a. It was widely popular from the UK. When they're shipping it out along the Baltic sea, all those Baltic countries, lithuania and whatnot word, when they got it they're like this is good, there's a heat through the season. We should, we should make this. So that's kind of I was born. That's what's called the Baltic porter. That's fun, that's super cool.

Speaker 1:

Well, so I mentioned there's some fun questions coming. Yes, here's the fun here. Here's the part that even adds a little bit more to it. So I have kind of built a deck of these, but I don't know which ones are in which order. Okay so we're just gonna kind of roll through a couple of these rapid fire. This is rapid fire. Get to know you. Okay, just just answer the first. Here's the thing you can. You can tell more detail if you want, or you can just blow straight through it.

Speaker 3:

Okay, all right so.

Speaker 1:

So get to know you a little bit better here. Okay, what is one beer you absolutely despise?

Speaker 3:

That's easy. He despises the clash.

Speaker 4:

Oh, all right, All right, it's a. It's a resident house beer. The clash Okay.

Speaker 3:

It's a vanilla cream. Well, it's the most American style we have, and he's more, just not a fan.

Speaker 1:

No, okay, All right. What's is there? Now? I'm gonna Let you throw elbows for a second. What's a? What's a beer out there on the market that is like super popular right now that you're like I don't get the appeal of this thing. I think it's crap.

Speaker 3:

To make a.

Speaker 1:

No, no, it's like you gotta gotta know what you guys are.

Speaker 4:

That I'll see the big deal about.

Speaker 1:

I.

Speaker 3:

Here's the thing.

Speaker 1:

Maybe it's not that you don't like it, it's just you don't understand the hype.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the IPA's, the IPA's super triple double.

Speaker 1:

I saw a quad the other day. No, joe, I saw a quad the other day and I was like that's, it's actually in Northwest Arkansas, I'm not gonna say who. I was surprised at how good it was really Insane. You have one, though. It's a good day.

Speaker 4:

Okay, so I know what the worst thing I ever tasted my life was, and I'm not gonna mention it.

Speaker 3:

Okay, no. What style, was it.

Speaker 4:

It was a sour, okay, oh.

Speaker 3:

It was at the pickle. Oh gosh, it was a pickle sour, but it's not the one we were talking.

Speaker 1:

No, no, no, that's fine, no okay. So it's really okay, totally different direction with this one. You have a hundred thousand dollars, okay, so you have to donate to one charity or Cause. What's it gonna be for you? Sysic fibrosis. There you go. I kind of I kind of figured so.

Speaker 3:

Bailey's mom yeah absolutely no, that's.

Speaker 1:

That's huge. Mine would be muscular dystrophy. A friend of mine has to weigh a while back. Sorry to hear that. I know it's alright he's. He lived life to his fullest. He was supposed to be gone by 15 and he lived to like 21, which was insane and yeah that's amazing, I'll get into that story later.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but same with her, though they told her 13. Yeah, and then she lived past her teens. She lived to be 31. It's incredible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, incredible. Take that science right. So what is the best piece of advice You've ever been given? The best piece of advice? I can be beer related, that can be life related, oh name it. What's something that other people need to hear.

Speaker 3:

Do it, just do, I'm gonna lean towards my mom. Michael Jordan and just do it.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go with my mom. Don't ever, don't ever be counted out. Don't let someone count you out. You have to show them what you can do. Don't be if, don't be afraid. That's what she always said. Just don't be afraid. If you want something, you have to go get it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it's gonna be hard, you know, but it's attainable, yeah, so and we have to set a good example for our daughter, and everybody should set a good example for the kids that are gonna be the future of Everything. So yeah, we're not teaching them correctly.

Speaker 4:

Love your neighbor, respect your neighbor, just be just work hard, learn a trade.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, trades are a dying thing, like learn a trade.

Speaker 1:

They're so needed right now, especially yeah.

Speaker 4:

So just just do good, just just be your best self.

Speaker 1:

So last one for this session I will ask is you know, you mentioned being a big reader a while ago and it's funny that this one came up. So what? What book belongs on everyone's shelf? If you had to give a recommendation for someone to read a book in 2022, this is gonna revolutionize you, or this is gonna just open your mind a little bit. What book are you reading?

Speaker 4:

Oh man, that is a tough one. It is Just because I know everyone's so different as far as what they read what?

Speaker 1:

what spoke to you the most recently? Let's, let's shift that and throw that request there. What's the book that made the biggest impact on you? And if you, if you see, like, if you know there's a book that, like, hit him really hard trying to think yeah, pretty closed off with it at her.

Speaker 4:

She's really asleep. That's okay, that's all right.

Speaker 3:

What is? What's the one that you read in the beginning. That kind of Helped you to Do it on a budget.

Speaker 4:

Oh, Tom Hennessey. He was a the creator of Colorado boy, colorado boy brewing. He's got several Breweries out in Colorado but that book kind of guided me in the direction that you can build a brewery with literally pennies in your pocket. Yeah, that would probably the one that actually inspired me to want to write my own book to show people that, hey, you can, you can do this with very little. You don't have to have that capital that they, the breweries, do need. It's a capital intensive business. But that book really made me think outside the box. Yeah, but it's a, it's, it's Tom Hennessey's book on brewing, I mean, and how to go from Point a to point B with the least amount of money, without help and without help.

Speaker 4:

Wow.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's super cool. Well, thanks for sitting down with me. I really appreciate your time and appreciate our friendship and everything.

Speaker 4:

Is for sure. This has just been so much. Yeah, we love you man, you're family.

Speaker 1:

So, hey, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yeah, we're here. It's the end of episode one of the brew house. I'm so glad you guys, yeah, made it. So If people are wanting to find you guys, what's the easiest way where they can? Where can they find you online? Where can they find you?

Speaker 4:

shoot out the address and, like tell them why they need to come see you so Facebook, instagram, twitter, google, beardedge and brew code calm, we have a website.

Speaker 3:

now we open for very long or up and running for very long, so Go check that out please. We have a online store where you can purchase stuff and we'll ship it right to you. We live right next door to a post office, so we can ship things fast and you have these killer shirts.

Speaker 1:

By the way, the work shirts are right $5 shipping to anywhere in the United States.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and just all. Like I said, always look on Facebook or Instagram for upcoming events. Our website is also updated Regularly with those events coming up.

Speaker 3:

We have live music every single weekend.

Speaker 4:

What's the address here? 208 Main Street, alba, missouri, 648 30 phone numbers 417, 4830709. Oh, look at that. Look at that. He's on it, look at commercial.

Speaker 1:

Come by here 4 pm.

Speaker 3:

I'm right for confidates, for confidates or we open up yeah, we open it to, but the furkens are flowing at 4.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and they're usually gone by like five. So if you want the, cool, tasty, crazy beer then get here soon. So Thank you guys. So much again we appreciate you and we will catch y'all soon here on the brew house. Awesome Cheers, guys.

Speaker 3:

Bye friends.

Speaker 1:

Hey, thanks again for listening to this episode of the brew house. I really appreciate you being here and I want to give you the recognition that you so richly deserve being a follower. So do me a quick favor leave us a review here, on whatever platform you're listening on right now, and at the end of each new episode I'll be reading one or two of my favorites, so you might be able to hear your own review read soon. Thanks again, cheers, friends.

Speaker 2:

You've been listening to the brew house, a production of remnant media. Be sure to subscribe via Apple podcasts, spotify, google podcast or your other favorite podcasting platform so you don't miss another great episode. Thirsty for even more, follow us on YouTube, instagram, facebook and even tick tock.

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