Brewbound Podcast: A SoCal Vibe Check with Pizza Port’s Jill Olesh

[00:00:00] Justin Kendall: Heading to CBC? Kick things off the day before at Brewbound's meetup at Love City Brewing in Philly, Sunday, April 19th from 5 to 7 p.m. Connect with beer industry leaders, grab a drink, and catch up with the Brewbound team. It's free to attend and walking distance from the convention center. Head to Brewbound.com slash lovecity.rsvp. And don't forget to catch the Brewbound team at booth 956 during CBC. Next on the Brewbound Podcast, a San Diego vibe check with Pizza Port s Jill Olesh. Hello and welcome to the Brewbound Podcast. I'm Justin Kendall.

[00:00:48] Jessica Infante: I'm Jessica Infante. And I'm Zoe Licata. Look, it's not Brewbound Live Week unless there is major BevAlk industry merger and acquisition news. And the, uh, the Brewbound Live Week curse blessing has struck again with official confirmation that Anheuser-Busch InBev is going to acquire Beatbox. We knew about this a couple of weeks ago. Both sides were pretty quiet and now we have it on record. Deal is going to go through in the first quarter of 2026.

[00:01:18] Justin Kendall: According to the announcement, Anheuser-Busch is acquiring 85% of Beatbox for a purchase price of approximately $490 million with a path to 100% ownership after five years based on a predetermined price formula. So regulatory approval still needed. So here's what they're saying in the announcement. Beatbox co-founder Justin Finchel said, when we started Beatbox in 2011, we could never imagine the journey that lay ahead. We've been so fortunate to build something that truly resonates with people and we're incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported us along the way. So our long standing relationships with the Anheuser-Busch team made this partnership feel like the right next step. With Anheuser-Busch behind us, Amy, Brad, and I are excited for the chance to accelerate our growth and continue doing what we love for years to come, bringing people together and making the world more fun.

[00:02:16] Jessica Infante: And the release also quotes AB's North American CEO, Brendan Whitworth. He says that they're very excited to welcome Beatbox. Quote, one of the fastest growing RTD brands in the industry. And I have spent the past year getting to know Justin and the team at Beatbox, and I'm confident that their entrepreneurial spirit, their commitment to consistent innovation, and their ability to connect with their consumers will be a strong compliment to our existing team and capabilities. We have a proven playbook for building winning brands and I look forward to partnering with Beatbox and embarking on their next chapter of dynamic growth together." One of my favorite drinks at GABF this year was that little beatbox sample with a Pop Rocks rim. AB, don't abandon that. Please return to Denver. We need more Pop Rocks in our lives. We said it all a couple of weeks ago, right, Justin? This is interesting to me because I would have guessed that the acquirer of beatbox would have been one of the big wine companies.

[00:03:12] Brad Avery: I mean, they're a wine-based RTD. They're in a weird spot. Like, it's not really sure where you would place Beatbox. It's kind of its own thing. Like, it caters to fans of RTDs, but it's not like they're trying to be a canned cocktail. It's its own thing. It's a party punch. Specifically meant to be, like, it's resealable, meant to be something you take with you on the go at a festival. It's not really something I think AB has tackled before, because there's not really a lot like it.

[00:03:44] Jessica Infante: To me, beatbox is pretty singular, like the Tetra Pak, that 11% ABV. You know, honestly, I don't really know what like the ABV of typical wine is. That is something perhaps I should know. I assume that's a little bit less than traditional wine. There is not a single person on this planet that thinks like, ah, beatbox, a nice glass of wine, you know, like it's wine on a technicality. It is wine, but it's not playing in traditional wine occasions.

[00:04:13] Justin Kendall: One of the things that surprised me was that they said that, I can't remember the figure, but it was like 45% of their consumers are older consumers.

[00:04:24] Jessica Infante: Yeah, I remember that too. I forget where we heard that. Somebody from Beatbox was speaking on stage at a conference, either ours or somebody else's. And they said that their consumers skew a little bit older, a little bit female, and they're pretty diverse. So their flavors in their portfolio really appeal to older black and brown women. Aunties love Beatbox.

[00:04:47] Brad Avery: I think they highlighted that during like their ABB, right?

[00:04:51] Jessica Infante: Yes, that too.

[00:04:53] Justin Kendall: So from reading this PR, it sounds like that there is a five-year path to complete ownership here. And the rumored number before was $700 million. So not too far off from that. Usually there's a five-year earn out too for the founders. So it sounds like Brad, Amy, and Justin are going to be sticking around here. They'd be very smart to keep Zach Francis on staff as well. So very curious to see how AB can accelerate this. Zoe, you've done reporting on Anheuser-Busch and their Beyond Beer portfolio, primarily made up of Cutwater and Neutral, and they don't have that great of a share as far as Beyond Beer goes within their own portfolio. It doesn't make up as much as you would think it would be.

[00:05:41] Brad Avery: Yeah, it was something super small.

[00:05:45] Justin Kendall: I want to say it was like 2%.

[00:05:47] Brad Avery: I believe of their total business, I believe it's only 2% is from Beyond Beer products. I think we get skewed a little bit because they're In the US, it's primarily where their Beyond Beer products are sold and AB is a massively global company and majority of their business happens outside of the US. But yeah, it's still a super small portion of their total business, but it is the majority share of where their growth is from, from both Cutwater and from Neutral, which is that vodka-based hard seltzer. this would definitely help increase that percentage of total business. But yeah, it's not, they're still primarily a beer company.

[00:06:27] Justin Kendall: And an analysis that Dan Wandel over at Bump Williams Consulting did showed that the combination of the two would make AB the third largest spender of flavored alcoholic beverages in the US with a 9% share, still trailing Mark Anthony Brands and Boston Beer Company. And in the high ABV space, they would be number two in flavored alcohol, and that's 8% ABV and above.

[00:06:53] Jessica Infante: So what's above them, Mike Sartor?

[00:06:56] Justin Kendall: Sazerac.

[00:06:57] Jessica Infante: There we go. That makes sense. Yeah. I mean, this is just like massive news and really interesting. And I will be interested to see how it goes, you know, where we are a few years from now.

[00:07:08] Brad Avery: Yeah, I mean, that's kind of the question with any of these acquisitions, right? It's like, what is it going to truly be used for? What is AB's strategy here? How are they going to shift? I mean, Beatbox, we talked about this a couple episodes ago. Beatbox is one of those brands that's really leaning into your brand is beyond just liquid. It's also your brand purpose, your connection with consumers. How is that going to shift now that there is a much larger company behind that? Are they going to lean into that? Are they going to switch it up? So it's definitely worth paying attention to.

[00:07:44] Jessica Infante: They are a certified B Corp. Their experiential marketing budget must be massive. Which obviously AB's is too. AB sponsors the biggest sports events in the world. So will we see Beatbox show up at the Super Bowl? Maybe? World Cup? That would be something. Yeah. Look at me, I know sports things. Yeah.

[00:08:02] Justin Kendall: I mean, they have plenty of celebrity tie-ins. AB likes celebrity tie-ins. Maybe someday it'll be a Beatbox concert at the Super Bowl and not Bud Light.

[00:08:13] Jessica Infante: I think we should make that change right now.

[00:08:16] Justin Kendall: Yeah. They should expedite it. Just change it up. Post Malone, you're now the beatbox spokesperson.

[00:08:21] SPEAKER_??: I think he would like that.

[00:08:22] Justin Kendall: Why not? He can do maybe in buddies include Shaq. Shaq, DJ Diesel can come on to do a set at the Super Bowl party. Then Avril Lavigne brings us home. Done.

[00:08:36] Jessica Infante: That would be a amazing show.

[00:08:39] Brad Avery: I am all for that.

[00:08:40] Justin Kendall: We're available. You're welcome. Yeah, just send the check over. So I don't know that there's anything more we've done about as good of a recap as we can do this, having learned the news while doing the show. Unless Zoe's face says something else.

[00:08:57] Brad Avery: No, yeah. Just behind the scenes, just writing our coverage as we're reporting.

[00:09:04] Jessica Infante: We should probably also get some. The beer news works. Yeah, this is how the party punch gets made.

[00:09:11] Justin Kendall: Well. Should we share our Spotify?

[00:09:15] Jessica Infante: Number one, absolutely. And number two, there's also a couple other news items we should probably hit.

[00:09:21] Justin Kendall: Very briefly, I think that we should probably hit them given everything that we got going on. But I think the biggest one that we were looking to talk about is the proposed class action lawsuit against Boston Beer Company brought by two more employees, two that weren't previously named in any of the other non-compete agreement lawsuits that have already been filed against the company. And this latest one has to do with a $3,000 payment that is made to outgoing exiting employees that these employees are alleged aims to skirt Massachusetts law that requires garden leave, which amounts to, what was it, like six months of your highest salary?

[00:10:08] Jessica Infante: Yeah, so Massachusetts enacted this law in 2018. So if any companies that are looking to enforce non-compete agreements are required to offer employees that guard and leave that you mentioned, six months of your higher salary in the last two years, and or other mutually agreed upon considerations. It feels like the $3,000 payment is intended to be that, the other consideration. But the plaintiffs in this lawsuit are saying it's not enough, which it's not anywhere near half of their salary. So we'll see where this goes. It is separate from the other lawsuits, which are also ongoing. currently working through discovery right now, so we'll see what happens. Those other lawsuits have a couple other components to them that are slightly different. This one is very straightforward and really focuses on that $3,000 payment, so we'll see. For a refresher, that non-compete agreement requires you to not work for a competitor within 12 months of leaving the company, and the definition is pretty broad and it's basically nationwide except for states where it's not enforced.

[00:11:10] Justin Kendall: These two employees said that the $3,000 payment amounted to less than 5% of their salary. So that's what they're arguing in this, and we'll be watching it to see where this one goes as well, because it's a pretty big case, I think.

[00:11:29] Jessica Infante: Yeah. Well, other news this week was sad. If you enjoy the night before Thanksgiving, I personally do not care for it and never have, but Beer Board reported that draft volume and packaged goods volume was down double digits, like 10 to 15% for both on the night before Thanksgiving compared to that night last year, which itself was in decline compared to the year prior. So that's four straight years of Thanksgiving Eve declines. Maybe the kids just aren't about it these days.

[00:11:56] Brad Avery: I mean, we know that they're not really into binge drinking as much, especially as you'll hear at Brewbound Live due to social media and just the fact that you can't get away with as much as you used to. So it's not entirely surprising.

[00:12:14] Jessica Infante: Well, and that night also used to be like a great, like impromptu de facto reunion with, you know, if you're home visiting your hometown, see your old classmates. And thanks to social media, you know what all those people are doing.

[00:12:27] Brad Avery: You know what they're getting up to. Or thanks to the economy, everyone still lives at home anyway. So you see them all the time.

[00:12:37] Jessica Infante: So true.

[00:12:37] Justin Kendall: It's just another Wednesday night. Yeah.

[00:12:41] Jessica Infante: I mean, look, it was a huge boost compared to the prior Wednesday.

[00:12:44] Justin Kendall: Yes. So if there is any silver lining, previous Wednesday wasn't quite as good as that one. And you get the full rundown on what's going on in Syracuse.

[00:12:55] Jessica Infante: Always, yeah. Beer Board is based in Syracuse. I personally went to college in Syracuse, so I've never been there for Thanksgiving Eve because I was home, but not out because I know what everybody's doing. I don't need to see them in a crowded bar.

[00:13:08] Justin Kendall: Does anybody want to go to Thanksgiving hungover too? That sounds extra miserable. No, terrible.

[00:13:14] Jessica Infante: So, but like, I just love that, that Beer Board always gives us what's up with the queues because like the beer list is very particular. There's a lot of like Labatt Blue Light. Sometimes a Genesee product makes an appearance, but also Auburn, New York's own Prison City. I think Mass Riot was on like the top five list of draft beers poured in Syracuse, but Miller Lite was the top. And I got to say, I drank a lot of Miller Lite on draft in Syracuse, New York. Basically like the foundation of my marriage.

[00:13:46] Justin Kendall: May it continue to be strong.

[00:13:48] Brewbound Podcast: Thank you. Thank you.

[00:14:11] Jessica Infante: Well, we did want to get into Spotify Wrapped because Surfside did their own rap, which was very cute. I mean, I think a lot of brands do that this time of year. You know, if you use the music app Spotify about this time every year is when they basically show you what you listen to all year. And for most people with small children, it's very much a, what is going to happen here? which is definitely the case for my own. But we had some very funny internal discoveries this week with Zoe. How old did Spotify think you were?

[00:14:40] Brad Avery: Spotify said I was 30, which it's only 11 months off now at this point. So yeah, shout out to, I think it blamed the Jonas Brothers Hand Family Cyrus. And yeah, a lot of that like 2000s teen pop that still lives in my life. Nice. Spotify thinks that I am 67.

[00:15:05] Justin Kendall: Ooh, wonder what drove that.

[00:15:09] Jessica Infante: Bruce Springsteen and David Mack.

[00:15:12] Brad Avery: Which I think is really funny because it's not just calling you 67, it's saying you and your child who is a toddler 67.

[00:15:22] Jessica Infante: Yeah, you know, I was at an event. I occasionally go to a cookbook club in our town where everybody makes a dish and you bring it and you share. And at the meeting a few months ago, I had mentioned something about Bruce and somebody was like, you're pretty young to love Bruce Springsteen. And I was like, thank you. Like, I'm not young, but also, and then I was like, well, I'm from New Jersey. And they were like, oh, so, but Justin, you gotta tell us, man, how old does Spotify think you are?

[00:15:48] Justin Kendall: Spotify thinks I'm 23.

[00:15:50] Jessica Infante: Look at you. Youngest of us all.

[00:15:53] Justin Kendall: I am pretty proud of that. I don't know why.

[00:15:56] Jessica Infante: Welcome to Gen Z, man. Your ears are Gen Z. So how much of this is Sophie and how much of this is you?

[00:16:03] Justin Kendall: I think it's a combination. Yeah, it's definitely a combination because my top five, and some of this was driven by Sophie and some of this was driven by me, was two Chapel Rhone songs. Hot To Go and Pink Pony Club. And some of that's me, and a lot of that's her. But then also the other two were Nathan McKay songs, Blue Spring and Two Lonely Americans, which Nathan McKay has featured prominently on the HBO series Industry. And I like the electronic music sometimes. So I think that might be skewing things as much, if not more.

[00:16:44] Jessica Infante: I gotta tell you, I've never actually heard of Mr. Nathan, but I'm 67, so I'm a boomer. I don't know.

[00:16:51] Justin Kendall: Well, the fifth song, and I will admit too, is Hangman's Tale, which is the theme of my favorite wrestler, Hangman Adam Page, the now former AEW world champion.

[00:17:05] Jessica Infante: May he return to glory.

[00:17:07] Justin Kendall: You got to take out Samoa Joe first.

[00:17:09] Jessica Infante: My top five songs are driven by Cora, but I like them as well. We've got Racing in the Street from Mr. Springsteen, which is the first song on her Nat playlist. I listened to a lot of Darkness on the Edge of Town while I was pregnant and she like immediately recognized that song out on the outside. A Jump in the Line by Harry Belafonte, which is on her Dance Party playlist, which is a lot of fun because when he, we all sing like, my girl's name is Cora instead of Sonora. Great stuff. Boom, boom, boom from the Vengaboys, because I am an old millennial who spent a lot of time at nightclub teen nights. Yaya by Beyonce and Rosemary Clooney's Mambo Italiano. Coral loves it. All of this really tracks for you. I like this a lot.

[00:17:56] Brad Avery: Thank you.

[00:17:57] Jessica Infante: Come over for a dance party anytime.

[00:18:00] Brad Avery: My top artist was Bad Bunny. Oh. And the reason for this is because his new album this year, which I'm not going to pronounce because I'm not going to embarrass myself, but it is in Spanish, was like the best driving album during the summer. Like, have your windows down, just cruising with the beautiful weather. Pretend you're on a beach in Puerto Rico. So he made up the majority of my top songs as well. Was that all?

[00:18:26] Jessica Infante: Wow. You and Jon Hamm. Jon Hammote.

[00:18:30] Brad Avery: I'm ready to go for the Super Bowl.

[00:18:31] Jessica Infante: You really are. My artists are very different than my top songs, which is funny. Like my top artists are like, you can see what I listen to. The top songs are what Cora listens to. Like my top artists are obviously Bruce, Taylor Swift, Noah Cahan, Blink-182, and Fleetwood Mac.

[00:18:49] Brad Avery: Noah Cahan was in my top albums. Yeah, four of my top five songs were all from the new Bad Bunny album. The exception was Denial is a River by Dochi. Great song. Also recommend her album. I think it was just a lot of good vibes trying to counteract a lot of the other stuff happening in the world. But one of my favorite things from Spotify Wrapped this year is they went a little deeper and they pulled some specific days that really stood out.

[00:19:21] Jessica Infante: I enjoyed that as well.

[00:19:22] Brad Avery: Yeah. And my most nostalgic day happened on June 6th. which I looked at my calendar, happened to be the day I was driving to my 10-year high school reunion. So appropriate. I rerun my day back to a lot of 2010s pop icons, starting with Little Lion Man, which was very much high school music days. And then a lot of One Direction, Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana, two separate artists.

[00:19:50] Jessica Infante: Best of both worlds.

[00:19:52] Brad Avery: Yes. And Hilary Duff.

[00:19:53] Jessica Infante: Wow.

[00:19:53] Brad Avery: So I kind of, that sounds like a perfect music today to me, honestly, and might have to be my inspo for 2026.

[00:19:59] Justin Kendall: Well, I'm looking at my top artists and while Nathan McKay and Chappelle Roan are on top, and then the guy who did The Hangman's Tale, the bottom two are Paramore, which was me. And Elton John, which is a little bit of Sophie and a little bit of me, because one of the wrestling theme songs is Saturday night's all right for fighting. So we play that and she just runs around in circles and she loves it. And the other part of that is Benny and the Jets, which we have changed the words to Ronnie and the poops. It's a long story about ducks. Ducks.

[00:20:33] Jessica Infante: That makes sense.

[00:20:33] Justin Kendall: Ducks and poop.

[00:20:34] Jessica Infante: I love Elton John. I have a playlist that when we have like breaking news like we do today and we need to like write really fast, I have a playlist that's like all songs that were like at the clubs when I was like in high school going to teen night.

[00:20:46] Brad Avery: It's great.

[00:20:47] Jessica Infante: I will share it with anybody anytime.

[00:20:50] Brad Avery: Frat Boy Party is one of my favorite playlists. Fun.

[00:20:53] Justin Kendall: Yeah, mine's like Cosmic Stereo Club or something.

[00:20:57] Brad Avery: It's just like 3% of... Oh, you're special and unique.

[00:21:02] Justin Kendall: Apparently.

[00:21:03] Brad Avery: Only 3%. Yeah. Mine was like 16%. I was too mainstream. My listening club was Cloud State Society. Your club finds peace in music. And my role, appropriately, was broadcaster. Oh, look at you. Because I listened to a lot of podcasts. Curious if anyone had Brew Brewbound Podcast on their podcast lineup this year. That'd be very cool. You should let us know if you're on there.

[00:21:30] Jessica Infante: Oh, I thought you were asking us.

[00:21:32] Justin Kendall: I mean, I don't expect you to listen to the podcast that we've listened to over and over as we edit it.

[00:21:38] Brad Avery: Yeah, we listen when it's not yet on Spotify, so it doesn't count. I think my top podcasts were Red Flagged podcast, everyone podcast, shocking to no one. Amy Poehler's podcast. I enjoy Amy Poehler's podcast. Morbid, which is a true crime podcast with two women from Massachusetts. And Giggly Squad, which is Bravo related. Ex-Bravo, I guess now, related.

[00:22:04] Jessica Infante: If you enjoy Amy Poehler's podcast, may I recommend Wild Card by NPR. It's Rachel Martin, similar format, but she's got cards. She's interviewing the guests and there's like three categories for questions and for each round, the guest picks a card from the deck and that's the question that they're asked. I like it. I just do that with Nick Firestone on stage next week. Yes. Or this week as folks are listening. That's true. Maybe it already happened. But yeah, all of this is to say that. Surfside stats were pretty nuts. There were 5.7 million cans of Surfside depleted at baseball stadiums alone, which is evident based in they've got a few MLB partnerships. 4.9 million cans on golf courses and in total 234.6 million cans, which they say is 498 cans per minute. I'm not sure how they're calculating that. Are they including like sleeping hours or what? But a lot of Surfside.

[00:23:00] Justin Kendall: Lots of Surfside.

[00:23:01] Jessica Infante: Data is fun.

[00:23:02] Justin Kendall: Yeah, we really like it. Well, should we get to our featured interview with Jill from Pizza Port? Let's do it. This is Justin Kendall with Brewbound and I'm at Southern California Craft Brewers Association Summit in Irvine. I've got a special guest. What are we drinking first?

[00:23:22] Pizza Port: This is the Coastin Tropical IPA from Pizza Port Brewing Company down in Carlsbad. So it's a 6.2%. So we kind of dialed back the ABV just a little bit. We wanted to make a compliment beer to our flagship beer, Suami's IPA, which is a traditional West Coast style IPA. So with Coastin, we were just looking to kind of, you know, capture the fruity expression of hops, right? We were all obsessed with the bitterness that hops can exude. And I think one of the coolest education pieces that's come around in craft beer in the last basically since the dawn of hazy IPA, is that hops can be expressed as something other than bitter. So while this does have some, you know, a little bit of West Coast bitterness to it, which is pretty true for any Pizza Port IPA, we did really kind of lean into some of the more modern hops and hop profiles. So you're going to get, you know, notes of like passion fruit, guava, but still a little bit of grapefruit zest in there.

[00:24:13] Justin Kendall: So if you didn't recognize that voice, that is Jill Olesh, Director of Sales Pizza Port.

[00:24:19] Pizza Port: Hi, everybody.

[00:24:20] Justin Kendall: Hey.

[00:24:21] Pizza Port: Thanks for having me, Justin. Yeah, thanks for doing this. Nice to see you. Nice to be here.

[00:24:24] Justin Kendall: Good to see you. I think we've been trying to pin you down for a podcast interview for a couple of years now.

[00:24:31] Pizza Port: Oh, thank you. I appreciate the persistence and I'm sorry that we didn't do this sooner.

[00:24:35] Justin Kendall: No, I'm sorry that we didn't do it sooner, but it's a good time to do it, though, because I'm sitting here, I'm just cruising through the Brewers Association's new brewer, you know, as I do, and I'm looking at the Pizza Port data, and you grew 9% last year.

[00:24:50] Pizza Port: Last year was a big year, yes.

[00:24:53] Justin Kendall: 53,000 barrels, and I think there were some more barrels in there, too, but is that an all-time record for you?

[00:25:00] Pizza Port: That's a great question. I think that in those prime growth years, we built our production brewery in 2013 and that was our fifth location. So I think in those prime growth years when sets were expanding and we had capacity and distribution and trust from retailers as they were expanding their sets, I think we probably saw larger percentage growth during that time. So it would probably be a pretty close second to that.

[00:25:24] Justin Kendall: Well, I'm going to give you credit for this.

[00:25:27] SPEAKER_??: Yes.

[00:25:28] Pizza Port: And then you guys heard it here first. I did it.

[00:25:31] Justin Kendall: And what's driving that? What's really been pushing that up?

[00:25:34] Pizza Port: Yeah, I think, you know, we've we've had really good luck with six pack, 16 ounce cans. When we entered the market with them in 2013, we packaged our first run of six pack, 16 ounce cans. And it was a Session IPA, which, by the way, still exists in market. I'm very excited about that. It's called Ponto. It's named after one of our local surf spots. You know, it was new to market and it kind of grabbed the excitement of the Southern California consumer. And we've just seen that format really take off since then. So I think that combined with so many years of just brand recognition. I mean, we have brew pubs throughout the Southern California, you know, San Diego coastline and one here in Orange County in San Clemente. We're just so fortunate that we had so many regulars that were coming to Pizza Port when they were kids, right? They were celebrating things. And we kind of became the place that you went for, you know, you went with your parents. And at that time, there weren't many places that you could bring kids to enjoy craft beer. So you went with your parents then and then you went with your friends after high school, right? You were skateboarding or surfing or whatever. And then, you know, as soon as you were 21, because that would definitely be the first time you had a Pizza Port beer, you were not drinking chronic out of a pitcher before you were 21. You would go to Pizza Port with your friends and we have always been order at the counter, community service, just that kind of friendly, easygoing vibe with, you know, parents standing in line or you and your friends standing in line, kind of talking about how the surf is, how the weather was. what the kids are doing in school, and then you're getting a fresh IPA off the draft line. So I think having that built in and that nostalgia, that was something that came up this morning in the keynote, right? Just the importance of nostalgia. And I'll say it here, and I promise it's not as bad as it sounds, but I'm pretty much on record now saying target the children, which is a terrible thing. Because what I mean is, you know, part of the magic recipe, the lightning in a bottle of Pizza Port, is that we've been so many things to so many people throughout their lives. And a lot of those people that were coming as kids are now bringing their kids there. So kind of remembering the things that helped build the magic, that stuff's timeless. And I think it hit the nail on the head this morning with just being a part of somebody's life versus just being, you know, I think sometimes there's magic in somebody taking a sip of your beer and being like, wow, this beer is awesome. This is exactly what I want right now. And then not really thinking much about it after that, right? Like they're enjoying their beer. They might have two or three, but they're also building memories and enjoying these occasions with people they care about. And that's, that's where the magic happens.

[00:28:07] Justin Kendall: Yeah, that's priceless.

[00:28:09] Pizza Port: Priceless.

[00:28:10] Justin Kendall: Well, and the 16-ounce six-packs, I'm glad you brought that up because right now, it's obviously tough times for a lot of folks. And I think one of the words that is really being leaned into right now is affordability and value. And I think that 16-ounce six-packs deliver on that proposition.

[00:28:30] Pizza Port: Yeah, that's our goal. I mean, price per ounce, it is, you know, very competitive with six pack, 12 ounce. But for us, it was kind of, you know, we hold ourselves to some pretty rigid guidelines from procurement and production and packaging and what's going to go Sunset Distributing versus what's going to be a pub release. You know, we're fortunate that we have the seven locations so we can go through a decent amount of inventory just at our pubs with all of our amazing regulars. But being able to stay consistent. I mean, our sales pitch, honestly, I'll tell you right now, consistency, quality, affordability, availability, right? We want to be in your grocery cart when you go grocery shopping. I call it the Southern California grocery basket, right? It's your chicken, your tortillas, your black beans, your spinach, and your six pack of swamis, maybe some salsa, but you might get that from a local market. You know, I think that we're so grateful to have kind of evolved in a way where people in Southern California really understand the value. And now if you walk into a store in Southern California, you see a lot of brands in that format. And that's pretty unique to Southern California, which I think kind of further, you know, we wrote the book a little bit on West Coast IPA, and now we're kind of changing the idea of what that format should be.

[00:29:44] Justin Kendall: So when we talk about the seven locations and the connection that you're able to forge in those, and I think you said that they're across those seven locations, there are 125 beers on?

[00:29:57] Pizza Port: Yeah, there's got to be. So if listeners have never been to a Pizza Port, you walk in and it is a beautiful, chaotic situation. We have been counter service with picnic tables since the beginning. We opened in 1987, started brewing officially in 92. So Each location has its own brew system and its own head brewer and that person has artistic license to brew, you know, anything that's ever been brewed at that location. I guarantee you any recipe before 1995 is on a paper plate, but they are allowed to kind of pull from that or brew, you know, new styles that they're excited about with new ingredients, all of those kind of things. And I think that that variety, that's really cool. And that kind of helps us stay relevant and exciting while we're still able to create efficiencies that allow us to keep our six packs at this affordable price. And it all kind of distills back to, we want to make sure we're making the most high quality, consistent thing. Every time you drink a Swami's, we want you to think, man, this is a good Swami's.

[00:30:57] Justin Kendall: As director of sales, what do you watch for in the sales data coming out of the pubs?

[00:31:03] Pizza Port: To be honest, I don't see, you know, pub side, we have a little bit more generic buttons. We're like, house IPA, house amber, you know, that kind of stuff. It's more in talking with the brewers about, you know, how fast are things going and you kind of get a read. In Ocean Beach, for example, if they're out of jetty IPA, people flip tables. Not really, because the tables are kind of heavy, but, you know, there's a lot of love and support in the community. So it is, it is like a pilot system on some level where you can see what's working in each neighborhood and each neighborhood kind of has its own identity. and its own house beers that they keep on. But you know, just like in any situation, the bartenders are that first ear to hear what people are ordering and what they're asking for and what they want that we don't have. So that's something that we love to hear because then we can bring it into a little bit more, we have a pilot system at our production brewery, can bring it into a pilot setting and grow from there. But for us, honestly, part of the framework for the distributed brand is to keep it really simple. You know, we really only have six, seven beers that we distribute. We only distribute full-time in, I'll say, three and a half states. 95% of our beer is sold in California, 80% of it is sold in Southern California. And we really just lean into what we can do well and how we can be consistent and want to make sure that we're continuing to provide that value and that reliability and that consistency.

[00:32:23] Justin Kendall: I don't want to put you too much on the spot.

[00:32:25] Pizza Port: Oh boy. Twice, but I don't remember the first time.

[00:32:30] Justin Kendall: 80% of your business is in SoCal, in the San Diego area.

[00:32:35] Pizza Port: It is. Best advice I can give anyone out there is to take care of their backyard.

[00:32:38] Justin Kendall: So we went through some consolidation there.

[00:32:40] Pizza Port: We did.

[00:32:40] Justin Kendall: Hand Family, Acquired Stone, Classic, Scout, some of your distributors. This is true. What's it been like and how are you feeling now that we're in ABP season?

[00:32:52] Pizza Port: Were you ever remodeling your kitchen and or maybe just kind of doing some spring cleaning and you pulled all of your utensils and pots and pans out and then you kind of went through them and then you put them back in some in drawers and all of a sudden you're like, wow, this is this is good. I need to go add this thing back to it. But oh my gosh, this flow is so much more efficient than it was. That's our hope, not that things were inefficient before they weren't. I think that we were so fortunate to have two, I think I was part of at least two golden eras of Sunset Distributing in Southern California. I can't say enough to the magic that Sunset Distributing created over the years. But I think that the beverage industry has shifted a lot. notice I said beverage industry. It's not the beer industry anymore. And I think that, you know, to have lived through the golden era and like that, that really just hand over fist, double-digit growth in the early 2010s, right, 2012 to 2016, it was a really special time to live through. But I think we were starting to see signs of that changing before COVID, right? And then COVID hit, the reliability on flagship brands kind of, gave everybody some of the legacy brands a little bit of a bump into continuing with what they were packaging Sunset Distributing and that kind of thing. But it's different out there. So I think in order to be best prepared to handle a different situation, sometimes you need a little bit of change. So we're optimistic that once we get into 2026, we're going to hit the ground running and it's going to be great. So I think that it's going to be a little rocky. All changes are. Do we wish that it wasn't the middle of summer? I think everyone on earth wishes it wasn't the middle of summer.

[00:34:27] Justin Kendall: I think Jay Harhan probably wishes it wasn't the middle of summer.

[00:34:30] Pizza Port: I have a feeling he would agree with that.

[00:34:31] Justin Kendall: I think he actually told me that.

[00:34:33] Pizza Port: I have a feeling that that wasn't the intention either. You know, I mean, that's got to be how things go. But what do I know? But the reality of the situation is, you know, there are some great people that we have said goodbye to because of the transition, but there are also a lot of great people that are leading our way through the transition and more great people to become part of it. So I think, you know, finishing the year flat or maybe up a tick, I think we're really excited about that. And we're really excited about what 2026 could bring.

[00:35:01] Justin Kendall: In this market, maintaining that growth from last year, that's a huge W. Thank you.

[00:35:08] Pizza Port: Yeah. Yeah. We were, you know, we were lapping some gains. We did roll out Swami's. I just all that noise and about me and six pack, 16 ounce. We did release the beer in 12 pack, 12 ounce. So we were lapping some of that growth at the first half of this year, which was really strong driver for us. And we did release a new brand, Coastin, which we were already enjoying. But I think, you know, Pizza Board's been around for a long time, and I think that for every brewery, just maintaining your identity through things like that and kind of looking inward about what can we be doing, control what we can control, right? When I started the year before, We understood what a dynamic year it would be Sunset Distributing, landscape shifts. When we started the year, we were basically like, all right, guys, we're going to control what we can control. Because if we're too focused on, you have to be cognizant of the noise. It's my job to kind of hear the noise and see what's going on and filter that and figure out how much it's impacting what we're doing. But as a team, if you're spinning your wheels on things that you can't control, You're wasting energy that could be so positive and so driven towards something else that could help grow or help the retailers in your neighborhood grow or help your local brewery grow or whatever it might be. The other one was that if we can land on the moon, we can sell beer in 2025. So that has been really the guiding force for us this year.

[00:36:30] Justin Kendall: Well, you're in those ABP meetings, or you're coming out of them. What are you hearing? What's sort of the general consensus of what distributors want right now, what they're looking for, and what they don't want?

[00:36:41] Pizza Port: That's a good question. I think it's just more the understanding. I think if you're walking into a meeting like that, and you have a firm grip of what the state of the industry looks like, and you're walking in with a thought-out goal, and then a way to execute that, and you're not asking for things that are unrealistic given the current climate, I think that your distributor partners are going to have your back, but I think it's the understanding of what they're going through as well. Their landscape is changing, you know, especially distributors that were beer-centric for a long time. What their portfolio mix is doing is changing, and I think it's, you know, again, it's kind of that control what we can control mentality where it can be frustrating. But that's not going to solve anything. So figuring out how your brewery can maintain, you know, what makes helps you stay true to your ethos and your goals and and what is authentic for you and still be a good partner to the distributor and the retailer. Right. So it's a little bit of what do they need? What does the retailer need? What does the consumer want? What can we do within those that's still authentic to our brand? And how are we going to execute on it? So kind of going in with all of those things really thoroughly thought out definitely yields positive conversations because, you know, to some extent, trends are cyclical. Yes, there are some things right now that seem a lot more alarming when you're in it. I talk about the after a lot, and that's actually how I should have responded with shakeups, because it's like when you're in it, everything feels like you're never gonna get out, right? It's like quicksand. It's like the more you try to pull yourself out, you're like, this is never gonna, this is it, this is where I live now, this is how it is. But that's change, right? Change feels like that. Sometimes you're like, why did we make this decision? Is this what we're doing? Why did I come up with this target list? Are we ever gonna get through it? And the reality is, there's an after. So if you can weather, if you're prepared to weather anything, whatever it is, and you remember that there is an after coming, and you're just maintaining that mindset of like, okay, I'm gonna control what I can control through this, and when we get to the after, we're gonna kind of look back and be like, whoa. That was pretty tough. I'm really proud of what we did to kind of navigate through that. And I realize this is all pretty vague, but I think it just means, it rings true because it means so many different things in so many different areas of business and to so many different business models. It's just kind of remembering that just because we're in it right now, this isn't the future. This is just the right now. There is an after and the after can, you know, continue to grow. Soar, all that magic.

[00:39:16] Justin Kendall: That's such a good place to end it.

[00:39:18] Pizza Port: Yay.

[00:39:19] Justin Kendall: Thanks for doing this.

[00:39:20] Pizza Port: Thanks for having me.

[00:39:21] Justin Kendall: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:39:21] Jessica Infante: Enjoy the rest of your conference. And that's our show for this week. Thank you for listening. The Brewbound Podcast is a production of BevNET CPG. Our audio engineer for the Brewbound Podcast is Joe Cracci. Our technical director is Joshua Pratt, and our video editor is Ryan Galang. Our social marketing manager is Amanda Smerlinski. Our designer is Amanda Huang. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with your colleagues and friends and review us on your listening platform of choice. You can find our work at Brewbound.com. And we also welcome feedback and suggestions at podcast at Brewbound.com. On behalf of the entire Brewbound Podcast team, thank you for listening. We'll be back next week.