Have you ever wondered how the chords of life strum a new tune when fatherhood enters the stage? Oscar McMahon of Young Henry's Brewery joins me to unpack his transformation from punk rock drummer to a dad with a knack for crafting community through hops and heartbeats. We get personal as Oscar shares the harmonies and dissonances of navigating the nexus of passion, parenting, and entrepreneurship, and how each role enriches the other, brewing a life filled with unexpected melodies.
It's a conversation few dare to start: the silent symphony of male emotional struggles during pregnancy and beyond. As we pull back the curtain on this topic, Oscar and I address the mental health challenges that men often face in silence—from the trials of IVF to the deep sorrow of miscarriage. We cast a spotlight on the importance of open dialogue and support for new dads grappling with seismic shifts in their world, aiming to turn whispers of postnatal depression into a chorus calling for change.
Then we wade through the waters of work-life balance, a concept as elusive as it is essential for new fathers like Oscar and me. We share laughs and learnings about the juggle of joys and juggernauts that come with parenthood, keeping hobbies afloat, and sustaining the flame of individuality amidst diaper changes and deadlines. As we close, Oscar reflects on the agility of Young Henry's in responding to global curveballs, like pivoting to hand sanitizer production, and how tapping into the heart of the community can ferment a future that's not only profitable but also profoundly sustainable.
Have you ever wondered how the chords of life strum a new tune when fatherhood enters the stage? Oscar McMahon of Young Henry's Brewery joins me to unpack his transformation from punk rock drummer to a dad with a knack for crafting community through hops and heartbeats. We get personal as Oscar shares the harmonies and dissonances of navigating the nexus of passion, parenting, and entrepreneurship, and how each role enriches the other, brewing a life filled with unexpected melodies.
It's a conversation few dare to start: the silent symphony of male emotional struggles during pregnancy and beyond. As we pull back the curtain on this topic, Oscar and I address the mental health challenges that men often face in silence—from the trials of IVF to the deep sorrow of miscarriage. We cast a spotlight on the importance of open dialogue and support for new dads grappling with seismic shifts in their world, aiming to turn whispers of postnatal depression into a chorus calling for change.
Then we wade through the waters of work-life balance, a concept as elusive as it is essential for new fathers like Oscar and me. We share laughs and learnings about the juggle of joys and juggernauts that come with parenthood, keeping hobbies afloat, and sustaining the flame of individuality amidst diaper changes and deadlines. As we close, Oscar reflects on the agility of Young Henry's in responding to global curveballs, like pivoting to hand sanitizer production, and how tapping into the heart of the community can ferment a future that's not only profitable but also profoundly sustainable.
Howdy ho, daddy-os, and welcome to the Dad Podcast. This is brought to you by myself, kyle Graham. This is a place where all types of dads, or dads to be, can tune in copygear or learn something new about life as a parent. Follow along as we interview dads of all types and undercover some wisdom to help us be the best dads and partners we can be. So get comfy and listen in your big deals, because the next episode of the Dad Podcast is about to go down. G'day daddy-os.
Speaker 1:So today I've asked my good mate, oscar McMahon to come on and share with us his journey to fatherhood. All things work, life, family, balance and you know everything else involved in that. For those who don't know, oscar is one of the owners and founders of arguably the greatest independent brewery in Australia, called Young Henry's, so I'm extremely stoked to announce that this episode of the Dad Podcast is proudly brought to you by my good friends Young Henry's Brewery. One of the things that I love about Young Henry's is that they are just so passionate about creating a community surrounding themselves with like-minded, passionate people and organizations, just with bloody good beer at the epicenter. Young Henry's is so much more than a beer company. The work that they do in the community, for example, supporting this podcast and also sustainability, is admirable and extremely entrepreneurial. I was so stoked to be supported by Young Henry's for this episode with their founder and director, oscar McMahon. There are a few exciting announcements made during this episode, so go grab yourself your favorite Young Henry's beverage and listen up for the scoops.
Speaker 1:Oscar mate, you're one of the first guests on the potty and I'm really stoked to have you on and share with us your story and some wisdom to our fellow dadios.
Speaker 1:Mate, the real purpose of these chats is to get both the shit and the great time so that we can help make a difference for someone you know that's about to take their leap into fatherhood, or just going through a bit of a shitty time, or just looking for a few chunks of wisdom. One of the things that I really love about Young Henry's is that you guys are so passionate about creating a community surrounding yourselves with like-minded passionate people and organizations, just with bloody good beer at the epicenter. I'm really hoping to emulate something similar with this potty by providing perspective from all walks of dad, encouraging everyone to speak up and share their experience for the greater good of being better dads and partners. That being said, I'm so stoked to have you on and for you to join the DadBod gang sharing all dad's shit from your perspective. So, man, share with us a little bit about yourself, and you know who you are. What's your story, man? Okay?
Speaker 2:who am I? It's an excellent question that I've been asking myself for 39 and a half years. You continue to Look. I'm a 39 year old guy who I'm into music and tattoos and skateboarding and fun and friends and beer. You know, I played in a band for quite a long time and had a good fortune of being able to tour Australia and the United States and recorded a record that was released over in the UK and Europe and stuff as well, which was really cool. It was a band called Hell City Glamours Not that many people would have actually known or remembered. I'm probably more. There you go.
Speaker 1:I was the punk in the front row just sweating.
Speaker 2:Well, that's good days, man, Really good days. And then, sort of as the band was sort of, I guess, heading towards its conclusion, I met a guy in the pub I was working in. I was just working behind the bar and met a guy called Richard and we came up with this idea for starting a beer company together. We started Young Henry Brewing in 2012. We opened, took a couple of years to get there and yeah, so now I guess I'm the beer guy. We're nearly. The business is nearly 10 years old, you know.
Speaker 2:So we've been making and selling and drinking beer professionally for 10 years, and what's really rad about Young Henry is that it feels like all of the things that we're into as people was always an important part of the company, and so we do a lot of the music space, a lot in the sustainability space. We partner with festivals. We do collaboration beers with people like Volcom or a Fins. We've done a beer with the food fighters. We made a moonshine with the annual rate lift and the night sweats. You know, yeah, just, it's a really rad company where we get to if there's something that we're into, we're legitimately into, if enough of the team are all like, fuck, yeah, let's do this. Yeah, man, we make beer and make fun things for a living.
Speaker 1:It's pretty cool, yeah, man. Yeah, I've been lucky enough to kind of follow your journey from like most of that 10 years and I've loved just watching how you guys have evolved as a business and yourself too, mate. Like you know, you've gone from really into your beer and like really hustling to get this going and now you're somewhat of a businessman.
Speaker 2:You know like, yeah, you've got to wear many hats in that and it's a very it's a very surprising position that I find myself in being a director of a national beer company yeah, crazy, it's a really fun thing. It's a really funny thing that there's nothing on my CV that would make you think like, oh yeah, I'm sure that guy could do it. But yeah, exactly right. But it's a really funny thing that I guess one of the things that we've learned through hiring people. There are two very different ways you can look at it. Right, there are things that you there are jobs that you do that make sense in a linear fashion. But there are other things that you do in your life which could actually be more important in forming your creative side of your brain or your decision making skillset. Or, you know, I mean playing in a band. I just did that because I thought it was fun. You know riding a skateboard when I was young, I just did that because I was like, fully into it. Right, playing in a band, you learn to make creative decisions in a group, generally not based around financial outcome. That's an incredibly important skill to have in business. Skateboarding teaches you tenacity. It teaches you to see the world differently. You know like people walk down a set of stairs, a skateboarder sees opportunity. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and also, growing up skateboarding, you get a really good sense of brands. It's like you know people who surf for a certain company or skate for a certain company. They generally have a certain style, they fit within the brand's ethos, they are potentially listened to a similar type of music. You know, and you start seeing me like these teams of I remember, like the zero team and the toy machine team and the foundation skateboard team. They were my favorite ones because they had a similar aesthetic to what I was into. They listened to the same music, they were doing sort of similar tricks and you started getting this learning of how brand is not just a design on a page. It's actually a fucking cohesive thing where it's a group of individuals that actually have a similar mindset. And you know, it's kind of funny to think that I'm sure that there are people out there that have gone through marketing degrees and business school and all that sort of stuff, but learning through just your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you actually, if you have to exactly.
Speaker 2:If you unbeat some of the things that you've been into within your life, you can probably actually take some significant learnings out of just your past time. You know and can apply them to something if you want to.
Speaker 1:That's all the point. Hey, hey, what about like just personal life? Who's Oscar at home?
Speaker 2:Oscar at home is, funnily enough, I'm quieter than what people think.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As in, I don't talk as much at home. It's almost like my job is talking, and so, you know, I get home and I get a little bit quiet. My wife's like you all right, I'm like, no, just enjoying not talking for a bit. You know I get that. Yeah, I've been with my wife for 15 years in a really supportive, incredible relationship. We've built a company together. You know her support has been really really important to that. We invested in a pub together about six years ago called the Unicorn Hotel in Paddington, which is totally rad and is a lifetime dream, you know.
Speaker 1:And so when are you guys allowed in pubs right now, no, no, okay, another two weeks. Get your arses down there, dadbods Straight up yeah. Yeah, come make up for lost time Drink a liter of beer. Oh, that's cool man and a little girl.
Speaker 2:Bring your old girl Stella. She's shy and quiet at first and then has, you know, like many kids where they're unsure, can be a little bit quiet but then has a really big sense of humour and a really big personality once she warms up and she's rad. You know, I think one of the coolest things that I've learned about parenting is that you kind of get to make your own friends.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's cool.
Speaker 2:Which is typical. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty incredible. Yeah, it's also really fun with the things that you learn about yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you reconnect with that in a child, like that's what I've really enjoyed. Okay, I could fucking play with toys again, yeah, yeah. So with Stella planned man or whoopsie, yeah.
Speaker 2:Stella was heavily planned, as in. There was a couple of years of trying and a few different health things along the way and we ended up having to do IVF. Stella was the fourth implant of IVF. Wow, so, which doesn't really get talked about that much, the IVF process for a couple, but especially for the woman, is invasive, heartbreaking. You know, you put all this faith in science, you know, and you know science and medical sort of sphere, but it's still not guaranteed. And those three egg transfers that didn't work, they were crushing, they were really crushing losses, you know, which, in a strange way, we sort of weren't emotionally prepared for, but each one of them, even though we knew the percentages, each one, still was as bad as the last one, you know could imagine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I vaguely remember running into you and Jaz and I were about maybe halfway through her term with our first yeah, and I remember you sort of, you know, just chatting to us through that and about the heartbreak and stuff and, yeah, like I couldn't imagine.
Speaker 1:And how do you think that you, sort of, aside from being a couple as a male, because you know, jaz and I went through a miscarriage and I know that whenever I've spoken to other people about miscarriage, it's like it's and it should be, it should be a lot about the you know, the female going through it, because they are, they're the ones holding, you know, this baby and it's past and whatever.
Speaker 1:But the effect that it has on the male is never spoken about, like not even between us guys. You know, like I can't really recall anyone saying like, oh, how are you feeling mate, and that's just like this weird thing that has just happened over years. And the one thing that I'm trying to do on on this is is get everyone talking about it because it's so common. And I feel that I probably didn't handle all that well because I feel like I was feeling a bit down about it at the time but didn't want to say anything to Jaz because I feel like I don't deserve to. You know, at the time, and as fucking weird as that sounds, you just don't feel like it's the right place or time to talk about your feelings when they're the ones going through it. You know, and you're trying to be as supportive as you can.
Speaker 2:That, mate, that you've just touched on something which is spot on. It's really important is that within all of these themes in people's pregnancy journey, there are so many things that we don't talk about, and men especially don't talk about them and I think also men get in that trapped mindset of it's not as bad for me Therefore, I should shut up about it Whereas you know how we feel about it is actually really valid and even the fact of that extra, you know we, we, we process our feelings and we have to try to help, support and be a good partner for our wives or, you know, partners when they're going through possibly the hardest experience of their life. You know those things take a toll. That's why there are, you know, that's why psychotherapists exist.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it's funny. I keep reading and I'm hearing about it more and more now, which is great, but I read a stat that it's actually one in 10 male go through some form of postnatal depression or even like prenatal depression, and you wouldn't fucking know about that. Like and think about half the males that aren't even speaking up to get that treated. It's mind blowing. You know so, and I think I think females is one in seven or one in eight or something. Wow, so yeah, it's mind blowing. I'll check up on this.
Speaker 2:Think about how significant it is right. I remember I mean my wife, if she was here we were talking about what was the hard time for you. You know she would say that the getting pregnant and then being pregnant and the sort of isolation from people that you know that was, that was difficult. The first year for me was difficult because that was when I had to change my lifestyle really drastically. Yeah, so it's almost like you. You both have these different times where and I remember the first three to six months that readjustment of not getting to see our friends as much and not sleeping well and not being well balanced and dealing with stress from work, and you know this, this new equilibrium that you have to get, get right, and I found that a real, a real adjustment, real fucking adjustment. And and I don't think that, I don't think that I had any host natal law, anything you know, like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But the life adjustment was fucking hard enough, you know. So imagine how your partner must feel where a woman is chemically changed because of pregnancy and then actually has a period of not only learning to be a mum but also having this sort of chemical imbalance which is just creating sadness. Or I mean, wow, laura, I can stitch up that Massive stitch up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, here we are, Wow, Wow, yeah. No, I totally meant yeah, I couldn't, I couldn't imagine and couldn't agree more. Like it's funny, you talk, you know you hit on that topic of that adjustment in that first three to six months or whatever it is. But I had a chat recently with a mate about becoming it's a new archetype, Like you're evolving as a human being. It's like you haven't necessarily closed that door, but you've. You've migrated into this other room of being dad, you know, as a new archetype and it's fucking crazy and it's really hard to let go of party, Oscar, or you know do whatever the fuck, I want Oscar, or you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really hard to let go of that. But then, once you embrace and then accept how cool fucking being a dad is, it becomes his whole level of fucking epicness, doesn't it?
Speaker 2:It's like there's something in there, man, like let's say that in my life before having a kid, you know going out to the pub with my mates, going to restaurants with my wife and playing music let's just say that they were the three top things you know. And in that first year you're sort of mourning the loss of certain things that felt like a big part of you. But you also, you really are filling this gap with this new amazing adventure. So eventually and you know what that's a really, that's a really nice thought for any young dad listening who's just had a baby, or something like don't stress too hard about some of the things in your life that you feel like you're losing because you're gaining. But also, once you come out of that and you find your normalcy, anything that's important to you you'll always bring back into your life.
Speaker 2:You know Like because your wife married you or your partner is with you, because of the person that you are, and if there's something that's important to that, you should be doing that as a dad like play your guitar in front of your kid.
Speaker 1:So that they become musical.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it comes full circle, hey, and yeah, like a bit of balance in relationship and being a dad too. You know, like I said, I'm not heading away this weekend heading out bush, and I'm just so lucky that I've got a wife that's really understanding and knows what that clicking reset does for me and I'm a much better person for it. And you know, covid has gone and fucked up for everyone. You know, for a little while. Hey, you know we will probably go on batshit crazy at home, but we don't want to talk about that anymore.
Speaker 2:I've got a group of mates and we do a couple of motorcycle rides a year and the same sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Right, it's all with Matt, matt's one of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And all of our yeah, all of our mates, partners. You know all understand that it's an important part of who you are. And you go and do it and you come back and you feel alive, and you feel invigorated and you, you know it's good. Sometimes something's going away.
Speaker 1:You go away just long enough to want to come back, you know, yeah, yeah, you miss, you, miss home, mr Fam, you just want to get home and squeeze it, man, it's cool, yeah. So so, like I didn't mean to sort of like brush over and I kind of changed the topic of you guys eventually conceiving, which is awesome, you know, and then how was, how was like the pregnancy and then the birth. How did, how did I go for you, well, for Jesse anyway, yeah well, just really enjoyed being pregnant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and she really enjoyed it, and she was. She was happy. Some negative stuff happened within her workplace in the early stage of pregnancy and we just decided, you know what, cut the stress out. That's not. You know, you don't need that in your life while you're pregnant, and we didn't really feel good about her, you know, trying to find a job for a few months, maybe concealing the fact that she was pregnant, you know like. So she was able to take most of her pregnancy off, which was a beautiful thing you know, and yeah, everything just sort of went really well.
Speaker 2:Then Stella came out into the world and she was a healthy, fucking loud kid.
Speaker 1:And you know, but she, oh man, I moved the first three months I didn't care.
Speaker 2:I reckon anyone that tells you the first three months are easy he's a liar, totally man. It's like a brutal man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I reckon the sooner that you accept that the shit's going to hit the fan at some stage you're like, yeah, you better fall out, hey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's exactly it. But you know, look, it makes you stronger. I'm a pretty chill person for the most part and I try not to. I try to balance my stress these days in a more balanced way.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But those first three months I had some blood at work.
Speaker 1:That's where the steam was let out, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, just just unfortunately that I just my stress versus patience, you know, didn't work out, sleep deprivation, all the above.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, sweet man. So yeah, like reasonably smooth birthday experience and all that sort of thing for you guys. And one thing that I did want to ask was, like, obviously, being owner of and it was probably goes in with what you just said. You know, you're an owner of a reasonably large organization, or you know beer business and you had to sort of it's something that you live and breathe and how'd you go disconnecting from that, like for however long? You sort of took off, or did you not? Or yeah, like, how did you adjust to that?
Speaker 2:I took three weeks off, which was really good.
Speaker 1:Did you fully disconnect or are you still answering? I was still.
Speaker 2:I was still contactable. There were a few phone calls, a few things here and there, but for the most part I was just at home, focusing on that, I think that I mean the business was. The business was seven years old when we had Stella, so we'd gotten to a point where we had enough people, we had teams, we, you know I was able to step away and everything kept going. You know, my business partners picked up the stuff that I do. It was, you know, it was good. It made me have real empathy for two of my other business partners who, in the early years of young Henry's, had kids you know, like Dan, who's like my, my, my, my work wife, his wife and him.
Speaker 2:I think we were one to two years into young Henry's and he had his first kid and then two years later had a second. So right in the middle of this hectic, growing, fast-paced, not so business, they were having kids, you know, which is pretty mental. I was really lucky to be able to sort of be able to step away. And now, now it's all about boundaries. You know, a little while ago, for stress relief, I started getting into a habit of, when I get home from work, phone on silent upside down, put it on a bench, walk away, so that if anything's going wrong you know I've said this a few times if something's on fire, pull the fucking fire department.
Speaker 2:They come out there with garden hose, yeah, yeah, and it's really interesting that by setting boundaries of when I can be contacted and when I can't be, and when I'll answer emails and when I want you know, like on the weekend, I'm not going to get into my email account, so you'll, you'll hear back from me next week. You know, by setting those boundaries, you, you set expectations. You also are showing people within your team what is acceptable as well, because I don't want anyone from Young Henry's going home, you know, hearing of being on their phone at seven o'clock while they're having dinner with their partner and getting up and going. Oh, I'm near to jump on this. So, well, no, you shouldn't have to. That's what work hours are for. So by sort of setting those boundaries as a stress release mechanism, before we had the kid, it actually put me in a relatively good stead to when we had the.
Speaker 2:when we had Stella, it was just like home times, home time you know, this is when I'm on the clock, this is when I'm off, and that that was really important, because I think the hardest thing that I experienced was when Stella was the first board. We were living in an apartment in Newtown, a one and a half to two minute walk from the brewery, so I would literally leave work and get home. It's such a short time that it was like culture shock. You're walking out of this fast paced, noisy, like go, go, go, go go into, like oh okay, now I need to be husband and partner, father, gentle, soft, fun, like yeah, and I actually found that to be really jarring. Yeah, I actually had to work on.
Speaker 2:It's hard to forget yeah if you've had a stressy day, how do you leave that at the office? What do you do between the office and home where you can actually drop all of that shit and walk in and be present and happy? And unfortunately, I learned that from not being good at it at first, don't we?
Speaker 1:all yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You never learn anything from being good at stuff, naturally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, yeah, nah, totally. And if someone had the answer to that, fuck, there'd be a million-dollar man. It's a tough thing and at the same time, it's very easy to say well, go and do some yoga on the way home, or go and do some meditation. Before you step in the door it's like cool, but you're a screaming kid at home that wants to be fed and your wife needs a hand, she wants a cuddle too. Yeah, you can't just be like oh, I'm just going to be an extra hour at the yoga studio.
Speaker 2:I'm just going to go and do some yoga because I need to be more present. When I get home she's like fuck you asshole. You get home, I'm going to do the yoga. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, rightfully so.
Speaker 1:See how well that goes down, eh, yeah, yeah. So when I sort of popped out on our Instagram when you were coming on like a sticker, just to ask some questions and stuff around topics of everything you know, like dad, young Henry's beer, whatever and I was on another podcast in the lead up to this, this good friend of mine, sophie Pierce, has called Beyond the Bump and it's a very similar version but in, like you know, a female version to what I'm doing, and so most of my following on the Instagram is female at the moment because she sort of mentioned on there. Yeah, so one of the stickers is like so how far off is their Celts are? I said I thought I was. I don't know if I want to ask Oscar this one, but here we are. That's hilarious.
Speaker 2:Do you know what? It's a funny thing that the craft beer or craft alcohol space is really innovative and really entrepreneurial and really exciting. There's so much new product development going on all the time. If you think about, there are 650 to 700 brewers around the country, all of them releasing two to three to four new products a year. You know the sheer volume of new stuff hitting the market is pretty intense. And look, celts are. Is is a massive growth sort of area. But sort of like I touched on before, for us to get into something at Young Henry's there has to be some real advocates, there have to be some people who really believe in it. And we've knocked it around a couple of times and we make gin. We haven't for a while. So when talking about whether we do a Celts are, everyone was like no, let's do a gin and tonic tinny.
Speaker 2:So that's it so next month, we're actually launching our gin in a tin.
Speaker 1:So so he's a skirt guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there you go Look, hasn't been talked about publicly yet. So there you are, yeah, and so look I. I do know that that's not a Celts are, and Celts are a certain thing, because you know it's low sugar and all that sort of stuff. But we've made a really awesome adult gin and tonic premix with, you know, straight in native ingredients and low sugar and all this sort of stuff. So it's, it's pretty fucking cracking.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm excited. I don't want to gin. I love your noble cut too.
Speaker 2:It's yeah so that's the stuff and that's what. That's what it's all based on, man. So yeah, we're really proud of it. It's taken a really long time to get it up off the ground but, yeah, by this summer it'll start hitting select bottle shops.
Speaker 1:Oh right, yeah, so what are like in terms of like Young Henry's, like we've cut covered some pretty huge topics in terms of like being a dad and IVF and all that sort of thing, but most blokes listening they probably want to hear about beer and whatnot.
Speaker 1:So we'll probably continue with some some beer questions. Yeah, and not to stereotype anyone, but yeah, I reckon most most want to hear about the beer business. So, yeah, and and and aligned with that too is that there's probably going to be a lot of guys listening that have had to very similar, similarly to you, juggle running a business through COVID, the added stress and pressures that that has, and then that sort of like bringing that home, like we just talked about you know, super stressful day. What are the some of the things that you guys have done that may help? You know, one of the dads listening or something that has a small business implement in Young Henry's that kind of helped you guys. Or, you know, save your ass for a bit, you know, because I've seen a few of the things, few initiatives, that you guys have been getting up to and it's pretty cool. So, you know, touch on any of that, look, I think.
Speaker 2:I think COVID has been a reckoning for everybody. And you know we're now. There are two different lockdown periods now and both of them have been really different. The first lockdown period there was panic buying and pandemonium and a lot of fear, and you know that was that was really. It was really hard. It was really hard to keep people engaged. It was really we didn't know what we were doing.
Speaker 2:We started making hand sanitizer for a while because there was none in the country and we've got it. You know, a still, so we can basically make alcohol. We weren't selling kegs, so we chucked a bunch of kegs into the still and distilled it to make hand sanitizer. And we weren't going to do that until we were getting hit up by local councils and the police and the local cancer ward contacted us saying we cannot get any hand sanitizer, can you make some? And so we went on the World Health Organization website and they actually have a recipe for basically hand sanitizer for disaster areas. They basically say if you make a product to this exact recipe, it actually sort of negates its need to be signed off by the therapeutic goods association.
Speaker 2:Crazy, so we started doing that and making that for a little while and it wasn't I mean, we didn't do that to really make money. We just did it because we thought, well, hang on, like there's a need to just do this. And as soon as the markets that it was flooded by people importing and making it properly like on a commercial scale, we was like, okay, cool, we stepped out of that and that was more just a thing of like, what does a community need? We want to keep some of our team engaged.
Speaker 2:And look, I think the first lockdown, we had to really dig deep into the costs, into everything in our business. We stopped all spending. We really had to get a deep understanding of every single cent that was going out the door. And so now, this lockdown, we have been able to get to a safer financial point a lot quicker. We have maintained a much better engagement level with all of our people because we've had learnings from last time. And Look, you know, I get anyone. We're doing, we're doing what we can. You know, I think if, if you're making decisions based on the health of the business and the well-being of your people equally, then that's that. That just needs to be the balance, because if you just think about the business and you're not considering your people enough, you don't have the team that is going to actually help you rebuild. All the other side of this.
Speaker 1:One thing I've noticed that you guys do really well, and it's it's not just your own people, it's about your community of people. It's like if you're not helping them out, you're not gonna get that support. On the back end of this, when everything else opens up, they're gonna remember young Henry's did this for me, you know, or whoever it is you know like. I think that's a learning too. It's, you know, the more that you're seen to be doing for other people, it's gonna come back tenfold and that's one business comma.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you guys, you guys absolutely nailed that and I love seeing how you guys are in the community and and how you bring together you know all walks of life, I think to you know like you do some amazing things. You know around music and art and all that sort of thing, but beers at the epicenter and it's just really cool to see that you know someone providing a product that it's fucking tasty, yeah, but it's much more than just that product for a lot of people and it's.
Speaker 2:We're very lucky that Beer is something that is linked to good memories. Yeah, and there are many different avenues for you to put beers into people's hands at times where they're having a good time or they're Experiencing something new. Yeah you know like gallery opening, a music festival, a water side beer garden. You know like my wedding yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, like all those different things and that's that's really exciting about you know, being in a company like this is you've got so many opportunities to do things and be a part of excellent, fun, positive, engaging, creative events and happenings, which is pretty amazing. Also, beer is a relatively it's a pretty low barrier to entry. You know, if someone's thinking about an Audi, they've got to save up, they've got to get along, they've got to go do test drives, all that sort of shit. If someone's thinking about a beer, it's pretty easy, you can try. You can try one very easily. You know what I mean and I understand. That was a very neat analogy. A beer is nothing like an Audi.
Speaker 1:Well, this is fucking Audi, right here.
Speaker 2:I Guarantee I'll spend more money on beer in my life than I have on Audi's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. I'm with you there, man, and so one thing that fucking sticks out like dogs balls that we haven't spoken about is that green Juicy algae reactor that you guys have in there in the brewery. I think I don't know how much time we have, but if you got a bit of time to touch on that, yeah, man for sure.
Speaker 2:So we have always tried to take care of our carbon footprint as much as possible. You know, we donate our spent brewers grain to Farmers to feed their cattle. We put in a high efficiency brew system five or six years ago, which basically means that we use less energy, less water and less raw materials. We've got a community owned solar farm on our roof. The rest of the power we buy from a 100% renewable scheme. You know we focus on we will.
Speaker 2:Originally, we focused on growlers. We focus on cans over bottles and we have a 100% keg rental system so that, basically, we were able to have our keg miles by renting kegs. If we send a keg to Melbourne and we send a keg to Brisbane, it doesn't come back empty, it goes into the local market, someone else fills it up, we get another one. Yeah, it's a really great system. So it literally halved our keg miles, and also what we're spending on logistics, mm-hmm. So all of that was that. All of that is just stuff that we've done over the years. And then in 2018, we met some of the people from University of Technology, from the climate change cluster of UTS, yeah, and they they're investigating micro algae. So algae creates 50% of the world's oxygen. So every second break you're taking is thanks to micro algae kelp combo. You know, like seaweed.
Speaker 2:Yeah and in talking to them they were talking about what micro algae does and we realized that Brewers. Yeast eats sugar, releases CO2 and makes alcohol. Algae eats CO2, releases oxygen and creates sugar, which is actually more algae. Yeah, so these two little organisms do the opposite thing, but they're basically the same size. They both need in a liquid environment. So we set off with UTS and we have now.
Speaker 2:We're now three years into a research program where we're basically capturing the CO2 from the fermentation of beers. We're feeding it through an algae tank. The algae eats the CO2, turns it into oxygen and then creates more algae, which we are. Then we're about to release our plans for the second use of that algae. But basically we've worked out a system that we're going through the patent process on the moment, which could see any brewery that adopts it stopping releasing CO2 into the atmosphere and creating oxygen in its place. Fuck, that's cool. So you think about 650 to 700 brewers in Australia. Think about the CO2 emissions from all of their ferments. Imagine turning that into oxygen. They think about the beer infrastructure around the world. How many breweries there are around the world. You can stop them all releasing CO2 and instead they be creating oxygen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, that's fucking mind-blowing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah that's, yeah, it's it's actual change, and the amazing thing is that algae is an Incredibly important little organism that can be used for so many different things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was gonna say you could. It could be utilized across so many different. Yeah, it doesn't even have to just stop at beer. Hey, yeah, that's right. So the.
Speaker 2:The actual creation of algae on mass is actually a really really good thing For the second use, which we're about to release later this month.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll keep that one under lock and key till then. Yeah, yeah, look, I again I'd really do appreciate your time and you know, I think not only yourself but but Jess as well for coming on and sharing your journey and, you know, helping, you know, some of us, some of us punter dads, just a dad glory, you know by Sharing some experiences. I think it's fucking cool that you know we're um, yeah, we're just, we're just being generous with our time and yeah, no, I really appreciate it, man.
Speaker 2:No, I really appreciate what you're trying to achieve. I have really enjoyed the conversation. It felt a little bit like therapy and that's funny because you know what are.
Speaker 1:The other boys said that too. Like he said, you know, I haven't fucking talked about this like for a long time, so it's good to get to talk.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bring on the new archetype man. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The new, the man 2.0. Yeah, the one that talks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it talks, shares experience and his hands on with been been a dad.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, I'm all about that man. Thank you very much. It's been nice hanging out with you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're an absolute gentleman, mate. Appreciate it. See you, my man, see ya, brother. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode, your bunch of legends. If you enjoyed the show, could I please get you to show me some love by subscribing and leave a really nice review? Also for loads of extras and to stay up to date with all things dad podcast. Head on over to dad underscore podcast on Instagram and give us a follow. Huge love to you all, daddy-os. Catch you soon.