It's the brew
podcast.
It's the drive B with her Linda, our
guest today is Tony Mcgee, the man who
founded Lag. He's been in once before, Tony,
welcome again, it's great to see you dude.
Thanks.
You really look good. What have you been
doing? Well, you told me the other day
that you've been doing, like, a lot with
like, horses and gardening
and Yeah.
Yep, basically, my wife and I just retreated
to a little piece of property. We are
already living on and we just right away,
our neighbors put their houses up for sales
sweep. We bought those beautiful. So we had
this nice little spread out there, and we
just
we started just accepting,
friends that hurt my wife's horses who were,
these horses were you know, in their twenties
and now they're in their thirties and... So
we called a place the last resort. So
we got 14 horses. You and 2 donkey
and 2 mules and no kid. Yeah. Yeah.
And
planted 7000
trees, so it's all just comes pasture. So
we still have 20 count calf pairs, but
but 7000 trees basically forest us in the
property
The last time I saw Tony was actually
Friday.
He was gracious enough to join
me and Don Barclay, who
was worked at new A and found Men
brewing company,
and Mark Carpenter,
Yeah. Mark Carpenter from anchor.
I got to interview both of them. Yeah,
Tony on that, mike. Yeah. On this mic.
Okay. Yeah.
Last Friday for the museum of Sonoma County,
the exhibit of, beer and hops.
And you No. Log is is part of
the history.
Yeah. You know? How... That was That was
so fun. Thanks for coming doing that. That
was very fun. It was that's the first
thing I've been asked to do since so
since 2017.
So was a nice nice time to relax,
but also, it was a great thing to
be called because they had the brewery be
part of something that's a museum and very
cool. That's a... Did you ever think you'd
be in antiquity or in art in the
archive? You what? You know? I always hope
to 1 day I'd be worth something, you
know? So It's
I'm looking at good beer hunting dot com,
and let me read the this article by
just about any standard, Tony Mcgee should be
considered 1 of the most success full Americans
to have ever worked in beer.
The entrepreneur started California's Lag brewing company in
19 93,
grew its Ipa focused
portfolio owned to 1 of the largest breweries
in the country.
And now
we're gonna talk about He.
Well, so how did that start?
I how did the He Yeah
interaction start? Yes, please.
You know, I I
we were beginning to sell beer overseas, you
know, here and there. That's very difficult to
do and it's hard to do well. It's
easy to do it poorly. Sure. And of
course, And end up with old beer here
and there all over the world and your
reputation suffers. And so... But but I knew
that we wanted to do that, and I
could see that the Us market was filling
up. With breweries. It was not a bad
thing, but it was filling up. I mean,
there was it really had brewery was opening
every day. When when we started, I think
there were 1200 breweries in the country, and
when I did the made the He could.
I think they're were 1200 in California.
Yeah. And so I just thought I was
like, you know, we need to cast
a long line here to to start looking
at a future that's bigger than just
having fist fights in arm wrestling with with
breweries in the United States in order to
hold her You know, when you first...
Anakin it was the last family owned global
bridge. Yes. I remember. Yeah. Bad that's that
was the reason why them, You know, place
we didn't talk to other brewers, never talked
to an he bush. Never talked to miller
coo never right who's just He.
And that is a for... From all reports
that I know, a great company. And when
that happened, I thought it was a good
idea for you. Wow. Well, that's something.
You know. Some people didn't. A lot of
people didn't. Yeah. But and and, you know,
the thing is too that, you know, it's
a it's a good company, but it's also,
you know, it's company brought a lot of
change to log. And but the thing is
that these are changes that would have had
to happen, and I couldn't have done them.
You know? I couldn't have really we you,
we Not without logging need I mean, He.
Yeah. I mean, what, we even, like, you
know, they need to be restructured in the
Us. You know, we we just been growing
so fast for so long. That end up
kind of little fl and not so focused.
Yeah. Yeah. And I couldn't have made those
changes that had to happen. I I wouldn't
had the heart to do it even if
I knew how to do it well. So
He is very focused on making things make
sense. And so that's now.
Is now He...
Totally owned lag? Yes. Oh, Yeah. They do.
Since 2017
though. Yeah. Okay. And you've been out and
you're were retired.
I have been
retired.
From Lag. I've re chatted and everything else.
Well, good for you And your your your
life is beautiful and you're still in the
bay... In in our area. Yeah. Yeah. It's
nice I wouldn't ever wanna leave this in
Yeah. You know? You know, the funny thing
is is like, we always side of the
brewery. I always side of the brewery. I
think people who did it, whether they thought
about it or not acted this way. We
thought of was an art project.
And and the thing about... You know, an
art project is, you know, picasso might work
on a painting for a year and suffer
over it and started 3 times and throw
it away and res sketch it and start
up. And finally, when he all done with
it, he sells it. It leaves a studio
and it never comes back. You know? Right.
And you move on to do something else.
You know,
Well, and in know brewery was like that
for us. And, the stuff all the stuff
in the past that Lag
did is is well known and loved and
people love hanging out there, and you got
the stage and the
What are you calling that? The we call
it the amp theater at? Yes. It it
is the outdoor amp computer. There's so much
going on there.
It's very cool.
So whatever every time time I travel, you
know, I see Anakin. I'm kinda can I
see luggage?
Now this is on my brain. Lag is
everywhere, but I brought... I invited La to
lithuania as first craft beer festival And ironically,
the brewer an organizer for that was actually
at my house yesterday, and I took him
over to Russian River brewery,
Rays richard spot,
and
and if we just stood the chairs, it's
Kat and went lithuania raining them. But you
should seen
I have these pictures of of
these beer bloggers and the fur... And the
first only woman beer in Lithuania, my friend
Os,
and all these people standing around the the
table that La was pouring and Lithuania and
this old Soviet factory,
taking pictures and totally geek out on the
bottles, and I I remember somebody walking up
going to my eyes deceive me? Do I
see la eat? And this was... Like, they
weren't distributing there yet. This was just a
special event. Yeah. But that is how
excited people were, you know, to
to see
your beer there
and to get to try it and it
was, like, the longest line in the whole
the whole place. Wow. Yeah. I mean, the
only other 1 I had seen that kind
of reverence for
was anchor.
So the anchor team was 1 of the
first fears that had gone in, you know,
when they when they we're able to get
out of the Soviet union. Right. You got
to, like, hang out with Mark, Carpenter
Friday too. Yeah. It was great to seeing
Mark, and he's he's the best, right at
least so cool. Yeah. Those guys are. But,
you, there's... You know,
is a former musician. You know, you... You
know, the... You you don't copy other people's
legs, but you You try to copy how
they thought. You play harp, Right. Harp... No.
Guitar actually. Oh, okay. I thought give monica.
And and and and mostly poorly, but I
I work at. But the thing is you
copy there what they're thinking, not their legs.
You know? Yeah. Right. So would anchor was
somebody who I copied every
bit of the thinking that I possibly Doing
very. On the very first day. You know.
What are we tasting now? It's tastes very
familiar.
This is actually
Tony and I both forgot beer. And so
the I went searching through
the Wine catcher radio fridge and found a,
speaking of history, eraser 5 red rocket Ale.
I might have some fresher beer, newer beer.
Fine. On its way over here. I said...
It tasted familiar. And yeah. It is because
I've tasted it. Yeah. And actually funny, Richard
Nor grove had messaged me today he's getting
me a sign for
the museum of Sonoma County Beer exhibit. Okay.
So actually, I wanna talk about that a
little bit because that's that's how Tony and
I re reconnected.
I was really
pleased when you you said yes to come
in to do the video. And then you
had to go in and see them installing,
and you saw a piece of equipment. Oh,
yeah. Yeah. Yeah that
has had some kind of old school brewing
equipment in there. And 1 1 thing in
particular was that Gru tank. Yeah. And Gru
Tanks were these
stainless steel tanks that came out of the
Uk in other parts of Europe, and they
they're there... They didn't ship beer breweries and
ship beer to bars and ke. At at
the time earlier. They they shipped them where
they had trucks with hoses that would pull
up. And the and the trucks would, like,
fill up, like a gas tank. They fill
up these beer tanks in the back. Was
Gru a guy or a company was a
company. Yeah. They made these little these little
tanks are a there were 7 barrels, but
there were some number of leaders on their
side of on their side of the pond,
but but these things,
at some point, the republicans,
the, you know, bar owners figured out that
they could take the top off them and
start filling them back up with water after
they sell some of the beer. And so
increase their margins, of course, you know, but
the breweries sort of got wind of. Thought.
Alright. That's the end of the Gru tanks.
And so they just methodically started, taking them
out of pubs and replacing the with Ke.
And this this fellow that built my very...
My first 2 Brew houses, at John Cross
out of Porter, Cool, California
Cdc,
he he he he bought all of the
Gru tanks that that were available and and
the pretty much the whole of the craft
brewing was I mean, size anchor and Sierra,
who came earlier.
Everyone that came after, like, about 19 90,
but pretty much built their breweries on with
Gru tanks at some point. Somewhere in them.
And so that little tank is it just,
like, 1... It's like, 1 of the founding
rocks of craft brewing, you know, these... Well,
Brian Hunt from Moonlight Brewery brought Gru over,
and it was funny because
this is like a... I'm just I'm just
volunteering for this. I don't work for the
museum, although I I'd love to that. It's
super fun I'm enjoying
but
they were, like, I don't know. Is it
is a brewing equipment gonna fit in here,
and that little gru does fit an It's
like, I think that's gonna be something that
people go look at while they're there. Yeah.
And then there was just all those old
Grace brothers bottles. And. And there was, like,
a little box of old hops to remember.
Yeah. Yeah. And I was asking tony. Was
like, wow, that's that's so small. How could
they have done anything was such a small
a amount of pops. But yours weren't very
bitter back then.
So hot hops were just added just to
just to mute the sugars, but not to
be a flavor. You know, yeah. That's weird
it. It's totally different. It's got everything's changed.
Yeah.
You know, you... It's it's strange thing. 1
of the things I think is interesting. Most
interesting about craft brewing as a whole. It
said many ways it reinvented making beer. You
know? Because beers were not
made the way we all made them, And
we did it because we didn't know any
of or. Yeah. But because of of the
interesting things happened, you know? And so...
And, like, adding all the hops. So we...
You know, us at it, you, when we
were me and a friend of mine, grant
Asked from Rin brewing.
He
you know, he... We were some... I think
we're probably among the first besides home brewers
to be piling the hops into the end
of the boil in the kettle. But that's
not how it was done, and no textbook
ever told you to do that. You always
add a all front. But you didn't know
better, so you did it your way. We...
Did a flavors
get you that's all you see your pallet
rather than the dogma. Exactly. Things happen. They're
interesting.
What has Designer can change anything at Lag
because, you know, you mentioned a lot of
people are are mad, and I don't get
why that happens. Yeah, you know, people you
sold it and you're retired and you're happy.
Yeah. People don't like change, you know. Yeah.
But every everything has to grow up and
eventually you want. You know, if somebody has
a kid, you wanted to get out of
the stroller or get on a bicycle go
out, eventually leave the house and have adventures,
you know.
But so the the brewery should do the
same thing. I mean the brewery is creation.
Just like a like like a child. Exactly.
So people... I think if they got upset
it was because they didn't quite understand the
trajectory of. And something that they loved was
being changed. Yeah. But here's the interesting thing
though. And this is to He Credit. They've
changed a lot of the structure of management,
a lot of the structure of the salesforce
and However, they have not touched the recipes.
Yep. And I and those former
former employees are many of the people who
are pitching. Well, well, the ones... Some of
the people who were some of the, you
know, that needed to go, I wouldn't have
had the heart to do. They they didn't.
But like, the the brewers are the same
brewers I left behind. Exactly. And the the
brew master Jeremy Marshall. He's still There. There's
no change to the beer. No. And that's
the main point. That's right.
And and and so He why is in
that point. They they they love beer. They
really do love beer, but they also love
efficiency and operating and... Well, they're dutch. This
other... Are Dutch. Yeah. But Yeah. But, you
know, Dutch actually is funny Dutch are more
American than than any other European I have
they're really Yeah very familiar, you know, there.
Yeah. They're they're like us. We're like them,
maybe You know, I don't know. I remember
you had just had like, this is, like,
a really vivid memory. You would just had,
like, some neck surgery. Yeah. And like, a,
like, a few days later, he was out.
You're working the back or whatever those things
are called, Yeah. Building the apa empathy, there's
slope. Yeah. And I was, like, look at
him, Like.
And then if, like, like, a few days
later, I get a I get a call
from Ron Linden Bush saying, hey. Hurley,
we we've been a band here from England
Gomez, and we need a hostess with the
most is to make sure the band's happy
and and Fed, so we can deal with
this new appetite Or and can you get
us security guard, which I did. And then
I had so much fun with those guys.
They were from Liverpool. Yeah. Gomez. You guys
said... You got the best bands That was,
like, how did that idea my back because
I remember when you were just a, like,
like, pouring out of
you know, just c on dirt. You know,
back in the day. I I always wanted
to have bands, you know? And we... And
that's why we had a staged damp in
the, the beer garden, but I realized pretty
quickly there. If we had real musicians can
play that people were drinking beer. They weren't
there for a shell. Right. So that wasn't
gonna work. We had. So there was this
little lot between the buildings, and that became
the outdoor and theater. Yeah. And I I
love that. And... So, Laura Laura, Mu who
was there for a long time. She she
was just a wizard at finding these bands
just before they would break and become big.
And so bands would play 1 year and
the next year, they couldn't play there because
they had to play up 3008 rooms. You
know. No man's got really big. Yeah. I
saw Char.
Yeah. Carl Dent.
Tiny universe there. Yeah. So I just saw
Laura... The other day. She's booking the bands
at Little Saint He. Oh, she. Yeah. Good
for her. And she's and crazy stuff, like
Phoebe bridges before Phoebe got. Yeah. She had...
She just has an ear for for for
musicians, You know, O do. Right on the
cusp. And I can't wait to talk more
about this, the great famed
Tony Mcgee, founder of
Lag is back with us.
In this article, I'm looking at it, You're
called the famed founder of the s irr
04:20 friendly and foundational Northern California brewery. I
say that says it all. How you bad
though. They not they said it.
As this website calls him the man, the
myth.
Searching for Tony Mcgee. Well, he's not hard
to find. He's right across from me now.
It's great to have you and men. Yeah,
it's nice to be here.
So we've talked about the sale in He
and all that crap.
Let's talk about
since you're retired, though, the future of craft
beer in especially Sonoma County because it's gone
out of control. I don't know. What do
they call Santa Rosa the Beer city. Yeah.
Yeah. It there's and there's so many great
breweries, and they're all wonderful people. Yeah. I've
had them all on. Wow, you know, I
mean, it's,
you know, this is the best time in
the last thousand years to be a beer
lover. Right? I mean, you you you could
go your whole life, have beer every day
and never drink the same beer twice, You
know, and So it's it's a... You know,
it's a great thing. It's it's a difficult,
you know, economic,
environment, but it could be that, you know,
the, you know, when there are so many
breweries it's difficult to build volume, but Yeah.
But it could be that it's a craft
and and that's what it needed to be
all along. Right. And and it's returning to
be that just through, you know, just through,
you know, the the number of part players.
So it's so it's, you know, it's like
having a a little furniture shop or something,
and we make beers. We know our customers,
our customers know us. And Yeah. That's a
beautiful thing, man. That is. That's a uniquely
Sonoma county thing. Yeah. I agree. Yes. Know.
So
lug is part of the museum the Sonoma
County exhibit that opens tomorrow to the members
of museum sonoma candidates. It's called On tap.
The first history of Bi Hops
in,
Sonoma County. So, of course, you know, the
first in ingredient in America it was new
Avi in the town of Sonoma. The hot
picking machine, the Don arrow was invented in
Santa Rosa.
And they still have dan howard operating up
in, Y Valley. Washington I talked to Tom
Fraser, his family. Was the don hours. Right
yeah. The other day, and, yeah, they moved
all the operations up there, but they still
own the building where least to make them
across what used be the the holes the
Goose and burn now. Oh, really. In railroads,
it's square Santa Rosa. But some of the
questions I was asking you and,
Don and Mark on, you know, Show the
end other day was, like, what was your...
Like, let's go back to, like, the beginning.
I let's talk about the history. Like, what
was your
inspiration to start a brewery and how did
that get started? Oh, well. You know, for
a lot of people, that came later in
particular, it was the fulfillment of a dream.
You know, they've been home and there's this
idea, and they tried to raise some money
and started you know, for me, it was,
I fell into it. I was selling commercial
printing and the Gulf war started and all
my printing customers went away and When I
I finally got back on my feet. I
just said I'd never gonna let that happen
again. And so I thought about what else
I could do and then
don't know. I thought I wasn't gonna be
married forever at that point. And so, you
know, life just kind of spins you around
him. And so I said, well, I know
I'm gonna do on it quits. I I'm
gonna start a start to stop selling printing
by starting a little business, and this will
be what my b brother got me a
homebrew kit for Christmas in 92.
I'm brew in January,
December
of 93, the brewery is open. Logging more
seizure. 93. Yeah Yeah. More seizure than it
was a decision.
But the thing is is I recognize recognized
all kinds of things in brewing that are
similar to music. I mean, they're very there...
You know, there's There's there's themes and there's
development if there's range and there's rhythm in
know if you drink a beer, you'd have
a little taste. It's like a little 3
minute, 3 second ay dude. You know, there's
a beginning. There's a middle and there's an
hand and gray notes and there's little travel
notes in the highlights And... So there's
everything about beer I recognize it was like
I was
Everything in life had prepared before it. So
I just went with it. A lot of
the beer lag is hop focused.
Ipa,
and and we'll talk about that. How did
that... What what major come up with that
idea to to do that? Mh. Well, well,
my friend Grant Johnston, who was a brewer
I'm ren brewing for a long time. It
was 1 of the private... 1 of the
most awarded homebrew brewers of all time. You
know. But he's just the most curious guy
And and at, he would go home every
day after brewing and rear brewing, and he'd
go back to his apartment and a little
house he rented in wood acre, and he
would, he he to homebrew. And so I
started meeting up for home brewing it.
Before Log was even open, and and I
just... He was doing things with hops where
they were going in late late late in
the boil and was very unusual.
But it instead of having bitterness for being
in the boil the whole time, they went
in the end, so it it's just the
flavor
fraction of the
components of the hops. They say. And so
we did that and all of a sudden,
it was, like, a place to stand. These
are flavors that hadn't really been expressed before,
and you know, everything comes from somewhere, and
I don't wanna say we invented anything. But
what we... I think we discovered a set
of flavors. Apparently as we... And but then
19 95 came along, and the crap industry
kinda went into a big spin tails spend
and nobody is growing and lots of people
gone out of business. And by the time
it all came back about 2001,
2002.
The things we were we were doing were
working, and other brewers looked at what we
were doing that was working and then, that
was... It's just like music. Yeah. If somebody's
doing a certain groove that works,
you incorporated.
It's not it's not copying. It's emulate
Exactly. And then you make it your own
and you do your own things. And so
III
don't wanna, you know, even even Fritz May
tech go with Liberty hale was doing that
hop forward thing before us, you know? But,
you know, III think we made it our
central thesis in Right. In a lot in
a way that that be it became our
voice.
Where's the name lag anita come from,
yeah, after that last time you were, but
it's been so long at don't remember. K.
It's this little town and West,
you know, kind of just west a fair
facts since francis. Drake where I lived. Yeah.
1 side of the science says, welcome to
La The other science says, thanks for visiting,
you know. And and and that's Thought I
put the brewery with in the basement, and
I filled out the paperwork with the word
La anita sun in the name of the
business everywhere. County said the county then and
I went talk to them. And they're like,
you're never going to do that in your
house. In this county.
Like, okay. So I ended up moving a
little town of forest K next door, but
I just thought the name looked pretty. Yes
I just thought the letters, the letter from
It's fun to say everybody loves seeing it.
Okay. And I eat this. And and most
people say it wrong, which was the best
thing. In a way. It's say la qui,
like a night. Yeah. You know. I love
that too. You know Yeah. Like La qui.
Every kind of... But the thing is is
if you get it wrong, and then somebody
corrects you, you're in the family now. Yeah.
Right now. It's like, now you you know
something that the guy next to you doesn't
know. He is a Tony Mcgee founder of
Lag brewing company.
I wanna get your thoughts on Russian River
Brewing wings, p the younger because. Because it
such... It becomes such a huge thing. Yeah.
Worldwide. Yes. It is. It I it's an
astounding
you know,
how do how does 1 become Taylor swift.
You know, I mean I... If it if
if it happens, it happens and it certainly
happened to Any and and that beer. Yeah.
And it's
you know, it's it frankly, it's it's a
it's en, but it's also amazing. But the
thing is when something like that happens then
your job is the creators is not to
fail that luck. And Vin and and Natalie
certainly never failed that luck. Right. And and
and then he did all sorts other things
as whole other spectrum of the sour and
the Belgian styles stuff that's... That just gave
such breath to the whole thing. And wasn't
just a a brewery that made
happy beers. So Earl? Yep.
Stuff
some of my favorite beers at Lag
used to do. I wish they would bring,
I... But chronic and since, you know, which
became sent third. Mh. Of course. And a
cappuccino stout. I absolutely love brown sugar of
course, but, you know, that's a given.
But, like, so like, what were some of
your favorite bureaus that you...
Cappuccino was the second beer I made. And
I have a feeling it was
probably 1 if not the,
earliest.
Coffee beers in the United States. Love that.
It was it was a fun thing to
do. It seems so wrong to put coffee
and beer. I I used to describe it,
like, a speed ball, you know,
between the alcohol and the and the caffeine
is like, having someone pull up on your
hair while they stand on your foot, you
know? Wonder I like it.
I ever remember being up of the loft
to 1 day you guys would do the
industry parties and up in the loft at
La. And,
La lu or, goat ice cream was there.
And they were making... And beer shakes with
cappuccino style and vanilla goat, ice cream, and
it was, like, sounded so weird, but it
was, like, putting the best things. It sounds
great. It.
Delicious. It was so so good. Yeah. Everything
about craft brewing, it's about flavor. We live
in a world of flavor now. You know?
That didn't exist before that. That's like judging
beer. It's so And and if you drink...
And if you drink, like a a course
banquet beer, I have no way to know
this for sure, or if you could drink
a Pb,
there there's more hot presence in all those
beers.
There's there's more flavor present. And I think
that at some point the people who are
the, you know, the top of those companies
set of themselves Oh my god. People are
tasting the beer.
You It's not just about brand imagery. It's
not just about, you know, the party environment
is not just about pricing. Know. It's flavor.
Flavor used to be way down on the
hierarchy of what mattered in the brand, You
know? Now I I think moved way up
and crap and change that. People are pick.
I just actually picked up a case of,
the w bear
04:20,
how so how did you... Like, did you
start that or, like, was wrong? Like, not
had did you meet them first?? No. We
were... Ron knew those guys. From some somehow
III think probably, you know, through the the
through the Emerald cup, and he, you know,
he's a judge in the emerald cup. And
and and
we were doing just 04:20 stuff on our
labels and and and the Pos and stuff.
And there's a brewery in Atlanta the apparently
got a federal trademark on a registration for
04:20, and and they they said, you know,
you can't do that anymore. And we're like,
okay. So we you thought, well, let's let's
work our way up the tree. What's even
cooler than 04:20. Oh, how about how about
the gentleman that actually coined the dirt those.
And they happen to be low. They have
zap. We had 1 on the show.
A long time ago. And at first they
didn't want... They weren't really sure they wanted
to be known Right. As individuals. Although the
Waldorf story was something. But and the little
by the little, they started I realized realizing
that there was
credibility. I mean when 1 guy was ran
a security company. You know,
security cards. Another kid... Another guy thought that
he didn't want his kids knowing that. You
know? And And I you can't blame them.
You know, but after a little while. It's
like, they're they are, like, freaking yeah. Yeah
Okay. Yeah. And they... They're called the W
because they
at 04:20 in the afternoon from... At Marin
High school, they got out on the wall
and get stoned. On under under the Louie
pasteur stature. That's 04:20 Louie Break. Think was
red went high. Right? It was Red high.
Yeah. Yeah. It was red high. And Oh,
okay. Those guys were super funny... They're like,
lawyers and stuff down. There was just an
Instagram, ad or or or post at with
logging with all of them. Mh. And then
on the couch, in the in the loft,
jumping off the the couch then day. I
was like, okay. I'm glad to see those
guys are doing, well, I left Steve a
master cp come on again, but So you
guys, like, the beer circus,
the wall does. I mean, you guys came
up with, like, the
craziest
coolest most iconic ideas. You know, but the
funny thing with even the beer circus, there
was a the first first year that they
did San Francisco Beer Week. Okay, a bunch
of San Francisco Brewers who saw us as
kind of crowding the market by selling so
much Ipa, and we weren't from the city,
and so they didn't invite us to the
planning meetings. And next, we know we find
out 1 of them has just has has
assigned themselves as the person who's gonna do
the lag tour. When the bus went north
out of the city. And we're were like,
alright.
We are gonna put on a party that
nobody has ever seen before. Yeah. The beer
circus. We're gonna steal San Francisco beer week
from here if we can. Are they still
doing the beer circus and lug? I I
don't know. I I don't have. But but
that was why it was it was trying
to make a point. It's like you wanna
have fun. This is be the place to
be. Beautiful? I did first aid for the
first few beer circus as of volunteer interior
I used to be an Em emt. Yeah.
So much fun. Like, were, like, crazy marching
bands that looked like That's right. Like nightmare
before Christmas dressed up. There was... It was
like, an r rated, maybe half that rated
marching band... That's perfect. Yeah. It was it
was everything was so adult and and the...
But it was all 21. An overs. No
no. It's all cool people played out it.
I was right. And there was the clown
that's my own death death metal. Yeah. It
is the drive B,
and it is brought to you, of course,
by Russian River brewing.
Home run pizza in Fair field into the
victory house at the
Poppy bank epicenter, our guest today, the wonderful
mcgee founder of Lag now retired.
It is Beer Country here. Now in Sonoma
County
if... But, of course, it's known
as wine country.
Just 1... I don't think I've ever asked
you,
do you like wine and do you drink
much of it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean
love wine. Out. Now... Yeah. My wife always
like, wine more than beer, You know? Yes.
And she worked at the brewery for a
long time. So...
But there's a lot of things lot of...
There's a lot things about crap running and
white and the Wine business here that have
a lot common. And Yeah. I agree. Especially
the earlier days of of the wine business
here when it was mostly mom and pops
and Right. You know, and everyone is struggling
to make it make it work and they're
were ambitious only, like, but what they do
is they loved what they had and that
would... So that was that was inspiring. And
you think about making a brewery Was like,
well, I don't know anything about Wine by.
No beer now but I see how they
do it. We're gonna be the same way.
We're gonna invite people in every day of
the week who want people to come and
party with us. You know?
So I know why
operational. Outside of a lag is is He
doing anything different? Are they building anything more?
Or they're gonna expand on on anything.
You, you know, they they... Their... The company
never isn't growing, and they're always sort of,
you know, making little acquisitions of breweries here
in there in in the world and So,
but, you know, they're taking lag Need to
more and more and more countries. I mean,
I understand it's on fire in Paris and
in Sao paulo and Rio and I I
was in... We were talking about in H
chi Min City is old Sai. Right? And
I have came into a... We've met met
some brewers there at a place called heart
darkness Brewing
And his his... His Ipa tasted a lot
like maximus. It was it was very cool.
You know? I mean, it it was nothing
not again, not copied, but you could tell
how influences appear, but the thing is all
the brewers we met their all new, the
undercover shutdown story. Oh, yeah. And these guys
are in freaking vietnam. And they knew, you
know, it's like that so you sessions some
of I'm sure.
Well, all.
Some of it was cool. Yeah. And I
didn't I didn't correct them. So that
in some ways that's what He does is
they're taken h to the world. It's in
a world. Yeah. And the beer
is exactly the same as it was
that When you were there... The the the
specifications of the bear are the same.
Yeah.
In some ways, I think the beer is
even cleaner too than it was when we
made it because they're just more scientific brewers
than we were. You know, we were all
homegrown brewers and... Right. And so they brought
things to it the appears more stable and
it's flavors are a little sharper, or a
little brighter now, And I mean, it's sort
of like someone focusing a camera, you know?
The lab techs and stuff as well. Yeah.
But
I
I just blank on what I was going
to ask you about, but... So, yeah. So
I know that they've built a brewery in
the Netherlands and
and then 1 1 in Belgium, they're were
actually using a, brewery from the 13 hundreds
at
1 point, like in the Netherlands as well
too that they were... Yeah. Brand... Putting together.
Yeah. I thought that was that was really
interesting. There was something... Oh, I know. So
in the museum,
they have the bottle
of undercover shutdown ale,
all the agents
that rated logging need for the undercover shutdown,
signed the bottle and gave it to Ron
Ron, and they put it in a glass
close, and that is actually in the museum
sonoma mechanic exhibit. Do you wanna tell the
story a little bit? Tell the story man?
Oh, well,
we we always spoke Pat the brewery. But
but we weren't a pub, so we weren't
a bar. We was just us at work.
And Right. And, you know, I I would
never a second. I mean, we we had
You know, we're... Are you are you okay
to work today? Not are you... Not are
you sober? Are you straight? Are you, you
know what the... Yeah Was more... Because, you
know, and the people that work there, we're
we're all rag tag. And so, you know,
everyone... Nobody was like polished. And so it
was just us. And they...
But we were having these open houses on
Thursday nights and so the Abc thought, wonder
what's going on there. And so they sent
some people in. And and for 8 nights
in a row, they they are weeks in
a row, they came in. They got
hammered and had we cut off. The Abc
b guys. Yes. Because we... Because when they
finally did the bust, we re... Of course
recognized them and and they would they're bartender
would caught them off of them now you're
not over serving you. You you you're a
mess.
And so these are the people that are
then, like, writing up a Or, then they
tried to buy pot from people, and nobody
would nope nobody would sell pot. But everybody
would give them whatever they wanted to free.
And the agent told me that I was
out of town that the night of the
party. That came back in Monday morning, and
and and then I called the agent right
away and I was like, I understand you
try to buy pot people You should be
ashamed to yourself. Then she said, what this
is what I do for living. And I'm
like, well, alright. Day. I sal and she
goes, no, but they're all willing to get
me for free. I'm like, yeah, those are
my people. They were raised.
Yeah. It's was better to give than receipts.
That's an amazing and I have heard it
before, but when coming from you. It's even
more amazing. But then the whole thing even
went on a while longer. That went on
for a full year before we finally got
the allegations out. Left And,
I had an attorney in the city, and
the guy who was my attorney
within that firm. There's a working on this
was the former general counsel for the Abc
b. He had just left to go into
private practice.
So I thought, well, this is great. He
knows knows the lay lam, but the end
turned out that, while he's a good guy
and he tried hard he wasn't gonna represent
something that was gonna be problematic for the
Abc because in the end, as soon as
we closed our deal with the Abc,
he he went back to work for Abc.
No. Did the big shots at the Abc
know that there their people were getting hammered.
That... I'm trying to buy pot don't know
what they knew, you know, It's instead say,
but I do know that the the the
2 guys in Sacramento who ran the Abc
took a meeting with me, and they shouldn't
have done that because I went around their
regional guys. And I sat there and we
talked for a while, and they agreed that,
you know, yes, Sonoma County. No pod is
not meth. They said, but we have only
1 rule, and I got bars and Fresno.
He says that sell meth. And so you
have... I can't make a exception. Yeah. Yeah.
I understand. He said so he said, how
long could you take a suspension? I was
like, 20 days. That way, I could sell
10 days in the beginning or 5 days
in the beginning of the month, 5 days
the end of the month. I'd have a
financial statement for the bank. We'd have business
going on
He says when do you wanna do? I
said, well, we're putting in a bottling line
in January. It'll take 20 days to install.
He's like, what day do you wanna start?
Cool. And it was set. And And and
I walked out of that meeting, they we're
we're we're, like best friends by the end
of that meeting. A problem that he had
been resolved,
and and and I went It got my
car took a huge fucking head off. So
off joint and fell asleep for an hour.
That's such a great story. I mean, I
can't believe those Abc people were coming in
and getting hammered and s. Damn. You know,
they were having a good time. Yeah. They
were doing what we. Them to do was.
But then they came back to shut you
down. Yep. Well, the ticket... They were just
people. The citation you the the museum to
the citation they gave Ron.
When they arrested him is in the museum
as well, The museum with Sonoma County exhibited
Baron Hops, the on top of that. Opens
tomorrow to the members, and then April 20
seventh is the Shin. And I hope you're
gonna be able to come, Tony. There's gonna
be bunch of legends from the, you know,
the beer industry, Tara Is doing a, book
reading a book signing from a woman's places
in the Brew house, which your wife, Chris
is actually in. As well as Natalie Russian
River and, you know, older and newer, like,
all kinds of... On the 20 seventh You're
talking about July. Right? No. April 20 seventh
is...
It's gonna be... It's gonna be called the
spring fling, So not only at the museum.
At the museum. So there's gonna be... They
have a modern museum next door. So Brianna
Darling is gonna be throwing metal sculptures at
the same time. We're gonna have beer
tasting, Mh. As well out in the garden.
And then this is separate from the beer
festival that's gonna happen July twentieth. So this
is gonna be an event for just kind
of like people coming and seen
the exhibits of and then July twentieth
in the sculpture garden, we're gonna have an
evening
beer festival. So it's not gonna be so
hot. Yeah. There's all these beautiful redwood trees
and stuff in the sculpture garden.
Pond farm brewing just told me that they're
gonna
bring some beer. Remember there's the pond from
ceramics.
So
there's a pond farm brewing in Marin, and
they're they were thrilled to find out that
they're all the ceramics and things bond bon
form. They're gonna be pouring their.
Log is actually a sponsor. I got them
to actually do a cash sponsorship.
I'd like to get more from them. I
can I'm gonna try.
Russian a sponsor as well.
Alright.
Man, it's a pleasure to have you and
you're such a great guest. You you gotta
do it more often. Well, that comes be
nice to be invited. Then this museum show
it yeah be very cool. And we're gonna
be involved in and talking a lot about
it as we have been. He is the
founder of Lag anita, now retired. Tony Mcgee.
Tony Great to see you again. Thanks for
coming in.