TwoGuys & Beer
The Two Guys & Beer Podcast is a laid-back conversational show that combines the love of beer with a wide range of topics that pique the hosts' interest. These two guys, use beer as a launching pad for discussions on anything and everything that grabs our attention!
TwoGuys & Beer
Crafting Community With Thunder Brothers Brewery
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Discover the passion and perseverance behind Thunder Brothers Brewery with our special guest, Warren Thunstrom, co-owner of the brewery alongside his brother Brett. Warren takes us on a journey from their humble beginnings in a garage to the creation of their renowned Hatchet Man IPA, inspired by a beloved but discontinued beer. Along the way, we uncover the gritty determination that fueled their adventure, the challenges of finding a community-rooted location, and the unexpected coincidences that make their story so personal.
Join us as Warren shares the intricacies of balancing innovation with tradition in the craft beer world. From the art of brewing "lawnmower beers" to the logistics of ingredient sourcing, Warren provides a candid look at the vibrant craft beer culture. We dive into memorable mishaps, like the infamous burnt batch experiment, and discuss the role of community feedback in shaping Thunder Brothers' flavorful brews. Warren's insights offer a behind-the-scenes look at the joys and hurdles of running a brewery.
The conversation also veers into industry trends, exploring the evolving dynamics between alcohol and marijuana and their implications for the brewing community. Warren highlights the importance of creative collaborations and staying true to their community-centered approach as they plan for future growth. This episode is packed with enlightening stories and practical advice for anyone curious about the craft beer scene or considering their own brewing journey. Cheers to an episode that promises both entertainment and education!
and welcome in here to the two guys in beer podcast studio andy beckstrom, sean field and uh joined now by the? Uh one of the owners of thunder brothers in a sandy uh, warren sunstrom. I do get that right. Yeah, okay, perfect, want to make sure that's the first and foremost. You know, make sure you get the names right. That's the key. Second time we've had a in-studio guest and the first time we've had a brewery owner in with us. So we're uh pretty excited to be able to go through the process of the background and the history and everything that we can uh kind of draw out of him. Uh, here for a thunder brother. So, uh, thanks for joining us and happy to have you here. I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1We're going to talk a little bit about some of the kind of the history, some of the background of making beer and some of the things like that. So, first and foremost, we start pretty much every episode If you haven't watched, we select one of our beers and then we get that going. So, sean, you want to grab one? Yeah, I'll grab one here. Grab you want to grab one? Yeah, I'll grab one here. Grab one here. Do you have a preference of which one? Here I have the brown ale available or the windswept pilsner.
Speaker 3Well then, if I'm going to drink it, I'll take the hatchet man.
Speaker 1There we go. I think that's do. I have this one here. There we go. There. We got the hatchet man right there for you. I'll probably go. I'm going to go with the brown ale Typically. I am more of an IPA guy generally myself, but this was highly recommended by your beer tender, dave, when Amanda went in to be able to go get some stuff, and Warren brought some stuff for us as well. So this isn't just a we went and got it, he definitely brought some stuff, so we thank you for bringing some stuff as well. So this isn't just a. We went and got it, like he definitely brought some stuff, so we thank you for bringing some stuff as well. But yeah, that was he highly recommended. So it was a local favorite and you know that that. That's what mostly people like there, so I wanted to make sure I had that as part of the episode as well. Okay, so first, and foremost.
Speaker 1It's like the best part, you get the sound of it, the initial smells.
Speaker 2Yeah, I like the aroma of it and that's the first thing I like to do when I open the beer is just smell the aroma. It gets the taste buds going, the saliva flowing.
Speaker 1So I think we all got different. I got the Brown Eye Girl Brown Ale and you have the Hatchet man IPA. Sean, what do you have?
Speaker 2I've got the Blue Sky Lager. It is very tasty, I'm enjoying this already.
Speaker 1There you go, perfect. I'm enjoying the Brown Ale. I could definitely tell it's kind of that typical or not typical, but that natural brown, fall type, winter type of feel to it. So very, very tasty. And you got the IPA. Can you describe, I guess, even kind of what your thoughts or what your intentions were for it when you started kind of with that idea For the?
Speaker 3IPA. Well, one of our favorites to drink that we did not make was Todd the Axeman. Okay, my brother's name is Brett, so when they quit making Todd the Axeman, we thought that was a shame, so we came up with Brett the Hatchet man. There we go, but the idea is to make a straightforward, not East Coast, not West Coast IPA where the first thing you hit is hops.
Speaker 1Sure, I like it.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was just going to say you did mention Brett. I want to let all the viewers and listeners know too he is an owner with you. You guys are brothers, correct? All right, just want everybody to know that, due to our limitations of our studio space, we were only able to have one of the two on, so we're thankful Warren was able to come up, but Brett is also part owner and part of the process too. Just wanted to put that out there for everybody so they're aware.
Speaker 1And just kind of a little. Another little bit of background we learned earlier today as well. You met Amanda when you got here. She actually used to work with your wife.
Speaker 3Really.
Speaker 1Ruth, is your wife, correct? Yeah, so she. I don't know if she still is, but she was Amanda worked for Extension in Iseante County for a bunch of years. It's been like 10 years now, but years ago is when she worked with her.
Speaker 3So we have a little bit of a connection.
Speaker 1Yeah, I've never met any of her coworkers, so a little bit of a connection and Sean's familiar. Are you still involved with the rendezvous? Yeah, I still own the coffee shop. Okay, gotcha, I don't know that I've been. I think I've driven by it numerous times, that Timorous times, but that's almost as good. There we go, there we go. Usually it's at night when I'm there, so, but Sean has been there, I think, multiple times.
Speaker 2Yeah, I've been to Rendezvous a lot. It's been there as long as I can remember. I grew up in the area too, so I remember probably 20 years ago I've been going there. It's been there that long, hasn't it? Where'd you grow up? Pretty, pretty much in I-San-y my whole life. Oh, okay, so yeah, so I've been there quite a bit. So, all right, warren, let's start off at the very beginning. Then. Where'd you grow up? Where are you from?
Speaker 3I grew up in Cambridge and moved away for about 15 years until I got married and we decided to settle down somewhere and my wife said where do you want to live? I said I do not care, except I don't want to go home and we went home.
Speaker 2So now we live in Ice Landing, nice. What did you do as a kid? Did you play sports? Anything like that? No, I was the most unathletic person.
Speaker 3I'm the one that they said hey, good try, good try. There you go, me and my friends actually got kicked off a church softball team.
Speaker 2Oh, wow, oh how do you pull that?
Speaker 3off it just for being that. In it they said you should find something that you'll have more fun if you do something you're better at sure?
Speaker 2so what have you before you own the brewery and got into that whole business? What did you do for a living prior to that?
Speaker 3Well, I was at the coffee shop before that, and before that I worked for a variety of manufacturing companies, kind of as I got hired when they had problems. It was my job to fix the problems. Nice, that's what you did. Yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. We're in the fixer.
Speaker 2So now we know a little bit about your background, where you grew up and what have you done Now. Where did you and your brother get the inspiration for brewing beer, the starter brewery? Why did you start brewing beer?
Speaker 3Well, we liked going to all the breweries when they started up and for a while, when it was just started, you could say, hey, this week we're going to go to this one. It just opened. But then when it started being three and four and five a week, well that kind of, but there was nothing going on up this way and I personally saw three different plans that were going to open a brewery in Cambridge and they fell apart for one reason or another, and so we thought, well, the Egyptians were making beer 5,000 years ago.
Speaker 3It can't be that hard, so we decided to give it a shot.
Speaker 2Oh nice. So where did you start then? Just in your garage, in your basement, like where was the first time you and your brother brewed beer?
Speaker 3Yeah, the first time was in your garage, in your basement. Like where was the first time you and your brother brewed beer? Yeah, the first time was in my garage. We were pretty inept and when we got the first batch done and we tried to, my brother said well, congratulations, we've reinvented Coors.
Speaker 1Lake nice. So it obviously was kind of a learning process then, right out of the gate, trying to be able to experiment with different things.
Speaker 3We decided we wanted a brewery before we knew how to brew beer.
Speaker 1OK, that was. That was going to be kind of my next question Like it's usually or not usually, but a lot of times, you know, if you have kind of a couple of failures you're like, well, that was fun to try for a little bit. So what kind of kept you going with it? Just the idea you wanted to do the brewery.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, and my wife would hate, would love to hear this. But my brother and I are both quite stubborn, so it was like, well, it didn't work, well, what did you do? And so we had to keep going until we could find a passable beer. And then, when we found it wasn't that hard to make a good beer, we thought, well, why are we buying beer that isn't so good?
Speaker 1Sure, Do you have a couple of. You'd mentioned going to a lot of breweries before. Do you have a couple that stand out to you that are not necessarily a favorite? It's kind of hard to pick a favorite of thousands of breweries, but are there more specific beers that kind of stand out for you? More thousands of breweries, but are there more specific beers that kind of stand out for you?
Speaker 3More of the beers, like Castle of Danger gets a tremendous amount of publicity for their cream ale, but I think Urban Growler makes a better one. I love Surly's Fiery Hell, which they will not can, so I make a trip down there every now and then. And then Ferris State's got some very interesting sours that we like to try.
Speaker 1I do like Ferris State. Yeah, I like all three of those breweries.
Speaker 2Yeah, they are all pretty good. As far as Surly goes, I really still like the Furious a lot. That's still my favorite, Even though they do can that one, of course, but over the ones that are in the brewery I still like the Furious quite a bit myself.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah, those are. Yeah, they got a lot of different, really nice options at. Surly, that's for sure they do.
Speaker 2So, when it comes to learning how to brew you guys, was it all just kind of trial and error for you guys in your garage, or did you try to do any formal training or did you reach out to anybody?
Speaker 3Well, it is a basic process. I mean, the Egyptians just put a jar of cooked grain out with water and let it ferment in the sun, and that was the earliest beer. But we went beyond that. I mean we read everything. We did the YouTube. We did a lot of reading. I've got a small library about brewing. But we didn't want to get the formal training because, like everything else, you can go too far. Dakota County has a tremendous course network of classes you can take, but to make a good beer is not that difficult.
Speaker 1Once you get the process, kind of refined. Once you understand what's going on.
Speaker 2Yeah, so when did you guys first decide to start selling it? How did that come about?
Speaker 3was that like the mission the whole time, but for the first time you brewed it in the garage no, no, it started out just being uh fun for us and our friends and uh well, the brewery is selling the beers. How do you recover your money?
Speaker 1Hopefully, what goes into the decision-making process. We talked a little bit before this too about so, once you decide okay, you're going to do a brewery, picking the location, or is it just kind of what's available, or did you have a specific spot in mind? I mean, probably close to home, but, like, did you have a specific spot in mind or was it just kind of what happened to be available with a?
Speaker 3realtor. Yeah, no, at the time we started, commercial property was very slim, so we took the first big enough space we could find.
Speaker 1I had been to your previous location over by the kind of by down by the tanning place, a chiropractor in that part. What went into the decision making then to move to the other? Was it just more space, more availability, or was it just better visibility on the highway?
Speaker 3Well, it was definitely better visibility and our neighbors did not want to have a brewery next to them. They thought it, despite the fact that the landlord extended the lease. They didn't think that it shone well on them, so we were who wants to stay where you're now welcome.
Speaker 1Sure, that's fair. It is kind of interesting with some of that Like there was. You talked about breweries that had plans that were going to go forward. There was one in Malacca at one point in time that was going to go there and they were going to, they had to rezone. It was on a block because they zoned by block but that one little building was still zoned commercial. But they couldn't do it because the whole block was zoned for residential, for residential.
Speaker 1And when they were trying to zone it differently, like residents, you know like, oh, there's going to be drunk drivers all over the place and people ripping up and down the highway and it's just going to be chaos. We don't need another bar in town. And it was just kind of impressive to like listen to not in a positive way, but impressive to listen to what some of the pushback is sometime with that. You know, like you're saying, like that would reflect bad upon them, that you know there's this, I think still somehow there's still some people out there that think, oh, it's a bar or it's going to have these type of negative issues. But I've never really experienced that with all the breweries. It's always been positive, I guess, to me, yeah, I'd say you can make two lists of bars and breweries.
Speaker 3And old time bars are dark. Old time bars have very few windows or smoked windows. Breweries generally want a lot of light in. They encourage families to come in. They generally they close earlier so they aren't getting the 2 am closing crowd. So drunkenness is rarely a problem.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was going to mention that too, about, like, the brewery culture too. What I've noticed over the years and going to microbreweries, it's a family atmosphere. I've never seen a fight in a brewery. You go to a bar and people are always trying to fight, like you said, later on in the night and it just gets kind of ridiculous. And the most people that I go to the brewery they have have two, maybe three beers and they cut out of there, you know, and they still drive responsibly. Not that people don't maybe drink a little too much at a brewery from time to time, but it doesn't seem as prevalent or as common yeah as a bar.
Speaker 2You know it's just more of a fun relaxed atmosphere. You're drinking good beer, you're having good conversation, specifically at your brewery. I know I didn't get a chance to go. I tried to go there. When you're doing the helicopter races, you know just fun things like that like I want to go and do one of those. So if you guys do that again, you might find me there trying to find one of those things. Like that's fun stuff. You know you go there, have a good time and drink beer, not be stupid. When you first opened your brewery, then when you moved, when you moved the original location to the new one, did you guys encounter any issues with licensing fees and trying to get approved by the city? How does that process work?
Speaker 3it's never ending. It's what happens. You find out you have to have all these licenses to open a brewery and then they say, oh, and you want a license to sell it. Oh, and you want a license to can it, oh. You know, and so it goes on and on and on, and every time you make a new label you have to pay to get that registered.
Speaker 2Really, oh yeah, oh wow.
Speaker 1Yeah, Because I think if you make a new beer you have to submit all the specs and everything to the state for approval.
Speaker 3Yeah, and they're not picking on you, but that's just the system you got, and you don't really know that until you get involved in it. Sure, yeah, I never would have thought that, and there don't really know that until you get involved in it.
Speaker 1Sure yeah, I never would have thought that and there isn't really at least not that I've been able to find, not that I research it all that often, but I don't think that there's just a standard checklist out there that has all of the stuff. It's probably a lot of okay. Well, I guess we're not doing it this week. We're going to submit for that and wait a little while.
Speaker 3And then every city and county are different. Our county does not choose to get involved, but the city very much cares and the state cares, whether you're on city water or well water, oh sure.
Speaker 1Are you on well water or is it city water? No, we're city water. Okay, we've talked a little bit on previous episodes too. That water is such a huge thing. Do you have a process, or is the water that you have kind of up to what you want it to be, or do you have like filters or reverse osmosis? Whatever it may be?
Speaker 3yeah, no, we uh. The water is very good quality, but then we also do charcoal filter it and then we test the ph before we get involved in it cool.
Speaker 2So there's still a process there to make sure that water is where you want it to brew your beer. What kind of equipment did you first start out with?
Speaker 3You mean when we're down to being a pot or when we started a brewery.
Speaker 2Well, you can start. That Were you, the first thing you started with as a pot and the first brewery.
Speaker 3Well, we did. We started with a pot and you got all these magazines from like Brewer, us or any brewing for dummies and stuff, and some of it works and some of it doesn't work so well. Now, when we got into brewing, we knew into starting a brewery, you have to be very careful about deciding what your power source is going to be. Are you going to use steam? Well, if you have steam, what's going to generate that steam? Do you have to have licenses for like boilers? Or are you going to go electric? Or are you going to go gas and are you vented for these things?
Speaker 2Oh sure.
Speaker 3So we found an outfit that sold us there now defunct called Colorado Brewing, which was brewery-size brew-in-a-bag with steel containers, so you would brew 200 gallons and you could lift them up and they drain and everything and it's all power-assisted and that's worked out pretty well for us.
Craft Beer Development and Events
Speaker 1Now is a lot of the equipment the same at the new location or did you upgrade equipment with a different space? No, we moved. We moved what we had. Okay, so we have the different breweries or not breweries, the different beers that we have here the Brown Ale, the Pilsner IPA, what is kind of the thought process when you decide? Do you just try to experiment with different things on a smaller scale, or do you just have an idea and let's toss something into a big batch and see how it turns out, like what's and what's the process developing, I guess a new taste or a new flavor well, the amount of time to make five gallons or 200 gallons is the same, so it's not a time factor, it's how much money do you want to risk on your ingredients?
Speaker 3And if you're just trying to tweak something, oh, we might want to pilsner with a little more zest or something, oh, we'll just go ahead and do it. But now, like, we're going to do a cranberry beer, okay, and this will be quite a bit different for us. So are we going to go whole hog or are we going to go half hog? We haven't quite decided.
Speaker 1Okay With that. You mentioned kind of tweaking it. Do you do like a fair amount of tweaking or do you have a handful of them that are nope? This is the way that it's going to be. This is how it's worked and it's pretty much the same every time is the way that it's going to be.
Speaker 3This is how it's worked and it's pretty much the same every time. Well, once you make a beer like any of the ones we're drinking here, you can't sell it under that label if you change it. So if you're going to change the hops or change something, you have to put a new label on it, and because your ABV will be different and it'll taste different and the state wants to know what you're making, right, so we will change. We're not at all hesitant about that and we have some fun doing that. We have a series of beers we do in the summer. We call lawnmower beers, because when you're done mowing the lawn, that's what you want to slam down.
Speaker 1We talk about the. We have a lawnmower scale. It's mostly kind of in jest to. There was an article years ago from that had, I believe, pete Coors in it that he, when he you know, for a long time but you know until obviously things have changed in the industry, but for a long time he didn't understand craft beer. He didn't understand. None of it made sense to him. It wasn't a matter of getting drunk, it was more a matter of well, if I'm going to mow the lawn, I want to have one before I start. I want to have maybe two while I'm mowing lawn and maybe a couple, three, four afterwards, you know, like just to stay refreshed. So, coors, Light was, that's his mindset and that's all he would ever, you know, kind of get behind. So now kind. So I'll rate the Blue Sky Lager on our lawnmower scale A five is the best.
Speaker 2I'd give this a five. I'm definitely enjoying this lager Blue Sky Lager from Thunder Brothers and I would definitely want to drink as many as I could after I mowed the yard it's crisp. It's clean. I really do like it. This is a really good beer.
Speaker 1Good, I'm trying to remember what the other scale was that we had. I think it was maybe sitting by the campfire scale. We try to make up different things. Oh yeah, just to have fun.
Speaker 2Yeah for the darker cozier beers.
Speaker 1Exactly. This would definitely be something that I would have either out at the campfire or otherwise.
Speaker 2We have a little fire pit in there. I definitely have a couple of these out there for that for sure. So, talking about these ingredients and stuff and how you can't change them much because you'd have to file the licenses for the state to change the labels and all that, where do you source your ingredients? Do you try to do it locally here? Is there a national supplier? Well, we try to do as much locally as we can.
Speaker 3Well, we try to do as much locally as we can. There is Malt Works up by Detroit Lakes and they do some good grain. Bsg is the nation's supply house. There are some hop growers around locally and we have bought hops from them.
Speaker 1Are you aware of the hop farm out in Foley? I was just going to say I thought there was one over towards Foley, I wasn't sure where it is, but I feel like I've driven by it before.
Speaker 3Yeah, they did a real nice job and but they got hit with a windstorm and then they found that. Well, if you had a had damage in Washington state, where hops is a big product, you can insure it, but it's a niche crop in Minnesota and they wouldn't cover the damage and, to put them out of business, Couldn't get crop insurance Cause we've on a very smaller scale or whatever like.
Speaker 1We have some farmland here and me and my brother-in-law we both like beer and brewing beer and drinking beer and being involved in that We've tossed around the idea of like, well, let's get a couple of posts and toss them up there. I have some hops growing on the side of the silo out here, enough to make about a five-gallon batch, so not exactly a large scale, but we had talked about that too, so that's interesting to know that it's not something that you'll be able to find much for crop insurance on that. I suppose because of the scale of it, there's just not much of it.
Speaker 2Well, you've got a couple hundred acres out here, you might as well. Start yeah, 100% Only if we can get the insurance Right right, so on an average year, then Warren, how many pounds of hops do you buy? How much grain?
Speaker 3Well, you know, at first we were trying to inventory and balance how much of this and that and the other thing. What we found is that, instead for a better use of our money, everything is so readily available, we really only need to buy about two or three brews ahead of time. Oh, okay, because we can get everything delivered in 48 hours.
Speaker 1Okay, nice, you didn't run into any like supply chain issues much at all, like a handful of years ago.
Speaker 3Well, I mean, I mean I suppose everything probably was, but yeah, during COVID things were a little ugly, but other than that, no, how did that process?
Speaker 1I guess, now that I mentioned it, how did that process kind of go? Like what were some of the changes that you guys went through? Cause that was. I mean, it was I think you had already been in the new location a little while, but it's still a different location. Now you're trying to do to go beers or how, like what was that process kind of going?
Speaker 1Like all right, you lost me just just through like 2020 or just through the COVID years, like with all the regulations and everything, like some restaurants could sell some stuff.
Speaker 3But yeah, 2020, the tap room had to close, but what we would do is we'd still make beer and we would put on our Facebook page okay, saturday, we're selling and filling growlers from this hour to this hour, and that's all we could do.
Speaker 1Were you able to do anything outside, or is that still against like regulations of being too much crowds or anything like that?
Speaker 3Oh no, we had a couple of smoker fests with barbecue trucks this summer and we've had bean bag or corn hole and things like that. So no, it's not been a problem.
Speaker 1You mentioned a smoker fest. Is that like a competition thing, or just bring some smokers out there?
Speaker 3No, it's a competition thing.
Speaker 1Interesting. Yeah, last week we had our buddy Clint, who is a competition smoker, oh, on there. So, clint, if you're watching and listening, we'll have to get you set up with that one. So right after we have the two guys competition out here. Right, it might be just him, but that's fine.
Speaker 3We're always looking for something to interest people, and so at one point we thought, well, what about drone racing? Oh yeah, no that. We went online and looked and the people it's so fast, it's like trying to follow mosquitoes.
Speaker 1It's super fast. I watched it on TV. At one point I'm like I don't know how you track it. I don't know how you like it was weird.
Speaker 3And then we thought, well, there's these guys that do actual medieval combat. Uh, heck, yeah, and they, they were. They have to make their own uniforms and it's like 100 pounds, but because of that they look like these guys on the old uh, electric football games that vibrate, they can run, they can barely move. So we thought, no, that's too slow.
Speaker 2So who comes up with those ideas to do those events and the fun, excitement things that you guys put on there? You guys just all brainstorm it together. Oh, that might sound like fun.
Speaker 3Actually, I think our staff comes up with most of it, If probably my speaking of just my brother and I. We are probably the worst marketeers in the world. Oh, okay, Perfect. So we rely on the imagination of the staff. Oh, okay, Well that's fun.
Speaker 2That includes them too and keeps them more engaged. And I suppose they really enjoy what they're doing anyways at a brewery, because it's a different type of work. You know more people are more passionate about and interested in it.
Speaker 1I have seen you guys have done like trivia and uh, I think there isn't there like a young professionals networking yeah thing. That was set up by, uh, the realist agents. I think they're involved in that. I play baseball with Brody so I like to heckle him every time that I can.
Speaker 3Trivia is very popular. We have teams. Anybody can do it. You can have a team, you can do it individual. But it's gotten to the point where we have identifiable people that come every week, and so now it's a grudge match, yep.
Speaker 1So that's a lot of fun. I don't know what that's like at all.
Speaker 2No, no, andy never plays trivia anywhere. So, thinking of the early days, of when you guys first opened, do you have any like memorable moments that stand out, when you first got going, that really like, yeah, this is really cool.
Speaker 3Most of our memorable moments were about things we did wrong.
Speaker 1Oh, that's true.
Brewery Growth and Future Plans
Speaker 2Like what Name? One thing you did wrong.
Speaker 3Well, we made a batch of beer and we burned it and so, gosh, we don't want to send that down the drain. What can we do to salvage it? So we're trying to doctor it up and we found that we could make a pretty good beer out of it if we added barbecue sauce, but it wouldn't stay in solution. So we said, well, we got to get rid of that burnt taste. What are we going to do? And we said charcoal filtering there we go. So we bought one of those pitchers that has a charcoal filter for a test run. We poured the beer in and we poured it into the glass. It was amazing. It took out the alcohol, it took out the taste. We had just brown water, oh, perfect. So we did end up sending that batch down the drain.
Speaker 2Oh no.
Speaker 1That's going to be a tough day. To just flip the switch or, you know, throw the lever and watch it just flow.
Speaker 2To me that would be like watching money go down the drain Like oh no yeah literally watching money go down the drain like, oh no, yeah, literally yeah. So what, uh? When you guys first started brewing, open the brewery, how did you decide on what styles and flavors you wanted to start with first?
Speaker 3strictly by what we liked. Oh okay, we didn't think we were too far out of the norm. So I mean, there are some beers like surly's heart of darkness series very popular, not for me. We ain't going to make a clone of that one. So we just, we started by just doing what we like, sure.
Speaker 1Okay, sean had mentioned before, you know, like some different moments, memorable moments. Was there a specific moment during the process, like once I opened a bar at one point in time and it was kind of like okay, now you've gotten to that realization, I got it open and we're doing the thing? Was there a moment for you where it was okay, this is going to work, this is this is going well, this is people like it. Like, was there a moment or was it just kind of over time?
Speaker 3You're like, oh, we've been open for five years, like yeah, no, that's, that's it, Because it's more of a process, because it was a grind and you got to get the bills paid and you know how many people are going to come in tomorrow and da, da, da da.
Speaker 2of course you have your high, high moments when someone says, oh, I really like that beer, things like that, but uh, no, it's just steady state is there any type of feedback you're seeing from customers or family that have kind of gone into your brewing process on kind of how you shape your recipes and change them?
Speaker 3Oh yeah, we had customers that said they wanted lighter beer than what we normally make. So we tried it and they said, hmm, that seems to cut down on the taste. And we said, well, do you buy Coors Light for the taste? Right? And then we said so we're going to give that up. Yeah, we're going gonna stick with the taste instead, for yeah, that's my favorite part about beers is the flavor and taste.
Speaker 2I don't drink many light beers myself because of that. You know when you drink a beer you want a taste and a flavor. I don't know if you want to try and knock off of this one, but it's one of andy's and our favorites. Have you ever had widow maker? Yes, from q and a's one of my favorites. You should try to make some sort of smoky flavored beer in the future. You'll see me there every day then.
Speaker 3So what was that brewery that used to be in Lionel Lakes that specialized in smoky beers? Viking Hall theme.
Speaker 1I had been there at one point in time. It was well. A brother-in-law just loved it. I think me and Amanda had been there one time. I can see it. It was right on the highway there. They're still around, only they moved to Ely. Okay, oh, I didn't All the way to Ely. Oh, that's a big move, Not just across the street.
Speaker 3No, but they spoke like all these heavy smoke yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, it was very, very smoky. I can't remember what it was, but yeah, it was kind of a Norse theme kind of deal. I don't remember what it was. Now I had been there, though I think somewhere I have a growler wall that has like 120 growlers. I collect growlers, so I think I have a growler, probably from them over there somewhere.
Speaker 3Hammerheart. There it is, hammerheart, that's what it was Perfect.
Speaker 1Yeah, it was. It was pretty. It was good for what they did. It wasn't necessarily like my. I like some stuff kind of smoke, but it was. Everything was very heavy smoked and you know not, not my favorite, but you know it was still good. I mean for what it was. If that's what you like and that's what you're into, it probably was absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2Yeah. So think about after you've been open for a while a year or two years how has the growth been in the brewery from your initial year? How many barrels would you say you brewed the first year to how many barrels do you brew now on average?
Speaker 3Oh, we're probably about quadruple what we started with, but we do not want to grow much. If we could get by with just 100% of our business being in the taproom and being a local taproom, that would be just fine. We do canning and distribution. We self-distribute just to try to attract people to the taproom. All of our four packs one of the cans will have a tag on that says free beer. Bring this beer to the brewery Like we have on.
Speaker 1Yeah, that was when Amanda went and got that. She specifically pointed that out, that one of those has that. Is that part of a recycling program? Is it just to kind of get people in there?
Speaker 3It's just to get people in there. That's what we really want is we're kind of going for the idea of, like a coffee shop with alcohol. We just want people to come in, socialize, visit, have a couple of beers, go home and enough people do it, often enough that we pay the bills.
Speaker 1I like it. Yeah. Yeah, we definitely noticed that on one of the cans we actually she thought it was like maybe we get four free beers. And we were looking at it and we're like we just want stickers.
Speaker 2Maybe it's just one. So, with that being said, if you get enough business to operate your business through just the taproom, would you pull the beer out of the local liquor stores that it's in now or would you keep it? Still try to keep it in there.
Speaker 3We would keep it in for those brewery, for those liquor stores that wanted it. I mean, if they felt like, hey, we could use that space better for somebody else, well then we'd be glad to go away.
Speaker 2Sure, now I've seen you in the Sandy Liquor Store and the Cambridge Liquor Store. Is there any others around here? We've been in Bram.
Speaker 3I was going to say, I think that there's some in Bram, yeah, and they are pouring at three of the local wineries. Oh, okay, yeah, but yeah, we'd like to get on tap with one or two places again, just to spread the idea of come on down and meet us. But we don't need an empire.
Speaker 2It's just for the love of brewing and just the camaraderie and the fun. Yep, I wonder what would it take to get on tap at a bar, you know, like the Cambridge Bar and Grill. I've seen they had like 320, was there once a few years ago with one of their beers.
Speaker 3What would that take to do?
Speaker 2that.
Speaker 3Well, it's not a regulatory thing or anything, it's just what they think their customers want. And because we run a tap room gosh, some places might think we would be a competitor because we're too close, oh sure. So I would think that probably nobody within five miles would want us on tap.
Speaker 2Oh okay, but if dairy queen wants us on tap, that's fine so do you have the capacity in your facility there to put beer in kegs? Then, yeah, can somebody come in like myself and buy a keg if I was? Oh, you do oh, okay, yeah we sell kegs.
Speaker 1Oh nice, I didn't know, cool I mean I have to keep that in mind for the two guys and beer podcast smoking competition with clint.
Speaker 2So I do have another question, kind of talking about beer, and I don't know if I saw this on your facebook page or not, but it's kind of becoming a thing. You know, marijuana is becoming more legal everywhere and I've seen beers with THC in it. Did you have one with THC in it? Because that shop is right next to you.
Speaker 3Oh boy, you've really opened a big can. Oh, it is quite tall yeah. Well, right now it's just CBD. Oh, okay, you know THC hemp derived, which is like the poor cousin Sure, and you are not allowed to mix THC and alcohol.
Speaker 2Okay, I was wondering like how that would even drive, you know.
Beer Industry Trends and Collaborations
Speaker 3Yeah, in fact I'm interested in how that's going to shake out after the first of the year, because we do make a THC seltzer. But we talked to the state like, okay, what can we do after the first of the year when all marijuana is legal? And they said you can't do alcohol and marijuana unless you have two separate addresses with two separate buildings. So he said, well, I guess we're not going to do that.
Speaker 2Sure, Fair enough. I mean, does THC really need to be in beer anyways? You know, I don't know that it really needs to. Like what would be the benefit of having that in beer? I?
Speaker 3don't use it. I don't discourage anyone who wants to use it, but I don't have any experience. And I guess, though you look at Colorado, they seem to put it in everything. Sure, it's in wine, it's in beer. Oh, I never knew they put it in wine.
Speaker 1Yeah, colorado does a little bit of everything. They kind of run their own operation.
Speaker 2Yeah, they kind of do, don't they? Now, I understand the CBD, you know, because there's a lot of health benefits from that. You know, cause there's a lot of health benefits from that. You know that I've read people with arthritis or anxiety or sleep stuff. You know, I don't know if you would really, if that would really work for sleeping, have CBD and beer or whatever, but I can see the health benefits to that. That portion or that makes sense to me to have that and beer with THC. I always just kind of wondered you know the people that they use THC and drink beer? Like how does that, wondered? You know the people that?
Speaker 2use THC and drink beer like how does?
Speaker 1that mix, you know. But yeah, yeah, be interesting. So kind of a little bit of a left turn. You guys mentioned the involvement and I like the can the label. If you kind of go around the label here, it's both you guys on the label here, yeah, and the tables, which I really like. Those tables that you have there, oh good, it's like an electric thing. Were you involved in that or did you just buy them like that?
Speaker 3No, we paid a guy to come in and do it. Okay yeah, because we happened to see little pieces done at an art show. So he said, could you do big pieces? He said sure, hmm.
Speaker 1That must have been kind of a fun day. Yeah, yes, and they use, uh, scavenged microwave ovens really. Yeah, I suppose you large power supply. Yeah, interesting. So involvement obviously on the label. But uh, so how involved are you guys still in like? I mean obviously like the background, the day-to-day, the normal running of a business. But as far as like beer tending or being there, you guys are still pretty routinely or is it more got other people kind of running the front side of things.
Speaker 3Well, we are the only two people that make the beer and keg it and clean the equipment and et cetera, et cetera. Our staff runs the bar. We will tend bar occasionally my brother more than I, but that's because he'll do that while I do the books and then we both show up for all the events. So we're not absentee landlords.
Speaker 1Okay, it's kind of interesting. We've read about or discussed different breweries that when they get so big they're just basically the name or the face, but they're not involved in anything anymore. So it's kind of nice to be able to still have that attachment to it.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, when it comes to brewing beer, warren, we kind of talked about some of the ingredients you use and kind of the ideas of how you've come up with it. What we've kind of noticed in the brewing community is how many different breweries kind of collaborate together. Have you guys collaborated with another brewery on brewing any type of beer of any kind?
Speaker 3No, we haven't. Partially, I suppose, because we haven't been approached and partially because my brother and I have enough trouble agreeing between the two of us. Sure, there is a funny story A few years ago, the brewing community had a contest and you had to make a beer out of Minnesota ingredients, and I won't name names, but the winner used milfoil and zebra mussels. Okay, interesting, yeah, and they won, and it was quite clever. And then it had to be pulled from the market because you can't legally have animal proteins in beer. Oh, but it was an honest mistake. Sure, but that's why you aren't drinking it now.
Speaker 1Sure, interesting, huh, interesting. Yeah, well, that's cool. Yeah, I mean it's a lot of good information. If there were to be somebody that's just starting out, you know, like, let's say, me and Sean are going to open a brewery in 2026. We're not because I don't know that that's going to happen. Let's say, you know, like I, let's say that I won the Mega Millions on Friday and like, buying the equipment and things like that aren't an issue. What are some tips that you would give to somebody that is maybe just starting out, I guess even as a home brewer?
Speaker 3Decide, the very first thing is to say what you want to get out of it. If you're looking to become a huge business, well, your approach is going to be different than if you just want to say you make the best beer that you and your buddies like and you have to satisfy yourself before you can satisfy anyone else.
Speaker 1I like it. Sean, you got more on your list here.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was kind of curious what's the most popular beer you guys have right now?
Speaker 3Right now would be the Blue Sky.
Speaker 2I can taste. Why has that been your most popular beer the whole time? You guys have been open from the first location to the second, or has it kind of changed?
Speaker 3It changes with time. We make one in the summer that's very, very heavy in citrus hops and that's a real summer seller. Blue Sky is probably the best year round.
Brewery Innovation and Community Engagement
Speaker 2Okay, yeah, nice. How does innovation go for you guys while keeping true to your same kind of brand of your brewery? Like, how does that? I can't get the right question there. As far as innovation, you know, we kind of talked about you don't really change things too much because the label and the can. But when you do come out with a new beer and stuff, how does any new beer you come out with, how do you keep that in mind to keep with your same branded image of the beers you already have?
Speaker 3Well see, you're much more sophisticated than we are. We don't have an image.
Speaker 3See, you're much more sophisticated than we are. We don't have an image. I mean, we're two schmucks that are enjoying what we do in making beer. What we will do is and we generally do this every winter is we will make some test beers in five-gallon batches, oh okay, and put them on the bar and just give it away. But you say but you don't get this unless we get a review, sure, written paper Right now. We want to know what you think.
Speaker 2Oh, okay, and that kind of shapes.
Speaker 3That kind of shapes, and then it's people are interested. You know, like you know, this avocado one is not for me. You know Sure, what date does that happen at? Yeah, what date does that?
Speaker 1happen at.
Speaker 3Yeah Well, like we did last winter, we did Kvass, which is Russian brewed tea, and it's alcoholic. But a few people liked it, but not enough that we're going to go crazy with it.
Speaker 1So it's kind of a little bit of crowdsourcing to a certain extent, absolutely. So, that's what I was kind of staying with, was something you like, but at the same time getting feedback. So we see the mini growler. Do you guys still do the full growlers, or is that just if somebody brings one in?
Speaker 3No, we do the full growlers too.
Speaker 1Okay, gotcha, I just want to make sure I judge my wife for getting the small one. How am I supposed to watch the Vikings game with?
Speaker 2just two beers.
Speaker 2So in previous episodes Warren we've kind of talked about. You know Andy, he's kind of a big IPA drinker. I don't really have a specific I like IPAs, but I'll kind of drink a little bit of everything. We did one episode that was out of a North Dakota brewery. That was dill pickle flavored beer and we kind of went on a little tangent about. It seems like some ipas are getting kind of gimmicky with their flavors, like a dill pickle beer. It was okay. But are you really gonna buy a four pack of dill pickle flavored beer? You know what I mean. So do you guys have any of those type of gimmicky type beers? Have you ever tried that? Just some crazy flavor, just for the heck of it, throwing it out there for an IPA we have not, I can tell you.
Speaker 3Last week at the coffee shop we had pickled herring coffee. Oh okay, yeah, but no, the brewery we haven't. Some of the ones, like you say, have turned out to be pretty interesting, but some of the ones like Captain Crunch beer they had one time, sure, not a big fan yeah, I've seen what else I've seen the york peppermint patty beer, I forget.
Speaker 2The company made the salted nut roll beer. That wasn't too bad yeah, who made that.
Speaker 3That was okay um, now invictus just made a nut goody, oh okay and there was one.
Speaker 1There was a state fear beer for a little while. It was the the salted nut roll, the person salted nut roll. Yep, yeah, I don't remember who that was, though I've seen it though.
Speaker 2A can. We've got cans of them somewhere. Yeah, it was years ago, but anyways, yeah. Yeah, we were just kind of talking about that. It seems like you know we like IPAs Andy really likes IPAs but sometimes some of those flavors seem to get a little over the top and like away from like a true beer, I guess.
Speaker 3Yeah, well, in trivia the other week they just had asked what was the strongest beer ever made, and it is Snake venom Right.
Speaker 2Yeah, I was trying to find it. I haven't found it yet. It's made in Scotland.
Speaker 3I don't think you'll be able to find it here. 161 proof.
Speaker 2That's crazy. It'd be like one little sip. Oh, that's all we need of that. You just pop the top and you smell it.
Speaker 3So what makes I agree with you? What makes that a beer? It's more alcohol than it would be pure alcohol, right.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't know I up with that stuff, but I suppose there's a market for it. If it's still out there, Some people's buying it somewhere. So what's the biggest challenge breweries currently face, or your brewery? What do you think is the biggest challenge?
Speaker 3Well, the brewing industry seems to be contracting in Minnesota. So I'd say some people got overenthusiastic. Some people got overenthusiastic. I'd say the biggest challenge we face is just trying to perfect our brewing. We make some good beer, but we think we could do better.
Speaker 1Sure, if you were to enlist, even if it's a handful of things, but if you were to think about what is one of, or a couple of things that you're probably most proud of through this entire process, like from the idea you know, like in the just with the pot in the garage, all the way up to now, like anywhere in there, like just some of the things, or even maybe the top thing that you're probably most proud of.
Speaker 3Well, we've got a handful of inventions and I use that word very loosely that has made life easier, and they've always been head slappers like why didn't we think of that long ago, you know? But it's kind of cool and we see other people struggling. We go, wow, we got that one nailed down. We know how to do that. We enjoy the fact that you're talking about some that grow real big. Well, we've grown some, but we're approachable and so we like knowing who walks through the door and we like being on good terms with everyone in the city. We have no problem talking to anyone around the city council, the police department, we're in good graces and, yeah, I guess that's what we're happiest about.
Speaker 2So building those relationships with the community and that's super important, yeah, I guess that's what we're happiest about.
Speaker 3So building those relationships with the community, and that's super important.
Speaker 2yeah, Do you guys have any new upcoming releases, beers that you can tell us about now that haven't come out yet, or any new events or anything coming up?
Speaker 3Well, we're going to have that cranberry beer. That's going to take about a month, and next Saturday we have a Tai Chi instructor coming oh really.
Speaker 3So it's just he's coming into the brewery and it's just during our normal hours show people how to move, and he's very enthusiastic and he wants to. He says he can make everybody's life a little bit better. Sure, so we'll see. I think that's all we got on the plate for the next. Oh well, then we're going to celebrate dry January. Everybody has got their New Year's resolutions, so we are going to do a dry seltzer for those people that want it and we're going to do an energy drink for those people that want it. Oh, so we don't want we sell beer, but we don't want anyone to drink that doesn't want to drink. Sure.
Speaker 2So well, we still want their company, Sure.
Speaker 3Any helicopter races in the future?
Speaker 2again.
Speaker 3Probably next summer.
Speaker 2How'd that go? Did it go pretty well, because I didn't get to get there.
Speaker 3I really tried, but Well, it was real fun because they're radio controlled and they're only about as big as your beer can and we'd have them go through hula hoops and under tables and stuff and then, yeah, we just had a great time.
Speaker 2Sure, did that create a lot of excitement, did a lot of people try it out?
Speaker 3Most people were hesitant.
Speaker 2They'll go. You do it first, anybody pretty successful, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3Usually our staff, because they'd play with them before anyone else got there.
Speaker 2Oh sure, makes sense.
Speaker 1Got to practice and try it out, that's right, well, cool yeah, you got anything more on your.
Speaker 2No, I have nothing else. We appreciate your time, warren. We want to give another plug to Thunder Brothers Brewery in Isani, minnesota. Where can people find you? On Facebook, any other social media, instagram, instagram.
Speaker 3Highway 65 between North Cambridge and Isani. You can find us there.
Speaker 1Perfect, yeah, anything else you'd like to add, just as a recap or anything else that we haven't asked about?
Speaker 3No, it's just that we've been enjoying the whole process and we'd like people to come in and enjoy with us Wonderful yeah, and we hope everybody does.
Speaker 1It's a fun atmosphere. You know it's kind of nice and laid back and cool place. We actually had two years ago I think we had I play baseball with the Eastern Mini. We had our end of the year recap or a little meeting for playoffs at the end of the year. Actually at the brewery we sat outside on some of the picnic benches for a little bit.
Speaker 3So isn't that the team that our landlord's daughter manages?
Speaker 1Might be. I think so. Well, they'd be the Redbirds in Asante. Oh no, they wasn't. Okay, yeah, yeah, no, I mean it's always a great time going out there, but yeah, it's a lot of fun to be there and you know cool atmosphere and a lot of good beer. So definitely go and check that out. If you're looking to find us on anything, check it out on all the podcast places. Looking to find us on anything, check it out on all the podcast places like share, subscribe the general.
Speaker 2You know everything like that, sean. Anything else you want to toss in, no, and you get a Thunder Brothers brewery. I had the big Sky Lager. Make sure you get yourself some of those. Or blue Sky Lager, I'm sorry, get yourself one of those, try it out. Super good beer If you like lager beer.
Speaker 1I had the Brown Eye Girl Brown Ale, which was fantastic, and I'm looking forward to trying the IPA here in a little bit as well.
Speaker 3And I drank it all.
Speaker 1It's even better. I guess. I do have one more question. You mentioned before about going to different breweries when they were new open. Do you still get a chance to get out to many breweries now and kind of not necessarily even compare, but just be able to go and kind of relax and check out a new place?
Speaker 3Oh, yeah, yeah absolutely Good, good.
Speaker 1It's always good to be able to still maintain the ability to do that.
Speaker 2So do you have a favorite?
Speaker 3No, that would be impolite. I can tell you that the next one I want to go to is beer cave in Hopkins. Oh, okay. Okay.
Speaker 2I haven't think I've been to that one, never been to that one either.
Speaker 1So I'll put that on my list Exactly. Well, Warren, we appreciate you joining us up here and making the trek north, and I definitely appreciate you bringing us the beer as well. Okay, I hope you enjoyed listening along with us or watching along, I guess, depending on where you're consuming either the beer or the podcast itself. But definitely go check out Thunder Brothers in a Sani or a couple of different liquor stores that are kind of around the area. Be able to find yourself some and definitely enjoy it. But until next time, cheers.
