Episode 29
From Hop to Tap: How a New Beer is Created
Gary Arndt, Allison McCoy, and Bobby Fleshman delve into the process of creating a new beer, discussing the idea of a 'taxonomy of alcohol' and how their new beer 'Little Tornado' came to be. From the inspiration and design behind the beer to the marketing challenges faced, get an inside look at the intricacies of brewing and branding.
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TIMELINE
00:00 Science is Physics or Stamp Collecting
00:28 Exploring the Taxonomy of Alcohol
01:19 The Creation of a New Beer
02:34 Designing and Naming Challenges
05:06 Marketing and Branding Strategies for New Beers
17:29 The Story Behind 547 and Toronado
20:26 The Future Family of 547
22:20 Conclusion and Farewell
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CREDITS
Hosts:
Music by Sarah Lynn Huss
Recorded & Produced by David Kalsow
Brought to you by McFleshman's Brewing Co
Transcript
Hello everyone.
Gary Arndt:And welcome to another episode of respecting the beer.
Gary Arndt:My name is Gary Arndt and with me, as usual, are the proprietors of McFleshman's Brewing, Dr.
Gary Arndt:Allison McCoy and Dr.
Gary Arndt:Bobby Fleshman.
Gary Arndt:And today I want to start off this episode with a quote from someone you probably are familiar with, Lord Ernest Rutherford.
Gary Arndt:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Oh, yay.
Gary Arndt:Who said, All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
Gary Arndt:And as you are both physical scientists, today I want to talk about the stamp collecting part.
Gary Arndt:That in biology they have a taxonomy system, right?
Gary Arndt:So you have plants and animals are in different kingdoms.
Gary Arndt:And if we think of a taxonomy of alcohol, Distilled spirits would probably be in their own kingdom.
Gary Arndt:Then you'd have a kingdom of like fermented things.
Gary Arndt:Maybe sake, would be in a completely different family than beer, but then you'd get closer and closer and closer.
Gary Arndt:And then you can maybe get down to like the genus level where you have like IPAs and then you have a species, which might be a particular beer.
Gary Arndt:And so we've talked many times on this show about particular beer that you guys have 547.
Gary Arndt:It's a very popular beer.
Gary Arndt:It's a double IPA.
Gary Arndt:It's very hoppy, but.
Gary Arndt:There's a very high alcohol content.
Gary Arndt:So, I've enjoyed several, but it's not something I usually want to enjoy two of in one evening.
Gary Arndt:So, you guys have created something that I would say is maybe in the way that Neanderthals were related to humans.
Gary Arndt:They were kind of a cousin species, but maybe not the same species.
Gary Arndt:You created something that was similar, but different.
Gary Arndt:Why don't you explain the process and the thought that went into it and why you bothered to make it?
Bobby Fleshman:I love this analogy.
Bobby Fleshman:This now I'm also thinking not just about the taxonomy, but The, the way evolution speaks to the evolution of that taxonomy.
Bobby Fleshman:I think that's just stamp collecting.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: I love that quote.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, I do love that.
Bobby Fleshman:So what the question was, how we came upon it and how this, this, this evolved and how it came about because it was,
Gary Arndt:I mean, it was designed.
Gary Arndt:Yeah.
Gary Arndt:So this was intelligently designed to be a well as
Bobby Fleshman:intelligent as we can
Gary Arndt:be.
Gary Arndt:Well, it was an evolution joke.
Gary Arndt:Yeah, I got it.
Gary Arndt:Yeah, I got it.
Gary Arndt:It was, I mean, it was designed to be similar to an existing product.
Gary Arndt:So why, and then how did you go?
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, well, I think that speaking to evolution and the need for genetic expression, there was a lot of genetic pressure downstairs to create this.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Well, and also, so most of our, so the flagship beers that we have.
Bobby Fleshman:There was this really great trip that Bobby and I took down to Cincinnati to buy our back bar long before the brewery was, was opened.
Bobby Fleshman:And we had kind of worked out a list in the names of the main beers we would, we would create.
Bobby Fleshman:And those pretty much still, still exist.
Bobby Fleshman:Hold pretty solid the list because we knew we knew the spectrum of beers that we needed to have then now, you know We've been in business for six years or so And so now we we recognized that there was a hole for this one particular style of beer And so we got to experience like okay We have a need from a lot of people saying that we need a lower alcohol version of five four seven And so then we got to Pretty much go to the chalkboard and like write out and sketch out what do we want this to look like?
Bobby Fleshman:How can we do this?
Bobby Fleshman:What where does this fit in the family?
Bobby Fleshman:It's not the first time this has happened.
Bobby Fleshman:Something Amber is our Vienna lager.
Bobby Fleshman:We also had a moment several years ago.
Bobby Fleshman:I guess it's true.
Bobby Fleshman:When we looked around and said, when are we going to fill this gap between something black and something
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Light.
Bobby Fleshman:light, yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:We needed Something Amber.
Bobby Fleshman:That box, like Bach as in the beer style, they were amber, but they were 8%, they were 7%.
Bobby Fleshman:So it also, so we needed to create a Vienna lager to check that box.
Bobby Fleshman:So we've gone through this,
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: But it's not a Czech beer though.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, it has too many words that sound like other words here.
Bobby Fleshman:So that beer, that beer was, but I want to say this, that beer was a really big success for us because it, it, the liquid is good, it looks like it should, it tastes like people want, and it has the The name, something Amber, which is a marketing home run.
Bobby Fleshman:Then it's the first one that I've been given any credit for having created a good name.
Bobby Fleshman:So anyway, fast forward to now we are in the similar boat with the hoppy styles in this case, five 47.
Bobby Fleshman:And as Gary said, you can't have two responsibly, definitely can't have three responsibly.
Bobby Fleshman:And we, and yet, and yet people were, We're still doing that because they didn't have an option.
Bobby Fleshman:So it was only the responsible thing to do is we're all getting older.
Bobby Fleshman:Society's starting to think less about drinking so much alcohol or thinking more about drinking less alcohol.
Bobby Fleshman:So we've saw the writing on the wall.
Bobby Fleshman:I also saw it as an opportunity to take the shackles off because I always felt like with five 47, That has to be laminated.
Bobby Fleshman:That recipe has to not be touched.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: And, so I think we would all quit if you did.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Gary Arndt:So, I So, just to be clear for everyone, it's not This is not a function of taking the beer and removing the alcohol somehow.
Gary Arndt:No.
Gary Arndt:You're not just taking something out at all.
Bobby Fleshman:It's a truly different beer.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:In the same way, in the same way that I made 547, with the inspiration toward the West Coast styles that, that inspired me, I, I did, I did that by sort of like never looking at those recipes, although I had brewed many clones of those recipes, I tried not to think about them.
Bobby Fleshman:You just, you just get in a certain headspace like you do when writing music and that's how I made 547 and then it evolved over time for sure.
Bobby Fleshman:I didn't just like make that recipe and then brew it once and it was done, but then it evolved to where it is now.
Bobby Fleshman:And it has a day named after it.
Bobby Fleshman:We're not going to be able to touch that beer.
Bobby Fleshman:So, we, we had to
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: An internal day named after it.
Bobby Fleshman:There's no proclamation from the mayor saying it's 5 or 7 day.
Bobby Fleshman:Oh, we should go, Jake, come give us a proclamation.
Bobby Fleshman:May
Bobby Fleshman:47th, that's right.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: 547 day.
Bobby Fleshman:That can happen.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Oh my god.
Bobby Fleshman:That'd be incredible.
Bobby Fleshman:She's actually wearing, I'm looking at Allison, she's wearing a 547 tie dyed today.
Bobby Fleshman:So the slogan for 547 is it'll, it'll ring your bell.
Bobby Fleshman:We have a bell, it rings, but also the double reference is it is extremely high in alcohol.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Triple reference.
Bobby Fleshman:It's actually also the San Francisco bell.
Bobby Fleshman:And it's also the same frequency as a, as a trolley.
Bobby Fleshman:Yep.
Bobby Fleshman:I digress.
Bobby Fleshman:So yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Jinx.
Bobby Fleshman:Jinx again.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: I, so bringing little tornado,
Bobby Fleshman:I wanted to make a 2024 version of a West coast IPA.
Bobby Fleshman:And you can't do that if you're working off a recipe that's based off of a 2000's era IPA, double IPA.
Bobby Fleshman:I wanted to bring in something that was more, not just less alcohol, that's easy enough.
Bobby Fleshman:You can make a beer with less alcohol.
Bobby Fleshman:We aim for six and a half versus more like nine on 547.
Bobby Fleshman:I wanted to make something that was more like what people are calling cold IPA.
Bobby Fleshman:Is that an IPL?
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, or IPL or you can, you can call it what you will.
Bobby Fleshman:There's so many marketing terms floating around.
Bobby Fleshman:We're not doing that.
Bobby Fleshman:We're not going as far as that.
Bobby Fleshman:We're not fermenting cool, but we're taking one trick from their toolbox.
Bobby Fleshman:And that is we're including rice.
Bobby Fleshman:So we use flaked rice in this beer.
Bobby Fleshman:And the reason we do that.
Bobby Fleshman:is because we're trying to reduce the body of it.
Bobby Fleshman:We're trying to make it extremely dry, extremely clean, and it lets you lay the hops on top of it in a way that you can't with 547.
Bobby Fleshman:And you, and you, when you, when you think about it, when you're drinking it, You're, you're tasting those terpenes like you do from your fresh cut lawn in a way that, that you can't in another palette.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Not to say that you're tasting the fresh cut lawn.
Bobby Fleshman:No, but you, when you smell, you get the idea.
Bobby Fleshman:Even your, even your tomatoes when you pick them, everything in, in nature has these terpenes that we smell.
Bobby Fleshman:And you're trying to get that into the beer.
Bobby Fleshman:And you can't do it with these old school ways of making IPA.
Bobby Fleshman:So I took the opportunity to employ that.
Bobby Fleshman:And I think it worked really well.
Bobby Fleshman:And I'm also using a Pilsner malt on the, well, no, I'm actually using the same.
Bobby Fleshman:I'm using 40 percent of what we use in five 47, because this is genetically related.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: So, so the, you're not using 54.
Bobby Fleshman:7%.
Bobby Fleshman:I mean, there's still time we're still maybe turning some knobs but, but it's, it has a little bit of what we put in five 47 and then it has a little bit of what we Munich malt for the brewers out there.
Bobby Fleshman:And, and if you think in frequencies and amplitudes we're looking for a certain frequency, a certain flavor, but we don't want it to be too intense.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Who the hell thinks in terms of frequencies and amplitudes?
Bobby Fleshman:Everybody that's in music.
Bobby Fleshman:I'm sorry if I'm pushing that too far, but it, I wanted to get that, that.
Bobby Fleshman:Sound in there, but I don't want it to be too loud.
Bobby Fleshman:And that's what Munich is for me in this beer.
Bobby Fleshman:It needs to have a little bit of tooth, a little bit of something.
Bobby Fleshman:Otherwise it's just too naked.
Bobby Fleshman:And then on top of that, we took Columbus hops, which were the signature of five 47 all the way through Columbus is like marijuana.
Bobby Fleshman:It smells like marijuana.
Bobby Fleshman:It, it has that sort of that same.
Bobby Fleshman:what's soap a fork property makes you sleepy.
Bobby Fleshman:There's a whole, there's a whole series of research behind
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: You're really selling this beer that well, my friend, Columbus, you are
Bobby Fleshman:Columbus is, is a classic West coast IPA hop.
Bobby Fleshman:So we wanted to take that and throw it way early in the process of Toronado because it would, it would.
Bobby Fleshman:It wouldn't be as prominent.
Bobby Fleshman:I didn't want it to be as prominent.
Bobby Fleshman:I needed this to be in different beer.
Bobby Fleshman:And so there's a couple of hops I'd never got to use in five 47 cause it's turns into a salad that everything gets muddled.
Bobby Fleshman:And one of those is Chinook.
Bobby Fleshman:And Chinook is, is a quintessentially West coast hop that never, like I said, we've never gotten a chance to really put front and center.
Bobby Fleshman:It gets to be front and center on Tornado.
Bobby Fleshman:And it's, it's very, fresh, right?
Bobby Fleshman:Cut grass and it's got this resin to it
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: So would you then say if you had two samples of five four seven a little tornado next to each other You'd be able to pick out the like you could say.
Bobby Fleshman:Okay, this one's chinook The other one
Bobby Fleshman:I think a brewer would I think people that are into beer will get that but I also
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Who's the main hop in five four seven?
Bobby Fleshman:Oh Columbus by far now that's sick.
Bobby Fleshman:There's a lot more going on in five.
Bobby Fleshman:There's simcoe and amarello cascade centennial I even throw a little mosaic You There's all this stuff in there, but the front and center hop is going to be Columbus.
Bobby Fleshman:we'd like to bring in Simcoe on Tornado, a little bit more upfront and center.
Bobby Fleshman:And then you'll see Amarillo.
Bobby Fleshman:I like to put Amarillo on both.
Bobby Fleshman:So that's a little bit of a side note for all the brewers out there.
Bobby Fleshman:it got, it was a chance for me to just make a new beer.
Bobby Fleshman:And it had, it didn't have a name, it didn't exist.
Bobby Fleshman:And all people said is, can we have something that's not 9 percent and it's something like 547.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Can I share the headache then that Little Tornado has been for the past year?
Bobby Fleshman:Please.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Oh.
Bobby Fleshman:So when we, when we come up with a new beer it's not just Bobby Brews the Beer.
Bobby Fleshman:Cause, I mean, and I appreciate him sharing all of this because I hope it gives you a sense of how deeply he thinks about the intricacies of the recipes and then bringing the beer to fruition.
Bobby Fleshman:But then there's the whole marketing side, which as we've shared before, we're not that great at.
Bobby Fleshman:It's, there's so much of like, we have to come up with a name, a label, the words on the label.
Bobby Fleshman:That's a headache all in and of itself.
Bobby Fleshman:She is talking about the most stressful parts of this process.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: And then we have to make sure that it's all of those things go with the story and be on brand and then, you know, the timing of when we're going to release it.
Bobby Fleshman:We also wholesale our beer to 35 counties.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:And so we have to make sure that
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: We can make up demand because we also have this whole brew schedule throughout the year of all the different beers that we have to brew, but we have limited tanks.
Bobby Fleshman:And so can we, like, at the moment, most of our tanks, well, I guess not now, but about three weeks ago, all Only had Oktoberfest in them.
Bobby Fleshman:And so when is this going to come out?
Bobby Fleshman:And so there's a lot of different things that go into it.
Bobby Fleshman:But one of the hard, once the beer is kind of solid, and for a while this was known as the Pilot.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, we did a few renditions of this.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: And then she had a couple different names that we talked about.
Bobby Fleshman:Tried on for size to see whether or not it could
Gary Arndt:little sis.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, little sister or kid
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: sister
Bobby Fleshman:Kid sister which you know, you're gonna put that on a label.
Bobby Fleshman:I'm not sure.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Yeah, and so that one didn't take and then oh god What was it?
Bobby Fleshman:So we the recipe though?
Bobby Fleshman:We were on track.
Bobby Fleshman:It was just yeah, we knew the rest Yeah, we'd worked on the rest.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Yeah, you had made some tweaks But then naming a beer is so hard to do And little tornado and we finally settled on that one You we, we really struggled with it but we, we tested out Tornado and we were at a beer fest, we were at Chilton, the big Chilton beer fest, and we had, it was one of the, the releases of our first, you know, okay, we're going to name it Tornado, we're going to see how that goes, people came up and they're like, can I have the Tornado?
Bobby Fleshman:I want the tornado.
Bobby Fleshman:And we're like, oh no, they, how do, no, it's the tor a nado.
Bobby Fleshman:I've seen that happen here.
Bobby Fleshman:Oh yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:And so like, It is going to be a challenge.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: In naming a beer, if they, if someone can't pronounce it, they won't order it.
Bobby Fleshman:If it's too weird of a name, like say the word decoction or something you won't, they don't want to order it.
Bobby Fleshman:And so there's, there's these barriers that go depending on what name you choose.
Bobby Fleshman:And it's not even, it's not even a Spanish word, it's slang.
Bobby Fleshman:It's, it's a juxtaposition of two other words.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, toro and tornado, right?
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, it references bulls and tornadoes, yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Go team.
Bobby Fleshman:Two at once, yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:There's a car named Tornado.
Gary Arndt:If someone orders a Little Tornado, give them a beer and the number for the dyslexia hot.
Gary Arndt:Yeah, there it is.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:But then we, and then when we got the label almost like completely done then we realized that Lil was missing.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:And do we want to have it called Lil Tornado or do we just want to call it Tornado?
Bobby Fleshman:Why would we say Lil Tornado?
Bobby Fleshman:Ultimately, yeah, we settled on Lil and I think that's the right move.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: It's to emphasize that it's a smaller version
Bobby Fleshman:547.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:So there's, there's a beer that we made accidentally.
Bobby Fleshman:Well, we made it on the fly called stepchild.
Bobby Fleshman:And I've mentioned it before on this podcast.
Bobby Fleshman:It's a red West coast, double IPA.
Bobby Fleshman:It's because y'all use the wrong grain.
Bobby Fleshman:Well, the wrong grain was sent to us.
Bobby Fleshman:So it was in the wrong marked bag and so forth.
Bobby Fleshman:So we, we made a decision on fly and it came out great and it's become its own legend.
Bobby Fleshman:And that's called step child because it's red and it's a step sister of 547.
Bobby Fleshman:Now we have, Little tornado we have plans for yet another one.
Bobby Fleshman:So we're building a family around it much like you'll see what's the voodoo ranger from new belgium?
Bobby Fleshman:They have an entire brand and we're doing that now with 547 Yeah, it will it might stand apart from mcfleshman's And that's a good thing because McFleshman's is known for traditional styles, but we also have this West Coast, personality.
Bobby Fleshman:So we'll see how this evolves.
Bobby Fleshman:This, this is letting people see behind the curtain how much we have to think about how we do labels and names and how we, how we have to group all these things.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: And we, we took the label.
Bobby Fleshman:So Chad Brady, who's done, he did our, rock the vote mural of David Bowie.
Bobby Fleshman:He's done a lot of murals downtown.
Bobby Fleshman:He moved to Arizona, I believe is where he is now.
Bobby Fleshman:Anyway, he did our 547 label.
Bobby Fleshman:And it's actually his wife, it's, or it's a picture of his wife who's, who's Mara is the, is the face of 547.
Bobby Fleshman:anyway, so this beautiful woman hops in her hair, hops for hair, and so we took her, and then we adapted her just ever so slightly for a little tornado.
Bobby Fleshman:So it's kind of 547,
Bobby Fleshman:Hot take, we're gonna put a honey, comb in her hair, honey hive.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Oh, that's cool.
Bobby Fleshman:We're gonna make a honey IPA.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: But she's got a nose ring, kind of like a bull, and she's got a mask like the The bull people.
Bobby Fleshman:What are those things called?
Bobby Fleshman:Oh my gosh.
Bobby Fleshman:Bullfighters.
Bobby Fleshman:Oh, Matador.
Bobby Fleshman:Matador.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: That's it.
Bobby Fleshman:Anyway, so she's got a mask on.
Bobby Fleshman:or I guess that's kind of like Zorro.
Bobby Fleshman:I can't remember why we put our hands on her.
Bobby Fleshman:There's, we'll have to go back to your marketing department and see where that came from.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Which is you and me.
Bobby Fleshman:And Alex.
Bobby Fleshman:And Alex.
Bobby Fleshman:Give Alex some credit.
Bobby Fleshman:He does all this stuff.
Bobby Fleshman:Oh, he did an amazing job.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: So he, he adapted the logo of 547 to make it, Little Tornado.
Bobby Fleshman:And then he well, and we, I, I don't, I guess he did the writing on the, on the, the The text?
Bobby Fleshman:The text.
Bobby Fleshman:That was me.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah, but I think I gave him a word salad that he was able to chop down.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Imagine that, I gave him a word salad.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: And so it's, I don't know, it's, it's, there's so much more, like when you see a beer on a shelf it's got its label, it's, you know, and it's six pack and there's the beer inside of it.
Bobby Fleshman:The amount of work that goes into getting that there, is quite incredible.
Bobby Fleshman:Lots of arguments, lots of fights about what it should be called.
Bobby Fleshman:And I should say that if you're going to the store and you're picking up, you've got an option between Sierra Nevada 12 pack IPA and McFleshman's 12 pack IPA.
Bobby Fleshman:Take for granted that I would say there's arguably, I would say we probably put in 50 or 60 percent of the energy.
Bobby Fleshman:That they do, but their team is a hundred fold.
Bobby Fleshman:You know what I mean?
Bobby Fleshman:It just, you, the energy per person, if on a small business to do all these, wear all these hats is ridiculous.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: True.
Bobby Fleshman:So I, you know, so I agree with Bobby buy ours.
Bobby Fleshman:Don't buy the other guys.
Bobby Fleshman:No, I didn't say that.
Bobby Fleshman:I just said, I just said, think about how much the little guys are putting into this to, to stay competitive out there.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:It's a lot of moving parts.
Bobby Fleshman:So that was sort of the name and then the story.
Bobby Fleshman:I guess, let's talk about the name.
Bobby Fleshman:I mean, we've talked about the name, but where did it come from?
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Yeah, so 547 Haight Street.
Bobby Fleshman:In San Francisco is the bar that we named the 547 after and the bar's name is Toronado.
Bobby Fleshman:And that is the West Coast IPA capital, if you will, of beer bars.
Bobby Fleshman:And this is a place that Bobby and I would go
Bobby Fleshman:It's gonna be so packed next time we go there.
Bobby Fleshman:If this podcast is successful What?
Bobby Fleshman:It's always packed when we go there.
Bobby Fleshman:I know, it doesn't matter whether they find out.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Anyway, so for, since 2008, Bobby and I would go to San Francisco once a year.
Bobby Fleshman:He had a big conference there, the American Geological Union, where he would do NASA things.
Bobby Fleshman:So he'd make his way over to Haight Nashbury fantastic district in San Fran.
Bobby Fleshman:And there's a bar, beer bar, Toronado at 547 Haight Street.
Bobby Fleshman:And that's where you fell in love.
Bobby Fleshman:introduced to and fell in love with Pliny the Elder of Russian River Brewing Company.
Bobby Fleshman:It was like the homage beer of that.
Bobby Fleshman:We got to brew five, four, seven.
Bobby Fleshman:It's just one of the many reasons why this bar is so amazing.
Bobby Fleshman:For sure.
Bobby Fleshman:They're, they're Belgian, they're Belgian styles, their glassware, their service is interesting, but all of the, all of the above, they are the best in the business.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: Anyway, so we, we wanted to kind of tip our hat to them and then 547 took off.
Bobby Fleshman:I, Bobby, I think you knew that 547 was going to be like our main beer.
Bobby Fleshman:And I was of course convinced that the cast conditioned ales MSB in particular was going to be like the beer that everyone wanted.
Bobby Fleshman:I thought Pirate's Cove would be, and it was until Amber came along.
Bobby Fleshman:Amber went ahead of that because Amber is, is sort of that craft meets, lager.
Bobby Fleshman:It's, it, it really fits a.
Bobby Fleshman:a void.
Bobby Fleshman:That said, 547 wouldn't have been, and it's like number two or three, depending on where you look.
Bobby Fleshman:Taproom is number one on any given month.
Bobby Fleshman:Well, we do have a 547 command coordinator.
Bobby Fleshman:That's, that's it.
Bobby Fleshman:Joel Hermanson is the reason that 547 is number one.
Bobby Fleshman:But that said, I think it would be number three without Joel, but it needed to be.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:We needed a Joel.
Bobby Fleshman:Think Joel, definitely.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:To bring it to where it's, now,
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: It's so funny, we, we call it Joel Magic, so we can go back and look at the numbers of sales and stuff.
Bobby Fleshman:And there's a, and he teach here.
Bobby Fleshman:He, he teaches, he, he, serves on Wednesdays and Saturdays and we can tell the month that we hired Joel.
Bobby Fleshman:Oh yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:Sales and this isn't a, and stayed spiked on those days.
Bobby Fleshman:Yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:This isn't a 5 47 podcast.
Bobby Fleshman:This is tornado.
Bobby Fleshman:So tornado, I'm hoping tornado.
Bobby Fleshman:actually cuts into 547 sales.
Bobby Fleshman:I'm hoping that oddly, I mean, I, in a way I'm hoping that because I can't, we can't brew any more beer.
Bobby Fleshman:So it has to come from something.
Bobby Fleshman:We don't have any more capacity.
Bobby Fleshman:So something has got to come from somewhere.
Bobby Fleshman:That said, if, if it doesn't, then we're going to have to figure out how to grow.
Bobby Fleshman:And this is going to be, this has been our theme over every dinner and breakfast is where do we go next?
Bobby Fleshman:Cause we can't brew enough beer right now.
Bobby Fleshman:And all signs point to it's not taking 547 business away.
Bobby Fleshman:So it's becoming its own thing.
Bobby Fleshman:So we've just now created another problem for us.
Bobby Fleshman:Good problem.
Gary Arndt:I want to, I want to close on something you said that you were thinking of creating a whole family around
Bobby Fleshman:Family is family pack kosher for putting on a label
Gary Arndt:For beer.
Gary Arndt:I mean, this is Wisconsin.
Gary Arndt:What, what would be other members of this family?
Bobby Fleshman:Well, first of all, this triple IPA that we're thinking of, we're going to make a 10 or 11 percent IPA.
Bobby Fleshman:We're going the other direction, too.
Bobby Fleshman:And that's going to have honey.
Bobby Fleshman:Largely, that's coming by way of honey.
Bobby Fleshman:it's on brand for us.
Bobby Fleshman:We've actually been requested, oddly enough, To brew not just a lower alcohol, but a higher alcohol than 547 and it's not that absurd Honestly, because when you think about it, what is wine?
Bobby Fleshman:Wine ranges anywhere from table wines at 7 or 8 percent up to 14 or 15 So it's just a matter of where you land on your the occasion.
Bobby Fleshman:So so yeah, that's number that's the next one and then we are going to do a non alcoholic and it's With the non alcoholic, we may or may not infuse THC with that.
Bobby Fleshman:So there's a lot of directions we can go on both ends of the spectrum.
Bobby Fleshman:None of which did I mention hazy or fruited, right?
Bobby Fleshman:That lives in its own sphere.
Bobby Fleshman:We call that alter ego and that is its own little sandbox.
Bobby Fleshman:But 547 is a clear rear.
Bobby Fleshman:It's a West Coast style will always be bitter.
Bobby Fleshman:It will always be clear.
Gary Arndt:And are, is the naming convention gonna be similar,
Bobby Fleshman:or?
Bobby Fleshman:For each of these styles that we come out with?
Bobby Fleshman:I, I, Yeah, well, the stepchild and little tornado, they fit really well in that scheme.
Bobby Fleshman:Allison McCoy-Fleshman: I, I really want the N.
Bobby Fleshman:A.
Bobby Fleshman:one to be called Twice Removed.
Bobby Fleshman:Twice Removed, yeah.
Bobby Fleshman:That actually sounds like a gluten free beer to me.
Bobby Fleshman:That's fair.
Bobby Fleshman:That sounds like a really good name for a gluten free beer.
Bobby Fleshman:And then Tea Toddler was my idea for the N.
Bobby Fleshman:A.
Bobby Fleshman:beer.
Bobby Fleshman:But I don't know if that'll go over.
Gary Arndt:Alright, well, that'll wrap up this episode of Respecting the Beer.
Gary Arndt:Make sure to subscribe to the show and your favorite podcast players so you will never miss an episode.
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Gary Arndt:Links to both of these can be found in the show notes.
Gary Arndt:And until next time, please remember to respect the beer.
