on the next episode of sips suds and smokes. Today's episode is actually going to celebrate one of our co host on our 10th season of sips suds and smokes, that is just absolutely crazy, you know that we have done 10 years of this, so I'm so pleased to have, you know, reverend Mark here, you know, I was starting to think about this, Do you have to recall how we first met? Well yeah, of course, of course.
I mean well yeah, I mean we first met kind of mid eighties, mid eighties, but it's been 40 years. It's just, it has been, I was calculated, I'm thinking 35 plus, 35 plus coming in on 40. We are drinking today by the way, we're gonna chat about some of the beers that we're gonna have, you know along the way.
Um so I've pulled some things from the cellar, you know, we've had some fresh local beer, you know to hear and you actually brought some home brew, which is, we'll be right back after this break brought to you almost live from the dude in the basement studios. Why? Because that's where the good stuff is it sips suds and smokes with your smoke and host the good old boys. Get ready to learn everything you ever wanted to know and a whole lot that you didn't. It's time for a chat episode.
Hey welcome to this chat episode of sub sudden smokes where everything good in life is worth discussing. I'm one of your hosts here, this is good Boy Mike and joining you here stable for this chat episode is reverend mark. Hey everybody so good to be here mike. Well, our chat segments are all about people behind the products or services that we talked about here on sip sudden smoke. Now today's episode is actually going to celebrate one of our co host on our 10th season of sips suds and smokes.
That is just absolutely crazy. You know, that we've done 10 years of this. So I'm so pleased to have, you know, reverend Mark here. We don't, you know, we've never done it this way before. We would have known 10 years. My gosh, it's just crazy. It's great. So, Mark and I actually created the very first episode of subsides and smokes and I think we've featured about 487 different stout beers, like we did, as I can recall from that long foggy afternoon.
So we actually recorded that episode in reverend Marks dining room, which sounded pretty much like a concrete cave on some gear that uh, that I was using at the time, that was really worthy of like 1/4 grade piano recital. It was just so bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the mechanical clock also was like, you had a lot of really good ambient noise inside. Yeah, yeah, it was just a lot of things going on.
Yeah. So, uh, to say that I actually had no experience as an audio engineer or producer is such a far cry. And so I was so ashamed of how that, how Uh, the audio quality of that episode was so bad. I actually pulled it from our back catalog, so I may actually throw it back up just for a little while, just so people, if they want to go back and listen to it during season 10, that can actually appreciate just how far we've come, you know, uh, since that period of time.
But you know, just, yeah, to uh, you know, say that we absolutely had no clue what we were doing is just such an understatement. We're kind of like South Park using the flannel figures right at first. Right, correct. That's a good way of describing it, you know, with, I can see Kenny in, in that, in that situation for sure, you know, but it really kind of evolved. Um, you know, it turned out to be fairly innovative, you know, style show.
Um and it kind of developed, you know, into a vision of whatever the show is today. I don't know what that vision is, I'm still waiting for it. I just take another sip into the next episode. That's about, you know, the extent sometimes of our planning, but you know, it's uh yeah, it's pretty crazy. Well, and then the show has accelerated along with the proliferation of great beer across this country too.
So it's nice that, you know, we've kind of been able to experience, you know, both of those things, you know, all at the same time and you know, as we've grown, so, so it has, you know, a lot of the products, you know that we have talked about and discussed and some of them actually have kind of gone through a cycle, you know, as well of both coming around and kind of fading away. I'm looking for the fade away part of hard seltzer.
Yeah, that would, I'd like to see some that would work for me, some, some space, you know, in our grocery stores, you know, open up for something more interesting. Yeah. Do we really need an entire aisle for inbev products, you know, definitely not for sure. Yeah, well, you know, I was starting to think about this, do you ever recall how we first met?
Well, yeah, of course, of course, I mean, well, yeah, I mean we first met because you were best friends with brian who was your, your best friend from high school beyond and he uh was of a guy who would soon would become my brother in law, It was unbeknownst to me at the time when I first knew brian, but I was uh had just been assigned to a church uh, as an associate and he and his family were there and then of course, a little bit later on down the line,
I met his sister Elaine and we were married and so that's kind of how obviously we, we and you and you were, you were very much family. I mean, Micah's family. So it was actually a little bit before that, it was, it was before that it was married.
Yeah. So actually, the first time we met was when you and Terry were both in seminary and uh, you had, you had spent some time, we had all spent some time together, you know, at, at that point, and we were working on youth ministry, you know, elements kind of across the board and uh, it wasn't too early, much earlier than, you know, really? Um, you know, the time, um kind of mid eighties, mid eighties, but it's been 40 years. It's just absolutely insane.
It has been, I was calculating, I'm thinking 35 plus. 35 plus. Yeah, I mean, I don't know about you, but I don't have a lot of friends that have been around that long that I really enjoy still being around. Yeah, exactly. It's, it's, it's, it's the truth and it feels really good to have. I mean, the continuity with the show is just another part of it, but it's just icing on the cake. It's the beer that binds us together.
Yeah, Yeah. But, you know, it is very crazy, you know, uh to think that um we've just just so many, countless moments that we've had together that I've just are so indescribable.
I mean, you know, we've just done so many amazing things over that 40 years, um we've gone to places that are just, you know, it's like, you could tell people those experiences and they would just never believe it's like you were there, you know, at that moment, um crazy moment avery, you know, doing the episode in the back, you know, we did the uh the Michael Jackson songs and and it was just so loud, you know, in the middle of G A B F. It was just absolutely insane.
And the guys cutting the hair, you know, like next door in the garage, you know, while we were at their um yeah, in the muffler shop next door that, you know, just contributed all this lovely ambient noise in the middle of that episode. I mean, you know. Yeah, and, and actually, I mean, and we we were actually bringing to, you know, our listening audience uh sort of uh minute by minute, day by day, uh insights into what the G A B F ripples out into.
But I definitely remember the drive up there and you and I were absolutely were listening to Pink Floyd. And so the name of that, uh the name of that episode was Wish You were here, because we were actually listening to that album as we were driving up to everything. My favorite Pink Floyd album. It really is that it was a pretty wild day. For sure.
Yeah. So it's and it's been nice because even, you know, a lot of the people during those very early moments of you and I are getting to know each other are still around us, you know, and appointed continuity, which you know, for the most part it's that's pretty rare, you know that you would be around a lot of people, you know, for that long a period of time. It's just kind of unusual in this day and age and kind of a very transactional moment.
I know, I know, I mean it's it's it's kind of the core of people that really reminds you of what your purpose is here. Yes. And and we're going to get to your purpose here. You know, pretty sandwiches. Amen. Amen. Alright, lets loose. So how many episodes did you think we would make when we first started? Well, you know, I mean, I really had no idea because I mean podcasts were still relatively new.
I mean, you know, they were but so I had no idea, you know, the reach of that kind of technology and you know, just just from like we're out there vying in a market that was just opening up.
Um you know, and I think that every every episode it was an experiment to and so we thought, you know, okay, that's a wrap, I guess let's see if we can get back and make this happen is like watching a swan diving concrete, you know, but in an audio perspective and I can't say that we had low expectations as in you know, when we came to the table, you know, we were prepared in the, you know, the lion's share that were, you know, you know, always went to you and still does, but I mean,
we were prepared and yet we still, at least I'm just speaking for myself now, didn't really keep my expectations all that high, you know, I just, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna give it my best and let's see how it goes and if people are responding, so, I don't know if you remember.
So the bet was on between Gemini uh you know, because uh jim and I were the ones that we're talking about, kind of the, the fact that click and clack, we're going off the air, and that was the whole impetus of of us even doing anything, you know, at that point in time, and I had, after I thought about it a little bit and kind of come up with at least some conceptual elements, you know, I bet jim that we wouldn't last more than 10 episodes, and he said, oh yeah,
this thing is fully baked in your head, it's going to last for a lot longer than 10 episodes. And so I lost the bet, you know, and uh I really, I didn't think that I'd get us on the radio, let alone, you know, even distributing as a podcast, wasn't even, you know, part of the original part of the equation, you know, it was more about just frankly finishing one episode and, and doing maybe about five or 10 to actually be on a radio station.
So I was, it's pretty strange, you know that, yeah, that, yeah, we just shove like episode, you know, five, you know, 50 out the door, you know, this week. So it's pretty crazy. Yeah, but me being just myself focused mostly on beer with sips, suds and smokes. I mean, I started seeing, gosh, this, this does have great potential. Uh, and I have sat in on a couple of the smoke episodes and other things. So yeah, it's been it's been a great surprise.
Yes, it has been, you know, the whole way, I don't know if I want to call it the best bet that I've ever lost, but maybe that might be the way that I would describe, you know, for sure. So, well, we're gonna have a lot more to talk about here in the next segment and I look forward to talking about your day job. Amen. Amen. Amen. Welcome back to you, subside the smoke's lay those hands on the radio folks, We're going to bring it to you here for the next 45 minutes.
We're going to talk about with reverend mark. And if you, if you'd like, I'll show you how to speak in tongues, I can do that. All those people are definitely, they were moving to that that point for sure. Well, you know, we've we've had so much fun on this show, we are drinking today by the way, we're going to chat about some of the beers that we're going to have, you know along the way. Um So I've pulled some things from the cellar, you know, we've had some fresh local beer, you know to hear.
And you actually brought some home brew, which is okay, so let's start with the grand cru. Okay, yeah, I want to tell them about this beer. Okay, this this is kind of a homage to Pierce ellis uh and to this day, although sellers brewery has been bought out, they're still around in austin and this is a seasonal beer that they produce uh maybe the shortest way to describe it is it's kind of a whole garden on steroids, it's basically a wheat beer high gravity.
And uh I finished mine off with um of course the coriander and orange peel, but then I also add added pink peppercorn and camel meal flour. Yeah, and I was totally getting all of that. Um I have to say that. I thought the peppercorn was the thing, that was a bit, you know forward on this and uh I love that though. Um I really uh you know, you don't hear a lot of, a lot of brewers using that and uh I love it. It's such a great compliment.
They're kind of like little tiny cranberries, you know, they are with with some real a little bit of sting to them, it's a solid four for me. So I've had a lot of batches of your grand cru and we were actually talking about you actually made this at Blackstone back in the day and actually took this, did did you take this from the G. A. B. F. I did because it was it was a pro am beer, that one won the contest.
And then so it did it did make it to G. B. F. Although that particular year I didn't personally get to go there but my bearded. Yeah. I don't think that the other batches of grand cru that I remember were quite the suite on the finish. So um so I you know, I think you set yourself up by I think some of the other batches you've done in the past were a little bit better than this.
Yeah. Yeah this one has honey, a lot of honey in it and I think even though some of it fermented out, you've got some residual sweet there and I have to say this this beer also is is my wife's favorite at least so far of the beers that she has sampled in mine. Well I know we talked a lot about a lot of things on this show. What are some of your most memorable moments? Oh you mean in terms of the with beer.
Yeah with anything you know either things that you did or things that I did or that other people did, wow. Well you know I think that what's what we were kind of getting into this initially about you know as we started things out, what was what was so memorable to me the first couple of years and I'm thinking of different different venues places that we played your you know my my dining room, your back porch, back deck with with with with the lawnmower going on,
you know that everything was really very kind of ad hoc in terms of we just put things together and went with it now everything was written out and thought through but there was just kind of this uh you know shooting from the hip kind of thing that went on at first in terms of how we put it together and and we were kind of at the mercy of of uncontrollable elements around us. So you're saying doing a blind of what do we do? Like 32 different triples or Belgians or what do we do?
Oh those were I. P A. S. We did like 47 I P A. S. Blind, bad idea. Yeah. You know I think that you know of course our experiences at G A B. F, we're you know we're wonderful. You know we we just got the one at avery but there were so many other places that we would just you know be their remote doing something and of course the the infamous thirsty monk and the the last the last time we had a show there, that was so bad.
It was so yes, like I say that uh that is just as we were wrapping up the hit the fan so to speak and uh let's just say let's just let's just say they were a duty free shop, so they were not a duty free shop,
this is a bit of so uh you should go back and listen to that episode at cheeky Monk and uh so what had happened is basically a transient individual had come into the establishment and just made their way into the bathroom but apparently didn't make it all the way and part of you know their experience and their got trapped not only in their pants,
but it got trapped on their shoe and they dragged crap all the way through there and um so actually Dave ended up stepping in it literally and uh it took us a little while to figure out what was going on, you know, because we were we had just finished recording I think when that had happened, so I think that was going on while we were actually recording but then we didn't get wind of it literally until you know, kind of the end of that.
Well I I agree that was that was a great experience, here's mine and I I pulled this clip off to let everybody enjoy this. So the setup on this was This episode was actually part of our summer series, the summer of questionable decisions. One of my top five episodes, all of the entire 10 seasons. And this was the episode featuring Boone's farm wine.
And the, the interesting part about this is we're all supposed to talk about our experiences, you know, with Boone's farm wine and uh I had none of us had heard each other's stories in advance. And so the thing about this is the spontaneity of you talking about your coming of age story, you know, with Boone's farm. So here is that that story now. So reverend Mark, when was the, when was the first time you had Boone's farm?
You don't want to hear this story I think think this, this is an honest to goodness story. And in, in strawberry hill, was there several bottles? Yeah, I think maybe that bottle was there. Um, but I grew up on the river in a van by the river, but I did grow up on the river and so my friends and I would make it way down there during the summer and, and fish quite a lot. And especially in the evenings.
And some friends of ours from high school one afternoon introduced us to their uncle Ray who had just been paroled from prison by the way. And so so I just want to say that at this point there should be a questionable parenting decision. That kind of came into play because you were a dude at a van by the river that just got out of the, got out of the joint whose name was Ray. And and none of the bells went off in anybody's head going. Maybe this is not such a good idea.
I would, yeah, I was not raised by helicopter parents. Let's hear the rest of the story. He's a really nice guy introduction. No, no, none of that. He was, but he would come down like every, every afternoon I think he worked as a painter. So he had like white, you know, all over and he would have his styrofoam cooler. And before long we got, he got chummy with all of us. And really late one night our parents thought we were camping but we were actually on the river.
He had us drinking a lot of Boone's farm bottle after bottle and we're getting kind of hungry and there's no, nothing, nothing to eat, no, no crystals open, you know that that time of night. So we got to thinking what can we do? So we had a Coleman cook stove, okay? And we started thinking, hey Gayle, the neighbor girl, she's got a rabbit. Yeah, you're right, we weren't catching any fish.
Oh my God, it's so it's so and so and so steven, Jack got on, got on his his Yamaha 60 went up to her house and uh snatched little Trixie Trixie Trixie Trixie and then the kids along the way we're we're becoming emboldened to commit our first act of homicide. So Ray showed us just how to kill and gut and and I'll never forget as we were drinking the Boones farm, we had to cut little tricks his head off. No, we threw in the river and our dog kept going in the river and bringing the head back.
It's kind of like our conscience. What the producers of, I want to thank you for turning into this episode. This actually is a an actual true story which we apologize if we have offended you with the with the words Trixie and head or dog had been retrieved. But we ask you to continue listening to the rest of this episode and now on with the show, any resemblance to actual people places or it's a great story. But where was the Boones farm?
So what none of you knew before is this episode is actually called to catch a killer and there is no statute on limitations, limitations on rabbit killers. What a great part of everything that you you know, bring to the show. And I absolutely everybody was howling and I love Tim's reaction. He was like what is happening. I mean he's like, you know, he's just he's just sitting there hearing all of that for the first time.
So I love this because it is just, it is so you, I mean you just you have so many colorful characters, you know, um that you've been surrounded by, you know in so many different settings. So you grew up in the Englewood East Nashville back then. It was a felony offense just growing up in East Nashville. Well, you know, you've introduced us to so many moments, you know from that time. But you know what's one of those experiences that we have yet to hear about?
I mean, I know you've got a friend, a creepy neighbor, you know, a dog from the paper route that I've just, I've not heard that story yet. Yeah. Oh gosh, There's so many great neighborhood stories, I mean, and and actually I'll take you right back down to the river where we took care of Trixie that night.
But this is another story because I spent so much time down there and I was fishing with a, with a good friend carl and it was late afternoon, it was in the summer and the ferry landing went straight, you know, just on a, just a pitch um into the river where a ferry used to come of course and and, and cars would load on to go to the other side before the bridge went into Nashville.
So uh there was a gravel drive that went into the river and so we would, we would fish off the edge of of of the ramp because uh, you know, we could get fish in the, in the more shallow water sometimes like bluegill and so forth. And as we were casting about, we were looking, you know, because it was kind of getting started to get a little dark and we were starting to look and there was like this antenna sticking out of the water. And before long we realized that there was a car out there.
So somebody basically didn't know that if there's not the ferry there, you know that that that the road doesn't go underground, that's not the way you drop to the other. Yeah, so we had no idea. So we we ran up the ramp and there was a a man that lived right at the top of the ramp that overlooked the river. His name was Mr lack ish, I'll never forget. Uh I think they were friends. Yeah. And he had he had our number. Let me teach you how to get the blue.
So we said mr Lucas, there's something's down there in the room, we think of cars down there and so he called the police and before long when they came down and investigated sure enough, there was a car, they called a wrecking a wrecker and that that car was dredged up by the river and here is the whole time we're reporting this of course and we're kind of hanging out down there. They really weren't taking a report from us, but they were down there because of us.
And so we felt like we had a right to be there until they opened up the car and there was a dead guy in there. There was there was actually a dead guy in there and so they were trying to get in there. Yeah, yeah, in one hand and you know, a can of PBR and the other. And so I'll never forget just the, that's the first time I've never even been to a funeral where you know, at least a body had been exposed. You know?
And so that's the first time I ever saw a dead person and it was like this swollen up guy, you know, in a car. So that's kind of a gross story. But I mean that was, that was our neighborhood. I'm not saying he got killed in our neighborhood. Well, I guess he did. Yes, he went down the ramp and so did he did he get like shot and somebody shoving him into the river or you think he just lost track and and he thought the ferry was area was wasted and just drove into the river?
You know, I don't know what the final report on that was. What, what the forensics, you know, came up with. But I'm sure Ray knew. Yeah, Ray probably didn't know. So it was a great neighborhood and of course, you know, his music back then it was all the recording industry Roy, Acuff was a neighbor. You know, just a lot of people that you grew up with who were really unique either in the arts or in, you know, doing interesting business work. And my dad was a traveling salesman.
So you know what I can say that, you know, even though my parents weren't always looking after me the way they should have perhaps that I had a really great life. Yeah. And so uh there were a lot of people that were lived in that part of town that were part of the music scene. It was a bedroom community, you know, in between Madison and inglewood.
Um And at that point in time, uh the Opry was still downtown at the Ryman and they were actually just in the process of actually building what would become Opryland as well as the new grand ole Opry um about that time. And uh you know, they're actually in the process of um changing uh you know the way in which you navigated, You know, you were talking about the there were actually two ferries that went, you know across the river. One was upstream that was over in old Hickory.
And then there was another one that was downstream down downstream of there was a damn uh old hickory dam. And so dramatic, you know, change in terms of the depth of water as well as you know how much water you had to trans verse, you know between the two. But there weren't any bridges, you know um you know, that that basically went in between the two.
So um, yeah, I would imagine that, you know, you would have seen a lot of interesting things, you know, besides just, you know, a car, you know, going through there. But yeah, I can imagine, you know, as, as Opryland was building up, you know, they actually built that bridge that is there now as part of briley. Yeah, right.
Yeah, he would have seen all of that coming around, but before they built up Opryland and then eventually the hotel, it was just open great grazing land and they were actually buffalo that had been brought over there. I mean they weren't indigenous at all. But there was Rudy's sausages, Rudy's farms. They did and that actually was were there buffalo and they just had some exotic the purpose of having them there. They were, but they were grazing and there weren't a lot of them.
But there were a couple of buffalo, interesting, wow, I learned something new today. We'll be right back after the break here. Hey, welcome back to subsides and smokes on today's chat episode. I'm here talking with reverend mark cars and cars and rivers, cars and rivers and death.
I mean it's these things keep, you know, common themes and didn't really think about it until just now when he swapped around to different homebrew, that reverend mark brought, which was a uh, it's, it's chai and, and cocoa Nibs and you said you'd drop more cocoa powder on the flame out. Right, right, yes, the chocolate chopped chipotle imperial milk stout.
Um, so at the end of the boil would put in cocoa powder and then some cocoa Nibs and I actually would then put in a second round of cocoa Nibs uh into the secondary.
I think one of the surprising things about this is it actually does not finish out sweet, you know, I tend to think that I'm looking for that very, you know, signature element of a milk stout that would just remind me that, you know, it's that and it's there, but it's fairly muted, I would describe it, you know, not in a bad way, I'm just right, and it's very high gravity, so it's a little boozy, you know, once, especially once it starts warming up.
Yeah, so, you know, you can't see this, but I love reverend marks transport vehicle for his homebrew or actually mason jars, it's just, it's just about a southern as again, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, how many things can you put mason jars, but about $10,800. You got a good seal on that, you know, you know, it's interesting, it's a little thick, you know, kind of on the, on the palate a bit um, I like probably what?
It's not, which is, it's not overdone, I mean when you said shy, I mean the first thing that, you know, when somebody says that to me, I just, I'm like, okay prepared myself, you know for an invasion of spices and I like that. It's not that it's not like some overdone thing where you just the base beer got lost, you know, through all of it.
So, and this is so you, you know, on a lot of things, not just beer, but just really have this great sense of taste and balance and you know, you're, you're not afraid to say, I think that's enough. Yeah, yeah. And you know, my, my dad was was very much a a food affection Otto and liked to cook and and and his whole and of course he didn't admit this, but he, he would always say less less is more when it comes to spicy food. So that's when it comes to spices and beer.
That's kind of the way to go, which is really, you know, quite the opposite of, of mine, you know background, which is, my mom didn't believe in seasoning things. I mean salt and pepper was just not a, a hallmark. You know, I mean, even to this day, I still felt fight with my mom about seasoning up, you know, and unless it came out of a can or a package where she couldn't step in and influence it. It was a a lot of very bland food, you know, that, that I would just, I know it's so strange.
I mean, how many meals have, you know, we had together that I've cooked or you've cooked, you know, and that's just so dramatically different, you know, um than than where we're at. So it's um But I really um I love the beer, I'm gonna give it a solid three very nice well and it's been in the, it's been in the fridge for quite some time, so yeah, alright, so we haven't gotten around, So tell us about your former day job. Okay. Yeah. My former day job. Yeah, thank you, jesus. I just retired.
Um as of July the first of this year after 41 years, uh a full time ministry with the United Methodist Church Band. Once again, I'm sorry for that too. That's pretty amazing. It is. And what's even more amazing is that, you know, for many people may not know how uh the Methodists sort of deploy their ministers into churches in different places, but we're kind of like the army, you have a bishop just every year deciding where you're going to go. And so it's called Itinerant Sea and so forth.
Like The 1st 11 years of my ministry, I was just going from you know, church to church, sometimes you stay there two or three years at the most at least starting out.
But then an opportunity came up that my bishop thought there's no way you're gonna want this, but I'm just going to mention it to you and he mentioned a campus ministry and it was like, I had this great epiphany experience in his office and I said, I don't know why I'm telling you this, but please give me an interview with their board. And so one thing led to another. The job was offered to me and I truly found my calling inside my larger calling by going into higher education.
So the last 29 of those 41 years, I've been in higher education in one form or another, either as a campus minister, eventually became a university chaplain. And then I really finished out working for our, our global office and higher education. And uh, it's sort of imploded for other reasons than not me, but the other pressures on it. So, uh, I was just given an opportunity, let's just say to either retire or do other kinds of less than optimal things.
So I could promote you into the end of the brewery. Yeah. You know, and so I've had a really great life and I love working with students. And you know, if I could boil it boil it down and say, you know, what did you do with students? I did, you know, usually a lot of things, but if I said, if I wanted to really, you know, narrow it down, uh, to kind of a thesis, I'd say, you know, you're there to help students recover their religion or recover from their religion.
You know, that is, some of them were there and they had, you know, never really engaged with their faith personally. And so you kind of helped them hone in on that and what they do? Yeah. In beer? No, I did not drink with students. I will to go on the record. I did not drink, at least with undergraduates, I never, I would drink with them even if they were legal drinking age, but we discussed all kinds of things about not just life in general, but their lives and where they were going.
And I just, I had a really great kind of front row seat into these young lives that we're evolving into into just remarkable people. And so, no, I'm, I'm very, very happy with the opportunities that I've had and I really didn't want to retire, but I was able to, and I have, and I'm, and I'm, I'm, I'm liking it.
Well, you've, you've walked away with so many interesting stories, you know, as well, uh, from that experience, and uh, we've had a lot of fun talking about methods, potluck dinners, you know, because if there's anybody that's a world class expert, it's you and I love, you know, there's during one episode, I'm like, so reverend Mark who's a world class expert in potluck when you walk up to the potluck dinner. How are you?
How are you mapping out your plan about what you're going to eat and what you're going to try to avoid and what excuse you've got to come up with, you know, Yeah, the green jello, the green jello salads and, and, and those church ladies are pretty much gone from this world now but certainly ate a lot of that.
And you kind of have to scan the fellowship hall where people are eating and sitting down and take note of who is connected to what food because there are certain people that are going to ask you if you tried it and also what you thought And you really, you know, you're on call. So you've got to say something typically positive. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just, it was tiny portions of a lot of stuff usually is what it came down to for me. I managed to hit that grass.
Uh, you know, occasionally it just happened. I don't know what happened. And then I had like an 80-87 year old woman, uh, actually invite invite me and my wife over for lunch after church one day only to serve us like barely cooked, pretty much raw duck. Oh my God, you still have feathers on it. Yeah. Or at least some feathers. And I swear I swear to you, this woman had, this is as, as my grandmother used to say a being or bonded about drinking of any kind.
And so no matter what you did and it didn't matter to the circumstances, it was just, you know, a mortal sin. And I, I would hear her talk about it from time to time and then you know, I was a young kid still in seminary. So I reminded her one sunday though I said, I said, well now you know that jesus first miracle was transforming water into wine at the wedding of Canada galilee in john's gospel.
And this woman knew that she had read her bible and she thought about that for a second and she said well I know, but he shouldn't have done that. And so I went, oh my God, I said so like it was the takeaway from that was if jesus doesn't get away with it, you're not gonna get away with it even though I learned early on that there are some things that not even jesus gets away with, you know, that's funny. Well that's a good segue for us talking about so with you and beer. So Uh huh.
I have this vague recollection that somebody gave you a mr beer kit. Did they know how you got into bureau? That's not how I got into it actually. I got into it uh as I was starting for the very first time to, you know, kind of wet my palate with craft beer, you know that coming to Nashville in the Early to mid 90s and so I was you know, just getting to know beer and that coincided with me also getting into a doctoral program at a seminary indicator Georgia.
And so I would go there for when classes were in session and I'd actually stay on the campus. And oftentimes you'd be joined up with a roommate like in a dorm. And so I was with this Presbyterian Minister Guy who was a brewer. I mean he was a home brewer and going way back into the day in the back of the 80s. Yeah. And his name was Andy.
And so the thing is, is that after we would have class and spend time in the library, we would go to the town square indicator to the most amazing taproom and it's still one of my favorites in all the world is called the brick store. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, the brick store. And this was back in the 90s. They do, they didn't when we were going there, but then eventually they built that up. So I was getting introduced to all these great beers that were on tap and in their cellar.
And then I started talking to him about brewing and he said, well I brewed some and I said, well, I, I always thought I'd like to do it, but it seems to be really complicated. He goes, oh no, he says next time I'm here and we're here together, I'll bring you some equipment and some literature and help get you started. And so that's actually how I got into it through a colleague through a presbyterian colleague. Presbyterian colleague that introduced you to to brewing beer?
Yes. That's not even remotely close. Yeah. That's funny. So do you guys keep in touch at all over there? I haven't seen his guy's name is Andy I haven't seen Andy in a number of years but he is kin to some people in in this area that are also ministers that I'm so every now and then when if I run into to his his sister in law, I'll ask her how he's doing. So I think he's he's up and he's still up in Georgia someplace. So All right, so what's your favorite beer of all time?
And oh no, there's so many, you know, I have to say that of course I mentioned the sellers thing, I like the seller's grand, grand cru going back in time. But that that sort of changed since they've been bought out. I'll have to say for not only sentimental purposes, but even this year and what they've done with it is just so nice and it makes my year literally at the end of the year and that's uh the sierra Nevada celebration.
I mean it is my favorite, but I could say if I had to say what is your favorite beer going back to the past that really turned you on to something that was really just bright and delicious and you know, it makes you think of the holidays and it's a it's a fresh hot beer. There are a lot of other great beers.
But I'm just saying in terms of the continuity of my beer experience in my beer memory, that is certainly one that my my year is not complete unless I've bought at least A six pack, if not a case as soon as I see it. Yeah, it's uh it's one of those beers, it's incredibly consistent, you know, and yet it's made, you know, it's a fresh hop beer so it tends to move around and you know, have some variation, you know, year over year.
But it is pretty amazing just to maintain that level of quality over such a long period of time.
And uh I I really, I think that's really amazing, you know what they've been able to keep that on, you know, as long as they have and the thing that I know that's right around the corner is Bigfoot, you know, it's going to be released, you know, probably you know, right after that and uh I really enjoy, you know that experience of enjoying, you know, Bigfoot as much as I do, you know, celebration, you know, for sure. So uh I am going to blame you.
I actually think that you got me sucked into being a beer judge and I'm still debating whether to think you would blame you for that. So, so but the thing, do you think that that's made you a better brewer. Actually, I would turn the question around and say that I think that I am um a better beer judge because I'm a brewer.
But but both they both intersect for sure while we only have a few minutes here left and I'm a huge fan of the late James Lipton from actors studio and always wish I could have answered uh those clothes out questions. But now it's your turn, you know these questions. So what's your favorite word? Artesian? I know, but that means just simply a non mechanized approach to dealing with quality ingredients. That's all it means. All right. So what's your least favorite word exclusive?
That is pretending to be bigger and better than you are. What turns you on? Well, I have to say finding a life partner who shares your vocations. What turns you off people who are not liked by pets and Children? What sound or noise do you love the bubbling of an airlock in the morning after you've pitched yeast into your fermenter? Oh man, that sucks. What sound or noise do you hate big screens in public places when I've been trying all my day to get away from them.
What's your favorite curse word? The f word? Oh wow. You're gonna go? And I got a whole story with that one, but we don't have time for that. So what profession other than your own would you have liked to have attempted? I would like to do if I could do it now, but I don't know if regulations would allow. I would love to be a food and beer truck guy, a food truck and a beer truck. But well what a great conversation we've had today, reverend mark. It was really good.
I learned some new things about you man. I didn't know I gotta, I gotta follow up with steve, you're presbyterian brewer guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And and I'm sorry. Yeah, thank you Andy if you're out there, thank you. Well I'm so glad you got to join us for this episode of episodes and smokes. We're gonna wrap it up today. Take it away on the post roll. Drew. We hope you enjoyed this episode.
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