Cody Wheat from Shots of History Podcast – HGG413

Cody Wheat, the voice behind Shots of History joins us this week for an interesting conversation centered around the beer, wine and spirits industry as well has how LibDib is trying to change the way spirits are distributed in the United States.  We also talk about making better ice and then Jim and Mike have some updates at the end.   I think you will enjoy the show.

Join Jim Collison / @jcollison and Mike Wieger / @WiegerTech for show #413 of Home Gadget Geeks brought to you by the Average Guy Network.

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Full show notes and video at http://theAverageGuy.tv/hgg413

Podcast, Home Gadget Geeks, cocktail, spirits, beer, craft beer, wine, bar, tequila, ice, brand, bottle, distributor, alcohol, shots of history, cody wheat

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You can follow Cody on Shots of History at http://shotsofhistory.com/podcast

The Art of getting clear ice – https://www.alcademics.com/index-of-ice-experiments-on-alcademics.html

More info on LibDib – https://libdib.com/

Full Transcription

Jim Collison  [0:00] 
This is The Average Guy Network and you have found Home Gadget Geeks show number 413 lucky number 13 recorded on August 22, 2019.

Here on Home Gadget Geeks we cover all the favorite tech gadgets that find their way into your home

news reviews, product updates and conversation, food reviews. Series beer stuff tonight. All for the average guy I’m your host Jim Collison broadcasting live from the average guy TV studios. Here in a beautiful Bellevue Nebraska, Mike, fall we’ve been talking about this for a while. Fall is hinting we’ve had some little some heavy rains over the last couple days but pretty nice to kind of think we may see some leaves turning and a little cooler weather than the crazy hot we’ve been having.

Mike Wieger  [0:52] 
Not without one last day of summer though we had that day two days ago and it was 90 degrees and 95% humidity

As you walked outside is like you took a hot shower and put clothes on right away it was just it was awful but thunderstorms rolled through and yeah now we’re having that beautiful fall mid 70s mid 80s right around there and lower humidity.

Jim Collison  [1:12] 
Pretty nice here in Nebraska Of course we post the show with world class show notes each week and they’ll be some couple good ones out there tonight. All the average guy dot TV. Don’t forget you can join us live on the mobile app if you are on the road. Best way to listen is through the app it’s free on Android or iPhone download at HomeGadgetGeeks.com and easiest way to listen it’s free just an easy way to do it. You can watch us on live or on YouTube subscribe while you’re out there, whatever. And we’d love to have you do that as well join us in the discord group the average guy.tv slash Discord. Then a Facebook the average guy guy.tv slash Facebook get all those in and love to have you out there as well. Cody Wheat is with us tonight. We’ve been talking about him on the show a little bit here and there and Cody crossed my path a couple times through podcasts and podcasts movements. He’s the host of Shots of History which has been doing for couple years, Cody, you’ve got 99 episodes now. Welcome to Home Gadget Geeks.

Cody Wheat  [2:04] 
Thanks. It’s a pleasure to be on. It’s really good to catch up.

Jim Collison  [2:07] 
Yeah, it’s good. Good to have you on. Remember a lot of years ago when you called in to ask the podcast coach and you were talking about Yeah, can I start the show? And we’re like, yeah, started. And when he got done, I was like, that sounds really, really interesting. And then you ended up really doing I mean, your first season or so was a lot. If you go back to your, again, shots of history, I recommend everybody listen to this thing. This is a awesome one to binge on, because it’s pretty evergreen. The early episodes are really around kind of US history of alcohol around the whole Prohibition era. What made you kind of not every 20 year old says you’re gonna make a podcast about the history of alcohol. What made you kind of do that?

Cody Wheat  [2:48] 
Yeah, um, it’s a great question. I think really, for me, and I think for most of the people, you know, kind of let everyone know I do now work in the industry. And so most of the people

were home brewing and wanted something that I could kind of call my own and so I started to really dive into cocktails and got into the history of them and

you know, mom and dad when I turned 21, bought me a couple of books, about the history and I’ve always been a history buff and really enjoyed it. And I think that getting to get back into history with sort of this tilt on it that also ties in another passion has been really, really fun and awesome,

Jim Collison  [4:27] 
you know, by my entire knowledge of prohibition. Alcohol history now is what you taugh me and I like I’d never you know study this in school you don’t Omaha actually has a really interesting prohibition history here. We don’t get into that. But it’s a super like it Midwest town, weird things going on in that city during those years. But and so if you haven’t, if you’re into that, you might want to go back and listen shots history, you also might in your comp, your second and maybe third season, you really began to enter you. bartenders, basically right. And in some famous and some becoming famous, some have have become famous, I think probably since you had him on the show as well. Tell me a little bit about why this switch from history then to interviewing kind of these famous bartenders.

Cody Wheat  [5:19] 
Yeah, part of it is just logistical. Those historical episodes take a lot of time to research. And I was working still full time as I still am. And there’s a lot of time that goes into it. And I thought, well, man, wouldn’t it be great if someone else could provide my content instead of having to constantly try and research it and do all this work? So that was sort of the first idea behind? Well, maybe it makes sense for me to look at that. And I, at the same time, was also starting to think well, maybe I do want to leave the tech industry behind and maybe actually venture out and see if I could have a career in the wine and spirits industry. And I thought, well, what better way to get in then to start talking with people who are in the industry. And it’s a pretty easy act to have someone you know, hey, I’d like to have you on my show. You get to talk about yourself and share your own story. Do you want to come on? Most people were pretty willing and open to say yes to that. I also had it was working. For me, that’s a fairly friendly industry. It’s a lot of outgoing people that choose to be bartenders and brand ambassadors and in these types of roles. And then once I got started, I just I love meeting with people and I’ve loved getting to talk with people. And you know, now that I’m in the industry, it’s a great way to network. So it’s a it’s rolled together nicely. I do have to tell you, though, that the next episode. And the next couple, actually, that I have plans are going to be a little bit back to more of the historical slant. And, and I’m, I’m nervous, but I’m excited about them as well.

Jim Collison  [6:53] 
Yeah, I learned a ton while you were interviewing them. Sarah, my wife loves, she’s a great bartender, and she’s kind of made up her own drink. She has three of our own signature drinks that she makes and, and they’re just they’re super delicious. They’re family favorites, right? that we have. But so as I was listening to each one of these, these bartenders, and they’re really, you know, they’re really creative, right? I mean, this is the whole thing, you got to kind of stand out in your industry in and be creative. It taught me a lot much like in we’ll talk about at the end of the show, but much like how I’ve kind of learned to cook again, following Hello, fresh recipes. I kind of started thinking about cocktails more and more than just beer. You know, we always do the pre show. It’s but you’re here and we’re talking about it’s great for the podcast. But I kind of started thinking differently about cocktails, did that have a similar effect on you? And you’d had to interviewing all these people? Certainly, you had to learn a ton through that as well. Right?

Cody Wheat  [7:50] 
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, it’s funny, if we were having this conversation in 2005, the the industry as a whole was in a very different place. I mean, wine and spirits and the the job opportunities and the culture surrounding cocktails in general, it was it really wasn’t there. In large part, it was there in pockets. Certainly, if you were in New York City, or San Francisco, or New Orleans, or maybe Los Angeles a little bit, you could find it just you know, in disparate areas. And there was you know, there’s a lot of people who were sort of the early adopters and kind of the the godfathers, if you will of kind of the modern movement, who talked about Yeah, in 2005, we thought well, wouldn’t it be funny if we could go to any major city in the US and like, have a good drink and find a good cocktail? Well, you know, that’ll be the day. And sure enough, here we are in 2019. And that’s, that’s kind of what’s happened. So I think I was also very fortunate that, you know, my timing couldn’t have been better.

Jim Collison  [8:51] 
What came back first craft beer or cocktails, do you think?

Cody Wheat  [8:55] 
Yeah, so this gets into I mean, you’re still we talked about the history of craft beer. Got to talk about when that was my dad’s favorite, which is Sierra Nevada, which was from from the, from the 90s, they really got the movement going. So I would say, you know, that kind of that early 90s is probably more of a craft beer, kind of got it start craft cocktails, most people are going to trace kind of this modern revival back to one gentleman named Dale to graph who is in his, he’s in his late 60s now and he’s still slinging drinks. He’s still doing it. He’s and I had actually had an opportunity to meet him recently. He’s an amazing, amazing man. He was the one who actually was working at a place in New York called the Rainbow Room, which was became this very famous very well known bar and off of the popularity of the Cosmopolitan from Sex in the City. He continued to really refine the Cosmopolitan and made it like a really, really stand up drink. And, and so that’s really really where it kind of begins and then there’s some other spots in New York that start opening up honey and milk, or excuse me, milk and honey, another one that opened up and there’s kind of this lexicon that we could we could run through of all different spots that opened up the craft beer really kind of had a hold first. And then now as we’ve kind of progressed and seen the craft beer movement, there’s a craft spirits movement that came behind that and off of that the surf modern cocktail Renaissance has taken over.

Jim Collison  [10:29] 
Mike You and I are big fans of brick way and other brewery, Cody we have I think Omaha’s got some really strong breweries here. They have they have started doing spirits as well. And we were down at hold on to think about this for a second. Sarah and I were downtown Oh weird Havana garage and my smoke his car she was sitting with me, which was awesome. And they made they made her a vodka tonic. And she was like, this is really good. Where’s the wood vodka us and they’re like always brick way. So is local Baka a guy we immediately walked right over to the brick way, which is just the other side. I mean, it was just the other side of the block. And for for 18 bucks picked up a you know, pretty good sized bottle of some locally made vodka. Is that getting more and more common? Do you think in the industry where we’re seeing a lot of local spirits that are that are good enough to compete with some of the national brands?

Cody Wheat  [11:29] 
Absolutely. The number of craft distilleries has exploded. So I want to say that as of 2000, I think the stat was in 2005. There were like 700 or so registered craft distilleries, and now there’s about 2500 at this point. So you’re talking about a lot of small businesses and these, that’s what they are, at the end of the day. It’s one of the really cool aspects of my job is I get to talk with folks who, you know, they’re doing it part time, or they’re done getting into it full time and, and get to sort of help them grow their business and and go from there. But yes, the the craft spirits movement is very much alive. And well. And I think that people are, are continuing to look for products that are well made, and that are that have a unique story.

Mike Wieger  [12:16] 
Yeah. In the craft, and the craft beer space. So you mentioned Sierra Nevada, which is so funny. did was that nationwide, because I was thinking back, Sierra Nevada was definitely a big one. The other one that I always think of as like the popular first craft beer, Blue Moon here was was huge. I don’t know if that was just a local thing around here, if that kind of took off nationwide, was that around the same time? Or was Sierra Nevada pretty early on?

Cody Wheat  [12:43] 
Sierra Nevada is going to be earlier on Blue Moon is going to come into the picture a little bit later. And, you know, I this, you know, we’ve kind of alluded to it cocktails are really more my forte. Yeah. And then Hard. Hard spirits are really where I would say most of my knowledge lies. I’m always looking to learn more about about craft beer. The reality is, when it comes to the history of stuff, there’s there’s an endless amount of history, right? And I try to tell people you’ve got, you know, basically, for all of human history, people have been consuming alcohol in some form or fashion. And so you’ve got the entire world has their own cultures, about drinking, and then you can go through all of time within, you know, all of these different areas. And so it’s a it’s a lot of ground to cover. Yeah. Oh, I bet it is. Yeah, which is a blessing and a curse. I’m very grateful that if I get tired of reading about American bourbon, I can start reading about Sherry or, you know, Pisco, or red wines and white wines. And just there’s there’s an endless amount to learn. There’s there’s always something new to pick up.

Mike Wieger  [13:50] 
So then the hard spirits, you know, 500 registered, you know, distilleries up to what you said 2500 2700 whenever around there, do the top players start to feel a pinch, like nowadays? Are the crafts kind of taking over then those those big popular brands that everyone just you know, right? If that if you ask anyone they can name probably those top few spirits?

Cody Wheat  [14:09] 
Sure. Yes, and no, I think that, you know, we’re looking at some really big brands, I’ll give you a fun statistic, right to show you just kind of when we talk about big. And we also talk about what, you know, kind of a key placement can do for a brand at the win and the Encore in Las Vegas, which are there a joint but it’s really just kind of one hotel unit. There was more Grey Goose consumed in one summer at those two hotels than the entire country of China. Right. So, so think about that, right? I mean, so. So when we talk about, you know, are these big guys feeling the pinch? Yes. You know, they’re there are pockets where it comes up. And certainly there are spirits that come along. But then also you have numbers like that, and you think, well, you’re doing okay,

Mike Wieger  [15:03] 
you’re doing Yeah, well, why is that? Is that? Is that just their exclusive vodka that they have? Or is the advertisement that area? What’s causing that to be so popular there?

Cody Wheat  [15:11] 
Yeah, so that’s a deal that Bacardi group, which owns Grey Goose, the Bacardi group has a deal there. And so yeah, anytime there’s a shot of vodka getting poured, it’s a shot of Vegas. And so you can imagine, I mean, it’s typically, you know, when you talk about delivering spirits to a liquor store, they might be delivering a case, maybe it’s case five or case 10. They’re there. You know, at those hotels, they’re going to be delivering pallets of of booze at a time. So it’s just a different scale of things. So I, you know, and I think I think that one thing that we’ve we’ve seen, and it comes back a lot of our industry people are talking about, okay, well now as you know, CBD and some of these different marijuana paraphernalia and marijuana products are becoming legalized, how is that impacts people drinking, and what we’ve seen is that people might drink less lower quality product, but they’re netting about the same of a higher quality item. And that’s kind of been the trend over time and what we’ve been moving towards. So I tend to think that we’re in a really good spot, actually right now. And I think that the big guys are still going to be the major players. And there’s still a lot of business out there for them. And there’s also a lot of room and increasingly a lot of room for some smaller guys to get some action

Jim Collison  [16:34] 
we’re seeing or at least I’m seeing in the spirit world that the the craft breweries are starting to make it early on. It wasn’t very good, to be honest. Starting to make really good and so we were we were surprised to go to brick way and find it for as cheap as we did. And and that was I mean, it was a good deal. And it was delicious. And so we’re starting to find this. This this kind of sweet spot in the market. As we think about Cody we think about this idea of bottled in in distilled in, is there a dip? So there’s a lot of like, I’m sure in maybe when we think about a blue moon, they’re not necessarily now bottled out of Boulder, I think is where they originally came out of its being. So is there a difference between words made? I’m just talking about our local stuff? It’s probably made here. But what about in the bigger stuff? Is there a difference between those two?

Cody Wheat  [17:24] 
Yeah, that’s a great question. And I wanted to touch on this because I want to make sure that for everyone listening, there’s a couple things they can take away that they can sort of apply when they’re looking to buy spirits. So when you look at a bottle of bourbon, let’s say and it says bottled in Lexington, Kentucky or bottled in Frankfort, Tennessee, most people will think well, it’s bottled there, that’s where it’s made. And the average consumer wouldn’t think that would they wouldn’t even think twice about that. And the reality is that, and this is where the alcohol lobby has has flexed its its power, there is a difference between something being bottled somewhere and being produced somewhere. So you see a long line of spirits that are actually produced. In Indiana, they’re produced by MTP, which is a company that basically mass produces spirits. And then we’ll sell them to different folks who will then bottle them in a location and, and sort of rebrand them, basically. But it’s essentially the same products just with a different label on it. I personally have no problem with this, I actually think that if this is how people want to get started with a product, there’s a lot of folks who while they’re building their distillery, they’ll actually use this kind of more neutral bourbon, for example, and then aged slightly, and then as their distillery comes online, build out their product. So I think there’s a lot of positives to it. I think, where, where I have a rub with something like that is the transparency and especially for consumers thinking oh, well, it’s it’s bottled here and it’s got this label, it seems like it’s a it’s a legit thing. And the reality is that that might not be the case. So that’s just a little one for folks to look at always look for products where it says, you know, produced in produced that, you know, that distillery

Jim Collison  [19:19] 
are they modeled by law? Do they have to be specific about that where it’s both produced or made or distilled and where it’s bottled? Or is that kind of open?

Cody Wheat  [19:30] 
It’s kind of in a gray area. Some states have certain regulations around this. But for the most part, it’s it’s really kind of this gray area, it’s kind of the Wild West still.

Jim Collison  [19:42] 
Kentucky bourbon or bourbon has to be made in Kentucky. Right. Is that? Is that good? followed? I mean, that’s, does that actually happen?

Cody Wheat  [19:51] 
Yeah. So Kentucky, actually, it’s it’s so that’s a great point. So Kentucky actually is very particular about this, you can imagine they now are producing, you know, I don’t know if it’s still is but certainly for a while has been the top growing spirit category in the country just in terms of volume. There’s others as a percentage that have grown faster, but just in terms of volume, bourbon has gone from something that not very many people were drinking domestically to a product that domestically we’ve fallen in love with. Again, now internationally, we’re starting to see that it’s had some staying power. And so the state of Kentucky has now gotten very particular about who is labeling their product as a straight Kentucky bourbon or associating themselves with the state. Because it is I think, going forward going to be likely probably the major export that they have coming out of that region

Jim Collison  [20:49] 
would be their bourbon. And it’s delicious. I’m gonna lie it is. It is a great drink in and I to Ken, let me let me get to Ken’s question really quick. I’ll throw stuff here. He said a follow up question, then what’s the rebranded top shelf that can be bought for a good value? Is there that out there?

Cody Wheat  [21:08] 
A rebranded top shelf that can be bought for a good value?

Mike Wieger  [21:11] 
Getting the industry insider information here?

Cody Wheat  [21:14] 
Yeah. You can’t say it’s okay. Or you say yeah, so typically, that’s not the way because because typically what’s going to happen is

we’ll take like an old Fitzgerald, for example. So old Fitzgerald used to have an age statement of 12 years, which means that by law, if you have the age statement on your bottle, that has to be how long the products been arrested for. They then word got out that they were removing the age statement. And the only reason you would remove the age statement off of your labeling is if the product is no longer going to be aged for that amount of time. And so there’s a lot of folks who are now sitting on old Fitzgerald, 12 year old bottles, and in the same way that you know, certain antique cars or pieces of antique furniture might appreciate and value over time, these bottles are just appreciating in price year after year, because they’re just becoming more and more scarce. And so, typically, we’re not going to see a brand, go from the top shelf, to valve then and then kind of work its way to value it’s typically you’re something has sort of snuck in at that value level. And now it’s you know, trying to market itself as the top shelf. It’s usually going the other way.

Jim Collison  [22:30] 
Yeah. And I think from a price perspective, I alluded this just a second ago, because of the momentum I’m seeing in the liquor store, the prices of even the name brands begin to kind of creep kind of creep up. And I think there’s some excellent opportunities locally, to see if you can find some local, you know, distilleries that are trying to undercut that I Mike brick ways in that is in that space,

Mike Wieger  [22:54] 
especially in a place like Omaha, Omaha, if you’re from Omaha, you have pride and where you know where you come from. It’s a brassica. It’s almost Hi. And so I think people here especially love doing the local scene. Yeah, and buying that over. And that might exist everywhere else too. But I’m normal. I think it’s definitely popular. Because, you know, I’m it’s hard to find someone in Omaha that I bring up beer with who doesn’t know about brick way and doesn’t know about cross strain. And they don’t they haven’t heard of these of these breweries, because everyone likes to try those things local. But the one thing so you know, LA, obviously massive market, you’ve got your Chicago’s your New York’s just a little bit, right, just a little thing, but like, guess what, those major cities? You know, I think of those when I’ve gone there as having these hotbeds of places with extreme me high quality credit, you know, just like you mentioned, right, those bars that you can go to that have a high quality is are you seeing that spread, too? I mean, are more parts of the area starting to get into high quality, higher priced? Because in Omaha, you know, now it’s been a while since I’ve been out and like in the downtown, really going out. But it’s it’s not as big here. I would say at Jim, I don’t know if you’ve seen the same thing. We don’t have too many places we can go get an extremely high quality cocktail here.

Jim Collison  [24:10] 
No, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. Yeah, no, not yet.

Mike Wieger  [24:12] 
But I’m starting to see some other bigger cities. I’m like, Oh, wow. Like they have they have kind of its kind of the trend code now. Yeah.

Jim Collison  [24:18] 
Is that the trend to get more? Yeah, go ahead.

Cody Wheat  [24:21] 
Yeah, I think I mean, it wasn’t even that long ago that it didn’t happen in Denver, there weren’t any really, you know, I guess we’ll call it kind of top tier premium cocktail bars. And now all of a sudden, Denver has kind of popped up as one of this newer, one of these newer hotbeds for, for craft cocktail bars. And there’s some fantastic spots out in Denver. And even in a market like Los Angeles, or in a market like New York, you know, typically, and really, from a historical standpoint, a lot of those great craft cocktail bars have been located on on the Lower East Side, they’ve been located in Greenwich Village, kind of like this these very like tight community. In the same way in Los Angeles, it was kind of like West Hollywood, the Hollywood area. And then out in Santa Monica. That was really where kind of these these top bars existed. And now I live in Highland Park. So I live on the east side. There’s some fantastic bars here. And you can get a phenomenal cocktail for $12, which in Los Angeles is not breaking the bank. I know some people are probably like $12 for one drink. But but but for us out here, you know, that’s that’s kind of, you know, that’s kind of standard fare. And you can get a really awesome drink that’s made with quality ingredients and served to you by someone who knows a lot about the industry as a whole. And then also can speak more specifically to the ingredients in your glass.

Mike Wieger  [25:50] 
What I’ve noticed here to like you, like you mentioned, Denver was actually the first place that popped into my head. I’ve been there project, Kansas City around here, Minneapolis, those kind of areas, it’s like you said they’re kind of in these weird pockets of the city, it might not be the main downtown area, it’s in those little tiny pockets. And everyone knows you go there, and you have five different options of amazing bars that are really taking off. But something that I didn’t really notice maybe 567 10 years ago, being popular now. I feel like it’s really growing.

Cody Wheat  [26:20] 
Yeah, absolutely. I think you know, I even give a shout out to one of my favorite bars in Los Angeles is Geneva, which that’s a whole interesting spirit that we could talk about in selling that many people don’t know about. But it’s a it’s a smaller bar, its agenda in Geneva focused bar. And they are in an area of Los villas that is still gentrifying, and I think, you know, I’ve taken some people there, and there may be a little uncomfortable with with the part of town that I’m taking them to. And then we walk into the bar, and they totally forget about that, because it’s a beautiful space. And the program that they run is really at a very, very high quality. It’s in mind opinion. It’s one of the top bars in Los Angeles. And so I think, you know, you look at bars like that, where to your point, they’re not always necessarily in the places you’d expect them to be that sometimes they pop up in these in these hidden pockets. Well, now I got Noah Geneva is. Yeah, oh my gosh. So Geneva is the predecessor to gin. Geneva is a very much a Dutch spirit. So made in a very similar style to the way Genesis was shipped with a focus on maturation of juniper berries. But then aged, typically, when you pour out Geneva, it’s typically going to be slightly brown. Not brown in the way that a whiskey is brown, but almost Brown. Like if you think about like an aged tequila, that can get kind of brown. It’s it’s a little it’s not quite as intense of a dark brown like a like a bourbon. But so yeah, lately aged. And so really, actually, from a flavor profile. IO has a lot more in common with a whiskey than traditionally what people think of as a gin. But very historically important, when we talk about Dutch courage, it’s actually comes back to the fact that the Dutch soldiers were taking shots of Geneva before they were running into battle. Whether that was ultimately a benefit or hindrance, I think, you know, we could look back and see. But yeah, so that’s so that’s a, that’s Geneva. And then most people kind of lump those two together between gin and Geneva, you’d be able to build out a really excellent bar program.

Mike Wieger  [28:33] 
So is that one, the only places you can get Geneva and La? Is it that rare? Because I mean, I can tell you, I’ve never heard of it here. I don’t think we have any places. Yeah, right here.

Cody Wheat  [28:42] 
Well, we’ll have to see if we can change that. That’s for sure. There are Yeah, there’s there’s a handful of brands, now that have popped up. And I think there’s likely going to be a few more that are going to continue to pop up in the States. It is not the only spot in Los Angeles that you can find it. There’s lot of liquor stores now that are carrying Geneva, there’s a lot of the top cocktail bars and I’d say the we’ll call them the the the middle tier cocktail bars that are that are also carrying some sort of a Geneva product. So I think certainly so this is a perfect example of a spirit that is going to likely have an opportunity to creep its way all across the country and and hopefully you can get some out in Nebraska shortly.

Mike Wieger  [29:26] 
Yeah, well, I love gin and whiskey. I it’s okay for me. I’m still trying to acquire the taste for it. So something right in the middle there might be right up my alley.

Jim Collison  [29:35] 
God my son, my son lives in San Diego, not not too far from you on the other side of Camp Pendleton he’s stationed at Camp Pendleton. He has caught the the mead bug and somebody was asking about this in the chat room as well. meat has kind of come on as well. And I think it really is. It’s taken on really well in the Southern California area. But what’s your What’s your opinion as being a spirits guy? What’s your opinion on need?

Cody Wheat  [30:02] 
I’m on board with it. I think if it’s done well, it’s delicious. And like most things, if it’s done poorly, it’s not very good. I actually it’s funny that you say it’s a southern I think it really so far from what I’ve seen has been more localized down to where your son’s at down to San Diego. Okay, I don’t know that it’s crept up necessarily into Los Angeles just yet. Now, this could also be my bias. So you know, take it with a grain of salt. What I’m seeing more as a lot of folks now are looking at trying to build out the biggest mezcal selection they possibly can in their bars. So a golf a spirits, tequila, and mezcal being kind of the foundation there. People are really trying to build that out. And so typically, when I go into a into a bar restaurant, if I’m, if I ask what they’re looking to purchase, or what brands or what spirits they’re looking for, I mean the answer, you know, nine, eight, or nine times out of 10 is going to be I need mezcal, I need more tequila, as you know, do you have any new Moscow’s any godly spirits? I’ll take those. So,

Jim Collison  [31:04] 
yeah, yeah, he’s bringing some he’s going to come home and he is bringing boxes, he’s driving home. So he’s bringing guys packing up boxes, sealing them up, and then bring a need for his area, he and his girlfriend have really found some great the bars or whatever you call him down there meters and and have enjoyed them. We they’ve also gone up to in the Temecula and gotten some wine for us from up there, which is just incredible, right. And so that’s been fun to have him down there. Cody, you the reason I asked you to come on, is because you recently changed jobs, and you’re working for an organization that’s kind of maybe taking a new look at the traditional distribution, the distribution system, from one of your podcasts, like I kind of got the impression, and I can’t remember which one you guys talked about how crazy it is to try to distribute. The distribution of alcohol goes way back back to your initial history and through prohibition is that we are still dealing with or living with distribution laws that were that came out of prohibition, right? They haven’t really changed in 78 years, right? And a three kind of a three tier system. Tell me a little bit about what you’re doing. I mean, how would it tell us about your company, what you’re doing your role there and and why it says different?

Cody Wheat  [32:23] 
Yeah, I’ll give people a little context on the three tier system for anyone listening who might not be familiar. And then we’ll we’ll dive in from there, I think, right after prohibition. The the problem that and the concern that lawmakers had was that prior to prohibition, what had happened was a lot of the larger beer houses in particular, had basically just bought out and owned retailers, which they viewed as limiting consumer choice. And you also end up for instance, the phrase, there’s no such, there’s no such thing as a free lunch comes from this time where you need to the Budweiser cafe, they give you a very, you know, a free lunch, but it was this very salty, salty soup that you know, of course, made you want to drink beer, and then it didn’t necessarily have an incentive to stop anyone from drinking or to keep anyone any minor necessarily from over drinking things like this. So there was a need to have sort of this middle buffer coming out of prohibition, they said, We don’t want to revert right back to the way things were. And so they said, okay, every state gets to decide how they want to do this. But you have to have a distribution tier. Well, functionally, what that did was make there be 50 different laws and 50 different sets of regulations for how this is going to work. And we don’t have to get into, you know, states rights versus the federal government. But there are pros and cons to both. And one of the downsides of having every single state sort of manage things on their own, is that when it comes to trying to do business in between the states with alcohol, it can be very difficult. And so pulling back, the you know, kind of are pulling things forward, I should say to the modern day, the company that I’m working for called liberation distribution, we’re looking to kind of reinvent the way that distribution is done. So over the past 20 or 30 years, we talked about the explosion of craft distilleries, which, you know, not many people would have seen coming. So we’ve had this proliferation of brands, and the number of distributors has shrunk dramatically. So at the beginning of 1995, I want to say there was something like 7000 different distributors, and a lot of those were smaller distributors located you know, kind of, maybe it would be the the Omaha area might just have a distributor that was focused on, you know, the brick ways or things like that. Those 7000 distributors have consolidated down to about 700. And so if you are looking to get your brand into a new market, it can be very difficult because there are might not be someone who’s looking to pick up your brand. And as folks are trying to expand, the issue they’re running into is Well, hey, I want to get into this market. I know I have a consumer demand for this market. But I can’t get distribution into this state because the two or three distributors in that area aren’t taking on any new brands right now. And so that’s where our model comes in. We are really focused on helping out small to medium sized wineries and distilleries, get into markets and make sure that they have an opportunity to promote themselves and and build their brand, a case of time three cases at a time, however they see fit. There’s a couple of core beliefs that we have. And one is that the brand ambassador, the master distiller, they’re always going to be the best salesperson. So one of the big differences between the way we do business and the traditional model is that we don’t have sales people. Typically, people say, Oh, well, when I buy a distributor, I’m buying this sales force. And part of what the reality that has changed is that when you are part of, you know, buying the sales force, quote, unquote, that individual distributor rep through no fault of their own, has a lot of financial incentive to focus on the big brands, and the really big players in the market, there’s a lot of money that gets thrown at these brands, there’s a lot of incentives, sales incentives that get put towards those brands that a smaller brand, just isn’t able to provide. And so making sure that they have an opportunity to get into the market and and promote their brand from there.

Jim Collison  [36:41] 
So how, how does Okay, so give me a little more detail like how on the we get the distributors who got things locked up, so to speak? And are you finding Are you becoming distributors in each of the states so that you can be the middleman and make that change? Or is that how that works?

Cody Wheat  [37:00] 
Yes, so we are applying for compliance state by state to become a distributor in each market that we operate in. This is different from, say, like a big fish in Illinois, or I guess more commonly, like a drizzly or a Postmates or merchant 23. These are what we call like a fourth tier option, where functionally what they’re doing is going through the three tier system, and then usually delivering direct to consumer. And right now a lot of people when they think of digital and they think of alcohol, they’re thinking usually of drizzly, they’re thinking of more of this direct to consumer piece. And that’s not us, we are actually a licensed distributor and wholesaler, we just happen to be a digital platform that does business a little bit differently for the for the modern age that we’re living in.

Jim Collison  [37:50] 
So the key word is a district digital distributor. So like define that a little bit for me, what is that? How is that different than an analog just making it up? But yeah, how does it how’s that work a little bit different?

Cody Wheat  [38:01] 
Yeah, I think the first piece we touched on is that we don’t have sales people. And so as opposed to having someone that’s going to go every, you know, Tuesday at eight o’clock to Xyz liquor store. Now, XYZ liquor store can actually place their own orders through the lip system, or using our digital order tools. A distiller or a winery is actually able to send out a suggested order. So let’s say with a bar, we think, okay, we’re going to go through a case a month, and we’re getting towards the end of the month, and you could actually send out a suggested order yourself. And we’re able to do this, because we, as the digital distributor, it’s still going through our system, it just doesn’t have to be that there’s someone physically going into the store to do this, I’ll speak to my time when I was a brand rep, I might go in and have a great conversation with someone and they would be sold and CK great, like, talk to the distributor, get three cases, I can’t wait to have your product in. And you know, either try to call you try to email your distributor, and then it’s on them to consolidate, you know, potentially hundreds of emails every day that are coming into them, and figure out how to like place all these orders for all these different for all these different products. Needless to say, humans are humans and sometimes you know, things slip through, and then all of a sudden the guys like, hey, what what happened, I thought I was gonna, you know, get the three cases. So lifted really removes a lot of that and allows the distiller or the winemaker to connect as directly as possible with the retailer.

Jim Collison  [39:38] 
Are you guys trying to deploy any new technology to kind of make that you mentioned a suggested order? But is it? Are you doing anything new with technology to make that faster, easier, you know, like, Uber fixed or change the way we did tabs because they made an app where you guys do anything like that?

Cody Wheat  [39:54] 
Yeah, so right now, the everything lives on the website, which is works for obviously laptop, and then any kind of a tablet device. It’s on the roadmap to look at a mobile device, I think that that’s probably going to be a ways out. Right now, one of the things that we’re looking at is trying to help someone, you know, let’s say for example, you know, Jim, you decide that you want to you’ve got a new product, and you’re going to come out to California. And you say, Okay, well, I think that I want to be in some really great gin engineered bars. You know, I’ve got you know, Jim’s gin is now hitting the market. And oh, yeah, I can see it now like that. Oh, yeah. And so it’s hitting the market. And so you’re like, I’m going to launch in California, I want to try and get into these right spots. This is my price point. You know, in the traditional analog model, to use your your word, you would have to go just account by account, meaning bar by bar, restaurant by restaurant to try and see who’s interested with our platform, we can actually say, Okay, well, let’s look at who has said they’re interested and even open right now to looking at new Jen’s then possibly connect you with some of those folks and see if there’s maybe a way that you can be a lot more efficient with your time actually out in the market.

Jim Collison  [41:15] 
Go selves to work used to work for work day. And that’s a course as a tool much like that. Do you find yourself harking back to those those days of thinking about planning and scheduling and doing that all digitally? First, as opposed to relationship first?

Cody Wheat  [41:30] 
Yeah, it’s it’s a great question. So from, you know, to kind of give people the full context here from work day, you know, left that job, most people thought I was totally nuts. And move back again with my parents, worked at a couple of bars and then had an opportunity to be the opening bar back for major Domo, which is a David Chang restaurant, if you guys saw on Netflix, ugly, delicious, was a TV show. I’m getting a real foodie here. So I don’t expect that everyone follow this. But David Chang, a world renowned chef, and was had an opportunity to be in the in the presence of that whole situation it was it was really a phenomenal opportunity. went from there to working for the Buffalo Trace distillery, and it was brand rep for them out in the Los Angeles area, Ventura County, LA County and Orange County. So I like to say I spent 80 to 90%, my time just sitting in the car on the phone trying to use those that were you good? Yeah, I did. Let me tell you. And so and so yeah. And so I think that for me, going from a very digitally focused and technology focused company like workday to, you know, a company that was very focused on this more relationship building model, I learned the value of both. And I got to see the pros and the cons of both. And where, you know, the digital innovation is phenomenal. But there’s something to be said for looking somebody in the eye and meeting them face to face. And, you know, being able to really get a read on a person. And so I understand the value of both sides. And that’s where, you know, certainly with the limited platform, we see folks who go in and they might have a great phenomenal first connection, and they want to be able to continue to capitalize on that. And that’s where the digital tools come in and allowing them to maintain that relationship and continue to have sales and continue to have a successful partnership.

Jim Collison  [43:29] 
Yeah, kind of sounds like a CRM system for alcohol. That’s what it sounds like.

Cody Wheat  [43:35] 
Yeah, we try not to be so we’re not yet because we’re trying not to go into like the Salesforce HubSpot space, we really want to be a platform for, you know, platform strictly for distribution. I think that over time, you know, as the engineering team grows, there might be some of those CRM kind of capabilities might creep in there. But we’ll see.

Jim Collison  [43:58] 
Yeah, no, no, it’s good. We we think, you know, here we talk a lot about a lot of technology, a lot of platforms, a lot of gadgets, kind of fun to, to think through that and to think of this new kind of way of thinking through like, Hey, here’s an old business. And I love the fact you guys are trying to maybe think about there, and there’s some emerging, you know, companies that have probably been blocked or just because the big ones own the the interstate could never get on, it could just never get their vehicles on. And I think this is great to see some new things. Again, I allude to Mike alluded to, I think just in Omaha here when we think about infusion and lucky bucket and breakaway and all those you know that all these breweries we have here and these different options and then Patreon distilleries which isn’t doing beer but it’s only here is only doing spirits it’s it but they’ve got a pretty good local market but getting wider distribution point nine Mike who’s right next to cross train, they’re in the, in the in the mall where they’re brewing these things. The strip mall, they’re doing cross trains made it they’re getting distributed widely. They are getting out there, pipe nine has not been so lucky. They’re still kind of selling things locally. And so. But it’s great to see local folks start to make it kind of on a national level. I think there’s an appetite kind of for that as well is am I correct in thinking that. Cody, is it getting better for the small

Cody Wheat  [45:32] 
market, folks? We’re trying to make it that way. That’s one of the things that that our company specifically is trying to help with. We are starting to see, I think, particularly with, you know, we won’t go back to talking about the difference between craft beer craft spirits. The bigger beer companies were actually pretty slow in starting to buy up some of the craft beers. I mean, those craft beers really had a long run before any deal started getting made. crafts fear, it’s very different. So this is all public information. So Ford’s Jen was adyen that came on the market in maybe 2017, or even late 2017, early 2018. And earlier this year, they got bought up by brown Forman, the parent company for Woodford Reserve and jack daniels and a bunch of other products as well. And so, you know, that’s a two year maybe year and a half two year kind of run before Hey, they’ve got enough success, we’re buying them. Right, that’s pretty quick to make a move on a company. So you know, hats off to all those guys that were involved with that team. They did a great job of building the brand. But the larger spirit. Producers definitely learned from the, from the from behind incisors.

Yeah, from the Budweiser isn’t that some of the larger brewers they they learned from? I think that from the hindsight that those guys are suffering from

Jim Collison  [46:57] 
Yeah, like maybe we should move a little little faster. And those the beer industry has consolidated. I mean, they consolidated hard into just a handful and and then craft came underneath it. And I think you know, it’s just one of those consolidation models where they get big, you get lazy, you don’t innovate anymore. It’s interesting. As you were talking about this, Jim company, it sounds like there’s some opportunity to start up distilleries like you would start up tech companies to be sold, right? In other words, if I could get going and get a really good gin, and get some distribution, do it fast and quick. JJ, Jim’s Jim. Maybe someone will come along and buy it. Is there a little bit of that feeling yet, where folks are maybe starting these things just to see if they could sell?

Cody Wheat  [47:45] 
Yeah, yes. And no, I think the difference that I think, you know, anecdotally, that I would say probably between tack in between, you know, a spirits brand. When you’re buying a spirits brand, you are buying the brand. When you’re buying a technology, I think there could be some underlying IP that you’re really tapping into. Whereas with this, it’s, you know, it could you know, there’s a lot of great gems out there. I personally really enjoy for Jen, it’s a great question. That being said, you know, are they leaps and bounds, the best dream that I’ve ever had? You know, maybe not, but they’re good product. And they had a great job of building a brand and becoming very bartender friendly. And they were able to have an acquisition that way. So I think, you know, yes, and no, I think that people who get into starting distilling spirits or winery, looking to exit and have a big exit, I think you’re, you’re in the wrong business, you shouldn’t you should stick to the tech side of things, you can have a lot more success over there.

Jim Collison  [48:52] 
Alright. Sounds good. Just kind of wondering if maybe that’s the new. That’s the new thing, Mike, you and I should buy a place in La Vista, you know, because that’s where all the good water is. And in make our own and try and sell it to some big you know, some big company. That’s right, my wheelhouse buying, selling let’s do it. Got the perfect lawyer already. We already we already got the paperwork. Cody, I want to get Cody, I want to get really practical because for the folks listening to the show, they’ve made it this far. They’re fairly Die Hard. Alcohol, folks, right? Most of them who got 20 minutes, and I’m here for the tech. I don’t know why this guy keeps talking about alcohol. I think the question that looms for most people making cocktails, how do you make the perfect Ice Cube? Like, how do we make this ice cube? That’s clear, don’t heat the water? Do I boil it first? Do I like tell us give us some practical advice? How do I make the perfect Ice Cube that’s clear. And looks great.

Cody Wheat  [49:53] 
Okay, so this is a plug for two people. One is a very good friend of mine who lives up in San Francisco, his name’s camper and bush camper, actually on his blog, which is academics. It’s like academics, but with alcohol at the front of it. He actually is really credited as being the first one that did the research on how to make perfectly clear ice. If you want to find that and a lot of other, more tech driven elements to this, this is a fantastic book. This is your friend, liquid intelligence by Dave Arnold. It’s a 2011. Once a dozen 12 book, this has stood the test of time there. There’s some really, really interesting things that you can do to take your cocktails to the next level and get kind of nerdy and science II with them.

Jim Collison  [50:40] 
So so just more than clear ice, but because we’re dealing with I mean, ultimately, we’re dealing with chemicals, right? We’re dealing with how bitters interact, how the alcohol itself, the sugars, right? It’s kind of a chemical reaction that’s happening, right? And somebody who knows how to do that. Or when you’re making a drink? Are you thinking now about when you make a cocktail? Are you thinking about how these elements are going to combine? I mean, I used to be a rum and coke guy, you know, literally just like kaftan. Throw it in, and then coke right on top of it. Right? Not necessarily a cocktail, let’s just be honest. Are you thinking about the science of it?

Cody Wheat  [51:18] 
Yeah, definitely. I mean, that’s, that’s another element that you want to consider. I think, you know, getting back to the ice question. And I’ve had some episodes on the podcast where I’ve talked about the history of ice and the importance of ice. You know, ISIS, kind of the one ingredient in a cocktail, that is probably the most overlooked. People think, well, I’m just gonna, you know, shake it with whatever ice I have available, like, but you know, I’m diluting it. And, you know, sure, why not? Turns out and partially from the work that Dave Arnold did, and from what several other folks have done, that there actually is kind of an art to making a consistent cocktail using the right types of ice, that ice doesn’t have to be clear. But typically, if you’re shaking a cocktail having one large cube that you shake it with, or maybe two, like kind of larger chunks of ice that you shake it with, that’s going to yield you a more consistent, a more consistent cocktail with a consistent dilution, as opposed to kind of the, you know, the ice might get out of your out of your freezer or out of your refrigerator door, you know, that ice, you know, sometimes we get the little shards in there, it’s a little now kind of diluted a little bit quicker than you’re expecting. So that’s from our, from a more of a technical standpoint of actually making the drink. And then for the clear ice part when it comes to presenting it. You’re right, actually, it’s funny, you brought up the boiling A lot of people have have think that I mean, you think about it for a new step actress and you think well, what exactly you boiling away, you know, in the thinking was, well, I’m boiling away all the whatever’s whatever is in there. That’s clear, yeah.

Jim Collison  [53:00] 
There wasn’t a temperature to where if we’re taking it from an extreme temperature and then quick freezing at the, the crystal doesn’t have enough time to crystallize with the air bubbles are going out, or I don’t know, I’m not sure I’m lucky I we do have some King ice containers that we purchased on Amazon that we use for the big square ice and I recommend those are like six bucks on Amazon, just peel the ice off. But it looks like you any other ice cube that I filled up from the you know from the test.

Cody Wheat  [53:28] 
So I’ll tell you how to change that. And it’s, it’s a little more advanced, I’ll do I’ll give you the first way. And then I’ll give you what you can do to your ice cube or ice trays and and modify that slightly. So the way that I make my ice for presentations, I have like a big igloo cooler, not that just kind of the standard, like what you might take a picnic in, you bust the top off of that, and then you fill that up maybe 80% of the way 90% of the way with water, you’re gonna let that freeze. The key is that you don’t want to let it freeze all the way. Because the very last portion of what’s going to freeze or all those impurities. And typically, they want to freeze kind of right in the middle, right and then expand out. So you get these kind of like, almost like spines kind of growing out the middle of the ice. Yeah, these kind of like things they’re grown out. And, and so that’s what you don’t want. So for for my particular igloo, it’s usually it’s not 24 hours, it might be, you know, 16 hours or so that I kind of let that go. And then you’re going to take that out, you’re going to have a little bit of water, and that’s okay, then it kind of block things off. And then you’ll want I usually use like a serrated bread knife, like what you would what you would chop like some, some French bread with potentially use that and a mallet. And you’ll actually be able to block off like large spheres or large cubes of ice. And that in the center of your drink. If you’re drinking, for example, an old fashioned is going to keep your drink properly cooled without over diluting quickly because with an old fashioned or a Negroni or some of these more spirit forward cocktails, you don’t necessarily want to pound them down, you do want to sip them and kind of enjoy the process of having that drinking. If it’s diluting really quickly think, Oh, I gotta finish this thing before, before I’m just drinking water. So with that bigger ice cube, it’s going to keep it from getting overly diluted, and give you an opportunity to actually enjoy the drink over time plus, a clear Ice Cube just looks really cool.

Jim Collison  [55:31] 
So you’re basically doing so what we used to do to make ice houses before refrigeration, right? They go on the lake, big size, cut big blocks of ice, bring them in storm, right, all those kinds of things. And so you’re basically kind of doing that same technique. So instead of you’re cutting the sections that have already froze, but the impurities are moving to the center, so you’re, you’re allowing those to move there, then cutting those blocks of ice out. Just freezing them is that is it as easy as that.

Cody Wheat  [56:02] 
So you’re going to Yeah, so you’ll let the entire block freeze. And what will happen is you’ll have kind of a the first portion of it, it’ll be solid. And then you’ll have kind of usually it’s sort of forms almost like the top of like the framing for a house almost is kind of what you’ll end up with. But the middle won’t be totally frozen, still some liquid in there. So you can dump the liquid out of your ice hunk, and then kind of surveyed off kind of the the part that hasn’t totally closed on the top. Now you’ve got kind of this block. And then that’s what you’re able to go from there. Now. That’s old school. Yeah. Now when you’re talking about your ice tray, yeah, what you can do, and there’s, there’s a great video online, I’ll see if I can send it your way to show you exactly how to do this, you can actually cut a small square in your ice tray. And all that’s going and then you’ll you cut a small square in the ice tray. And then you float it in a pool of water. And there’s again, the video kind of shows this better than I can describe it for the sake of a podcast. But this is actually where you’re how you’re able to achieve the same effects because then that little impurity is able to escape and get out. And you’re left with this solid block that can have the same effect if you’ve already got those days.

Jim Collison  [57:23] 
So it’s kind of a cube within your the tray is within another tray. And you’re you’re freezing the water without its impurities on the inside, or however it’s set up. And then the impurities are going somewhere else. Yeah. What about these? What about the What about the gimmick of these of round vs square? You know, I can go to Amazon and I can buy ice gadget that’ll make these round ice cubes? Yeah.

Mike Wieger  [57:50] 
I have a few of those in my freezer, like a little ball ones.

Jim Collison  [57:53] 
Yeah, any better round than squares?

Cody Wheat  [57:56] 
So do you have the one. So there’s two types now. So there’s the ones that are ground that are more or less kind of like this plastic unit that you sort of fill up three quarters of the way. There’s also the ones they actually compress down and they do kind of this same technique, but they’re compressing out the impurities if they compress down one, yeah. Okay, perfect. Yeah, well, it’s awesome.

Mike Wieger  [58:18] 
Well, I don’t know what you mean. So it’s like a, the base right. And they’ve got and the base is hard plastic. And then the cover is like this almost like malleable plastic that you fill it up all the way to the top. And as you press down, water kind of squirts out the top little bit to get rid of all the air. And so as you’re pressing it down, it squirts and then you put that thing in the freezer, it doesn’t press during is

Jim Collison  [58:36] 
it? Is it clear, Mike, when you bring the CubeSat or does it have? Okay,

Cody Wheat  [58:40] 
so so so what I’m talking about is actually it’s a it’s a mechanical unit that needs ON?

would actually Oh, yeah, it’s gonna take this very seriously. Yeah.

Mike Wieger  [58:53] 
This was like $4 on Amazon. Gotcha.

Cody Wheat  [58:55] 
Yeah. So you actually you can do a similar thing, where if you leave the top open, and if you don’t let the ball freeze all the way those actually sometimes you can get them I’ve done it, you kind of gotta be checking on them a little more frequently than it is necessarily worth it. But there are ways to do a similar thing with the sphere. In fact, there’s actually companies now that what they do is make ice they mass produce ice for for cocktail bars, and they also do maybe like ice sculptures and things of that nature. But there’s actually a whole business of producing ice at scale and actually people getting at at a bar, you might get your ice delivered to you. That was the situation we had at at maitre DOMA, we actually got an ice delivery. And we and we got the ice gore

Jim Collison  [59:47] 
gore Mae ice, basically, right? Yes,

Cody Wheat  [59:49] 
sir. Yes, sir.

Jim Collison  [59:51] 
It is that matter? Okay, so it, it doesn’t matter as a as much as the way it makes the drink look, as well, well, as you know, you talked about you’re trying not to water it down, there’s nothing worse than when someone’s like, in the fridge, you know? And then pours you a drink, and that ice just melt super fast and pretty soon. And when you’re on the porch with your with your bourbon, it’s basically just water. Right? There’s nothing worse than that. So I get the bigger ice, less surface area to Mel right, some of those kinds of things. But is there also a look that some bartenders are looking for when they’re putting that in there?

Cody Wheat  [1:00:28] 
Absolutely, absolutely. It’s definitely a look. If you want to have any kind of a garnish in your drink, you can actually see the garnish from whichever way you’re looking. So that’s an element that people enjoy as well. And I do I think that there’s something you know, cocktails, kind of by their very nature are somewhat frivolous. You know, it’s this, there’s a lot of work that can go into something that’s consumed pretty quickly. Yeah. And I think that, you know, the ICF is sort of just another example of Hey, where we’ve made it, you know, it’s, it’s a little way it’s a it’s a little win, if you will, yeah. You know, hey, yeah, we’re at a spot where Yeah, we can have the nice ice and have it totally clear and, and live life.

Jim Collison  [1:01:15] 
We were drinking down at the Hilton bar downtown was one of our nicer bars, hotel bars down there. And I asked the guy for an old fashion and he rolled his eyes. And he was like, he’s a guess I’m kids, like this has become it has become a really popular drink. Right? A lot of a lot of books formerly, and he didn’t like having the appeal, you know, you’re supposed to peel the orange. And, and what I’m noticing is a lot of bars are getting lazy. And they’re just throwing the origin on the old fashioned instead of peeling it. But But you’re right, it’s that I mean, it takes an old fashioned, this is not pouring a beer like it is. There’s some technique to it and measuring it out and pouring it in the end the order in which you put things together and some of those kinds of things that have in a presentation. But Cody, I, I’m now spending, like when we go smoke cigars at Havana garage, or one of those places, not spending an hour to three hours, maybe on two cocktails. So it’s not totally you know, it’s not like the days, you know, come in, throw the adding back. And you’re done. Right? Yeah. So there is a little bit of time, right? I mean, you’re kind of enjoying these, but you can kind of notice when a bartender cares. And when they don’t?

Cody Wheat  [1:02:25] 
Yeah, always, it’s one thing we talked about consistently in the industry that, you know, at the end of the day, you can have a fantastic cocktail, but if it’s not serves with a smile, and if it’s not, you know, served with a sense of hospitality, like, what are we doing, like, you might as well pack it up and go home. Like, at the end of the day, we’re really trying to make sure that people, you know, come to these establishments and have, and have a good time and are able to, hopefully have a deeper connection with the people they’re with, because of the experience that we’re providing.

Jim Collison  [1:03:00] 
Well, I did kind of say to this guy, like, these, I’m painting, right? I mean, he, he was like, I’m like what, you know, and like, Did I say something wrong? Or they or something wrong? And he’s like, No, he’s like, like, the old fashioned has become the, you know, everybody’s order. And, um, and it’s like, I don’t really think I care. Like, that’s kind of what I want right now. You know, and I’m pretty sure I’m paying you for this. And it was it was or he did make me want to probably spit in it too. But, you know, it was it was the difference between and I think this is where we’re heading in the industry is that bartenders are getting more out in front and getting known. And then it’s a personality in the drinks as well. Right?

Cody Wheat  [1:03:46] 
Absolutely. And some of the folks that I’ve had on my podcast have really begun to capitalize on that and built themselves into into a brand. And, and it was funny, you mentioned earlier, some of the folks that I’ve spoken with when I first talked to them, you know, they were, they felt really successful. They had you know, 19 or 20,000 followers on Instagram, they thought wow, like, people think that I’m a really big deal. And like, This is crazy. And now like a year and a half later, they’ve got you know, 80,000 followers, 90,000 followers on Instagram. And it’s it’s, it’s crazy to see how some people have really, you know, this is they’ve kind of, you know, they followed a lot of kind of Gary van der Chuck kind of advice and built their own brand and made themselves a personal entity and it’s, it’s really cool to watch and, you know, really happy for all the folks that this has happened to they deserve every bit of the success that they’re having.

Mike Wieger  [1:04:44] 
Okay, so I’m going to pick your brain here for I’m gonna I’m gonna so you got all the expertise. This is great, because you said you’re on the spirit side. I have always been just, you know, a beer and wine guy kind of in my thing, probably from a few bad experiences in college, you know, hard hard spirits.

Cody Wheat  [1:04:58] 
So what do you mean I I didn’t have any of those.

Mike Wieger  [1:05:00] 
Yeah, it’s it’s weird. I don’t know. I didn’t either. I was a joke. Um,

Jim Collison  [1:05:05] 
so Okay, so

Mike Wieger  [1:05:06] 
a beer and wine which are good, right? You can go good, go tues but there are certain events and especially when hanging out with my guys are big scotch guys and bourbon guys, and you want to be one of the cool guys, right? You want to be able to enjoy one of those drinks. So I enjoy gin. I enjoy tequila. I just sipping tequila is one of the ones I go to. But so knowing those two things, and whiskey is it’s tough for me. What’s a good drink I can go to and kind of be part of the cool guys club without you know without trying to drag it down the old time.

Cody Wheat  [1:05:40] 
Yeah. How are you with with bitter?

Mike Wieger  [1:05:45] 
I love bitter. So like especially like on the wines. I am the driest red wine I can get. I’m also big IPA on beer. I’m more savory than sweet. I’m actually not a big sweet beer fan. Don’t like the fruity with the biscuits actually was pretty good tonight. But other than that very savory. bitter. I like that.

Cody Wheat  [1:06:03] 
Are you familiar with with Campari? Do you know what that is? Never heard of it.

Mike Wieger  [1:06:10] 
Okay, so write this down. Don’t take some notes, right? Yeah, no, actually, I’m I put on my phone. I’m gonna lie. My write down. I have this with me. I don’t have that piece of paper with me.

Cody Wheat  [1:06:18] 
We’re living in the digital age. Come on.

Jim Collison  [1:06:20] 
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I’m gonna start a new note right now. And I’m recording it, Mike. So Okay, perfect. Yeah, I can

Cody Wheat  [1:06:26] 
just go back and listen. So

the cocktail that I that they based off of what you’re describing that I would recommend is called Negroni. So underground, he is going to be equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth. The sweet vermouth is not overly sweet. Typically, I should say, depending on the brand that you buy, but it’s really there to just kind of balance out the bitterness of the party. can party can be a bit biting the first time that you have it. So I might I would say don’t give up on it the first time. If you think that Oh, man, this is really like, what is this? What is this guy said to me? Yeah, give it give it a couple times. It definitely grows on you. And that is a really easy cocktail to make very well balanced. Definitely a cocktail where a large clear ice cube is, is a benefit and definitely your friend. And and looks cool. You’ll you’ll definitely feel like want to one of the guys being able to order any. And yeah, so I think that’s a solid one. And you can actually do a similar thing with tequila, and actually just swap out the gin for the tequila and then have more of this kind of a got a base to it. And that that same formula will will kind of work for you. So I think that would be what’s it called if you use tequila, same

Mike Wieger  [1:07:45] 
thing and a grown ages with tequila instead of gin

Cody Wheat  [1:07:48] 
depends on the bar that you go to, they might have some different name for it, or it. And typically, I think if you go to a craft bar, they’re probably going to use something other than Campari, they’ll have a different they’ll have a different tomorrow. That’s kind of the broad category of bettering agents is a modern Mari. They might have a different one that they would pair it with. But for the sake of, you know, watching the wallet and making sure that you know this is kind of we can swap bottles in and out easily. Yeah, that just being able to swap it out and have having a grown up with tequila instead of instead of gin.

Mike Wieger  [1:08:24] 
That’s another good Well, that’s the funny part. Usually if I if I’m going to have something like this, it’s actually like in a fundraiser event where it’s like an open bar, right? So you want to take advantage and get something cool. Now, isn’t it something that most bars are going to know what that is when you order? Pretty I mean, pretty nationwide? Everyone knows who that is?

Cody Wheat  [1:08:41] 
Yeah, I mean, Campari is a is a nationally available spirit. I think that yeah, if you go to I would say just about any bar in the country, they should know if know what underground he has. It’s kind of like if someone’s rolling your eyes about you ordering an old fashioned I think it might be questioning the place a little bit. Similarly, if they if they’re not sure about what underground? Yes, I might be thinking okay, I’m a beer instead. Okay,

Mike Wieger  [1:09:06] 
yeah.

Yeah. In the can.

Jim Collison  [1:09:09] 
Bring me the kid.

Cody Wheat  [1:09:11] 
Yeah. And, you know, here’s the thing is like, I I love wine and beer, and I just I don’t I don’t know as much about wine and beer. I know a bit more about wine than I do about beer, certainly.

But, you know, there’s, there’s a, there’s a sense of like, if you

if I go to a bar, and I sort of feel like, hey, this person is not going to make a drink. That’s up to my, to my standards. And I’ll happen yeah, I’ll happily order you know, a glass of wine or you know, canopy or, you know, something off the top, like, I got no problem with that. But when it’s when it’s done, right, you can have a really properly made cocktail. It’s It’s fantastic. Similar thing with the garnish on an old fashioned in there groaning just FYI, you can either do a slice of kind of a swath, I should say, of orange peel. You can actually do like a half wheel kind just like a wedge of an orange in there. And it’s a,

Jim Collison  [1:10:05] 
I think was cheating.

Cody Wheat  [1:10:07] 
It’s a classy looking drink.

Jim Collison  [1:10:08] 
It’s not you know, but I think the orange wedge is cheating.

Mike Wieger  [1:10:11] 
And that’s good. Because, you know, for me, I think you know, we’re creatures of habit, right? So I got into down the beer in the wine. And we have so many good breweries around here. That’s just what I got into. And I naturally liked it from the very first day I had it. It’s not one of those things, you can have to acquire a taste for it. So I really just never had the opportunity to explore the spirit side of things. And it’s really when my college roommates come back and you know, they’ll bring usually everyone brings a bottle of something they’re really liking. And they’re really into the scotches right now. And scotches, I think, for me, at least was a hard thing to jump right into, right? To start with a scotch was a little bit tough. So I’m like, okay, where do I start? And so you’re the perfect guy, give me something I can start with. Right and and really start to explore it, learn it, because, you know, like you said, you can spend your whole lifetime trying to figure out all the different avenues and once you like, what you don’t like,

Cody Wheat  [1:10:58] 
yeah, you know, think particularly when talking about the whiskey category. You know, your buddies might be coming home with you know, an art, you know, the Freud or an Ardbeg, something that you know, just smells and tastes of, you know, Earth and soil, which is its own its own experience.

Mike Wieger  [1:11:15] 
Yeah, they’re big Glenn Levitt fans. I don’t know that’s that’s their that’s their go to usually Yeah,

Cody Wheat  [1:11:19] 
yeah, that’s, that’s another one too. It’s not quite on on that level. But it’s also got a lot of that real PD PD edge to it. I would say in terms of like introducing yourself to the category and kind of working your way up. I think that there’s still some amazing Irish whiskeys that are out there. So these following brands, I have no business association left, but just personally enjoy. So no professional ties. The distillery which is TELING whiskey. They’re the newest distillery, at least as last I checked, they were the newest distillery in Dublin proper. And so really phenomenal product that they’re making that’s coming out there. And I think that could be an easier way to sort of get yourself into kind of whiskey like, okay, there’s, there’s some cereal grains here. There’s kind of a nuttiness to it, potentially. It’s not overpowering and in my face. And then you can go into maybe American whiskeys rise and Bourbons sort of explore that a little bit and then work your way into some scotches from there.

Mike Wieger  [1:12:25] 
All right. I think that’s what you need. You need someone like you who can kind of, Okay, this is where you should start as I should get your thing instead of just blindly jumping into it. And especially like when I go to my local liquor store, our high V, which is a local Christian has a great liquor section. I don’t even know where to start. And like Justin was naming some the other ones that my friends are into, like a little Freud. A lot of Boolean, like those ones have been what my buddies have always brought over. Like, I have no idea where to start here, guys. And so yeah, it’s good to find that that place to start.

Cody Wheat  [1:12:55] 
Yeah, absolutely. I think

Mike Wieger  [1:12:57] 
Justin says, Now I want to scotch Damn it. in the chat, it’s what we do.

Cody Wheat  [1:13:05] 
So we do Yeah, yeah. No, and I think it’s similar for basically any category. Are you familiar with Moscow? Have you had an opportunity to try it? Nope. Okay, I think I think that that could also be an interesting bridge. So Miss gal is in a god a spirit. So actually, technically, in the kind of tree of God a spirits all tequilas are Miss gals. So Miss gal is actually this broader category of spirits that are come from the got a plan, but not all my skills are tequilas, correct. Okay, correct. So all tequila by law has to be has to come from the blue, blue Weber a GAVI This isn’t a god, a plant that takes about six years to age six to eight. So this is another thing actually people, you know, they say, Oh, it’s, you know, it’s Blanco tequila, it hasn’t been aged at all, it’s no good. And it’s like, well, you know, there’s a corn harvest. And, you know, Ryan a barley harvest every year and the, you know, the guys making their bourbon gets a tick off of that every single year, a guys naturally take a lot longer to age. So you know, some people say it’s just doing its aging process before it’s actually getting fermented and then distilled. Just a different way of looking at things. In any case. Tequila has a specific production method. And really kind of the big distinguishing factor between the two is that Miss Gallup can come from any type of a gobby. It doesn’t have to be the blue Weber. And there’s, I think at last count, there’s about 230 different types of a GAVI. And so there’s a lot of different varietals and expressions that come in there. And then you also have an opportunity, once you sort of get into these different expressions. The The other element where they distinguish themselves is that the, the Moscow, when it gets cooked, they actually will dig a pit into the earth and put these Gamay hearts in there and then kind of roast them very slowly in this very smoky, earthy, kind of sunken pit. Whereas to kill it, the guys that are going to go on to become tequila are typically in an above ground kind of industrial oven. That’s that’s cooking them. Both makes fantastic products. But my scout really takes on a lot of times this more earthy characteristic, and a slightly more smoky note. And yet it still has that backbone of the cafe. And so when you’re talking about what’s my intro into scotch, and how do I get there, you know, a lighter Moscow might be an interesting one to look at, where it’s not going to be the complete smoke bomb that you know, maybe some of your friends are having with the scotch, right? But you can still get some of that smokiness and kind of balance it out with a little bit of the sweetness of the GABA.

Mike Wieger  [1:15:53] 
So Justin asked in the chat then what’s your what’s your number one most Gallup?

Cody Wheat  [1:15:57] 
Oh my god. The

Mike Wieger  [1:16:00] 
tough questions. We don’t make it easy here Cody.

Jim Collison  [1:16:04] 
Questions. What’s your go to if you’re drinking? If you’ve got a chance? What do you what do you personally like?

Cody Wheat  [1:16:12] 
Well, I’m a little spoiled because I know people in the industry so there’s, there’s what I have bottles of and there’s what I can afford to purchase myself. So

it’s one of the perks. I’m

Mike Wieger  [1:16:22] 
celebratory night. money’s not an issue. You’re gonna have one drink. What is it?

Cody Wheat  [1:16:26] 
Yeah.

Fortaleza, for the prices is phenomenal. Don’t again, don’t have any business connection with those guys. I would say that most casinos which is actually a newer mezcal that just came out and actually isn’t kind of the most intensely smoky one, it’s it’s still has kind of this slightly, almost like, like, like a kind of leather odor to it. But it’s, it’s really interesting and complex.

That’s a great one to look at.

Mike Wieger  [1:16:58] 
The first one you said Fortaleza, yeah, what is that?

Cody Wheat  [1:17:02] 
That’s that’s a mess. Gallup Okay, there’s there’s there’s both a mess Gallup and a tequila Fortaleza. So it’s both on that one. I’m trying to think what else I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention DOMA gay, which is a bit more popular. Now. It’s a it’s a green bottle. Typically, if anyone’s if a restaurant or a bar liquor store is going to carry any message out typically they’ll they’ll at least carry down the gay comes from a cluster of villages. There’s a few different expression expressions that come out from each one of these villages and it’s a that’s that’s a phenomenal product and it’s one that’s got a lot of historical relevancy to the category as a whole.

Mike Wieger  [1:17:43] 
All right.

Jim Collison  [1:17:45] 
I’ve also I’ve enjoyed it and some people like it some people don’t but I have also enjoyed enjoyed patrol and and that has been a good not ruin it for you. Sure.

Cody Wheat  [1:17:56] 
So I’m a little

full disclosure. This is where my time working for the sasser at company which owns the Buffalo Trace distillery. Yeah. Excuse me. This is where my my bias comes in. So yeah. I actually know the family that were patrolling originally was grown. And patrolling the recipe for it has changed very dramatically from what it historically was. If you want what Patreon originally was, it’s now CFA, Lagos CFA Lagos is a product that the SAS company carries without getting into all the details, because it’s a very long and it’s it’s it’s a very sad story to be honest. There was a young man he lost his parents at a very young age and was then at you know, 1718 years old left in charge of this production of this tequila operation and of these are GAVI fields and of his family farm word got out that he was making a really phenomenal product and then been able to upkeep the standards that his parents had and improve upon them and he got approached by a few American investors and they went on to ultimately found for drone that deal went sideways again that’s a lot of details yet to get into that deal went sideways though and and he ended up kind of separating himself from the Patreon company and now that comes to the states as CFA was

Jim Collison  [1:19:29] 
no no good good to know. I haven’t I don’t do it a lot. I’m not tequila is not necessarily my go to that. You know, when the Mexican brothers come over, that party usually leaves the room so like, you know, that has not been my go to but one of my one of my kids likes it and brought it over for birthday party and enjoyed some of that I might have some Fortaleza in my office. I think I got a gift from somebody that I a bottle that I

Cody Wheat  [1:19:58] 
got some good friends who

Jim Collison  [1:20:00] 
I do, I think I have to go check that one. So my boss is just

Mike Wieger  [1:20:07] 
tequilas is thing, right? So So if I’m trying to find one if I’m trying to find one, maybe it isn’t heard of or maybe just a really good bottle that maybe won’t break the bank right? There’s a good solid bottle what’s what’s your go to tequila? Well,

Cody Wheat  [1:20:23] 
I personally love CFA, Lagos. Again, I previously had an affiliation with them. So I’m a little biased. The other thing you could do, and this is really unique with tequila is you can actually look on the back of a bottle like afforded laser like a CFA like was, and you’re going to see the DOM, the DOM number. And if you type in DOM, and you actually can Google this and you’ll be able to look up exactly where that GAVI has come from the Mexican government makes this information available and so you can actually see exactly where in the world the gods that have made your products have come from and sometimes the additional information there as well so I would say looking for some more obscure noms could be could be an interesting and interesting route to take.

Mike Wieger  [1:21:09] 
So I’m find out what he drinks normally look at those dogs and and see where those are from and find some of the words from someplace, see, and then you have a story when you give it to them. Right? Then you know where ektron then you then you can Okay, I like

Cody Wheat  [1:21:20] 
that. Yeah, yeah. So you can definitely impress the boss on that one. Okay, there we go.

Jim Collison  [1:21:25] 
Good. And out. There you go. Great

Mike Wieger  [1:21:28] 
job. We know.

Jim Collison  [1:21:28] 
We, we have we kept it for a long time. And I appreciate you coming on and we need to do this. I think this could be one of those we do every twice a year we do a BBQ show where Okay, those are kind of the biggest shows of the year where we come on and we talk about food. So while it’s Home Gadget Geeks, we talked a little gadgetry here, you know some things you could buy on Amazon such but we really during the the grill and BBQ shows, we just talked about meat. And it’s super popular. I have a feeling I’m just I’m just I’m that maybe this could be this could get popular with us here at Home Gadget Geeks. And so I appreciate I just appreciate your time and what you do shots a history as it Episode 99. And I think if you want to go back and kind of my recommendation, we go back and listen to 99 because it gives a little bit about where you came from a little bit about where you’re going, you’re going to have some new ones coming as well and I highly recommend them. Cody’s got a great voice for this. He really studies and not like Mike and I who just kind of wing it when we get in here. Cody actually has a plan to his podcast. It gets through his things. In does it very, very well. I think you’ll like it. If you’re into the history, you want to go back to the early episodes. If you like the interview style. You’re gonna want to binge on that and some really great ones. And then was it an Irish guy or a Scottish guy can’t remember that you had on? Just Reese Irish? Tim Tim Hurley is he’s he’s been a very popular episode for sure. Oh, my God best episode ever. Like I that was my favorite. I actually listened to drop my wife or my drop my daughter off in college, and I had my wife with me. We’re driving back and I made her listen to it. And at first she’s like, Who is this? Like, what are we listening to? And like, just listen, you’ll you’ll like it. And at the end, she was laughing. And he was I mean, he was really, really good. He was awesome. Those guys can say either Irish or Scottish. They can say anything. And Americans just think it’s great.

Cody Wheat  [1:23:31] 
We learned about chef, he could insult you to your face. And you’d say Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yes.

Jim Collison  [1:23:38] 
I just talked to this guy when as a podcast movement, Scottish podcast, or we’re going to try and have him on as a podcast coach. But he said that he’s like, oh, man, and I won’t even I won’t even fake the accent because it was so good. But he was like, oh man in America, I can just I can. I can say things about you won’t even know because they’re Scottish words. And you know, you’ll, you’ll think you’ll think me for it. And so super great. But Cody before I let you go, where are Where are you? Are you? Where are you? Are you in a closet? Or what’s what’s the deal with? What are we seeing?

Cody Wheat  [1:24:11] 
Yes, yes. Very funny, Jim. Very funny. So this is the running joke. Yeah. So right now kind of the situation that I have. I’m currently in this oversized closet, in my apartment in Highland Park. It’s me and three other folks that live here. And, and this is kind of the quietest spot that I have. So this is what I work with. And but definitely bringing people over and having them sit down in the closet sometimes is they they look at me like oh, going in there to record really, really. But I

Jim Collison  [1:24:46] 
love listening to them. So you you’d Welcome to welcome them to the show. And there was always a little comment about the closet, you know, recording from the closet. But you know, I was I was surprised you really were able to lock in some really great interviews with them and have some really good conversations around this. Thank you out of the closet. So you know I liked I really appreciate it. I may be your biggest your biggest fan. In in listening to those. I’ve listened to everyone. It’s just a favorite. And I listened to a lot of tech stuff. But because Sarah has gotten so interested in in making drinks sighs like Well, okay, at least I know a few things about some of the stuff so so Cody, thanks for saying, Yes, Mike. And I have a little bit of tech stuff and community stuff to cover. But thanks for coming on. We will probably try and get you back at some point. Because I think Mike, I don’t know. This is pretty great,

Mike Wieger  [1:25:39] 
right? Yeah, yeah, I can pick your brain, Cody all night on certain stuff. So

Cody Wheat  [1:25:44] 
I’d love I’d love to come back. And maybe next time I’m on we can talk about, you know, nature freezing meant, and we can try to make it a little more tech tech involved and dive into some advanced techniques.

Jim Collison  [1:25:56] 
Yeah, you know what I’m learning about my audience, though. I mean, the tech is great. And they come from that, right. That’s why they come but when we have a really good guest and really interesting conversation like this, and many of them, are they you know, there were some comments in the chat room tonight. Many of them like grilling and smoking. And they’re into that they’re also into drinks, you know, whether it be beer, wine, or spirits or cocktails, they’re into that as well. So kind of fun. We don’t always have to have the tech angle. I wasn’t I’m not necessarily worried about that. But because it’s a super interesting conversation and I want I want people drinking better, like I don’t want them just crap. Like Like, guys, we’re living in a golden age of of alcohol right now. It’s never been better, like maybe not, but it’s never been better than it is right now. There are some great options for people. I think when you’re thinking about drinks that are available.

Cody Wheat  [1:26:46] 
Yeah, you could definitely make a case that this is the best. And yeah, I’ll let you know that a couple of the couple episodes that I’m nervous to publish these I said that it ahead of time. I might get some pushback. So Well, we’ll see from the industry what people have to say about this. You know, I what I’ll say is actually there’s it’s funny right now there’s a news article out about Amazon, basically trying to basically they listed their warehouse as a retail storefront so that they could sell alcohol. And the state of California was not very happy about that. And that that sort of is is a somewhat on brand for kind of some of the issues that I want to start diving into that have historical roots, but have a sense of kind of modern place and some modern issues.

Jim Collison  [1:27:35] 
Yeah, no, I like it. Keep doing, keep doing your stuff. Shots of history just open. If you’re listening to your podcast right now just pause this podcast, go search for it, add it to it, get it in there, go back and binge on it, shooting. And Mike has got that Justin in the chat room says new show home food and booze geeks. What we turned into a little bit is we I’ve been I end the show with a tips from from Hello Fresh every week. So it’s kind of become a foodie show too. But Cody, we’re gonna let you go Mike and I’ll finish some things up. Thanks again for doing this will all contact you when we’re done and ready to go here and when we’re ready to have you back on. So I appreciate it. Thanks for coming in. So thanks, guys. appreciate you having me. Have a good evening. Appreciate it.

Mike Wieger  [1:28:24] 
super great. I’m really curious now about the ice. I’m so glad you brought the ice. I didn’t even think about that. You know, it’s always I just thought that certain ice makers made or I thought it was the water you use. Honestly, I’m like, maybe they use mineral water? I don’t know.

Jim Collison  [1:28:36] 
Yeah. Distilled is another distilled water. That’s another myth in those Yeah, really hard to have you done that trick, or you put the water in and you freeze it to where it’s actually colder. You have to keep it really, really still and it won’t you get the temperature down. You know, it freezes why water freezes is because there’s contaminants in it that the the crystals form around and that contaminants sets the kind of the structure for the cells, they they start and then that’s why you get that kind of that ripple effect of freezing over time. If you take a bottle of water and you get it colder than 32. So maybe 30 or 28 in there and it hasn’t frozen yet. You got to get really crystal clear water. Then you shake it the thing of freezing stuff.

Mike Wieger  [1:29:22] 
Know that

Jim Collison  [1:29:23] 
yeah, it’s super cool. You can read tons of videos, tons of videos around that. So great having Cody on I’ve been wanting to have him on the show for ever. And it just finally worked out with his new job that I had a little bit of a tech angle. And I don’t care. So I just like talking about and he’s a good guy. He’s that voice. It’s just yeah, it’s just so good. So he’s one of my, I think one of the up and coming podcasters and and what we’re doing here So, Mike, you know, three years ago, we had the guys from kangaroo. Were you you on the show? Yeah, yeah, those guys. I was I honored? I think so. And you know, I’ve you know, I’ve you know, I’ve gone through the kangaroo, you know, that on my server rack, you know, you know that I submitted one for army. Well, came back from podcast movement. And the battery they had expanded on this one as well. Same exact thing. Yeah. same issue. I think I over I windows 10 was it was doing a new install of Windows 10 or something. And these things aren’t great for repetitive, right, you know, high intensity, they get warm, whatever. I don’t think I had it in the doc too. And I’m not sure this helped just to be honest. But yeah, it ballooned out. And I just wasn’t willing to take the risk. I immediately pulled it off, shut it off. took it out and said, You know, I think I’m done. Not. They were fun little things. Yeah. But so if Yeah, if you have a kangaroo continue to watch these things. that’s a that’s a pretty dangerous bad. Yeah, no kidding. That’s coming out of there. So I’m going to take it apart on the inside. I think there’s some kind of drive in here. Without the battery just straight on.

Mike Wieger  [1:30:59] 
Power. Our cord? That’s a good, the battery magic.

Jim Collison  [1:31:06] 
Powerful. That’s a good question. I wonder if I the battery is glued in there? Or maybe it’s just this tape here that I can if I take this tape off? I don’t know. I play with it and see, I don’t know, Mike, I think I’m done. I’m done with it. I think I’m going to take it to Best Buy and turn it in and recycle it. So that is done. I thought I’d give you up somehow I gained at 660 gig SSD in the process. So this is what was the second drive for that. So that would get recycled. Right. That will get recycled back to something as well next week. Ross brand joins us here on Home Gadget Geeks Ross is going to come in we’re gonna talk a little bit about the history, history, but kind of where we’re at from a live streaming perspective today. So when we think about what we’re doing with stream yard and some of those other technologies that fits in at work is we’re doing more and more video conferencing all the time. And just more of those technologies. Ross. I hung out with Ross at podcast movement and he’s just an overall good guy. So we’re going to have Ross brand on next week. Talk a little bit about that. Mike, I think you and I are back for the fifth of September. And then Ryan. We met UU me and Ryan got together here Ryan, thanks for coming to Omaha a couple weeks ago, hanging out with us on a Sunday at Pizza Hut West which was super good. It was really good was

Mike Wieger  [1:32:33] 
really glad I went with the large pizza and brought them home to her. She was happy with that decision.

Jim Collison  [1:32:38] 
Yeah. Really good. I did too. I brought him home and but but I went then I left you know the next day I left her two days later I left for Orlando. And I remember being on the plane thinking Oh crap, I didn’t eat that pizza. Right didn’t matter. The family. The family killed it. crushed it. On it’s gone. Then we have a new youtuber coming on. Super excited. I haven’t met this guy ever. But I’ve been following him on YouTube. Jay Mattson is coming in. I’ll leave a link to it in the show notes if you want to get or you can see on Twitter I announced we’d have on the show. He’s coming on September 26. And he’s a total hardware nerd. And I’m really excited about it. So he just made a move and did a new studio design. And he’s just a straight up hardware nerd. And I really appreciate that. And so Jay is coming on here towards the end September so we got some great shows coming up. You guys might want to tune in love to have you live. I think Justin and Joe and Ken who we saw in the chat room tonight. That’s who I saw. Oh, and Ron was out there as well. Thanks for coming out if you want to join us live for live every Thursday. 8pm Central nine Eastern. Out here at the average guy.tv for satellite Mike. You tried Hello Fresh. You finally did. I did?

Mike Wieger  [1:33:54] 
Yeah. So you You gave me one of your coupons. I said after I think actually after the last show because we haven’t we didn’t do a show last week and we were off last week.

Jim Collison  [1:34:02] 
We were off because as a podcast move.

Mike Wieger  [1:34:04] 
Yeah. So two weeks ago you gave me the code got in and I actually so this would happen I set up the account on Thursday night right after the show. Forgot to pick the meals though. I was like oh, I’ll pick them on Saturday. Well I think it locks it in right away so but that was kind of cool because we got three random meals Hannah Hannah was Hannah was mixed top quality of food was great. It was nothing about the food for her she’s like let’s just it just takes longer than I was expecting. And I was like yeah, it’ll but she goes I think it’s something we’ll get faster at it’s just you know, the first few times you’re figuring out you know, okay use these bowls for this but by the third meal so we did it we spread it out a little bit so like every other night that week we use when the meals by that third one, we are getting it down right and then we kind of got to this cadence of maybe she would start before I got home from work she gets home before me that when I get home I’m helping with whatever like step two or three is and and we kind of got it down I really enjoyed it. So I think we decided on probably do like every other week and doing just two meals a week because we just had you know, for us on the weekends we’re usually really busy or with people and then during the week every other day works for us like two of the days of the week. Having that option was really good we did the servings for us when you do two servings truly they weren’t big enough to share with the boys are boys are getting the age where they’re they’re eating enough on their own. They we could probably do the four we could probably get each of them their own serving. But man, the quality of the food was what surprised me. I’m thinking okay, how how fresh truly can a shipping company make this and when you weren’t joking, they the quality, the freshness of the food. The recipes were although complicated in the sense of it took time, easy to follow, they make those instructions. I mean, I am the farthest thing from a chef you can imagine. And I was able to follow the instructions although we did find out we don’t have a zester. That’s one item we need to go to Target and grab. That was a big part of all three meals. Yeah, yeah, super cheap. But we did Um, let’s see which ones do we have? We had the hickory or the hickory onion burger. I think it was so it was like this caramelized onion sauce. There was a jelly like it. Yes. jelly. Onion jelly. The next one there was a fig. fig chicken. So it was potatoes. It was chicken and then it was this rosemary and kind of a jelly kind of thing. Again, that balsamic vinegar with

Jim Collison  [1:36:33] 
it. And then pour that sauce after you slice the meat and then put that in there. Yeah, yep,

Mike Wieger  [1:36:38] 
it was super good. I’m struggling to remember what the what the first one we had was, but overall, really impressed.

Jim Collison  [1:36:45] 
Yeah, no, you know it’s fresh when it goes bad pretty quick. Like if we don’t get to it in the week. It’s like it’s too late and we gotta throw some stuff away. So super cool. I sent Mike coupon to do the first week free and if you want to do that, too. I’ve always got those so just say an email Jim at the average guy.tv it’s free. I’m making money

Mike Wieger  [1:37:03] 
now we’ve got more because I have some to Yeah,

Jim Collison  [1:37:06] 
yeah, no loved if you want if you want to give it a try again. It’s been I just had we made a spaghetti two nights ago that I had last night and a little bit of it tonight made some didn’t have a ton of it. So I made some French bread or some sourdough toast to go this super great. And so if you’re just not eaten well give it a try.

Mike Wieger  [1:37:25] 
Again. Yeah, now I can see what you’re talking about. Because now I’m like logging in. I want to see like what did you order from actually what did I order? What do I have coming this next week? I have bruschetta chicken. I have the crispy chick pea to believable. I don’t know if I’m saying that right. Two bowls. And then the Korean beef. I’m not even I don’t even know how to say this next word. BIBIMBAP bid didn’t bap

Ba ba ba ba ba

that’s what it is. But they look look really good here. Oh, actually share my screen and show you guys I’m seeing real quick for those of you who want to see it.

Jim Collison  [1:38:04] 
That we did that while you’re doing that. And I’ll make it big. We did the sausage and roasted bell pepper pasta. Yes, pretty great. There you go. There we go.

Mike Wieger  [1:38:16] 
Chicken, crispy chick pea and there’s that Korean beef in the word and I say but I mean these options just they all looked really really good. Yeah.

Jim Collison  [1:38:26] 
And you know, sometimes you think oh, they’re over. You know, they’re overselling new. Not. Not that

Mike Wieger  [1:38:35] 
I was able to actually make the product. I tried to look at the picture and make it look like that afterwards. And it’s not too hard to do. Where are the tacos? It was tacos that we had. Yeah, we’re really really good.

Jim Collison  [1:38:46] 
We’re doing Yeah, we’re good right there.

Mike Wieger  [1:38:50] 
Maybe they you know, Jim, I think they kind of have a different menu each week.

Jim Collison  [1:38:57] 
We do they do? Oh, definitely.

Mike Wieger  [1:38:59] 
Yes. Every week stuff. I can’t get some of the same things that I got the previous week. No. Okay.

Jim Collison  [1:39:05] 
They were all ya know, they have a whole fresh set of options. We’re doing the 52 summit pork, and the Cajun black and Tapia top.

Mike Wieger  [1:39:15] 
Okay, there’s that Swabia?

Jim Collison  [1:39:16] 
Yeah. Agent black. You’re the one yo the 50 Bissau Mike pork

Mike Wieger  [1:39:22] 
and is looking at thinking about some really good how are you smart too

Jim Collison  [1:39:26] 
So yeah, pretty great. It’s on its way it gets here for us it gets here on Saturday. So we do that Monday. You know, we do it during the week. So if you want to jump in on it, either send Mike or nine email we got some coupons we will get those out to you as well. Great way to kind of just mix it up a little bit. Don’t forget we think the Patreon subscribers who every single month help us do what we do here appreciate you guys doing that. I know we haven’t done a post show in a while we probably won’t do it tonight either. But thank those I thank you guys that do Patreon every single the month and appreciate that. Join us and discord, the average guy.tv slash discord join us on Facebook, The Average Guy Network, Facebook, although all those ways to get it done and thank me for partners for sponsoring the show, right providing both web and media hosting, get secure, reliable, high speed hosting people, you know, trust the speaking of that, we just released the cyber frontiers 57 so if you haven’t heard that, go download that now to get to two other podcasts to listen to. And we’ll look forward to seeing you next week. We’re live every Thursday 9pm Central nine Eastern after theAverageGuy.tv. Live but that will say good night.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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