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Week 28 - China rules! Norway Sucks
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This week Kieran is having trouble with the brewing industry in Norway. Justin however has been on a Chinese shopping spree. buying the things you can not get anywhere else .
Thank toy to all my patrons you all rock you can become a patron here: https://www.patreon.com/c/garageavenger
Mind blown:
The real Anthony Fauci - https://www.norli.no/boker/dokumentar-og-fakta/historie-og-dokumentar/the-real-anthony-fauci
Anders Abrahamsen https://www.instagram.com/eiketun_trearbeid/
Shits:
Brewing industry
Boring people
Recommendations:
Prestongoes - https://www.youtube.com/@prestongoes
Team Pølse - https://tv.nrk.no/serie/team-poelsa
Kids???
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Personal Goals
00:00:01
Speaker
This is the Garage Avenger Podcast.
00:00:11
Speaker
i was I'm doing the air drumming now because you... I'm only headbanging because I have no idea what drums to hit, as usual. Neither do I, but you Welcome to the Garage Avenger podcast. I'm Justin, trying to share the joy of building my death machines in my garage with the hope of one day making a living out of it, which seems very far away at the moment. Yeah. And I'm Kieran, trying to turn my garage brewed beers into world-renowned brewery, which also seems very far away at the moment.
00:00:42
Speaker
We are twin brothers with a passion for creating the wild and unexpected, taking a ride through the everyday lives in our garages. Welcome, everybody.
Justin's Challenging Week
00:00:52
Speaker
Welcome. Kieran, how are you this week?
00:00:55
Speaker
I'm good. I'm pretty good. That's good to hear because I'm shit.
00:01:02
Speaker
I'm not good at all. I've had a horrible week. but so We can get into that. But before we get into that, we started a new segment e last week.
Creating a Podcast Jingle
00:01:14
Speaker
ah We had a horrible jingle ah that Kieran horribly sung. and Don't like my singing. But...
00:01:26
Speaker
I was on ChatGDP this morning and I thought, you know what? Maybe ChatGDP can come up with a jingle. So I put in some information and this is what it comes up. I'm not going to sing it. I'm just going to tell you what it came up with. ah I reckon you could wrap this.
00:01:43
Speaker
Do you reckon? Yeah, come on. i willll get I'll give it a go. Here it goes. yeah 9am, no fear or shame, crack that can, stake our claim. Rivals doubt, watch us chug, shut up, Steve, sip your mug.
00:01:59
Speaker
That wasn't a rap. Well, I can't rap. I'm not a rapper, dude. I should have put down late the beat. and but 9am,
00:02:11
Speaker
no fear or shame, crack that can, stake your claim.
00:02:17
Speaker
No, I'll keep it going, Karen. I'm sorry. Rival's Probably a terrible beat for this rap. Anyway.
00:02:29
Speaker
i reckon we should just shorten it down. Yeah. And then it should be just like 9am and then the sound of a can cracking and then it goes, shut up, Steve. Yeah. um That's all we should just have. Yeah. So there we go. ah Right.
Beer Tasting and Brewing Discussion
00:02:48
Speaker
Let's get into this. What's your drink, Justin? ah My beer today is Lille Lerdag. Hamburgery, Hamburgery. Nice. yeah else yeah um I picked this up on the weekend. It's a juicy session Ipa.
00:03:07
Speaker
It's only a 4.5. five Yeah, 4.5. Yeah, they do them to 4.5, yeah. Yeah. ah Generally, hamburger is okay. We're going to crack it in the glass and have a look.
00:03:21
Speaker
sir
00:03:26
Speaker
it ah It looks nice. Good head. Mm-hmm. um
00:03:37
Speaker
Little Saturday. Yeah, which is, in Norwegian, that's Wednesday, right? Yeah. So we're just... Like midweek beer. On Monday. Monday morning. Yep.
00:03:53
Speaker
You know what? The first thing I get from this is actually something a bit weird. Okay. Tell me. I get diesel from this. a Now, I've heard you talk about this before. What causes the diesel smell on a beer?
00:04:12
Speaker
and That can be an aroma compound that from from hops, actually. um so there's... there's ah millions of different flavor and aroma compounds in hops that contribute all the different, you know, fruity flavors or floral flavors or whatever. And some of those, ah depending on how the beer is treated, ah can accentuate a diesel flavor that is already there. is ah It's always there.
00:04:47
Speaker
It's just whether you push it forward or not in the way the beer is handled a when the dry hopping. so so what So I'm assuming they don't really want this diesel taste because I've had this beer before and I've never picked it up like that. it could have been it could have been so simple as on that batch of beer, the cooling on the tank was like they dry hopped it too early or the cooling on the tank didn't cool as as was expected. Yeah.
00:05:19
Speaker
You know at the higher temperatures, you can extract more of the unpleasant aroma compounds. And so that's kind of possibly what happened. I don't know.
00:05:30
Speaker
But just just a theory. So there you go. Well, and to be honest, little bit disappointed. That's a bit sad to hear. hey Especially ah a brewery that sort of prides themselves on craft beer and and that's their jam, right?
00:05:48
Speaker
And then like they can't even brew it properly. Sorry sorry to say. yeah like i had it before and and it was yeah and it was really lovely. yeah but this like No, it's not.
00:06:02
Speaker
this This batch, I don't know what happened, but make this makes me not want to buy the beer again. Oh, that's bit sad. Isn't it? Yeah. it's like i think And I think quality control is really important for these small breweries. Absolutely.
00:06:17
Speaker
Especially when you've people like us who are so judgmentful on their products. Yeah. most and Most people are just like, yeah. ah Just give me beer.
00:06:30
Speaker
Well, what have you got, Karen? Well, you know, I raided the ah the old shed and found a Christmas beer that I hadn't drunk from Christmas. It was a bit late. in It's a winter stout from, where is it?
00:06:45
Speaker
Copse. Hold on. What's the actual brewery called here? It's Copse. Netherlands Dutch beard brewery.
00:06:57
Speaker
here And i' I'm starting easy on the day. It's a Christmas spicy voluptuous winter stout at 10.9%. I didn't see the strength when I picked a can. I was like, that looks nice. I don't want to go 10.9%. Jesus Christ.
00:07:17
Speaker
um Yeah. So let's get that one into a can, of the can, into a glass. been into a glass
00:07:27
Speaker
I mean, like the thing is, too, I've already been tasting beers in the garage earlier today, just testing some things, dumping some yeast and different things. so That's kind of a real alcoholic. You can hear that lovely.
00:07:43
Speaker
so them
00:07:47
Speaker
Well, a lot thinner than I thought it was going to be. e um Yeah, really thin. really thin and not what I expected from a winter stout at all.
00:08:01
Speaker
what What causes the thick mouth taste and what causes a thin mouth taste? Well, it's all to do with ah with ah basically unfermented sugars or of some kind, like proteins and and starch compounds that are not fermented out, sugars. Yeah.
00:08:23
Speaker
it Basically sugars. um There are different complexities of sugars. So you have different, ah you have like simple sugars like ah fructose and sucrose, which is like simple sugars and yeast. Fucking loves that shit. It just goes to town on it because it's super easy to consume.
00:08:42
Speaker
but ah But you get slightly longer chain, ah like we're talking about molecules here, sugar. sugars So you have maltose is the next one.
00:08:54
Speaker
And that's reasonably easy to ferment down. But the ones that may be harder are dextrose sugars. Dextrose are even longer ah like molecule strain.
00:09:06
Speaker
And that makes it difficult for the yeast to process because it's a big molecule. And so they only can manage a bit of it, not a lot. They manage to break down, not all of it. They get pretty tired. So it leaves a lot of this sugar in solution, basically, a long-chain sugar called dextrose in solution.
00:09:26
Speaker
And that gives it that kind of thicker feeling because it's literally got more thick, like longer-chain molecules in solution. Interesting. So there you go. Yeah, dextrose sugar kind of makes it thicker.
00:09:40
Speaker
yep Yeah, yeah um ah there are other factors as well, um but that's the main that's the main one. Oh, interesting. Awesome. Thanks for the info, Karen.
Project Challenges and Solutions
00:09:51
Speaker
the Welcome to the beer school.
00:09:57
Speaker
I'm really not a fan of this, I'm say. sorry. It's so like thin and I'm sorry, co-auor come Collapse Brewery from Rotterdam. I'm really not a fan of this. It's like so thin and almost like whiny.
00:10:16
Speaker
tastes like a wine almost, like a like like a carbonated wine. um Not really yeah feeling it. Sorry. But anyway, on to the next.
00:10:27
Speaker
Justin, how's your week been? Tell me. You said it was pretty crap. Yeah, it's been a bit crap. Like, to be honest, after I edited last week's podcast, I I just sat around.
00:10:43
Speaker
Waiting for parts to arrive or what to do? Yeah. So last week I told you guys that I was waiting on parts for the World Rally car. Yeah. ah Still waiting on parts.
00:10:54
Speaker
To this day, i got an email on Friday saying, oh, we finally sent you a package. i'm like, what the hell? God. It's like Norwegian businesses don't want my business.
00:11:07
Speaker
It's so crazy. oh You know why? Winter holiday. I know, right? i just... ah ah It frustrates me to death. So, like, you wonder why i end up ordering so much stuff from China.
00:11:22
Speaker
It's because they guarantee delivery. They get on it straight away. You've got like an instant, nearly like within an hour, you've nearly got everything you ordered on its way. Yeah, right.
00:11:34
Speaker
You know, like being picked up and delivered. Like they are efficient. Some poor slave labor picking a picking stock in a warehouse. Yeah. Yeah, but I also, like, i get it, but I don't.
00:11:49
Speaker
Because I'm a business, I need to make money too. if I'm waiting for these Norwegian businesses to pull their thumb out and pack a box, yeah then, like, why would I go with them?
00:12:05
Speaker
And they cost more. They only triple the price. Well, they say there's a brew shop in, like, there's there's two main brew shops in Norway. One is called Brew Shop, and the other one is called Ölbriging.
00:12:19
Speaker
The one in Ölbriging is in Kristiansand. It's not all Grimstad even. It's not even that far from here. You know what? They take twice as long to pick the order, and the shipping takes twice as long, and they can't even deliver it, like, in the local area. i have to drive...
00:12:38
Speaker
Like 15 minutes to where their pickup point is. So I just, I don't bother. They don't get my business. Do you know who gets my business? The people in Trondheim. Interesting. Trondheim can get my stuff here to Oslo 10 times faster than they're bringing.
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah. So they get more money. yeah we decided it The funny thing is the store I bought my parts for, for the goat for the World Rally car, which is just fuel lines and a bunch of small clamps and and things like this that are required for the the fuel system, they're on the other side of Oslo.
00:13:19
Speaker
Yeah, right. Dude, it's so insane. But it's winter holiday, Justin. We don't work. Wow. ah oh So yeah, I have been ordering parts this week, waiting for parcels, obviously. yeah. a Snowmobile update.
00:13:40
Speaker
No snow? No snow, no parts. what i they they What is it like 11 degrees or something that they've... ah Dude, it's so insane. i am like Like I said last week, I think I've missed the boat in the YouTube window. i just feel like, oh, what have I done? Yeah.
00:14:01
Speaker
You know, i I've spent all this money on parts for this project, and it's just sitting there gathering dust. I'm frustrated. I've got a sponsor, and it's actually the sponsor's fault that I don't have the parts ready to go, and that the all the snow's now melted, and I'm running out of options. Yeah.
00:14:21
Speaker
I spent this week trying to find out what I was going to do, where I could drive this thing. Yeah. And I just kept on hitting these walls. you know like I called ah call it a friend of ours and he has a cabin.
00:14:36
Speaker
And I said, you know hey, up in your cabin, you know is there there snow up there? And he's like, oh, yeah, heaps of snow. It's great. I was like, okay, interesting. ah I've got my snowmobile, the project. you know Is there a place I could drive it around there?
00:14:55
Speaker
And he goes, ah I mean, you could, but the problem is there's a lot of, as he called it, hissy folk.
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah, right. Like anal retentive Karens, basically, yeah in in their own cabins around his area, right? Yeah. And he said, you don't want to drive it here.
00:15:20
Speaker
And it's like I'll only be like an hour just burning around, like just getting some footage and and having a bit of fun in some snow, right? He says, no, you don't want to do that because this guy's an ex-police officer as well.
00:15:32
Speaker
He said, these people will call the cops. And then if you get caught, not only will get caught with an unregistered snowmobile and no and I don't have a license either either for snowmobile driving.
00:15:45
Speaker
So not only will I get caught for that, but he said – The laws here in Norway are so strict that you also get done for environmental infractions.
00:15:58
Speaker
Right. Because you're you know it's a snowmobile and you're potentially driving it places where it shouldn't be driven. Right. And i was like then he's like, the the fine is huge.
00:16:12
Speaker
Hmm. And he begged me not to drive it. I was like, what? Like, what is this what is this country we live in, dude? Where everyone's so square and boring.
00:16:27
Speaker
They can't even, like some guy has just made some cool snowmobile thing, you know, and no one wants to help him drive it. You basically have just someone with a big farm, basically, that's their own property.
00:16:40
Speaker
But even then, i mean, I haven't found people that are just willing to open their doors and say, yeah, sure, come around. like No, they're like, who's this weird foreigner, you know, i like come around here with this thing, you know.
00:16:52
Speaker
So I've been looking around. i've been yeah I caught i haven even spoke to my mother-in-law. ah you know That's a desperate thing, Scott, dude. I was like, what's the snow like at your cabin? And she's like, oh, I don't think it's very much actually because it's been such bad weather.
00:17:13
Speaker
Yeah. ah So, it looks like that's out as well. in And I'm just... That's a four-hour drive. Yeah, that's a four-hour drive in the middle of Norway in the mountains. It's like 750 meters up and you'd think there'd be a bit of snow, but apparently not.
00:17:31
Speaker
a I'll talk to my friend Nathan. He has a cabin in the area too. The only way to get in is on snowmobiles. So, technically... no one's gonna really bat much an eyelid in that area.
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah, but seriously, i honestly, I'm running out of options here and I'm feeling a little bit... ah I'm frustrated, of course, but i'm I just feel stuck.
00:17:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. You know, I feel like i have no no way out of this except for just kind of giving up.
Exploring AliExpress for Parts
00:18:04
Speaker
yeah so Well, if you are listening and you have a farm, you have a cabin which doesn't have any neighbors...
00:18:13
Speaker
or And you're like, yeah, I'd love to have Justin thrashing his snowmobile creation nearby and maybe get a chance to drive it yourself.
00:18:25
Speaker
Oh, for sure. They'd drive it. If it doesn't break, I'm not first. First round. DM at Garage Avenger. That's true. send Send your messages. Let me know if you exist and you want to help me out.
00:18:38
Speaker
Like, honestly, I feel like I'm really running out of options. um But the upside is because I've been doing stuff all in the garage, I've been working on my new project, which we talked about last week, yeah which is the yeah the chopper. Chop, chop.
00:18:57
Speaker
Yeah. um Stop thinking about. Just get into it. This. Hey, big ears.
00:19:10
Speaker
Sorry, that would that was Chopper references. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. He's referencing a movie about ah Mark Chopper Reed, which is yeah a highly violent criminal in Australia. But anyway, ah the the interesting thing about this was that I just ended up going down a rabbit hole. and I got onto AliExpress.
00:19:34
Speaker
And so one thing too, AliExpress is the only place i can find the parts I need. m there I can't find another marketplace that sells bearings in the right size with, like for example, a little lip on the edge so I can slot them in a pipe.
00:19:54
Speaker
And have them not go into the pipe and not have to machine some sort of lip or weld them in or things like this, right? These are all small details in this project that I need to be able to complete.
00:20:09
Speaker
But here in Norway, you have no chance to find anything you need. ah If you went to a store here in Norway and were looking for bearings, you'd go to one of these like mom and pop sort of shops, right?
00:20:24
Speaker
And then there'd be a like an old stale dude behind a desk and you'd go in and you'd say, I need a bearing this size with these dimensions. And he'd just – you could see he just – He'd adjust his glasses and then he'd put this huge big catalogue on the bench and he'd flip through it.
00:20:44
Speaker
And then he goes, I'll have to order that one. And then he goes, I'm like, how long is it going to take? Oh, about four weeks. Right, And then how much is it going to cost? ah about 1.2 million kroners.
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah. You know, so like what's the point when I go onto AliExpress yeah and I'm like, I need this bearing size. and literally write the bearing size in oh and it comes up with all the options that that exist on that platform.
00:21:19
Speaker
And I could get free shipping, yeah you know, for 48 kroners set. ah set So, like, why why would I go to mum and pop shop no when they're just so painful?
00:21:34
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Like, if you're gonna if you're goingnna if you own a mum and pop type shop out there and you're not following up with service, it's probably a reason why you're not doing super well.
00:21:46
Speaker
but This sounds like actually our shit segment. Well, maybe, maybe, maybe. But yeah, I mean, it just, I feel like this week's just a bunch of money flying out of my bank account. I bought so much stuff, dude. You just see the list.
00:22:08
Speaker
But I have this real feeling that this project's going to be boss. So that's cool. um I should also add that on the World Rally Car Project, I'm still waiting on tires.
00:22:23
Speaker
I'm waiting for used tires from a guy that we know. um And it's frustrating because, you know, I'm like in dialogue with this guy and he's like, yeah, yeah, I got some. like, when can I pick them up?
00:22:37
Speaker
no answer for like four days. And I'm like, oh, come on. this is my living. Yeah. this Like, the longer I wait on this, the more problems I have.
00:22:51
Speaker
So, Hopefully this week I'll get those tires and I'll get the fuel lines and I'll get this thing up and running and I'll be driving it hopefully this week. Yeah. Which will be a huge milestone because it feels like this project's been going forever, yeah although they always do. They do. It's true.
00:23:11
Speaker
um Yeah, and to be honest, this week we'll just be literally tracking parcels. I'll be on the app just going, air but or ah where's this parcel? Where is it?
00:23:25
Speaker
he it Oh, shit, it's in Larvik now. Oh, come on. It's it's so close. Can't I just drive down there and get it? So we'll we'll just see out what happens with the parcels. Hopefully that everything will come this week. Fingers crossed.
00:23:38
Speaker
um I should say the advantage to having a week where things are just falling apart and you feel like you can't actually physically do any work and you've ordered all the parts, you're just waiting for stuff to come is you end up doing the stuff you don't want to do when you've got all the fun stuff happening.
00:23:58
Speaker
you ah So this week I've managed to actually do my books. Yeah. yeah Yeah. How deep in the red are you? Oh, dude, I'm so deep.
00:24:10
Speaker
Already, so deep. Oh, my God.
Support and Financial Strains
00:24:13
Speaker
Yeah, the these projects, i mean, i really I really hope I can make it work ah for these projects. And I don't think I could make it work without my patrons.
00:24:27
Speaker
So I think right now I want to give a shout out yeah to my – ah top tier heroes, I call them. ah Thomas Bachner, Mark Foster, Janis Klemms, Ula Skitteren, Arthur Midgard, the Swedish maker, um Mark Jones, and Stan Suess. And I want to give an extra shout out to my crazy fan
00:24:59
Speaker
sidekicks. They're these guys that decided they're going to give me a butt tin of money to continue this. like When I say a butt tin of money, i'm talking like 200 kroners.
00:25:11
Speaker
a month, which is amazing. I can't believe Yeah. And they are Thomas Smestad, or Smestad, Arne at Mungle Sistelen, and Sylvester Arnesen.
00:25:28
Speaker
Those three guys are freaking amazing. I can't believe I cannot believe they want to support me in those projects so that I do in my garage.
00:25:39
Speaker
But I am so grateful because... Honestly, half the stuff I bought this week for this chopper project, I couldn't afford if I didn't have these guys supporting me. So, thank you to everyone. And of course, thank you to all my members as well.
00:25:57
Speaker
Even the guys that just give me a dollar a month. It's every little bit counts. So, thank you. ah On that note, Kieran, have you started a Patreon? Well, I'm waiting for five people to message me. That was the that was a deal.
00:26:14
Speaker
Five people to DM me at Eucharist Brewing ah to say, i want free beer. Apparently, nobody wants free beer. yeah today no but Nobody wants anyone free beer.
00:26:28
Speaker
No wants free beer. Let me talk. We have seven listeners. for Asking for five people to send you a DM is pretty big. that's That's like 75% of our listeners. Well, you know, that's what I need.
00:26:45
Speaker
That's the commitment I need. Five people to say, yeah, I'm down. I'm down for a dollar a month, you know, $5 a month, whatever it is, right?
00:26:57
Speaker
Be on the journey, be in the know, be the first to taste beers, you know? But I haven't heard it's it's been squirrels, nothing. So it's clear, the people.
00:27:10
Speaker
They don't want free beer. nobody No, I'm not. You want to pay full price. I understand. I respect your desire to pay full price. Yeah, exactly, Kieran. You have to think it is positive. they They're like, you know what? I don't want to undercut Kieran. I want to go to Vien Monopole and the bars and by buy them full price.
00:27:30
Speaker
Support him that way. Good on you. ah Good on you. You bloody legends. Legends. So, Kieran, what's been happening in ah your world? Well, lots have been happening, and it's been a bit of a frustrating – maybe we were synchronicity this week. um
00:27:51
Speaker
I'll give you a rundown. ah Beers are conditioning at this point. I've got three beers sitting, conditioning. The sour, which I was a little bit sceptical about, this lemon basil sour is a kid conditioning up. And actually, give it a few more weeks maybe, i think it might turn pretty frigging nice, actually.
00:28:11
Speaker
Really? Because you were really worried that was going to ruined. Yeah. ah Any of that um off smell has kind of dissipated now. So yeast has cleaned it up, it seems. So that's cool.
00:28:26
Speaker
and And yeah. So then the the Holy Ghost beer, I tried to mix this chili extract into the vessel as it was supposed to, ah as what will happen commercially, and it's not worked.
00:28:41
Speaker
It's like yeah the flavor hasn't blended through well. And it's so I just realized there's no point in doing it that way.
Cultural Reflections in Norway
00:28:48
Speaker
um so what I'm actually going to, I think if I go ahead with the project, because it hasn't been brewed commercially yet, if I go ahead with the brew, I'm going to do it as a West Coast IPA.
00:29:01
Speaker
And I'm going to dose keg individual kegs with, which will mean no cans. I can't can it. which is super disappointing because of the the label looks so fucking boss.
00:29:15
Speaker
But the way that production happens at Disco, who's going to produce it for me, ah there's no way to add it individually. Basically, I'll be standing there with a dropper into each can as it's being filled, and that's that's just not going to happen, unfortunately. They don't want that to happen.
00:29:35
Speaker
So ah he has kind of approved that I that i personally come and fill, manually fill kegs with the extract and fill it up with the with the beer to blend it through. So the actually the beer will be split into a West Coast IPA, which actually in itself is pretty fucking good.
00:29:56
Speaker
And a ah standard, and the so it'll be unholy ghost and holy ghost, basically. So i get two different beers out of the batch. That's the plan.
00:30:06
Speaker
That sounds horrible, Kieran. We all just want – we want just Holy Ghost. But that's all I can do. you know um The reality of taking the risk on an entire batch of Holy Ghost at 40 – it would be 50 kegs of that beer at the risk because, of course, when you start adding things in the way I'm talking about it, the shelf life is potentially compromised.
00:30:32
Speaker
So you can infection risk and most of things there. So I don't, I can't take the risk of 50 kegs going bad and then money down the drain. So that's what I have to do.
00:30:43
Speaker
and One advantage, and this comes into my shits thing there, which I'll talk about later is that I can diversify into different products. So,
00:30:55
Speaker
There and Yep. Lynn's grandma died but the other week and we had the funeral on Friday and we went there. That's the first time I've been to a funeral where I actually saw the coffin being lowered into the ground.
00:31:13
Speaker
Yeah. I've never had that. I've never been there. It's a bit of a surreal experience, to be honest. so And I was so certain that because i they had these ropes and people were lowering, like people, the coffin bearers or whatever were lowering it down. I was so certain someone was going to drop a rope at one stage.
00:31:31
Speaker
Poor Mimi would just flopping out. I was just like, oh, man. it's ah there was There was no communication on the lowering of the coffin into the whole thing. Yeah, was it all janky? like Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was waiting for the poor thing to flip over and for everyone to be traumatized.
00:31:50
Speaker
Oh, my God. So, and like thankfully, that didn't happen. And we had a nice time with the with family, you know, and all the rest. And we took the kids along um and they were super good, super good in the scenario. It's a bit of an odd situation for them.
00:32:08
Speaker
ah but they handled it really well. so Awesome. so I mean, sorry to hear that she passed away and you know that you had to do that, but I mean, at the same time, it's it's nice to be around family when everything sort of like that happens.
00:32:26
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and and and when what it was somewhat revealing, to be honest, because, you know, you and I probably, and for anyone out there who is a foreigner in their family, like, you you know, you're a foreigner and you come into another family of another nationality, you probably understand the feeling of really not being understood, especially if there's a language barrier.
00:32:52
Speaker
um and and You and i I, would like to think speak fluent Norwegian, but the reality is we're not ourselves in Norwegian.
00:33:03
Speaker
We're not, we we can't express ourselves in the same way. We can't be as fast-witted or, you know, we don't, people don't get a real picture of who we are. And that's very, that became very clear at the at the funeral, at the wake afterwards.
00:33:20
Speaker
People have no idea who I am. Like, No idea. they In fact, i was like ah saying, just talking to Lynn afterwards, like and in terms of people who really have a better understanding an understanding of who I am there's Lynn's dad.
00:33:37
Speaker
And that's mostly because we speak a lot of English together. Yeah. And ah an Mimi, who actually died. So those that's the top two that actually understand who I am.
00:33:48
Speaker
And yeah, so the rest of the family have no clue. But they don't to make the time either. So that's the challenge. So, you know, it's a difficult one though, isn't it? Like being a foreigner in this this country.
00:34:04
Speaker
i mean, any country probably. Yeah. beyond it Yeah. it's um It's probably not isolated to Norway. That's for sure. But there, mean, we can only talk of the experience that we have.
00:34:15
Speaker
And, you know, i mean, it's a It's a challenge. like um Maybe we can go down this rabbit hole just. But you know after this kind of, you know we had, to I've been thinking about the fact that like you know you have this cultural phenomenon yeah which has been labelled Jontorovn here in Norway. Explain what it is.
00:34:42
Speaker
For those who are not familiar, now I'm probably not going to do it justice. um It's basically, the talk the from my understanding, the term is coined based on a book that was actually written by a Danish guy – who more or less just labeled something that already existed in Norwegian culture.
00:35:04
Speaker
And that is the idea of, you know, I should not assume that I am anyone, that I'm better than anyone, that I'm, a it's kind of like a misguided ideal of what a humble person should be. Yeah, yeah.
00:35:22
Speaker
But it's not taken like that, is it? No, well because the the interesting thing, because humility is knowing that you are strong deep down and choosing not to express your strength.
00:35:34
Speaker
That's humility, in my opinion. But I would say, and now um it's a broad generalisation, so bear with me, Norwegians who are listening. um I feel like it's a broad generalisation. it is just a means to oppress a people group. Yeah.
00:35:54
Speaker
I mean, i am nothing. I shouldn't expect to be anything. I shouldn't expect to stand up. like it's it's the It's a method of control for population. Yeah, stay in the herd.
00:36:05
Speaker
Stay in the herd. Don't make a noise. don't you know You'll only get shut down. You'll only fail. And I was thinking about this, and I just realized for people like you and me, and not just because we're foreigners, but because we're passionate about things – in this, we come and we live in a country, in a culture that fundamentally disagrees with passion in it in the idea of Jontenorven.
00:36:34
Speaker
Because to be passionate is to like stand up and be like, yeah, look at this. Let's do this. Look at look at me. Well, not only just look, you can be passionate about politics or whatever. It doesn't have to so necessarily be about you.
00:36:49
Speaker
But the fact that you would stand up and say, hey, everyone, we should look at this. That's like, no, yeah don't stand up. Don't, so you know, just.
00:37:00
Speaker
Makes people feel really uncomfortable. Yeah, right? ah The irony of the situation is, is like we're talking about, like, it's Norwegians are very happy to point the finger at other things happening outside their own country.
00:37:14
Speaker
Yeah. American politics, for example. Oh, they love talking about their own politics. Love it. But talk about their own politics, talk about their own internal cultural struggles, matt and that's off the table.
00:37:28
Speaker
So, it's just really fascinating because you can't challenge the existing rhetoric of the country. um And the irony of the situation is probably the same everywhere in different ways of form.
00:37:42
Speaker
you know America is no doubt the same in many ways. like You don't challenge the the ideals of the country has put forward. know I mean, obviously people do, but there's you know it's one of those things you're not really supposed to do.
00:37:59
Speaker
You know, so, i mean, it's a challenge too because, like, you know, as foreigners here in Norway, like, we're trying to navigate a space and do something. You know, I'm trying to build ah be a beer brand and and that requires you to get out and meet people and, you know, and you've got something you want to share with people, which I think is, you know,
00:38:21
Speaker
valuable and exciting and i want to express that passion and excitement to other people to help get them on board because that's like human nature right you're not gonna like hey i've got this beer brewery it's like uh average you know might like the beer i think uh do you want to buy some maybe but don't feel stressed about it don't you know don't Yeah, like you don't sell anything if you don't if you if you don't have enthusiasm and passion, right?
00:38:52
Speaker
And yet, and and I understand that in some context it's acceptable, but I'm just talking about the broader sense of Norwegian culture. is yont i mean, what is your opinion, Justin? Is Jontalovn fundamentally fighting against passion?
00:39:11
Speaker
ah Someone said to me, ah actually it was Nima Shahinian. He said, Yomte Lohven is misunderstood here. yeah People think Yomte Lohven is don't stand out, don't be anybody.
00:39:25
Speaker
you Right? Be the herd. Right.
00:39:31
Speaker
But he believed it was the opposite way. and i believed Yomte Lohven actually meant that you should... Be somebody should be there, but don't ever think you're better than anybody. You should be passionate. You should be ah striving for achievement to be someone or someone different, but never step on people to get up there.
Materialism and Social Dynamics
00:39:59
Speaker
And I can understand the the logic. I would agree with that, but how do you balance the two?
00:40:07
Speaker
Well, I mean. Like stepping on people ah to get up, I agree with that. I think that's that's a good principle to have. But the idea that, like, how do you think you are somebody when you shouldn't be somebody?
00:40:19
Speaker
You know what I mean? there's There's two opposing ideas that are working against each other. No, I don't think so. I mean, I i feel it's just a mindset.
00:40:29
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So you can feel like you are somebody, but when you go interact with people, you don't hold it above them. Like, don't you know who I am type of thing.
00:40:42
Speaker
Yeah. which is Which is what actually a lot of Norwegians do. Well, no one knows when they do it on a different... Yeah, but they do it on different level. They do it on money.
00:40:53
Speaker
Yeah, right. So when you become financially successful here... Yonthalov and goes out the window. Then you all of a sudden you're like, hey, hey ah ah I'm driving a Bugatti and i've you know I've got the fancy cars and they don't you know who I am?
00:41:08
Speaker
here know It's like this whole idea too. like i was Years ago, i was waiting in the line to go into the the um car wash, right? Mm-hmm.
00:41:22
Speaker
And this guy in his BMW, fancy BMW, like decided he was just going to cut the line. And i was like, I got out of the car. i'm like, hey, I was waiting here.
00:41:35
Speaker
And he's like, yeah, I don't have time. I'm like, what? no No, there's two people behind me. You need to go behind them. And then he just refused to move.
00:41:48
Speaker
And he knew that well i wouldn't do shit. So he just stuck there. So he thought he was better than me because of my shitty car, basically. Right. Yeah.
00:41:59
Speaker
Right? So i for me, I got so frustrated. I just i remember just standing in front of his bonnet with my arms crossed. Just be like, no, you're not going in.
00:42:13
Speaker
We're hold up this whole line until you move. Yeah, right.
00:42:19
Speaker
ah The arrogance on this guy. is like it was so crazy. Yeah. But he had a fancy BMW and he thought he could go and cut the line because he didn't have time to wait. and like so and and But how wide does why is it that money defines whether you can be an acceptable human being or not?
00:42:41
Speaker
and I don't know. Yeah, I mean, and and somehow it's like acceptable. I mean, I wonder too, like there's that,
00:42:51
Speaker
we've heard of the term a poverty mindset. Yeah. and So, you know, in Kosovo, for example, we have a friend from Kosovo and, you know, Kosovo is not a wealthy country.
00:43:04
Speaker
But everyone owns like fucking brand spanking new Audis with massage chairs and all that crap in it, like top of the line stuff.
00:43:14
Speaker
And then they basically live in a squalor. Right. But there's such a need to present the idea that you are successful a through material things to other people in order to gain social like points in the hierarchical system, despite the fact that you actually live like a pauper otherwise.
00:43:36
Speaker
ah This has welled through. like I remember growing up in Sydney you know and seeing this crazy, hotted up you know Honda Civic or like something crazy. that this This young man had spent hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars doing up his car, yet he lived at his mom's house.
00:43:56
Speaker
Yeah, of course. yeah you know so so That's you know that that the same principle. I think what's interesting about here is that Nobody looks up to people that are sheep.
00:44:12
Speaker
Like you think about anyone you look up to. And all of them were outliers. All of them were the people that were pushing the boundaries in their industry, their whatever. right They were not following the Norwegian equivalent of the Interloven.
00:44:33
Speaker
you ah They were all pushing their boundaries, whether it's musicians, whether it's artists, whether it's someone, an entrepreneur starting their business, none of them said, you know what, I should just fit in with the crowd.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yeah, right. And that's what I feel in this country here. I even had a discussion with Kristen yesterday. I said, I think we need to move. Yeah.
00:45:03
Speaker
But I feel stuck because yeah there's so many things here. i mean, for one, i mean, have you heard of this exit tax here in Norway?
Norwegian Exit Tax
00:45:12
Speaker
Exit tax?
00:45:14
Speaker
Yeah. So last year or early this year, they put in this ah exit tax. Hmm. And basically, it's to stop big businesses leaving Norway. All right. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
00:45:32
Speaker
Because it's, ah you know, the state requires so much money to run run these office jobs, you know, these commuter jobs, these, you know, the the state jobs. Yeah.
00:45:46
Speaker
ah they need companies to to make money in Norway so that they can pay for that, so they can tax them, so they can pay for the the state employees.
00:45:57
Speaker
But this is like the thing, rather than a just think, okay, like this is – like systemic problem we have where big businesses don't want to be here. We're making it difficult for businesses to thrive, to employ people, to move forward. Like, you know, we don't, we don't export anything out of the country. We pretty much primarily import. the only thing we export is oil and power from hydro and things like that. Like we don't have, like the country doesn't have a good GDP.
00:46:29
Speaker
ah And like, okay, well, how about we do something to, we've got an oil fund, we've got all these things that are dispersed, like what have we got, our hands to use to,
00:46:46
Speaker
Do something about this? Like, why don't we come up with a plan? Why we come up with a plan to make it better for businesses to thrive here and hopefully businesses to actually start exporting whatever they're doing out of the country?
00:47:01
Speaker
Well, here's an interesting thing. You this exit tax doesn't just affect big business. It affects me as a normal you know Norwegian citizen. like so I've decided I don't want to move. Okay, that's worst case scenario, right?
00:47:18
Speaker
ah Something happens, I feel we need to move. you so We sell our house to move back to Australia, for example.
00:47:30
Speaker
Right.
00:47:33
Speaker
When I decide that I need to move that money from Norway to Australia to buy my new house in Australia, Norway takes 40% of that. 40%? 40%. Yeah. So as who has zero money gets 40% of what invested in, what I own. Mm-hmm.
00:47:51
Speaker
gets taxed forty percent of my what i what i invested in what i own you what The risk I took to buy a house and pay that mortgage off, I get taxed for trying to leave the country with the money that is actually mine.
00:48:12
Speaker
Yeah, right. And that's what's crazy. It's not just big business. It's everyday people. it's the The threshold is $400,000, Kieran. $400,000. That's nothing.
00:48:23
Speaker
No. No. that's nothing The second you go oh you bring out $400,000 out of the country, you get taxed at 40%. That means everyone that wants to buy you know ah like a property in Spain has to pay 40% of that money gets taxed. I don't think people really ah fully understood what happened when they passed that bill. Yeah.
00:48:50
Speaker
When was that? When did that happen,
Local Police Anecdotes
00:48:52
Speaker
by the way? I'm pretty sure it happened last year. Okay. I'd be really interested because I have a... there Okay, where we can maybe we don't go down this political... I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist sometimes. But anyway, we can talk about that another time.
00:49:09
Speaker
Onwards and upwards, Justin. um oh by the way, we had some crazy stuff happen down the street yesterday. not, it was the day before, on Saturday. There was a police chase down, like, and they stopped the car, like, 50 metres from our house.
00:49:25
Speaker
Like, nice police were out with guns, g literally guns drawn. And, like, and they tased the poor fucker as well. and Like, it was pretty intense.
00:49:37
Speaker
So, yeah, they pulled, like, they did the spike strips to stop the car and then they, like, pincered him in in the move. It was pretty pretty epic.
00:49:48
Speaker
Dude, i that is the I know police officers here in Norway. that would a bit They're going to be talking about about that for years. Nothing ever happens like this. There was like five police cars and they're all just sitting like if they're not if they weren't actually involved, they're sitting in the corner jerking off because they were so pumped.
00:50:08
Speaker
Like you could just see all of them. This is what we train for. ah You know, like –
00:50:16
Speaker
Oh, they love that. I mean, obviously, there's a reason why you get yeah become a police officer and and the excitement of the chase and things like that is probably a good portion of it, I imagine.
00:50:27
Speaker
So, you know, it's like i'm I imagine ive probably made those officers' careers the moment they stopped that guy and, yeah.
Language and Authenticity
00:50:36
Speaker
I don't know whether tasing was really necessary because the guy was like, i don't I didn't hear what he was yelling at them and they were yelling at him or whatever the deal was.
00:50:45
Speaker
But he was like, he was standing with open arms and then they just tased him. Yeah, but what why like why wouldn't you tase them? They don't ever get to use those things. So like there's like, oh, finally, you get the shit. Finally, let's go.
00:51:00
Speaker
Oh, it felt so good. Then all the other police officers patting him on the back. Oh, you got to tase that fucker. I'm so jealous. ah ah no but just reminded me, Justin, and with the colourful language starting to use here.
00:51:18
Speaker
We've had some complaints. had a complaint, Justin. I've had a complaint about our potty mouths on the podcast. guy But, you know, I don't know what these fucking guys are fucking talking about, fucking idiots. So but how do they think we fucking swear too much?
00:51:38
Speaker
Honestly, I don't fucking know. Oh, hell. I think like it's interesting, too, because like obviously you have a Christian background. Yeah. swear like a trooper.
00:51:51
Speaker
ah And I think it's 2025. Are people so weird? like Norwegians say swear words all the time. Well, Fivon...
00:52:02
Speaker
yeah Yeah. But like, what what, like, it's just interesting that people still have an issue with swearing. Well, I mean, I admit it. Like it's,
00:52:17
Speaker
It's not very culturally acceptable. It's not very proper refined. tropined Well, if you want to listen to the Garage Avenger podcast,
00:52:28
Speaker
and listen to classical music and talk about what is happening in our garages.
00:52:37
Speaker
We're building and brewing shit.
00:52:42
Speaker
That's what the Capture Adventure podcast is about. But this is like the thing, right? Like I've always like, sorry, you mentioned my face, yeah? And I'm like, but I've always, there's a big, big, big difference between this is fucking amazing. Like it's an ah adjective, right?
00:52:59
Speaker
To you are a fucking piece of shit. Like there's a big difference. One is a curse against someone, speaking down to someone, speaking against someone, oppressing someone with language. Yeah. yeah And the other one is an adjective. expressing like, you know, I might as well be saying in the Norwegian equivalent would be us on the end of everything.
00:53:27
Speaker
yeah i mean I'd be like, oh, it was amazing us, you know, like, oh, whatever they say. i mean, I'm translating to English, but, they you know, like that's there's it's just an adjective, really. That's the way at least I use it most of the time.
00:53:43
Speaker
And, of course, there are times where frustration and things come into it, and that's a real thing. But I make a point of never – cursing an individual person or people groups.
00:53:57
Speaker
That's like, that's my thing. You know, I'll never, I might say like, you know, the industry is fucked, but it's not like these specific group of people in that industry fucked. And I'll never say that because I'm not, it's not personal.
00:54:14
Speaker
So, I mean, that's for me, that's that's the big difference with language. um And I can maybe understand if you're maybe not a native English speaker, maybe you don't hear the difference.
00:54:27
Speaker
Actually, yeah. And I think too, like, if you're not a native English speaker, you don't often listen to people talk real English, which is swearing all the time. Oh, just to get an English pen. Right, yeah. if you If you hear proper English together...
00:54:44
Speaker
Like, you go to Australia, that's how we talk. It's insane. Yeah, can't. Fuck yeah. ah Like, ah rough as shit. Yeah. um I think it's a weird that I think we're just on ah on a platform which is siloed, right?
00:55:02
Speaker
You know, you listen to like these proper podcasts and, you know, they're trying to be clean but and nice, but that's not really kind of us, weirdly. No. we're not we're not That's not how we talk to each other. So why would we different on the podcast?
00:55:18
Speaker
But, you know, on a side note, Justin, I will um try and refrain from the the use of adjectives. Yeah.
00:55:29
Speaker
Well, what's hilarious is I always, Kristen's often said to me like, Kieran swears more than you. Yeah. So I was like, oh, I guess he does. It's just part of my language, really. Like, I don't know how, picked it maybe it picked it up I mean, you were in the Navy for crying out loud. Oh, dude, when was in the Navy, it was out of control.
00:55:52
Speaker
Like out of control. Every second word was the F-bomb. Yeah, yeah. It's just like that's how you talk to one another. You couldn't even explain something like technical without the F-bomb.
00:56:07
Speaker
Well, you know what? love the the, if we're going to go down this rabbit hole a bit, I love the plasticity of the word fuck. ah Like, it's the only word in the English you can literally say the same word like four times and it has total, like, I'll give you an example.
00:56:27
Speaker
The fucking fuck is fucked. Right. Like you're saying the same word, but it has such a deep meaning and understanding. or Like, that's i don't think any language, any, any swear word, any English word other than fuck has that ability.
00:56:49
Speaker
So why wouldn't use it? Why wouldn't I use it?
00:56:54
Speaker
Well, you know what? I get it. ah People that don't like the the language obviously won't listen, and that's fine. Yeah. we got but you know We are ourselves, and that's who we are. we use swear words to express ourselves sometimes.
00:57:11
Speaker
That's why we have only seven listeners, Justin. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. But I think we need to move on, Kieran.
Listener Contributions and Generosity
00:57:23
Speaker
Double rainbow all the way across the sky.
00:57:31
Speaker
Mind blown. Well, my mind blown is ah from Anders Abramson, who sent me here these oak coasters that he had made from ah the shout-out to Aiketan Abaid at the Instagram.
00:57:48
Speaker
ah On Instagram, he I sent him, if the backstory for those who don't know, i sent him some beer to taste And he gave me lovely feedback on the beer and then of his own fruition said, send me a logo. i'm going to make you some coasters. And i was like, fucking cool. so he had literally made these coasters out of oak from a wood barrel that actually had been ah used for beer at Homburgeria, which is pretty cool.
00:58:23
Speaker
And he had somehow got his hands on them. It was originally, I think, Arkowitz barrel. So, yeah. And anyway, so he made these beautiful coasters. um They're just so nice.
00:58:37
Speaker
And I'm blown away by the generosity of of people. That's what's blowing my mind. and he took... Well done, Anders. You're a legend,
00:58:47
Speaker
Fucking legend that he is, took the time to make these... coasters for me like six coasters would have had to cut them sand them they oiled them did all the whole thing like he's what a legend what a legend i saw a picture they look great yeah so just like thank you Thank you, Anders.
00:59:14
Speaker
If somebody wants to make me a cool bottle opener, I'll get to set the I had a cool idea to make like ah have like a big cross as a bottle opener.
00:59:26
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So if any metal workers out there that want to make like a cool rustic cross bottle opener, that would be cool. Oh, that that'd be boss. But, you know, but if they so desire. anyway, but what's blown your mind this week, Justin?
Book and Show Recommendations
00:59:42
Speaker
I started reading a new book. Ooh, reading. Yeah. that's Well, when I say reading, I mean listening to audio air books, to be honest. I thought you were cultured. Put on your glasses, sit in the cozy up in the armchair, and a bottle, a glass of scotch,
01:00:01
Speaker
I ain't got time to sit down and turn pages. Right. like that that a If I've got time for that, then might as well just give up my job. like Yeah. um I started reading a book, an audiobook called The Real Anthony Fauci. Okay.
01:00:20
Speaker
ah It's by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ah You know, so a lot of people have this stigmatization, stigma, ah That's not the word I want to use.
01:00:33
Speaker
A stigma about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ah Known as like an anti-vaxxer and all this other stuff, right? ah But this book was written before he ran for president and it says the opposite.
01:00:53
Speaker
Interesting. And it's it's just amazing about it's basically coverving covering COVID and what happened and how Anthony Fauci basically systematically caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
01:01:14
Speaker
It's very interesting. What's interesting about it is it's been out since 2022 and he hasn't been and he hasn't been sued Hmm.
01:01:26
Speaker
So it must mean that everything he says in this book is true. And if that is correct, then i think everyone needs to read this book.
01:01:39
Speaker
it It will blow your mind. Yeah, cool. ah Honestly, I think it will change the way you think about the pharmaceutical industry, about doctors, about ah whole bunch of stuff.
01:01:59
Speaker
And if you're if you are a little bit skeptical about what happened at COVID, you're going to flip your brain like about this. This is some of the most mind-blowing stuff that is happening or did happen for real, and i have evidence of it.
01:02:19
Speaker
And this book outlines it all. And highly recommend that you read it. And I think it'll change your opinion of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and what he's now...
01:02:30
Speaker
going to try to do in this new position that he's got given by Trump. um Side note, put that in the show notes, Justin. There was another complaint about lack of notes inside show notes, links and whatnot.
01:02:49
Speaker
There you go. Okay. Side note. Yeah, but because mostly because I i want to find this book and don't want to have to sit there and re-listen to the podcast and try and write it down when you say it.
01:03:02
Speaker
Fair enough. So, yeah. Cool. Yeah. That's awesome. So, I highly recommend that book. It is blowing my mind at the moment. ah Yeah.
01:03:13
Speaker
What else to say? Nothing else. That's it. All right, Justin.
Craft Beer Industry Challenges
01:03:17
Speaker
What is... What's giving you the... Oh, didn't press it good.
01:03:25
Speaker
Who does number two work for? Mouse clicks. That's... Hey, just grab a hold of something, bite your lip, and give it hell. Come on. We're going to get through this.
01:03:40
Speaker
Oh, my God.
01:03:43
Speaker
hey What's giving you the shits, Garrett? The beer industry is giving me the shits right now. i The craft industry is completely, i mean, i was about to say the F word there, being violently penetrated.
01:04:03
Speaker
ah
01:04:06
Speaker
Willfully, it would say. with With consent. With consent. Yeah, and it's not been raped. It's just it's with consent being bent over and and
01:04:20
Speaker
violently penetrated. That's what's happening to the beer industry right now. i mean,
01:04:27
Speaker
so I was thinking about this. You know, i've I've got to produce beer. be i'm um I'm out selling beers ah to bars and restaurants.
01:04:39
Speaker
ah And if you're not a big brewery, like a big brewery, ah you're you're competing in the craft world right now.
01:04:50
Speaker
And the craft world, bars just want like one keg of one beer and then they want something new the whole time. The whole time. a new beer new beer, a new beer, a new beer, a new beer.
01:05:03
Speaker
And that's really good for innovation and maybe trying something different. But the problem is, is that... That's not how you make money on brewing. Like you can't, if you don't have the same yeast types that you're reusing, the same hop types, then you're getting at a good price.
01:05:20
Speaker
and And, you know, the margins are tight. You have to develop a new label for every new beer. And that costs money and all these kinds of issues there.
01:05:31
Speaker
Like it's just not sustainable. it's actually destroying the beer industry. And everyone's just trying to keep their head above water, so they're just kind of playing the game.
01:05:45
Speaker
But it's fucked. ah it's a I mean, thats okay, let's just think about, for example, Honbrügeria, like a local brewery here in Drummond.
01:05:56
Speaker
They have a beer called Fiere Flammer, if you've heard of it, Justin. I have not. It's a 6.5% IPA, like West Coast IPA.
01:06:07
Speaker
Super solid. Super solid. That should be on every single tap line in the country. If you're going to be like, I want an IPA, and you don't want a hazy IPA, you want the fruit type IPA, but if you just want an IPA, that should be the one that you go to. It's consistently one of the best across all the craft beer market, in my opinion. And you know what?
01:06:36
Speaker
They can't sell more than one keg at at a time. I have to wait six months between selling it because people don't want it. They want something new the whole time. They don't want to have flea to farm again. Oh, no, people are bored of that already. They need something new, you know.
01:06:53
Speaker
And it's just fascinating because of, like, how ah how are people going to, how are breweries going to survive on this model? it's It's just, you're going to have to pivot hard, you know.
01:07:06
Speaker
That's what's going to happen. And so I expect some big changes to roll through brewery, like craft brewery industry in the next year. couple years. And well i mean, you've told me that quite a few of them are going under. Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:21
Speaker
The no one's doing well right now. No one like the big boys, like Levick, for example, uh, like you had a massive export following.
01:07:32
Speaker
and then they hit a bit of a hard time and they did the silliest thing that I could have thought of and they fired all their or they permitted all their sales staff during the worst downturn they've had in years.
01:07:50
Speaker
And not only that, they had a really good international salesperson. i have someone on the know on the inside that told me that he was looking for a bit of a bit of a boost in his salary and rather than give him a raise, they basically told him to fuck off.
01:08:09
Speaker
And he left and he took all their customers with them. And so now everyone's gone. Now the whole brewery's going downhill. Sounds like you need to get this guy onto your brewery. Get him on the books, Kieran.
01:08:24
Speaker
Yeah, right. I mean, but sales is all about relationships. And if you don't understand that, you've, If you're running a business and that's got a sales department and you don't understand that that top sales guy is a top sales guy because he has good relationship or he she has good relationships with the customers.
01:08:43
Speaker
And then if you don't look after that person and keep them there, those sales will disappear. They will take the customer with them, you know, yeah to another competing business if the offer is better.
01:08:55
Speaker
So, you know, it's like you've got to you got to look after the people you have. I think that's ah really important in this day. But it's it's hard. It's hard out there right now.
01:09:05
Speaker
You know, there's a lot of competition and everyone's trying to, like, come with a thousand different beers to the market because that's all that they can apparently sell. So, and I wouldn't surprise me at all if most of the breweries are basically relabeling existing beers.
01:09:26
Speaker
Yeah. Like they're literally just putting another name on it and it's the same beer that they've always produced. It's like Fiera Flama with another name. And then they just sell it again because people don't, people just want something new the whole time.
01:09:39
Speaker
And it's still going to be like, oh, what a great beer. Like it's the same good beer as it always was, but it's just re had to be renamed. And that would be the only smart thing to do, but you can't do that sustainably.
01:09:52
Speaker
ah because people will cotton on to that eventually. So that's what's giving me the shits this week, Justin.
Social Norms and Interactions
01:10:00
Speaker
What's giving you the shits this week? Boring people.
01:10:04
Speaker
Boring people. Okay. ah This country is full of them. Yeah? the like i just It's so hard to connect with people here because they're all fucking boring.
01:10:18
Speaker
I'm sorry, like, the people listening to this podcast are clearly not boring. Yeah, they're fucking mad. Because they like but can listen to us ramble on about horrible shit and swear all the time.
01:10:32
Speaker
um But it's so difficult here. Like, I went to go this week to – deliver some stuff to Emma. She was going to be sleeping over at a friend's house. Yeah.
01:10:47
Speaker
You know, and I got there and the dad was on the sofa and he didn't even get up. What a rude prick.
01:10:59
Speaker
I know. But this is just, I don't know what it is. Like, am i like, please tell me, Norwegians, is this like a horrible expectation that like a father would get up off the sofa and like say, hey, nice that you came around and dropped off for stuff, you know, like, or, you know, and strike some sort of conversation? Mm-hmm.
01:11:21
Speaker
So what ended up happening is I went to him laying on the sofa. I felt like a super inconvenient person, you know, and then he asked me oh if I'd been watching the skiing.
01:11:34
Speaker
Like, no. Who the fuck watches skiing? Only the boring Norwegians watch skiing. Yeah, there's a big portion of the population clearly are boring. Well, that's right because most Norwegians are fucking boring. Like, I'm sorry. They're...
01:11:49
Speaker
Like, here's the thing. I tried to ask him the right questions to get him to open up, right? So I have this thing where I have these certain amount of questions. One of the questions I ask is, have you what have you been working on lately that's super exciting?
01:12:08
Speaker
And if someone is not boring, they'll like light up. They'll be like, this is the chance I get to tell people about the fun thing that I've been working on, right?
01:12:20
Speaker
And then you have a great conversation and you get to know them as a real human being and what they're capable of or something they're doing, something of interest.
01:12:32
Speaker
But this is this is the issue. Consumerism has no meaning other than to consume. It is not contributive to society. no And this is the trap that so many people find themselves in is consumerism.
01:12:47
Speaker
It's just about the next thing to buy, the next Netflix to watch, the next thing, the next, like, consume, consume, consumer consume, consume. And I'm like, that we've, i mean, this has been an issue since day dot, really.
01:13:01
Speaker
Like, this is nothing new, but it's like, it's probably amplified by the digital age. Oh, totally. Totally. And totally like, where will it stop?
01:13:14
Speaker
I don't think it will. I think people, people generally are in there. Like it's like the matrix, right? Most people are in their pods just living their fake lives yeah in this digital world. Right.
01:13:28
Speaker
And they don't, they are none the wiser. I think they don't want to be. It's too, it's too uncomfortable. Yeah. So to be honest, the the answer I got from this this dad when I asked that question is like, yeah, not much.
01:13:46
Speaker
Well, this is the other the other thing probably is is that as a Norwegian, I'm assuming he was Norwegian, yeah like Jan Tolovan says, he can't, you know, the culture says that he can't actually say, yeah, no, I'm were working on this thing I'm really excited about because you're not allowed to be excited and and passionate about anything.
01:14:06
Speaker
Yeah. And maybe that's it too. Right. You know, like, i and it's like, we you basically, you're, so you're basically creating worker bees. Like people are just and like, i'm and I understand why so many, uh, Norwegian workplaces struggle with lazy employees.
01:14:28
Speaker
When you have this kind of mentality that is prevalent, I'm just here to consume. consume I'm not here to contribute. I'm here to consume. Did every Norwegian workplace I've ever been in, I somehow got into a position of like management.
01:14:46
Speaker
Well, it's because you're you're like me, you're a natural leader type. Well, I'm not a leader. I wouldn't say that at all. I just think they keep on giving you responsibility and you just keep on saying, okay.
01:14:58
Speaker
Whereas the Norwegians would be like, nah, nah, nah, nah. We're not doing any more. It's not in my contract. Yeah, it's not in my contract. I've got to go home at 3.30 so I can cook dinner by 4.00.
01:15:10
Speaker
And then I've got to sit down and watch my TV2 show that no one gives the voice or shit. Mask-o-rama.
01:15:29
Speaker
Although i did watch a Norwegian show yesterday okay that I thought was good. Okay. It was called Team Pulser. Team Pulser, okay. Yeah. Was it a sausage-eating contest? Wouldn't that be funny? Oh, it is it just like... No, it's best TV!
01:15:48
Speaker
I don't know. ah that's another episode, by the way. Is that a bunch of guys just standing around with their pants off? No, no, no. Okay, ah basically, ah ah some famous skier, I don't know who the hell he is.
01:16:04
Speaker
Some Norwegian's rolling his eyes right now listening to this. oh Don't you know who that skier is? ah No, I don't know who the guy is. I don't watch skiing. It's the goofiest sport ever.
01:16:16
Speaker
Hmm.
01:16:18
Speaker
He's decided that he's going to take like ah seven or eight like disabled teenagers. Yeah, okay. And he's going to he's going to take them to the World Ski Club in Tronome, which is actually this week, I think.
01:16:34
Speaker
Cool. And they're going to compete in some race of some sort. Yeah. ah Really touching, really lovely. well Well-made series so far. We've only watched one episode, but so far it's pretty good.
01:16:47
Speaker
So, ah yeah, highly recommend that. But talking about recommendations, Karen. Yeah, there you Come on, sing your song. Recommendation, recommendation, what is your recommendation?
01:17:05
Speaker
Preston Goes. Preston Goes, okay. i think I think I've mentioned him before as a recommendation or at least something along those lines. Preston Goes, ah what a great ah channel on YouTube.
01:17:19
Speaker
Okay. Look, he makes things but he doesn't. Right. Do know what mean? He he like hacks things together.
01:17:30
Speaker
But he's such a great storyteller. Yeah. Yeah. And it inspired me this week. What nationality is he? American. Okay. yeah Yeah. ah So he's building this. ah So he's built this thing before. He's built two before this where they're like abandoned railway go-karts.
01:17:49
Speaker
Okay. so it's basically create like a like a cart that goes on the train tracks and then, you know, drives you to along the the abandoned tracks. Right. Okay. Yeah.
01:18:02
Speaker
So he had this, for some reason he tells a story that he loves bridges. Right. Yeah. So he wants to go to this crazy bridge, which is a two day trip on the train tracks on the abandoned railway. Right. to get To get to this thing.
01:18:17
Speaker
So he's in this new video, he's decided he's going to do this again, even though he's failed twice. Right. Right. ah And he bought a K truck. you know what a K truck idea what a K truck Those little tiny Japanese trucks.
01:18:32
Speaker
Okay. The little utes. yeah oh Yeah, yeah, yeah. The tiny ones, right? Yeah. um And he bought one of these and he's going to turn it into a railway,
01:18:45
Speaker
like Kara. Right. Okay, cool. yeah Yeah. What was interesting about this video, his' it's part one of three, and he talks about it being part one of three. Right.
01:18:57
Speaker
so Some YouTube videos that do that, you're kind of like, I'll just skip over and see where he gets to the end and then, you know. ah But this, his storytelling is so great that it keeps you engaged. Yeah, right.
01:19:12
Speaker
Like he takes you on the purchasing of the K truck, right, and the awkwardness with the between him and the seller. Right. And, you know, this things like this. And then he talks about how he was going to build this thing, know,
01:19:29
Speaker
Just really good storytelling. Yeah. He sets you up for a fail. You get the fail. You fall down again with him, and he builds himself up to another fail. You fall down again. It's it's a really – it inspired me a lot to make sure that I – Not in the same way he does it, but make sure that I can storytell or provide stakes in my videos that gets people engaged engaged in the in the video.
01:20:00
Speaker
So ah Preston goes, ah get a go check out his YouTube channel. It's exploding at the moment. He's going gangbusters. Cool.
Closing and Gratitude
01:20:10
Speaker
Nice. What's your recommendation, Kieran? Kids.
01:20:13
Speaker
Children. Children. Oh, no, don that's not a recommendation. Yeah, it's a recommendation. No. For and against. was going to say. There you So if you have a lot of love to give, if you're patient and you want to just have something, build something bigger than yourself, have a kid if you haven't had one already.
01:20:39
Speaker
Like the most rewarding experience of my life. Well, even if you're not that person, it's that'll turn you into that person. Yeah, i mean, well, it's the irony of the situation. i don't I didn't know that I was that kind of person until they came along, yeah?
01:20:56
Speaker
Exactly. And I think, as i you know what, I should preface this. If you are flexible, like if you're okay to roll with the punches, have a kid.
01:21:09
Speaker
Right? Because, like, if you're like, I need my life to look like this and be like this and fit in this mold, kids will destroy that. Absolutely destroy that in your life.
01:21:21
Speaker
Well, that or you'll destroy the kids. Yeah, well, yeah, exactly. because you And so it's not a good thing. So then in that case, don't have kids. But if you do, like, I mean, I just, um I can only speak of my own experience.
01:21:35
Speaker
You know, we had a pretty chill weekend with not a lot happening. But the joy of spending the weekend with my two kids this weekend and the time we spent together, the things we did, the joy on their faces as we, you know, wrestled on the bed and did all these, you know, things that we always do and played with stuff.
01:21:57
Speaker
It can't be, i can't recommend it enough for those who are hungry for that themselves. Yeah. Like just, yeah, find the right woman and and get her done.
01:22:11
Speaker
Oh, my God, Karen. I was just i'm taken back by it this week because i just I've just found out, like especially Liam, my youngest, ah he's at a stage now where he's doing super cute things.
01:22:25
Speaker
and ah And it's just it's a brilliant time. to to have with them and I'm thankful for it. So awesome. Yeah. So that's my recommendation for those kidless folk out there.
01:22:38
Speaker
Kidless folk. Yeah. Great. Well, that's ah another long podcast, unfortunately. Now we going we're going to, we're going to, oh, should, is this becoming a long format podcast? Should we do like a three hour rant?
01:22:50
Speaker
Yeah. right and Well, I'm not sure if people really want to listen to us rant for three hours I don't know. Maybe they might. You never know, Justin.
01:23:04
Speaker
ah Thank you so much all for listening. Hopefully next week I'll come with some interesting news of things actually working and actually building things in my garage.
01:23:16
Speaker
ah So next time, thank you all again so much for listening. Cheers, everyone. Bye. Later. I'll be innocent.