Ep. 13: Jimmy Mauric – Brewmaster Emeritus, Shiner Beer

Jimmy: You know, when I'm standing next to a damn live goat and I'm talking about brewing, you know, it got, man, this thing is getting out of hand here. But again, it was, it was fun. I get a lot of, you know, the employees a lot of times with me. So, and it make them feel special. And, you know, they were part of it and which they were. And so, yeah, it was, it got to a point where they got very, very popular. I, you know, wherever I travel, it seemed like I'd be in the elevator and I always have wearing my Shiner stuff. You know, I got a Shiner beer cap and a Shiner beer shirt on and people would see the Shiner beer shirt and then they would put the face and they go, you're that guy in those Shiner commercials, aren't you?

Tarek: Welcome to Y'all Street. Today, I speak with Jimmy Mauric, the newly retired brewmaster of Shiner beers. Jimmy, like a cup of coffee?

Jimmy: Sure.

Tarek: I got you this special coffee cup. Might be beer. You'll, they'll never know. Whoever's watching will never know. Do we have beer or do we have coffee in here? Cheers. Coffee. Cheers.

Jimmy: Cheers. I'll never tell.

Tarek: So how's retirement?

Jimmy: I'll tell you what, it's been fast and furious and, you know, it's coming on.

Tarek: Wait a second. Fast and furious retirement?

Jimmy: Yes. It seemed like, you know, you seem like you never have enough time, so you can't wait to retire. And I found out I still don't have enough time. It seemed like I'm always doing something busy.

Tarek: What are you doing?

Jimmy: I mean, you know, I do a lot of Vegas too. I got, you know, I think that's my second job, you know, and, you know.

Tarek: What do you do in Vegas? You play cards?

Jimmy: I love to play video poker.

Tarek: Really?

Jimmy: Yeah. The odds are the best on video poker. I do play some, you know, some table games and stuff like that too. A few slot machines, but I learned how to play, expert play on the video poker. So I got quite good at it. So my wife plays it and we don't win a lot of money, but we don't lose a lot of money either. So it keeps us playing.

Tarek: That's great. That's great. So you, when did you retire? Last year?

Jimmy: Yes.

Tarek: Last year.

Jimmy: 2024 in June.

Tarek: And it was 54 years?

Jimmy: 46.

Tarek: 46 years. Okay. 46 years at Shiner Brewery.

Jimmy: Yep. I was there since I was 17 years old.

Tarek: Oh my goodness.

Jimmy: Yeah. Right out of high school. I went to work there.

Tarek: What was Shiner like in the 1970s?

Jimmy: I mean, Shiner growing up here was fantastic. You know, I was fortunate to go to both high schools. So I went to St. Paul High School my freshman year and then went over to Shiner High School. So I knew all the graduating class of 78, you know, both sides. And again, to this day, I still get invited to both class reunions, even though I didn't graduate from St. Paul, but still I grew up with those people.

Tarek: So Shiner, town of 2,000 people, South Texas, about an hour South of Austin, a little over an hour South of Austin, and stuck between San Antonio and Houston. So we're like at the bottom end of that triangle. And we say we're in the middle of nowhere and the middle of everywhere at the same time.

Jimmy: Yep. I always like to say we're in the middle of nowhere. We're in the middle of a pasture.

Tarek: That's right. Lavaca County actually means the cow. So Shiner Brewery and Shiner Beer is sort of a Texas institution. This is a Texas beer. It's national now, obviously. But what was the importance of Shiner Beer in the 1970s? I mean, was it still, you know, the name brand that it is today in Texas? Or what was it like?

Jimmy: I mean, you know, I grew up, you know, in a town where there was more bars than grocery stores, you know? I mean, there was bars everywhere in town. But again, in order to appreciate, you know, Shiner Beer and the brewery itself, you got to go back to the history of it. I mean, you know, we were founded in 1909. You know, we're, you know, 116 years old now. Again, a group of German, Czech immigrant farmers settled in this area. And they were, you know, farmers. And, you know, like I said, we didn't have a 7-Eleven every corner to go get a beer. So, and they had no beer. So, they had to make their own. So, they found it, Shiner Beer Association, and they started making beer. They weren't really that good at it and never really had a brewmaster at it. So, that's where Kosmos Spoetzl came in in 1915. And he had a nephew working here in Shiner. So, his nephew talked him into coming on down.

Tarek: So, that's where the- And the brewery's now named after him.

Jimmy: Yeah, K. Spoetzl Brewery. Kosmos Spoetzl. And so, that is where the name came from. He bought the brewery from the Brewery Association and became K. Spoetzl Brewery. And he owned it till his death in 1950, where his daughter took over. And she was the only proprietor's owner of a brewery in the United States at that time.

Tarek: So, the brewery that he had in the 1950s, again, was it just more of a local distribution or was he getting some state distribution at the time?

Jimmy: Yes. And again, he went through prohibition with the brewery. And that was a lean time for him. And where there's beer, there's refrigeration. And he had the ability to make ice. So, he was making ice during that prohibition. And he sold it to local convenience stores, to the local farmers to put in their wooden ice box. But also, he made near beer. And the story is he made- It was more near to beer than it was near beer, where you were supposed to actually take the beer after it's brewed and the alcohol is made. You put it back in the kettle and you boil it and vaporize the alcohol out of it. Well, he forgot that step a lot of times. And matter of fact, the law told him he forgot it one time. So, he got arrested for it. But you got to love it. He's our founder. But again, yes, he kept ice and beer. And that kept us through prohibition, where finally when prohibition ended, he could continue making his beer.

Tarek: Wow. And so, pick it back up, I guess then from the 1950s. So, from 1950 to 1970s, what was the situation like there?

Jimmy: Again, still a huge cotton farming community over here. If you look at one of our original labels, most people, the Shiner of Premium, it looks like a, they always call it a cloud, but it's actually a cotton ball. And that's the symbol of it. I mean, I know the original beer is many different. I'm kind of a little bit of a historian of the beer itself and collector of a lot of stuff. I have a bar that's, my man cave has a lot of neon signs, older signs, tap handles, labels and stuff. And there's these labels changed throughout the years. It was just Shiner Beer. It was Shiner Texas Special. It was back to Shiner Premium. And I mean, now we got a derivative that the brewery got it right now is Shiner Premium and Texas Special. So, they got both of them kind of out there. So, but he grew that one brand. It was really just a premium lager at that stage up into the late seventies.

Tarek: That was all he was making.

Jimmy: That's all he was making. And, you know, after he died in 1950s, you know, the, Miss Celie owned it into the sixties. And then there was a series of owners that owned it, just, you know, Archie Latchaw was one out of New Braunfels. He was kind of a long-term owner there for a while. And then a group out of Houston owned it. And then really the, I guess the guy that really put us on the map as far as Shiner was Carlos Alvarez. He bought us in 1989. He was the guy that introduced the first case of Corona to the United States. If you just realize how big Corona is right now and was, he had the whole United States.

Tarek: Wow.

Jimmy: He and his wife moved the first case in Austin, Texas, you know, them too. And he sold the western half of the United States to Barton Brands and still kept the eastern half. And still was selling a hundred million cases. So, that's where he made his name to fame and his money. And he loved breweries. And that's when he bought Shiner as his, you know, his own personal little pet project.

Tarek: And at that point you had been working at the brewery for how long?

Jimmy: So, I was there since 78. So, you know, it was, you know, a number of years, but we weren't doing very well. Like I say, with the group of owners we had that the last, before he bought it, was taking more money out than putting in. And we were producing about 39,000 cases, barely keeping the doors open. And I really don't know how long we would have been open in 1989 if Mr. Alvarez didn't buy it. So, I mean, you figure, you know, today, you know, in the sales, you know, doing over 500,000 barrels. So, he grew it up tremendously. And what he did, he had the distribution, he had the wholesalers, he had the sales and marketing.

Tarek: They all knew him. He had all the piping set up.

Jimmy: He knew what to do. He knew we had a great product. That's all he had to do was put it out there. And again, Shiner Bock didn't come into play until the late 70s. And what made Shiner Bock really so famous was in Austin, Texas. I mean, it was a beer that, you know, got started, you know, distributed there. And you know how Austin is, you know, they want to be different. And that Shiner Bock was different. When you put it on a pitcher full of that dark beer, foamy, frothy head on top, on the counter. And the first thing you thought it was a big, heavy German beer. But Shiner Bock is a very easy drinking, you know, dark American lager. So, when you drink it, you go, man, this thing isn't highly hopped. It's really easy to drink. So, these people really thought they were, you know, different by drinking this big dark beer. But it was very drinkable.

Tarek: The locals to this day don't drink Shiner Bock for the most part. They drink the Shiner Premium.

Jimmy: Yeah. It's everybody wants to, you know, they seem like when you go out of Shinerr, you know, you're almost forced to drink a Shiner Bock. You're going to go back to your heritage one way or another. But then again, most people say, well, you know what, Shiner Bock really is easy to drink, you know. But when I'm in Shiner, you do what the Shiner's do, you know, you drink Shiner Premium. Or now, Shiner Light Blonde, which is a very, very good light beer also.

Tarek: Mm-hmm. And so, you started at age 17. What were you doing at the brewery at 17?

Jimmy: Well, back then, we had no automation. Everything was by hand. I mean, very, very basic. And usually what I started out with was, you know, I was taking cases, empty bottles. These were returnable bottles. We had actually a bottle washer that, you know, you would get, you know, two cents a bottle, whatever. I mean, as a kid, I remember going picking up bottles. Yeah.

Tarek: That's how I used to buy candy back in the day, is returning cans and bottles.

Jimmy: Yeah, you would bring the deposit up there, and you would, you know, and then bottles would go back in the cases, come back to the brewery. So you had to take them out of the case and put them on a conveyor, and they fed into a machine where they washed them. So that was my first job, the most trivial thing you could possibly do. But through the years, you know, John Huebner was the brewmaster.

Tarek: I'm just curious, at that time, to be a bottle washer at the brewery, how much were you making per hour?

Jimmy: I mean, I think I started with $1.60 an hour.

Tarek: Wow.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. People want to talk about minimum wage now? Yeah. And, you know, you got to remember back in the, you know, I got married, you know, just a few years after, you know, I graduated. And, you know, we had a family right off the bat. And, you know, we raised a, you know, a child and bought a house with wages like that, you know.

Tarek: That's incredible.

Jimmy: You had to really make it stretch, but you had to do it.

Tarek: How much was your first house that you bought here in Shiner?

Jimmy: I think it was $22,500.

Tarek: Oh, my. And what year was that?

Jimmy: That was in, I think, 84, something like that.

Tarek: That is wild.

Jimmy: So, yeah, and it's right up the street where I grew up, you know, I was born and raised. And so, it's right up the street. So, then my parents passed. So, I actually bought the property from all my brothers and sisters, and I actually built a house where I grew up.

Tarek: Wow, that's neat.

Jimmy: And, you know, what, half a mile from the brewery, I can sit in my backyard. Meanwhile, I can smell the beer still being made.

Tarek: Oh, I mean, that was my experience when I first moved here. It was like, what is that smell? Why does it smell like beer? It's like, oh, my gosh, you know, it's the air is coming from the brewery. It's a wonderful smell. You know, we have a lot of people listening that live in the big cities and, you know, London, New York, Miami, LA. And just the idea or the experience of living in a small town of 2,000 people is such a foreign concept. And, you know, I travel back and forth here all the time. Obviously, I lived here for seven years. And it's pretty amazing. No matter where you go, you see friends, you see co-workers. It's like being on a small liberal arts college campus. You're seeing the same people everywhere. We went out to eat at Mary's last night, and we knew half of the people in the restaurant. And that relationship, you talk about this is where I was born. This is where I bought a house. This is where I raised my kids. This is where I spent my career. You know, at this point, you probably know pretty much everybody in town.

Jimmy: At one time, yes.

Tarek: Yeah, pretty remarkable. And it makes for a really unique culture because, you know, the people that you're living next to are also the people that you're going to church with. And they're the people that you're going to work with. And you're seeing them everywhere. They're just they become a part of your family, really.

Jimmy: Oh, yes. I mean, you go to every wedding here. It's like a it's a big family reunion. I mean, you see everybody that you see in town.

Tarek: Why don't you why don't you explain to people listening to this what a Shiner wedding actually is? Because it's so unlike any other wedding that that most people go to, you know, 100 guests on the invite list and wearing suits. And, you know, you go to some some special resort somewhere or, you know, after reception after church, .

Jimmy: 100 guests that just bridesmaid and groomsmen are out here, you know, I mean, you're talking 700 to 1000 people at these weddings I mean, again, the parents, they got to buy a lot of beer.

Tarek: Yeah.

Jimmy: I mean, that can be the most expensive part.

Tarek: And it's pretty relaxed. And the whole town's invited. For the most part. It's like, how do you live in a town with 2000 people? You know, every single person you're getting married, pretty much everybody's getting invited to the wedding.

Jimmy: Yeah. And that's what you go there for the food and the beer. Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a great, great time. I mean, again, there's the how the weddings have evolved, you know, from the old polka bands now to, you know, to, you know, little more country and Western bands to, you know, different, you know, music that they have now, but the old weddings used to be, you know, there used to be a lunch and a dinner and, you know, live, you know, polka bands, but wow. So now we got the DJs at the, you know, and at the at the weddings now, so you can play a little bit of everything.

Tarek: And so you started as the bottle washer. And, and then they saw they said, this is a guy with some talent. These bottles are the cleanest bottles we've ever seen. And then what happened?

Jimmy: I wish it was that easy. It was a little bit more hard work involved in that. Well, John Huebner was the brewmaster.

Tarek: And he was the brewmaster when you started.

Jimmy: He was the brewmaster when I started. I worked under John Huebner for 27 years. So you could say I interned for 27 years before I got the job. So yeah, I had a lot to learn. And, and with, with a small brewery, you know, back in that day, you know, we didn't have the technology didn't have the, you know, you know, all the technology that we, you know, they got there now. And we didn't have the money to do that. You know, we're, they were basically, like I said, we used to put things together with bailing wire. We bought a lot of used machinery at that time before Mr. Alvarez bought us. And that's where I came in with, with John was, I was pretty mechanical. So rebuilding machinery, rebuilding label machines. I would travel with him. The first time I ever got to go out of state was Detroit, Michigan. I'm going to take a, a soda water filler apart, and we're going to put it on our, on a, on a flatbed car. And we're going to bring it back to Shiner and we going to rebuild it, turn it into a, into a beer filler.

Tarek: Was, was that the first time you'd ever left Shiner or Texas?

Jimmy: That was the second time. I was, we drove once out, you know, when me and my wife, before, right before we got married, we went to New Mexico with my sister and brother-in-law. We drove up there.

Tarek: So you, to that point in your life, you'd only been to the next state over.

Jimmy: Yes.

Tarek: New Mexico and Texas. And so now, you know, you're with John driving up to Michigan.

Jimmy: Well, we actually flew there. That was the first time on a plane.

Tarek: So yeah.

Jimmy: But took that thing apart and we got it back here and turned it into a, a, a bottle filler and did another one. We went to St. Louis on time and took a pasteurizer apart, which is 40 foot long by 25 foot wide. Huge, huge machinery with a lot of hydraulics and put it out here in the Texas sun outside and rebuilt all hydraulics and drug it in with a John Deere tractor, you know.

Tarek: And, and that is, I mean, it's so typical of the, the people in Shiner are very mechanically oriented. I mean, like everybody, you know.

Jimmy: You can't handle wrenches, you're in deep, you know what.

Tarek: Yeah, exactly. And so how many total employees were at the brewery at this time?

Jimmy: We ran around 40 to 50 at that time.

Tarek: Okay. So still really small.

Jimmy: Very, very, very small. Yeah.

Tarek: Okay.

Jimmy: And you know, like I said, when Mr. Alvarez bought us, you know, he, a lot of technology, a lot of, a lot of new equipment. I've seen three bottle shops and in my time there and, you know, very state of the art equipment. We're not talking no bailing wire now. We're talking very, very sophisticated machinery all the way through the system, you know, in the cellars, you know, automated valves, brew house, new brew house. Just anything we needed, he supplied us. And so.

Tarek: So just so I understand the timeline. So, so you start in 78, you go through this kind of a rough period for the brewery in the eighties. You're traveling around, you're working on machineries. Mr. Alvarez buys the brewery in 89?

Jimmy: In 89.

Tarek: And does he immediately set to work?

Jimmy: Immediate.

Tarek: Okay.

Jimmy: Almost immediate. We actually got some tanks out of, out of Canada almost immediately. Cause he had a vision and he was going to grow it.

Tarek: And at this point, John Huebner was the brewmaster through this whole time from the seventies through the eighties into the nineties. And now you're working directly for him, but doing a bunch of different odd jobs. Okay.

Jimmy: So, yeah. And I, I did this a lot of their rebuilds and stuff and, and became assistant brewmaster under him in 1992. So I, you know, like I said, I came out here right out of high school. Didn't, didn't even get, wasn't even a thought about going to college that time I was going to work.

Tarek: Yeah. How many people went to college in like your graduating class? Was it a popular?

Jimmy: I mean, you know, it was, I would say probably maybe 30, 40%, but that's about it. First one into working for him.

Tarek: So I'm, I'm interested in, in, in this whole timeline and I'm getting into some of the details because just thinking about Kaspar Companies during the eighties exploded and had a thousand employees right across the street. And obviously Kaspar Companies is a holding company for, for my business, Texas Precious Metals. What was that like? You're, you're right across the street from Kaspar Companies and you know, they're doing it with the newspaper racks because the newspaper business was a big business at that time. And you guys are just kind of skating along.

Jimmy: I mean, that was at that time before Shiner exploded, you know, that was always you know, the talking point, you know, they asked, well, where's Shiner at? Well, have you ever seen a USA Today newspaper right? That was made in Shiner, Texas. So now, you know, finally the brewery got a piece of that, you know, you ever hear of Shiner Bock? So we finally had two talking points finally. Put us on the map.

Tarek: So, so all of this money's pouring in and now you have a really experienced, you know, beer distributor and how involved was he in, in day to day? Was, was he just providing the capital and letting the team run it? Do you have the belief in the team or was he providing some insight and oversight? What, what was his involvement?

Jimmy: Oh, he was involved in, in more than just supplying the, uh, the cash for, you know, to, uh, to grow us. He was really, uh, you know, involved in, in everything in decision-making, you know, uh, again, him and John, you know, made that decision to turn me into assistant brewmaster. That's where, again, at that time becoming a brewmaster was, you know, there wasn't a lot of colleges and stuff out there to, to, to become a brewmaster, to become, you know, accredited brewmaster. So there was one in, uh, in Chicago, Siebel's Institute of Brewing Technology. So they sent me there for, it was like a, a four-month period. I left the family, everything for four months, stayed in Chicago.

Tarek: So you, you, you didn't see your family at all for those four months?

Jimmy: No, just on the phone. That was it. It never came back. It was like, you know, in order to get into that college, you had to work at a brewery at least 10 years and you had to have two active brewmasters sign your application. So it wasn't very hard, you know, very easy to get in there. And it was, you know, only the other brewing college that was out there was Weinstaffen up in Germany. So this was the two, two, uh, two schools out there. There's many out there now, you know, University of Cal Davis, uh, Oregon State University got one. There's, there's quite a few, uh, you know, bachelor programs out there now.

Tarek: Why, why do you think they had hand-selected you to be the assistant brewmaster?

Jimmy: Uh, again, I, if you ever see me on any of the, uh, the commercial or anything.

Tarek: Oh, we're going to talk about that.

Jimmy: The pride I, I have in Shiner and the beer, it's hard for my face not to light up still after a year gone from that place and not talk about it. And again, you still see, um, I got my only thing I ever wear is Shiner stuff, you know? Uh, so I guess that was, uh, a part of it. And, and, you know, again, you got to be willing to do a little bit of anything out there. You're not hand-select what you want to do, you know? So I was always willing to do anything. And I, I love the brewing process. I, you know, I love the cook. So I love the brewing process. Uh, love the people. Um, I loved managing people.

Tarek: So how did you do at school? Did you enjoy it?

Jimmy: Oh, I, uh, again, I was with people from 13 different countries. Uh, a lot of them wouldn't even speak English. And, but, uh, Universal Beer, uh, it, afterwards we, we knew what we were talking about that you didn't need to speak the language, but, uh, yeah, it was a fantastic time. Uh, you know, but, uh, learned a lot, you know, went from, uh, with brewmasters from Anheuser-Busch, Miller, you know, Strohs at that time, you know, uh, Lone Star. So there was, uh, you know, a lot of different, uh, companies out there.

Tarek: And I'm sure you, I mean, you said the language was an issue, but I'm sure everybody was learning from each other.

Jimmy: Oh, yes. That's definitely, I mean, it was the, uh, networking, uh, you know, till a few years ago, you still talk to people, you know, they got the same issues you got. I don't care if you're, uh, 10,000 barrels or you're 5 million barrels.

Tarek: So you would talk to a lot of these brewmasters at other...

Jimmy: Yes, you would, you would see him at Master Brewer events. You would see him in the industry. You would see him at trade shows. You would, you would always see somebody that you knew. It was a big fraternity organization too. I mean, it was large, large amount of people.

Tarek: So this is, this is early nineties. And right now at this point is Shiner still just making the Bock and the Premium?

Jimmy: No, we started venturing off. Um, again, that was another vision Mr. Alvarez wanted. He didn't want to have just a one or two pony show. He wanted to show our craftness by making ales, making different beers. And so we started making seasonals and, and, um, the first beer I was really, I got to sink my teeth in and hands and put in there was, you know, the Shiner Kosmos.

Tarek: Really?

Jimmy: That was our third beer we've ever made. And, you know, what was interesting about that was, you know, we, we hopped that beer, but we dry hopped it and dry hopped it means we actually put a portion of the hops in the fermentation instead of in the brew kettle. So the bitterness wouldn't be overwhelming. You still would get the aromatics of the hops, but it wouldn't be quite so bitter. And that's called, you know, a co-hopping now, you know, and a kettle hopping or, you know, what was where you just put it direct in the kettle, but this was in a fermenter. So, so we were actually did, you know, co-hopping before co-hopping was cool. So it was, you know, we were kind of proud of that fact.

Tarek: And what's interesting about the location of the brewery is that you're sitting on a pretty incredible aquifer as well, right?

Jimmy: Yes. The artesian well, you know, I think it's not very deep. It's probably 120 feet, but that thing is never went dry. Never let us down.

Tarek: In 116 years, it's the same water coming out of the ground.

Jimmy: You know, they probably use 6 million gallons of city water a year and a month and probably 3 million gallons of well water a month, but they use the well strictly for brewing only, only brewing. You don't, you don't want to use that natural resource up, but.

Tarek: How impactful is the water as it relates to the flavor or the consistency of the beer? Because obviously water has, you know, different, you know, mineral composition and things of that nature.

Jimmy: I mean, I always like to say that, you know, everybody uses malted barley, water, yeast, hops. What makes these beers taste so different? What makes them so different? It's got to be the water. It's got to be the yeast. You know, this yeast we've been using for a hundred years, I mean, and this water hasn't changed in a hundred years. So what makes the difference in all these beers? And we know what makes the difference in our beers because we're starting out good and we're ending good.

Tarek: And talk to me a little bit about your relationship with John Huebner at this point, because, you know, he's kind of taking you under his wing and brought you up from washing bottles.

Jimmy: Yes, I mean, and again, he's just a fantastic person, very knowledgeable. And, you know, he was strict in a way, but at the same time, he was so soft if you really let him, you know, you get to him. But, you know, he didn't, I'd say, half-ass anything. You either did it right or you didn't do it at all. And you learned that from him.

Tarek: Now you lost your dad at a young age, right? Did he become kind of a father figure to you?

Jimmy: I mean, he really did because, I mean, I enjoyed his company. I enjoyed learning from him. But you know what? We got off of work. You know, he would chew my butt out from one end to the other during the day. But come four o'clock, you know, we put our 10 hours in, we're, hey, let's go get a beer. So we're at the local bar playing dominoes together, you know. And especially when I came to Brewmaster, I remember about four o'clock, my phone would ring. He said, you ready to get your ass kicked? You want to go play dominoes? You know, it's going like, those are moments that I always, you know, treasure. I mean, just a fantastic person. And, you know, his son, Greg, was my assistant brewman, you know, until I retired. But again, he's brewmaster now. So he had to wait his turn.

Tarek: There's been this real consistency, this lineage of, you know, brewing, the brewmasters at Shiner Brewery. I mean, Huebner, Jimmy, and Huebner again.

Jimmy: And that's what, again, why is the beer so consistent? Why is it taste, you know, every bottle should taste the same, the next bottle, just like the next bottle. And again, we've had that consistency.

Tarek: And the employees are so invested in the operation and, you know, are so committed. And it's such a badge of honor and badge of pride when you live in Shiner that, you know, Shiner Bock is made here.

Jimmy: And you're exactly right. You know, I used to, that's one of my things. I always, always tell the guys, you know, you know, it's all about the beer. It's all about the employees. And it's all about the town. You do those things. And I told that to Greg when I left, you know, you know what the magic formula is. And, and it was taught to me. And, you know, I was hopefully in teaching it to him too, that that's what makes Shiner so good, so great.

Tarek: I think I was on a tour one time and they said that every employee gets like two cases of free beer a month or something like that.

Jimmy: It's more than that. That sounds good. But yeah, there's some, some new stuff coming out. They, they want to make sure that they share that, you know.

Tarek: Yeah. So, so now you're, you know, kind of into the mid to late nineties, early 2000s. You become brewmaster in 2005?

Jimmy: 2005.

Tarek: Okay. And at this point, you're starting to see considerable growth.

Jimmy: Yes. We were growing, you know, seven to eight percent and became brewmaster. And then the first few years we were growing 10%. And it was like, you know, we were, we were out there and that's when, you know, really our marketing came in, sales, and they started having me go out quite a bit into the field. And I'm not talking just a field here in Shiner. I'm talking out in New York, you know, California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, you know, I mean out there.

Tarek: So how did it feel for you? You're going home, you know, at, at night to your wife, it's 2005 and you're now the brewmaster of the company that you love. And you've invested all of this time into, and that is now kind of the namesake of the town. And what did that, what did that feel like for you?

Jimmy: Scary as hell, you know, to have that weight on your shoulder of all these successful people before you. And knowing that, you know, you have a job to do, but it was, you know, I really knew that I was ready for it. I was taught well for the job. And, you know, all of us had got, got our little different things that how we operate. And I was ready for the, you know, the digital era. I love technology, always have. So that was a part of it. I got to go to school later in life and not just, you know, the Siebel's, I got to, you know, go to, you know, got my associate degree in Victoria and, you know, when I'm 40 years old and went to Texas State University at the same time when my daughter was going there. And so, so I got to know how kind of the young people think a little bit too, because I actually was with them a lot too. So.

Tarek: And young at heart.

Jimmy: And young at heart. And love going out no matter where it was and telling the Shiner story.

Tarek: Yeah.

Jimmy: What we're all about, what makes us special, what makes our beer special. So it was, it was easy for me to, to, to talk to people out in the, out in the industry and, you know, promote our beers.

Tarek: And were you involved in other aspects of the business besides just the, the, the brewing and the call it marketing, the early marketing efforts?

Jimmy: In a small brewery, you know, compared to Anheuser-Busch or, you know, Miller or something like that. Huge, huge breweries. In a small brewery, you know, smaller amount of employees, you know, we're talking a hundred now. I mean, you was human resource, you was, you know, safety, you know, you hired, you fired, you, you know, you did commercials, you did, you went out with sales, you brewed beer, you, you dealt with all the city problems. You know, you're looking at a lot of water, a lot of waste and stuff like that. So you're, you know, always dealing with issues. So you really did, you wore many caps. Uh, towards the end, we, we finally, you know, designated those, uh, those positions more so.

Tarek: But you were, you were living essentially an entrepreneurial lifestyle through that whole process. And you were, I think, uh, you had mentioned that you were involved in a lot of manufacturing upgrades too, because, I mean, for those that don't know, I mean, y'all went through huge manufacturing upgrade and expansion and kind of like the mid 2010s period. So what was that like for you?

Jimmy: Well, yeah, that was, it was like doing your homework, you know, going out and, you know, when you buy a car now, you research it, you know, you go, go look what's out there. And again, there's not an open checkbook. You gotta be, you know, we grew up very thrifty, you know, we knew how to save a dollar. We didn't throw money out just to throw money out there, even though the company was doing well, we still was taught that sense of a dollar and the value of it. And, and just didn't buy things just to buy it. We want to make sure that it was a need, not a want and, uh, make sure we're going to get the best deal we could.

Tarek: So by the time that you became the brew master, you'd mentioned that you had started experimenting and coming out with a, with a few different, you know, types of beer. Um, you mentioned the Kosmos and some others. Had you gone into some of the more unique flavors or is that something that you brought to the table?

Jimmy: That was mostly our marketing. Uh, you know, they went, went out in the market and did their, their research on it and they would throw a bunch of things out there and they was passed by Mr. Alvarez and Mr. Alvarez had, you know, always the final say and they would give us, you know, some things to work on, say, okay, what about this? Is it doable? I mean, there's some things that they came up with some really, really strange things that you can't, it wasn't practical do to brew. But then again, there was some stuff, uh, that we could do, you know, and then we started looking at, well, if we're going to do it, let's do it the Shiner way.

Tarek: Just so I understand the beer landscape at this time, this is still very, very early days of the, the craft beer boom. There was a massive craft beer boom in the mid 2000s, largely attributed to the millennials.

Jimmy: Yeah, there was actually two different, uh, booms of the craft. There was kind of the, uh, the micro breweries and then the craft side of it. The first phase started booming and it just phased out, fell to pieces. And those, the first ones were the entrepreneurs that they did the brew pubs. They did, um, you know, you had food and beer and why they failed. They either make good food, bad beer, bad beer, good food. They could never get both of them right. And that killed that industry there for a number of years. And then the craft beer, uh, era came. There were the, the digital era really helped them because the internet was out there. So now they weren't just learning on the fly, you know, picking up a book and thinking, okay, I can brew this beer. Finally, the, uh, the craft brewers association was instrumental in that. Finally gave them, you know, uh, the education part of it, uh, videos digital out there to, for them to, to, to learn how to make good beers, clean beers, you know, you know, bacteria-free beer, healthy yeast beers. And that really turned the industry upside down. And we felt like we were craft before craft was cool. I mean, they used to call us in, you know, a regional brewery. You know, you had all your big guys, they called us regional independent brewery. We didn't even have a name yet. And when all the craft beers came out, the craft side came out, we go, we were craft all along. We just didn't know it. So we were the original craft. And to this day, I really feel that, that we were the original craft. We just didn't have a name.

Tarek: And so around what timeframe are we talking here? Was it, so was this like around 2010, 29, 2009?

Jimmy: I mean, you're looking at probably, you know, earlier than that. I mean, probably 2006.

Tarek: Okay.

Jimmy: Where that thing was really starting to use that name craft.

Tarek: And were you starting to see some really explosive growth through that period? Because people were looking for these more unique beer.

Jimmy: We did. And again, when we, when they figured out that, Hey, Shiner was a craft beer all along, they just kept continuing drinking our beer and drank more of it.

Tarek: Yeah. And, um, when you say the marketing team went out, what, what, what type of marketing was it internal marketing team or was it?

Jimmy: That was our Gambrinus office. You know, we had an office in San Antonio and at one time when they had the Corona, they had 250 sales guys out in the market, probably 75 to a hundred, uh, you know, uh, marketing people, add agencies, uh, you know, that, uh, they used. So they did a lot of case studies. They went out and seen what was all out there. And that's when we started, you know, doing a lot of the craft type beers.

Tarek: And what was the first that you can remember?

Jimmy: I mean, like I said, Kosmos was the first, but then you're looking at, you know, some of our, our, you know, our ales and stuff like that. Probably. I know we were working our way to a hundred years of brewing and it was 2005 when I became brewmaster and they want to do something special because we were, you know, we had five more years before we turned, you know, a hundred years old and this was like 2005. So they want to do some anniversary beers. So our first one we came out was, uh, was a Märzen style ale. And then it was called Shiner 98 and a 96, give me Shiner 96 and how they promoted this to start working, you know, for our, our hundred year anniversary, they, uh, bought 10,000 wooden crates that was made in the state of Washington. They brought these crates down here and we brewed this Märzen style, uh, ale, which is in celebratory beer. That's what it's, uh, our original Oktoberfest now. It's that was the original. So we took this case, we had 10,000 cases and we put a case in this wooden crate, nailed it shut. They put a big old stamp on top of it. And it had one of 1909 Brewmaster. I had to sign it.

Tarek: Wow.

Jimmy: And we, I had to sign 1909 of these crates and it was one of 1909, two of 1909, all the way to 1909, but we did 10,000, but they were the signature crates. So I was so glad to see that last 1909. So Mr. Alvarez got number one and I got number two, uh, still got it yet. That's in my collection, but I can remember traveling and with the sales guys and I was in Delaware and a little bitty town, beach town, Dewey, Delaware. I was with the sales guys. We went into a little mom and pop store just to, you know, the guy couldn't meet me and talk to him a little bit. And I walked around, looked at the shelves and there was one of those wooden crates and it was 1909, 1909 of 1909. I go, Hey Kirk, look at this. This is that last case I was looking to sign over here. And the guy behind the cash register owned the place. So he came around and he took it off the shelf and took it over and made me re-sign it again. And he took it himself, but in Dewey, Delaware.

Tarek: Wow.

Jimmy: From Shiner, Texas to Dewey, Delaware.

Tarek: Wow.

Jimmy: But that, you know, those were the anniversary type beers that, that we started with and started doing special things like that. And, you know, that's when we started going into the Prickly Pear, uh, Ruby Redbird, Strawberry Blonde, you know, uh, you know, real Texas strawberry.

Tarek: And you've, you've kept those going for, for years.

Jimmy: So successful, you know, Strawberry Blonde was one of our largest, um, you know, uh, summer seasonals with the Redbird was exceptional. So, and again, I used to always say we would put real ingredients in. We did not cut any damn corners. We didn't want no artificial flavors, nothing like that. We want to put real ingredients. I always used the term we Shinerized it, you know, we're going to make sure this beer Shinerized before it goes out. We're going to, we're going to use the, the real ingredients that's supposed to be in there. And.

Tarek: So you put in fresh strawberries or fresh peaches.

Jimmy: You know, Prickly Pear, drums and drums of this stuff that we were getting the, the reddish Prickly Pear to go into these brews. It ain't easy to do, but it's doing it right.

Tarek: How did you do that? You know, how, how did you, you literally squeeze the juice out of these things?

Jimmy: You actually, I mean, you actually poured it into, you got it into five gallon bucks and you poured it into the Manway in the, in the Brewco.

Tarek: Wild.

Jimmy: I mean, it wasn't easy. Like I said, there's.

Tarek: In, in, you know, as a brewmaster, I guess, and I'm totally ignorant on, on brewing beers, but like, how, how do you even think about the chemistry or the combination or the quantity to, to create these concoctions? How, how does that process work? How long does it take to come up with a beer that you like?

Jimmy: You know, back in the day with my, uh, my books from Siebel Institute of Brewing, you know, this was all hand calculations, you know, you, you, you did all the, how much water, how much extract you want, how much malt you need to use now. I mean, I hate to say, but it's so much easier. It's a digital format you put in, you know, what ingredients you want, what alcohol you want, uh, what, you know, what attenuation, you know, what balling you want in and, and it pretty well calculates you and gets you really, really close. But again, it don't tell you what ingredients to put in, but, uh, the calculations got a lot easier.

Tarek: Now with AI, you can just speak it into a phone and probably get your own concoction.

Jimmy: Uh, you know, really that's something funny and ironic. We're talking about this. Uh, Greg Huebner just sent me a, uh, a picture that, uh, somebody he knows said they were a brew masters in the 40s and 50s. They didn't tell me no name, so I can't, you know, make sure that it's creditable, but they had a picture of a handwritten notes and, and it was something that I say is really credible. It says, you know, put, uh, 800 pounds of malt, get it up to 50 degrees Celsius for, get it up to this boat in the mass vessel. And I was going, this sounds really how we used to do it in the seventies. So it's almost as credible. So I had to email him back today and say, who was these brew masters? I want to know. Cause there's only actually, I was number six and Greg is number seven of the, the documented brew masters. So I just so it's killing me.

Tarek: Yeah. Wow. Uh, so now, I mean, we're, we're in a period of really transformative growth for, for Shiner Brewery. You're, you're talking, you know, the, this craft beer craze, the name Shiner is, is becoming more and more of a household name. Texas is exploding during this period. A lot of people are moving to Austin. Austin's one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. And, you know, Shiner beer is the Austin beer. And now you're working with a marketing firm. I'm going to say this is what, 2013, 2014 timeframe. And they want to start doing commercials. I want to start taking Shiner Brewery national and somehow they arrived as the perfect spokesman for the brewery, Jimmy Mauric, not Matthew McConaughey, you know, not, not Woody Harrelson, not, you know, some, some Texas names, but they're putting you on television. What was that experience like? What was the process to get to that point? Because I gotta say your commercials, I think were some of the best commercials I've ever seen. They're very Wes Anderson style, really quirky. Actually, we'll, we'll pause here. You know, Mickey, I want you to insert one of my favorite commercials for Shiner Brewery right here.

Jimmy: Welcome to Shiner, Texas population 2069. Shiner beer is the best beer made in Shiner, Texas. And now it's coming to Philadelphia. I'm Jimmy, the brewmaster at the Spoetzl Brewery, where every drop of Shiner beer has been made since 1909. This is where we make the Shiner beer, just 120 of us here, and we can't drink it all. And this is the Shiner beer. Since we're coming to your town, we thought you might like getting to know ours. Hey, Greg. This is our stoplight. There's our water tower for emergencies only. This is Howard's where we play dominoes and drink Shiner beer. Say hi, Howard. You can get a Shiner beer there, over there, not there. But by the Kirby, I'll meet you just about anywhere for a Shiner beer. Here's the mayor, the local paper, Friday's fried chicken. I recommend the fried chicken. Next time you're in town, stop by the Shiner hospitality room. Our hospitality is delicious. Enjoy your Shiner from our town to yours. Prosit!

Tarek: So walk me through that process.

Jimmy: Well, you know, it started small, just a little, a few, you know, small video cameras in the brewery and doing some, you know, kind of tongue-in-cheek stuff. And they were getting larger and larger. I mean, they were getting very successful. I mean, people, you know, they did some YouTube versions of it. And, and then all of a sudden there's, it's storing some Ranger games, Astro games, Texan games, and cowboy games even.

Tarek: And so, so I guess going back to the beginning, the marketing team comes in, they say, we want to start doing some videos. And they come to you and say, we want to put you in the video. Is that how that worked? Or what was the, what were the early stages of that?

Jimmy: The early stage was, oh, okay, we're doing this. We're going to put you in this video. That's kind of how it was. Okay. And you didn't have enough time to say, get scared or concerned about it. Just, just run with it. So, and I guess probably that was the best thing for me. You know, again, I always thought that I was kind of shy at one time. I really thought I was shy, but then I learned, you know what? I'm not too shy. I can do this. And, and I was having fun with it. And again, it was, I enjoyed talking to people and enjoyed telling people about Shiner beer. So that was another, you know, network way of putting Shiner out there.

Tarek: So did they give you any insight into what the, sort of the, the, the genre or the, the style was going to be of these commercials? They just said, Jimmy, just be Jimmy.

Jimmy: That's kind of what it was. Jimmy, be Jimmy. Cause that's kind of what they had. My persona is just be Jimmy, you know, just be you and do this. And, you know, when I'm standing next to a damn live goat and I'm talking about a brewing, you know, it's got, man, this thing is getting out of hand here. But again, it was, it was fun. I get a lot of, you know, the employees a lot of times with me. So, and it made them feel special and, you know, they were part of it and which they were. And so, yeah, it was it, it got to a point where they got very, very popular. I, you know, wherever I travel, it seemed like I'd be in the elevator and I always have wearing my Shiner stuff. You know, I got a Shiner beer cap and a Shiner beer shirt on and people would see the Shiner beer shirt and then they would put the face and they'd go, you're that guy in those Shiner commercials, aren't you?

Tarek: What was that like for you?

Jimmy: It was embarrassing at first. I kind of got, got humbled to the fact, I can't believe people watch that stuff or seen it or, or remember it. You know, I can see faces and I can't remember what the hell I saw the next day, but they're, they're remembering this. And so, yeah, it was, it was humbling for, for, for a while there too. I go, man, I just can't believe these people.

Tarek: And were you signing autographs?

Jimmy: Oh yes, I was, I was doing a lot of different things that, especially, you know, with some of the, I go out and with the sales guys, you know, I did tap takeovers. We'd go to bars and we would be introduced to a new beer and, you know, they would have meet the brew master night. So it was, you know, all over the place. And that's when they would bring their stuff. Oh, yeah, you're the guy in the commercial. Can you sign this for me? And again, like I said, he was embarrassing and humbling, but I, I, you know, I'm a small town boy. Well, who in the hell would want my damn autograph, you know? But yeah, it, it, it got to, to a point where, you know, I traveled quite a bit and we went out and then they, you know, at one time I was in Maryland and they, we're going out to meet the brew master events and they go, oh, we got you on live television tomorrow. And I go, what? Remember that Shiner Beer cookbook? Well, we picked a recipe out for you. We want you to cook it on, on the, on this, this show. And I thought it was going to be, you know, pre-taped, whatever and stuff. So we went out to his restaurant, did this meet the brew master event and the chef, they said, what do you want to cook? I said, you're going to need something easy, you know, if it's supposed to be on, on TV. So they picked a Shiner Beer, Shiner Bock roast or something. So the chef cooked me a Shiner Bock roast that night when I was up there, put it in his trunk of his car, cause it was 30 and something degrees. And next morning we drove out to this studio and it, it dawned on me after I went into the studio and I was sitting there watching and there was the news on, and then here comes the, the weather girl gone and talking and, and, and finally here they rolled that away. And here's this kitchen comes rolling in there and go, Jimmy, you're on. And I'm going, what? It was live television. They never told me live. And here they are, they got all our beers up on this counter and stuff. And, you know, feel the heat off the stove or whatever. And then they said, you know, I'll tell you a little bit about Shiner or something. I've done it. I said, okay, what are you going to be cooking? I'm going, I'm cooking a Shiner Bock roast today. So it was like, how hard can this be? You know? So I had the pan on and they had, you know, had a fresh roast there. So nice and hot, threw it on there and here at the big old sear and stuff, whatever, and flipped it. And he said, what are you going to be all putting in? So I like to cook. So it wasn't very hard to do is to ad lib through it and tell them what I'm all doing. And all of a sudden, okay, we're going to commercial and, you know, and comes back here. They put that one out and put the one that the chef cooked before.

Tarek: Is that the trick?

Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't, you know, and then I had to show them, you know, the finished product of it. But yeah. Lifetime of it. Yeah. That was, that was something.

Tarek: Amazing. And at this point are, were, you know, colleges and universities reaching out to you and, and asking you to come and help, you know, instruct students where there are more universities, brewing universities, programs, I guess.

Jimmy: Well, again, most of those were, you know, you know, credited colleges. So I, you know, I didn't get to, to do those type of, of events, but you know, like Texas state, you know, I, I did some events up there and they found out that I was a brewmaster and I was going to school there. I did some events there and stuff.

Tarek: But I mean, were you becoming like a name in, in the brewing world? I mean, Shiner was exploding, you know, all of these craft beers are coming out.

Jimmy: Oh yeah. The I mean, the brewing guys used to give me crap, you know, they, they, they would always do that. But again, it was still, you know, great, great people, you know, used to go out to, you know, we had our master brewer events a couple of years in Texas. So it was great seeing all the guys and yeah, you just take your ribbing.

Tarek: So, you know, as you go through this period you start kind of conceptualizing the idea of creating spirits in addition to, to beer. Walk me through that decision and, and how that process transpired.

Jimmy: Yeah, that was at the tail end before I retired. So I was just in there when we started that, you know, Rickhouse was being built. We all were, you know, trained with the moonshine university. So it was very, very interesting. But again, I didn't think I was retiring right at that moment, but you know, Hey, I, you know, they always say, well, you know, it's time, it's time.

Tarek: Yeah.

Jimmy: So I, again, I knew the concept, what we're all doing and how we're going to do it. So with the vodka, the gin, and, and like I said, it was going to take a couple of years before we got the bourbon out and which they still haven't got out yet, but you got to remember, this is, it's going to be just like the beer. It's going to be made. It's going to be Shinerized. It's going to be made with the most purest ingredients. You got most people make their vodka and all that stuff. They get, you know, spirits from by the rail cars and get it, you know, and redistill it and stuff like that. We're starting with malted barley, corn that we have that we use. We've been brewing for 116 years.

Tarek: Yeah.

Jimmy: So we got the ingredients. We make, you know, our mash already, you know, we, we don't need to go buy something. So it's all going to be ground level all the way up. So it is going to be pristine. It's going to be some really good stuff. That bourbon really look forward to, I mean, I had a guy steal me a little sample of it and I got some connections yet. And yeah, but again, it's not for sale yet, but it's it's going to be here, I guess, late this year, early next year.

Tarek: How would you characterize the flavor?

Jimmy: Again, if you look at the bourbon, I mean, it's, these are all new American oak barrels, you know, it's got the Shiner char that's in the inside that they, they want it. So you'll get the real nice vanilla notes. And you got to remember what being here in deep South Texas, you don't know what the hell are you going to end up with? Because the angel share is probably going to be a lot because of the humidity and the different temperature fluctuation. So, I mean, that's a variable you cannot, you anticipate. So you'll have to wait.

Tarek: I'm looking forward to it. When you're, when you're at home on a Friday night, five o'clock, what shiner beer are you drinking?

Jimmy: Well, I told you earlier, I said, since I retired, every day is a Saturday. I don't have Fridays. But, you know, I'm usually drinking right now, the Shiner Lite, Shiner Texas Special Lite. I've been, you know, they came out with it in this past year. But Shiner Premium is a beer that's true to my heart. And the most flavorful beer that I still think that that brewery makes is, is the Bohemian Black Lager.

Tarek: I love the Black Lager.

Jimmy: That was our Shiner 97, our anniversary.

Tarek: Really?

Jimmy: And it became a full time beer. I mean, we want gold medals in Germany.

Tarek: I love that. When I when I come to Shiner, that's actually I drink that over the Bock. And I love them both. But I love the Black Lager.

Jimmy: It's the the array of five different malts that's in it. You know, there's some specialty malts, you know, some de-bittered malts that give it the chocolate flavor, but don't give it that bitterness, because the husk is taken off of it after it's charred. So it gives it that deep chocolate flavor without that bitterness to it. Just fantastic beer.

Tarek: It's, it's amazing. You're making me want to drink one right now.

Jimmy: It's a Guinness on steroids.

Tarek: Mm hmm. And, and of all of the different, how many different types of craft beers did you make, you know, before retirement? Like, you know, what, was it like 100?

Jimmy: It wasn't 100, but it probably would be 30 or 40, I would think. I mean, through the years, I mean, I lost track. I mean, he was, each year, each season was coming out with something different.

Tarek: And what was the most unique of all of them?

Jimmy: Oh, I know, I can tell you a story about this one.

Tarek: Yeah, let's hear it.

Jimmy: It was the worst tasting damn beer. It was the Shiner Smokehouse. It was the Rauchbier, you know, a German smoke beer. And again, when we do something, we're gonna do it right. We're going to Shinerize it. So what do we do? We bought a damn smoker, you know, a local guy that had a barbecue pit, you know, big, massive barbecue pit. We bought this thing, because we're going to smoke our malt in it. But all our beers at that time were kosher. So this thing had pork ribs and all this other good stuff. So I had to get a rabbi over there to kosherize this thing. He had to bless it and get the pork out of it. And so we could put the malt in it to smoke this malt, so our beer still would be kosher. So in the middle of all this, the rabbi got sick. So he gave me the ritual. So I became a part-time rabbi, and I blessed the pit, and we smoked this malt. And we used post oak and mesquite, I mean, local, you know, wood. And we smoked this malt, and I mean, we did it right. And then you infuse that malt into your mash, and you ground it, and you brewed it. And that thing was bacon in a bottle. I'm telling you, it was, there was, you either loved it or you hated it. And I was on the hater end part of that stuff. It was unique.

Tarek: So there were some people that really enjoyed it then?

Jimmy: Yes, there's still people saying, man, I wish you would bring that thing back.

Tarek: See, I love smoky flavor in just about anything. You would have been the one that liked it. And even in my whiskey, I love those Petey Scotch whiskeys that have a lot of smoke. So I'm jealous, man. I wouldn't mind trying that one.

Jimmy: Yeah, you would have loved it.

Tarek: So in your career, you said 46 years?

Jimmy: 46 years, yes.

Tarek: Yeah, in your 46-year career, what were some of the biggest lessons that you would impart to, you know, the younger generation, people coming up into a business, things that you've learned? That'd be the first question. And what regrets do you have, or what things would you have done differently?

Jimmy: Well, I know for a fact that you have to make sure that, you know, you follow the rules. You do what, you know, somebody is asking you to do. You don't cut corners. You do it right. Um, in order to get ahead, you need to do more than what's asked of you. So, I mean, that's hard to do, not just to do your job, but to go and go that one little extra, one extra level, you know, something a little bit different. Every once in a while, just do more than what you're asked to do. Trust me, people take notice of that. I mean, very, very, very quickly.

Tarek: So Shinerize your professional experience.

Jimmy: Well, you know, and something that I look back on, um, I mean, I really don't know what I could say that I would have changed because my career went, it was way above and beyond whatever I thought I would achieve. I mean, being a brewmaster was, you know, you know, it's a pipe dream. You know, you wouldn't think that, uh, you would ever, you know, achieve that. I mean, but again, hard work and, uh, doing what you're supposed to be doing a little bit more and, and enjoy what you're doing. I mean, that's one thing people can never say. I didn't enjoy my job. I mean, when you seen me talk about that brewery, I talked about it like one of my kids. And, uh, that's one thing I was always proud of the people and the beer and the town.

Tarek: And, you know, as, as we wrap up, what is, uh, what, what is retirement like for you? You say every day is a Saturday. What's, you know, what is your relationship at this point to the brewery still talk to Greg on a regular basis?

Jimmy: I'm out there drinking a beer when I'm, uh, pretty regularly, you know, when they have their events, I like to still go out there and stuff and, uh, meet them at the local watering hole too. And, uh, yeah, still see him when, you know, we were, we're, we're, we're around, uh, he was, uh, at the coast and I needed some more, uh, cucumbers for pickling. I do canning now pickles. So I had to go pick his garden while he was gone. And, uh, you know, I, uh, you know, at home now, um, you know, I got a big garden. I'm always canning pickles. I'm kind of known for my pickles now. So people really like my pickles, love to cook. I mean, I'm into sourdough. I do my starters and, you know, make some pig in a blankets homemade and, uh, you know, different doughs and, you know, uh, you might need your own cooking show. I, uh, that's, uh, I did a bunch of those cooking shows, you know, with Texas eats. Oh man, with David Elder, I would get a ton of those shows, but yeah, love, love to cook big garden. Got a few heads of cows. Uh, I mean, um, I still mechanical, you know, I always was mechanical. I still love changing my own oil in my truck, you know, I mean, stuff like that, uh, you know, always doing stuff. And, and again, I like to travel a little bit, love to go to Nashville, love to go into Vegas, love Nashville, uh, great music beer. Uh, there's a lot of bars down Broadway, but I figured it out. Uh, you gotta have a little vetting process. I'd walk into one of these bars and they had Shiner Bock I sit down. They did not walk out and go to the next one. So that was a learning curve there. So yeah, we, we, we want to do a little bit more track. My wife just retired here in June too. So I was kind of, uh, limited what we're at, what I was doing. So Hey, got the full team on board now. So we're, we're looking forward to it. We'd be, we'll be married 45 years here in December. So yeah, but you know, had three kids and I got Pawpaw duties now. Uh, they, they can depend on me cause they know I'm home school's not in session this week. So Pawpaw you, you got them. So that's fun. So yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a full plate.

Tarek: Well, Jimmy, the Brewmaster, you have an awful lot to be proud of. Thank you for joining us today. Uh, I love your beer and, um, sounds like it's time for beer.

Jimmy: It's going to be a time for beer. Hey, y'all guys are doing fantastic. I watched this place grow, uh, you know, you know, Texas Precious Metal from, you know, this slab to where it is now.

Tarek: Pretty wild.

Jimmy: I used to love to fly my drone up here. I only live like half a mile from here.

Tarek: Don't tell security that.

Jimmy: Yeah, I know. But thank you for having me.