← The Deep End with Eric Triplett
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- [00:04]
A
Welcome to the Deep End with Eric Triplett, the pond digger. This is the show for contractors, tradesmen, and entrepreneurs who want more from their business and from themselves. Eric brings decades of experience as a seven figure contractor with expertise in leadership, sales systems, and the discipline it takes to build something real. Shaped by years in the aquatics world, his insights are rooted in precision, craftsmanship, and performance. If you're done skimming the surface and ready to go deeper, it's time to dive in.
- [00:45]
B
All right, rock stars, it's Triplet here. We're gonna kick off today's show with a quick question for you. What does it actually take to turn a seasonal flower into a beer that you can serve year round? Yeah, I had no idea either until this conversation that I had on today's episode. I'm sitting down with Melissa, one of the owners of Escape Brewery, Redlands, California. This. This interview was live at the Sakura Festival. And what started out as a conversation totally casual, about cherry blossom beer, the Sakura beer, it turned into a deep dive into the science, the timing and. And the intentionality behind crafting something that most people just drink without even thinking twice about it, about how it's even in their hand. Right? We're talking about hops, the harvest cycles, the flavor profiles, and how you take something that blooms once a year and you turn it into an experience that people can come back to again and again and again throughout the entire year. And honestly, I believe there's a bigger lesson here for business owners who listen to the show. So let's get right into it, Melissa. So I'm. I'm a bit of a beer connoisseur, you know, and I never, ever imagined having a cherry blossom beer. Never even heard of it before until this weekend. How long have you been doing this?
- [02:19]
C
I don't know if we invented it, but it was a weird ingredient I brought to the brewery. And it's a green tea that I like to drink, and I just thought it was really good. So I asked Josh, like, for years, I'm always like, hey, here's a weird ingredient. Can you make dinner or can you make beer? And so he's like, all right, well, I don't know what we're going to put this in, but let's try it. And it came out. And he's like, it's actually pretty good. And it is a weird beer. Most people have it, and the first that they're like, this is weird. And then they have it again, they're like, I really like this, and it's a weird one. Too. Because people who drink like wheat beers and blondes like it, but people who drink IPAs also like it, which is weird for them. Selling a wheat beer.
- [02:56]
B
Yeah. So I like IPAs and I do like wheat beer. I mean, okay, I like beer. I'm a connoisseur, I guess you could say. But you know, when I had it the first time when I came and saw you, that when I went to check out the space of where do I want to be at the Sakura Festival. Right. And it was just such a pleasure to find out that you had a pond. You've been to our place before. It just. It was a real pleasure for me. And that was like a no brainer. I gotta be here. But we had a sample of it while we were here and I thought, this is really good. And then when I had one today, I thought, am I gonna still like it after another one?
- [03:29]
C
Right.
- [03:30]
B
And you know, like. Or another one, Right? Because sometimes you would taste a weird beer and like, it was fun. But you, you know, it's a good place to visit, but you don't want to live there.
- [03:37]
C
Right. I always say, is it good enough that you would order it again? And if you ordered it and you paid for it, would you order it again?
- [03:44]
B
Yeah.
- [03:44]
C
Because free beer is easy.
- [03:46]
B
True.
- [03:46]
C
You know, that's like the true test though. Like once you order this again and that's like, that means you like it.
- [03:51]
B
Yeah. So I mean, I do like it. I've had a couple of them today and I think they're great. So tell us more about escape. Tell how long you been here? What's. It's a really cool brewery. I love this little place.
- [04:01]
C
Oh, thank you. So this location has been five years. The business has been open 11. We're actually having our anniversary party next month. So for 11 years. It's crazy. My husband Josh was firefighter and one of his friends at work was like, why aren't you brewing beer? You love to cook and you love craft beer. So he started brewing beer.
- [04:19]
B
Oh, gosh.
- [04:20]
C
I think our son was a toddler and he's 18 now. And he just kept brewing and we took over the family room and built a bar because we. He made more beer than anybody could drink in the house, of course. And so we had just to put in a bar. And all the neighbors knew when the garage door was open, the bar was open because we needed them to come over and drink the beer so he could make more beer.
- [04:41]
B
Right.
- [04:41]
C
And then one of the neighbors was like, I think you really should open A brewer. Like, no, no, we're good. We have real jobs. And he's like, look, I want to invest in you. I really think you should look into doing this. So a couple years later, we finally opened.
- [04:53]
B
Okay, fun. And how many locations you have now?
- [04:55]
C
We have two, both in Redlands.
- [04:57]
B
What's this one? I see one that says Laguna beach or something.
- [04:59]
C
Like, what's up with. Used to have one in Laguna. We looked for a while, signed the contract, moved in in January 2020. And we all know what happened next.
- [05:09]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a rough one.
- [05:11]
C
It was super cute. It turned out beautiful and it just never did well.
- [05:15]
B
Right, I get it. It's. It's pretty far. I mean, that was pretty ballsy for you guys to be like, you guys live in Redlands, you typo.
- [05:21]
C
Right? Yeah, yeah, we live in Redlands. We just felt like we wanted. We were looking for another location and it made sense to us because it was a really high concentration of people, you know, and it was the right demographic for craft beer. And my husband messaged a bunch of cities that didn't have breweries and he's like, hey, we're interested in your city. You don't have a brewery. Would you be interested? Because some cities don't want a brewery. And Laguna Niguel right away was like, we are actively seeking breweries. We think it's a huge part of tourism. People love it. It's a high quality experience for both residents and people coming in. So they were amazing to work with and that's why we ended up there.
- [05:58]
B
Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. So do you guys, have you guys, are you a little bit nervous to scale out past, you know, where you're at now or do you feel like a little bit more recovered and like
- [06:09]
C
a little bit adventurous right now with this economy, people holding back a lot is not the time that we would be expanding.
- [06:15]
B
Okay.
- [06:16]
C
I feel like, you know, we're all going to try to wage this storm of, you know, people not having a lot of money to spend.
- [06:20]
B
Right.
- [06:21]
C
And the drinking world's a little different. We've got a lot of 20 somethings that don't drink. They say they have no intention to drink.
- [06:27]
B
That's, that's part of my topic I want to talk about because, you know, the whole, the whole non alcoholic beer and the mocktails and like, that's a big part of business now. So are you embracing that here?
- [06:37]
C
Yeah, I mean, we've always tried to have something for everybody. We learned really quick at the first location that not everybody came to the brewery for the beer. They came for a birthday party or a wedding reception. So pretty much like on day two, we're like, okay, well, we need to have soft drinks because they can bring them but we can't pay our bills on that.
- [06:54]
B
Yeah.
- [06:55]
C
So, yeah, now we have a full line of cocktails that we make. They are a non distilled alcohol. That way our license covers that. We make it ourselves. It's made from pure cane sugar. So we batch it out, it tastes like nothing. And we add in fruit juice and herbs. Right now there's a strawberry, cucumber, basil. We usually have a hard lemonade. And then we do some crazy ones. Like, we also have one today with cherry and cherry blossom green tea for a sakura festival. And then we do mocktails. Those are always changing. Tropicoko is a kaffir lime with coconut milk. I made one today with pomegranate juice and cherry blossoms, which is very rosy because either you're not drinking or you can't drink or your kids want something really special. And I know I don't love my kids drinking soda.
- [07:39]
B
Yeah.
- [07:40]
C
But for, you know, a really low price at least we do like five bucks. And they're all made with real ingredients and people don't feel guilty having them. And they're like, oh, this is really good. It's festive. I can still celebrate.
- [07:51]
B
Yeah.
- [07:51]
C
You know, it's escape. Everybody needs to have a celebration and get an escape from life.
- [07:55]
B
Yeah.
- [07:56]
C
In this location too, with a restaurant, we try to have a pretty big variety of really fun, comfortable food, but really good ingredients.
- [08:03]
B
Yeah, I was going to say, like, a lot of these breweries have pretty shitty food.
- [08:07]
C
There's some bad food, but I think, I think a lot of breweries push good food. It just depends where you go.
- [08:16]
A
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- [09:30]
B
The food has been great here because I. We tried a couple things, the pizza and the nachos and stuff like that, but the nachos were amazing.
- [09:37]
C
I'm kind of like, you're a nacho guy.
- [09:39]
B
I can be. I can be hard on you. If you have a bad nachos, like, I'll let you know.
- [09:42]
C
Oh, you should tell us.
- [09:44]
B
They were good.
- [09:45]
C
Well, we fry our own chips fresh every day.
- [09:47]
B
Oh, I didn't know that.
- [09:48]
C
I can hardly walk through the kitchen without shoving a chip in my mouth.
- [09:51]
B
How do you keep this figure? Like, with. With all this good food and beer, like, what do you do?
- [09:55]
C
I just don't sit down. No, that's not true. I sit in my office a lot. I'm just really blessed. I'm half Chinese, and I have a good metabolism, and I think I'm always so antsy that I don't sit down and eat very much.
- [10:05]
B
Right. Just let a nibbler and go.
- [10:07]
C
Yeah.
- [10:08]
B
Josh is pretty fit, too.
- [10:10]
C
Josh is. He's so much better at this than me.
- [10:15]
B
Like, yeah.
- [10:16]
C
He will make sure he only eats the right things. He will stick to a super healthy diet and only, like, splurge when he chooses where I'm like, oh, chocolate. Oh, there's a cupcake.
- [10:27]
B
Yeah.
- [10:28]
C
So I am. I'm definitely luckier than him. He has to fight really hard. He works out, like, six days a week, so he's very conscientious of his health. And, like, he's strong. I'm not. I'm just lucky I'm thin.
- [10:41]
B
Well, that's good. That's good.
- [10:43]
C
Yeah.
- [10:45]
B
Yes. You're Eric's uncle. Eric who? Eric. Thanks, Dikes. Oh, yeah, I can see the resemblance. He's doing good, huh? And your son was. Yep, yep, yep.
- [11:03]
C
How's the pottery shop going?
- [11:05]
B
The pottery shop's going great. They're doing really well. Yeah, they just expanded. They just got a new location. They just expanded. Got a new location in Fullerton.
- [11:12]
C
Yeah. Where?
- [11:13]
B
Fullerton? Yeah. Hey, you know, my son lives in la, so it's like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's good. Well, good. Thanks for saying Hi, nice to meet you. Okay, so because of the economy, you feel like it's too soon to expand. So is this, is where, is this where this festival is kind of coming? Like, how can I make the most out of my business? Because we, we talk to a lot of entrepreneurs and business people. Right. So I think it's really cool that you're like, okay, well, how can I make the most out of my spot? So tell us more about what you do here.
- [11:48]
C
Yeah, I think that's exactly what it is, is it's always a struggle to get people to remember that you're here or give them a reason to come in. I think we all do it. Like, oh my gosh, I haven't been to that place so long. Even places that you like, or anytime we have a party, people come in. Like, I've been wanting to come in and I didn't even know both. I, I've been wanting to come in and this is why I came in. Or because of other vendors or other things that's happened or they saw it pop up. Like, I didn't even know you exist. When did you open? So, you know, we're always trying to find new people to come in and have those experiences. We're already here. We might as well make some fun stuff. I like having parties and hosting things and having new events is what keeps it fun. It gives us a reason to do strawberry sakura or some new menu item.
- [12:32]
B
You know, Tell me about the seasonality of, of the cherry blossom beer. I mean, how long can you make it?
- [12:38]
C
And so we actually have it year round ever since we made it. It did well enough that it's been kept on tap the whole time. So that's our year round spring. It kind of similarly happened with Redlands Nights. Is an orange blossom beer. Yeah, it's blonde. We made it for spring and people loved it. And I think it was really reminiscent of the beer they had at Riverside Brewing Company back in the day. I've met people across the country who are like, oh, you're from Redlands. Have you ever had orange blossom beer from Riverside Brewing Company? I'm like, oh my gosh. People talked about that.
- [13:08]
B
Yeah.
- [13:08]
C
So that's a full time beer. But we do usually between two and two to four new beers a month. And they might be a seasonal that came back from last year, like at ludicrous speed. We do every year for Spaceballs.
- [13:20]
B
Okay.
- [13:20]
C
And it's a one time release. Cheeky Tiki is a fruited sour, but we change the fruit every time we make it. And it's probably 12 different versions of that. And then we'll get a wild hare. And we're like, hey, we just got these really amazing New Zealand hops. Let's make something really fun. Because then you get bored of making the same thing, even if you've only made it once in the past four years.
- [13:39]
B
Okay.
- [13:39]
C
And there's always new yeast and new experimental things that we can do. And the science of beer is amazing.
- [13:45]
B
Yeah. Are you growing any hops at home?
- [13:48]
C
I did, but my chickens ate them.
- [13:49]
B
Oh, gosh. I. I bought a. I think hops are really beautiful. I mean, like, they are. I hope I can talk about other breweries, but, like, you know, when I went to Stone Brewery down in. In San Diego, it's not. It's like halfway. It's not.
- [14:03]
C
Escondido.
- [14:04]
B
Escondido.
- [14:04]
C
Yeah.
- [14:05]
B
And, you know, I see these huge, you know, hops plants. They're just gorgeous. They're so cool looking. Right. And I'm fascinated by them. I remember I bought one once, and it was off season. It was those tiny little things. And then I came back and it's growing all over the place. I was like, holy crap.
- [14:18]
C
You know, like, hops are insane. It was cool. You could almost watch them grow.
- [14:22]
B
Yeah.
- [14:23]
C
And they call them a vine with a B, not a vine. I don't know why. There's probably a reason. We went up north to Yakima, Washington. If you were dropped there, you would think you got dropped in Yucaipa. The hills look the same. They're, like, rolling in brown and gold. And it's a huge agricultural area. Orchards and farms everywhere. But hops grow up there incredibly well. They have the Yakima river, so they have way more water than Yucaipa. But normally when you plant a hot rhizome, it's about three years, so you get a good harvest. And Yakima, you can do it in two years.
- [14:53]
B
Oh, wow.
- [14:54]
C
And they plant them in the fields, and they're just the same little small root, like, not even noticeable. And you make these twine vine holders. Vine holders. And when they come out in the spring, they just, like, whip themselves around them. And These vines are 15, 18ft tall.
- [15:15]
B
Yeah, they're huge.
- [15:16]
C
Huge. So cool. And the cones are different a little bit from each hop. They're. Sometimes they're really long and skinny, sometimes they're really fat. And they have all the lupulin inside, which to me looks like pollen. And going up there for harvest in August or September is incredible. It's a 24,7 harvest. They're testing these hop cones multiple times a day in the lab by the smell, by the taste to find when they're at their exact peak that they want. And it's just like, I guess, other natural things, but even more varied. A specific hop harvested early in the season can be different smelling, tasting aromatics, then the middle and then the end. So like Sabro, hops have a very coconutty, earthy flavor. But if they're harvested at a different time, you might get tropical notes on. And then every farm is different and every year is different. So if you're a big boy on like Ale Smith, they have, in my opinion, some of the best citra hops and mosaic hops. These, the big boys go up to these areas and they do batch testing and they'll go out and they'll pick exactly which batches they want and they're big enough to lock up the whole batch. And then little guys like us, we're like, hey, which one did they get? Because we like their profile, what they like. Right on. It's a gazillion dollar industry. They say a brand new hop that's been developed, whether it's a hybridization on or however they do it. I'm sure there's GMO hops too, which we try not to do on. It's a million dollars from the start of a hybrid hop to market.
- [16:45]
B
Wow.
- [16:45]
C
If it makes it. Wow. And it's years because of all the testing they do. But it's a beautiful plant. They're just bright, deep green and they grow so fast.
- [16:53]
B
Yeah. Hey, it's triplet here. Listen. In a world where quality is often overlooked, Helix Life support stands proud, bringing you American made excellence for your koi ponds and water gardens. And I want you to know I worked in the field for over 15 years. Years. And had professionally built nearly a thousand ponds before I designed my own proprietary filtration equipment. So trust and believe when I say that Helix Life Support is a product line that was crafted for those who demand durability, advanced technology and a deep commitment to fish friendly designs. Now at the heart of the product line is our patented award winning Helix pond skimmer. Built with the safety for your koi and other fish as our top priority. No sharp edges, no unnecessary risks. Just an innovative fish friendly skimmer you can trust. And every piece of Helix equipment that's made is with high quality materials so you can get a filtration system that's as tough and reliable as it is efficient. Whether You're a first time pond builder or a professional contractor looking to elevate your game. My team and I are ready to help you realize that vision for personalized pond design assistance or to get your hands on Helix Life support filtration equipment. Give us a call today at 800-522-5043. That's 800-522-5043. Support American craftsmanship and choose Helix life support for your pond. Built for koi. Built for life. Built for you. It has me wondering if it's so scientific and, you know, you. You get that, you get that profile, you get that flavor. Like, how do you, how do you, like, keep Sakura the same as it always is? If that vine, if you collect it a little bit late, it can change the profile. Like, is it okay if it changes just a little bit, or do you try and just keep it right on? How do you do that?
- [18:55]
C
So Sakura is not too bad on that because it has a really low hop profile. But civil disturbance, that's one of our full time West Coast IPAs. It's won awards. That is, I think, one of the biggest struggles of a small brewery especially. We don't have the buying power for big boys. On top of the fact that you have batches, you know, we don't have the science to be like, okay, what hops do I need to mix to get to that? So we try to tell people, like, it's a natural product. Even the grain. On the other day, the batch that we had come out, I was like, hey, this color is a little bit different. It's because the grain is a real thing. It's a natural thing. And we call them srm. It's the measurement of color in the beer. And it shifted, you know, and every year, like, your strawberries might be more red this year than last year.
- [19:38]
B
Yeah.
- [19:39]
C
So we'll make adjustments. That way when the consumer gets it, they're not like, hey, why is my beer a little bit, you know, more yellow or more orange or.
- [19:46]
B
Yeah.
- [19:46]
C
Why are these.
- [19:47]
B
They notice it more old?
- [19:48]
C
Yeah, very much.
- [19:49]
B
Especially when someone falls in love with the beer and then, like, that's their jam.
- [19:53]
C
Yep.
- [19:53]
B
You know, and all of a sudden you pour it and they're like, oh, no, this is the wrong one. I can tell the color is totally wrong.
- [19:57]
C
They're the first no ones to tell us. We're always like, let us know. And, you know, hopefully we already have the answer. Like, oh, yeah, this is your favorite beer. However, you know, we just got a new batch of grain this is the 20, 25 grain. Yeah. Sakura, that's my beer, you know, and that's the one that it's like, if it's off, I'm gonna know this simple disturbance is my husband's favorite beer. And if it's the littlest bit off, he's like, all right, something's different. What? Change. We are now doing a reverse osmosis water. So that's helping a lot with kind of regulating some of the nuances of water.
- [20:28]
B
Water profile tastes different. Different, yeah, for sure.
- [20:30]
C
Constantly. So now we can start with a totally stripped down water. We've always filtered it, but we didn't strip it to naked. So now we can build it exactly like we want. That's the same. And then we have our batches of hops and we'll try to find the hops we love and we try to get that whole crop year so we can carry it all the way through. So at least for a year, we know we have the same profile on. But it, it is a huge struggle. And it's funny because some people in Craft will talk trash about like Budweiser. They have the most consistent beer in
- [20:57]
B
the world though, right?
- [20:58]
C
Like, it's not craft. It's not, you know, a local community place, but you can go anywhere in the world and their beer tastes exactly the same. And it's not an easy thing to do.
- [21:07]
B
Right. How many, how many, how much do you make at once? Like if you're making Sakura, I mean, is it 100 gallons? Is it a thousand gallons?
- [21:15]
C
So we measure in barrels. It's like an old school thing. Which is funny because we only age like certain high ABV beers in barrels. But back in the day it was all barrels. So a barrel is 31 gallons.
- [21:25]
B
Okay.
- [21:25]
C
On which is two kegs.
- [21:27]
B
Okay. Got it.
- [21:29]
C
So we have fermentation tanks that are either 15 barrels or 30 barrels. So we're making hundreds of gallons at a time. Our fastest selling beers we're going to do in the 30 barrel tanks. So we'll get 60 kegs.
- [21:40]
B
Okay.
- [21:41]
C
And then the ones that don't move quite as fast, we're going to do in smaller tanks because fresh is best. Your darker beers are going to last longer. They're going to be more stable. We don't pasteurize any of our beers. We do have a filtration now. That way when you have a lot of particulate like hops or fruit, you want to get all the magic of that, but you don't want to leave too much in there. But IPAs are going to suffer the fastest with age. And it's kind of like an apple. Like, they don't go bad that fast, but they're just gonna lose some of their magic.
- [22:08]
B
Yeah.
- [22:09]
C
So after 90 days, we're testing our IPAs regularly to make sure that they're not falling off in flavor and they're still having that same vibrancy that we want from them. And if they fall off, we pull them. So we try to make a cadence that way. We're brewing it enough to hold us over for the next month or two, but not too much longer than that. You know, we want to have a balance and it changes seasonally or you'll get a new beer and it will cannibalize another beer for a little while. Right now, Space Pirate Hazy, it's super popular here and popular in the restaurants we sell to. We're brewing that every three weeks.
- [22:43]
B
Okay, so, so you're saying if that becomes popular, someone might not be drinking your other beers?
- [22:49]
C
Sometimes that happens, yeah.
- [22:50]
B
Okay, so that's the cannibalization you're saying, right?
- [22:52]
C
Yeah. You almost get too many choices.
- [22:55]
B
Yeah.
- [22:55]
C
On. And then you kind of watch it, like, okay, is this going to take that one spot? And most of the time it'll kind of back off after a while. You know, the excitement of something new will kind of wane out and they'll go back to their favorite one. But Lazy Day was a great West Coast IPA we had for years, but it was kind of an old school west coast and people have kind of aged out of that. They want something a little crisper, a little brighter. So now we do Lazy Day once or twice a year for the die hards that are like, that's my beer. I love it here. I love. It's kind of like the OGCR Nevada on, but it's just not what everybody's drinking. So we drop that one down to, you know, once or twice a year. Some beers drop off and they never come back.
- [23:35]
B
Interesting. I'm, I'm a Sierra Nevada fan. I'm. I'm a big fan.
- [23:39]
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, you know, we want crushable beers. We don't do as many super high alcohol beers because in business I need you to have more than one and still be able to drive home and be safe, right?
- [23:51]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [23:52]
C
And in this area, people drink lower abv, Orange County. Oh, my gosh. They'd come in, they wanted the highest abv, they'd slam it, and then they're on to the next thing. Like the rat race out there is so much faster than here.
- [24:03]
B
Yeah, interesting, you know, because when, when we go out of town to work, you know, we work in Paso Robles or, you know, we'll be in Pismo beach or like we'll be traveling around the coast like that to, to work. And you know what, we'll go to different breweries. Usually it's like very close to the hotel or the Airbnb. We can walk or Uber. But I remember, you know, one time, you know, a couple of my guys were drinking like 10 point something. I'm like, what are you guys doing? You know, and like two beers in and they're already done. I'm like, you guys are cut off. You guys are just, oh, you're worthless tomorrow. Yeah. So like there's no, you're done, you know, like, so just drink a normal beer. Have a good time.
- [24:37]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [24:38]
B
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- [25:50]
C
Yeah, and there is, you know, there's some people who, maybe they're slow drinkers or they just like that really big bold flavor and they're going to gravitate towards those 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 beers here. If they hit over 10, we say, hey, you can have two, you're good. Yeah, it doesn't stop them from getting something else on, but it prevents a little bit of a mess later. And then as like, I'm in my 40s now, and now I'm like, damn, that beer sounds great, but it's 9%.
- [26:13]
B
Yeah.
- [26:14]
C
So I'll get like a half four, because I want to try it. And then I'm going to go back to, like, my 6, 7 percenters. If I find a 5 Sakuras 5.5, you know, I can cruise on that, like.
- [26:24]
B
Yeah.
- [26:24]
C
Have a couple or more.
- [26:26]
B
It's refreshing. It's like something you could drink at 10 o' clock in the morning on a Sunday while you're mowing the lawn, you know, you're like, oh, yeah, it's just a chill little. It's like a. It's like a. It's like a session ale, you know?
- [26:37]
C
Yeah, yeah. And those are coming back. People don't love the name session ales, but pale ales, all those, they're making a comeback. Lager is like a beautiful craft lager. That's great. Those are coming back and they're hard. I tell people it's like wearing a white dress. Loggers are so clean and so crisp, and you cannot hide any mistakes in those things. But when they're done right, and they take a lot longer than nail. Most beers that brewers make are ales. IPA is ale, blondes are ales, wheats. Generally, all this is your yeast. Loggers take weeks and weeks longer, sometimes months longer to go through that lagering process. But they're so crisp and so bright and clean. And we're seeing a lot of the pilsners are lagers on. So we. We always try to have some loggers on tap. So it's kind of a struggle as a business. Like, we love them. It's a lot of time. Brewers, it's saying, is a lager, because a crisp and you can drink like six, but they tie up tank space for a lot longer.
- [27:35]
B
Right.
- [27:35]
C
Those are the turnovers back. Oh, the turnover is way slower. And traditionally those could take four to six months to do their full process.
- [27:42]
B
Wow.
- [27:43]
C
But those are making a big comeback because people want comforting, they want crisp, they don't always want super complex.
- [27:48]
B
Yeah. Okay. So let's. We can go on the science probably all night long about that. So you're really good at this. So let's talk about the Sakura Festival. Like. So this is the first one.
- [27:59]
C
This is our first one, I hope, is our first annual.
- [28:01]
B
Yeah. I mean, do you. Are you happy with the turnout?
- [28:03]
C
This is great. People are stoked. They're happy to be here. Having the. The gift of having the Japanese cultural center be here was. It's like just. It just locked it up. We. We were at their grand opening. We were thinking we really Needed to have some fun party for springtime. My daughter went to Japan last year. Obviously, I love Sakura. And so we were like, well, let's. What if we do a cherry blossom festival? My sister in law's dog's name is Sakura.
- [28:27]
B
Oh, fun.
- [28:28]
C
So talking to those guys, having a date that worked for both of us was a challenge. But I was like, they have to be here. Like, everybody needs to know that they're here. Yeah. It's such a cool thing. We're on Oriental Avenue, where the Asian people live when they built the railroad. So it's just like a cool tie in. Plus, it ties in with Earth Day, so we have local farms here. And I don't know, I think it's a really cool thing.
- [28:49]
B
Yeah. So, I mean, from the cultural center to the bonsai, to the Japanese koi fish to like the whole. And these are all straight from Japan. This is not. These are not. These are not Indonesia or. These are not the local ones. They don't. They speak Japanese right here.
- [29:03]
C
These are like first gen. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Yeah. They need a little kimono.
- [29:08]
B
Oh, yeah, you got the kimono people over here.
- [29:10]
C
Oh, my gosh. So you can dress up in a kimono and take pictures, but there's a whole group here in the most gorgeous kimono with the, like, the authentic OB's and the. The shoes. And their hair is done spectacularly. I assume they're here with the center, but I totally took pictures of them. And there's little kids.
- [29:24]
B
Yeah.
- [29:24]
C
And they're little, bro.
- [29:25]
B
They're so happy.
- [29:26]
C
It's so cool. And I don't think we. I've seen so many people take pictures of our decorations as we have this year.
- [29:33]
B
Yeah. This little Photoshop here you got over here is really, really cool. People are gravitating toward it. It's gorgeous.
- [29:38]
C
Our friend Frankie, he's. We tag him on our stuff. He's a local artist, and he was at the bar, and his favorite beer that he usually drinks is Sakura. And I was like, hey, man, we're gonna do this party. And he's like, all right. He's always down. So to paint stuff. Good. He paints murals all over town. He paints high schools. I was like, what do you think of this? I got this sign from a conference that was here at the brewery, and I love keeping junk. And I'm like, can you paint on this and put cherry blossoms? He's like, hell, yeah.
- [30:05]
B
Oh, good.
- [30:05]
C
So he didn't make us one. He made us two of them. He's here Somewhere and he did the whole thing with spray paint.
- [30:11]
B
No kidding.
- [30:11]
C
And then my sister in law did all the other decorations with the flowers and bows and ribbons.
- [30:15]
B
It's all gorgeous. It looks amazing.
- [30:17]
C
We love it. Is this fun?
- [30:18]
B
I hope it is the first annual.
- [30:19]
C
Yeah, I love them.
- [30:21]
B
Cool. What other events are you going to try and do here? Like, like we got to make the most out of this, this location. What are you going to do?
- [30:27]
C
So we are looking at doing music bingo. We already host plant bingo. Next month on May 9th we have our anniversary party.
- [30:35]
B
Okay.
- [30:36]
C
We usually do a summer fest because summertime is fun and you need beer for summer.
- [30:40]
B
Of course.
- [30:41]
C
We always do huge St. Patrick's Day party. People have birthday parties, weddings, retirement parties. We have corporate events that people are having here. The Dental society is renting out the whole building and they have a conference.
- [30:53]
B
Great.
- [30:54]
C
But yeah, and animal adoptions. I'd say if anything that's like really holds my heart is like all the pets that need to be adopted. So we're working to have every Wednesday be a local rescue that comes and they bring their babies. And that way the people in Redlands know, hey, Wednesday night let's go see some of the babies. And even if they're not looking to get a new pet, they can, you know, go give some love to a cat or a dog in need of rescue. That's probably one of our biggest themes for most of our events. Crazy. We don't have a rescue group here today. But some of our events, most of our booths will be all rescues.
- [31:28]
B
Wow. Well, because you're, you're, you love your animals. I mean come on, you had your. What's that Lily? Was that your goat?
- [31:33]
C
Lily? Our little five week old Nigerian goat.
- [31:36]
B
She was adorable.
- [31:37]
C
She's so sweet.
- [31:38]
B
Well, listen, tell like you gave me way too much time for your like you got to get back to your party. I really, really appreciate it. How can people find you?
- [31:46]
C
We are on instagram, facebook and escapecraftbrewery.com Perfect.
- [31:51]
B
Thank you so much. Are you a contractor looking for growth training and to level up your contracting business? If so, join the TWT Contractor Circle. It's our free Facebook group where like minded professionals go to share insights of success, strategies for growth and a place to find some accountability. In fact, we have a powerful accountability call every Friday with a live Q and A session at the end. And whether you're seeking, seeking advice, collaboration or just a supportive community, this is a place for you request to join today and start building a valuable connection with me as well, as our amazing network of contractors, Tango Whiskey Tango. That's TWT Contractor Circle on Facebook. I'll see you on the inside. Now back to the show. Man, I just love conversations like that. You know, I feel like I didn't get enough time with her. Going to have to get her back on the show one of these days soon where maybe it's a little bit more of a quiet environment and not so busy and on the move, so we can just dive in a little bit deeper on conversations like that. So I really appreciate your ears and attention the show. I hope you had a good time with us today. And listen back to this beer. It's easy to look at something like a beer and just enjoy it for what it is, but when you actually understand the thought and the science and the intention behind hits, totally different. And now the next time you sip one of these beers or your favorite beer, whatever it may be, I highly recommend you get over to Escape brewery and try out this Sakura beer that we're talking about. But, like, the next time you, you're, you're just going to think differently about it. And a big shout out to Melissa over there at Escape for taking time like in this busy event, and there's friends and family everywhere, and for her to sit down with us at that time was really cool. So I love the fact that she just, like, broke it down for us and, you know, gave us a peek behind the curtain of how they make all those things happen. And the real takeaway for me is whether it's beer or ponds or whatever your business is, the magic is always in the details. The people who win are the ones who care just a little bit more about the process than everyone else. So if you got value from this, whether you're into craft beers or business or just learning how things actually work, do me a favor, share the episode with a friend, a family member, a co worker, you know, a borracho, a beer connoisseur, you know, someone that you know that would really dig the conversation. That's how this show grows. That's how things get bigger. And if you're a contractor and you're looking to level up in your business, not just your business, but you yourself, make sure you stay connected with us over on Facebook in the TWT contractor circle, the links in the show notes, you can jump on over there and join our little group. And, you know, we're constantly talking about getting better. We have an accountability call every Friday. So the accountability call hits every Friday, 9:00am Pacific Standard Time. And whether, you know, we're. We're, like, either sharpening our skills or we're dialing in our communications and we're just all becoming better versions of ourselves across the board. So I appreciate you guys. Thanks again. Rockstars. Until the next one. I'll catch you on the next download, Sam.