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Episode 25 - Lake Effect Brewing
128 Plays5 years ago
On this weeks episode we sit down with Clint Bautz, owner of Lake Effect Brewing on the Northwest Side of Chicago. We discuss their beers past, present and future.
http://www.lakeeffectbrewing.com/
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:03
Speaker
you're listening to the malting hour with Brandon and Tony. You can find the podcast on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook by searching the malting hour and coming soon, the malting hour.com. Now onto the show.
00:00:36
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of the Melting Hour. i am Tony Kulik. And I'm Brandon Winninger. And we are joined here today with... Clint. ah Lake Effect Clint. Yeah, Lake if like lake Effect
Lake Effect Brewing's Unique Location and Transformation
00:00:48
Speaker
Clint. And we're sitting here at Lake Effect Brewing here on the northwest side of Chicago.
00:00:53
Speaker
Clint, thanks for having us stop by and talk to you. for being on the podcast. yes Thanks for finally interviewing me. After interviewing everyone else.
00:01:04
Speaker
we we know We saved the best for last. Yeah. and actually there's there's a lot there is a list of like we made a list the beginning of the end of last year like what are we gonna who we're gonna talk to we're gonna try and and and meet up with and hey man clinton was top of the list for this year you're on march you were there you're the first place we've come to this year there's a huge list of other people that we just never got around to was like yeah whatever yeah because it ends up like most of the podcast just ended up me and tony just wanting to end up talking to each other Saturday morning, all right, let's do something, talk about something and, know, that's how it works out. But sure sure this is awesome. So we're actually sitting in with this. This is the barrel warehouse. Yeah, the bos are barrel. our barrel room. Yeah.
00:01:43
Speaker
yep And then, you know, comparatively. I'll take a picture. Yeah, Tony's going to take a picture. We'll post that. and like We'll post the episode. But so comparatively to other places, it's you may think it's, oh, that's not impressive. But for where they're at, this is awesome. And it's such a cool spot just because it's, you know,
00:02:00
Speaker
it's in a place that you would never expect.
Motivations and Independent Brewing Philosophy
00:02:02
Speaker
It's right behind a costume shop and it's part of that building. And what i remember when you first moved in in here, there was like all the garbage that was in all of these rooms. And oh yeah like meuse yeah, your dream was like, going I'm going put a barrel warehouse in there. I'm like, yeah, someday.
00:02:19
Speaker
and then like And this is completely different than what it was then. right you know There's not like mannequins and all this other stuff just sitting in here anymore. it's like It's awesome. It's pretty cool. it's It's kind of like a pristine space in a way. We like to think of it a sanctuary in a way.
00:02:37
Speaker
I remember coming here for one of the first VIP events that i was a part I got to be a part of. And It was there was like a lot of cans in here i think at that point or maybe not that but no maybe it there was just like storage and there was like a table and it was just we all kind of hung out here and the the keezer that you had was over here and it was just a very Small gathering and I was like, yeah, this is so cool that a a brewery is doing this and like it's here in my neighborhood And I got super excited about it. so yeah
00:03:09
Speaker
So going back to like talking about that, like that you know all like the beginning, like how i mean lake front you know Lake Effect is a brewery. It sounded like you were about to say Lakefront. I just want to point out that when people hear that. Yeah, there is a difference.
00:03:25
Speaker
Lake Effect and Lakefront. Lakefront is New York. Lakes is in Cleveland. is with loss which they have a lake effect i lakes is in do they be yeah Yeah. a Great Lakes is in Cincinnati or Cleveland? Cleveland. Yeah, because it's on the water. One of the seas. And then Lake Effect is in Jefferson Park, Chicago.
00:03:44
Speaker
Right off the 94. Portage Park. as' gonna tell for that whole The whole boundary is Jefferson Park. I get the idea of a brewery and everything, but how did you end up here? like What drew drew you to this place originally and why yeah was this your start?
00:04:01
Speaker
Well, I mean, I've always wanted to have like a small brewery, take it one step beyond what I was doing at home, homebrewing. And I've always wanted, you know, i wanted to own it myself and it was more of a,
00:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, more more of a kind of a lifestyle, I guess, trying to just make beer for the neighborhood. And so we found this place, very cheap rent.
00:04:34
Speaker
We actually looked at a lot of places. We had realtors helping us. They kept showing us restaurant spaces. They were trying to make it like a lot bigger than it was. I said, no, you don't understand. Like, I just need like 1,500 square feet.
00:04:49
Speaker
Get some tanks in here. do a couple barrel system. And we're going just try it out for a while. We're not like... You know, diving in deep in this, you know, you weren't looking to like do the full brew pub and go yeah calls to the wall and be like, let's hope this succeeds. And yeah, yeah, we and I funded it myself with our savings. We had some friends and family help out.
00:05:16
Speaker
But that was the idea is to just be as independent as possible and do it for, to make world-class beer for, you know, fairly low cost.
Distribution Strategy and Relationship Building
00:05:27
Speaker
You know, there's some breweries out there.
00:05:29
Speaker
I won't name names, but they talk about how they're not like home brewers, that they're professionals and they've spent millions of dollars and whatever. And that, you know, we make beer that's, that's just as good as, as what they make. So, I mean, it's, it's, um,
00:05:46
Speaker
That's all I wanted. Just something very simple, very bare bones. I think that's what I've got here. Yes, I would like to spruce it up a little bit and and have ah a brew pub or ah like ah a tap room soon. But yeah, we've definitely done a good job of ah phase one, which is the brewery. But we're small and we grow as as we sell beer, we make a little bit of money. We put it back into the company. And so we haven't borrowed a lot. We haven't brought on huge investors.
00:06:24
Speaker
It's one reason why we've, we've stayed small essentially. And so I've tried to keep the independence, uh, as best I can with that. But, uh, That's why we've never really grown that big. It's funny because I can actually attest to that. I was just looking at pictures because two years ago around this time is when I was actually working for you. right And I got a chance to see distribution when I was driving around the van and and making deliveries to the the suburbs. And then...
00:06:54
Speaker
the bars that i didn't know didn't realize or even think like oh fuck lake lake effects on tap over here that's cool like uh yeah crap what i'm trying to think of it what is it lincoln station yeah lincoln station like i i was in that area a whole lot i love that bar that bar is super cool and to know that that's like you know uh a place that was able to go and deliver those steps were terrifying by the way oh my god But everybody was so nice about me being terrified. It was great.
00:07:23
Speaker
But, yeah, you mean, you guys have – for the size of the operation here and you staying as independent as you are, the – how far you've gotten your beer out is is pretty impressive. I mean, like we're talking suburbs that – you know, that's a good hour hour drive to some of the suburbs here in Chicago. You know, I mean, that's – Well, I mean, since you've been gone... knew you were going to sing Don't sing it. You left on very good terms. Oh, yes, yes. I moved on, unfortunately.
00:07:55
Speaker
and would have loved to stay, Clint. But, yeah, I mean, we've we have shrunk the geography and have focused on certain things. Obviously, any relationships that we made early on that are continuous...
00:08:10
Speaker
We continue to nurture those. And so, like a place like Lincoln Station, we've been doing business with them for many years, and we just keep them we get them supplied and and happy. and You have a beer on tap, right? Yeah, so that's kind of like one ah one of the main lessons of distribution.
00:08:30
Speaker
It's once you have a regular account, do everything you can to keep them. yeah Don't run out of beer on them. sure and And communicate very well with them. So like the customers we have, there's not many of them, but they're mostly long-term customers that we've gained trust and we have a nice working relationship. And so we've...
00:08:52
Speaker
We've decided you know keep those and um we don't really go after a lot of new accounts. Now what happens sometimes is one of these longstanding relationships. Someone will leave the company or a place will close down and then that will open up.
00:09:10
Speaker
some allocation to go somewhere else. And then we kind of scramble for a while, you know, fill in that gap, fill in the gap, you know, and it's kind of like dating, you know, you know, you on a lot of dates and you don't get a second date, you know, and, uh, and then, then you find that nice relationship and then you, it's, it's, it's mutual. and that's, yeah, it's actually a lot. That's kind of how it is. Like it's,
00:09:37
Speaker
it's you'll you'll try it like I just got that that text where someone wants me to come and like sample beer. you know well It's funny because we're we're friends we're friends on Facebook, and it's funny to see some of the things that like you you post Facebook.
00:09:53
Speaker
Facebook. I just like of how things really are like behind the scenes of, you know. It's little personal sometimes. No, for sure. But when you said dating, that's exactly what I equated it to. Just I was like, that makes sense. Yeah. I get the run around. Hey, sir, what's Do you want No, no, that's not. Okay. Well, I guess we're not going on a date at all. You're just leading me on. Yeah, exactly. Why did you even return? You're working for the free drinks, basically. Yeah. You know.
00:10:18
Speaker
Don't tell me to come next Wednesday when you're not going to show up. Like, yeah. But it happens a lot. But yeah, and that's something that anyone who's who is thinking of starting a brewery or has a young brewery is the the realization of developing the relationships and and distribution is like That's like as important as, um, as what you're brewing in a lot of respects. Yeah. I think that makes a lot of sense.
00:10:48
Speaker
Yeah. It's, it was definitely a wake up call, uh, how to service the account, how to, um, uh, invest your time and, um, you know, support your brand with their, brand you know, it really is a team, team effort. So, uh, yeah, that was, um, you know, i think a lot of homebrewers say, well, going to make these awesome beers and we'll get all these accounts and everybody love our beer, but it's, it's so much more complicated than that. And, um, it's all about relationships and maintaining
Challenges of Starting a Brewery
00:11:22
Speaker
relationships. Yeah. And that's why I think it's smarter to go the route of,
00:11:26
Speaker
yeah starting the small operation because I've seen breweries, you know, there's been places that have gone and been like, we're going full brew pub doing this and this is what we're going to do. We're going put all our beer out there. And like, and honestly, if your beer sucks, you're going to struggle. Yeah.
00:11:42
Speaker
But if you're just a small operation and like you know you've gone through a lot of beers and there's probably beers you don't brew anymore but it's it's a trial and error but you're small enough to where you can kind of get by with those mistakes learn from those mistakes and then know what doesn't work perfect on that and then like succeed but like if you're a brew pub like the base of your operation is really going to be your beer and like you can scale everything else with food, but like if your gear sucks, people aren't going to come. Yeah.
00:12:14
Speaker
So like being this small and and kind of the way you've done it, and we'll talk about like your, the, you know, kind of the future plans that I know you you know, have, but like having this operation where you're building an empire. Yeah. Yeah. like building you know Watch out, AB and Bev. Cranking out these beers that are just, you know and you know, you said world-class beers, but some of them aren't. Like, you have delicious beers that you know people enjoy, and you got there from going through some beers that didn't work as well. So you've scaled those back, tweaked recipes, changed names, done whatever, and then like you got to a place where you're successful in your accounts. Yeah.
00:12:54
Speaker
Call back for those beers. So I think that's like the excuse me, the perfect way to kind of do this. Like, yeah, I agree. Like to just, to start in a situation like this and then be able to grow, I feel like is, um, and this isn't an insulting way. Yeah. I feel like it's a safer way to make sure, like, hey, is this something that
Custom Projects and Collaborations
00:13:14
Speaker
I'm really doing? Because, like you were saying, you or both of you were saying, like you know people have asked me um and Mike, my stupid Mike, who's only on the show once, my brother-in-law, you're like, oh, why don't you orange guys open a brewery? like It's not that easy. It's just because you know how to you know brew a beer doesn't mean, like, oh, well, I'm i'm just gonna open a brewery, which...
00:13:34
Speaker
You know, that that bubble kind of has happened and, you know, some have succeeded and some have not. So I feel like it's safer to do it kind of like this and safer in a positive way, not safer like, man, Clint, grow a pair and just, you know, do something bigger.
00:13:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think it makes sense. We're constantly... in the middle of doing what we do well or doing something much bigger. And when you guys do and you do a lot of ah collaborations and and and not ah Not even like, well, obviously, Stephanie, Fanny, that's one thing, collaboration. But yeah i heard you mention you're doing something for the the bar in Rosemont, the Caddyshack. Yeah, we make like their house beer. I didn't know that until tonight. Yeah, we've been doing yeah yeah we've been doing a lot of stuff like that. Sorry, I'm lame.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, we we set up a lot of projects. and Pump the brakes, Brandon. There you go, yeah. That's a nice port. Get the pulpoor. But, yeah, we do a lot of custom projects.
00:14:42
Speaker
We got into that business maybe about four years ago with the Arboretum. and Which is one of my favorites. Yeah, we enjoyed doing that. The Arbor Oak is really, really good. Because the the the shelves are at,
00:14:57
Speaker
at the liquor stores are crazy right now. And for the first three years of our existence, we existed solely on the shelves.
00:15:09
Speaker
And so going into more of the custom route, we've been able to have more predictable ordering, predictable deliveries. and And we're pretty good at it. i mean, like we've, we've branded well, we've,
00:15:27
Speaker
We've streamlined our agreements. it's It's a nice way to do things. so Yes, do do we give up a little bit of branding? Sure, yeah, but our name is on every can.
00:15:40
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, something like that for the Arboretum. In a way, people are kind like, oh, yeah, okay. And a lot of people have come in because of our... our collaborations, the Arboretum or Superdog or... Yeah, and those are two... Botanic Garden. I would think, i feel like those are the two, not to take away from the other ones, because was going to mention the Omega Yeast as well that you guys did, which is awesome.
00:16:02
Speaker
But I feel like Superdog, which if you're not from Chicago... and you're listening to this because apparently we do have listeners who are not from Chicago. super Super Dog is one of the coolest hot dog stands. then There's two two spots. Drive-in hot dog places in Chicago.
00:16:21
Speaker
Look it up. It's iconic in the city. and Actually, i I don't work far from the Wheeling location. Oh, nice. But that's a good question, though So how did that collaboration come to be?
00:16:32
Speaker
Well, it's... We had a friend who liked our beer a lot and he happened to be the grandson-in-law of the family and so His name's Ben. i was going to is it Ben? Yeah, it's Ben. And Ben had pitched the idea to me one day in passing, and I didn't really think too much too much about it at the beginning. and
00:17:04
Speaker
But then I went home and thought about it. And...
00:17:11
Speaker
So, wow, that's a great idea. So the the idea was just to make ah a beer that pairs perfectly with a Chicago hot dog, mainly the Superdog, which is unique in its own way. And I i can go on and on about it.
00:17:25
Speaker
but Let's do a whole episode about the Superdog. It is. Yeah. a super dog It's a very unique hot dog in Chicago. It's not Vienna beef. It's not your typical hot dog. it's It's its own sort of creation. And they...
00:17:42
Speaker
What they do really well there is they're really good at packaging and the marketing of the product. And that that's what differentiates them from Gene and Jude's. Yeah, anybody much shit say anybody who doesn't know what Superdog is, just Google Superdog Chicago and you'll totally understand. Super D-A-W-G. Thank you, D-A-W-G. Yeah, and that's i and now like that's like part of my vocabulary is D-A-W-G. She's telling me I spell dog all the time now. Yeah, so it's... ah Interestingly, their hamburgers are really fucking good. there I've never had hamburger in front of them.
00:18:21
Speaker
I know it seems like why... like But they turned they turned the family turned me on to it. They're like, yeah, by the way, we make really good hot our hamburgers. I'm like, all right yeah There's tamales on their menu too. yeah Really? I've had that. Are they like homemade tamales or are they like the Chicago like frozen tamales? Either those would be... Because love those because those frozen ones, like i've i've I've had but um Ian. I had a conversation with friend Ian who makes like real tamales, but he and I talk about like how much we love those frozen, not the best tamales. The Chicago tamale. Yeah, the Chicago tamale. So what is it that you just poured again? Sorry. It's called Botanic Overload. It's a Wild Ale Age and Koval gin barrels.
Experimentation with Barrel Aging and Goza Series
00:19:02
Speaker
It's the second time we've used the gin barrels, but you still get a pretty intense gin. Gin experience, obviously, the juniper. So you've already had beers that barrel? Yeah, we did a Goza, and we've been doing a lot gin Gozas. Yeah.
00:19:23
Speaker
I remember trying some last year. Yeah, I would say, like, ah
00:19:29
Speaker
with the direction of brewery, I don't know what is about the Goza, but... We've done every imaginable kind of Goza. at And we love aging them in barrels on different wood types or different spirit types. is They're obviously all oak. but So we do a gin Goza.
00:19:52
Speaker
We do... you know, we're kind of like a Scotch distillery. So there' there's, I mix it all in. Like, i you know I've got the barrel club, which is like basically a wine, a wine club. Yeah.
00:20:05
Speaker
And, we're going to let you plug that entire thing. Yeah. But but that's how we, that's how we sell our barrel, you know, our barrel creations is through a subscription service. Yeah.
00:20:19
Speaker
And, because when we try and sell it to like, to, a store, or a bar, like, first of all, you know, a lot of bars just don't want to pay that much money for light style, ale, but, um, and then we'll sell it to like a store, but then we'll run out like right away because these, just and you these particular gym barrels only 30 gallons. So we're going to get like 10 cases out of them.
00:20:48
Speaker
And then it's done. And then, so. It's definitely a very unique yeah flavor. And I'm not, and this is coming from someone who like, so I've had the fresh gin beers that like me being someone who I don't really, honestly, I don't really care for gin that much. So the juniper is very strong to me, but I'm also someone who likes cilantro. So that's weird to me that I wouldn't.
00:21:11
Speaker
Not that I don't care for juniper. Weird that you like cilantro? Yeah. Well, no, no. How does that have to be? I feel like if you like cilantro, you shouldn't like juniper just because I know they're not same. You should not like juniper? No, you should. You should. I feel like if you like cilantro, you should like juniper. Sorry, that's kind of where I'm going with that. I like cilantro.
00:21:29
Speaker
I don't care for juniper. And I will say this, for a second-run barrel, yeah I like this more than the fresh. But I feel like anybody who likes gin would like both of them regardless. But as the second time using a barrel, this is delicious. This is yeah really good.
00:21:45
Speaker
Obviously, juniper is the core... botanical That's what makes gin, gin. Right. Just through the name. but And I get why people like gin. And I get why people don't like cilantro. Yeah. And if you don't have the botanical... If you don't have the juniper in it, then it's just vodka. Right.
00:22:03
Speaker
Or flavored vodka. But... This is really... i mean, i was saying this before that all the Gozas, the different versions or whatever that you've done for Gozas here that I've been trying...
00:22:16
Speaker
I really enjoy it. I remember coming to a VIP thing where we were figuring out the saline solution. of like go How we were to do that and trying all the other... That was one of the most fun VIP events I've ever been to. Oh yeah, had a table with all the ingredients and people were...
00:22:35
Speaker
10, 15 of us? Yeah, yeah. It wasn't a very big ah group, but it was enough of us to sit there and try, like, how much of the saline solution we want to add for, like, the salt in there, and then adding different flavors.
00:22:46
Speaker
I remember Meyer lemon being one of the flavors. now I know. I still have not done a Meyer lemon. Well, and after you told the story, like, you know, growing, like, did your parents have a Meyer lemon tree? My parents have a tree, and...
00:23:01
Speaker
Every time I go visit them, it's always like off-season. Of course. But they're they're they're delicious. And yeah, I did find a Meyer Limoncello.
00:23:14
Speaker
I've been wanting to try. Yeah, I mean, i just... you know the part of one of the one of the key threads of this uh brewery are the ingredients and sometimes we latch on a certain ingredients or a style and we just take it to the nth degree and so like back to goza's like we're trying that goes on so many different spirit types we actually have a goza series which is like We have the Gen Goza. So you're trying the jib Wild Ale. Yeah.
00:23:47
Speaker
So this is like funky and fruity. I love this. so It's been aged forever. But the Gen Goza is like a six-month age. And it's like juniper soda. It's like, i love it because I love juniper.
00:24:01
Speaker
That I believed. Yeah. It's wonderful. but we have we have tequila. We have a tequila goza. That one I liked as Which gives us like a margarita type effect.
00:24:12
Speaker
That was super cool. We've got rum. And so the rum adds like a Caribbean effect. We're going to fruit some of those just for fun. We've got...
00:24:23
Speaker
We don't do bourbon on the goza. It's too heavy of a flavor. i can't imagine that. We do have a do have apple brandy. was there and uh, we have the Lord, we have a Lord. Yeah. So C H stilling, uh, uh, through a Lord barrel at us and said, do something with it.
00:24:45
Speaker
so oh we will I feel like that makes sense doing, but it makes it, it's yeah. series is cool. It's like all the cans look like just the stripe is different color. this is, but then we have, uh, we have port, we have Madeira wine,
00:24:59
Speaker
And we have red wine, like ah Cabernet. yeah And so we've got like the grapey kind of flavors. Madera wine one I'm really excited about. That was a really expensive barrel.
00:25:15
Speaker
That was like a $500 barrel. Holy So yeah was' not to say cow and then change it tree yeah shit because it's our show we're putting yeah, we're putting a, in it.
00:25:27
Speaker
ah four point eight percent beer in it So it's not like, yeah it's like I'm going to sell it for $15 a bottle. and throw a quite in there yeah so it's It was a very interesting project and yeah, we'll, we'll see how it plays out. But one of my dreams, i don't have a tap room, but not yet is to have, have them all on tap at the same time. And I,
00:25:51
Speaker
I think beer on the wall is actually a game for that. That would be cool. Because technically we call the champagne supergoza. Yeah. Which is the is the Cabernet. Yeah.
00:26:01
Speaker
So we just took it to expand to all these woods. Yeah, and that'd be super cool to sit down and have a flight of all the... Yeah, it'd be able to take a journey through all that. Yeah, yeah. And that's that's the cool thing about... You don't you don't see how many places that, at least that I know of, that does do that with ah the Goza.
00:26:20
Speaker
Like, you get, like, barrel-aged stouts where it's, like, you know, different variants like that. A Goza is... That's a great idea. It's all, yeah. Yeah. Every, uh, I mean, we could try the bourbon too, just for fun, but I don't think the flavor is going
Barrel Program Origins and Evolution
00:26:34
Speaker
to work out. Yeah. but we'll I mean, try it. The apple brandy worked really well. And a lot of the barrels previously had bourbon in it before, before doing the brandy or the, uh, Malort or even a rum as well. So it, sometimes it can work.
00:26:53
Speaker
Have you released one with the rum yet, though? ah thought I We haven't. We've had it. Last year, we had a barrel that we kind of forgot about.
00:27:08
Speaker
And it was a mixture of a lime... Lime Goza... and our cherry goes up and we blended them together and we put it in the rum barrel and it was phenomenal and I knew and what was funny was I was judging a phobab and I tried a fruity goza came across and I think it won a medal Because we sent along. was so good.
00:27:36
Speaker
And as I was trying it, it dawned on me that, holy shit, I have a barrel just like this. Just sitting. And we have got as soon as I leave here, going go home and try it. I can't enter it in the contest. It's too late.
00:27:52
Speaker
But I went back here and I tried it. And it was and that was phenomenal. I'm like, wow. Like someone like kind of beat us to it. But we were on the same wavelength. That's awesome. Yeah, so that's... So do you still have any goes of aging in brandy right now? Brandy? Brandy.
00:28:11
Speaker
Yeah, have the brandy one over there on that side. This is a Sherry Bot. Yeah, i was going to ask about this. we're We're looking at a giant and in front of us. there Yeah, yeah. Massive. This is a single ball. This is stateside. Jesus Christ. ball Sherry Bot. That's probably the biggest barrel, largest barrel ever seen could double up as a casket.
00:28:30
Speaker
Yeah. Small casket. It's There are barrels. If you go to Scotch distilleries, like some distilleries, they only do sherry casks.
00:28:50
Speaker
Wow. Yeah, it's just a it's a was a Pedro Jimenez. Oloroso sherry. man and mike scott with with With some kind of whiskey.
00:29:05
Speaker
in there. so I couldn't imagine trying to fill something like that. Mike's got a couple of five-gallon barrels that he needs to fill up. This is the biggest barrel we've ever done. That's so cool.
00:29:16
Speaker
but When we started the barrel program, it was these little ones. Actually, five-gallon ones. I think when we started, we had like six five-gallon. That's amazing.
00:29:28
Speaker
We did a beer with South Loop Brewing. before they were even a brewery and then they later became hot butcher. Oh, really? So we actually, we actually did a, uh, uh, a cool concept.
00:29:47
Speaker
It was, uh, we did a, a rum. It was like a rum vanilla aged, uh, barrel age, uh, like barley wine.
00:29:59
Speaker
And then with a small beer on the backside, and we call it like sailors, It was Sailor's Dawn, Sailor's Warning, Sailor's Glide. It was kind of a fun fun project. But, yeah, so we we did that was with the small barrels, and then we just gradually kind of, we did some Koval.
00:30:21
Speaker
They're 30 gallons. Yeah, it's just 15? Bigger. They're 30. Yeah, 30. The Whiskey Acres, we met them. through that's on top. There's a 25 gallon bourbon and we met them through the arboretum. So they make the arboretum. This almost looks like the barrel-eye patient. Well, I think this is 30. Ours was 15, right? Yeah, ours is smaller. Yeah, 15. Yeah, we don't have...
00:30:45
Speaker
yeah fifteen yeah we don't have those yet I have gone to Journeyman on Sunday to pick up because we do a festival with them every year in October where it's just their barrels and people put... What festival is that?
00:31:03
Speaker
They call the Isla. they're The owner of Journeyman, their daughter's Isla. Isla's the island in Scotland that has a good peat at Scotches.
00:31:16
Speaker
but you may raise You mean Islay? Yeah. Isn't that how you pronounce it? Yeah, I can tell some stories about that one. But yeah, which we have one over there. we've Last year we did Lafroig Quarterpass. Those two bills with the black are aard bag. Which is funny because now know about Lafroig. When you say that, that actually resonates with me.
00:31:40
Speaker
Before, that did not resonate with me. So i'm I'm very familiar with that because i just actually had some recently. um All right. So before we get into that, let's take a quick break. I need use the restroom.
00:31:52
Speaker
And we'll be right back. Sounds good. And we've got a lot more to talk about, so. And we're back! Welcome back to the Malting Hour. I'm still here with Tony. Yeah, it's And we have Clint from Lake Effect Brewing. And we're sitting here in Lake Effect's barrel room, which is super cool. And and before, well, during the break, we were I was briefly talking. I was going to say i wanted to mention the first beer that sold me on lake effect and it i remember buying it uh which i think is i think it's still a cardinal it might be at garfield's it's now the guy dan who uh is a good friend of mine he used to be the craft beer purchaser and then he got shifted to another store and bounced around and now he's finally in wicker park at the garfield's there oh gotta talk to him
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah. right're not there. Really. i will. I will reach out to him because that was the first place i bought Espresso Gone Stout. oh And when I tried Espresso Gone Stout, um...
00:32:56
Speaker
that beer kind of blew me away because there was there's so much coffee in that beer and you guys even put ah specific uh warning if you do not like coffee you will not like this beer or do not buy this beer uh maybe not do not buy but this is not the yeah beer for you but that is one of the best coffee beers i i've not had a coffee beer um I mean, equivalent to that. It is... If you like coffee, if you like espresso, that is a beer. and there's There's not lactose in there, right? It's just straight up stout and espresso. has lactose it. It does? Okay. Yeah, it's pretty heavy on the lactose. That's funny because... There's no lactose in there, right? No, it's a lot of lactose.
00:33:38
Speaker
It's funny because I don't i don't consider it a... so I mean, it's sweet, but it's not like... It's not like some of the pastry stouts that I've had. like I do enjoy yeah a good a good pastry stout, but that to me was like having a just a good coffee almost. Yeah, it's not a real high-gravity beer.
00:34:02
Speaker
It's meant to be drinkable, but it does... Yeah, it kind of mimics like how I like to drink my coffee, which is with milk. Yeah. And so that was...
00:34:13
Speaker
kind of like i wanted to to punch and uh with the coffee flavor not be subtle i'm subtle with a lot of ingredients but not with with that yeah that is that's an ingredient i understand very well but it's uh you guys have your own uh your own bean don't you don't you yeah yeah we uh stivers we work with stivers and uh originally that beer was made with I was trying to pair up with a local coffee shop. It was called Regulus, which, uh, um, percolator is the coffee house in the same place.
00:34:53
Speaker
But when Regulus went out of business, uh, we hooked up with, um, with the roaster that was making their coffee. Which is also the same roaster where Fanny is against their coffee. Yeah, it was really interesting. It all comes together.
Homebrewing Competitions and Custom Brewing Challenges
00:35:10
Speaker
Yeah, we have that in common, which is very interesting because not a lot of people know Stivers and so they're missing out that was really interesting yeah once I found out i hope that Fanny's is getting I was like how do you know how do you know that like I thought I was like the special one that that their coffee is is so always really good and they freshly roasted so like when we call when we say you know we're making a beer
00:35:36
Speaker
We need X amount. It's there the next day. yeah He's roasting it. He's awesome. It's like degassing. It's like still warm. That's awesome. And it's delicious. He one time, least I remember at Fanny's when they were still at Montrose, and I think I was still working there, he did a red velvet...
00:35:57
Speaker
like Like red velvet cake coffee that really you could actually taste the chocolate like in the roast of it. It reminded me of, I think it was like a Valentine's Day special they did to me when Fanny's had first been open and within the first year that they had that. And it was amazing.
00:36:15
Speaker
Yeah, they do they do a lot of really nice blends and a special roasts with the different beans. And... We've always stuck to what we originally did, which is like a medium roast Costa Rican blend.
00:36:32
Speaker
That's the kind of coffee drink at home. Why fix it if it's not broke? But we have used some of their other darker ones. and Your coffee beers are always solid. Yeah. Well, it's because we have the secret weapon, which is the the roaster. Which is funny because he can show up when I come to the homebrew competitions, I get my coffee from Fanny's. Yeah. There you go. So my i Like You a Latte is made with, I'm trying to play to my audience here. you guys are the judges.
00:37:01
Speaker
I'm going with the coffee that you guys know. I came very close this last time. You were definitely in the top five or six. I'll take that. i went I was in the top of something. That's all that matters. How many people were in it? It was six this time.
00:37:14
Speaker
no those those that No, it was really good. It was tough. They were all good. they were all That that was was a big problem. It was the second year that I did it, and it was ah and and this was the first time that I did it, there was like 12 beers or something, and it was hard for me to try. Or not 12, but there was there was a high number.
00:37:31
Speaker
The second time around when we did it, I've talked about it on the podcast, um there were six brewers total. yeah Mike, my brother-in-law, was a part of it. He also happened to do a brown ale, which thought was funny. Well, he originally, i was going to do a New England IPA kind of just to be funny because you guys don't do a New England IPA. Oh, we would have loved to have done it.
00:37:52
Speaker
But I thought... As long as it's not a pilsner. Oh, jeez. No. But you you did have, yeah, but this this this time around, this last, which is with the Jeff Bart Forward group,
00:38:07
Speaker
group um This, there wasn't a bad beer on tap that night. all so all All six of us really have good beer. And the beer that won was, how do you pronounce it? Bielzebreath. Bielzebreath.
00:38:22
Speaker
Which is the, it's a sweet stout with chipotle peppers. Yeah. That's what won. And that was very well deserving. There was, all of us home brewers all agreed, we're like, yeah, that that that was the one. It was pretty good, yeah.
00:38:33
Speaker
Yeah, that the Schwarz beer were the two. the Schwarz beer. Oh, good. Yeah, that was a, yeah we're going back and forth it was good that the people's choice of award was the same as the yeah which wasn't the same as the last time because no we screwed it up because someone someone wanted to brew a pilsner like yeah i want to brew a pilsner we're going for that one the pilsner was still good but it was really good yeah it's like well executed but we got into a lot of trouble with that beer because we'd never brewed it before
00:39:06
Speaker
The first one didn't come out so good, so we had to brew it again. Well, and that was awesome. We could have done a double IPA. We would have knocked down our sleep. Right, so now I know what I'm doing for the next one. Double IPA. We got it. No, I know. That was actually awesome of you guys because you had come out and said, look, we did this.
00:39:25
Speaker
It did not work out. was very embarrassing. But you know what? I think the... the, the, not the average, but the every, the average craft beer drinker or a beer drinker who actually likes beer and you know, they're, they're breweries who are trying get away with like, well, we spent all this money and we brewed this, uh, we're add something to this and it's not what we said it was going to be and kind of mask like the fact that it wasn't, it didn't turn out the way you want it The fact that you came out and we're like, this isn't it.
00:39:51
Speaker
We're going to, we need a little more time. Yeah. We couldn't do anything about because it was such a naked beer. The problem, the, it was It was frustrating because we conveyed that A lot of people were like, hey, thanks for doing that.
00:40:08
Speaker
But then we followed up and said, look, hey, we lost a batch of beer. Can you guys please fucking come in and buy some beer? We really need it. We just took a huge hit on a custom beer for you guys that has your name on it.
00:40:24
Speaker
And it went bad, and we don't have any sort of way of reconciling that. We could file an insurance claim maybe on it, and we'd have to pay a deductible, but it still didn't really matter. And what was crazy was no one came in that weekend.
00:40:41
Speaker
yeah It was like the most frustrating thing. So like sometimes like we run into a trap sometimes we'll make something for a group and like that's the only thing they want.
00:40:55
Speaker
It's like it's it's like kind of a trap. Yeah. And so we have to be very careful and I don't mean to get down on it but that was like that was the roughest week and our staff the staff was they were so frustrated too because they took it hard. Yeah. Because I had come back in town We tasted it of like something's off on it. And but that's they were all for us. So we we never we never dump a batch. It happens like maybe once what's a year, maybe. It's a terrible, terrible experience.
00:41:32
Speaker
I think that's the realistic thing about what it could, like, you know, we so what does it be for perfect well we started this conversation about, yeah you know, where you're at as a, as a smaller place. And like, those are the things just like any other small business that exists. Like things like that happen, take a hit. Yeah. That's a real thing. That's a real thing. It's not just like, ah, it didn't work. We dump it, move on to the next thing. That's, that's, that's money literally down the drain.
00:41:58
Speaker
Yeah. It was, uh, it was, it was, Probably one of the worst days. i actually think I lost like one of my employees because of it because he was so distraught about it.
00:42:13
Speaker
I was kind of frustrated about it, but it was nothing anybody did. that we just couldn't pinpoint what it was. It was something to do with a kind of a...
00:42:29
Speaker
medicinal flavor that popped up on it like at the very end like right at a transfer point it might have dissipated at some point but it was just it just kind of came through it just wasn't right and we're familiar with that we did with that beer that we I felt like it had something yeah it had something to with the chlorinated water or something like the cleaning or the acid solution but whatever it was it didn't pass the test and we were just like I had just come back in town from a family vacation. Well relaxed. Here we go. I was all jet lagged.
00:43:06
Speaker
trying to make a decision, all jet lagged. I'm just like, you know what?
00:43:12
Speaker
I'll make the calls. Because it was a highly publicized... yeah Even when I was on vacation, because when I left, I thought it tasted great. Sure.
00:43:23
Speaker
Something happened. I'm proud of this. Yeah. The neighborhood's to us. pilsey. The neighborhood's going love us. And then, like, I even, I was going on social media and publicizing the event a few days before. Then I come home, and it's just like, whoa, what happened?
00:43:43
Speaker
Oh, man. And, yeah, it I can't imagine. Well, the good news is that you guys went back, though, and and... We did, yeah. We finally got around to And unfortunately, because we do so many custom beers, that that one got kind of thrown in the back. And then we we eventually, about three months later...
Brewing Lagers: Challenges and Comparisons
00:44:02
Speaker
we brewed it again. And we kept a very close, like... We kept it under wraps. We didn't even let them know that we brewed it until we knew that... Until we were ready to package And we're like, oh, by the way, we have the spirit. It's very good. So, like, let's do an event now. so Which is is funny, as a home brewer, like, lagers, even now, still kind of terrify me. yeah Because ah the specific it's about patience too because it takes so long yeah to have it be done and there's ways you can do it like and I've done it with ah you know I think even when I worked here it was my first time I was doing a warm fermenting quote unquote lager was using lager yeast a dry yeast that would ferment at like 70 degrees but it's a lager yeast and so it had those fruity characteristics to it and it turned out
00:45:00
Speaker
good in my perception. I enjoyed it and I've done it since then and gotten better at it, especially with the ingredients. But there's so much more time that goes into lager
00:45:13
Speaker
which seems crazy when you think about like the most mass-produced beers in the world. I feel like it's lagers. you know And you feel like, oh, it's lagers. When you mention Budweiser, you know you have Bud Light or Budweiser, like you might not like that beer, but that beer is done perfectly to what they want with their science and everything, that every time they make it, it's exactly the same. It's not that easy that. Well, they have the ability to, because they have such a large...
00:45:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Facility that they they have the advantage of blending. so Of course. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot. If there's any variations, we're going tank by tank. Yeah.
00:45:54
Speaker
So there's going to be variations. It's like barrel by barrel. course. We have to blend barrels to kind of bri bring it back together. But when when you're that was one of the frustrating things with starting a barrel program is...
00:46:06
Speaker
every barrel is different. And so like every barrel was a batch. yeah And now we have the luxury of blending the barrels and having sort of a baseline. So on a really large scale, you know, you're going to get, you're going to be pretty close
Popularity and Packaging of Barrel-Aged Stouts
00:46:21
Speaker
every time. Now your your barrel program, let's talk about that real quick. Because your barrel program, as as you we talked about in the beginning, that like that's, or before we started recording, I think that like that's kind of become...
00:46:34
Speaker
quote unquote like your bread and butter as far as like because I remember having um one another VIP event where it was a smaller was like a cold winter night let me set this up for everybody it was a cold winter night uh and we came here and it was like the first time the first time I think I ever had a barely aged stout from you guys I think we ended up in like the little back courtyard over there I think Ken had a fire going and it was yeah that's how long ago it was yeah But I remember was like not long after had had like Bourbon County for the first time. And Mike and came here we, remember us both taking a sip and being like,
00:47:16
Speaker
I was just readily like, you know you think of Goose Island's Berkman County, you're like, oh, that's the big boys. Those are the big boys with their barrel-aged beer. coming here and trying it, and both Mike and I were like, this is just as good as Berkman County. I mean, why is this not like, you know, flying the street? And I loved it. And so I've been interested in all of your barrel-aged beers yeah since then because of just how well it stands out. And to this day, just...
00:47:45
Speaker
your plain old barrel-aged imperial stout is, I feel like, is is is up there with all the others that everybody goes crazy for. And I feel like yeah people are snoozing on it by not coming by and being like, hey, man, this is here. We saw it pretty good. i mean, it's it's's kind of cool to see people checking in on, like, the vintages now. So, like,
00:48:10
Speaker
There were some 2017 and 2018 check-ins. Your vintages, I do not, I've never had a vintage. It's never lasted. They kind of let me know, yeah, they sort of let me know how it's going. I'm like, good.
00:48:22
Speaker
That stuff terrifies me because the barrel age, like if something goes wrong on it, it's just, it's like the worst thing that could happen. This all dropped out. And they don't, they people don't drink it right away. They just, they seller Yeah.
00:48:36
Speaker
Yeah. put it somewhere. But, uh, yeah, I remember the first time we like really nailed that recipe and I was, I was next door and pulled it out of the barrel.
00:48:50
Speaker
ah and It was just like mind-blowing. I'm like, whoa, we created that? Are you serious? That's our reaction from our barrel. We pulled this and were like, this is delicious. How did we do this?
00:49:09
Speaker
ah It was just like the sticky molasses type And I had a buddy with me there, and we both tasted and he was just like... but then we had like someone walk at like for a tour, and we gave it to them, and they were like...
00:49:29
Speaker
They poured it out. Jesus. Like, how dare you? You have no idea, like, what... Give it back to That's like one year age, like, in these Buffalo Trace, like, barrels, ah and you just poured it out. but Like, i That's what I was thinking. I didn't say it to them. Like, oh, well, yeah, something... Oh, you don't... How dare you do that?
00:49:53
Speaker
And if you're listening, that's for you. Yeah. but So that was like, those are the first three people that had tried it. and so But yeah, i we we have a good process for it. And we've replicated, we changed the yeast on it this year, and our beers got stronger. so oo nice. Yeah.
00:50:16
Speaker
We have some that that finish a little bit drier, which I don't know if it's the best thing, but ah it attenuates really well. And now we're up to like the 15 and a half, 16% on the stout, which might be a little bit, we need to, we need to age it a little bit longer sure with that.
00:50:35
Speaker
But it solved one of our problems because we were never attenuating above 12 and a half percent. We always wanted to pop it. Into the 1415 so just to get a little bit more of the alcohol body Now now I'm gonna go peek around in some of the local shops that I've noticed every now and then I'll see an imperial stout barrel age from you guys on the show yeah and I need any of them look at the dates and see what I can remember age. I've we put the it. Oh nice.
00:51:10
Speaker
And so that's how you know, and obviously it's probably November of that year. But yeah, and people, you know, we were Bombers. We've got a 500 milliliter.
00:51:21
Speaker
and like those bottles more. and yeah no I like them too, yeah. just Did you start that with the Fanny's collaboration? Was that around there? Or was that just having to be around the time? I mean I like it. I just always felt the bomber was too big.
00:51:35
Speaker
i wasn't a huge fan of putting them in cans. I know Revolution was. We made a mistake on the cans where we were we forgot to do a separate UPC for the single can. That's for the four-pack.
00:51:51
Speaker
So we were selling like four-packs for like $38. Okay. thirty eight bucks which is a hard pill to swallow. yeah I mean, it's quality beer. like Oh, for sure. It's good as anything you're going to get out there. but You mentioned Revolution. Like, even some of their, you know, some of their beer. I love all their Deepwood stuff. Oh, yeah. It's fantastic. But the ones that were, like, that's $35 for four 12-ounce cans. Like, that's, I mean, I know what goes into it, but it's still, no matter what, it's still a rough pill to swallow. But $25 for four cans.
00:52:23
Speaker
twenty five bucks for four cans Now you're talking. Yeah, people are okay with, yeah, they're like a $15 bomber or $18 bomber. I mean, I see stuff like $25 for a bomber.
00:52:37
Speaker
So we did 500 milliliter for like $14 to $15. Yeah, and that works great. Some people are saying that's still too low, but we'll hold it there. And it's when you when you get a bottle like that, that's still a good bottle. I did that with the Fanny's collaboration and the...
00:52:56
Speaker
What the other one? The Loch Ness. The... Loch Effect. Yeah, Loch Effect. Those two that I got... That would should be like 370. Yeah. those were great for splitting because... Yeah, yeah. Just like any other barrel aged out, like when you and I, Brandon, when we do like some of those bigger beers, there's only been one or two bottles that you and I, when we had like a bomber that we were like, okay, this is good, it's not like over the top.
Lake Effect's Barrel Club and Subscriber Benefits
00:53:23
Speaker
But sorry, we kind of got off the... didn't get the topic, but...
00:53:26
Speaker
Tell people about what you offer for the the the barrel pride and the project that they sign up for. i mean In addition to our, we do a lot of flagship beers as well. We have our ipa our Wint Beer, Kulsch Style, others.
00:53:44
Speaker
So that's kind of what we do day to day. But on the side, which is a big side, which might be the the main event of the brewery, is is our barrel program. And so we have a lot of different barrels. I think this year we're probably about 80 90, close to 100 total barrels.
00:54:08
Speaker
And yeah, a lot of them are stouts, but we do lighter styles. We do wild ales, sours, a number different barrels.
00:54:19
Speaker
uh, it's sort of our laboratory and our experimentation. and so, uh, in order to kind of sell it as a whole, we offer a subscription.
00:54:31
Speaker
we call it the barrel club. You get a t-shirt you get to choose 20 bottles. Get cool glasses. Yeah. We'll give you a glassware. And it's just, it's kind of modeled after a wine club. We do ah an exclusive event.
00:54:48
Speaker
It's like keyword exclusive. yeah Buy into it kids. We don't know what that event's going to be, but it's going to be something. mean, we can set the podcast during it if you want. to Yeah.
00:55:02
Speaker
Yeah, but's it's a fun thing. So it's like, ah and it's based on my experience with other other alcohol producers, whether it's the winery or the distillery. so like And it seems like you're offering It's a pretty good deal. I was going to say, like there's i'm I'm someone who sucks at pulling the trigger on paying a lot of money up front, which your deal, which I'm going record, have not done, but the amount of beer, it's it's almost kind of ridiculous in a good way. Like how much you're you're offering for the amount of money that you're you're putting up for. It is a good deal. and But the reason why we offer that way is...
00:55:50
Speaker
if you buy it at the time of year that we're really pushing it what you're doing is you're funding the barrel program yeah it's like locking you're locking down a year's worth of of yeah of of beer of like barrel age beers and it's during the time of year where we're the slowest like january and february okay so if you buy it in december Then we buy all these barrels, we brew all this really expensive beer that we're not going to make any money off of for a whole year. right
00:56:21
Speaker
and you know and you guys, yeah mean you're gonna you're going to reap benefits off that because you helped us. and that's That's kind of the way it works. and it's How many beers would you say it is like a month that like you end up with that you're doing it? Does it vary per month? or It's usually like, yeah, it's 20 bottles, so it's roughly like two beers a month.
00:56:45
Speaker
Which is crazy. It's pretty good. It's like two bottles. your realm. Yeah, that's what mean. It's really the lighter styles and the darker styles. Exactly. Darker styles are always going to the end year. Of course. we this thing called the Stout Pack.
00:57:01
Speaker
A lot of people sign up for it. in December, and they think they're going to get their beers in December. It's like, no. It's like, no, the following December. You've just paid for next Christmas in and New Year's. They'll come they'll Okay, if you want the 2019, you go for it. but yeah You know, so it's it's kind of fun talking vintages, because it's it's like... a You see that in the wine and the at the distillery. cause so We're just kind of doing the same thing that they're doing. The only person I know that has a vintage right now, and actually two. So Mike, my brother-in-law, has a very old pamplemousse.
00:57:42
Speaker
from you and hopefully chilled it's he's got it he's got it in a nice cool cellared area that always stays cold yeah we keep going back to it like are we going to drink this are we going to drink it and then brandon you're the only other person i know that hasn't aged and which is the fanny's uh bottle did i tried aging it as long as i could and then i just i had to i drank it i had to drink i think that yeah i think the fanny's was is has held up pretty well we We've got to keep the vintage.
00:58:13
Speaker
We don't keep archive, which we need start doing. but That's a good idea. Well, the barrel age goes out. Yeah, and that's it.
00:58:23
Speaker
so how can I don't hold on to them. How can people sign up for the barrel age? Just to our website, lakeeffectbrewing.com, and there's it's the barrel... the Barrel Club. yeah And yeah we've got yeah, we've got a lot of members this year. and Yeah, you get a box and you make your picks and we... It's sort of like the Walgreens pharmacy models. You up. Oh, is it ready? Yeah. It's in the
Visiting Lake Effect: Location and Experience
00:58:53
Speaker
box. It's funny because every time I've come to a VIP event that I make it to, that there is always someone here who's like, oh yeah, I gotta to get my beers.
00:59:04
Speaker
Yeah. There's always someone waiting for them. like, that's kind of cool. I mean, I like coming to these events and and grabbing beer as well, but... It would be nice if I just like, so what's available for me to take home tonight that I've already paid into? That's super cool the other The other question too is for people that have not been here, where can they find you?
00:59:24
Speaker
and You've done a lot of videos and stuff describing of how people can find the location, but like, in your best words, how do people find, like, effect proving? Like, our physical location? Yeah, how do people come here and then, like, and other places. what And you have hours that you're open. Yeah, I mean, we're open Monday through Saturday, generally 10 to 5 or 10 to And,
00:59:50
Speaker
and We'll probably open Sundays during the summer again. But, yeah, I mean, we're the end of this alley between the two viaducts behind a costume shop. Yeah, it is kind of tricky to find, but there are signs on the street. The banner has helped.
01:00:12
Speaker
the banter has helped We had a sandwich board out there and that kept getting smashed. Yeah, the wind would blow it over. Yeah, they'd blow it over. We'd have to bring it in. Or a truck would run over it.
01:00:28
Speaker
So, like... But, yeah, I mean, that's that's the best thing. It's just to... When you're between the two viaducts on Montrose, between Cicero and Knox, there's the costume shop and just turn into the...
01:00:45
Speaker
little side alley and go all way to the back. and we've got We've got lights in the alley that will guide you as best as possible. So when you put in it put it into your GPS, it'll probably give you 4727 West Montrose. was going to say, I saw you look. it's like Yeah, that's the costume shop. So when you go down Montrose, whether you're coming east or west, you're going to run into...
01:01:09
Speaker
Almost it looks like it's an industrial area. Yeah. And if you're coming west, you look, if you go left, you're going to go to the parking lot. Yep. If you go right, there's an alley.
01:01:20
Speaker
Go down the alley. Take a little trip down this strange little alley. If you're walking uphill in an alley, you are heading the right way. and It is tricky. i've I've tried to explain it to people before. If you feel like your life is in danger. You're heading down the right spot. And your lights yeah and your life is not in danger. In fact, you'll find something that you'll like, hey, that's cool. If you come in here... Follow the lights. They will take you there. One thing I learned when I was working here was how personable you get with when people stop in. like Oh, yeah. like It is it is and experience of, hey, this is what we have. Would you like to try this? Would you like to try this? This is what I have. You can try. yeah it's Although you're not a tap room, someone's stopping in here and they're like, oh, I thought maybe, you know I've heard that before, I thought it was a tap room. It's like, no, but but there's it's a bottle shop and
01:02:10
Speaker
I would say nine out of ten times, you're going to leave here after sampling some things and then buying something on the way out. yeah i mean it's there's a Because you've got the growler filling. You can fill growlers here because you guys always have stuff ready to go.
01:02:23
Speaker
um So it's it's just worth the worth a trip to stop. told Yeah, that's I mean, that's how we are. like If you find us... We'll take care of you. Yeah. You found us. You found the treasure. Yeah, actually, and ah it's still to this day, after all these years, i anybody comes out of the alley, I recognize that.
01:02:43
Speaker
Especially it's your first time. had to do that, I think, twice when I was here. I tried to really sell it. Yeah, because I'm like, hey, you know what? came all way down the alley. You found us. Yeah, you found us. That's a prize. Thank you so much. It's a prize for you and a prize for them. try whatever want.
01:03:02
Speaker
But like, you take something away or whatever. yeah So yeah, I mean, that's, that's something I really appreciate. And I, hopefully in the future, i mean, we are working on the next step that will have like a so real street frontage.
01:03:20
Speaker
Ideally in this neighborhood, might be in other neighborhoods, but that's, that's just, I mean, our, our goals are pretty,
01:03:30
Speaker
are pretty modest. Like we just want to be on the street. That's all we about. It's actually have the foot traffic where we're not having to sell. Like you're walking down an alley, you might not feel uncomfortable with, but it's safe. I mean, we've had, cause we do tours and we've done us this day one and we've had a surprising number of people come visit us.
01:03:51
Speaker
And, uh, it's, it's stunning how many people, they always remember coming to see us. And, uh, It's very unique. Yeah, we've had thousands, thousands of people come down this
Closing Remarks and Community Contributions
01:04:03
Speaker
alley. Yeah.
01:04:04
Speaker
and And people, i work you know maybe you realize that too, you're kind of like, star like people like are coming in here. How do they find you? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'm like, I don't know. I did have. They found us. There was a day where I was actually working the the counter. I was in dry. i was done with my deliveries. There was no brewing happening.
01:04:22
Speaker
you had something to do people start popping up and yeah and there was people who were like oh we've never been here before and i was like how the fuck did you find this thing yeah and they did and then there was someone else who was like oh yeah i'm grab this and that and i was like okay you well you've clearly been here so welcome back yeah some people yeah they they they're like from the neighborhood and they're Yeah, they're just regular shoppers. But we also have like the bus tours, the barrel run. We've been here some VIP nights where ah yeah all of a sudden, oh my god, there's a bus tour. We need to leave.
01:04:54
Speaker
That was our anniversary. remember that. Yeah, sorry. It was the anniversary. Oh my god. It was like, oh oh, this is it. This is the end. That was great. I don't even remember. There was that one tour. I do. care That was a lot of fun.
01:05:08
Speaker
Yeah, my wife my wife is there. like I remember they're coming in, but I don't remember giving the tour. She's like, you like, you're done.
01:05:22
Speaker
ah <unk> Well, Clint, thanks a lot for letting us come by and and and and coming on to the show. We appreciate it. um What's the website? LakeEffectBrewing.com?
01:05:33
Speaker
LakeEffectBrewing.com? Go ahead and you can find them on Facebook, Instagram. Are you guys on Twitter? Yeah, we're on Twitter. clearly I clearly don't follow you on Twitter, which I need to do.
01:05:46
Speaker
and And speaking as as someone, you know, I worked here for a short amount of time. Very short, very short. yeah But I love this place beforehand, and it's nice to have you guys here.
01:05:57
Speaker
as a part of a neighborhood that I grew up in, and making, you know, great beer. I know I said that Espresso Gone Stout was my favorite, but I didn't even get a chance to touch touch on Falcon Dive, which is one of my favorite things. Yeah, there's so many more. So we're going end this with, this is goodbye for now, Clint.
01:06:17
Speaker
All right, yeah. Almost. not almost positive, I'm positive we're going to meet again because there's other things that we're going to do this year. So this is your last time on the end the show, so we're going to hold you to that, okay? All right.
01:06:28
Speaker
Thank you, sir. Thank you. Brandon, I'll see you in hell. No, I love you. Shut up, Tony.