Ikasu Brewing Leans into ‘Weird,’ ‘Good Beer’ and Japanese Culinary Ingredients

[00:00:00] Justin Kendall: The Brewers Association's top 50 lists are here. We're going to talk about them next on The Brewbound Podcast. Hello and welcome to The Brewbound Podcast. I'm Justin Kendall.

[00:00:21] Jessica Infante: And I'm Jessica Infante. And I'm Zoe Licata.

[00:00:24] Justin Kendall: And it is Data Christmas here at Brewbound Live excited that the Brewers Association has finally revealed its top 50 lists. We've got the full year 2025 production number. Oh boy, what a celebration this is going to be.

[00:00:42] Jessica Infante: I would call this Data St. Nicholas Day. It's like the mini gift giving holiday before the major holiday. And this is like an extremely Catholic school kid thing of me to say.

[00:00:53] Ikasu Brewing: I didn't know St. Nicholas Day was a thing. I was going to say, yeah, it's like Christmas Eve almost. It's like we are having a snippet of it, but we don't have the full thing yet. And that full thing being the individual brewery production numbers, which will come out later on in the May, June new brewer. But we got some.

[00:01:12] Justin Kendall: We got some. And it is exciting. Let me tell you, jockeying positions, people jumping onto the list, people falling off the list. breweries opening, breweries closing.

[00:01:24] Jessica Infante: Lots of ins, outs, and what have yous.

[00:01:27] Justin Kendall: So we're going to get into all of that very shortly, but we've got a featured guest this week. It's Masahiro Kitano, the founder of Los Angeles-based Brewing. Brew Balance 2025 Pitch Slam winner. We got a chance to catch up with Masa. So much energy.

[00:01:46] Ikasu Brewing: Of course, as anyone who saw his Pitch Slam pitch and presentation would expect. He is a fun character and we had a very fun chat about what he's got going on, how he came into brewing. He had kind of, as many craft brewers do, a not totally beer related job before this. So yeah, always awesome to catch up with our Pitch Slam winners.

[00:02:08] Justin Kendall: Stay tuned for that interview. And also it's not too late to RSVP for Brewbound's happy hour at Love City Brewing. It's this Sunday in Philadelphia. The three of us will be there 5 to 7 p.m. RSVP at Brewbound.com slash love city. We are super excited about this.

[00:02:31] Ikasu Brewing: And we're also going to have a few drink tickets. So if you get there early enough, you might get a beer on us. So make sure you RSVP and come hang out with us. We're also going to have a couple of really fun conversations while we're there. One with the local guild and another with some of the folks from Love City. So there's going to be a lot going on. It's a nice way to kind of ease your way into the start of CBC before things really kick off on Monday.

[00:02:55] Justin Kendall: And I promise we're not going to overload you with talks or anything. This is primarily hanging out, networking, drinking some beers, supporting a local business. So let's do that. We're also going to be doing Brewbound Live December 9th and 10th in Marina Del Rey. We've got more information coming on that. We kind of wanted to just get through CBC though, but we just got to put it out there. Brewbound Live is taking place this December and you can get your tickets now. And as always, there's our job board. So if you're looking. Or if you're hiring. That's true. Looking, hiring, kind of looking. Check out our job board. That's at Brewbound.com. Let's get into some of the news that is on Brewbound Insider. And you can read these stories at Brewbound.com if you are an insider. And let's get into that Brewers Association top 50 list and some of the numbers. Let's start with you, Zoe, because you got our initial story up, and that involves the full year volume number minus 5.1%.

[00:04:03] Ikasu Brewing: Yeah, so when the BA publishes this first initial snippet, they release some of their annual production data as well as those lists of top 50 breweries by their production output. And that total collection of production volume across scrap breweries was down 5.1% in 2025, which is somewhat expected. The mid-year prediction last year was around 5%, and the Brewers Association had warned that it might be a steeper decline than that by the end of the year, depending on how trends went, and it turned out it kind of stayed consistent around that 5%. So kind of good, kind of bad. It is steeper than the decline of 4% in 2024, so it's continuing to get a bit worse. Two-thirds of crop breweries recorded production declines last year, so this is something that's happening across the majority of folks, but there's still 39% who recorded growth, so it's not something that's happening to everybody. What was notable and on the more positive end is even though there was this production decline last year, craft beer was still able to very slightly gain some share of total beer volume last year. So that's due to the total category volume being even steeper in decline than the segment itself. But yeah, we kind of knew this was going to happen. It was a really tough year for folks last year. Those declines are driven by both the softness of the segment and overall beer, as well as due to brewery closures. And we had our second consecutive year and kind of second year of all time of closings, outpacing openings. We're now at over a thousand breweries have closed over the past two years. So that's a lot of volume that is no longer out there in the world or in the US.

[00:05:51] Justin Kendall: And just 300 new openings in 2025. It is sort of notable that the 2025 closure number was lower than 2024, but you also had fewer breweries than we did the year before.

[00:06:04] Jessica Infante: Yeah. Well, we'll take the silver linings where we can find them. Do you guys think we're ever going to reach that like mythical 10,000 brewery number? No.

[00:06:14] Ikasu Brewing: I don't think so. I would be concerned if we did, honestly, because we have kind of learned over the past few years that we were at or over capacity for the number of crafters that could operate in the U.S. The segment had just gotten so big with so many folks trying to get a piece of a tiny pie that I think if you tried to get up to that number, I don't think it's necessarily a marker of success for the segment. What Bart Watson from the Brewers Association has said many times, this is something that's happening that has happened to several other industries where you reach a limit and then it's totally normal for there to be more closings than openings. It's just what happens when you're in a hospitality business.

[00:07:00] Justin Kendall: And I think it gets even harder to hit that number when you have so much consolidation going on just within craft brewers, where they're forming collectives and they're becoming part of one company. I mean, we might get to 10,000 if Tilray keeps starting new brands, I think.

[00:07:18] Ikasu Brewing: Maybe. We might have to change the definition of craft at that point.

[00:07:22] Justin Kendall: We still have energy drinks. It's craft, big energy drinks and big cannabis. It's a big tent.

[00:07:28] Ikasu Brewing: Yeah.

[00:07:30] Justin Kendall: Let's talk a little bit about the top 50 lists and Jess, you are on the craft list. Yeah. What really jumped at you on this year's list?

[00:07:42] Jessica Infante: There's a lot of movement this year. I mean, when you look at the top 10 at least, number one is yingling, always has, always will be, probably by an order of magnitude. But right under that, we have the first time that the top three have changed since 2019 when New Belgium came out of the data set and Sierra Nevada overtook Boston Beer at number two. So that to me was really interesting. Of course, Boston Beer's craft beer brands in this case being included are Sam Adams and Dogfish Head. They're now at number three. Athletic Jump, two spots to number six. Gambrinus fell to number seven. Brooklyn Monster, which is the Canerkey brands. And Deschutes all each jumped up one spot. So not too many new producers in that top 10, but definitely a lot of different positioning. And then last year's former number seven was FX Matt Brewing. That company fell seven spots down to number 14. So just a lot of movement in general.

[00:08:44] Justin Kendall: I want to jump in on this year in Nevada, because I think that's super notable that they have overtaken Boston Beer. And I think some of that is Boston Beer's beer declines being maybe the largest factor in that, even with Dogfish back to growth, but the Samuel Adams brand declining, Angel City going away. Not that that was a huge volume source, but I feel like that's kind of the headline here.

[00:09:13] Jessica Infante: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, that's huge. And I think, you know, we see it in circana scan data. I feel as though Sierra's brands are mixed, like the Sierra brands that get included in the top 30 pretty much always, but you've seen a lot of growth from Hazy Little Thing. And that has been a workhorse for them for almost a decade now. So I assume that's what we're seeing here is what's driving

[00:09:38] Ikasu Brewing: I mean, it's an indicator of how these two companies have totally approached their innovation game and their focuses completely differently, right? Like Boston Beer has become, despite what Jim Cook may say, it's more about that beyond beer stuff now. It's about the Suncruisers and the spirits-based products and the RTDs. And so that craft volume is not a significant part of that business anymore. Meanwhile, Sierra Nevada is still totally about craft beer and everything that they've come out with has been still core to that craft beer ethos. I mean, look at their pills that came out and that had a great fanfare and that was just a tiny part of this past year that's going to continue to expand. So it's, it's just totally two different business models. And that's of course, naturally the one that's more focused on craft beer is going to move up in the craft beer rankings.

[00:10:26] Jessica Infante: They are totally different business models, but you're looking at Boston Beer from like a 35,000 foot view. When you zero in on Sam Adams, they've tried the same things that Sierra's doing and it's just not working out. You know, Sam Adams released a New England IPA around the same time as Hazy Little Thing. And I think there was some hope that the Sam product would be like the national hazy IPA of note, but that went to Hazy Little Thing and that's really, you know, they were very much occupying the same sandbox. hazy little thing took it over. And we've seen the Sam brand try some different iterations of say like American light. And Sierra did the same thing with a nice, well-made, easy drinking Pilsner. And you know, it's like they keep trying similar things and those similar things work for Sierra, but they don't always work for Sam Adams. But the other thing here is that like that company, Boston Beer, I mean, has a million other things to focus on. This is what Sierra has and does. Yeah.

[00:11:26] Justin Kendall: This list looks a lot different too if New Belgium and Bells are on the craft list, which they are not.

[00:11:35] Jessica Infante: Right. I held my tongue when you were talking about energy drinks, but I was tempted to be like, it's not big enough for Bells though. Yeah.

[00:11:43] Justin Kendall: They would be number two.

[00:11:44] Jessica Infante: Yeah. Yeah. Easily.

[00:11:47] Justin Kendall: And also of note, we've got a non-alcoholic beer brand in the top 10 at number six, Athletic. They were in the top 10 last year. They were in the top 10 last year, but they keep making gains, right?

[00:12:00] Jessica Infante: Yeah. And then N.A., that's another piece of this Sierra-Sam Adams divide here. They've both tried it and it worked out for Sierra.

[00:12:07] Justin Kendall: Also of note, Garage Beer in Tivoli Brewing, the outlaw beer maker. making big gains here. Garage Beer, number 12, and then Tivoli, number 18 on this list.

[00:12:20] Jessica Infante: Yeah, they are two of the three new brands on the Craft Top 50 this year. The third being number 46, Maine Beer Cow. Oh, look at that. Yeah, look at that. One of these things is not like the other, but two of these things are very similar. And there's been a lot of hand-wringing about like, Will beer-flavored beer ever come back? And I think this list is proof positive that it did, you know?

[00:12:46] Justin Kendall: And these were giant gains for Tivoli and Garage Beer. I don't even think you have the number that they were previously, right?

[00:12:55] Jessica Infante: No, I mean, we can go really far back in last year's data.

[00:12:58] Justin Kendall: Yeah, we would have to.

[00:12:59] Jessica Infante: But yeah, I don't know where we would find either of them.

[00:13:02] Justin Kendall: It's just to say, this is a huge leap.

[00:13:05] Jessica Infante: huge leaps. And then the biggest leaps farther down the list were, I noticed, kind of all went to Northeastern breweries. We had big jumps for Fiddlehead, moved up six spots to number 17 there out of Vermont. Hendler Family Brewing, which is Jack's Abbey, Night Shift, Wormtown, they moved up five spots to number 27. And New Trail, Brewbound's Craft Brewery of the Year 2025, moved up four spots to number 42. I don't know what these guys all have to do with each other. I'm sure there are some similarities, but what I noticed was they're all from this part of the woods.

[00:13:38] Ikasu Brewing: And I think that's something we've heard from some folks like Dave Williams from Bob Williams Consulting has pointed out that the Northeast has been able to have a bit stronger of craft trends than some of the rest of the country. And so those breweries are definitely, I mean, they're part of that, but they're also benefiting from that.

[00:13:54] Jessica Infante: And I guess if we're going to talk about the gains and the good things, we should probably also move over to the less good things, which is, you know, we've got five breweries that moved off this list completely in 2025. Fremont, Shipyard, Zero Gravity, Drake's slash Bear Republic, they are combined, and Rogue. And obviously we all know that Rogue filed for bankruptcy and went out of business, but the other four are all very much still around, just not on the top 50 list. And some pretty steep declines I noticed were Barrel One Collective, which is the Harpoon, Smutty Nose, plus 17 other brands moved down to number 23. They were 13 last year. And Great Lakes Brewing moved down eight spots to number 26.

[00:14:42] Justin Kendall: And Maui. Maui was a big dropper.

[00:14:45] Jessica Infante: Yes, but I think that probably has a lot to do with the subtraction of modern times.

[00:14:51] Justin Kendall: Yes, asterisk there. Addition by subtraction?

[00:14:55] Jessica Infante: I think so. I think we'll see something very different for Maui next year. We checked in with them in the fall and they were retrenching from a bunch of markets, but that's because they realized that they were paying a ton of money to send beer all over creation when they had some very enthusiastic nearby markets that they could send beer to a little bit more easily than getting beer from Hawaii to Massachusetts.

[00:15:20] Ikasu Brewing: Yeah. They had other demand that they couldn't keep up with because they were trying to reach these other markets and they kind of realigned their priorities a bit. Yeah.

[00:15:29] Jessica Infante: Other reemergences to the list are Coronado, which is exciting for them. Popped back up after a few years away.

[00:15:37] Justin Kendall: Biggest, I would say, move, which I don't even know that it was a huge move, was Diageo entering the top five, overtaking Pabst. I think some of that Pabst losses and some of that is Guinness's gains. Definitely.

[00:15:54] Ikasu Brewing: And I think it's also worth pointing out that, you know, with this being all breweries, Sierra Nevada still is in that top 10 now. So they rank number 10 among everybody.

[00:16:07] Justin Kendall: You can read more about everything that's going on with production data at Brewbound.com. We're going to have stories up to on the top 50. And we've got an interview coming up with Matt Kasiok, the staff economist of the Brewers Association for a few more details. And we're going to try and pin him down for the overall barrel number, which we noticed it wasn't in there. Or at least Zoe noticed. Let's talk a little bit about this Mark Anthony deal for the Finnish Long Drink. And I think Jess and I probably went as far deep down the Long Drink rabbit hole trying to figure out what happened to the other one that we couldn't quite name, which totally sidetracked us. But our friends at Insight say it's a $325 million deal. Is that sort of in the range of Monaco? Do we know that number yet?

[00:16:56] Jessica Infante: I don't think we do, but I would assume that Monaco is less.

[00:17:00] Justin Kendall: It was at least in Molson Coors' price range. Right. But the white claw maker has struck the deal. And I don't typically think of Mark Anthony as an acquirer. And I think I probably should. They made that deal for Dillon's.

[00:17:16] Jessica Infante: Yeah. And that was a while ago, 21, I think I noticed in your story from last summer, Zoe.

[00:17:21] Ikasu Brewing: Yeah, yeah, a few years ago. I see a lot of similarities between Dillons and Long Drink, the founders ambitions for those brands. So this makes a lot of sense to me. Dillons is that gin based RTD that started in Canada from a like family owned gin distillery, and Mark Anthony helped bring it to the US. And they were really focused on making sure the product quality stays high, that they aren't expanding too fast, and they're making sure they are still have the story connected to the brand the whole time. I think a lot of that is true for the ambitions of the founders of Long Drink as well. They were very focused on, I mean, we just talked to Evan Burns at the beginning of this year about it, their co-founder and CEO, and he mentioned they're very adamant that they don't want to expand their product lineup too much. They want to make sure they're staying to just a certain amount of flavors, that they aren't trying to go big too fast. They want to make sure they still have a connection to consumers about what the long drink lifestyle is. And so, yeah, there's a lot of crossover between those two brands. So I think Mark Anthony, if it treats long drink the same, could have a lot of success of continuing the momentum for a long drink.

[00:18:35] Jessica Infante: Yeah. Interesting here is that obviously Mark Anthony has this Dylan Spirits-based brand, but I would assume that Long Drink is bigger and this is a big step ahead for their Spirits-based offerings. They were dabbling in Spirits-based White Claw, but they kind of abandoned that. So it'll be interesting to see if this changes anything for them. I can't really see that happening. I assume they want to stick with their same wholesaler network. So yeah, I mean, it makes sense. Crazy to me that we had like what felt like a burgeoning long drink segment a few years ago that is now basically down to this one brand, but it makes sense.

[00:19:13] Justin Kendall: And I think that we're in a period of accelerated deal-making for these RTD brands. And to me, you turn your focus on to what's next. And I think one of the dominoes that we're waiting for to fall is Fusion Projects for Loco, just because they sort of announced that they're on the block. If you're looking at hot brands that don't have a major strategic home at the moment, it's what Surfside, Carbless, who else is on the table? I mean, not that we know that they're for sale, but you know, it's hard to build a brand and exits always sound sort of nice to the working class over here.

[00:19:58] Jessica Infante: Yeah. I mean, look, we've seen Mark Anthony Long Drink. AB Beatbox, there's Sazerac Buzzball, Sazerac Dirty Shirley, Molson Coors Monaco.

[00:20:11] Justin Kendall: Constellation did the Hopwater, not that that's... I'm just mentioning them because they haven't felt like an old choir in a while.

[00:20:20] Jessica Infante: In 11 years. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it'll be interesting to see if they do something in this space or do they build their own, you know, wine-based party punch? I don't know if they have anything right now. They sold off Svetka. Maybe they are just kind of happy to stay put, but we'll see.

[00:20:41] Justin Kendall: Does Gallo look for more?

[00:20:44] Jessica Infante: Gallo's got a bunch now.

[00:20:45] Justin Kendall: Is Sazerac done? Brown Foreman's too busy flirting with Bernard Ricard and Sazerac. I guess Sazerac could do more by getting Brown Foreman.

[00:20:57] Jessica Infante: Yeah. I don't envy Farron. I don't want to be her. She's very cool. I would be here in that regard, but... Yeah.

[00:21:06] Ikasu Brewing: Faranar spirits editor who is just having to constantly navigate these big spirits deals and rumors.

[00:21:14] Jessica Infante: A busy, busy lady. I'm sure there are brands that I'm not thinking of. I mean, I feel like Loverboy was kind of... on the block, but they also have had a lot going on. Juneshine. Juneshine, yeah.

[00:21:28] Ikasu Brewing: Yeah. I mean, I'm curious if Juneshine, this is purely speculation, do not read anything into this, but I'm curious if Juneshine ends up splitting up its alcohol brands and Willys, because Willys is kind of a big focus for them right now. Loverboys had their pop culture fueled very recent rise.

[00:21:47] Justin Kendall: It's all very exciting, and I look forward to seeing it all play out in the next week when we're on the road. And you two hate me because I just spoke that into existence, so buckle up.

[00:22:00] Jessica Infante: Yeah, but your flight's probably going to get delayed, so I feel a little bit less bad for you.

[00:22:04] Justin Kendall: That's true. Well, let's get to our featured interview with Masahiro Kitano of Ikasu Brewing. Brewbound's 2025 Pitch Slam winner was Los Angeles-based Brewing. Masahiro Kitano, who started as a medical researcher who got into homebrewing, is here to catch up on how the business is going since, I guess, four months ago at this point. So thanks for being here, Masa. Thank you for having me. We're stoked to have you here. And I didn't get to congratulate you in Los Angeles-based during the event. I wasn't there, but congratulations. Thank you so much. So we're four months removed from the Pitch Slam. What's changed with the business since then?

[00:22:51] Los Angeles-based: Right. So we technically launched April last year. So we are having like a one year anniversary happening this month, which is super exciting. And since the last Pitch Slam, so many things happened. I got many more accounts as a self-distribution, which is really great. And many people noticed that thing. Yeah, the sales went up and then I actually yesterday signed with a local distributor. So yeah, more production is happening. Who are you with now? LAD, LA Distributing Co. Nice. Yeah.

[00:23:35] Ikasu Brewing: Our Pitch Slam always gets a lot of enthusiasm, but I think you drew some of the most excitement we've had in a minute after your pitch this year. People were super jazzed and energized. People were really excited to hear about your brand.

[00:23:50] Los Angeles-based: Yeah. So I tried to make the pitch as simple as possible. Simple and a little bit stupid and then a little bit funny. Magically, it worked out. So I'm so glad that happened. Are you still draft only or are you doing cans now? No, yeah. So still draft only. That is on my horizon, but it's going to happen maybe sometime this year. At least Japanese rice raga was super limited to scoops.

[00:24:23] Ikasu Brewing: I think something that really stood out to the judges and people watching was that you were really focused on having this one skew, having it on draft. And we've had so many conversations with folks about the power still in the on premise for craft breweries. Why is draft? Why was that something that you wanted that to be? What happens first?

[00:24:46] Los Angeles-based: So this is not my purpose to have like a draft only so that is my only available option at this moment because I love being top bloom and having beer on draft. And that's how my journey to the craft beer kind of started, right? So that is something I'm always wanted. And that's how I started. So of course, package product will happen in future. But that wasn't my priority at the beginning, some reason.

[00:25:20] Justin Kendall: What's the selling story like for a draft only product? And what kind of accounts are picking you up?

[00:25:28] Los Angeles-based: pretty much bars, restaurants, yeah, that are focused on having like a craft beer or local beers. So those places are my first account, basically. And then I usually bring some, like a package into cans by, you know, by hand, right? And then bring those samplers. And then, yeah, they pick some, usually, mostly like a Japanese rice lager.

[00:25:56] Ikasu Brewing: One of the things that you pointed out during your pitch and that the judges really enjoyed was that a part of your brand is really introducing Japanese culinary culture to the craft beer world. How did you want to do that and why was that something that you really wanted to do with your brand?

[00:26:13] Los Angeles-based: It's a mixed story, but first off, you know, I wanted to be somehow unique, somehow differentiate from the other breweries, right? And one of my strengths is I'm Japanese from Japan. And also I noticed there are so many like culinary stuff that are not showing up in beer. Like there are so many unique ingredients, right? But not really, you know, show up in beer or not in that particular style. So for example, I have goza that is sour beer. infused with matcha. You see some matcha beer here and there usually looks super green, right? And then, you know, like it tastes like a matcha latte thing. But my beer is so different. It's a sour beer with the aroma of matcha. It doesn't look green, but you know, you smell it and it's super unique. and no one thinks about combining sour beer with matcha. I have done that kind of experiment as a home brewer. You cannot do that kind of super experimental beer straight in this like a 10 barrel system, right? But I've been home brewing over 10 years and have tested that kind of weird beer, weird and good beer, right?

[00:27:32] Justin Kendall: I feel like you're really leaning into a lane there, like weird and good beer.

[00:27:36] Los Angeles-based: Right. Yeah, so like a black sesame, porter, or the saison with yuzu kosho, those kind of, you know, yuzu kosho, people never use that ingredient in beer, and that is spicy and hot. And Saison is also kind of spicy, right? Spicy, peppery. So I thought, you know, combining that ingredient in the Saison may work pretty good. And then I've done it in home brew and I knew it works, right? And it ended up super spicy and a lot of local people love it. Even they make Michelada using that base beer.

[00:28:18] Ikasu Brewing: Oh, that's smart. That makes a lot of sense.

[00:28:20] Justin Kendall: Yeah. What's one ingredient that you've been dying to use that you haven't yet? You haven't found that right combination to unlock.

[00:28:29] Los Angeles-based: Hoba berry, wasabi. Yeah. It's also spicy, but you know, it's super unique, right? So the aroma is super, super unique. Maybe, you know, just adding wasabi to like rice lager or something may work. Or even West Coast persona plus wasabi, maybe very interesting.

[00:28:52] Ikasu Brewing: I would try that.

[00:28:54] Los Angeles-based: Or sour beer.

[00:28:55] Ikasu Brewing: I'd be into it.

[00:28:56] Los Angeles-based: Yeah, but I have to do homebrew first. Yeah. So risky.

[00:29:00] Ikasu Brewing: What is your innovation process for deciding when something is going to go beyond just being kind of a homebrew experiment to being a part of the brand?

[00:29:10] Los Angeles-based: Yeah, so my homebrew worked like in a way, I usually make like two or three batches at the same time with like, you know, very small differentials. So like, you know, pretty much same, but plus, let's say, like a wasabi this much amount or nothing, or when to add, you know, at the end or during boil, right? So I did that kind of experiment that way to learn, you know, how it works.

[00:29:41] Justin Kendall: How do you know that you've got something that you want to take to bars and restaurants?

[00:29:46] Los Angeles-based: You know, this is not my tap room. I'm still a contract brewery, but Native Son Array buy at least six of my beer. And then, yeah, I have the permanent tap, six taps, right? So I get the feedback from the customers from this bar and also, you know, my accounts as well, right? So, you know, I tapped those experimental beers at Native Son to get feedback. Also, you know, as a homebrewer, I did like a triangle test that is like a statistical analysis with a blind setting, and then repeat it, and then identify the unique sample to see, you know, which one is unique and then if it's good or bad in like a blind setting, right? So that's how I test that myself. I'm a BJCP judge and an advanced taster. So I also, you know, try to be a better taster in that way. But ultimately, the feedback from the customer and the feedback from my local Blueberry friends really helps.

[00:30:54] Justin Kendall: It seems like you've really found a home then at Native Son. Yeah.

[00:30:59] Ikasu Brewing: For any folks that aren't familiar with that relationship, how did that come about?

[00:31:04] Los Angeles-based: So, yeah, I was looking for some places that where I can brew. And then I tried to first, like, you know, like buying a place. But I realized that is very hard, especially for someone who is homebrewer, right? So like a bank doesn't loan money like me. So. I had to start somewhere. And then, yeah, Native Son was looking for someone like me. And then my brewer friends told me about that story. So I got, you know, hey, Native Son is looking for someone like you. And then I called them and it worked out magically. So yeah, I was lucky being in this position.

[00:31:44] Justin Kendall: being in that position that you're in right now, contract brewing with Native Son, what do you think are your biggest pain points right now?

[00:31:54] Los Angeles-based: So less control, which means I cannot do everything, right? I always have to ask them and then, you know, like payment structures and pretty much everything, you know, basically Native Son produces my beer. I cannot control everything. That is sometimes a little bit stressful, but still they support me a lot. But if I have to say, you know, where is the pain? Yeah, that kind of point. So I cannot control everything. Makes sense. Maybe even if I became the real owner, I may not be able to control

[00:32:36] Ikasu Brewing: It's true. Everything's a little out of control these days. Right. For sure. So we're kind of entering into the busy season for beer. What are some of your big goals for the rest of 2026?

[00:32:50] Los Angeles-based: So as I said, I just signed the distributor. So we'll see how much the volume is going to move this year. So more production and more sales, that is primary goal. And then eventually package one or two SKUs by the end of this year.

[00:33:11] Justin Kendall: So you think by fall, you'll be in package?

[00:33:15] Los Angeles-based: Yeah, that is my goal. Yeah.

[00:33:17] Ikasu Brewing: And then looking ahead to the next few years, what is your real vision for what because you could become what do you see that evolution looking like?

[00:33:26] Los Angeles-based: So eventually I graduate here and then, you know, like I have my own brewery, own production facility with Tap Room. That's what Native Son is hoping to, right? So eventually that's going to happen and, you know, get more full control and grow the business. But that'll happen maybe two or three years later, I guess. Well, maybe later.

[00:33:56] Justin Kendall: You never know when the right opportunity might come up. Right.

[00:34:00] Ikasu Brewing: While you're here, I also wanted to make sure, you know, there's a lot of folks who might be listening who maybe are interested in participating in the Pitch Slam or are in a position like yours where you weren't even a year old yet when you participated. So do you have any tips for anyone who's interested in that Pitch Slam for how to really take full advantage of it?

[00:34:21] Los Angeles-based: So I saw everyone's pitch and they are all good. First off, right. And mine's very different actually. So I would say like, don't follow like a standard business school, like pitch, you know, be unique and be simple and simple message. And that may work. I think. Yeah.

[00:34:46] Ikasu Brewing: Yeah, sometimes there's so much information that you want to share about your brand.

[00:34:50] Los Angeles-based: Right.

[00:34:50] Ikasu Brewing: And sometimes just being super straightforward about what your purpose is, how you're different. It really stands out to folks.

[00:34:57] Los Angeles-based: Yeah. Like show visually, graphically, and less text. that may work. That is something I always told the grad students at the USC, which is my previous occupation. And then students want to put so much information on slides, right? And then, yeah, text fonts are super small and no one can read, something like that. So like, I always said, like, you know, don't show anything you don't explain. Yeah, less information.

[00:35:31] Ikasu Brewing: That makes sense. It's funny how your previous life before beer kind of translated over into the beer world.

[00:35:41] Los Angeles-based: Actually, it worked out. Making beer is science. So my previous job is a researcher. It's a cancer researcher at USC. And, you know, the cellular pathways, molecular pathways, and also I have the chemistry background too. So it really works in producing beer. It's biology and chemistry and some physics, right?

[00:36:05] Justin Kendall: What a crossover. Yeah. Well, we really appreciate you taking the time to do this. Let the folks know where they can find Ikasu.

[00:36:13] Los Angeles-based: So Instagram, Ikasu Brewing, and the website is Ikasu Brewing. And the location is in downtown Los Angeles-based, 832 South Olive Street. So it's on Olive Street between 8th and the 9th. Pretty close to Whole Foods, so you shop at Whole Foods and then come Ikasu.

[00:36:36] Justin Kendall: That's perfect. Right. It's not going to be too far to drop that beer off once you get in Whole Foods.

[00:36:44] Los Angeles-based: Yeah.

[00:36:46] Justin Kendall: Well, thanks for doing this. We really appreciate it. And congratulations again on winning the Pitch Slam. Thank you.

[00:36:52] Los Angeles-based: Thank you for having me.

[00:36:54] Jessica Infante: 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.