The Nautilus Studio M31 Files interview Kathy and Dewayne of MBC (part2)

Studio owners Mr Bill (Nautilus Studio) and Yves LF Giraud (Studio M31) interview Mancos Brewing Company owners Kathy Hands and Dewayne Jackson, (part 2).

 For more info on Mancos Brewing Company, please visit: 

https://mancosbrewingcompany.com/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Flowers of the night glimmering from the moisture. So okay, so you guys had that to show as well. That's pretty neat, yeah. Um little thing about the borrowing uh the beers. You you've got several types of beers, I'm assuming, or is it one beer? How I don't know anything, I'm sorry. You know, he likes to drink the weather. It's okay. Are you turning no no? You have several kind of beers. No, I mean 20 kind of beer. Uh and the other thing I was gonna ask is I I think you do distribute like you have some bases around here that do everything, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:04

Self-d distribute. Um we're uh back to your first question and your second. Uh we we have 17 beer taps. Okay. Now I feel like a real idiot. And I and I have uh I want to punch holes and put more more of them in, but uh it really doesn't make any more sense at this point in our business. Do you have to have making more offerings?

SPEAKER_00 1:24

The more you have, do you have do you need to have more tanks?

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Or how do how do you do that? Um well, just beer lines attached to kegs.

SPEAKER_05 1:32

Just means more storage kegs, really. I mean, yeah, I mean tanks.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Things are things are complicated enough keeping 17 beers on top. Oh, I can only imagine that you're gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_05 1:40

He keeps saying he's gonna not have that many beers, but that never changes really. It sounds like he'd be like both.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

It's hard to eliminate uh a tasty beer, isn't it? Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:49

It's really hard to eliminate a tasty beer, yeah. And it's really hard to stop making another tasty beer, too. Like I mean, that's the joy of the business.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

That's great.

SPEAKER_05 1:58

Uh you eat what you can make, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:01

I was wondering uh that transition of uh going from uh just uh beer on tap to uh getting a can. Did you have to do some kind of contract with uh uh a canning company or we can in house? We do it all do that in house.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Everything uh from grain to glass, from grain to can. Really? We do it all in house. So that must have taken uh quite a bit of uh uh infrastructure uh to equipment get equipment and all there's a lot of there's a a big variety of equipment out there now that um wasn't there when I started.

SPEAKER_04 2:37

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Um some of that um early packaging equipment, bottling lines and canning lines, you're talking fifty thousand, hundred thousand dollars. Um there are people not far from where we're sitting right now that paid a hundred thousand dollars for a piece of equipment that today they could get for about fifteen thousand. Oh wow. Um so the industry's really changed in that regard. Um a lot of a lot of different uh different ways to uh package your beer, bottles, cans. There's even uh PT uh bottles now, plastic bottles. People are getting into one-way kegs now. Uh I was looking into that. It's like about uh $13 to $14. You buy this PET keg, uh, fill it with beer, send it one way, it goes into recycle after that. Um that if you're just looking at cost of goods, that's almost there. Like to not have to clean a keg and not have to transport it back, you're you you've got that much in it. So um you can see there's there's a lot of different things out there um that are available today that weren't when we first got started. If first we were just sticking a stainless steel uh pipe basically down into a bottle, filling it from the bottom, and once it filled up, we put a cap on it and and rinsed it off in our sink and put it into a stack. Yeah. We're doing one one bottle at a time. Yeah. And we were putting out literally thousands of bottles a year.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

Yeah. And uh on your tap beer um uh as opposed to the can, uh and for your canning, uh, don't you shoot the carbon monoc or carbon dioxide in there? But on the tap, do you do that also?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

The beer is carbonated before it's packaged. Uh-huh. So uh it may either go into a keg, a can, or a bottle, but the carbonation is added either naturally or it's forced. I do I do both. But uh a tap is naturally, right? It's yes, all natural.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

And and that you can taste that, can't you, on the tongue a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Oh, okay. So if you're comparing uh natural carbonation, which is carbonation that is um a natural occurring um from the yeast that is in a sealed package so that it carbonation stays in the beer. Right. And then you open it and drink it, and of course the yeast will be in the bottom of that bottle or can versus uh actually transferring the beer, uh, maybe filtering it, maybe not, uh getting it cleared out, and then putting a carbonation stone and using uh bulk CO2 compress it into the beer. Yes, it does taste different, and it does have a different characteristic. Yeah, and it's uh it's the carb it's actually the little bubbles are a little different. The bubbles tend to be finer, yeah, and they are tend to be a little bit more estery, and so you get a little bit uh more of an estery flavor when it's naturally carbonated versus uh forced carbonated in the other.

SPEAKER_03 5:44

Yeah, and that's what I love about home brewing and uh is uh that uh taste on the tongue. And I that's probably some of what makes Guinness what it is. Uh uh it's got a a real fine uh uh carbonation, natural uh thing.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

They do have a uh uh Guinness is an interesting beer. Yeah. Um it's actually a blended beer. Oh, I didn't know. So they um they brewed two separate batches of beer, and one of them they sour and then they blend them back together, and um that creates a very unique kind of profile on the on the palate with that dark beer. Um anyway, that they've they've been doing it that way for I don't know how long, but they have their own niche in the market, and that's one of the things that's really cool about especially European beer, is that like homebrewing, many of these people were making up their own equipment. They were literally building their own equipment from scrap to brew commercial beer. Yeah, um, it wasn't like there was all these different manufacturers out there in a catalog and an online store, you can go buy all this equipment and have it shipped right to you with inf instructions on how to do it. Yeah, these people were just passing it down from father to son, figuring out, and they were building the equipment as they were growing the breweries. And um they would go to the steelmaker and say, Hey, I need a vat that'll do this, and I need you know, uh piping that will do this, and uh there was no catalog to go buy that stuff from. Yeah, and and it they didn't have YouTube back then. They didn't have YouTube. Um yeah. And that's one of the things that got me into the craft was that it was like very ground up, like uh I literally started with plastic buckets and um uh stuff I went to the hardware store and bought. And um following Charlie Papay's in one of the the the the um grandfather of homebrewing, uh, following his setup, and I was brewing in plastic buckets with with lids when I first started, and I was literally because I didn't know where to buy bottles, I literally went to bars and got in their dumpster and pulled out their bottles and cleaned them so I could use for my home brew beer. Sure, sure. That's how I started back in Texas. Um, it wasn't until I met the the um brewer for Moab that it kind of threw everything into a different direction for me because he invited me into the back door of his brewery and I got to see his equipment and I got to talk to him about how to you know develop my homebrew system and all this long before YouTube, long before any of that kind of stuff was available, I was just mimicking what I saw. Well, do the hardware store and build the things that I saw mimicking what I saw there. My very first uh glycol chiller was a refrigeration uh uh uh refrigerator where I used the the uh top compartment to as a glycol well, and I put pumps in it to circulate it through the fan motor and then out to these kegs that I had built by wrapping copper tubing around the the kegs and then putting Bondo around the it looked pretty hillbilly. But that's gonna stop calling you my guy. Yeah. That's really kind of the as Kathy knows and um acknowledges that that's kind of one of the things that's helped us be successful is I don't generally call someone to come help me, I just figure it out. You figure it out, yeah. I just can't pay those bills. I've always been a J Tree mechanic. Like I can't figure out car won't start. My dad says your starter's busted. Uh I'm not helping you, you gotta figure it out. Yeah. I went out there and figured it out. Sure, sure. Um it's one of the best things in coming.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

And plus then you you know you feel pretty good that you figured it out. Now you know I'll do that.

SPEAKER_03 9:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

The brewing, the the consistency is what amazes me is that when I drink your guys' beers, that it I know how hard that is with sanitation and uh hops you got or whatever everything, consistency in that many types of beers is kind of mind-blowing. I I can't even imagine that from uh doing the little bit I did uh there. Uh that that must have been that master brewer that taught you a lot of those.

SPEAKER_05 10:26

Well, you know, Eva's saying it seems like there's always somebody back there cleaning, but yeah, yeah, sanitation is like number one. Like you've got to keep it all clean. You don't keep it all clean, you can you can tank your bread pretty quick. So you don't lose a whole batch, yeah. You can.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

And but uh as that consistency, do you uh taste uh after you have uh ferment a batch, do you taste it uh make sure that that that batch was perfect or just uh how you like it, or uh do you uh if it's the right color, is it that you know um I I can be a little bit of a micromanager that way.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Um I can be a little inter retentive that way. Uh I've got two guys back there working with me now. Both of them work uh half a week each. Uh one of them's on a every other week program. So I've and they're really good and they're very um the basically they follow directions very well. Um I've set up the system, like you know, if you just keep doing this this way, everything's gonna be fine. As long as you keep reading the package and double check your weights and double check your temperatures and you double and you make sure these items are clean, uh then you're you're gonna have a consistent result.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Um that's how production breweries operate. You you you you're hiring people off the street that don't have a passion for beer, they just want a paycheck. So, how do you develop a system so that they can't screw it up?

SPEAKER_04 12:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:03

And so you just gotta have all these particular, you know, requirements and checks and balances. And then uh if they have a passion for it, unfortunately, both of the fellows that work with me have a big passion for the end result. Yeah, they and and both the end result of uh properly representing Manker's Brewing Company as well as uh the the beer. Yeah, pride of uh right that both of them care deeply uh for the very things that Kathy and I care deeply for, and so they're wonderful to work with. There's it because I have worked in the exact opposite situation about an extended period of time, and it's one of the reasons I wanted to leave Moab Brewery was that I was basically watching over uh anywhere from six to nine guys um that the majority of them were just looking for the shortest route to the paycheck. And then it went home. They didn't care. Yeah, they didn't care. Uh they they would much rather be out on the river than in there taking care of the beer, and I'm okay with that. Just go take care of the river. Don't don't don't pretend.

SPEAKER_02 13:17

That's a big thing in the world. You know, a lot of people what they need is a paycheck, and then they're oh okay, well there's a job and Kathy. Um on on on the seminar subject, but on your end, since you do have a staff of people beyond the ball, you have people that cook, you have both of you, obviously, but I know you were.

SPEAKER_05 13:35

I think I just want to tell this little antidote about us because when we started when we came over here to start this business, we thought it would stay pretty small. And we were kind of looking for a s sustainable small business and um very small. And we were we were um really just not super interested in having a lot of help or people necessarily. Um kind of knew that it would be because I we'd both been we'd both been bosses, I mean, most of our lives, and we were kind of really ready to not be a boss, just be our own boss, you know. Right. And uh that was just like I don't know, I th that was like one of those lies you tell yourself so that you will just do what you want to do. You know, you're like, oh yeah, we're not no we're not gonna have employees. But we did pretty quickly end up having to have some b some help in the kitchen or somebody helps her beer. Um but yeah, uh and those you know, right this time of year we have like a dozen employees. Wow. Um a few of them are full-time and the rest are part-time, you know, probably anywhere from like one day a week to three days a week, you know. Right, right. Um yeah, but for me, uh I thought eventually I'd get to the place where I could actually work in the brew house, but that's never happened. Never happened. And um you know, a lot you'll see small breweries different, mostly in like larger cities or whatnot, that have or even Durango, that have um food trucks that provide their food, right?

SPEAKER_03 15:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:09

Um and you know, one of the requirements of our of our brewing license is that we do provide food.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

And um that makes it possible for you to have whiskey.

SPEAKER_05 15:21

Yeah, and so that's right. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Or liquor license is dependent upon us serving the food. Yeah, no, no, I and uh yeah, I tell you.

SPEAKER_05 15:29

Well, you have a certain percentage to meet. Right. And I had been in the natural foods business for a solid portion of my adult life, and I had been an an org organic girl since I was like in college. And so I was not about to like purchase food off the Cisco truck and serve it to people at the brewery. That was not gonna happen. Wow. And so uh yeah, I had never worked I'd never been a waitress, I had never worked in a kitchen ever. And so uh I just started mining the brains of the people I knew in the food business and Moab to try to figure out how I was gonna have a how I was gonna run a kitchen and what we were gonna do and what we were gonna offer food-wise, and um so yeah, I basically taught myself to be a commercial cook and to have a commercial kitchen. Um we did it uh to save money, we did it um via conversations with the health department. I I figured out that I could we could have a kitchen without a hood. And you can do that as long as you have equipment that's not super powerful or super large. It's the vents, yeah, exhausted. Okay. Um and they are super expensive. And um so uh to this day we still have what I call I tell people, yeah, we have a half kitchen. We don't have a hood, we have a half oven, we use um induction burners for our stove stovetop. I have a sandwich press. Um well and it it did, it worked, um, and it probably took a couple years to really kind of shake out the menu. Um but yeah, it works, and our food is you know, I get like as much of my produce as I can from local growers, or I get it um not so much through local growers as much anymore, but oh, Zuma sort of supplies my organic produce. Um and I have uh like you know, I have like ground beef and sausage all comes from local growers, uh local producers. Um so yeah, it's it's home cooked food. It is not it's not produced. I didn't realize that that's good to know. We make it we make our own breads, all the bread is made on site. Um yeah, so uh the the kitchen really, I mean, really, it is kind of my pride and joy. And the pizza oven has been a fantastic addition, of course. And the pizza oven is in many respects overtaken the our kitchen, and that's alright, that's good, you know. Um we don't we don't make our own dough, and people are kind of surprised by that. But when we got that oven, like to make our own dough would have meh meant buying a ginormous Hobart mixer and having an more people working for us to make our own dough. So whatever you get, it's good. Oh, it's good dough. It's and it's clean though. It doesn't have a bunch of filler in it, it doesn't have any crap in it. Um it's clean, it's clean food. And um so yeah, it's I don't I don't know if we'll ever get to that place where we make our own dough. But um, because what we are what we're doing right now works, you know, and I'm we're happy with the dough. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

And our customers are quite happy with it too. Yeah, we're gonna venture. Really good.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

Um the um your staff behind the bar. So I I I have known you guys for about five years now, I think. Uh I've seen some people come and go over the years. Uh I feel like uh the the last I don't know how long now, I feel like it's been very steady in terms of the steady. I mean Eddie and Nicole alone.

SPEAKER_05 19:25

Yeah, Nicole's been with us like three years. Eddie's been with us for like five years.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah, Eddie's been with us since COVID.

SPEAKER_05 19:31

Maybe even, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Um he he was um hanging out with us before COVID. I think he took some time at behind the bar about well, maybe it's before COVID. I don't remember exactly.

SPEAKER_05 19:42

I think it's before COVID because Angela's been working with us since before COVID. The longest boy. And but you know, she has so many other irons in the fire. She might she might work one day a week, maybe. She won't be able to do it. She's a teacher. We won't let her go, yeah, but we won't let her go. Um yeah, and well, you know, that is the nature of the beast is that there is um turnover. Um uh but I'm super grateful to people that really like it and really stick around because they do they keep a consistent experience for the people who come through the doors too, you know. They know people's names, they know what you drink, they like you know, it's so it's so good. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

It's a great crew you got.

SPEAKER_05 20:24

Yeah, it's a good crew.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Yeah, and I think that's what I was getting at. I know it it may have taken a few years to actually kind of settle that section as well. You know, you were talking about the people you found uh on your end, and it kind of feels like that every time I go to, you know, yeah in there. It's I know them. Yeah. It's very cool.

SPEAKER_05 20:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Well, it it took us a while as well to get to where we can really provide a good stable um employment, a position for people. Um as because as we've grown, our employees' paychecks grow. Right. It's not a one-way street by any means. Um we want to give them the best uh experience working for us that we can give them. Let's pay them as well as we can, make sure that we supply them with whatever benefits are available to us to give to them. Um and you will eventually find people that want to invest back in you because they realize that you're investing in them. Right. And I see that with some of our staff that that they're they get the long vision. Right. They they they have the vision of what will this place be in five or ten years and where will I be at with it in five or ten years. It's the opposite of the people you're talking about. Who just looking for a paycheck.

SPEAKER_05 21:40

Yeah. And uh you know, I'm not the first person to say I've made every mistake under in the book I have, you know. Um, especially with this move to the to where we are now. It was such a huge it was we you know, we that play that build building up plumbing, we had to do massive amounts of work to it. You know, we got um An economic development loan to help us with that. And that wasn't enough to cover it. And um I decided to just do it anyway. So and that so as a result of that, we have maybe a group of like 20 people that are investors with us. Um and we're not talking big investors, we're just talking people. Some people gave us a thousand dollars. You know, and um some b some people gave us ten thousand, like it was you know, it was teeny, but it was, you know, making up the difference, you know, the money we needed. Filling in the gas. And so we do, we have a s we have a support group, and yeah, you know, I we've had more people work for us that don't work for us than the people that do now, but the people that I have we have now, you know, the the people that have stuck with us is because they get to know us and they know how hard we work. And they realize that you know that that it is it's a going concern, like you know, it is a good place to be. It's a good job.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

Well, and and I have to say, you know, that it's it's such an important um uh um staple in this community, what you have, you know, I did Mencasboro. I mean, I'm I meet people sometimes they they they don't know Menkas, but they know it. You know, they're oh okay, that place, yeah. And uh um and also you're in a good spot. I mean, artery wise, you've got people traveling in 160 and it's right there.

SPEAKER_05 23:24

And we had people in town that really wanted us to move the business downtown, right? And we looked, we looked probably every place there was to look at to possibly move the brewery. Every time a double spot came up, you have to have you have to have concrete floors, you know, you have to do that. Do you feel it would be a better thing for you guys to No, I think people would have hated us if we went downtown. No. They would have really come to hate us. Yeah, I don't know about that. But maybe even our first location, I remember thinking, oh, that's enough parking for us. And it of course wasn't enough parking for us, even with a tiny little business. So we moved to this place, and like, this is definitely enough parking, and like, oh my god, that's not enough. And I was like, this is just ridiculous. So uh yeah. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Yeah. Can I ask you guys about the future of the pro uh you you uh you mentioned clearly that you felt you guys may have finally reached a place that that's pretty good, that's pretty steady. You feel you you're now almost you found that plateau as you mentioned it. But now that that I could be very delusional too.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

I'm completely I I could be just lying to myself to keep this thing going.

SPEAKER_02 24:43

But you've gone this far, you're not you it it's gonna be good no matter what. Um I'm I'm fairly confident that the future is looking good. So do you do you guys have um things you wanted to add, change?

SPEAKER_05 24:56

Um really I think what if we're gonna do anything with the existing brewery, it's gonna be kind of develop the patio a little bit further.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

You know, try to get um about the event wise. Any special thing happening in the future that you'd like to might as well plug in?

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Well, I do have some um expansion plans on the patio. We do have some and some of that entails um being able to serve beer from the the patio um more consistently and regularly uh and and adding more actual movable space.

SPEAKER_05 25:38

Um we might try to create a dance floor at some point out there. Yeah, you know, a more stable dance service. Um yeah, I you know when it comes to events, like it's interesting because I we thought we were heading down the pathway of like having our own PA system and like doing all that, and we haven't done that. And partly it's partly it's a monetary thing. Um and it, you know, it works, and most people seem to have their own equipment and um and you know we do on occasion hire, you know, somebody else do sound, as you know. Um but really I think over the last kind of few years we're starting to develop some a little bit more we've always had the brew fest. We started we started that we had that the second year, we had the business, we had the first brew fest, and we held it downtown and or in Cottonwood Park, not downtown Macus, but in Cottonwood Park, the current dog park. Um and that event actually raised matching funds for the Macus Trails Group to get uh grant from the state to them to develop in Cottonwood Park. That would have been in uh 2016, 2017, 2017. No, it was was it 2016 or 2015? Yeah, so I think it was 2015.

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Okay, right.

SPEAKER_05 27:08

2015, okay. Um but so that that is, you know, I've I've kept it going. We've kept it going. Um but we now host kind of like an the Nordfest event, which Eric Nordstrom started when he had cancer. Um and so that's a yearly event now. It's moving to September this year. Okay. Um September 12th, I think, is the date. Um and then the Rhythm Wars Festival, we hosted that for the first time last year. It had been at the opera house the previous two years. And we will host it again this year, and that's the last weekend in September. And I um expect that to really become a well-tended event, because the talent that um the cut-out is bringing to make us is incredible.

SPEAKER_02 27:58

How how did that happen, by the way, since uh the event itself? It used to be at the opera. Yeah, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:05

They can't they moved it to the brewery this last year. Um they just felt like it was gonna work better.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

They're the ones who asked you if you would okay, okay. Yeah, we're in a better position to host it from their perspective. The beer's already there, the food's already there. Yeah, um, there's room to move around. Um so yeah, they thought it went better than that. It did work better, I think. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:27

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 28:28

Well, it sounds like it. Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:30

And but as far as like, and I don't know, I I need as she's on my list to talk to her. Uh possibly hosting a cowboy poetry event this year. Um I I don't know, I need to reach out to the woman who broached it to me. Um so it's not in the works yet, but might happen. But honestly, I'm this year is uh I think people have kind of finally figured out they have to try to get their spots first. I I'm like rapidly booking booking up everything through the summer already. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

It's like it's like I'm like, okay, you know. Yeah, when it comes to music, we're we have almost too many musicians. Yeah, it's amazing. You know, it's something right, and I it's out of it.

SPEAKER_05 29:16

And I do have a at least a few acts that aren't like local coming through. Well, you really do. So I you know, I have people that have come through in years past, and if they're coming through again, they always reach out and I find a spot for them if they're coming through.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Yeah, you've been really good at trying to cater to just about anybody and everybody's gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_05 29:34

Yeah, so uh I always tell everyone like everybody gets a chance to play once. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't even think I can say that anymore because I'm really trying not to have too much music, right? Because uh, you know, it's um you know, it it it's it it's expensive, you know. It's a it's a good expense to have, and um, we offset that expense by having covers. And we always try to have, you know, events that don't have covers, so people don't feel like that's the only thing they can get into.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

And that's the other thing with your with your business. It's not you know, somebody wants to sit on by you or get a drink and that's it, they don't have to listen to Ben inside or anything. Right. There's a couple there's some split spaces in the summertime. Yeah, in the summertime, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 30:24

We do let people just, yeah, well, you know, if you don't want to, it's all good, you know, come on. We don't want to be cost prohibitive to eat. No, no, yeah, any of them.

SPEAKER_02 30:32

No, this this big city, it's always like that. It's like oh man.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

If you want to come to the to the brewery on almost any event, you come to me and Kathy say, I'm broke, but I want to come in. I w you know Yeah, yeah. You know, we're gonna negotiate it with you. We're gonna try to get you in there ourselves. Like we is that was one of our things from the very beginning, was we wanted to be accessible to everyone that lives in Macus. And um, you know, it's not our job to feed you or get you drunk, but we can certainly share the environment with you um on some kind of negotiating thing. Like I I would never tell someone, no, you can't come in. Right. If your friends are here and you want to be in here, I'll let you in. Yeah. Um we're here for each other. And and we should be here voluntarily for each other. You know, that's that's the thing. We should be, I want to do I want to give this money. I want to give this money. I have to I want yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I I totally believe in a in a a voluntary society, not a compulsory society. And that that makes much better for all of us. Oh sure, man, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 31:37

Well, this event isn't our event, it's an event at the opera house, the Mix and Make Us event. But we're um big sponsors of it because we are music, we love supporting the music community, and this is another way to do it. And it's um so we provide all the beverages and Dwayne makes a special beer for the event. Um the Southwest IPA this year, we have it at the brewery already, you know, but uh we're s serving that beer, we've got it canned up already. But um so in some ways, you know, like that's the other thing we try to do in terms of supporting community is focus on that aspect, like things that don't happen at the brewery necessarily, but that are equally important for the local music community. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:22

On the subject of of musicians, uh people come to me quite often. How do I get in? And I used to just tell them you need to be in you need to be in touch with Kathy. Because that's true, like if you want to get on the stage, you gotta get to Kathy. But now I tell them, like, you need to show up at Open Mic. You need to come to Open Mic and start making some friends. Yeah, that that's you know, I don't care how good you are or what your history is, you've got to show us, you gotta audition, you've got to come in and make friends. Yeah um and well Ben um Ben was hired in and we found out he was a musician. That's the first thing I told him, like, dude, you need to get on that stage for open mic, get up there, make some friends.

SPEAKER_02 33:04

And the number of people that we've had coming through those those open mics that uh you know end up now having their own gigs and all that. Yeah, it's like topic.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

Oh wow, you're that good for 30 minutes. I wonder how good you'd be for an hour and a half. Come on, let's see what you got.

SPEAKER_02 33:17

Exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah. Uh is there a question we didn't ask you that you would love to mention? Some uh sub something that it can be anything, except politics and religion. Oh, thank god, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Um two things I'm very passionate about, but don't keep my mouth shut about. Okay. Well, I I can't always keep my mouth shut about them anyway. Yes, no, um the only thing I would say is just I want to underscore once again that Manka's Brewing Company is a result of many, many uh blood, sweat, and tears from many people. Um I have a passion for what I do, and I am so grateful for the platform that the community has given me to do it. And I I want to be responsible in that in all ways. Um But Make Us Brewing Company is the result of of a lot of love from everyone, and it's it's my um it's my great privilege to be on a front row seat of watching it develop. Sure. Yeah, it really is. Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

Well, congrats for your success.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

You guys deserve it. Yeah, Kathy, do you have any last words?

SPEAKER_05 34:36

It's really hard to follow, Dwayne. Come on. Yeah, no, uh, but I for me, like the what I have, what the vision I really have for the brewery is to help it become more sustainable, more successful, right? Because I I want to get to that place where I can offer, you know, different benefits to our employees and like you know, but you know, we're just we're getting there. Like it's like building a pyramid, you know, and you just gotta or maybe it's the other way, an upside-down pyramid. I don't know sometimes. But um, yeah, like just trying to like and and it's funny because I I remember Midge at the library wanting us to come talk about the business at the library, and I was like, I'm not coming to talk about this business until it's excited. I'm like, I'm the bookkeeper, I totally understand what the health of the business is. So, you know, and um and I'm still that kind of person where I just like there's it's like there's still always like it's like we're in a rural community, so there's always that little struggle, you know, of trying to keep it all going. It's definitely to keep on top of it. And yeah, and yeah, and you know, I I can't deny the success of the business because it it's all about the people that love it and come there and and and make make it happen on a daily basis, you know. Every day is different. Yeah. And that's kind of the beauty of it too. You just never know what's gonna happen a given day.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

Well guys, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

And that's Billy if there's anything else you well I heard you mention that you might put a bar out in the patio, and I thought not a bar. Uh but uh or serve beer from just be able to serve beer. And and that's what I meant. And and uh uh that uh sometimes when you have the big full house, the lines there can be a long time and maybe the music's gone. I don't want to hear the music, but I'm waiting for my chance to get something. It will will that possibly uh expedite that a little bit? Maybe. Yeah, you would you would hope so. You know, trying to solve that problem. And and it, you know, of course it happens when you got the packed house is is the big uh topic. Yeah, and I just heard you kind of mention that. I thought that'd be yeah, I'm all right.

SPEAKER_05 37:03

Yeah, they'll just be able to serve like you know four to six beers outside, you know. Yeah, yeah. Um totally makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well hopefully we'll see that happen.

SPEAKER_05 37:12

You'll still have to if you still want that like mixed mixed drink, you're gonna have to go inside and stand up.

SPEAKER_03 37:17

Well it's a beer joint. It's true. It's true.

SPEAKER_05 37:22

Well, and it is a beer joint, but we have totally embraced the fact that we are more than a beer joint. So that's all right. I'm I'm glad you're no, it's not it's needed, it's necessary because when you're gonna get gonna have a community hub, you have to be able to do that. No, and that's nice.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

There are some places where some people don't go because there's nothing they want to drink there, you know. You've got you get it all covered, so it's great. Yeah. Guys, um, I'm gonna thank you so much for coming. Uh and love having you, and hopefully the the community will keep embracing you guys with that place, and the place will keep embracing the community. And it's uh what was the thing? Uh onward and forward or whatever. I don't care about it. Onward and upward?

SPEAKER_03 38:10

One of those.

SPEAKER_01 38:12

Well, thanks for having me. Absolutely. I'm happy to come back anytime and talk about politics and religion.