More Buffalo drinking celebrations? And why not? Because we stack them like cordwood around these parts. And in a little bit I'm going to share with you my conversation I had with Tina and Alex from Traveling Growler while tossing a great gift idea at you for this summer. So raise a glass because episode number five of the Buffalo Brews podcast starts right now. Welcome everyone. Brewsday is here once again and you know what that means. I'm Jason Ettinger, your host, a humble partner of all things debauchery, and a purveyor of events throughout western New York. Thank you for downloading and listening to us today. You can do so at any time on your favorite podcasting platform. Make sure you hit that follow or subscribe button and set us up so that you can automatically download. As always, we embrace reasons to celebrate here in Buffalo. We've got the bills. We have St. Patrick's Day. We have Recycling Day. We have our kids' first day of school or their second day of school or their third day of school. So this week as part of the celebration of beer holidays on Friday is going to be German Beer Day. That means another opportunity for us to celebrate in Buffalo. Now, as I do this opening, I'm sitting here in an undisclosed location in the 14120 after returning from a hike at Rheinstein Woods Nature Park down in Cheektowaga. And I am sitting here enjoying a raspberry lemon kölsch from Hamburg Brewing Company. This is what you would consider a very clean and crisp fruited kölsch that has copious amounts of raspberry and lemon and a very moderate interpretation of the classic style, a subtle American malt base that's based with citrus, heavy American hops for a refreshing finish. Now, you'll be amazed when you taste this to find out that it's only a 5.6 ABV and only contains seven IBUs. But it uses Pilsner and Karapils malts with an Econaut hops base. And it's one of the tastier kölschs that I've had yet. And I plan on enjoying this one a lot during the summertime. A lot of you may not know what a kölsch is. The origin of a kölsch is actually a German beer that originates from Cologne, Germany, where there it has legal protection of an affiliation similar to a Berliner Weiss beers that are from Germany or a Trappist-Ale from Belgium. And what makes a kölsch is it has to basically originate from Cologne. And that's protected by the Kölsch Convention of 1986. The convention itself was created to protect kölsch as a qualified geographical designation of origin as a protected geological indication or what they call a PGI in geographical terms. Kölsch also enjoys protection across Europe itself. So all other imitations or styles that emulate a kölsch such as this, the raspberry lemon kölsch from Hamburg, or another one that I enjoy personally is the blackberry kölsch from Ellicottville Brewing Company. Those would be referred to as kölsch style beers. So if you wanted to know more about German style beers, including kölschs, there is a article online referred to as the, I think they call it the, just the tour of German beers, I think it's what it's called. It's like a fivepart series that you can really, you know, delve deep in and learn about the different types of German beers out there. The appearance for a kölsch is typically a straw colored beer, much like this one is. And I'll post a picture of this on our Instagram and Facebook pages. And it has a low to light haze, again, much like this one does. So the aromas on it are very light. I like this one because it's a really crisp, clean finish. You would expect it more out of such as like a pale lager. And they have low to mild bitterness. This one's very low, super mild, and not a lot of alcohol content. Like I said, this one is a 5.6 ABV and a low malt character, which is another thing that you get out of this that I find is quite pleasant and I think is very enjoyable for the summer months. So there's a wide varieties of versions that are made and some of the kölschs, they can be spicy, they can be fruity or herbal. Some of them even have a sulfuric aroma. I've only encountered one like that before. And I should have taken a note on that for this opening because I cannot remember what brewery that that came from. But even though the aroma is a little sulfuric, the taste is still appealing. So don't always let the smell of a beer turn you away. What foods pair well with kölschs? And one of the things that I like about this is it's because of that light body, that very mild flavor. It's not overbearing. Now they say that you can have it with salad, but if you looked at me in any of my pictures, do I look like I eat salad? Salad is an indication that food is coming soon. So to me, it's not really food. Many bread-based dishes, anything, of course, fruit or citrus because you've got that light, that light, almost citrusy taste to most kölschs. And cheeses, desserts. And then one of my favorites, of course, is french fries because why not have a beer and then have some french fries, right? I mean, that sounds good to me. You know, salty appetizers, always a good match. You don't want to do anything smoky or anything with a rich flavor because it will always overpower a light beer. So ultimately, they go well in pairing on a hot summer day and definitely with friends on a patio, something I definitely plan to take advantage of this year. Now since we're on the subject of April 23rd being German Beer Day, and that's coming up this Friday, we have a German beer house here in Buffalo located on Scott Street that is called Hofbräuhaus. And they're going to be celebrating the 505th anniversary of the German purity law known as Reinheitsgebot. And it's the world's oldest food production law where it limited German beer makers to making it only with water, hops, malt, and yeast to create their beers. This dates all the way back to April of 1516. Now you're thinking to yourself, water, hops, malt, yeast. That pretty much sounds like any beer. And thus, it is good. So they're celebrating the 505th anniversary all this week at Hofbräuhaus Buffalo. And what you will be able to do to go and celebrate is they are running a $15.16 to celebrate the 505th anniversary, $15.16 growler sales that's going on all this week through, I believe it is through Sunday. So every guest who makes a purchase during the week can fill out an entry form. And they will be selecting two winners to receive memberships into their Steinmaster Club. Now, if you were to buy into the Steinmaster Club itself, the membership includes your own personal Hofbräuhaus Stein and a locker in the restaurant to keep your Stein. You get 12 free beers throughout the year with priority service at the monthly keg tappings and everyday discounts on food, drink, and in their gift shop. So the Steinmasters Club is an annual membership that typically costs $199 for the first year and $149 for each subsequent year. And it's a staple for every Hofbräuhaus that will be a cornerstone of a community here in Buffalo. Hey, and while you're taking advantage of the growler sale going on this week at Hofbräuhaus Buffalo, you're going to need something to transport that home and to keep it cold. So listen in on this interview I did with Tina and Alex from The Traveling Growler. And while you're listening in, go to their website at travelinggrowler.com. Look at the great products that they have there that allow you to transport your selections home safely and keep the chill in your fill. I'm Tina. And I'm Alex. Tina, you said Alex is your son, right? Yeah, Alex is my son. Okay, wonderful. So what I wanted to start off with right away is, for years, I have been looking at growler products. I've had a growler. You think about a growler, you're going into a place and you go and get it filled. It's plain and simple. But I have heard horror stories about people who fill growlers and then they put them in the pack or in the back of the truck or whatever. And then they get there and it's tipped over, broke on the way. And then I came across growler koozies over the years that just don't cut the mustard. They're cheap zippers. They split. And then I came across your product at the Totally Buffalo store. And I absolutely love it. So tell me how the traveling growler got started. Well, I've actually been a homebrewer for quite some time now. And an issue that I found was that I always wanted to bring my beer to my friends' houses to share with them. And so I'd fill up a growler and bring it over there. And it was one of two things. Move everything around your fridge so I can get this growler in there or put it into a cooler full of ice. And then when you pull the growler out and the ice falls to the bottom, you can't get the top back on the cooler. So there's gotta be a better way. And that's when we started looking into growler koozies. Wonderful. So what happened is, go ahead. No, no, I'm here to hear the story. I wanna hear it. So when he was bringing it home, of course, my first concern was that breaking in his car as far as what would happen, you know what I mean? If it broke and that beer was all over and you know how that goes. But also that the temperature had changed as far as you'd have to like fill it the second you were ready to go out the door. So it lost the temperature. So I thought like I have to find something to insulate that so that it would get home safely and it would retain its temperature. So I started researching different things. There's a lot of foam out there, a lot of different products, like you said. But then I found a scuba guy and he would cut them for us and sew them. So it was a great find. He sent us one, we tested it as far as how long it would keep the growler cold. It's about an hour and a half on the table within like a four or five degree temperature. It would keep it cold. So that was a fun experiment. But also just in your car, you didn't have to worry as much. Still, you just can't let that thing roll around. But it just insulated it so that it wouldn't get bumped around too much. Do you know what I mean? As opposed to glass being exposed. So he said that and then we were like, okay, what are we gonna do with these now? We had these great colors and everything. So what we did is started asking graphic design friends and people we had met. We would give them, like we'd come up with ideas and say, okay, like on the red buffalo, we want the stripes, we want that. And then when the ideas come back, we would choose the idea that we liked. And that's how we've gone through all our designs pretty much. Is that we throw the idea out there and what people come back with are the designs that we use. And then we always have our koozies match our growler cover. So you can either have it for your pint, you can have it for your can, skinny can, 16 ounce can. So the design is always there. Like if you're into the red buffalo, you can have it for everything. I like that. And then you look at the store, like you said, different designs have a different variety of products. And what my big, to put so much thought into grabbing a koozie, I had gone back to the Totally Buffalo store three times before I finally decided on a design because there were so many to pick. And I actually ended up with the Hoppy Buffalo. I enjoyed this one. And one of my favorite places to go for growler fills is Blackbird Cidery. That was one of my favorite winter go-tos. And now that beer season's here and the warmer weather's coming, I have a lot of different places that I've been wanting to go to get a fill from. So you've got the growler koozies, you've got the can koozies, you even got the skinny can koozies that work well with the seltzers, which are super popular the last few years. That's right. Yeah. We do have pint glasses too that match. And then we have our little genie growlers. There are 32 of those. So if you just wanted a half a growler, we have little ones. I like the shape. I like the shape of those. Those are very unique. And I haven't seen those in very many places at all. And definitely no place local. A lot of the custom growlers that I see locally are more of a slender canister style. And a lot of people buy them and they, honestly, I've heard a few stories of friends of mine who kind of cheap out on those because they're not well insulated. And I said, well, stick with it. And then now I'm already showing this off to friends who are talking about stopping out different places to get growler fills. And then they want to keep it cold for the places that they're going to go. One of the interesting things that I read about, I wanted to see if you concurred on this as well, is it doesn't only help with keeping the product cold and pad it for transport, but it also helps with protecting it from UV rays, which a lot of people don't understand is a factor in actually changing the flavor of beer in as quick as five minutes if you're looking at a lighter colored glass or a clear glass. Right, right. Yeah, I mean, that comes down to UV rays actually degrading the hop oils that are in the beer. That's why IPAs gets skunked a lot faster than other beers. The higher oil content and the sun just hits it and those beers are done. And you probably saw that on a lot of covers that you find for growlers. They cut off right at the neck of the growler. So still glass is exposed at the top on a lot of ones that you'll see out there. So light is still even in, even though the cover goes up. And here you are with very, very little exposure here at the top. And another thing that I liked about it, this hugs all the way up to the cap. Yeah, yeah. And then you already touched on one of the big questions that I had going into talking with you is that a few of the sources that I had spoke with, including the folks at the Totally Buffalo store said that you use local artist renditions for your designs. And is that like friends or did you reach out in general to the public to try to find local artists who could contribute? So far, it's pretty much just been friends. We had a lot of talented friends that want to put their artwork out there. There's a lot of great designs. And like I said, I finally decided on the Hoppy Buffalo. I did like the hop brain. That was fun. Your brain on hops. There you go, brain on hops. And I'm a military veteran as well. And so I'm very, I have a lot, well, you can't really see it around my living room too much here because of the angle, but I have a lot of patriotic pieces in here. So the red, white, blue, the Liberty piece was one that I was really considering for a long time. But I'm like, the amount of white that was in it. And I'm like, okay, we're gonna have to go with something a little darker if this is gonna get some use for me. It might work for others, but that would get dirty pretty quick. I think that's actually my favorite design. Yeah, it took a while because the number of stars, we tried to make sure the stars, there were 50, we were trying to make sure it was like the flag. I love the specificity of it. There you go. The nice thing is all our covers wash out with cold water. So whether you spill a quarter, a stout, sangria on it, not that I have, it washes out with cold water. You seem like, you seem a little coy on that answer. Not that I have, but the face told me something different. Like, trust me, Jason, I've tested this out before. It washes. But it's great. Like cold water just takes it right out. You hang it on your faucet. Okay, and then one of the other locations that I've seen locally that your product is available is the Made in America store. Where else can you pick up the traveling growlers? Well, we have them at a couple of stores. Made in America, we have Tully Buffalo. We have Nickel City Design in Hamburg. We are at the Buffalo Tom's on Broadway in Lancaster. I think it's on the border of Dubuque, Lancaster. Okay. As well, which we'll call Downtown Blue. Collective Downtown on Grant Street. Okay, yeah, I know where that's at. Yeah, so we have quite a few that are popping up. Obviously the website online. And then we do, like this weekend, we're at Buffalo BrewFab. We're doing a pop-up there. And now all the festivals are starting. So we are going to be out there all the time. We do a lot of local delivery and pickup as well. That's good. With everything that happened with COVID, I'm going to ask you that question in just a moment. But really missing out on the festivals. And then we just learned the Italian festival has been canceled as well. And it's like, we're going to get there eventually. But one of the things that I do miss, and yes, I am a guy. And yes, I do enjoy craft things. But I do miss craft shows and craft festivals. So that's good to know that you guys are getting out there and about. Yeah, I mean, they pop up every day. Like springtime in the country, we'll be there. Borderland popped up, we'll be there. So they're all just, Resurgence has a pop-up coming. We'll be there. Oh, good, that's good. It's just we're booking them in now. And you mentioned this weekend that you're going to be with the guys at Buffalo BrewFab, which a wonderful little store there. And they've been hosting a lot of pop-ups and getting a lot of traffic. They're great. With your product and putting together new pieces, did you run into any issues with COVID, with supply or the creation of the product? No, no, I think we slowed down, obviously, because then there was nothing. And we had to pivot. So we pivoted more towards our website and tried going that way more so than we had because we lost festivals and everything like that. But our supplier didn't have problems with anything. As far as our glassware, we didn't have a problem. Even now, we're doing weddings, little growlers. People are giving little growlers at the wedding, things like that, golf tournaments. It's all just coming back in. But we never had a supply problem, really. Okay, yeah, and I have a few golf tournaments that I'm going to be participating in this summer. Yeah, this is definitely going to get a little FaceTime on my cart while we're out there this year because the nice thing about these tournaments is they typically let you bring your own out onto the course. Sometimes they'll have a truck or a beer cart sometimes out there with ones. But the ones I'm signed up for, it's a little BYOB and I'm okay. Then I got something that I can take out there with me for sure. Yeah, we've had them as gifts for the golfers. We've done quite a few golf tournaments like that. The Little Genie, obviously Koozies, with their logo on it. So we can put people's logo on any of our things as well. That's very good to know. One of the other questions I had for you is, do you have, so among the varieties and the designs that you have, do each of you have a particular favorite? Yeah, I think the Freedom one is one of my favorites, but the Your Brain on Hops and the Bills Zuba one, I would say those three are my favorites and the ones I predominantly use because I'm a big Bills fan. And this is actually the logo for my podcast. I like that. And what's the name of your podcast? So we've got a little cross promotion here. It's called Your Brain on Hops. Your Brain on Hops. All right. I'm sure it's available on all the popular platforms as well. Yep, iTunes. It's on pretty much any podcast app that's out there. Yeah, I'm going to be subscribing to that when I get done here. Yep. We talk about beer, brewing, the brewing industry, pretty much just everything around beer as we sit down and just talk about beer and drink beer. Okay. And then you mentioned at the top of the interview that you homebrew as well. Correct. Let's say over 10 years now. Okay. It's been a long time. Any association with any of the local clubs? Sultans of Swig. Okay. Homebrew club here in Buffalo. Been with them for maybe six or maybe even seven years now. Okay. One of the things that we're researching on our end because the only experience that I've had with homebrewing basically, it was a cowboy kit that I had gotten for... He's my ex-father-in-law now, but when I lost my own father, he was really the only dad that I had to connect with. So I had found this kit at a yard sale that the woman made her husband get rid of because she was sick of it sitting around because he never did anything with it. And to my knowledge, he still homebrews. And I remember some of the pieces that he put together and he did a great job for being a rookie right out of the box. You know, we have the luxury now of very high quality ingredients for homebrewers. So it is fairly easy to brew a good beer that you will be able to drink five gallons of when you brew it. Okay. And you know what too, a lot of people think like that growler is just for beer all the time. But like we have videos called Happy Growler Hour and they're for sangria, for limoncello shots to put in another one. So you can mix up your cocktails and then you take them with you. All right, so when you go to a friend's house, you can bring your vodka and tea. So we have videos on how to make different drinks to put in there, the correct measurements to fit your growler. So you can just mix it up, put your cover on and you can go. I got it recipied right out already, right there on the website. Yeah, they're already out there. At least it doesn't go now. Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, to close things out, one of the questions that I like to ask also with guests is if you have a favorite, and since we're talking about beer, is there a favorite or some favorite breweries that you have around the Buffalo area that you like to frequent or that you really enjoy? Well, we're out towards East Aurora. I always enjoy 42 North, love their beer garden. You know, we love Big Ditch. We love Thin Man. So we're at all of those places. They're just fun, you know, and then you run into the same people you see everywhere. Just great to see everyone, especially now. Absolutely. What I really love about it around here is we live in an area where everybody wants everybody else to succeed. Nobody has a big head about anything. Nobody's looking to crush the other guy. In all these conversations I had, it amazes me how many times they'll mention in a conversation that, oh, we worked on this over here, or when we had a problem with this, we went and talked with these guys and they brought us in and let us use one of their tanks and we worked on a problem together. I'm curious to find out if it's like that in other parts of the country, but it wouldn't surprise me that if it were just a Buffalo thing because we're the city of good neighbors here, right down to our breweries. Yeah, the entire beer industry as a whole is very collaborative because taking two great breweries and bringing their brewers together to come up with yet another beer, it's just two great minds coming together to come up with something even better. So collaboration is paramount in the brewing industry. Absolutely. I always get excited when something new is coming out from somebody. I'll be scrolling along like Instagram and it'll talk about a new collaboration between two and you look at the two and you know how each is unique in their own right and now you know they're coming together and it just makes you think for a moment, hmm, I wonder what this is gonna be like. Yeah, and it always sounds good. It does. I just had a conversation this past weekend with Russ William over at Windy Brew and he was talking about the blueberry cheesecake sour they did with First Lime and I didn't have the opportunity because I spent too long there. I have a tendency to talk non-stop and I had to get on the road and having one more before you get on the road, it's not the best idea. Hashtag drink responsibly, people. But we are. We're so fortunate that we have so much between the wine, beer, even have kombucha, cider. We just have so much in our area. Distilleries. Yeah, distilleries. Yeah, and I'm liking that we're getting a small distillery boom going here as well and they're really finding their own way. You just mentioned kombucha, which I haven't even taken a moment to be able to, I don't even think I've ever even tasted kombucha. So many kinds. And that's gonna be its own unique thing. We're gonna have a kombucha trail here before too long if I don't get on top of this. And you can get your growler filled there. Really? Yeah. Really? Yeah, wineries, cider. You can fill, you know, it's a real sustainable product. Yeah. So you're not, you know, a lot of cans. You're not going through a lot. You just take your growler there, like your beer and you fill. Like I said, my big thing was I always, I would always take a trip every, usually every two, two and a half months, I drive up to Blackbird and that was before they put the place in downtown. And I always loved that place. I was always drawn to it because it's in the middle of nowhere, literally in the middle of nowhere. And it's this barn and you park there and it's a barn and there's a little tasting room to the left. And then they take you in the back for the tour. And it's like, you just like went into Narnia all of a sudden. That's how you like it. It's just, yeah, it just explodes into the back and then it goes on forever and you look at it from the outside, it doesn't look that big at all. And I've noticed that for so many years, you know, driving around the Finger Lakes, one of my favorite wineries is actually out on Keuka Lake. It's called McGregor. It's an old converted pancake house and it has this narrow white barn off to the side that doesn't look like much, but you know, they walked me in there and this thing is floor to roof with their machines and it's reinforced on the inside and it looks like older and shoddy on the outside, but it's fresh and new on the inside. And then you go in and they have these communal picnic tables and it's not like other wineries where you'll belly up to the bar and talk to somebody who's pouring and talking about the wine. By the way, wineries who talk about their wine are always a win. I have so many wineries that I've gone into, you know, I want the people who serve my wine like the people who work at Disney, always a smile on their face and being happy to work and talk about what they've got there. But yeah, McGregor instead, you'll do the tasting sheet and they'll come to, I don't even know how it is now because I haven't even been out there in the past year or so with going on, but you know, I like that they brought everything to you and they would sit across from you at the picnic table and they had a food pairing and a wine and they would just sit there and just chew the fat with you about.