The Boyk Brief
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The Boyk Brief
The Beer Episode - featuring Mike Bruno
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Attorney Mike Bruno of Charles E. Boyk Law talks beer and brewing with his son Peter Bruno, Head Brewer at Northern United Brewing Company, brewers of North Peak Beers and Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales in Dexter, Michigan.
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SPEAKER_01Okay, this is Mike Bruno. I'm with the Charles Boyk Law Offices in Holland, Ohio. And uh we're here to talk everything law, except for today, because it's Friday. And since it's Friday, I have a special guest. And my guest I've known for well over 32 years. Um he's an accomplished uh person. He is the husband of Katie. He is the father of Jonah, a one-year-old, and he's done remarkable things in his life. And so I would like to introduce you to my number two son, Peter Bruno. So are you there, Peter?
SPEAKER_03Yep, I'm here, thank you for the introduction.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Uh obviously you're not sitting in a law office right now. So I'm guessing you're not prepared to discuss legal issues, true?
SPEAKER_03Right, that's right.
SPEAKER_01Well, since it's Friday, we're not going to discuss legal issues, and it's getting close to five o'clock, so I think it's time to discuss something near and dear to both of our hearts, and that is beer. Beer. And isn't that your business?
SPEAKER_03Yep, that's right. Um, I'm the head brewer for uh Northern United Brewing Company. Um, we do two, we make two different brands. Um, one is Jolly Pumpkin Art uh Artisan Ales, which is all uh Oak Age sour beers. Um, and then the other brand is uh North Peak Brewing Company, which is a lot of your more traditional um you know Pilsners, IPAs, fruit beers uh that people enjoy.
SPEAKER_01Okay. So uh we're gonna spare the uh the folks from hearing about your childhood and how wonderful it was to be raised by perfect parents. Uh but you may have to explain when your mom and I sat down and talked to you about going away to college. I don't think beer was in the discussion, was it? How did how did you get into this business?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, probably not. It really wasn't a huge career path at that point, I feel like. Uh I started out, I studied criminal justice and uh worked in corrections for a bit, first with juveniles and then adults, um, and decided it it basically wasn't for me. Um I wanted to then become a personal trainer because I've always been into weightlifting and working out. Um so I needed a little bit of a job to bring some income in while I got my certifications and apply for jobs. Um, so we were at the time living in Indianapolis, and uh we were would sometimes frequent uh Sun King Brewing Company. Um, so I decided just to get a part-time job there to, like I said, bring some income in and decided that I really love the people and love the atmosphere, and just generally likes going to work um in the morning and decided to stick with it and see we if I could make a career out of it. And I guess this worked out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So that was in Indianapolis. How long did you stay in Indianapolis working for Sun King?
SPEAKER_03I worked for Sun King for about a year and a half, so not too long, but uh kind of just helped me get the foot in the door. Um, it's a little bit tough to get in the industry if you don't have a lot of experience. Um then we uh had an opportunity through my wife's work to move to Michigan, which was closer uh to both of our parents and would be beneficial for our future family planning.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And then uh you took the job where you're at right now.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Right. So I had enough of experience to get my foot in the door at Jelly Pumpkin uh in North Peak.
SPEAKER_01And so I know you've also done some studying outside of work to reach some sort of an attainment, a certain status in the industry. What was that all about?
SPEAKER_03Well, I kind of want to just go above and beyond and learn as much as I could and be the best brewer I possibly could. Um, so I got a couple different things. Um I'm currently a certified Cicerone, uh, the Cicerone certification program. I'm sure you've heard of uh a Somalier, uh basically a wine expert. Uh Cicerone is basically the beer equivalent of a Somalier. Um so I studied for about three years pretty intensively for that. Um, all they give you is a syllabus and then just a list of like at least 10 books to read, um, and then you have to taste through all the styles and uh yeah, so that took about three years and two attempts at the test. Um, there's also advanced scicerone, which I might one day go for as well as master scissorone. Uh however, there's only about 15 master scissorones in the world, uh, so it's kind of difficult, but maybe one day, who knows? Um, and the other thing I did was through the American Brewers Guild. Um, it's called the Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering Program. Um, that was a six-month online program, very intense, like it's it's say it's uh full of chemistry, biochemistry, biology, physics, and engineering. Um, and that was much more in depth in the actual brewing process. Um, and that was it, those two things definitely helped uh me become a head brewer, and that was in the back of my mind uh part of the plan at the time.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so now you're a head brewer, so you must know how to make beer, right?
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01So why don't you kind of walk us through the process? How does it get from hops and water to the stuff that comes out of the tap at the bar?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, so what the vessel I have behind me is called uh a mash tun, and that's kind of the start of the process. So I'm gonna crack malted barley. Um, I'm going to then mix that with hot water in the mash tun. Um after a rest period, I'm going to move that liquid next to it to a boil kettle where I'll boil over a 60-minute period with different hop additions that are going in depending on your style. Uh will determine how much hops you're going to use. You're going to add those hops. After that, 60 minutes, I'm then going to cool that liquid, send it into a fermentation vessel where I'm going to pitch yeast, and then it will become beer. For jolly pumpkin, it's all oak aged, so it's then going to go to an oak vessel, also known as a fooder, or it's going to go into bourbon or wine barrels. For the North Peak side, once we have our beer, uh, we're going to be more concerned with clarification. Um, so we're either going to use a filter or some type of fining agent to see the clarity that the customer expects in those types of beers. Uh, and then that beer will then go on to carbonation packaging.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so uh you've got several cans in front of you there. Yep. So I see the tall ones, and they've got some artwork on them. What are those beers?
SPEAKER_02Yep, so uh you can see the artwork here, and I'll turn around and you can see all the beers.
SPEAKER_03So this is uh the beer I'm currently drinking. Uh Bam Beer is my favorite jelly pumpkin beer. Um, it is a uh a lighter farmhouse ale, about 4% alcohol. Um, it has a light dry hop, um, and it is just crisp, um, very light on the acidity compared to most sour beers. Um, and certainly my favorite, like I said. Oro is our golden strong ale, and then Blanca is a wit beer that has um bitter and sweet orange peel as well as coriander. Um, all three of these are, of course, oak-aged. Um, and then I have three of our more popular.
SPEAKER_01Can I stop you? Of course. You say oak-aged, how long are they aged? Is it overnight or longer?
SPEAKER_03It really depends on the beer. Um, bam and blanca are lighter beers, so it could just be like four to six months. Um, however, Oro is a bit of a higher-bodied, uh, higher alcohol beer. Um, and it's just gonna take a while for those cultures to work through the beer and develop the flavors that we're seeking. So that could be a year and it could be up to two years, possibly.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03All right, continuing. Sure. Um, and then this is uh the North Peak line. Um, one of our well, our most popular is uh diabolical, um, our IPA. Uh we then have siren, our amber ale is one of my dad's favorites. Um, and then one of our seasonals, uh, Archangel is a cherry wheat beer.
SPEAKER_01Okay, and again, half of your facility deals with the jolly pumpkin, and then the other half deals with the North Peak, right?
SPEAKER_03That's correct. Um, we have to keep the building uh separated because of our the sour cultures and the jelly pumpkin beer. Um it could potentially contaminate the North Peak beers, making them sour and well, basically off the brand at that point, unsaleable because it just wouldn't be what we were seeking to make.
SPEAKER_01Um if one was to look for these beers, where would they typically find them?
SPEAKER_03Um well in the Toledo area, uh I would say my two favorite places are uh Merinos Beverage and Joseph's Beverage Center, and they've always kind of carried our beers for sure. But uh it in Michigan uh you can find our beers at any Meyer in any number of given liquor stores.
SPEAKER_01Um and then the Jelly Pumpkin also has some restaurants available too with bars, right?
SPEAKER_03Yep. Uh we have quite a few now. Well, there's one um at our production facility in Dexter, Michigan, um, right on the brewery. Um, there's one downtown Ann Arbor. We have a Traverse City location on the Old Mission Peninsula. Uh it's very nice there, probably my favorite location as far as scenery goes. Um, we also have Grand Rapids, we have Detroit, um, and we have Hyde Park, Chicago, as well as Deer Bowing location. Um, our most recent is actually in the Detroit Airport, um, in the North Terminal, um, which is well, we've all been pretty excited about that, and it's apparently going pretty well so far, and we've been pretty well received.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Um I've been with you before when we visited other breweries, and you always seem to bring your beers to them. What's that all about?
SPEAKER_03Um well craft beer is kind of a community. Um, it's a bit of a nicety, uh um kind of camaraderie, I would say. Um, but it's also good for networking, you know. Of course, we all the one commonality that we all have is we all love beer. So we're always happy to see someone else bring us beer. So I know that I share that joy, and other people might share that same thought too. So I always try and bring them beer, but yeah, we also you also get nice service, so that's certainly a plus.
SPEAKER_01And uh and you've been out of state on conventions and and things where brewers meet to discuss their ideas and all.
SPEAKER_03Yep. Um the Great American Beer Festival I've been to is the largest beer festival, at least in the country for sure. Um, that is more just tasting focused, and that is for uh the consumer more. Um the Burbies just pouring the beers and talking about the beers. Um, that was a lot of fun. That was in Denver at their convention center downtown, and it was well impressive, really. I've never been to a beer festival, anything like that. Um, there's also um other like conferences that are more focused on actual like industry uh workers and stuff, like uh the big national one is the craft brewers conference that I've I've yet to go to, but someday hope to go to. We also have or most people have local versions of that where you're gonna have a bit of there's gonna be classes and there's gonna be meals shared together for networking opportunities. There's also gonna be like vendors there with new products, new hops, new malts. Um, so certainly a lot of learning in any of these things I've been to. But I've I've definitely been fortunate to go to a few of them now.
SPEAKER_01Okay, we're gonna come up and visit your facility, but give us an idea of the breadth of the production. Like how many beers do you ship out?
SPEAKER_03And um, we do about um 10,000 barrels a year, um, and hoping to eventually grow that. Um, a barrel um is a American unit of measurement for uh liquids, uh is 31 gallons. So 31 times 10,000, um quite a bit, um, certainly. And and we're mostly on to cans where it used to be bottles. Um that seems to be the trend these days, for sure.
SPEAKER_01What other trends are there in beer? I'm hearing talk of these seltzers, I've never had one, but is that something to do with beer, or is that just entirely different?
SPEAKER_03I do see seltzers as becoming just uh somewhat of a permanent trend, but uh uh I think a lot of our trends are gonna be shaped by the potentially warming climate. So um I think it's gonna be a lot of like lighter beers, both in body and flavor, so pilsner's but also session beers, um, which I've come to really enjoy, which are um under or at or under about four percent alcohol. So much easier drinking for hotter weather, certainly. Um, but yeah, seltzers, I definitely see coming. Um, non-alcoholic beers are becoming more of a thing as well as people are becoming more health focused. Um, so that's a a pretty big trend, I think we'll see in the future as well.
SPEAKER_01Okay. And uh if you could go anywhere in the world uh to visit some sort of a beer facility, where would you want to go?
SPEAKER_03Uh a tough question. Um I would probably go to um one of the Trappist monasteries in um Belsham. I've always wanted to go to uh like Chimay or West Gletterin. Um would be really fun. Um I'd also like to go to one of the Nordic countries that are uh still practicing almost like ancient techniques of making farmhouse sales using just almost barbaric equipment and minimal local ingredients and still keeping these hundreds of year-old trends or going. Pretty interesting, but uh one of them being Estonia would be a fun trip.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Well, I think we've reached that point in the uh program where we now have to partake in the beer. So let me get my glass and I brought my favorite German mug. Awesome. And one of your hooked oh yep, low calorie. I drank I drank all the ambers out of the refrigerator, so okay. So all right, here's to you and your future and the beer industry. May it live forever.
SPEAKER_02Cheers, thanks, Ed.
SPEAKER_00Ah, that's good. Yeah. Thank you for joining us on the Boik Brief. Tune in next time for more stories of law and life.