Brewbound Podcast: A Field Report for the NBWA Annual Convention in Las Vegas

[00:00:00] Justin Kendall: Next on The Brewbound Podcast, a field report from the NBWA's Annual Convention in Las Vegas. Hello and welcome to The Brewbound Podcast. I'm Justin Kendall.

[00:00:22] Jessen Fante: I'm Jessen Fante. And I'm Zoe Licata.

[00:00:25] Justin Kendall: And we are just back from the National Beer Wholesalers Association's Annual Convention. We're going to talk about it next. But first, let's get The Brewbound Live, which is coming up December 6th and 7th in Marina Del Rey. And we have a great speaker lineup coming together. Also, early bird pricing ends this week. So if you're thinking about coming to the show, a good time to get tickets is about right now.

[00:00:54] The Brewbound: Yeah, I mean, I don't know who's ever mad about being in Southern California in December. It's going to be awesome speakers.

[00:01:00] Jessen Fante: There's going to be great beverages to drink, great people to talk to. Personally, I think it's the best beer event of the year, so. I agree with you. Be a part of it or have FOMO.

[00:01:12] Justin Kendall: fun parties, networking, lots of onstage content. And we're going to be bringing you a lot of speakers who you may have seen before, but you're going to see a lot of fresh faces this year. And I'm really excited about that. We've got extra mile convenience stores coming. We have Mellow Mushroom. We have representatives from both of them. We've got new faces from NIQ and Three Tier Beverages. lots of new faces coming as well as, you know, some of the ones that you're accustomed to, like Lester Jones and Bart Watson, as well as Carrie Yonker from Bells. We're going to have Steven Garrett from Rogue. So lots of different names coming into the fold. And so a lot more details to come on, on stage content, but you know, we're going to have parties at Firestone Walker. I think we're doing one at Juneshine and just lots of networking. And maybe a trip to Shea Jay, too, in there. Of course. All right, let's get into this week's news. And, Zoe, we survived Las Vegas, for the most part. You stayed a few hours longer than I did. Let's talk a little bit about, you know, what we saw, what the vibe was like, and what was your read on it? Because this is your first NBWA in Vegas.

[00:02:35] Jessen Fante: Yeah, and my first Vegas in general. It was... interesting. We have lots to talk about, that's for sure. But it was a little more subdued, I guess you could say, than I expected it to be. I've been hearing for the past two and a half years plus that I've been The Brewbound that MBWA Las Vegas is a little intense. And it was honestly, I think, milder than MBWA was in Chicago last year. I think there's a couple of reasons for that that we'll get into. But yeah, a little Little mild.

[00:03:12] The Brewbound: So you guys didn't go out clubbing all night? No.

[00:03:15] Justin Kendall: We were out. Well, late for me, but. So it was 1030.

[00:03:19] Jessen Fante: I was home before midnight every single night. And the furthest that I went, other than the airport, from Caesars Palace was across the street to Dre's above the Cromwell. So, we didn't go very far.

[00:03:36] Justin Kendall: That's not unusual though, because once you get trapped in sort of like the NBWA ecosystem, it's hard to get out of Caesars.

[00:03:45] The Brewbound: Did you at least go see the Bellagio Fountains? That's like one of my favorite things on this earth. I know how sad that sounds, but it's just quite something to behold.

[00:03:54] Justin Kendall: Let's talk a little bit about what we saw. And every NBWA sort of sets up with Craig Purser or the chairman of that time or the incoming chairman for that matter, sort of laying out like, here are the issues that we need you to sort of push back on. And of course, What else are we talking about other than like spirits market access and excise taxes? That was a big topic on stage. I was a little surprised and I probably shouldn't have been at how the chair people, the chairman incoming and outgoing talked about wholesaler independence. from their suppliers and how they have to control their own destiny and how they can't rely on just one supplier or another, but to sort of fill their trucks up with other products. And to me, it's a little mixed messaging there because They're telling you these spirits RTDs, we really gotta push back on the excise taxes and market access, but please go down to the trade show floor and see a bunch of spirits-based cayenne cocktail makers.

[00:05:12] Jessen Fante: Yeah, that was like one of the biggest standout things about the whole week was it was a lot of pro-beer, anti-spirits, anti-leaky bucket talk. which is not surprising at all. That's what we've been hearing from basically every trade group-affiliated event that we've gone to. But then you go downstairs, and it's three rooms filled with the majority not National Beer, and many spirits-based products, not just, like, different forms of F&Bs. So it seemed a little contrary to what was happening on stage.

[00:05:51] Justin Kendall: We've talked about this, you both don't remember a time when there was a whole craft brewer section of the trade show floor. And that used to be a big thing. Like I think the Brewers Association would round them up and you know, you'd have various craft brewers there saying, you know, I'm open to distributing across the country. And that's just, I don't know that we could count five craft brewers who were there. And two of those, Partake and Kit, are non-alcoholic beer makers. Boston Beer was on the floor, but, you know, there was a lot of Truly and Twisted Tea in that mix.

[00:06:30] Jessen Fante: Yeah, all the big guys were there, but they had a lot of National Beer things as well. I mean, some of the biggest displays, there was... White Claw was there, and they were pushing their vodka sodas. Like, it was not anything even related to beer, so it was a difference.

[00:06:50] Justin Kendall: There was a big white claw booth and on the other side was Mike's hard and came in Jack and I don't even know that they knew that that was over there.

[00:07:01] Jessen Fante: I don't think so. I don't. I didn't really see anybody manning those booths, but yeah, it was interesting.

[00:07:08] The Brewbound: So it sounds like you guys were listening to stage presentations that were basically telling you to be vegan, be vegan, be vegan. And then as soon as that ends, they funnel you to this trade show that's basically a steakhouse.

[00:07:21] Jessen Fante: Yeah, I think that's an accurate comparison.

[00:07:25] The Brewbound: Wild. One thing the NBWA is really good at in these conventions is kind of rallying around, like there's always like a, I don't want to say a common enemy, because that's not really right. And I don't want to say boogeyman, like I said to you guys earlier, because that also feels not right. But there's always like a foil. There we go. That's the word we want, foil. So last year, the foil was Blue Cloud. two years before the foil was equivalency. So this year it sounds to me like equivalency is back, like a bit of like a taste of like fighting against being all in on one brewer.

[00:08:05] Justin Kendall: Equivalency is back. It's sort of Bud Light fallout and wholesaler independence and pushback on being forced to use specific technology, such as like ordering platforms. I got some of that. There was the blue cloud stuff because they had Dan White from Coca-Cola on stage who of course said, you know, Coca-Cola has no interest in Bev-Al distribution. And then Michael Madigan had a presentation where it was railing against blue cloud and the pushback there, sort of a status update that I sat in on. So, There was a fair share of that, but you can see sort of the rallying points throughout the presentations and that onstage content.

[00:08:50] Jessen Fante: Yeah, Bud Light was a huge. I would probably rank that second after the spirit stock of what was brought up the most. I don't know if anyone actually said Bud Light on stage except for Kevin Johnson at the end, but it was a lot of just talking about how wholesalers have to protect themselves and look out for their own well-being. You can't control what suppliers do, and a little bit of not necessarily saying the boycott was wrong, but in kind of putting some blame on Bud Light's decision making, mixed in with some also calls for, oh, we need to bring in some new types of consumers. So that also seemed a little contradictory, but yeah, a lot of, we've been through a lot as wholesalers, we need to help work as a collective to bring ourselves back up.

[00:09:44] The Brewbound: So what's coincidental, funny, like not really ironic about all of this is that there is one supplier who has always insisted on wholesaler loyalty and that's AB who It sounds like a lot of their wholesalers are not very happy with. I remember sitting in a presentation at Beer Marketers Insights Conference, probably two years ago now, in New York, where there was a presentation from somebody. And basically they charted out what would have happened if AB hadn't insisted upon fierce loyalty from their wholesalers. Because that goes back decades, like pre-InBev. The Bush family would say, we want you selling our products and only our products. That's usually what you see, a lot of AB houses, mostly just AB. They started to diversify a little bit more. But yeah, the other networks are much more of a mosaic of the beer industry, to create a silly metaphor. So it's just funny to me that this is where we all are.

[00:10:47] Justin Kendall: He's got that politician in him, and he's got that point guard in him, so he can lead you. And he was definitely leading the crowd, and he did a very good job of retelling a Charles Barkley story. And to the credit of the crowd, I do believe there were wholesalers clapping for trans people, which maybe I underestimated how that would be received. Props to the room for clapping up a storm there.

[00:11:18] Jessen Fante: Yeah. Props to Kevin Johnson for making it happen.

[00:11:22] Justin Kendall: Yeah.

[00:11:23] Jessen Fante: Yeah. In short, he basically just relayed the message saying that anyone who's boycotting Bud Light should chill the fuck out. And he was quoting Charles Barkley, but basically said, God bless anyone who's gay. God bless anybody who's trans. If you don't believe in those things, you can get the F out of here. And people clapped for it. The whole room clapped for it. And I don't know how, if they knew what they were doing, but it was nice to see after a couple days of talking about how this Bud Light situation made everything hard for everyone.

[00:12:03] The Brewbound: Well, nice to hear the middle tier supports the trans community.

[00:12:07] Justin Kendall: Agreed.

[00:12:07] The Brewbound: Put the headline out.

[00:12:10] Justin Kendall: So the other thing that went on and I got to see maybe a quarter of it and you stayed for the whole thing and next year I want to stay for the whole thing was the Making Moves event. And I want to get your feel for that. But the one thing I want to say about that is blown away by the reception. 300 plus people there. I wish my wish to, you know, Craig Purser and everybody at the NBWA who puts this on is put this in the middle of your program. It is such a great vibe. Everyone that attended that event should be at the actual Annual Convention and the people at the Annual Convention should hear some of the things that are going on at that event.

[00:12:51] Jessen Fante: Yeah. I mean, I think we've talked about this, or I've definitely brought it up before, that when I attended MBWA for the first time, it was the first time I felt pretty legitimately, I think, uncomfortable at a beer event. And that's just purely based on the nature of the beer distributing industry leans very heavily older white and male. And I think that there's a whole bunch of reasons for that. And a lot of it has to do with just generations of people being involved in this industry. But the Brew and Alliance for Women in Beer events always feel so refreshing after that because it's an event made for everyone. You don't have to be a woman to attend these events, but it is focused on empowering women in the industry and trying to help the industry be more diverse. but it always has such a different energy than the regular part of the MBWA conference does. And the things that they're talking about on stage, it's a bit, I think, a lot of the content of preaching to the choir, you're talking to people who are... They're making the decision to pay more money and stay an extra day to go to this event. They already have some inclination that, hey, we should be doing more. If this content was a part of the normal MBWA program, I think it would have such a bigger impact. There was a session during MBWA that was focused on this a little bit, but it was one singular one-hour session that was during the same time as a bunch of other sessions before the general meeting with everyone. And the majority of it was people from golf distributing were talking about, we thought all of this was kind of bullshit. We didn't think that any sort of programming for making our company more diverse or focusing on women or anything was, we thought it was kind of like, oh, this is just something we have to do now as this part of the world. And they got their minds totally changed and realized and made their company so much better. And it was two men plus Rebecca Maisel, and then Sarah Bettman was moderating. But they were talking, like, these are the exact type of people who should be hearing this programming, because they were on the other side of it, of not knowing, like, what any of this was all about, or if it was worth it, or if it mattered to their company, and then they totally had their minds changed by it. And so I think hearing from those type of people and hearing this programming at the regular event would be, it would make such a huge difference.

[00:15:26] Justin Kendall: That is completely wild, too, because Golf was founded by a woman. There's an award named for Frieda Meisel. And Rebecca Meisel is going to be NBWA chair in what, 2025? Yeah.

[00:15:42] Jessen Fante: And it wasn't like they were starting completely from scratch because they had that background. But they admitted like it wasn't something they were constantly thinking about at their company because they started doing this right in the middle of the pandemic when all they're focused on is just getting beer out the door. And they were like, why do we need to worry about DEI or anything when we have these logistical issues we have to figure out? And they discovered they can work better as a company and more efficiently, and their workers are happier and work better if they change some of those things related to DEI.

[00:16:16] Justin Kendall: One of the other things that I thought was very cool was the awards that he gave, the Frida Mysale Award, and they showed some videos, and one of them was Mark Steinsale's in Sacramento, and we know Laura Markstein, and we've had her The Brewbound Live, but seeing just the video they played, and I realize it's a video, these are highlights, but just kind of blown away by the vibe of that video that they played, and just how that organization is run.

[00:16:50] Jessen Fante: Yeah, it was like the majority of their leadership across their departments is women. And it was just a lot of repeating messages. Again, it is like a highlight, it's talking about how good the company is, but they were just talking about how good of an environment that is. And you don't hear that all the time from big groups of women in beer, still. I know we had some improvements, but it's still not very common. So it was quite refreshing to see.

[00:17:22] The Brewbound: Cool. One day I would I need to get to this event. Wasn't there like a like a talk during the day something about like having it all didn't mean doing it all?

[00:17:33] Jessen Fante: Yes, part of this event is there are usually a handful of, I don't know if they would call themselves motivational speakers, but that's kind of the vibe. And there was one about if you don't need to take everything on as an individual, which is something, this is generalizing, but that a lot of women do, especially if you're falling into those more traditional roles of also being like taking care of your home and your kids and all that fun stuff. And there was definitely some actionable takeaways from that of just, you know, you can offload some stuff to people. And I will say this event is awesome, but there is always room for improvement. And it did still lean very heavily white. A lot of the people on stage looked very similar to each other. There was a lot of very, I think, generalized or borderline stereotypical gender-based language going on. A lot of talking about, oh, if you're the woman, you're also the mom, and a lot of talking about childcare, which I think can be a mixed bag there. So there's definitely room to expand better. And Benny from Crowns and Hops was also on stage and pointed out, you know, these rooms also need to be available to people of color. There's a big problem with people of color being part of this industry. So there's room for growth, but there's still much different than the beginning of the week.

[00:19:01] The Brewbound: For sure. Do you come up with any actionable advice for a working mom five weeks into the position?

[00:19:09] Jessen Fante: One of the helpful things I learned, particularly from that, like, you don't need to do it all or have it all conversation, was think internally about when you're having those feelings of, oh, I haven't done something, or I need to be doing all these things, think about, okay, but what if I didn't? And, like, the world isn't going to end if you don't do that. And are the consequences of that worth the mental capacity and the physical capacity that you'll have? And that prioritizing that well-being over feeling like you have to be doing more will just make you a better human being for yourself and for everyone around you. So that's what I took away, feeling like you literally don't have to do everything you think you have to do. That's helpful, thank you.

[00:20:01] Justin Kendall: I should have heard that talk.

[00:20:02] Jessen Fante: Yeah, you know that more than anyone I know. Everyone, regardless of gender, should take that advice.

[00:20:09] Justin Kendall: The woman who opened, Emily Jansen, I was there for that speech. It was six steps to building confidence. And it's like, even that stuff is like, that was spot on for me. I was like, I had to go to the bathroom and I was holding it. And I was like, I want to hear all six steps. I need all six.

[00:20:27] Jessen Fante: Yeah, all you need to do something is 20 seconds of confidence or something. So, like, so many things can change or work for you if you just can have that confidence for 20 seconds. And she said that's how she's, like, gotten jobs and things. It's because you just make a phone call. Yep. Or it could be something as simple as, like, going to the post office because you don't want to talk to somebody.

[00:20:52] Justin Kendall: Yeah, she talked about not making like the call to order pizza and like when she was a kid and like passing the phone to her brother because she didn't have the confidence to do that. And I think, you know, for some introverts or some introverted extroverts, it definitely speaks to them.

[00:21:08] Jessen Fante: Or the entire Gen Z population. We hate doing any of those things.

[00:21:14] Justin Kendall: You need the momentum. One, two, three, go. Or three, two, one, go. You know, that's what she said. So definitely work to do. That was a highlight for me. I wish I'd been able to be there the entire time. There was one direct flight to Des Moines, Iowa from Las Vegas, and I didn't want to get divorced. So I had to be on that flight.

[00:21:35] Jessen Fante: I want to know from you, Jess, what questions do you have? Curiosities? What were you wondering about while enjoying the East Coast?

[00:21:44] The Brewbound: So first of all, I do, as always, want to know whenever there's any sizable gathering of men from the middle tier, how many blue sport coats did you see? Countless. Yeah. It's like their designated item. I went to Catholic school my whole life. Sometimes the MBWA event makes me feel a little nostalgic because it's like, oh, we all have a uniform on. So cute.

[00:22:09] Jessen Fante: Yeah, it was enough to remind me why I dislike women's fashion so much, because we have to change our outfits every day. And these guys could probably have been wearing the same outfit every single day, and I didn't notice.

[00:22:25] The Brewbound: Oh, yeah, and you're probably getting there. But once you hit the wedding circuit, you'll just get so annoyed at how Lawrence can just have one suit and change out a couple things, and you need a whole new dress. Yeah, the worst. Yeah. And another, like this does seem like a silly question, like that one, but it's not. The opening reception around the pool at Caesars, what did you see everybody drinking?

[00:22:47] Justin Kendall: It's a lot of what you would expect. You know, people are going to their like respective houses, you know. They've got to support their label. So there was a lot of that. We did the party circuit. I think we went to just about every party that there was.

[00:23:04] The Brewbound: Look at you, party animals. Man, I want to go to a party one day. No.

[00:23:09] Jessen Fante: I think these are borderline. I don't know what the definition of party is, but these were subdued gatherings with. Gatherings there.

[00:23:19] National Beer: It wasn't like party, party, party, party, party, party.

[00:23:23] Jessen Fante: It was more like people milling about chit chatting.

[00:23:27] National Beer: Yeah.

[00:23:28] Jessen Fante: They did show a bit of a hype video for the welcome party on the first day. And I don't know if that was footage from this year or not, but there was a lot of canned cocktails and hard seltzers in that.

[00:23:38] Justin Kendall: I think it was actually. I definitely know it was because last year would have been in Chicago.

[00:23:44] Jessen Fante: Yeah. So yeah, not a lot of domestic or craft beer at all in there. I feel like that just that says a lot. Yeah. Also, and this will lead into conversations we have early next year when we go back for CBC, there's not really any craft options, at least at Caesars anyway. The closest we got was, I think you could get some Lagunitas.

[00:24:11] Justin Kendall: Lagunitas, IPA, and a Blue Moon, depending on your definition of craft.

[00:24:17] The Brewbound: Right.

[00:24:18] Justin Kendall: It was a lot of Mexican imports. It was a lot of, you know, light lager, that sort of thing. A lot of Coors Banquet. I definitely saw that. A shocking amount of Coors Edge because that must have been the only non-alcoholic beer that you could purchase. You know, not anybody like Partake that's presenting on the floor.

[00:24:38] Jessen Fante: Yeah. I didn't even know Coors Edge was a thing until Vegas. But yeah, so it was a bit refreshing to go to Sierra Nevada had their little gathering and to have some of their beers after a lot of had a lot of Modelo. Never a bad choice.

[00:24:55] Justin Kendall: Yeah, that was one of the more hopping parties.

[00:24:58] The Brewbound: Sierra.

[00:25:00] Justin Kendall: Yeah, people were crammed into the upstairs of the water grill that had like the hot section where there's no air conditioning, the cold section where there is air conditioning. And then, yeah, we went to the Firestone Walker party. I think they they probably had the best food. Yes. Because they were at the Americano. Constellation had the best vibe because it was outdoors at that Rooftop Club, but it was also, as you said, a subdued gathering.

[00:25:30] Jessen Fante: Subdued gathering.

[00:25:31] The Brewbound: Yeah. Yeah. It was. I feel like Constellation, they should all be feeling pretty festive. Yeah. They routinely get good news.

[00:25:40] Jessen Fante: It was the biggest gathering. They probably dropped the most money on their party, that's for sure. But yeah, it was all just kind of... It was mild. It was mild hot sauce.

[00:25:53] The Brewbound: Justin, you said it, or one of you said it, we're back there in April for CBC and I just, I can't, I can't visualize it. We're going to have to, because it's going to happen.

[00:26:03] Justin Kendall: Get ready to visualize it. Yeah, you better.

[00:26:06] The Brewbound: When I first like tweeted, like, hey, my baby is here and I'm going on maternity leave. Don't forget about me, everybody. Goodbye. Crick person tweeted back at me and was like, sounds like you'll be back in time for the convention. Mom might need adult time. And I was like, at first I was like, man, he's really right. But, and I was like, this could be fun. I could get a baby carrier and wear Another Round like at the hangover, but it was not to be. So thank you guys for holding it down.

[00:26:30] Jessen Fante: I came back with a cold, so it was probably very good that you did it.

[00:26:36] Justin Kendall: Yeah, you don't need 14,000 steps of the hangover.

[00:26:41] The Brewbound: No, maybe Cora will come to CPC, who knows?

[00:26:46] Justin Kendall: Some quick headlines that you can read The Brewbound.com and in the The Brewbound newsletter. Sierra Nevada's Joe Whitney is retiring after 17 years with the company and 35 in the business. There's a third quarter craft report from Bump Williams Consulting that Zoe has broken down. We'll have more things in the newsletter probably in the coming days. Two Beers is shutting down operations after, I can't remember how many years, but Seattle Cider will continue on. And Jess, you have a big recap from NACS with everything that's coming to the C stores in 2024. But before we get out of here, let's play Another Round or Tabbing Out. And one of the items that Zoe and Justin saw and tried on the floor is You're going to get vodka transfusions from Welch's. Well, not really Welch's, but Coop Ale Works has another partnership in addition to Sonic Hard Seltzer and Tampico hard juice. Next up, Welch's. So Jess, are you ready for some hard grape juice? Yeah, basically.

[00:27:58] The Brewbound: All right. I know you said vodka, but to me, what is hard grape juice but wine? We have hard grape juice. It's called wine, right? Yeah, pretty much. I mean, I know what transfusion is a cocktail. I know Waterbird makes one.

[00:28:14] Jessen Fante: It's like a golf thing, I guess, is what we were told.

[00:28:18] The Brewbound: Who let golf take over?

[00:28:19] Jessen Fante: Right? It's golf.

[00:28:22] The Brewbound: Golf is Making Moves lately, isn't it?

[00:28:24] Jessen Fante: Yeah. Like I think almost every guy that I know right now is playing golf. And I don't understand.

[00:28:33] Justin Kendall: Golf is the new, what's the sport that your mom plays? Pickleball. Oh, pickleball.

[00:28:38] The Brewbound: Pickleball, yeah. Yeah. There's like a meme that's like, men didn't know how to ask their friends to go for walks and talk, so they invented golf. Yeah. If it helps the men deepen their friendships, I'm for it.

[00:28:49] Jessen Fante: I wonder if it was like a pandemic thing where like the golf courses were like one of the few things that were open and so everyone started golfing.

[00:28:57] The Brewbound: That is a Lester Jones fact that he likes to say occasionally that when he looks at like the links data, golf courses did all right during COVID when things like bowling alleys say did not. Yeah, you're right, something there. So I'm sorry, back to the subject at hand. Another Round Tabbing Out on the hard grape juice. I am going to respectfully tab out. I wish them the best, but I don't see this being a product for me.

[00:29:27] Justin Kendall: I thought it was pretty tasty, but yeah, I don't know if we're through the drinking glass on these blurred line collaborations at this point.

[00:29:38] Jessen Fante: Yeah, I'm Tabbing Out simply because I can't stand grape juice. It was okay to try, but I'm just not a grape juice person. But I'll be interested to try, they have like a vodka cranberry version. That one seems more up my alley.

[00:29:54] Justin Kendall: And a passion fruit mojito. That'll be coming in 2024.

[00:29:57] The Brewbound: I was gonna ask, how do we do the mint angle of a mojito in a can? And I assume it's some kind of extract. Probably. Go with God, hard welches.

[00:30:09] Jessen Fante: Another thing that we tried on the floor was Meta Hard Elixir. This is, I believe it's just hard seltzer, right? I don't remember. Was it carbonated? I think it was. But they're 5% ABV. I believe they are sugar-based because they are gluten-free.

[00:30:31] Justin Kendall: Yes, I asked like a nerd.

[00:30:34] Jessen Fante: Yes, and they didn't know what you were talking about. That drives me crazy because that's an important thing. Yeah, so they claim zero sugar, zero carb, zero gluten. Sounds like a sugar base to me. Yes, but all of their flavors are based after feelings or vibes. The person manning the booth, which was a very large booth, they basically had like four tasting stands around in this big tent area with a lot of blue lights. They told us they ask consumers what flavors they associate with different feelings and emotions, including love, bliss, rave, whatever that feeling is, chill, and rage. So are you guys getting Another Round of Tabbing Out on emotion-based hard elixirs?

[00:31:35] The Brewbound: I mean, I feel like this is what the cannabis industry does. So I get what they're doing. This makes sense to me, but I mean, I don't know. I don't drink my feelings. I happen to eat them, which is another problem for another day. But I don't know what feeling I'd associate with rage, which is interesting because I have a lot of it. Or flavor, I'm sorry. I don't think I have a flavor for rage. I'm going to think about this. And in the meantime, I'm going to tab out because this is just too much fucking thinking.

[00:32:05] Justin Kendall: I will tab in as long as whomever drinks rage is doing it in a manner that will help their anger management. But if it only leads to more problems and raging, I think that I have to tab out.

[00:32:26] Jessen Fante: Before I answer, I wanna read you the description of Rage that I found on the website.

[00:32:31] Justin Kendall: Oh God.

[00:32:32] Jessen Fante: It starts off with, if RTDs had haircuts, Rage would have a mohawk mullet. Rage is bold, unique, a blast. Rage is the one at the club who brings the energy and is always VIP status. So I guess this is more like we're having a rager over being angry at everyone.

[00:32:50] Justin Kendall: I was sold on it being anger because of that. I believe that's what we were told. But in that regard, I think I'm Tabbing Out.

[00:32:58] The Brewbound: Because there was rave and also rage. So I would think that rave would cover the party version of rage. Yeah.

[00:33:05] Jessen Fante: Rage's motto is, no one looks back on their life and remembers the nights they got plenty of sleep. And the flavor notes are cinnamon whiskey, clove, and natural orange.

[00:33:15] The Brewbound: It's a rude thing to say to somebody in this condition.

[00:33:19] Justin Kendall: I was going to say, I will tell you that I actually do look back fondly on the times that I could sleep. Speak for yourself.

[00:33:31] Jessen Fante: I don't know what I am. I'm glad they're creative. It's creative.

[00:33:37] Justin Kendall: You're going to be upset if you mix up your rage and your raves.

[00:33:41] Jessen Fante: I know.

[00:33:42] Justin Kendall: Just think about it.

[00:33:44] Jessen Fante: Rave is, let me look at rave. Rave floats the boundless energy, goes all night and shuts the place down. Be prepared to see the sun rise when you rave. Rave is cherry, natural blackberry, raspberry with a hint of orange liqueur. Think sports drink that keeps you hydrated with a smooth kick. Beat, beat, beat, beat, enjoy the rave. That might be the lamest thing I've ever said. I'm sure someone much cooler than me could say that and it would sound awesome.

[00:34:14] The Brewbound: I'm too old for this shit, so.

[00:34:16] Jessen Fante: Go meta. It's creative. Jess, you will appreciate this. There was a non-alcoholic pickle drink on the floor. Wow. I mean, audience of one right here. Did you taste it? Yes. It tasted just like pickle juice. It was delicious. They're promoting it as almost like a recovery beverage. Um, like the electrolytes will help you. Yeah. I took a can home. That was 90% of the reason why I checked my bag on the way back was so I could bring back this pickle beverage and it was good. I wish it had a resealable lid so I didn't have to drink a full can all at once, but very delicious. Can we buy it where we live? Great question.

[00:34:58] The Brewbound: It's based out of Texas. Women owned. Thought of you guys the other day because the previews for the next episode of The Golden Bachelor showed them all playing pickleball.

[00:35:10] Jessen Fante: And there's your pickleball demographic, everyone.

[00:35:14] Justin Kendall: All right, one last one and we'll get out of here. Zoe and Justin both tried this product on the floor. There's a producer called Firm that's making espresso martinis. They're kegged. I actually thought it was pretty delicious, but Zoe, you tried it as well. How are you feeling about this? And Jess, you buying in, Tabbing Out on this?

[00:35:36] The Brewbound: I have questions. Is there a dairy element to them in these kegs?

[00:35:40] Jessen Fante: Great question. I don't believe so. I believe they add the dairy afterwards. Don't 100% quote me on that, but because I believe that's how they do it because it was a whole process. It wasn't just a simple like pour it out of the keg and you're ready, which is some stuff you see like a lot of places around here have like nitro espresso martinis on tap. I don't get out anymore. That sounds lovely. Yeah, delicious. So this one, they poured it into an actual like cocktail shaker and shook it up. That might've been where they added the dairy and then put it into a little plastic cocktail glass and put some like chocolate. Was it chocolate? Either chocolate or cinnamon shavings on top. So it's still a performance. I'm in. I am in for Another Round. I was four. It was delicious. And I'm a big Espresso Martini fan. And it wasn't too sweet. So it wasn't like Making Moves feel sick afterwards. It was good.

[00:36:42] The Brewbound: The last time I was in the office, I brought home an Espresso Martini RTD that was sent to BevNET Brewbound HQ. Really good.

[00:36:49] Jessen Fante: Yeah, we also saw on the floor the Al Caccino people who were there again, and they are testing out a oat milk-based version for all their dairy-free fans. Really been having a lot of asks for that, and we tried that. It was good. Oat milk's, I think, the best non-dairy milk. Still very creamy. Also trying out clear cans. Unsure how I feel about that.

[00:37:18] Justin Kendall: They seemed very open to feedback too. So it sounded like that they were going to be tweaking as sort of they got feedback on this. So definitely interesting there. Well, there you have it, wholesalers. I mean, maybe consider some of these keg cocktails and canned cocktails.

[00:37:35] Jessen Fante: After we just had a big conversation about draft beer, let's conclude this conversation with, hey, get some craft cocktails.

[00:37:45] Justin Kendall: If you have 30 plus taps, sometimes you've got to give one away to something other than beer. And that's our show for this week. Thanks to Jess and Zoe for hanging out. Thanks to our one man audio team, Joe, and thanks to all of you for listening. We'll be back next week.