Kristi Griner on NA Beer, the Hazy Debate, and 20+ Years Atop the Mash Tun

After two decades in the brewhouse, Kristi Mathews Griner quit drinking and became, in her own words, an NA beer snob. She joins Jake, Brandy, and Jordan to argue that non-alcoholic beer has finally gotten good and to explain how brewers are achieving it with newer yeast strains, hotter mashes, and smaller batches.

Kristi started waiting tables at Hops Grill & Brewery in Alexandria in 2002 and worked her way into the brewhouse, eventually leading brewing operations at Capital City and serving as technical brewer at Beltway, where she brewed contract batches for Grimm and others. Along the way, she watched the Virginia beer scene grow roughly fivefold before the boom collapsed back toward the brewpub model it started with.

She's blunt about the haze craze. She was "very begrudging," she says, and still kind of is, though she'll happily praise a haze that earns its place. She's also full of stories, including the time Charlie Papazian tasted her Pilsner at Savor and nearly talked himself into moving to Leesburg to drink it all the time.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Go Brewing (Naperville, IL) — "The Story" DIPA and their pilsner
• Sierra Nevada Trail Pass
• Athletic Brewing
• Other Half "All-N-All"
• Wheatland Spring (Liberty Estate Ale, Consequent)
• Bottle Logic (Recursion IPA)
• Grimm Artisanal Ales;

UPCOMING DCBEER EVENTS:

• Urban Garden Brewing grand opening on Juneteenth — DC's first Black woman-owned brewery, with a ribbon cutting around midday
• Women's Brew Culture Club in July: a mahjong night at Lucky Danger and an event at Diamondback Brewing
• July beer share at Other Half on Sunday, July 1

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Creators and 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.

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.

JB (00:06)
Welcome everyone to the DC Beer Show. We are at DC Beer across social media. Brandy, what are you drinking today?

Brandy (00:13)
just finished my last sip.

Of recursion IPA, which is one of my ⁓ lovely beer hauls that I got from Cali. I went to Bottle Logic in Anaheim and had a blast. Even met one of the brewers there, ⁓ had some delicious beers. But I'm about to crack open a spoil that I got from this past Saturday ⁓ at our trip to Wheatland Spring. I'm drinking I'm about to open Consequent, our Consequent, which is a sv Sviet.

Lee Lizak, which is a pale lager. ⁓ John Branding hooked us up on Saturday. Cheers to them. ⁓ I know we had a blast. Mr Mr. Jordan, our hop head, what you drinking? Hoppy or lager? What you got?

Jordan (01:01)
⁓ i it actually

it's hoppy and I'm actually surprised that you have an IPA sp but I I'm great to not be the only IPA drinker, ⁓ at least thus far. ⁓ I'm having a a Fight Ins and Trune collaboration, so all the the hype breweries ⁓ have come together apparently. Anyway, it's Alex's Axe Hoppy Ale. It's a pretty good it's a ten percenter, so I don't think I'll have a many of these, but it ⁓ Nelson Strata Pichurine and Galaxy for the Taste buds and I'm enjoying it so far.

Jake, what is your take? What are you having tonight, sir?

JB (01:34)
That is a bold move for a weekday. ⁓ I I respect it. Yeah. I'm actually taking it right back to Wheatland. ⁓ I have here their Liberty Estate Ale with a ⁓ strain of barley, a collab between them and Virginia Tech called Liberty. ⁓ one of the many 250 beers that we'll see in the area. And we've got a special guest today, Kristi Griner. You drinking anything today?

Jordan (01:38)
It's it's the World Cup, you know, all bets are worth.

Kristi Mathews Griner (01:41)
Okay.

I am just finished off a go brewing ⁓ the story double IPA. So I have quit drinking, but I have now gone to being a NA beer snob, and I think this is probably one of the best West Coast double IPAs out there on the NA market. You hit it and it's like all those nice little bits of crystal malt in there, but then a whole bunch of sea hops.

So it's pine, grapefruit, and it it's very, very testile. It's quite nice.

JB (02:37)
That is good to hear. I have heard of Go, but I haven't had anything from them yet.

Kristi Mathews Griner (02:39)
where'd you go? Okay.

Their pilsner is super clean and good as well. So if you try that, you'll say, Holy cow, this is just a nice clean pills and then you'll say this is a non alcoholic. It's good beer.

Brandy (02:52)
I need to do that. Yeah. Because

summertime, I just want to come home and have me some West Coast IPA. And I know I have drank extremely heavily recently. ⁓ California went to like 14-15 breweries all within you know six days. ⁓ which I've I've done more in at the same amount of time, but I I wouldn't have I wouldn't have.

Kristi Mathews Griner (03:09)
Ha ha ha.

gosh.

Brandy (03:20)
hurt for a an NA tonight, but we got so much good beer in the house it's hard to say no. But I am gonna look that up. Thank you, Kristi. I'm always looking for some good NA recommendations.

Kristi Mathews Griner (03:28)
Amen to that.

Jordan (03:31)
Yeah, and and just curious, Kristi, ⁓ have you worked your way through like the NA I guess the lineup? I know like Bureau with like Tom Hollins, I think Sierra Nevada has a few. ⁓ have you found any other like r pretty good ⁓ NA's out there?

Kristi Mathews Griner (03:44)
let's

see. we have the trail pass in the house a whole lot here. they do trail pass from Sierra Nevada, they do s four different ones. One's a Burezilla, so that's kind of like your your your cervasa with some lime type of type of thing. ⁓ they do a hazy, they do a blonde, and then basically your old school sort of

Pale ale. And those are all good. They're all nice and clean. It's Sierra Nevada. It's what you'd expect from them. They're all clean, very nice hop character to all of them. ⁓ the Biro I've tried a couple times. I bought a mix pack from them, and the Pilsner had had some secondary fermentation or something went off inside it because I it was load of it's terribly overcarbonated. They're all gushers.

Brandy (04:43)
Yeah.

Kristi Mathews Griner (04:43)
⁓

athletic is very good. I like even though I'm usually as far as my traditional IPAs go, I like my clear ones better. In the non alcoholic space a lot of times I'm finding I like the hazy better because they're using oats and wheat and sometimes different sorts of fruit and stuff to increase the mouthfeel. So

Even though I'm usually I want a clear IPA when I'm talking about my regular beers for the non alcoholics I frequently enjoy the hazies more.

Brandy (05:14)
May I tail tailgate on this and just shout out a really good non-alcoholic beer that I genuinely like. And I I've tried so many of them. and so other half here in DC, they usually have like an Aeon draft and they've had a a brown ale. Was it a brown ale? It was a stout, I think, before. It was so good. But they but they don't can it because they had to get it pasteurized.

Kristi Mathews Griner (05:39)
What?

Brandy (05:44)
They now have a canned NA. It's it's like NA everything or all NA everything. What's it called, Jake? Do you know what it's called?

Kristi Mathews Griner (05:47)
Yeah, yeah.

JB (05:52)
Yeah,

it is. It's all NA everything. And like I yeah, so all in, yeah.

Brandy (05:55)
It is so fucking good. And

it's a hazy. And I'm not a hazy girl. I'm a West Coast girl, Pilsner, Lager. It is like I I chug it, like I don't chug it, but I chug it. It's so good. So get that one. Try that.

Kristi Mathews Griner (05:59)
⁓

Right, right.

JB (06:10)
is that yeah, other half is the largest brewer in DC right now. Like they now brew more than DC Brau but they brew that beer over at Industrial Arts, sort of like in like that like New York State, Pennsylvania border area. Industrial Arts has ⁓ the the NA capabilities, DC doesn't.

Kristi Mathews Griner (06:10)
I will have to go check it out.

Mm-hmm.

JB (06:34)
And so it's kinda kinda interesting to see like how the capacity shakes out and how these deals work between breweries. I think that Sierra Vada is brewing trail pass in-house. I actually don't know like where athletic or where go brews.

Kristi Mathews Griner (06:35)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brandy (06:48)
⁓ brewed a couple of

Kristi Mathews Griner (06:48)
⁓ Go is in Naperville,

Illinois, outside of ⁓ Chicago. I did a little work for them about early last year as a brand rep, and I'm I'm really stoked about their product. And there's a lot of different ways to do their, you know, to get to an NA beer. I know they are doing theirs by a combination of some of the newer yeast strains that don't, you know, convert as much, but and then but also

a combination of higher fermentation temperature or a higher ⁓ mash temperatures and smaller mashes to to get to that, which I don't know. It's it's so interesting. When I was still working for Beltway before the NA really blew up, we were going we were starting and working with that, trying to figure out how to do it because there was next to none of it at that point. ⁓

That's it's neat to see the different ways people are coming up with some really good products these days.

Brandy (07:48)
It just goes to show that beer won't die. You know, it's it's people are drinking less, but at least people are finding new ways to drink beer without the consequences of ⁓ you know, the alcohol version of it. So I respect it, you know.

Jordan (08:05)
Yeah, as as ⁓ as Andrew likes to say with liquid intrusion, you know, may the liquid always prevail, ⁓ which I hope it does. so I'm I'm obviously rooting for it. but Kristi, you you've had a pretty ⁓ esteemed and and distinguished career throughout beer and we kind of were really latching on to the NA piece of it, but I guess throughout your career, in addition to NA or outside of NA, what other changes have you seen across the beer industry in your ⁓

Kristi Mathews Griner (08:05)
Yeah.

Jordan (08:31)
lovely career with beer. You've done a lot more than I've done. I've done a lot of drinking. You've done a lot of more a lot more ⁓ contributions to actual beer, especially locally.

Kristi Mathews Griner (08:39)
I don't know, I've done a lot of drinking of it too. Let me see. I

I suppose I I could really say I started in two thousand two. ⁓ I was working when I first moved to the area here from Charlotte, first job I got, I was just waiting tables a couple of nights a week at Hop's ⁓ bar and brewery, which is now defunct and gone. That is in w used to be in ⁓ you know, just in Crystal City there

And I waited tables, bartended, part time managed there for I think four years. And then in two thousand no, five years, two thousand seven, I brewed my first beer there. I started training under the previous brewer. It's a little small seven barrel system. And he wanted to move back to where he was originally from, so I apprenticed under him for

about maybe I think six months, and then took over the brewery from him in the beginning of two thousand and eight. And that was the first brewery. And goodness, let's see, back then there were less than eighteen hundred breweries in the entire United States. I think we had thirty eight breweries in Virginia, and we've got more than that probably in Loudoun County now. ⁓ you know, you're talking about everything has expanded five times.

And they're and originally it was all pretty much just little brew pubs. And then it became the breweries and people wanted food trucks and nobody wanted to go to a brew pub anymore. And then it became really big and everybody was opening up breweries and now it's kind of

collapsed in upon itself now and it's going back to where people are, do you have a restaurant attached to your brew pub now or to your restaurant, to your brewery again? And I don't know, it's it's it's like the whole bubble. I was I don't know, I rode the whole bubble pretty much.

Brandy (10:32)
Yeah.

JB (10:44)
The restaurant to food truck space is ⁓ interesting to me. At least not because we started to see this explosion, at least in DC, of food trucks, and then a lot of those food trucks ended up getting brick and mortars themselves, and food trucks will sometimes have accidents or they'll flake on a brewery, and then all of a sudden it's like, look, we're taking it back in-house. And so, in a way, we are kind of sort of full circle now with the brewpo.

Brandy (10:44)
What are you gonna miss most up?

Kristi Mathews Griner (11:01)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's true.

Brandy (11:13)
Jake told me that you're retiring

soon. What are you going to miss most about the beer scene and being a brewer?

Kristi Mathews Griner (11:22)
I miss putting together recipes. I miss coming and mashing in. There that that is just one of the most beautiful things is to come in in the morning and, you know, flip on the lights and throw on some music and just and mash in. It's I miss that. I miss that a lot. ⁓ I miss the the pleasure of putting together a beer that had never existed before.

And I that was probably what I enjoyed the most was just creating new recipes and then seeing how that came to fruition. That that that idea that started off, you know, some as a little scribble on a piece of paper and then maybe a month goes by and we're drinking it. That's a lot of fun.

JB (12:11)
You have any in particular that stand out? I mean, for me, it's probably Amber Waves at Cap City. This, you know, like an American amber, just like a nice hit of citra to it to let you know that, ⁓ like, yes, amber ales are a thing, but now, you know, we're gonna we're gonna put like a little, you know, like new world hop twist on it just to let people know where they are.

Kristi Mathews Griner (12:35)
Yep, that was that was a really good beer. You know, that was our that was our G ABF silver medal in Cab City. And that was, I think, the second or third most entries in that competition back then. You know, which also says something when there is when Amber Ale was that entered of a category. ⁓ that was a great beer. When I was brewing for vintage fifty, here's a story.

When I was brewing at Vintage Fifty, ⁓ we got to do have some of our beer at ⁓ at Savor and when that came to DC. And I brought a Pilsner and a Rye IPA that I had made. It was ⁓ I had not been brewing for vintage fifty very long at that time. I think I was still in my first year. And ⁓

Brandy (13:18)
Rip.

Kristi Mathews Griner (13:32)
Charlie Papasian was there. And he came and drank my pilsner. And ⁓ he said, and I think I'm quoting, he said, That's almost good enough to make me move to Leesburg so I could drink it all the time. And my husband, who was with me, could not understand why I was like almost on the floor, why I almost like I just fainted and fell out. Why, like, why is she fangirling over this little funny looking old man?

Brandy (14:01)
Ha ha ha

Kristi Mathews Griner (14:03)
Like you don't understand.

He was you don't understand what was just said there. ⁓ so that was probably that Pilsner I'm super proud of. And there was some weird beer that I also made at Vintage Fifty when I first started there, and it was a kitchen sink beer that ended up being a Belgian dark strong ale that was called ⁓ Sorted Past. And I sent that off to the G ABF, but I was

Very incompetent in the mattle of hand bottling at the time. And ⁓ it did not get there in ideal state. The reviews I got for it said that, you know, it had gotten there and it was a little oxidized and had lost its ideal carbonation. But two of the judges both said that they wished they'd gotten better samples because they thought it was one of the most fascinating beers of the of the lot. But okay.

There's beer stories.

Brandy (15:04)
Nice.

Jordan (15:06)
Yeah. So I I guess when when the haze craze began in like the early ⁓ is it early is it said to say early teens or like the the haze craze, ⁓ how did that impact your your business or your day to day? Was that something that you begrudgingly kind of got on board with or were you still able to kind of stick true to the styles that you preferred to brew? ⁓ how did that work for you throughout your career?

Kristi Mathews Griner (15:13)
Mm.

⁓ I was very begrudging. ⁓ I still kind of am. You know, we went to we worked so hard as brewers to learn how to make bright beer. And then here comes this I think a lot of the hazies or a lot of the sour trends are out there to where people are just taking a subpar beer but using excellently done marketing.

To take something that should not have been given to the public, but they're like, well look, it looks like a milkshake. No, it's a ugly frickin' beer. But, you know, that is just my old stodgy two cents. Obviously, the people have made money on it, so more power and cheers, but I am not a fan. hazy's there are hazy's that can be done well, and those I do like. A hazy that maintains a haze that looks like something that you would find in a Belgian wit where it is sort of

a nice almost lights the beer in a way from the the haze quality to it as opposed to just something that looks like schmutz in a glass. I it

Jordan (16:36)
No, I I I know I know exactly which beers you're talking about. I I've had a a few and I've also poured a lot out, but yeah.

Kristi Mathews Griner (16:41)
Yeah, and it looks like somebody

like it looks like dishwater some things that you get. It looks like somebody took some dish soap and then poured some mango puree into it and shook it around and then poured it into your glass and said, Here, cheers, enjoy this. It's like you know. But a good hazy I do appreciate.

Brandy (16:58)
There there's a local brewery that

There's a local brewery that really just super promotes their thick as molasses Oreo, chocolate, what a like concoctions, and yet they win awards for their clear beer. And I'm just beyond myself. I don't I have so many opinions and thoughts, and I'm not allowed to voice them.

⁓ on public forums but I don't understand how people can drink I mean if you want a milkshake fine but that's not a beer. So I'm kinda with you, Kristi. I'm like, my God, please, please make it stop. But if people are if people call it beer and they're drinking beer, I guess I can't complain. So

Kristi Mathews Griner (17:57)
Yeah. You know, and that is one thing that I tried to remind myself is, you know, we you you you are making beer for other people to drink, not just you know, not just ourselves. But at the same time, you know, some of that stuff I kind of put it into the same category as ranch dressing or mayonnaise and things that I

Brandy (18:10)
Yes.

Kristi Mathews Griner (18:26)
have no desire to have, but hey, if y'all like it, go ahead. More power to you.

Jordan (18:29)
Yeah.

⁓ I guess a follow-on question, ⁓ how like hazes have changed, 'cause I know ⁓ I I tend to be in the minority being a big hazy ⁓ lover. It's not all I like, but I do like them. but I guess you you mentioned and you kind of talked about your time as a as a brewer. what other hats have you worn in the industry for the the lay listener that may not be familiar with your career?

Kristi Mathews Griner (18:54)
⁓ I've mostly been a brewer. Let me see. I brewed for hops for I was at Hops from 2002 to 2011, the last four years as the brewer there. I went from Hops to Vintage Fifty and brewed there for about a year and a half. I left Vintage Fifty and went to Capital City Brewing Company and was a director of brewing operations there for just about four years.

During the time there we had back then, Capital City, who well before my time, ⁓ started the tradition, but they had the largest Oktoberfest in the mid-Atlantic. And I did seven beer festivals for them, four Oktoberfests and three spring fests. The Oktoberfests would have upwards of sixty-five breweries.

as well as cideries, wineries, vendors, cigars, ⁓ UMBA bands. ⁓ they would take we would take over the entire Springfield Villa or village there in Shirlington and it was huge. And then the Springfest was about half the size of that. There were usually about thirty-five breweries and some wineries and, you know, half of the footprint, but still very, very large things. ⁓

After that I was very tired. Took a break and did some fancy cocktail work for a bar called Trademark in the Weston Hotel in the Carlisle District of Old Town. ⁓ I went to work at Beltway Brewing Company for about a year and a half as their technical brewer. And that was a lot of fun. Beltway was a contract brewery.

It was still in the days of big beer bro growth for con you know, for craft beer in the Virginia area and also in the eastern coast. they did a lot of contract work for Grimm out of New York, for Fathead, ⁓ gosh, for bunches of places. I'm sorry, did you raise your hand to my rambling?

JB (21:06)
no, you're good. I just wanted to ⁓ chime in since Jordan was asking about hazy's and you mentioned contract work at Beltway. To me, what really jumps out there is Grim, which was a huge deal in Brooklyn, in Queens, in New York, and was in fact being brewed out at Beltway by you. So I guess my you know, given ⁓ you know, people's thoughts on Hazies, what did you think of their recipes? Because if, you know, I recall

I'll drink a hazy. I'm not a huge haze guy, but I thought that Grimm was probably one of the better early adopters of the style, substyle.

And it may have been thanks to you.

Kristi Mathews Griner (21:45)
Mhm.

They had ⁓ Huh. ⁓ they were well established with Beltway before I came along, so I I can't ⁓ I can't take all of that. I definitely did a lot of beers in the time that I worked for them, but they were well established with Beltway before I came along. ⁓

They made s I I did tend to like their beers with the exception of the fact that they frequently would use lactose in their hazes and no, that's not my thing. I don't mind lactose and a stout here and there, but I don't want lactose in my IPAs. But again, that's you know lots of people like it, so cheers to that. ⁓ one thing I really enjoyed about working with Grimm was kind of fascinating is

Spencer made their own lactocultures and so he would bring the lactocultures to us when we were getting ready to brew one of their sours. And their sours I preferred to their IPAs. Yes, Miss Brandy?

Brandy (22:46)
So the r raised hand just means I will I'll talk after you. But yes, finish your story and then I'm gonna talk. you're good. We should have told you that, I'm sorry. Richard will cut that out.

Kristi Mathews Griner (22:56)
I don't know, I mean like no you

you have to you have to like do you have to because I will talk the back leg off a jackass and I have all the stories in the world. So if no but my mama is. I'm born and raised in West Virginia by yeah, so I I do have some I do have a little w North Carolina to me on my mom's side.

Brandy (23:09)
You must are you from North Carolina?

okay. Okay. I'm from North Carolina and we would say s we stuff said something like that. Yeah.

Yeah. I would like to ⁓ just advocate for so you may not know this, Kristi, but there was this there was, rest in peace, this local brewery called Hellbender, which is my local brewery.

Kristi Mathews Griner (23:26)
Yeah.

Brandy (23:43)
And we spent a many wonderful nights there. But they had this placard, ⁓ this like w I it I guess it was a chalkboard in the in the tap room that says days without using lactose in our beer. And it was literally every single day that they've been open. And I was like, can more breweries do that? It was just, it was just a subtle nod and not everyone knew what it was, but

Kristi Mathews Griner (23:44)
I know health enter. Yep.

Ha ha.

Brandy (24:09)
To those who did, it was just so ⁓ such a beloved little thing, but also like a slap in the face, a subtle slap in the face for everyone else, and it was just really cute. ⁓ so

Kristi Mathews Griner (24:22)
Yep. Yep.

Brandy (24:24)
while I have everybody,

I'm going to plug some upcoming events. So we want to say thank you to everyone who came out to Wheatland Spring this past weekend. We had a blast, and Amber had a wonderful turnout to the Women's Brew Culture Club in Baltimore. We are planning two Women's Brew Culture Club events for July because it's summertime and we know you guys want stuff to do.

So Alyssa, our friend Alyssa over at Lucky Danger, wants to have a Women's Brew Culture Club mahjong night. So we will be doing that to be determined what date that is going to be. And then Amber and myself are, we're doing a co-u-Women's Brew Culture Club event. We're going to Diamondback Brewing, which actually our dear friend Mike Earl just started at. So hey, Mike Earl, we can't wait to see you. ⁓ also to be determined, we're still working on a date, but it's going to be a Saturday or Sunday. And

Our beer share for July is going to be at Other Half. It's been a hot little minute since we've been to Other Half. So I'm so excited. And we're gonna be there on Sunday, July 19th. So go ahead and mark your calendars, everybody. We know that the beer shares are your favorite event of the month. So ⁓ I know sometimes I get too busy. Life is lifing, and I forget to announce it. So this is me announcing it now. So listen and mark your calendar.

JB (25:48)
This is actually a good opportunity to plug other half's NA beer all in because other half inevitably will have like six or seven beers that are between like eight and like twelve percent on. And so one move here is to do the quote unquote zebra stripe, where like, you know, you can get yourself a double IPA and then you can take it back down with like a with a can of all in, and voila, like you've had two IPAs.

Kristi Mathews Griner (26:05)
Yeah.

JB (26:17)
But only one of them has alcohol. And so I think like it's it's a winning move for you, a winning move for breweries. ⁓ it works in ways to me that I think hop water doesn't. ⁓ I got that. Additional events coming up. ⁓ this episode drops on Thursday, the eighteenth. You have like three hours to R S V P and get to Franklin Hall.

For a very special pre-Juneteenth Eve beer share at Franklin Hall just off U Street. And then for Juneteenth, what better way to celebrate than with the official grand opening launch of DC's first black woman-owned brewery? There's gonna be a ribbon cutting. ⁓ I think the ribbon cutting happens at like 12:30 or so. One, one o'clock. Yeah, super cool. ⁓

Kristi's friend Favio is the brewer there. ⁓ so we all know that he makes dope beers. Brandy shows off the dynasty hat. Kristi does the clap. Yeah, good times. So, like Eli, even you know, as soon as you're listening to this, we've got events for you coming up. Pop, pop, pop. ⁓ I'll put my music nerd hat on and say that then on the 20th, ⁓ there are a bunch of shoe gaze bands at DC Brau. So if you like beer and ⁓ hearing loss, you can come see me.

On the twentieth, please wear earplugs.

Kristi Mathews Griner (27:48)
Yeah. Please wear your crazy.

Brandy (27:48)
We'll see everyone at Urban Garden Brewing.

I'm so excited. I will be there with my camera. So come say hi and support her story in the making.

Speaking of hearsary, Kristi, I want to know if you would be a guest on one of my women's panels next March. I usually have one or two, I usually host one or two women in beer panels. ⁓ and most of them are either Whip Pink Boots Fundraiser, ⁓ not this past year, but the year before, I did a huge one at Lost Generation and raised a lot of money thanks to the donations of so many local breweries and even breweries from far away like Dovetel and Heater Allen.

Donated and we raise a bunch of money for the Michael James Jackson Foundation. And I know that you have retired, but you're still an icon, a woman icon in beer, and it's such a huge deal. So ⁓ I'm gonna cordially invite you and I'll you have plenty of time to think about it. So you don't have to answer right now.

Kristi Mathews Griner (28:34)
Nice.

JB (28:47)
Kristi, I want you to take us out with a West Virginia question. Pepperoni rolls, yay or nay. Who's your favorite?

Kristi Mathews Griner (28:48)
That's fair enough.

gosh, okay.

⁓ okay, mine. ⁓ Because I don't eat pork. So I have to make my own pepperoni rolls with ⁓ with some turkey pepperoni or beef pepperoni when I can find it, but y pepperoni rolls are jam.

Brandy (29:15)
Mm-hmm.

JB (29:15)
I live with two vegetarians and so there's not meat in the house. Then I go out to West Virginia and I go you hit a gas station, you go, pepperoni rolls. Like, let's, you know, let's see what this is all about.

Kristi Mathews Griner (29:23)
⁓ Exactly.

Brandy (29:24)
Ha ha ha.

Ha ha ha.

Kristi Mathews Griner (29:29)
You know, like you'd be surprised what beautiful food you can find in a West Virginia gas station.

JB (29:35)
Yeah, sometimes it's fresh ramps, sometimes it's ⁓ pepperoni rolls on the steam table. It's life's rich pageant.

Kristi Mathews Griner (29:42)
It was it was funny a couple of years ago when all the hip chefs in the D C area decided that ramps were the thing. Like, yeah.

Brandy (29:51)
Isn't that very Irish thing? Ramps and leaks? Leaks are leaks are very Irish, right? Yeah, leaks. Okay, yeah.

Kristi Mathews Griner (29:58)
Leaks are the thing. Yeah.

But the ramps are kind of the ramps are kind of the New World cousin of a leak.

Brandy (30:09)
Gotcha. All right. ⁓ Kristi, it was nice to have you on. I will let Mike or Mike. yeah. by the way, Mike says hi. He said everyone tell Kristi I said hi, but no one has said that. So I'm saying that. You're welcome, Mike. I love you. ⁓ yeah, sorry. I didn't want to forget. So thank you for all your contributions and being an amazing person in beer and representing women in beer all these years. So

Kristi Mathews Griner (30:24)
Hi Mike.

Jordan (30:26)
You beat me, Brandon. I was gonna do it, you beat me.

Kristi Mathews Griner (30:28)
Ha ha

Brandy (30:38)
Three ways of gas to you.

Kristi Mathews Griner (30:40)
I thank you so much. Thank you guys for having me on today and thank you for carrying the work forward.

JB (30:46)
Cheers, we appreciate it. Thank you for joining us. ⁓ we are yeah, we are at DCB or across social media. ⁓ please continue to enjoy the World Cup responsibly ⁓ by giving bars, breweries, restaurants your money in exchange for a bunch of goals or a bunch of zero zero ties, which is, you know, un-American, but also cool, I guess. All right, be well, everybody, we'll see you in two weeks.

Jordan (30:46)
Cheers.

Kristi Mathews Griner (30:48)
All right, usually.

Brandy (31:12)
Cheers.

Kristi Mathews Griner (31:13)
All right, cheer ja.

Jordan (31:14)
Yeah.