PATREON UNLOCK: Live Q&A From The Prohibition Room

David Kalsow: 00:00:03

everyone, this is David.

David Kalsow: 00:00:04

I'm the producer for Respecting the Beer, and Happy New Year.

David Kalsow: 00:00:08

I hope you've got something tasty on tap for 2025.

David Kalsow: 00:00:11

I know we do.

David Kalsow: 00:00:12

We've got a bunch of great content coming for you this year, including a bunch of exclusive interviews, deep dives into the further operations of McFleshman's, and much more.

David Kalsow: 00:00:23

So in order to get ahead on that schedule, we're gonna be taking a break for the next couple of weeks, but don't worry, we're still gonna be giving you some great content.

David Kalsow: 00:00:31

We're gonna have a highlight reel from 2024, a total replay of Allison and Bobby's favorite episodes.

David Kalsow: 00:00:37

And then this week is the Q and A that we did live in the Prohibition Room back in our event in November, 2024.

David Kalsow: 00:00:45

It was behind the Patreon paywall, so if you were a Patreon member, thank you for subscribing and getting that content early.

David Kalsow: 00:00:51

For everyone else, you're about to hear it.

David Kalsow: 00:00:54

Enjoy.

Gary Arndt: 00:01:00

So in addition to everything everywhere daily, I also help out with another podcast called Respecting the Beer, which also happens to be the motto of this establishment that we are in right now, McFleshman's.

Gary Arndt: 00:01:11

And with me on the show is, of course, I'll use the introduction I did for the last episode, Astronomy Magazine's Brewer of the Year and Brewing Magazine's Astronomer of the Year, Bobby Fleshman.

Gary Arndt: 00:01:25

Check.

Gary Arndt: 00:01:27

And the Professor of Physical, in addition to Emotional and Mental Chemistry, Alison McCoy.

Allison Fleshman: 00:01:34

Yay!

Gary Arndt: 00:01:38

On the podcast, we talk about the science, the culture, the history, and the economics of beer and brewing.

Gary Arndt: 00:01:46

Each, each episode is a little bit different.

Gary Arndt: 00:01:47

So for this episode, this is going to be an actual episode of the podcast.

Gary Arndt: 00:01:52

Uh, we wanted to do a Q and A with everyone.

Gary Arndt: 00:01:54

So if you've been to McFleshman's, if you've been here before or have a question about beer brewing, you're going to have a chance to ask it to Bobby and Allison.

Gary Arndt: 00:02:03

So before we start with that, on a scale of one to 10, One being, oh, I'm afraid of slipping in the shower, and ten being, I'm not sure if they packed the parachute right.

Gary Arndt: 00:02:16

How afraid, how afraid were you guys when you made the decision to start a microbrewery?

Allison Fleshman: 00:02:26

I'm funnier than you are, so I'm gonna go first.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:02:28

Also, this is live banter.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:02:30

If you guys listen to the show, she's the one that keeps it moving.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:02:33

We're

Allison Fleshman: 00:02:33

married, by the way, so I can get away with it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:02:35

Um, and Whittier.

Allison Fleshman: 00:02:37

So, yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:02:38

Um, it depends on to answer your question.

Allison Fleshman: 00:02:41

It depends.

Allison Fleshman: 00:02:42

Um, am I at the moment that we decided or now thinking about what you

Gary Arndt: 00:02:47

decided?

Gary Arndt: 00:02:47

Because they're academics and academics are not known as being, you know, we cannot answer direct question people.

Gary Arndt: 00:02:54

Yes, there's tenure exists for a reason.

Gary Arndt: 00:02:58

And it's not because you like taking risks.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:00

So when you guys made the decision, To buy this building and start a brewery and buy all that stainless steel junk in the back.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:09

I mean, that's, that's, that's a huge decision for anybody.

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:13

Shiny shit's expensive.

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:15

Yes.

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:16

Cool.

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:17

Um, scale of one to 10, one was

Gary Arndt: 00:03:20

slipping in the shower, slipping in the

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:22

shower and 10 was, do I have the parachute working right?

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:26

Or even on, as I've jumped out of the plane, I would say 3.

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:30

75.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:33

I was thinking more of a 3.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:35

78.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:35

That's fair.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:36

I would go with pi.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:37

Oh, good one!

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:40

He's the irrational one.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:41

But that's, okay, so that's reasonably low.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:45

Thank you.

Gary Arndt: 00:03:45

Was it that, was it because you were confident that this would work?

Gary Arndt: 00:03:50

Or I have

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:52

to stand for this.

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:53

I'm sorry.

Allison Fleshman: 00:03:54

I just, it seems

Gary Arndt: 00:03:55

like we're just being like, we can't tell if you're standing or sitting.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:00

I am a whopping five foot to stand so I can look shorter.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:03

Cool.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:04

Um, I don't know.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:05

It was, uh, the, um, now we were so crazy.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:11

I want to go back to past me and slap myself and then patent the time machine that I just made to go back and slap myself.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:18

And then make money on that.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:19

Um, but no, I think at the time we were just naive.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:22

We didn't understand what it meant to build a place and to, to the amount of work that would go into it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:29

Um, but that naivety is essential when you're an entrepreneur.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:33

I think

Gary Arndt: 00:04:34

there's a bunch of truth in that.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:36

I hope so.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:36

Cause, um, yep.

Allison Fleshman: 00:04:37

If there's falsity in that, that then we're kind of paddling up the wrong stream.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:04:43

Gary was saying how, uh, it sounds as though academics don't take chances.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:04:51

Some of them do.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:04:52

I'm an exception maybe to that rule.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:04:54

Even if I see it, I face it head on.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:04:56

I love challenge.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:04:58

I love all of it.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:04:59

Allison is very patient person

Allison Fleshman: 00:05:02

the most

Bobby Fleshman: 00:05:05

But yeah, I would say definitely on the low end of the afraid of this to make this commitment

Allison Fleshman: 00:05:12

Well, I also think when you sprinkle in a global pandemic, we didn't really know what we were getting.

Allison Fleshman: 00:05:15

I love

Bobby Fleshman: 00:05:16

challenge I don't want to say I love pandemics potato

Allison Fleshman: 00:05:19

potato, man

Bobby Fleshman: 00:05:22

We we we shifted our entire business plan to become a distributing brewery Yeah Because that was a week or a month 18 of our business and we had to shift And that's the time when you have such capital investment, you've got to keep moving on your original plan because

Allison Fleshman: 00:05:38

of that quick shift, we were able to keep all of our employees employed throughout the entire pandemic.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:05:45

I should say that this week we sold a minivan.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:05:49

This minivan has a story.

Allison Fleshman: 00:05:51

Um, was this Van Morrison or was this, um, Kurt Vannegut?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:05:54

This was, uh, there was White Snake and then there was

Allison Fleshman: 00:05:58

No, this was Kurt Vannegut.

Allison Fleshman: 00:05:59

This was

Bobby Fleshman: 00:05:59

Kurt Vannegut.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:05:59

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:00

Yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:00

Um, they have nicknames.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:01

Um, no.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:02

Tell the

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:02

backstory.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:02

We

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:03

bought, no, Bobby was like, I need to, so I have an infant at home and he's like, we gotta distribute all of a sudden, and I'm like, oh shit, okay, how are we gonna do this?

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:11

And so, um, he's like, I'm just gonna go out and sell.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:15

And, um, it was because of you that I was a vector at Lawrence, um, of a, of a transmission vector because you were going out into all these bars, like, selling things and I was like, I can't teach.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:25

I have to teach remotely now because I was exposed to you.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:28

Ah, the things.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:29

Anyway.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:30

The words we learned during coding.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:31

I know.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:32

The new uses of.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:33

Anyway, long story

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:33

short.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:34

He's like, our truck, we had to lift beer up into it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:36

And he's like, you know what we really need?

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:38

Now granted, we waited to have a child.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:39

We had a brewery first, then we had a kid.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:41

Um, but we always swore we would never be a minivan owner.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:44

And he comes to me and he's like, you know what we really need?

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:47

Dodge caravan, but for the brewery,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:51

if you can get over them, the emasculation

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:54

on this Dodge.

Allison Fleshman: 00:06:55

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:06:56

If you want to make a minivan cool, put 15 half barrels of beer in it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:00

Oh, and then what's even better is then he just like pushes the button in the door.

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:06

Well, we paid, we paid 2, 000 for this thing.

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:08

So the door was

Bobby Fleshman: 00:07:09

like, the last half was assisted,

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:12

but we owned it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:13

We paid two grand.

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:14

We owned it for like five years.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:07:16

Sold it this week

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:17

for 800.

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:18

I'm like,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:07:18

I'll, I'll take it every day.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:07:21

Also, if you go to Menards and you see the guy in the, in the Ford diesel dually, whatever, and he's loading it up with plywood and it's raining outside, he has to wrap it in a tarp.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:07:31

I can just do that with a minivan.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:07:33

You're going to roll in and push the button and just lower it and just drive away.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:07:37

So if you're interested

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:38

in a minivan and can't quite jump, like, if you need the parachute to make sure that it's, Bobby will convince you that a minivan is worth the investment.

Gary Arndt: 00:07:45

Sorry,

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:47

we digress.

Allison Fleshman: 00:07:47

Well, it's

Bobby Fleshman: 00:07:48

part of the whole

Gary Arndt: 00:07:49

entrepreneurial story, yeah.

Gary Arndt: 00:07:50

So let me then ask, and this will be my last question before we open it up.

Gary Arndt: 00:07:55

What was the thing in the process of, of, of creating McFleshman's that you did not anticipate?

Gary Arndt: 00:08:02

You probably thought a lot about the beer and the brewing, but what, from like a business standpoint, did you like, Oh man, this is, this is something we didn't realize.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:08:11

I'll be very direct and say the business of owning a business

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:16

payroll.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:18

No soft costs.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:20

Like even, okay.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:22

So you know how you go into like a grocery store and you always hear the exact same songs.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:27

That's because it costs us.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:29

We have to pay 2, 000 a year to all the different licensing companies of the music industry that artists don't actually ever get a cut of that, which is another story.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:40

Um, but there's so much soft costs, and if you follow the rules, you end up spending, I mean, we spend probably, I would say, 10, 000 a year in just soft costs alone.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:50

And soft costs, what I mean, It's like making sure that you've paid this one fee for this insurance.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:55

And then they're going to audit this insurance and then there's adjustments.

Allison Fleshman: 00:08:58

You have to pay an extra fee to make sure that you have that backed up.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:00

And

Bobby Fleshman: 00:09:01

I'm sure there's a pile of business owners here, right?

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:03

Do you under, yeah, I would get some, not, I mean, there's not, there's like the head bob, yes.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:07

And then there's like the aggressive, yes.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:09

I can't handle this so true.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:11

And I, we had no idea.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:13

And then I love our CPA.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:15

Hey, they're so smart, but I should have, I mean, I have a PhD in whatever kind of chemistry and yet I should have just been an accountant.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:26

I took an accounting class my freshman year of college and I learned two things.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:29

One, accounting is very important.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:31

Two, I do not want to be an accountant.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:34

Yes.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:34

Yes.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:35

I learned that I should

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:36

have been an accountant.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:37

I was like, I don't know what I'm doing.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:39

I've learned though.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:39

I have a budget now.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:40

It's just fun.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:42

Alright, I'm sure a lot of people here are McFleshman's regulars and they have questions.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:46

Raise your hand if you got a question for either Bobby or Allison.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:48

Or any.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:51

Don't be restricted, Steve.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:52

Oh,

Gary Arndt: 00:09:52

come on.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:53

You guys didn't come up here to not ask questions.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:55

Somebody.

Gary Arndt: 00:09:56

Somebody.

Allison Fleshman: 00:09:58

What's the name of our pets?

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:00

That sounds great.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:02

I'm drinking Ellison's beer because I don't have one.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:04

Lieutenant Commander Data and Carnot, named after the French thermo dynamicists.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:07

Alright, we got

Gary Arndt: 00:10:08

somebody.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:09

You just stole my beer.

: 00:10:11

Hey.

: 00:10:13

Drink faster.

: 00:10:14

Um, so I guess besides like, uh, 547 with your double IPA, uh, what was the hardest beer to make and why?

: 00:10:24

Triple

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:25

debacle.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:27

Wait, I don't know.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:27

Wait, what do you mean by make?

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:29

Like, like the hardest to

: 00:10:31

brew.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:31

Design or to brew?

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:33

I'm

Bobby Fleshman: 00:10:33

going to immediately jump into my music analogies.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:10:36

I don't, not a musician per se, but I, but I understand that songs are written in five minutes or 50 years.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:10:43

Uh, which would be the one that took 50, quote, 50 years to create?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:10:48

15 years.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:10:49

I

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:50

would say your white whale is tall masked.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:10:52

Always, yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:10:52

Yep.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:54

Thomas IPA.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:55

And it's because he was never satisfied with it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:57

Um, and you would continue.

Allison Fleshman: 00:10:59

And I don't like IPAs.

Allison Fleshman: 00:11:00

I own a brewery and can't stand them.

Allison Fleshman: 00:11:02

I drink dark things like porters, stouts.

Allison Fleshman: 00:11:06

Um, well, good.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:07

Well, Tom asked is we're trying to replicate a beer that no longer exists.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:11

You know, this is a beer that's 120 years old in terms of its makeup.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:16

So we're trying to replicate something that we can't compare to.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:20

So I'm chasing this thing that's not really available except written down and interpreted.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:26

But I will say that the one that Allison maybe doesn't give me enough credit for chasing is Pirate's Cove.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:32

Pirate's Cove is our number one selling beer.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:35

It's our German

Allison Fleshman: 00:11:36

Helles.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:37

Yeah, and it is so nuanced and it's so lost on the everyday beer drinker.

Allison Fleshman: 00:11:44

I'm scanning the room to find her.

Allison Fleshman: 00:11:46

I don't even see her.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:47

But

Allison Fleshman: 00:11:48

if you listen to our

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:50

podcast, you would probably go into it once in a while, but I would say that one keeps me awake because it does scratch every itch of the technician and the artist.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:11:59

And the historian, if you want to call me that, because I'm able to draw that.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:12:03

So

Gary Arndt: 00:12:04

we've talked about this in the podcast.

Gary Arndt: 00:12:05

One Pirate's Cove was named after a bar that was next door.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:12:09

Yeah, right.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:12:09

This wall is black.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:12:11

If you were to take this, uh, sheet rock down and look at it's black because it was a fire that happened next door.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:12:16

There's a,

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:17

there's a, so over here, there's a whole, there's a square.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:20

Um, Oh, that's loud.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:21

Um, so there's a square, there's a square.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:25

Um, and that's the access to the attic.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:27

Um, conveniently under the staircase that Gary suggested we built.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:30

So you can actually get to it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:31

Um, and inside we found a bunch of crates that were more over here.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:35

Um, and these crates were, um, they had a whole bunch of these little tabs from, uh, Valley Berry Dairy products.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:40

Um, so like the toppers of yogurt and milk and different dairy product things.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:45

Um, but they were also scorched to high hell.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:48

Um, which is something we say down south, which meant a lot.

Allison Fleshman: 00:12:52

Um, and so all the, the Pirate's Cove that burned down, like it came and burned this part too up above.

Allison Fleshman: 00:13:00

Um, and there's a whole bunch of just scorched old boxes.

Allison Fleshman: 00:13:03

Does

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:03

anyone remember Pirates Cove?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:05

Is anyone from Appleton from the 80s?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:07

I think

Allison Fleshman: 00:13:07

86 is when it burned down, I think.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:09

Anyone that was around that time can tell you stories about how they never carted.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:13

I was

Allison Fleshman: 00:13:13

three at

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:14

the

Gary Arndt: 00:13:15

time.

Gary Arndt: 00:13:16

I lived here in 86 and I did not know that they did not card had I known that I would have visited Pirate's Cove Why do I learn this stuff so many years after the fact?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:27

There's a drink called the Vulcan Mine Probe.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:31

Yes, the Vulcan Mine Probe and people come in once every couple weeks and and talk about how they knew a place called Pirate's Cove and there's this drink and they never remember what color it was.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:39

What color was it?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:42

See, I get blue, yellow and green.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:44

Everybody seems to have, maybe they changed it all the time.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:13:46

Maybe the memory, maybe it lives up to its name.

Allison Fleshman: 00:13:50

The menus downstairs.

Allison Fleshman: 00:13:52

We have a frame menu and then we took a picture and we have a frame of it downstairs.

Gary Arndt: 00:13:56

Okay.

Gary Arndt: 00:13:56

I had a, I had a two part question.

Gary Arndt: 00:13:57

Pirate's Cove was the name of the place.

Gary Arndt: 00:13:59

That's currently the beer garden, but I've had, I've seen, I've been at the bar, people come in and they say, what's your closest thing to Bud Light?

Gary Arndt: 00:14:08

And you give them a Pirate's Cove.

Gary Arndt: 00:14:09

So on, on one level, Pirate's Cove is probably the most approachable beer you have in that it is like other lagers.

Gary Arndt: 00:14:18

But you've also said it's your most challenging beer in some ways.

Gary Arndt: 00:14:23

There you go.

Gary Arndt: 00:14:23

Oh, she's delicate.

Gary Arndt: 00:14:24

So State

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:24

Street Light Lager is the one that we make that's most like those, those industrial light lagers.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:30

It has its place.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:32

It's even less malty, even less flavor.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:34

Uh, for summertime drinking, I think it's awesome.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:37

But Pirate's Cove is meant to be both.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:40

It's meant to be for people who care about the nuance and people that don't want to think, to have to think about it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:14:45

Remind me, do you decoct Pirate's Cove?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:49

How long is this episode?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:51

Wait, so

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:53

We do have an episode.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:14:54

So basically an old world way of making beer involves cooking some of your ingredients in a way that we don't do in modern times.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:02

And we do that with Pirate's Code.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:04

We still do that.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:05

Anything

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:05

to get Bobby to say

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:06

decoction.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:07

Decoction.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:07

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:08

So.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:09

It's crazy because it's the beer we make the most of and we do the most work on it.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:13

And we knew in the beginning we were putting our neck in a noose, but here we are.

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:17

It's also named after a, uh, Tom Petty song.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:20

Oh, there's the hidden meaning.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:21

That's the hidden meaning.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:22

It's Pirate's

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:23

Cove.

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:23

Yes.

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:24

Um, but there's a wonderful, um, song called a Trip to Pirate's Cove and Bobby and I are insane Tom Petty fans.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:29

Anybody, uh, Tom Petty people?

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:31

Yes.

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:32

Um,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:33

between us, I think we've probably seen Tom Petty maybe.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:36

You've seen

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:36

him 48 times.

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:37

I've seen him 34.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:38

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:40

And we got matching tattoos.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:41

How we do, how creepy is that or, yeah,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:43

. Allison Fleshman: And when he died, people were asking, they're like, are you gonna like paint him on the wall?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:47

And we're like, we can't.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:48

It's just too close.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:49

It's, it's, you know, it'll look

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:51

like, it'll be like, uh, uh, Kurt Cobain or something when it goes up on the wall.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:55

It'll look like that.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:15:56

It'll, we have David

Allison Fleshman: 00:15:57

Bowie out there and if you notice that David Bowie has a tear, uh, purple teardrop for prints, um, on his shoulder.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:02

Oh yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:03

That was a tribute to Chad Brady who did our mural.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:06

He did that on his own.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:07

Yes, the mural on the outside of the building.

Allison Fleshman: 00:16:08

But anyway, yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:16:09

So, Crazy Tom Petty fans, which is why Pirates go, that's the truest meaning of the name.

: 00:16:13

Oh, we got one.

: 00:16:16

So, Stepchild, uh, is, I think, brewing right now.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:20

In the fermenter.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:21

It's in the fermenter.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:22

Timely, timely comment.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:23

Yeah,

: 00:16:23

yeah.

: 00:16:24

And it smells so good.

: 00:16:25

Yeah.

: 00:16:25

But my question is, my understanding is, it's called that because you were trying to brew 547.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:31

Yep.

: 00:16:32

And the grain bill was screwed up somehow.

: 00:16:34

Yep.

: 00:16:34

And it came out red.

: 00:16:35

Yep, which I think is, I love, I love the, I love the name.

: 00:16:40

I'm not a fan of five, four, seven, which I know is not a popular thing to say here, but Joel's not here.

: 00:16:47

So it's somewhat safe, but, uh, the, the stepchild, I, I had it, I think it's been what, two years,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:57

maybe three.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:58

I think it's been a bit.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:59

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:16:59

Yeah.

: 00:17:00

I remember enjoying it.

: 00:17:01

Yeah.

: 00:17:01

My question is, how do you repeat a grain bill?

: 00:17:05

You don't know what was in it.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:07

Yeah, that's a great question.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:08

And that could have been as much an answer as, as either tall mast or pirate's Cove to which beer is the hardest to make.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:14

Uh, how do you make something that you don't even know what it was?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:18

Uh, so with that, Bobby was a

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:21

grain, it is a grain whisperer and he can honestly, like, I think you can rebuild beer by just drinking it.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:28

I wish.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:29

I mean, that's the beauty of beer is so multidisciplinary.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:31

She's giving me a lot of credit here.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:33

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:34

Uh, I

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:34

also question you a lot.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:35

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:36

Can you tell, can anyone listen to the podcast or no?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:39

No,

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:40

I really do think, I think that in one, we knew what we had while we were there.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:44

We didn't.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:45

That's the beauty.

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:46

Well, I guess it's true.

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:47

Cause it was a mistake.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:47

Yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:48

Um,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:48

no.

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:49

Yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:49

They sent the wrong.

Allison Fleshman: 00:17:50

So,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:50

okay.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:50

The thing is we knew the lot number on the bags.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:52

I called the plant manager during brew day.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:55

I said, this is what we have, uh, literally during the brew.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:17:59

Uh, this is what we're working with.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:01

It's looking like this.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:02

Can you give me any, any Intel?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:04

And I literally have him on my phone.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:06

I'm able to speed dial him.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:07

And he says, Hey, we ran this mall after or before yours.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:11

And so I guess before, and it must have snuck in because it was still the remnants were in the auger.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:17

From that I was able to make some decisions on the fly and we decided, okay, this can't be five 47.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:21

It doesn't look like five 47.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:23

I mean, So we're not going to hop it like 547 and it became a tropical version of the same alcohol level because at that point it's the same amount of grain.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:31

It's just a little different flavor.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:33

Uh, we went the tropical versus citrus west coast and the, the subsequent dry hopping went down that same pathway to make a sister of, and we didn't have a name that we were struggling because we had, we figured out, we pivoted, we made a beer that worked.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:52

And then we were worried about label and name.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:54

And by the way, that's where we spend a lot of our time labels and names, labels and names.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:18:59

It's so much.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:01

It's a lot of breweries.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:01

I think at least appear to just kind of throw something at the wall, but we don't do that.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:06

Um, but, but Alex Schultz came to the rescue the next day.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:10

He does a lot of our, uh.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:11

Labels and, and, uh, branding

Allison Fleshman: 00:19:13

older person.

Allison Fleshman: 00:19:13

District nine.

Allison Fleshman: 00:19:14

Yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:19:14

He

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:14

does all these things.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:15

If anyone knows Alex, we all love and want to choke Alex all the time.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:19

We call him our

Allison Fleshman: 00:19:20

scapegoat, which is also what we named our, there's, there's named Scapegoat

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:23

that's named after him.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:24

Effectively, uh, . So Stepchild, it was, he came the next day with Redheaded step.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:30

It doesn't, it's not part of the name, but it's called Stepchild.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:33

And it's, uh, Red IPA for 547.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:19:36

We

Gary Arndt: 00:19:36

have a question here from someone who I believe is new to McFlushman's.

Gary Arndt: 00:19:39

It's your first time here?

Gary Arndt: 00:19:40

Oh, yes.

Gary Arndt: 00:19:41

Hello, sir.

: 00:19:42

What's your name?

: 00:19:43

So, uh, you know, the question is, like you guys said, as far as opening the brewery and stuff, you know, like 3.

: 00:19:50

14, 3.

: 00:19:51

48, as far as how scared were you, you know, to open the place.

: 00:19:56

But, you know, you guys are from Oklahoma.

: 00:19:58

You obviously went to school on the West Coast.

: 00:20:01

What on God's earth caused you guys to come up to like, not Madison or Milwaukee, Northeast Wisconsin,

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:09

and

: 00:20:10

we're glad you guys have, we love you.

: 00:20:12

But I mean, what, That had to be a scarier moment moving everybody up here, or you know, your hopes and dreams to Northeast, Wisconsin.

: 00:20:22

So yeah, how did that whole story take place?

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:25

So, um, I, Bobby and I finished our PhDs in 2012.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:30

Um, me in chemistry, him in physics.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:32

He went off to Bruce school.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:34

Um, and at that point my father passed away.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:36

Um, and about a month, a week, I don't even remember, after we defended our dissertations.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:44

And so I moved home with my mother to take care of her.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:47

I just helped her get things in order and such.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:49

Um, he had a stage four lung cancer and it was pretty fast from diagnosis to death.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:53

And, um, with the inheritance that I got, I had a chunk of money.

Allison Fleshman: 00:20:57

Um, and I needed a job, but, uh, I wanted to be a professor at a small school so I could really get to know students, not the big school where you teach like hundreds and hundreds of students.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:07

Um, and so I was on the job market and I had some opportunities to possibly go to Australia or some other places, um, to do what's called a postdoctoral positions where after you're, you finish your PhD, you go and like, play science a lot longer.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:21

Um, and Bobby was in beer school at the time in, uh, UC Davis.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:26

And I needed a job and I was like, crap, they're not hiring right now.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:30

So Lawrence had a visiting assistant professor position for a two year position and they needed what's called a physical chemist.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:37

I do the physics of chemistry and I was like, that's me.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:39

Cool.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:39

It's in Wisconsin, whatever.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:40

Two year job.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:41

I'll take it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:42

Um, and on my interview, they were like, would you like a tenure line position?

Allison Fleshman: 00:21:47

And I'm like, Okay, which is a basically it's when you get tenure or tenure line position, you're either hired for life or you're fired After a probationary period and I was like, yes However on my job interview, they legally can't ask you.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:05

What does do you have a spouse and what do they do?

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:07

They have to say is there anything about Appleton you would like to know more about for any reason and I said What's the brewery scene like?

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:18

And they're like, okay.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:19

And I said, no, seriously, what's the brewery scene?

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:22

So they took me to dinner at Stone Arch.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:25

And one of the guys that was there, he was on our search committee, and he was like, This is what this beer is, and I'm gonna tell you how smart I am about beer.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:30

And he was completely wrong, and I called him out like right then.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:34

And one of the other faculty members was like, Hire her right now.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:36

She's amazing.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:38

Um, and uh, then I had another faculty member take me up to Green Bay.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:41

We went brewery hopping on my interview because I needed to like check out the competition.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:45

They had no idea what I wanted to do.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:47

Um, but then, uh, I accepted the position and I called Bobby and you always tell the story that I was like, do they drink beer in Wisconsin?

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:56

I knew they drunk there in Wisconsin.

Allison Fleshman: 00:22:57

Wait,

Gary Arndt: 00:22:58

you, you seriously said that?

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:00

He's he tries to make the story funnier, but if you were seeing a map of the highest

Bobby Fleshman: 00:23:04

rates of beer drinking in the country, the version, this is ground

Gary Arndt: 00:23:08

zero.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:10

No shit.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:10

So

Gary Arndt: 00:23:11

terrorists wanted to attack beer drinkers.

Gary Arndt: 00:23:13

They would hit the AL building.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:15

No, he says I say this though.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:18

Anyway.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:18

Um, but I was like, dude, I, we have the goldmine like possibility.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:23

And what was really funny is Appleton beer factory wasn't.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:26

So I accepted the position and Appleton beer factory wasn't quite done.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:30

So we emailed them and they just kept remailing back.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:32

And they're like, we're sorry, we're not interested in talking to you.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:36

And now we've become the dearest friends with them.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:38

And they're like, you seriously, you didn't Ben go back and the owner of, yeah, go back and look at his.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:23:43

Share the original email that we sent.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:23:45

Yeah,

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:46

they were like, Oh my God, I'm so sorry.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:49

And a long story short, um, it, we wanted a university slash place to, to build a brewery for a community that we absolutely know needed it, that we would love.

Allison Fleshman: 00:23:59

And, and Appleton embraced us and we could not be more happy.

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:03

Then to have built something that Appleton has just told us what it needed.

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:07

And that's what we've built.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:24:08

And the winters didn't scare us away.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:24:10

So we, our

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:11

first winter was 2013.

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:14

We thought that was normal.

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:15

All of y'all were like freaking out.

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:17

We're like, this is what winter must be like.

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:19

So we've been acclimated.

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:20

Like as soon as we got here,

Gary Arndt: 00:24:22

any other questions,

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:25

come on,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:24:27

Gary's always got questions.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:24:30

The future.

Gary Arndt: 00:24:33

You got this place doing reasonably well.

Gary Arndt: 00:24:36

We're all here.

Gary Arndt: 00:24:37

We're all enjoying the beer.

Gary Arndt: 00:24:38

You got a bunch of regulars, people coming in.

Gary Arndt: 00:24:42

Where does McFleshman's go in the next five years?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:24:49

We throw a lot of darts at the wall.

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:52

This is the eye of like, what can we disclose?

Allison Fleshman: 00:24:55

Um, no, I think a lot of the brewing industry is moving towards, um, rather than.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:03

Work to build a distribution company to where you sell beer for in the grocery store or whatever.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:09

Um, it just has a lot Anyone that's

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:10

watching the news maybe have seen the number of craft breweries go from 2, 000 to 10, 000 in the time since we opened.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:19

Give me a unit with those numbers.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:20

Oh, so in

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:20

the last 8 years.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:22

Like 10, 000 what?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:23

Oh, sorry.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:24

Number of breweries.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:25

Yeah,

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:25

right.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:26

They've gone from 2000 to 10, 000.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:28

So that means less, more competition for the, the shelf space.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:32

Yes.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:33

I mean, I just want to give you some.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:34

You just

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:34

derailed me with what I was going to say.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:35

Quantitative.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:35

I'm

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:36

sorry.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:36

Sorry.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:36

Go ahead.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:36

Yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:37

Yeah, shush.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:38

Should I take over or start over?

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:40

Never take over from me, my friend.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:41

Next question,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:25:42

Gary.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:44

No, so breweries are moving towards becoming destinations.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:47

So we are high, we, we, we make more money when you buy the beer for directly from us.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:52

It helps us support our staff more.

Allison Fleshman: 00:25:54

Um, when you buy it from, like, say, Festival or Woodman's, um, that's helpful, but it, it, it, it costs a lot to work with the distributors.

Allison Fleshman: 00:26:03

Um, and so, and this is true with any company, like, if you buy something directly from the store across the street from you, they get more money than if you buy something from far away, and they have to sit in it and ship it and all that.

Allison Fleshman: 00:26:14

Um, and so, if people can buy beer directly from us, we just, we, we fare better.

Allison Fleshman: 00:26:20

Um, And so multiple tap rooms are kind of what most people, most breweries are moving towards.

Allison Fleshman: 00:26:25

And so we've been on the market for looking for McFleshman's too, for several years now.

Allison Fleshman: 00:26:29

We've looked at Fond du Lac, we've looked at Manitowoc, we've looked at Green Bay.

Allison Fleshman: 00:26:33

Um, Madison, Milwaukee, not close enough that you don't know which one to choose from, but just far away that it doesn't make much sense to come directly here.

Allison Fleshman: 00:26:44

You'd rather go to another place.

Allison Fleshman: 00:26:44

Also, when you

Bobby Fleshman: 00:26:45

get a chance to give your elevator pitch, what's your business about?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:26:49

I always say that we sell two things and that's beer and conversation.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:26:54

You listen to people downstairs.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:26:55

We built this tap room and we were so fixated on beer.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:26:59

So whatever we do will probably be

Allison Fleshman: 00:27:01

centered

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:02

on, yeah, that one on one communication community.

Gary Arndt: 00:27:07

Uh, one of the interesting things about this place is that while you may on a rare occasion bring in a beer from another brewery, you do a swap, everything here is brewed in house.

Gary Arndt: 00:27:19

You currently have around, I don't know, 20 beers on hand?

Gary Arndt: 00:27:23

29

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:24

now.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:24

I think we're at 29.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:25

And

Gary Arndt: 00:27:26

that is very different than, than most places, where you have a very wide Uh, diversity of beers that you're brewing.

Gary Arndt: 00:27:34

A lot of places will just have a couple beers that they focus on.

Gary Arndt: 00:27:37

They just crank those out all the time.

Gary Arndt: 00:27:39

And we have a

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:39

fair number of those, but yeah.

Gary Arndt: 00:27:40

And there's always, every week I come here, there's something new on the menu.

Gary Arndt: 00:27:46

So is this something that you're going to kind of continue?

Gary Arndt: 00:27:49

Like it's,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:51

it's fun.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:51

It's fun to be where we are, at least where I am now.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:54

I'm starting to see us.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:55

I'm trying to be, have a bird's eye.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:58

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:27:58

Watching us evolve as a company and we now have an identity.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:02

That's, that's really a fun thing to see come to fruition.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:05

We know which brands we have to keep on.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:08

And we know that we live in an industry that we have to keep innovating within.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:13

So I think that you'll see more of the same, but we're also solidifying who we are.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:16

We know our brand calendar better than we've ever known it.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:19

I'm a masochist.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:20

I'm never going to stop.

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:21

I've got the, I notice i'm like keenly watching him for when I can just interrupt Which I just did so go team.

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:26

Yay Um, I think the other thing is that we've got a summary smaller system than a lot of breweries Um, so our system is a seven hectolitre translate a

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:34

10 heck.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:35

So it's about eight and a half barrel, eight and a half

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:36

barrel.

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:37

We double

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:37

batch into that.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:38

So it's a hog's head.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:28:40

A, yeah, there we go.

Gary Arndt: 00:28:41

Something like that.

Gary Arndt: 00:28:42

So anyway,

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:43

we don't, it's not the big, big system.

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:45

So we can actually like brew multiple beers.

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:48

It's like, if we had a real big, big system, we can only brew like one.

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:51

Um, and then we wouldn't have anywhere to put that more beer.

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:53

Um, so the fact that we have multiple tanks is really helpful.

Allison Fleshman: 00:28:56

And that's one of the ways that we want to expand is to buy more tanks.

Gary Arndt: 00:28:58

So I want to close with one thing.

Gary Arndt: 00:29:00

I think we're pretty much close to time.

Allison Fleshman: 00:29:02

Oh,

Gary Arndt: 00:29:05

sure.

Gary Arndt: 00:29:05

You can ask a question that I'm going to.

Gary Arndt: 00:29:08

I'm just curious, and I'm really out of the beer scene, so I could have this wrong, but, but one thing I feel like is missing from Appleton is there's not a brewery brewing THC type drinks.

Gary Arndt: 00:29:20

Have you guys looked at that?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:22

We have it on now.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:23

Oh, do you?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:24

Okay.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:24

We

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:24

actually have, like I said, and we're ramping up for, for, uh, dry January.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:29

So we're, we're treating that as a, uh, standard.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:31

California sober month.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:33

So we'll be seeing a lot of non alcoholic beers, not just hop waters and sparkling waters.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:39

Uh, I, this is hot off the press.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:41

I'm thinking about doing a non alcoholic and maybe this is the craziest juxtaposition, a THC infused Oktoberfest for next fall.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:51

How stupid would that be?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:53

But we'll

Bobby Fleshman: 00:29:53

see where we live next fall.

Gary Arndt: 00:29:57

So the question I want to end with is that if any of you go downstairs right now, you look behind the bar, you will see this wonderful, I assume, brass faucet with two lines coming off.

Gary Arndt: 00:30:12

And the reason I ask is because I was here the day it arrived.

Gary Arndt: 00:30:16

And Bobby was oh, so happy.

Gary Arndt: 00:30:20

Explain what this is because if, if you don't know any better, you're gonna go downstairs and you see, yeah, yeah, yeah, they pour beer from it, whatever.

Gary Arndt: 00:30:27

But this is actually something special.

Gary Arndt: 00:30:30

Explain what it is and its relevance.

Gary Arndt: 00:30:34

It is The

Allison Fleshman: 00:30:35

Luker Faucet.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:30:36

The Luker.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:30:37

L U K E R.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:30:37

The Luker.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:30:38

It's a quest for the perfect foam.

Allison Fleshman: 00:30:41

Stop.

Allison Fleshman: 00:30:42

You're just Go ahead.

Allison Fleshman: 00:30:43

Take it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:30:43

Yeah, I'm so much better than you are.

Allison Fleshman: 00:30:44

Um, so, imagine that you have traveled near and far and you're like, I just want to understand what true bliss is in terms of a Czech pilsner.

Allison Fleshman: 00:30:58

We bought something as fancy as fancy could be, Fancy Spigot Thing number one, and Fancy Spigot Thing number two.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:07

Um, it has It's like a Dr.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:31:08

Seuss book, in a way.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:31:10

Okay, Spigot One, Spigot Two.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:31:12

Yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:14

Anyway, long story short, patented technology, what it can do is it can give you the most ultimate foam experience.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:19

And I, seriously, I have never experienced foam.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:24

Like this thing can offer.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:26

Um, and it's, it's called milk foam, which is, it's, it's wet foam.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:31

Just go down and ask

Bobby Fleshman: 00:31:32

for a five ounce Maliko to, to understand it.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:31:35

Yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:35

Anyway.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:36

So this comes from the Czech Republic.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:37

Um, I called the guys directly and I was like, can you build me this thing?

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:40

They're like, yeah, this is how you do it.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:42

Um, and it's a very fancy faucet, kind of like when you have, um, our public house pint, which I would hold up.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:48

It did.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:49

That's the remnants of a public house pint.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:51

Um, and it's a gorgeous black, uh, Irish stout with the perfect foam because it's a nitro tap and all that.

Allison Fleshman: 00:31:58

You won't get the same experience as if you pour it from a CO2 tap.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:01

The Luker faucet is designed for Czech pilsners, and you can get our Hildi, uh, pilsner, as well as our Pyrus Cohalis lager on the Swartz

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:11

Beer.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:12

It's also Fancy gold and it has a little hop cone on the top,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:16

which is a great weapon.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:17

If the bar fight breaks out, that hop cone is about two.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:20

Oh my God.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:20

The bar two pounds.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:21

Yeah.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:21

Have you ever, has there ever been a bar fight here?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:23

God, I had not.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:24

We had nightmares because that was that back bar.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:28

You should, well, yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:29

Um, but no, so Bobby overbuilt the bar downstairs, like the the middle wall thing.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:33

We, we, we took out a se a section of the middle wall thing.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:36

We call it the, the.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:38

What do we call it?

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:38

The thing in the middle.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:39

The half wall.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:40

Half wall.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:40

Yeah.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:40

Anyway, so Bobby, he built the thing out of, like, steel beams.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:44

A lot of steel.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:45

And we're like, why?

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:46

This is kind of overbuilt.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:46

And I said,

Bobby Fleshman: 00:32:47

God help the guy.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:48

No, he says, we need to overbuild it because in case there's a bar fight.

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:52

And I was like, what the hell is wrong?

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:53

So is

Gary Arndt: 00:32:53

there like a sawed off shotgun like they have in the old west saloons in the back?

Allison Fleshman: 00:32:58

Well, and then what's funny is he had to cut the thing in half.

Allison Fleshman: 00:33:00

And he was like, who the hell built this multi straw?

Bobby Fleshman: 00:33:03

Cutting it and making an opening.

Bobby Fleshman: 00:33:05

And we were like, it's Bobby's bar

Allison Fleshman: 00:33:06

fight.

Allison Fleshman: 00:33:08

We give each other so much shit, it's ridiculous.

Gary Arndt: 00:33:11

All right, then that will conclude this episode of respecting the beer.

Gary Arndt: 00:33:16

Make sure to follow the show on your favorite podcast player and you can follow it on Facebook or patreon where you can

David Kalsow: 00:33:23

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Respecting the Beer.

David Kalsow: 00:33:27

Remember to join the Facebook group to get stuff in between episodes and see things that we can't actually, you know It's an audio medium.

David Kalsow: 00:33:34

It's tough to actually show a picture on here

David Kalsow: 00:33:36

And make sure to join the Patreon where as of 2025, you'll be able to get episodes a week ahead of time, get exclusive access to merch and live events, and probably a whole lot more that we don't know about yet.

David Kalsow: 00:33:47

And a final reminder, as Gary always says, please remember to respect the beer.