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The Years Of Living Dangerously – And Deliciously ft Dangerous Ales
291 Plays1 day ago
“I’m a big believer that times waits for no one.”
If you’ve come to know Dangerous Ales through their beers, it’s most likely via their banging, Knappstein Reserve-esque Crispy Boi lager or one of the many hazy IPAs that have impressed the country’s beer judges too. But while the beers are indeed impressive, they’re only part of the picture for this family-run brewery on the NSW South Coast.
At its core is Damien Martin, AKA Dangerous Damo, who has amassed one of the most colourful CVs you’ll find in beer. The keen surfer and body-boarder left Milton to travel the world chasing big waves and ended up working in many highly-rated kitchens along the way – hence the knife in the Dangerous Ales logo.
Once back on the South Coast – by now homebrewing after deciding to produce all the beer and food for their wedding – Damo and wife Alice envisioned opening a small venue in Milton where he cooked all the food and brewed all the beer. But when the Milton Hotel in the middle of the town became available, and with Alice’s dad Andrew on board, that vision became rather grander.
Today, the reimagined hotel is the home of Dangerous Ales, as well as the brewing world’s first Chef’s Hat. And it’s there we caught up with Damo inside the brewery where he’s brewed every drop of beer while still popping up on the pass in the kitchen.
As you can imagine when someone’s led such a life, it’s a broad-ranging episode that takes in flavour and fermentation, chasing waves and perfection, exploring new techniques and terpenes, and plenty more besides.
Prior to the chat with Damo, Will and James reflect on another highly enjoyable High Country Hop in Beechworth, and Dollar Bill’s announcement they’re selling up, as well as going Behind Bars with Locky at Benchwarmer, discussing part two of our Building A Brewery series, and welcoming Joe White Maltings to the site.
Start of segments:- 0:00 – The Week On Crafty
- 9:44 – Dangerous Damo Part 1
- 30:45 – Dangerous Damo Part 2
To find out more about featuring on The Crafty Pint Podcast or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.
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Transcript
Return from the High Country Hop
00:00:05
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Crafty Pint Podcast. I'm Will. I'm James and here we are back in Melbourne after a lovely few days away up in the Victorian high country. Yeah, it was ah another wonderful high country hop. The industry event, the technical symposium that went over two days this year were lovely. It was lovely to catch up with a lot of industry people and the weather on Saturday, the actual beer festival, beer and music festival was, it was just perfect, wasn't it? Not too hot, sunshine, sunshine.
00:00:33
Speaker
Just a stunning Beechworth day. It was like we'd brought it back from New Zealand, to be honest. It was.
Interview with Jeremy Monnier
00:00:39
Speaker
Yeah, it was a good good day of talks on the Friday. We didn't get to catch too much of the Hop sort Expo and workshops on the Thursday because we were interviewing Jeremy Monnier from Stone for an upcoming episode. um He was great. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire chat there. So hopefully that comes across as well as it felt like it did at the time. But um yeah, it's know it's always good to get up there. to see a few familiar faces and meet a few new faces as well. um And yeah, really enjoyed the event. Again, you know, they do, as Ben said to me early on on the Saturday, he goes, we're not pouring normal beer here. So why would we have normal music on? And, you know, they have the same book as as Golden Plains of Meredith. So there's a bit of crossover in the lineups. It's very eclectic. It's much more, um yeah, diverse. And I think, you know, maybe suits that broader perspective. crowd they have um i thought he actually said to me on the friday night that one of his favorite things about the music is sort of making some people who went to school with and a lot of beachworth locals and high country locals of a certain age a bit go a bit like what what is this exactly what are we listening to here
High Country Hop Festival Highlights
00:01:45
Speaker
No, it's good. And I think because it's, you know, it is a reasonably small scale festival still, mean that they sell a thousand odd tickets or whatever, but there's a fair bit of industry there and, you know, everyone just sort of mingles. I was, got chatting to someone in the crowd at one stage and she'd been talking to Cam, Ben's marketing manager. and i was like, oh, you know, what's your connection with the the brewery or the high country hop? And Cam invited me up and like,
00:02:05
Speaker
are you Phoebe Squared? And so it's the triple art DJ um who was up there and I'd seen her a couple of years ago at other festivals so we had a lovely chat and it just it was just that sort of event where you know everyone just sort of intermingled and and flowed together. You know there's nice spirits as well and bit of a party afterwards. So yeah, congratulations to Ben, and Nathan, Maria, Cam, everyone, the whole team that was up there and enjoying themselves. And um yeah, look forward to the next one in 361 days or
Preparing for Pint of Origin
00:02:33
Speaker
whatever it is. And you know, once we got back to Melbourne, we're sort of looking ahead to our own beer festival and I wanted to catch up with ah one of the venues that will be pouring excellent beer for Pint of Origin, Ben Chwoma, who once again are hosting Japan. Yep, for sure. Yeah, Lockheed's been involved for a few years now. Benchwarmers are very cool, quite sort of, you know, pretty unique. Well, you can't be pretty unique. You're either unique or you're not. But let's just say unique venue in West Melbourne, although i always think it's kind of North Melbourne as well, given where it's located. Could be Melbourne CBD. wouldn't know, really. But um yeah, he doubled the number of taps he had in his venue last year. um
00:03:10
Speaker
He's sort of rotating different sort of food types there. It's just a really cool space. We did an event there for Cabal members with Brady from Future not too long ago. um But also, Lockie's not only been bringing beer over from Japan and sort of exploring the the beer culture over there, I think he's got some co-labs coming for this year's festival, but also as and brought beer over from there in the past outside of the festival. He has his own, I'm not sure how you pronounce Oishi, Yuzu Lager as well. So he's he's sort of got a broader, i guess, um Fingers in more pies, like a broader reach across the industry and now obviously brings down three cool Sydney breweries to distribute and around Victoria as well. So you had a bit catch up with him, um I guess, you know to see where he is with Benchmore, but also get his take on the lie of the land as someone who I think you know experiences it a bit differently to most.
00:03:56
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. And it's an interesting time, I think, for Australia or and Japan. Obviously, I mean, any listeners, but you've probably been to Japan because I feel like everyone I know has been to Japan over the last couple of years. So they used to have a strong Japanese food menu, but they've kind of moved away from that because they felt like everywhere in Melbourne is basically doing Japanese food. But they still think that there's a really...
00:04:22
Speaker
They all at least hope there's a lot of interest in Japanese craft beer. Japanese craft beer is growing at a very fast rate, probably where Australia was a number of years ago.
Japanese Craft Beer Market
00:04:30
Speaker
So there's a lot of really interesting breweries that are keen to travel the world. we We met a number of them over in New Zealand, actually. They were over for the harvest there. that They're keen to find out about hops in this part of the world. So it's a very interesting time to sort of connect all those dots as well.
00:04:44
Speaker
yeah yeah so point of origin uh may 15 to 24 um if you haven't already penciled in your diaries i know it always goes very well for the benchwarmer crews i'm sure they'll be very excited about it um aside for that you did part you presented part two of your piece on building a brewery which is kind of what 12 13 years on from when i first did one with boat rocker you've been chatting to the the guys out out in the east i thought you were gonna say 12 13 weeks on from our part one. It has felt like that. No, it's only been about five six, I reckon. It's felt like 100 years, though. So, yeah, Black Match. I caught up with Cal and the team there. Again, they're right in the heart of it, the busy period of getting tanks in, getting cement in, getting everything done, and really actually building the production brewery. So it's good to catch up with them, find out how they're sort of managing all the trades, the budgeting, and how things are looking for both the production venue and the tap room, which is... sort of on the in the same place but a bit further ahead and is a new build rather than the conversion of a warehouse out the back.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah and I guess from from new to old one of the oldest Joe White Moultings nearly 170 years old and later this year they'll be celebrating 100 years of roasting in Ballarat. I know you're preparing a bit of a feature to mark that but in the meantime we've added a listing for them to our business directory so we'll we include that in the in the show notes won't say too much now because I guess you'll have a lot more to say when when we put this feature
Dollar Bill Brewing for Sale
00:06:10
Speaker
together. um And I guess sticking in Ballarat, the article may or may not be on the site by the time you see this, by the time the podcast goes live online. um But we received some news while we were in Beechworth last week that Dollar Bill Brewing, Fee and Ed have decided to um put the the business on the market. um
00:06:29
Speaker
If you don't know a Dollar Bill, they've been making some of the most wonderful and award-winning beers um over the last... decade uh guess so specializing in barrel aged mixed mixed culture blended often fruited beers uh they've also had a huge amount of challenges trying to get this sort of the licensing the permissions they want to open a cellar door at their place in ballarat and i think after many years of back and forth and thinking they've Thinking they've got it and then they haven't, then they've got it, then they haven't. They've decided it's ah time to move on. So we weren't able to take get hold on over the weekend because we were busy and then they've been busy since we got back. Hoping to chat to open chat to the two of them before this goes out and get something off on the website. If not, there should be something out over the long weekend anyway. um Which brings us to this week's
Interview with Damien Martin
00:07:12
Speaker
guest. Very much not a mixed culture barrel-aged brewer at the minute, but a brewer of fantastic beers nonetheless.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, Damien Martin from Dangerous Ales. look uh i probably a smaller brewery than i even thought once we went there because they do they have picked up a a lot of a big reputation i think and a name for the the beers they're making both on the hop front and also on the lager front damien makes amazing beers as you'll hear he's the only one who makes them in the entire brewery uh they also have an incredible kitchen we were lucky enough to dine there after recording this conversation It was a little while ago now, but I still vividly remember exactly what we ate and how beautiful the Milton Hotel is as well. It's a really great conversation, draws on his background in in fine dining and also bodyboarding and how they moved into brewing. it
00:08:04
Speaker
Great to hear someone who's still very you know on the upward trajectory, I think, and very excited about beer and and where it's leading to and and their future as well. Yeah, especially, you know, you who dangerous Damo and still pick up, you know, chef's hats and work in Michelin restaurants and, you know, just be a bit of all-around legend. So, yeah, Damo's up after the break. um Also, if you are listening to this in time, this will go over sort of midnight Wednesday for listening on Thursday and you're around Melbourne. Last call for our Three Ravens cellar beer event this evening. um Murray, their head brewer, has dipped into their vault and pulleded out pulled out all manner of... um
00:08:41
Speaker
blended and barrel aged beers from over the years. um I've picked up some delicious cheeses to go with that as well. So we'll be doing a bit of delicious beer and cheese pairing this evening. um And I guess the other thing we've got coming up of our own is the Pint of Origin launch party on April the 21st. It's limited tickets and they are going pretty fast. So we'll include the um details for that in the show notes as well. which just brings us to, um I guess, the last last part of the intro before we get to the main main event, Will. Yes, if you want to reach us at all, you can at podcast at craftypint.com. You can give us some direct feedback, recommend guests, anything like that. And if you wouldn't mind, please make sure you like, subscribe, leave us a review, comment, do anything you can, however you listen to the podcast, because it helps other people discover the show. Enjoy the conversation and yeah, cheers.
00:09:32
Speaker
Cheers.
Origin of Dangerous Ales
00:09:35
Speaker
aboard. travel the world of beer one melbourne bar at a time the pine of origin festival is back may fifteenth to the twenty fourth dammo thank you so much for joining us on the podcast thanks for coming down thanks for making the trip and I know it's only a mere 13 hours since I got out of bed in Melbourne. So, uh, feeling bright and breezy. But it's worth it with a crispy blue lager in our hands. Yeah. It's worth the trip. Yeah, for sure. So tell us a bit about, I mean, first of all, Dangerous Ails, what does the sort of name mean? Because I've also heard your Dangerous Demo.
00:10:08
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I got the, I got keyed with the name Dangerous Demo, um, growing up mainly through surfing, bodyboarding around, um, in a past life, I guess. I like to tow into quite large waves. I spent a bit of time in WA, moved over there to surf a certain wave called the right, um, traveled the world chasing big waves and, um, pulling into big pits, I guess, scott got, got slapped with dangerous, dangerous demo and now dangerous demo is turning into dangerous sales. Was it something you started doing? Cause you grew up around this part of the world, didn't you? So when you started here. Yeah. Yeah. went to high school down here. Um, so my surfing career started here, mates, groups and moved away and came back and started Dangerous Demo turning to Dangerous Sales and um, breweries been here for seven years now. Um, this is version two of our brewery. Okay. Yeah. So cool. And back to the big waves as well. I remember having a chat to you before you were saying, end the day, going to come back up. but I can't imagine too many people have that theory or do you have to have that mentality to take thoses those sort of things on? You're always going to come back up. oh Yeah. Yeah. As long as you hold your breath, you always come back up no matter what. I'm a big believer in that. Yeah.
00:11:18
Speaker
Big believer in that time waits for no one. So if you yeah hang around and wait for time, it will definitely come up. So I've definitely had a lot of scary moments in the ocean, but no moments that I didn't think I was ever not going to come back from, but a few close calls, but yeah. And I guess and then the other side of the dangerous, I guess the branding thing is there's the the knife and the logo.
00:11:40
Speaker
yeah So that'd be the other side of you sort of pre, well, pre and, I guess, during brewing. So you want to tell us about that? Yeah, I guess, uh, I've tried to blend, um, our brewery into like ah a snapshot of what out my past or my my life is like. It's same, same with our venue, I guess. It's like, I've been a chef for 26 years.
00:12:01
Speaker
Um, to kind of work, nothing but fine dining. I've also worked around the world. I worked in France, London, did my apprenticeship in the city. Not too many waves in London. Nah, it was only, it was a short stint in London, as to be fair. was only, I spent about eight or nine months in London. and That was an enough, but I worked with, um, some pretty well-known chefs and learned a few good tricks to be able to bring home with me. So that was the main thing. This was a learning, um, learning little holiday. So
Acquiring Milton Hotel
00:12:28
Speaker
yeah. yeah And we're in the, well, we're next to the Milton Hotel. So did you buy that to run it as a chef and then expand all the, into brewing or how had do you sort of, how did this come about? The business, I guess, itself, um,
00:12:43
Speaker
I was working at a small restaurant in town and I kind of want to do to my own thing. We bought a really small brew kit cause I was home brewing. I wanted to cook all the food and brew all the beer. We're looking at a tiny little space. i had a little 200 litre Brownmeister I bought and I was just going to make all the food from Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then brew beer Monday, Tuesday. In town? In town. i was just what That was what the plan was. And then the opportunity for the hotel popped up.
00:13:08
Speaker
Um, So we sold the little 200 litre system, was a Browmeister before we even turned it on and bought a 500 litre Browmeister to hopefully make all the beer for the pub. Um, we ran the Browmeister for about three years people Um, we sort of outgrew it through COVID with just doing cam releases, um, and keeping up with the cam releases and the beer for the hotel. So we ended up putting this system in four years ago that you're looking at, that we're sitting in now is a four vessel 20 heck kit. So were there beers available before you had, before you'd done up the hotel? No, not so was one we just made beer. It was all originally just going to make beer for the hotel. And, um, we never done beer commercially before.
00:13:51
Speaker
I started the TAFE course, uh, at Oldamo, um, my, uh, young Henry, uh, Richard from Young Henry's and I, one of my teachers and Dan, who's the <unk>s technical officer for Lollamons. I'm not sure if he's still there. Been a while since I've spoken to him. Yeah. VB. Yeah, VB. Oh, VB. Um,
00:14:09
Speaker
But yeah, so working with those guys sort of taught me a couple of tricks and then COVID hit and we went into Cairns and and then sort of more beer, more problems and try to work backwards from there. Had you renovated the hotel before the brand launch or is that something that came along the way? ah No, so we took over that we took over the hotels, run down. um it was like a 1980s pub and yeah, did a huge refit, um paint,
00:14:38
Speaker
polished floors, new kitchen, everything we do is cooked on wood. um Yeah, lot of inspiration from sort of what goes on a lot of like restaurants that I like, I guess. So that's where the passion's driven. Like a good mates who worked at Estar, it's all wood driven, like fire doors and other small other, like the guy in Argentina, names escaping me right now, Marcus Moorman, I think. He's got lot of fire driven food. It's what we're passionate about in fermentation. So sort of try to bring the two together. We still do a lot of food fermentation as well. We do a lot of lactic ferments for stuff that goes on the menu. We do make a lot of garams, which is like meat fermented stuff with koji and stuff like that. so
00:15:22
Speaker
um Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if went down a rabbit hole then, but that's, I guess that's a love for cooking that turned into beer. That's um ended up here we are in 2026. Were you home brewing like along while you were chefing or did it all sort of come together at the same time for you? like oh Yeah, yeah. So i was home, i was home brewing. My wife, we had a young boy and my wife went to work and I was at home for six months and I was looking after him. And I was driving up to Nowra to see her on a lunch break and we'll stop in the home brew shop and we'd get a couple of kilos of pale malt and we'd come home, brew some beer with a six month old baby and be that little side project turning to having fermenters all through our house.
00:16:08
Speaker
um tiny little rental in dolphin point um stuff bubbling away in our room and i'm like we're clearly passionate about this so that's where the idea of trying to go back to that original story of trying to do all the food and have a tiny little brewery where we just i did everything because i didn't want to rely on a lot of staff but um I know in what staffing problems can be in hospitality as you get bigger. So just wanted to be, have a business I could run myself, but,
Chef Influence on Brewing
00:16:34
Speaker
um, that didn't pay me. So it turns out a bit bigger. Yeah. So your wife's dad came involved in the business as well. So from day one, yeah, I just,
00:16:43
Speaker
I didn't have enough money when ah when we we got going. I was like, you want to chip in 10 grand each and we'll start a brewery. Yeah. I'm not going to very far. No, well, originally the little 200 litre Browmaster was only, think it was 10,000 bucks. Yeah. Um, which, which and then going to buy a couple of fermenters and, and just chip away at it. But.
00:17:01
Speaker
Um, here we are now a little bit more than that we spent, but, um, the same time you were saying you still made every single drop of beer that's come out for yeah your sales. seven Yeah, I think seven years. And then we did early days. We did a little bit of contract work.
00:17:17
Speaker
I went before we opened because we weren't sure if we could keep up with the amount of beer. We just didn't know. So we had ah some guys in the Highlands make us a batch of larder and pale, but everything else.
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah. yeah but there's There's been no off-sider in here. No. you're doing Early days we went hard. We thought we'd, cause we put a big brewery in, we thought we would need stuff, but now I was making the beer. I had guys doing cellar work and stuff for me, but.
00:17:40
Speaker
As you know, it's just, yeah, it wasn't wasn't feasible to have three or four staff in a small little brewery in a coastal town. so And and'm with the kitchen, like yeah you say it's all, you know, woodcooked, woodfired, is that, did you come in and say, all right, this is my idea and bring people in? Or have you had your your your fingerprints all over the menu and you know and the dishes as well? Yeah.
00:18:02
Speaker
Yeah, I'm, I don't know if I'm a control freak or if I, I didn't want to put the words in mouth. But that's a classic chef, right? Yeah. Well, like, I guess it's cause it's, I do, I do, I write all the menu stuff. I, whenever, like even tonight we're trying to work on a new dessert.
00:18:16
Speaker
One of the chefs came over, I'm like, I like i ordered a few boxes of passion fruit. I'm like, I want to make a passion fruit sorbet. I'll give them a recipe. They go off, come back, try it And we're like working on a new dish together. Um,
00:18:28
Speaker
I think it's more of a collaborative thing. I don't think it's too controlly, but I don't know, you might need to ask them. Do you still spend time in there with you? I do, yeah. We're on our, like I said before, we're on our shoulder season now.
00:18:39
Speaker
but Over summer I was running the pass, a couple of nights on the grill. Doing 160 covers. and Yeah. Still got it. Yeah. It's just nice to test, you know, stop things getting too rusty. Yeah. Well, you got it. You got to, it's like riding bike, couple nights on the grill. It's, it's mighty. You forget how hot it is. I think that's the one thing it's like on a 40 degree night, no wind. Then you're standing in front of an open fire.
00:19:04
Speaker
It must be like 50, 55 degrees. I'd imagine it's similar when you're brewing in here though as well on a whole day. Yeah. Yeah. It's not, we're in a shed that this gets full of steam. So it does, it's hot, but the fire in front of the fire, it's another level. Yeah. And then in terms of, you got the the brewing, brewing world's first chef's hat few years ago, you've retained it ever since. Was that sort of a goal or was it just, it was the goal just to open and make the best stuff you could, you know, bring something nice to your hometown. Yeah. like What we've always wanted, it's nice to get accolades, like don't get me wrong, it's awesome. But we, it's not what drives us by any means. We just want to, we've always wanted to do what we're interested in, from our beers. Like, like I said, I guess before, it's just like, I wanted to be able to bring people into a little venue that I made all the food, made all the beers. What, if you came to my house,
00:19:50
Speaker
I would do the same thing. I'd like, I'd cook you a steak and I'd make, you have some of our home brew. Like it's the same thing we have here. So if you came to my house at home in Molymouth, I'd cook you a steak on an open fire and we'd be drinking our beer. There'd be no difference. I want that people to have that experience when they come to our venue. um It's always been like that. um It's always been.
00:20:12
Speaker
It's like our house, we spend that much time here. It's literally like our home. So it's, um, yeah, we want people to have good hospitality. It's like literally turn up at our joint, have a, grab a beer, have a steak. Don't be scared. Don't worry if it's medium rare, you don't get to choose. It might be like a chef's. Oh, what a well done, get out. Yeah. Yeah. It's not get out. It's just like, we try to, it's just like, if you turn up at someone's house, you'd be like, I'm having like 10 people that wouldn't be like, oh, we're all having our steaks different. yeah Like this is how it comes. There's plate of food. Yeah. And you'll rip in and have some, it's good wine also, like we love, super passionate ah about good beverages to go with good foods. I'd lovely chilled red last time with my wood smoked fish. Yeah. Still salivate over every now and then. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the thing. Like we love working with just, yeah, it's people who have the same, I guess, passion about food, beverages. so it's all, it's all intertwined, I think. And how'd you go with staff?
00:21:05
Speaker
something like this where you know the quality of the beer the quality of the wine you need to have knowledge need to know how to pour stuff and talk about stuff and then getting chefs in and yeah know who can deliver food to that quality because you hear it so often you know even brew pub even like breweries regionally that just trying to knock knock out burgers or whatever you know it can be hard so you know to maintain that level because we're what Three and a half, four hours from
Staffing Challenges Post-COVID
00:21:25
Speaker
Sydney here. Yeah. um I guess if you, oh, there's that old saying, you build it, they will come. I don't know. There a lot of time, to be honest, there was only two or three of us in the kitchen. there be ah
00:21:37
Speaker
i'd make 10,000 litres of beer. And then that week and you're doing nights every night in the kitchen. Just there was that weird time where all the COVID money was hanging around. No one wanted to work. You go home after for a couple of months, you're like where did the other two kids come from? Yeah, yeah, you forget. Well, tapped on the shelf now. ah There's yeah, it's I don't know. It's just we're at a point now where I think young businesses, people who come and work for you, they don't know what to expect.
00:22:01
Speaker
So now they're a little bit older. We've been doing it for seven years. We actually have staff who are applying with an actual reason. They know what we do. They know what to expect. They're probably being in for dinner. They probably had our beer in trade somewhere. i think that's the shift. We don't have a problem with staff now. we we get more resumes across the day desk than we ever have. um So it used to be a problem. I think was, yeah, it was a combination of things. I think, I think a lot of people felt it over COVID, um, and then on the back end of it and everyone got to go out. So everyone was busy. They needed staff. No one wanted to work.
00:22:37
Speaker
I think the two were combined, but because everyone had free money and then no one to work. And it was just like a perfect storm, but, um, out the other side, cost of living crisis. um No one can afford anything. Everyone's selling their second car. I think it's changed. So people are looking for a second shift here and there. People pouring beer. and And the people who are turning up for work, like I said, they are generally fans. We've found that People who want to, we just put a sales rep on. The reason we hired him is he's just our biggest fan. It's like this guy will literally sell it no matter what. he's just He'll buy all the beer. Yeah. He has to he probably has got a stockpile at home, but just like we're finding people that are fans that are turned up fans of what we do. So. It's fine. We we interviewed ah Tom Delmont, who is Mountain Goat's first ever sales rep then the fixation guy. um on a po and He was talking about when he got his first job at Mountain Goat. They never even had a rep, but he he was working like for customs, like and identifying bugs that came in. you know He had an entomology or whatever, and then these are he had this beard. He was like, I love this thing, and he just kept going. and He goes, I will be the biggest pain in the ass until you give me a job, and in the end, i he got the job and he took them everywhere. you know Yeah, it's true. today like
00:23:48
Speaker
It's like, why, like, there's no reason not to believe in this guy. He's literally, before he got a job, he was at the pub every Friday, Saturday night. this And he's just, he's been in interviews. Like everybody needs a drink crispy boy. i don't know why they're not like, all right, you got a job. We couldn't agree more. So I guess.
00:24:07
Speaker
That's, yeah, that's what we're about. Hopefully sharing good experiences that we're passionate about.
Adapting to Market Demands
00:24:14
Speaker
um Yeah. That's why we do what we do. think that was the question, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and how have you found the sort of, um you know, the the cost of living prices, obviously with the fine a focus on really good food preium food and beer and then also you know i think immediately after covid there was a lot of that regional travel so you' probably boosted up and that of you still found that same sort of audience coming here and
00:24:39
Speaker
yeah's your audience did you have regulars that are always in or do we have yeah where there's like a local local crowd to come in um theres ah we find Being regional is a bit harder, especially some of the beers that we do do. Um, we're sort of trying to originally, I guess originally were like, this is what we do.
00:25:00
Speaker
Like we're making hoppy beer, like, getwa program yeah, yeah. And then you're like, ah, sometimes there is room to have. So I saw you got the XOXO going on tap now. yeah yeah know So, you know, cooking pun. Yeah. Yeah. We don't, we've been doing a bit of that poking the beer. So.
00:25:15
Speaker
Well, I guess we don't want to ostracize ourselves, I guess is the key. Like originally it's like that chef mentality. You have it medium rare or bugger off. You're like, I guess as you get older or something, mean you might be a bit more accepting. don't know. But it's just like.
00:25:32
Speaker
we're like super passionate about hoppy beer but there is place there is a place for a macro lager and and we're fine with that so and we want to cater we understand that we've got a cater for a wider audience that come into the venue so there's a bit of a sort of gourmet trail around here as well isn't there so um i'm assuming that people come down holidaying for that would know that you're part of that you know offering yeah we're definitely like we there was a while there where people would walk in and be like oh we where's your pizzas where's your hamburgers um that's slowly fading away happens a little bit breweries try to do something different when they heard that too often they switched pretty quickly went you know what we can't do this so it's good to hear that you've stuck to it and they're reaping rewards i guess uh i guess my takeaway is that i've been in i've been a chef for 25 years like
00:26:20
Speaker
i do know that it does take time to change a bit of like people's can like conception about something i guess the pub has been fantastic and also really hard in that aspect as well because it is a pub that was being built in 1840. that's had of just a facelift People want it to be a pub. yeah I mean, it looks like it's a classic old corner pub. Yeah, yeah, it is exactly what it is. And then they walk in, they're like, what are you frigging talking about? $60 steak and a $14 dollar schooner or $18 schooner for a hazy IPA. But.
00:26:54
Speaker
That does happen, but it also not as much. um And I guess. And you've kept the front bar and the the rooms inside that very much like the old pub. Yeah, yeah. Even if the rest is more, or the pub is more restaurant. And then you've got the beer going. It's got bits for you know anyone might be looking for. Yeah. well's what like's Like I said, I guess where we've been trying to cater for everyone. So that's the same reason we brought a macro lager kind of warm ferment lager in just to keep those guys happy who just want to drink to his new or VB or whatever. And it makes a guy's job in the bar easier too.
00:27:27
Speaker
Just like... Their money's worth the same as anyone else's money. Yeah, know. If it's green, it's green. Like, yeah, I couldn't agree more. And and I'm not like... I'm not precious. Like, good beers, good beer. As long as it's a macro lager with no faults, like, who cares?
00:27:40
Speaker
Yeah. um I'll take a four-pack of it home and and all my mates love it. who So it's just... They're like, oh, yeah, awesome. Finally, we can see go drink like yeah we can take a four-pack of it. It's like, all right, sweet. So it is fine and it has its place. So...
00:27:53
Speaker
Yeah. Um, we'll do more of it, I guess. And we'll keep poking the big guys like as much as we can. Like why not? Yeah. And so surely once you've got with them sort of bought into into having the four pack of the, you know, the XO gold or whatever, it's not that big a step surely to nudge them on. Cause this is still, you know, as crisp and dry as you want, even if it has got tons of flavor. Yeah, exactly. And that's, like, we wanted something crisp and dry with lots of flavour, but it's the lots of flavour people get scared about. So we just take the lots of flavour out for them and slowly introduce it. Sleep the crisp and dry. Yeah, yeah, to slowly introduce it back to them. But, um like, we make a crispy boy for a craft brewery. It's our flagship beer. We make more of that.
00:28:30
Speaker
And it's a lager. You talk to any other craft brewery, it's... It's a pale ale. So, well, I guess we are unique in that way, even though we're probably more known, I guess, I don't know, you guys might know, making like hazy beer, but our biggest moving beer is a Crispy Boy lager. And was that intentional or did it sort of happen over time? because, oh no, I guess it sort of happened naturally or everything we've done is natural. Like our sales rep we just put on is our real first full-time sales rep. We've never really had anyone. It's all been organic. So,
00:29:03
Speaker
Um, from that aspect of it, it's pretty awesome because we do make like a couple of hundred thousand leads a beer a year and we haven't really tried to sell it. It sort of sells itself. So, um, having to put someone on is, don't know, it's good thing. I think we'll just take the pressure off my wife and and me so we can focus on other elements of the business. but Yeah, I would love to back and talk a bit more about the beer before we get to that, though. ah i was willing to ask someone who's won, you know, awards, I guess, for your beer and your food. What is your perfect beer and food pairing?
00:29:35
Speaker
Oh, it would be crispy boy at 1000 Fathoms down the ocean eating some roast chicken from last night. Fish and Petuna. Yeah, yeah, Nice. Awesome. That's a true surfer, Anz. All right. Let's take a break.
00:29:54
Speaker
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00:30:12
Speaker
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00:30:22
Speaker
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00:30:37
Speaker
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00:30:46
Speaker
Welcome back, Damo. Let's talk about the beers. As you referenced before, we we probably know you for hazy beers and the hot lead beers. Where'd that sort of love and where'd that all come from?
Mastering Hazy IPAs
00:30:57
Speaker
Because I think a lot of listeners will know you for mostly for hazy RPAs.
00:31:00
Speaker
um I guess the love of it. i sort of i think it was just more trying to be relevant a lot of it um there's more i guess we want i want to like i have this weird thing if i start something i i have to get i have to master it otherwise I have to quit. Is that the control freak thing again? I don't know if it's ADHD or what, but it's.
00:31:24
Speaker
It's perfectionism I think it is. Yeah, I don't know. I start and i um I can't quit on it until I've fully nailed it. So we tried it early days, like everyone, I guess, try to make hazy ah IPA that sucked. And then we just want to get better at it And there was guys doing fantastic stuff and um we just sort of tried their beers and I just had to, being a craft brewer, we just had something we had to be good at. We just.
00:31:46
Speaker
They have to be good at making good lagers, good pails and to be relevant, you have to make great hazy IPAs. So what what were the first beers you put out under the Dangerous Sales banner? Oh, originally was COVID beers, I guess. Um, we just did a lager.
00:31:59
Speaker
We did like a New Zealand foggy and we called it an IPA, but I think it was like five and a half percent. Um, just so green, I guess, but the beer was good. Just, just like should have been double ABB.
00:32:13
Speaker
Probably about 10 times the amount of hops, but I guess it was just like like a lot of learning as we went. Um, and I, I guess I'll say thanks to everyone who's stuck with us from then. We have gotten better at it. Um, I promise.
00:32:26
Speaker
And if you haven't had our beers since then try them now, there I reckon they're pretty good. But, um, so you, did you have a kind of like a vision of what you thought the Dangerous Sales beer should be or, or were you that early in your actual brewing sort of life that you were still working out what you wanted to make? Yeah. Early days.
00:32:42
Speaker
I guess like a lot of people who didn't really know or come from beer background, you just wanted to make what you thought people would like to drink. Like, oh, let's just make a pale ale. Let's just make a lager.
00:32:54
Speaker
Um, we'll make a stout. And you just thought like just the most generic things you could imagine. And once you get into it, you're like, we've been making this pale ale that I'm not, I don't even not super, I don't love it. I don't want to drink it. I don't reach for it. I'm like, well, why don't we just make beers that we want to drink? it So that's where.
00:33:11
Speaker
We started putting heaps of Nelson Savon in putting 10 times the amount of hops in our pale ale. And like even our backyard pale ale is a hazy pale, like it's a hazy pale with a lot more hops. It probably even a lot of people in the industry would be uncomfortable using in a pale ale. But it's sort of, we just make beer for, for flavour, for what what, same as our food, same as anything we do. It's like, um, Sounds super lame, but it's like, try to deal it with like conviction, I guess. And yeah I don't know how to say that without being cheesy. but but But it's words, I guess, because you found, you have found an audience and an audience that want to get hold of your beers all over the country as well. And it's not like there's been a big marketing budget or anything like that. Word has just got out, I guess. Yeah, we spent this much on marketing. um
00:33:57
Speaker
Yeah, we spent zero on marketing, but we're trying to be a little bit more professional this year and we've, um, writing stuff down and putting on sales reps and um trying to be that medium sized brewery, I guess, without trying to be that medium sized brewery. yeah Yeah. Um, you did find an audience, you know, it was a particular release or a couple of beers that went out that got a bit of buzz around them. What do think we're just got out so that, Hey, i mean, I, I love, we'll talk about the branding at some point. box I love the the look and feel of the the brand as well. But do you think we're just got out, but you know, word of mouth, how you got to try this beer or this beer and and and you had enough hits or. i
00:34:36
Speaker
I guess I'd have to take everyone else's word for it because we're just like living on a bit of a bubble on the coast. Um, we just try to make the best beer that I can make. Um, we try, we always try to make better beer each time we make beer. Um, if it's swapping hops or yeast or suppliers, or we're always trying new things.
00:34:54
Speaker
Like I know there's core range, but there's always small tweaks to make new beer. Our beer. Try to make it better um with the guests going back to, I guess it's all been organic. So it's sort of hard, I guess the momentum must be people enjoying what they're drinking and and we've slowly gotten better. And I think as the markets developed with hazy IPAs and and people coming more comfortable with drinking hazy beer um and more full flavoured beers in that aspect, I think.
00:35:23
Speaker
we've gotten better as the market's sort of gotten better at understanding them too. yeah So we've kind of sort of timing has been pretty good for us knowing that like the market is maturing and we've matured with it. I guess early days of craft, people just thought bitter was great, hoppy was great and they didn't really understand the nuance from what I understand. Like I wasn't in it, but I know drinking beer, that's kind of, i was just like, oh, that's really just too bitter. That's hoppy. And it seems like That's what craft's gone through in the last 20 years and we've jumped in, in the middle of it and, and sort of grown with it as it's grown. It feels like a lot of people are saying a lot of negative things about craft at the moment, but we don't, we haven't had a lot of negative feedback. We like saying that it's dead or people don't want to drink hazy IPA. We find the opposite. yeah So.
00:36:14
Speaker
Um, every market is different. We do sell beer to, in Queensland and they do want crispy belly. They, but we do sell a lot of Hazy IPA up there as well. We do talk to people who say that Hazy IPA is dead in Queensland. it was like, not for us. no I don't know. And I'm not, I hope I'm not sound like pissing our own pockets, but I just, I don't know. just,
00:36:37
Speaker
It's the right beer for the right venue. I think it's not people are sort
Craft Beer Market Trends
00:36:41
Speaker
of trying to paint. Like, I guess what I'm trying to say is people trying to paint craft is as a whole, or beer as a whole is dead, but I think like if you, like any business, if you have, if you try to passionate about what you do and you are doing things with intention, what I talked about before, you will find those pockets where you can get wind in your sails and you can get some momentum. Yeah. um I don't think, sorry, like as a part of that, you know, you love New Zealand hops and like there's a consumer out there who knows the different New Zealand hop varieties now and will kind of seek those out to a degree and like gravitate towards you because they know that's what they love.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's what it is too. I think that's the part of the maturing market, I think. Like it's not just, oh, that's hoppy. That's great. It's just like, oh, that's hops from this part of the world.
00:37:29
Speaker
That's Australian hops. That's more bitter or they're kiwi hops. You can go harder and you don't get any bitterness. Like it's, we love them because you can go, so we love kiwi hops. You can go so hard and you don't get any of that, that hop bite. Um,
00:37:44
Speaker
You can put more in, get more flavor. So it's just like, why not? I don't know. Like, that's why we love them. We use a lot of them. well We love the guys out of Freestyle. we We use a lot of those hops.
00:37:56
Speaker
But we also use a lot of hops that they may, if they run out, well there's other guys doing great stuff there too. It's not just, just them. um Yeah, I think we like them mainly because you can go hard. You can go hard. Yeah, it's good. in terms of improving the beer and that kind of thing, like the hazies, where you just, this is just pure trial and error. We calling people up who says you loved where you're on online forums, dead at a night looking. Stay away from online forums. That's a trap. um There's a lot of like internet heroes, I guess. I wouldn't, for anyone who's out there who's trying to find out how to make great beer, it's not, it's not on the internet. Like there is, there is help, there is tricks and tips. Yeah. um But it's just time on the tools. You want to get good at anything, you could do a thousand hours, as they say, it's just batch after batch. And it's the same as our lager or whatever we make, it's small changes.
00:38:50
Speaker
Um, sometimes you can get stitched up and all of a sudden you're using in pale malt that's from a different part of the country and and you might get one that drops clear on you and And you're back to square one and you're working backwards and trying to figure out what went wrong. yeah But that's just a process, I guess. And that's part of it, working with ingredients. is Steak's the same, meats in the kitchen's the same, seafood over summer sucks. You can't get it.
00:39:12
Speaker
Or like a lot of the crew take January off, December, like Christmas to end of January off. And like, that's our busiest time. And we're like super proud of like dry aging fish and hanging fish for three weeks before we serve it.
00:39:25
Speaker
We can't get good seafood. So, um, It's just, you gotta be, you gotta know your products. You gotta know what you're doing. You gotta really, if you want to spend time on the internet, do research about that, figure out you like your COAs, like figure out, like, go to, yeah, I dunno, do research on that side of it and then get that information and then make lots of beer or cook a lot of steaks. Slow cook a lot of meat. I dunno, like that's, it's the only way or go work for someone who are you great. But if you said there's someone I'd mentioned or talked to about beer, I guess.
00:39:58
Speaker
Being so isolated, i guess we don't like, we didn't have a lot of people to call on um and being a new brewery, I knew Pat from Mountain Culture pretty well. He's like a like family. It's like my my wife's cousin's husband. So I went to his wedding, and I drank his home brew. He came to my wedding, he drank my home brew. It's probably both pretty terrible now that we don't think back at it, but that was both before we worked at breweries. yeah um I'll ask Pat, I'll ask Pat anything and he'll tell me, I can call the head brewer at at Mountain Culture and they'll, they'll tell us what they're doing. And I'm the same. ah Well, we're all kind of doing the same things.
00:40:34
Speaker
Um, time and temperatures might change little bit here and there, but like we share hops, I sent them 20 kilos of cryo the other day. It's just, it's just, yeah. Yeah. The industry is pretty good with that, but it is also pretty clicky as well. You kind of got to know someone.
00:40:54
Speaker
There is people who try to shield stuff, but I don't know. I wouldn't ever. If someone asked me a question, I'll... was to say, people should be beating down your door, giving you back-to-back trophies for your juicy, hazy IPAs as well. So clearly, you know what you're doing. So...
00:41:12
Speaker
so Whether it was trial error or just love of Kiwi hops whatever it's been like, you've obviously found something that works. Yeah. Yeah. We found our niche. I think, I think everyone has to find their little lane they sit in. um and it's important for sure.
00:41:29
Speaker
um i don't know if I'm trying to give a advice or tell our story, but, uh, I guess, so yeah, find what you like. That's, I guess what I'll draw back on is like, we, I've always just done what I've liked.
00:41:40
Speaker
Um, I don't like. I don't like heavy bitter beers. I don't like overcooked steak, whatever. So just figure out what you like and you'll find that the crew that likes it too and they'll support you, I guess. so but I guess within within that you seem to really enjoy a playing with fight some of the advanced hot products with terpenes, with, you know, thyl boosting stuff. is that's you know What appeals to you about that, you know, and and has that has that sort of really helped you take the beers and it to ah either another level or into different places?
Advanced Hop Products
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah, both, I think, um, working with like terpenes, um, working with like, uh, yeah, like stuff that can boost like thiol expression. Um, looking at, looking at what has high thiol, like bounded thiols and like unbounded thiols, um, working in fractions of oil. Um,
00:42:31
Speaker
Working with advanced products has definitely given our like hoppy beers longer shelf life. So we found using like, um, some of the Econ Nido and what's the other one the Yakima Chief do, um,
00:42:47
Speaker
I get lost with all the names. Yeah. So many of them. Yeah. They're the same kind of products. They're like, it's like resin essentially. And using that in different parts of the brewing technique, in brewing as different techniques.
00:43:00
Speaker
So it's pretty much, it doesn't make the beer hoppier, but it actually gives a longer shelf life for hop stability we've found. So if you do start sending your beer further further afield and you are making 2000 litres or 4000 litre batches of a hazy IPA or bigger, you want them to be great at three to four months when they're still on the shelf in WA or whatever, you kind of need to start using some of them products for longevity. And and how did you sort of work on that? Because, ah you know, there was probably talked about a different episode in the past, but, you know, I guess using some of these new products
00:43:35
Speaker
there's a risk they can and taste of unnatural whatever if it's a balance with sort of genuine hops or whatever was it was a trial and error with you so i mean rocky rich did an amazing i thought a very so brave experiment last year with one of their rock juice releases they released one of the double ipas was purely using traditional pellets yeah and the other was using um all liquid hot products the same varieties and calculated to be the exact same amount ah as the pellets they put in. yeah And the pellet one was lovely. The other one is almost untreated. It was so fake and but like yeah I almost caught it. It was just like and it was you know I was like, good on you for but having the like the guts to actually put the two out side by side. So it just shows you like you know if you get them wrong, you know were you given advice on that? did you do some trial batches and go, we've got to up on this?
00:44:22
Speaker
Well, whenever we change anything, we always, we always just like finger fingertips them out. Yeah. Just tweaking the dial. never, never elbows. So we always, if we are like trying to wind it, bring anything up, we'll start with, especially those Sky Farm, any, any extracts, we'll we'll start with one bottle. Do we like the expression?
00:44:44
Speaker
Let's do four bottles next time. Okay. Like we always, it's like when, even when you're making something, trying to throw a handful of salt in something and expect it to be nice. I suppose it's the chef's approach. I guess, do you know, you know that it's all about state, you know, taking it. Yeah. We'll sprinkle a little bit of salt in, have a taste and see if it needs more salt. It doesn't need a little bit more vinegar. So we'll use, we'll use salt in the brewing process, like actual, like rock salt for mouthfeel in the whirlpool. Like, um, we did a saltbush and guava beer, which actually had,
00:45:15
Speaker
Sea salt, saltbush, guava puree, guava extract, and kettle sourd. And we also use different types of lactic acid and phosphoric acid to get to where we want it to be. It's like pretty convoluted way to do it. But you but you know what each of them does, you know, where you know which way each one moves the dial. Yeah, exactly. So everything's with intention.
00:45:40
Speaker
And I said it before, I think as well, it sounds super lame, but you kind of can't just... do all rocky ridges in it so would throw it all i don't know but you like just because it's It's good, but not like salt's awesome, but not in a, not in a ah handful of it. Like it's, I dunno. So I guess that's our approach, but everyone that's just the way we skin the cat. I i don't want to say it's right or that's just the way we've, we've been working on it. but Well, you're talking about some of subtle additions there, but also saltbush remind me, um you've done some beers with, uh, Chris and Gabba, Sailor's Grave. Yeah. And collaborations have been quite a big thing
Philosophy on Collaborations
00:46:14
Speaker
for you. You've done collaborations with a number of breweries, is that right? Or was it mainly just Sailor's Grave? I love Chris from saying, I love Chris and Suggab. Well, when they come from running a restaurant background as well, you know, they're fun. Yeah, we have a lot we have a lot to chat about when we sit down and do stuff. we
00:46:29
Speaker
Whenever I've been at a beer festival somewhere in Australia and they're there, we've always gone out for a really nice meal. yeah um Make sure it's at least one or two harder. Yeah, for that, I guess, code the Colab stuff, we've done a few. um It's always with with guys that we know. I've never made beer blindly just out of a business decision because I don't know them. um and i'm Maybe a little bit too introverted or old or whatever you want to call it, just to reach out to someone and be like, Hey, you want to make some beer? I just come down to Milton. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just, I'm not that dude, I guess. But, um, if I meet you somewhere and we get along and we have a chat and we both have some kind of alignment on where we see beer or food or fishing or surfing or whatever, yeah um, we can maybe hang out for a day. I think, um, I think I've always said, if you can hang out with a boat, hang out with someone on a whole day on a boat, like you can, you can go do stuff. in You can be mates. Yeah. You got to head out on the boat first though. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Spend a day with someone and like really find out who they are.
00:47:30
Speaker
Um, yeah. and and Damo, you were one of the people who I think sort of has been behind the regeneration, a little bit of bottles as well, like putting Chris Bill Boy in the bombers and the larger long
Reintroducing Long Neck Bottles
00:47:42
Speaker
necks. Like, how's that going? And and what was Oh, I guess, first of all, what was the thinking behind it?
00:47:47
Speaker
Oh, I guess and thinking behind it. Is where it's like, it's nostalgia for us, like growing up, uh, in the early 2000s, you would go surfing and you grab a toly on the way home. Like that's what we did. Um, just have one beer and it'd be a long neck of pick your choice. And we've seen a huge hole in the market for not having another option other than the the majors in, in the long neck.
00:48:14
Speaker
Um, format. So we went and bought a small, um, machine out a New Zealand. Um, secondhand gave it a a refit and people were giving them away at this point. but i I tell everyone who's starting up who's like, you've got to dust it down and oil it first mate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I bet there's a few brewers I know who's run small breweries. Um, and they're like, oh I want to get like, we need to can out beer. I'm like, don't.
00:48:36
Speaker
Buy a bottling machine. They're like five grand. Absolutely nothing. And it gets you, you can make fantastic beer. We find our DO o in our bottles is better than our cans. Like the machinery behind it is awesome. It's the reason why probably the highest sold beer in Australia comes in a bottle.
00:48:54
Speaker
There's, it's not. It's not the devil. I love it. Um, we're going to, this year we working on different smaller formats. Um, probably having a range of crispy boy in three 30 mil glass bottles, um, tall boys and just our stock standard three 55 cans. But, um, yeah, we love it It's, it's, it's just sort of, I guess with all, everything we do, even with our marketing, it's always based on sort of like some pop culture stuff for everything we've done. So it's just like, why not?
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And then talking about that we touched upon it earlier as well, like the the look and feel of the brand yeah from the logo through crispy boy through pretty much every label I've ever seen with the little characters on them or whatever. There's always often this attention, de the closer the look you look, the more you find in there. So what's the story behind that? Is it an old friend yours something or so someone local to here as well? is that right?
00:49:46
Speaker
Yeah, there's, um, two people do our art and read who, um, known for doing like tattoos in the, going to say crispy boy looks like could get a tattoo straight away. I do have a tattoo crispy boy. Um, funny. Yeah, we went and did, we did darker days, I think two years ago because Em does our art and I, they wanted to, they asked her to come down and she was doing pop up tattoos. think she gave, think she might've tattooed like a hundred crispy boys on people at dark days, something ridiculous. Um, but like the, yeah, I guess like, so M does work for us. Um, another guy who does it part time, he has a full-time job at ocean and earth. His name's Jay Taplin. Um, he does our design stuff and he's also been working on design and actually doing drawing for us as well. So we're kind of really lucky that we've got two locals that are fantastic what they do.
00:50:37
Speaker
It is a side hustle for them, but I guess that's what the craft beer industry is for a lot of people. Yeah. And well what was the brief behind it Because it is very distinctive. Like, you know, right from the start, um I remember my the first time I saw your stuff, I'm like, I've not really seen anything in the beer industry. Maybe like Sailor's Grave, like they have that...
00:50:53
Speaker
Very distinctive look as well, you know, and their story is fantastic how they found this children's illustrator in Cornwall, brought him over, et cetera, cetera. But like yours is, what was the sort of, did you give very clear direction or did it sort of all just happen organically again, like everything else with you guys? ah It's directional. Like I have to, I do i give briefs. um There might be like 10 or so iterations to get where we land with most of our art. um So, we're just sort lucky that we got super talented people we work with. Yeah.
00:51:23
Speaker
Yeah, super stoked on that. So it's pretty, I'm pretty brief. I work pretty ad hoc on most stuff. I just send them a text and say, I've got these four beers coming up next month, give them a date and give them a quick brief. And they start sending me stuff back and a little bit more like this, little bit more like that. And they're like, cool. And then we get there in the end. Yeah.
00:51:40
Speaker
Yeah. It's with the amount of releases we do, can get little bit tricky sometimes, but it's You just need to take the approach that some others that put loads of beers out just get a different pattern. It's probably just some sort of, you know, computer generation project rather than an original piece of art. have seen a lot of that. It's not who you are. Yeah, we won't dwell on that, but no, it's, yeah, not for us. But like I said, yeah, that's what we're just doing our own thing, I guess. Yeah.
Balancing Brewing and Personal Life
00:52:09
Speaker
From beer to food and. Yeah. And now that you're making 200,000 leaps of beer yourself, you know, with your own hands and helping in the kitchen and you've got four boys under seven, is it still time to, you know, get out and catch some waves? Yeah, still little bit of surfing. A little bit of surfing.
00:52:24
Speaker
i Sounds like a bit of fishing as well. Yeah, yeah. Fully fell in love with um tuna fishing last year. Built an old boat. Built an old boat. Well, got an old boat and getting someone, yeah, got old i bought an old boat and getting someone to rebuild it for me. But yeah, no, love...
00:52:39
Speaker
I was going to say there's enough skills in there without being a boat builder. going to do that. No, I'm not that crazy. Build a house instead of a boat, let me say. um Yeah, no, I just, I love the ocean, I guess, yeah is the outcome. um Love being in it. You sort of, I do a lot of spearfishing as well. You sort of drop to the bottom or you pull into ah a wave and any other issues you had going on in life, it's completely disappeared. You're in the moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the only thing.
00:53:05
Speaker
When you're holding your breath for a minute on the, sitting on the bottom or like pulling big barrels, you're not thinking about, what did I dry hop that beer or what was mash in temp or what. Am I going to have to dump that tank? Yeah. Was a pH of that mash in did I, yeah. Or did those boys overcook that steak or yeah. So it's really good. So having, I think it's really important for anyone that has a busy lifestyle is, is something. The escape. Yeah, the escape.
00:53:31
Speaker
It's also like meditation, I guess. Like you can clear your mind. That's what I tell my wife anyway. I'm clear my mind. So yeah. And I mean, you know, what's, what's sort of next? You said before that, uh, having a bit of a marketing focus or, or I guess being more intentional was a bit of ah on the agenda for 2026. Is there anything else?
00:53:50
Speaker
Um, we've got a lot of stuff in the works. Um, I guess we've already watched this space, I guess, hopefully we'll see how we go. we've got some exciting news coming up, but.
00:54:01
Speaker
Make sure you let us know. Yeah, will. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe even let us know in in advance so we can time the podcast release. Yeah. I'll let you know in a year. Okay. Yeah. We're not going to hold the podcast. Nah, nah. But yeah, no, we're working on a lot of stuff in the background. Um.
00:54:16
Speaker
Yeah, lots of exciting stuff on the horizon for us and we're super, can't wait to share it, I guess, essentially. You don't come across as someone who is going to sit still and not be looking for the next the next wave over the horizon, I guess. Yeah, no, waiting for the next set. i'm Definitely waiting for the next set. We've got, it yeah, like I said, I guess we've stuff we're working on and were looking forward to sharing it. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Awesome. No, well, thanks you so much for welcoming us to your your home. We're looking forward to heading across to the bar and, um yeah, having a couple more crispy boys. And, yeah, thanks for having us. No worries. Steaks on me.
00:54:47
Speaker
Cheers, guys.
00:54:51
Speaker
The Crafty Pint podcast is produced and edited by Matt Hoffman. You can get all your beer-related news and reviews on the Crafty Pint website, craftypint.com, and can stay up to date on future podcast episodes via our socials.
00:55:05
Speaker
We wouldn't be able to produce the podcast or the website, events or festivals we run without the support of the beer industry, whether that's suppliers, bars, breweries or bottle shops. If you'd like to support the show or partner with The Crafty Pine in other ways, please reach out to Craig via the details in the show notes.
00:55:21
Speaker
And if you're a beer lover who'd like to support what we do, you can join our exclusive club for beer lovers, the Crafty Cabal. Visit craftycabal.com for more. And until next time, drink good beer.