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Episode 48 - Return to Lake Effect Brewing with Clint Bautz
118 Plays4 years ago
On this episode we're joined once again by Lake Effect Brewing owner and brewer Clint Bautz to learn how he's navigated the pandemic as well as what the future holds for his new brew pub.
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Transcript
Introduction and Humor
00:00:00
Speaker
I've been drinking two women a lot. That's my, that's my go-to. Does your wife know that while you're gone, you're drinking two women? You know, two is better than one, right? Ooh, there's the intro for the show.
Guest Introduction
00:00:19
Speaker
This week, we're joined by Clint of Lake Effect Brewing to discuss his collaborations during the pandemic and the future of his brew pub. This is episode 48 of The Molting Hour. What's the haps on the hops? Got yeast and species. This the molten hour where we talk about our drink and tell you what we think every other week. And if we get drunk, well, we might slur our speech. Got the gift of ab, the friends you wish you had. Join us for a drink. Join us for a laugh. Time is never wasted. The way you're getting wasted. The molten hour here. People, people taking places. People, people taking places.
00:00:53
Speaker
Welcome to the Moulting Hour. Here we are in March, the middle of March, and we are joined with someone who's already been on the show almost to the year or to the day a year ago. Before you get into that, I am Tony Golic, always joined with... Brandon Winninger.
00:01:11
Speaker
And sometimes when we allow it and we feel like it's necessary, which is rarely. But now we're on a roll, Clark Fetridge. Yeah, let's well kind of we're doing zoom. We're joined with Clint from
Reflecting on the Past Year
00:01:25
Speaker
Lake Effect. Clint, welcome back to the multi hour, man. We appreciate you joining us tonight. Thanks. Yeah, you're right. It's been it's been a year because we we had the pie. We did the pie episode.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, that was the last time I was inside a brewery. And the last time I was in a large crowd of people, because that was right before, Brandon, you figured it out, it was about a week before the shutdown happened, right? The shutdown place? Yeah, because everything closed down.
00:01:57
Speaker
like that following Monday is when like kind of like the orders went out that, you know, things were shutting down. And that's when you started hearing about people getting busted for having their St. Patrick's parties and all this other stuff because St. Patrick's was during the week. Yeah. I did not expect the year to go like this, but hey, you know what? This is a great way to kind of come back full circle. You know, now that things are starting to get better and, you know, not only for,
Brew Pub Development
00:02:24
Speaker
You know, civilization, but it sounds like things are getting better for lake effect with some progress going on with that firehouse you guys get going there. Yeah, let's it's We got right into that. Go approvals. We need so far. So, yeah.
00:02:42
Speaker
Yeah, for those that are unaware, actually, Clint, we've talked about it the first time you were on. Let's do a little rehash about where you're located now and the size. And then as Brandon has brought up, you've just newly acquired a space that is a bit bigger and you will actually have a taproom.
Lake Effect Operations and Philosophy
00:03:03
Speaker
But tell people what you're working with now and what you have been for so many years.
00:03:08
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we're in our 10th year of operation. And we've been located at the end of an alley behind the Chicago costume shop. And we're on a seven barrel brew system. And we do seven barrel batches of tanks.
00:03:38
Speaker
We have a fairly large barrel program for our size. So barrel aging is a big chunk of what we do. We make a lot of other different styles of beers. I like to think they're very easy drinking balance styles that are meant to, that you're meant to enjoy.
00:04:05
Speaker
several of them, if you like, and carry on the conversation. But yeah, that's been our, that's been kind of what we do. And we're also a bit of a chameleon type, where we're working with a lot of different people and learning a lot of different things and we'll be branded different things and
00:04:33
Speaker
So yeah, we just kind of bounced around collaborating with a lot of our local colleagues or small business fellows. And so we've been doing that for many
Community Engagement and Adaptation
00:04:50
Speaker
years. We're very rooted in the community. We enjoy being community focused. We enjoy being small. We don't really have a lot of ambition to
00:05:02
Speaker
be some giant brewery on every shelf. And a lot of our customers, they not only visit us a lot, but they're subscribers of our different programs. Like we deliver beer to people's houses and whether it's a six pack a week or
00:05:25
Speaker
every two weeks, or if you're part of our barrel club or growler club, we have a lot of clubs. And that's just kind of how we've been focusing our energy is to try and develop direct relationships to the customers as much as we can. And so we're really hoping, you know, we kind of model part of our brewing operation on like the wine club,
00:05:56
Speaker
model or like a winery because we do so much barrel aged beers. We find them very special. They're kind of expensive. And so we get you on a subscription of that. And we're hoping with this new law that is hopefully going for a vote in the next month or so, that's gonna allow us to do shipping as well.
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah, that would be awesome. I really hope that that comes through. Speaking on like your collaborations, that was one of the things I, you know, we've had one of your collaborators on the show a couple of times now, Stephanie of Fanny's, and we know you've done a lot of collaborations.
Pandemic Collaborations
00:06:41
Speaker
What are some of the people who obviously don't know? I mean, people who have listened to the show, they know you actually come up a lot on the show. You probably mentioned as much as we mentioned Goose Island, if that means anything.
00:06:59
Speaker
We've drank a lot of your beers on the show, just not with you. But talk about some of the collaborations that you did, because obviously, well, maybe not obviously, but it's been a struggle for small businesses and especially breweries during the pandemic to maintain operations, especially with the restrictions. And I feel like you almost had a leg up on that.
00:07:25
Speaker
as maybe at one point, you know, when you're describing the brewery that you have and the space that you have, you know, people I know come in and I'm like, oh, this is, this isn't a tap room. Like you don't have, you know, where you're at now.
00:07:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, not a tap room. It's a bottle shop, but you're, you know, have a sample. I feel like you almost had an advantage to be able to be like, well, I already didn't have a tap room, so you're not worried about that, but now what can I do to get the beer out and your collaborations seem to, you're still open. So that's, I think that's a good sign.
00:08:00
Speaker
We're an essential business, which I still don't get. I don't get that either, but I'm happy that that was an essential thing. When we learned we were essential, I was like, bingo. That's it. All right. Going back to work.
00:08:17
Speaker
So what are some of the collaborations that you've done?
Creative Collaborations
00:08:20
Speaker
You don't have to go through all of them. You've done a bunch and I know that we and friends of ours have either participated in as getting the beer and stuff. I've also helped deliver some of the stuff and we've had people that we know who've worked with you. So what are some of the ones that like give us some examples of maybe like some of the collaborations that you've done and how you came to them or maybe just like what your favorite collaborations have been?
00:08:45
Speaker
Obviously all collaborations are fun and good, you know, good for business for everybody, especially with who you're working with, but maybe some of the ones that you, you know, you enjoyed the most. Well, I mean, we started doing it just cause we were all freaking out at the time. And, um, my natural reaction was to, uh, to reach out to some of the other businesses that were having a tough time and just seeing what we could do together to try and
00:09:16
Speaker
and drum up some cells. We didn't know it was gonna last a year. We thought it might just be two weeks. We didn't know at the time. So that was just, and I reached out to Stephanie right away because we had already done this beer and pie thing. And I had a bunch of the beer leftover. And so they were going through, I mean, at least from the social media and talking with her,
00:09:43
Speaker
it was an emergency over there. So I just felt like I wanted to help out and we had the product and so that's what started it. And then we saw the success of those collaborations and we started reaching out to other businesses to see what we can do. And we're still doing it.
00:10:13
Speaker
I mean, we have a lot of things coming up. People aren't as excited about it now. We had to kind of like jab them a little bit more with the social media. But I would say, I mean, we had a really cool one that was just a couple of weeks ago where we paired a six pack with like a, with the indoor house plant. And it was a local, um,
00:10:42
Speaker
business that just opened called Sunnyside Plants. My wife tried jumping on that. I actually sent her the text. I was like, Hey, look, you love plants. I love beer. One of the plants that she wanted, she has so many plants, one of the plants she wanted to get that was already gone. So I was like, Oh, really? You don't want the other plants? Yeah, that was a cool one. I mean, I just
00:11:07
Speaker
It just, the winter, I mean, with all the snow and everything, it just seemed like people needed something like tropical in their lives. A lot of our tropical theme beers were paired with the plants and it just seemed to work out real well. We did another one with tone deaf records where we did a six pack and an album, a curated album, you know, and
00:11:35
Speaker
answer these questions about music and this guy, Tony, will put together, he'll find an album for you. Tony, not you, Tony. No, no, no, no, I know, I know that. Tony did find a great album for me, because I did take part in that. It was fun, yeah. That was awesome, I loved it. Yeah, we should, we were gonna do it again for Christmas, but it got, yeah, we just ran out of time. So that was a fun one.
00:12:06
Speaker
And that was very successful. I mean, and then we still have a lot of running ones, like with Superdog, with their gift cards. We did the bowl of chili with North Branch fried chicken, because they put our stout and their chili. And that was pretty cool. So yeah, I mean,
00:12:35
Speaker
We're gonna do one with the soap guy and- You gotta get clean, you gotta get clean. After you're drinking, the best thing to do is to hop in the shower maybe in the morning if you had a couple and the hair of the dog doesn't have to be the beer that you drink. The hair of the dog could be the soap that cleans off the stink. Oh, nothing wrong with the shower beer, so we're all set. Oh, that's true. Yeah, those are some good ones.
00:13:03
Speaker
Yeah, there are so many, I can't remember, but yeah, during May, like March to June, we did a bunch and basically anybody that we've worked with, that we've done collaborations with in the past, we kind of hit them up for new ones and just kind of went around really focusing on the restaurants and the other smaller businesses that,
Home Delivery and Business Evolution
00:13:34
Speaker
were hit hardest by a pandemic. We felt we were able, we were given new life. We were given the option or the privilege to legally deliver to people's houses. That's another thing that this law that's going out is trying to make permanent is deliveries to people's houses. So we've retuned our whole
00:14:03
Speaker
business to that. And so we're really pushing to make that legal. Cause I, you know, permit because I think that it's just a great, it's just a great way to get your products and get fresh beer. And it's good for us. Cause we know the beer is going to get home and people are going to drink it. We're not going to have to pick it up late. You know, that's, that's every brewery has to pick up a certain amount. Um,
00:14:33
Speaker
And, you know, it could be anywhere from 10 to 30% that they have to bring back. And it's good for small breweries. The large breweries, they don't, you know, they're not gonna want to deliver someone's house, you know, but someone small like me that it's just really community focused. It's just such a great way to get your, you know, to get going and to build relationships with your customers.
00:15:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's awesome. I really do hope that that's something that passes just the convenience of it too. No matter what, with vaccines and things kind of opening up, I know that I'll still be cautious. I'm still even cautious now about wanting to go out to, now that breweries are opening back up and you can go into a tap room, sit down and have a beer inside. There's plenty that I wanna go to, but I'm still like,
00:15:30
Speaker
do I really want to go and do I really want to go to a store, you know, to go and buy beer. So having that option will still be nice, you know, in the future. And even after things, you know, hopefully die down and things return to somewhat of some normalcy. Like you said, it's really cool to be able to have fresh beer delivered to your house. I mean,
00:15:51
Speaker
busy people, uh, you know, could, could, could use that and not having to stop some places. It just kind of makes sense. You have food delivered to your house when you can't make dinner. Yeah. Everybody does that. That's just the way things are done these days, whether there's a pandemic or not. If you're at home with your kids and you want to watch a movie, you know, you can just pick up the phone or just hit it, you know, hit our website and then
00:16:20
Speaker
beers will magically appear. And that's just the world we live in. And the fact that, you know, we have to take it through this, this chain of middleman to get back to the customer, it just doesn't really make a lot of sense from a functional standpoint on a small, you know, on a small footprint, you know, if you're going out of state, obviously, you need that apparatus there.
Shipping and Subscription Services
00:16:48
Speaker
But if you do just
00:16:50
Speaker
If you want to deliver something to the guy, you've got the people that live right down the street, and they say, oh, I live by your brewery all the time. And just getting it to them, it just makes a lot of sense.
00:17:06
Speaker
Like me, who lives right down the street, I mean not too far. Yeah, you're on my walk home. I was going to say, Clint has walked home several times probably and dropped beer off. But that, I mean the cool thing about like the legislation that might pass too is not only does it allow for the continued of home delivery, but it will open up the option for you to do at least
00:17:26
Speaker
you know, statewide shipping or like and shipping to some other states. So that could open up. Obviously, you know, you'll have people that move out of Chicago and still want to get your beer. So that would be, you know, obviously an awesome option for them to get it shipped. And then, you know, you have, you know, for those that don't know, like Clint has a barrel, a barrel club that you can subscribe to, you know, and that, you know, that can open up a whole other avenue for you is, you know, shipping barrel club beers to people for
00:17:55
Speaker
you know, you know, whatever price, you know, and I think just being able to do that is for a small business is awesome, you know, you know, for the big dogs, you know, they're everywhere anyway, for most for the most part. But being able to do that, you know, and get your beer into other places, you know, and it's not like you're pushing it to people that don't want it, like you're offering it to people that want it, like they're coming to you, they're, they're
00:18:19
Speaker
purchasing it and you're shipping it. You're not running the risk of it just sitting on the shelf and having to grab it back as you were saying. Yeah, I mean, it's the winery model. I mean, you think there's a lot of breweries in the United States, there's like double the amount of wineries. And a lot of them are just focused on very small areas that are just, you know, in their locality. But then they get visitors from out of town and
00:18:46
Speaker
you know, they want some of that wine shipped back to them. And so that's very much the model that is starting to shape up. There's so many breweries. There's not that much shelf space. When you got to go to sell your beer, it's a real hassle these days because you've got to stand in line and they may buy it. They may not like you may spend a year trying to
00:19:10
Speaker
sell your beer to one place and you've put in, you know, 30 hours just to do it to sell one keg, you know, or a couple of cases of beer. So it's gotten to that saturation point where there has to be a more flexible model to allow us to have direct relationships with our customers. I mean, for the big stuff, for
00:19:40
Speaker
You know, shipping out of state and getting into all the stores and everything, that distributor relationship is important. But a lot of people are scared that it's gonna destroy the three-tiered system or whatever. It's not. We've been doing it for a year and nothing has changed.
00:20:02
Speaker
It's more of an adaptation. I think it just helps, like helps out the smaller businesses to be able to still have their foot in the door and not have to worry about being, you know, pushed off the shelf for something else, you know. And that's a really good comparison to the wine model. That's, I didn't even really think about that, you know.
Beer Industry Adaptation
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, most wine from wineries, I mean, they don't even go to the shelves. They go,
00:20:29
Speaker
like right in people's boxes and shipped off to them or to a local restaurant. And that's just how they are as much as they can produce. And they don't need to go through this system where they got to throw all this stuff on the shelf and have to show up every day to sell it. You know, when you go to a tasting, it's always great because every, you know, a lot of people buy your beer on that tasting.
00:20:58
Speaker
But remember the next day that another brewery is going to walk in. Yeah. They're going to do the same thing. And it's like, it's just this, I don't know. It's the Sam Sarov, just endless, like smiling and here, try this, try this. You know, and I love doing that, but I'd like to do it in a way that's more direct and
00:21:26
Speaker
I will say some of the most fun I've ever had working for you was when I did some of the tastings at just at Benny's standing around because me. Yeah. Yeah. I love doing it because I loved the beers. It was a lot easier to go to them. Like I know all these beers and I can like and I'd be by some of the people or the reps that were there that really didn't know anything about the beer. So I kind of took pride in like this is the actual beer that I buy and that
00:21:51
Speaker
like I know the guy who runs it and like I know all these beers so I was able to stand there and talk about it. That interaction goes a long way you know to have the tastings and stuff to have someone buy it and now to have that option where it's like well maybe I'm not going to be back at you know I may I did this at a fest or maybe I happen to be in the neighborhood of this liquor store and I tried it and I don't know where to get it. It's so much easier just to now be able to hopefully. Yeah call me up and yeah
00:22:18
Speaker
I don't remember where it was. I remembered your name. You have it and can you send it to me? And I can say yes. But right now I'd say, well, where do you live? Okay. We don't really go out there. I'll call someone. No, they're not going to buy half a case. You know, in the story.
00:22:43
Speaker
So real quick. So we're all we talked about, you know, sometimes when we we talk with breweries or do a show, we'll do specific beers. And I did ask you to recommend what beer you think we should drink. And it turned out the three of us all have different beers. And I did want to kind of just talk about that. I don't want to lose sight of what we're drinking. I'm going to go first because I think mine.
00:23:08
Speaker
I feel like either mine or Clark is the oldest. Mine's been sitting in my fridge. I had a bottle of your mixed bag wild ale with grapefruit, AKA the Pamplemousse, which was, you did a VIP event, which we'll talk about those as well. Your whole way of doing that now is also very fun. This beer, I remember,
00:23:32
Speaker
having the Pamplemus was probably, God, a long time ago when you're doing the 750 milliliter bottles, and I think my brother-in-law Mike still has one just sitting, and I don't know what he's waiting for. Let's just drink it. Let's just drink it at this point, Jesus. But this is one of my, your sour beers and your wild yeast beers have always been very good and very...
00:23:59
Speaker
unique. You know, you can, you can get some wild fermented beer. And that's the fun about, you know, wild fermented beers, wild yeast and everything. But your beers in particular, I know you've worked a lot, I believe, was this with the Omega yeast? Was this one of the Omega yeast ones? Or is this just a different culture of wild yeast? Cause I know you do the other Omega stuff.
Wild Yeast Experiments
00:24:18
Speaker
Yeah, we've, we've gone through like three, like, I don't want to get too detailed on it, but. Give us an overview.
00:24:26
Speaker
Yeah, the overview is we've gone through like three stages of our wild program now. And so one of them was we were working with yeast that was, it turned out not to be wild yeast. Oh.
00:24:51
Speaker
It was a scandal in fact, and a lot of- I think I remember this. A lot of breweries- Yes, I remember this. Did not know, but it was, I forgot the name of the strain, but it was sold as a hundred percent Brett fermentation and- It was lacto, wasn't there lacto in there? No, no, it was just a really juicy and high temperature,
00:25:21
Speaker
fermenting yeast. I forgot what it's called. You still see it out there. Some people use it for hazy IPAs because it gives like an extra kind of... Yeah, it's sort of like a Capri Sun type
00:25:40
Speaker
fruit punchy thing. And I know what that is we needed. Yeah, it was nice. Yeah, especially on the first fermentation. So we tried to reuse it a few times and it seemed to ferment faster, but it would lose that it was almost like it was getting contaminated with some other kind of wild yeast or some Cezanne yeast. But anyway, that was the first stage.
00:26:06
Speaker
And then second stage was we actually got the real bread and that was, we were using the Dre strain, which was, it was a nice one, but unfortunately it kicked off a little, what it's known for is it kicks off a lot of THP, which is that sort of, it's that Cheerios sort of Fruit Loops flavor.
00:26:35
Speaker
that can in real high doses, it can be kind of mousy. And so we decided to stop using that. We had a lot of good fermentations happen with that. And then there were some beers that just a little bit of the THV can be a desirable trait. But on some of the beers, they just
00:27:05
Speaker
It just kept getting a little higher and some people say it's with the oxygen mixing in during packaging, but then it should go away, but it almost never goes away and it's always with that specific strain. That sucks. So that's why we started doing School of Brett to start introducing new strains of Brett and to try
00:27:32
Speaker
So we've now used like 20 different strains of Brett's and we know how they work. The school of Brett was one of the most fun VIP events that I ever got to be a panel member on with you. The school, it was just so much fun trying all those different strains. And for me being someone who, as we talked about on the show, like around this time of the year is when I,
00:27:57
Speaker
after having all those barely aged beers like big beers as you're like going like once you like get into fall and you're like this is it this is when all the barely aged beers are coming we we've talked about this numerous times we go in uh you know we go ham we go ham on that for those those who don't know the kids say that's hard as a motherfucker that's right i just swore on the show we went ham on all those barely aged beers
00:28:18
Speaker
But around this time of year is normally when I'm like, I want something lighter and I end up, this is the second year in a row that I've done like sour beers, brewed at home. So it was really nice to get into that before, you know, cause this, this is in the summer, I think when you did the school of Brett VIP event and I got a chance to try all of those beers and all of it was, was, was really good. I mean, and that was, that was, was that the second time you'd done the school of bread or the third time?
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah, we've done two. We're on our third one now. And yeah, we've gone through all their strains. So it's it's really good. Every stream of breath they have. Yeah. And that's with Omega East and homebrewers who who listen to the show. I know there's a lot of Omega East has really become
00:29:06
Speaker
a household name for home brewers as much as Imperial Yeast has when it comes to those wet yeasts or liquid yeasts. They do awesome, awesome stuff. I love using, actually I use their Kavike yeast quite, quite a bit. I'll make it as good things, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the bread stuff and the sour stuff. I wanted to say that this, for how long that it sat in my fridge, when you weren't on, I opened it up and I was like,
00:29:30
Speaker
I don't know about this. I'm going to say it's good. And as I kept drinking it, it did give me it. It's still good. It is still very good. I think it kind of caught me off guard that what I remembered what I was drinking. It's it's really good. It's still it's it's not too tart. You still get that nice
00:29:47
Speaker
grapefruit in there that has not subsided. There is that like, you know, we have the orange juice and there's that like citrusy side of the tongue type feeling in your mouth or taste in there with the sourness, but not like, you know, punching you in the face. It's not sour. It's just very nice and a little funky. And I love it. At Pamplemousse is still remain is one of my favorite beers that you do. So just so you know, if you have a lying around Clint, you can drink it. It's good.
00:30:15
Speaker
Yeah, the wild ales, the wild ales are not they're not going to go bad on you. And they're and these will go wild on you. Am I right? Okay, maybe but if they're refrigerated, they're gonna pretty much stay where they are. If you leave them out. They'll, they'll change a little bit more. But the nice thing about that batch and everything that came out of school with Brad is
00:30:42
Speaker
There's no THP on those beers. They're very pure brat. We didn't age them that long in the barrels. We purposefully kept it at about seven or eight months. That's how we designed the project with Lance, kind of overseeing. We just wanted to give people a sense of what the brat is doing
00:31:11
Speaker
I think a lot of people, they get those beers and they think they're going to be some like Lambic or some shit, you know, something like that, but it's not, it's not that at all. You know, we, we're, we're not going to release, you know, we're not going to release the Lambic in a four pack. And just do it. Some people are, you know, they are aging them, uh,
00:31:37
Speaker
We did a good job of keeping a good supply of it. And we're just kind of letting it do its thing. And then for this year, we should have some vertical on the year before. And so we'll kind of see what it does after it goes another year. That's the thing with wilds and sours. There's a lot of experts out there.
00:32:07
Speaker
some people just kind of hit it, right? And they're very, they've done a good job. They've done a lot of research and, you know, but just keep in mind that these, the breweries that have historically done it really well, they've been doing it for hundreds of years. And, you know, it's just, I mean, we're in year 10 and we're just now like really have gotten used to doing the,
00:32:37
Speaker
the experiment and fermenting a few different strains. And then from there, it opens up a door. Okay, you have all these strains now in barrels, and then you can start to blend them. And so it's kind of like baby steps. So some people will jump right in and have that, but we've taken the wild beer and we've tried to
00:33:08
Speaker
to pull it apart and use as many of the different strains and then try and put it back together again. So it's a very long process because each experiment is eight months and it's like
00:33:24
Speaker
All right, there you go, eight months. That's how it turns out. And then you're like 50 years old and you're like, that's the only thing I've done all my life. We're getting better, always getting better. Yeah, it's always fun to try those. I always look forward to trying all the wild ales and the sours that you do, but Clark, which now you have what?
Beer Reviews and Perceptions
00:33:49
Speaker
I have Lake Superior, the bourbon barrel aged Belgian style quad ale. Yeah. So I wanted you to kind of talk about that because we've talked about, we've talked about this a few times and Clint, I know I've talked to you about it. Brandon and I actually just recently talked about it. Cause when we did the last year's Fanny's the bourbon barrel aged chocolate cake stout that
00:34:17
Speaker
We feel like it's a highly underrated barrel-aged stout in Chicago.
00:34:22
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Like, like it's it is it's it's really good. I think you know how much I like it. I mean, not only is it because, you know, Stephanie's a part of that and you guys I think it's awesome the way that you guys actually just add cake to the beer itself. But it's it's such a good beer that you're you know, you're barely aged beers to me are top notch and Clark, what do you this is your first time having that?
00:34:48
Speaker
Well, I thought it was. I bought it thinking it was. And then I looked at Untapped. I apparently drank it five years ago. And I loved it back then. I'm like, okay, great. Consistency. That's what it's all about. When did you get it? Where did you get it? I bought it at Capone's this afternoon.
00:35:08
Speaker
Well, that might be five years old. That's true. Oh, sorry. Did it say that? Yeah, you can say that. When I saw my check and I thought, oh, is this also five? I mean, I don't know. I wouldn't have known it was five years old. Yeah, because this is a quad. I thought you were going to say barley wine. And then when you said quad, I was like, oh, OK. It has. At least a couple of years old.
00:35:27
Speaker
It was interesting when I started drinking it cold, it definitely tasted like a quad. And then as it's warmed up, it's got a lot of barley wine in it, which is real cool how it's kind of made that transition over the past hour. So they've had it open. Well, the two styles, they are very similar. All it really is is just a yeast that defines it. The grain bills are, are
00:35:54
Speaker
I mean, they're just big, strong multi-bears, you know, and some are, some have kind of a spicy edge to them and that's due to the yeast. And so it's probably the quad and the barley wine's a little cleaner, but yeah, I'd be very curious. I do not have a, I don't have one of those in my,
00:36:25
Speaker
in my collection, so. Go to Capone's. Yeah, go to Capone's. Yeah. For all your needs. Capone's. We've got freshies. We got some oldies. We got beer, baby. Come to Capone's. Yeah. I drink it again. Yeah, you're. Still in the front row. It's right up there. Yeah, yeah. I've got good, like, you know what, like, I've got a really good presence there and. You do. The beers they have are all just, they're all slamming beers. I mean, they're just.
00:36:54
Speaker
people just walk right past them and go to the hot butcher. But I mean, it's there or the goose Island or whatever, but he's been trying to get move them and every year I'll go in and I'll buy I'll buy a few back from him and put it in my shop and they'll sell right away. But I mean,
00:37:16
Speaker
I just can't explain it, you know, but that's just that's just how it is. Yeah, part of it is the marketing and the audience that goes in there. Because I mean, I know that, you know, people that go to Capone's like, there's, there's certain things that they're looking for when they go into Capone's, you know, they're looking for like the big heavy hitters and like the popular stuff. And which is it's a plus and a minus because
00:37:45
Speaker
You know if we want to call you like the secret sleeper brewery that like makes delicious stuff that nobody you know like that not nobody but like you know there's a huge selection of beer lovers that don't really know about like they're walking past some gold, you know, and.
00:38:00
Speaker
You know, even like, so like, like the Fanny's cake thing, Tony talked about it. Like, I love that. Like we grabbed it. I grabbed it when it came out from you guys directly. I had it delivered. And then I was walking through Benny's, I saw it and I'm like, I'm going to grab a couple more because it's here. And, and it was right around when Fanny's did their first like closing. And I was like, I was in Benny's and I'm like, Oh my God, this is still here. I'm like, grab a couple of these. Um.
00:38:26
Speaker
Yeah, man, I mean, it's like, it's such good. It's consistently good beer that is what is sad that people miss out on. So yeah, and what's nice is they've, they had the bottles have been holding up over the years where, I mean, I know early on, we had some issues with them souring in some, some cases. But yeah, they've, they've held up and, I mean,
00:38:56
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah, they have, they have like our Niagara Falls. I mean, that's like, yeah, that's like one of the highest rated beers on untapped. And it's just, it just, it just sits right there. It's like, are you kidding me? Like I remember the brew day, like when I made it. I mean, these beers are so hard to make, but anyway, I won't, I digress on that.
00:39:21
Speaker
They will sell and one day I'll just, I'll come in and buy them all and sell them. Not if we get there first. Yeah, I was gonna say, if you do that, let us know and maybe we can all sit around in the brewery together. We'll just go through, we'll do a trip down memory lane of all your barrel aged beers. We'll join you. That's when we do the opening of the Firehouse episode. Yeah. Or you can do an episode at Capone's and we crack open all the beers that are there.
00:39:51
Speaker
Invite in our secret guest. We're going to drink all of his beers on your show. I mean, don't tell me wrong. They're awesome customers. I don't want to, I mean, I'm always surprised. And this happens at a lot of stores. It's not just theirs where I'm just, I don't know how like, I don't know how to get the, the buzz on those beers and, um,
00:40:17
Speaker
I feel like I need to hire plants to go in and on different websites. And I don't know, but yeah, it's will be those plants. Well, one of those years went out, they went through to Vore and they went to the West Coast and people were enjoying it out there. But
00:40:36
Speaker
Anyway, yeah, I was gonna, I was gonna say like, this is definitely not a knock on components because I know all three of us, we have in part, you don't live far from there. It's kind of cool to go there because it's almost like, I mean, there's some of the beers that I look and I see and I'm like, that is not a new beer. I know it's been, I heard about this a few years ago and it's kind of fun to go and be like,
00:41:00
Speaker
Let's see how this age, let's see how this turned out. So it's kind of cool picking through like some of the fresh stuff and some of the stuff like yours that Clark happened upon, like that's awesome that he was able to snag it, it's there. It's kind of one of those fun like, ooh, look what I found. Cause Clark, I think I've even texted you before where I was like, yeah, so I found this thing on the shelf and this has been out for a year now and there's another four pack left, you should grab it. I forgot what beer it was, but yeah, Capone's is great for that, which I like.
00:41:30
Speaker
It's a treasure chest for all your lake effect past needs. Yeah, yeah, definitely. But Brandon, you are actually drinking the beer that Clint had suggested to us, which is a most more recent collaboration for you, Clint. Yep. So this is the the Madera barrel aged imperial stout with Sumatra coffee, which was a collaboration with percolator.
00:41:56
Speaker
Um, so I had gotten when these released, I was buying something. I forgot what I was buying. And I remember, um, I think I had messaged Clint. I was talking to you about something and you're like, Oh, why don't you get the Madera too? And I was like, okay. So I threw two of them on here.
00:42:13
Speaker
And I had one in December and I was blown away. I was like, this beer is awesome. Like this is probably one of my next to the fannies. This is like a solid barrel aged beer. Um, what I thought was odd or not odd, but like, so it's Sumatra coffee. So you get, I'm getting a little bit of the coffee, but I'm getting more like.
00:42:39
Speaker
arrow and I'm getting more of like the dryness of the wine, you know, and it's awesome. Like it's so it, I mean, it doesn't feel like it's 13%. Um, or a good thing. I don't know. Um, our Thursdays are becoming a mess. Yeah. Right. Um, yeah. I mean, it's, it's so smooth and like the, um,
00:43:08
Speaker
What are the, what do I want to say? Like the, if I'm using technical terms, like it's such a, you know, a very like silky mouth feel. And then I'm getting some oakiness in there. And then like, I'm getting that like on the back of my tongue, like when you drink a glass of wine and it's a little bit dry, like it kind of, kind of feel it in the back of my mouth. And I'm like, this is, this is solid, man. This is,
00:43:33
Speaker
Like I said, like next to the fans one, cause that's like, that's chocolate cake and like, I can't, that's chocolate cake. This is probably my next favorite, like barely shot that you've done. Yeah, that was a fun one. And as it aged, cause I had one a few weeks ago and I texted Joe who owned sparkolator said, you gotta pop one open because
00:44:02
Speaker
What happened was the coffee was much more pronounced when the beer originally came out, like it was really strong. And then what happened, I guess the coffee mellowed a little bit as time went on. And then some of that barrel character kind of popped out, but the sweetness from the wine somehow merged with the coffee. And what I got was just,
00:44:28
Speaker
a lot of like baker's chocolate on it. And it was just, it just turned into like, I thought it was, I kept reading label. I'm like, did we, this is the chocolate beer. And it had like completely chocolatified. And I, I've never, that really surprised me, but I really enjoyed, I enjoyed the older version as much as I enjoyed the,
00:44:55
Speaker
The younger ones, so we are seeing. It's like having a newer beer. It's like having a new beer that you didn't have to work for.
00:45:00
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you work for it, but you didn't have to do anything different to get this. And that's what's kind of neat about it too, because now that you mention it, I think I do remember like when I had it in December, there was a little bit more coffee. And for me, it wasn't that, I didn't think it was that strong, but maybe again, it was like a month after I'd gotten it, maybe it mellowed a little bit in the bottle, but
00:45:25
Speaker
that kind of fits the bill for some coffee stouts that I've had where you get them fresh like the coffee is really prominent and then you hold on to it for a while the coffee does tend to mellow and kind of blend in with some other things but then I feel like depending on the coffee or depending on like the the brewery or whatever like
00:45:45
Speaker
Well, again, this is talking about holding onto a coffee stout for a couple of years. That coffee will come back with a vengeance and it will not do good things. Green pepper, baby. Green pepper. Yeah. The green pepper is what we've experienced when we've tasted some older coffee stouts. But I mean, the way this went from that subtle coffee note that I got, again, a month after it was released, and then to
00:46:11
Speaker
um this beautiful blend where I'm getting more of that wine um because that's what I was expecting too I was like I want more of that wine and oh yeah I feel like I'm getting more of it now yeah yeah that was a real fun one to do and and um yeah it just keeps I'm glad I still have a few bottles of that left because that that one just keeps giving
00:46:34
Speaker
All right, hold on, I'm gonna order one, hold on to one for me for the weekend then, because I already told Brandon, I was like, look, when I first saw this, and this is me being totally honest, because we're honest on this show. Yeah. One, one, okay, actually, let me give back story this one time, you and I edit tasting, at VIP tasting, one of those VIP tastings where people had left and maybe me and Mike were still there with you drinking a lot. And we had,
00:47:01
Speaker
That had never never happened. That's a made up thing. You had already had a stout that it was you were testing or a stout that you had aged in a wine barrel and then we were blending it with a barrel aged stout and you were like you hadn't released anything like that yet and you were talking about you know I really like the way this works and I liked it at the time and then the more I thought about it I was like you know I get the idea but man a wine barrel aged stout just doesn't
00:47:31
Speaker
sound all that great to me. But now the way you guys are talking about the way that it is and how it's kind of developed, now I'm sold. And now I feel like if I don't get a bottle of it, don't try it. That's right. Well, that's why I put the service to myself. Well, that's why I put the coffee in it because because I love your coffee beers. Thank you. The Sumatra, the Sumatra coffee has like a big like berry, berry note on it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Cherry.
00:48:02
Speaker
And so like, I heard other reviews of people drinking it and they were like, well, I don't taste the coffee, but the coffee, it was because the coffee had so many like fruity notes to it that it just kind of blended in with the barrel and, and, um, the Sumatra that's like a really earthy, fruity type. It's a different animal from other coffees and
00:48:29
Speaker
like Joe introduced, you know, he had such a good blend of it and, you know, that's, so I felt like that, that would enhance it as opposed to the bourbon barrel. We did a bourbon barrel version of it, and that was really good too. You can't go wrong with a bourbon barrel, but
00:48:48
Speaker
No, no, not at all. Sometimes the wine, see the wine age stouts, they kind of hit people differently and they're waiting for that bourbon or that rye or, or whatever. And then they don't get it. They just, and they, they feel unsatisfied. You're going into. They don't know. They don't know. They're just like, Oh, you know, I didn't, this didn't meet what I was thinking, you know? And so,
00:49:16
Speaker
maybe be a little open-minded when you when you try it but if you just don't like that flavor you just don't like that flavor but but that's kind of that's what i've seen is that the wine barrel that's why i went with the madera because the madera is like really sweet and i think port would actually work really well too i saw off color did a port barrel aged stout and everybody loved that too and i knew exactly they were probably getting a lot of the same flavors that that brandon's talking about so it's
00:49:46
Speaker
It is a thing. It is a good barrel to use, but it won't meet expectations if you're not, you know, not ready for it. Well, I'll tell you this. I think I'm ready for it. And when I go to try it, I will check it in. If I don't like it, I won't check it out. I'm not going to drag it down because
00:50:10
Speaker
Okay, that is something. Throw that out real quick. If you're drinking a beer that you don't like the style, don't drag it through the mud. If you don't like that style, then don't check in like, this is gross. Do you like pilsners? Nope. Then why are you checking that in, loser?
00:50:29
Speaker
Well, there's a difference with like checking it in and like giving it your personal rating so you know when you go back, but like going in and trashing it and being like, just don't rate it. Yeah, just don't hate this fucking beer. Because I hate Pilsner's, it's like great. I don't, yeah. Don't buy Pilsner's. I try not to read them anymore. Good move, good move. When you're brewing the beers and you're looking at those things and it's just another thing you gotta,
00:51:00
Speaker
stress you out on, but yeah, there are some really, really stupid comments out there. I was gonna say like, I'm tasked to have a warning, like you put in what beers you like and don't like, and when you go to check one and it's been like, look, dude, you don't like this beer. Are you sure you wanna check it in? All right, good point. Did you mean to check in this beer? Yeah. Some of the comments are really funny though, but you know, it's, yeah, I try.
00:51:29
Speaker
I try not to look at it. I know I can, usually the, the newer brewers, they tend to really go crazy about it the first couple of years being open. And then you stop hearing about it. But yeah, there were a couple that really bothered me. And then one time I, I reached, I, I responded to one and, and
00:51:57
Speaker
I was a little bit wasted and I was like, what the fuck do you know about Belgian wits, you motherfucker, blah, blah, blah. And, um, and the dude like jumped, he and his friends like jumped all over me and for like three days, like they were just trashing my beers and I was like, please. And then finally they stopped. But so the best thing to do is just like, ignore it.
00:52:27
Speaker
Don't, first of all, don't look at it while you're drinking. And second of all, like, yeah, just ignore it. There's something really bad. If there's like a problem, like if someone opens it and like gushes everywhere or something like that, then you should respond to it via email and try and make it right. But, you know, for comments based on taste or style, like, just let it go.
00:52:56
Speaker
So you're saying that there should be an untapped warning for brewers that says, it's three in the morning. You've probably been drinking. Are you sure you want to respond to this guy's comment? Can't do it. Yeah. There's a movie, Chef, which, you know, I was watching. I was like, oh, no, because I've been through that. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's hard. It's it's learning, you know, like.
00:53:21
Speaker
you know, brewing is an art and it's literally going in and learning to take criticism. Um, and then understanding like, just like art, like not every taste bud is the same. So, you know, I, you know, it is what it is. And it's like, if the people that are coming to you directly versus going on tapped and are telling you that they, they like what you do, but that's, that's the review that matters versus, you know, internet dude, you know,
00:53:48
Speaker
Sometimes they're right. I mean, sometimes they're right. And you got to hand it and say, this is a common comment on this beer. And let's review it and see if we need to revise the recipe and do something different or change something in our technique. So I mean, I'm looking for stuff like that. Yeah.
00:54:15
Speaker
Yeah. And that's, that's constructive, like constructive versus like, when the, you know, when the people are like, Oh, this beer has hops. It's like, yeah, it's a beer. There's been comments like that. Who says that? I think it was, who says
Influence of Online Reviews
00:54:28
Speaker
that? I want to say it was like pipe worked or something like after like a beer fest and they were looking at all the check-ins and somebody was like, this beer has hops in it. That's gross. And it's like, do you not realize what beer is made out of? Like, come on.
00:54:42
Speaker
It's also the infected comment, which really, like we released a barrel-aged beer and like the first check-in on it was, I think this is infected. But I'm like, oh my God. Why would you say that? You cannot say that, like, and I can feel it and we're tasting all the beers and, you know, we're like, I don't feel like 30 bottles and I was chugging them all and I'm like, no. You know, we're like,
00:55:11
Speaker
We tested this thing, man. It went out. How can you say that? Yeah, that's crazy. It's like, what do we do with this guy? Clint, I learned the hard way not to just ask you about something. I asked you about Super Shake. I go, is there something different about Super Shake this year? And you're like, why? What's wrong? And you ended up opening up a bottle while I was texting you. And I was like, no, no, man. Nothing's wrong. I was just curious. And there was something different. I really like it.
00:55:40
Speaker
I felt terrible, I told my wife, I was like, I think I just- Is that when we drank it? Yeah, yeah, I texted him the next day. And I told my wife, I was like, I'm pretty sure I just freaked out the guy who here and runs his brewery. It was an honest, just like regular question, like, is there something different with this? And I should have just put in my mind, like, maybe don't be so vague about it because- No, you weren't very vague about it.
00:56:09
Speaker
So verification there, bud. Sorry. I mean, we're looking for stuff like that because I mean, it's, you know, that's like our most expensive beer that we make. And it's, we've been nurturing it for over a year. And it, I mean, it's, it's crazy, ridiculously expensive to make. And crazy, delicious. We want to make, we want to make sure that
00:56:38
Speaker
you know, there's no problems with it. If there's, there will be slight variations, I will say with some of our stouts that they've been perceived as being a little thinner recently. And it's because we switched our yeast and we have a high gravity yeast that kind of chews through a lot of things. And so we want to get a nice attenuation
00:57:06
Speaker
and we want to have a nice high alcohol, like we want to easily be able to hit a 14% beer. But then we have to kind of back that up with different adjuncts to bring that thickness back into the beer. And so it's a balancing act because you want to make sure that your yeast can get that
00:57:34
Speaker
You know, you asked about Birmingham, Birmingham County Stout, they're always in the 14, 14 and a half, you know, and that's really hard to achieve with just regular homebrew or yeast or whatever. You can't do that with USO5. And a lot of people- What? Son of a bitch, that's why we can't do it. We're stuck at 11%. Damn it. Yeah, it's always 10 and a half, but then, you know, like, well, you get 2% from the barrel, you know, you don't really know.
00:58:04
Speaker
but yeah, so that's, I'd say that was probably the main change on it.
00:58:12
Speaker
And we were using a different chocolate source. And that's what it was, because I think I finally brought it up. I was like, no, the chocolate just tasted a little different because Brandon and I were talking about that. In fact, that was a rough night for me and Brandon. We drank a lot that night. Not only did we drink that, but we drank the year aged Fanny's original. That was a fun night. We got a little friendly to do some other stuff, but yeah.
00:58:38
Speaker
Well, just the same. We ended up talking about it. We ended up what? We ended up the night drinking weller. It was fine. It was fine. You would have enjoyed the night. We were by a fire and everything. It's right up your right in your wheelhouse. So, yeah, so that's it. And I think that's for people who, again, who are not maybe not familiar with Lake Effect, you know, the three beers that we drank tonight, I mean, that doesn't even cover, you know, it shows a wide variety of what you do.
00:59:05
Speaker
But I mean, you know, some of your flagship beers like, you know, Falcon Dive and Bitchin' Blonde and just the Snow Wit, the Lake Fex Snow Wit, those beers themselves, I mean, Falcon Dive is one of my favorite local IPAs that goes with, you know, like, Aleman's IPA that we, when we did their episode with them, we were all
00:59:28
Speaker
around that time, we were especially I know Clark and I were just very full into the hazy IPAs. And it was like, yeah, just everything's hazy and juicy. And then we had we had their aliens IPA. And I was like, right, IPAs are also very, you know, nice, as they can be dry and a little bit of sweetness and that nice
00:59:48
Speaker
happy bitterness and I, Falcon Dive to me is a good balance of, of, uh, what I liked when I got into craft beer of that citrusy bitterness without it being juicy, but being a nice like, you know, clean beer. Um, so yeah, you're, you're,
01:00:04
Speaker
The variety of beers that you put out are, to me, impressive. And I love the fact that you're a local brewery that I see on the shelves when I go places. And I've known you now for, Brandon and I have known you for a while. Clark, you're just getting to know Clint a little bit. So you'll be his friend one day, maybe. Who knows?
01:00:25
Speaker
Clint, I don't think you should do that. Clark's not that cool, trust me. Yeah, but speaking of variety, I went into the... I shouldn't have done this. I went to the barrel club 2021 barrel club page. Boys, don't go there because there's a lot of cool stuff coming. I'm aware. I am well aware. I spend a lot of money on beers and I'm probably going to be spending some more money on beers.
01:00:53
Speaker
A lot of cool stuff. Clint, is there one that you're really excited about that is either new or something different that you haven't done before? Yeah, we're doing, I mean, there's a lot on there. The past week, we've been working a lot with color, like trying to get the color just right on certain of the beverages.
01:01:22
Speaker
One was our cherry. Our cherry goes, and then we're doing a lot of beers with hibiscus. And so we have the hala kahiki aging and rum barrels. We also put some in wine barrels just for the fun of it. And then we have pineapple liqueur.
01:01:53
Speaker
Those are all going to be real fun. I'm real excited about just the regular hala kahiki because we're finally going to put a barcode on the label. I think that one's going to do really well because we've got, we just, yeah, we have just such a nice recipe on that. Um, and then tomorrow we're brewing a beer with Eris and yeah, it's going to be, uh, it's going to be kind of like a season. Um,
01:02:23
Speaker
Not sure, we're not sure what it is. But it's gonna be a beer that we are gonna blend the unfermented cider in, and an agent and wine barrel. And so it's gonna be, the base beer is just gonna be really, really regular. And I, for some reason, the yeast I have,
01:02:49
Speaker
on hand, I've decided just to go ahead and use it as a coal sheath. Oh, cool. So I mean, it's just what we have. And so it'll go well, but yeah, it's going to be a wheat and pilsner. And then I think I'm going to put a little bit of special bee in it to give it
01:03:16
Speaker
a little bit darker kind of raisiny. I'm a fan of special beer. That's one of the grains that I messed around with the right way when I used it the first time, because I know if you use too much of it, it really stands out. And I wanna do an oatmeal cookie brown ale one day where I use a little bit of special beer in there to get that like raisiny in there.
Upcoming Projects
01:03:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy. And I'll bring you I'll bring you some clinks. I know you're a fan of the brown ales. Highly underrated style there, man. Yeah, so those will be good. Yeah. Oh, and this year for the Scotch Ale, for the Isla Ale, we're going to just use we're just going to use bourbon barrels for it. And we're going to kind of turn the recipe around where we
01:04:13
Speaker
We use peated malt and the grain bill. Awesome. Get the peaty flavor that way, rather than bring in the scotch barrels and do it the other way. So we want to see how that works. Those scotch barrel aged beers, though, were pretty good. Brandon, me, you and your father-in-law got to try some of those. Do you remember that? Yeah, and he bought a bunch. Yeah, he brought it. He brought it back. In fact, he still talks about them. Kevin, my cousin Kevin, has been on the show and does, you know,
01:04:43
Speaker
the the after the final port theme song he just bought uh what do you have out there that's right now that would be available that's a scotch ale i have both i have uh both of the barley wines the isla and the space side and then we have um we just have a regular scotch ale
01:05:01
Speaker
but it's, it's heavily peated. It's, it's pretty smoky. I'll find out which one he got. Cause he likes, he, I remember it being, I told, I think I told him like, if you like scotch then, and then smokiness you'll. Yeah. It's a beautiful looking beer. So he does like scotch. So I'll find out what he thinks about it. It's a little smoky though, but yeah.
01:05:27
Speaker
Before we wrap things up here, I do want to touch on we started the show with it as a little teaser, but you have officially acquired a space that you had
New Taproom Development
01:05:43
Speaker
I'm just gonna say it, been fighting for it for quite some time. And it looks like it's finally coming to fruition and you will officially have a taproom soon. Yeah, that's the plan. Yeah, it's been a fight. It's been going on forever. And if the process wasn't long enough, then just the dropout was crazy too. That's our neighborhood.
01:06:11
Speaker
Yeah, they just, I was put on edge. I mean, it would just, we didn't know what was going to happen. And finally, you know, things started falling in place. I mean, it was three years ago, over almost, almost three and a half going on four years when we
01:06:39
Speaker
when I walked into the Alderman's office to ask about what sort of available, like, you know, do you know of any empty buildings that's going on in the neighborhood? And, you know, I got introduced to the developer and we hit it off pretty well. And, but anyway, just the process to,
01:07:09
Speaker
purchase a city building is just outrageously long and complicated. And then at the very end of it, like the door kind of opened where they asked for alternatives and it's just part of the process. And it's not an open bidding or anything like that. That's what it was made to. There's a massive PR campaign saying, no, it was an open bid.
01:07:38
Speaker
And it wasn't, it was just, this is the project, but we want to see if there's any alternatives out there, which it happened at the very end of the process. And a couple of ideas came in, and then they picked ours. And then they got all bent out of shape because they said, wait a second.
01:08:08
Speaker
That was a bidding process. We didn't have access to the building. This is unfair. Due process has been broken, blah, blah, blah. This is corrupt. Yeah. They're accusing us of being like corrupt. Like I don't like, I don't have any money. I can't pay off a politician. And I live in the neighborhood too. They try to make us sound like outsiders. That was the funniest thing was just,
01:08:38
Speaker
these guys and outsiders. I know I have a business in the neighborhood, dude. And I live in the neighborhood, like your, you walk to your job and the developer, his office is on like Lawrence at Milwaukee Avenue. I mean, it's like, you can't get any closer. So, um, but anyway, yeah, it just, it's just kind of dragged on. And, um, you know, I,
01:09:07
Speaker
we felt like we always had it, but it was just, we were never really, I never really felt like we had the full support of people that make the decision. Like we just couldn't get a good read on it. But throughout, but at the end of the day, we were supported. And so we're happy for that. But yeah, I went through city council and
01:09:35
Speaker
council voted on it. I mean, the big, the big issue, at least the public issue was that the building was, I guess the way the story read was they're giving the building away. But the problem was the building had all this asbestos and lead paint that was
01:09:59
Speaker
Well, like the remediation was way more than what the building was worth. Yeah. So it was kind of a moot point that we're giving the building away because like, you know, the city's responsibility to clean the building up. Yeah. I mean, you can't you can't sell someone a negative
01:10:24
Speaker
Building. Well, and I like in that, so that kind of just a quick analogy, I liken that to like, if you go to buy a house and you go into the house and this person's like, this place is perfect. It's turnkey. And you go, it's like, well, there's lead paint on the wall. There's holes in the floor. There's this and that. And you go and do your front list. And they say, OK, look, if you buy this house from us for $200,000, it's going to cost you $300,000 to fix it up.
01:10:54
Speaker
So I'm basically buying a house for $300,000. The opposite happened, like in this situation, it was, you guys had people go in that were professionals and kind of looked at what it would cost to fix all of that up.
01:11:09
Speaker
And they came up with the value and they pitched a price. And it just so happened that those two values kind of met almost face to face. Like they were selling it for almost 300,000 or whatever it was. And the remediation cost almost 300,000. There was like a dollar difference. So it's like, you know, give us a buck, you get the house, or you get the firehouse. So it was like, people don't look at it that way, though. They look at it and like, they're talking about the land value and, you know,
01:11:38
Speaker
So I mean, yeah, the whole time, like that, that really kind of stresses out and then the local newspaper was very much on the, you know, not on our side. And they were writing these terrible articles that anyway, just
01:12:00
Speaker
And then on top of everything else, they just copied our idea. That's all they did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember saying, Oh, we're just, we're going to do, we're going to have a brewery. What brewery? People were like, well, what brewery are you going to have in there? Like, Oh, we don't have one named yet. It's like, really?
01:12:15
Speaker
but it's a Chicago brewery. Yeah, okay. It was us. We were going to start our own brewery, Clint. We brought you on the show to tell you that. Yeah, that whole thing was silly. And like the thing with the local paper, I don't think we need to name them, but like they're local. Yeah. I mean, I've got no issues or anything with it. It just, it felt like the,
01:12:44
Speaker
I just felt like the presidential election or something. It was just like, there's this huge messaging about like all this stuff. And it's like, man, we've been here for three years. We've been working on this forever. And yeah, we've been on the track. Why now? Like at the last hour? Like, why would someone take that away from like, we would like that, see,
01:13:12
Speaker
there would have been a lawsuit for that. And the city would have lost that one. Because we did everything they, would they ask that we'd have to undo everything. Like the zoning was approved, the development was approved. I mean, everything was approved. And so that was, there was a court case and that's what the judge said is like, you can't reverse all this stuff. Like you're asking me to reverse, you know,
01:13:42
Speaker
decisions made by the legislature. I mean, you can't do that. You should have done this like a year ago. Yeah. And anyway, so it was very stressful. But we've gotten through that part of it. But we still have more to go. And, you know, we we have the build out and we have all the licensing. Yeah. Now there's there's like, physical work that has to be done. Yeah, that's like, to me, for most people, that's the hard part of the project. But
01:14:13
Speaker
you know, that takes the longest, but I mean, we have a three year prerequisite onto that, so. Yeah. We got plans and stuff ready to go. I think now, like not dealing with the stress of all the legality BS as far as like securing the place. I think now, like, you know, in my shoes, I would be looking like,
01:14:38
Speaker
there's some enjoyment of like, okay, this is going to happen. Now we can make this as our own. Like, you know, we've got plans and schematics of what we want it to look like, but like physically getting into the building and be like, Hey, this is going to go there. And this is going to go there. Like you're an architect by trade. Like, right? Like, so this is like right up your alley. Spoiler alert. She's a better architect than I am.
01:15:03
Speaker
But I mean, still, this has to be like, there has to be at least some enjoyment getting into this and being able to do this part, right? Oh, absolutely. And I mean, we were told early on, don't do too much, because you never know what's going to happen. But we were, yeah, I mean, it's just every time I walk past the building, I just imagine it lit up, and the doors open, and people outside.
01:15:33
Speaker
You know, cause there's just, there's just nothing going on. And it's been like that forever. It's been that way for, I mean, I, I'm not from this neighborhood, but, um, yeah, I worked on, cause I used to do urban planning and I worked on the urban plan under the previous Aldermen, um, Pat LaVar and, um, like nothing, nothing has changed since then.
01:16:02
Speaker
you know, and it's just, I mean, there's gotta be, there's gotta be some, I mean, I just can't believe that we're right next to like the second busiest transit hub. I mean, this place should be bus and it is bustling with people. They just don't have anywhere to go. There's nowhere to go. And, and that's, so I just imagine now that, you know, there'll be a place to, to have a beer and
01:16:33
Speaker
and sit out and enjoy, you know, on your way home from work or whatever. And we'll have all kinds of events and we'll do, you know, have all kinds of great beers. We're going to have a kitchen. So, you know, we've got someone who is, I can't say who it is, but we've got someone lined up to
01:16:56
Speaker
There's no exclusive here on the podcast. I mean, come on. Yeah, there's no, we haven't signed anything, but we've got... You can't tell us that it's Gordon Ramsay. Come on. We've been wrong about guesses in the past about, you know, collaborations and stuff like that. You know, I was, I missed, I said, Malort, Beryl, Aged Something for Rev, and that was way wrong.
01:17:20
Speaker
Um, you know, so maybe we're, you know, we're going to say it here. It's going to be Gordon Ramsey. That's our prediction. It's Gordon Ramsey. That's our prediction. We'll see what happens. That's going to be wrong. As usual. Yeah. We'll all kill that guy. He was like such an asshole to work with. I, uh, I think that, uh, the, uh, I'm going to speak for all three of us, uh, as I normally do it, that, uh, we're all very happy for you. We're all very excited that, uh, you know, um,
01:17:50
Speaker
where you where you've started where you're at, and how you've dealt with just running a business in general, but also through the pandemic and everything that you've done that you know you getting that space for your actual tap room is a huge win. And it's a huge win for our neighborhood and our community.
01:18:08
Speaker
Chicago is bustling with breweries. We have a lot of good beers here in Chicago and you are definitely among those in the top tier in our books as far as beers that are delicious, readily available and just a nice wide variety and you're a good dude and we love talking with you, we love hanging out with you and we love having you on the show man.
01:18:32
Speaker
If anything, it's, it's karma coming back, you know, all the, all the good you did last year, I think came back and kind of helped solidify that deal. Cause I know there was question to, um, you know, there's a new Alderman versus the Alderman that came in originally and approved this, but like, you know,
01:18:49
Speaker
In the end, he supported it. He came in and he was like, you know what? I'm not gonna squash his deals. So like, kudos to him for, you know, doing what's right for the neighborhood. Like, you know, not for a business, but for the neighborhood in general. I think that was a good call. Yeah, he was actually at the public meeting that we had at Copernicus Center. And we didn't know, obviously, who he was at the time or who he would become, but-
01:19:19
Speaker
He was sitting in the crowd and he, in our first meeting, he just said, this is, this is the right thing for the neighborhood and we need this. And we just let's, whatever, whatever you need to happen will happen. It was, it was just the dollar thing later on. Set everybody off. Hold on a second. Yeah. No, and I get it.
01:19:48
Speaker
We weren't sure. That put a little down in there, but I think we... I mean, that's just how the city does the business and that's what it was. And he knew that deep down, he knew that. But I think just the dollar
01:20:10
Speaker
Yeah, it's gonna be great for the neighborhood overall. So there's there is no, you know, $1 here is a huge win for the neighborhood. And yeah, it puts that property back on the on the city coffers for so much tax. So we wait to get taxed for all that property in all that business like we never want to I mean, well, that
01:20:36
Speaker
whatever was offered for that billing, it won't matter. You know, just the sales tax. At least us three will make sure that there's people in there all the time. Yeah. Well, and of course, once you open up by you being on this episode, once you open up, you have now basically like an end user agreement of saying you accept our terms, we're going to come into the brewery and do another episode there. Sounds good. Awesome. Thanks Glenn for okaying that.
01:21:06
Speaker
Take the run, bye. Very serious. Thanks again, Clint, for joining us. It's nice to have you back on the show, man. We love your beers. You're a good guy, and we're glad that you're a part of our neighborhood. And we look forward to drinking more of your beers this year, and we look forward to Clark spending his money on the barrel club and us, you know, maybe stealing some beers from his house when he's not looking.
01:21:32
Speaker
um uh everybody go to you know if you're on the northwest side or any you know ad in chicago you know look up lake effect is just lake effect brewing dot com is that your webpage
01:21:43
Speaker
That's it, yep. Perfect. Look at that. Nice and simple. Look it up. See if you guys can have beer delivered to you or, you know, swing by and just grab some beer. Clint's a nice guy, as you've heard. It's a cool, cool place. And, you know, it might be a little tricky to find, but once you find it, you'll be happy that you did because everybody that works there is super cool.
01:22:03
Speaker
And if you happen to be shopping for a costume at Chicago costume, you may inadvertently walk through something that is not actually a wall and end up in a brewery. So there you go. Happened to me a couple of times and vice versa. You walk through something like, wait, I'm in a costume shop now.
Vaccination Discussions
01:22:19
Speaker
Well Clint, this won't be the last time we talked to you. I'm sure we'll find a reason to talk to you maybe later this year and drink some more beers with you. Hopefully, maybe we'll do it in person. Let's hope that happens. But if not, we'll- Yeah, I think we'll be able to have, I think we'll probably, we're going to start tours and VIP events and stuff. Like as soon as, you know, probably the summer, like when everybody's vaccinated.
01:22:47
Speaker
Yeah, we're all working on our vaccinations now and this whole crew right here all three of us are working on right now. Yeah, I mean, I heard today that 10% of the country is now that fully vaccinated. So I mean,
01:23:01
Speaker
You know, it's, that's pretty fast. It's, it's coming. I got my first shot today and the chip in my arm just itches a little bit. Oh God. And then I got this weird Twitch. I can't get rid of. That's not true. That's not true. Everybody. All right. I think that's going to do it for this week's episode.
Closing Remarks
01:23:21
Speaker
Clint. Thank you very much for joining us. Brandon. I love you, man. Clark. I love you, man.
01:23:43
Speaker
I love you man. Alright, we'll see you guys next time.
01:23:53
Speaker
An untapped, B-Dub drinks beer. Tony can be found on Instagram and untapped under Asafelp Chicago. On Twitter, TheAsafelpChicago, Clark can be found as Clarkhouseky on all three. Be sure to subscribe, like, and rate the show on your preferred podcast listening platform. Until next time, cheers from all of us at The Malting Hour.