Midwest Microbrew
Midwest Microbrew is a craft beer discovery site dedicated to celebrating and promoting the independent brewing scene across the American Midwest. We go beyond the tasting notes to share the untold stories behind the Midwest's best craft breweries.
Midwest Microbrew
Episode 19: Jeremy Hunt, Head Brewer at No Coast Beer Co.
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What happens when a "Dogfish Head" veteran brings his expertise to the heart of Iowa? 🍺🌾
In this episode of Midwest Microbrew, we travel to Oskaloosa, IA, to sit down with Jeremy Hunt, Head Brewer at NoCoast Beer Co. Known for their bold, unpretentious branding and high-quality production, NoCoast has become a powerhouse in the Iowa craft scene by focusing on technical excellence and Midwestern grit.
Jeremy shares his journey from academia to the brewhouse and explains why he believes in "going full nerd" when it comes to the science of beer.
In this interview, we explore:
The "No Coast" Identity: Rejecting coastal pretension and celebrating the "flyover country" attitude.
Consistency at Scale: How Jeremy uses his deep industry experience to ensure every can of NoCoast is perfect.
The "Midwest IPA": Why they refuse to choose between East and West, and how they created an IPA for everyone.
The "Go Full Nerd" Philosophy: Jeremy’s approach to lifelong learning, from experimental Belgian projects to homeschooling his six children.
The Core Lineup: Deep dives into Yoga Poser, Low Brow Brown, and the award-winning Trend Bucker Stout.
Hey everybody, welcome back to Midwest Microbrew, where we tell the stories about the people and the pints that define our region. Today we're heading down to Oscaloosa, Iowa, to sit down with Jeremy Hunt, the head brewer at No Coast Beer Company. Jeremy isn't just a brewer, he's an industry veteran with a background at legendary spots like Dogfish Head. Today he's taking us behind the scenes and we'll be diving into the science of consistency at scale, the unique uh approach to blending East and West Coast styles into a Midwest IPA. Let's jump into the interview. So uh thank you for joining us today, Jeremy, on Midwest Microbrew. It's really a pleasure to have you on. Um maybe just to start out for the audience, would you be able to tell the audience a little bit about what you're doing over at No Coast and what your role is there?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm the head brewer at No Coast. Um, I've been here in Iowa for about a little over a year and a half, a year and eight months, I think. Um but I've been brewing professionally for uh 24 years. I've actually never done anything except uh brew beer out of college. Um but yeah, yeah, ended up here. They uh I was looking around. We were in Virginia previous to this, and uh yeah, up and moved my my wife and six kiddos here. My oldest boy is actually working with us. Uh he's learning he's in the cellars, so he's uh he's busy transferring beers and carving beers and kegging and blah blah blah. All the stuff that I'm too old to do now, no, not really. I still do it. I still get my boots, I still get my boots dirty. Um, and I wouldn't have it any other way, honestly. Um but yeah, a little bit about No Coast. Um they started here in Oscaloosa, uh Iowa in 2016. Um it was sort of a meeting of the minds. Uh uh yeah, Brandon, uh who owns the brewery and also our parent company, Mahaska Bottling. Um, he's the fourth generation of his family ownership. And Mahaska bottling itself goes back to like 1889. Um and they patented, I believe, I I don't know much about that, but they patented like a hand pump and a barrel attachment for carbonated soda. So this used to actually be uh where the brewery actually stands, is the well and the old the previous uh Pepsi bottling facility here in here in this area of the Midwest anyway. There's a bunch of mom and pop ones, but they were doing all kinds of stuff. Yeah, um, so they've been in drinks like forever, and this was sort of a passion project for Brandon, is my understanding. And you know, we try and do a little bit of everything. We're you know, we we do uh beer, um, obviously, because that's why we're talking. Um we also do uh cold brew uh coffee and a bunch of other stuff. So we're we're we're busy folks, and you know, it tickles a lot of different parts of uh all of our brains.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. I I was reading about you guys a little bit more on the website and I saw the the cold brew. I thought that was interesting too. It's not too many breweries you see doing uh oh yeah, coffee and and beer.
SPEAKER_00But the brewers don't like the FDA coming in and poking around, but you know, we try and keep stuff uh our stuff tight. I've been doing you know beverages for long enough that meh, we gotta get them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so you you've done it right out of college, so obviously you have a a pretty big passion for it. What made you um decide you wanted to get into all this?
SPEAKER_00Uh man, I've said this on podcasts before, but it's it's the honest to God truth. I had um I we I went to school to discern uh the Catholic priesthood. And yeah, met my wife, so that that kind of went away. But um one of my one of the guys that was living in the same dorm as me, he was from Georgia, his name was Thomas. A one just one day in passing, he'd asked me, uh, hey, you want a beer? I'm like, Yeah, I want a beer. And so he handed me a beer and we started drinking. I was like, why is there no label on this? What are you actually giving me to drink? She's like, Oh, I made it. Like, no, you didn't, and brought me into his dorm completely not okay. But he was brewing beer uh inside of his dorm. He had, you know, it was a it was an old converted hotel, so it had a bathroom with you know the uh tub and the whole bit, and he has his stuff soaking. And I'm like, this guy's a wild man, this guy's a madman. Opens up, you know, one of the closets, there's a bunch of carboys in there and stuff. And I thought this dude was an absolute lunatic, but I also thought he was a wizard. And I wanted my friends to think I was a wizard too, because I didn't know you could do this stuff at home. And after that, I just went uh kind of bananas, went full, you know, full crazy and uh started learning everything I could reading. Like there wasn't a whole lot on the internet back in. Well, there was a lot on the internet, but not a whole lot of internet stuff uh regarding brewing back in 2000. Uh gosh. No, it'd have been like 1999, I guess, like thinking on it. So yeah, there was probably around 99, 2000, something like that. Cool. And it just was a hobby that got out of control, and then I got sent to school and stuff, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02That also, right? But uh yeah, no, that's super cool. That's a unique origin story. I mean, uh there's always people like that at uh at college who are getting into the crazier things, but I mean that's that's awesome. Uh better than math. Yeah, I would say so too. I tend to agree. Um, so getting into a little bit about the brewery now, I know this is a trickier question just because it's kind of hard to pare it down. Um, but how would you describe the brewery in one sentence to someone who's never been there before?
SPEAKER_00In one sentence, yeah. Um, I would say the details matter. Um, I've been doing this long enough, and I've seen enough things that if you want, you know, uh one of those kids like those newfangled hazy IPAs, I can make those. Um I can make loggers. I mean, I was head over at Dogfish Head for a number of years. You know, they taught us how to make all kinds of stuff. They were throwing stuff at us left and right. It was hard to keep track. Um, so we can do anything, but the details are what matter. It's you know, Sam's uh Dogfish Head, the owner there, uh Sam Calgione, he he always said it was like analog beer for the digital age, or we can be off-centered about the beers that we produce, but completely meticulous about how we produce them. So for me, the details matter, and um, that's in every single can, that's in every single, you know, uh pull off of uh off of you know the bar. Um we pay attention to details.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that makes total sense. That's a good way to put that. Definitely it sounds like you've got a really refined uh practice of making beer over there.
SPEAKER_00Always learning though. That's that's the key, man. Like I don't uh we don't rest on our laurels. I just I'd I'd rather well if I'm not learning something, why continue to do this? I could learn something else and put another you know arrow in my quiver. Um, this keeps getting me going, you know. It it it keeps me engaged. I'm always learning something. It's you know, there's always something new. So yeah, it's it's it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool little life. Certainly more fun that way.
SPEAKER_02Hell yeah. So No Coast has been around for a number of years now. Do you get a lot of like regulars or familiar faces coming in?
SPEAKER_00No, we're we're just a we're just a brewery, no tap room, no nothing. But oh, never mind. Yeah, yeah. I mean, sometimes people will come in, but usually it's people who work here, and we'll sit down and chop it up.
SPEAKER_02There you go. That's all you need. Probably a lot of a lot of uh fans, at least for sure.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but we get we're able to get engagement where we can. So at like festivals and you know, um out just in the marketplace doing you know, samplings and this and that. You always, you know, we we've actually been surprising a lot of people, even in town. Like folks don't know that we are here, people who live here. So um, yeah, we're we're doing a better job about getting out there a little more and uh um yeah, turning people who you wouldn't think would be into craft beer, you know, in into craft beer lovers. That's the that's kind of the goal.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's that's such a good goal, too. And it's I mean, that's rewarding when uh someone's not into it initially and you can play a role in that conversion. Yeah, the goal is to have something for everybody, you know what I mean? Yeah. So you got a pretty like uh like a wide range of obviously with the the cold brew and and the brewing, oh yeah, um, wide range of stuff for all your customs.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we'll go anywhere from you know a pale ale to um a 13.5% imperial stout with cocoa nibs and you know, vanilla beans that were like hand processing and stuff. Um, but we have it's it's kind of interesting, like the setup is cool. For me, I've brewed beer in a bucket, I've brewed beer on a hundred-barrel uh fully automated system, and we're kind of right in the middle there with a uh 20-barrel system. So it gives us some flexibility. We're still able to, especially in this economy right now, we're able to, you know, nimble uh and turn on a dime if we need to. So uh 20 barrels is is for you know the mainstays and just getting them done the way that we know we want to get them done. And then uh we have a little one barrel pilot system. That's what we made the Imperial stout on, and it was just for us, it's not even out in the marketplace. We just did it because we wanted to, yeah. Which you don't really get at many breweries, you don't get that flexibility. But here, you know, we're we're able to do some stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, that flexibility is crucial. So, yeah, that that's one of the the perts not about like a smaller system, but a system where like you don't have to commit to making the same thing for a really long time. So that that's really cool. Um, so I know that I saw you guys at uh the Coralville event. Do you have any other regular events that you participate in with the community?
SPEAKER_00Oh we definitely do the one at the at the uh the waterworks in Des Moines. Um I know I it's still kind of new to me. So I know we did a sour fest once, and there was an I don't remember where that was. Um there was another one uh up at Clear Lake that we we've been to. Um, but yeah, yeah. I mean, we we get out there more more in the summertime, but Burrfest is something that we look forward to for sure. And uh in the winter fest in Coralville. It's a it's a good time. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was I mean, it's a great time. It's amazing how many brewers are there. Yeah, no joke. Uh so let me think. I wanted to get into the beer and brewing question since you're uh the head brewer. What's your brewing philosophy when you're making stuff? Like what kind of drives your decisions?
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, this this long into my career, I'm not making beer for me. I hardly drink. I I really, really do. I mean, I'll I'll tip back a pint, you know, every now and again, but more or less it's you know, if I have my smoker going at home, I'm I'm not a daily drinker anymore. Not because I have trouble with it, but it's just that uh man, you know, I I just don't have the time. I have six kids, I don't go out to the bar that often, but when my wife and I do um go out for a drink, it's usually you know, it's it's gonna be beer and it's gonna be craft beer too. I don't drink a whole lot of macro stuff unless the smoker's going, then I'm drinking hams or you know, what was somebody turned me on to something around here that I'd never had but uh Greenbelt Nord East. Man, I like that beer. That I like that I'll drink when I'm when I'm smoking, when I get the smoker going or something. That's when I that's when that's when I'll drink that. But uh yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's really cool. Yeah. Um, so walk me through your core lineup, like kind of what styles are always available on tap.
SPEAKER_00Okay, uh, that's actually changing for this year. We're oh really we're changing things up, bringing back beers that we were doing previously, um, that I kind of wanted to retool. And that one specifically is Yoga Poser. So I don't know if it's backwards, probably backwards on the screen, but this is our pale ale. But um, you know, it was a you know 2016 pale ale, one of the first beers that you know uh we released as no coast. And I came in and saw it and said, I think there's some things that we could not make that a 2016 pale ale, maybe we can make it a you know 2027 pale ale. So we leaned the beer out a little bit, um, kept the color around the same, but using different malts, and um tried some new techniques. The neat thing about yoga poser is that it has old school hops and new school hops. So for the old school hop, it's it's it's citra. I'm sorry, it's not citra, it's cascade for the new school is citra, and we smatter a little uh Simcoe in there too. But this is uh yeah, it's like uh old school meets new school sort of pale ale. And we we use those hops differently, you know, whereas you would just load up the whirlpool still hot right after the boil with yo with this, you know, yoga 2.0 is what I'm calling it, but it's we actually do a cool pool technique where we cool all of the the wort after it's boiled down, and then at about 170, 175 degrees, we'll add a pretty decent charge of citra and cascade. And um, then you're not isomerizing the alpha acids and getting bitterness necessarily from it, you're getting more of the aromatics of both of these hops, and we're getting the best stuff that we can find. I have a lot of connections, so I know a lot of people in the industry. It's not what you know necessarily, it's who you know in some cases. So uh for yoga, yeah, that's definitely the case. Um, so that's one of our mainstays. Second mainstay was the first beer I designed when I got here, and it's called Midwest IPA. Um, and this is you know, it's not a West Coast IPA, it's too fruit forward for that. It's not really an East Coast IPA because it's you know brilliantly clear. Um, so it's a Midwest IPA. It's our we actually add a little bit of corn in the bit in the batch too, in the beer, um, just to bring the body down a little bit. Um, so it's not too hefty. It's not, it's a little leaner than that. Um, but we're using some really rad hops. Um, I was talking with John Kimmich from um Alchemist at one point. He was cool enough to give me a call back because I had a couple of questions, and we were talking about uh the hop from West Coast hop breeding called Mackenzie, uh, which is like an Uber new school sort of um centennial or something like that, but it's a little more flinty and a little more fruit forward. So that's the that's the main star of the show in that in that beer. Um but we also use interesting you know, hops that not necessarily everybody's using in IPAs. We Idaho Gem is one of those ones that I really, really like. Cashmere is one of the hops uh that's uh how do you explain it? It's a USADA hop. So it's it's one of well, I mean, our tax dollars, your tax dollars, my tax dollars go to people figuring out new varietals. Um cashmere is one of those. Um, and then there's some citra, just because everybody likes citra. There's nothing I like about it. Um yeah, but there that's a that's a fun one. But the one, I don't know, I'm not proud of all of them, but the one that if if you're gonna catch me drinking a beer or sneaking a beer after work, it's probably gonna be Heritage. This is our classic amber lager. Um, there's nothing funny about this beer, there's nothing to hide behind. It's an amber lager. Uh, it's as advertised, but you know, at four and a half percent, it's pretty crushable. Um, and it's it's right now like the flagship beer for for us. And we're yeah, and so we're pushing pretty hard on that. And that honestly ends up in my refrigerator more than anything else. Yeah, so that's that's our through our top three sort of lineup. And then throughout the year, obviously, we're gonna have some seasonals and we're gonna, you know, do some wacko stuff. So one of those wacko things is this it's called uh terpene dreams.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And it's there's no there's no pot that's harmed in the making of this beer beer. It's all it's all terpenes that uh people can ext, well, this this company abstracts out of California where weed is legal, like mapped out um, you know, what any kind of whatever kind of cannabis you want. This one that we used is pineapple express, but they mapped it out to what the oil content is, what you know, what are the what are the aromatics of this particular strain. And they went and found those particular, you know, chemical compounds, and like they can find beta citronellol in uh coriander, and they found you know pharnacine, probably from hops or something, and mersine from you know, whatever. And they just kind of put them back together, uh reconstituted them in the proper form, you know, formulation. I mean, this smells exactly like my 20s. This smells exactly like my my you know pre-college days, but it's um it's actually a really, really nice little pale ale. Um, nothing fancy, it's about five and a half, I think. Five and a half percent, so it's still fairly crushable. Um, but yeah, no, didn't didn't harm any uh any grass in the making of this.
SPEAKER_02Um that's always good to know, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's all hops and fun, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, oh that's fun. That's a good way to put it. It's uh smells just like your 20s. It really does, dude.
SPEAKER_00Like, I mean, I could crack it, it's like like way over here. I could crack it open right now, and it's going the way back machine.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's fine. I like some of those uh those crazier beers out there. It's always fun to try something like that. Something like that.
SPEAKER_00It was a hit at that. I could not believe that people were drinking as much as they were of that beer at the at the Bearfest. Oh, yeah. That the Imperial Stout, yeah. I mean, it was flying.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's probably one of those ones where the uh the word just gets around, like you know, just the people out there like, hey, you gotta try that one.
SPEAKER_00We had one guy come back like eight times. I ended up giving him a hat. He was he was cool as heck. He just that was all he wanted to drink. Like, whatever. Wow, yeah, and no munchies, which is sort of cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, that's a benefit, right? You don't don't gotta worry about it. Yeah, this just something that popped in my head. You mentioned that the um the with the Midwest IPA, right? You said that wasn't West Coast or East Coast, it's it's no coast, right? Yeah, that's right. There you go, man. Um so what's your uh out of those that you showed me, which ones you're most popular?
SPEAKER_00Most popular is the heritage, the heritage kills it. Um it yeah, though that's that's one that's you know, if you go to high V, they definitely have you know some heritage. Um and we we're pretty well distributed, you know. We're we're all the way up to we have a um we have one of our locations, not the brewery, but like our distributing uh distribution like arm is up in Spencer, you know, and we have one in Charles City, we've got you know uh one in Hiawatha, and then you know Oscaloose down here in Urbendale. Um and then there's other locations really if we want to expand. Uh we have locations or a location in Nebraska, a location in um Kansas as well. So I mean Texas, yeah, Rando, but yeah, Texas.
SPEAKER_02That was a little further.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that one's that one's a little further. But yeah, we could we could distribute to any of these locations if we you know if we see the need to grow or we have the desire to grow. And uh yeah, we actually have the capacity here to do it, which is sort of rad. It's nice to be involved in uh a well you know established sort of company with a plan.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely, yeah, super cool. That's awesome. Um you mentioned that you have good connections for your ingredients. Are a lot of them sourced locally, or how how are you sourcing your ingredients?
SPEAKER_00Um where we can, yeah. But I mean, normal I'm working with um a local farmer right now to just it's not beer, but it's like uh not even non-alcoholic beer, it's like a malt tonic kind of thing. It's something that we're just kind of working on, but he's a local farmer that wanted to farm some grain and have something that he could make uh with his kids. So in in those kind of instances where we're using the one barrel system, um, yeah, we can we can do something like that. But really, if we want consistency, we have to go with you know, the right place to grow is in you know the northwest of the of the United States for us, or maybe even Canada to a point, and then hops. Yeah, hops are a little you can you can go across the pond and and get stuff as long as you're at latitude 42, hops grow very, very well. Um, but over here it's either Idaho, um, or really the Pacific Northwest, honestly. Although, although I have found some hops in Michigan that are pretty banging consistently, like it's like Chinook from Michigan is crazy. Yeah, it's a really good, it's a really well that's the terroir of beer. I don't want to sound as snooty as like wine folks, but um, yeah, it there there is something to the growing regions and the you know locality. I mean, you know, for us, you know, beer is ag and ag is a big deal here in Iowa, especially, you know. So um yeah, we try and use local ingredients where we can. Um, but you know, most of the most of the time we're getting it from somewhere else where it's consistent supply. That's important too. Yeah, so we don't want to have somebody have a different beer every time they have it. That's not that's not good for growing a brand, really.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And obviously, you're getting super quality ingredients. It sounds like you really know your stuff with uh the latitudes and everything.
SPEAKER_00Um people have been really kind to me and given me a lot of information. So you know I get to stand on the shoulder of giants, really.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. And it yeah, it's good that you have uh the experience that you do. That's that's really working out. Um, what kind of seasonal or limited releases should people be looking out for? I know you mentioned uh seasonal stuff.
SPEAKER_00Oh, sure. Um, normally we do we do an Oktoberfest every year. That's one thing that we always look forward to. Um, that's my favorite beer style to brew, and it's my favorite beer style to drink. Um I wish we could have you know December Fest and you know, May Fest and you know, July Fest, but uh it's not gonna sell. So um we do it we do it in in September um when the Oktoberfest comes around, because that makes sense. Um, but yeah, I mean obviously Oktoberfest, you know, in the summertime we're this year we're gonna try something a little different and have um A single malt, single hop, um clementine, and well it'll be citrus. I'm not exactly sure, but I think we're gonna do tangerine and clementine. Um working name is going to be oh, what was it? Peel good. So we're we're working on that. Um yeah, and then winter time, you know, people are always you know clamoring for pecan sticky bun, which is like a uh pastry brown ale. Um, and that that just sells like hot cakes for us, and people um drinking on up. Um, we get uh uh pecan rolls from um Yarzma Bakery, which is just right up the street. There's a local ingredient. Yeah, there you go. Um right in the mash tun. And uh yeah, we we uh we let we mix their peanut butter with our jelly and come up with pecan sticky bun somehow. Um it's a good time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that sounds great. I mean, it's a lot of delicious things to look forward to throughout the year for sure.
SPEAKER_00That's what I mean. I drink seasonally too. So I mean, for for me, that's a that's a that's a that's a big win. You know, we we're able to release seasonal beers at the proper time to drink them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's that's a huge, huge draw for people, absolutely. Um, for someone new to the world of craft beer, what would you recommend as an introduction out of your beers?
SPEAKER_00Out of all of our beers. If you want, if you want to try something a little bit hoppy, you're just kind of like dipping your foot into it. I would I would say yoga poser pale ale. It really, it really is a very, very approachable um pale ale. Um if you're not into if you're not into hops, I mean the heritage is like super, super crushable. Um, think something along the lines of uh like a shinerbach or something like that. Like Shinerbach. You just drink it, you know what I mean. You don't have to think too much about it. Um, but you enjoy it, you know, because it had it seems to have a little more substance to it than you know, your industrial, you know, macro lager. Um, but made, you know, I mean, this thing it ages, you know, at least six to eight weeks. Like we're we're lagering it properly and and doing all the German and Czech stuff, all those traditions. Um, in fact, like the beer, I wasn't gonna brew it. I had no intention of brewing this like when I when I started, but um, we met, what was it? Zoo brew was a little festival that we do at the uh that we participated in at the zoo in Des Moines. And this this young lady, uh Brig Brighetta, she's our friend. She became she became fast friends with us at the brewery. Um and she says, you know, my mother used to brew beer, she's from Germany, um, and and her mother's from Germany too. Uh, and she goes, I have a recipe. Would you like to see it? I'm like, Yeah, I'm kind of curious. Yeah, I'll buy it. And it was something that was like just a really cool, like sort of a rustic, you know, amber-colored beer. And it was sort of the inspiration for heritage to begin with. So we have uh Brighetta to thank for Heritage. Thank you, thank you. I wouldn't have brewed this beer if you hadn't been so sweet and given us your mother's beer recipe.
SPEAKER_02Um that's so cool, and that one's become such a success, too. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's becoming a really good success for us. It's like I said, it's kind of our flagship now, and it's sort of climbing, climbing, climbing. So we're getting behind it and putting some marketing dollars there too.
SPEAKER_02Great, that's great to hear. Um, so kind of getting into some of the like behind the scenes type questions. Yeah. If uh if someone is new to your brewery and uh what's something that maybe they should know, but they don't, like uh like a fun fact.
SPEAKER_00Fun fact, gosh. Um, I mean, probably that uh the guy in charge has been doing it for you know almost a quarter of a century, which seems absurd. Um, that's one thing we have fun, you know, here and we if we're not gonna drink it, we're not gonna ask y'all to drink it. So it has to pass our our tests and our you know pretty stringent QAQC. Um and we have you know, we have certain hopes for these beers and and and targets for the beers, so it's like yeah, we we have to meet those you know targets and the true to types and true to brands and all that fun stuff. Yeah, um, and we're pretty meticulous about it.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Yeah, no, that makes sense. Uh what kind of trends are you seeing in craft beer these days? And then how do you guys respond?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think it's it's it's difficult because you see two things, you know, on opposite sides of the spectrum. Like I did my little Trump dance, that was fun. Um, but it's it's two very, very different things. Uh, you see a lot of folks going back, believe it or not. Like we're seeing a lot of folks going back to like imperial type beers, like very, very strong, very, very big flavors. But then you're also going back towards you know the other side of things with you know lower ABV, crushable sort of um what are the what are the kids call them crispy boys or whatever, you know, and you definitely see some of that too. Um, we have, I guess, in the past, I don't know too much about it, but we have in the past done um like an American light lager, and that may or may not be on the horizon um here pretty soon. Um, but we're gonna do it our way. You know what I mean? We're gonna do it meticulously. We're going to do it. Uh we've got a plan for it, and and and this stuff doesn't come, you know, we're not shooting from the hip with it. We have a reason that we're doing certain things, and it may be different than other folks, but we like we like it our way, and hopefully, you know, other people like it too. But I I think I think those uh more clean and crisp beers um at low ABV are pretty uh pretty much on the horizon too. The rise of lager is is coming. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, it sounds like you got your finger on the pulse and obviously you got the uh the experience to back that up. So hopefully.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Um, where do you guys see yourselves in five years?
SPEAKER_00Five years, I don't know. I mean, it's it's hard to say. I mean, we there's there's talk of all kinds of stuff, but everything's sort of in you know, in just talking about it phase right now. Um, I would see maybe a satellite tap room, five, ten years, something like that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, just a place where we can get you know information back and just have a gathering place, that you know, sort of third space uh for folks to come and learn more about our brand and learn more about our beers and learn more about us, and we can learn about them. And that's that's super fun. Yeah, um, just a place to celebrate with you know, with everybody. That's the that's the goal, anyway, right?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool. Not not the one down in Texas. Oh no, not that maybe not that.
SPEAKER_00Well, maybe I've lived in Texas before and I've lived in Dallas before, and that was pretty fun. Yeah, yeah. But I like it here, right? From for now, I like it in Iowa.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. You probably would have missed that uh that nice snowstorm that we had last night or yesterday.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I'm from New Hampshire originally, so snow's not a thing to me. I grew up in this stuff, but um last night, I mean it was kind of funny like coming down here today. I live in Ancony, about an hour and a half uh you know west, I guess. And we got about five and a half, five, five and a half inches of snow. And down here it was barely an inch. So the drive in was like even Antony, oh no, Altuna, oh, this is worse, and then get down into Pleasant Hill. It was like, oh, all right, this isn't so bad. Monroe, everything's cool, roads are clear from Monroe down to Asi. So that was a neat drive. But I was up at 3 a.m. shoveling. I have one, two, I have four boys, and I'm the one shoveling. So when I when I hit 50, which is gonna be next year, I'm not shoveling anymore. I'm done.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's when you just need to get like a flamethrower or something and you just say less, fam.
SPEAKER_00Say less. I'm on it.
SPEAKER_02That's always the that's always the idea. No, that's pretty cool though. Um, so kind of getting into some of the closing questions. If someone could only try three different things uh that you put out, whether it's you know one of the the more fun ones or one of the like the really popular selling beers, uh, what would you recommend?
SPEAKER_00Um not real. This is not really, I would obviously as a you know, this is this is a business, so I would say please yoga, please, you know, the heritage, please, Midwest. We love I'm chilling now. No, I'm not. Um, of course, try those. Um, and this is not real, this beer is not for me. It's a new school sort of beer, but these shoreless echoes are it's a hazy double IPA, and there's this hop that we're using that is consistent in it called it's from WA uh uh West Coast hop breeding. Uh the same folks that that um that grow the uh what the heck was it? The uh McKenzie hop I was talking about earlier. Um, but this one's called it used to be called 2B, they're calling it 102 now. It's absolutely spectacular. Nobody really knows about it except John Kimmick up at the up at Alchemist in Vermont. Uh he knows about it. And it's it's I think it's gonna take the world by storm, personally. Like I think it's the next Citra, honestly. Um if it has the agronomics that that we think it does, can I that's one of the cool things is that we're I still know you know the farmers who grow these hops. So that's kind of fun. You know, that's that's kind of a fun thing. And they're they say it has the agronomics to be one of those hops. So um if my friend Eric is is listening uh from the West Coast hop breeding, please keep doing doing the good job and fighting the good fight and grow these hops. It's difficult out there right now, but yeah, returning the corner, I think. We're turning the corner.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, oh that's awesome. That's something to look out for. Heck yeah. Um, what's the best way for people to stay connected with what you guys are doing?
SPEAKER_00Uh, the kids on the facey book and the Instagram, just look us up there. Um, you can always follow me. It's not as interesting, but um, I think mine's uh at Humble Brewer on Instagram. But like, yeah, check out check out No Coast on Instagram and Facebook. And I don't think we do TikTok because I don't really know how to dance. So there's no need for that. That's all right.
SPEAKER_02You're a brewery, not a yeah, not a not a dance club.
SPEAKER_00I would go, I would go viral pretty quick and then fizzle away. It would be sad. We don't need to see a 50 year old one.
SPEAKER_02No, you you and me both. I can't. You'll never catch me on there. No, sure. Um any final thoughts or messages for people considering a visit or considering trying some of the beer?
SPEAKER_00Um, if you do want to visit, just give us an email um and it'll get to me and I can set up a tour or whatever. I love talking about beer. I love educating people about beer because I think it's important. It's it, you know, it's made my life more full. Um I had uh talked to uh Jim Cook, who is the owner of uh Samuel Adams, or is the owner of Samuel Adams at one point, and this is years ago when I used to work at Red Hook. This is like 2006 or something, and he he had said that you know the philosophy is drink less, drink better. And I I I stand, I think that's that's something that stands. I think beer can uh be a good social lubricant, it could be fun because you're trying new things. Um but keep it in moderation, you know. I mean, like all things. Um, but yeah, we want to we want to make the beers generally speaking across the board, not that 13 and a half percent still don't don't have four of those. Yeah, if you want to want people to sit down and enjoy a couple of our beers and um yeah, and then look forward to the next time that they uh they they try our beer and have something new for them. That's the goal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, always something to look forward to.
SPEAKER_00So drink less, drink better. I think those are wise words.
SPEAKER_02That's a good way to put it. All right. Well, thank you so much, Jeremy. I really appreciate having you on. And uh, I'll make sure to uh link to your website and your your socials in the description.
SPEAKER_00Thanks, but we have the website too. I didn't even think that. Yeah, I guess you can visit our website.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, I'll I'll I'll put it all on there for people to follow you guys. So sweet. Sweet wheat. Alrighty, guys, that's gonna do it for today. Be sure to check out some of our other exclusive interviews with the people from the best breweries in the Midwest. Bye now.