Brewbound Live Pitch Slam 2023: Final Round

Ray Latif [00:12] Great to see everyone once again this morning. And I just want to give a quick shout out to our incredible Brewbound team Justin, Jess, Zoe, Ferran, just an incredible lineup of speakers, and an incredible agenda over these last two days. So much more to come, but great job, the best in the business. Thank you so much. Once again, my name is Ray Latif. I'm the editor and producer of Bevnet's Taste Radio podcast, the number one podcast for the food and beverage industry. And I'm also the host of Brewbound's Pitch Slam, which is presented by Olly. This is the final round of the Pitch Slam, which is a one-of a-kind business pitch competition. It gives entrepreneurs behind the beer industry's next breakout brands an opportunity to sample their innovative products and showcase their business plans to our expert panel of judges. 6 brands from our semi-final round, which was held yesterday, have moved on to today's final round. Here are the rules. Today's contestants will have a whopping 4 minutes to deliver their pitches. If they attempt to go over their 4 minutes, they'll hear the dreaded gong. Obviously, you don't want to hear that. Our judges will have 4 to 5 minutes to ask questions and provide feedback. They've already sampled the brand's products. At the end of the competition, the entrepreneur with the best overall pitch and product will receive a $10,000 industry awareness package from Brewbound. They'll also receive a free entry into the 2024 Brewbound Live event. Let us meet our esteemed judging panel beginning with Don Bixel, who is the founder of Three Tier beverages, Michelle Abdallah, who is the category manager for alcoholic beverages for Extra Mile convenience stores. Yair Tegel, who is the founder of Sunvoy, Carrie Juncker, the executive vice president for Ballsbury, and as a bonus, the legendary Ryan Lake, who's the managing director of Arlington Capital Advisors. You're you're legendary. You don't have to snicker at that. I'll take it. OK. All right, let's kick things off with our first presenter for the round. That's Spencer Huddison of Gaywater. Come on up. Hello again. Hello again. And you. Perfect. All right. Hi again. Hi to new folks. I'm Spencer. I'm the founder and CEO of Gay Water. Um, I ruined it for you guys yesterday. A lot of you had it spoiled of what the fuck Gay Water is. So, I'm gonna, for the folks that are new, I will re-explain what it is. Um, so Gay Water has long been, uh, a colloquialism in the queer community for a vodka soda. Um, that is actually what our first line of products is. Um, you can see here the very highly Reputable Urban Dictionary confirmed that. Um, we are a mission-driven company. Uh, so we exist to create representation for the queer community, uh, on shelves, places like grocery stores, liquor stores, bars, restaurants, concert venues. Again, places where queer people 100% shop, 100% work, but there aren't products in those spaces that really represent this community and signal that it's, you know, a safe, inclusive space for them. Um, you know, within the beverage space every year, the only time that queer people really show up is Pride Month. Um, I promise we don't disappear after Pride Month. In fact, we are out there, we're drinking at a 2 to 4 times rate, the heterosexual community. Um, and we're actually a growing community, which sounds weird to say. 1 in 10. Millennials identify as part of the LGBTQ community. Gen Z, 1 in 5, mainly because of openness, acceptance, tolerance, you know, the, the sort of, uh, growing movement in our our country hopefully towards acceptance has allowed for Gen Z to feel open and willing to kind of be themselves and own it. Um, but the community itself is more likely to buy from the community at about a 3 to 4, uh, like 78% rate. Um, so the product itself, we've seen so much success from our own who want to support the product, but as well from the broader US population. There's about a 33%. You know, higher chance of purchasing a product that supports the community, which is awesome, and I mentioned this yesterday, but this isn't like a small block. We have the same spending power as the African American community, the Asian American community, as well as the Hispanic American community. So really important to note. You saw the slide yesterday, but since we've launched, uh, so the product itself, I'll step back for those who weren't here yesterday, we have 4 flavors of really light vodka sodas, so they're 80 calories. They're gluten-free, sugar-free, 4% ABV. I didn't plan for that rhyme. Um, and since launching, so we're only about 4 months old, um, we've grown our community to over, I think 130,000 folks, um, digitally, which, again, proof of concept really shows that there is a need for a product like this right now. Um, and there is an audience and a consumer for this. Uh, so where are we? We're direct to consumer in 47 states. That was really important to us to be accessible to the majority of the country, because as I mentioned before, queer people are everywhere. We're self-distributed mainly through MHW, so we focused on New York, New Jersey, and California as our 1st 3 states. Kind of the intersection between four of the largest LGBTQ cities by population, so we're working on kind of saturating those areas and really engaging with the local communities to get, uh, you know, customers to be, go from just loyalists to like really, really diehard fans of the brand. Um, and we've already kind of started to, to build that process and, and get folks to be really big, uh, Grant supporters. Um, so yeah, 8 seconds to spare. It does. Well done. You can slide over here because the judges might have some questions for you. Uh, Ryan, let's start with you. Uh, Spencer talked about this as being a product and a brand for now. Do you agree? Yeah, I mean, I like the way you framed up the opportunity. You know your adjustable market. You know how they consume, how they purchase. I think the stats are compelling in terms of how much more they drink, how much more often they drink. So it's clearly a community that has a lot of velocity if you can approach it the right way. Carrie, you know, you got a chance to look at the can and sample it again this morning. Any additional thoughts on the brand beer at 10:30 in the morning. No rookie here. So what I would say is the nose in particular on the product. Fabulous. I think looking at the packaging and then when I take a sip, I am expecting more flavor, more, more juice, more lime, more of any of the flavors that we tasted, so nose spot on. But I think there's an opportunity, particularly if you know what I expect when I open that beautiful package, to sort of really amp up the fruit flavor. Yeah, your, uh, any thoughts on the presentation? I thought the presentation was great. Uh, I have some questions for you if that's right. Um, two questions hopes, dreams for distribution. MHW self-destroys hard. Yeah, absolutely, um, hoping to definitely get the support of, of one of the bigger guys at some point. Um, we're definitely starting small because, uh, you know, even carry's feedback, taking that into consideration, we launched 4 months ago. We want to make sure that we are talking to consumers and, you know, optimizing, iterating on. Product on our packaging and making sure that we have the right product before we go broad. I mean, obviously when you have a big digital footprint, like people are seeing it and they're reacting to it in real time, but until, until we feel like it is, you know, as close to perfect as we can get, we're not, we're not going broad. Any other questions you have? Yeah, speaking of your digital footprint, what's the strategy to getting it into the hands of the people who are spreading it, getting into the hands of the evangelists? Yeah, um, well, allowing for it to be direct consumer in 47 states has definitely, definitely helped us. Um, we had the biggest brand launch that, uh, liquid, liquid data, formerly powered by Taproom, um, has ever seen, which was Really awesome to hear. Um, so allowing for it to be direct consumer, uh, is really important to us, but again, folks, not again, but folks aren't really necessarily buying, you know, high noons online, uh, you're going to the store and buying them, so that's, that, that's eventually going to be, you know, a big hurdle for us is, is getting on the ground distribution so that folks can actually try it in person. Michelle, Spencer talked about the pretty sizable social presence that Gay Water has. How much does that factor into your thinking about bringing a product like this on the shelves? So I definitely look at the product as something that's very unique in packaging. I love the colors. I love that you address the fact that there is a community that really has a large purchase volume for this. At the same time, I'm trying to understand what is going, what's going to differentiate them from purchasing this on a repeat versus a high noon. which also is the same type of product, also a vodka soda, and is a bit more widely distributed. So trying to better understand what your marketing strategy is going to be and then whether you've been able to track any repeat purchases. So that would be something I'd love for you to address. And then also in terms of flavor, I would agree with Carrie. I think the nose is spot on, but at the same time, I would expect something a little more in terms of like packing a bigger punch and a bit more fruit forward, especially like playing into the whole gay water. I mean maybe it pours out pink. Maybe it has like a different, more unique, exotic flavor that we don't see in the typical standard packages that are very mainstream. Yeah, uh, 100%, um, we're already working on some, some stuff for next year, uh, that'll be a little bit more fruit forward, a little bit of a pack a bigger punch. Um, to your point about, uh, you know, pink liquid, we're trying to keep the brand itself, um, not necessarily rainbows and unicorns, right? Like it is called Gay Water, but I promise you will not turn gay if you drink it. Like, it is, it is a brand for every, uh, I actually will never say it's a brand for everyone because when you're a brand for everyone, you're a brand for no one, right? Um, but I mean, the word gay means happy. We're just trying to create a brand that spreads joy, um, but we're also not trying to create a brand that only serves this community or we won't be successful. Don, you get the last word on Gaywater. I, I, I, I love the fact that you address any of the, you know, preconceived pushbacks that I, I think any retailer or distributor would give, uh, and, and straight on. And just because I promised Carrie I would do so, I would just continue to add on to what she says wrong today. My only feedback on the lick would be higher on the carbonation, higher on the nose. That was that was the one thing. And then my question would be openness to additional flavors. How often are you thinking about switching up the pack? Is this a one and we're going to go? Or or are you thinking about rotating up the pack and the flavor? I'll give you 20 seconds with the overtime. OK, um, I, we're so brand forward, so absolutely, I mean, we're going to be, we're going to be throwing wrenches into kind of hopefully how the beverage industry has traditionally operated. So definitely expect like more packaging, um, iterating on products, doing. Limited edition kind of product runs, um, always listening to our consumers is like number one. That's the best part about having an audience, right? You can ask them questions. We use social media to pull our audience, to use the question feature on Instagram. Like if, uh, to anyone out there, if you're not engaging your community and listening to what they want, they don't feel invested in your brand. Um, so 100% expect, expect more. Well done, Spencer. Thank you so much. Thanks guys. All right. Our next presenter is Cam Bailey of Crooked Owl Hard Topache. Great to see you. This one for me.

Speaker 2 [13:07] Thanks for having me back. Um, so you might be wondering where does the name Crooked Owl come from? Well, it's inspired by the legend of Lollachuza. In this tale, an old witch transforms into an owl at night, swoops down, and preys on town drunkards. It's really a quite dark tale, but we wanted to bring some levity to this and create a world that feels light and approachable and discoverable. So we turned our owl's body into a pina and we tried to create a can that felt discoverable at every inch because we want people to discover our hard tapache. So we launched a little over 1 year ago direct to consumer shipping to 45 states, and since then we've established more traditional distributor relationships in 3 states. We're currently in Georgia in partnership with Savannah Distribution. We're in New York with Torch and Crown, and we recently launched in Southern California with Stone Distributing. And while we're in 3 geographic markets, we're most heavily investing in Southern California, and I'll talk a little bit more about that in depth a little later. But before I do that, I want to talk a bit about our origin story. So for those of you who don't know, we are a team of 2. My husband and I tasted traditional teppache for the first time while traveling around Mexico City around 2018 and absolutely fell in love with this rustic beverage. We started making it home because we couldn't find it anywhere else, so this sort of began the journey to what we now know as crooked owl hard tpache. And tapache back then was not a commercialized beverage. You could not walk out your door and go to your local Target or Whole Foods or Walmart and pick up a can of teppache. But since then a lot has changed, and brands like De la Calle, Big Easy Tapache, and Tapache Gold have launched at the regional and national level and have spent a lot of money and time investing in educating retailers and consumers what tapache is. It's no longer a foreign word. It's not a foreign concept. People sort of know what this thing is. And so this has created a really unique opportunity that's allowed us to ride their tailwinds and go after placements where non-alcoholic tapache is already pulling through and selling well. We're focused on retailers who have a customer base that have consumers who want to discover new things, that want to try something that they maybe haven't tasted before. And that's not to say that our job educating is done because it's not. It's only getting started. Getting liquid to lips and cans and hands is critical to growing our brand. Most of our marketing budget in 24 will be spent on investing in samplings and demos and on and off premise. And if you've never tasted tapache before, your palate frankly might be a little bit confused. It's a very complex flavor profile. There's a lot going on. So when I introduce people to our hard tapache for the first time, I recommend tasting in this exact flavor order because it allows you to get. Nuances of each flavor in a really unique way, and this is where guided tastings and demos really come into play and are super helpful for us in building our brand because we're able to personally help people find the flavor that most resonates with their palate preference. And all of the brands that you see up here are absolutely fantastic in their own right, but we believe that we sit in this white space where we can deliver something to a broad swath of consumers that other brands simply can't. 10 years ago, hard kombucha did not exist as a category, and sure, people knew what kombucha was, but it wasn't necessarily a household name, and that's what we aim to do with tappache. We want to create our own category. Hard kombucha drinkers are an easy convert. We offer a product that's similar to what they know. Seltzer fatigue is real. People are looking for more compact flavor profiles, and we can play in spaces where. Mexican loggers are expected because our flavors are inspired by traditional flavors. So to wrap this all up, we're super excited about 2024 and beyond, where we're going to work to continuously improve our liquid and our margins, strategically expand where non-alcoholic tapache is growing, and we're bullish on our category. We're bullish on our brand, but we might be first right now, and if we're doing our job right, we won't be the last.

Ray Latif [17:14] You can hold on to that. Yeah, I need you to just slide over here. Great presentation. Um, Carrie, a lot more education just in the last few days about Tepache. Uh, do you, have you thought any more about the opportunity for this kind of brand? Yeah, I think, I think Kim has it right that it sort of sits in the white space in the middle. I do think that, you know, most folks in this room probably couldn't say that word until you did the enunciation alliteration for all of us. So I think there is more certainly education, and I would suggest that you, you know, while you have white space and you can pull from all of those categories that you're talking about, you need to, you need to pick a target. Like if you're going to go with a distributor and you want to tell a distributor or a buyer like Michelle who, you know, where to put you on. Shelf, I think that's going to matter. Yes, you can sit in the middle, but you've got to start somewhere.

Speaker 2 [18:01] We like to position ourselves as more of an alternative to a hard seltzer rather than a hard kombucha player because we find that they're the hard kombucha drinkers are going to come after us, but we want the person who's traditionally been drinking a hard seltzer and is looking for something that's more interesting. They maybe also drink a natural wine, so they're not the fermented flavor profile isn't something that's foreign to them.

Ray Latif [18:25] Great. OK, our AV team told me I, I cast a shadow on you, so if you can slide, there we go, perfect. Um, Yair, uh, again, the second time you got to try this product, look at the cans. Any additional thoughts on the package or product itself, liquid itself? Yeah, I still love the cans, still love the liquid. I think it's really pretty. I think it's really eye catching. I am a teppace fan in the past, and I had not thought of a hard teppache, so I think that's quite innovative, and I did appreciate in your presentation how focused you are on. Understanding the need for education, but also going to places where people get it. They exist. I existed before, so yeah, I'm, I'm a fan. Thank you, Michelle. Any questions from the presentation that you have for Cam? Yeah, first of all, wonderful job. And then secondly, I think one of the bigger questions I would have as a retailer is just kind of understanding, to Carrie's point, where we're going to be merchandizing this and what area in the shelf, the package size, whether it's going to remain at a 12 ounce single serve size, kind of is interesting in the sense of Like it wouldn't really go traditionally with the rest of the single beer, you know, it's kind of its own space typically if we're bringing in a 16 ounce or 12 ounce kombucha, it sometimes lands where the single serve wine is because of the size of the can. So if that's where you're targeted to position it, by all means, but it could get lost or confused as an RTD which I mentioned yesterday, just given the style of how the can looks and it's so colorful and some folks. not know what a tapace is. And then in addition, for me I felt like the nose was just extremely strong. For someone who doesn't drink tapace traditionally, they might be caught off guard, specifically with the passion. So I, you know, for someone to stomach it, I think it would help to know what are the health benefits. Are there health benefits from drinking this? Am I getting healthier from drinking this alcohol? So I'd be curious to know that.

Speaker 2 [20:22] Yeah, so, um, to answer your first question, 16 ounce single serves definitely on the horizon. We're also exploring doing a six-pack variety pack, um, when we launch with boxes in the next few months. So six-pack variety pack would be probably 6 months down the line. And then to your point on the passion, that one is very floral. Obviously the hibiscus is quite a strong flavor profile and scent. It gives a very robust, olfactory scent. So that is definitely something that is on our radar. We're always looking to continue to improve our flavor profiles and figure out new ways of Introducing natural ingredients into the fermentation process as we grow in scale. So that's something that we'll keep in mind too. And while we do have the probiotic better for you benefits, that's not something that we want to go out and say because we're not a dietary supplement and we don't want people to think that they can be getting healthier by drinking alcohol because it's apparently not healthy.

Ray Latif [21:22] You don't want people to think they can get healthy by drinking alcohol, but it feels like we're seeing a lot more better for you alcohol products come to market. How much does that weigh into the mind of the consumer, Don? I think that everybody is trying to move into that space and I think that there's a lot of noise about consumer interest in that. I think that it plays itself out in small niche consumers and small niche audiences within the retail channel. So I think that story is yet to be told that that's why a consumer is buying a product. My questions and to Justin earlier. I am much older than Justin and I am old as whatever, even older. My, my question is, what is tapache? Up until yesterday, I did not know, and I'd like to see maybe a dial into exactly who your consumer is now and how you're specifically targeting that consumer now while trying to work to bring in that next consumer and who that next consumer is. So I guess my quick question would be, you know, who is your consumer right now and how are you getting that next level of consumer like myself on board?

Speaker 2 [22:31] Well, our consumer now is, is we're aggressively targeting people who are already familiar with Tapache. We want people who know what Tapache is to want to try our hard tapache because We're bringing something that's familiar to them in a completely different way that they may never have tasted before. And then as we continue to grow, continue to scale, we want to invest, like I mentioned, in education opportunities and demos and samplings and in doing that we're not just going to hire, you know, a promo team that doesn't understand the heritage of the beverage. We want to hire teams that can truly speak to our brand, what tapache is, the nuances of what The craft production looks like so that when we're doing these on-premise, off-premise demos and samplings, people are truly able to talk about it in an intelligent and informed way. And I mean for now while we're a team of two, I'm personally doing it myself and I love doing it. So

Ray Latif [23:25] Brian, we're pretty much out of time, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on CAm's desire to create a new category for Hartapache and how you evaluate that as an investor. I like the idea. I think it's, you found some white space, which is really hard to do. I love the packaging. I think you're, you know, if you can hit the right target demo, it's a growing consumer. If they're, if they're Latino, they already know what it is. I think you're going to require a lot of patience with this. You're gonna have to build it thoughtfully, strategically, the right markets, very selectively, the right accounts, the right channels. It'll take a while, so you need a lot of patience for this. It'll be a slow burn, I think, if you build it the right way. Um, but I think you, you've got a chance here. Thank you. Good stuff. Great feedback. Great presentation. Well done. Thank you. All right, up next we have Joshua Rood of Dr. Hops. Come on up. Thank you. Good morning. Good morning. I'm Joshua, Chief rabbit of Dr. Hops. Which I co-founded in 2015 with brewmaster Tommy to produce the ultimate recreational beverage. The pinnacle of taste, vitality, and intoxication. And Tommy and I succeeded launching Dr. Hopp's Real Hard Kombucha in early 2020. It's so good that almost 4 years later it continues to sell well at Whole Foods, Arawan, Bevmo, and over 580 great retailers, even at a super premium price. A refrigerated hard kombucha, however, comes with many limitations, and Tommy and I wanted something that could reach and refresh all the drinkers in America. Tommy, obsessed with the taste component, started making hard seltzer at home to see if he could produce something of truly excellent taste and balance. And myself obsessed with the vitality component, began mixing the real hard kombucha with other probiotic beverages, and today I bring you something totally new. The pinnacle of taste, vitality, and intoxication in a mainstream shelf stable format, a beverage for all the alcohol retailers in the nation, Dr. Hopp's spiked living seltzer. It's a hard seltzer spiked with superior functional ingredients real fruit, live cultures, fresh organic acids, and hops. A beverage in the sweet spot of a giant and growing category, which is RTD alcohol in a style that everyone already drinks, hard seltzer, and in a segment of hard seltzer that is in fact growing quite well. A beverage that the up and coming drinkers of America will love with better taste, more functional, health conscious attributes, and a modest amount of alcohol. My team and I are ready. CEO Aaron, steadfast and committed, has already reshaped Doctor Hops for the future and is shepherding us to success. Myself, the creator and visionary, have given the helm of Dr. Hopps to Aaron and our team to focus on brand and product development and marketing. Tommy, our brewing prodigy, is directly managing the production and ongoing development of our products. Sam Capione with a wonderful human touch is building and managing our sales and distribution relationships. Erin Fetner, an excellent entrepreneur in her own right, is in charge of specific sales initiatives. Pam, Pam Turner, who is our battle-tested warrior on the front lines, is securing our chain commitments and chain mandates, and Gary, our CFO is giving us the tools we need to run and grow Doctor Hops. We've already built the structures to scale this quickly and efficiently. We've forged an extraordinary partnership with Distill in Illinois for production and distribution. Distill has exceptional brewing and packaging capabilities. And our distribution partnership with them allows us to add our brands onto their existing distributor agreements in 40 plus states and growing, giving us the opportunity to scale much more quickly and efficiently than other alcohol brands. And so here we are, wonderful products, a powerful team, and the ability to produce exciting business results quickly. All we need is a modest investment to fuel our sales and marketing efforts. We're raising $3 million to launch our new spiked living seltzers. Um, to get us to break even in 18 months and to catapult us towards our 5 year goal of $42 million in revenue and $3 million in positive EBITA, we invite you to support this and crown us the champions of the pitch slam. Hold on. You can hang on to the mic, I'll take that. This slide up here so in case the judges have some questions for you. Uh, Yair, let's start with you. Um, do you drink hard seltzers and would, uh, a living hard seltzer move the needle for you? Uh, I'm not a huge hard seltzer guy, but I do love functional beverages. So my question is, what are the functional beverage, uh, benefits, and I also have a follow-up question, which is, what is, where's the hard booch now? OK, great. So functional benefits we're basically taking a hard seltzer and we're taking the best parts of our hard kombucha and putting it in the hard seltzer, so you're getting all the same benefits you would get from a kombucha. We took the yeast out but you're getting live bacteria, all the, all the healthy beneficial bacteria, the fresh organic acids you're getting polyphenols from tea. You're getting a lot of health benefits from the kombucha, and that's the functionality of it, plus the freshness of it, the lightness of it, real sugar, no fake sugars, no fake sweeteners. It also does help. Great, thanks. And then the hard kombucha right now, I mean that's our, that's our first successful product. That's the product that's in 580 retailers right now. The hard seltzer we've just launched a handful of places in Berkeley. Perfect, thanks. Michel, do you see this as a product that would be relatively easy to merchandise in your stores, or would that present a problem for you? So I think we've seen, especially in the past couple of years and this year, that seltzers have really started to just even out and plateau as a category. So, positioning yourself as a, as a seltzer, a hard seltzer is going to create some challenges in terms of just going against the volume of, you know, some of our largest brands, White Claws, even truly is getting kind of bumped out with the The strength of how White Claw is within market and especially within CStore, I think space is limited, so it'd be interesting to see how you can carve yourself out kind of something slightly different. When I look at Dr. Hopps, you know, I like the fact that it's differentiated. It's not, I don't consider it just as a pure seltzer, and if you position yourself as that, you may have more of a likelihood for retailers to try your brand. You know, the fact that it has live cultures, I would be interested to understand how are you keeping its shelf stable. Well, it's a little magic trick. If you take the yeast out of kombucha, that's the most unstable part. If you have bacteria, a little bit of sugar, high acidity, alcohol, that's a fairly stable product. I mean, it's for us, we say it's 6 months shelf stable. There will be slow flavor flavor degradation, but, but it's fine on the shelf for 6 months. Thank you. And then to speak to the category, we're clear that White Claw and truly are bringing the whole category down. Within the seltzer category, there's a lot of innovation happening in more functional health conscious areas. That's where all the growth is. It's still happening even in hard seltzer. So I say we're a hard seltzer that's not really a hard seltzer. So it's interesting you point that out because while there could be declines, there's still leading. In so much of a higher capacity and volume than some of the other seltzers that are just, you know, starting to gain that distribution, it's going to show that growth and increase, but they're cycling over prior years. I still don't see, you know, a lot of those newer seltzers really even breaking it in just yet because of the sheer volume of some of these large giants that they are, and they command at least 90% of the seltzer space just within those two brands. Understood, Don, I'd like to get your thoughts on the presentation in the name of Dr. Hops. I like the name. I think that it's inventive. I like the visual of the cans. I think it definitely stands out. I think the presentation's great. I think that I like everything that I saw. I like the inclusion of working with Bob, ex-S Sierra Nevada veteran who's now with Distill. Um, I had a question about Salesforce en route to Market. Are they then picking up and helping augment your current sales team? Are they taking over some of the sales and distribution day to day activities for you? They do a little augmentation. We really have to sell this product. I mean that's why we have Pam, our chain store specialist, to help us with chain store mandates, and we have some boots on the ground in key markets to drive new accounts. But yeah, the Distill sales team is on our side. They have incentives to produce and sell the product, so it's you know, the right incentives are there and then I guess my follow up was shelf placement. Are you asking your distributors and retailers to place this up against their existing brands, and how are you keeping their priorities focused between their existing hard kombucha and a single serve and now this this product the set looks a little different in every type of store, right? In most grocery stores there's a lot of experimental innovation stuff sort of in between hard seltzer and wine. RTD cocktails, new kind of more health conscious seltzers or tonics or whatever they are, tappache, there's a lot going on there and that's where we want to be. That's what this is. It's an innovation product. Ryan, uh, Josh outlined, uh a, a plan to scale quickly and efficiently. Um, not a lot of time to talk about it, but, uh, you know, what do you think of that plan? Yeah my one caution to you would be based on your stated objective here to exit in 5 years to a strategic, depending on how your product is classified by each state, whether you get, you know, caught under beer, malt, sugar-based franchise laws, being in that many states in a messy network or someone else's network may be a real impediment to selling to anyone. Understood. So be very careful how you expand because distribution network is one of the last things entrepreneurs often think of, and it's one of the most troubling things in trying to get a deal done. Understood. Carrie, you get the last word on Dr. Hobbs. Yeah, I guess I had a question to start. Great presentation. When you think about your hard kombucha bean, it's such a super premium price point, where are you thinking about, you know, what, what are your, what's your ask for? Yeah, the hard seltzer is more in the sweet spot of innovation. It's 12.99 for a 4 pack. OK, yeah, it's very manageable. OK, that makes sense, I guess. The last piece that I would say, had a chance to try it again this morning. I like the packaging. I like the branding. I in particular think that you have one of the side panels is different that sort of has the picture of the can, and the other one kind of has some of the more floral artwork. That side looks a little busy, so if you think about like you know which way you're going to position it, you really lose the punch of the branding and the bunny. If it's not positioned on the one side panel that has that, so just thinking about that from a merchandizing standpoint, and the last thing that I would say is, particularly from the pineapple, I got a little bit of candy type flavor from it. So whether that's intentional or not, that was sort of my perception of how I tried the brand and how it tasted this morning. Not bad, but just a little bit more candy on the nose in particular. Awesome, thank you. Good stuff. Well done. Thank you so much. All right, we're halfway through. Let's get to our next presenters, Chris Garrett and Dan Hofstadter, who are the founders of Trusted Gut. Come on up. All right. Hi, everyone. I am Chris Garrett. I am the CEO and founder of Trusted Gut. Trusted Gut is an emerging craft beverage company born in Long Beach, California. And inspired by our hardworking community and targeting the fast growing better for you and low alcohol beverage segments. Nearly 30% of all alcohol consumers are searching out a healthier option in their purchasing decisions.

Speaker 3 [36:09] And hi, I'm Dan Hofstetter, chief creative officer of Trusted Gut. Uh, we are the perfect balance of better for you and just plain better. Um, that's why we have our tagline that's been trademarked, Trusted gut feels right.

Ray Latif [36:27] Let's talk strategy, specifically our strategy, our multi beverage strategy. So we brew delicious, award winning craft beer that's gluten reduced and low ABV. Our hard seltzers are low calorie and made with real fruit juice, and our hard kombuchas are gluten free, low sugar, and low ABV. We are. The first craft beverage company to offer a variety multi-pack that utilizes all three beverage types seltzer, kombucha, and beer. What does gluten reduced mean in our beer? And that was a question from yesterday, so I'm here to answer that. So essentially our beer is gluten free, but because the TTB doesn't allow us to use the term gluten gluten free because we start with traditional ingredients like barley, but let me tell you from a personal side. My wife has celiac and she drinks all of our beer right now, so we test our beer in an innovative, we take our beer and we go through an innovative fermentation process that eliminates all the gluten, all the gluten, and then we send it out to a third party laboratory to test and make sure we're living up to that brand promise.

Speaker 3 [37:43] So clearly we have a great product, but that's not enough. We are a great brand. Great brands live in people's homes, are invited into people's lives, and they are done so regardless of occasion. Uh, occasions critical in a business sense, but great brands live in people's minds and in their homes throughout the year. So that's our intent and that's what we're we're accomplishing for an emerging brand. We've done quite a bit of creative and strategic exploration and development, and we found that we need to as a brand not only be better for you but better to you. So what do we mean by that? We mean that any brand touch point. Um, with trusted gut will be an elevated, rewarding, somehow memorable experience. So that's in our taproom, that's at events, that's on our labeling and packaging, and that's on social media, of course, where we're getting over 100,000 user engagements per month.

Ray Latif [38:40] Let's talk a little bit about distribution. Currently we are self-distributed in LA and Orange County into about 150 points of distribution. We have ongoing conversations right now with national distributors in order to take on in scale in 2024 with a very focused approach at where we fit in well as far as retail and off-premise. We also, Trustedgu also owns our own brewery and microbrewery and taproom where we have a large and local following, uh, that allows us to directly speak to consumers. So as an entrepreneur, I started Trusted Gut. I trusted my gut and started this brand in order to be the healthier choice in craft beverages. Thank you very much for allowing us to introduce ourselves, and we look forward to your feedback. Good job. You can hang on to those mics and slide up here. Uh, Michelle, any questions for Chris or Dan? Yeah, first of all, great presentation. I appreciate you addressing the gluten reduced aspect, and I find it actually very fascinating. So technically you guys are able for those that have gluten intolerances to be able to drink. And are there any other beers that are currently playing in that space that you're in that do? Gluten reduced. Yeah, excellent question. There are other beers that are gluten reduced, but not promoting it as the 1st, 1st major headline. As an example, Stone and their delicious family is actually gluten reduced. OK, got it. And then also I do like the mixed pack variety idea in terms of having one that, you know, incorporates seltzers, kombucha. and and beer as well for like an all occasion type of purpose. So curious if that's currently selling and you know where you're currently distributing that. Yeah, so we're not currently selling that. That is a 2024 product that we want to take to distribution. We have sampled all of this throughout our taprooms and the feedback is excellent. So we've done some local sampling with local bottle shops and and and we've done really well with it. Thank you, Chris, can I just have you just take one step forward? Thank you very much. Uh, Don, I think sometimes, uh, there's a stigma against, uh, things that change a little bit, gluten reduced. People are wondering about the taste. What do you think of the taste of these products? Yeah, great question. I did go into it thinking that exactly, and I thought that the taste and the profile of it was fantastic. I also love the labeling. I like the keep it simple stupid, the big beer on it. I do, and I'm going to go back to the gluten reduced. I do have concerns about that for somebody that probably only eats gluten for a living. You know, the kind of confusion between gluten-free and gluten reduced, I think you're going to spend a lot of time trying to explain that, and I think that if you can in your packaging, you say this is the TTB's fault and make fun of it or something, I just think it probably needs to be addressed. Yeah, that's an excellent point. You know we've addressed it. We have two other liquids in our in our arsenal that are gluten-free. So the headline on the story around gluten is that we're gluten friendly or gluten reduced and, you know, friendly. So that's what, that's what we lead with. Yeah, friendly is probably a better word. Ryan, what do you think of this opportunity for a gut-friendly gluten-reduced platform? Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a diehard market because they have to be. My mom's celiac. I've got a friend who's celiac. I'm not quite as worried about the gluten reduced thing because true celiacs, they'll find you because they have to, because they have to seek out those things. So they'll do their own research. A little concerned you're doing a lot early, 3 different styles. What we had was great. I'll echo Don's comment. The flavor was great. I assume the rest of it's good, but You're doing a lot early and business, I mean, beverage is a complicated business. It's hard to do one or two things well. Doing three things well with multiple flavors, multiple skews, a variety pack, it's a lot. So I'd encourage you to figure out what works first, what the consumer responds to, and try to really hammer on those. And then over time you can build that portfolio, but do it in a smart way. Yeah, that's an excellent point. So as we look at this, we wanted to start the brand with a multi beverage strategy. We wanted permission to go where the chips may fall to your, to your point. So we test all of this in our taproom right now and we're getting great feedback on all three liquids. So we know there's a consumer out there that that that believes in it and loves the taste. Obviously all the liquids are delicious and we're we're really prideful in how we approach the liquids and the development of the product, and that's a great strategy. Use the taproom as R&D. You've got that space. Get consumer feedback. That makes sense. Carrie, anything in the presentation that you'd want a little bit more information or clarification on? I didn't necessarily, I mean, you mentioned award winning, curious, you know, sort of where else you've been and you know, what sort of accolades outside the taproom. I think that's important when you're going to talk to somebody like Michelle, for example. Yeah, so we just won the 21st annual Brew Fest in Catalina Island, so our beers were voted in several The high profile brands that you guys are all aware of were there and it was it was actually judged and voted by the consumer so we were very, very fortunate and our beers won as the top choice in that at that brew fest. There was about 1000 people there also, so just FYI wonderful. Also, also bold strategy to test on your wife. That was that was an Well, let me, I'll be honest with that. So as I started trusted gut, obviously it's a double entendre of trusting my intuition, but also trusting what you put into your gut. My wife first said to me, Oh, we're going to get into the beverage space. I can't even drink beer. And so we, we challenged ourselves to go out and find a way that would allow her to, to, to drink beer, and, and she's been, uh, she's been thanking me ever since. Wonderful. Yeah, you get the last word, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the packaging as well. Yeah, I actually really like the packaging, and I, I, even for a drink that is gluten-free, I thought it was very delicious, so irrespective of that, of that feature. Um, you talked about memorable brand experiences. Uh, the taproom makes perfect sense. I would love to understand in a second, um, what it means to have a memorable brand experience with the package to you.

Speaker 3 [44:59] Well, you mentioned that you, you like the branding and even regardless of the, of the, uh, you know, gluten reduced feature to it that it draws you in, right? You mentioned that beer, keep it simple, stupid. As a writer, background, I've gotten a little bit of flak for like you couldn't think of a better name than beer, but the point was to not try to outdo people with Haposaurus rex and stuff like that, not that that's a bad name, but uh you know, it does become a little bit. Of an arms race. So that was our goal to be super simple and bold and to have the copy on the back. I don't know if you had a chance to read that. Every, every touch point we have a chance to just inject a little bit of our personality, a little bit of humor, a little bit of levity in addition to take on these serious things like gluten.

Ray Latif [45:38] We've got to wrap up. I am so, so sorry. Our team is going to kill me otherwise, but thank you so much. Thank you. Well done. Thank you. All right. Up next, we have Craig Bowers from South Los Angeles Beverage Company. Come on up. All right. Quicker. OK.

Speaker 4 [46:12] Good morning. Uh, I've only got 4 minutes, so let's jump into some buzzwords. Uh, disinvestment, gentrification, homelessness, policing, deportation, mass incarceration, recidivism, poverty, etc. Um, I think most of us in this room will agree that these drivers of disparity exist, and a one size fits all the solution has unfortunately not been found. Um, so the reason I'm here today is to tell you how craft beer might be able to make a meaningful contribution to the overall conversation. Uh, we are building a brewery, the People's Republic of South Central, um, that builds community by investing in people from the community. Uh, we have made a pledge that 75% of our employees will live within 2 miles of the brewery. We're paying a livable wage, not just a minimum wage. Uh, there's no tipping. Uh, tipping is from slavery. If you don't believe me, Google it, and, uh, we're going to be a certified, uh, B corporation. Um, but, you know, we're here to make money and we're here to provide a return for our investors. Um, you can do good and provide a return. Ben and Jerry's cashed out a Unilever for $326 million. Uh, their mission is still intact. They still give 7.5% of their proceeds, um, to charity every year. Um, at PRSC we believe in the four P's. Uh, these are product to people, promotion in place. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about, uh, what we're doing in these, uh, areas respectively. Uh, so we're in LA County. Uh, LA County is the most populous county in the United States. Um, you can see right here, um, compared to San Diego County, uh, LA is, uh, very, um, uh, underbrewed, I'd say. Uh, but just to put this in perspective even more, in South Los Angeles, there are 818,000 people. In Sacramento, there are 525,000 people. There are 81 breweries in Sacramento. There is one brewery in South Los Angeles. These are our beers. Uh, we think we make great craft beer. That is our mission. We want to make the best beer in LA County, and you got to come to South Central to buy it. Uh, we are an on-premise, um, I should say our, we are our premise-driven company. Taprooms generate far more revenue than Distro. Um, so we are very focused not only on our, um, Uh, original, you know, phase one era, but we also, uh, in California, you get 8 remote taprooms, uh, to accompany your brewery. On the top there is where we sell, we're gonna sell in-house on that model, and on the bottom is, uh, what we think we're going to do in Distro in the 1st, 5 years of operation, respectively. Um, my business partner right here is Sam Chuy Chiwenga. He is the original founder and original head brewer at Boontown Brewery. That's LA County's 5th largest brewery by volume. Um, again, we're in South LA, um, you know, we celebrate the dignity of work, the workers who do it, and the community that means the working class heartbeat of, uh, Los Angeles. Um, we have four main components, you know, the immediate future is multicultural, um, variety is the spice of life, doing good is required, and the last thing is experiences matter. So if we're gonna be in our premise company, we gotta create something that's really spectacular. Uh, so I'm gonna fast forward because I'm running out of time. Um, and show you what we're about to build here. So, uh, we've got a 13,500 square foot, uh, building with 10,000 square feet of adjacent land. Um, this is 3.5 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, uh, 1.5 miles, uh, northeast of Exposition Park, which is USC and the Coliseum. Already got a brew house in there, and, uh, we're building a quite a large facility with um three restaurants, coffee shop, coffee roastery. Um, live performance venue, uh, multiple indoor outdoor spaces, because this is where we want to move product and, uh, you know, make everyone feel at home. So I've got 5 seconds left. So, uh, if you've got more questions, feel free to, uh, ask me after this. Appreciate you guys' time.

Ray Latif [50:17] Hold on, you can hold on to that. I think the judges will indeed have questions. Let's start with Don. Questions for Craig? Yeah, I love that you've got an own our, our premise plan. I mean, I think that that's one thing a lot of breweries that are starting out don't lean all the way into, and And understanding that that's where the profit is made, it feels good obviously to sell our products out into the market. It feels good when your friends call you. What is the plan to sell eventually out into the off-premise and partner and how far are you thinking you might want to go?

Speaker 4 [50:55] You know, I think, you know, like I said, we want to dominate South LA. You know this is a population larger than Sacramento. The reason we're not People's People's Republic of South Central beer, this is we're trying to make this a lifestyle brand for the entire neighborhood where people can get invested in that brand overall and ride with us. So once people feel like they own something, You know, we want to dominate distro in our respect in South Los Angeles. Then that becomes cool. It becomes a trend, and then it, you know, expands out from there. What we also didn't mention is in our, in our council district is Crypto.com Arena, BMO Stadium where LAFC plays, and the USC Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. So we have 3 big sporting You know, facilities in our council district. I think if we tell them this compelling story, I think we might be able to get a couple of handles from them.

Ray Latif [51:43] I just wanted to say one more thing. Are you IPA focused or multi different brand focused?

Speaker 4 [51:49] We're going to be multi-style focused, but Sam can tell you, we

Ray Latif [51:53] brew

Speaker 4 [51:53] everything. Our releases were West Coast and Hazey's because they were a promotional aspect, and we needed. product, but you know I'm blogger crazy. We brew lagers. We brew a little bit of everything,

Ray Latif [52:04] and the taproom's kind of our proof of concept of what we will brew and what sells and what the consumer likes. The liquid was fantastic, Ryan. A lot of information in the presentation. Taste, however, has to be paramount. What did you think of the taste of this product? Yeah, the taste was killer. I mean, I told you yesterday it's phenomenal. You guys make amazing beer. I like what you're doing with the styles. I like the, I get the strategy after, you know, understanding why you're doing all IPAs to start. I think it makes sense, but the taste, the taste was great. Carrie, uh, it seemed like there was a real focus on innovating for the future consumer. Um, do you see this as, do you see the plan as doing that? I absolutely do. I really appreciate that you know exactly who your consumer is, the community that you're trying to affect. I think that that message is so resounding. I wrote down doing good as a requirement, um, and that just resonates through how the packaging shows up, frankly, how the beer tastes, how, how you represent the brand. So please don't, please don't ever move off of that authenticity. Yeah, any questions for Craig? Uh, yeah, or Sam, sorry, I want to know where you are on the process of opening up the taproom.

Speaker 4 [53:09] Yeah, so we're in LA City, so permitting is

Ray Latif [53:12] incredible.

Speaker 4 [53:14] So I've had a lease since, uh, August of 2020, and I still have my building permits, um, but we anticipate having those by the, uh, first quarter of, uh, 2024, and, uh, we think we'll be up and brewing, um, by the second half of 2024.

Ray Latif [53:29] Great, thank you, Michelle. Any final thoughts on the People's Republic of South Central? Well, so as someone who grew up in Los Angeles, I am very excited to come by the taproom when it opens, first of all, and I, I love the social impact link of, you know, your brand and, uh, you know, how you're really giving back to the community in every way. Um, I think that's something that is really important and relevant to like right now, I think, you know. I like the fact that you tied in the aspect that Gen Zers are the first majority minority generation. This is something that, you know, I think we see a lot more Gen Zers leaning in on in terms of like looking at social impact that a company brings to the table, and I love your plan of entry into the market. So really looking forward to seeing what happens of this brand and Uh, I think your beer taste phenomenal. Thank you. Great stuff. Very well done. Thanks guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Our final presenter for the final round of Brewbound Live Winter 2023 pitch slam is Kennett Coleman of Vine Streams Brewery. Come on up.

Speaker 5 [54:53] Hello again. 100 years ago, Kansas City essentially skipped prohibition. Why? Because we had a city boss that said we wouldn't have it any other way. And so a lot of musicians from New Orleans and across the country. Uh, focused on Kansas City for work and so that's what happened 100 years ago. So this building that you all are seeing or in this neighborhood, that was pretty much the hot point for this skipping of prohibition, if you will. Um, 150 years ago this was the public works building in Kansas City and up until about 40 years ago it was owned by the city of Kansas City. Um, this is currently our taproom in our production facility, so 5 months ago Vine Street Brewing opened. After 3 failed attempts on my part, um, after learning things across the way, um, we are one of the top breweries in Kansas City just after 5 months. So, again, my name is Kenneth Coleman. I'm the founder of Vine Street Brewing Company, and here we go. Vine Street Brewing Company is Missouri's first black-owned brewery. Now, as we look at the industry and obviously the stat that we keep repeating is that less than 1% of breweries are black owned, we are dedicated to celebrating diversity and inclusivity and using our platform to continuously push the boundaries of what craft beer can be. Our solution is to redefine craft beer by celebrating creativity, culture, and community. We do that by brewing a wide range of beers that connect through unforgettable experiences and flavors. So we're not just focused on one style of beer, we're focused on a wide range, and we're very responsive to the community that comes into the tap taproom. Obviously there's huge market opportunity. We're just a blip in the bucket, but there's a lot of potential with us because our unique brand and approach taps into an underserved community and underserved market that we're trying to focus on. Some of the traction we've had so far has been pretty unprecedented for a brewery our size. We've collaborated with almost 30 breweries across Kansas City. Uh, we've distributed to 80 locations in Missouri and Kansas. Um, we've generated $5.1 million worth of online press according to Critical mass. Um, we've also been voted best new brewery in Kansas City this year, and we have almost a 4.4 star rating on Untapped, and we're ranked number six in the Kansas City Metro. Back in May, I was actually invited to the White House to meet Vice President Kamala Harris in this roundtable discussion to talk about entrepreneurship solely because of our impact in Missouri. So far we've generated about $177,000 in first quarter revenue from beer, event rentals, and merch sales. We even have our own shoes. Our marketing strategy leverages social media, digital marketing, local events, and partnerships and collaborations to reach our target audience. Here's some of our metrics and insights, but one of the things I want to call out is the majority of our followers are women. And as we stack up to our competitors, here's what we did. We leveraged and we, um, we were very strategic about making sure that we invested in our branding. Our advantage is that we're the only black-owned brewery in Missouri. We have a strong cultural, uh, identity in our neighborhood, and we offer unique, um, unique offerings. So, here's our team. It's me and, uh, me and these lovely individuals here, and we have our own niche, uh, kind of specialties, and we run this operation. And here's our beer stars. These are the folks that are the face of the brewery. Our revenue is mostly on-premise sales, distribution, and events and merchandise. These are ranked by kind of the top. These are ranked by, uh, you know, top sales. Our marketing and branding is something that we wanted to make sure we focus on is our neighborhood identity, um, and, and so that that's something that we can leverage and have been leveraging over the course of our existence. And we're asking for a robust awareness package that increases our name recognition to propel our mission to using the platform. To celebrate diversity and inclusion. Thank you very much.

Ray Latif [59:03] Let me take your clicker. Thank you. I'm glad to say the gong didn't stop you. I'm going for it. Well done. Ryan, let's start with you. Kenne talked about Vine Street as being maybe a blip in the bucket of the overall craft beer market, but a blip could be a pretty big business at some point. What do you think of the foundation of this company? I love the foundation. I think, you know, reaching a new audience, which craft beer desperately needs, is what you're doing. I love the musical theme. It ties back to Beatbox, going to people having fun with music. They enjoy musical experiences. Not polarizing. They're not thinking about the stress of every day, so you're finding that niche of something that's fun. I love the packaging. It's colorful. It's bright. It speaks to the musical background that you talk about. So I like the, like the opportunity here. Thank you. Yeah, let's stay on the branding. Uh, nice shoes, by the way. I mean, uh, uh, Kim had talked about investing in branding as being really important for Vine Street. Carrie, what are your thoughts on the branding itself? Yeah, I think that the, the brand itself looks really strong, and the fact that you're tying it and to have such a community anchor, right, and that that's really at the core of what you're doing and that shows up again in the beer, in the shoes that I just now saw, which like agree, look fabulous. I'm gonna need me a pair of those. And I think in particular that that branding has to be authentic, right? And you have to know your audience. You clearly do. And so I think that that that part really matters, particularly if you're looking to expand beyond that on-premise model as you look at sort of the pillars of things that rank as importance for you. Be authentic as you start to expand beyond your core market will matter.

Speaker 5 [1:00:35] Thank you for your feedback. Yay,

Ray Latif [1:00:36] a lot more information in today's presentation. Anything that stood out for you? Yeah, I think it's great. I love the community focus. I want to understand actually what the goal is 2024, 25, 20206.

Speaker 5 [1:00:48] Yeah, absolutely. So our focus right now is on premise, obviously, and our, you know, distribution is something that is also a part of our brand, but we're really also, you know, focusing on potentially opening different taprooms in different neighborhoods in our market, you know, that way we can kind of, we have such a strong identity already with being, you know, located in our jazz district and being musical themed. So if we can transplant that to different parts of the country or the region, that would be great. I love that.

Ray Latif [1:01:16] Thanks. Michel, you get to resample these products today. Any additional thoughts on the liquid or the package for you? Um, for the two packages that I specifically sampled with the spice brown ale and the Mexican lager, I didn't really feel that those packages really told the story of what was inside in terms of the liquid inside the can. um. I, I would love to just see the packaging kind of tell more of your story in terms of like tying it into the music, the community aspect. Definitely, you know, I think the cause is great. I love what you guys are doing, but I, I don't really know how that would be able to maybe educate or resonate with the audience or with the consumers, so to speak.

Speaker 5 [1:01:55] Yeah, absolutely. So we would love to invest a little bit more in our branding, um. Uh, due to budget restraints at the moment, uh, I'm kind of our graphic designer sometimes, uh, and half the time it's our, uh, branding team that did our logo, um, and things of that nature. So I think as we kind of ramp up as we normalize, then we'll start to see, um, you know, some of that consistency brand-wise.

Ray Latif [1:02:18] Don, final thoughts on Vine Street. Yeah, size 9 1/2. And 10 if they're slip-ons. I actually do want to talk about that. I love brands that look outside the traditional pairing together with pretzels or other things, so I do love that you're doing ties in with shoes. Brand focus as far as style, I mean, is there kind of asked a similar question, is there a particular style that the brewery is focused on? And then also, if you can add on to that too, how much of your business is currently on premise and how much of it is currently through a distributor.

Speaker 5 [1:02:53] Yeah, so we, we, I mean we are, our kind of mission is to craft beer fermented in the spirit of jazz and hip hop. So really this kind of culmination between, you know, old jazz records and You know, hip hop records like A Tribe Called Quest, it's kind of this hybrid of those two. The Jazz District in Kansas City kind of stopped at jazz, and we want to kind of evolve that into the hip hop era and then even expand that into, you know, what people are into nowadays, which is obviously hip hop, but also a little bit more. So that's kind of our focus as far as the brand goes, um. And then what was your other question?

Ray Latif [1:03:28] Just, just about how much your business is currently being done out of your own taproom and how much of it is your distributor?

Speaker 5 [1:03:34] Yeah, so I don't have those exact numbers off the top of my head, but I'm pretty sure at least 80% of our sales are from on-premise. Um, and then next up would be distribution, and then after that would probably be, um, event spaces sending merchandise.

Ray Latif [1:03:49] I love the style of the brand. Thank you. I'm Fanning. Very well done. Thank you so much. Another round of applause for all our finalists today. Amazing job today. Well done. And our incredible, incredible judging panel. Thank you all so much. Great work. Nice work, team. This judging panel is going to go into a room and they're going to pick a winner of the pitch slam. We're going to reveal that winner at 3:20 p.m., but in the meantime, we're going to go to lunch and we're going to ask everyone to please come back into this room at 1:20 p.m. So much more great content. Live stream viewers, don't touch that dial or mouse or whatever you would be touching. A lot more great content on the stream. Thank you.