Brewbound Podcast: How Well Do You Know Your Brewbound Coworkers?

[00:00:00] Justin Ponte: We made it to 100 episodes. We'll see what happens next on the Brewbound Podcast. Hello, and welcome to the Brewbound Podcast. My name is Justin Kendall, and I am the editor of Brewbound. And as always, I'm joined by Justin Ponte, the managing editor of Brewbound. What's up, Justin?

[00:00:27] Brewbound Podcast: Hey, nothing. Greetings from the Brewbound BevNET global headquarters. How you doing?

[00:00:34] Justin Ponte: I'm doing well. And we are celebrating episode 100 of the Brewbound Podcast. And I really cannot believe that it's been 100 episodes. But this is my favorite thing that we do every week. Because we get to hang out.

[00:00:49] Brewbound Podcast: I very much enjoy the podcast as well. It is also the highlight of my week.

[00:00:53] Justin Ponte: Let's bring in Zoe. I don't know how many episodes you've been around for, but it's been probably half that hundred.

[00:01:00] Brewbound Insider: Yeah, probably. I mean, I've been on the pod since like summer 2021. So, yeah, I feel like at least half the time.

[00:01:07] Brewbound Podcast: I would say more than that, because in the beginning we were still biweekly because Zoe, I give you like at least two thirds. Thank you. You're welcome. And I'm so glad you're here. Glad to be here.

[00:01:21] Justin Ponte: We are both glad that you're here. And also joining us for this special occasion is Sean McNulty, who writes the Brewbound Insider newsletter every weekend. What's up, Sean?

[00:01:31] Jess and Zoe: Hey, Justin, how you doing? This is actually about our one year anniversary, actually, from starting the Week in Beer. Now that I kind of think about it, that was a February 2022 launch. So happy one year to us.

[00:01:43] Google Play: Yeah.

[00:01:46] Jess and Zoe: And all the champagne going around. Exactly. Of beer and otherwise.

[00:01:51] Brewbound Podcast: Sean, I get more feedback on your newsletter from like my friends than anything I write.

[00:01:57] Jess and Zoe: So, yeah. All right. I know Bart likes my gifts. I need more gifts. I couldn't quite tell what he wanted, but I'm going to take the request in tow. So, Bart, you've been heard. So, Bart Watson from the BA, of course. But good to know, Jess. Pass along any feedback anytime. Always welcome.

[00:02:15] Justin Ponte: I love it. Yeah, and we're going to turn it over to you in a very short bit so you can quiz Jess, Zoe, and I. Again, we continue to make bad decisions on this podcast, but... We'll see what happens. I'll do whatever I'm on, but don't put that on me. That's all I'm saying. That's all coming from me, I imagine, the bad decision making. But if you like what we're doing here, if you've liked the last 100 episodes and you want more, please like, rate, review, subscribe, and hit that bell so you know when new episodes are coming out. So with that, let's hit some of these headlines. And Zoe, you did a deep dive into the full year IRI off-premise beer category data. What do we know?

[00:03:01] Brewbound Insider: Well, we know that beer category dollar sales for the off-premise and so IRI is off-premise retailers, including like convenience and grocery, but that has reached $44.6 billion in 2022, which I mean, it's higher than the past couple of years on surface level. That's like, yeah, people are buying more beer. But then you look at volume and case sales, and those were down 4.8% from last year. So this is something that I think we've expected. Bart Watson, that we just talked about, he kind of warned everyone to be wary of that context when looking at numbers for this year. Just because the dollar sales are going up doesn't mean that people are buying more beer. There's some other stuff going on, like people's prices going up. So, some of the highlights from this report, I mean, the increase was plus 0.8% year over year. So, I mean, that's more than last year, which declined actually 0.4%. But as we know, that was kind of from things starting to level out from the big shift to the off premise during 2020. It's significantly below the growth that happened in 2019, which was a 5.3% increase in dollar sales. So we haven't quite gone back to the 2019 trends. But as we've also heard, we don't know if we ever will go back to those. So time will tell if we do return. Beer sales at grocery stores declined 1.5% to $13.5 billion. That is less than the decline of last year. Last year they declined 4.6, or 2021, excuse me, they declined 4.6%. still losing some dollar sales there, but it seems to be possibly an improvement from previous years. Then C stores, which have been kind of the place where we're seeing a big opportunity for beer, dollar sales increased there by 1.7% to $24.2 billion. It's a little below the 2% increase in 2021, but I think we've heard from most economy experts and from retailers that see store is kind of a place for beer right now. And Non-Alc was, again, the kind of hero in IRI this year. I mean, it recorded the strongest dollar sales for the second year in a row, up 17.2 percent to nearly $279 million. So it's still a small share of beer, but it's continuing to show some some strong numbers compared to other segments.

[00:05:36] Justin Ponte: F&Bs really put on their cape as well. Yes.

[00:05:39] Brewbound Insider: So F&Bs were very close behind. They increased nearly to nearly $3.72 billion. And they had a larger volume increase. They increased their case sales more than N.A. did. So those are kind of the two big heroes of the year for beer. Which, I don't know if you guys, that wasn't too surprising to me, but how did you guys feel about the numbers?

[00:06:04] Justin Ponte: imports are also pulling their weight.

[00:06:07] Brewbound Insider: Yeah, imports 6.6%, domestic super premiums up 5%. So they've both outpaced beer category and dollar sales growth and case sales growth. So they're helping out beer. The ones that have recorded biggest declines, no surprise, hard seltzer, assorted was number one, which I think we need to work on our definitions of assorted. I think, I don't know, we're unclear on necessarily what will fit into assorted now, but we assume it's like, variety packs.

[00:06:40] Justin Ponte: I think that is repackaged.

[00:06:42] Brewbound Insider: Yeah.

[00:06:43] Justin Ponte: I think that's where you go to the grocery store and you make your own six or whatever.

[00:06:48] Brewbound Insider: So if that's the case, I guess it makes sense because breweries are actually creating their own prepackaged variety packs now. So Assorted showed the largest declines, followed by Hard Seltzers down 10.4%, Craft down 4.7%, Cider down 3.4%, and Domestic Premiums down 2.3%. And we're going to dive into craft more shortly. So there should be some coverage up as well. Possibly by the time you are listening to this podcast, it'll dive more into crafts performance, but this is kind of a nice overview of just generally how the category performs and how those big brands performed.

[00:07:27] Justin Ponte: The biggest news from last week was a wholesaler consolidation. We started with Hensley Beverage in Arizona, acquiring Premier Distributing in New Mexico. And then by the time we recorded, we already had another deal and that was a wine warehouse getting gobbled up by Breakthrough Beverage. And that's something that you were on just.

[00:07:52] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah, Zoe and I tag-teamed that story. The interesting thing about Wine Warehouse is that, don't be deceived by its name, it's actually a massive beer wholesaler, but this marks Breakthrough's first entry into California. And California is one of the biggest beer markets in the whole country. So Breakthrough is pretty big. They're not on the level of Arraya's, but they're really large. A lot of states, nationwide in Canada. So this is a big move for them. And we've heard from some members of the team at Wine Warehouse, they're excited. They think this is going to open up a lot of doors for them. Their portfolio is pretty craft heavy. A lot of imports, they carry Allagash, a lot of Belgian imports. Shout out to our dear friend, Sinead Carey, who is a super important salesperson over at Wine Warehouse and her work in the field of Belgian imports actually earned her the title of Dame Sinead over the summer. She went to Belgium for the honor, which I think is pretty cool. I guess technically we can say she's been knighted.

[00:08:57] Brewbound Insider: Yes. And she was a part of our distributor panel that we had at Brewbound Live in 2021, which was a really great panel. So if you didn't watch that, you can go back and watch that because it was an awesome panel. Just being honest about distribution.

[00:09:14] Brewbound Podcast: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I agree. The Girl Gang distributor panel. I had a great time hosting. So big news.

[00:09:22] Justin Ponte: Yeah. And that's going to be a theme of this year that we're gonna keep hearing about, because if we've already got two distributor deals this year, you just know that more are on the way. So let's switch gears a little bit, and another story that you covered, Jess and Zoe name that we're gonna keep hearing this year is Sazerac. And this is a lawsuit I think a lot of people were expecting at some point, given how litigious beverage alcohol is of late, from Rita's lawsuits, to hard seltzer lawsuits, Is this beer made in the place that I think it's made in? All those type of lawsuits. Or is this beer? Is this beer?

[00:10:05] Jess and Zoe: Yeah. Who knows? What is beer? What is beer? That's my favorite one. Yeah.

[00:10:11] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah. This was a fun one. So what you're referring to is the lawsuit between Sazerac and consumers. You know, last week we covered the Sazerac Republic National Distributing Company lawsuit. This week, Sazerac is taking heat. My new favorite pun. for the makeup of its Fireball cinnamon. Now, Sazerac's biggest product by far is its Fireball cinnamon whiskey. You've had it, maybe you love it, maybe you hate it, maybe you have terrible memories of it, but it is out there. And one thing that Sazerac started doing in recent years is they found a bit of a loophole and they realized that if they make an FMB, so if they use a malt base with the flavoring that goes into Fireball, they can make a product that can be sold way more places than the actual whiskey. So Fireball Cinnamon is an FMB. They sell it in the teeny tiny little 50 milliliter little baby nips or airplane bottles, whatever you call them, suggested retail value of 99 cents. And they're everywhere. Grocery stores, C-stores, gas stations, pretty much anywhere you can buy a beer. So a woman in Chicago had been buying them at her local Jewel Osco and somehow is found by Spencer Sheehan, a prolific class action plaintiff lawyer. And he files lawsuit against the company, basically saying that they are defrauding customers by taking their money for something that is not what it says it is. And it does say, if you read the labels really close, you know, like every label that has to go through the TTB needs to have a statement of composition on it. And fireball whiskey is described as something that, quote, with natural whiskey and other flavors. And our lawyer friend here is saying that this is a clever turn of phrase because they put the ampersand in between whiskey and other flavors, which they're using a whiskey flavoring. They're not using real whiskey here. But by phrasing it this way, they're making it sound like there is whiskey plus these other flavors. That is his contention. If you have bought Fireball Cinnamon, you can, you know, jump on as a plaintiff in this class action lawsuit in the following states, North Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Alaska, Iowa, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah. So Justin, if you have consumed any- I'm rich.

[00:12:25] Google Play: There you go.

[00:12:26] Jess and Zoe: Rigging New York every time, got nothing.

[00:12:29] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah. Sorry, Sean.

[00:12:30] Justin Ponte: Yeah, my favorite part of this, my favorite part of the lawsuit, but let's be clear here, the wording that was my favorite is the lead plaintiff, quote, expected the Fireball Cinnamon was whiskey and or contained whiskey in a non-diminutive amount and quote, paid more for the product than she would have had she known the representations and omissions were false and misleading or would not have purchased it. That last part, OK, I can excuse it, would not have purchased it, but paid more for it. We're talking a buck here, not even a buck.

[00:13:06] Brewbound Podcast: 99 cents. Yeah. I mean, one of the key differences between the two is that the FMB Fireball is 16.5% ABV and Spirit Space Fireball is 33% ABV. So it's, you know, half, but making this product, I'm like, I had tweeted this last week and that tweet like did numbers, which is weird. Cause you never know what people are going to be interested in. Yeah, man. I know. I know. But through this product, Sazerac has become the 21st largest beer category vendor in IRI-tracked off-premise channels, which is huge. And this product accounts for 89% of Sazerac's beer category sales. I think they've got a couple other F&Bs in the mix here, but this is far and away their biggest seller. Last year it did $101.9 million in beer category off-premise sales per IRI. So that's a big chunk of change.

[00:14:00] Brewbound Insider: It was like over 150% increase year over year.

[00:14:05] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah. Big focus on that this year. Huge. So I guess beware of fireballs in wolves clothing or something. I'm not really sure.

[00:14:16] Justin Ponte: They wear very similar clothing.

[00:14:19] Brewbound Podcast: Very, very similar clothing. And the other thing is that drinkers don't know, you know, my assumption is that, you know, if you're out shopping and you know, you're not in a state like Massachusetts where you have to go to the liquor store to get anything with alcohol, you know, you kind of just think, okay, there's some fireball. Let me, let me grab some bang for buck though.

[00:14:39] Justin Ponte: 99 cents for 16.5% ABV.

[00:14:43] Brewbound Podcast: Pretty good.

[00:14:44] Justin Ponte: Yeah.

[00:14:45] Brewbound Podcast: There's a Facebook page in my town, Salem mass called like fireballs of Salem. And it's just pictures of fireball nips in the gutters or in bushes.

[00:14:57] Justin Ponte: That's pretty good.

[00:14:58] Brewbound Podcast: I don't think it's this product though.

[00:15:00] Justin Ponte: This was essentially out back of my apartment complex that I lived in, in Watertown mass was the alley was nothing but these like fireball shooters.

[00:15:12] Brewbound Podcast: Wow.

[00:15:13] Justin Ponte: Yeah.

[00:15:14] Brewbound Podcast: What's going on here? So I see these guys and twisted teacups all the time.

[00:15:19] Stitcher and Spotify: That tracks. Yeah.

[00:15:21] Jess and Zoe: Stay classy, Massachusetts. It is interesting that you'd think like you're buying the same product, but what is 16%? And what is 33%? That's a big different bang for your buck. If you're going into like convenience and thinking you're getting a real percent to be a shot or double shot of whiskey versus 16.5, you know, and it's on the labels, as Jess said, it's not like the ABVs aren't on there for the TGB, but that's like the more interesting thing is like people are thinking that they're buying a whiskey shot. If they think that that's what they're buying, they're like, you're getting, a glorified FMB, it's a triple FMB, usual FMB, but it's just interesting the ABB difference there is pretty big. And if you were going in looking for that, that's a pretty big differential, I would think for a consumer.

[00:16:03] Justin Ponte: $1.98, Sean. Yeah. Okay.

[00:16:08] Brewbound Podcast: I wonder what people know of like Spear's ABBs.

[00:16:11] Jess and Zoe: That's what I mean.

[00:16:13] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah. Like, I'm not sure. Like I know people know, period.

[00:16:18] Jess and Zoe: 40%, which is what a usual spirit I think in my mind is like, oh, that's 33 or that's 16, you know, all that kind of stuff.

[00:16:24] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah. I mean, I personally have been victimized by a fireball many times at the point in downtown Boston.

[00:16:31] Jess and Zoe: So you're the one posting those little bottles around town. I get it, Jess. I understand. I'm a big blower. The secret's out in Salem.

[00:16:39] Justin Ponte: And so let's go to the other end of the spectrum. And we already talked a little bit about non-alcoholic beer, and there is a flood of new non-alcoholic beers on the market. One being Rick's Near Beer, which was created by Hops and Grains founder, Josh Hare. Hops and Grains being a Texas craft brewery that went through some hard times during the pandemic and is now just a basically distributed contract brewed brand. And now Josh has really shifted his focus to Rick's Near Beer. You can read that story up on Brewbound.com if you're an insider. Also out there is DrinkSip, which is Dallas Cowboy Demarcus Lawrence's and a beer brand. And I guess Joey Redner also worked on this brand. And one thing that these two brands, other than being non-alcoholic, have in common is they're both pasteurized. So it's a question that I seem to ask now. And I guess we're going to round this out with Monarchy, which is Monster and CanArchie's new non-alcoholic beverage subsidiary within CanArchie that they're going to funnel some brands through that aren't big enough to be within the Monster portfolio or go through the Coke distribution network. And if those brands get big enough, they're going to end up going to Coke. And then finally, a tease for Jess's frontline conversation.

[00:18:10] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah, we are chatting with Lacey and Travis Richards from Nothing's Left Brewing. They are based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And look, dry January brings up a lot of feelings in the beer community, and some of them have been rather negative of late. So So rather than grumble about the fact that drinkers are taking the month off from drinking, the team at Nothing's Left decided to embrace this. And every Monday night in the month of January, they've had a dry bar event where they've got all sorts of different, you know, non-alcohol beers, mocktails, all different things that people can come and drink and enjoy and still get the experience of being out and about. but while abstaining and having something to drink that's not, you know, water or soda. So really excited to talk to the two of them about all the planning that went into this, how they designed the menus, how it's been received, will they do it again? Should be a good chat.

[00:19:02] Justin Ponte: Yeah. With that, I think let's get to our 100th episode celebration and we'll turn it over to you, Sean.

[00:19:12] Jess and Zoe: Yeah. A hundred episodes. Zoe, how long has it been here for now? What's the count on your tenure here?

[00:19:19] Brewbound Insider: At Brewbound?

[00:19:22] Jess and Zoe: Yeah.

[00:19:23] Brewbound Insider: It will be two years in April.

[00:19:28] Jess and Zoe: Okay. So Jess had put the start of this iteration of the Brewbound Podcast back in September 2020. Was that what we said, Jess, right?

[00:19:36] Google Play: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:36] Jess and Zoe: So, you know, we'll give you, yeah, two thirds, you're probably here for most of these podcast episodes. So we'll, we'll go with that. So we're gonna. Finally, reveal some who is working at Brewbound questions. Do you know your co-workers? Yes. Just being very fitting being back in the office today. Thank you for representing the RTO on the Brewbound count. Somebody had to. Somebody's got to keep a class here on there. So we'll do one industry just throwback since You know, we'll call this mid 2020, since the episode one of the podcast. So that's about when the 2019 list of the BA's top 50 came out. So pop quiz for you. So how many breweries in the top 50 list of the 2019 year? So on beer, how many of the top 50 breweries have had a change in ownership from then until now? Rip through some names and we, you know, give me a total number, but just names that breweries that are no longer who they were in 2019 and the time since the podcast fit on.

[00:20:39] Brewbound Podcast: Can we play this like categories? Like I say one, Justin says one.

[00:20:42] Jess and Zoe: Oh yeah, no, it's a group effort. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is a team group bound effort to start.

[00:20:48] Stitcher and Spotify: Go ahead, Zoe.

[00:20:50] Brewbound Insider: New Belgium, right?

[00:20:52] Stitcher and Spotify: Sure, of course. Bells. Of course.

[00:20:56] Brewbound Podcast: Anarchy.

[00:20:58] Stitcher and Spotify: Right. Sweet water. Yep.

[00:21:03] Brewbound Podcast: We're talking top 50?

[00:21:05] Jess and Zoe: Top 50 list, yeah.

[00:21:06] Brewbound Podcast: Montauk?

[00:21:08] Jess and Zoe: That was not on there. I don't think then the 2019 that was not a top 50 brewery.

[00:21:13] Brewbound Podcast: Okay.

[00:21:14] Jess and Zoe: I see what you're saying. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

[00:21:17] Brewbound Podcast: I apologize. I would like to resubmit my answer. And that answer is Long Trail.

[00:21:24] Jess and Zoe: Yes. Very good. Stone. Yep. There you go. That was the other big one. Yep. And one of them had a pool in a hot pool with their tap room.

[00:21:34] Brewbound Podcast: Oh, Modern Times. Yeah.

[00:21:36] Jess and Zoe: Modern Times. There you go.

[00:21:38] Brewbound Podcast: And it's Dogfish Head in this conversation as well.

[00:21:41] Jess and Zoe: That was a May 2019 deal, so that was on the list separately as a separate entity. I don't even know, it may still be separate on that list. I didn't, I should actually check that. It's not, right? It's under Boston Beer now? Yeah. Okay. So that was, then that would be the other one. Yeah. Yeah. And then there were three that I wasn't, like Ninkasi kind of went one way and then went back to what it was. I don't know if that really counts as a sale or change in whatever, but so that that's that was for 2019. That was you guys. That was about it. So well done guys.

[00:22:10] Brewbound Insider: A lot of those were like in like 2022. Exactly. Yeah, those are very recent.

[00:22:16] Jess and Zoe: Yeah. Stay tuned to find out by end of 2024 when we do the 200th episode anniversary. Still on the list. All right. But more importantly, business is over. Let's go. Time to spill the tea about the, uh, the rebound crew. You guys ready? All right, thanks for the resounding enthusiasm. Welcome to This is Your Brewbound, ladies and gentlemen. We will find out what this team does not know about each other. Jess, what did you call it? Wait, wait, I don't know what was the title.

[00:22:44] Brewbound Podcast: Wait, wait, I don't actually know my co-workers.

[00:22:46] Jess and Zoe: There you go, exactly. Zoe, you're going to learn a little bit of history on this, just overall, so this should be interesting going back in time, in the time capsules of the millennial Gen X crew here. Get ready for that. First question, who sent me their responses in purple?

[00:23:04] Brewbound Insider: In purple? Um, I would assume Justin.

[00:23:11] Jess and Zoe: Very good.

[00:23:12] Brewbound Insider: By her little smirk. Sorry.

[00:23:15] Jess and Zoe: I was like, is it Justin or Jess? I'm gonna go with Jess on that one. Lack of poker face for Jess.

[00:23:20] Brewbound Podcast: I know. I should really turn my camera off.

[00:23:24] Jess and Zoe: Thank you for a little bit of color, Jess. I appreciate it. Very nice. Made it a little bit easier. But this is the most important question of any of anybody who works in the beer business, the first beer. So let's say, let's break it down by person on this one. So what was Justin's first beer? I'll give you a blank guess to start, then I'll give you a clue. So Jess and Zoe, go right ahead.

[00:23:44] Brewbound Insider: We've definitely talked about this before, too.

[00:23:47] Brewbound Podcast: Well, one of Justin's first craft beers is Boulevard Tank 7. All right.

[00:23:52] Jess and Zoe: That is not the first beer, however.

[00:23:55] Brewbound Insider: Is it like a Miller Lite?

[00:23:58] Jess and Zoe: It's not that. Your clue is the king. Is it a bush light? Oh come on.

[00:24:03] Brewbound Podcast: What do youth drink in Iowa?

[00:24:05] Jess and Zoe: The king. Bud. Justin, is that correct? Thank you. That is.

[00:24:11] Justin Ponte: I think it was like, it's one of those when you're like bugging your dad's friend, like, I want to taste beer. I want to taste a beer. Yeah. Okay.

[00:24:20] Jess and Zoe: So now it was a hand-me-down beer. All right. What was your first cracked beer? Yeah. What was your first, the Justin picked and drank beer?

[00:24:29] Justin Ponte: Just was closest. It probably would have been like a Boulevard Wheat.

[00:24:34] Jess and Zoe: Really? Yeah. As your first. Okay. Interesting. All right. On to Jess, I don't think they make this anymore. So what was Jess's first alcohol is alcoholic beverage, I guess we knew, I know this is a beer actually. So yeah, it counts as a beer. So what was Jess's first beer?

[00:24:49] Brewbound Insider: Is this gonna be like some New Jersey thing?

[00:24:52] Jess and Zoe: It is not a New Jersey thing. Nope. No. Pete's Wicked Ale. No. She wishes. Nope. Zoe, you probably don't even know what this is.

[00:25:01] Brewbound Insider: And if they don't make it anymore, I don't even know if I... It was not long for this world.

[00:25:06] Jess and Zoe: Yeah, Jess, I'm gonna let you just explain what this is. Jess, please take the floor.

[00:25:11] Brewbound Podcast: Oh my god, Tequisa.

[00:25:12] Jess and Zoe: I don't know... Tequisa!

[00:25:14] Brewbound Podcast: how we got it. I don't know what was happening. I just remember thinking in my stupid little, I don't want to tell you how old I was, brain thinking like, wow, this is beer with tequila. I am so grown up.

[00:25:30] Jess and Zoe: To be clear, this is an AB InBev product, which is basically a Corona with a lime already added to it. It was essentially a beer with lime.

[00:25:39] Brewbound Podcast: Like tequila flavoring.

[00:25:41] Jess and Zoe: Sure. Yeah.

[00:25:42] Brewbound Podcast: My dear pal, yet not relation, Dave Infante has done like a deep dive on Tequiza.

[00:25:48] Jess and Zoe: Really? Oh, okay.

[00:25:50] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah. So ask Dave about it.

[00:25:52] Jess and Zoe: Shout out to Dave. Yeah.

[00:25:54] Brewbound Insider: So really you were on the RTD trend before everyone else was.

[00:25:58] Jess and Zoe: I think it was a beer. Was it a beer or FMB?

[00:26:02] Brewbound Insider: I don't know. But half the RTDs now are not spirits based.

[00:26:06] Jess and Zoe: So, yeah, true. Well, we'll have to get Dave on for Tequisa History sometime.

[00:26:10] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah. When I when I wrote this answer out for Sean, I then put in parentheses, like, Q, teenage dirtbag.

[00:26:17] Jess and Zoe: The song, I think is what you're... Correct. Yes. OK. Just so he knows that song.

[00:26:22] Brewbound Podcast: It was big on TikTok recently.

[00:26:24] Jess and Zoe: Yeah, we got that one. All right, it's coming back.

[00:26:25] Justin Ponte: It'll be playing on classic rock radio here soon.

[00:26:28] Brewbound Podcast: Yeah, probably already is.

[00:26:30] Jess and Zoe: Jess, we'll give you a restoration. Your first craft beer was... Do you want me to tell you or do you want these guys to guess? Yeah, you can lay it out now.

[00:26:37] Brewbound Podcast: I believe it was the Samuel Adams cherry wheat. There you go.

[00:26:41] Jess and Zoe: Yeah. Very nice.

[00:26:42] Brewbound Podcast: Fagan's Pub in Syracuse, New York. They would serve it with a giant handful of cherries. So I was like, okay, like this is a beer and a snack. So good ROI.

[00:26:53] Jess and Zoe: And let's say it was a premonition that it would lead your life somewhere else later on, Jess. See, look at that. A little foretelling.

[00:26:59] Brewbound Podcast: It's true. And then, yeah, when we were back in Syracuse for what I did not know would become the weekend in which I got engaged, we had gone back to Fagan's and ordered cherry wheats for old time's sake. And now that I know all the things that I know, I was like, this place is not cleaning their draft lines, perhaps since I was in college.

[00:27:15] Jess and Zoe: Were there still free cherries, though, is the question, Jess? I don't know. Yeah, but not nearly as many. Yeah, well, that's... Sad to hear. All right, on to Zoe. She describes it as the very basic craft beer for an entry-level New England consumer.

[00:27:29] Brewbound Podcast: My guess is going to be Sam Summer.

[00:27:32] Jess and Zoe: All right. Justin? Night Shift Whirlpool. Wow. Zoe, what do you got?

[00:27:39] Brewbound Insider: It was the Harpoon IPA.

[00:27:42] Jess and Zoe: Ah, classic New England beer. Nice. I'm going to have to give Zoe the winner on this one.

[00:27:50] SPEAKER_??: Yeah.

[00:27:50] Brewbound Podcast: Knowing what I know of your palate, what did you think of this beer at that time?

[00:27:55] Brewbound Insider: Oh, I didn't really enjoy it. But I thought I was also at the stage where like, oh, maybe I'm just like need to get used to beer. But it wasn't for me. I had it at a I was on a date at a concert. And, you know, the pressures of like ordering and wanting to like look cool or whatever. And that's what I got. They didn't have very many options anyway. And I saw people with them my age. It was a cute can. It was like bright royal blue with the little tiger on it. Yeah, I don't think I've had one since. What concert and what venue?

[00:28:30] Jess and Zoe: Oh, yes. Good question.

[00:28:31] Brewbound Insider: Jungle was the band. I didn't know anything about them. This was the second day any offered me free tickets to this concert, so I was gonna go. They're kind of like, I want to say they're a little EDM-y, but that's not really the right way to describe them. I mean, it's like electronic with like some more rock stuff happening to them. I feel like they had a really popular song that was in a bunch of commercials for a while. And I saw them at, where was I?

[00:29:04] Brewbound Podcast: I mean, I'm asking because like you weren't at the venue whose name changes every summer. That's right next to Harpoon.

[00:29:10] Brewbound Insider: No, no. I want to say it was Brighton Music Hall, but I'm not positive. It was one of the classic Boston venues.

[00:29:20] Jess and Zoe: But you remember the beers. That's the most important part, Zoe. So the beer stays with you.

[00:29:23] Brewbound Insider: The beer stays with me. The bands, the venue, and the person did not.

[00:29:31] Jess and Zoe: There's your next ad campaign, Harpoon, there you go.

[00:29:33] Justin Ponte: I wish I were 20 years younger and I could actually remember like first beers and stuff.

[00:29:39] Jess and Zoe: Yeah, it's all that butt at eight years old, Justin, to just catch something. You gotta be careful about that. Down a slippery slope. Slippery slope, man, slippery slope. All right, let's go on to first job since beer and employment go hand in hand here in this conversation. So I'm gonna go, I'm gonna take this point of view. Justin, I'm gonna ask you, Which one of your co-workers, their first job was a country club with lifeguard?

[00:30:05] Stitcher and Spotify: Zoe. No.

[00:30:08] Jess and Zoe: Oh, well, 50% didn't get it. Yes. Yeah. Lifeguard high school. What country club? What do you got? What shot are we given here? Uh, Basking Ridge Country Club.

[00:30:18] Google Play: Basking Ridge? Nice.

[00:30:20] Jess and Zoe: Yeah. That's pretty classy. Yeah. I should have known this. You really should have. Come on, man.

[00:30:25] Google Play: Yeah.

[00:30:26] Jess and Zoe: Did you save any lives?

[00:30:28] Brewbound Podcast: No, no, no, I was just blowing the whistle on asking kids to stop. It is a fair question. But no, and Sean, I feel like you should really judge me even harsher for never having seen Caddyshack.

[00:30:39] Jess and Zoe: Well, now that I know this about you, it's a little disappointing. As I said, we're going to have that annual, you know what? We should get some Michelob Ultra and have a Superbowl-themed Caddyshack viewing. You're not going to get any of those jokes in those ads now, Jess. For professional reasons, you need to watch that before the Superbowl.

[00:30:56] Brewbound Podcast: I do. I have some time.

[00:30:58] Jess and Zoe: All right. You have two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks. All right. Let's dive into Justin. Any guesses? You have three options for Justin here. Any guesses as to what might've been among his first jobs here? He was a go-getter back in his teen years. Well, he worked at a video store. Not on this, all right, there's another job around here. Wow. Okay, that's not even on there, okay. For a steady job.

[00:31:26] Brewbound Insider: Did you have a newspaper route?

[00:31:29] Jess and Zoe: Yes, ding ding for Zoe, look at that, winning pretty well.

[00:31:32] Brewbound Insider: It seems like an Iowa thing to do.

[00:31:36] Jess and Zoe: All right, of these three jobs, which did he not have? Spraying weeds, milking cows, or chicken farming? Which one did he not have?

[00:31:45] Brewbound Podcast: Milking cows. Yeah, that would also be my guess.

[00:31:50] Justin Ponte: I'm not milking any cows. Chicken farm was a stretch. It was a good time.

[00:31:58] Brewbound Podcast: How was the chicken farm?

[00:31:59] Justin Ponte: It was awful.

[00:32:01] Jess and Zoe: It sounds great, I don't know. It's not great on your lungs. Nor spring weeds for that matter. I would imagine. Yeah, you know, yes Have a nice cold, but after that don't you Justin there you go And so we've been on fire here so just what was Zoe's first job I'll give you a That's kind of in the milieu of what you did, but not exactly hmm Any guesses did not involve any weed repellent or chickens as far as I know

[00:32:34] Brewbound Podcast: Well, so Zoe grew up out in beautiful, bucolic Western Massachusetts.

[00:32:39] Jess and Zoe: Yeah.

[00:32:40] Brewbound Podcast: And I'm going to assume this job had her outside. Most of the time, yes.

[00:32:44] Jess and Zoe: Okay. Yeah. Good start.

[00:32:47] Brewbound Podcast: I don't know. I feel like I could see you being a really cool camp counselor.

[00:32:51] Jess and Zoe: Wow. Look at that bonus. Nice job. Wow. Does she still have the t-shirt is the question.

[00:32:58] Brewbound Insider: Probably.

[00:32:58] Jess and Zoe: Yeah.

[00:33:00] Brewbound Insider: I did it for a couple of years and we had a couple of variations, but most of them were bright orange with black, like awful texts from like a Word doc. They were hideous. But there's definitely one around here somewhere. My sister was one too, so.

[00:33:19] Jess and Zoe: Nice family business.

[00:33:20] Brewbound Insider: She might have hers. I can bring them out of the archive.

[00:33:23] Jess and Zoe: Let's do it. Next Brewbound Live event. We expect to see it. There you go. All right, let's go moving on to professional careers. I think these are just probably good stories to hear out, I think, quite frankly. The oddest place you've had beer biz news enter your life. Justin, why don't we start with you? Honest where I have. Yeah, most unusual place where beer business news has entered your normal life.

[00:33:47] Justin Ponte: I think it was the ultrasound room when we got the hard Mountain Dew news.

[00:33:51] Jess and Zoe: How does that happen? Just so you're you're of course with Marcy and you're paying attention to this very momentous point in your life. How do you get the news? There's some downtime. I'm not going to lie to you.

[00:34:01] Justin Ponte: There's a little bit of downtime.

[00:34:05] Jess and Zoe: So you get an alert that the Boston Beer Hardman do collab, I guess is that, that was that, that break any of that news. Okay. Did you share it with Marcy or the ultrasound technician? No.

[00:34:16] Justin Ponte: I just swallowed my rage.

[00:34:22] Brewbound Podcast: To be clear, you were off that day. Yeah. And Zoey and I took care of it.

[00:34:26] Justin Ponte: You did?

[00:34:26] Brewbound Podcast: You were fine? Yeah.

[00:34:28] Justin Ponte: The man never quits. No, come on. Didn't make me any less ragey. Exactly. And not because of the partnership. No, no, no. Other behind-the-scenes reasons.

[00:34:38] Jess and Zoe: Other issues going on, which we'll keep to there. All right, Jess, you had a few options, one involving frogs legs. Give me your top one of what you listed out there.

[00:34:48] Brewbound Podcast: The top one's boring. I was just, you know, minding my business, doing a workout when monster block anarchy.

[00:34:54] Jess and Zoe: Well, why are you looking at your phone? You should be working out, first of all. I mean, come on. You know, you working out or you looking at your phone, Jess? Come on, what's going on? Well, this is a great question, but...

[00:35:02] Justin Ponte: She can't be the woge of the beer industry if she's not checking that phone. That's it. I guess not.

[00:35:08] Brewbound Podcast: How interesting do you think spin rides are?

[00:35:11] Justin Ponte: Enfante bomb.

[00:35:14] Brewbound Podcast: The frog legs is a good one. I was out for dinner in Chicago during the Beer Marketers Insights Spring Conference last May and had heard a few things, a deal involving Japan. And then one of my dinner companions asked, we're all eating frog legs, which like, I would just like to go on the record by saying are disgusting and we should let the frogs keep their legs. One of my dinner companions was like, yeah, well, you know, Sapporo's buying stone. And so then I like was like, well, yeah, I'm like furiously texting Justin under the table. And a month and a half later, we confirmed the story in the middle of the night.

[00:35:56] Jess and Zoe: There you go. It's all about the frog's legs. All right. There you go. And so we had a lesson about, I guess the beer news never sleeps, I guess is your wake up to the beer business.

[00:36:09] Brewbound Insider: Yeah, I don't know why I woke up at this time but I'm glad I did was I was at the Airbnb in Narragansett with my friends working that day. We had the pleasure of working remote and at like 7am we got the news that Maui had placed their stocking horse bid for Modern Times and we found out the auction date and all that fun stuff. So that was a nice little work from my bed immediately as the eyes opened. I think we were all immediately on that story. I had to go back and figure out what the actual news was because I remember it was Modern Times stuff, but we had written so much that year that I couldn't remember what. But yeah, it was the stocking horse bid. And then we had our follow-up story, just talking to Jennifer Briggs and their advising attorney at the time about what this whole process means. We had no idea that it would turn into probably the most dramatic auction process I've ever witnessed.

[00:37:09] Jess and Zoe: There you go. The Brewbound team, always on it, everybody, just in case you're ever wondering. Their eyes are always open, so keep that in mind. All right. Two quick bonus questions. How many times does Justin get his hair cut in a year? Zoe?

[00:37:25] Brewbound Insider: I'm going to go with 10.

[00:37:30] Jess and Zoe: Oh, wow. Okay. Jess?

[00:37:32] Brewbound Podcast: In a year, I would say eight to nine.

[00:37:35] Jess and Zoe: Wow. All right. Justin, you keep it stylish, much easier. Pretty much every time a Brute Bound live event happens. Was that total?

[00:37:44] Justin Ponte: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. And it helps that some of it's falling out.

[00:37:49] Jess and Zoe: Fewer hairs to cut each time. So, you know, yeah, yeah. He's giving six as a roundabout number. So that was a little bit high on the hair rates there. Ladies, come on.

[00:38:01] Justin Ponte: I want to know the two truths and a lie. Let's get to that. All right. You want to go to that? All right. No, boy. All right. Let's wrap it up with that. Hopefully this is a high note.

[00:38:11] Jess and Zoe: All right, let's start with Zoe. So my first concert was a Woodstock tribute concert. My dad was once in a band called The Strippers. I own more than 108 records. What's the lie? I think that's not your first concert.

[00:38:28] Justin Ponte: All right, Justin. Agreed. That's not your first concert.

[00:38:32] Brewbound Insider: Yes, that is not my first concert. That was my second concert.

[00:38:37] Jess and Zoe: What was the first? Was it a date with the harpoon?

[00:38:41] Brewbound Insider: No, no. My first concert was a Zac Brown band concert at the Xfinity Center place in Connecticut with my grandparents.

[00:38:53] Jess and Zoe: Yeah, that's solid. I like that. It's adorable.

[00:38:56] Brewbound Insider: Yeah. The Woodstock Revival concert, which was called Lookstock because it was at Look Park in East Hampton, North Hampton, was my second concert where my dad and his band were The Who for the night. It was quite an epic experience. There were some guitars smashed, a lot of smoke.

[00:39:17] Jess and Zoe: Wait, so it wasn't the strippers revival? What happened to the strippers?

[00:39:19] Brewbound Insider: It was the strippers. He was. So my dad was in various bands over the years. The strippers were one of them.

[00:39:24] Jess and Zoe: Got it.

[00:39:25] Brewbound Insider: He was in a band called Fista. He's currently in a band called Problem with Dragons, which is a metal band. And he has a side project band with friends called Unicorn.

[00:39:37] Jess and Zoe: Wow.

[00:39:39] Brewbound Insider: Nice. This is what he does.

[00:39:42] Jess and Zoe: Do you play any instruments?

[00:39:44] Brewbound Insider: Uh, no. He tried really hard to make me and my sister be into music and playing instruments. I would imagine. She did drums for a bit. I did tenor saxophone and had violin for a couple years and piano for a little bit, but both were not my thing.

[00:40:00] Jess and Zoe: Not taking.

[00:40:01] Brewbound Insider: All right. Yeah. Zoe, what else does your dad do? My dad is also a tattoo artist. mainly skulls.

[00:40:10] Jess and Zoe: Gotta specialize?

[00:40:12] Brewbound Insider: Yes, but you can check out his studio is Oxbow Tattoo in East Hampton. He's on Instagram. You can see his Instagram stories are either his tattoo sketches or pictures of himself headbanging while on stage. Nice. My parents are cooler than I am. Yeah, it's always dad.

[00:40:30] Brewbound Podcast: It's like the coolest person I kind of know.

[00:40:32] Brewbound Insider: Yeah, yeah. I've accepted a long time ago that I will not be as cool as my parents.

[00:40:38] Jess and Zoe: Make your peace with that. That's a tough one. Yeah, there we go. All right. Move on to Jess. We have three things. Pick which one is not true. I can rap almost all of the bad touch by the Bloodhound Gang from memory. There's a point of pride. I'm irrationally terrified of sunflowers. Country concerts and associated tailgates in the summer are one of my favorite things.

[00:41:01] Justin Ponte: Country concerts are not your favorite thing.

[00:41:03] Jess and Zoe: Country concerts.

[00:41:05] Justin Ponte: I fucking hate country music.

[00:41:09] Brewbound Insider: Like, we would have heard 100% if you liked this, but it doesn't seem like your style.

[00:41:15] Justin Ponte: The first two are absolutely you.

[00:41:17] Brewbound Podcast: I read all of these to Ryan last night, and he was, yeah, Ryan was like, this is lame.

[00:41:22] Jess and Zoe: This is lame. Should have started here. Yeah, the bloodhound guy, she definitely knows all the, that's, that's definitely true. But the sunflowers, huh? All right. Interesting. Terrified. Your kryptonite.

[00:41:37] Brewbound Podcast: Have you ever seen a field of dead sunflowers? It looks like something from a horror movie slash my nightmares. I was driving to a bachelorette party in the Hamptons a few years ago and it was like late September. So I just drove past field after field of dead brown, black, decaying, drooping sunflowers. It's terrifying. There's a house I have to walk by on my way to downtown Salem that grows sunflowers in their front yard and on that little strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. And they let them stay up like way later than they should. It's awful. Like I have to cross because I get very scared walking by them. And I should be ashamed of this, but I am not. And everybody should know that sunflowers are fucking freaky. I don't like it.

[00:42:21] Brewbound Insider: What did you say? Like, like a lot of people have sunflower tattoos. Do you get freaked out by sunflower tattoos? No.

[00:42:29] Justin Ponte: Never visit Western Kansas.

[00:42:32] Brewbound Podcast: Thank you. Not on my list.

[00:42:35] Jess and Zoe: When you drive out to see Justin, take another route. Thankfully, you don't have to go through Kansas.

[00:42:42] Brewbound Podcast: Maybe like, let's say like GABF Brewtalks, we can go out karaoke-ing and I will perform the Bloodhound Gang for you.

[00:42:50] Jess and Zoe: Ah, there you go. On the list. All right. On to Justin. Three big ones here. Let's start out with definitely the truth. I have an extensive collection of vintage wrestling action figures. I once wrote a play and I was married in my early 20s.

[00:43:10] Brewbound Podcast: If you were married in your early 20s and have never told us this, I am going to be so mad at you for keeping so many secrets. But also, I would believe that.

[00:43:21] Jess and Zoe: Wow. I know. All right, Zoe, what do you got? Play or marriage?

[00:43:28] Brewbound Insider: Yeah, geez. I'm going to go in. No. The marriage better be a lie.

[00:43:36] Jess and Zoe: So you're going to play? Official answer?

[00:43:41] Brewbound Insider: No, the marriage is a lie.

[00:43:44] Jess and Zoe: Marriage is a lie. Okay. All right. Jess? What's the lie? I don't know, though.

[00:43:50] Brewbound Podcast: He's real good at keeping shit from us. I know. That's what's bugging me.

[00:43:54] Jess and Zoe: And he has sunflowers, I hear, so be careful.

[00:43:58] Brewbound Podcast: I mean, if this is like a play about sunflowers.

[00:44:00] Jess and Zoe: Oh, my God. Wow. Oh, boy. I'm just going to quit. Forget it. I just ruined Brewbound.

[00:44:06] Brewbound Podcast: No, you know what? Justin is sneaky. He is sneaky, so I'm going to say play.

[00:44:10] Jess and Zoe: Wow. So the play is a lie. The play is a lie. All right. Zoe's right. Thank God. Yeah.

[00:44:16] Brewbound Insider: I was going to have so many. I mean, I kind of wish that the marriage wasn't a lie because I could have so many questions. So many questions. Thank you for not lying to us.

[00:44:25] Justin Ponte: I've got some other things that I can tell you. Save it for 200, Justin.

[00:44:30] Brewbound Podcast: We were at a CBC. I don't remember if it was Minneapolis or Denver, but like Justin was just casually like, yeah, I interned at 17.

[00:44:36] Justin Ponte: That was gonna be on there. But I already knew that. Do like sex quizzes or like what was the you know, yeah, not doing those. But you know, intern things. What was the play together like a booklet of celebrity couples? And to answer the question about the play? It was like, yes, the one that got away. And it was terrible. But like, I mean, it was really bad.

[00:44:59] Brewbound Insider: How old were you when this was written?

[00:45:01] Justin Ponte: Oh, it was like early twenties with no life experience in college. Nice. The manuscript.

[00:45:07] Brewbound Podcast: Were you taking like a playwriting class?

[00:45:10] Justin Ponte: Yeah. And then like I had been in theater before in community college and then took theater at Iowa State and then wrote a play. And like the only thing that was funny about it was my two friends who could make anything funny.

[00:45:24] Brewbound Podcast: Look at you. And so it got performed.

[00:45:26] Justin Ponte: It did get performed. Yeah.

[00:45:28] Brewbound Podcast: Cool. All right. I'm not all trying to one up you, but I too wrote a play in middle school and we performed it.

[00:45:33] Justin Ponte: That's awesome.

[00:45:35] Brewbound Podcast: Oh man. I, that was much better material for this. I should have gone that way instead of the Bloodhound Gang. Uh, it was mostly my friend, Melissa. She did all the writing.

[00:45:44] Justin Ponte: You went with the right one with the Bloodhound Gang.

[00:45:49] Jess and Zoe: That's going to happen. Don Bishop will make sure that that happens. So either way. Yeah.

[00:45:54] SPEAKER_??: Yeah.

[00:45:55] Jess and Zoe: All right, gang. Well, Justin, we feel good about this? Yeah, I think so.

[00:45:59] Justin Ponte: All right. Well done. Well, that's our 100th episode. Thanks to Sean for joining us and quizzing us. And thanks for Zoe and Jess and Zoe guess myself for revealing a little bit about ourselves. Loved it.

[00:46:15] Brewbound Podcast: You're a nut. Yeah, this was fun.

[00:46:18] Justin Ponte: Fake marriages and everything. Apparently, we learned that Jess thinks I'm sneaky.

[00:46:25] Brewbound Podcast: you will just like casually drop these like bombs like nothing is being said and i'm just like how does how

[00:46:32] Jess and Zoe: Mr. Subtle.

[00:46:33] Justin Ponte: That's it. Yeah. Well, we'll be back to normal next week for episode 101 for anybody who made it this far. So like, rate, review, subscribe. Maybe don't review this one. And if you like what we do and you like, you know, getting all the news as it happens, subscribe to Brewbound Insider. Thanks to our one man audio team, Joe. Thanks to Jeff, Zoe, and Sean. Thanks to all of you for listening. We'll be back next week.