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My first experience, home brewing

was before it was legal.

I did it with my dad.

He brought home some yeast from the brewery.

And he brought home some hops

and we made a beer and I thought it was so cool.

You know when, the yeast brought the beer to life.

And it started to bubble

and you got that foam on the top of it.

And it had that wonderful bready, estuary smell.

And I was in love.

There's some young brewers in the industry that never knew

a time when they couldn't just walk into a bar

and get a good beer.

40, 50 years ago, American beer was the laughing stock

of the global beer community.

And now it is sought after.

Most interesting place for beer in the world

is the United States.

Craft Brewing is a uniquely American phenomenon.

The American breaking of traditions

is arguably one of our most potent skills.

Cheers.

The Craft Beer movement started out as a growth

of the American home brewing movement.

The American home brewing movement grew out of

a desire for different beer.

What we were setting up to do

was being very disruptive.

You can do what you want,

you don't have to follow the rules.

There's a lot of using

the tools of the process and ingredients

to express yourself through this liquid medium.

It's not producing widgets, that's you know

producing something's that's got romance and character

and all feeling and a soul.

It's fun to do things differently.

I love that we create something.

We're artists and we're making liquid art.

I just want to make beer.

Is that good? You should put that in your movie.

Try not to bend over in front of the camera.

The magic home brewing, is getting to drink

something that you made.

Something that you created and tailored

to what you thought a beer should taste like.

Usually have brew schedules set out

three months in advance.

Where I'm just like, okay these are the recipes

I need to work on.

These are recipes that I wanna try, that are new.

For this batch I did 45 percent distilled water.

But I built it back up with gypsum, calcium chloride

and Epsom salt.

And still like my match PH isn't perfect, so.

I started home brewing, I don't know, I was

slowly getting interested in craft beer.

My passion for beer was just continuously growing and then

I saw there was a home brewing form.

I kept reading more and more.

Actually doesn't seem that hard.

Oh, watch this part. It's the fun part.

You know the first batch was brewing

on a stove top and...

it was terrible.

It's still like one of the worst beers I ever made

and instead of like giving up

I kind of just, well, what did I do wrong?

And I did everything wrong.

The inconvenient part about doing this?

This is the community laundry room.

I enjoy making beer.

I don't know, if your this interested

in the process of making beer, you should just do it at home.

And then if you realize that

it's just all consuming.

It just does not end.

It was really surprising to me when I started

learning about beer, how simple

the ingredients are.

It's four ingredients right, water, malt, hops and yeast.

But it's so hard to make a great beer.

The process of making beers

fundamentally the process of life itself.

And it starts with a kernel of barley.

By soaking the barley, seed in water,

it starts to grow and germinate.

As we crack open the grain in the mill.

Get it wet and keep it warm for just a little bit.

Separate the liquid or the wort as it's called

from the grain.

Wort is the essentially unfermented beer.

You boil it, you add some hops, which incorporates bitterness.

Cool that liquid down, add yeast, ferment.

And these yeast micro-organisms produce alcohol

and the bubbles and the flavor of beer.

That's how you make beer.

When we come back, is the next competition,

which is American Pale Ale.

Alright, so this was an American Barley wine.

This one ended up around 11 and a half to 12.

With the Long beach Home Breweries which I'm apart of

is a glorious gathering of typically home breweries

where each person brings in something that they brewed.

So this was my first attempt at home brewing and...

Brewers are the same all over the world.

We are interested in the flavors of beer.

We're interested in sharing good beer with our friends.

We're interested in sharing the information so everybody

can enjoy, you know these new styles and these new flavors.

I use a citrus Simcoe in my whirlpool of citrus Simcoe

and I dry hocked it with eight ounces.

When you make homebrew you put yourself into it.

Your personality, your love.

Your effort.

That emerges when you drink it.

No other industry in the world is like this.

Nobody says, oh, here's my like super amazing burger.

Here's all my ingredients and how I assemble it.

Like that's just not a thing.

It's Barley Wine.

Being part of a club, at least for me

and I think for most people there is that

sense of community.

You can hear a lot of people talk about it.

You drive one another, you inspire one another.

And you push each other

towards mastering a lot more, than you might on your own.

Hey, good beer.

Thank you, man.

I think it has to do with the nature of beer

and the ability to open people up.

It promotes communication and connection.

Come on baby, that's it.

Look at that.

That's better.

Is that high now?

We are going to be high.

My relationship with my dad now is really grown

and is really come along a lot better than where it use to be.

Back when I was a teenager, back when I was younger.

Was a chronicle Eire.

Just didn't care.

We had a tumultuous period through high school.

I was stooping.

I didn't listen to anyone, especially him.

He got pretty bad sometimes.

To the point where we would get into fist fights.

We would get down to knock out, try out sometimes.

I remember one time I punched him right in the face.

I was so mad.

He got me real good once.

Got a nice shiner from it.

He had a black eye, just like that.

I was like, oh, what have I done?

That was pretty much my time when I said alright

you know what I'm done with this, I'm out.

It wasn't long after that,

that he came back from a trip, from Oregon.

Where he first discovered home brew.

In the house, I remember smelling it.

And I was like, what the heck is going on here?

This is weird, so I walk into the kitchen

like what are you doing, he's like I'm making beer.

Alright, well, do you need a hand with anything?

That was kind of a turning point for both of us.

We have a common interest

and it was kind of the science

and kind of the artistic things that we would

create together.

It's interesting you just find that one thing

that speaks to you and really

changes the way how you think about the world around you.

Think about your own life.

Ooh, look at all that.

Is that good stuff?

It's, every recipe we do, every brew day that we do,

it's a collaboration between the two of us.

He has things that he likes about some beers,

I have things that I like about some beers.

What's been great, is we find this, like,

perfect middle between the two.

And it usually turns out pretty good.

And yeah...

We got a lot of awards in there.

Yeah there's a bunch of them up there.

In the 70's.

When I began my home brewing journey.

The American public was not tuned in

to appreciating the concept of individuality

and flavors and diversity in beverages.

I was a kid during the 1950's and grew up

with TV dinners, frozen dinners.

Velveeta cheese, Wonder Bread.

All the commoditized stuff that was so cool.

Post-World War II.

Industrialization and homogenization was hot and sexy.

People wanted to go away from

the rustic breads that made them feel like an immigrant.

Towards a white bread,

that made them feel like they fit into suburbia

and they could be like everyone else.

Hamburger, beer. better get another pack.

A lot of different styles of beer got

kind of homogenized down into

American Lager.

You know a very easy drinking, not very bitter,

not too sweet, you know, kind of beer.

It was this vision of a perfect world.

That was absolutely unobtainable.

My generation of baby boomers who grew up

and realized that the world we're living in

is a little bit fakey.

As the counter culture numbers rises up in certain sections

and people start to rebel against aspects of society

There is a whole wing of it that rebelled

against blandness in food.

You know there was a desire to kind of remake ourselves.

As every generation does, to try

and find their own way.

To try and correct the wrongs of their parent's generation.

There really was this culture of, let's make our own bread.

Let's plant a garden.

Let's make beer.

Are you excited about opening a brewery?

Are you going to work there?

It's mostly you that's doing it.

It's mostly me that's doing it, yeah.

- Yes. - Don't tell Eric.

- Oh, hi. - Hi.

I think we first started putting the plans together...

I can look at my spreadsheet.

Yeah it's on the spreadsheet, probably 2011.

Was when we, it went from like, wouldn't it be cool

to, okay what are we going to do here and

we got, the three of us got together

and Michael the partner that's not here,

made a checklist.

And so we wrote the business plan,

did the research for over a year.

And as much money as we are paying for it,

it's really...

similar to what you're doing here.

It's a very basic, user friendly system.

It'll be pretty manually intensive.

You not gonna be rolling in and just pressing a button...

- No. - And getting beer out

of the other end.

Try not to spill on you.

Oh, yeah.

Beer is what we're doing.

But we are fascinated with craft everything.

This will be the brewery.

Yes, it's pretty gross right now.

This used to be a C&R Clothiers.

And then after that it was a 98 Cent store.

We're going to cut drains into the floor here.

Brine system, bright tanks.

We are going to build a room here.

We're gonna be one of those weird breweries

that uses plastic fermenters.

You know, we going to keep the sink.

We're kind of a, if it ain't broke, don't fix it

stage right now.

Some ballerina is gonna have a broken heart.

Why the mirrors are broken.

I was 16 when we first started playing the clubs in the area.

With real big fish.

My family's all musicians

and then my grandfather was a composer

and played every instrument, Trombone in World War II.

And he would always tell me, don't be a musician.

You're going to be really poor and it's a crazy lifestyle.

That's for me!

So I joined a band in high school

and we were touring around the local area playing clubs

and the Ska scene started to get pretty big in the area.

With Sublime and No Doubt.

We got picked up by a label in 96 and made our record

and hit the road.

♪ Nobody likes your girlfriend ♪

♪ Sorry I had to break it to you man ♪

♪ Everybody hates your girlfriend ♪

You know we'd go town to town and by the last probably

five or six years I was in the band,

we would say okay, there's this brewery here, that brewery here

and we can hit three before sound check.

You know then we'd roll into sound check after six beers.

Let's do this, we only need two beers on stage for sound check

And then we'd be like, alright we got like four more hours

before the show.

And so then we'd either go back to our favorite one

or find a couple more.

I left in 2013.

It was like, of course, I'm gonna start a brewery.

I can't wait till we're open and they can come in and...

and hangout, we went to so many breweries together, they're like

that will be like the crowning achievement,

when they're hanging out in here and we're having beers

and it's like see where all those nights I'd

be sitting in the back lounge with a joint going, no man

my brewery though

is going to look like this.

And I was totally wrong.

In the 70's nobody talked about beer.

You bought a six pack of it.

There was nothing to talk about and you drank it.

At that period and time, it was the low point

of the U.S. growing industry in recent times.

There were fewer than 50 brewing companies

in the whole country.

And they were all making the same kind of beer.

They were all making light lager beer.

So it set the stage for beer lovers

and home brewers to begin explore the history of beer.

And the rainbow of beer styles that had been forgotten.

This is Anchor Steam Beer.

It's a firm bodied beer.

With a clean maltiness

and especially a very assertive hop character.

But sort of in the middle there

was a guy named Fritz Maytag.

Got himself in San Francisco Bay area

and became fascinated with a kind of run down old

old brewery, called Anchor.

They made a beer called, Steam Beer.

When I bought the brewery,

they were taking short cuts to save money.

To desperately try to compete and make a profit.

In those days they used sugar in the kettle

to stretch the brew.

It's cheaper and it's also less flavorful.

It makes a lighter, thinner, plainer beer.

So we eliminated all these shortcuts and we went

to an all malt, highly hopped

utterly pure, naturally carbonated fiber.

There was nothing like it in America

and almost really nothing like it in the world.

In the sense how traditional it was.

There's no doubt that Fritz Maytag

was in it to make money.

But he became evidence that

here is a beer that is different.

This guy is actually making a living at it.

And after we began to make a mark for ourselves,

we began to get visits from people who

obviously was maybe thinking

about trying to do what we had done.

You know seeing what Fritz had done with Anchor

in San Francisco and really you know sort of

refined a historic style of beer.

His Steam Beer.

We realize was more probably of those niches that

we could find people who love beer with character and flavor.

Because he does this.

And, no!

No.

I never had it.

No, still don't.

We're doing the whole thing, that's why I'm here sanding.

We didn't really want to give up control

of any part of it, so...

decided we'll go for it and do it ourselves.

Uh, 14

- Fifteen, 16. - From this line to that wall.

About 16 feet long, that's all cold room.

Then this is the brew house area back here.

You see the model over and over again.

The finance guy, the brewer and the jack of all trades.

And this is the jack of all trades and the brewer.

And the jack of some trades.

Of most trades.

And brewing.

There's still some trades I'm working on.

I might actually be able to get that certification at work.

- A crane? - A crane, yes.

- I'll ask about it. - You know what?

I think I'll just go for the experienced crane operator.

Whatever.

I just got my license.

It's just a thought, maybe save us some money.

Okay well, I like the thinking.

Just not sure the process.

See the backlash I get when I try to save us some money.

- Get sanding. - Yes.

I'll do it, it's just not going to be good.

So this is a 1964 King 2B Trombone.

Considered one of the better vintage jazz horns you can get.

And I beat the shit out of it, like a monster.

In A Ska band.

There's still a real big fish in there somewhere.

These are my first home brews.

October 2009.

I had come back from England and there's these

sort of tea cakes, called Jaffa Cakes, which are like

orange jelly and dark chocolate on a little cookie thing.

And I was like, what if that was a beer man.

So I made a chocolate stout

and I put orange in it, orange peel

and because I couldn't leave it well enough alone.

Oh, ginger that is what that last word is.

Added coriander and ginger, didn't need it.

While Danny was touring the world

and being a rock star

and drinking all the brew that I wanted to drink.

I was staying at home, working in a cubicle.

And brewing every weekend.

I'd go on tour and I'd come back three months later

and he would of brewed like twenty beers

and I'm you know, I pull mine out of the...

that didn't turn out so well, it sat around for three months

and it's terrible.

Okay so you be the brewer.

I'll be the guy that does everything else, you know.

Quickly learned that, that was way too much for me.

So I talked to my buddy Michael,

who's always had a head for figures.

My goal is just to keep

things running smoothly in the background.

So databases, finances.

All the stuff, kind of behind the scenes.

Eric obviously, Eric's task is basically straightforward.

Brew beer.

Danny is the face.

Face man.

♪ I like beer cause it is good ♪

♪ I drink beer Because it's good ♪

So Michael and I know each other a long time.

We've been best friends a long time.

I've known Danny since the seventh grade.

Mike and I had a punk band in high school called Flaburgassam.

And we didn't wear pants.

♪ Beer is good ♪

Flabbergasm.

Best band of all time.

So we had tighty whities

and glitter motorcycle helmets.

We'd go to Del Taco on the way to the gig

and we'd each get a Macho Combo Burrito

and stuff it in the front of the underwear.

So that while we'd play

like meat and sour cream would run down our legs.

Yes, that didn't catch on with other bands.

Oh, it was horrible and great, all at the same time.

That day when Fritz discovered that Anchor was gonna shut down

and he invested his own money to keep it going,

that is actually when the

American Craft beer revolution starts.

He did as much as anybody

to create craft brewing in the United States,

but he just wasn't a role model for us.

We couldn't go out and buy a brewery.

And you know, put a million dollars into it.

And then of course, there's the example of Jack

New Albion, that was the first start-up Craft Brewery.

The whole idea of making beer on a small scale

was a brand new idea.

There were six of us that opened between 1976 and 1981

and that included New Albion and River City Brewing

in Sacramento and DeBakker Brewing

down in Novato.

And Boulder Brewing Company, just a handful of us that

really were home brewers.

Trying to get into the commercial brewing business.

Anybody who started out in craft brewing,

will tell you the same story.

They really loved making beer

and they really wanted people to drink it,

but they discovered they were spending most of their time

functioning as a teacher.

A consumer was so use to a beer with very little flavor

and very little character.

Our beer was a shock to the system.

People either hated it or loved it.

Probably 80 or 90 percent of the people hated it at the time,

it was hoppy and fairly strong.

A lot of aroma.

Seeing what Siera was doing and of course

knowing about Anchor.

And sort of figuring whatever happens on the West Coast

is going to happen here, five to ten years later.

Cause it's really this whole movement that goes of

you know, better food.

You know real bread coming now

and better cheese.

And America now has good wine.

Well, America can now have good beer.

Oh, baby.

Oh, that's the one right there.

That looks good from here.

- It's a really good one. - Yes.

Oh, baby.

You ain't got that one.

I got to get it past that log.

Oh, that's a good throw.

Keep going.

- Is this occupied? - Yes.

Bummer.

This is Ten Mile Creek.

This is where we

named our brewery after.

We've seen floods come through here.

We've seen fire come through here.

This is...

this is the common thread that kind of runs through

generations of our family.

That's the common thread

and the fact that this is a tribute area to Hume

which is a, which is

part of the more intricate story of we

really support the ministry of Hume

and what they're doing in the world.

And we consider ourelves at tributary to that too.

Beer can kind of be a...

I don't want to offend any of my beer loving friends out there,

but it can be a dirty kind of gritty place sometimes.

And...

that's a place where not a lot of Christians want to go.

They want to distance themselves to it.

Where we want to dive into it.

In opening a brewery, it's really about the bigger picture

of sharing with the world.

We not there to proselytize anybody.

We just want to know that we care about you.

And god cares about you.

And we want to share that.

That's really the big picture.

Water is a very important component of beer.

Different water characters, that is the different mineral

characters, of different water sources

can have a very large effect on the way that the beer

is perceived by the pallet.

Beer styles historically

evolved around the availability and the affect that their water

had on the beer.

If you were in London, you couldn't brew

a Pale Ale style so well, cause the water

had to carbonate, so you brew a darker style of beer.

If you were in the hills, in Tjeko-Slovakia

with super soft water, a different style

of lager beer evolved there.

Brewed with pure rocky mountain spring water, it embodies

all the goodness of the high country.

Coors, you know an example, a very soft

you know malty, grainy flavor.

That's why Coors is America's Fine Light Beer.

Today we understand water comes through at a high level

so we can make water like any one of those locations.

Brewers are turning to a water system, such as reverse osmosis

and ionic exchange to strip the water of those minerals.

And then build it back up to a particular mineral level.

- What the heck? - Uh-oh.

Okay.

Looks great.

It's a lot of work, especially when you doing it yourself.

And being self-funding, I just can't afford

to have five contractors in here working all the time.

But I'm a very hands on guy

so I'll do as much as I can here.

And...

I have a hole in the ground with a bunch of dirt.

Oh!

- Hey just so you know. - Yes.

I got these out, but I've just pulled them out

cause anything along here is probably going to kill you.

The owner is doing a lot of work here

and that translates financially to us saving money.

But what we didn't think about was the owner's

timetable and motivation.

The worst case, at least that's there.

We signed the lease in July and now that it is December

says the date on my Analog watch.

Not too much has happened.

- You understand? - Yes.

This is gonna be...

Dude, get out of the bathroom.

Hey man.

- What? - What's happening?

You're pooping.

2008 we had Melana Daizie Reagan.

You know, we thought we could handle it.

Okay, I'll just keep going on tour

and someday we'll talk about maybe getting a job

and leaving this life.

And years went on and we got pregnant with

another child.

And I was like okay, this is going to be too much.

It smells like murder in there dude, you sure you just pooped?

The dad thing kicks in and you just have to provide.

Something with benefits, you know 9 to 5 kind of hours

that I could use to sort

of sure up the family situation

and then really get to work on the brewery.

Sadie go sort this out.

Carrots or grapes?

So I kissed the wife goodbye.

I applied and got a job at the chancellor's office, Long Beach.

And I'm on the finance floor, opening mail,

fixing computers.

Writing memo's, correcting people's spelling.

Went from like waking up at three in the afternoon

and smoking a bowl.

To waking up at six in the morning,

well dressed, just jump right in.

Now I want the relatively mellow life.

Of a brewery owner.

I think most craft brewers will tell you

that the early days were incredibly stressful.

I had been working at a bike shop part time

during the whole construction period of the brewery

in order to make some money and pay my rent.

Then buy food.

I like to say that I was insane

for ten years and I'm not kidding.

I didn't dare think about it, I was determent not to fail.

And not to make a fool of myself.

Okay.

You didn't have a light that was buzzing?

That was it.

Yes, maybe can you...

Did Rick get up and do something to it?

Rick just disconnected it, so it will stop making the noise.

- Okay that's right. - Super exclusion.

Got it.

- This is the solution. - Awesome.

- Okay. - Thank you.

I'm the facilities director

at Bethany Church here in Long Beach now.

Been there for 15 years.

I'm an IT guy.

I'm a carpenter, I'm an electrician, I'm a plumber.

I do budgets, I, it's just a little bit of everything.

I've been here...

15 years.

Before that I was a photographer for about 22 years.

A commercial photographer.

Catalogue's, magazines.

Actually worked for Anne House R. Bush

for an amount of time which was kind of interesting.

But I ended up doing a lot of food photography.

So I ended up working with like Michel Richard.

And worked with Wolfgang Puck

and John Sedlar,

all these kind of 80s great chefs.

So just got to learn a lot of the food world

which kind of lead to the beer world in a way.

Just the science and the

you know mixing of flavors and tastes.

It's just something I always loved.

I think there's an endless relationship

between food and beer.

Almost every brewer I know, is also

phased about playing around in the kitchen.

Here Johnnie.

Our heavenly Father I thank you for our food tonight

and I thank you again for our family and I thank

you for blessing us and pray that you will guide us

and direct us in our brewery project.

And just give us wisdom.

And the knowledge to do the things we need to do.

We ask this in your name, amen.

Who is it?

Sprout?

- Two one. - Oh, god.

Nice.

They talk to get like how dad and I collaborate on recipes,

that's how they did it.

Do you really love it?

- We do. - He's like, "Yes. We do."

We collaborate and I decide.

No.

We definitely collaborate.

Why you smiling?

It's all me.

I knew it.

Jesse's stuff is out the window.

No we talked it through.

The thing is to drink heavily while cooking.

Miss each other?

Hello.

Hello.

Liberation, Liberation Brewing Company.

Yeah, we were running through ideas

for the name of the brewery.

And we wanted something that was like a punch in the face.

It fit Danny's general outlook on life, Liberation.

He likes conspiracy theories

and fighting the man.

You know, socialist.

Hey Eric, I'm going to put this out there

because you and me, we're going to double straw this.

I'm leaving now.

I want Liberation to be Long Beach's brewery.

And it helps that the acronym is LBC.

That's what people know Long Beach as.

And a place where you can go community right.

We have this action packed name like Liberation Brewing Company.

I didn't expect Charlie to bring his entire farm.

I remember when we first started talking about this, we...

I mean it was all about the public house.

That was the thought, right?

The public house was the center of Irish and early American

culture going back centuries.

The American Revolution was fermented,

if you want to say, in public houses.

A bunch of dudes in wigs sitting around yelling about

how stupid England was.

That's what we kind of imagine happening around here.

Well, thanks for coming to another

wonderful friends giving.

And I just want to say we love having you here

and we love you all and cheers.

Cheers.

Malted barley wants to become beer.

Malted barley is

barley that's been soaked, sprouted, germinated and dried.

It's steeped in water and it begins to grow

and it converts it hard starch

to soluble starch

and that soluble starch

is a value to a brewer.

Malting is germination,

but on a large scale, in a really controlled way.

So they're not creating a barley plant.

We're just changing the physical

and chemical composition of the grain.

We'll start the germination process in the tanks.

That's where it starts, rehydrate it,

it starts to germinate and then before it really

starts to get cranking,

we'll pull it out and spread it on the floor.

Depends on the style of grain, but anywhere

from four to six days to fully modify

the grain and we'll stop it by taking it off the floor

and putting it in the Kiln.

You dry off moisture to stop the embryo

from growing and preserve all the ensigns that

you developed during the malting process

and then create color and flavor.

There's amino acids from the proteins

that are in Malted Barley.

That's generated mostly in that malting process

that aren't existed in the barley itself in the field.

And it makes a super grade nutrient, medium for yeast.

We just finished the CAP.

- It's going right now. - Okay.

Thanks, I need hoses for the back.

I'll let packaging know that we

need those hoses as soon as they're done.

Okay.

These are the old Bright Tanks, all 60 Barrel.

The Brewhouse is 30 Barrel, so they double batch into them.

R.O. Water Tanks.

It's, Dude's distributes to multiple states

It's like it's one of the larger independently owned

craft breweries in L.A.

Today I have to pull off ten barrels

of the Sarah Kettle Beer that we do.

We're going to do ten barrels with a different fruit.

The normal version gets peach.

This one is going to be blueberry.

Would you ever add flavors to your beer

after it's been fermented?

No, I don't even want to put fruit in my beer.

Monday was actually my two year anniversary here.

Which is surreal.

Before that two more years at Ohana.

Liberation was, I think was more a day dream at that point.

I think everybody starts working in a brewery with that thought.

That someday they'll have their own place.

This is definitely a job that I really enjoy.

But, it's not my business, so...

Right?

Stroke the bear, a few styles

that we're going to have at The Beerfest.

- Like straw? - Lager!

- I was gonna say lager. - Not enough time.

I know, but that's not who we voting for.

IPA?

No I wouldn't do the IPA,

cause you guys have not mastered that yet.

Go with the Pale Ale.

Tell me I'm wrong?

- You're wrong. - you are wrong.

Then you're both wrong,

cause you have not mastered it yet.

You not have the Rye?

- No. - Catcher in the Rye?

Well, there you go.

I haven't had it, it doesn't count.

The Rye IPA, it was amazing.

Okay the last I heard, you said, you hadn't mastered it,

have we moved past that?

- We moved past that. - Okay.

Can I try the lager?

Absolutely.

Ah, it's so tropical.

- You the brewer? - Yes.

Smells great.

Until you get into the late 1980s, there really

wasn't anything you could call a beer scene.

Charlotte Perpaysion was that first guy

who forsaw the possibility of creating

a community around beer.

In 1981, I guess I drank enough beer to come up with the idea

of wouldn't it be great

to have a Great American Beer Festival

and celebrate the best of American beer.

800 people attended.

Sold out.

We had about 20 breweries, 40 beers.

And that was the seed for a lot

of what beer festivals are these days.

JBF helped change the conversation

about beer in America.

Because it introduced a previously

unknown consideration, which is quality.

I went to JBF 2015

when I was still with Ohana.

It was unreal

like you cannot bath am how big JBF is.

We all come together and we get to exchange

war stories and experiences

with other craft brewers.

The gold medal goes to Triumph...

You get medals for who brews the best beer,

different categories, different styles.

You know amicable competition.

If somebody's beer beats out yours, you immediately

want to go try it, yes, it's really good.

It's a big part of the

the culture of craft beer in America.

I gave notice today

at my regular job.

That at the beginning of April I would be leaving

and so heading over here full time.

Little nervous, kind a letting go of the rope

and hopefully the safety net's is going to catch.

It's the future of my kids, future of my family,

future of my grandkids.

It's got to work.

I love being able to bring my son out here

and be with my dad and my brother.

You know it's watching my dad's dream come true

which you know satisfies us

and it's fun.

It's going to be on the name.

This whole business is operated by family right now.

It's my dad and I, it's my mom.

It's my brother and his son coming, it's my wife

doing all of our branding and all of our visuals.

My sister, kind of guess helping out with

social media, what is Emma doing, I don't even know.

Take your foot off the stop.

Last call.

Hops are like little,

for my weed smoking brothers out there

they're actually related to weed,

so their like little nuggets, they're little pine cones

and what you're trying to get are the oils and things

that are down near the middle of them.

You have to add the hops, to balance out the sweetness

of the beer, of the wort.

Generally speaking and certainly in craft brewing

you would add hops at mainly three different stages.

Early for bitterness, to balance out the sweetness of the malt.

Middle boil, for a little bit of bitterness,

a little bit of flavor, a little bit of aroma.

And then at the very end

or even a little bit later in the brewing process

for aromas.

Adding hops at the final hot stages

you get different hop and aroma flavors that are

carry over into the beer and you even get

more interesting hop aromas and flavors

if you introduce hops into the fermentation process.

Alright.

So we're about to go in.

You're going to have to watch your step,

it's very dangerous inside.

It's like Belgium in World War One.

It's like a tomb, a lot of freshly dug earth

and you know corpses.

I'm going to cruise to the back.

Open up the doors, so the fella's can get in.

Intense security system here.

Oh, hello!

I can't believe this is actually happening.

This morning, the correct

air conditioning units were placed on the roof.

It's been, this is the third attempt.

That's on the owner, but it's about par for the course

with this guy.

We had to make sure that this got saved.

Every day I think, it couldn't possibly get worse.

It couldn't possibly be more difficult,

like if this was, if we were doing a documentary right now

they're would be that moment in the documentary where...

Where the AC Unit collapses.

Where the guy is like I hit rock bottom

and I had this moment and it all started to turn around.

And every time it gets worse I'm like

maybe this is that moment,

maybe it will all start to turn around

So far

that's not the case.

It's good to get some beer though.

Every time I try the beer, I think that's why.

That's why I don't sleep.

That's why we're still at it.

I think for anybody that's going into their own business,

having a passion for what you do,

that's what carries you through and you're willing to work

seven days a week and 12 hours a day

and just put every fiber of your soul into the thing.

Oh, my gosh.

Look at that.

Oh, my gosh.

So we just got our shipment today

of our fermenters.

These containers have been

closed and sealed from China.

So this is the first anyone state side has seen it.

Okay, cue the music.

And we've been waiting for seven months now

since we ordered these.

Come on, son.

It's been extremely

exciting today.

I mean it gets kind of crazy, all our emotions and attitudes.

We're kind of on adrenalin right now.

Yes.

Okay hold it right there.

Hi.

Yeah.

Our GC said things are going to happen really fast

when the concrete gets poured.

He was not joking, like all the dry wall,

most of the dry wall is up.

They started fabricating the walls.

I actually had a very minor

anxiety attack yesterday,

because I think on Friday Mike goes we're gonna do these

soft openings, but we got to make sure you know

the beers that we have are like the home brand beers.

Aren't all my beers, home brand beers?

I was just trying to deal with that.

Like it wasn't bad that he said that,

it was just like it's really happening.

There's never been a single beer style that's captivated

the excitement of a general populist

as the IPA style.

You know I tried my first IPA and I was like this is terrible,

bitter and horrible.

I was like, that's a lot of hops.

Taste like your cat ate your weed

and peed on your Christmas tree.

You know IPA is depended on having a lot of hops.

The hops have gone from

more of a bitterness only aspect

to more emphasis on aroma.

And today's IPA really is a kind of invention

of the American home brewer.

Initially when we were making beer

as home brewers in the '70s.

People valued hops only for their bitterness.

Bitter wasn't a big flavor component.

Hops weren't a big flavor component.

But that began to change when home brewers

started getting fresh hops

and using them in ways that were not

typically used.

And all of the sudden there was value

in the flavor and aroma of hops.

Until recently

almost all the hops in this country were grown

for one thing and one thing only.

And that was the amount of Alpha acid they had in it.

Alpha acid is just the chemical compounds

when they are boiled during the brewing process,

become that bittering.

That we associate with them.

You want to walk up to the original Simcoe field?

Yes.

We were developing hop rise looking for high production,

high alpha acid.

And when we did that, one of the plants we developed

turned out to be Simcoe.

And we thought it was a high alpha hop originally.

It had very high production and it had

pretty high alpha acids, maybe in the 13, 13 and a half percent

this was back in the mid '80s.

There's not a lot of high alpha hops being grown.

It had a nice aroma, but that isn't the reason

we bread it and we took it out to brewers

to look at and none of the big brewers were interested.

And a Vinnie from Russian River

probably was the one guy

that really pushed Simcoe.

Simcoe was this brand new hop variety, that had I experimented

with, when it was just an experimental pop.

Didn't even have a name yet, it was such a beautiful

grapefruit and pine and the little pungent

quality to it.

I remember pulling it out of the fermenter and smelling it

and going this beer doesn't even need to be dried hop

it was so aromatic.

Pliny the Elder was based primarily on Sincoe.

You know I love that Pliny carries this,

this greatness of big flavors and hop components

and it's very American hops,

pine and the citrus and the grapefruit and whatever else

is what we capture from the hops.

Hard to believe today, that this field

15 years ago lied idle and today there will be

something north of seven million pounds of Simcoe

growing in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

That should do it.

Two more sets.

I told you, I can't wait till these things break in.

Going from the system we were on, I mean it's

we literally built every square inch of it.

So we knew every little minuet thing about it.

This...

This I mean we put some pipes together where they

told us to put it together, but...

other than that it's we don't know anything about.

Worked just fine yesterday.

- That was at like a 170 right? - Yeah.

With the Homebrew system,

it's a couple stirs and you know throw

in some come cool or hot water

and everything kind of stabilizes quickly.

Here it's, you know

massive amounts.

This is a boiler.

- Alright. - Whoo-hoo.

Dad, take a step back.

- Yes, it's boiling now. - Oh, good.

Alright, go for it.

Here we go.

- This is the mash tank. - Yeah, I think so.

Is it going to tilt?

Woo!

One more.

Someone is buying Joe a beer after this, right?

Joe almost got cut in half by the door.

After a year they're finally in here.

Yes, it's great.

Okay where you at for your strike water inside?

How much you got?

Yes, we're a good four inches.

Are we 152 on this?

150.

Let's try to keep that blind water off as much as we can.

Try to keep that blind water off.

Well, we're already hot.

What?

I can really smell the difference.

You having trouble hearing today?

Well, yes there is a lot of stuff going on,

you got to speak up.

I usually don't have to talk like that.

I understand what you're saying.

- You're mocking me. - Uh-huh.

So you heard that just fine.

Young people's ears.

All those concerts have ruined them.

What?

See.

The igniter goes on and it's good.

Yeah.

Nothing just happens.

- Ready? - Yeah.

Zero, one.

You can hear the gas.

Yeah, um, everything started out pretty smooth,

but the burner wasn't turning on.

It's very hard work to open a brewery.

You're standing on the shoulders of all the people

who went down before you.

A lot of people who didn't make it,

almost all of them were home brewers.

And they didn't make it, because the number one lesson

that every beer maker had to learn right away, was

you can make a great batch on the stove,

but scaling up becomes problematic.

Almost instantly.

Alright, so...

I remember it was a lot of hard work.

I'd have to build a tank, buy a tank.

Design a new room.

Build the room.

We were putting in our cold room and found

a little butcher's shop.

And the guy would butcher chickens on the side

and he had this little cooler I think I paid 50 bucks for it

and I was rebuilding this fan coil and I opened the thing up

and it was just full of feathers and blood.

We were out of money and the thing was all corroded.

I remember thinking, boy, did I make a mistake.

I remember one, Contract Brew.

That's also one of the discussion items.

Oh, and number two is...

Um, so Eric and I have been chatting nonstop

for the last two days about this.

Um, looks like plan A uh, isn't gonna happen.

Well, I saw the text, so...

The problem is, we don't know what's in the filter.

And what else? We can't control the temperature?

Yeah.

We didn't know four weeks ago, when we first talked about this,

- they didn't have a filter? - No, we didn't. No.

I don't know what to tell you. We didn't know.

If we can get something done somewhere else,

- it's probably better. - We should not be taking a risk

on our first impression.

Like, breweries used to have that six-month learning curve,

where you could get away with total shit.

- Mm-hmm. - That doesn't exist anymore.

We've known that we wanted a contract brew,

and, like, we're just now making a list? What the fuck?

I mean, why don't we have this figured out already?

I'm telling you right now, if he walks out that door,

I am never coming back.

Come on, dude.

I'm not sure what your goal was in calling it out like that.

I have been on this for weeks, man.

We need to have beer to open for business.

It doesn't just...

We don't have the time for fucking kid gloves.

I mean, we've had Clay delay our asses for a year.

I apologize for walking out.

Naw. We kept yelling at each other.

Yeah.

I'll be honest... you're probably

the most obnoxious person I know.

Uh...

it works.

We need someone like you. I need someone like you.

Do you... look at me.

Oh, so you're allowed to be upset, but I'm not?

You are constantly upset.

- Let's move on. - I'll stand up for stuff more,

instead of just trying to make peace with everybody, so...

- We need that, too. - Yeah.

And we'll be here tomorrow.

- Okay. - We don't need to be here?

Yeah. He knows the deal.

I think you gave him the code.

I'll be seeing you a lot. I'm Kevin.

- Okay, I'm Dan. - I'm usually the one around.

Okay, good to see you. Thanks, Kevin.

- Be seeing you a lot. - You guys take it easy.

All right.

Finally.

I haven't seen how these get delivered yet.

Oh, it's magic.

Nice and cold... oh, yeah.

Ice packs that are still frozen.

And big Pure Pitches.

Nice. You see that, Jess?

Nice.

All righty.

Mmm, yeast. The guys who actually do the work.

So, yeast is a single-cell organism

that is part of the fungus group,

like mushrooms, and a lotta molds.

But it exists as a single cell, and it feeds on sugar.

The yeast we use not only gives us the alcohol

and the CO2,

they also give us so much of the flavor,

the fruitiness, which is essential for a beer.

Yeast can completely reshape a beer.

Like, if you smell a Belgian-style beer,

and you're like, "This smells like this has clove in it.

Did you put clove in here?"

No, but the yeast produced polyphenols,

which are in cloves.

Yeast is weird.

Yeast shouldn't be a thing that we can use.

It's... it's a fungus.

You know, sometimes I walk into the brewery,

and I'll just stare at the bucket...

'cause the yeast is inside, eating the sugar.

Sugars are turning into alcohol byproducts, carbon dioxide.

I sometimes just go and watch the bucket bubble,

and that CO2 coming out.

That blows me away.

You just stare at it going, "Man, that's crazy."

And I honestly think that if you don't have yeast,

we don't actually make it, you know, into civilization.

because yeast powers bread, and yeast powers beer,

which were the twin pillars of sort of Middle Eastern

and Near-Eastern culture up through Egypt

and really, to now.

- Hi, guys. - Hi.

We work here at the school across the street.

Oh, yeah?

And we're just wondering when you're opening.

Takes some beer to teach the children?

- After work. After. - Yeah, yeah.

Uh, probably... early April, mid-April.

- Okay. - We're doing tests

on the brew system right now.

Like, I did a water test yesterday.

The heat exchanger and we have a cold liquor tank

in the cold box.

they're super efficient. That was nice.

Very happy, actually.

If this test goes well, then we'll brew tomorrow.

Supposed to brew today, but, you know,

what's one more day after four years?

That's nice.

Brew days right now are super chaotic

'cause we're still figuring stuff out.

This has been a great kettle, by the way.

Just learning the ins and outs of it,

it's like learning home brewing all over again.

I'm just kind of stumbling through it.

That is a horrible bit.

No, that's just really strong wood.

Hey, Jason, it's Jesse. What's goin' on, man?

- What's up? - What's up, dude?

Hey, we're heading out. Can we bring you by a keg?

We have an amber ale and a pale ale.

Which one do you want?

Bring 'em both.

"Bring 'em both"?

We only have one tap handle.

Well, we only have one tap handle.

That's fine. I won't put them on at the same time.

He won't put them on at the same time.

- All right, sounds good. - All right.

All right, bye.

- All right, well... - Okay.

- Double their sales, though. - Yeah.

Doubles any old sales.

Whoop.

- One... - Two... three!

- Three, sir! - Three, sir! Three!

When I started making Sam Adams,

there were five beer wholesalers in Boston.

They all turned me down.

None of them wanted to carry my beer.

So, the only way I could get my beer

into the hands of drinkers

was by just hitting the streets, going from bar to bar,

selling it one bottle at a time,

delivering it originally out of my station wagon.

And it would take me about 20 calls

to get one customer.

This is where our keg is gonna end up.

We're dropping off some kegs.

- Is this yours, though? - Yeah.

- Come on in. - First time.

The one and only.

Still a little tacky.

I never thought that running a brewery

would involve throwing away so much damn cardboard.

Receipt printer!

Like, every week, it's just stacks and stacks of this stuff.

Handled. Just CEO'd the shit out of that box.

I think we're on pace to open in the next few weeks.

If we can get beer in tanks

you know, in the next week or two,

we're good. We're right where we need to be.

Oh, there's yeast in suspension. That's a good sign.

It's probably done. Let's go get a glass.

I'm actually nervous right now, because you know,

soft openings are coming up, and I have... two or three beers.

Whatever.

We just gotta get open.

And I did say

I would rather have two or three excellent beers on tap

as opposed to eight mediocre ones.

Guess what? We've got two or three...

kinda good beers on tap,

We're gonna do cream ale, and then our amber ale,

and then our amber ale with coffee.

We've been workin' crazy hours the last couple of weeks.

We didn't leave here till almost midnight last night.

Oh, absolutely.

Ready to work.

We are so excited that it's finally here.

The reveal moment.

Ah-hh!

Hey, Dan, I'm gonna ask you again...

- are you gonna run outta beer? - We're not gonna run outta beer.

- At least, not tonight. - It's gonna be so good.

I'm so pumped.

...so, countdown. One...

Two... three!

Ah!

- We're open! - Guys, thank you.

There you are. Thank you.

How's it goin'? Good.

- It's not even 12:00. - Okay, well...

I'll get the next one going here.

There you go. There's the plank, and here's an info card for you.

Number one starts right here.

So you got the Trail Marker, the milk stout,

the... what was it?

The lager and the Kentucky Common.

- Awesome. - Okay, 10 bucks on that.

Perfect. Thank you.

We're like an hour away from closing

and we're still like, just crankin'.

You can't know this feeling until you do it.

But you have to put your blood, your sweat

and your tears into it.

And then to have that pay off, that's what this feels like.

Like, it's... amazing.

Eh. So, yeah.

Stop that.

Whenever you want... Congratulations!

Don't forget to close your tabs!

Don't leave without your card!

Dude, my voice is thrashed.

Well, that was a good opening.

Congratulations.

"Can he solve the problem?"

Uh, we got a Facebook Messenger

um... message from Julian,

the brewer at Lib... at Beachwood Brewing.

He said, "I need to talk to you guys.

We own the federal trademark for 'LBC'

and we need to talk to you guys about this."

And, you know, we all kinda looked at each other like,

"I don't think you can own that."

You know? Like...

So...

we got on the phone with him, and he and Gabe, the owner.

And they weren't mean or anything.

You know, they were kinda condescending,

but they were just like, "Guys, you know,

you think you know what you're talking about, but you don't.

This is how it works, and you guys have to change your name."

We were like, "No."

We even offered... we're like, "What if we sign something

that says we'll never make an LBC IPA?"

Right? Problem solved.

You know, we don't have to do that,

but like, let's just make nice.

They're like, "No."

"No, you gotta change you logo, t-shirts, signage,

glassware... everything online."

Like pretty much, you know...

just dumb stuff, so...

We're getting into a place in the craft beer world

where early on, it had been a lot about

camaraderie, and sort of that,

"Hey, we're all in this together" sort of fight.

But now that we're getting to this place

where we have so much craft beer out there,

yeah, we're starting to run into the attitudes

of, you know, "Hey, wait. This is my business" thing.

I think we're up to 7,000 breweries in the United States.

Um... you know, every grocery store

and 7-Eleven has craft beer.

We're gonna start seeing distribution pressures,

we're gonna start seeing consolidation...

you know, large breweries buying up small breweries.

That situation is gonna get tighter and tighter.

Market's different than it used to be.

It's pretty unforgiving.

And it used to be that the demand was growing so much

that, you know, people were chasing the demand.

They could just grow into it.

But now, it's gotten to the point

for a lot of breweries where,

they have to spend money in order to make money.

Like, they've reached... now that those breweries

have reached their saturation point,

if they wanna grow beyond that,

they have to put a lotta money into sales.

It's kinda like, you know,

once you reach 200 miles an hour in a car,

for every mile an hour faster you wanna go,

you need an additional hundred horsepower kinda thing.

- Right, right. - It's diminishing returns.

I learned about beer at Beachwood in Seal Beach.

Like, I remember... I was thinking about it last night...

the first time I walked into Beachwood

and I saw their board, like, I said out loud, "Wow."

Like, these are the beers I've heard about.

- Yeah. - And it's... it was great.

And now...

I don't... I'll probably regret saying this,

but, now, they're bullies. And it sucks.

Ow-ww!

Beachwood, it's kind of a low simmer now.

I haven't heard from them in a while.

They seem pretty busy, we're pretty busy.

Like, so far, they've technically been nice.

They're dicks, but like,

they didn't send us a cease-and-desist.

Uh, well, we got a letter.

Uh, it brought up some very interesting details.

Most of which are true.

Uh, so we can just forget about it and move on,

or we can tell them to shove it up their asses.

- Yeah. It was a funny letter. - I mean, they waited

until it was gonna do the maximum amount of damage,

which is the week we were opening.

I mean, we've already spent tens of thousands of dollars

on merchandise and signs, and glasses, and all this stuff.

They waited until it was gonna fuck us the most.

You know, people love their beer.

And people in Long Beach are proud

that this, you know, award-winning brewery is here.

So you never... I mean, you never know how it's gonna go.

Are people gonna side with the little guy?

or are they gonna side with...

the guy that, up until now, has been the little guy?

I think they'll emotionally side with the little guy. With us.

- But... - People are gonna have

a hard time thinking of Beachwood as the big guy.

Well, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, compared to Budweiser, they're...

or whatever their dad's been drinking.

But Beachwood's still the little guy.

Nah, I per... I personally love a fight.

There's nothin'...

nothin' better than fightin' about somethin'.

Uh...

- Hey, kids... - Need a lawyer.

...you get a lawyer.

Wanna start a brewery? Get a lawyer.

The days of being a fun, little swimming pool

for us all to swim around in and be beer bros

has long gone.

Take it from your buddies at Liberation.

Get a lawyer.

- You guys set? - Yeah. Yeah!

You guys are gonna kill it. I love it.

Hi, guys!

Welcome to Liberation Brewing.

- Thanks for having me back. - Yeah, I could use your hand in.

Hello, welcome.

Hey. How you doin'? Nice to meet you. Lou!

How you been? Nice to meet ya.

Uh, my stress levels have come down about that much,

so...

Oh, that's good.

Hi, ladies, can I bug you? Here's these for you.

Oh, it's fun.

It's fun, like, being active

and running around like a maniac, you know?

- Hey, your logo's badass. - Thank you, thank you.

It's, uh... It's eye-catching, right?

Yeah, for sure. Dropping bombs over here.

- Dropping bombs. - I like it.

Everyone say, "LBC!"

LBC!

Hold on, I'm lost.

Oh, man, I'm so excited.

I've been hearing about GABF since I was tiny, you know?

I mean...

just the sea of people enjoying the beer.

- Strong ale. - Wow.

It's almost overwhelming. It's like you just don't know...

you wanna try it all, but you have to pace yourself.

- What'd you get? - Uh, FV13 from Allagash.

I just shook Jason Berken's hand and I... I'm good.

And then there's also the... the,

"Hey, we could win something."

Uh, cautiously optimistic.

I think the Czech dark lager and the brown ale

and the Brett beer have a... a decent chance.

I think it would change everything,

you know, especially since we've just opened and all that,

you know, a few months back,

and I think it would be, you know, the Cinderella story.

Those medals, uh, mean a lot, uh, to the public.

And, um... and I was one of those people.

You know, I would watch, see who had the awards

and I would go to those places just to try those beers.

When you do hear your name, and, uh...

and I hope you do, uh, come on up...

Ever since I registered us,

I, like... I've been randomly having dreams about it.

And, you know, I'll just be...

I'll be brewing and I'll be working,

and it'll randomly pop in of like, "What if?"

Category 20, historical beer.

The bronze goes to Zungen Brecher,

Home Brewing Company in San Diego, California.

The silver goes to The Big Lubelski,

Divine Barrel Brewing, Charlotte, North Carolina.

- One more chance. - And the gold medal goes to

Pushing Trees, Central Standard Brewing...

- Bummer. - ...Wichita, Kansas.

- Wish they said what they were. - Yeah.

- Huh? Yeah. - Wish they said what they were.

Here we go, number one.

Category 39, American-style cream ale.

The bronze goes to El Sully,

21 A Brewery in San Leandro, California.

The silver to Dayblazer Easygoing Ale,

New Belgium Brewing Company, Fort Collins, Colorado.

It's okay.

Three more categories.

And the gold medal goes to Gateway Cream Ale,

Lockport Brewery, Bolivar, Ohio.

Next time.

There's more.

Munich-style dunkel for European-style dark...

American-style amber or red ale.

Classic saison. American-style pale ale.

- 170 entries. - Ugh.

...to Charlatan, Maplewood Brewing Company.

...Neighborhood, Ventura Coast Brewing Company.

...Babee Bock, Brew Kettle Production Works...

Chicago, Illinois.

...San Diego, California.

...Strongsville, Ohio... Wichita, Kansas...

Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey...

...Chuckanut Dunkel, Chuckanut South Nut,

Burling... Burlington, Washington.

Avalon Amber Ale, Slacktide Brewing Company...

...Sepia Amber, Hopping Gnome...

The gold medal goes to West Coast Swing Amber,

The Mitten Brewing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

American-style brown ale.

And the gold medal goes to Davy Brown Ale,

Figueroa Mountain Brewing, Buellton, California.

It's okay. It's okay.

Sweet stout or cream stout.

Melk Stout, Columbus Brewing Company,

Columbus, Ohio.

The silver to Udder Love, Beachwood Brewing,

Huntington Beach, California.

And the gold medal goes to Moozie, Brink Brewing Company,

Cincinnati, Ohio.

- Well... - Yep.

- All right. Next year, guys. - Yep.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

When you get to be, uh, the ripe, old age of 41...

...you get pretty used to loo... losing.

Or not winning, let's say. Ah.

No, you know... we'll get 'em next year.

- No, not coming back? - Not coming back.

We're closing the brewery, we're done.

Beachwood, uh, we traded a couple letters

and then it just stopped.

There was no more communication.

And then months and months went by, so then we got the word

that California Craft Brewers Association, CCBA...

they're the lobbying group and the association

that sort of unites all California breweries...

they're coming down to Long Beach.

And Julian at Beachwood

e-mailed all the breweries in Long Beach...

And said, "Hey, we wanna do this unity thing,

like, where we all brew a beer together to show how strong

Long Beach is when everyone shows up for this conference."

And I was like, "Holy shit, he copied me on the e-mail."

We debated it briefly here

whether or not we wanted to be included.

And then Danny chimed in and said,

"We need to be involved because it's not about

whatever relationship we have with Beachwood,

it's about the brewing scene in Long Beach."

So, I pushed back my rude,

and I went, and I had a really nice time.

I had a brief conversation with Julian,

just, we actually made jokes about Danny,

and that was really nice.

It's inspiring.

Everyone looks up to you guys.

And, and you guys took the reins and did it,

and that was amazing.

I wouldn't be here if a lot of the people

who were my mentors hadn't started breweries

or hadn't been brewers at established breweries.

So, definitely, there's a very collective sense of us

within the independently-owned craft beer community.

A little rockfish.

Just a little guy.

Look what we got here.

- It's the Azacca. - Oh, the end of the Azacca.

Mm-hmm.

It's kind of beyond my wildest dreams

that we've achieved what we've done so far

and where we're at, with the opening

of the second location now coming in Bellflower.

It's amazing that we've grown so fast.

Beer is my forte. That's what I wanna do.

And so, to have people that happen to be family

that are that good and can work that hard,

to me, there was no possibility that this place

wasn't gonna be a success.

Craft beer is reflective of the American can-doism,

the American maker spirit.

- Micah! - Yay, welcome!

Most Americans are kind of endowed, as it were...

...with a sense that there is still a sense

of infinite possibility, that you can, you can do things.

The first bar I ever saw in a movie

was Rick's Café Américain in Casablanca,

and I think the second bar I ever saw

was the Mos Eisley Cantina in the first Star Wars movie.

Pretty much if Liberation can be those places,

that's the goal.

You know, full of weirdos.

Maybe the revolution is being planned over there.

Maybe there's a heist being planned over here.

It's very American, this mixture of freedom

with entrepreneurial endeavor.

Unless you get this American thing in your blood,

you don't realize how American that is.

We're just... we're free.

A couple of weeks ago, we, we had a guy come in,

and he had this long verse

written out on the back of his shirt.

And the first line was, "I am a child of Satan."

I would normally not have any interaction

with a guy like that.

But I'm interested in talking with that guy,

you know, see where that's all coming from.

But because of what we've created, I can do that.

When we'd do a homebrew,

I mean... it was at the house,

and so Dad would drink three quarters of it

and I'd get a couple of pints, and that was about it.

But here, like, it's literally 99 percent sharing.

Like, it's getting it out to people.

Here you go.

All of us who have ever homebrewed know this,

that when you share your homebrew,

- it's a different experience. - Ah.

Or did you have a head injury?

Well, I think, yeah...

It really does add to your quality of life.

- This interview's over. - You're an idiot.

- Come on! - One, two, three, four!

♪ Whoo, whoo, whoo ♪

♪ Whoo-hoo-hoo ♪

♪ She called me late last night To say she loved me so ♪

♪ It didn't matter anymore ♪

♪ I say she never cared And that she never will ♪

♪ I'd do it all again ♪

♪ I guess I'll have to wait until then ♪

♪ And if I get drunk Well, I'll pass out ♪

♪ On the floor, now, baby ♪

♪ You won't bother me no more ♪

♪ And if you're drinkin', well You know that you're my friend ♪

♪ And I say, I think I'll have myself a beer ♪

♪ Whoo, whoo, whoo ♪

♪ Whoo-hoo-hoo ♪

♪ She called me late last night To say she loved me so ♪

We love you, New York!

♪ But I guess she changed Her mind, uh-huh ♪

♪ Well, I should have known It wouldn't be all right ♪

♪ But I can't live without her So I won't even try ♪

♪ And if I get drunk Well, I'll pass out ♪

♪ On the floor, now, baby ♪

♪ You won't bother me no more ♪

♪ And if you're drinkin', well You know that you're my friend ♪

♪ And I say, I think I'll have myself a beer ♪

Give it up for my best friend, Aaron Barrett!

Oh, yeah!

Take a bow, Aaron Barrett, take a bow.

♪ Maybe someday I'll think of what to say ♪

♪ Maybe next time I'll remember what to do ♪

♪ She looks like heaven Maybe this is hell ♪

♪ Said she'd do it all again Promise not to tell ♪

Aah!

♪ And if I get drunk Well, I'll pass out ♪

♪ On the floor, now, baby ♪

♪ You won't bother me no more Whoa-oh, she said ♪

♪ It's okay, boy 'Cause you know ♪

♪ We'll be good friends And I say ♪

♪ I think I'll have myself A beer ♪

Everybody!

- ♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪ - Sing it!

- ♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪ - Come on! ♪

- ♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa ♪ - ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Whoo, whoo, whoo ♪

♪ Whoo-hoo-hoo ♪

All right, yeah! Come on, do it! Come on!

Thank you so much!

We are the Reel Big Fish!

Good night!

Provided by explosiveskull https://twitter.com/kaboomskull