The DC Beer Show

Jake, Mike, Brandy, and Jordan celebrate their 100th Episode together in this LIVE recording from Lost Generation with an audience of DC Beer members and industry friends. 

Special thanks to Lost Generation and Andy's Pizza for sponsoring this episode!
Thanks to our monthly supporters
  • Jeff
  • Michael O'Connor
  • Favio Garcia
  • Josh
  • Ellen Daniels
  • Juan Deliz
  • Mike Lastort
  • James Wisnieski
  • Brian Minch
  • Chris Frome
  • Jon Gilgoff
  • Sam
  • Chip
  • Tory Roberts
  • Steven M Quartell
  • Chris DeLoose
  • Amy Crone
  • Clifton B
  • Scott Pavlica
  • Greg Antrim
  • jeffrey garrison
  • Joshua Learn
  • Alexis Smith
  • A t
  • Dan Goldbeck
  • Anthony Budny
  • Greg Parnas
  • Frank Chang
  • Mikahl Tolton
  • Kim Klyberg
  • Chris Girardot
  • Alyssa
  • jeffrey katz
  • Andrew MacWilliams
  • Jamie Jackson
  • Meegan
  • Mike Rucki
  • Jason Tucker
  • Nick Gardner
  • Amber Farris
  • Sarah Ray
  • Peter Jones
  • Blue2024
  • Brad Stengel
  • Matt Winterhalter
  • Bill and Karen Butcher
  • Jordan Harvey
  • Justin Broady
  • Stephen Claeys
  • Julie Verratti
  • DFA Howie Kendrick

Creators & Guests

Host
Brandy Holder
This southern girl got a late start in the beer world, but with such a bold and intoxicating personality behind the name, booze was destined to be a part of her endeavors.
Host
Jacob Berg
Jake’s beer education began when his dad brought home a 6-pack of Brooklyn Lager in the mid-90s. It was love at first sip.
Host
Jordan Harvey
As a born and raised Georgian, lover of music, and HBCU advocate, Jordan’s affinity for craft beer kicked off after being exposed to the craft beer scene in Pennsylvania and the legendary beer scene in Europe.
Host
Mike Stein
Michael Stein is President of Lost Lagers, Washington, DC’s premier beverage research firm. His historic beers have been served at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the Polish Ambassador’s residence.
RC
Editor
Reese Clutter
Producer
Richard Fawal
President of DC Beer Media LLC and Publisher of DCBeer.com and The DC Beer Show

What is The DC Beer Show?

The official podcast of DCBeer.com! Everything you need to know about the people, places, and brews that make the DMV America’s best beer scene, including the best local places for eats, brews, trivia, live music, and more! Learn about the latest trends in craft beer – from the beers, to the breweries, to the business – from the editors of DC Beer.

Jacob Berg [00:00:06]:
Welcome everyone to the DC Beer Show live at Lost Generation. It's episode 100. Hey, Brandy. What's in your glass this evening?

Brandy Holder [00:00:21]:
What's in my glass, Jake? Actually, I don't know. Oh, I was drinking some random barley wine, and a Roush beer from our friend, Mike Earl, who is here at the live recording. Thanks for coming, Mike Earl. I am drinking the Dunkel from Lost Generation. You guys know that I'm a dark beer drinking girl. I like my brown ales and my grave shift and my Dunkels. So thanks to Lost Generation for always crushing that dark beer for your girl, Brandy. Mike Stein, what you drinking?

Michael Stein [00:00:59]:
I'm having Vida, Mexican style lager, which I'm so grateful for. It's just a delightful pale lager, which I think was 81 degrees as I was walking into Lost generation tonight. So it's the perfect beer for this humid, muggy day, just ideal for our climate. Jordan, what are you having this fine evening?

Jordan Harvey [00:01:21]:
Well, for those, that have listened to the podcast before, you know I'm drinking a hazy. Because someone has to, right? I mean, I, I have all these beer aficionados and enthusiasts out here. Well, I gotta hold it down for those everyday folks, that like that stuff, but we just appreciate our, Nelson, Sovereign and Rawaka, especially when it's an age of islands, our lost generation. So, yeah. I'm, I'm holding it down for the hot pits out there, the the Hays Bros, even though I don't really like that, but the Hays Bros. Jake, what you sipping on down there, man?

Jacob Berg [00:01:53]:
So Port City has, 2 seasons I joke. Aquila Whitt season and Port City Porter season. I've been declaring, the lost gen dunkle season just about over. Sorry. I have Gas. Their kolsh. It's May. It is time for the spring festivals.

Jacob Berg [00:02:11]:
It is time for kolsh weather.

Brandy Holder [00:02:14]:
But did you come to their Koschfest?

Jacob Berg [00:02:16]:
Oh, there was a Koschfest.

Brandy Holder [00:02:20]:
There was a Kolschfest and it was fantastic. It was Lost Generation's first Kolschfest. Kolschfest, say that three times in a row, and it was incredible. They crushed it. They were a little nervous about it. Anne was back there. She's like, I didn't know how that was gonna go. They ordered special glassware just for Kohl'sfest, and they were walking around with the little servers.

Brandy Holder [00:02:39]:
It was adorable. So I'm assuming they're gonna do it next year. So for those of you listening to this, come to Lost Generation's Kolsch Fest next year. So Jake, back to the Kolsch.

Jacob Berg [00:02:49]:
No. It's lovely, light, delicate. It does the kolsch things it's supposed to do. A little bit fruity, a little bit crisp. Is it a lager? Is it an ale? The answer is yes.

Michael Stein [00:03:02]:
It is a top fermented ale as Sebastian Sauer told me 2 weeks ago when he was in town for the Kolsch service at, at shelter. Kolsch is drinking lovely. Mexican style lager is drinking lovely. We are so grateful for Anne and Jared, owners of Lost Generation, for having us here tonight. You know, I just have to give a massive Andy's pizza.

Jacob Berg [00:03:34]:
Andy's Pizza.

Michael Stein [00:03:37]:
And, you know, this was a moment that that we manifested. We we knew we had a 100th episode coming up with this dynamite cast and crew of the DC beer show. And Brandy, you helped bring this into existence, didn't you?

Jordan Harvey [00:03:52]:
Oh, no. She definitely did.

Brandy Holder [00:03:58]:
Thanks. I suffer from ADHD like many of us. Applause for ADHD. Yes.

Michael Stein [00:04:08]:
Shout out to us neurodivergent folks.

Brandy Holder [00:04:11]:
But I always feel antsy when I'm not doing a 1,000 things. So to keep my brain stimulated, I'm like, oh, let's do this. I have so many ideas. I'm, like, sending text to Anne, actually. I'm like, hey. You should do a a this is a dog event with painting. And she's like, okay, Brandy. You're crazy.

Brandy Holder [00:04:31]:
And so but I still do it because sometimes I have good ideas. But I will say that I am so excited to have all of us in the same place because for those of you who listen to the DC Beer Show, you know that we don't get to we get to see each other, but we don't we're not in the same space. So we record on, an app, Riverside, and we do get to see each other's faces and facial reactions, which sucks because other people don't because Mike and Jake say some funny shit y'all. And I'm over here and Richard's getting mad at me because I'm laughing and he's like, stop laughing because you're interrupting the audio. And I'm like, I can't help it. But you guys get to witness it live because Jake and Mike and Jordan, everybody's just so funny. And so, this is the group that I get to do stuff with. And I'm very excited to be in this space and to be able to make events and bring people together because that is what I love to do, because beer brings people together.

Brandy Holder [00:05:29]:
And I just keep putting this into motion as much as I can, and, eventually, I'm gonna take over the world. Thanks.

Jordan Harvey [00:05:40]:
And, that that's not hyperbole. Seriously, she's going to take over the world. But, I would like to just say all the things that, Mike, Randy, Jake, Richard, Tom, all of us that, all of these that we do, we wouldn't be able to do without you all, especially you Patreon supporters. So we definitely wanna thank you guys for this because, again, we can't have events like this and show love to you guys and return the favor, excuse me, return the favor of all the love that you show to us by showing love to you guys without your support via Patreon. So just thank you guys so very much, for allowing us to bring you guys the the local news and also buy you guys a beer every so often. So again, thank you guys for coming out. We really appreciate your support. If you're not a Patreon member, please become a Patreon member.

Jordan Harvey [00:06:23]:
I mean, not only do we do a have we done a, a 100th episode, but we're also doing a, a monthly beer share amongst other things, right? And it's just $5 to get you through the door, right? Our lowest tier is $5 I have a 12 tier a $12 tier and also a $25 tier. And each of those have their own, added benefits. But again, thank you to all the partners that have done things with us. Alyssa, I'm thinking of you. You've done all these things with us. And it's not just her, but I saw her, so I just had to shout her out. And I haven't gotten my lucky attention.

Brandy Holder [00:06:50]:
What's up, What's up, Alyssa?

Jordan Harvey [00:06:51]:
So does that. But it just shout out to all the people, all of our partners, and our Patreon members. We wouldn't be able to do what we do without you guys. So thank you guys for coming out tonight.

Brandy Holder [00:06:58]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Jake, do you remember where our 50th episode was?

Jordan Harvey [00:07:03]:
Do you

Brandy Holder [00:07:03]:
remember where we were?

Jacob Berg [00:07:05]:
Was that also live? And if so, was that at Silver Branch?

Brandy Holder [00:07:09]:
No. No. No. Do you have another guess? Coming up blank. Doudrop Inn. Oh. Do y'all remember we were at the Doudrop Inn? Of course. Super close to here.

Brandy Holder [00:07:18]:
So what I have to refer you. We're keeping it in the area. So, like, the 150 where we're gonna be, hopefully, here. Anna Jared. Ahem. 150 here. Thanks.

Jacob Berg [00:07:27]:
So we have to keep 150 on the Met beer trail is, alright.

Michael Stein [00:07:31]:
That's it. Yeah. That's it.

Brandy Holder [00:07:32]:
Or or Hellbender or Urban Garden Brewing because by the time

Jordan Harvey [00:07:37]:
Hey. Hey, oh.

Brandy Holder [00:07:37]:
Yes. So hopefully by the time that, you know, next a 100 and 50th episode is a thing, hopefully, knock on wood it is, then, Urban Garden will be open right in my neighborhood actually. So, yeah. Shout out to Emani and Lindsey, because they will be the first black owned, Hispanic owned, woman owned brewery in the district.

Jacob Berg [00:08:03]:
Yeah.

Brandy Holder [00:08:03]:
Yes.

Jordan Harvey [00:08:04]:
Brick and mortar, brick and mortar. But also, I I have a question. I know we get really excited about celebrating these different milestones. We're at we're at our 100th. We're we're planning for our 1 50th. But, Jake Stein, and I'm the padawan for those of you guys who don't know. So, I'm Jordan, Jordan Harvey, beers are on the way, hazy aficionado. But, Jake, Mike, could you tell me about the first episode of DC beer, or just you all's first episode of DC beer? Just give me some history as a

Michael Stein [00:08:30]:
beer historian. I would like nothing more than to give you the history, Jordan. So the history of DC beer goes back to 2,009. And if you can imagine a DC without one commercial brewery, that was us. That was DC in 2009. A couple of brewpubs here, no production facilities. So when DC Brewers started, it was started by a guy named Mike Dolan, who actually started the DC Homebrewers Club at the same time. Not long after Mike Dolan, Bill DeBaun, who is one of our editor, em Emeritus, as well as Andy Nations were there.

Michael Stein [00:09:06]:
We had some wonderful writers, Devery and Megan, some some wonderful, women who wrote for us in the early days. And things eventually got going to where I think Bill DeBaun and and Aaron Morrissey, who's another local writer, had a podcast for 1, 2, maybe 3 episodes. But eventually, a a show grew, a a a different show grew out of that. And Jake, do you wanna talk a little bit about that and get us up to date?

Jacob Berg [00:09:33]:
Yeah. So Aaron and Bill would jump on a podcast over at the line, over in Adams Morgan with Birme Radio's Sarah Jane Curran. And they sort of spun off their own sort of a thing, and podcasted there. I think that actually the first time we podcasted was a pre snally event over on 15th, like, between, like, k and l or l and m over at the what was the Junto media offices, back when, there was a Junto Media as opposed to Voxtopica. We'll get to that in a minute. This is your intro.

Michael Stein [00:10:14]:
This is the intro.

Brandy Holder [00:10:16]:
Wink wink.

Jacob Berg [00:10:18]:
Yeah. And I believe that we had Sarah Jane Curran on that show. Really? Yeah. Wow. As hosted by Richard.

Richard Fawal [00:10:28]:
That's me.

Michael Stein [00:10:30]:
Everybody make some noise for Richard Fowal, publisher of DC

Jacob Berg [00:10:35]:
Beer. Woah.

Jordan Harvey [00:10:35]:
Alright. What do we what do we call Richard? What what's his name?

Brandy Holder [00:10:39]:
Papa beer. Oh. Papa beer.

Richard Fawal [00:10:41]:
How sweet.

Brandy Holder [00:10:42]:
But but there's a reason and it's because of the brew daddy. So he's

Jacob Berg [00:10:47]:
like the Alright.

Richard Fawal [00:10:47]:
So I gotta

Brandy Holder [00:10:48]:
talk about it.

Richard Fawal [00:10:48]:
Little bit little bit of in intermediate history. So in 2018 well, no. In 2017, my good friend, Adam Frank, that's Adam.

Brandy Holder [00:10:59]:
Hey, Adam.

Richard Fawal [00:11:02]:
I had left a job where I built a podcast network for, a think tank in Washington DC and I'd left that and I was gonna start this podcast company, but I didn't have any clients. So I was like, well, let's just start making podcasts. So, Adam, who's been a home brewer, you know, for decades decades decades. I was like, let's make a beer podcast. He was like, okay. So, we started a podcast called the Brew Daddies, which was a terrible name for a podcast.

Brandy Holder [00:11:32]:
It was s and m involved.

Richard Fawal [00:11:33]:
No. It was it was a terrible name, but that's what our friends called us because we were like we were friends because our kids were friends, you know, and that people started calling us that. And I I emailed Bill DeBaun. I found dcbeer.com and I emailed Bill DeBaun and was like, hey, we have this podcast. Let's do something together. And And Bill Dibon was

Richard Fawal [00:11:54]:
like, no.

Richard Fawal [00:11:58]:
I was like, okay. He was like, yeah. DC beer is kind of winding down. Because he had he had he was a new father, young kids, and he was like, it's it we're kinda winding this down. I can't keep managing it. And I was like, I'm unemployed. Maybe I could take it over and, you know, he was protective of it, but we talked over a few months. And then finally he was like, okay, great.

Richard Fawal [00:12:24]:
Yeah. Like, I'm gonna turn dcbeer.com over to you. And so we tied the podcast, the Brew Daddies. And then our good friend, Julie Verratti, everybody knows Julie.

Jordan Harvey [00:12:35]:
Yes.

Michael Stein [00:12:35]:
Owner of Denizen's.

Richard Fawal [00:12:37]:
Julie called me one day while Adam and I we back then, we would drive to to breweries all over the region, and we would actually do Saturday interviews days. We were like, this beer is nice. That was that was as descriptive as we could get for most for most beers. I like it. It's good. It's nice. But Julie Verrill, we were on our way, I don't know, somewhere, in Virginia to do it and Julie called me and she was like, You know, Brew Daddy's isn't cool. What do you mean?

Richard Fawal [00:13:14]:
She was like, the name is not, and I was like,

Richard Fawal [00:13:17]:
when Julie tells me something, I listen by the way. Like, Julie Julie tells you something, you do what she says. And so we came up with the name of the DC Beer Show. That was probably 2019 and then the pandemic happened. We shut the podcast down because we couldn't go to breweries anymore and then, I thought, you know what? These people can talk about beer way better than me and Adam. And that's how we got to the DC Beer Show that you see here today. So that is my history. Thank you for listening.

Michael Stein [00:13:47]:
Well said.

Richard Fawal [00:13:48]:
And I'm I have to say, as a pop of beer, I'm so proud of these individuals and what they have done and what they've created because all of you are here because of what they've done. The hard work that they put into talking about craft beer, talking about, the breweries and the brewers and the folks who work in the industry and creating a community around craft beer. Every single brewery we know of tries to create a community around their brewery. I think it was Greg Angert, from NRG who once said, no other city in the country has a community of craft beer lovers like DC does because DC beer brings all of the craft beer lovers together

Brandy Holder [00:14:35]:
he did say

Richard Fawal [00:14:36]:
And that is thanks to the folks that you're looking at up here. So thank you guys.

Michael Stein [00:14:45]:
Well said. Thank you, Richard. So, yeah. A bit on the history because I can't just leave it there. I also, was instructed not to especially interact with the audience, but also I have to give a shout out, to a DC beer sometimes writer, who has garnered us our 1st North American Guild of Beer Writers award. And that's Phil Runco right there. Hey, Phil. The handsome gent.

Michael Stein [00:15:15]:
We have an award winner amongst in our midst. And this award winner actually brought home gold for DC beer. What? So we're so grateful, for the writers and the good writing. And also for Richard for putting the writing first, putting the content first. You know, as Greg Angert said, we have so many beer lovers in the city. Some of us love imports, and we're constantly complaining about how little Czech beer there is in the city. Some of us just love good local beer, which is what brings us to places like Lost Generation. But maybe you can share a little bit more about what what you love, what what brings you joy, what you're passionate about.

Jacob Berg [00:15:54]:
Mike, I was gonna ask since you just mentioned Czech beer, what's the oldest most out of date green bottled Czech beer you've had in DC?

Michael Stein [00:16:03]:
It's called cah cardboardova. I'm just messing with you. That's a bad very bad language joke. Yeah. There's some really bad stale beer out there, but there's also really fresh pale lager. And I think that's kinda what's beautiful about our scene right now. We're thriving in laugerville, and it's fresh, and it's local. And honestly, it's better now than it was in 2009.

Michael Stein [00:16:28]:
I I think, you know, I not not to date anyone, but any any of those who remember what the lager was like in 2009, it's better now. I'll just I'll leave it at that.

Brandy Holder [00:16:41]:
I like how you didn't answer the question, Mike. Mike I call Mike Sweden because he is always very neutral, but always very supportive. Like Switzerland did I say Sweden?

Michael Stein [00:16:54]:
Yeah. Can I

Brandy Holder [00:16:55]:
have another beer, please? Thank you. I will say that for me, personally, I got into the beer game late and I because I work used to work at a distillery and I was super into into gin and I wasn't to beer, but more of like a beer share kind of thing because we'd always drink beer at the distillery. And I've learned through my years of working in the industry that all the people that I really liked were beer people, not the not the distilling people necessarily. Although, my friend, Alex, I love him so much. But, having having surrounding surrounded myself with beer people constantly and, like, 3 stars, rest in peace. And we've at 3 stars, rest in peace. And we've been besties ever since. And I'm so thankful.

Brandy Holder [00:17:56]:
And the way that my life brought me to be a part of DC beer, is so interesting because Richard met me at Battle of the Barrel Age Beers at Boundary Stone, which is an excellent event. Y'all gotta go to it. And ever since then, I have It's funny because I already knew everybody in the industry, and then I just came in, and even though I don't write necessarily, I'm the people person. I'm like, hey, what's up? Like, you know, and I bring everybody together. And so I'm thankful that you guys keep letting me fuck around with everybody all the time because if that if I wasn't doing that, I'd be boring probably. Yeah. Sorry.

Jordan Harvey [00:18:37]:
I don't think you'd be boring.

Brandy Holder [00:18:38]:
Oh, a little bit.

Jordan Harvey [00:18:39]:
But if anything, you still like gin. Right? I do.

Brandy Holder [00:18:41]:
Yeah. Brandy drinks, she knows. Plus, we do. My birthday's coming up. If wanna bring me a bottle of gin, I'm I'm I'm into it. Thanks. July 3rd. K.

Jordan Harvey [00:18:51]:
So I think, to attempt to answer the question before I field it back, my story is, it's a little interesting. I got into beer really heavily, I'll say 2016 or so. So probably late to the, late to the party for some of you guys. So please, again, don't judge me for that. But, how I actually got into the beer world was actually more Belgians and not IPAs. So it was more Belgian style beers, doubles, triples, trapelles, and quads. Those are really what appealed to me because, I have family in Europe, so I would travel to Europe, and that was really that was something was different from, those quads than the Bud Light lines I had been exposed to. I don't know what it was, but there is something different about it.

Jordan Harvey [00:19:37]:
But nevertheless, that kinda really, like, piqued my interest, and I dove into the beer world. And, I I lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for a for a stretch, so I was exposed to kind of Central PA's Take on Craft Beer, your Troggs of the world, your Yingling of the world. I mean, Yingling, you know, you know, America's oldest brewery. So, like, all of that was, like, right there. And, I I used to get hazed at at corporate happy hours for ordering ordering a Heineken, because I at at the time, outside of, my affinity for Belgian beer, I didn't really know any better. So now I just kinda jumped off the deep end, went into the craft beer space. I hated IPAs. Strobes Perpetual IPA was the worst thing I'd ever had in my life.

Jordan Harvey [00:20:16]:
At that time, it's still not my favorite, but it was just not good at the time. And, I inherited a home brew kit, started brewing regular beer, nothing fancy. I was following the instructions on the kit. I was not doing any adjuncts unless it came in the package, and I just began to do that. And when I moved here, moved to the Silver Spring, the DC area, via Silver Spring, Astra Lab and and Silver Branch were popping up, and Astra Lab became my factory, my Hayes factory. And and now it makes sense that I love IPAs because if you've ever had Troggs, if you've ever had Fresh As, they're 2 completely different beards and that kinda let me know outside of all the the the lower and the West Coast IPAs and New England IPAs that it might be the same style, but every beer is not created equal. So that just took me down this long path of attempting to home brew. I say attempting because none of them were great, but, they were drinkable and no one died, so it was all good.

Jordan Harvey [00:21:18]:
And I started just posting stuff on social media during the pandemic and, started going to some of the local events as I would risk it during the the pandemic. And I met Brandy. And after meeting Brandy, I met Jake. And after meeting, I met Richard. And I began to meet the DC beer fam. And, if you know Brandy, you know she's everywhere, every day, all the time. I'm sure we all are trying to figure out how in the hell she does it all. But she was actually looking for some help.

Jordan Harvey [00:21:46]:
So she's like, Jordan, you like people. Would you be so kind as to, just come to a couple of DCB events? And that was, my invitation to join the gang. So I would not be here without Brandi, and I wanna give her all of her flowers and thank her for that. But but with that, I've also had a crash course and everything, and and I still love my Belgians, but I can't have as many of those as I can IPAs. So that's why I love my IPAs. But, yeah. So tell me more about, your New York story or your DC story, Jake. Why you like beer?

Jacob Berg [00:22:18]:
So this is, the 15th anniversary of DC beer as Mike took us back to 2,009. It is also to the month, May 2011. It is the 13th year of me writing for DC Beer. Oh, wow. Yes.

Brandy Holder [00:22:40]:
Jake Jake is is an amazing writer. He really is. Like, he and we call him Scoop. So if you ever if you guys ever hear us saying Scoop, it's not like kitty litter. It's legit Jake. Breaking news.

Richard Fawal [00:22:53]:
Not kitty litter. Scoop mask story.

Michael Stein [00:22:55]:
But also breaking news.

Brandy Holder [00:22:56]:
That's true. You do have bunnies and cats and stuff. Yeah.

Jacob Berg [00:22:59]:
There there are some diamonds in the rough of that proverbial, litter out there. Yeah. But basically, I was in grad school and I was hanging out at the Brixkellar in the Big Hunt And, I just kind of ran into, Build Upon, John Fleury, Aaron Morrissey and them, and we started hanging out. I just started pitching them stories and I stuck around. And as, Build A Bond kind of dropped out, I was still here. My kids are a little bit older. They can put themselves to bed which allows me to be out here on a Tuesday night, having my 4th or 5th beer, live podcasting which is lovely, lovely. Yeah.

Jacob Berg [00:23:41]:
Yeah. And so, you know, it's like certain things like when you buy a house they convey, and so when Richard, took over DC beer, Stein and I, we we kind of conveyed.

Michael Stein [00:23:53]:
We're like that that You were in the cellar just high now.

Jacob Berg [00:23:56]:
Yeah. We were. Like that that weird end table that nobody knows what to do with and so, we just kinda stuck around.

Michael Stein [00:24:03]:
Well said.

Brandy Holder [00:24:03]:
He did. Yeah.

Jordan Harvey [00:24:04]:
Well said. Agreed.

Brandy Holder [00:24:05]:
I'm so glad.

Michael Stein [00:24:07]:
Yeah. Well, I'll I'll intro myself. I am Mike Stein. It's great to see all you here tonight. Like Jake, I was at the Big Hunt during a DC beer tweet up. So it's largely thanks to Twitter that I found Berg, and we both had New York in our in our backgrounds. We both were a bit skeptical of Bill de Baun at first, but then came around to him. But yeah.

Michael Stein [00:24:34]:
So I started writing for DC Beer, as a grad student, similarly, at George Mason, and then started writing. And then, you know, Richard was grateful to have us because, you know, Jake broke news, and I wrote too long about things that could have been a 200 word article turned into 2,000 words. So, yeah. That's basically it. I I am all filler, no chiller. No. But I I think it's really important to recognize all the folks we have here tonight. And at the risk of turning it into the, recognize Brandi's Genius show, we're so grateful for, the Women's Brew Culture Club, particularly Whoo.

Michael Stein [00:25:17]:
Shout out shout out to the club. I see some club members here tonight. But but Brandy was able to carry forth some wonderful things that had had come before. And I think in terms of thinking about the future of DC beer, it's really important to remember the past. So, most most recently, The Forum at Other Half. And and we have Erica Erica Gaedrick here tonight. Shout out to Erica. So Love

Jordan Harvey [00:25:41]:
you, Erica. I I wanna

Michael Stein [00:25:41]:
set I wanna set Brandy up for success. We have some some successes we're repeating, with with Andy's Pizza and with Erica being here. But, Brandy, tell us a little bit about the just past recent success you've had.

Brandy Holder [00:25:58]:
Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Erica. Love you so much. So much.

Brandy Holder [00:26:02]:
So much.

Brandy Holder [00:26:03]:
I had been friends with Erica for quite a while, and and if you guys don't know Erica, you know Erica. Never mind. That was a dumb question.

Michael Stein [00:26:10]:
Go see her.

Brandy Holder [00:26:10]:
That was dumb. That was dumb. Those of you listening to the podcast who

Michael Stein [00:26:15]:
have listeners.

Brandy Holder [00:26:16]:
If you haven't met Erica, she's amazing. Google it. You'll figure it out.

Michael Stein [00:26:19]:
Get to h Street Sundays, Granville Morse.

Brandy Holder [00:26:21]:
That's true. She's over at Granville Morse now. So, because I knew Erica from the days where I worked at that the distillery. And so when I worked there, I did tastings at craft beer cellar and I was like Erica is dope as shit. I love Erica so much. And so when I moved over to DC beer, I realized she everyone in the beer industry obviously loves and knows Erica. And so when she ended up doing, an a women's panel forum round table thing. It wasn't really a panel but, the way that she set it up which was brilliant and I hope to continue that forever and ever.

Brandy Holder [00:26:54]:
But I I attended that one as a guest, and I was like, this was so amazing because it was women and beer. And and not just, you know, this, you know, like, oh, what do women like to drink kind of thing or like, you know, it it's it was highlighting different aspects of different roles that women have in the industry. And the way that she did it was it was so inspiring that it inspired me. And then she actually legit cried. I'm not lying. I cried when I found out that the following year after attending the previous year's event, she invited me to be a panelist, like to be one of the speakers. I'm like, really? Just me? I just take pictures for DC beer. And so that inspired me so tremendously.

Brandy Holder [00:27:44]:
I I I can't even I cried. I got goosebumps. I still get goosebumps thinking about it. That was such a wonderful event. I left that evening and immediately created the women's brew culture club. And I brainstormed names with the guys. I'm like, guys, what do you think? And I was like, I wanna do alliteration and stuff like that. And, we came up with a name.

Brandy Holder [00:28:05]:
And when Erica left the craft beer cellar, I was like, well, who's gonna do this? And so I took it upon myself to do it. Thanks to Matt Splein over other half who I also love in different ways. And Whoo. Ow. Ow. And so I I kinda took over the event. And, when I was able to get, so many folks to join the panelist, it was the most diverse panel to date. And it, you know, folks flew in the Berry Godmother flew in to from Georgia just to come to this panel.

Brandy Holder [00:28:46]:
It made me feel so proud. And just having the group of women and non binary folk that come to the events, it just it seems like this community is growing. And not only have I helped build the DC beer community, and we are always 1000 percent. We will never stop supporting our local businesses, 1,000 percent, especially our black owned breweries, our women owned breweries, our our yes. And I having having communities, building groups of communities, and then bringing them all together is the best possible solution that we could ever have. Mhmm. And we support each other. We give each other good words.

Brandy Holder [00:29:32]:
We say, oh, well, maybe you can work on that. You know, fix a flavor of that. Like, because we're your friends. Right? And having somebody on your on your team and behind your back is the best asset that any of us can give all of you. And we all do. We all love all of you guys. Like Jasmine and Andrew here from Lakewood Intrusion. Yes.

Brandy Holder [00:29:55]:
And Lauren is gonna open her own brewery. I'm so excited. So it's it's such a wonderful community, and I couldn't be more excited to continue building the women's brew culture club and having other events and bringing that all together.

Michael Stein [00:30:13]:
Well said. Yeah. Yeah. I'm so glad you called out Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company because, I I'm Gang gang.

Richard Fawal [00:30:20]:
I'm a

Michael Stein [00:30:21]:
massive massive fan of their south of DC cream ale, wonderful beer. Go to dcbrew.com, check out a stein compares and contrast. I did that. I did that. Other half had a cream ale, so you have a very large brewer. DC's biggest, that other half. And then an a a wonderful, brewery. But but I have to say that DC as a city, we are always small but mighty, reflecting our our brewing community.

Michael Stein [00:30:44]:
Right? So we have a dozen breweries in the city, but we have some wonderful ones here. And we're so excited, for Urban Garden. We just broke the news that Urban Garden. Yeah. Shout out to Urban Garden. We just broke the news that they signed their lease. Normally, Jake breaks the news.

Brandy Holder [00:30:58]:
I was scoot.

Michael Stein [00:30:59]:
On this Scoop, Brandy broke the news. So so Brandy put her reporter hat on, and and Jake and I followed up. So we love bringing you fresh news. So thank you for report for supporting us so that we can do the reporting. But I'm I'm so excited for Urban Garden Brewing to open up. And, you know, in DC, that's so important, but it's also happening around the world. There's a a brewery in South Africa. The first, black owned, woman owned brewery in South Africa opened not that long ago.

Michael Stein [00:31:28]:
So DC is lucky as a city to have connections around the globe, to these historic firsts. So we're super grateful for that, super grateful for you for supporting. Jake, I I wanna hear what what your take is. Are are we unique DC, or do I just think we are because we're here now with Well, before you says that, I I

Jordan Harvey [00:31:50]:
would just be remiss because we just talked about liquid intrusion to not acknowledge that they are also the first black woman owned to own.

Michael Stein [00:31:56]:
Come on.

Jordan Harvey [00:31:57]:
Yes. CG County and it unless we forget Maryland. So I I just wanna put that out there.

Michael Stein [00:32:03]:
Thank you for that question.

Jordan Harvey [00:32:04]:
You know, words matter.

Michael Stein [00:32:06]:
But alright. 100%. 100%.

Jordan Harvey [00:32:08]:
Part of a global movement. I gave you time to think. Now it's up to you.

Jacob Berg [00:32:11]:
No. No. Thank you. I think that, like, this this whole last, like, 5, 10 minutes or so has been, like, a very good transition to where we're coming from and where we're going, And I think I can say this as a white dude up here. I mean, Stein and I like, we're fish in water. It's been a very long time since I have never not known craft beer. Like, I've been drinking, like, I grew up in New York City, my dad came home with a 6 pack of Brooklyn Lager, by the way, Garrett Oliver, black owned.

Michael Stein [00:32:44]:
Yeah. Shut up.

Jordan Harvey [00:32:46]:
Michael James Jackson Foundation.

Jacob Berg [00:32:47]:
Oh, hey. That's pretty good. You know, and this was in like the mid nineties and you know, we've come a long way. You put like craft beer enthusiast into mid journey or some AI thing right now and it spits out a white guy with a beard and a plaid shirt and dead ass. I own that same plaid shirt that it's spitting out. And so, like, yeah, I guess on one hand I feel a little attacked, but on the other like that the the action isn't here for me. It's not from Mike. Every white person who's listening to this show already knows about craft beer.

Jacob Berg [00:33:31]:
We want to give shout outs to Anne at Lost Generation, Asian American Pacific Islanders. Woo. Yeah.

Jordan Harvey [00:33:39]:
My favorite

Brandy Holder [00:33:40]:
part of them.

Jacob Berg [00:33:41]:
Right? Drew Drew and Jasmine over at liquid intrusion. I mean, you go you go to an event at Metro Bar for black owned breweries, 2 February is now, and it's been the line has been 1 in 1 out.

Michael Stein [00:33:56]:
Around the block. Yes.

Jacob Berg [00:33:57]:
Yeah. Yes. I mean, the the future of beer is not me, and that's a it's a super super cool thing to see. And we get Yeah.

Michael Stein [00:34:07]:
The future the future is here and now. I think that's the point. And so we're living it out in real time. You know, outside of of my DC beer work, I have lost lagers. We are the premier beverage research firm in DC.

Brandy Holder [00:34:19]:
Lost Lagers. What's up? I was about to

Michael Stein [00:34:22]:
touch the vet. Peter Jones is in the audience. So thank thank Pete for, discover discovering the recipe for senate. We have lovely tasty cold senates all around town. But the reality of public history is that we we people don't know we're living history just day to day. You know, Monday through Friday, you're you're going to work, getting your kids, seeing your partner, whatever it is. You know, day in, day out, we don't realize we're living history, but this is a great time to be alive. It's the best time to be a beer lover, I would argue.

Michael Stein [00:34:56]:
And so we're super grateful for you all joining us here as we celebrate this historic 100th episode. Hey.

Jordan Harvey [00:35:04]:
Just as as as as grateful, you know, just hosts, writers, content creators, and otherwise, dynasty and shout out to Bitter Fruit as well. We were able to create our 1st collaboration, beer collab. So hopefully, some of you guys got your hands on the People's Pale. We dropped back in January. And we we hope to be able to collab in the future as well. Right? So again, that's that's credit to the community that you guys have supported us and helped us create, in doing that. So I just want to give a special shout out to Favio and Dynasty, the whole Dynasty family, Lauren, all of you all, thank you guys so, so, so, so very much, for that. And if you have any questions and or recommendations, especially from our Patreon members, of some of the things you might like to see more, because again, we wanna continue to grow.

Jordan Harvey [00:35:49]:
Like, we don't, don't, we don't want to sunset this thing, right? We want this thing to continue to grow. So, all, I think that feedback could be beneficial to us, because again, I mean, this is a community. We, you guys don't work for us and we don't necessarily work for you, but we want to work to provide you what you guys are looking for. So we got Scoops and we got Stein and we got, we got Brandy who is like Wonder Woman doing all the things. You got me, I might just pop up on you and drink all your hazy IPAs. So you just never know. But, again, we wanna get good feedback and get questions for you guys.

Brandy Holder [00:36:16]:
Do trivia.

Jordan Harvey [00:36:18]:
I do trivia.

Brandy Holder [00:36:18]:
Mhmm. And game night.

Jordan Harvey [00:36:20]:
Mhmm. I do some games.

Brandy Holder [00:36:21]:
Y'all, he does games and trivia. So go

Jordan Harvey [00:36:23]:
to those man, Scott. That's all. Yeah. Scott. Hey. We do some hikes too. Yeah. If you ever if you ever wanna get outside and know

Brandy Holder [00:36:29]:
Harvey Wilder Foundation.

Michael Stein [00:36:30]:
That's right. Yeah.

Brandy Holder [00:36:31]:
You know, I know.

Jordan Harvey [00:36:32]:
Hello. This is not about Jordan. This is about this is about all of us. But, yeah, shout out to all of the the DC beer folks that have supported us in the hiking, the trivia, the trivia aspect, and also just the women brew culture aspect. Because I mean, we've created these, like, sub pockets because these are things that we like to do in general and it's nice to find other people that agree with us. Right? So we do those things because we love to do those things and also we appreciate you all supporting. But anyway, if anyone has a question, my microphone will be the question microphone. So please, Greg, come on up, good sir.

Jordan Harvey [00:37:04]:
Ask your question. Don't ask what my favorite hop is because it changes by the week. Alright. Here we go.

Michael Stein [00:37:11]:
So and you guys may not know this, but because you're tapped into the beer scene, maybe you have an insight on it. But, with the rising cost of rents, the rising cost of materials to make beer, how do you see small breweries actually surviving, thriving, and staying around in D. C. How do you see the beer scene here evolving in that?

Jacob Berg [00:37:30]:
So here's a fun thing. I get emails from a landlord in Silver Spring every so often who tells me that a brew pub is available just off maybe on let's say East Shmishtresht shy way. Oh, yeah.

Jordan Harvey [00:37:47]:
Okay. Okay.

Jacob Berg [00:37:49]:
Yeah. Right. And so,

Jordan Harvey [00:37:53]:
it

Jacob Berg [00:37:53]:
was probably email 3 or 4 where I finally wrote back and was like, you had a renter. Right? And so, yes, rents are rising. Why are they rising so so much in conjunction with a bunch of other brewery inputs. Think of the cost of cans. Think of the cost of hops. Think of the cost of grains and of shipping that all over. You can certainly be a landlord and you can make money. The question to me really is can you make as much money as you used to off of that rent in terms of breweries and brew pubs or is are our tax codes such that it's easier for it to be depreciated asset.

Jacob Berg [00:38:51]:
You could write it down. You could take a loss, And so, to some extent, I feel like it's it's almost not up to the folks who want to either start brewing or continue brewing, so much as it is higher up the chain. Beer is an agricultural product. It's going to cost more as everything else costs more. I've got 2 kids. I buy peanut butter at the grocery store. I don't like how much it costs either, but we gotta eat. Right.

Jacob Berg [00:39:26]:
And I like beer and I need to make sure that on the other side of whatever this is, my locals make it out. And so that we, you know, we all survive.

Jordan Harvey [00:39:38]:
And and so to that point, I I think there's a I think that's an answer to the question. And I guess my answer to the question would be, we all have a finite amount of money, right? Everyone in this room. And I'm not saying it's up to everyone in this room, but I think it's up to us to spread the word to people outside of this room because I'm trying to try not to be long winded because I I think Papa Bear has something to say. But as as folks who break the news, our greatest hits are when breweries are closing. It shouldn't be we we shouldn't wait till the last or after the last minute to try to support a brewery. I I I've always loved Hellbender, and I myself, I'm guilty of not going to Hellbender every week. I mean, a, I can't afford it, and b, it's not in my it's just not in my neck of the woods. But the breweries that are in your neck of the woods, the breweries that are in your your bikable, walkable, Uberable metro area, whatever, we have to be the people to support them because they don't last if we don't drink their products or purchase their products.

Jordan Harvey [00:40:39]:
So I think, how do I see them surviving? We continue to do the work we do in encouraging other folks to drink local and to drink craft. But also, we need other folks to at least be interested in it. And I understand people's habits change. Right? I think people are releasing nonalcoholic beer to kinda to battle that. Right? Because everyone doesn't wanna drink every night, which is fine. That's safe. It might not be the healthiest thing to drink every night. I'll still do it.

Jordan Harvey [00:41:03]:
Forgive me. My point is, I think we have a lot of work to do to get the word out and to encourage folks to support those local businesses because a sign of a healthy neighborhood is having a brewery there. So when our breweries are closing, we are essentially kind of failing or allowing the neighborhood to fail or and or take a dip before a new brewery comes in if that happens. So I think that's just some of the things that we have to do as as consumers to do, and we'll continue to do the work we do as, promoters to do.

Richard Fawal [00:41:31]:
I'm gonna step in real quick because it that this is that's a good top it's a good question. It's a good topic. In a in a very recent episode of the DC Beer Show, Brandy and Jake and Mike were talking about food and beer. And and they they all generally agreed that they will drink okay beer if the food is really really really good. And if the if the beer is great but the food is okay, they'll pick up the beer and take it home. Both of those are great solutions. They both support, the local brewery. But, some of you may know, last year, I moved to Tennessee.

Richard Fawal [00:42:09]:
I don't live in the DC metro area anymore and I'm talking to

Michael Stein [00:42:12]:
a lot of brewers and

Richard Fawal [00:42:13]:
a lot of craft, you know, brewing companies in East Tennessee, all the way to Asheville. Basically from Nashville to Asheville is the way I describe my new range, right? And what I'm hearing more and more and more and more is that brewery owners are recognizing that they have to provide that there has to be good food options. That it has to be a brew pub model because they just serving beer for a lot of folks is just not enough to keep people coming back for a lot of the reasons that Jordan talked about. Like, you just can't drink every night. I mean, you can. Probably shouldn't. You know? And it's hard to maintain, especially because there's so many craft breweries. There's a lot of competition.

Richard Fawal [00:43:00]:
So I'm I'm you know, my thinking is that that tying beer and and craft breweries closer to food is is gonna be what more and more breweries start to do to really give people reasons to come in.

Brandy Holder [00:43:14]:
Is there another question? That was a good question, Greg. Thank you. Anybody else? Kim. Okay. Women's brew culture clue.

Audience Question [00:43:26]:
And the

Jacob Berg [00:43:26]:
beer heads Facebook group. Lost and found everybody.

Brandy Holder [00:43:29]:
Yes. So my question is, we're getting into the summer and, you know, we've gone through, sours. We went through the IPA phase. So what's the next big thing? Kolsch. It is. Cream ales. I I'm I'm I'm with Andrew. I'm with Drew over here.

Brandy Holder [00:43:53]:
Yeah.

Michael Stein [00:43:53]:
Cream ale. You know, it's a great question. What's the next big thing? We've seen cycles with super popular styles.

Jordan Harvey [00:44:00]:
It's not hazy IPAs? That's not the next big thing. Moment.

Michael Stein [00:44:03]:
So I think the the the truth of the matter is markets within markets. And if cream ale does really well, a brewery would be wise to keep making it. IPA, everybody says IPA is king, which I'm not crazy about, but the retail dollars don't lie. It is what it is. You know? That being said, lagers, definitely on the rise. You know, the the best selling lagers in America, are not at threat from the smaller craft breweries. We've seen Modelo outsell Bud Light. You know, the that that was the story of of last year.

Michael Stein [00:44:44]:
The biggest threat to Bud Light was Modelo, which was under the imports blanket canopy tent. But imports, really, nobody's touching, Mexico right now. Germany's nowhere near it. The Czechs are nowhere near it. Italy's nowhere near it. So imports has been folded in under the Mexican brand. I'm totally nerding out right now. I realize I'm in, like, Nielsen data IRI mode.

Michael Stein [00:45:07]:
Let me just turn this over. What's the next big style to answer Kim's question?

Jacob Berg [00:45:12]:
So I just kinda like rudely yelled out Kosch because I'm biased towards Kosch, but actually I think the answer might be closer to what, to where Jordan is. Maybe not necessarily hazy IPA, but I think of a beer kind of like 3 Floyd's gumball head where it's like it's an American wheat ale, but it's aggressively hops and, you know, comes in under 5a half, 6%, and to me that would kind of capture, I think, where people

Jordan Harvey [00:45:41]:
are. Are you sure it's not the pickle beer that you brought to

Brandy Holder [00:45:43]:
me? No. No. I'm not mad. That was good. But I like pickles.

Jacob Berg [00:45:50]:
Yeah. Pickles. Brandy and I will go to restaurants and, like, we have, like, if we see the pickle plate, like, we're on it. We want Yes. We want pickles, we'll drink we'll drink pickle juice, we do the pickle backs.

Jordan Harvey [00:46:02]:
What about the pickle beer for those that don't have it? Yeah.

Brandy Holder [00:46:04]:
Dude, the pickle beer was delicious. Wait, who brought that?

Jacob Berg [00:46:06]:
So I brought a pickled beer

Michael Stein [00:46:08]:
at That

Brandy Holder [00:46:08]:
was Cliff. Hey Cliff. What's up? Thank you. Yeah.

Jacob Berg [00:46:11]:
So Cliff brought a pickle beer

Brandy Holder [00:46:12]:
To Texas.

Jacob Berg [00:46:13]:
To the last beer share, best made which is a popular pickle brand out of Texas. There's another Texas brewery, Donna's Pickle Beer, and really what they're doing is they're making a Radler, but instead of adding lemonade, they're adding pickle juice. It's super refreshing if you're into it, if that makes you gag. I like I kinda understand where you're coming from, but like my favorite Gatorade flavor is that like cucumber melonie one. I really like Yeah. I did Yeah. You could I feel like I should cut

Jordan Harvey [00:46:50]:
him off

Jacob Berg [00:46:50]:
down. Hannibal Buress dot

Jordan Harvey [00:46:52]:
I feel

Richard Fawal [00:46:52]:
like I need to to cut Jake off now. I'm gonna jump in, pop a beer back one last time, because

Brandy Holder [00:47:00]:
That's what he said. I've

Richard Fawal [00:47:03]:
been He's back. I've been talking again to a lot of different brewers and and I I think I I have a different opinion than most of these folks. I think what we're really gonna start seeing a proliferation of is, NA beers and session beers. Beers under 4%. Mhmm. NA beers 2%, you know, or less. I will

Michael Stein [00:47:24]:
interject right now and say, good point, Richard. The only positive growth trend in the whole pie right now for all of beer is NA beer. Yes.

Richard Fawal [00:47:34]:
Yeah. So that's factually accurate. And more and more brewers, I mean, we know DC brow, there's a lot of local other half, who are making high quality tasty NA beers. Like, I'm lumping it all together. Like like, beers so I was I was recently in a brewery who, in East Tennessee who had just brought in a new head of brewing operations and they had sort of a meet and greet and I went and and the the new head of brewery operation said, hey, everybody who's here to meet me, what do you want? And I was shocked at the number of people in the room who were like, I want a session beer. Please make session beer. Stop making beers that are 7% and nothing else because it's great to come here for a beer, but, you know, like, that's all I get to do. If you make a 2 a half percent or a 3% beer, I can come here and have 4 beers.

Brandy Holder [00:48:26]:
Yeah.

Richard Fawal [00:48:27]:
Yeah. And so, I think that that just from an economic perspective, more and more breweries are gonna start doing it.

Michael Stein [00:48:32]:
Out in the middle of nowhere.

Richard Fawal [00:48:33]:
So so Greg, Parnas in the audience asked if that was because the the craft beer demographic is aging. No. I don't think so at all. I think it's because if you're gonna go to a brewery and drink beer, you're gonna go somewhere and have a beer as opposed to bringing it home. Right? You can drink 4 7 percent alcohol beers at home and that makes you a bad parent. Yeah.

Michael Stein [00:48:59]:
But that's Mhmm. Tastes like the kids are putting themselves to bed.

Richard Fawal [00:49:01]:
Exactly. But if you go out to a brewery and do that, that makes you a danger to the community. So it's we we talked about community all night long, and that's the difference. It's it's literally people saying, I I I can come here and have 1 beer and then I have to go home and take a nap. But if if you have lower if there's lower ABV beers, then I can come and hang out and play Yahtzee all night long. Right? Or do trivia or whatever it is.

Jordan Harvey [00:49:29]:
Erica, what do you have for us?

Audience Question [00:49:31]:
So I will suck at smoked beers, which I yelled from the back, but maybe you didn't hear me. But, the question that I have for everyone on the panel is, admittedly, after I close the store, I've sort of zoned out, not paying a whole lot of attention to things, which, you know, you need. But recently, some other store owners in other parts of the country mentioned that THC and CBD beverages were accounting for 20% of their sales. And so I'm wondering if you can talk to that a little bit, if you see that happening here in DC. 1. And, yeah, what the effects on beer will be for that.

Jordan Harvey [00:50:21]:
Is this a safe space?

Brandy Holder [00:50:24]:
Next place.

Michael Stein [00:50:26]:
We Yes.

Jacob Berg [00:50:26]:
And are still recording, Jordan.

Jordan Harvey [00:50:28]:
Yes. And I know. I know. I know. But I'm I'm only asking because we might have a representative that knows of that.

Brandy Holder [00:50:37]:
Matt's not allowed to speak on that. So,

Jordan Harvey [00:50:40]:
nevertheless, there are breweries, I think, that are shifting to that space. Right? I think there's been a concerted effort to to to do more seltzers, to do more NAs, and also to incorporate some CBD, THC beers. He's gonna talk, y'all. No. No.

Brandy Holder [00:50:55]:
I have them in this. Someone take a picture. Alright.

Jacob Berg [00:51:01]:
I don't

Jordan Harvey [00:51:01]:
know if y'all know this person. But he keeps me, hydrated on Wednesdays. When we do other half, trivia, I wouldn't be able to do what I do without this gentleman here. So I'm giving him all the flowers.

Brandy Holder [00:51:16]:
Oh my God. I'm a bumper thing so hard.

Jordan Harvey [00:51:19]:
Hey, guys.

Matt Splain [00:51:20]:
So as other half, we have started working with hemp THC. We, as a company, recognize, you know, the industry is diversifying and not everyone wants 8 to 20 double IPAs a week, which We do. So we realized, like, we gotta, we gotta refocus. And and part of it is a, if you look at, like, Other Half's draft list, we're adding new brand or styles to our our draft list that other half's not known for. Hefeweizens, seltzers, coffee milk stout, whatever it is.

Michael Stein [00:52:00]:
Mix firm.

Matt Splain [00:52:01]:
Mix firm. Well, we've been working on that. But, you know, that takes years till you can start putting it out. And we're now Cider. You know, putting that out. But with that in mind, like, we realized, you know, you know, Richard said a minute ago that, like, as people get, you know, age, they don't want lower alcohol. But as the industry ages, the younger generation's more calorie conscious and they want, you know, they wanna watch what they're drinking. They wanna watch what they're eating.

Matt Splain [00:52:30]:
They wanna watch what they're putting in their body. Not everyone wants alcohol in their body. And that's fine. And with the marijuana movement across this country, more people wanna smoke.

Jacob Berg [00:52:40]:
Whoop whoop.

Matt Splain [00:52:41]:
And not to say that they wanna smoke more than they wanna drink, but, you know, there is now something for everyone. And if a brewery can make something for everyone, it helps their bottom line. But it also is, creates a safe space for the whole community in that area to, you know, come and consume or come and buy. You know, so as a company, available in the DC tap room, but it's available to order and have delivered in DC. It's available to order and have delivered in DC. And in the future, once, you know, leg- legislation changes, like if marijuana becomes legal across the country, well, we won't be using hemp anymore. We'll actually be using bud. Stuff.

Matt Splain [00:53:26]:
The real, the good stuff. But outside that, like, you know, like as a company, we're focusing on, you know, every consumer. So, you know, I forget who mentioned it. Like, we have a great NA, and it took us over a year to perfect that recipe. And we're still now, you know, invested in pasteurization tables. So, you know, now, now, you know, invested in pasteurization tables. So, you know, now we can start canning our, you know, NA beer. And in, you know, couple months down the line, we will have that available in cans.

Matt Splain [00:54:02]:
We've got other non alcoholic options coming down the line. We've got seltzers that don't have THC in them coming down the line. So, you know, other half, I think, as an example in this case, they recognize the double IPA, the triple IPA market, which used to be so big, has shrunk. And you know, we want to stay, you know, where we are. So, we want to focus on every step in that market. And so, it's not only you know, session IPAs, it's pale ales, it's single IPAs. It's the seltzers, the alcoholic seltzers, the hemp seltzers, the THC seltzers, you know, hot teas, hot water. Like, you know, I just talked with the guys from hot water and I see Los Jones carry them now.

Matt Splain [00:54:49]:
And when I told them that, oh, we're already working on our own because of what we did with, Poplar. Thank you. They were like, oh, shucks. So, but yeah. So, like, you know, we're as a company, we are focusing on, you know, each level of that.

Brandy Holder [00:55:08]:
My friends, the time has come. Thank you so much for joining us. We need to wrap the show up because I wanna go have another drink with you guys. So we're gonna we're gonna say a couple of last words, closing things, thoughts and such. And you know who does that? Mike and Jake. Mike and Jake, please take us out.

Jacob Berg [00:55:29]:
Oh, no. I got nothing. I end up with, we are dcbeeracrosssocialmedia. Dcbeer.com/patreon. I wanna thank all of the Patreon members, the industry guests who are here, Lost Jen, Emily and Andy's Pizza. We could not do this without you. There would be no DC beer without breweries and beer drinkers. Yeah.

Jacob Berg [00:55:51]:
Well, thank you.

Michael Stein [00:55:53]:
Thank you. I wanna say thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Brandy Holder [00:55:59]:
Go support all the small business owners who are literally in this room.

Michael Stein [00:56:04]:
So many small

Brandy Holder [00:56:04]:
businesses owners here. We have Lion Hall, Liquid Intrusion, Dynasty, lost lager.

Michael Stein [00:56:10]:
Mesa Blendery.

Brandy Holder [00:56:11]:
Vieza. Hey, Alex back there. Like, we have Sapwood here. I mean, really at Ravenhook, we have my my beer my bread buddy over there. Please go support local businesses. Cheers.

Michael Stein [00:56:25]:
Thank you.

Brandy Holder [00:56:28]:
Oh. Hey, Josh Chapman. We see you too. Love you.