Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Buck-a-Beer: Toronto Mike'd #365

Episode Date: August 8, 2018

Mike chats with Troy Burtch from Great Lakes Brewery about Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative Party's decision to lower the price floor to a buck-a-beer in Ontario.

Welcome to episode 365 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything, often with a distinctly Toronto flavour. Today I'm going to get to the bottom of this buck a beer promise made by Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservative Party. Joining me to answer my many questions is Troy Birch from Great Lakes Brewery. What are you drinking there, Troy? Over my dad body pills there. Because you're working on a dad body.

I already got it. I'm just building on it. And you have two kids, so this is you earned it, like, honestly. I have earned it. It's been a busy couple days. That beer is in order. Troy, listen. I was going to tell people, like, I knew you when.

Like, I knew Troy before he was famous. This is what I'll be saying. But you, I mean, this buck a beer, and we're going to get into the details here in a minute, but this buck a beer promise and this news that came out from the Dofo PC party, it got you making the rounds on media. Can you please list for me,

if you can even name them all, all the media outlets who have had your time these last couple of days? Yeah, it all started with a single tweet. First up was Colin DeMello at CTV. Former guest of this show. Yeah, he mentioned that. He reached out, he saw our tweet and said,

let's chat. So that started off on, I guess that was Sunday evening and then into Monday. And then all day yesterday, News Talk 1010, CBC, Toronto News, CP24, CTV News Live, Toronto Star, AM680,

CBC As It Happens, CBC Here and Now, Global News. I was on City TV Breakfast this morning. The Breakfast Television. I was on a show last night out in Vancouver and I apologize if someone out there is listening, but it was a national

show at one o'clock in the morning with The Drek. I've heard it on the Chorus Network, right? Correct, yeahreck i've heard on the chorus network right yeah correct yeah yeah i've heard of it i was pretty sleepy by the time that uh went out but um uh yeah so there's a couple more sprinkled in there uh it's been a whirlwind to say the least and really it came from um just our position that we're not going to devalue our brands well it's the topic du jour so all these exactly they're looking for, they need a craft brewery who can be on that side of the, and we'll get into your side in a moment.

But I mean, when you did the here and now, not here and now, when you did, is it as it happens? As it happens. Yeah, Matt Galloway was filling in, right? That's right. Because normally he's Metro Morning, but here, let me crack open my Canuck Pale Ale. It's only $2.80 again.

Is that the cheap... Sorry, I'll use a better word. Is that the least expensive beer that you sell? No, at the LCBO beer stores and grocery stores, we sell Pompous Ass English Ale at $2.65 a can. Just two and a half years ago, Canuck Pale Ale was $2.50 at the LCBO. There was a lot of different increases

in raw materials. We increased it to $2.65 after a lot of internal debate. And then just recently we did bump it up to $2.80 and it's still the best reasonably priced West Coast Pale Ale in the province. My wife loves the Blonde Lager.

Is that $2.80 as well? We sell that for $2.30 at a retail store, but you can't get it anywhere else. But at the retail store, is that the least expensive beer? That would be the least expensive. $2.30. I just want to see how close we are to a buck here. All right. All right.

So please, and I should disclose, I'm not a journalist, but I play one on podcasts. That's what I tell people. So we will disclose, we need to disclose to the listeners that Great Lakes Brewery is actually a sponsor of Toronto Mic'd. You got it. So, you know, I don't want to be accused of a friendly fire without disclosing that. But I'm looking for facts here. So I'm going to inundate you with a bunch of annoying questions. But can we start by, there's been a lot of noise.

I know Doug made the announcement yesterday morning, I think. But what exactly happened here? What exactly did the PC party do here? They lowered the floor price of beer to $1. Back in 2008, the Liberals came into power, I guess, back then, and they raised it to $1.25 based on social responsibility issues. Like too much, maybe if it was too inexpensive. And I remember this was a thing at clubs and stuff.

They couldn't charge too low an amount because maybe people will drink too much and then there's problems with alcoholism related to uh abuse and uh drinking and driving and all these terrible social effects that come out of abusing alcohol for sure yeah when i was living in halifax there was the place the dome and they would sell a dollar shots and uh i can remember when the word came down that that was no longer the case because people would binge on one dollar. You just spend $10 and do 10 shots in 10 minutes and it doesn't end well. At the Barracuda, this is how old I am, but at the Barracuda,

if you ordered your beer before 10 p.m., you could get bottles of beer for $0.98 a bottle. And at some point, this disappeared. And we used to hoard the beers before 10, like at our table, okay? $0.98 a beer was a damn good deal at a club. And they stopped doing it. And we're like, what happened?

And they said it was some liquor law that they weren't allowed to do it or something. But so it was, the floor was a dollar a beer, a buck a beer. And McGinty's government raised it to 125. Correct, in 2008. And all Doug Ford has done, so all he's actually done is he's lowered that 125 floor back down to a dollar. Correct. In 2008. And all Doug Ford has done, so all he's actually done is he's lowered that 125 floor back down to a dollar.

Correct. And in doing so, take a look at the numbers. When they moved it up to 125, there are some brewers still kind of around that area. But even the discount big brewers today are selling their beer at 138, at the 140. So no one was even doing the minimum $125. I was trying to find this out on my own, but I get confused because there's deposits and there's taxes, and I get really confused of what numbers we're talking about. So can you confirm my suspicions here?

It sounds like you just did, but I've got to play a journalist here, Troy. Prior to this announcement, were there any Ontario breweries charging $125 a beer? No. Interesting. I couldn't, you know, you think I can figure it out, but I'm no math major. But okay, so you know this. One of the cheapest beers at the LCBO is somewhere around the $180 or something like that, but

it's in a 200 milliliter bottle. It's a tiny little novelty item. Okay, so before we get to Great Lakes Brewery specifically, and by the way, this Canuck Pale Ale is awfully tasty. Gordy Levesque never looked better. Nice. Awesome. Okay, so before we get to you specifically, in general, the demand to make it a dollar a beer,

considering the floor of 125 was not being met by a single brewery in this province, I know, we'll get to why Doug Ford made this announcement and everything, but on the surface, on paper, there was no demand to lower the floor considering nobody was at the floor. That's a fair assessment, for sure, yeah. And yeah, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna pretend to know why the Premier and the Min ministers and the government doesn't know. I have speculation. We'll speculate later.

Yeah. Okay. Now, okay, specifically to you guys, your least expensive beer in the retail store is a can of blonde lager. Again, my wife, that's what she loves. She cracks open a blonde lager. I'm glad she has inexpensive taste. $2 thirty cents a can it's cheaper to make that's for sure um it's been the beer the gray lakes has had in our portfolio since 1987 um so we we know how to craft it um but it also takes into account we charge uh a very varying prices for different

products so we might sell some beers at $5 a can. We might sell some barrel-aged bottled beer at $19.95. It all works out in the end for us. How come those $19.95 beers never make their way here for the guests? I think a couple times we've said over the rare stuff. Tip me off next time when I have one of those $20 bottles and maybe it won't make its way to the guest.

Just tip me off. All right. So are you... Let's talk about subsidies here. So it wasn't just a, hey, we're lowering the flow. I keep wanting to say ceiling. There's no ceiling.

You can charge a million dollars for your can of beer. It's a basement price. If you, by the way, if you were to sell a beer for a million dollars, you'd only have to sell one. Just sell one. There'd be a lot of taxes on that million dollar beer, though. That's true.

So, the floor. Not only does the Doug Ford government announce that the floor is going from $125 to $1, despite the aforementioned lack of actual demand or interest at the time. But he added some kind of subsidies. They aren't monetary subsidies. Can you explain

what subsidies were presented to a brewery that offered a buck a beer? We heard some stuff dangled in front of the press conference yesterday. No one really knows exactly what it will be yet. We haven't been reached out to at Great Lakes. But what he essentially said is those that participate in his challenge, and that's what he's calling it, a challenge, it's essentially we will give you end-all displays,

we will give you end caps, we will give you special promotions... At LCBO. At the LCBO, within the LCBO. So he's telling the LCBO, be prepared for this because we're going to give them, by Labor Day, we're going to give them more visible shelf space, premium shelf space, et cetera. And that's stuff that brewers, vintners, cideries, spirit brewers, we all pay for right now. So you start doing that. You start giving away those endiles that brewers are

paying for, that's less money in the LCBO's pockets, which in turn is less money in the government's pockets. And all at the end of the day for cheap thrill. Yeah. So not only, you're right, not only does it take money away from the LCBO, it also, if a company like Great Lakes Brewery wanted to do some kind of a big promotion, I don't know, your Halloween one, maybe at Halloween you want to promote your pumpkin ale or something like that. Theoretically, you could pay the money

to get these special spots in the stores and these promotions in the store. Yeah, so a great example, too, is we just did one in June. We did it for the lead up to Canada Day. We did it with Canuck Pale Ale. So we purchased Endile Displays, 380 stores across the province, premium shelf space, and that was an access of $7,000. So you start removing those bit by bit to give to, if you will, it won't be a quality beer at a dollar.

And you start putting that as your, you're just devaluing the whole craft brewing community as a whole. So that's my next question. I mean, for the record, if people haven't seen your 400 media stops this week, if they haven't heard one of these many, many Troy Burch interviews, they all got an interview before I did, by the way,

so thanks for that. No problem. What is the official stance at Great Lakes Brewery? Are you going to brew a dollar beer? No. No. And, you know, we saw the news come out. We heard the campaign promise.

We heard the news come out on Sunday that he would be doing a press conference on Tuesday. My first reaction on behalf of the brewery was to send out a message on Twitter to our current supporters that don't expect to see us devalue our brand and go down to this level. And people responded. And in those three days, I've received literally hundreds and hundreds of emails from customers. I've received tens of thousands, not me personally, but the brewery, tens of thousands of words of encouragement and, hey, good for you guys for standing up.

And I'd have to say that it's not standing up. It's just we value our product. Quality control. Yeah. We would never compromise quality to make a cheap buck. Now, what I believe... Did you get that? Yeah, I see.

To make a cheap buck. Okay. Now, you say all these supportive emails and tweets, etc. But there must be... I mean, you are an Etobicoke brewery. You are South Etobicoke. So you're just a little South of Ford Nation, I would say. But Ford Nation is above you, a little north of you.

Did you receive any, like, what I believe Doug Ford has actually done is he's managed to do something I didn't think was possible. He's politicized beer somehow because now it seems like people are lining up. Like, if you're a Doug Ford guy, you want breweries to toe the line and get into the buck a beer. Come on, you cheap sons of guns. Get that dollar beer going. And if you're not in favor of some of the things

Doug has done, and I'm going to point out a few in a minute, you're supportive of the breweries that are standing up and saying, we're not going to devalue

our brand by offering a buck a beer. For sure. And I got to reiterate, I've said it a lot over the last couple days, this has nothing to do with politics for us. At the end of the day, this has everything to do with

I guess you could say speaking on behalf of craft brewers in this province, saying there's a lot that goes into our products. We're supporting local communities, we're hiring many, many local individuals, we're supporting local communities we're we're hiring uh many many local individuals we're gaining market share um overall taking it away from the mark the large multinational breweries

um and uh no i don't think it's like our stance has not hurt us in any way uh we have got some feedback from um i will say the trump supporters. No, not Trump supporters. Sometimes they're one and the same. That was a slip of the tongue. That was a complete slip of the tongue. In your CBC thing. Because we've received a lot of messages from people equating them to each other. So that was a slip of the tongue.

Before you go, people are slipping up with Doug, too. And I noticed even CBC, when they posted the audio of you and Matt Galloway on the bottom, they have corrected it since, but at the bottom, I took a screen cap. They said it was Rob Ford's buckabier policy. So there's a lot of slips between Trump, Rob, and Doug, but please continue. Well, it was just, it's not a political issue for us. We just wanted to say that we're doing things the way we do them, the way we've always done them.

We just wanted to say that we're doing things the way we do them, the way we've always done them. But we have received messages from people saying like with no avatars on their social media feeds and like the 19, 20 followers. And they're just railing against what they consider swill and horse piss and hipster beer. And those people, we would always want more people to come and drink Great Lakes. But at the end of the day, they're probably not the ones that are right there supporting us at this time. So hypothetically speaking, if you were to, you went to Lackey today and said, Lackey, let's see if we can do a buck a beer. What is it that's sacrificed? Quality.

So is it, essentially it's a taste. Ingredients, flavor, body. Flavor, body. All those important things. Essentially it would be like taking 10,000 liters of beer and siphoning that off into a whole bunch of different fermenters and then just diluting it with carbonated water. It cheapens, it cheapens the overall product. And that's not something we were even close to considering. Just to, again, make a cheap buck.

Right, and devalues the brand. I mean, you've spent 31 years now. Public perception to me, and I've used this a couple times. It's like if you're recording this on a Mac, right? So it's like Mac is known for high quality aesthetics. Everything's beautiful, but there's a price component to it. And if tomorrow you saw Apple computers for $300 at Costco, you would be like, okay, something's off here. And it would be like, I heard a good friend,

Jason Fisher from the Indy L House today. He was on CBC this morning. And he said it'd be like an artisanal bakery opening up and doing amazing pastries and breads. And then one day the government comes and says, you can do this for this. And they start making Wonder Bread and white loaf Wonder Bread. And so that's how we feel as craft brewers. Why would we hurt our brands that we've built up and protected and supported quality ingredients and innovative styles? And there's a lot to it.

So why do you think, and I know you'll be speculating here, and then if you choose not to, because I mean, I know you pretty well at this point. And one thing I'll tell people is that you're no lefty. Like, I've been accused of being a lefty. You know, I bike everywhere. You know, maybe I voted NDP now and then. But you, I actually think of you as a conservative guy. You probably voted B, so you don't have to tell me. I'll tell you straight up.

I'm Canadian. I'm a centrist. I bleed red, but I also bleed blue. So I'm on the fence on a lot of issues. Personally, this is not Great Lakes speaking, but. Troy's speaking now. What is your official title at Great Lakes? Marketing and Communications Manager.

Yep. It's a big title. Yeah. Um, so, uh, yeah, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't go that far, but, uh. But I'm just pointing out, you're not some Don Cherry wouldn't call you, a pinko. No. I never see you on your bike. I need to. Hey, with these tweets done by Great Lakes Brewery's official, at Great Lakes Beer on Twitter and your official statements and stuff,

do you need to brief Peter on all this stuff, like when you're speaking on behalf of the company? Peter's on vacation right now. Well, he took the wrong week off. He's missing your show. Peter and I have been in constant communication about all this. And Peter's very good at speaking with media. And by the way, Peter Bullitt, we should just tell you,

he's your boss. Yeah, he's my boss. And he, yeah, we've been in constant contact about this and very supportive of what we're doing and he knows what we put into our beer and he knows the value we put on our staff and our establishment and the community so um this news to him at the same time was why why would anyone uh that has worked so hard to differentiate ourselves from the mass-produced corporate uh multi-national conglomerates like that's our whole

craft beer is their ethos our ethos has always been quality beer first people second or at the same time people first but you know what i mean by that. And it's all about creating memorable experiences and great taste. And so why devalue what you've worked so hard to build just to get an endow display that people will, if the beer's not good, they're not going to buy it. It doesn't matter if it's 50 cents or if it's $2. It's craft beer consumers are not looking for that cheap. Yeah. You're not just to buy. It doesn't matter if it's 50 cents or if it's $2. Craft beer consumers are not looking for that cheap. You're not just looking to get tipsy. Make your own beer at home if you're looking to just

get tipsy. Even making your own beer at home, you can make it for 40 cents, 50 cents at the end of the day. They can be good beers, good homemade beers. Have you ever had a good homemade beer? Many.

Okay. Many, yeah. There's a lot of talented homebrewers in this province. We used to hold a competition, the Toronto Beer Week. Oh, yeah. I used to hold the annual homebrew competition. And, yeah, there's some really good ones and some learners. All right. But you and Peter are aligned on all this.

You didn't go rogue and start doing this. And Peter's like, oh, man, I was about to launch the Bucca beer from Great Lakes Brewery. This is, you're aligned. When it comes to talking about beer, it's my voice for Great Lakes. When it comes to anything that has to do with the politics side of things

where I decline to answer, that's coming from myself. So here, I'll just do a couple of, I think, I personally think you guys are actually damned if you do, damned if you don't, because they lower this floor by a quarter. And they made a lot of, like, they were really loud about this. It doesn't seem like, it seems like much ado about nothing when you step back and say, okay, they made it from $1.25 to $1. Like, what it was like, you know, before McGinty put it up, a whole quarter of beer. Like, it is much ado about nothing, but it's made a lot of noise.

Like, your phone's been ringing off the hook by the media wanting to talk about this like it's a hot button issue and uh to me it's just an easy win right like i don't know you don't have to speculate but it's um how easy is it to raise the sorry lower the floor from a buck 25 to a dollar like that's so easy and there's a here's a few things. Well, before you go on. Yeah, go ahead. It is easy. And I think that's why it was an election promise. And he can say that I've fulfilled it. But what he's essentially done and what the government has essentially done in this case is said, we will institute a buck a beer. We will lower the basement price to a dollar.

Brewers of this province, it's up to you to take our challenge. We are not going to touch the taxes. It's up to you to absorb everything. If you do, we will give you incentives at the LCBO. The LCBO, however, are very good to Great Lakes. Great Lakes is a very good customer of the LCBO. We work very well together. And so if our beer sells, if your beer sells well at the current price that it's selling at, there's no need to even entertain this idea. So in the one month we've had Doug as our premier,

this is Mike talking, obviously. It's called Toronto Mike. It's not Toronto Troy. That's another podcast we'll talk about later. But five quick things. So he ended Ontario's climate change plan. He canceled basic income. He removed $100 million from school repairs.

He cut over $300 million from mental health services and he cut social services, the social services increase in half. So that's five things he's done in his one month in office but now he's also lowered the floor from $125 to $1 and all we're talking about is that buck a beer. That's all I'm hearing right now. Maybe because it was just broke on the weekend that he was announcing, but it's been dominating my Twitter

feed. It's been dominating the media I absorb. And it's got to be the big, this is out of the book of Trump, a huge distraction technique. Like go look at this buck of beer thing, which was an easy slam dunk win while he's making all those cuts to things that matter to citizens of this province and this city. So there you go. I think what you do at Great Lakes is you brew a special, like, Dofo brew, a special brew, and you charge an extra dollar. So, like, if this was something you could sell for $2.80, you would charge $3.80.

You take that dollar, you donate it to mental health services. I can't believe this government is cutting mental health services in 2018. That's what you do at Great Lakes. We've been approached by numerous, let's just say, groups or organizations or individuals saying, why don't you do a beer for $5? Call it Not-A-Buck or different names have been floated. Five Buck a Beer. Five Buck a Beer.

And you take a dollar of that beer and you donate it to a charity. And there's a brewery out to give them full props, Dominion City out in Ottawa. They're doing that as we speak. They've already started a campaign. Great Lakes, as you know, Great Lakes, we support the Daily Bread Food Bank throughout the year in a number of different initiatives. So coming up this winter, we will do our annual Hops for Hunger. So we're going to just keep talking about why we're not going to participate in this marketing and sales gimmick, if you will. And come December,

we'll reach out and supply Daily Bread Food Bank with a lot of food, a lot of cash, and continue to be pillars in the community. You really are active. I mean, I'm in your community. And again, we already disclosed, you sponsor my podcast. And I always say at the beginning of every episode that you're fiercely independent. But in addition, I know you do stuff with the Franklin Horner. I mean, I see Peter driving the truck when I bring the two-year-old and the four-year-old to see Santa Claus on Lakeshore. I just hope Peter doesn't run them over, okay, I see Peter driving the truck when I bring the two-year-old and the four-year-old to see Santa Claus on Lakeshore. I just hope Peter doesn't run them over,

okay? But Peter's driving the Great Lakes truck, like you can sponsor that. So you're super involved in the community, which is cool. Yeah, it's what craft brewing is all about. You get involved in your community, you get involved in charitable organizations, you get involved in community associations

and groups. You bring people to the brewery. You have good times. And you really make quality beer and you sell it for a reasonable price. You don't undercut for the sake of a cheap buck. So to briefly change channels before I let you go, this is a mini episode of Toronto Mic'd,

but we had the very first ever Toronto Mic'd listener experience at Great Lakes Brewery. Was that July 19th or something? July 19th. Right. So from your perspective, and I know you're being recorded here and you're probably aware of that,

but how did that go? Well, yeah. There were people coming to the brewery. It started at six o'clock. There was people there at 4, 435. They waiting to see uh mike boone come through the doors and uh no i biked over it was uh no it was very good it was fun um a lot of people uh that listened to your podcast had not been to great lakes before and a lot of people that had been to great lakes um had just recently started listening to the podcast so there was it was a good lot of people that had been to Great Lakes had just recently started listening to the podcast.

So it was a good mix of people. The band was awesome. The beer was flowing. The Royal Pains. We'll give them a shout out. Al and the Royal Pains. They're going to come back, but we'll talk about that in a minute.

But I didn't take a count. I don't know if you took a count, but my wife was there for the first two hours and she estimated 50 people. That was her number. Something around that. Yeah, I would say. I don't know if she had a counter in her hand or whatever but but people came and uh i'm gonna do it again and uh we should just announce and i've already announced it but

anyway i'll say it anyways on september 12th so that's coming up september 12th from 6 p.m to 9 p.m the royal pains are back but also splash Royal Pains are back, but also Splashin' Boots are going to perform on the patio of Great Lakes. That's awesome. That's awesome. Bring the kids. Bring the kids, right. Except, yeah,

they're going to play like Oasis and stuff, but that's okay. Kids will enjoy Oasis. No swear words in the Splashin' Boots songs. But they're, of course, once again,

if you come for the Toronto Mic Listener Experience on September 12th, you have kindly donated a 12-ounce glass of beer. So they get a complimentary glass of beer before they dive into the $5 pints. And I want to just say that I read this in the Toronto Star. When we donate those, I just want to clarify that we pay for those beers at the store.

They are a gift to all the listeners as part of our sponsorship package. Right. But we do pay for those beers. Right. Of course you do. Yes, yes, yes. The Wavy Wall. This is a new thing since you were here to kick out the jams.

And by the way, did your wife ever hear the kick out the jams episode you did? I made her listen up until the song started. And she bailed? No, she's just not the same. She likes some of the songs in my top 10, but if she was to do it, it would be completely different. Well, tell her she can come over and do it if she wants, if she can make the drive.

So the, oh yeah, so the Wavy Wall. So when did you launch? So the Wavy Wall is your food truck. Yeah, just got a nice shout out in the Toronto Star today. It was in the Etobicoke Guardian last week. The Wavy Wall Craft Kitchen is a 40-foot trailer that Peter, the owner of Grey Lakes, recently purchased at an auction. And we've always wanted to do food at the brewery.

A couple of years in a row, we did Food Truck Fridays, and it brought the local businesses all around Etobicoke, I would say from south of Bloor all down to the brewery. They'd have a beer at lunch and have some food from people like Fidel Castro's and Hairloom and Kaplansky's. And we always wanted to do, Peter, essentially, he really wanted to do food and he's had this dream to do something at the brewery. So he purchased it. It kicked off right before the Canada Day Long Weekend, which we were very busy involved with the Rotary Rib Fest at Centennial Park in Etobicoke.

Which, by the way, I wanted to work. Yeah. Very great. Maybe another story. And so we kicked it off that weekend with kind of like a soft opening. It's open Thursday to Sunday. And we do stuff like it's not your pub kitchen. It's literally jerk chicken.

It's fried chicken, panzerotti, tacos, Berkshire ribs, tostadas. We have a very eclectic menu, if you will. It was getting rave reviews from people who went to the Toronto Mic Listener Experience. We're getting good reviews online from food people, which is great. And I would encourage people to come out and test it out. We have a big group coming out. These people do Friday pub nights, but they do different restaurants in Etobicoke. And they've been hearing good things, so they're coming out.

Cool. And, yeah, it's Thursday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8.30 p.m., and then Sundays 11 to 6, or 11 to 5.30. And there's stuff for kids, and, you know, we have pop at the retail store. We have free water. I mean, we have cold brew coffee

for those that don't drink and or are driving. So we have a little bit of everything for the family. But you mentioned there, I just heard it now, that this food truck's open Thursday through Sunday. Is that what you said? Yeah, four days a week. But okay, so the Toronto Mic Listener Experience is September 12, which I think is a Wednesday.

Can we get that open? Yeah, there's likely something that we'll be able to do, yeah. Because people want to have some wavy wall grub with their... So to reiterate, it's a Great Lakes kitchen, if you will. A lot of breweries that do have some food components to their tap rooms will outsource that or they'll pay someone to come in and do it. But we've hired two chefs and mike tucker chef mike tucker he's from uh langdon hall and uh nota bente hey what the bente and uh and his sous chef you know they come from some pretty established restaurants but they're fans of craft beer and they want to do something unique and fun

so come we'll come come next thursday but uh also come on september 12th just to do something unique and fun. So come next Thursday, but also come on September 12th just to come meet me and hear the band and my speeches. They're always worth the price of admission, which is zero. So yeah, that's what it's worth. So now last thing before I let you go, I wanted to ask you,

you had a videographer at the last Toronto Mic Listener Experience. His name is Dave Hodge. Sorry, it's been a long couple His name is Dave Hodge. Sorry. It's been a long couple of days. Dave Hodge, yeah. But it's not the Dave Hodge, was it? He didn't look the same.

He dyed his hair. No, it's from Enzo Quest. And he's here in Etobicoke. He's a local Etobicoke guy. I've worked with him for a number of years. And he did our 30th anniversary documentary. And so I know we're talking about Buck about buck appear in a little bit of great lakes but if you haven't seen the history of great lakes through our 45 minute documentary i'd encourage everyone to go to our youtube channel

or vimeo go to our website there's a link right at the the top of the uh the website and check it out uh but dave hodge is a very talented local independent freelance videographer and editor. And he put together a little, I don't know what you call it, but a little synopsis of the Toronto Mike listener experience. And I shared that and people thought that was very well produced. So it was kind of neat for people who didn't attend the first one. They can kind of see that video from Dave Hodge on behalf of Great Lakes Brewery and they can definitely make a point to

be there on September 12. Troy, you deserve that second brew. It's been a busy few days for you, man. It's good to see you again and I want to say thanks for this beer. Thanks for the beer. Thanks for the support and thanks for answering these Bucca Beer queries. Thanks for having beer. Thanks for the support. And thanks for answering these

Bucca Beer queries. No, thanks for having me in. Remember, listeners, drink good beer, drink better beer. You employ lots of people in the community that you live in. Rude for you, Ontario. It's a true story, Mike. True story. 99%

of all beer. Just one place in Halifax, right? Just one private store in Halifax. You know what you need? Cut them off so you can say 100%. Yeah, you know what? While the music's playing, we sell to them. We will tell them when the beer's ready. They'll come.

They'll organize the truck. They'll have it on store shelves within eight days in Nova Scotia. And so we can guarantee freshness out there. And that's what matters. Fresh GLB. And that brings us to the end of our 365th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Troy is at Troy Birch. You got it. Every time I'm walking Sherway and I see there's a store called Torrey Birch, for a moment I'm a little dyslexic and I think it's you. But it's not you. For the record, that's not you. Okay. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery are at Great Lakes Beer and thanks to our other sponsors

propertyinthesix.com he's at Raptors Devotee Paytm Canada is at Paytm Canada see you all next week when my guest is TJ Connors, son of Scruff Connors.