Small Lake City

S1, E43: TF Brewing Kevin & Britt Templin

• Erik Nilsson • Season 1 • Episode 43

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What happens when you mix passion, perseverance, and a pinch of creativity? You get TF Brewing, a gem in Salt Lake City's vibrant brewery scene. Join us as we sit down with founders Kevin and Britt Templin, who share their remarkable journey from brewing beer in a mine shaft at Alta to creating a beloved community hub that has earned international acclaim. From facing daunting challenges to celebrating rewarding moments, including expanding their operations despite a global pandemic, Kevin and Britt's story is a testament to the power of dedication and community spirit. 

Curious about the rich traditions behind some of the world's best breweries? We'll take you on a flavorful adventure through Bamberg and Munich, Germany, uncovering the secrets of their unique beers and quality grains. But that's not all; we'll also explore the vibrant cocktail culture of Mexico and how it has influenced TF Brewing's diverse beverage offerings. Hear about the numerous awards Kevin and Britt have scooped up, and learn about the meticulous processes that set their brews apart from the rest. This episode is a celebration of community, collaboration, and the intricate art of brewing award-winning beer.

Get ready to immerse yourself in the evolving craft beer scene, where lighter, easy-drinking beers are becoming fan favorites. From the precision of professional beer judging to the joy of creating unique cocktails, our conversation covers it all. We even touch on TF Brewing's exciting venture into winemaking and the endless pursuit of quality that drives Kevin and Britt. Finally, we share the sheer joy of connecting with friends and family over a well-crafted beverage. Whether it's analyzing beer recipes, enjoying a drink on the patio, or supporting local businesses, this episode highlights the strong sense of community and camaraderie that makes TF Brewing truly special.



Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time 

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Kevin Templin:

So we actually took the carboy, the fermentation vessel, and put it in that rail cart and pushed it back into the heckle mine. It's a mine that's right behind the old ski patrol house.

Britt Templin:

Our first time thinking like holy shit, we should do it. I remember having conversations in our backyard with beers and being like gosh, we just want it to feel like this.

Kevin Templin:

Breweries should be treated like laboratories. I mean, they should be spotless and completely sanitary. And winning Hellas last year was really nice. We went back-to-back gold medals with our hazy beer and the World Beer Cup. And Salt Lake's a great town. It's a big, clean city, super progressive. It's relevantly safe. I wouldn't move if I could. I mean, I might have a beach house, maybe a house in Italy, but I wouldn't move. This would be home base. If I had all the money in the world, I'd still live here.

Erik Nilsson:

What is up everybody and welcome back to the Small Lake City Podcast.

Erik Nilsson:

I'm your host, eric Nilsen, and it's no secret that Utah has some wonky alcohol laws, but for some reason, we still have a lot of amazing breweries and beer that's made here.

Erik Nilsson:

Now our story today starts at brewing beer in a mine shaft up at Alta, all the way towards creating one of the greatest spaces in Salt Lake to grab a beer with friends. That almost feels like you're not even in Salt Lake. And, if you haven't guessed by now, the place that I'm talking about is TF Brewing. Now, not only do they brew beers, do they have a great space, but they've also won a lot of international awards for the beers that they've created, and Kevin and Britt Templin are two people that are so invested in creating the best beer and the best experience for all of their customers. So today we hear about their story of moving here, being ski bums, finding each other at Alta, all the way towards creating one of my favorite places to grab a beer with friends and catch up. So definitely going to be a great episode for you all. I'm so excited for you to hear this conversation and, yeah, enjoy.

Britt Templin:

Like we're having beers in our backyard with our family and friends, and I think we've done that on a bigger scale for sure, this is just a big house.

Erik Nilsson:

And it keeps getting bigger. Because I remember the first time I came, it was in winter and so like, obviously, like the back wasn't open, right, and that's been expanded. And then now I mean that because this is like the barrel, like the room that we're in is also open a lot of the time as well, so it's it's got to be nice to be like, uh, we're gonna need more space right and and the barrel room came about.

Britt Templin:

We had this space, but COVID hit. We just wanted to provide extra space for people to space out, because we had to, and so this was kind of our indoor patio at the time, because people really like to sit outside. So yeah, this kind of just grew into this space, which it's worked out really nicely. But, yeah, we are. I think we're pretty maxed out at this point, but unless we take Fernando's space, Command and conquer Be like hey, listen, we want your space, here's an offer.

Erik Nilsson:

We want the whole block.

Kevin Templin:

Right, the whole block, so yeah, I mean, it's a good problem If you don't have enough space and you have more customers. You're going to find a way to make more space for more customers. You don't have enough space and you have more customers you're going to find a way to make more space for more customers.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, you know, I mean, it's a lot better than having too much space and trying to find customers right, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah we're very lucky and it's like, and again going back to like the community aspect and bringing people here, like a lot of people don't understand. I mean it's like exactly you're saying brit is like part of the thing that makes beer so great is being able to sit and enjoy it with someone. It's in the back of your backyard around a fire pit and just I mean sit and bullshit and laugh and have a good time. And like I mean there's so much cultural change going on in Utah, both I mean people coming in and then, like I mean people I mean falling out of love with religion, right, and it's fun to be like oh, let's go grab a beer and do this. Like oh, I really like beer. Like I don't know if I want to go to a brewery, it's like just hear me out. And then, and the next thing, I know they're like wait, that was really fun. Can we just, can we do that again?

Erik Nilsson:

It's like, yeah, and like my cousin who I was telling you about, kevin, but I have a cousin who lives in Willamette Valley down in Oregon where they grow great Pinot, great chard, and he was the one who really taught me about like what I termed like an adult night out Meaning. Okay, let's go get reservations at a restaurant. Go find a place, get maybe an appetizer, get some drinks, a cocktail. Go to dinner, maybe go grab another drink somewhere else. If we're really feeling it, we can go get dessert. But it's like great, because, like you start off, you're like, oh, this is fun, whatever. And then, as like you know, settling in.

Erik Nilsson:

Exactly, and so it's fun to. I usually make this one of the spots on that whenever I have a night out with you. Oh, thank you I love that.

Erik Nilsson:

Because, again, like I said, I mean like for me and my sister we love, like usually we'll always do a Sunday night, at least two or three times a month, of like I'll go to her house with a bottle of wine or six pack of beer, we'll just sit and I mean vent and talk, open up whatever. But this is always like if we're like hey, my house is a mess, or like I don't want to host you, like I'll meet you at TF, and so there's like so many great memories here and actually one of my favorite pictures of myself which sounds really selfish to say, but is in the back in the summer and I obviously have a fur in my hand and my legs are crossed obviously I have a foot in my hand and my legs are crossed.

Britt Templin:

I'm just laughing back no, I see, that is what we try to provide. Yeah, 100%, those are the best. And I mean we've had people I've had probably five couples tell me that they met here and they're getting married, or like it's just I mean I love those stories, so we have weddings in here quite a bit like receptions and things like that. So we've had a couple of weddings, which is wild.

Erik Nilsson:

Like you want to get married where?

Kevin Templin:

Like okay, like sure. This is a really nice room, though, if you look at trying to rent a party hall or like a private event room.

Britt Templin:

It's really beautiful. It seems like the right place. I think you've been here.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, I mean it's like again going I hate to use the word vibe so much, but like, yeah, like and like and I and it's fun too because like there's so much energy that goes into all of these barrels and all of these beers, and I mean people love it, exactly they love to be in it exactly, and it's like people who are also passionate about the beer and consuming. It's like, yeah, like it's a good place to be.

Britt Templin:

Yeah, we think so.

Erik Nilsson:

I agree. So I love kind of like the evolution of the beers that you, I mean you've seen at TF. I mean because again, like it was all started with lagers, kind of where that passion lies and then people find out I mean there's this whole evolution of IPAs and everything that's gone on in the past five, six years. But I mean from your perspective, your perspective of again like having full control, how has your perspective changed? Or the beers that you've liked change, or like even just your, I mean like let's call it research and development and experimentation. I mean, where has that led you? And kind of kind of alleys we do r&d all the time.

Kevin Templin:

It seems like every time we make um one-off specialty beers, really what they are in the background is they're just r d beers for future, core beers, and I mean we ex, I mean we have I mean and sometimes it's it's like us scrolling on instagram and I'm like, oh my god, that sounds so good or like, let's try it.

Britt Templin:

You know does sometimes.

Kevin Templin:

Yeah, why not everywhere you go, and when we travel, we travel quite a bit and you try different things and you see different things and you're like, oh, that'd be neat, we should try one of those. Or oh, I like this. Uh, how they did this bathroom in this place. This is interesting. Look at this, look at this light fixture we like those. Let me just try those at the place, you know. So, yeah, been to a million breweries and, um, you learn a lot every time you walk into some place. You always take something away, good or bad hopefully good but where are some of your favorite places you guys have been.

Erik Nilsson:

That I mean, whether it's I mean a brewery and a beer, or a place you're like oh well, beer like. I've never had beer like this in this specific place, the world well, you would say germany yeah, the birthplace of all?

Kevin Templin:

probably bomberg or or munich. Yeah, bomberg is where we get a lot of our grains from and we've been there several times, and it's just a beautiful old little castle town in franconia, north of munich, and they have wonderful beers there. That's famous for all their smoke beers that they have there. And the wireman malting facility is located on bomberg and so we we visit with those guys and have dinner and brew beers together and he's on the call list.

Kevin Templin:

The circle of trust yep 100, yeah, yeah, the wiremans are a good big part of the family. Yeah, what?

Erik Nilsson:

about you, bro. What have been some of your favorite places that you've had a beer been inspired by?

Britt Templin:

well, bomberg he drags, me drags me there. You know what I mean? I mean I I love when we were in Mexico we had not just beers but just killer cocktails and we were kind of really inspired by by that and again, like killer service, like great cocktails the beers are always good I mean, I would say Our cocktail menu is insane yeah our liquor offerings and wine offerings.

Kevin Templin:

Here it's getting better.

Erik Nilsson:

They're really, we're trying yeah because, like, there's one type of person I won't say I hate this type of person, but they, they're definitely a buzzkill is when again it's like hey, let's go like tf, we got a big group, let's go grab. See this. I'm like yeah, I don't want, I don't like beer.

Britt Templin:

I don't want it's like.

Erik Nilsson:

All right. Like usually means you haven't had enough beer or you haven't had the right beer right. But it's also my dad's perspective on sushi and he would try to force me to have sushi at happy sumo at gateway yeah all the time and that never worked right that's a whole nother side topic, um.

Erik Nilsson:

but yes, I mean it's good to have that like diverse offering and I know that there's um another great, another great based development coming up that we'll touch on in a minute. But I also love that you guys have been very Salt Lake Central and so one of my favorite businesses in Salt Lake has been, I mean, feiss. I've been going there since I was a sophomore in high school wanting to be the cool kid with the cool clothes, and now still somehow want to be the cool kid, thank you.

Erik Nilsson:

It's a. It's a. It's a journey, not a destination. I like to. I like to think that I'd make my like 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 year old self, like me you know we've done several collaboration beers with Feist.

Kevin Templin:

Both of my kids worked there too.

Erik Nilsson:

Oh, no way, I didn't know that part of things, Cause yeah, I mean, uh, Corey, I mean it's funny to find actually Corey's the only person who's looked me in the eyes and been like, no, I will not be on your podcast. Really I was like I get it, but anything else, If I say yes to you, you have to say yes to everyone. I'm like no, you don't. But again, another side topic.

Britt Templin:

He's a great guy.

Erik Nilsson:

Good guy and you follow him and he's such an interesting dude, from his passion for art, his passion for space, which I know. That's where, if you remind me of the, I think it's. Is it the same beer that you did this year, that you've done in the past, or is it a different?

Britt Templin:

one. We kind of switch them up. Same kind of space same, and we leave that up to him.

Erik Nilsson:

So yeah, yeah, he's definitely the creative guy that can come up with a beer and a name and a branding pretty quick it's, it's fun, they're fun, they're easy, and he makes it really easy and they're really fun. So you're like thank you for employing my children, thank you for um uh having a cool place and being a great partner.

Britt Templin:

Thank you for getting me sneakers.

Erik Nilsson:

Everybody wins all the times with high tide. Um. So I mean, do your, do your kids also help around here as much as much as well? Or?

Kevin Templin:

yeah my yeah, my son doesn't work there anymore. My daughter, I think she's done pretty much too, but they've worked there for the last couple years, and my son works porter. He works full-time in the brew house, so he produces beer five days a week father like son yeah, it's good. Yeah, we like it. My niece works here, my nephew works here, my brother just walked in. Uh, my son works here, my wife works here I mean so anybody, the dog, grandpa dogs have been here

Erik Nilsson:

um awards. I mean you guys have won so many countless awards and I like I want I'm not the person who would understand it the best, but I mean walk through something like your most I mean proud awards and like contextualize it, because again it's like it's one thing to be like oh, it's utah's best beer, which. I mean someone could say that about anything, but I know that there's been so many great things you guys have been able to accomplish. I mean especially going again from brewing beer in a mining shaft at Alta to where you are. I mean I mean, what does that mean for you guys? And and and what's next?

Kevin Templin:

I think producing a metal and award-winning beers is something that you have to brew the beer several times over and over and over and you trim it and trim it and try to get closer to where you're going to get to. And with competitions, it's basically you just put your best foot forward Fresh grain, fresh hops, clean tanks, clean floors, good attitude, Hit all your numbers as far as the brewing process goes which I don't know how deep you want to get into that and then you put it out out there and when it leaves and it goes into competition. If you can just look at each other and say, well, we did everything we can and we wouldn't change anything about that, so you win, you win, and that's always fun. And if you don't, you still put your best foot forward.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, and where some of these like awards and I mean competitions you entered things that I mean, was it always a goal for you to be a part of, or was it mostly just?

Kevin Templin:

Yeah, I like competition and I'm a competitive person, so I like competitions. I think it's fun and I think, if you want to prove yourself up against the best in the world, you gotta, you gotta put your uh, you gotta put your beers out there and see what the judges say, Cause the judges all know what your beer it's just a cup with a number on it. They have no clue whose beer it is.

Britt Templin:

Yeah.

Kevin Templin:

But I mean, yeah, I mean it was really good. I mean it went in hell this last year. It was really nice. We went back to back gold medals with our hazy beer and the world beer cup and you know.

Britt Templin:

So not only best in the state, but Best in.

Kevin Templin:

It's an international company. So what's huge? Yeah, it's huge, you know. And every year you, you go and and hopefully you pick something up and if you don't, you're, you're bummed and and you go home and try to figure out what went wrong and and and that kind of drives you to to keep trying and trying and trying to make better and better and higher quality beer, because it goes down a lot more than what the consumer saying to consumers just like oh, it's hoppy, ipa, yay, but you know it might be oxidized, it might have dms in it, might it be turbid, it maybe too bitter, not bitter enough, wrong color, wrong alcohol, not enough foam, too much foam. I mean there's a million different parameters that you have to try to wiggle those beers into if you, if you're going to hit in a competition and I know that's something that you've always been really good at.

Erik Nilsson:

Okay, we talked about we were setting up. We were setting up. Is that you love? I mean being on the other side of the competition side of things, of being a judge and and tasting a lot of these beers. I mean, I think that's the biggest thing that's helped me. How did you get into that originally?

Kevin Templin:

Um well, I've been to the Siebel sensory evaluation course seven times. I went to a little bit of schooling in Germany and did some stuff in Denver and Chicago and and, and you just start as you get picked up on a judging panel, especially like the bigger ones, like the world beer cup or the GABF. When those beers come out and you get towards the metal rounds, you really start.

Kevin Templin:

I have like a notebook I bring with me all the time and I always write down and say, okay, this is what they're looking for and this is the color. You know, the one that took fourth and fifth were just a little bit like this instead of like that, and so I note all that stuff and I think that helps when you get back into the lab and you can say, oh, we're going to enter our whatever, our Pilsner, and you say, well, I did the metal round at the GABF and World Beer Cup last year and this is really what they're looking for. And ours is a little too flabby and maybe it's not carbonated enough or maybe it's too bitter and the clarity or the color is a little wrong or it's oxidized or something like that, and I think that's helped as far as entering competitions and winning competitions. Being a professional beer judge has helped me immensely.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, yeah, I mean, and it's like, I mean the closest thing you can compare it to is like I mean a Somalia, and I mean to be able to have. I mean, it's so interesting to hear how passionate you are about it, cause, like, anyone can do a job, quote, unquote. But there becomes this like level of like, quote, professionalism of when it's like no, this is my craft, I want to own this, I want to learn more, I want to do this. Um, and especially the point of like, oh, I'm going to travel to germany and learn. I'm going to travel to denver and learn. I'm going to want to join all of these competitions and judge them, because I do want to taste beer and see what everyone's like, everyone's best foot forward. What does that look like, which I'm I'm sure is only echoed in a lot of the beers that you've brewed here and been able to do that? I mean, has that played a big, big impact in, in kind, of your role as the brewmaster and being able to put forward your best for your own beers?

Kevin Templin:

Oh for sure, 100%, yeah, 100%. I mean if you order a American Pale Ale, it should look and taste and smell like an American Pale Ale. I know there are places out there that say, well, this is our stout, this is our porter. When you look at it you're like it doesn't look like a porter, it doesn't smell like a porter, it doesn't taste like a porter. And they say, well, that's our porter. And I say, okay, that's fine, you know that's.

Kevin Templin:

I'm just a little too regimented about that. My ocd will not. Let me just rest on our laurels and be like, oh yeah, it's good enough, we'll just make this. This is our recipe and we're just going to squirt this beer out for the next 10 years and just keep it just how it is, because people like it, because beer can always be better. I mean every single, you're always trying to trim it and make it better, and we brew probably six to eight batches a week and there's not a single day that you don't trim just these micro little spots on it to make it better all the way around.

Erik Nilsson:

Totally yeah, and so I don't know if you guys are fans of the bear on Hulu.

Kevin Templin:

I am hands of the bear on hulu, I am, it's stressful, stressful for him, yelling at each other yelling and yelling.

Erik Nilsson:

I'm like this is no way to run it, I know you're busy, but it's yeah.

Kevin Templin:

No one needs to be screaming at each other. Yes, chef, yes chef, I'm like I like it, I don't go around people going yes brewmaster, yes brewmaster, so I don't yeah yeah, their thing that's their thing but it's like in the same vein of like oh, we need to have a very we need to control everything we control.

Erik Nilsson:

We do need to have a clean brewery. We do need to make sure that we're I mean measurement, best ingredients, best qualities, best before continually iterating, continually refining at all costs, and then so fun to see people have that.

Kevin Templin:

You can't make clean beer in a dirty brewery. I don't care what anyone says, we've seen it. Yes, you can make decent beer and yes, you can make good beer. But breweries should be treated like laboratories. I mean they should be spotless and completely sanitary and nothing's out of place. Everything's got a home. I mean the hammer doesn't live on top of the toolbox, it lives in the third drawer down. I mean there's stuff like that, like trash cans, just don't go wherever they go. Exactly where the trash cans go, the hoses get hung up a certain way. We scrub the floor every single day of the week. I mean there's because when you come in to make beer, you don't, you don't have to like struggle around, thinking, oh, it's dusty here, it's dirty there, where's this? It should be here, where's that? It's not in its home.

Kevin Templin:

So it's a real flow to the brewery when everything's in its spot and where it's supposed to be yeah, you know gotta run a tight ship oh yeah, yeah, you ask the guys them and I can be a real, I can be a real ball buster, but there's nobody that's worked for me and left that hasn't been like right on and and gone on to make a really good career and made um better beer wherever they land. I mean, we have a well, rita rita's great example. She went, she worked here, she was a bartender, learned how to make beer, went and got her master's in brewing and distilling science in edinburgh and now she's heading up a couple breweries over there and she says it all the time she's like it's messy, it's dirty.

Kevin Templin:

I can't stand it like this is no, so the the, the top hitters in the world, know what I'm talking about yeah it's cleanliness is everything yeah, everything you got to control all the variables that you can.

Erik Nilsson:

Oh yeah, everything as clean as possible. Yeah, I remember a question I was going to ask, so I mean, obviously I mean a lot of family that you've mentioned, that's. That's been a part of the of tf in general. I mean, did they move here specifically for that or was? Were they already in salt lake in in the meantime?

Britt Templin:

already in something okay no one's moved here to to work here.

Kevin Templin:

I'm like no, my, my brother lived here first and then I moved out and then my sister moved out and my mom, mom and dad, probably 20 years ago, said oh, everybody's there, we'll just come out too. Salt Lake's a great town. It's a big, clean city, super progressive, it's relevantly safe. It doesn't look like Denver or Portland and nothing against those cities those are wonderful places to visit but it just hasn't withered like those bigger cities have totally, you know what I mean.

Erik Nilsson:

Like, even when, um, that same cousin I was telling you about was in town last weekend and I made triada furta and he loved it. Um, we were walking around downtown, I mean, and he's like this feels weird, like, because we're walking around main streets. We, and he's like this feels weird, like, because we're walking around main street. So we went to white horse and got some food and some drink and we, while we were waiting for our table, went to london bell. I went to edison as well, and it's, he's like this is what uh, portland used to be like, yeah, before everything changed.

Erik Nilsson:

Like this vibrancy and this might, yeah, like and this is like, yeah, it's like this intersectionality of, of change where, that's, those cities are starting to not do as great. Right, I mean in Salt Lake, because, again, like, even something as simple as like the cleanliness of Salt Lake, like people don't understand how clean Salt Lake is until you, like, living in Seattle is like the amount of times I saw human feces on the sidewalk. Sometimes it being created and put on the sidewalk was very eye opening. Yeah, and so to have a city that's here I mean the amount of people that love going out and making it their home. I mean skiing, I mean you can make the list go on and on and on. And I always love the people where it's like oh yeah, like we came out, brother came out, other brother came staff, when we're checking IDs, like people will be like gosh.

Britt Templin:

there were a lot of people from California tonight, or mostly people from out of state or and a lot of times that happens during ski season, but, um, I just feel like there's more and more people migrating to Utah.

Erik Nilsson:

Not a bad place to be. No, it's hard to hate.

Kevin Templin:

It's really I wouldn't move if I could. I mean, I might have a beach beach house, maybe a house in italy, yeah, but I wouldn't move this to be home base. If I had all the money in the world, I'd still live here no, and it's like in that same point.

Erik Nilsson:

It's like, oh, then we have like a delta hub that's right in the middle of the country, or if you do want to get to the beach house, yeah, or you get to italy, yeah, it's easy it's almost, uh, a good thing, the whole religious um suppression of of the riffraff.

Kevin Templin:

It kind of keeps it clean, you know what I mean.

Erik Nilsson:

And you got to give them props for that yeah, credit where credits do, for sure for sure, yeah, um, because yeah, like, similarly, like matteo sonia, who I mean opened up, matteo, he, I mean there's an episode on it if you want the whole history but I mean, swimmer from Italy comes to the U after not making the Olympic team because of an injury. Oh, I was just school. Oh, it's actually that's one of my favorite episodes.

Kevin Templin:

I've done. What do you do? Was he a swimmer?

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, he was a long distance um uh freestyle swimmer Like he's, he still has the record to go um across and back on bear Lake.

Britt Templin:

Wow, so my God.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, so like, not only does he, I mean make a killer restaurant with an even better wine list, like and again I took my cousin there. He's like actually, like that was a really good restaurant. You guys have these.

Kevin Templin:

Now I'm the door and greets us in the whole nine yards and that's like the like.

Erik Nilsson:

The part of it too is like when he decides like, hey, I'm gonna start my own restaurant, his fan like. He's like, hey, family, you want to come move out and help. So his mom's still in the kitchen every morning creating their focaccia. Yeah, um, like the first time I went I was talking to the waiter just like kind of like blown away. I was like, oh, like, it's like a real place and I was like, well, who knows? Oh well, his family will. I'm like, oh well, where are they? He's like they're right there at the table next to you. That's my brother.

Kevin Templin:

Come say hi you don't want to say hi.

Erik Nilsson:

We're talking about how great of a family affair TF has become. Exactly so, naturally With his lager shirt on I know he's having a cup of orange juice.

Erik Nilsson:

Of course Looks like a cup of orange juice, something real nice and hazy. So thinking about, I mean, where you are and where you want to go, I mean, what are the next kind of steps for you guys? I mean, is there any like more awards you want to win, or kind of solidify more of those, any more products or different beers that you want to win, or kind of solidify more of those, any more products or different beers that you want to experiment with?

Kevin Templin:

or what is one of the awards at everything we enter for the rest of my life? There you go, yeah, because it feels good, you know. Then you know, four days, three days later you get back in the in the brew house and and start grinding on the next thing. But it's always good to you know high fives and pats on the back and we go get a whiskey and everybody's happy and you get that little adrenaline rush and then you get back to work.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, just like Santa, when he gets back from Christmas. It's working for next year, already A couple of days off, and he's back to making toys. I mean any. I mean, are there any other beers that you, I mean, are working on or want to work on that you've never done before, or is it mostly just kind of back to that? I refining, refining, refining.

Kevin Templin:

It's more refining. I mean we've made I don't want to say we've made every beer style, because there's some styles I don't really care to make. But you know you can never refine very traditional German lager beers. I mean it just takes centuries. I mean it takes forever.

Britt Templin:

I mean, we are building our wine program.

Kevin Templin:

Our wine program.

Erik Nilsson:

Perfect segue. So talking about that, I'm expanding into wine. I mean a very different world, very different. I mean obviously creation process et cetera, but I mean what sparked that and where are we at in that process?

Britt Templin:

I like wine, I like natural wines, I like wine, right, but I don't know a lot about wine, but I just know that I like it.

Erik Nilsson:

There's a great way to learn, and it's to start creating and serving your wine.

Britt Templin:

So we took a trip out to Healdsburg and Evan Lewandowski took us on a little tour of his winery and Healdsburg and all the vineyards out there and gosh, it was like one of the best, coolest places I've ever been. Really and really enjoyed our time out there and he was a gracious host and we stomped some grapes and I just loved the organic nature of the process and just to learn like how many grapes and varieties and how they're all different, I mean just so much, there's kind of a lot like hops, you know. So I don't know, I thought I think there are similarities in a weird way, but yeah, I just think it's a cool process, just natural and organic, you know.

Kevin Templin:

It's fermentation. Fermentation is fermentation.

Britt Templin:

Yeah.

Kevin Templin:

So you know you're taking wild yeast or laboratory yeast and converting sugars into, you know, a consumable product yeah, give kevin another thing to chew on.

Erik Nilsson:

And then, master and my, fermentation is interesting.

Kevin Templin:

I mean natural wine fermentation is crazy because we don't even pitch yeast into that, so we just rely on, you know, the natural trower of wherever we get our fruit from to do the fermentation.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, and it's interesting too, cause, like I mean, I think beer and wine are kind of in the same vein in this, but like again, it's been like centuries, if not millennia, that people have been I mean students, and I mean so attached to this process and to be like be able to join in, like I mean, hit your horse, it'd be like all right. Well, I want to try my best. I want to try my best at this process and then voluntarily pick another one to go dive into.

Britt Templin:

And it's cool because the craft beer world is changing a bit. Um, I think people are really loving loggers and Just those easy drinking beers. It's not so much the hazies and the pastry stouts and the smoothie beers, it's like wines and cocktails Gets me into trouble quick.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, exactly Because I can go to a brewery and like if I drink a Ferta, I'm good, two Fertas we're okay.

Britt Templin:

Three Fertas request Uber yeah, exactly, no matter where my car is yeah.

Kevin Templin:

I can't do three Fertas.

Britt Templin:

Oh, my God.

Kevin Templin:

I could do five Keller beers, but I can't do three Ferdas and that's exactly it.

Erik Nilsson:

So, in the same way I usually have in my fridge, I'll have usually Ferta, or, unless I'm sick of it, which happens rarely, then I'll try something else. But then I'll also have something. I mean a lager, a pilsner, some sort of lighter beer.

Kevin Templin:

Because, again, sometimes you just want to have three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten beers in the backyard or the porch or the patio with with friends. I prefer low abv beers, I like low abv beers.

Erik Nilsson:

Four to five percent, that's a perfect pocket for me. And I think, like, and again, like you kind of alluded to this brita, I think that's kind of where people are going because, like I have friends, it's like we'll go to the liquor store like, oh look, this is a 13 percent beer. I'm like, what do you like? I don't want to be fun. Sometimes fun, sometimes right, like we have a 12% beer. 11 something that we put out today.

Britt Templin:

So people really love those beers too. But take it home, enjoy it at home and have at it. Yeah. So I mean drink a cup, drink one or two here, but take the rest home Totally.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, I mean. So where are we at in the in the wine process? Are you guys still exploring it? I mean, do you have a deadline of when we can expect to be able to, I mean, grab a glass of wine that you guys have been making here?

Britt Templin:

It's out of draft right now.

Erik Nilsson:

Well, I know where I'm going.

Britt Templin:

It's out of draft right now yeah.

Kevin Templin:

We have more in fermentation right now than we have our fruit that we're getting delivered from Palisade in the fall.

Britt Templin:

Yep, and then we'll put some in bottles. So, yeah, and I feel like that is a vast world for us to really dive into and grow, and I don't know if he wants to go that way, but it's cool something different, yeah, something new, something different, something for him to chew on. And then cocktails too. I think we have a decent spirit list and some fun cocktails and trying to grow that as well.

Erik Nilsson:

So and that's the thing I love about cocktails. It's like I've started to appreciate more and more is, when you're dealing with such strong flavor profiles, you like the, the sky's the limit, because there's so many different ingredients, there's so many fun, unique ways to go. I mean, and you're I mean beholden to your own creativity. Yeah, and how have you guys gone on developing your own cocktail list? Has it mostly just been kind of you two trying, tasting and going through the same process, or we have a great um.

Britt Templin:

He's one of our managers, jack.

Erik Nilsson:

Okay.

Britt Templin:

Jack um has kind of really built our cocktail list and he knows a lot about cocktails and is continuing to grow, um and learning. We've really started to dive into tequilas, mezcals and things like that. So we are trying as much as we can to learn about those things and they're all super cool. It's cool to learn about all that stuff. So there's history behind it, which is really fun. Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely agree.

Erik Nilsson:

I mean I've actually been because in college. No, definitely agree. I mean I've actually been because I've been in college. I remember, like anyone hands me any tequila, I'm like please go away from me. And then now I'm like, now, hold on a minute, let's come back to this. And I was reading an article and it's probably very anecdotal, but it's like if you're going to drink an alcohol or like some sort of liquor, this is the liquor you should be drinking yeah, tequila. I was like, well, if I needed some sort of motivation, here we go.

Britt Templin:

Here we go, yep.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, outside of, I mean continue to refine beers, continue to refine cocktails dabble into wine. I mean anything else in the near I mean long-term future we can expect, and changes it to yet Higher quality, perfect. Continue to do better. I love that.

Kevin Templin:

Yeah, I mean it can never be good enough. It can never be good enough can never be good enough journeyed on a destination. Yeah, well, it will. It will never be good enough. I mean, no matter if you do it for another 50 years, it still won't be good enough, because you can't just say it's good and, like I said earlier, that's it. You always got to try to perfect it more and more and more and more. So cool, it's a never-ending battle, and I'm so. It's a never ending battle.

Erik Nilsson:

And I'm sure it's like picking a favorite child, but is there a beer that you have favorite, whether it's the one you prefer to drink or the one that you're the most proud of? Uh, of the batch.

Kevin Templin:

Yeah, probably. Keller beer or our Hellas is probably my favorite two beers that we make.

Erik Nilsson:

What about?

Britt Templin:

you, brett, mine is our Hellas.

Erik Nilsson:

Noted.

Kevin Templin:

I mean, and although I just fell in love with the Golfer's Delight, that's a really nice beer, yeah it's like an adjunct American lager beer, super effervescent, highly carbonated, made with rice and corn, and you could drink a lot of them.

Erik Nilsson:

Nice little porch pounder, or fairway pounder, I guess you could say.

Kevin Templin:

Yeah, sure.

Erik Nilsson:

I'm a passionate golfer, so I will have to try it out on the course and see how it fares, but from what I hear, I think we got a good candidate for the situation Are we out in can?

Kevin Templin:

Yeah, we're out right now. We have more in fermentation now, so it'll be out in about six hours.

Erik Nilsson:

We have it on draft right now in fermentation now, so it'll be out about six.

Kevin Templin:

We have it on draft right now still, I'll just put it in like a big old hydro flask. Yeah, you can get crawlers to go here. 32 ounce cans to go the can's really cute though.

Britt Templin:

It's like the masters, but it's usually that's a great.

Erik Nilsson:

Who does all of your like guys's graphic design?

Britt Templin:

uh, joseph tony, okay, does he did our mural in the back? Yeah, yeah, but he does a majority of them. And then we have um gosh, we have a couple others um lexi does like our watercolors, um ethan I think it's barnowski he does like our. He's doing our wine labels and then he's also doing like our uh, fooder circus series.

Erik Nilsson:

So we have a few different, but joseph does most of our our labels because, as much as I hate to say, I'm the person who was like I walk into the liquor store, I walk wherever I'm like yeah, this is kind of cute or like isn't that?

Kevin Templin:

cool, that's how I oh back in. I mean, it wasn't even four or five years ago. I just she's like, I want some wine. I just grab the coolest looking bottle. I'd be like, okay, this one looks cool.

Erik Nilsson:

That makes me feel a lot better about myself.

Kevin Templin:

That happens with beer too all the time. I mean, you can sell the hypiest beer out there and the liquid itself is okay, but the can sure is cool. Yeah Right, it's just another way of influencing people to purchase something, just by the way it looks also yeah, like that happened to me with.

Erik Nilsson:

I can't remember I got it the first time, but I get it every now and then at I live like right by handlebar okay, uh, like seventh north and third west, yeah, and the first time I got it was at a restaurant, like ninja versus unicorn yeah, what is this? And I see the can, I'm like okay okay and I have like actually it's a pretty good beer too. Yeah, like everybody wins, check, check, check yeah polygamy porter.

Kevin Templin:

When that came out from squatter wasatch, I mean that was the most obvious.

Erik Nilsson:

I mean they probably sold more merch than they did beer oh yeah, because I mean it had a great name and great graphics and everyone was like you know, it's Utah and all that stuff yeah, lean into it for sure I'll never forget, because as I grew up skiing at snowboard and we would always get pizza from pier 49 it's not pier 49 anymore um, below the tram, and I remember I'd always eat pizza and there'd be this polygamy porter sign and I was like I don't know what this means. But I'm very curious, right, I have no idea what it was, yeah, um, and then now obviously be able to enjoy it. There's a whole nother story. But I imagine you guys are still ski enthusiasts. But what else around? I mean Salt Lake do you guys like to enjoy it when you're not?

Britt Templin:

I feel like we're not ski enthusiasts as much at all anymore.

Kevin Templin:

We grinded up there for 15, 18 years.

Britt Templin:

We like the flip-flops and the shorts.

Kevin Templin:

He still works up there, my brother still works up there, he does, he is the ski, he, the, he still works up. My brother still works up there he does, he is the ski, he he does enough for both, for both of us. 34 years. Yeah, he works at the police station he gets some turns for us yeah yeah oh, he skis six, six and a half days a week, not about six times in a year it's kind of where I'm more of the six times a year than the six times a week I mean we had it.

Kevin Templin:

It was really good. That's where we met each other. I mean, there's when uh, it would be dumping 30 inches and there's 20 cars in the parking lot.

Britt Templin:

It's like it's so different, no big deal.

Kevin Templin:

But now it's like I gotta reserve a spot and I gotta wait in line, and then I gotta and it's probably just more excuses, I'd just rather go golfing or something else. And yeah, there, we had it, when we had it, and it was I feel, I feel lucky that we had it when we had, it so sure yeah that's kind of how it was with my friends.

Erik Nilsson:

I was like oh, like, hey, do you want to go golfing, like, or we could go drive to saint george and go golf. Yeah, all right, if we're gonna go skiing, I'm like we could drive to saint george and go golf, like that sounds better too I'm like am I getting old?

Britt Templin:

is that what it means? Like, do we, are we going to end up?

Kevin Templin:

Well, you know, life, life life just keeps moving on, moving on. I mean, I love skiing, I love the mountains. That's where I met my wife, that's where I got married, that's where I raised my kids. My brother still lives there, my whole family skied there, but it's. It's just not as easy as it used to be to just cruise up and make some turns. Just said you have to be a week ahead of time, you need a plan.

Britt Templin:

I'm like we need to start going down at 2 pm. There's so much planning, which means then we need to wake up at 5 o'clock to get going up the canyon. There's just so much to it that maybe we're just lazy. I don't know.

Erik Nilsson:

I'm in that camp as well. I'll be Friday evening. Well, like I'm like, I'll be friday evening, whatever. Like well, should I go skiing.

Britt Templin:

I'm like yeah, so I have to wake up.

Erik Nilsson:

What time I have to get everything ready. I have to go do this, I have to go pick up something. So I'm like, or we could sleep in our marketing girl.

Britt Templin:

She's, she's skiing all the time, all the time, and she. I just listen to her and like dream about what she's doing because, yeah, just live vicariously.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, exactly yeah um, I mean any other. I mean places you guys like to frequent, any other breweries you guys like to visit around salt lake whenever you're not drinking your own beer I would like to go over to fisher and have a beer.

Kevin Templin:

You know my code to be welder and have a beer, and I mean it really depends, but I'm not gonna to you. My favorite place to drink beer is my backyard.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah.

Kevin Templin:

I mean that's my favorite place. I go home, I get my slippers on, I got my dogs, I got my beer fridge out in the garage and I don't have to go anywhere. I don't have to worry about driving anywhere. I don't have to. You know what I mean. That's definitely my safe spot. Do you know what I mean? That's where I really like to dig in. That's probably where I do my best sensory too. It's really when I can dig into a beer and say well, this is what's going on here and maybe we should adjust it this way or that way. It's when you're comfortable and relaxed.

Erik Nilsson:

Don't disagree. Whenever I sit on my patio and just crack on a beer, have a glass of wine, I could go be around a bunch of people I don't know or don't like. We'll do it here.

Kevin Templin:

We still want to support all your neighbors. They're all good friends of ours. They all know that they can come ask us for anything anytime. Actually, we had a local brewery just in here this morning borrowing some grain from us. I like that.

Erik Nilsson:

I like that part of it. It's all like it's very collaborative in a lot of ways. I mean that's across everything from tech the art to.

Britt Templin:

I know I love that.

Erik Nilsson:

It's good what about you, brit, any? Any favorite places you like to go to? I?

Britt Templin:

like to go to red iguana and have a margarita there we go right, we like a good cocktail from Water Witch. Yeah, and I love to be here. I love to chat with our regulars and have a beer with my son. It's just our staff. We have great staff. Same thing. I just like to visit with everyone.

Kevin Templin:

I think if we're heading south, though, definitely our stop is Helper, helper it with everyone.

Britt Templin:

I think, if we're heading south, though, definitely our stop is Helper.

Kevin Templin:

Jaren's a real big part of our family and he opened up a brewery and he's doing very well.

Britt Templin:

Doing great.

Kevin Templin:

And he's making killer beers, which I knew he would.

Britt Templin:

And the food is great, the food is just unbelievably good and it's like the perfect spot.

Kevin Templin:

Yeah, it's a perfect spot. It's really cool. He's basically saved that time.

Erik Nilsson:

He has, for he's basically saved that time he has for sure. And I want to wrap up with the two questions I always ask everybody at the end is one if you guys could have someone on the Small Lake City podcast and hear more about, I mean, their story and what they've been up to, who would you want to hear from?

Kevin Templin:

Corey.

Britt Templin:

I would say I think Scott Gardner has a good story from water witch yeah, how about talking to him right now?

Erik Nilsson:

that's one I'm working on, but, yeah, I mean mit romney. That would be a good one it would be a good one, interesting about isaac winner or brendan coil from high west distillery working on that one as well. Um, um, but they're PR person. But yeah, scott, I had a Viet fam who I mean pretty bird, um forage and then every single uh, reality TV show and food show. It's like Scott, he's like we started kind of at the same time.

Britt Templin:

It's fun to see kind of what we've been able to accomplish so cool.

Erik Nilsson:

I mean, you're kind of it sounds like you're nailing it but it's good to have people be like well, I do want to hear this Like good, I'm going down the fiber bubble that's next week? No, totally. And then, secondly, if people want to find out more about, I mean, TF, the beers or come visit, I mean, what's the best places to find more info?

Britt Templin:

Instagram is always a good spot, gosh.

Kevin Templin:

What else Our website is great, yeah, tfbrewingcom our instagram and instagram just come in, come swing by, just come in. Yeah, just come say hi. You know I've been saying this for forever, but don't. If you're here at the brewery and you're having drinks, just say hey, is there a brewer around? I can see the brew house. We give tours of the drop of a hat every seven days a week.

Kevin Templin:

We do it and it's it's a really interesting way to say oh why? Why do you guys call it Southern German half? Why do you guys call this German pilsner? And I say, okay, well, let's go. We'll go over to the malt room and say this is where all the raw ingredients come from. This is a brewing process. This is how we grind it. This is the brew house. This is we boil it. We add hops here. We cool it here. This is a fermenter.

Kevin Templin:

After that 12, 13-minute chit-chat hanging out while we're having a beer, they actually leave and they know a lot more about us. But they also know a lot more about the brewing process, which makes them more interested, I guess, to try more beers, to try different beers, to say, oh, they have a Belgian Saison on, Well, I wonder what that means. Maybe they might know that the yeast is a big influence in that beer and that they use Belgian candy sugarian saison on. Well, I wonder what that means. Maybe they might know that the yeast is a big influence in that beer and that they use belgian candy sugar and then on and on. It just depends on what what beard is. But the more you you can educate the employees and really reel them in to to say you know, this is really where it all happens and this is why we do this and it's it's important. I think it gets them a little more hooked on the product.

Erik Nilsson:

Yeah, so come by, come ask for a brewmaster. You'll probably end up, Kevin, on a big, tangent third west, just north of what south are we on? Ninth south Ninth south, ninth, south, third west. Yeah, great place to be yeah.

Kevin Templin:

Appreciate you coming by. No, I mean thank you.

Erik Nilsson:

I mean, it's been fun playing this game of email ping pong. I'm like, hey, can we just be like I'm out of here? I'm like, oh, can we just be like I'm out of here, I'm out of here. So I'm glad we could make it happen, we're here. We did it.

Kevin Templin:

Yeah.

Erik Nilsson:

No, but thank you guys so much, I mean not only for've not been lying to people, our first canned beer that we wanted to release.

Kevin Templin:

We actually canned it on the day that we opened and before that my son played AAA hockey for about 12 years. So he traveled all over the country, constantly played juniors in Minnesota and all that stuff, and I'm like, what are we going to call this IPA? And he's like, oh, we'll call it Ferta, you know? So that's Ferta. Yeah, family for the boys okay, because I heard again.

Erik Nilsson:

Thank you guys so much for the time I will be back and drinking lots of beers very shortly appreciate it.

Britt Templin:

Thank you thank you guys.

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Erik Nilsson

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