About this Episode:
We’re joined by Corey Bryson, Co-Owner of Balsam Falls Brewery—an Award-Winning craft beer artisan and certified beer judge hailing from Tampa, Florida. He and his wife are also Cicerone Certified Beer Servers. They now own and operate Balsam Falls Brewing in Sylva where Corey has family roots that go back over 150 years.
He talks about his craft beer brewing passion and how he and his wife are making a big impact in the Smokies.
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SHOW NOTES
SEGMENT 1
Joseph starts by talking about the Meadowlark Motel which is the show’s sponsor and also smokiesadventure.com, another sponsor as well. Some upcoming events include a mountain heritage book series happening in Maggie Valley at the motel. He also mentions a fly fishing weekend which you can learn more about at meadowlarkmotel.com. Joseph talks about brewing and the industry that is growing in Asheville which supports about 3,500 jobs. He introduces his guest, Corey Bryson, Co-Owner with his wife, Laurie Bryson, of Balsam Falls Brewery. Corey grew up in the Southeast but also spent a lot of time in the Smoky Mountains with his grandparents. Corey also has an information technology background. He was a broadcast engineer for a tv station and also went into IT before opening Balsam Falls Brewery. Out of all of his hobbies, brewing was what stuck with him for a long time. Corey also speaks with Joseph about judging a beer which is what he also does as a trained professional.
SEGMENT 2
Corey is a Cicerone Certified Beer Server which he talks about with Joseph. It takes about 6 weeks to earn this which is considered a first-level sommelier. An expert in beer, he says, would know what makes one beer different from the other like how wine experts would know about wine. Corey says that when he lived in Tampa, Florida, he was very involved in the craft beer scene. His wife was the co-organizer of an international women’s craft beer organization. Corey and his wife worked with some friends from their brew club who decided to open a brewery in Tampa. Corey and his wife had been wanting to move to North Carolina to do the same. They sold their house in Tampa, quit their jobs, and finally moved after a couple of years. Although he only spent summers in North Carolina, he talks about the Smoky Mountains feeling like home to him. He discusses with Joseph the success of his brewery and how hospitality has been an important factor in its success and connection with its customers. Corey also speaks about the brewery’s name, what it means and how he and his wife came up with it.
SEGMENT 3
Corey talks more with Joseph about glassware and what a real beer glass looks like. He mentions that it actually makes a difference in how the beer tastes. Corey speaks about the Founders Club, which he created but no longer exists. The idea was to get labor but also gain supporters for their brewery. These people would help with things like paintings and fixing the location. He also speaks about his interest in environmental issues and how it’s important for his business. His brewery is a nano brewery and he speaks with Joseph about the work it takes for production and some of its benefits. Corey also discusses bringing in a restaurant into the brewery, although most breweries bring in food trucks instead. The food that they have includes sandwiches, burgers, wings, and more. As for the beers, Corey says that he loves all kinds of beer. They have End of the Mist, their Southern IPA, Go West which is a West Coast Style IPA and more. He says that you’ll never know what you’ll find exactly when coming into the brewery.
SEGMENT 4
Balsam Falls Brewery also has a winery license, so Corey says that they can also make mead, something that Joseph brings up from his own experience. Joseph asks Corey about what he will be doing next. Corey says that he wants to expand the brewhouse and their kitchen. He is also thinking of having a second location in Haywood County. Balsam Falls Brewery is located in Sylva, North Carolina, and Corey says that visitors coming to the area, can visit places like the Pinnacle Mountain to hike, visit waterfalls, and even have breakfast at White Moon Cafe. To find out more about Balsam Falls Brewery, visit balsamfallsbrewing.com and the same name on Facebook and Instagram.
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:33.540 –> 00:00:44.250 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: hey welcome to the gateway to the smokies podcast this podcast is about America’s most visited National Park, the great smoky mountains National Park in the surrounding towns.
00:00:44.640 –> 00:00:57.810 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: these areas are filled with ancient natural beauty, the deep storied history, and rich mountain cultures that we explore with weekly episodes. I’m Joseph Franklyn McElroy man of the world, but also a deep roots in these mountains.
00:00:58.470 –> 00:01:12.480 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: My family is living in the great smoky for over 200 years my business is in travel, but my heart is in culture today we’re going to talk about quality brewing in the smokies but first, sponsor’s message, which happens to be me.
00:01:14.160 –> 00:01:23.760 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Imagine a place evocative of motor courts in the past, yet a modern environment with a Chic Appalachian feel and the amenities, of a country in
00:01:24.180 –> 00:01:36.330 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: a place for adventure and for relaxation imagine a place where you can fish and a mountain heritage trout stream grill the catch on fire and eat accompanied by fine wine or craft beers.
00:01:36.870 –> 00:01:48.900 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Imagine a place for the old-time music and world cultural sounds, there is no other place like the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley North Carolina your smoky mountain adventure starts with where you stay.
00:01:49.860 –> 00:02:02.190 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: and other sponsors smokies adventure. com that’s smokies plural adventure singular.com the smoky mountains and surrounding areas of vacation us a destination for all seasons.
00:02:02.490 –> 00:02:10.140 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Some of the nation’s best hiking trails waterfalls outdoor adventures and family entertainment can be found, right here.
00:02:10.740 –> 00:02:22.710 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: start your adventure by using smokies adventures.com for all the wonderful features of the great smoky mountains natural park trails, waterfalls, Cage Code, the elk, and more.
00:02:23.190 –> 00:02:29.220 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: then check out the awesome family attractions in the entertainment, you and your entire family can enjoy.
00:02:29.850 –> 00:02:41.340 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And if you want you to do things like outdoor life events like weddings honeymoons smokies adventures got you covered it can let you know what are some of the great places to go and to have your event can happen.
00:02:41.820 –> 00:02:48.480 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The goals of smokies adventures.com has become the leading information portal for adventures and experiences in the great smoky mountains.
00:02:49.740 –> 00:02:52.020 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So I want to give you a couple of events that are coming up.
00:02:53.190 –> 00:03:02.730 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: there’s a mountain Heritage book series happening inMaggie Valley North Carolina at the Meadowlark Motel and on Saturday, March 26 2022 at 4 pm.
00:03:03.030 –> 00:03:09.270 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: renowned author Bob Plott will lead a seminar on the history of hunting in the great smoky mountains.
00:03:09.570 –> 00:03:22.200 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: followed by a Barbecue dinner and music with Mike Ogletree former drummers of simple minds and various guests for that evening call 82 89261717 for more information.
00:03:23.130 –> 00:03:36.690 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And, as I mentioned before we’re going to have a big fly fishing camp in April here at the meadowlark motel what’s better for the soul than throwing a line upstream watching it past do it again and again, and perhaps getting a bite.
00:03:37.290 –> 00:03:44.430 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I don’t know all anglers know that fishing is only about reeling in the big one, although that always gets our blood pumping.
00:03:45.660 –> 00:03:53.070 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The fly fishing is about being one with the River its magnificence presence well witnessing invaluable ecosystem.
00:03:53.760 –> 00:04:00.510 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The meadowlark motels offering a fly fishing camp on a weekend on April 15 through the 17th and the smoky mountains.
00:04:00.840 –> 00:04:13.320 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Our goal is to bring like-minded people together to fly fishing food, drinking stories, and campfire Friday night will feature fishing tales of the smokies beverages of your choice, the speakeasy.
00:04:15.210 –> 00:04:27.840 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: charcuterie board full of small bites and trout those delicacies and lodging at the Meadowlark motel and then Saturday breakfast full of wonderful delights a half-day of on hands.
00:04:28.320 –> 00:04:36.900 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: instructions for four hours of intense fishing elite regional trout stream and then additional fat fishing in the mountain heritage trout stream in the backyard.
00:04:37.200 –> 00:04:49.260 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: there’ll be a Barbecue dinner live musical entertainment campfires and again lodging at the meadowlark motel call 8289261717 to get more information and to reserve your space.
00:04:49.950 –> 00:05:00.540 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: we’re gonna be talking about brewing in this smoky soon, and I just wanted to give you a little insight into it, you know that this area has become quite a brewmaster.
00:05:01.080 –> 00:05:11.910 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: paradise is actually considered one of the top areas for getting a craft beer in the nation Asheville is considered oftentimes the top city to get a.
00:05:12.660 –> 00:05:21.870 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: get a craft beer and there are many surrounding towns and counties that have become grown into quite little brew capitals on themselves.
00:05:22.230 –> 00:05:32.550 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: There are more breweries around Asheville than you can shake a stick at and the economic impact of this brewing industry is almost a billion dollars.
00:05:32.880 –> 00:05:52.920 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Right, the local beer industry is the second-largest manufacturing employer in the Asheville metro area, it supports almost 3500 jobs, the industry generated 33.4 million local tax revenues and it’s it is generated over 115 million for local state and federal governments.
00:05:54.270 –> 00:06:12.210 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: it’s all a 357% growth from 2014 to 2019 these statistics are from 2018, let me tell you, after a couple of months in 2020 when we shut down for covid has been growing even more has been growing great jobs it’s added.
00:06:12.630 –> 00:06:17.670 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: You know well over 1200 jobs, most the most of them and manufacturing industries.
00:06:17.910 –> 00:06:29.220 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And for every direct job in the industry, approximately one additional role has created support for the local economy so not only is it a wonderful tourism experience.
00:06:29.490 –> 00:06:41.070 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: and culinary and imbibing experience but it’s also been important for the local economy here in the mountains, so we have an expert with us today.
00:06:41.640 –> 00:06:48.210 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: His name is Corey Bryson he is the Co-owner, with his wife Lorie Bryson in the balsam falls brewery.
00:06:48.720 –> 00:06:56.940 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Which is an award-winning crap he’s an award-winning craft beer artisan and certified beer judge he and his wife, are also.
00:06:57.360 –> 00:07:04.950 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I think it’s cicerone he’ll tell me in a minute, whether it’s correctly said or not certified beer servers they now own and operate.
00:07:05.190 –> 00:07:16.230 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Balsam Falls Brewing in Sylva where Corey has family roots that go back over 150 years he and Laurie are also well-known Community activists in Jackson county.
00:07:16.500 –> 00:07:23.100 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: and take pride in making their homes there Hello Corey how are you doing
Corey Bryson: I’m doing good today.
00:07:23.760 –> 00:07:39.030 Joseph McElroy: yeah so, you didn’t grow up here, but your family right?
Corey Bryson: that’s correct my dad went off to college, I went to nc state when in the navy, and I was actually born in California I grew up all over the southeast but every summer I spent in these mountains, with my grandparents,
00:07:40.380 –> 00:07:46.800 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: that’s fabulous you know that’s exactly what I do my son Ethan, he then has down 30 is that.
00:07:47.370 –> 00:07:57.660 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: You know I left and went out to New York and different places, but I made sure he did come back every summer right, and I think it’s important to touch base with your cultural.
00:07:58.350 –> 00:08:08.940 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: roots that way, because both of us, you know how hundreds of years of cultural Beijing here so it’s great that you come back so you’ve lived a lot of places that you ended up in Florida right, I did.
00:08:09.750 –> 00:08:24.480 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We moved to Florida in 2000 mm-hmm and lived there until 2016 school and you have an information technology background, yes, so where did you go to school uh.
00:08:25.020 –> 00:08:34.860 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I have an associate’s degree in electronics actually from a school that was in Louisville Kentucky I don’t think it’s around anymore at rest electronics Institute.
00:08:36.210 –> 00:08:37.320 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I went into.
00:08:39.330 –> 00:08:47.580 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: That a few different things, one of the things I did was I was a broadcast engineer for a TV station that’s good rock and then I went into IT and I.
00:08:48.360 –> 00:08:58.530 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: worked in that pretty much up until we open the business and I’ve worked in it, some recently cool since then, but, but you know my son was when he.
00:08:59.190 –> 00:09:03.120 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: When he left his school went to school is gonna be a marine biologist right.
00:09:03.810 –> 00:09:14.580 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And then he went to when we too and he discovered that they had this wonderful kinetic science degree, which was learning about how the body, in the end, up getting interested in powerlifting.
00:09:15.180 –> 00:09:29.910 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Oh, and so he’s been doing, like powerlifting for 10 years plus I had he got a wellness position with a corporation and stuff but now recently he’s told me he’s going to be IT, and you know, I have some IT background in my past so.
00:09:31.020 –> 00:09:37.470 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: that’s pretty cool you know it’s a good business to be in but sometimes it’s not as fun, as it could be.
00:09:40.620 –> 00:09:42.660 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Sometimes you find a hobby that.
00:09:44.100 –> 00:09:51.570 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: You just can’t shake the and in my life, I’ve been called a collector of hobbies so I take up one hobby and.
00:09:52.650 –> 00:09:55.830 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: work and work and I get tired of it go on to something else.
00:09:57.270 –> 00:10:01.860 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But when I took up brewing it just stuck oh really and it.
00:10:03.060 –> 00:10:04.140 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: took over a good party.
00:10:05.670 –> 00:10:10.950 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And I said well if I’m this interested in it if they can keep my attention for more than three months.
00:10:11.850 –> 00:10:28.530 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And then, more than a year, more than two years, more than five years, maybe there’s something here that I can work so so so you started yeah that’s an interesting thing started as a hobby, what is your hobby before for what was an example of a hobby.
00:10:30.030 –> 00:10:32.280 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: wow you name it.
00:10:34.440 –> 00:10:36.810 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Gaming, yeah I was a gamer for.
00:10:38.310 –> 00:10:52.650 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I built computers, I was a photographer in geography, for a while did a lot of digital photography did some weddings and things like what do you see this artwork here, I consider that a hobby vote an avocation instead of a vocation right.
00:10:53.760 –> 00:11:09.240 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So I’m so used to your hobby becoming a reality in Tampa Florida, right now, and you know as you and you started getting a reputation for it there right yeah when I first got interested in brewing.
00:11:11.490 –> 00:11:15.990 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We joined a local homebrew club branded bootleggers homebrew club.
00:11:17.280 –> 00:11:18.510 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: They had.
00:11:20.070 –> 00:11:25.620 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: monthly meetings and they had a lot of great people there that brewed beer and.
00:11:27.360 –> 00:11:39.180 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: learned a lot from them together separately as kind of a side project of the club was a competition team and we get together once a month and judge.
00:11:40.320 –> 00:11:43.530 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: several different beers they could be craft beers could be homebrew.
00:11:44.640 –> 00:11:51.540 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And we would go through your standard judge judging score sheet and that helped.
00:11:55.440 –> 00:12:03.810 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: A calibrates my palate to what it should be, and to know what I’m tasting and why it’s there, or why it shouldn’t be there.
00:12:04.350 –> 00:12:19.860 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And that really got me interested in judging beer and that’s how I moved on it well, I mean it’s probably very complex but is there some things that you can tell people to how to judge appears good Those are some of the simple measures that you could yeah well.
00:12:21.270 –> 00:12:28.470 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: As a beer just saying is, you have to judge a beer based on style hmm if it doesn’t fit into a soft category.
00:12:29.760 –> 00:12:37.980 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Then the question becomes does it taste good does it taste like it’s well balanced, is this a beer, that you can drink and enjoy.
00:12:39.990 –> 00:12:55.530 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Maybe one another one, or if it’s a fear that you drink and you’re not sure about and not sure you want another one well that’s that’s your own personal preference and taste and that’s, the most important thing and repin drinking beer is drinking beer that you like.
00:12:56.820 –> 00:13:00.570 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: that you enjoy, so the other day, if you like, it just appropriately right.
00:13:02.760 –> 00:13:03.060 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But.
00:13:04.170 –> 00:13:09.570 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The thing is, is there’s like the gradation right yeah I mean there’s a big difference between judging a beer.
00:13:10.650 –> 00:13:22.590 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Based on very stringent style guidelines and drinking a beer just to enjoy, so we have to take a break and we’ll come back we’ll talk more about that and then how it evolved into a career.
00:15:39.330 –> 00:15:52.650 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: howdy this is Joseph Franklyn McElroy back with the gateway to the smokies podcast and my guest Corey Brysonso, Corey you are a Cicerone Certified Beer Server so tell me what that means.
00:15:53.880 –> 00:15:59.160 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Well, the cicerone program is equivalent to a sommelier and wine.
00:16:00.480 –> 00:16:02.640 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And that is the entry-level.
00:16:04.080 –> 00:16:13.170 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: it’s something that we encourage our staff to go through to take that certification so that they have a better.
00:16:14.250 –> 00:16:27.000 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Based on beer knowledge so it’s really an entry-level certification when my wife and I decided to start this business, we said well at the very least we should have that for ourselves.
00:16:27.540 –> 00:16:33.900 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: know what it takes to pass it and encourage our staff to be the same, and how long does it usually take to get one of those um.
00:16:35.160 –> 00:16:36.270 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: i’d say.
00:16:37.290 –> 00:16:40.980 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: depending on who you are and your knowledge and how well you study.
00:16:42.420 –> 00:16:50.370 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Probably about six weeks, and you can get the information down and then, once higher than that what’s the word to hire, then you become.
00:16:51.390 –> 00:17:06.060 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: A that’s the Level one, I guess, and then you become a certified cicerone, I see, which that is equivalent to a base or first-level sommelier as well in beer so as soon as big as it.
00:17:06.990 –> 00:17:20.040 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Is it’s not as well known as a sommelier yeah right well trying to become that well-known that I, it is, but it’s all it’s very becoming very well respected in the industry.
00:17:20.550 –> 00:17:30.090 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Because sommelier wine is is always promoted as being the high culture thing and.
00:17:30.660 –> 00:17:47.610 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: What many people don’t realize is a beer has such a deep deep history, and we have hundreds of classic styles that are out in what makes one different from the other that’s what an expert in beer would know.
00:17:48.480 –> 00:17:59.430 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Whereas an expert in wine can tell you the difference between different grapes, and things like that well you’re basically using all the same ingredients.
00:18:00.630 –> 00:18:10.230 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: You know your Maltese your mouth your hops are your hops all their different types of POPs and there are different types of malts depending on how highly they’re killed.
00:18:11.250 –> 00:18:23.700 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: That determines how dark the Maltese and like hell, the darker beer becomes but so wow and what I don’t want to introduce Bob what is cicerone mean?
00:18:26.580 –> 00:18:38.100 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Honestly, I’ve seen the definition of it before, but I don’t recall, is it a name or a that’s interesting it almost sounds like a classic character for some literature.
00:18:39.330 –> 00:19:03.210 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: yeah oh Shakespeare okay cool alright that was Mike our engineering, the background you give us an insight, yeah so so you came here to you start did you start your beer business in Tampa or you know, I was very involved in the Tampa Bay craft beer scene hmm along with my homebrew club.
00:19:04.800 –> 00:19:15.570 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: in Florida, huggers could bring their creations to beer festivals and serve there, so our homebrew club was invited to a number of the.
00:19:16.440 –> 00:19:30.780 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The beer festivals that Tampa Bay had, and so we met a lot of the brewers there, the Community is very open and very engaged in that craft beer scene, so we became very involved with that.
00:19:32.280 –> 00:19:39.510 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: wife who’s not here with us was the Co-organizer of the bay area of charlie’s angels, which was a women’s.
00:19:42.480 –> 00:19:43.470 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: women’s I agree.
00:19:45.180 –> 00:20:02.070 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: it’s a national or probably international women’s craft beer organization right, and they would go around and visit breweries and talk to brewery wraps, and so we just kind of became embedded in that that culture in Tampa.
00:20:03.330 –> 00:20:09.690 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: It wasn’t until we had a couple of guys from our homework for a club who decided to open a brewery in Tampa.
00:20:10.890 –> 00:20:19.890 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: That we thought well that’s kind of interesting because we have been wanting to move back move here just Silva and to Western North Carolina.
00:20:21.210 –> 00:20:27.090 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But weren’t sure how we were going to make it happen hmm so we were looking for a way to make it happen and.
00:20:27.840 –> 00:20:37.200 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: After seeing these two guys one was a banker, the other was an auto body mechanic and they got together and got some investors and open a brewery.
00:20:37.650 –> 00:20:48.960 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And were very successful and we thought huh huh that that might be a possibility, so we’ve talked to them, they shared their business plan with us, we worked on it for about three years and.
00:20:50.670 –> 00:20:54.360 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Finally, came to the point where we needed to.
00:20:56.310 –> 00:21:07.530 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: make it happen so we got the shoulder house in Tampa quit our jobs moved up here and started working to make it happen, so why did you decide to do it and so.
00:21:10.320 –> 00:21:11.970 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: i’ve always loved Western Carolina.
00:21:13.620 –> 00:21:16.290 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I didn’t grow up here, but I spent every summer here.
00:21:17.970 –> 00:21:25.860 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I’ve always loved it it always felt like home because I moved around a lot as a kid I lived all over the southeast and.
00:21:27.450 –> 00:21:31.650 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: These mountains have always felt like home to me and I wanted to be here.
00:21:33.180 –> 00:21:44.340 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So when we started looking we were looking at Jackson county was sold as Anna Haywood county we looked in Waynesville in canton as well when we’re looking for locations.
00:21:44.820 –> 00:21:59.340 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And finally decided on so well, so it was a lovely little town is a great place for you already had a couple of breweries there, and one of them died right, I actually had two of them that went out of business, there were three breweries and Silva when we.
00:22:00.450 –> 00:22:04.830 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Finally, made the decision that someone was going to be our home the home for the brewery.
00:22:06.330 –> 00:22:11.190 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And we were a little bit concerned with three breweries already in a very small town.
00:22:13.230 –> 00:22:28.620 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But we knew that we could make it happen so we wow so I mean I mean when you smarting small businesses is tough, it is, and you come into the town of three breweries, how did you succeed, how to do stay in existence um.
00:22:29.430 –> 00:22:38.820 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Well, one month before we open one of the breweries closed, and it was unfortunate because I knew the owner really well and liked him.
00:22:40.740 –> 00:22:52.080 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And even talked to him about petitioner because potentially doing a joint venture, and you know, having us come in and maybe work with him and make that brewery into what it could be.
00:22:53.370 –> 00:22:56.400 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But that didn’t work out so he ended up closing.
00:22:57.600 –> 00:22:59.550 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And then, once we had open.
00:23:04.710 –> 00:23:10.110 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: It was a lot about the feeling and the audience um our location.
00:23:11.280 –> 00:23:23.010 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We wanted to be warm and friendly and family-friendly and inviting the place that you can come into and if you’re a regular everybody knows your name, you know.
00:23:23.520 –> 00:23:38.190 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: kind of the cheers mentality and that’s what we did so from day one, the focus was to take care of our customers to be there for our customers to make them feel wanted and welcome and.
00:23:39.060 –> 00:23:49.020 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: not be these the industrial brewery where you know you want to be a here to here and then nobody talks to you and they’re they’re too busy to.
00:23:49.410 –> 00:23:56.730 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: To even give you the time of day, so hospitality is an important right, not just the brewery it’s hospitality as well, so that the right cool.
00:23:57.150 –> 00:24:02.850 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So named balsam falls right yes there’s a beautiful waterfall near there also falls.
00:24:03.270 –> 00:24:16.170 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And is it is, and I know waters, important for all making of beer, wine, whatever is that is that reason why he named it Boston false um no actually when we came up with the name balsam falls there wasn’t a Boston fall so really.
00:24:17.700 –> 00:24:24.000 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: searched and searched we did up the whole trademark search we’ve seen too many of our friends in the brewing industry.
00:24:24.690 –> 00:24:36.900 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Get hammered with $100,000 worth of legal bills because someone wanted to challenge them on their name so before we even moved up here, we started the trademark process on that name.
00:24:38.910 –> 00:24:57.030 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But the name came from two things number one in the early 70s and Silva, there was an active waterfall and it was the only municipality in the country that had an active waterfall within the city limits when they put the great smoky mountain expressway through.
00:24:58.080 –> 00:25:11.820 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: They diverted the waterfall and it was called bills false we actually have a picture of it on the front of our bar so we wanted to pay homage to that and we also wanted to have a name that really evoked.
00:25:13.830 –> 00:25:23.400 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Our locality, and you know we’ve got the plot balsam mountain range that runs right between where we are here and soma and.
00:25:24.540 –> 00:25:34.200 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: balsam was was something that just kept coming up and balsam just felt like the smoky mountains and move the plot ball so mountain ranges top by.
00:25:35.400 –> 00:25:38.760 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: By balsam trees you’ve got he balsam and she bosses.
00:25:40.830 –> 00:25:43.260 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: You got the spruce trees and the poetry so.
00:25:45.090 –> 00:25:49.920 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Those things really spoke to us and we wanted to evoke them.
00:25:51.210 –> 00:26:01.740 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: a feeling of this area and at some point later on someone I don’t know if they just named this fall’s balsam falls and put it on the Internet, but we spent a lot of but i’m sure.
00:26:02.280 –> 00:26:10.710 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: There wasn’t a balsam fall just to make sure we got our trademark that was fabulous, so there is a lot of breweries in this area right there.
00:26:12.330 –> 00:26:28.620 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So I mean hospitality you’ve already mentioned, is there any other competitive advantages that you’ve created for your beer and your brewery well, there are a few things, one of the things that that we saw that we really wanted to do is we wanted to.
00:26:29.760 –> 00:26:37.200 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: create a place where people who are new to craft beer could come and learn about what makes craft beer craft beer.
00:26:38.280 –> 00:26:41.790 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We wanted to serve that craft beer in real beer glasses.
00:26:43.230 –> 00:26:52.890 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Most breweries that you go to their content with putting their beer in your standard cocktail check your glasses right.
00:26:54.900 –> 00:26:58.890 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: As part of our sister and certified beer server.
00:27:00.090 –> 00:27:13.740 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Something that I knew long before that but was that a real beer glass should have cursed and that’s why our hashtag is your curves are better is because, not because I’m fat, but because.
00:27:15.090 –> 00:27:20.820 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The curves in those glasses have a purpose So these are three glasses, I, unfortunately.
00:27:21.900 –> 00:27:23.130 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: will be my first choice.
00:27:24.720 –> 00:27:42.150 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But we’re doing it for perpetrated about four yeah that’s fine but yeah if you go to Europe every beer has its own glass where you don’t order a beer in Europe and get it in a shaker glass know those glasses.
00:27:43.560 –> 00:27:56.880 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Get on my soapbox but yeah those glasses were designed to shake cocktails and they were cheap, they were like you know they’re like 50 cents apiece you can drop them on the floor, they don’t break so in the 80s.
00:27:57.540 –> 00:28:06.780 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: A name big industrial beer company decided to put their logo on the side of these glasses, give them away to bars and say here for beer in that glass.
00:28:07.230 –> 00:28:16.710 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: It was never meant to be a beer glass real beer glasses have curves those curves have a purpose when it curves in that helps retain the head and retain the aroma.
00:28:17.160 –> 00:28:27.480 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The curve out at the lip of the glass let’s help missing that helps her role on your tongue so cool, we have to take a break now and we’re going to talk more about your brewery when we get back.
00:30:35.700 –> 00:30:43.440 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: howdy this is Joseph Franklyn McElroy back with the gateway to the smokies podcasts and my guest Corey Bryson so Corey.
00:30:44.820 –> 00:30:51.600 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I interrupted you because we had to go to break to talk about glass glassware, and I thought was pretty interesting, can you tell us a little bit more about that.
00:30:52.950 –> 00:31:00.060 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Well let’s put it this way, if you’ve got a good beer glass at home, you can do an experiment for yourself.
00:31:00.750 –> 00:31:14.130 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Take one of the shaker pint glasses and take a real beer glass that has the curves like I’m talking about and put your favorite beer in each glass and then takes a SIP out of each one and see.
00:31:14.520 –> 00:31:21.780 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Or take two sips out of each one of these want to acclimate your power take two steps out of each one and see if you notice the difference.
00:31:22.740 –> 00:31:31.650 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We were planning our glassware, for the brewery we did exactly that we order samples of a bunch of glassware from the company, we were going with.
00:31:32.220 –> 00:31:45.690 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And we sat down and we had we did in sets of four, we had a shaker glass as our control, and then we had three other beer glasses and we put the same beer and each one tasted each one.
00:31:46.230 –> 00:31:59.250 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: to determine which one we thought accentuated that beer, the best we ended up choosing two glasses, one for our ipas one for our standard pilots since then we’ve added.
00:31:59.910 –> 00:32:04.140 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: balloon glasses Belgian style beer glasses for smaller pores.
00:32:04.560 –> 00:32:16.290 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And things like that, but well so that’s very much like a brandy snifter right there, yes it’s like you can tell the major difference in brandy, I mean you can get the experience of brandy without the right cool.
00:32:16.710 –> 00:32:27.570 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I didn’t even know that that that that the beer had that sort of thing and I didn’t drink it all the time, yeah well, I mean you gotta realize our sense of taste.
00:32:27.900 –> 00:32:38.550 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Is not really our sense of taste it’s mostly our sense of smell good so if you’re not getting the aromas from that beer that you’re supposed to get that the brewer intended you to get.
00:32:39.090 –> 00:32:46.530 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And you’re missing out on half the experience so when you created your your your business.
00:32:47.460 –> 00:32:59.040 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And it’s not dissimilar to what we’re doing is we create some called the heritage club you created something called founders club and help you build that what was the founders club uh well, it was something that is now closed.
00:33:00.570 –> 00:33:01.560 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: First opening.
00:33:02.610 –> 00:33:09.270 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We needed to get a lot of work done so we needed painting mud drywall and.
00:33:10.350 –> 00:33:12.750 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Do all kinds of trim work and things like that.
00:33:13.890 –> 00:33:17.400 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So we put it out to our friends and family and things like that.
00:33:18.750 –> 00:33:21.240 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: hey if you want to become a founder here’s what you do.
00:33:22.350 –> 00:33:26.490 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Give us 25 hours of work while we’re trying to get this business open.
00:33:28.590 –> 00:33:47.640 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: in exchange will give you a T-shirt that unique T-shirt that says founders club on it you’re the only one that will ever have one of those and will also give you some other discounts it so it wasn’t like a sort of a gofundme with for labor yeah we got that idea from.
00:33:48.660 –> 00:33:54.630 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: brewery in the Tampa Bay area that opened did something very similar and it worked well for you.
00:33:55.020 –> 00:34:01.770 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: It worked really well for us, we got the painting done we made some great friends, I mean even more loyal customer you know yeah I mean.
00:34:02.190 –> 00:34:12.060 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The idea was okay we’re getting the Labor sure, but we’re also creating our cheerleaders because hopefully.
00:34:12.690 –> 00:34:20.460 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: and probably about half the people that that finished becoming complete founders are now regular customers are so.
00:34:21.300 –> 00:34:34.260 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: yeah we give them free stuff but they come in all the time they bring their friends and their friends of ours, so I mean these people are we’ve known him for over four and a half years at this point and.
00:34:35.850 –> 00:34:42.030 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: they’re like family well you know it’s interesting you know I have this motels you know, been around since the 50s.
00:34:42.810 –> 00:34:49.170 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And there are people who come here, and I say there they were here for their honeymoons 60 so we’re talking about heritage club and one thing we’re doing.
00:34:49.440 –> 00:34:57.360 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: This character event, but I am thinking about you know rewarding these people like with a special status because listen to they.
00:34:58.170 –> 00:35:15.780 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: reported at all the years right, but I think I I like about you, you know we’re a three-star pine three find three pine hotel-motel where I think we’re the only three fine west of actual right which is a state designation of sustainability okay all right.
00:35:16.860 –> 00:35:32.190 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And I know you’re active that you’re active in environmental issues right, yes, so how does that become part of your business well brewers use a lot of water and they generates a lot of waste.
00:35:33.540 –> 00:35:37.710 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: it’s forcing you to have to figure out is how are you going to get rid of some of that waste.
00:35:39.000 –> 00:35:56.430 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Spent grain after it’s gone through the matching process it still has some nutritional value, so we connected with a local farmer who comes by on brew days and drops off drums we fill them up with spent grain he takes him back and feeds some to his.
00:35:57.660 –> 00:36:03.000 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: His holiday mostly I believe so wow, and that makes them in probably like that.
00:36:05.940 –> 00:36:24.030 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: collects a lot so you’re nano brewing operations is a nano brewing is generally considered under three barrels per batch production we’re actually a one-barrel brewery so.
00:36:25.110 –> 00:36:35.190 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Once we complete a cycle of brewing we expect to get about 31 gallons of beer out on the back end I see now is that a licensed sort of a.
00:36:35.820 –> 00:36:43.560 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Difference the difference, I know there’s not a licensing differentiation it’s really just a matter of production so.
00:36:44.160 –> 00:36:54.300 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I mean, I used to work with breweries of New York and I knew that a microbrewery you know, had certain limitations, but it also got the benefits certain things just to be in a brewer.
00:36:54.750 –> 00:37:10.740 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: wider right, I know the bill is a something you have to get an MRI designation in North Carolina, no, no, you do not you just have to once you have your federal version of this you go to the State and get it set up to them, but it’s not.
00:37:12.540 –> 00:37:13.920 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: there’s not any type of.
00:37:15.300 –> 00:37:22.830 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: a level that you have to stay with it now are most breweries in North Carolina know, though, I would say not.
00:37:23.910 –> 00:37:29.430 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I’ve met a few other nano breweries most breweries that are starting up no better.
00:37:32.340 –> 00:37:35.310 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Because manufacturing is very Labor intensive.
00:37:36.570 –> 00:37:44.670 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: You know, most of the time we’re not bringing one barrel of beer, we were double batching in an 11 hour day we’re in two barrels and putting that in the perimeter.
00:37:45.750 –> 00:37:53.070 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And we will do that two times three times, sometimes four times a week, depending on the demand at that point so.
00:37:53.700 –> 00:38:01.500 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Now most breweries I don’t know most, but I would say my experience of a lot of breweries is they don’t actually build a restaurant.
00:38:02.400 –> 00:38:13.350 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: right they get a food truck come in if they do anything right, and so you actually have done the work of bringing in a restaurant that’s expensive why uh well a couple of reasons, when we.
00:38:14.490 –> 00:38:15.240 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: First, opened.
00:38:16.350 –> 00:38:24.900 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Our thoughts were to do exactly that bringing a food truck and we talked to the town, a couple of times and.
00:38:26.100 –> 00:38:31.290 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: didn’t really get very far with them about giving us a parking spot for a food truck.
00:38:32.430 –> 00:38:45.390 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Just in the evenings and weekends and things like that it was we couldn’t gain traction on that right so within the first couple of months we knew that we needed food on-site and we tried other things as well we.
00:38:46.860 –> 00:38:50.610 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: could have done catering yeah we did catering a couple of times.
00:38:51.750 –> 00:39:01.290 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We actually set up special deals with a few other restaurants in the area to deliver straight to our souls and in fact one of the businesses.
00:39:02.220 –> 00:39:12.900 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: They had did not have a delivery service at all at that time, but they would deliver to us and you know how they’ve got a huge delivery business, so I really help them out.
00:39:13.500 –> 00:39:21.360 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But we just realized early on that it just wasn’t going to work, so we started fairly early working on getting food there on site.
00:39:22.650 –> 00:39:31.980 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: To get a chef how did you create well initially we had we built out the kitchen and we had a tenant in that space.
00:39:33.840 –> 00:39:36.150 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: That we opened in August,2019 with.
00:39:37.200 –> 00:39:52.500 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: With that, then of course coven shutdown march 2020 when we were able to reopen in June of 2020 the lease was almost up and we decided to part ways with our tenant.
00:39:53.010 –> 00:40:09.270 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: and take over that space entirely at that point we didn’t hire an executive chef to help us put in the right equipment plan our menu and get us where we needed to be and what kind of food, did you have no we have.
00:40:10.920 –> 00:40:21.750 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Of course burgers, we have flatbreads we have wings, we have a variety of sandwiches Cuban we love spicy chicken sandwich.
00:40:23.250 –> 00:40:32.910 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And you’re all day right yes also breakfast lunch and dinner not breakfast breakfast breakfast isn’t really beer time oh yeah well yeah but yeah we open at 11.
00:40:33.660 –> 00:40:41.730 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: starts everyone’s cool you know there’s a restaurant in New York City it’s a French restaurant started in France and as part of my winery.
00:40:42.630 –> 00:40:48.960 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Right there’s an interesting story about it can’t be replicated right, but what they did is they had to.
00:40:49.380 –> 00:40:55.740 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: yeah they needed if people really wanted to have food whether drinking wine right, so they created one dish.
00:40:56.130 –> 00:41:04.170 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And they get some of you to create one dish which a steak with this with the steak and the special sauce and in free switch your Fries right.
00:41:04.650 –> 00:41:12.780 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: All the special sauce is so great that the food became this huge hit that people came from Moscow and, by the way, they drank wine to right.
00:41:13.440 –> 00:41:25.800 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And it became such a big thing they create just a restaurant that goes now in several places all over the world, all it said serves is this steak fruits with this special sauce and then you pick your wines and think he deserves.
00:41:28.440 –> 00:41:30.300 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Right it’s kind of interesting right.
00:41:31.920 –> 00:41:35.580 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So, can you tell us about the bruise the beers brew.
00:41:36.960 –> 00:41:46.260 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: uh well as we were talking earlier as a brewer I like a lot of different kinds of beer I’m not the same person will just drink one.
00:41:47.550 –> 00:41:53.220 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So we have a lot of variety in our brewery we have a total of 36 taps wow.
00:41:54.630 –> 00:41:59.670 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Two of those are taken up as guest taps one for white line one for porsecco.
00:42:02.460 –> 00:42:03.690 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: People like their muscles.
00:42:06.570 –> 00:42:13.020 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But the other 36 taps our goal is to keep beers and our other products on those.
00:42:14.760 –> 00:42:15.000 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Are.
00:42:17.250 –> 00:42:21.240 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: You never know what you’re going to find when you come in, you know, right now, what are your staples.
00:42:21.900 –> 00:42:37.320 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We have into the mess, which is our southern IPA what we call a southern, yeah we’ve got by the encounter, which is a double IPA we’ve got go West, which is a former West Coast-style IPA we’ve got at 87 eagle blonde
00:42:38.400 –> 00:42:44.910 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: The one year I did live here growing up with my senior year in high school graduated from several Webster and oh wow seven.
00:42:45.960 –> 00:42:58.080 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: wow and their mascot was the golden eagles so I was looking for a name for the one there you go at eight seven eagle blonde that’s one of our most popular we’ve got our salt rock with bonus defeat robust porter.
00:42:59.880 –> 00:43:11.190 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: let’s see we got a few others, but they rotate on and off the view here I mean you’re pretty young brewery wanting words yet and we have one a couple so far.
00:43:12.930 –> 00:43:14.370 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: There were some.
00:43:16.350 –> 00:43:18.240 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: competitions in asheville.
00:43:19.830 –> 00:43:25.170 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: done by Raven farms where they gave you ingredients for their farm and actually to brew with them.
00:43:26.280 –> 00:43:34.140 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: it’s fairly limited competition, it was limited to 10 breweries one year we came in second place in that year, we came in the first place so.
00:43:36.000 –> 00:43:45.150 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Now, do you do things like me filter hard cider yes, yes, we did that’s one of the things after coming out of covid.
00:43:45.720 –> 00:43:51.510 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Knowing that we needed to make some improvements to our business, we got our winery license so that we could reduce cider.
00:43:52.320 –> 00:44:07.080 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We so we started producing our own cider we also started producing our own self serve we’ve got a five and a half percent seltzer and an 11% seltzer wow are 11% seltzer is our answer to the fact we don’t have a liquor license.
00:44:08.280 –> 00:44:14.370 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And we can make mixed drinks with that, so you can mix it 11% seltzer down and still have.
00:44:15.570 –> 00:44:23.580 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Decent abv drink so cool all right well we’re going to take another break here and we’ll come back we’ll finish up with more information about what you’re doing and then.
00:44:24.720 –> 00:44:25.170 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: All right.
00:46:26.970 –> 00:46:37.410 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: howdy this is Joseph Franklyn McElroy back with a gateway to the smokies podcast my guest Corey Bryson so Corey I was talking about Plott, who is introduced us the other day.
00:46:38.010 –> 00:46:41.910 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And I was talking to you know, I was a beekeeper all right and.
00:46:42.720 –> 00:46:49.710 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And that was in the beekeeper in the Bronx right South Bronx know, so I hope they get the Community to be involved, they were the else.
00:46:49.980 –> 00:47:09.000 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: and actually it’s funny that the Church of stop shopping, which is a far less or the far left organization I’m not far left by any means, but they said because I was doing this in the South Bronx they made me a saint of their church stop shopping, so I have that accolade on my
00:47:10.110 –> 00:47:12.960 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Like that, I could ever run for office for somebody bring that up.
00:47:14.730 –> 00:47:22.770 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But the thing that was discussed with is that yeah I looked it up, and you can make like from one beehive you know.
00:47:23.970 –> 00:47:34.920 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Like 120 gallons of need, this is it something that you guys do is make me a yes, as a matter of fact, we with our winery license we can make me, we can make great line if we want to do.
00:47:35.850 –> 00:47:50.730 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And we actually just released, our first made last week very small scale only have a very, very limited quantity of it, but it is a 14.2% fortified wine man.
00:47:54.060 –> 00:47:54.540 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: legally.
00:47:56.160 –> 00:47:58.140 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But yeah it’s made with a.
00:47:59.280 –> 00:48:13.140 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: a bunch of honey and some nutrients for the East and just let them do their thing and it’s dry as a bone but still sweet from alcohol So where do you hope.
00:48:14.370 –> 00:48:15.390 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: This.
00:48:16.800 –> 00:48:23.700 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: kind of national honey supply or X to dispatch we do have some local a period so we’ve been talking to you.
00:48:24.930 –> 00:48:30.570 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I’ll be talking to you because when I put it behind in the south Bronx of the Waldorf Astoria so I started using my honey.
00:48:31.200 –> 00:48:44.760 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I can make good have you been oh yeah Father academies and I hope is over, with it, so I grew up here and doing honey and I learned how to do it from my grandfather my father was up there, I last had the benefit of being by the botanical gardens.
00:48:46.050 –> 00:48:50.700 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And I got some real while there was some interesting stuff there so anyway.
00:48:52.320 –> 00:49:06.660 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: it’s interesting so you’re always thinking of new products things to do right and things like that so what’s your future, what are you gonna be doing next uh well at the moment, we need to expand a little.
00:49:07.770 –> 00:49:16.860 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: As we discussed, I have a very small brewery house and need to expand that and also expand our kitchen, because our kitchen is very small, at the moment.
00:49:17.880 –> 00:49:22.110 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So we’re working on a plan to do that and.
00:49:23.760 –> 00:49:28.350 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: hoping to eventually have a second location were you thinking about having.
00:49:29.850 –> 00:49:33.150 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: we’re hoping for Haywood County so Maggie Valley
00:49:36.750 –> 00:49:47.880 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: yeah that’d be great yeah, we need, we need a brewery in Maggie Valley now the other distilleries and I wanna I want to have a craft beverage, though, that the festival grounds, you know festival.
00:49:48.630 –> 00:49:55.770 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: That would be cool right yeah I think that’d be good so yeah I use this podcast to like put you on the spot again.
00:49:59.010 –> 00:50:01.680 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: We can’t forget our friends at bear waters, they do have a.
00:50:02.400 –> 00:50:14.280 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Great they’re good down the street yeah we’re good for the good they have good food, I mean like you know yeah I love them I love they even have gluten-free pizza right now, but so they do a good job, but you know they.
00:50:15.270 –> 00:50:20.310 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: You know they’re they also you love business ready and during the winter was nobody else does because they’re new to the ski resort.
00:50:20.940 –> 00:50:27.570 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Right so but there’s room in this county for another brewery or two I think everybody’s still doing well it’s like.
00:50:27.900 –> 00:50:43.560 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So let’s move the pie bigger right exactly and that and as breweries come in everyone says well there’s got to be too many breweries now I mean you look at Asheville they’ve got I don’t even know I think they’re 25 breweries on South slope, and at this point.
00:50:45.600 –> 00:50:52.740 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: But people are still opening breweries so most of them are successful, I think it all comes down to.
00:50:53.940 –> 00:50:55.710 What your focus is on the business.
00:50:57.060 –> 00:51:11.670 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So what you’re instilling I know this is a travel show to somebody comes to a soda of food and beer at your place what else are they visiting so well, we do have the most photographed courthouse in North Carolina or they always said it was.
00:51:12.930 –> 00:51:19.290 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: A courthouse up on a hill actually not a courthouse anymore, now the library right so that’s beautiful.
00:51:22.020 –> 00:51:34.500 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: opportunity to take pictures and things we’ve got pinnacle mountain, which is a nice hike that people can go on there’s lots of waterfalls and other places to hide their lakes.
00:51:35.970 –> 00:51:39.480 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: And there’s somebody who sits you know certain records will be a good place to go get breakfast.
00:51:40.530 –> 00:51:43.980 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Oh let’s see well if you’re just looking for.
00:51:45.570 –> 00:51:53.550 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: or just some your regular greasy spoon there’s a coffee shop and that one if you’re looking for something a little bit.
00:51:54.570 –> 00:52:02.910 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: little bit higher class, we do have the white linen cafes and downtown also city lights CAFE they both serve breakfast.
00:52:05.010 –> 00:52:07.320 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: they’re probably a few other places, I think.
00:52:09.030 –> 00:52:27.120 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: there are some new places that I haven’t necessarily been to yet cool and then I mean you serve lunch and dinner but yeah somebody asked you to twice on the same day, so why, but where would be the other place that they would he’d love to um.
00:52:28.920 –> 00:52:39.720 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: lose down the street they’re a really nice sit-down restaurant and we’ve got elders which are kind of they call it a cross between Italian and southern food.
00:52:40.800 –> 00:52:41.730 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: it’s really good.
00:52:45.450 –> 00:52:53.670 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: we have your standard Mexican restaurants and everything Guadalupe Guadalupe yeah that’s a popular place cool.
00:52:54.360 –> 00:53:02.370 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So how can people find out more about you, your hours of operation that sort of thing Oh well, Monday through Friday we’re open 11 to 10.
00:53:03.120 –> 00:53:20.880 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Saturdays and Sundays, we do open early at 10 am for brunch and close again at 10 pm they can find out more about us on Facebook or Instagram awesome false brewing also Boston Paul spring.com cool, I have a to-do you have any.
00:53:21.900 –> 00:53:29.100 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Any social media that you are talking about out there, you know, promoting things like that they follow you or your wife.
00:53:30.510 –> 00:53:33.450 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I don’t do a whole lot I mean you should do to talk at least.
00:53:36.870 –> 00:53:43.860 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: shows how to cook some sub say my life just started doing Instagram and she’s all right, she was telling me the other day how many followers she has.
00:53:45.330 –> 00:53:47.310 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: what’s her Instagram I know.
00:53:52.140 –> 00:53:52.980 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: she’s probably listening.
00:53:54.690 –> 00:53:59.010 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: pull up a fun earlier and went to go to our Instagram for balsam falls when I’m like.
00:53:59.760 –> 00:54:06.960 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: huh they change the password on didn’t make sense yeah even have a personal Instagram account so yeah well that’s all right.
00:54:07.470 –> 00:54:20.700 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I think it’d be great to have you on the show, I really appreciate it great to be here yeah it’s been good to find out about this, I love the brewery scene in North Carolina I’d love to see it, even more, Maggie Valley love their water being here, but even more.
00:54:21.960 –> 00:54:41.460 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: So I encourage you to look at Maggie valley opportunities and I think it’d be great So this is the gateway to the smokies podcast you can find out more about us@facebook.com/gatewaytothe smokiespodcast we also.
00:54:43.290 –> 00:54:52.470 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Are we actually have all our videos on smokiesadventure.com you can go there and you’ll see the link at the top of the smokiesadventures, and we have.
00:54:52.830 –> 00:55:07.590 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Not only the shows but we have transcripts so you can read it and find things that you want to do and other information and newsletter you can sign up for this podcast is on talkradio.nyc network it broadcast person to New York City.
00:55:08.790 –> 00:55:20.790 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: and other you know other places it’s a live network of lots of podcasts arranging for small business to other travel shows to self-help to you know to.
00:55:21.600 –> 00:55:30.150 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: To cats and dogs anything, a lot of different things it’s seven days a week, you know many hours out of the day, so go to talkradio.nyc.
00:55:30.510 –> 00:55:39.600 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: To look for shows that you might find interesting I love the live show format because you find out, they have a very vital experience.
00:55:40.020 –> 00:55:53.790 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: I also run another podcast on this network called wise content creates wealth, I will help people understand how to use content marketing SEO to build a business, which is something I’m doing for the businesses I’m doing.
00:55:54.960 –> 00:56:03.780 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: Which is the Meadowlark motel it’s a very successful approach and I’m sharing the information I learned on how to do that.
00:56:04.440 –> 00:56:18.990 Joseph McElroy & Corey Bryson: There and that’s on Fridays from noon until one so, but this podcast gateway to the smokies is on Tuesdays from six to seven, I look forward to being here next week, and having you join us to listen to the next grade expert from the smoky mountains, thank you very much.
