No Life 'Til Lager Episode 26 - Blanca Quintero x Kevin Limón x Highland Park

No Life 'Til Lager Episode Twenty Six with general manager Blanca Quintero and brewer Kevin Limón at Highland Park Brewery.

Hosted by failed Master Cicerone® Adam Zuniga. Produced by Jeremy Batchelor.

No Life 'Til Lager theme song by The Rogue Yeast. Episode art by Keenan Grawe.

Follow @nolifetillager, https://nolifetillager.buzzsprout.com

Fresh LAger - https://hpb.la

Copyright 2026 No Life 'Til Lager

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:13

Welcome

Welcome Blanca and Kevin!

SPEAKER_02 0:14

to No Life to Lager, a show about lager beer, the brewers who make it, and we that drink it. This is a conversation between three people over one pint. My name is Adam Zunaga. I'm a failed master Cicerone. I'm part of the creative team behind the Six Post Metal Breweries and Beer Like and Doss movie. And my guests today are Kevin Limone, Brewer, and Blanca Quintero, General Manager at Highland Park Brewery. That is in Los Angeles. My neighbors in California and the house that Kimbo built. Cheers and welcome and thank you for joining Blanca and Kev.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Thanks for having us.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

Thanks for having us. Thank you, thank you. A couple things in the spirit of full disclosure. So I've wanted Highland Park on this show, especially in the context of talking to Jack's Abbey about what was originally branded as India Pale Lager, recently talking to Bierficio Italiano about Italian dry hop pills, and now, of course, Timbo Pills, West Coast Pilsner. But before we get to it, in the spirit of true disclosure, Blanca and I have already met. We went to college together, which will remain nameless. We had the same major, which should also remain nameless. I'm always kind of embarrassed when I tell people I've majored in philosophy, but maybe it makes sense that I now work in beer. But Kevin, we are meeting for the first time, and it's always good to know a brewer. It's good to know whose house we're in. So we're going to talk about you. We're going to talk about the brewery. Before we do, I would just love to talk

Timbo Time

SPEAKER_02 1:55

more about the beer in our hands. I am drinking Timbo. Kevin, I believe you are drinking Timbo Pills. It clocked 5.8% alcohol. Timbo time. Timbo time. It's always Timbo time. Before we get deeper into it, just tell me a little bit about the beer in our hands, please.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Yeah, so pretty much Timbo Pills, West Coast Pilsner. Kind of a is in the name itself. It's uh German Pills uh mixed, kind of like a hybrid between a West Coast IPA. Um our base malts are uh Pilsner malt. Uh traditionally it was Bohemian Pilsner. Uh we kind of swapped around from time to time. But yeah, we got a little bit of two row in there as well, which is like the base for most IPAs. Uh we're using the 3470 fermentation from fermentus, uh, which is our lager yeast, our house lager yeast.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

And then uh just to kind of spice things up, we have uh some pretty good German noble hops and or German-style noble hops that are a little bit more new age. And then we kind of have the backbone and the power couple of Citra Mosaic to dry hop with.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yeah. Um I love it. I mean, it's intensely hoppy, and we're gonna talk more about this. And again, thank you for sending the cans, Blanca, and share it with me. I see select drops of Timbo throughout the Bay Area. I've made the pilgrimage to Highland Park for this beer. Um, I mean, I will say, I guess I just want to know off the top. Like, do you think anyone drinking this blind would necessarily know it's a lager? No, it's a pilsner. Do you get consumers thinking it might be uh an IPA? Just I'm curious what to you really defines this as a pilsner as a lager beer. Do you think people could tell the difference if they didn't know just because the hot character is so pronounced?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

I would say so. I mean, being on like the tap room side, you it actually the more common thing that happens with Timbo is if somebody comes in and they specifically say they don't like IPAs, but they want a little something a little bit more flavorful than like our sports lager or like a German pilsner we have on drafts, we guide them towards Timbo because it's the best compromise, right? Like it's not so hoppy that it's off-putting to somebody that's not super into hoppy beer, but it also gives you a different level than what you would get from a standard like light lager option. And it is the best of both worlds, I think. Um and it's actually a good gateway to getting more into hoppy beer if you usually have like something that was on the lighter end, like a core durable level.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Yeah, yeah. Much agreed and very well said. And I mean, the reason I love the beer is it still has a firm bitterness. Um, and presumably that's from kind of the German noble hops you're using. But then the aroma just leaps from the glass. And usually when I I've had pale beers like this that are real heavy-handed with citric and sometimes taste kind of off to me. People use the term like catty, you know, as a as a nice way of saying it, you know. But like the mosaic really rounds it out, really jumps from the glass in the aroma, really supports the the flavor and the taste profile. It's a really enjoyable and drinkable beer. Pronounced amplified hop character. So I think, as you both said, the best of both worlds, and we're gonna talk more about it. But before we do, um, let's get to know you as people, uh, let's get to know you as humans.

Meet Blanca

SPEAKER_02 5:40

Blanca, as I said, we have uh met before and somehow all come full circle. We've never had a GM, like a general manager for a tap room on this show. So I'd love to know just kind of uh from your side of the bar how that job looks. But I'd also love to know just your career path, you know, having a liberal arts background, like I did, kind of how that ultimately translated to the beer industry. Any advice you would give to people seeking out a role, a job, a career in the beer industry at this point. And then let's go to you, Kevin, because I want to know how you turned this uh this passion. And I believe you have homebrewing roots. How did that ultimately become your profession? So please share. Um, Blanca, I would love to know what happened to you after college. Let's hear it.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

What happened indeed? So I we went to a college uh in the Pacific Northwest. Uh, when I came back home after graduation, I started a master's program in philosophy because apparently I just like student loans. And um when I kind of reacclimated back into the LA scene, I I reconnected with like my LA friends uh that I gone to high school with, and I realized that we all kind of liked beer, but it not just like obviously we all drank beer together growing up and whatnot. But what I noticed was that there was a lacking of a lot of like diversity in beer. It's like it was still like having gone to school in the Pacific Northwest, there was a lot of uh microbrew diversity, right? There's a lot of great breweries up there. LVA at the time did not have that. So while I was in my master's program and like reacclimating with like my friend group, uh we started to kind of go to Oktoberfest and like go out and try like the German beers and then started going to the nearest local breweries, which were in San Diego or Firestone or Paso Roblets, like not anything that was nearby because the LA beer scene was still also developing. Um, I was intending to kind of get into the nonprofit sector because I figured that was the best way to use my skill set. It would align with some of my, you know, intentionality with being the philosophy major. And in the middle of all that, I just became more and more into the craft beer world because as I said, back then, you know, in the early 2010s, this is when it's developing, right? Like the LV beer scene was negligible. Um, so by 2012, I weasel my way into a beer tender job at Stone, which you visited be at, Adam. And I was while I was there, they're very encouraging of like beer education. So I got my certified cystrone um while I was at Stone and very much delved into like the beer education side. That is really where my passion lies. Um, I believe that's the same for the both of you. And as I I was I was just, you know, basically a beer tender. I was trying to see what my next move was. And I eventually went to Firestone Walker when they opened up their Venice location and helped them open up that tap room. And essentially I became kind of a jack of all trades person. I was doing marketing, I was doing events, I was doing beer education for this the company. Um, I would work close closely with the brewery team with sensory, like uh just logistics. There was a lot of the different things, and I would go between um at the time they had three locations, probably between the three, educating staff and doing a lot of different things. Um and at some point I was like, oh, you know, I think I want to, you know, continue my career because when you're not on the brewing side, you're pretty limited as to where your career path can take you on beer. You know, you're either gonna end up opening up your own brewery or you're gonna go to sales. So I went to sales for Firestone. And I started sales in December 2019. And a few short months after that, COVID hit. And being in sales was fucking garbage during COVID because you were stuck going to like grocery stores. And like, you know, while it was kind of interesting to see, you know, still having to hit the pavement, still going to work every day during the pandemic. I quickly became burnt out and was not happy. You know, for all that Firestone did for me, it was not a good fit for me to go into sales because Adam, you've been in sales yourself. It's just not for the beer nerd, when you're doing grocery store sales, you're going into 7-Elevens, like we're talking about like mass distribution. Sometimes it can kill your soul a little bit. So, in the middle of having like a semi-existential crisis, I saw that Hyli Park was hiring an assistant general manager position. And I was like, sure, I can I can make that work. I know how to do all the things at this point, except for being on a brew deck. I've done basically almost every role. And um I knew Bob and Tiff from other times that uh Firestone had collaborated with Hylet Park Breed. So I got the job there, but it was during a pandemic, so I very quickly was put to task with things that weren't in that job description of a general uh tap room manager. So I was doing peer education, I helped with sales, um, I helped with like our nonprofit partnerships and all these things that were like things I had done at other jobs kind of all became one thing. And over time I eventually got promoted and uh our I didn't think I would end up in this role. You know, obviously the dream job had always been to like be like the director of your education or some such thing, but those roles are very few and far between. Um, I'm not an advanced sisterone, I'm a failed advanced sisterone to your failed master's history on point. I I took the test like in 2017, very poorly uh studied for it, and then I never tried again. So that's on my to-do list. But you know, I've met other educators, people that are passionate about beer education in the industry, and it's not really a role that exists in a lot of breweries. You would have to be like an independent contractor, basically doing it for a lot of different places. So I've kind of compromised. I'm like, I'm good managing people, I'm really like good at multitasking. I think any as long as I've been at Highland Park now, which is now six years, uh, I feel like I've been a good addition to the team just in terms of like diversity and also just like helping everything grow to where it is now, um, which I'm thankful for. Um but I think if I was to give, you know,

Pink Boots and Michael Jackson

SPEAKER_00 12:25

I've been asked this before because in in all this timeline as well, like I was also very much part of the Pink Boot Society. I was president of the board for two years, I was on the board of directors for four years. Um, I led the chapter in LA for a few years. I think I still do a little bit. And I, you know, I've I've had all these like um networking relationships all over the world because of it. And um, it also is part of the passion that I have with the industry, is just like making sure people are able to find connections and find careers in places where they think there might not be one. Um, but that after I finished my tenure with Pink Boots, I overlapped in the Michael James Jackson Foundation and joined the board with them. I've been on the board now for two years. Um, that organization, so Pink Boots is an organization for women and non-binary individuals and now like the fermented beverage industry. It started with just beer, now it's wine, kombucha, cider. Um, they offer education and scholarship opportunities for women and non-binary individuals. The Michael James Fax Jackson Foundation similarly offers scholarships for uh uh black, indigenous people of color in the industry that are trying to advance in their brewing career. So it's existing brewers that are trying to level up. And um, I feel like all those things related to, you know, it's like all these umbrella of things that you could do in the beer industry outside of brewing. I feel like absolutely to all of that. Um, but I think uh to get to that point, I think it's a good segue to talk to about Kevin because Kevin is the recipient of a scholarship for the Michael James from the Michael James Jackson Foundation. And I think he also shows like the different path that you could take in the industry and how you get there.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

I've I've heard rumor of this, Kevin. Um I knew that you both had worked with the Michael J. Jackson Foundation on some level. Um, Blanca, thank you for bringing this full circle. You should know that you have also kind of guided and inspired my own journey in beer, watching from afar, watching via the interwebs. It's interesting to hear about LA being kind of an uh underdeveloped or less developed craft beer culture circle like 2010, because to see the way it's grown by leaps and bounds ever since, I consider it one of the best cities in the world to drink beer in. Uh, that is with thanks to both of you, with thanks to Highland Park. You know, LA is a city of cities, and I believe that Highland Park is its local brewery, is its local lager brewery. And just one last thing before we move on. It's just interesting to hear that beer kind of gave you also kind of that guidance, that direction. I mean, graduating with a philosophy degree from an expensive university, this is gonna date me, but I mean I went to work at like Borders, Books, and Music for nine something dollars an hour after that. If I had had, I'm extremely unfortunate not to have had a bunch of student loans because I'd still be paying them off to this day. You know, and a lot of people with that um kind of fall into maybe sometimes service jobs, sometimes retail jobs, and like all those jobs, some people are very good at it, some aren't, and they just do it because they have to do it. What beer gave me was a different direction, a different focus, a different path to what I consider the middle class, honestly, which is a moving target, a perpetually moving target. But that's why I'm so grateful to work in this industry, um, in a sales capacity, in a marketing capacity, and yes, in an education capacity. And you've probably heard I have my own feelings about the Cicero program. Proud to be a failed master of Cicero, mixed feelings about the uh advanced title, but I think certified is a great benchmark to hold. So on this path, on this journey, let's talk

Meet Kevin

SPEAKER_02 16:25

about you, Kevin. Um, of course, leading up to the Michael J. Jackson Foundation. I would also just love to know about other jobs you've had, life before beer, if there was such a thing. Um, and then of course, like I said, how did you turn this passion to a profession from home brewer to pro, please?

SPEAKER_03 16:46

Yeah, of course, I would love to. And thank you, Blanca. That was awesome. Also learning things that I didn't know about you. Uh, so that was that was also pretty cool. Yeah, so I I I pretty much started homebrewing in 2017. Um, I had a Belgian saison uh from Indy Brewing that kind of just opened my eyes to what beer could taste like and what beer could look like, aside from your typical modello, you know, just regular supermarket beers. And I couldn't find any at the time. The beer scene wasn't that big. So I looked into how to make my own and pulled up a recipe, went to Eagle Rock homebrew supply, and wrestled up a Saison. And then from that point on, I was just an avid homebrewer. And because I was homebrewing so often, I figured that at this point I should probably turn it into a job. So I was looking for jobs, brewery jobs in the area, couldn't find any, expanded my uh search for like about a 50-mile radius, and yeah, it was it was kind of hard to get a job because people wanted experience. And how do you get experience if no one gives you a shot? So I figured that the best way to do so is through education, finding some type of course that would catapult me into a brewing job, or maybe not so much in the tap room, but just straight up brewing. And it happened in the magical time that I was uh applying to colleges uh to get my bachelor's, so I transferred over to Cal Poly Pomona, where they actually have a brewery on site called Innovation Brewworks.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

Yeah, I I took the course there with a little bit of extra financial aid money, and from that point on, that's where like the professional brewery um experience began, and stood there for a bit, and then about like two to three months after I got my first brewery job at um uh Angry Horse Brewing in Montebello. I stood there for three years. Um within the four months that I was there, I pretty much took over all responsibilities, brewing, like salarying, any type of back-of-house work uh fell on my responsibility, which I was super thankful for. Uh, but yeah, I think being there for three years, I knew that it was time to uh just advance and and learn more and just try to seek higher education in beer. And in my search, I heard about the Michael James Jackson Foundation and how they were providing scholarships for for people of color, and I said, Wow, this is an amazing opportunity for me to like really shoot for the stars and and see what becomes of it. And as I was applying, I didn't get it the first time around, and I said, Well, I mean, it doesn't hurt to try again. So the second time is actually the charm instead of the third. And I got I got a scholarship, and with that scholarship, um I shot for the um the MBAA, which is the Master Brewers Association of the Americas Brewing and Malting Science course, which I did in 2023. Uh, the course was fantastic, uh, it really just solidified all the brewing foundations and really gave me insight to all the things that I didn't know about brewing. And it happened to be that I was taking that course in my transition to Highland Park Brewery, and it was pretty fascinating to see how the things that I was learning in class throughout the course were things that we were already applying at Highland Park Brewery. So I was basically having two courses at once as I'm training through Highland Park and going through this course, it it aligned perfectly, and I'm so happy and thankful for the MJF that especially in that time frame because it it aligned perfectly. And now being three years into Highland Park with a more in-depth role, um it's very rewarding. And and to see the success of Highland Park in the past few years since I've been there, and just all the progression of what Timbow Pills is now, and 2024 being brewery of the year for the Great American Beer Festival. I mean, what a time, what a time.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

What a time. Um, Kevin, happy three years, and I will say you are much smarter than I was as a philosophy major. Um, you know, it's just it's incredible. It is so, it's one thing to talk about this, and you're absolutely right to say like we learn by doing, but to see the practical application of what you're learning, what you're doing in real time is really inspiring. I'm so glad to know that like UC Davis isn't the only game in town promoting beer education in California, that there are multiple outlets to do this. Once you look for it, it is incredible. And then that the Michael J. Jackson Foundation ultimately recognized you and elevated to pursue further. And you're right. I'm never going to forget that. The second time is the charm. Many congratulations and very, very well deserved. Very inspiring. Cheers.

Will work for beer

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Before we move on, I just kind of want to ask you both, because I think it's more relevant than ever. Talking about, yes, uh, the Michael J. Jackson Foundation, talking about the Pink Boot Society, and talking about your own experiences in beer that led you to this moment. Any advice you would give to anyone who's right now thinking, I might want to become a brewer, I might want to work in the tap room at a brewery, I might want to pursue beer education, I might want to do sales, I might want to do marketing. How do I start? How do I begin? Um, would you encourage them to do it? Would you deter them from doing it, given all the news we get from Brewbound every day when we open up our emails and our inboxes right now? What do you think? What would you say to anyone who is deciding how to make a start in this industry?

SPEAKER_03 23:06

If I may, I'll I'll take the lead on this and then Blanca, you could kind of jump in. Please. Specifically, because as I was looking for a job, I figured that it has to be education and it has to be some type of networking, but more than anything, it has to be passion-driven. No one is going to be searching for these circles if they don't really care about what's um what's being made and and what's being talked about, right? So it has to be passion driven, and you also have to have like a group of people that align with what you think is cool, what you have like what you want to do in life, really. And the reason why I kind of took the lead on this was because the circles that I kind of put myself in led to led me to Highland Park. So it was a CCBA uh in Sacramento where Blanca was hosting an event for Pink Boots, and we're all having a great time. And I went up to Blanca and I was just like, hey, I I love everything that you're doing, uh way to support uh Mexicana and beer, like that's awesome. And her and I chatted about it. So from that point on, I was put on her radar to like, oh, there's there's a Mexican brewer out of Montebello uh brewing all sorts of beers, and yeah, I mean it was just really cool to to have that connection. And then eventually when Highland Park was hiring, uh my name came up, and I shot her a message on Instagram and said, Hey, like, is this still still available? And she even got on my ass to be like, Hey, did you apply yet? Like she and I was just like, I I just saw the job description not too long ago, and she was just like, you gotta do it quick. So, yeah, I mean, uh education, passion, and having a good circle. Oh, so well.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

I will say that that that's exactly I think it's interesting. I was thinking about this because I was thinking about my applicant pool that I've gotten recently in the tap room, and you know, the way that the the folks that were hired when the tap room, the Chinatown tap room opened in 2018 versus like now, right? So I was talking to like um my assistant manager about it, and he was just like, we used to hire beer nerds, but you quickly learn that sometimes beer nerds are not great at hospitality, right? So uh it quickly changed the dynamic in how I hire where it's like more service oriented, which is important. It's one of the things that the Brewers Association says that is lacking, that you need to work on that if you want your tap room, your brewery to succeed in this tumultuous time that we're in. But I I think that there's been many connections. Like I was gonna say to Kevin, uh, we have another brewer that started more recently. Um, two actually, they're both women. So one of them connected with me through Pink Boots because she wanted to work at Highland Park Brewery. And eventually, when there was a job opening, I was like, hey, there's a job opening, get on it. Um, and basically it gave her kind of the connection she needed to get a job there. She actually is from Sonoma County. She was, what was she, Bestpool? She was a distiller wanting to get into beer brewing. She already knew half the way there, you know, with being able to at least cook the mash. And um I was like, I I I've seen it in real time where it's like at within my brewery and other breweries, where it's like you find that connection and you're like, remember me, or I really don't know where to go. Can you help guide me? And I've been very much on the other side of that. The other person did the same program that Kevin did, which was the Cal Poly Brewers Assistant Program, which is now becoming a little bit more, it's getting more traction as people do want to get into the brewing industry. And I in this area specifically. So I really think it's just like that's a couple of things. You know, if you're really passionate about it, obviously become the regular that people remember. Go to these different meetings, Pink Boot Society, the SoCal Servicetos, which um Kevin has supported in um judging their homebrew competitions, you know, join your local homebrew club, um, go to the California Craft Brewers Association Summit, which is an Irvine in November. Uh, go to the Kraft Brewers Association um conference every year. If you're able to, there's little things that you could do locally. Um, go to beer festivals, volunteer. It's just kind of a little complicated because I think that that passion is really what drives people to be successful in this industry. And sometimes that's the one thing you can't teach somebody. You can't teach somebody to be passionate. And if they're passionate, they're usually gonna be hardworking and they're gonna want to learn and they're gonna care what the hell Timbull Pills is when you're trying to train somebody. But I think making those connections, uh, going to beer events. We've done a couple of events at a local spot that's across the street from where the brewery where Kevin used to work. Uh, the guy every month wants to do a panel with brewers with different organizations, and that is a great opportunity to meet other people. You know, you're meeting other brewers, you're making those connections, and then when you're looking for a job, they're gonna remember you. I mean, that's how I think I got my job at Highland Park is because I knew Bob, the owner of the company. And I feel like if I didn't know him, maybe I wouldn't have been as, you know, they didn't know me in another capacity or hadn't seen me do successful work, and that's why, you know, they had firsthand experience with me. I mean, these connections matter, and I think when it's very competitive out there and everybody's trying to get their foot up in the door, you know, you do make those connections from going to different events and just making yourself heard, like Kevin's saying, Hi, I want to I want to work with you, or help me. Remember me.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Yeah. Um, God, so much to say. First and foremost, I appreciate that neither of you are deterring people from trying to join and get into the craft beer industry despite current events or the current state of it. I really appreciate that. I love that you're saying lead with education. I love that you're saying lead with passion. I love that you're saying surround yourself with good people and good beer. Um, I mean, I myself just started blogging about beer in New York City, which led to my first job at six point, um, from a point of passion, from a point of education. And, you know, they took a risk on me when they had no reason to otherwise and I had no credentials to otherwise. Um, and the last thing I just I think I'll say before we move on to the brewery, um, you know, shout out to like you mentioned Stone Blanca, shout out to Firestone Walker and the Propagator and Sam Tierney and everyone who shaped this journey. But you too, like directly, I mean, when I I've lived in Los Angeles again three times, and I ultimately intend to come back for a fourth and maybe stay this time. Um but working in beer there, working at festivals, seeing a sea of Mexican Americans with long hair and black metal t-shirts invested in the craft beer industry. Maybe it's not fair to say, maybe it has taken work, but it seemed so organic, so effortless, and they were such an integral part of it. I realized this chose me. This is my fate, this is no accident, but I think the two of you together have directly helped shape that and continue to do so. And that's why I say it is such a special place to drink beer. And we talked a lot with uh Chris from Three Weavers and now Fig Mountain about the same. It's his experience as well. So I will just say thank you, thank you, thank you. And uh let's move

Meet Highland Park

SPEAKER_02 31:05

on to Highland Park. Uh let's talk about the brewery, let's talk about the house you're in as of now. I'm gonna tell you what I know and then maybe just tell us a little bit about what we don't know. Um, I believe founded 2014 in the neighborhood of Highland Park as a small production facility, but your tap room is in Chinatown. Uh, I know there's a full food menu and a well-curated wine program. I know you've won numerous JVF and World Beer Cup medals since opening. I think Timbo took gold in 2019 as an India Pale Lager. Uh again in 2024 as an American pale ale. That's why I wanted to ask at the top. Um, how does this beer read? What does it say to you the first time you drink it? Um, you offer membership programs called Fresh Friends and Bottle Friends. Fresh Friends is for hot forward cans. Bottle friends, I believe, is more like um barrel age or mixed fermentation. Um, and overall, you were credited with the West Coast Pilsner style, which has gained traction ever since. And all these other monikers uh like IPL or dry hop pills have kind of given way at this point to West Coast Pills, which is which is recognized by the Brewers Association and beyond. So that's what I know about the brewery, and now we know more about you and how you got there. Tell us a little bit more about Highland Park and maybe what we don't know behind the scenes, please.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

Well, I go for it all. Oh, sorry. I was just gonna talk to like the history part of it. So it did start in the neighborhood of Highland Park in the back of the Hermesio, which is considered to be kind of like our sister location. But we actually just completely moved out of there uh recently. Um, we don't, we, you know, during COVID, the production there, it became kind of like our RD space, but they kind of just slowly over time it was too burdensome to go back and forth. So some of the tanks that were in the small brewery came over to the Chinatown location. Chinatown location opened in 2018 and is basically considered our only location, our main production facility. Um, wherein, you know, we kind of comprise be more to the capacity, but we did we got additional tanks in. We have uh like the canning line they got in 2020, which is in very good timing, right? When everybody switched to canning from kegging. And um, we're our capacity had been at about like 3,000 barrels a year, which is very surprising to most because people are like, How do I know of Highland Park Brewery? We've shipped our beer to Japan recently, and our owners went to judge for that competition. And I think Timbo Timbo took gold, I think, in some random category as well. Um but I think the that you basically touched on all the main things that are known of the brewery. Um, it is owned mainly by uh Bob and Tiff who are married. Um, and uh Bob is still very hands-on every day. He oversees the brewing schedule or the director of brewing operations. Tiff oversees is the brand manager and basically oversees all our creative content on that side. And it's very much like a really interesting partnership and very much still boots on the ground, which I think everybody really appreciates that because we are such a well-known brewery. We have all these awards and athletes, and um, I think it's really speaks highly to the brewery itself. It's a very good place for people to work. We have very long-term retention, very little turnover on the brewery side in the front of house side kitchen. Everybody, you know, we try to treat our employees the best that we can. And I think that also translates to translates into the beer. Like everybody can already know. We've become, you know, a safe space for a lot of different people. It's not just the beer nerds that come through the tap room. Um, but I was just gonna add, and Kevin can just probably add on to it, uh, that Bob wrote the description for West Coast Pilster that got accepted for the Brewers Association with Vinny from Russian River, which was his penultimate. And then after that, we actually did our Russian River collab. And um earlier last year, and it's uh, or this year, I don't know, the years blur together, but it was after that description had been written. It was like the high peak of I think Bob's career is that the symbol that was brought up, like it was a combination of two beers literally, and then developed as its own style. When IPAL failed, or Hoppy, Hoppy Pilsner failed, you know, Pivot Pils for the longest time had the same identity crisis because of the origin of like the Tamano Borifico. It's like you're hopping a pilsner. What does this mean? And it's always confused people. But now that it's solidified like as a style, after all that happened, then I learned that people are doing a modern pilsner, which is basically something of a variation of a hoppy pilsner. Uh, so that's a thing now. So it's like there's always going to be this evolution beer styles, but I feel like Timbo is just always gonna stand alone and it's what it is, and like how it's evolved and helped evolve for where the beer industry is going to.

SPEAKER_02 36:20

Yeah, yeah. And I I think West Coast pills in the same way, like West Coast IPA is unmistakable, right? You know what you're getting, and it's still like the IPA gravitate toward more often than not. West Coast Pills really captures the spirit and the style in a way that people can easily identify and relate to, which I think is really important. Um, Kevin, anything more just you want to add about the brewery from the production side, uh, from back of house, uh, from the cellar. What else should we know?

SPEAKER_03 36:55

Blanca had touched on how we kind of treated the Edi Mosel space, like the original brewery, as our research and development facility, then moving all of those tanks over to Chinatown to kind of be like a supplemental um tank space for whenever we want to work on new projects or try out new yeast, different hop combinations. Uh, we're currently brewing out of a three-vessel, 15-barrel system. So we're able to do two batches a day to fill our 30-barrel fermenters. And um, because of that extra vessel, that third vessel, which is just a whirlpool, we're able to crank out two batches relatively quickly. Um, we don't have to have the the setback where we're doing the whirlpool and the kettle and have to wait to mash um to mash out or uh to finish a lot or to get the other one started. So that third vessel really helps out a lot. And we also high gravity brew, so we're brewing a little bit, a little having a little bit more sugar to water back and have more control on what our recipes are. Um so it on a given week, we're probably brewing 90 barrels a week, which essentially when you when you track it down throughout the whole year of of brewing, we're we're brewing well over 3,000 barrels a year. Uh and and we're on pace to brew even more than we did last year. So we we become really efficient in brewing. Um, and then on top of the brewing schedule, we're also packaging twice a week, pretty much the whole day. So what we're brewing is also what we're packaging in one week with a small team, small but mighty team. I mean, we have five brewers on hand at any given moment. We have three that are actually brewing, and then two that are doing cellar work or packaging. So we're firing on all cylinders, trying to get beer out there. Um, and the the best part about us getting those tanks from Edimal Seal and then actually having hands to to work in those cellar spaces is that um it's a brewer's dream to have extra toys to just work on new things. Um we're Ty Tyler Thurman is is our main RD guy, but he also needs help getting things done. So everyone's role switches on a day-to-day, hour-to-hour basis. Like, hey, uh you're gonna jump on uh doing some barrel work in this moment, and then later on you're probably gonna jump on dry hopping. So because we're a small team and we're doing so many things all at once, I think it's a brewer's dream to not only get experience in all these realms of brewing, but just really to try out new things. It's so awesome to be the person that's brewing the beer, doing the sal counts, and then hey, this Yuzu extract is pretty poppin'. We should throw this into a beer somehow. So just like all-encompassing, it's a very fun place to work.

SPEAKER_02 40:19

Um, here's the small but mighty, you said it, you know, like brewing on a 15-barrel system in the greater scheme of things, still, still a small operation, a small brewery, a craft brewery. But the uh efficiency you've achieved and the amount you're able to brew day, week, and what you're on pace to do this year is remarkable.

Taproom sales vs distribution

SPEAKER_02 40:40

And I just for want to say, for any doom and gloom surrounding the craft industry right now, I mean, are you finding immediate homes for the beer you produce? Is the vast majority of it consumed in the tap room? Are you sending much out to distribution throughout Los Angeles or beyond? Just all the fruit of your labor, all this effort. Um, where is it going? Where is it finding a home and an outlet?

SPEAKER_00 41:03

So um I can speak a little bit to that. Um I think um, as I mentioned earlier, when I started, I assisted with sales. So it was like me and now he's our director of marketing, but it was like our marketing person, James. We both were the salespeople. And I think that was one of the draws. They're like, hey, you've done sales. I was like, sure. We self-distribute. So a lot of the majority of the beer that we sell is in the tap room. And the goal has been to do like 25% distribution. Because obviously, you know, the most money you make when selling your beer is within the tap room because you're not giving a discount to distribution. But over time it's become kind of a challenge. Like there was this time in during like a couple months ago where we ran out of baseball, which is our sports lager. It's actually our number one selling beer. And I was like, hey, um, do we have any like backup kegs? There was kegs that were sent to Coachella that they didn't factor in. It was a little bit of a slip-up, but I was like, I can't not have light lager on draft. And it just be is this it's this constant dance of like, okay, we have to sell all this beer because we're trying to wrap up production and forecasting and a lot of things that can be challenging if you've never really delved into that. But I think now that you know they've gotten more on like a better plan in place, because now we have a sales director, right? So that's changed. Um, we have a better way of moving our beer around. We obviously send beer to like festivals and things like that, but we do limit it compared to other breweries because our main impact, so we're like very mindful in where we send our beer in terms of like events that are out of the city, out of the state, because we're like, is there a return on investment? Are people going to come back to our brewery if we send beer to Philly, to Baltimore, um, to New York? You know, there's obviously some big events that we do take a part in. Um, same thing would go even for the Great American Beer Festival. It's like, is there a return on investment in having uh like pouring beer in a festival where the majority of the people live in Denver and we hardly ever send any beer there, you know? So I think over time it's just been like a lot of strategy, right? Because you don't want to distribute too much. That's where you you hear breweries that are struggling, they do more than 50% distribution, and that's pretty bad. Um could be bad if because you're not making the same amount of money that you would if you were pushing it in house. Um, but I think that you know, you have to have a good planet place. We haven't worked with a distributor, we do still self distribute, which saves us money too. And I think it's very there's a lot of like reasoning and planning and strategy that goes into making sure that the beer doesn't sit too long. We have like a fragile. Freshness window, every different style when we set it out into the world, it's like you have to keep it cold. This style has to sell within 90 days, this style within 120 or 150. And we have like rules so that our beer doesn't die on the shelf because that's what you see. I mean, I know you are out in the world selling. I think you're now doing NA, right? But regardless, you've sold for different, you've sold for different brands. I know that you've sold it. Sorry, I don't know where you work. Take back what I edited out what I said.

SPEAKER_02 44:34

Uh no, no, no edits. This is all live and uncompromised. No, I think it's really good. You talk about freshness and date coding because like I I want to get to the like the heart and soul of Timbo, just the the what, the why, the how, and all this. And talking about like your freshness policy is a big part of that for a beer that is dry-hopped with mosaic and citrus to this extent. But but to your point overall, like breweries that have created a desk, their like a destination, that their taproom become the center of their operation and that people want to go there to return there. Like those are the breweries that I feel like are seeing the most success here now, as opposed to ones that are dependent on, yeah, sending more than half of their beer out into the world, beholden to distributors, beholden to retailers, beholden to shelf space that may or may not exist, you know. So I love it that your tap room remains kind of the heart and the soul and the core of where your beer is

Timbo Pils

SPEAKER_02 45:35

consumed. Um for Timbo, let's get to that because I do want to talk about freshness. I have seen select drops in Northern California. But before we even do that, so I mean, since 2015, right, West Coast Pills, it's billed as like a German traditional Pilsner meets a West Coast IPA. So first I want to know just who is Timbo, what's in a name? I want to know what is West Coast Pilsner. Like, what is West Coast Pills versus, I mean, do these all fall under the same umbrella? Or in your mind, is there a clear distinction compared to like India Pale Lager, Hoppy Lager, Cold IPA for that matter? So tell us a little bit about just the recipe. Tell us um who is Timbo, what is West Coast Pilsner, and then I want to know kind of your freshness policy and how you date code this beer if it makes it out to the world.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

I'll talk about Timbo. Go for it. And then Kevin can talk about the recipe. So Tim McDonnell was a brewer back when it was still the Hermesillo back, uh the smaller production facility before we ever opened the bigger production facility. He was Tim, Tim McDonnell, he now works at Monday Night Brewing. So he and Bob, well, basically he mixed together two recipes, uh Refresh, which is I think a culture technically, and Hello LA, which is our other flagship uh West Coast IPA. And over and they've done this a couple of times because I believe that's how competition was also born, which is one of our IPAs that does well. It's our competition IPA. Um, but the story is silly because it's like obviously named after Tim. And then the shredding guitar on the can is also in reference to Tim. The blue gloves are the blue uh brewer gloves that he wear. And it's just interesting. It was somebody during Timbo Week, which just passed. Somebody, I was wearing one of the older shirts that has the canned art on it. Um, and they were like, How did it go from actually, you know, it was Josh that told me, our old head brewer. He's like, How do we get from like the generic like Timbo scribble to a reaper? And I was like, you know, that's the evolution of Timbo, right? It's like, how do we get to West Coast uh Pilsner from Hoppy Pilsner? Because the branding used to be Hoppy Pilsner, and I think over time, that's what's been like redirected with the trends that are going on around us. Like Timbo hasn't changed in terms of the concept of what it was. It's like, let's mix a lighter beer with an IPA and see what happens. But the name that's given to it, and I kind of reflect a lot about names because I have studied for Sister Own things and just beer history in general. It's like everything evolves from what your ingredients are available to you and your water source, and just trying to mimic somebody else, you know, like the story of Pilsner in general, right? Your Czech Pilsner was a knockoff, and then like everybody's just copying each other and making their own version of a pilsner, and then you get Vienna, you get you know, all the evolutions from there, alt beer, you know, and you think about like how it all starts with this one, and then there's all these offshoots, and then the offshoots become the main style, and then those influence other styles. But all of it comes back to your ingredients that are available to you. So if you're making hoppy beer, why wouldn't you use hot these hot products for a pilsner? Um, but I just I geek out on it sometimes because like there's no stagnant, right? When I'm like thinking about memorizing 100 plus BJC key styles, you know, I'm like, what the hell is the point? Everything is always shifting. Maybe that's the philosopher in me. There is nothing that's stagnant, the river is always moving.

SPEAKER_02 49:42

Um yeah, I love it, and I agree. Well, well said. Um if Tim is Tim, and since you

The Bo in Bohemian

SPEAKER_02 49:50

said Bo, or did this come from you, Kevin? Are you blonde? So was so if the beer style has evolved and shifted, is Bo like a reference to Bohemian Pilsner, even though Timbo, as we now know it, is is more of a German Pilsner base?

SPEAKER_03 50:04

Yeah, so um the the Bo in Timbo was a reference to the Bohemian Pilsner, which is moreover, the uh floor-malted Bohemian Pilsner. And from a recipe standpoint, I think this is where the beauty of Timbo Pils comes around, is that floor-malted pilsner uh tends to create or tends to have more thial precursors in the malt to then eventually work its way down the line, down the pipeline of aroma in beer. So you get uh floor-malted pilsner with all the precursors of thiols to be released later on. Then you have a 3470 lager yeast that is very well balanced. Uh, and I mean in our case, we ferment at a little bit of a higher temperature than most lagers, and then you get this like high alpha acids for bitterness in the beer in the like initial boil to then translate well into a dry hop. You're getting all of these components uh essentially split in half. You you're setting yourself for success on a very great basis for a German pills, and then you're not essentially tweaking it, but you're getting a better half of the West Coast IPA, and you're slamming both of them together to create Timbo Pills. I mean, it all kind of just flows perfectly together, uh, and I think that's why where the aha and the moment drinking the beer comes from, where it's like everything kind kind of fell into place making this beer, and still to this day, uh as I brew it, I I think it's so fascinating that we're getting these new age um riffs on noble hops to then bring out all the best qualities from the raw ingredients because as a brewer, that's what's most fascinating to me. I as I mill the grain, like I always get a taste, and I always see how uniform green could be, and just like looking at the raw ingredients itself, and then seeing how it evolves throughout the beer's lifespan, it is so amazing. Even as beer is fermenting and we're tasting it at like high sugar content, high play-doh, and how the aroma starts to kick in day three or four after dry hop number two. We start to see where the beer is gonna end up in place, and because Timbo Pills is such a dialed recipe, um we already know what to expect day 17, day uh even in the early days, just by looking at the track record of fermentation. Nice. So it's just it evolves beautifully as a as a recipe, but in fermentation, it it just looks so nice to see on paper that it day in and day out, uh month after month, year after year, uh batch after batch is pretty much the same.

SPEAKER_02 53:30

Yeah, I I love that you all are both kind of leaning or describing on this this idea of beer as like uh like a work in progress, you know, an ongoing interpretation, subject to the raw ingredients and to what's available to you at the time it's uh it's brewed or the recipe is written and created. But then continuing to build upon that to achieve quality, to achieve consistency, uh, there's a happy ending to this story. It's beautiful. Um, the German hops you use for bittering and the boil, what are they? And I'm just curious, like, have you tried Timbo at every stage before you dry hop? Is it a completely different beer at that point?

SPEAKER_03 54:09

When you have like high sugar content in the early days of fermentation, uh it's kind of hard to know what Timbo is going to become in that moment. Uh but we are a sensory-driven brewery, and I say it time and time again, and most of us that work there also do, that um the bittering, like the hops that we use for bittering aren't always the same. They could be they could be similar, like we could be using Magnum one day, we could be using like anything that's relatively close to Magnum with a similar alpha acid, or even in the whirlpool, we could be using like a sauce or a super saws or something in that realm. And the basis of it is like we want to get uh a very close representation of what these hops are and what they will eventually become. So, to your question, is Timbo tasting a certain way and comes out completely different? You could kind of say it, but we already predict on what it's gonna be, and not to make like a segue into like Timbo Week and all the Timbo variants, yeah, but I think it's important to note that as we're making all of these beers, we have a core concept of what Timbo actually is. We want a fairly bitter pilsner that's very representative of the German Pilsner, where you have like your kind of like cereal tasting, like grain forward malt bill, I mean um taste with the backbone of a hoppy intensity. So when it comes to making like our low ABV tiny Timbo or our high ABV West Coast IPA jumbo, um, or even TDH triple dry hop Timbo, all of these variants still have that core recipe of Timbo just with different twists. And the beauty about it is that in order for us to achieve these different types of variants without compromising what Timbo is, is that we get to explore different hop extracts and different uh products from it's either abstracts, YCH, uh, Yakima Chief Hops, and everything that the industry has to offer. So in it's essentially also a collaboration of what the industry has to bring out for us and what tools we could use and bring out of our toolbox to make these beers very special and still very true to what Timbo is.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

I love it. Can you so two last things, and then I do want to jump to other beers on the board, other interpretations or expressions of Timbo and what else you uh brew year-round as core or seasonal, seasonally or specialty. So for Timbo, I just I do want to know about in terms of production kind of loggering and conditioning time. And now that we kind of know who Timbo is and more of the origin story behind it, I just want to know from you both,

West Coast Pilsner

SPEAKER_02 57:25

not the final word, but another word on this idea of West Coast Pilsner. Is it different from what was an IPL or what became a Hopbee logger? Uh, is it different from a cold IPA? Is there anything to your taste or in your mind that absolutely defines it as a style? So a little bit more about just the uh the loggering and conditioning of Timbo, and then the style itself, to you personally, what defines uh West Coast Pilsner, please?

SPEAKER_03 57:54

We're essentially uh fermenting at 52 degrees Fahrenheit, and then we ramp up to um to 68. Oh, sorry, 50. We start at 54 and we're ramping up to uh 64, 65 uh degrees Fahrenheit, and that's just to like clear a diacetal rest, and it's a little bit lower than most uh lagers, pilsners for like 3470, but because we introduced that dry hop, we also want to have control on what like the hop character will be, and I think that if we were to go in higher temperatures, we'll dive into a little bit more of an aroma intensity, maybe uh a hop intensity. But more than anything, when you ask about the style and and how it differentiates between like a cold IPA or a hoppy lager, I think it's still very much true to what a pilsner is. Like, you're not gonna be drinking a pilsner and notice the bitterness and call it a lager, like you're gonna be able to differentiate what the two are, and then what the West Coast Pilsner is like the West Coast portion of it is almost like an alarm to your mind to say this is gonna be hobby, there is gonna be hop intensity in this spear, and I think that most uh hoppy loggers or or cold IPLs uh or cold IPAs are gonna be different, is that they don't necessarily have to have the qualities of a pilsner, it doesn't have to necessarily have the hop intensity of an IPA, but somewhere in there you're gonna be able to taste the two side by side or taste the two together and and pick apart all of the nice details in both. Yeah. Um, that's my kind of take on it.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

Yeah, yeah. For you, Blanca, is there a defining kind of characteristic of West Coast Pilsner that differentiates it from whatever it's been called before, and kind of, as you said, whatever it might be called in the future, or does it all kind of fall under a similar umbrella in a similar spirit?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:10

As I think about it, I mean, again, like because I worked at Firestone, I know about like where like pivotal is like their pilsner that they were trying to make all sorts of different things happen, right? In some ways, it's a it's a dry hop German Pilsner. And that idea came from Italiano Berrifico, who did the Italian pilzer that's dry hop. I think those styles are not they're the same but different because the whenever I go somewhere and I try a hoppy pilsner, it's not Timbo, it doesn't have the same qualities, it's not hopped enough, but it's not just like hop bitterness, it's like like the tropical qualities, like this batch of Timbo, even though yes, it's always the same, it doesn't shift. It is just so much more pungently like tropical fruit forward and citrus forward than the last batch, right? So we always taste every batch of Timbo, and you can taste some nuanced differences. When I go to another brewery and they try, I mean, actually, a good example of this is during Timbo week, we do guest Timbos, and other breweries will brew the Timbo recipe. And our old head brewer for Highland Park now works at Freeze Brewing in Brooklyn, and he brewed a Timbo. Now, this man is the one that like was heading the helm when Timbo was one of the gold-winning medals at GABF, and his Timbo was not the top contender of all the Timbos, right? Even our Timbo wasn't the top contender. Um, and some people that have made a really good Timbo in the years past this year didn't, because again, all these other factors come into play. How's your yeast doing? What grain are you using? Are you exactly replicating? Maybe you missed a step. You were a second behind. All these tiny nuances can affect your outcome, right? But that being said, whenever I try the other Timbos, you can always tell that it's not the same. Even if it's better or worse, you can tell it's not the same as Timbo. But whenever I go and try like a hoppy pilsner or hoppy lager somewhere else, it's never hoppy enough. It doesn't have the same flavor profile. Sometimes it's just it's a little too muted for my taste because I come from the world of I love denky IPAs, the true West Coast IPAs. I worked at Stone for many years. Like my threshold for hot bitterness is very high. So working at Haven Park and having Timbo and Hello LA, which is our core West Coast IPA, which is cold fermented, it's lager, it's a lager yeast, like the fl it's not a hot bitterness, like it's hurting your flavor profile, like it's a grapefruit slapping you in the face or anything like that. But it's it's just more flavorful. And I think that anybody that tries to replicate it has failed in so many ways. Like other breweries in LA, sorry to say that, like I don't think they meet the standard of hoppy flavorfulness because they don't hop enough, maybe. Maybe it's the quality of the hops that they're using. I mean, everybody uses citra mosaic, but it's like, well, what lot? Like we have this giant spreadsheet of all the hop bales and like the lots, and there's different flavor profiles associated. You can have three different lots of citra, they're all gonna do different things depending on when they were picked. Is it early in the harvest? Is it late? And all these little factors play into the final product and to what Kevin wasn't even bringing up. So it's like the kind of pilsner malt that we use. For a long time, we used Admiral Pills and we stopped using it. It's floor-malted because it got too expensive. I'm sorry, Admiral. Then they like recently, in recent years, lowered their price point. So now we put it in a lot more beers than we used to. Before it was only Timbo, and now we put it in another beer. Yeah, so it's like um the quality of the ingredients that you're using to make your beer, all these different factors play into it. But I do think that the reason that Timbo is what it is is because it's not, it doesn't go over your head, but it gives you what you expect from the description. And a lot of other breweries can't really bring that to the table. And I think that's why it's like the the ideal of that kind of brewery.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:39

So well, I'm glad Admiral is finding its way back into some of your beers. That's a great thing. I've shared this story before, but I once had Humulus Lager served to me by the brewery. Uh location in Hermosa Beach is no longer there, called Mediterranean, in a big oversized red wine glass. That was the first hoppy lager I ever had. That just blew my mind that lager or Pilsner could be this showcase and this pronounced expression of hops. And Timbo has only built upon what everyone else has tried to do since. Um, since you both mentioned it, I think we can get

Tiny to Jumbo Timbo

SPEAKER_02 1:05:15

to some of your other beers on the board and culminating in Timbo Week. Um, it's probably just the time of the year right now. You mentioned your baseball logger, a love letter, the Dodgers, uh, Blanca that's more or less always on at 5%. I saw Tiny Timbo at 4%, uh, classic Timbo at 5.8, Fresh Friends, I don't even know, am I saying this correct? Thylize, Thealize, Timbo at 5'8, triple Dry Hop Timbo, uh EDH Jumbo Timbo, uh, which is, I think, actually an IPA. Yes, an IPA or a logger. And then just so people don't get the wrong idea, your your board is often evenly split with loggers, pilsners, and West Coast IPA, hazy IPA. I saw a Whitbeer, a strong ale, a stack. Every color of the rainbow, not to mention slushies, seltzers, uh, healthy line of guest beers. I love that spirit of camaraderie. And an underbird for anyone who wants to watch it all down. And that's within the context of Timbo Week, which what that just ran from July 13th to July 19th. So congratulations on surviving another year. I saw collabs with Alvarado, with Bierstadt Lagerhouse, noctolager alums, with threes, uh, good friends in Brooklyn. I hope to have them on at some point to talk about their Viet Pilsner. Um what else? A tattoo pop-up, a ping-pong invitation, a live music, all culminating in a Timbo lucre pour and a dimple mug. And I just ordered the mug because I'm a fanatic and a collector from your tap room. Um so there's not exactly a question in all of this. I would love to little, I would love to know a little bit more from both the tap room perspective and the brewing perspective, just what kind of makes it into your lineup as year-round core, as seasonal, as specialty. And then I really want to know what goes into planning something on the scale of Timbo Week year over year. You know, just who do you decide? Uh who, like how do you decide who you're going to collaborate with, for example? So whatever you want to speak to about uh your lineup throughout the year and Timbo week year over year, please share.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:30

I mean, for the board, I think we try to keep a healthy balance, but sometimes we'll run out of hazy beers, we'll run out of hoppy, we'll run out of logger. Right now we're kind of down to one house-made logger. But I just got some Freeman today because I can't I can't just have one lager available. Um, but I think, you know, we added the whip beer, the rattlestick wit. That was an ongoing project. We had a previous with uh that was easy fruit. Um that was like grapefruit added to it. Um, and we have just constantly been trying to make sure we have all the necessary styles to keep everything on board. We do make a seltzer that's called Slick Wizard, that's like ranch water inspired. Because of that, we have a base seltzer that we use for sludge. So we just kind of try to keep it even so that there's something for everyone. When we run out of a dark lager, as we did, I got Nighthawk from Enegrin, their great, you know, European beer style uh brewery that's nearby. Um, we keep rotating guest beers to fill in the holes that we can't fill because we take up so much space with trying to fulfill the needs of baseball. You know, we're in Dodger season right now, it sells like hot cakes everywhere, including the brewery. So it just takes it takes a little finessing to make sure we get the right beers on tap, but just at least a couple of every style, because any person will walk in there and it's 95 degrees and they want an imperial stout, and you're like, sure, you're you're a madman, but it's stout season. Um, you know, you just have to have something for everyone because, especially the space that we have where you have so many different walks of life coming through. You have families, somebody's gonna want, especially someone's gonna drink an NA Bit burger because that's like our guest NA, and it's just like a variety of sorts, but it also makes like the scheduling sometimes challenging. You have to have time space, that's why we added tanks, and I think it's just keeping the rotation and and and including in um the RD, the research and development, like something that that wasn't listed was our what was it? The jumble turple. So we played with a lot of like different like abstract products, as Kevin mentioned, and you could probably speak more to this, but there's you know, we had another thiolized yeast beer that was on called Overtones. We're about to tap a cold IP on Friday. The brewer's making gummy cowboy hats that have abstracts, like hop flavors in it. And you know, it's like there's always all these like varying things that get rotated in as well because we're trying a new hot product out or a new yeast out that keeps it interesting, right? Because we have to have space for all these different things that we're trying to accomplish.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:23

It's really exciting. Yeah, yeah, hell yeah. Well, like you said, something for everyone across the board. Um, Kevin, you can tell us a little bit more, maybe about how the brewing teams decide what they're gonna brew year-round versus seasonally versus a one-off. And then let's jump into Timbo Week because I just want to know how you all pull this off the planning, whether it's tattoos or ping pong, how you decide who you're gonna collaborate with. Um, so tell us a little bit more about the lineup, Kevin. And then Blanca, tell us how you brace yourself once a year, every year in the tap room for Timbo Week.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:58

Pretty much what we're brewing mostly on day-to-day basis is like our flagship beers, which is Timbo Baseball, Hello LA. We've got to throw in at least two hazyes in the mix, so we'll have Pillow, uh, which is our pretty much flagship hazy IPA, has won several awards, uh, three years straight in GABF. Uh but yeah, like we're we're also trying to sprinkle in um an Italian Pilsner, uh German Pilsner within that mix. It's kind of hard for us to kind of push for like another West Coast uh Pilsner uh simply because the demand of all these other beers uh also to be distributed kind of take up some tank space. But more than anything, um we also set aside uh time to fulfill all these events, such as like Timbo Week. We also do uh homage to Hello LA, and then we also do a homage to our Barrel Age program, which is Griffith Week, and then we we tailor events to kind of coincide with all of those beer releases. So scheduling is really not my department on what we get to brew on a day-to-day basis. But one thing that I would like to add is that we also give time to do uh staff brews or like a brewer's beer where we kind of deviate from the norm and get to brew styles that we like to be uh that we like to brew. And on top of that, like we also do a lot of collaborations with other breweries, and that's kind of where um the guest for Timbo comes in. We associate ourselves with like-minded brewers and people that are just as passionate as we are and that have been really successful in their realm. So when we're thinking about other beers and trying out other ingredients, we always reach out to people that do it really well. And likewise, people reach out to us, and we're an open book when it comes to any type of process. And the cool thing is that when we collaborate with another brewery, we adapt their process. So um on a on a bigger scale on our part, when we do Timbo Week, they're adapting our process just to see how well they could replicate it. And to Blanca's uh point earlier, some do it better than us. Sometimes they come out better than us, and that's that's so cool. That's more exciting to me because like, whoa, what are you doing differently? How is your citral mosaic popping out more? Like, what log have you used? And it raises a lot of questions and it opens up a lot of dialogue, and when that happens, it really is a collaborative effort to just have better beer all over the place because the last thing you want to do is go to a place in I don't know, the Midwest and have a hoppy pilsner who's never heard of us, and just it not tastes all that great, or on on the contrary, you go to a place like Pine House and in Texas, and you try Timbo there, and you're like, whoa, I've never had anything like this. This is amazing. Oh, you should hit up the guys from Highland Park, the the folks at Highland Park, and of course, like that that's the that's the beauty of it. And just to add a note that I thought was super cool is when we had Vinny over from Russian River, uh, we also had this like mini sensory panel where we did some like diacetyl and like acetaldehyde spikes to some of our beers and some of his beers, and that opened up a lot of discussion to continuously move forward on a sensory like forward discussion on beer. And when we do all of these collaborative things, like you just know that you're in the right place and in the right time in the industry, that you're able to talk about stuff like this with other breweries and say, hey, we're doing things right, and if we're not, I could always ask you about it. So the camaraderie is what I value a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:24

That's awesome. The spirit of collaboration, the spirit of camaraderie. I think Russian River has their own hoppy pills. I mean, you could argue like STS always was kind of a hoppy pills, and God, I love their uh they have their 110. Hell is the 110, that's it. Yeah, they have a hoppy pills near 110 now. Um, well, you all are clearly inspiring

Timbo Week

SPEAKER_02 1:15:45

and informing each other. Um, is there anything else about Timbo Week you want to say that just goes into the planning and execution, or maybe how this year might have been different than previous years and just planning for the next year's start right now?

SPEAKER_00 1:16:00

I mean, this yeah, oh, you go for it.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:03

Yeah, I would say that like the ping pong tournament. Uh Bob is a rad ping pong player. And he's just like sprinkling that in because he's competitive just as I am. We've competed a lot together against other breweries for breaking silence. Um, but yeah, that's that's just like an event to to keep things fun. Um and then I'll let Blanca take over. But yeah, if you ever want to challenge Bob, just be wary because he's he's gnarly.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:34

Ah, I will challenge, but I will not win.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:36

I guarantee you that it's funny he brings it up because Kevin's really good at ping pong. And last year, I think when we did the ping pong, or was it the year before? Maybe it was the year before when your brother was playing. We did like some ping pong tournament. I think it was for Timbo Week. It was the first time we did it, but it was there wasn't like so that now it's the brewers against brewers or people that work at the brewery, you know. So we have like nine different like restaurants or other breweries that were participating, and we lost because one of the bartenders ping-pong because Bob has been in and out because he's we're doing a pop-up in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington this summer. Bob and Tiff are up there for the summer, and then Kevin wanted to give somebody else an opportunity, and then that meant that we got last place. So uh the evolution of Timbo Week. So this has been, I think this was the fifth time we've done Timbo Week. So it started in 2021, and it was just kind of like a let's celebrate Timbo, and it became uh it evolved to include guest brewers, it evolved, and then people brewing it and canning it and packaging it at their own breweries, and then us having like a tap takeover of all the guests' Timbows, um, which really amplified what Timbo was. And this is just kind of show the love that Timbo's received from other breweries as well. And everybody kind of wants to know the secret recipe, and Bob's always like, I'm not gatekeeping. He's like, if you want the recipe, I will share the recipe with you. But again, it's are you able to have the same exact dynamics in play to brew a Timbo? Um, the the other things just kind of became add-ons. It was like, hey, maybe we should do a tattoo pop-up. And then we've been working with the same tattoo artist. Um, she's come for a couple of other events. We had her come for like a Halo LA weekend event, and we had her come by for something else, and that slowly got traction just between staff and friends of the brewery, and then just regulars wanting to get a sad cat. One of our iconic uh Highland Park brewery logos tattooed on them is fun. Um, and so it's slowly take taken off. We do when we first started doing it, it was still like in COVID times, so it was a lot of like cand drops like of all the variants at like our top retail accounts. We don't do that anymore. Um, now we like do a scavenger hunt. So the marketing director will run around and leave gift cards all over town and see who can find them. The planning that goes into it is really just like it's top-down. So James, our marketing director, will kind of like select the best time we can do a Timbo week. It has to involve the brewery team because they need a schedule for all the variants, and it's landed mid-July for the past several years. Um, but then it's like there's been some times when he's taken a survey from us, like the management team to see what we should add. We've used to have like brainstorming. Now we've done it enough where we have recurring events. So ping pong is now a recurring event, and that's like sponsored by Breaking Silence, which is an organization we work with that does like empathy training for us. Um, we've been working with them for about five years as well. Um we start, we always do like food specials, we do obviously we have the guest Timbos, and then we do a lot of different like merch drops.

Hot take on Lukr pours

SPEAKER_00 1:20:15

This year they incorporated the Lucre um day, which was an opportunity to get a tiny dimple mug. Um, I think having Timbo on a lucre was a hit or miss for me. I think lucre faucets are meant for certain styles, and now people are putting like hazy IPs on a lucre. I think it's getting out of control.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:35

But uh I think it was a fun I think it's just like an attempt, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:42

It's just an attempt to keep it fun. Most people don't know what a lucre is.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:47

So you are, I love it, uh a hot take. And you know what? You are not wrong at all. And it gives me flashbacks of when like like every style of IPA used to start appearing on like nitro pores, which you can argue all kind of all kind of like mutes the hot character on some level, even though my two are like a maybe it's like that's hilarious. That's the first time we've heard that here. So yeah, you know, I like I said, I bought them, I bought the mug because I'm a fan. I would have made it for that day alone just to try it for the experience.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:16

Um I mean, I think sensory-wise, it's a fun thing to tell the staff, like what's the difference? Like, what's the point of a leaf faucet? And I was like explaining the differences in the foam, you know, what it does to it. And similarly, when you're talking about nitrogenated beers, it's like most that's like goes over everybody's head, you know. It's like when you're talking to like a regular person that's coming in that is not a beer nerd, they're like, Why are you drinking a glass full of foam? But it's fun, it's funny too, because I mean you're a logger podcast, so obviously that's probably more common topic here than an art tap room of like why would you pour beard through a lucre faucet? But I mean, that's just like another, not a gimmick, but another thing that we've done to kind of keep it fun. Um yeah, the planning for Timbo week is always kind of now, it's kind of like plug and play because we've known what events have been successful and what haven't hit. Uh, I keep pushing for like a Timbo fest, and uh I keep getting shut down, but like I do some of the suggestions kind of get pulled mostly from like marketing. Well, we have one marketing person, James and me will sit, he'll talk with Bob. They always everybody always has opinions as to what should fit into Timbo Week, but I'm really pushing for like a mini Timbo Fest um for 2027. So we'll see if I make it work.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:39

Awesome. Um, you know, I just the more listening to both of you talk, I just think um, whether it's Timbo Week or Timbo Pills, you know, I just the beer, the tap room, the brewery, I mean, it's all an expression of like, yes, where you're located, yes, the ingredients available, yes, the equipment you're brewing on. But above all, like it really is an expression of the people who make it, who live it, who work it, who run it, who represent it. And it's just I could it couldn't be more obvious talking to you both of all, like both of you, what a human process this is. And I I just really, really thank you for sharing and volunteering. So thank you for your service. Um, there's a couple rapid fire questions I like to ask everyone at the end of every episode. It can be a word, it can be a sentence. Um, but just

No Alice In Chains? Denied!

SPEAKER_02 1:23:35

before we close this out and wrap up, I do like to know about brewhouse music. Blanca, what do you like to play in the tap room? Kevin, what do you like to listen to while you're brewing? Tell us.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:48

Uh in the brew house, I hardly ever take over the ox. But if I'm there early enough where I get control, I'll listen to some Spanish rock. Uh español. I'll I'll dip into that. I'll be in the good mood of a of a quincinera style playlist where you listen to all the good boom yas. Uh and then lately it's been like this like disco 80s funk where you'll listen to uh I don't know, Two of Hearts or I don't know, just random fun, dancey stuff that keeps uh keeps people at beat.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:32

Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Keep it at beat. What about you, Blanca?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:36

Well, we have a rule uh from the powers at be that we can only play like vacation vibes, which is a little bit an interpretation. Uh, I think sometimes we'll let like when there's like classic 80s playing in the brewery, we'll let it play in the tap room. Sometimes, like some poppy like world music, you know, just to keep the vibes going. Some Chicano soul music plays sometimes. I think there's like a couple of recurring playlists that really just like hit the vibes. But I think there was like a day when somebody was playing like skinny puppy, and the owner walked through and he's like, What the hell is this? And like it's like the reminder, it's like, hey, you know, like no Alice and Chains allowed kind of a thing too. I'm like, all right, that's kind of random, so no grunge. Uh but I think uh I think it it when when we're told like oh vacation vibes, that's like like there was like a time when there was a lot of Portuguese music playing, like Portuguese funk, and I I don't hate it. Yeah, like there's like Portuguese disco. I'm like, this is an awful. Uh, I think this is like the vibes we're going for, so it's always like curating vibes, more so on the tap room side. And sometimes the brewery side does not parlay well to the tap room side. Yeah, with two different systems.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:54

Front of house, back of house, but both a well-curated experience, I'm sure. I love

Weird Day hop water

SPEAKER_02 1:26:00

it. Um, since you brought up non-alcoholic beer blanca, just real quick, I know you all make a weird day hop water, and you have sodas and whatnot on your menu as well, and um, a guest uh non-alcoholic beer, a more or less permanent placement of non-alcoholic beer. I would just love to know. I mean, you make your own hop water. I don't know if you're gonna go any further in the direction of NA beer. Do you see just uh the rise in recent years, post-pandemic, of non-alcoholic beer? Do you see it as any threat to the craft beer industry? Do you see it as an extension of the craft beer industry? Do you welcome it in your tap room? Just tell me a little bit about your thoughts around it.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:38

I so I see the numbers, and like I've had a couple of friends that have gone on to work at athletic brewing. So I'm aware of like the trends, and I just I don't see it in the same way in the brewery. I think because we are a brewery first, people come because they're looking for beer. But during like dry January, I can see the uptick in sales for our NA. So I have like NA Bitburger, an NA Hazy from Best Day, and an NA IPA from Fremont. And we have our hot water. We also made uh Trumpativo, which was like an uh non-alcoholic apertivo um kind of pet project that Bob had. That sold really well. Um, and then we have like sodas or whatever. But I think that I can always see like the best selling has been the weird day and the trompetivo when we had it. Um we trapped out of it recently. So it was interesting to see like that the best sellers were still the house-made NA products, but I I don't I see it's such a small amount of my total sales. But I'll see people like we do get during the week, we'll get more like of a lunch crowd now that a lot of people went back to return to work in the office. We'll see people coming through. And so we'll see a lot of people that are drinking not beer, right? So I do kind of pay attention to when people are drinking. And um, like we used to sell uh Gia. I don't know if you've heard of that. It's like a non-alcoholic apertivo. It used to sell really, really well. When we had our own apertivo on, it kind of like was negligible. Like I took me three weeks to sell the last can. So I don't think it's like something that's dominated in my tap room, but I know from talking to other people in the industry and just seeing the sales trends that it is a big factor. I think it's zipping a little bit. But I mean, me personally, I I don't see it as a threat for like Arbree or anything like that. But I also don't like any beers because I don't think they're um as flavorful. Uh, I'd rather drink a hot water, I'd rather drink like Weird Day. Um, ours is pretty flavorful too, and I just feel like it hits a different like flavor profile that I'm looking for. If I'm not gonna drink a beer, then I'm not gonna drink a beer, you know. But that's just my personal opinion.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:59

Yeah, no, I'm similar. Like, if I'm not gonna drink a beer, you'll find me drinking carrot juice or something like that, you know. But I do appreciate that your weird day hop water is your best seller among or uh or sells it holds its own among non-alcoholic options because other breweries have tried, like Sierra Nevada's tried and he'sn't really gained as much traction. So that's excellent. Um, just for you, Kevin, real quick, are you interested in delving more into the process of brewing non-alcoholic beer? Does it compel you? Why or why not?

SPEAKER_03 1:29:29

I think it's definitely a challenge because um obviously it's much more difficult to make an NA beer and and to be uh in compliance with all the laws um surrounding it. I think I would love to dive more into it. And if we have the capacity to brew some, uh I would love it. It would just be another tool in our toolbox. But as far as hop water goes, I think as we're trying to dial it in and and trying to make a very special product for those that aren't looking to drink beer and enjoy our tap room, I I think it's it's more of a challenge for us to really hone in on something that is that we're navigating through uncharted waters. So um I take it as a challenge and I'm excited for it. I can't really dive too much into it because we're we're we're not that advanced in it yet, but I'm happy I'm happy to see people buying it, purchasing it, and uh I'm also happy to see it in other people's chat rooms. Uh to see weird day in other places is pretty awesome. So uh I I feel like we're doing something right.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:42

Very cool. Um on that note, I always

Peanut Pilsner

SPEAKER_02 1:30:45

like to ask just because we're seeing kind of a like it's a weird day. We're seeing kind of a weird number of like celebrity partnerships around non-alcoholic beers right now, enough to at least notice. There are no shortage of celebrities in your hometown of Los Angeles. I am curious, outside of another brewery, who else would you consider a fitting mascot for Highland Park? Who else would you maybe like to collaborate with? And yes, this can be the celebrity, this can be Hollywood, this can be the walk of stars, or it can be a local legend or someone that's a celebrity at the tap room, you know. So I am just curious, who do you think would be a fitting partnership in that respect for Highland Park if you had your wish list? Oof. That's difficult.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:32

Um just just because I'm a huge Dodger fan and I know probably right now is not the not the climate to to really champion them at the moment. Um but when baseball won for 2024 um logger at GABF, I thought it would have been really cool to collaborate with them as a champion to champion, it being baseball and then being Dodgers. I thought that would have been so fun. But anyone that wants to embrace a stat has a status to reach uh millions of people, I would gladly welcome them with open arms.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:14

I love it. Blanca, any names spring to mind?

SPEAKER_00 1:32:17

So I don't know of anybody specifically. We have, you know, so many collaborations. We didn't really talk about like how limiting we usually are with our collaborations. We're very picky as to who we work with. But as a joke, so I guess the basis from 311, Peanut, comes through the tap room a lot. And uh he comments often on the Instagram posts. So one year for the Battle of the Bands, because he's a Ali Brewers Guild, puts a Battle of the Bands on, uh, the Brewers did 311. So sometimes I'm just like, why don't you guys do? I think he did a beer with a different brewery, but it's just always funny to me because I'll see him comment on like the Instagram post. I'm like, this guy really likes our beer. Why don't we do some? And everybody has the same mindset. I think they just never asked him. So I guess if he's listening to this, Peanut, they want to do a beer with you. But what would it be, right? It's like so simple.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:16

Uh well, Peanut, if you're listening, Highland Park just might be willing.

Toast to decoction

SPEAKER_02 1:33:20

That is most fitting. Um, also, decoction mashing. This is what people love or hate in a word, in a sentence. Is your brewery built for it? Um, do you decoct? Tell us in a single word, yes or no, and in a sentence, why or why not?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:38

Yes, we have. What I like to more, absolutely, is it a pain in the ass to do it? Um yes, but I think we've developed a process where uh we do it like once or twice a year uh when we collaborate with Moonlight, who has uh toast points or toaster, toast toaster pills. Those are both the bears we need with them. But yeah, when we collaborate with them, we we decoct and uh I think it's an awesome process. I don't think it's very necessary because we have well-modified malt now, but anytime we get to uh implement the new process, I am super excited and stoked. And truthfully, I think our beers taste great when we do so. So if uh I I would say go for it. Yes, we we should do it more often.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:34

Listen to that, and I'm glad to know Moonlight our friends and collaborators. I will watch for your collaboration with them next time it comes around. Blanca is a certified Cicerone. Um decoction, yes or no. Why or why not?

SPEAKER_00 1:34:48

I mean, I would say yes. I I only see, especially when you're getting serious about your lager game. I mean, that's all I think I see other breweries, like the brewer specifically, it's the same thing. It's like a love-hate relationship with it, but you know that the outcome is what you want it to be. But I feel like it's like one of those things, like it's like who has the time for it and are you getting what you want out of it is always the real question. But always yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:14

Yeah. Nice. Those are two resounding yeses. All right, much appreciated.

First and last beer, it's Chinatown

SPEAKER_02 1:35:20

And as we go, I think this is most important just because you're in Los Angeles, just a major, a major hub of America and the world. Just what do you want to say to beer drinkers out there? Let's say anyone who's 21, approaching your tap room uh with a real ID, not a fake one. You know, why should they make the trip? Why should they get on the highway? Why should they get into traffic to come visit Highland Park? And anyone who's considering their last beer, looking at age 101 down the road, what do you want to say to beer drinkers out there? Why should they visit Highland Park? Why should they drink and support your beer before we go?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:58

I'll start off by saying the people that make your beer are passionate about it and they love it and they want you to enjoy it. And if you could enjoy it with us, that's even better. So cheers.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:11

Yeah. Yeah. What about you, Blanca? First beer, last beer, to anyone listening.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:16

I mean, first beer, it's like this is not your dad's beer. Maybe it is. That's a whole other conversation. Uh IPA is the dad beer. Uh, I would say please support your local brewery, especially the youth, because they're seen as the people that aren't drinking because they're drinking beetboxes and whatnot. Uh, I think it's the same for the the elder side of things, the older side of things. It's like continue to support your local brewery. Come to your local to come to our brewery because we care about our product. We're world-renowned, award-winning brewery, but we're also run by a lot of awesome people, and good vibes are always going in the tap room, and we welcome everyone. So it's always a good time, and it's always great drinks, not just beer, but other beverages and food.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:08

Yeah, yeah. Good times, good vibes, good drinks. And I really appreciate you sharing such a good spirit with No Life to Lauger. It's been really inspiring speaking to you both. So

Goodnight and Good Lager

SPEAKER_02 1:37:20

uh, Blanca, thank you very much. Kevin, thank you very much. Timbo Pilsner, thank you so very much. Um, if you like what you're hearing, yes, like, subscribe, follow No Life to Longer. Help us hit the road and make a better kind of beer show. Help me get back to Los Angeles, but I don't need an excuse at this point. Uh, Blanca and Kevin, you have my word that I'll see you sooner than later. So as we get to where we are going, I will say good night and good lager. Blanca Kevin Timbo, Highland Park. Thank you so very much. Cheers.