In this episode of “End of Day Drinks,” the VinePair staff welcomes two influential figures in the Bronx beer community and broader craft beer scene: Tiesha Cook, president and CEO of the nonprofit Beer Kulture, and Kevin Scheitrum, VP of marketing for the Bronx Brewery. Cook and Scheitrum talk about how the beer industry is tied to social justice advocacy and community building, and how the recently launched Beer Kulture internship, a paid production internship at the Bronx Brewery, aims to strengthen the bonds between communities and local breweries by cultivating talent among BIPOC and other underrepresented groups.
Tune in to hear about the launch of their collab beer “Yerrrr,” a shoutout to Bronx locals, as well as the process of bringing their beer ideas to life.
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Cat: Hi, everyone, my name is Cat Wolinski, I’m the senior editor at VinePair. Thank you for joining us for “End of Day Drinks” today. We are here today with two VIPs in the Bronx beer business, Tiesha Cook and Kevin Scheitrum. Tiesha is the president and CEO of the nonprofit organization Beer Kulture, and Kev is vice president of marketing for the Bronx Brewery. Tiesha, Kev, thank you so much for joining us today.
Tiesha: Listen, thank you for having us. I am super excited to be here with you guys today.
Kevin: Yeah. Thank you so much for having us. “VIP” is the biggest overstatement ever about me, but I think Tiesha fits the bill.
C: I mean, you have a V and a P in your title. … Also with me today from VinePair’s editorial team is our executive editor, Joanna Sciarrino, associate editor Katie Brown, and staff writer Tim McKirdy. So Beer Kulture is a very unique company, which I will let Tiesha describe in more detail in a minute. But it started off as a brand that was more of a beer blog and lifestyle brand, and if I’m correct, published some of the most powerful stories in beer, including the Founders Brewing story in 2018 about the racism lawsuit there. Beer Kulture as a brand is a leader in the Twittersphere of conversations around diversity and representation and culture overall — now you’ve transitioned into a nonprofit organization and are partnering with various organizations, including Bronx Brewery. So could you fill us in on the journey there, Tiesha?
T: I feel like going nonprofit was just a part of the journey all along. We’ve already been heavily into community work and pushing the culture forward. Going the nonprofit route was really just the next step that made sense to us. Essentially, what we do as a nonprofit is create opportunities for up-and-coming African-American, Black, Hispanic, Latino people within the culture that we represent — scholarship opportunities, mentorship opportunities, and a job board— just to create access. We felt like there isn’t a lot of access for people of color. Instead of just talking about the problem like we’ve been doing for many, many years, it was time to do something about it. Going nonprofit put us in a position where we could assist more people. So that’s what we do.
C: How would you describe the Kulture?
T: Kulture is like a soul, honestly. When you think about culture, you think about the people that it represents, you think about the history, you think about the arts, the swag, everything that has to do with the soul of a person. That’s what Kulture is. We’re just representative of the community at large. So that’s you, that’s me. That’s everybody who feels connected in this space. We represent them.
C: For sure. Kevin, The Bronx Brewery is known for being a leader in that space, in my opinion. I mean, the brewery is very mindful of its service and its staff and hiring and being inclusive in that respect — particularly with the local South Bronx community there. I also think that at this point, the Bronx Brewery is known for sending these messages through their beer as well. So what is the message here with your collaboration with Beer Kulture and the most recent actual beer collab (which I will let you pronounce and describe)?
K: Tiesha — all you on the pronunciation.
T: YERRR!
K: Like with everything she does, Tiesha will get this across better than I can. It’s a long story that I’m going to try to boil down into its essentials here, and we can always open it back up throughout this conversation. Between the beer and the collaboration, at the core of it is an idea that in order to get anything done, it always has to be done together. Like on your pod, and in your work, and across the board for everyone here, it’s like everyone has spoken about this one way or another — to go quickly, go alone, to go further, go together. As we were talking about this collab with Tiesha and the Beer Kulture team, the idea was after years and years of a feeling of some really pernicious division, trying to have something going into 2021 that spoke to the idea of collective action, and using community not as a noun, but as a verb. You say “yerrr” up in the Bronx, and you’ll hear five people yelling around the street. This idea was the idea that this is a rallying cry. That’s the thing that kept going on and on. So Tiesha, I can come back to the larger partnership if you want to talk to the significance of the name.
T: As Kevin said, it’s a rally cry. It’s something that binds us together. When we talked about creating a beer and the message that it represented, this is something that we wanted to create the emotion, as well. I think that’s why the beer did so well — because people felt connected to it. I know people in the Bronx who aren’t beer-affiliated at all who went out of the way to make sure that they went out and they copped, and they shared it and they talked about it because they were connected to it. They were connected to what “yerrr” means, and what it represents in our communities. We wanted to speak to that, and we wanted to make sure that we brought people together because there’s a lot of nastiness going on in the world around us. We’ve got Covid. We’ve got everything that was going on with the presidential campaign, and then we’ve got real life that’s happening. Racism wasn’t born with George Floyd; things were happening way before then. This was the opportunity for us to say, “OK, we recognize that these things are going on. Let’s come together and let’s do something about it.” That’s how the internship was born, because that’s our action piece right there. I’ll flip it back to you, Kev.
K: I think in the end, we try to share the very same things that your culture holds dear, which is the idea that beer is just the beginning. I think one of the words that gets thrown around a lot about craft beer is that it does create a third space. Not in apocalyptic Covid times, but in normal times. You’ve got your home, your office, and your third space. In the past decade, you’ve seen these taprooms become some of the better third spaces that exist anywhere. I think we all know the elephant in the room is that it can often feel like it’s not a super-inclusive space. For us, beer really is just the beginning. We have up-and-comer collabs, often with visual artists — we have one coming out with a woman named Mecca Woods, who is an astrologer in the Bronx (that’s coming out in a couple of days and that’s going to have a whole Zodiac bend to it). Basically, every time we have any beer that comes out, we try to have some story around it, and have some part of that story have some impact on the community around us. So to me, it’s my favorite part about what we do. I was talking to somebody recently, and it’s like everyone, every time we have a new beer, it feels like a launch because there’s so much around it and it gives us a chance to meet these incredible people that are doing incredible things, and be able to help in whatever way we can — whether it’s a nudge or a shove or a lift. It’s one of the things that I’ve had the most pride and joy in working on in my entire career, even before being able to work with Tiesha and her team on putting this internship together and just feeling the energy and the optimism around it, and just seeing these applications. We’re a couple of days away from making these announcements. But, Tiesha, I want to say I was shocked by the caliber of candidates, but it was pretty amazing, right, to see the amount of people who came through and are looking for these big career pivots, that came to us with pretty incredible careers as they were already.
T: Right. I was like, what?
KB: I was wondering, when it comes to these applications that you’re getting, what are you looking for in candidates? What are you seeking out? And how do you feel like this internship is helping new people get into beer? Because as you’re saying, a lot of people that are applying are people that have really varying backgrounds. So why do you think they’re interested in doing this?
T: I pride Beer Kulture on being authentic. That’s something that connected us to the Bronx Brewery, because you have breweries all over the world and this is another conversation in itself, so I’m not going to take it there. But Bronx Brewery, they don’t pander to the culture. They don’t pander to the community of people. They are a part of the culture. They are a part of the community of people. People see that — they know what’s real and they know what’s fake. So I think that’s something that speaks to the heart of the Bronx Brewery, and that’s always spoken to the heart of Beer Kulture. What we say in the streets is: “You’re tapped in.” So we’re tapped in. We’re not tapping into people who are beer geeks or beer nerds. We’re reaching actual people who are on the block, who have no affiliation with beer, who don’t even know what’s possible with beer, and they just have this innocent, inquisitive state of being where they’re like, “Hey, I want to learn more. I want to see what this is about.” We’re attracting those people. Our application process, if you’ve seen the website, we don’t ask for anything crazy in terms of your resume. We ask for one, but it’s not required. We just want to see where you are in the game. Do you have any knowledge at all or is this completely new to you? So the resume piece isn’t a dealbreaker for us, but we just want to know who you are at the core — where you are, and where you’re trying to go. That’s who we’re looking for. We’re looking for people who just come with genuine, inquisitive states of being, and we want to push them forward.
K: I think the open secret of the application at this point is that the part that is really catalyzing the whole process is that simple question: Why do you want to apply, and what made you interested in this position to begin with? From that simple question, we’re getting just dozens and dozens of amazing, passionate responses that go into why there’s interest in the field to begin with, and the wonder and the mystery of beer, and vision of what this opportunity could lead to five, 10, 15 years from now. To us, that’s the point of this whole thing — finding people that truly have this passion, and this interest, and this love for this thing that I think for so many of us really is still magic, no matter how long you’ve been in the industry. The other part of that is that passion has to be the starting point, because as we all know (especially in and around New York) getting up at 6 in the morning, especially right now, you’re trudging through two feet of slush to get to the brewery, and then you’re brewing on a cold day, and it’s a double turn, and it’s a long day. So for us, I think working with Tiesha and her team, at the very core of everything has been the passion and the interest in this as a potential life. Namely, starting with the idea of “Why do you want to do this?” It’s been a dream so far. I think we’ve already had a chance to meet a bunch of people that ordinarily we might not cross paths with. I think that being able to be just a small step as part of a pivot in someone’s life, there’s not much more you could ask for as a human being.
KB: Wow, that’s amazing.
C: Yeah, I’m curious, too, how logistically this went down, because Tiesha, you’re in Florida, right?
T: I am.
C: Did you come into the Bronx or did you have some of your people there who actually brewed it? How does that work in terms of the collaboration aspect on brew day?
T: My sister is in the Bronx. Her name is Jasmine. She is also a part of the Kulture team. She was there to be a representative for us.
C: OK, cool. What’s up, Jasmine?
T: Hey, Jazz!
C: What kind of beer was it?
T: It was a rice IPA. I don’t know if you guys follow Beer Kulture or the Bronx Brewery on Instagram, but we actually shared a picture of a shit ton of rice. It was like, “Arroz con pollo could be beer.”.
K: People were like, “Is that Rice Krispies?” We were like, “Kind of… it actually does look like Rice Krispies.”
C: I mean, I follow. But for all the listeners out there, check out the rice pics.
K: Follow, engage, share, save. You know, all the good Instagram stuff.
C: Oh, yeah. Good rice content.
K: In terms of the beer, the beer is on its way to Tiesha right now via sample. But yeah, the response has been incredible, and I think Beer Kulture really steered the direction of the recipe — it’s the first rice beer we made in years, and it ended up being perfect timing. I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like I spent the first eight, nine months of the pandemic with double and triple IPAs. Come the New Year, I was like, I need something a little bit lighter. So this one came across. It was a 5.5 percent, really tropical and really citrusy, with a signature rice flavor at the end, an almost Rice Krispie toastiness that we haven’t gotten from a beer in a long time. To me, it’s one of the more pleasurable beers I’ve had a chance to have in a long time, and just credits the Beer Kulture for in September or October being like, “We should do this!”
T: Credit to to Khris. He is on our board. He’s also our craft expert. So anything in terms of our the beer with our partners, he’s heavily involved with that, and Manny as well. They work together to make sure that we had something that was palatable to new drinkers. Obviously, we want something that’s pleasing to you, to people who love the craft already, but we always have new drinkers in mind. This was something that we knew was delicate, but delicious at the same time. It turned out to deliver just that.
C: I can see the mashup there — mash, no pun intended — like IPA being the cult leader in craft beer. And then also, this is a taproom that’s inviting to everybody, and rice is an ingredient that we are more familiar with in beers like Budweiser. So it’s like you get the best of both worlds there.
K: Tiesha, I might change my Instagram bio to “Delicate, but delicious.” Overstatement on both fronts.
C: I feel like that’s two humble brags. So where’s the bad side?
TM: Hey guys, I just wanted to say I love the way that you’re both describing beer; whether it’s Kevin talking about it as being this really mythical thing, like the magic of fermentation, or Tiesha describing it as this vehicle for change that we can all kind of join together with. I was just wondering, where did both of your journeys with beer begin?
T: So I share this story a lot. For me, it started with my husband, Dom. He is a beer vet and he is the co-founder of Beer Kulture. He’s no longer on the team, but he started this. Our son passed away in 2011. When you experience something tragic like that, you start to look for the thing that gives you joy or brings life to you again. So he was reading a book called “Of God and Guinness.” After he read that story, he went out to the store, bought some Guinness, and he loved it. So he tried to get me to taste it and enjoy it. I was like, “Yeah, this tastes like shit, I’ll pass.” He made it his mission to find a beer that I would enjoy. He started on this kick where he was trying all different styles and flavors, and I hated everything. Then he brought some fruit beer. It was actually Framboise, the lambic. He was like, “OK, so I think you’re going to like this. I’m like, yeah, I’ll pass. I don’t even want to taste it, because everything I’ve tried so far has been disgusting.” I tried that, and my mind was completely blown. From there, I’ve loved everything — with time my palate grew. I started to like every style, IPA style, whatever you name it, I love it. That’s how I got introduced to beer.
TM: That’s awesome.
C: Was that Lindemans Framboise?
T: It sure is. We actually do this mix, we call it our Henny mix, so we mix it with Hennessy, and it’s fire.
C: Gasping over here.
T: As you should, because it will change your life.
C: And what do you call it?
T: Henny-boc. Get you some of that.
C: A point that this makes is that there is a beer out there for everyone. Beer is an endless spectrum of flavor, color, aroma, and experience. It’s certainly something that can always be evolving as a beverage, as well as an industry and community.
T: Absolutely.
K: Tiesha, even I didn’t know that part of your life, and I think that one of the greatest things about beer in this industry is that it helps you find your people. I just want to reach through the computer and give you a hug right now. We didn’t know each other six months ago, thereabouts, and I feel honored to know you as a person, and privileged to be part of this. Especially as a new father. I just want you to know how much I appreciate having you in my life, and how much joy you’ve given us all.
T: It is mutual. You know, I don’t think things happen by accident. Again, just to echo what you said, you find your people. From the first day that we chatted through email, I called you my kousin (with a “k”). You’ve been like extended family, and that’s real shit. I appreciate you right back.
K: I feel that it’s an honor to be called that from the start. I can circle back to my story here, but I think you guys all know. But I think the story of 2020 with the entire world on its head is we’re all looking for some kind of leadership. We’re looking for someone to be able to cut through the chaos, because it was just nonstop chaos all the time. And before I knew Tiesha, I was so just aware of Beer Kulture (because I’m sure every single person on this podcast can attest to it) — you were such a shining powerful light throughout last year, as it seemed like everything was just falling apart, you can see Beer Kulture building, gaining ground, and speaking to this better future, as we were all kind of focused on everything just breaking apart in front of us. You guys as a team— and I know a lot of it was you just personally— were shining a light on the way this industry can actually back up what it says it can do, which is make a better world. I think that I’d be remiss to have any part of this conversation go on more without just thanking you on behalf of all of us in the industry (and I’m sure lots of people here). It was incredible to see the way that you guys all just rose up and said, “OK, here’s how it’s going to be. Here’s what we’re going to do. This is how the industry is going to change, and we’re going to be a major player in that.” I’m 35 years old, and at that point with the baby on the way, kind of looking for what this world is going to become, I think you really made a plan as clear and as powerful as what you and your team did.
T: Thank you. Thank you. That means a lot, Kevin.
C: You guys, this is getting really, really real.
KB: Is someone cutting onions?
C: I am covered in goosebumps. I was going to say, I can’t believe you don’t know each other already from the way that you sounded when we talked earlier before the podcast. I thought you guys were old friends, like tight, and possibly actually blood relatives.
KB: Real kousins.
K: We had a lot of late-night emails, too, getting this all together. I’m a big book nerd. And there’s that Vonnegut book, “Cat’s Cradle,” where there’s two types of people. There’s the type of person that you’re kind of arbitrarily put next to — you know, people that are fans of the same sports team you’re a fan of, so you’re friends in that regard. Then, there’s the people that are cut from that same universal fabric. With Tiesha right away, I always felt that I was like, “OK, we’re on the same page,” and you feel it without needing to be around. Again, I’m feeling really honored and privileged to have access to that.
C: That’s amazing. As do we. Both of you have been very welcoming and super friendly. This is what drew me, and I think a lot of people, to the beer world in the first place — is finding those like-minded people that you connect with naturally, whether it’s just because you happen to be next to someone in the taproom, or if it’s because you’re actually geeking out over a specific beer. I think that’s kind of what this all comes back to: Everyone’s welcome here. There are so many connections still to be made between so many breweries and so many neighborhoods and organizations out there.
K: Tiesha, one thing that we share is — I know we’ve talked about this — is that we’re both kind of outsiders, right? We didn’t really come up in the industry, and I feel like that has helped give me some perspective for where this industry is going. That’s something we’ve talked about in the past.
T: Yep, same.
K: Tim, to circle back to your question. The short of it is that there were a couple of pivotal moments for me — I went to college in Boston, my roommate was from Vermont. He brought down a Magic Hat #9. I was like 19, 20. That was kind of my eyes-open moment, like, “OK, this is what beer could be.” Then you start going down that path. One really vivid moment for me was that (when I interviewed at the brewery, I told Damien the story) so I covered our hockey team at BU, and in 2007, we went out for the first round of the NCAA tournament for hockey, and we were in Michigan. I forget the brewery we were at, but I was so revved up because this is back 13 or 14 years ago when craft beer was still really just barely a thing. To know of a certain brewery felt so indie and rogue and cool. I was so fired up. I said, “We’re going to have this. We’re going to do that.” The moment I got off the plane, I felt one of those head colds coming in, and I was like “Oh, God, this better not block my taste buds.” We get to the brewery, and I cannot taste a single thing. So I’m there with my friends, having all these beers that we’re still learning about. So what I noticed, though, was the events board, and the people around there, and the role it played in the community. After that point, that just became this indelible memory for me, and I was like, “OK, this is this whole other part of what a brewery can be.” From that day onward, I just wanted to go into beer, and I worked in sports for about 13 years after that, until after the 2019 NBA finals. But that through that whole time, there was always this part of me that wanted to run a brewery, be part of a brewery that had a huge impact on its community. The third part is that I worked for the National Basketball Association for about a decade. You want to be part of an organization that puts its money where its mouth is and understands its place in society and knows how to be able to push forward collectively. It’s a blessing of a lifetime to have been part of that. It was 10 years that shaped the way I looked at the world, and gave me an idea of the type of organization I want to be part of — and the other place that felt like that in the industry was the Bronx Brewery. I’d been a fanboy of the Bronx Brewery for five years up to that point. Being part of it has been just better than I could ever imagine.
C: That’s amazing. Are you a local in the Bronx, Kev?
K: My wife and I moved to the western Queens, so I’m like a 10-minute trip out. Originally, though, I grew up in Allentown, Pa.
C: Oh, OK. So you were fanboying all the way from Queens, or what?
T: Well, Queens has the tendency to do that.
K: In my defense, I go there every day, and when I fell in love, I was living in the East Village, where our new taproom is going to be in springtime. You’ve got to come for that one. That’s going to be a blast. So I’m looking at that late spring, early summer for the East Village. We went up one day, and I was like, “This is what it can be.” Anybody who’s experienced the backyard there has probably gotten a similar feeling. You’re like, “Oh my God.”.
C: It’s really special, a very special place. The feeling that you get at the Bronx Brewery in the taproom and the yard — you feel like you’re in a different world. It’s the right place to be in that moment. It’s really awesome.
K: I think it’s one of the most special places in the city, honestly, for what it does. You really see beer bringing people from many, many different backgrounds together. I truly feel like it’s one of the best places in New York City.
C: It’s really different from a lot of other breweries in that respect, and beer quality aside, it’s just the ability to attract those passers-by, foot traffic, and locals from all walks of life. I think that third space is something that we definitely crave now, personally from sitting here, which is my home, my office, and my bar. So the final question I have for both of you is: How can we get more people and more beer nerds and people who are just beer drinkers to pay more attention to the Bronx and see that as a destination, along with all the breweries that most beer people know about in Brooklyn, Queens, and so on.
T: I’ll say they have to want to. We can put the information out there, and we can create these opportunities in these spaces, but you got to want to be a part of it, right? You got to want to be on the playground. That’s the simplest way that I can explain it. Just be a part. It really is that simple. It’s not complicated to just be a part.
C: Right. It’s not getting in with the “in” crowd, It’s not knowing about all the latest releases or knowing everything about a beer style. It’s just showing up and having a conversation with the person next to you, right?
T: Absolutely. Absolutely. I use this this a lot; but when you’re in kindergarten, and you see somebody across from the playground and you’re like, oh, my God, that person looks cool, I want to talk to them I want to be their friend, and walk over and say, “Hey, you want to be my friend?” And they say, “Yeah,” and then that’s your best friend for life? This can be the same way. Just think you’re in the brewery, you see a person across the room and it’s like, “Hey, what’s that? What are you drinking? OK, cool, let’s talk.” And then that’s your bestie, it’s really that simple.
KB: I think more adults should adopt playground behavior.
T: I encourage it. Listen, I am a mom of three. My children are teenagers now, I know you guys are thinking, “Tiesha, there’s no way you have teenage children.” You have to stay youthful at heart. It’s a state of being, that mind frame. I learn a lot from my children. Grownups don’t want to admit that to you, but I learn a lot from my kids and I adopt a lot of my learnings into life. So that’s where I get that thinking from. Yes, absolutely. I encourage that. Be like children in the mind.
C: I wholeheartedly agree. I’m not a parent, but I think that it’s just that easy to get involved and to make a friend, and when you’re curious about something, whether it’s beer or any kind of other culture, you just literally say hello to somebody and see what happens.
TM: Yes. And know that your framboise is out there waiting for you, as well.
T: And I don’t want to create a false illusion. Because life gets hard and conversations get hard and things get muddy at times. But you grow through those things, and you learn through those things. But in order to get an opportunity to do that, you’ve got to start somewhere. And it always starts with the “What’s up?” or “Hello?”
K: Beer is so good at just two things — a million things, but really good at two specific things in that case. One of them is helping to cut that cord of inhibition a little bit. And then the other part is, giving you something in common. One thing that we always focus on, and Tiesha I know you and I have talked about it, is that with craft beer, you’ve got that: “Aha. Oh, my God, this is what it can be” moment. That’s just one of the most special things that I’m aware of, is two people that are starting on this journey of “Oh, wow, it can taste like this and it can do this.” Everybody, I’m sure, in this virtual room —everybody listening, I’m sure — could speak about what that first moment was, when it felt like this whole world opened up of what this simple beverage could do and be, and the amount of people that you can meet out of that. I think we try to focus on that. I know between Beer Kulture and Bronx Brewery, that’s the special moment that we try to always fan the flames of. There is so much joy and possibility out there. To me, it doesn’t take a whole hell of a lot to connect two people, and beer is specifically good for those two reasons at doing that.
C: Yep, I hear you. I think that’s actually a wonderful place to conclude our convo here. Where can our listeners out there find out what’s going on with you guys? Is it Instagram, your websites? What’s up?
T: It depends on who’s looking, but beer listeners, potential people who may want to help sponsor the internship or make it possible to continue to do this, to support it through the year can do so at thebronxbrewery.com/beer-kulture-bronx-brewery-production-internship. I know that was really long. So if you go to beerculture.com, it will lead you directly to that. We are currently still looking for people to help continue to make this possible. The internship has started and kicked off, but we need to continue to do the work. So anybody who is interested in continuing to push forward and to be an active participant in the change can do so there. You can also follow Beer Kulture anywhere from Twitter to Facebook to Instagram. You spell culture with K, always.
C: “K” for kuz. And then for those who are interested in applying for the next round, when is that starting, and where can they send their applications?
T: The applications are rolling, so it’s open at all times. You can always submit an application. We’re selecting candidates every two months because the internship lasts two months, but the applications are always rolling.
C: Perfect.
K: We should be looking to announce in the next couple of days, and like Tiesha said, the next slot would be for July 1. So we’d look to fill that by about May 1. So if you’re thinking about it, you got some time. Then to echo Tiesha, if you’re somebody out there in a position to be able to help make this possible long-term, we’re looking for either a long-term title sponsor or somebody who would be able to help fund one round, offset the costs of one particular intern. Like everything else, it starts with the community, and as much as we can bring people together to make this possible, that’s where we are right now.
C: Sounds great.
K: A shout out to Damian Brown and Manuel Salvatori, Damien is our president, co-founder of the brewery, who’s been instrumental in putting this together. And Manny, our lead brewer, put together a two-month, super-robust, awesome curriculum. So if you do apply to this, if this is something you’re interested in, you’re going to get the high-level look and a hands-dirty look at everything, from how to package beer, how to move it around, how to cellar it, and eventually, how to design a recipe and actually create a recipe with us from the ground up. You’ll actually brew as part of the up-and-comer series. Those guys are not on this pod, but we would not be here period without them — but especially in terms of this internship.
T: Absolutely, and I cannot not shout-out the Beer Kulture team, because when I tell you I have the best team in the world, I mean that. That’s all facts. Like I said about Khris, he works very detailed and diligently on our recipes with our partners and brought a large wealth of knowledge in terms of our partnership. Shout out to him, shout out to AJ Keirans, who is our managing director and has been holding the fort down. Shout-out to Jasmine. She does everything in terms of our designs and events and keeping the community active and engaged. And shoutout to J, Smooth Jay. He’s our secretary, but he handles a lot of the paperwork side of things and makes sure that we’re organized, and we can’t do any of this without that. So, again, shout-out to the whole Beer Kulture team. Shout-out to our friends at the Bronx Brewery. So glad to be doing this with you guys. We love, love, love you, and what you have brought to this collaboration and this partnership in general. And shout-out to you guys. Shout out to Cat, Tim, Katie, all of you guys, Joanna. You guys have been amazing. Thank you for using your platform to elevate the stories of the people of our community.
C: Hey, that’s what we do.
K: Tiesha, thank you so much for everything.
C: So many audio hugs right now.
T: So many audio hugs.
K: Open offer, if you ever want to come to chat about this stuff, our backyard and our taproom open seven days a week. Come by — even if you’re just like, “Hey, what’s up?” You just want to come to chat beer? Let us know. Shoot us a DM on Instagram. We’ll introduce you to Brandon, who really has been at the heart and soul of making the backyard what it is and making us as engaged as we are in the community. We’d love to have you, and Tiesha, that goes for you whenever y’all come up north, too.
T: I will book my flight, not tomorrow, because y’all got snow out there. But I’ll be there. Nothing like a little New York City summer, so I’m out there.
C: For those in New York. If you’re here in the city, it’s right off the 6 train. It’s up there, but it is literally the South Bronx. It’s just over a little bit of water.
K: There’s also a secret passageway from Randall’s Island. For when it gets warmer, that’s one of the city’s best secrets. If you’re a biker and you’re on Randall’s — it’s like a “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” secret passageway to the South Bronx from Randall’s. So it’s right on the North Shore.
C: Well, thank you so much, everyone. This is awesome. Anyone listening out there who’s interested in getting into beer — especially if you want to work in beer — check out the internship, and we will see you next time.
K: Thank you for having us.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of “EOD Drinks.” If you’ve enjoyed this program, please leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps other people discover the show. And tell your friends. We want as many people as possible listening to this amazing program.
And now for the credits. “End of Day Drinks” is recorded live in New York City at VinePair’s headquarters. And it is produced, edited, and engineered by VinePair tastings director — yes, he wears a lot of hats — Keith Beavers. I also want to give a special thanks to VinePair’s co-founder, Josh Malin, to the executive editor Joanna Sciarrino, to our senior editor, Cat Wolinski, senior staff writer Tim McKirdy, and our associate editor Katie Brown. And a special shoutout to Danielle Grinberg, VinePair’s art director, who designed the sick logo for this program. The music for “End of Day Drinks” was produced, written, and recorded by Darby Cici. I’m VinePair co-founder Adam Teeter, and we’ll see you next week. Thanks a lot.
Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.
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