Episode 79
Mile of Music 2025 Recap
What happens when craft beer meets original music festival? Mile of Music! Joel hosts with Bobby and Allison delve into the behind-the-scenes effort that made the 2025 festival unforgettable. From logistics and special brews to quirky staff antics and volunteer experiences, discover how McFleshman's Brewery contributes to Appleton's unique musical celebration.
Join us for Mile of Music next year! https://mileofmusic.com/homepage/
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TIMELINE
00:00 Welcome to the show!
01:23 Mile of Music Overview
05:49 Festival Logistics and Challenges
06:07 Music and Beer Connection
15:35 Staff Experiences and Fun Moments
17:55 The Herculean Effort Behind the Scenes
18:38 The Secret of Tapping October Fest
19:25 The Beatbox Saga
20:49 Meeting Isaiah: A New Friend and Brewer
25:20 Innovations and Improvements at Mile
28:09 Support us on Patreon!
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CREDITS
Hosts:
Joel Hermansen
Music by Sarah Lynn Huss
Recorded & Produced by David Kalsow
Brought to you by McFleshman's Brewing Co
Transcript
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Respecting the Beer.
Speaker:I am not Gary Arnd.
Speaker:For those of you who are regular listeners, you're probably wondering where Gary is and the three people that are sitting here in the brewery are also wondering that very same question.
Speaker:Uh, I'm joined by a very esteemed panel this afternoon, a panel that I've never been able to assemble before.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:we, I have never, I've hosted a podcast with Bobby.
Speaker:I have of course, sitting next to Bobby Fleshman, the brewer extraordinaire, but I've never hosted with Dr. Allison McCoy F Fleshman.
Speaker:That's true.
Speaker:Who is sitting to my right.
Speaker:This is nerve wracking.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:She's peering into my soul right now.
Speaker:Uh, welcome
Speaker:to you.
Speaker:I tried to give you a death stare and I couldn't.
Speaker:It worked.
Speaker:It worked.
Speaker:Dr. McCoy Bones.
Speaker:I know it.
Speaker:Flesh and bones.
Speaker:Flesh.
Speaker:And that was actually one of the first names that we dabbled with at the brewery.
Speaker:Um, it was Flesh and bones.
Speaker:May
Speaker:well be again, a project.
Speaker:No, I've already said no.
Speaker:Don, if we can stay married, do that.
Speaker:It's your call, man.
Speaker:Your call
Speaker:side project or marriage, you
Speaker:two.
Speaker:So, so we're recording this, uh, in late August and we have all had an opportunity to collectively gather ourselves.
Speaker:It has been after the extravaganza
Speaker:repair ourselves, that
Speaker:is Mile of Music,
Speaker:been 23 days.
Speaker:Since Mile
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:It has.
Speaker:And honestly, I have to
Speaker:count down one the other direction.
Speaker:I know Till mile
Speaker:it Well, and we're gonna get into that a little bit because even though we are just under a calendar year away from it, uh, I know that you're already thinking about it and you're already planning it and you're thinking about, you know, reflecting on things that went really well and you're thinking about things where perhaps there.
Speaker:Uh, it needs to be some improvement and you know that obviously that's what makes you great.
Speaker:But I know it kind of symbolizes what we're gonna talk about here this afternoon, which is that while Mile is incredibly fun and engaging and energetic, it takes, it takes a lot out of the participants of it.
Speaker:Yeah, I think
Speaker:so.
Speaker:First of all, what is Mile of Music for those that don't know?
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:You.
Speaker:Perfect.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Great, great segue.
Speaker:Um, mile of Music is a very unique music festival that exists here in Appleton.
Speaker:And if you are listening, uh, and I'm looking at you, Jason Carroll, uh, it would sure be great if you could come to a mile of music.
Speaker:Uh, 'cause Minnesota's not that far, but Mile is a very unique event in which literally, uh, this particular mile on East College Avenue.
Speaker:Uh, all of the different bars and, and, and, um, and whatnot are basically taken over by a never ending stream of really talented bands and artists.
Speaker:So there's,
Speaker:it's all free.
Speaker:Well, I
Speaker:mean, it is to the, yeah.
Speaker:To see any show.
Speaker:So it's hosted by Willams
Speaker:Marketing, um, and it's, I believe 700 artists and over a thousand sets.
Speaker:Um, MC Fleshman alone has, it's four days.
Speaker:Thursday through Sunday.
Speaker:We have 19 sets, um, spanning from about late afternoon Thursday until mid-afternoon on Sunday, and it is probably a hundred thousand people.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it, it gets bigger.
Speaker:It's not more each and every year.
Speaker:And there's li, there's stages throughout, um, from two blocks west of us, uh, to all the way to Lawrence University.
Speaker:Um, but then there's huge stages in Jones Park in, uh, Houdini Plaza.
Speaker:All of these are large, um, uh, the Emmett Stage that's huge.
Speaker:Um, and thousands and thousands of people or smaller venues like ours where we have max capacity of, I think 700 in our beer garden.
Speaker:And at any given time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you
Speaker:know, the music is, uh, is absolutely outstanding.
Speaker:All
Speaker:original,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:They're, we're not hearing any covers and we're, we're just blessed to have it.
Speaker:It's kind of a festival, unlike mm-hmm.
Speaker:You know, anything that actually a friend of mine from.
Speaker:Oklahoma that's available.
Speaker:A friend of mine from Oklahoma, I've known her since I was four, um, she's, this is the second year she's flown up and she goes to music festivals all over the country.
Speaker:And she's like, there's like nothing else like it.
Speaker:So, um, and there's
Speaker:been some pretty big acts that have come through.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I mean, Sturgill Simpson was at mile one.
Speaker:Um, Nora Jones was mile two.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I need to double check this, but I think Joe Bonamassa has played Oh, wow.
Speaker:At one of the earlier versions of Mile.
Speaker:I know that he was.
Speaker:Uh, he played, um, at the Bent Keg.
Speaker:Mm. Which I'm pretty sure that was during Mile.
Speaker:Joe, if you're listening, how you doing?
Speaker:You're awesome.
Speaker:Um, if I'm wrong on that, we'll, we'll issue a, a correction, but the, the, the caliber of music, I mean, I feel like it gets better and better every year.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And the team at Willems, they do such a great job.
Speaker:Um, they bring a whole bunch from New York, from Nashville, from all over the country.
Speaker:Um, anyway, so they like, they, they really focus in, um, and it's great because, uh, we get them to do all the work to bring all of these musicians here.
Speaker:And all we have to do is just make sure that everyone has a beer in their hands while the music is playing.
Speaker:And oh my gosh, the amount of time it takes to ensure that, um.
Speaker:Well, this feels
Speaker:like a good opportunity to hear from you.
Speaker:Before we get into that, it's, it's worth, why are we talking about it on this podcast?
Speaker:Obviously it has a lot to do with our business, but I think even today we aired an episode we did with Sarah Lynn Huss, which was partially on the similarities between, between beer and music.
Speaker:And how I think that beer, you're
Speaker:going so philosophical, like I'm gonna just steer it back to the point of it is,
Speaker:but the listeners care about beer.
Speaker:They do.
Speaker:And there's that creative side that is the same.
Speaker:We, Allison and I both have tattoos.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But this is like a
Speaker:binge music festival.
Speaker:Like, I mean, not binge drink, but binge music.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, and so it's, it's really hard 'cause like there's so many people come through the tap room and they say, yeah, I love coming to y'all.
Speaker:To come into your place for Mile of Music and I'll ask, well, have you been here?
Speaker:Not during Mile of Music, because Mc Fishman's during Mile and Mc Fishman's during nine-Mile are two very, very different things.
Speaker:Correct.
Speaker:And I mean, we've reduced our menu.
Speaker:We've got beer points all like, we've got 4, 5, 4, 4 different places you can buy beer.
Speaker:1, 2, 3, 4, 4 different places.
Speaker:Um, and it's all hands on deck.
Speaker:I, we just ran payroll for the Mile Festival, um, and we're looking at, you know, the hours that everyone, not only so much overtime, um, but on average my staff over four days worked 40 hours.
Speaker:That's a lot,
Speaker:right?
Speaker:And, but.
Speaker:So, so yeah,
Speaker:there's a philosophical, oh, it's all about, but no, I mean, there's a no.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Philosophical.
Speaker:We would not throw ourselves into this just because it's a lot of money.
Speaker:It's because, no, we care about the music
Speaker:we do, but we also, it's, it's part of
Speaker:our brand that we don't talk a lot about On the, on this podcast, I would say the first thing we did to this building is we put Ziggy Stardust on the side of it.
Speaker:To, to tell people, uh, not to blow it because it's all worthwhile.
Speaker:That's a line from star, uh, Starman.
Speaker:Uh, you guys wanted to talk, you wanna talk about what we do though physically to, to, I that's, to pull this off?
Speaker:That's, I
Speaker:mean, there's, there's two aspects to it.
Speaker:Yes, there is this pH philosophy of mu music and such.
Speaker:However, getting 600 people through the door every hour is a feat.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:it's a ton of beer.
Speaker:It's a ton of energy to, to, you know, provide the charisma necessary for people to have a good experience.
Speaker:Yeah, I mean,
Speaker:we're walking around with cleaning walkie talkies, you know, trying to, as soon as something kicks or as soon as someone needs something, we've got this whole network of staff that are, you know, like basically bees, um, buzzing around,
Speaker:you know, and coming back to one other thing from a music perspective.
Speaker:Obviously, everyone that's on this podcast today really values music and plays it and thinks about it.
Speaker:And, um, one thing I would add, particularly to those of you who haven't been here during a mile, um, there, there are some great venues in this town.
Speaker:I don't think there's one that is as good as Mc Flesh Men's, because the acoustics.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:The, uh, work that was done to produce a sound system, I had three bands tell me, yeah, that this was easily the best.
Speaker:Acoustic environment.
Speaker:So
Speaker:Jay Counters and AJ Ram, they, he's, they're the two that do the sound, um, for it.
Speaker:And Heroic was, oh yeah, they've been with us for four years now, I think.
Speaker:No, no,
Speaker:no.
Speaker:Jay was here from 2018 on.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:but AJ joined in about four years ago.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but leading up to that, so we used to have these huge speakers on these stands, and they took up, I don't know, 20 square feet each and, or maybe 10 square feet each.
Speaker:And then about a month ago we were starting to prep for Mile and there's beer prep, but then there's also just how, how are we gonna change the beer garden?
Speaker:And we decided to install this truss thing above the stage that require that so we could suspend each of the speakers down and we can't attach it to.
Speaker:The building next door, um, because we don't own it.
Speaker:And so we have to, Bobby has to figure out this kind of engineering marvel of this Trus.
Speaker:And when you're in the beer garden and look up and you'll see it, um, that's sticking out.
Speaker:And it was what, two feet short and you had to adjust it at the last minute.
Speaker:Had to go buy a welder.
Speaker:I mean, there was all these like sat, was it Thursday morning or Wednesday morning?
Speaker:I'm on the phone at the hardware store being like, which welder do you want me to buy?
Speaker:ITT minus 30 hours.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so the frantic panic of getting everything ready to go before mile,
Speaker:and that's just showing our commitment to the music, to the presentation.
Speaker:True.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We can sell a lot of beer either way.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Um, I can go onto that stage.
Speaker:On three different podcasts, but, but yeah, every year we add to it, right?
Speaker:Make it a little bit bigger and better.
Speaker:And it's because people, if the speakers were down into the crowd, then people were, had to stand farther back and they basically putting the speakers kind of above everyone lets the music go more over their heads, I guess.
Speaker:And it, it's not like in your face.
Speaker:And so more people can experience and the beer garden area and we
Speaker:get.
Speaker:To do more music all the time.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:'cause they think it's a good stage and a good venue for that reason.
Speaker:The other thing, and, and I'm wad into something that I don't know anything about you, you would know far more than I would, but the acoustics because of the, the, the height of this building and the adjacent building, I mean the, the, the music kind of stays between mm-hmm.
Speaker:The two buildings we've talked about almost about building a mini bowl.
Speaker:You remember when, uh, Ben Long was here, we would talk about putting bleachers on the neighbor's roof and making a full bowl out of this.
Speaker:All joking of course, but Right.
Speaker:But if you've
Speaker:ever been to a show at Wrigley Field is a good example, right.
Speaker:Wrigley Field.
Speaker:Um, and I've seen the dead there on a number of occasions.
Speaker:They, the music, because of all of the, the tall buildings that surrounded it just like.
Speaker:Envelops you, and it just stays there.
Speaker:And, and this is kind of a, a similar situation on a much smaller scale.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Sonically, you've created kind of a marvelous atmosphere.
Speaker:Well, and that comes down, that definitely comes down to AJ and Jay on the day of.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because you can have the worst surfaces and a good sound guy and you can pull something out, but not the other way around, I don't think.
Speaker:Um, but yeah, they did a great job.
Speaker:The liquid side of this is probably where you guys wanna go.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:To some degree.
Speaker:Well, let's
Speaker:start with how we shouldn't never do mile again that way.
Speaker:Um, years ago we just filled all the kegs and then we had this, every time a keg would kick, we would just start stacking it in the back production area.
Speaker:And there was this huge mountain,
Speaker:the famous picture.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, it was how many high?
Speaker:It's a fun kill shot.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:The kill shot's, what we called it.
Speaker:It was,
Speaker:you can touch, you can touch the.
Speaker:We could touch their 14 foot ceiling with the top keg,
Speaker:and it was just stacked.
Speaker:And then we realized, well, this is stupid, because this was on the end of Friday night is when we'd stacked those many kegs and we still had to work Saturday.
Speaker:And then, oh, blessed Sunday.
Speaker:We're so exhausted by then.
Speaker:But that's when we realized, especially when we got our um, uh, horizontal tanks that you fill the beer into the tanks and as soon as the keg is emptied.
Speaker:The guys in the back immediately fill it and put it back on.
Speaker:So we don't have all these kegs that are just stacking.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And for, for
Speaker:context, we're not serving four flavors.
Speaker:You know, a lot of people would be asking, why not just have four giant tanks and then pipe that throughout the building.
Speaker:We don't do just four beers, and that's not happening almost in any brewery these days.
Speaker:So the only way to be able to handle that was to have kegs and to have different locations and, and ke and it's a way to have to work.
Speaker:Our mi our mile menu is definitely reduced and really just because I think that the, um, we really focus on hospitality and making sure that everyone has a beer that they would really like.
Speaker:Nine-mile.
Speaker:But during Mile, the goal isn't necessarily the beer, it's to help everyone get a good beer in their hands as fast as possible to get them back out to enjoy the music.
Speaker:It's really the music center and
Speaker:we had some secret shoppers up and down Mile hearing that we got it there faster than anyone.
Speaker:Yeah, well that's, so the
Speaker:way we do it is so, well, we just, but we, we do have 24 different things to choose from.
Speaker:So even if that's limited, that's still a lot.
Speaker:Well, it's
Speaker:spread out though.
Speaker:It's true.
Speaker:And so there's four different lines and they're all.
Speaker:Not so long.
Speaker:Right, right.
Speaker:As opposed to the one long line.
Speaker:We had a guest from Missouri who came through when I was working outside, and they said to me, how, how many beers do you have today?
Speaker:And I, I just, the quick math, I, I don't know if I ended up with 24, but there's this many inside, there's, there's three upstairs.
Speaker:There's.
Speaker:Uh, six or seven different things over there in cans and, and on tap.
Speaker:And, you know, all told it's in the twenties and you're, you're, what you mentioned earlier is what a lot of people do is we're gonna have four or five things on because it's too overwhelming.
Speaker:I mean, you may have curbed your menu a little bit, but not a lot.
Speaker:No,
Speaker:you were, you were still able to come and in and, and get all of those really unique flavors.
Speaker:And I'm m resolved
Speaker:not to punt on our beer, you know, just because we could, I, I wanted to make sure they understand what we can do, even if we may never see them again.
Speaker:They'll come, they'll talk about us somewhere.
Speaker:It'll, it'll have an effect somewhere.
Speaker:So I would never have allowed four different flavors, even though it might move a little quicker and be a little bit less anxiety for people to make a decision.
Speaker:We made it.
Speaker:I think that we struck a good balance,
Speaker:I think so.
Speaker:Um, and just by spreading them out, by having different places where you could buy the beer.
Speaker:Um, okay, so let's pick, let's talk about the antics.
Speaker:Um, so if you were here, you may have noticed some of the staff were running around with water guns.
Speaker:Um, much to Joel's.
Speaker:Did we have the
Speaker:bubble machines?
Speaker:Yeah, the bubble
Speaker:machine was around.
Speaker:Around.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but everyone's so exhausted by the end of it.
Speaker:Uh, two years ago or last year, um, Carrie got squirt guns.
Speaker:And gosh, it added some fun.
Speaker:I mean, maybe Joel doesn't think so.
Speaker:He kept getting squirted.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Well, and, and people like to squirt my hair.
Speaker:I think it's part, oh, we can't mess that up.
Speaker:No, it's part of the, the fun of it.
Speaker:Um.
Speaker:I, I'm usually so busy that I don't have time to squirt others.
Speaker:I, I don't know where some people take it pretty far where people are fine.
Speaker:That's in the, and they were actually giving it to random people and people would come up and order a beer and squirt me and it's like, oh.
Speaker:So if, if anyone's listening, this person doesn't even work
Speaker:and comes to mild music, they definitely need to get a water gun and squirt Joel.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:It's so funny.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He loves it.
Speaker:And, and Joel is the really short one with curly blonde hair.
Speaker:So look for, look for them, and then you'll know, look
Speaker:for the person ringing the bell for 5 47.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:shoot.
Speaker:Covered blown.
Speaker:So, um, so no, I mean, it's, it says something about how fun it is, at least behind the scenes because the staff all, they all sign up for it.
Speaker:I mean, they know it's gonna be 30 or 40 hours worth of work in four days time.
Speaker:Um, but I always say
Speaker:some of us will still be friends when it's over.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's off.
Speaker:It's definitely an
Speaker:immersion.
Speaker:And there were, there was blood, there were tears, there was a lot, lot of there.
Speaker:Always tears.
Speaker:Tears, always five different emotions.
Speaker:Always tears.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I actually would argue that it brings people closer together.
Speaker:I
Speaker:think so,
Speaker:because you really, you, you know, the, I forget the exact quote, I think it's a Vince Lombardi quote or something to that effect, but adversity reveals character.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And when.
Speaker:Yeah, like the, the Friday, Saturday I was here the one day for 11 hours and the other day for 12 and a half, and it, it's ex, it's exhausting.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But it's also exhilarating at the same time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like I didn't get outta here till 1230 or something on Friday night.
Speaker:I don't think I fell asleep till three because I was just so wound up.
Speaker:It's hard to bring your mind down.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:From, you know, all of the problem solving you're doing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:All, all of the human interaction you're doing, the excitement of hearing the music, the lights, all the people that you, uh, recognized and the new friends that you made, et cetera.
Speaker:It, it's, it's, it's kind of stunning.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Uh, and you have to deal with all of that.
Speaker:And then on top of it.
Speaker:You have to make sure that everyone has what they want in their glass.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you have Well, and it, it takes a Herculean effort Yeah.
Speaker:For you to do that.
Speaker:Behind the scenes, we got
Speaker:people that are not filling kegs only, but they're keeping the beer gases moving, which is not a trivial fe, and all the other millions of breakdowns that are happening behind the scenes.
Speaker:And it's, what's really hard too is that Mile and October Fest happen around the same time in terms of the brew schedule, because October Fest needs to be brewed.
Speaker:Six weeks in advance and mile is right, like
Speaker:I was gonna say, that's part of the, the cherries on top.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's a treat that we actually, um, but we actually tap October Fest at at mile of Music.
Speaker:We do.
Speaker:It's sort of a secret tip.
Speaker:It's, we run outta beer.
Speaker:If we don't parly, it's, it's parsely.
Speaker:It's because of that parse.
Speaker:It's 'cause it's fun.
Speaker:It's a fun time to tap it.
Speaker:Um, but then the, the prep, so we put all this money into the ingredients to have enough beer to get through mile and then it's.
Speaker:A lot of investment in all the alternative beer drinks, and so the canned cocktails, the wines, the various other options that people have.
Speaker:The beatbox box,
Speaker:that is actually no longer a thing.
Speaker:Oh, it's
Speaker:a thing.
Speaker:Well, no, we don't beatbox.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:we're looking into Four Loco next year.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:As a sponsor,
Speaker:I will never, surely we've said this on the podcast before, but when we, um, gosh, this was three years ago.
Speaker:Was beatbox three years ago.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Do you remember what you did to me?
Speaker:How unfair that was?
Speaker:I did.
Speaker:That was so funny.
Speaker:Um, so Joel was like, I refuse to sell this beat box, but we had, we'd already bought a lot of it.
Speaker:We, at that point, the laws hadn't changed and so we couldn't sell liquor type cocktails.
Speaker:And beatbox was like a malt beverage cocktail.
Speaker:Well, Shaq is saying it's.
Speaker:Good stuff.
Speaker:I listening.
Speaker:Oh God.
Speaker:Anyway, we actually
Speaker:opened one up and it was like, like ecto cooler blue.
Speaker:It wasn't even real.
Speaker:I mean, guess that would be green, but anyway,
Speaker:glows in the dark blue.
Speaker:It was, but it was a very pronounced color,
Speaker:so it was so gross.
Speaker:And so I was like, Joel, if you can, like, I believe you can, you know, it was like, I think you can.
Speaker:Beatbox, like you can do it, you know, use the Joel Magic.
Speaker:And I believe that's when you looked at me and you were like, you know what beatbox is my new 5 4 7.
Speaker:That was the quote of the event, said, Joel Beatbox is my new 5, 4, 7.
Speaker:I gave it an incredible effort.
Speaker:You did and you sold 10 of them.
Speaker:I think you had an audience.
Speaker:I did was impress.
Speaker:I think it was 10.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And those things weren't, we still have some, so if you still want some.
Speaker:They're, I'm sure they're fine.
Speaker:Come around.
Speaker:Um, but okay, so you said new friends.
Speaker:It would be wrong if we didn't mention this kid on the podcast.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:The brewery cat word.
Speaker:He's the brewery spray.
Speaker:Oh my god.
Speaker:Can I,
Speaker:can I start this story?
Speaker:You may start this story.
Speaker:My mile is, is very stressful and Allison kind of approached me on Wednesday and said, Hey, would you make an effort?
Speaker:Uh, to come in on Friday morning at such and such a time, which of course I did.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If you ask me to do something, I'm gonna do it for Yeah.
Speaker:You're so great.
Speaker:Like with the beat box, I even tried to do that, um, and I said, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And she goes, okay.
Speaker:'cause we have a young man who's coming from Washington, uh, from Washington state.
Speaker:Washington State,
Speaker:who is a big fan of the podcast.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And wants to.
Speaker:You know, so he's in connect with the people who are on there.
Speaker:But in addition, he's, he was interested in, um, being, uh, going to Lawrence.
Speaker:So he's a high school student.
Speaker:He was interested in going to Lawrence and was a prospective student,
Speaker:and he had, who
Speaker:wants to also go into the brewing industry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And he had, he had.
Speaker:Uh, Allison's leaving out a key part of the story, but he had told Allison that he thought that on the podcast that I was extremely funny and he just wanted to get a chance to meet me.
Speaker:And I don't really think he said anything about your sense of humor, but that's okay.
Speaker:'cause he was, you know, you're a a chemist, that's fine.
Speaker:Scientist mathematician's, but her
Speaker:parents said, 'cause he got moved on the show.
Speaker:And they said you're not as mean in person as they expected.
Speaker:Oh no.
Speaker:That was someone else.
Speaker:Oh, that was from Gary?
Speaker:No,
Speaker:no.
Speaker:Oh, Gary's uh, everything everywhere.
Speaker:Daily anniversary party.
Speaker:Someone was like, you're much kinder in person.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:I was like, oh, I remember that.
Speaker:That's great.
Speaker:Oh, I'll tune the snark down a little bit.
Speaker:Sorry.
Speaker:Yeah, no,
Speaker:they said that I looked exactly like I sound on the podcast.
Speaker:Oh,
Speaker:that's fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Anyway, so Steve,
Speaker:Steve, Steve Hammy
Speaker:back to this or, okay, so, um, Isaiah, if you're listening, hello.
Speaker:Um, anyway, but so they.
Speaker:You walk in and you meet these, this family, they're great.
Speaker:They're so great.
Speaker:They're fabulous.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, but there, there was like a camp thing that Lawrence was supposed to have, but it had gotten canceled and so they had planned to come out during mile anyway.
Speaker:Um, and so they're like, Hey, well we're just gonna hang out and I guess go to Mile and we are got to talking.
Speaker:We gave 'em a tour of the brewery and then I don't even know how it came up, but it was like, well, y'all have nothing.
Speaker:Like seriously, you have nothing to do for the next three days?
Speaker:And they're like, no, we have nothing to do.
Speaker:And I said, well, do you wanna.
Speaker:And I looked at the kid and I was like, you wanna, you wanna work early?
Speaker:You wanna shadow one of our brewers?
Speaker:And his eyes got so big and he's like, yeah, let's do it.
Speaker:Because he brews, I don't know if you mentioned that.
Speaker:He does.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And he bruised really well.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Um, and so he brought his home brew for us to try.
Speaker:And so swear to goodness, this kid and it, and his parents were there approving everything by Wisconsin state law.
Speaker:Um, he, so yeah, we put him to work and so within.
Speaker:I dunno, an hour of meeting him, he was, we had him volunteer badge and
Speaker:it took 15 minutes for him to fit in.
Speaker:Yeah,
Speaker:and I don't even that he's back there and he's, he's doing everything.
Speaker:You, you have to tell this young man once how to do something and he does it.
Speaker:You mentioned his name, right?
Speaker:He works
Speaker:hard.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's Isaiah.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And so
Speaker:he, anyway, but he, he shadowed Aaron for like the whole day, and then we, I mean, by the end of it, we were yelling things, go get this, go get that now.
Speaker:He went and it, the, he showed up the next day too, and worked again.
Speaker:It was so great.
Speaker:And then when he had gone back to Washington, we were all left in like a, with a withdrawal like.
Speaker:Where's, where's Isaiah?
Speaker:Like, he's not here.
Speaker:Like, I know.
Speaker:Can we get him back?
Speaker:Can we get him back?
Speaker:He texted a few.
Speaker:He texted a few days ago and he said, I have officially accepted the Lawrence position and I, we, you know, we're all cheering and so excited.
Speaker:Um, what a great
Speaker:addition.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:To the Viking family.
Speaker:It's so great.
Speaker:What I mean it, you know, brand new friend, all of a sudden it's like, welcome to Mile, put him to work.
Speaker:Well, that's interesting.
Speaker:But is he gonna work here or is he just gonna do the Lawrence thing?
Speaker:Well, both.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's the important piece.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But um, but yeah, the poor kid and then the parents were just like, yeah, put him to work.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:But yeah, we were,
Speaker:I'm sure he is good at lacrosse and biochemistry, but.
Speaker:Oh, I've already got his career planned out anyway.
Speaker:Hello Isaiah and family.
Speaker:Um, but yeah,
Speaker:so pivoting back to Mile Mile, you mentioned filling from the kegs.
Speaker:We talked about the sound.
Speaker:Uh, this was my, I think fifth mile, I can't remember, but I've been through a number.
Speaker:This one was, this one felt different from an organizational perspective.
Speaker:I feel like you're really starting to barrel it up.
Speaker:Using a baseball metaphor, like I feel like you've narrowed in on the sweet spot.
Speaker:I feel like you're getting so much better at it.
Speaker:We can
Speaker:you either agree or disagree with that?
Speaker:We were definitely getting better at it for sure.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We've learned things like we added the, like I said, the two years ago we added the, the outdoor bar in such a way mm-hmm.
Speaker:That it, it took adding eight taps to the outdoor 30% of our weight, of the weight off of us.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:But then also, um, we had a new handheld.
Speaker:Point of sale device.
Speaker:So we could take credit cards at all sales locations.
Speaker:We added the stairs to the prohibition room.
Speaker:That was a huge win.
Speaker:Um, wifi booster.
Speaker:Wifi booster.
Speaker:That was a big one.
Speaker:Um, we've done little things like um,
Speaker:cup games.
Speaker:The cup game.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:Stacking those damn cups because
Speaker:that, that had a, so you can wanna explain the cup game?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So the
Speaker:cup game.
Speaker:So, um, there's plastic cups 'cause there's no way we're doing glassware.
Speaker:And so we've got.
Speaker:Um, all throughout the beer garden, we've got these two little PVC pipes and it's a voting game of choose this or choose that, but you stack your cups.
Speaker:So the intention
Speaker:is to actually get them to stack their cups.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Stack the cup
Speaker:because it takes up less space.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it was fun.
Speaker:It was a music theme.
Speaker:It, yeah.
Speaker:I think
Speaker:one of the ones that you had, and you put it right across from me, was Fish for the Grateful Dead.
Speaker:And I kept directing everyone to that particular one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And Grateful Dead kept winning.
Speaker:Oh, they, yeah.
Speaker:Was travel wilbury versus I, sometime when I would see somebody, if it was slow, if it, if I saw someone put it in the fish side, I would run and remove it.
Speaker:Oh, that's funny.
Speaker:Put
Speaker:it in.
Speaker:I saw you put a full stack in the dead and then won in fish.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which is, but there was worse than none, but, well, 'cause I
Speaker:like fish too.
Speaker:But
Speaker:Stevie
Speaker:Nicks versus Pat Benetta, Aretha Franklin versus ET James.
Speaker:Um, and then my favorite.
Speaker:Oh, that was a good one.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, and then my favorite one was Dolly.
Speaker:Versus Dolly because when I stop to think, who could I put against Dolly Parton?
Speaker:No, nobody.
Speaker:So the only one who can compete against Dolly is herself.
Speaker:'cause she's a badass.
Speaker:And that's actually a little asterisk it said because Dolly's a badass.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Um, trying to think of the others.
Speaker:We might
Speaker:expand the game to, uh, more of mile too.
Speaker:We're talking about mile to mile about this.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We're trying to work
Speaker:with Mile, um, Williams Marketing about doing more of a, a, um.
Speaker:Uh, everyone gets the same kind of cup and the same kind of plastic.
Speaker:Therefore, we can get a buyer to then like, recycle the cups, but also the
Speaker:game, the stack game Yeah.
Speaker:Has been talked about too, too.
Speaker:Anyway,
Speaker:but no Mile is a, it's the little
Speaker:things that don't seem sexy, that make it streamlined.
Speaker:That's, that's the moral of that story.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So
Speaker:we have, we have about two minutes left.
Speaker:I want to give you one minute for your closing thoughts on Mile.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:And then I'm gonna give you a minute for your closing thoughts and I'm gonna go with you first 'cause you already gave me the death glare.
Speaker:That's fair.
Speaker:Um, what is So Mile is one of the most, um, extraordinary events, and I a thousand thanks to Will's marketing for putting it on.
Speaker:Um, but also I, we could not do it without our staff.
Speaker:Um, the staff work their asses off, and I, that's in our volunteers as well.
Speaker:Um, there's a comradery that's formed and it brings me to tears thinking of it because they are so, so good.
Speaker:We could only be as successful, um, during Mile because of the people who work here.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:That's, that's in front and behind for sure.
Speaker:What the people do in front is grueling that back.
Speaker:The people in back don't want a part of, if they can avoid it 'cause they know what goes into that and vice versa.
Speaker:That's, it's a, it's really hard work getting this pulled off.
Speaker:But Alison's right, Williams has made something.
Speaker:We're part of it.
Speaker:We opened it.
Speaker:The perfect timing moved here the first year of mile.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So I've been to every single mile and it just happens to be the year we moved here and I watched it grow from, uh, 40 people in a little bar down the street to what, what it is now.
Speaker:And it was quoted by many people as the best, as being the best one yet The Mile 12 was the best version of Mile that has happened yet.
Speaker:So yeah, there's a lot of stuff happening with Mile.
Speaker:It's getting, uh, evolving from what it is right now to a new, uh, new people.
Speaker:And it's gonna take on a new face, bigger and better every year.
Speaker:So during next year mile, if you wanna reach out in early July, we're always looking for volunteers to join the Crazy Mile team.
Speaker:Isaiah,
Speaker:come meet Isaiah when he is here.
Speaker:Do you have your brew schedule ready?
Speaker:For next year, next mile.
Speaker:Well, I was gonna
Speaker:talk about how this actually overlaps with our October Fest scheduling.
Speaker:That's another episode.
Speaker:Which is another episode.
Speaker:But it's worth mentioning that it makes this all the more difficult to pull off.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:We lose so much sleep at the same time.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:Go team.
Speaker:so should someone volunteer.
Speaker:for, uh, working at Mile of Music on behalf of Mickle Men's?
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:What are the benefits?
Speaker:Oh, that's such a great question.
Speaker:Um, so not only do they get a gift card, but we also have a celebration after the fact.
Speaker:Where, um, we have, uh, Jacobs Meat Market from, uh, down the street from actually where we live, uh, donates these wonderful bratwurst.
Speaker:Um, and we have this wonderful Bratwurst Cookoff, or not Cookoff cookout, I guess.
Speaker:Um, and we also celebrate, uh, just everybody who's involved with Mile and Share beers and have fun.
Speaker:So, yay.
Speaker:Sounds like a winner.
Speaker:Well, on that note, thank you to the two Doctors of Beer.
Speaker:That will conclude this episode of Respecting the Beer.
Speaker:Another episode without Gary Arnt.
Speaker:The producer of Respecting the Beer is David Kalsow Without David, there would be no show.
Speaker:Make sure to subscribe to the show and your favorite podcast players so you never miss an episode.
Speaker:And join the Facebook group to get updates between the episodes and support the show over on Patreon.
Speaker:Patrons to the show get early access to shows such as our prohibition show, which is on there right now, and.
Speaker:Also access to special beer.
Speaker:Links to both of those things can be found in the show notes.
Speaker:And until next time, please remember to respect the beer.
