Innovation on Tap: Tradition Meets Tomorrow’s Craft with Elysian Brewing

Get an inside look at the craft beer industry with Kean Mervis, General Manager of Elysian Brewing. Discover how Elysian balances tradition with innovation to brew some of Seattle’s most iconic beers. 🍻

Learn more about this topic!

• Innovations In Pumpkin Beers: A Conversation With Elysian Brewing’s Brian Wold
• Behind the Beer Label: A Conversation with Elysian Brewing’s David Lohman
• The Art of Designing Beer Labels

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• 23:20 (Cont.) Innovation on Tap: Tradition Meets Tomorrow’s Craft with Elysian Brewing

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast.

0:04

We sit down with experts, world changing innovators, creators and makers to explore how they're taking action to make tomorrow's world a better place for technology, science, innovation, sustainability, the arts and more.

0:21

And now this week's episode, in this episode of the Tomorrow's World Today podcast, George Davison, who is also the host of Tomorrow's World Today on science interviews keen Mervis, who is the General Manager of Elysian Brewing, a Seattle based brewery known for brewing classic and innovative styles.

0:40

Since 1996 Kane dives into the heart of the craft beer industry by explaining the role technology plays in ensuring product quality and consistency.

0:50

He shares insights on how Elysian remains true to its founder's vision while navigating rapid growth and innovating to meet evolving consumer demands.

1:00

Now, here's George.

1:02

Welcome.

1:03

Thanks.

1:03

I'm happy to be here.

1:04

Well, I was hoping you'll share some of your life story with us today.

1:08

Yeah, I'm really excited to chat with you and tell, tell some of the stories about how I got here today.

1:12

Super.

1:13

So I hear you're the president of the company.

1:15

Is that right?

1:16

Yep, that's correct.

1:17

I've been the president of a legion for about the last two years and took over after around 11 years in the brewing industry with roles all over the place starting actually on the brewing side, which is kind of unique because this role leans in the commercial direction for the, for a lot of it.

1:33

But you have to be a little bit of a jack of all trades.

1:36

So I have some experience in sale in marketing brewing and lots of other parts of the the brewing business to be a president of a company kind of requires multiple layers and skills like multiple hats you're wearing, right?

1:49

So it, I heard you say marketing sales, you have to understand production.

1:53

There's a lot to running a company.

1:55

Yeah, absolutely.

1:56

It's actually one of the most fun parts of the job on days.

1:59

I'll be in one conversation about a label design and then be troubleshooting a brewing problem all the way to.

2:05

We also have three pubs that we operate, brew pubs that we operate.

2:08

So they, I'm also troubleshooting.

2:12

You know, how do we optimize our service for game days?

2:15

So a lot of really fun conversations and I really enjoy like being able to put my mind in all those different spaces.

2:21

That sounds good.

2:22

There's all three pubs that you have, are they considered maybe a testing zone for your R and D to see like let's see what, let's see how the audience reacts to this.

2:32

Yeah, absolutely.

2:33

So we actually brew around 100 and 40 unit beers each year.

2:37

Only about 10 to 15 of those make it to our package products which people can buy around the US in stores.

2:44

But the rest of those beers are only available in our pubs.

2:47

And it's a really fun way for us to test our innovations.

2:51

We have a lot of connections around the Pacific Northwest region with experimental hop growing.

2:57

So we can test those ingredients.

2:59

We can push the boundaries with ingredients, which is where a lot of our pumpkin beers came from.

3:04

We are the biggest and best pumpkin beer brewer in the world.

3:07

And we're also able to talk to consumers and get feedback and learn about what our beer or what our fans like before we, as we build our innovation pipeline and take those to a bigger audience.

3:16

I see.

3:17

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

3:18

Could we talk for a moment about like where do the ideas come from?

3:23

For all these different 100 plus labels that you're creating?

3:28

Yes.

3:29

So I think there's three different areas where they come from.

3:32

The first is in craft brewing.

3:34

It's a very organic innovation process.

3:37

We have a lot of people who are in the industry just experimenting with ingredients.

3:41

They're, they're mixing a yeast strain from one style with a yeast strain from another style and some hops from a third style and trying to figure out how all of those come together and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but that's innovation, right?

3:55

And then other ways, we're always monitoring, you know, what our competition is doing, what other people like our innovation brewers are doing to determine if maybe they found a style that hits and then we, we learn and we experiment and we taste what they're working on too.

4:09

So, those are the, a few of the different ways where we where we find stuff that's kind of interesting and fun to learn a little more about the, you know, the competition of, you know, the craft brewing.

4:20

you know how, how this industry is kind coming together, it's becoming more competitive, you're analyzing competitive threats, failing your way forward, as we like to say around here to identify opportunity.

4:31

Is that a good way of saying it?

4:33

Yeah, absolutely.

4:34

I think there was a period, I mean, we're in the, the craft industry now has plateaued after honestly a few decades of growth.

4:42

And I think when consumers have really shown us what they gravitate towards now and they gravitate towards IP A s almost one and two craft beers consumed as an IP A and so the innovation space, I think as the market plateaus, it, it gets a little bit more challenging.

5:00

You have to think through what consumers want to make sure you're meeting the needs that consumers have decided on versus that vast period of growth where,, honestly, it's a little bit easier and almost everything works and, and everybody's, you know, kind of fat and happy as, as the industry is growing.

5:15

Right.

5:15

Right.

5:16

Makes a lot of sense.

5:17

All right.

5:18

So, since you touched on it, how big of an organization is you, how, how many employees would you have?

5:23

And let's talk about sales for a moment.

5:26

Yeah.

5:26

So we have around 100 and 60 employees across our, our three brew publications, marketing sales and of course Breed production, we have three pubs.

5:36

, as I mentioned, one of them is our original location.

5:39

It's actually been there in the, in the neighborhood of Capitol Hill, which is in Seattle, for the last 28 years.

5:45

, we have a location near the football and baseball stadiums, in Seattle and then we have a small tap room in Georgetown as well.

5:55

, from a broader sales perspective.

5:57

, we're very proud to say that we have the fourth largest IP A in the US in dollar sales.

6:02

It's,, it's called space dust and you can get it around the entire country.

6:06

So I encourage,, encourage you to try it if you haven't yet.

6:09

It's on my list.

6:10

Ok, good.

6:13

So, ok, now that I've got space dust on my mind, let me, let me see if I can keep this interview going in the right direction.

6:20

So these ideas are bubbling up, you, you know, you're creating these new formulas and whatnot.

6:27

Eventually.

6:28

If I go back far enough, there had to be a founder of this organization who bubbled up an idea to do all this business, right?

6:36

Can you give me a little back story on who is the founder of the organization?

6:40

And how did all this come to be?

6:42

Yeah.

6:42

So we had three founders, like I said, we're 28 years old.

6:45

So in 1996 Dick Cantwell, Joe Bisac and David Bueller met.

6:50

and they were, I think, enjoying some beverages, late night and they came up with this idea to start a legion brewing company.

6:57

And in 1996 was really the beginnings of the craft beer movement and we were started as elegance for our namesake.

7:06

It comes from Alleg Fields, which is a place where in Greek mythology, the gods go in the afterlife to enjoy bliss.

7:13

And that's something that you'll notice in our branding.

7:16

If you ever see a brand that is myth a lot with the name.

7:20

You know, it's one of the 1st 10 or 20 beers we made.

7:24

So immortal IPA or the w those are two of our first three beers.

7:29

And you'll notice on some of our older branding if you go to one of our pubs, especially our original location.

7:36

You'll see a lot of Greek columns and things like that, that are a reference back to those original ideas that the founders had when they started.

7:42

Interesting.

7:43

So storytelling and the integration of mythology into the founding of the company is very interesting to me.

7:50

There are a lot of brands that came out of Greek mythology, words and stories from those days and they tend to resonate pretty well over time.

8:00

All right.

8:00

So we've heard a little bit about the founders.

8:03

We've heard a little bit about your role as president of the company, the idea of how you attract your, your employees if we could, if we could chat about that for a minute.

8:15

So you're a growing organization.

8:17

And if I was looking for a job today as a young person, what are the kind of skill sets that you look forward to, to do hiring?

8:27

I think one of the special things about working in the beer, in brewing and working in the, in the beer industry is that you come with a lot of across a lot of people with passion.

8:37

And if I take it back to my journey,, I studied mechanical engineering in college at Ohio State and it's not something that I don't know that I expected to be in the beer industry when I was going to school, but I love beer and I'm super proud that I have what I consider a fulfilling job where I get to wake up and work on something that I'm super passionate about.

8:58

And I think as we've grown a legion, we've been able to get other people like that who are who love the craft of what we make.

9:07

And I think that is one of the first things I'm looking for when we're hiring.

9:11

So you're looking for that passion.

9:13

Yeah.

9:13

And I think that, you know, that builds upon, you know, I think one of the most important things that leads to success if you don't have passion for what you're doing, I think it makes, you know, doing the work of a much more, much more of an uphill uphill battle.

9:28

I agree.

9:29

It's, it is, and you guys are chasing, chasing a dream, right?

9:32

You're growing your organization and chasing it.

9:35

That's always fun.

9:36

And having a good team is critical to making that happen.

9:40

How about, you know, people who crafted your way of looking at life, right?

9:45

It sounds like you went into school, became an engineer, but you've taken a different path.

9:51

Everybody's different, everybody has a different story to their life.

9:54

Did you have a mentor or a few mentors that kind of helped you through life to get to where you are?

10:01

Yeah.

10:02

And I, I know it may be clear but I, I think I look back to my parents and I think both of them were extremely hard working.

10:10

, when I was growing up and my mom worked at,, a nonprofit social social services agency and my dad worked in management at a few different companies.

10:19

And the two things that I think they instilled in me that,, have gotten me here today and I try to,, teach people as, as I'm growing them as leaders is the, the first is integrity and I think integrity to me is doing the right thing when nobody's looking.

10:35

And I, and I think that's something that has served me very well.

10:40

And the second is doing the right thing and treating people really well.

10:44

And I think we get into, you know, tough conversations in business all the time, disagreements, things like that.

10:50

But my parents always taught me to treat people right no matter what.

10:54

And I think that both the integrity side and treating people well has led to being able to gain that respect from people and it's motivated them to kind of follow me and learn from me as a leader.

11:06

And I don't think I would be here today without both of those two principles operating in tandem.

11:11

Wow, great principles.

11:13

And it sounds like your parents did a good job.

11:16

Thanks.

11:16

I'll let, I'll let them know.

11:19

We'll send them a clip.

11:21

All right.

11:22

So,, let's talk about school for a minute, right?

11:26

But can we walk back, let's say to your high school days.

11:31

You know, there are some challenging days.

11:33

I know I had a lot of challenges at that time of my life.

11:35

But,, you know, did you, was there an educator or two that you can remember?

11:42

That's kind of special.

11:43

Yeah.

11:44

So I was, when I was a junior in high, in high school I was focusing on,, pharmacy.

11:51

So my grandfather was a pharmacist, I think, for 50 or 55 years.

11:55

And so I got a job at Walgreens and I was just, you know, stocking shelves as a store clerk, you know, 16 years old, first job.

12:01

And I think I was struggling to envision that be, you know, staying in in that industry.

12:07

And so I started a class my senior year in physics with Mr Goons from Sycamore High school.

12:12

Shout out.

12:14

and I really just loved it.

12:16

It was my second year of physics.

12:18

And I understood, you know, I started to just gravitate towards it and after some discussions with, with Mr G as we like to call him, he kind of started steering me towards this path of mechanical engineering.

12:30

And that's kind of when I made the flip.

12:32

It was some, there was something about the critical thinking aspect of it and the application of math and science.

12:38

and it was a little bit more tangible than than chemistry.

12:41

And so I think it, it fit with what I was interested in and that's kind of what led me to go study mechanical engineering at,, at Ohio State.

12:48

You know, the, the power that teachers have to influence our lives when you find that special teacher too.

12:55

I, I reflect kindly on those folks that I had in my life as a teacher too.

12:59

And,, yeah, they really steer us.

13:01

They don't, I, I, they, hopefully they found their passion and they just love to teach us.

13:06

There were some teachers that, for me anyway, I had a special bond with my physics teacher was one of those people too.

13:12

That's awesome.

13:13

Maybe that's why you're in the innovation space now.

13:17

All right.

13:18

So let's move like that kind of over to the next area.

13:21

And that's talk about brainstorming for a minute, you know, coming up with ideas.

13:27

How does your team come up with ideas?

13:30

Is there like a, do you gather and look at,, challenges or throw around just general ideas?

13:37

Do you have a group of people?

13:39

But I think it'd be great if you could share a little bit about how your organization does it, you guys are coming up with all sorts of ideas, I'm sure.

13:46

Yeah.

13:46

Absolutely.

13:47

Yeah.

13:48

So we talked a little bit about the,, you know, 100 and 40 beers that we,, innovate each year and I, a portion of those are, are just organic ideas driven by the brewers.

13:59

But some of them are also more strategic ideas that are targeted to the competitive aspect that we talk about or consumer needs.

14:07

So, what does a consumer wanna drink?

14:09

And those are the brands that become a part of our package line up and to kick off our package beer process, we start with a brainstorm.

14:16

So and it's typically, you know, we're in the beer industry, a brainstorm in our, our world is a tasting.

14:22

And so we will identify a consumer need for that, for that new product that we wanna put into our portfolio.

14:29

And we'll give that idea to our brewers and they'll come back with a few recipe options.

14:34

It takes about a month to make a beer.

14:35

So a month later, we'll all come together with, you know, 3 to 5 different options that they've tried and then some competitive beers as well.

14:43

And yeah, we do taste the competition to see how we're stacking up.

14:46

And from there, it's a group of our marketing teams.

14:49

The three, the three things that go into a, a package beer innovation are the beer itself.

14:55

How does it taste the name?

14:57

And then from there, the label design.

15:00

And so the group that's coming up with the name in the label design is they're tasting the beers with us along with the brewing innovation team and the leadership team as well so that everybody in the company has, has a voice and understanding of where our brands come from.

15:15

And so we typically taste those beers.

15:18

You know, there's things that we like, things that we don't, things that we need to tweak and also hearing the marketing team hearing where the brewers got inspired, gives them a foundation for them to go start working on that the name and the label while the brewers go back and make tweaks to the recipe as we get closer to that final beer.

15:38

That's great.

15:38

Do you have artists that are drawing and let's say, illustrator and other types of programs and then are they cooking out concepts that are laid out along with like name, design and image design that will help to tell the story if I'm imagining myself in that meeting, I think that's probably how I'd be seeing myself do it.

15:59

Yeah.

15:59

So it's actually something that we're something that we're very proud of is that we, every label we've designed has been done by our in house design team since we started.

16:08

And so we use illustrator now, but in 1996 things were done a little differently.

16:13

So honestly, you name the art style.

16:16

We have probably done it in a 28 year history.

16:18

I think we have like over 800 or 900 brands now that we've worked on over the years, you know, it usually kind of like any other design project.

16:27

There's usually a brainstorm specifically about names you know, what is the artistic direction or concept that supports the beer style and the story we wanna tell, like you said, once we pick a name, then we level it down to a mood board or a couple different mood board concepts.

16:42

And then once we start liking the direction, yeah, we usually end up with, you know, 3 to 5 different label directions and we pick one from there.

16:50

That's great.

16:51

So it, it sounds as though you're working together as a unit.

16:55

So let's can we talk a little bit about that word?

16:58

Teamwork?

16:59

How important is teamwork at getting things accomplished?

17:04

Yeah, teamwork is everything.

17:06

And I think as the, as the leader of the organization, my job is really being the the conduit for that teamwork.

17:15

And we just went through an example of how important innovation it is to innovation, but it's just as important to our number one brand.

17:24

So I talked about space dust.

17:26

But if I, you know, starting at the beginning of space dust, right?

17:29

Space dust has been around now for 13 to 15 years.

17:32

It's one of the largest IP A s in the country and all that teamwork you talk about makes it happen as well.

17:39

So just to go through some examples of that, it starts at the beginning with our brewing team, our brewers make sure that space dust taste just the same as it did 10 to 13 years ago when we started brewing it.

17:52

there have been some slight teaks along the way because it is an agricultural product.

17:56

You have to make sure that the flavor stays the same and that requires you to monitor the different crops of barley, the changes in hops over the years.

18:05

So our brewing team and our quality teams are monitoring that to make sure that space does, tastes the same today as it did before and also tastes the same if you drink it in Seattle and, and drink versus drinking it all the way to Florida, right?

18:19

, and then from there,, making sure it's packaged well,, there's a ton of quality checks that we have in place to make sure that the package products have good shelf life.

18:30

Then it turns, I'm gonna kind of shift gears a little bit.

18:32

The marketing team needs to make sure that the story still makes sense.

18:37

Are we creating right story as this brand has grown to make sure that the consumers who are, are loyal fans are still engaged with the brand.

18:46

And then of course, we're working towards recruiting new consumers and new drinkers every day,, to become a part of the Ees family and that's worked for us as we've grown the Space dust brand.

18:57

And then finally,, it turns over to the sales team,, which is kind of our boots on the ground,, for lack of a better phrase.

19:05

But they, they're in the market, convincing retailers to put it on the shelves to carry it at bars and you can see how that is kind of every different area of the business working together to make sure that a brand like space dust in its, in its 13th year is successful.

19:21

Wow, you just covered like the whole gamut there.

19:24

Thanks.

19:26

Yeah, it really is.

19:27

, it's something that I think is, is really special about, you know, we talked about passion but working across all those different, different functions, you have to remember that every single person is passionate and is working to achieve their piece of the pie.

19:46

And I think often times in teams, you know, something may go wrong and there's a lot of blame that goes around, but that person didn't intend for it for it to happen, you know, and not to use an example.

19:58

But, you know, if there's a production issue and we, we can't release a batch of beer because of our quality standards and it delays some shipments, you know, the sales team gets frustrated.

20:09

and I try to explain to them that that wasn't the right like we're all working towards the same goal and as soon as we have the beer ready and it's up to our standards, we'll get that supply out there.

20:20

But the sales team would also be making the same comments if it wasn't up to standards as well.

20:25

So sometimes that's those are the conversations that I have to have every day to make sure that everybody understands that we're all working towards that, that same goal and that's team work.

20:34

Yeah, definitely.

20:35

And leadership well done.

20:37

Thanks the so, all right.

20:40

So what story or idea does a legion strive to get across to the customer?

20:46

Yeah, good question.

20:47

So some something that Eli's been doing for the last 28 years is creating delicious beers and unexpected experiences for our consumers.

20:57

And so that is really where we focus in our goal if you look back to I talked about Les Fields at the, at the jump.

21:06

But Ees Fields this place where, where the Greek gods went to find bliss in the afterlife.

21:11

Our version of bliss is a sense of belonging.

21:13

And so a lesion exists to create a sense of belonging.

21:17

whether you're having one of our beers with your friends and family that you purchased at a store, coming to one of our pubs or coming to one of our exciting events like Pumpkin Fest.

21:28

Our goal is to create that sense of belonging, that bliss that you feel when you're with, with those who are important to you.

21:35

over, over a pint of beer.

21:37

I really love that.

21:39

Did you come up with that?

21:40

Yeah.

21:40

It's something that we've been working on as a team, you know, to go on a slight tangent here.

21:45

But, you know, 28 years is a long time for a company we've gone through, we've had to be dynamic and evolve as consumers have.

21:52

And space us in our company grew about five X in the last 10 years, which is a lot of growth that we've gone through as a company.

22:00

And, so that kind of mission statement or, or purpose statement is something that we've been working to redefine this year.

22:08

It's something that we've done forever, but we've had had to look ourselves in the mirror after all that growth and just make sure we're still operating in the same way that Joe and Dave and Dick wanted us to when we, when we started the company, that's great, establish a sense of belonging.

22:23

Well, that's a good rallying cry there.

22:25

I think we, I think a lot of people would wanna join the organization being, you know, welcoming to others.

22:32

Yeah.

22:32

Thanks.

22:33

Yeah.

22:35

All right.

22:35

As our society becomes increasingly more dependent on technology, what has Egion done to keep up with the trend?

22:43

Yes.

22:44

So I think this is a, a really fun question from a brewing perspective because we've been brewing beer as a society for thousands of years.

22:52

And so, I think that there's a couple of places where technology has been implemented and I think are, are interesting to talk about.

23:01

So, the first is in and I, I talked a little bit about this in a co a few minutes ago, but the packaging quality and beer quality is something that's very important to us and everything that we do.

23:14

And so we've invested in, new,, high speed bottle and can fillers, which is something that increases our consistency with fills, which reduces waste.

23:26

And it is state of the art equipment that ensures the smallest amount of oxygen gets into the beer and oxygen is one of the enemies of beer.

23:34

It, it causes beer to degrade over time in flavor.

23:37

, beer doesn't expire, it just get, it tastes a little worse over time.

23:41

And so that, that investment in that technology has helped to make sure that our beer tastes better when it's picked up off of the shelf.

23:48

So it stays fresher longer, stays fresher longer.

23:51

And then the same thing is true for our lab.

23:53

We have a state of the art lab where we're monitoring everything from, to make sure that the beer has fermented properly.

24:02

, and things like that, which also is very important for the consistency of the beer again.

24:07

Like I said, a space just needs to taste the same every time.

24:10

That's the challenge of,, you know, I kind of call it commercial brewing versus home brewing.

24:15

As long as the home brew tastes good, you're gonna be happy, but we have to make sure that every brand tastes like that brand, that it is.

24:22

And that's what technology investment does for us.

24:25

Makes sense.

24:27

Do you have a like a a commitment to continuous innovation or continuous technology execution?

24:35

How do you guys like position your capital allocations to preserve your, the future or frontier?

24:43

Yeah.

24:43

So that's a good question.

24:45

I think it's, it's like anything else.

24:48

It, it's the same as we, as I talked about how we're, we're monitoring our competition.

24:52

We always wanna stay up to up to speed and, and unlock it step.

24:57

If there is a, if there's an opportunity to improve our quality, you know, I think the two, number one things that we, we work on from a production standpoint versus safety, we want everybody to go home.

25:10

And I, I in the same way that they came in to work and the second is quality and so as technological advances are made on quality equipment and, and things like that, we will, we, we're monitoring that to see how we can implement it and improve the, the consistency that we just talked about on the shelf for our products.

25:29

OK.

25:30

And are you guys utilizing A I at all?

25:33

So not yet, we haven't really delved into the, to the A I I think just my personal opinion is that I, I expect A I to become a pretty powerful tool in the future to monitor consumer insights and I think it will allow us to respond to consumer needs faster than ever before.

25:50

But at lesion right now, we're not quite there yet.

25:52

Well, I think in a roundabout way, but you guys are already combining the, you know, the creative peoples of the world's talents.

26:00

Like you hire these people, you're blending, let's say people who make a ceramic pot with people who paint with people who create tattoo art, people who cook, these are all like CRE the creative arts and you're blending all of these types of things in how you're crafting your brews and how you're creating your marketing messages, how you're putting your artwork on your cans.

26:23

And I that's such a powerful you know, the mind, the human mind is so powerful.

26:30

And from a creative perspective, when you allow people to use their creative energies, and I've seen a I go both ways.

26:37

It can be a very positive, helpful force while you're brainstorming.

26:42

But it can also be a negative because you're not really utilizing it in a way that's proper because creative people do need to get, you know, credit for their creation, right?

26:53

Yeah, absolutely.

26:54

Yeah.

26:54

And I think to your point, there's something fun, you know, we went through that.

26:57

I went through the, the innovation process that we have and I think you get stacking of creative minds, right?

27:03

You have the brewing perspective, you have the, the art perspective, the full marketing storytelling perspective, all kind of melding together.

27:12

And it'll be interesting to see how A I is able to do that in the future.

27:16

So you guys have grown and you, you got acquired, do you have a partner?

27:21

That's a sizable partner that's over, you know, that's involved with your company.

27:25

Which organization would that be?

27:27

Yeah.

27:27

So we are partnered with Anheuser Busch which is one of the largest Brewer in the, in the country.

27:32

Yeah.

27:33

So from the field of integration of like the smaller with the larger, how's, how's that work?

27:41

Yeah.

27:41

So really the, the be the biggest thing that Anheuser Busch has brought to us since we partner with them is, is resources and support.

27:49

And the cool part is, is we operate as AAA decentralized model.

27:54

So as the, as the leader of the company, I still have the ability to make decisions commercially and, and what not on my own.

28:01

And so that being said, they've, they've invested in our safety programs and our quality programs to make sure that they're up to, to Anheuser Busch's standards, right?

28:09

Anheuser Busch has been around since 18, since the 18 hundreds.

28:13

And so they have a lot of practice in those spaces.

28:15

But other than that, I, I think they've, it's been really, it's been really a great partnership because they've just let us do our thing and do a lot of the fun, creative stuff that we've been talking about today.

28:26

Yeah, it's nice to have a partner that can, like, support what your initiatives are, what your mission is, that kind of thing.

28:33

Absolutely.

28:34

I think you guys have accomplished a lot in the, you know, in the under 30 years that you've been in business.

28:39

So it's, I'm sure it's a, you know, a good boost to the, to the system.

28:43

Right.

28:44

Yeah, absolutely.

28:45

It, it's been really fortunate for for them to partner with us and, you know, they've definitely been supportive of the growth that we've had the the idea of, you know, the industry as a whole, if you were to look into a crystal ball and kind of look out there into the future.

29:00

Well, where do you see the industry going?

29:03

You know, it's been around, like you said, over 1000 years, we've been brewing.

29:07

If we were to look 1000 years ahead, what do you think we'd see?

29:12

So, for me, I mentioned the statistic before, one in almost one in two craft beers consumed as an IP A and a legion has, you know, differentiated itself as one of the leaders in the IP A space here in, in the US.

29:25

If you look at at least the early signs from, you know, young Gen Z, you know, consumers who are above 21 of course, but in that lower, that lower genera that younger generation there, there are signs that they're interested in this non Elk space.

29:43

And I think a ton of the innovation is going in the non Elk space.

29:46

And for me, as an IP A drinker myself, the non options to represent that hop character are really not as good as they as I want them to be.

29:57

I guess I would say.

29:58

So there's an innovation called hot water.

30:00

And are you familiar with hot water?

30:02

So, hot water is a sparkling water kind of like you know, a s basically just a Seltzer non Elk Seltzer.

30:10

That's instead of being flavored with lemon flavoring or lime flavoring, we actually use hops to flavor it.

30:17

And it's a really, really refreshing, nice way to express that hop character that I love.

30:23

A legion has a brand called Odd Water that we launched last year.

30:25

It's available in Washington and Oregon.

30:27

So there's my plug.

30:28

But but anyway, I think we're gonna see a lot of growth in this non out sector.

30:33

I don't think consumers have decided quite yet on how big it's gonna be.

30:39

But that's one of the trends that we're monitoring really closely.

30:43

I think we've, we've taken a really nice stab at meeting that need for the hop drinker who wants to moderate a little bit, the hoppy drinker who wants to moderate a little bit, but we're not quite sure yet if it's gonna be an unstoppable trend, like like IP A s are, that's great, good advances, we're gonna look into the future.

31:03

Thank you, Ken.

31:04

Yeah.

31:04

Thank you so much.

31:05

Well, everybody that's another edition of Tomorrow's World Today.

31:09

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31:11

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31:16

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31:24

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31:31

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