Laurin Mack of the Conrad Seipp Brewing Co.

- Hello and welcome to a much teased

- Yes.

- But finally here, special edition of Dinner Plus Drinks podcast. We are joined by Laurin Mack, the proprietor of Seipp's Brewing, is that the best way to describe? Joint proprietor or what do you like?

- Yes, I think proprietor sounds good, I haven't heard that one before.

- I think the queen of--

- Queen of, that's a good one.

- The queen of .

- Yes or that perhaps.

- Yeah, great, any of these names.

- So I'm so excited to have Laurin on. As you know, I love beer, if you've listed to more than 10 seconds of this podcast.

- We like to have drinks.

- I also love history and I love Lake Geneva. And the super awesome thing about Seipp's Brewing is if you've ever seen Black Point on Lake Geneva, which is one of the most historic estates, the only estate that is open to the public that you can go on a boat and tour it. I know this sounds lame but it's really cool. Dave, the guy that runs it currently, is mostly okay. So it's a really cool thing, shout out to Dave. But Black Point was built by a man named Conrad Seipp and his family. He was a beer baron in Chicago back in the 1800s. One of the biggest beer brands in the world, or America, which may as well be the world, America. You've probably never heard of it 'cause it went under, as many breweries did during Prohibition. But Laurin is the direct descendant of Conrad and has brought back the brand, building it back up, brewing a beer that is authentic to the original recipe. And so we have this awesome intersection of delicious beer, Laurin's really cool

- She's great.

- Head muffs, Laurin, earmuffs and

- Lake Geneva.

- Lake Geneva. So that's why we wanted to talk about it. So welcome, Laurin. That was a lengthy introduction but I just want to make sure everybody understands this is super cool.

- So thanks for being here. Is what we're saying.

- Yeah, thanks for being here.

- It's good to be here, especially on this great summer morning, afternoon, almost.

- It's not painfully hot out yet.

- No, no, it's a good day for a beer, in fact.

- I think it is.

- Exactly.

- What day isn't though .

- So Laurin, can you just give us a brief introduction to who you are and really how did you figure out you were related, did you always know you were related to Conrad Seipp? And how did you just decide that my great, great, great, whatever grandfather made some beer and I should do this to? Tell us about yourself.

- It's a great question.

- It's a broad question. It's not a great question.

- It's a perfectly good question. I'm Conrad Seipp's great, great, great granddaughter and I've always known that because our family takes history and our whole family, near and far, very seriously. In addition, I grew up, I've come to what is now the Black Point Estate, we call it the big house in our family. For the past 41 years of, oh gosh, I shouldn't have said that. That's how old I am everybody.

- Years, some years we've been here--

- Many years, okay, I went every summer to visit my family, specifically my grandparents and my great aunt and uncle, Jane and Bill. And you can't be at Black Point, those of you who've visited, without feeling Conrad Seipp. He built the house with his wife, Katerina, in 1888, for his family to enjoy and to be able to get out of the hot and probably pretty polluted and crowded Chicago back then.

- What ? Maybe still the same, I don't know.

- In the summer of corona, this feels very timely.

- So I've always known about Conrad Seipp 'cause I knew that he built this beautiful place for his family. I didn't understand, 'cause I was young, and I didn't really know what beer was and I didn't really understand brewing history but as I became an adult and I came of age and started drinking beer myself, I started to think oh wow, how cool. This ancestor of mine, who I knew as sort of a benevolent force in our family

- Ahh.

- Was able to build this house because he made a whole lot of beer. And I started to learn more about beer history and brewing history in Chicago and how fundamentally intertwined it was with the development of this city. And so then I started to become very interested in Conrad, I think because I started to understand how important he was. And frankly, everybody is important but I guess what I mean to say is how important he was to beer history, specifically in Chicago and the Midwest.

- Yeah, I didn't know anything about any of this, to be frank with you. I like beer but Nick knows far more about all of this so he said, "We're bringing in this beer. "Can you meet Laurin on the dock and grab this beer." I'm like, "Yeah, okay." I didn't expect you to be the person, the queen of the beer . I was like oh, she's delivering beer, okay. So I've been learning really just in the last couple of weeks about it and I think it's so great, which is why we wanted to share it with everybody. So, again, we're just really excited .

- So can you give you us a little backstory about exactly what Seipp Brewing Company was at its height and what Conrad brought to beer? 'Cause he made some pretty major innovations that oh yeah, anybody would've figured this out but nobody did until Conrad.

- Yeah, I think that's an important thing to keep in mind is not only did Conrad make a lot of beer but he made a lot of beer in a pretty difficult time to be doing anything. So he was a German immigrant who came over at the end of the '40s, the 1840s, and made his way to Chicago and in 1854 he opened a brewery and started making beer and continued to make beer. And it was to fill time. We were going through things like the Civil War. We were going through big, not super friendly relations, between immigrants and people who were already living in America. We were going through things like the Chicago fire. That little thing. That was actually, I think it's important to recognize that in life, success is maybe equal parts skill, hard work, certainly those things Conrad Seipp had and did. But it's also luck and he was one of the breweries that did not burn down during the Chicago fires. So when everyone else was out of commission, he was able to make a lot of beer to feed the workers, frankly, who were coming to build what is present-day Chicago. That's why we're calling Seipp's beer the beer that built Chicago because it was.

- That's cool, I didn't realize that, yeah.

- That's really cool.

- So I think it's just important to realize, so not only was just on the national landscape so much happening, it was really hard for the nation, but also just on a personal level, it was really hard. Imagine being an immigrant, arriving in this totally new place, not really, probably speaking English after awhile, not really knowing any people. And then his first brewery that he built just burnt down and he had lost several children in infancy and he lost his first wife. So this was tough and I think that's something that I've always, when I'm feeling stressed or tired or not strong enough to be lifting all those cases that I bring to Lake Geneva Country Meats, I try and just channel Conrad and think, I just have to work hard and I've gotta just keep going forward, 'cause that's what he did. And I think that's what we all do as we're trying to build stuff.

- That's so cool that the history, that your family finds it so important. My parents are just getting into their ancestors a little bit more and they're so, so interested in it, so I love hearing that you guys, it sounds like your whole family finds it very important and that's valuable.

- I'm so glad that you brought that up 'cause that's one of things I think is so important about, it's one of my motivations for bringing back the Seipp beer brand is that it's a way for me to connect to my history and to better understand myself and where I came from. But it's really about everyone connecting with their own history, better understanding themselves, being able to connect with other people over a beer. So I'm hoping that as I'm learning about myself and my own history that others can do the same and feel more connected.

- I love that.

- Yeah, that's cool.

- And that's really what our whole podcast is about, like connecting over food and drink. What do you talk about over food and drink? So that was a great little plug, good job .

- Talk about yourselves, talk about your own history,

- It's working out.

- Talk about your own connection to your own place.

- Well, I like beer.

- I like beer.

- What I like about beer is it's a super democratic drink. There's a lot of people that want to charge, I like wine probably more than I like beer but there's a lot of people that think beer should be on the level as wine and it should be the same as wine. And I think that's unfair because wine, it's a thing that grows, it's an annual crop that grows specifically one year at one place and it's a little bougie.

- More bougie than beer.

- It's bougie. But beer, it's malted grain, yeast, water, hops. It's four ingredients that you could make anytime, anywhere, and it's the thing that you come in after a hard day's work, maybe rebuilding, and it doesn't matter if you're the CEO of a company or the entry-level person, you walk into a bar, you do a little cheers, and you both can take that first drink of a beer and say ahh, this is refreshing.

- Exactly.

- And that's what I love about beer. That's why I think

- That's well put.

- Alcoholic drinks are important because as much as I love, we're trying to get Bubly to sponsor us, so we're gonna, you know--

- We actually just drink five of these a day, each of us.

- So as much as I love my sparkling water, and it's very refreshing, it's not as good as a beer.

- Not the same.

- So that's what I love about beer and I think history's important and learning things.

- So before my previous life, before Lake Geneva, I was in Milwaukee for 11 years. And for me, I didn't always like beer so I was a hard alcohol person for a long time. Then I love wine.

- Black cherry UV.

- Oh, you know, the good stuff. But in my time growing up in Milwaukee, I always say I watched Milwaukee grow up. My childhood years were in Lake Geneva, but I went to college in Milwaukee and then stayed there and did all of my adult growing up there and I feel like I grew up with the city. It was when Milwaukee was originally not really looked at as very good. It was dirty and not Chicago. But now, over the years and to this day, Milwaukee's become a destination, all the breweries in Milwaukee. So I have a very, very good friend that's pretty heavily involved with the beer scene in Milwaukee and so through him I've gotten to know a lot of the people, I helped decorate one of the breweries in Milwaukee, I helped get some events running for one of the breweries in Milwaukee. So I've gotten to know the culture in Milwaukee and all the people that do it and they're just good people. Like everyone I meet, for the most part, in that scene is just good people and they make good beer. And I think it goes to what Nick's saying, it's a level playing field and everyone's there to enjoy the good beer .

- I think that's the cool thing about beer too. It's such an individual expression of personality and with wine you have to take what the grapes give you, a little bit. A lot bit, if you do it well. But with beer, you can force yourself on the product a little bit and put your stamp of what you want with how you brew it, what your grain bill is, how you treat the yeast, that type of thing. So how did you go from, you said you grew up as an adult, you started liking beer. But were you a beer nerd?

- Did you always like beer?

- Yeah, how did you go from yeah, the big house was built by beer? There's plenty of people that grow up in butcher shops and turn out to be vegetarian as a rebellion thing. But how did you go from I like that Conrad brewed beer, got the big house, to--

- I'm gonna do this myself.

- Yeah, did you always have an interest in that or how did that work?

- I am not a beer nerd, though I do love beer nerds, I will say. They are a fantastic group of people and I love learning from them. And that's one of the reasons why I really wanted to bring back the Seipp brand is because I think that Seipp is great for, I say this as I think that it's really approachable. It's approachable for everybody in that the beer nerds can say, wow, this is a delicious beer and it's so cool that it's got such an interesting history. But then also people who just want to drink beer on their porch can also say, wow, this is really crisp and delicious, yum.

- I think that's what I thought when I first had it. I think I was like, this is a beer everyone would like.

- Yep, I think your husband said, I can drink like seven of these.

- That was my husband .

- I've heard that.

- Hi Tyler .

- Hi Tyler.

- I've definitely heard that from others and it's always nice to hear that people would be willing to even drink that many.

- Yes, he would . Just for you, though. So you have been learning from them. What made you make the dive into doing this?

- You all know how everything takes awhile. All ideas percolate and then you actually have to figure out how to make that thing happen and then you have to make the thing happen. And so we've been thinking about this, my husband and I, for a long time, I'd say like 10 years. And it started actually in Richmond, when I was in graduate school, and we had some friends and some neighbors who were about to become professional brewers but they were still brewing out of the back yard at that point--

- Did you tell 'em that your great, great grandpappy had been brewing since before they were even a winkle in the--

- And they were beer nerds so they already knew about him, so that was good. Beer nerds know about Conrad Seipp. He has not been lost to history completely.

- [Bridget] Excellent.

- So they were just like yeah, so we thought it'd be really fun to just experiment around and see if we could figure out some general idea of what one of his beers may have tasted like. And we came out with one that tasted great and it was the first time. We were like whoa, this is good, we could do this. But then it took a really long time to get from there to Conrad Seipp in a six-pack.

- Yay!

- Yay!

- And I will say that I think I call her my beer guardian angel, Liz Garibay, of the Chicago Brewseum, who is an expert--

- That's a really cool place, yeah.

- She is an expert and a wonderful person. Expert on Chicago brewing, on all things related to beer. She's started already a museum dedicated to brewing history in America and beyond and it's going to be located in Chicago, it already is. She came up to the big house, to Black Point Estate, and met with the infamous Dave DeSimone--

- Dave, you owe us so much money for how much nice things we're saying about you.

- And he put me in touch with Liz, who at the time was doing an exhibit for the Brewseum at the Field Museum in Chicago. I met her and she just really connected me with people, including Doug and Tracie Hurst, at Metropolitan Brewing, which you guys I'm sure have had their beer, they I think the best turnstile brewers in Chicago, maybe beyond. They're really amazing people and just make excellent, excellent beer. So it was, imagine as soon as I met them, I was like I love you people and I really like their beer. I hope they like me and I hope they're willing to help me. And they did, so that was good.

- Good, so that's your brewing partner, for those of you that don't know.

- Yes.

- So you don't have big beer vats outside your house and you're not just--

- Not doing it in the bathtub .

- I don't and for anyone who hasn't been to Metropolitan, it's a really gorgeous space. They have a tap room, really safe outdoor seating. It's just a great place to go and drink a beer.

- That's great and--

- So speaking of, speaking of drinking a beer.

- Speaking of this beer--

- I've been wanting a point in the podcast to actually open the beer and talk about the beer. And then we can get into how you, I wanted to ask you about Metropolitan and why they're a good fit for you and a little bit more of that.

- But first we have to cheers. This is a staple in our podcast.

- Cheers.

- Cheers to you .

- Cheers.

- Hands-free beer.

- Lovely, so you have this labeled as Seipp's Extra Pale, a pre-Prohibition pilsner.

- Yes.

- So what does that mean? 'Cause I think a lot of people here, extra pale, they think it's gonna be hoppy.

- They think it's gonna be an ale, which is one of the tricks that we didn't mean to play on people, it just happened to be the name of the beer, so we didn't have a lot of wiggle room with that. Conrad Seipp had a lot of different brands and several--

- So this is an important distinction for people that might not be super into beer. So in the beer world, you think of Miller Genuine Draft, Miller High Life, Miller Lite. You'd say they're just different products within the Miller brand. However, in the beer world, you call each one of those a separate brand. So that's, extra pale's a brand, a Doppelbock's a brand, plain lager is a brand. So that's a key distinction that I think a lot of people don't

- Yeah, I wouldn't know.

- Understand about beer is you just call different products brands instead of a different product.

- Oh, that makes sense.

- It's very confusing.

- I have a friend that sells beer and that's how he speaks, I never fully understood it. Sorry, that was a good distinction.

- So a weird thing about beer.

- You need to stick around and get us straight on all this stuff. So we chose the extra pale, and I say we, I mean Metropolitan, me, and then Liz Garibay, because she's so important, for all reasons but having a history, her knowledge history is so helpful for us as we proceeded. And we decided to choose the extra pale because we knew that it was going to be to what we've been talking about. It was gonna be easier to drink. It was also really interesting to see what a pilsner would taste like before Prohibition. Now we often think of American lagers, like Miller, like Budweiser, and they have a specific taste and a specific reputation. And we wanted to think, what would this have been like before. And Conrad Seipp had no idea that Prohibition ever would've come. Thankfully, he died before it happened, otherwise I can only imagine what he would've thought. But when Germans came to America, they brought the lager way of brewing with them. And around the 1850s, in Chicago, Pilsner, being from Pils in Czech Republic, became very popular across Europe. And Americans were like, we wanna make this too, but they were using a different kind of barley. This is starting to get into the beard nerd world, so sorry, you guys--

- That's okay, we hope some of them are listening.

- We were using six-row barley, which has got a lot more protein in it than the barley that they were using in Europe. And so Americans were like shoot, we've got to figure out how to make this delicious pilsner here but we don't have quite the right ingredients. So they added some corn to lighten it up and that's where the original adjunct beer comes from is our attempt at making a pilsner that is as delicious as was coming out of Europe at that time. And that's the pre-Prohibition piece is that in this beer, in the Seipp's Extra Pale, we are using six-row barley and we are using corn as a way to lighten it up. And you can taste it when you--

- Now that I know that, yeah.

- And a little bit of sweetness, is just--

- A little bit of sweetness, yeah.

- So is this logo, label, branding historical? Did you come up with that? What is the story from that?

- Yeah, very much historical.

- Did you do that in Canva?

- Did you just design it in Canva?

- I definitely just designed it--

- [Bridget] It was a template.

- We worked with several designers who really were big fans of history and the final label was designed by The Stout Collective in Chicago.

- [Bridget] Oh, sure.

- Basically, we took the old Extra Pale, and there were several iterations of Seipp's Extra Pale labels. I chose the one I liked the best and which was what he advertised at the World's Fair, or his company advertised at the World's Fair in 1893. And we basically just lifted that and made it appealing to the modern eye.

- Sure, sure.

- We live in 2020 and we want to be able to see things and like things now. It's not all about everything just being stuck in history. It's about connecting to history and enjoying yourself today.

- But it does exactly that, so good job. It feels historic but still interesting. The color choice is great. I just, obviously you chose professional people to do it, well done, those people and you .

- What's the recipe, you talked about the barley and the corn. As you're diggin' through the big house, did you find Conrad's secret recipe--

- On a post-it.

- How did you come up with the recipe?

- I am not giving up on that because we're always finding random things in drawers around Black Point, for sure. But we, we're not using the exact recipe. And frankly, the recipe probably changed a lot over from 1854. I don't think he necessarily was brewing extra pale right when he started brewing beer. But until 1933, it probably did change a lot. I also think he was working with a lot of German brewers, and he himself was a German brewer. They didn't necessarily need to write down a perfect recipe, they would just--

- A little of this.

- Like your grandma would do.

- That's how my mom cooks.

- Right, perfect.

- That's what I love about reading historic cookbooks and we did a thing about some of the African-American cookbooks that get overlooked a lot. And one of my favorite ones just takes all of these recipes from pre-Antebellum America and they're like hog's head of pork's skin. And you're like what? That's not a degree we can get really and it's not a measurement we use anymore. It makes it something that's, I think that's so important, yes, we want to be authentic but also--

- We need a recipe.

- This is 2020, we don't have all of these weird things floating around.

- Well that'd be awesome if you'd find his secret post-it with the recipe.

- So stay tuned, 'cause it's still possible that it'll show up. But I will say in the meantime, it's been nice to just A, go on the historical adventure of trying to figure to what it was. And also, we're working with his primary ingredient, which was the water from Lake Michigan, and we still are using that.

- Oh, that's great.

- And I think that's it's probably a lot cleaner now than it was in 1870.

- We're doing great so far.

- Maybe you should do a batch where you reverse osmosis it. There's gotta be some historic record. Let's go beer nerd. So a lot of the beer gets reverse osmosis to make water be what you want. You want your water conditioned differently for a hoppy beer than a lager or a stout. So there's probably climate change data about what the water was like in 1860. Maybe you could

- Wow.

- reverse osmosis the water to that and make side-by-side batches.

- That is a great idea. We're definitely doing that next .

- Yeah, this is next on the list.

- And to your point, I love that you're thinking in the super science-y way because we actually have--

- You can call it science and not geekery.

- Okay, well, we actually have some unopened bottles of the old Seipp beer.

- Oh, well that's awesome.

- And it's been so great bringing this back because so many people have contacted me already, and I hope so many more people will in the future, with things like oh, I just found in my mom's stuff, an unopened bottle of blank malt sinew, and here's this cool label that I found that's still perfectly preserved. So I'm learning so much as we go with this project, which is why I'm so appreciative to the whole community for being part of it.

- I've gotta say, we just ripped a giant bush out of our yard and there was definitely beer bottles and old cans in there. I'm gonna check it out and see if there happens to be. We just put 'em in the recycling so I'll take a look.

- Do you remember--

- I'll dig in the trash for you.

- Dave had me over to play some billiards on Conrad's table one day and he's like oh yeah, there's one of the only remaining unopened bottles of Seipp beer. I'm like, I'm not very good at this. There's a distinct possibility I might break that. Dave, I hope that you understand how bad I am at this game.

- You made it through unscathed, so did the bottle, hopefully.

- We've made it to today.

- So have you thought about making more brands? Our Twitter follower Jim, picked up some of the beer earlier this week and said he really enjoyed it but is looking forward to the Dopplebok.

- Okay.

- So have you thought about doing more brands?

- Yeah, for sure. We are starting with the extra pale because it's delicious and it's great for drinking in the summer, all year round, but especially in the summer time. We're definitely excited about trying to see what some of the other ones were like. And stay tuned, they'll be coming out hopefully sooner rather than later.

- We will try them .

- So when you come up with that, obviously Metropolitan's your brewing partner. How does that discussion go? How do you interact with them and say we're thinking about doing this? How much input comes from you, how much comes from them? You talked about Brewseum. How much comes from them? How does that process work?

- It's a total team effort and everyone works really well together, which is great. Doug Hurst, who's the co-founder and the CEO, just knows so much about German brewing techniques and historical brewing techniques So it's just really fantastic obviously really benefits from his knowledge. And then we also have Liz Garibay and then me, which is I'm able to bring the historical aspect of just labels and all of the research that I've done and that Liz already just knows from being an historian. So we really just work together and come up with these ideas. Then of course, we bring designers in to make the labels look historical but snappy as possible. Very much a team effort, as it should be.

- What I have heard, the couple times that we've talked about Metropolitan here, I've heard a lot of female names come up, which I'm super excited about. So as far as I know, and I'm not by any means an expert on the brewing world, but there's not a ton of female-owned breweries or women involved in it. So I'm super excited to hear that you've partnered up with it sounds like at least three people, three women and Doug. But tell me about that? Was that definitely a factor in your decision or just a happy circumstance? 'Cause I am thrilled about it.

- I will say that I have often wondered, I come from a family of very strong women and I've often wondered what would've happened if it had been appropriate or just if one of Seipp's daughters or granddaughters had taken the business over, which they certainly could have but for many reasons didn't. So it's really very rewarding, as one of his female descendants, to be bringing back the family's, his beer. And then to be able to work with Tracy Hurst, who's the President and Co-Founder of Metropolitan, is just really gratifying. 'Cause you're right, as I'm learning, there really are not as many females in the brewing industry, which we're working on and it is what it is. But it is really great to be able to work with other really fantastic people and women, like Tracy and Liz Garibay.

- I didn't know, I had known about Metropolitan but I didn't know about Liz as well. That just ups the cool factor . So you're being very modest about this and--

- Yeah, it's a big deal.

- Yeah, I think it's a huge deal, especially right now, and I wanna shout it from the rooftops for you. So congratulations on partnering with some great people.

- Crafts beer is a bit of an echo chamber in terms of demographics, in many occasions, and it's a challenge and I think it limits what craft beer can explore and it's something that a lot of the discussion around craft beer, from people who actually love it and want it to keep growing is talking about is we need some diversity and we need some different viewpoints and we need some people to challenge us. And where there is that, I don't wanna say difference or divide, but men and women often bring different perspectives to things. And having that balance and that difference of viewpoints is so important. So that's one of the things I like too is trying to, we're a female majority-owned business. My grandma kept the business running for 20 years after my grandpa died and we couldn't have done it without her. So it's seeing that continue to go is so important to me and I think towards beer lovers everywhere, if you really care.

- I mean or if you care--

- If you just want the same old thing for always then--

- Yeah, whatever. So you mentioned earlier you learned a lot from Conrad as far as hard work, he endured a lot of challenges. Do you have a turning point or a major challenge that you faced that you're like yep, this was the big deal, or just lots of little challenges? Tell us about a couple of the hurdles.

- Yeah, I will say that there's just not enough time in the day, one, that's just a daily challenge.

- What ?

- As you all know, life goes fast and there's a lot to do and so that is a constant challenge, which is a challenge that we can all rise to meet. I think another challenge was we didn't know that COVID was going to happen.

- Surprise.

- That was a surprise for us for sure, unexpected for everybody. And we delayed launching for several months, as a result, which--

- Well I think the first time we met was the day before Saint Patrick's Day or something.

- Which was right when this all shut down.

- And we're like yeah, we're gonna do a big lawn party in June to launch the beer.

- Exactly.

- [Bridget] Here we are at the end of July .

- Little did we know. And it did really change our launch plans. But that's okay, life does not work out how we all plan for it and I think that as long as everyone is safe and we are all taking good care of each other, I think that we can proceed with launching Seipp in a good way. We're saying, if we waited 87 years to bring this brand back, another two months isn't gonna hurt anybody.

- Hey, that's a good point . Fair enough.

- And to that point, you've sold out of your first run pretty fast.

- Yes.

- Which is awesome. I mean, it's a problem but it's a good problem.

- But awesome.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you. I so much appreciate that and I will say it is a problem for me because I really want people to be able to drink our beer and it is so exciting that people have enjoyed it so much and the demand has been so great. And I'm really, really appreciative of that. And we are making beer as fast as we can although it takes 28 days. So we were not expecting to sell out at the brewery within 10 days but--

- Oh, that's great.

- That's amazing.

- But it's still out in the community so you can, if you're in Lake Geneva.

- We have parts of three cases left.

- Okay, good.

- Parts of.

- How 'bout you go on a treasure hunt and leave a comment and let us know where you find it?

- I'm glad to hear that you can find it at Lake Geneva Country Meats 'cause that is one of the few places that you can get it right now on retail in the Lake Geneva area, just 'cause of supply at least.

- And then a lot of really cool tapline placements too, right.

- Yeah, absolutely. I'm happy to go through the places you can go and sit down in a nice outdoor area.

- Please do.

- We'd love to hear.

- So other than the retail stores, which include places like the Green Grocer over in Williams Bay, includes the Woolworth Cellars, includes you all, the River Valley Ranch had it for a time.

- Oh, nice.

- That's fantastic.

- We are also selling it in more of an on-premise way at Kim KC Pub in Fontana at Pier 290. We are selling at the Baker House, it's actually going on draft there--

- That is a good place to have it. I mean just the historical perspective.

- It's perfect. They go with Victorian houses and look around at the same time and it's such a great spot.

- That's great.

- And Courtney, at the Baker House, has been a great advocate. And The Owl, who can forget The Owl?

- The Owl.

- The Yacht Club, right.

- They are fantastic and are carrying it just on the same block as Black Point.

- The Yacht Club, did you say?

- The Yacht Club, right.

- The Yacht Club, of course, yep.

- Again, Conrad big into the boats.

- And some other private clubs as well. Yeah, Conrad certainly had a family full of people who likes boats so that makes sense.

- Wow, so I didn't realize it was on taplines at that many places, that's great.

- I will say it's actually really only on tap at the Baker House. It will be today and then at The Yacht Club as well as another private club as well. As soon as we can get some more beer up here, we'll get some more of it on tap.

- Well good, I'm so--

- And we're hoping to be able to put together some sort of event where you can have it on tap because draft is gonna be I think where the beer like, it's good in bottle, I really enjoy it, but I think draft it's really gonna shine.

- It is delicious on tap.

- Yes!

- We're working around some snack items

- We'll have to hit up Baker House

- to go with the beer.

- Yes, we are.

- So hopefully we'll have something coming up soon.

- Oh, that would be great.

- 'Cause you're awesome.

- Yeah, I started this whole thing when, again, I didn't know. I thought it was just meeting this person named Laurin on the dock. And I was like okay, Nick, I met Laurin. And I'm like, she's just lovely. You are, you've been a delight and your beer is delicious so I'm so happy to have met you and run across you and I can't wait for people to experience and learn about it.

- Oh, well that's so nice. And I feel so honored to be at Lake Geneva Country Meats. It's been such a foundation of our community for so long and man

- Thank you.

- You guys can make a brat so it goes really well with Seipp's for sure.

- Perfect, sounds like a good summer night to me.

- So we've got one last question for you. Let's just wrap it up. You talked about it's important to have that conversation, look back to what was before Prohibition, things have changed. If you had to explain in just basic terms, why bringing back a beer from 100 years ago is important and why people should try this, what would you say?

- I think that's a--

- [Bridget] No pressure.

- That's a great question, Nick. Great question. And I think that's it's really important for us to understand where we came from so that we can celebrate that and also improve on it. And that's what I'm hoping in the future is that we can all work together to enjoy beer, talk about our own histories, talk about our own presents, and plan for a brighter future. And so I'd really like that to happen with a Seipp in hand.

- And that's the cool thing about Black Point, if you could go out there. It's an immigrant that built one of the most amazing mansions on Lake Geneva, who faced discrimination, but also on the same hand, he only employed Germans for a lot of his help, so you get that balance. So I think that's a great way to look at it is let's celebrate the accomplishments, let's be--

- And look towards a brighter future. That was the key.

- Looking forward to that.

- So thank you so much. We're gonna continue enjoying ours, so cheers.

- Cheers.

- Cheers to you.

- Go to Black Point, see where Conrad lived. You can buy the beer there. We forgot to--

- I was wondering that. I feel like you can get it at Black Point,

- Dave was screaming at the screen that we're mean to him.

- If you go on a tour, you can pick up a six-pack at the gift shop.

- Yeah, don't just show up, that doesn't work.

- Schedule a tour.

- No, you have to go on a tour.

- [Bridget] And you'll want to.

- It's so cool, it's one of my favorite places. I know it sounds dumb to be like go tour this old house, it's really interesting. But it's really interesting

- But do it.

- And it's so beautiful--

- And you don't have to love history like Nick, it's still very interesting.

- No, it's really very interesting. The entire staff out there does a great job of bringing the history of Conrad and what it was like at that time and I think they do a great job of social challenges at that time and historical context, bringing that to light, and making it relevant to what we're facing today, which is a lot of stuff.

- To a brighter future.

- Brighter future.

- So Laurin, thank you so much.

- Thanks for your time, Laurin.

- And we'll make sure we talk soon.

- Yeah, have a good one.

- You too, take care everybody.

- Bye.

- Bye.