From Garage Dreams to Craft Beer Empire: Bull and Goat's Journey

Upcoming Events with Laurie

June 4th Wine Comedy Show at Turks Head Wines

June 7th Maryland Crafted VIP Experience

June 25th Red, White & BBQ Virtual Tasting

Summary

In this flavorful episode, Laurie sits down with the dynamic duo behind Bull and Goat Brewery to trace their hop-fueled evolution from garage brewers to masters of both beer and spirits. You'll hear how a hazy IPA helped put them on the map, why they dove into the world of whiskey and agave, and what’s brewing next. Plus, get the inside scoop on an upcoming event on June 7th at Maryland Crafted that blends craft beverages, local bites, and live music for a tasting experience you won’t want to miss. Cheers to chasing bold dreams—one pint (or pour) at a time. 

Takeaways

• Bull and Goat Brewery started in a small garage.
• The brewery is celebrating its 10th anniversary next year.
• They offer a variety of beers, including a popular hazy IPA.
• The brewery has expanded into distilling spirits, including whiskey.
• Their agave spirit is popular for margaritas.
• The upcoming Maryland Crafted event on June 7th will feature a VIP tasting experience.

Join us for the VIP Experience as part of Maryland Crafted on June 7th in downtown Centreville!

Transcript

Laurie (00:01.521)
Jake and Jeff, or maybe I should say Bull and Goat, welcome to The Sipping Point.

Bull and Goat (00:07.28)
Thanks, Laurie, for having us.

Laurie (00:09.463)
Awesome. Well, we're going to do a great event together coming up on June 7th. And we're going to talk about that in a little bit. But if folks don't really know about the bull and goat brewery and everything you do there, let's start with how did you two crazy guys come to start the brewery? And I think you need to explain the name, the bull and the goat and where that comes from as well.

Bull and Goat (00:33.496)
Yeah, yeah, that sounds great. I, Jeff and I have known each other forever and have had a great working relationship before we started the brewery and I call him an old, or he asked good and he called me the bull because I pulled my way through things. So yeah, it's a good partnership. And in regards to starting the brewery, I mean, we started out of a little 200 square foot garage, walking our beer up into the center of town.

Laurie (00:49.752)
Nice, I like that.

Bull and Goat (01:01.742)
back in 2016 and since then have opened up a tap room we actually have a nice little distillery and make great cocktails and great beer so it's it's been a long ride next year will be our 10th anniversary which is awesome so if you haven't seen us come and see us and if you have seen us come see us again

Laurie (01:22.053)
Love it. Congratulations. That's a, that's a big milestone. Just starting a business, but staying in business is the hard part as I'm sure you guys know. All right. Well, I know I've got the pleasure of visiting to map out our event that we're doing in June and you have a really fun inviting tasting room, with it's a shuffleboard, there on the front, right? And it's just like, it seems like a really cool chill place to hang out and have a beer.

Bull and Goat (01:43.616)
Mm-hmm.

Laurie (01:51.207)
Tell me about the, we'll start with the beers, because I know you make some spirits as well, but tell me about the breadth of the different styles of the beers that you produce.

Bull and Goat (02:03.818)
Okay, you want to tell her where we started? Sure. Well, when we started making beer, we came with an amber and we made a lot of bad amber. But we wanted to try to make that beer drinkable and we did. Finally. That was our first beer. It's the Frank Amber. Still on tap today. It's one of our core beers.

So we eventually added an IPA and a porter and we made those three beers until we could make them in our sleep basically. And for a small brewery, think we're fairly consistent on those beers. We don't blend, know, each batch is its own batch. anyway, there three of our main four beers. They're always on tap. We've got five other beers that pretty much rotate through.

and we make about 40 different beers right.

Laurie (03:04.698)
Wow, my gosh. Well, one of the beers that you make is a hazy IPA that you call Tooshie And that's what I have here right behind me. I got a six pack when I was visiting. Although I must say, I tried your lager and I loved that. if you're not into the fancy beer styles and you just like a nice light beer, you guys have something for those people as well. So.

Not everybody loves IPAs, although I know it is the most popular style going these days, but this is a hazy IPA and I see on the can it's flavored with mango. What was the inspiration to make this?

Bull and Goat (03:47.721)
So that was actually one of my kind of beers that I was interested in making was something fun. It's just super light. We wanted to have something that you could drink a lot of and when we made it, this was quite a long time ago, we wanted it to be playful and different. So we added some mango to it, added a little bit of lactose and yeah, it turned out like a lot of fun.

Laurie (04:17.232)
Yeah, it's very delicious. And one of the reasons why I'm not a huge IPA is that they're very bitter sometimes. And this is not. And maybe it's the mango that helps balance out the bitterness of the hops. But I feel like this is a good IPA maybe for people who don't want to go all the way, if you know what I mean. Absolutely. And go ahead.

Bull and Goat (04:36.755)
Yeah, yeah, it certainly is.

No, was going to say, mean, it's a good one. Definitely one of the ones that we sell quite a bit of. We have it at a bunch of different restaurants, so it's definitely well received.

Laurie (04:52.134)
Nice. And I should say that for those of you who are listening, the guys are right out in front of the brewery right there. It's sipping along with me because I am tasting the Tushy right now. And they even have a couple of cigars. Those of you watching this on YouTube, you know, because you're watching. All right. So how did you cross over from making the beers to making spirits? I know when I visited, we saw you were making whiskey at the time.

Bull and Goat (05:15.655)
Yeah, that was back in around 2020, so about five years ago, and we got into distilling at home, which is illegal, but we were like, you know, if we're gonna do it, let's try to actually get a license and do it the right way. So we got a license and started farting around with a bunch of different stuff.

Laurie (05:19.824)
Tell me about the spirits that you make and how that all started.

Bull and Goat (05:43.719)
our favorite thing to make is whiskey. We do a release every year. Takes a long time to make whiskey, obviously, so we've got a few different barrels back there. But we've got clear liquids too, if you guys like vodka or gin or rum, we do a lot of those. And we actually make an in-house tequila, can't call it that, because it's not made in Mexico. It's an agave spirit, and it's made with 100 % organic agave nectar.

and it's also delicious. We sell almost as many margaritas as we sell beers, believe it or not. So if you're a margarita fan, might want to come check it out. margarita ever. Ever.

Laurie (06:21.506)
I love that. Well, Cinco de Mayo is coming up, so I'm sure you're getting those ready. That'll be happening as well. all right. We are doing an event together, which I'm very excited about. It's all part of, you know, Crafted Maryland, Maryland Crafted, I should say. And it's going to be downtown Centerville on June 7th from 12 to five.

but we've cooked up a little VIP experience that you guys are gonna host there at the brewery. Only 30 people can join us. It's gonna be small and intimate, but tell me a little bit about the, when people arrive, what will happen and you've got something planned for them when they first arrive.

Bull and Goat (07:04.271)
Yeah, so we've got a pretty cool little spot here. We've got our tap room behind us. We've got a beer garden to the left of us right now. Behind that we've got a canning area, a distilling area. So when you get in, you know, we'll get a glass, we'll get you something to sip on. We'll take you around and show you the different operations that we have, kind of how we started and what we like to do, which is really just mainly have fun and

From there, we'll bring you back in. think, Laurie, you're going to take over, And do some stuff with some tastings.

Laurie (07:36.794)
Yeah.

Yeah, after you give them that a little beer and a little tour, they're going to sit down and we're going to have four pairings set up for them. One with one of your beers. I don't think we want to give away what that's going to be. And paired with a food pairing. And then there'll be two wines also with pairings. And then I believe we are finishing with your margarita, which sounds delicious. So people are going to have to try that out.

Bull and Goat (08:02.218)
Absolutely.

Laurie (08:05.88)
So I will be leading people through a guided tasting of the four pairings. I'm going to share a little bit about, you know, my comedy, what I think is funny about being in the wine world. You guys can probably relate and we have some games and some other things we're going to do. So it's going to be totally interactive and fun because I'm just like you guys. mean, yeah, you can make wine complicated and serious, but that just sucks all the fun out of it. So I'm going to stick with the fun theme that you guys are handing them off.

to me with and then we'll go through our four and people will be juiced up for the Maryland Crafted event and they'll be able to just slide right into the event because we'll have them checked in and they'll have their VIP credentials.

Bull and Goat (08:51.735)
Yeah, right. And then, I mean, afterwards, the events always a ton of fun. mean, we've, Centerville's hosted it for a couple of years now and there's just a lot of cool crafts up in town. The town's beautiful. It's one of the oldest towns in the country. It actually has the oldest working courthouse in the country, which is really neat. lot of history here. So just a really, really good time.

Laurie (09:13.466)
That's awesome. And there are over 20 different Maryland made wine, beer, and spirits that will be at the festival that you'll be able to get tastings from. There'll be food trucks, there'll be Maryland artisans that will be selling awesome wine accessories and other things there. So there's a lot to do, but I don't know about you guys, one of the things that I get super excited about other than our VIP event, which is gonna be killer.

is the music and one of the bands that will be there is Chesapeake Sons. Have you guys seen them before?

Bull and Goat (09:47.394)
I've not seen him personally, but yeah, they were here last year. So yeah, that's my first.

Laurie (09:51.205)
Yeah, lots of classic rock and just a really fun event to, you know, just walk around, taste beer, wine and spirits, listen to great music, eat amazing food and maybe do a little shopping. So I'll be emceeing the music stage as well. But if you have not gotten your VIP tickets to join us, the event's going to start at 11 a.m. So it's basically going to be pre-gaming for Maryland Crafted.

and you can go to thewinecoach.com and click on events. And there you can have a link to buy the VIP ticket or a regular ticket as well. If folks wanna come out and visit you, if you happen to be in the Maryland area or you live in the Maryland area, let them know how they can find out about the bull and goat and when they can come check out your tasting room.

Bull and Goat (10:40.532)
Yeah, so Bull & Goat and go to bullandgoatbrewery.com and our affiliate, the distillery is Old Courthouse Distilling in honor of the oldest working courthouse here in town. So old courthousedistilling.com and yeah, go check it out. have, we're open just kind of off hours, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, three to nine and Saturday, two to nine. It's cool. I mean, if you come in and grab something to eat in town, I mean, we offer really, really great cocktails, really, really good beers.

So good family atmosphere. And you know, sometimes we party a little late and sometimes get in pretty deep. So he might be here past night.

Laurie (11:16.902)
I love it. Well, if you're looking for great beer and spirits and to have fun, you got to check out and meet the bull and the goat. I'm excited to see you guys in a couple of weeks for our VIP experience. And I really appreciate you sharing this Tooshie with me, this mango hazy IPA. And I just want to thank you for coming on the sipping point and I'll see you soon.

Bull and Goat (11:42.16)
Awesome. Thank you, Laurie. Can't wait to see you. Bye.

Laurie (11:44.209)
Cheers. Thanks guys. All right. The only thing I would say is.