Episode 17 - Alien Ale and Martian Margaritas with Jason DeBord

welcome to this episode of the wolf and

the shepherd today we're going to be

talking about

a little town in texas called aurora

it's about

oh 20 minutes or so from where we

actually record and

visiting with us today is jason debord

who is the proprietor of martian

margaritas

and he also has an excellent beer out

called alien l thanks for joining us

jason

thanks for having me so before we get

into your

nice little pub that you got there in

aurora we gotta kind of talk about the

elephant in the room which is

you know martian margaritas alien ale

why have somewhere like that in a little

town called

aurora texas um

i did a little bit of research about

aurora uh

on the number which kept coming out was

1897

1897 1897 1897

and it was right the first time yeah it

was

a ufo was said to have crashed into a

windmill

so like you know we

we talk about you know occasionally um

extraterrestrial life like how good it

is

kind of like yeah they must they must

have that crap

down right oh absolutely oh my goodness

they're

they're in these other solar systems

they must have that crap down but they

come here

they crash into a windmill i mean

seriously

i mean 1897. i mean look this isn't like

we had

you know a whole bunch of other stuff

going on they crashed

into a windmill well and of all the

places for them to choose to crash

i mean they could have crashed in you

know if they're coming to texas which

let's be honest

what better place to stop than texas but

they could have went to dallas they

could have went to fort worth they could

have went to houston

austin san antonio no they said you know

what

we're going to crash let's crash in

aurora

that that's true but if you had a whole

bunch of wreckage

from a ufo like crashing right what

would you do with it

would you kind of like dig a little bit

of a

you know thing in your backyard or we

threw it

well yeah they threw it down a well they

threw it down a nearby well that was it

it's a ufo

it's crashed you know what we're gonna

do we're going to throw it in a well

no that was how they do it makes a lot

of sense and

of course part of the story behind the

aurora crash

was you know here comes this uh ufo

crashes into the windmill which i mean

let's look at 1897 right

can't be a huge windmill can't be that

big of a windmill

size yeah somehow average sized windmill

yeah

average size one well let's you know it

is texas let's go above average size

yeah you know a little bit bigger than

regular winter everything's bigger in

texas right

so this alien spacecraft crashes into

this windmill

farmer decides not only not only do we

go ahead and throw all this stuff down a

well

but we got a cemetery here in town right

so we're not a farmer

a judge oh that's right it was a judge

yeah

it so this judge decides not only are we

gonna throw all this stuff down the well

right but we're gonna bury the pilot

in the cemetery right here in town yeah

but you

you have actually downloaded some free

games on the xbox game pass

oh sure yeah and there's been some stuff

you download those games and you've got

to do this you're going to do that blah

blah blah

but there has never been a point where

the simplicity have been like

oh a ufo has crashed let's

throw it in a well right i mean that

that

shouldn't be like they should be on the

checklist

i mean at the end of the day it's like

all right let's move on move on nothing

else is going to come from this i mean

at some point you've got to have

somebody in charge

who is kind of like well what should we

do with it and there should have been

some um

alternate kind of suggestions right it's

like hey

let's send it to the federal government

because this stuff is obviously not

kind of normal but right and then you've

got the other person's like

hey let's just throw it down a well well

yeah

and if you look kind of in the history

of aurora texas they were a little bit

upset about the railroad passing them

well they were

yeah but i don't think in 1897

it should be a let's pull the ufo card

and you know you talk about crashing in

dallas or other cities instead of aurora

in 1897 it was the biggest city

in wise county wow right thriving oh wow

i think it had more people there

then than now uh-huh yeah well aurora

now is you know as my dad would probably

call it a wide spot in the road

although it's growing i mean it's a

growing little community but

what's going on around us yeah yeah and

in your

situated what right there between boyd

and rome

because uh i i do remember taking my

kids to that cemetery to show them the

uh historical marker and everything

which i mean once again you gotta love

texas that they'll put on a historical

marker that a space man is buried

in this cemetery right but right there

in rome there's a dairy queen

and that used to be the closest dairy

queen whenever the one here in keller

closed

so we'd go out to rome and we'd go get a

blizzard and then it's like hey

by the way you want to go see a grave of

space man and all the kids they thought

i was kidding with them

oh here's a dad joke right no and then i

showed him the historical marker and of

course

they they loved that so we we've also

had some

uh shows and everything tv shows news

reports and all this about the aurora

incident

and jason i i know a lot of what goes on

now when aurora's kind of

grabbed a hold of that they even named

the guy they named him ned

and uh there there's things that happen

in aurora now

you know as far as kind of celebrating

that whole deal whether or not

there's some believe it was always a

hoax there's some believe that it

actually happened

but in taking that little incident that

happened way back then 1897 now you've

opened a place called

martian margaritas so tell us about that

well

i mean that's why i named it that

because it's very convenient

i was i was working in the area um i had

some friends

have a barbecue they had a little

barbecue trailer out there on the land

and it's right next to the city monument

where they have an alien and a spaceship

and it's just down the street from the

from the cemetery

so i have a little landscape company

it's funny how things are born but

i i bought a trailer from a guy who

converted it to a travel trailer for his

motorcycle so he had

ac in it he had electric in it and it

just dawned on me just

honestly just came out of nowhere my

friends had a trailer there for their

barbecue

i said i'm gonna knock a window in my

trailer

and sell margaritas right next to those

guys i'm gonna call it marshall

margaritas

it just dawned on me and then when i

contacted tabc

um they said no it's

you can't have wheels on it and be in a

permanent spot that's for country events

you have to have it's got to be

all right attached to the land yeah okay

i ordered a building

just a little building uh 20 by 10. and

i told

my barbecue friends i said hey i ordered

a building they said we're going to

order a building

so they ordered a building i built a 80

by

30 party patio uh-huh our buildings are

right next to each other the party pad

is in front so it's an outdoor venue

right so there's there's there's no

indoor seating i mean i have two seats

inside to meet tabc requirements

yeah you have to be able to sit inside

um you can walk inside theirs to

order you order mine at the bar you

order their barbecue

um we just finished uh covered stage

and we have live music every friday and

saturday so you can have barbecue

gonna have margaritas and when covet hit

we opened in february when kova hit

march

they shut everybody down right right

well our our business model was already

margaritas to go just like they do in

louisiana yeah so we opened a

drive-through

and we were busy yeah we were busier

than than we are now

wow it was yeah people were coming from

paradise texas

we'd always ask people where they're

coming from and and i got to know

everybody you know everybody out there

knew me

i knew everybody so i'll get our name

out there on social media too so a lot

of people know we're there

right um and now we have uh

haley's hot dogs haley is from haley's

comment of course everything's got to be

well it's got to be it's got to be space

related absolutely got to be space

related

um we're gonna there's gonna be

different food trucks coming out there

um so the way my and then

i always wanted to have my own beer of

course i'm a beer guy

so i i've never had a sip of beer in my

entire life

well you're in for a treat oh good

um so obviously because of the whole

alien theme i decided to name it alien

hail i know i wanted to be an

ale and hell you can brew faster so you

can get out

um so i was i don't want to

name names of the other um

uh beer companies and breweries that i

was

i was talking to but basically yeah i

wasn't worth a lot of people's time

right i just had this idea

um i had this little little bar

um so is this going to cost me money to

make it is going to cost me money

to distribute it it's going to cost me

money to sell it to you and then

so am i allowed to plug a radio station

sure sure

okay so there's there's no rules here oh

okay yeah so

jim lane is a promoter for is it

99 oh don't don't get me don't ask us

i'm gonna be he's gonna be upset with me

if if if i'm plugging him gently i think

it's 99.5 the wolf

it's a local countryside it's a local

country station i'm sorry if i got it

wrong but everybody knows who jim lane

is regardless

but he came out we were talking about

doing a a remote broadcast

and i didn't have the covered stage yet

and since i'm an outdoor venue

he don't even waste my time and money

scheduling it way in advance he shows up

it's raining there's nobody there so we

wanted to wait

but i started talking to him about my

just like i am to you and

talking about my beer he put me in touch

with the owner

of nacona brewery you know where nacona

is the old nocona boot factory

right a lot of people know about it's up

it's further

than us it's 287 you go through billy so

now it's half boot factory half brewery

wow okay

i'm dr cole meyer retired scientist

mad scientist has got great beer he

hired some talented guys that are

brewmasters i went out there

met with him jim lane's recommendation

he put

us in touch um and it's been great ever

since i mean

we we uh told dr komer my my idea

um he was on board got his brewmaster on

board we went over how we wanted to

taste and different flavors

yeah um i settled on not settled i mean

i discovered this

delicious nectar of the gods um and then

i came up with the logo

i had uh um there's a lot there's a long

process you got to get the barcode

approved you got to get the

alcohol analysis done well let's let's

walk through a little bit of that

because i know there's a lot of people

and and home brewing is kind of a big

deal now

uh a lot of people go to those home brew

shops and they

they want to brew their own beer next

thing you know

you know they think okay well i'm gonna

be the next

you know arthur guinness i'm gonna be

the next you know miller

coors bud whatever and then they realize

it's not just as easy as setting up a

brew shop in your garage

so it's mainly people who want diarrhea

for a week

well until they work out the uh yeah

that's how my first experience is

and i've heard you know a lot of the

horror stories behind brewing beard that

it's not really all about the brewing

it's about the cleaning

that all you are is a glorified janitor

you're just constantly cleaning

all of your equipment and trying to get

it right but so

you got the recipe you know that you got

the taste

now walk us through you know what once

you figured that part out

kind of some of the struggles that you

went through in getting it from

that nice little vat of beer that you

were tasting

in those glass bottles to that can that

you're holding right there in your hand

i mean that

that's a legitimate beer can now you got

to feel proud about that i mean that

that's not something you brought in

some little growler or some glass bottle

i mean it's a legitimate beer can with

the barcode and everything so

walk us through that i'm very proud of

it and i wish i could walk you through

the whole process

well what you can there's probably

certain things you can't say

well no it's not that i can't say it

they i'm i'm

fortunate that they they i had the

professionals help me

you know it was just all my idea all my

taste buds

it was a lot of their hard work it was a

lot of my patience

i invest it um financially into it

and they they took on the brunt of all

that

honestly i mean they got us they got us

through that he walked me through as he

was going through it told me how long it

was going to take

and honestly they they cut that time

drastically i mean

well well as motivated as i was to get

it out when they first told you it's

going to take how long what they say

um probably

a year eight months to a year okay that

was my guess yeah so

so they're probably saying hey jason

it's going to take 12 months yeah but

they delivered it in

six six okay so they cut that estimate

in half so that's why

i was waiting on the cans the good thing

is we were able to have it on tap

so i could still serve it you know i

could serve it on tap so i

had it in kegs um but i was excited i

was

i was pushing for this i mean i wanted

it in cans i wanted it in stores

um so right now where we stand

is um the the brewery signed with

fisher 59 so i think they're out of

denton they're

the beer distributor and they're

distributing it it's it's in several

stores in that way before that happened

i was self-distributing i had it in big

z gas station in rome

i have it right here in keller at my new

york pizza on north tarrant roof snow he

has it on tap he has it on

in can he's a big supporter of it um

where else oh we had a we had a uh beer

tasting at owl's discount liquor up in

decatur

i was up there with uh one of my beer

girls and we were giving out free

samples right

he's a big supporter of this he loves

the idea he carries like the most

local craft beers i've ever seen anybody

have he has a wall of it so

now have you found like during this

covert period

it's helped you to kind of

i don't know maybe maybe kind of

centralize and see where your pattern is

going

and where you're going to go from now on

or what or was it just i mean

you know you've got bars which you know

are closed down and people can't

drink outside the bars and you

you know you've obviously got your beer

and trying to find all your different

um channels of distribution but i mean

did it did it change anything for you

like when this suddenly came about were

you like were you on a path

and then it was like oh my goodness i've

got to find a different path to try and

get this going

honestly i i feel bad because it

affected so many people in such a

negative way

yeah that it actually helped propel us

right i mean

it really helped us other things i had

going on it shut a lot of things down

you know i'm a busy guy with a lot of

things yeah and it shut those things

down so i could actually focus

on building the brand sure promoting the

bar

and like i said we opened that

drive-through to adapt

and um to the situation and it just it

kind of blew up and

this was just patience we would i think

it initially we were afraid it was going

to slow this down

right it did it did keep us from one

big distributor before covet yeah

we had already spoken had a big

presentation with one that was really on

board

right with distributing it they were

excited about it

um but after coke during

covet once we got it canned they yeah

they don't have time for us they're so

busy

sure they can't get enough of yeah

another beer

excuse me um they can't get enough of

the other beer out fast enough

so they didn't have time for us so

that's the only hiccup

um but there's there like i said we just

signed one distributor they're looking

at

two more in january i think they're

legally allowed to sign with

three right okay so they may be looking

at

two more the the one they have is is

doing phenomenal from what i understand

and distribute it and stores are

requesting it that's good and everybody

taste it are you ready to taste it i'm

ready to taste it absolutely yeah

sir absolutely sir um

everybody taste it i i've been getting

positive positive feedback even people

to say don't drink beer

um i've had performers out there friday

saturday night i'll give

i give them drinks but when they when

they leave for the night they buy

a six-pack or twelve pounds to take

their friends for themselves

you see this nice uh oh yeah saddle

saddle

there you go sir so i'm i'm gonna

kind of look here on the can here you

know and of course we're

we're gonna we're gonna post pictures of

this and and all the good stuff

uh that you can you know find on our

facebook site and everything else but

alien l area 114 and out of this world

ale in the early morning hours of april

17

1897 the residents of aurora texas were

awakened by

low-flying craft traveling over the town

the struggling craft crashed into the

windmill of judge proctor's land

which the town council has named area

114

there was little left when the residents

arrived at the crash site

burning debris a deceased alien body and

a cryptic paper

what was on that paper the top secret

recipe for what we

now call area 114 alien ale

oh the taste and you'll see oh sorry

one taste and you'll see why it was out

of this world there was a little piece

of ice on there that's why i

said it was oh so uh 4.8 alcohol by

volume

and uh if you drink this

while you're pregnant it might cause

problems so

uh before we try to have your baby will

have a

supernatural ability yeah a bit big

alien eyes

does have telepathy now before you try

this

did you take a pregnancy test um

[Music]

i'm gonna take that as a no were you

asking about my

yes i'm asking you about yours no okay

all right

so uh let's all right train here

crack this open dang sun strength

oh that is good stuff that is good so i

can actually see

why you're talking about the whole you

know people that don't necessarily

like beer being into this doesn't have

that it's not real hoppy yeah it doesn't

have that pilsner

beer taste you know when we're walking

around we're 16 years old we sneak up to

dad and grab his beer can

of his schlitz or something like that

and take that taste and say oh this is

terrible

this is one i wouldn't want my kids to

drink for their first sip because maybe

they're going to be hooked on beer i

mean

my kid's first sip of beer was all

guinness and so they all think that

that's what

beer tastes like and yeah so i did well

there

although i love i love guinness but uh

but man i mean it's nice this that is

that is a fantastic beer i mean that is

really good it is a nice beer i wanted

to make it you know the drinkability

you can drink five or six you know i

don't want to have any beer you drink

one or two

yeah now uh you talked about it being on

tap

and in cans bottles no

i don't think that the brewery that i'm

with that just does cans

so that seems to be a new thing with

beers now

it it was always in cans and then

bottles came along

and now everything's going back to cans

and

to be honest with you i'd rather drink a

beer

yeah i'd rather drink a beer out of a

can i don't know why

i think it stays colder longer you don't

you don't have to drink it as fast i

think yeah it makes

it it actually costs it actually costs

more money

to produce to put it in the bottles yeah

and i heard and i heard like storage uh

certain things with bottles you got to

be careful where you store them like if

there's too much light in the bottle

it's it's messing with the flavor of the

beer and cans it's more

it's more protected yeah and we're

actually you see how this is a

label a wrap label they have a machine

out there that does this

oh yeah so yeah i see that but now we've

ordered

so there's a can shortage i don't know

if you know this all brewers know it and

all distributors not there really

there's a cam search for beers

but they found a supplier and they we

secured

tens of thousands of cans and so now

we're going to print this same logo on

the can

it's going to be printed directly onto

can it won't be a wrap like it is

gotcha so now do you have any

distribution through stores

or anything at the moment oh yeah yeah

officially fisher 59

and denton is our distributor all right

for nicona

okay so i have rights to the beer right

kona

has rights to the beer they're the ones

that sign with the distributors

um and so yeah so they're distributed in

stores now there's ones

in the kona that are requesting it i'm

hoping that's in debt and i don't know

all this

i didn't get the list yet it comes out

next week yeah

i'll have i'll have a when i go to the

actually thursday i should have a list

right where it's at they gave me a list

before and i don't know if that list

stayed true okay i don't know if it's

changed since the since the scene yeah

because i'm telling you drinking it it's

a nice

no it it your tongue this is some nice

that

that is a great beer i brought you a

case it it it really is good

that's a good taste i i'm so i've got to

be honest

i i honestly thought it it would

probably be

pretty good it'd be just like one of

those oh

you know it's pretty good beer but i i

gotta hand it tj's and that's a

fantastic beer i mean

it really is a nice tasting beer thank

you

and you know i like the logo because i

think it stands out yeah and you know

how not what these are like

we bought a vodka that's shaped like a

alien

okay what brand or whatever it's a

novelty right sure so so you buy it

because it matches what i'm going out

there with the alien theme right right

because of the novelty but you taste it

it tastes like crap so you won't buy it

again right

right but you gotta sold so this i i

went off the same thing like people see

this it stands out you'll be like oh

i'll try it

yeah you know and then you try and

they're like oh crap it's actually

really good

right and then you'll buy some more that

is nice and nice tasting beer yeah when

i had it on tap before we had it in can

when we were doing the drive-through

we're going to drive through with the

margaritas

people wanted this i was selling it to

them by the gallon

in our in our margarita to-go containers

they wanted it on tap

and you know because that's really what

pushed me

to try to get it in cans even faster

like like my customers

wanted this in cans because you know tap

beer is not going to

hold yeah you know right it's it's going

to go flat

you can drink it fast you can put it in

a growler but

it's only going to last so long right in

a growler where a can

you throw it in the fridge and it's

ready when you're ready

now i still do have one customer i won't

i won't buy him out but

he still insists on buying it in the

gallon bag because that way his

his wife can't monitor how much he

drinks he can say oh and he drank

equivalent of

two beers right you know because she'll

she's going to drink the six because i

was like i got him six packs and he's

like no no and then she'll be like oh

you had this money he had this money

he's like she has no idea how many i

have

yeah yeah yeah you know what once again

on this podcast we're always trying to

hand out good advice

and and that's pretty good advice so i

mean if you're gonna go pick up this

beer

maybe you talk to jason and say you know

my wife watches my alcohol intake maybe

i need to go ahead and have it in the

bags or something like that because i

don't want her

counting the empty cans in the in the

trash can outside

or or the recycle bin sorry

so um where are you going from this

i mean this is um honestly honestly a

lovely tasting beer

thank you i'm i'm just really trying to

get it in

all the stores trying to promote it i

want to walk in walmart in the beer

section and

it's there and take pride in knowing

that's my problem right

um we are gonna eventually once we once

we

get it distributed and sell enough to

pay for it

one thing that's unique that no

um micro brewery or craft beers do

i don't know if you're saying on

podcasts i want them to steal my idea

but hey more power tone

you heard it here first i want to do my

yeah but hey this is all officially

trademarked so

yeah i want to do my tab green i want to

do my tab green you know like monster

like everybody drinks but no no craft

beer does it so i want to do this like

fluorescent green

and then eventually because it takes a

lot of work and it takes a lot of money

but

i want to have it like the little alien

head cut out oh yeah

just to make it a little bit more trendy

and a little bit more desirable when you

see it

you know yeah no because i mean i'll be

honest with you

i mean i'm not a big fan of a lot of

beers

but i mean this stuff is i mean it

tastes good mm-hmm

does this not taste good i mean this

stuff tastes well there

there was a hole in the bottom of mine

no i mean

what have you got in terms of you know

how are you going to promote it

going forward i mean you know we're in

this kind of

covered thing of like almost everything

has to be online now in terms of

promotion it's hard to kind of have

you know face-to-face promotions and

building things where are you going to

go from here

i've done face-to-face promotions at

yeah owls discount liquor

people come in the liquor store so i

want to do more of that i want to do

more things like this i'm getting it on

social media

sure um i'm actually um

i've gone to bars like you know my wife

didn't believe me but i was actually

there to try to make connections for

for well you know that's because her

name is lisa

and if you're married to a woman named

lisa she's not going to believe anything

you say

yeah so but i actually made some

connections with some people with some

bars that work at their managers at

other places and bars

and they're open to carrying my beer and

i met the owner of

uh keller tavern at my new york pizza

okay and he's open to meeting with me

and carrying my beer there because he

got changes out of tap all the time

yeah so i'm just actually going to visit

places in person

even though a lot of plates because now

they're open and back up

with limited capacity if i can meet with

the owners or managers

um tell them about my product leave them

some samples see what they think

what is this what is the struggle of

somebody that's got this brand new beer

i mean you don't have the

the name miller light coors light bud

light behind you right

you know you you've got this one beer

what what is that big struggle

of being able to take a product

like this and put it in front of a bar

and say

we want you to carry our beer what what

what's the big struggle time

availability

really i mean i'm a dad i have a other

full-time jobs yeah um so i devote all

my free time to it

you know weekends evenings like now um

really just just time availability and

and my time availability um

to to catch that person i need to you

can't always catch an owner

yeah right and managers will be like

i'll take your card out i'll i'll give

it to

somebody you never hear and you got to

be persistent but you don't be too

persistent you want to be pushy and

they blow you off like a yeah

encyclopedia salesman

so um just time time and timing

you know sure so my when i'm available

doesn't necessarily

of course mine when they're available so

and that's the thing i mean

you know there are a lot of beers out

there i mean i think

and the other i'm sorry yeah the the

other thing is

like i want to destroy like i have

friends in other states and then

pennsylvania

he wants a sword i was in the army with

him we're both veterans we're on

facebook he sees what i'm doing here

he wants to carry it there well i

i know certain there's distribution laws

and all that stuff you gotta have a

distributor

so those old interstate commerce laws

had a lot to do with so i'm about to

learn how to navigate that yeah

because you know i i wanted other places

and i i think

somewhere like roswell new mexico this

would do great yeah martial margaritas

would do well

aileen now will do well yeah and i'll be

remiss i gotta i gotta do it before i

forget

i know we're in the middle of this but

when we're talking about crashing into

the windmill

and the barbecue place next to me that's

why they're called smoking windmill

ah all right smoking windmill barbecue

that's for an

alien okay i actually want to like to do

a big thing on top of them that's safe

yeah

no for the win and like have the

spacecraft

right on my end and it looks like it's

going into their windmill

yeah that sounds nice

barbecue the owner was the executive

chef for bob's steak and chop house for

all ten years

amazing talent yeah no different menu

all the time

he's got a thing called the ufo it's a

stuffed poblano pepper

stuffed with brisket and cream cheese

wrapped in bacon with his signature

sauce

it's amazing and it's a meal yeah you

know i keep threatening that

since he's calling it ufo did i get a

royalty you know yeah oh i know i know

you

i know you yeah yeah you got to get your

penny but

but yeah uh actually i mean i know sean

merchant

uh grew up with his brother uh his

brother his brother built my deck

well sean has three brothers so i grew

up with the older brother

but but yeah i i i know shawn and i

remember

you know tasting some of his food that

he cooked in some of his restaurants

he is an amazing chef so uh yeah

props to sean uh hadn't seen me in a

while but uh

you know glad you're kind of tied up

with him because

i would go into one of his restaurants

and i'd sit down and

you know he'd come up and he'd say oh

you know glad you came and i'm like sean

just

cook me something you know i i don't

want to order just you go make me

something

and bring it to me and every time he did

it was just

absolutely fantastic so now that he's

the

proprietor or one of the proprietors i

don't want to speak out of turn here i

don't know exactly how that works but

at least he's involved with the show

right yeah knowing

the whole area area 114 you know he's

there i'm there

we had two others we we had another uh

two shops

um it didn't work out with them they're

moving on to

bigger better things and then uh we'll

see what else

what what happens in the future yeah no

no what do you what do you think

i mean also my my snow

snow cone stand was uh it was uh

cosmic snow cosmic snow so i had my

youngest daughter working in there and

some some local kids

helped us um but now it's out of season

so that's why we opened

these hot dogs it is the snow cone stain

coming back

yeah yeah and yeah yeah when okay it'll

be back

and it'll be bigger and better we went

through some snack foods we rushed to

get it out there

um due to demand sure virgin margaritas

and

stuff for the kids we really weren't

ready for so

um it it was good there were i had a lot

of positive feedback but then i had

fair not so positive feedback and i'm

going to learn from that

you know that's good i'm new to that and

i accept that and

and and that's what i appreciate from my

my customers because they're all locals

so they live there they want it to

succeed they're gonna they're gonna be

honest with me

and tell me what i need to work on and

we're going to work on it and we're

going to come back

bigger and better and stronger and well

the the good part though is that you're

at least willing to listen

oh yeah you know a lot of times

people want to give feedback but they

feel like they're not being heard you

have sites like yelp.com and people

think that they're giving feedback and

somebody's actually going to look at it

listen to it or whatever but

it's good to hear that you're actually

listening to it and saying oh okay

yeah that's a good idea you know i'm

going to fix this i'm i'm going to make

this better it's a relationship with the

community you know

we're the only where do you where do you

own anything in town honestly

sure so i wanted to do well they want us

to do well so it's it's

it's a marriage you know do you do you

feel you have a good

social media presence in terms of like

like yeah um i had someone helping me

with that and now i hired a professional

yeah um and it's going really well and

i was discount liquor that's how he

reached out to me he thought we were

doing amazing you know he's a very

successful

little store out indicator and he's got

four locations and he was impressed with

it yeah that's why he reached out to me

um so yeah that's that's awesome i mean

now

and i'm grateful for it for the help i

have with him because now now going

forward

i mean we're all in this kind of

situation whereby they say that

we're we're gonna go with the second

wave and everything else but

you know i mean i think most of us you

know here in texas

still it's mostly bs but

um you know you do you think going

forward i mean do you

have a aggressive strategy kind of like

to get get this thing moving or do you

just want to roll with

how everything's coming why why i have

the

desire and why i have the energy and why

i have the time ever every free minute i

have

yeah i'm i'm dedicated to this beer

making it

yeah you know i want 10 20 years from

now when when i'm retired i walk into a

store

and pick up my beer yeah and it's still

there sure you know

this isn't a fly by night i'm in it for

the long haul i want this to be around

for

i won't just be around like bud light

like the

beers you're mentioning miller like i

want it to be around forever

yeah right yeah i mean i mean there's

some craft beers we know is going to be

around

around forever you know like dallas

blonde maybe that pickle beer from from

martin house

yeah scheinerbach schneiderbach that's

i'm glad you mentioned that that's the

one i always talked about because i was

looking at their history and how long it

took them

like if it takes me 10 or 20 years to

get in there hey that's how i'm going to

come and go i'm going to keep

pressing to get it where it's there

there were

years that the special brewery was there

and they were brewing beer and you would

go into a bar

in texas and you could order a shiner

which

most people when they order shiner they

think they're getting a shiner box but

you actually got a shiner or a shiner

light or something like that when it was

down south

and then all of a sudden you'd order a

shiner anywhere else you got a shiner

block

now shiner has all these beers all over

the place but

they've been down there for a hundred

years i mean it it took him a hundred

years

and you know the the craft brew thing

wasn't that big of a deal for a long

time

now it is a big deal here here's what's

going to get me there faster than

schneiderbot

when they started there wasn't all the

social media there wasn't podcasts there

wasn't

all this you know internet there wasn't

any of that so i have all that on my

side

so i mean if it takes a hundred years it

takes a hundred years

but i'd like to do it in five or ten you

know

i don't think it's gonna take you a

hundred years no no not not with the

beer that tastes this good because

it's kind of like uh you know him and i

we were talking when we started this

podcast it's about content

your content is the taste of the beer i

mean you you can put whatever you want

out on social media you can have a great

looking label

you can have a great marketing campaign

you can have all that but if your

product sucks your product

sucks right so to me

your product kind of speaks for itself

in being good

you just got to get it in front of

people yeah and and i prom you know i

made

i made a a blanket promise to to nakona

brewery that i was going to work

you know to to make this their number

one selling beer they have other beers

they have great beers

sure they have nacona light they have

nakona sunset

they they have a whole line of great

beers that i carry at my bar um

but i told them this is going to be your

number one selling beer good and they're

and they're great with that they're

happy to hear that they want me to make

it their number one so

and by the way so how long has this been

out now

i don't think i asked you that yet now

i'm a couple beers in i'd say

two well in cans two two months or less

yeah that that's what i mean in cans

obviously you've

you've had it at your place 60 days or

less yeah so

60 days or less and uh yeah you're

already spreading out that fast i mean

that

yeah that that's an accomplishment in

and of itself

so all it's going to do is go from there

right now

now some sitting here kind of drinking

it um

it has a very almost like avocado

thai vegetables can you mute his mic

yeah i mean i mean what what what basis

what

taste did you do that that is what did

you do with this in terms of taste of

beer

i left it up to the brewmaster toting

just how i like beer to taste where i

want to hit me on the pallet

not too hoppy drinkability clear crisp

finish

hit me in the middle of the pallet and

i'm guessing the hops and barley i don't

know exactly his process

it's nice man i mean i tell you drinking

this this is

so for for the record this is probably

why we declared independence from y'all

because

there's no avocado taste in this at all

thank you thank you wow i'm just saying

i'm glad he's enjoying it but that word

i mean it tastes kind of vegetable-wise

i'm in it no i mean it's just a nice

freaking dice

maybe it's the clean crisp taste from

this one from the steel reserves

well that you know there there is that

let's be honest there is that it you've

you kind of

dirtied your palate up with the steel

reserve

come on yes yes that's exactly what

happened

[Laughter]

slight white ways questions hey honestly

i don't care so many guns on me

i don't care what people think it tastes

like if you enjoy it you enjoy it tastes

like this or that

i'm not a big fan of the taste of

cilantro if you said it tastes like

cilantro but you loved it

i'm happy for you it's got some

vegetable taste to it i kind of like

that

well yeah you do have a a different

palette than most i i do have to admit

that and you're able to

to pick out some taste but you are

saying you'll like it

i like it yeah so you know if

if that's what floats your boat that's

what floats your boat just like our

boats got floated across the ocean

to escape the tyranny that you're

[ __ ] vegetables

i'm a straight meat eater oh absolutely

here oh yeah yeah

speaking of speaking of loving that beer

yeah i'm pretty much sure i'm ready for

another one

oh i'm sorry oh no that's okay does he

have something i know you're off duty

you know you're you're not truly you

know tending bar here

that's pulling out some elk oh that that

would be nice yeah

so jason let's

so now let's let's kind of look into the

future right so

alien ale takes over

would there be another beer yeah um i've

had friends talk to me about that that

love it so much

everyone's already talking about the

next thing i'm like like you said i'm

trying to focus on

this to them to to my friends who

you know never made their own beer or

whatever like you said it's not an easy

process i have a beer in a can

it's my beer in a can and it wasn't an

easy process

um so to them i've already made it so

they're like what's the next thing

you need to do you need to do one with

an american flag you need to do a

um this type i'm getting lots of advice

i'm i'm i'm listening to it all i mean

it's not

it's nothing negative but i'm still

i do want there to be a next beer sure

but before anyone can franchise anything

you got to make the first one a success

true yeah um this this is off to a great

start

yeah it's not where i need it to be yet

right well i i talk to my daughter all

the time and i always tell her

you know you're always looking at step

12 and you're not past step one yet

you know and and i think you know

obviously you're much more past step one

here but it it's so easy to kind of

look forward and say well you know that

this is already gaining traction let me

jump into the

next thing before you've actually

completed

what you were trying to do with the

first thing so i i truly appreciate that

but

but you do have some gears turning yeah

you've got some plans here but

but right now first and foremost is

alien ill

we got to get that gaining traction yep

you got to get everywhere

walking walmart and kroger and see it on

the yeah

no i mean so when the next one will come

that's when the next one was

right so so would you would you say that

the

the final point of you realizing you

made it is when you

ask lisa go grab me my beer

and she says oh okay well i'll finally

go get you a beer

because i know how lisa's are right and

she's probably not going to the fridge

and grabbing your beer you're grabbing

your own beer but when you finally say

go grab me

my beer and she actually brings you your

beer

bit do you feel like maybe that's when

you made it no i feel like when i make

it is when i say grab me a beer

and she brings me my beer there you go

yeah

yeah hey if i can get her bring me any

beer i made it absolutely

yeah if you if you got it like that at

your house just tell me what i need to

do

well once again that that's all about

being married to a woman named lisa i i

feel your pain man

that's how that's having my kids go get

it

so so what do your kids think about dad

and their beard

i mean that that's got to be kind of

cool oh kayla's so proud um you know she

was

she was working a drive-through she was

working a drive-through for us

um jocelyn was in the in the snow cone

stand but

but kayla's got friends um she's had

their parents come out there she's

promoted me had her friends

come out there they've got her

margaritas got her beer then she'll take

my beer from my house

and say so-and-so's dad wants to try it

i'm like well you stop giving my beer

away you know

well that's my personal and she's like

no no they're going to pay her they're

going to pay they're going to pay

so she takes my beer and takes it of

course when she comes home they loved it

they loved it

where's my oh she kept you know she

keeps the money well

she's she's my kids not only that but

then you

honestly you got to think well so i'm

going to send my

under 21 daughter out with my beer

and then you kind of forget about that

part you said she was under 21. i didn't

oh

okay i'm talking about my 21 year old oh

oh i

yeah i i got them confused yeah i i know

you're

allowed to promote it but not drink it

yeah

but uh but yeah she's actually she's

really proud

um she's wanting all her friends dads to

drink it you know and and she loves it

you know that's not the taste she

doesn't drink beer obviously but

she just loves that i i created just the

over 21

daughter drinks the beer not not the

under 21.

yeah we'll make sure to make that clear

yeah

no i mean it's actually hard now i mean

you go

into even somewhere like tom thumb

or kroger and you see just so many

different beers

like new beers on there and it's hard to

break into that market

very you know like let me just kind of

put my beer in amongst these beers

like and i'm not that's why i'm hoping

the label yeah

i don't know i'm not blowing smoke out

of your butt i mean this is a good

tasting beer

but just me saying it's good tasting

beer i mean it's not gonna get it on

the shelf on the shelf and stuff but

you know you have a lot of drinks on the

shelf which just tastes

terrible and i sometimes wonder

because you know i've drank a bunch of

them kind of uh

how how on earth did you get in their

shelf space because your drink tastes

terrible

it's funny you say that i'm not gonna

point out the beer but at um

a big z they were having trouble finding

space for mine and there was one that's

in there that i see in a lot of places

and they're like well no one buys this

one

so they took it out and put it in the

back and put my beer there and the first

case they had

i came back the next day and i was happy

because

because the girls that work there are

are big supporters you know sure they

live in a community

and and and the owners kind of you know

unsure

but he gave me a chance with the case

but i was glad he was there when she

said oh you need to bring more beer that

case was gone like that i was like okay

he's like bring me four more i was like

okay and i brought four more cases

and i don't even have the 10 signs yet

but you know when you walk in you know

fluorescent signs and the 10 signs

yeah so i'm going to start with 10 signs

so i have some getting made it's going

to be this logo that says ayley now

okay so when you walk in the store

that's carrying it

you'll see my tin sign and if you don't

see the beer you'll see the tin cycle

like what is that you know

and my tap handle i have tap handle it

if you go to my new york pizza you'll

see it there

yeah he has one of my tap panels that i

made through etsy

yeah but i'm getting with uh he put me

in touch with uh he's a big supporter he

put me in touch with a uh

a company i haven't reached out to him

yet but he gave me information to

actually make

the the cool real tap handles for all

these

different breweries the the hoppadillo

that one looks really cool

and it's green you know like i'm gonna

want so um

i'm gonna reach out to them because some

actual nice

tap panels i mean i'm happy with the one

we have but but

it pals in comparison to the others but

with the alien head sticking out people

are always like well what's that

right you know so it stands out and then

like you said the good thing is they'll

say what's that and try it because i try

something over there

and i'll try it because of the tap

handle right we all do yeah

well an nov can be terrible and then it

could be good and you'll be like oh

yeah but it's all marketing you know you

you see something and you say

oh that's different let me try that you

know especially with some of these beer

houses that you go to and there's

you know a hundred beers there i've been

to one in austin it literally has over

100

on the wall yeah amazing and and so how

are you supposed to figure out

what you want to try so you got to set

yourself apart a little bit

you know because there's no way that

you're going to try all hundred beers

even if you get

you know a one ounce shot glass of all

those hundred beers

by the end of that you're saying well

okay i'm done now and so i don't need to

really get a pint glass of any of this

stuff yeah bu say that but

you know there are people who like the

dark beers and the light beers and

you know they start differentiating down

to the point where

all right there's maybe six spears here

i might want to try

you know because people have a very uh

in terms of palette i mean i won't drink

adult beer

that's true yeah you're not a dark beer

and i'm gonna drink an ipa

yeah i think they all taste the same

yeah i agree

for the most part i agree with you uh

ipas are

very hoppy and so everyone does have a

different

a different palette so that's why i

appreciate how

this one transcends like everyone's

different palette like i i mean

and and i told you my customers are

brutally honest

you know sure they like it though they

like it if they don't they don't they

let me know and i'm glad they let me

know about our margaritas when we're

working on new flavors whether they like

the flavor or not

so yeah i'm really i'm really

no that's good the one thing that i

could see

for your beer is you got to get it in

flights

because i mean aliens flying around in

ufos and

and that's the big thing of you you got

to get some bar

to put it in one of their flights of

beers because

obviously you got the alien he's flying

around in the ufo

it's got to be in a flight right you

were actually going to make a little

flight

um holder for the margaritas

it was going to be shaped like a like a

rocket ship or her alien or something

like that yeah so there you go

that'd be cool we're looking i'm trying

to get some i'm trying to get some merch

you know you got you got a couple uh

yeah you did you did bring me some merch

i

i love my alien ale area 114 coaster

and by the way we didn't touch on this

area 114

of course that's highway 114 here in

texas

so uh for you know we we do have people

that listen that

is not from around dfw so that's where

that comes from

and i got my martian margarita sticker

here they're out of this world

and the little martian dude sitting in

the margarita glass i mean that's

our logo yeah that that is a cool

sticker i mean

i i love that but where else are you

going with the merch

what are you thinking we're going to get

t-shirts hoodies i

have um customers that have become my

friends on facebook we're actually

friends now through this yeah and

they're they're blowing me up all the

time you got

you have the shirts yet you got they

really want the shirts yeah because the

girls that work out there wear the

martial margarita shirts

so they they really want some alien nail

shirts with this cool little logo on it

and i want it you know i'm always i'm

always representing this

yeah and that's what i want to tell you

i'm glad i'm glad i brought that up so

i'm always

representing some kind of alien thing in

this green and my daughter bought me

um fluorescent green nike air max to

wear my deck out there because my

furniture's green on the deck

okay a marshall margaritas i'm all about

the green the alien

so i was wearing this at the gas station

on my way here i put the beer in my

saddle

and i stopped to get ice and when i went

in

the girl mentioned she's like oh you got

some alien thing going there and if you

say you got a helicopter gunner in there

right yeah oh yeah

but she's like oh you got anything and i

said yeah so i'm the i'm always happy to

talk about my bar

so you never know right so right i'm

like well yeah marsha margarita is out

in aurora yeah

and i'm headed to a podcast to promote

my alien owl beer

and uh some guy in line was like yeah

he's got great margaritas out

no he said they got great margaritas and

he's got good bands out there too

and i'll turn the look at the guy i was

like you've been out there for a minute

he's like yeah every friday saturday

night i was like well i appreciate it

i thought that was really cool right i'm

in south carolina well actually i'm in

what's hot

that's actually watauga so that's not

even keller i'm in south keller i live

in south keller

and so i was in a watauga gas station

and some guy in line was like

he's been all the way out in aurora to

my place and compliment me

on the on the stuff and other people

online are hearing about it and

i thought that was i thought that was

really cool i mean it's not like i'm

going to stay away

yeah but i'm pretty far away from aurora

for somebody who's staying lying without

a gas station

like oh i've been there you got great

hands and you know now what's your end

game

in terms of if you do have an end game i

mean obviously

you know establishing the brand

um and again it's awesome tasting mirror

um what what's your endgame i mean what

what will you define as success

honestly you know i was i was real happy

with the bar i always wanted to

after retirement open a bar and and

i couldn't have picked a better

community to do it in

and and and it's not your normal brick

and mortar it's an outdoor venue but

it's really what i want it's covered

we're gonna have heaters

and misters make it comfortable outside

everybody loves it right when kova hit

if you look at the wise county messenger

i think july

8th paper um the cover to paper is a big

firework show

yeah because no one was doing anything

because of coco we did a big one

right huge it made me cover the paper

like everybody came out to our deck to

look at it

so so you know we're involved with the

community yeah um

and then like a week later they did

another

article and i was on a cover of the

business page in the wise county

messenger right

um for the release of my beer it wasn't

even cans yet it was just pending

okay you know they're very optimistic

yeah um

so i think the egg so it started out as

the bar and now

the beer is is my big thing i love my

bar and my

and my beer compliments my bar my bar

compliments my beer

but it i didn't

i don't know if i thought about it

before now or until you just asked me

but i think it's always been there

honestly once this makes it i think end

game once i'm on my second beer

i would honestly like to be involved

in a brewery right in the brewery you

know

well honestly it's always been there

because actually when i first talked to

the

to the owner there i said you know i'd

like to take time off of working off of

everything i'm doing

and be like because he they treated me

so well they treat me like a million

dollar investor

sure i didn't have a million dollars

when i walked in there yeah but he

treated me like that it's like the whole

place shut down it was for me he walked

me through the whole process of how beer

starts how it ends how it's fermented

how it

how everything boils he walked me

through the whole thing like the whole

place was mine yeah

now now are you a little bit scared with

that i mean in terms of i had to say to

you like

look you've got a nice taste and beer

here

you could probably go for it by yourself

but if you go to a bigger player and you

move on

and you put your beer in with somebody

else who's gonna

do it i mean do you mean go to another

brewer

yeah i'm talking about somebody was

basically absorb

your product they'd have to absorb the

brewery on their under their terms

because

i'm loyal to them right yeah and that's

the thing i was thinking because like i

said it's a great tasting beer but

i'm loyal i'm loyal to somebody else if

somebody else comes along and wants to

snap this

up and make it their products

it would have it would have to be

agreeable by that brewery right

not just because of my morals but i

think contractually

all right um but morally i i'm loyal to

them

i mean i'm nothing without them honestly

right i mean

it was my idea yeah all they did was

make my idea a reality i mean they

worked

tirelessly yeah they're brewing it

they're canning it

they're signing with the distributor

they're making my

my my ideas a reality so i would never

betrayed

okay um so back back to

the end game i would um

i would like to see myself involved with

the brewery like i told dr

colemeyer at nacona brewery i said i'd

like to take six months away from

everything

and be like an intern here okay just

learn everything you just told me

because i'm not gonna learn it

i'm not gonna retain what you just told

me in the day it would take me at least

a good six months

i would love to live in here for six

months and just live and breathe it

right to really know beer and brewing

yeah and know that it's hops and

barley's and not avocados and

vegetables in how to clean all those no

no no no no i don't need that

i do need to know no you know what i

would do it i i know you would i would

do it i know you

um and i really so that's the end game

my end game

if my dreams were reality would actually

to do that

six months but also be an investor in

the brewery and be a stakeholder in the

brewery

that's making my beer instead of having

an agreement

a written contract sure of of

percentages okay

i'd like to be involved with the whole

process

now do you see yourself making um a game

this is a great fear

about like do you have ideas for other

beers i mean

mm-hmm you got some different i'll tell

you something so

what i've had to learn as a business

owner you can't always do what you like

yeah i mean if you want to be successful

you got to try to make a product that

you're excited about

that you're passionate about but you got

to make it accessible for people that

like it into the masses right

because i love wheat beer and i carried

wheat beer out

out there at my bar on tap i was the

only one drinking it i mean

no one drinks it right um so so

even this beer this is my

second favorite beer in the world i know

i'm supposed to say first

but but i'm i'm a wheat beer fan

but no one else likes wheat beer right

but this

outside of wheat beer but i like other

things other than wheat beer you know

like i like a porter i like a pilsner i

like a

but wheat beer is my number one beer

this is my i want to say second i say

that

i drink more of this than wheat beer now

because they're

it's different just like when you want

to stout you want to start when it's

cold you know you drink different beers

at different different times right

when i'm wanting to drink a lot of beer

and hang out like i am now this is my

beer

if i just want to drink one beer two

beers

i'll drink my wheat beer right but i

would love to make a wheat beer

but i'd like to

i mean yeah so that's the end game make

i would love to make other beers and be

involved in a beer making process and

try just different things

right but like i said first

got to make sure this is going to be a

success as much as we

like it as much as other people like it

um

it's got to get out there people gotta

people to try it they gotta taste them i

gotta get that support

makes sense well uh jason so

explain to us uh explain to the

listeners how they can find

you on social media uh your bar your

beer you

give us give us all of those uh little

plugs so

they can figure out not only how to find

you

and your bar and everything but all the

information

they need to know so so give us that

okay so

we're marcia margaritas we're we're on

facebook

we're on instagram those martial

margaritas we have um

you can also we plug each other i plug

smoking windmill barbecue they plug us

obviously hal's discount liquor plugs us

we plug them

so if you went to their website you

should see us and vice versa

i'm at 100 north madison street suite

200 in aurora texas

although it says madison it's a little

deceiving so it sometimes takes people

to the ball field we're actually on 114

that's why it's called area 114.

there's a little driveway that goes

through there that's called

it's called a street it literally leads

to a guy's house that's behind our bar

um but so we're we're

we're addressed as madison but we're on

114 if you go 287 north

towards rome you exit for rome and go

left where that loves is

we're down on the right you can't miss

us we're doing anything in town we're

right there before you

wait before you get to boyd um but the

911 district is looking at re

re addressing us to a 114 address

gotcha for for simplicity um

we are open we're closed mondays and

tuesdays we're open wednesday and

thursday from 3 p.m to 9 p.m

we're open friday and saturday 11 a.m to

10 p.m

we have free live music every friday and

saturday

and if you're if you're a musician hit

us up on our social media that's how

we've booked everybody

is through social media we're open

sunday 12 p.m to 7 p.m now my license

allows me to be open until

midnight we haven't been open through

the winter yet so i don't know how it's

going to be with people wanting to be

outside we're going to try to make it as

comfortable as possible

we had heaters last time i'm trying to

cover it um it takes a

cost it's got to be engineered to be

safe and it's

done it's got to be done professional

done right but i will have it done

um and once that's done and and the

people want us out there later we'll be

there until midnight you know although

we close it

um nine and ten on those on those nights

i mentioned

um if customers are there we're going to

stay cool i've

i've stayed you know i've never kicked

anybody out or

i'll stay as long as they want to be

there and as long as my license is

allowed to even

be there which is until midnight nice

and

once again uh where can we find alien

ale

so you can find it obviously at my bar

you can find it in the kona brewery in

the kona

um i will have a list of where the

distributor has been distributing it

it's in several stores

out in that area in denton i know for

sure we have it here in keller

at my new york pizza at roof snow in

north tarrant he's right next to the

cvs pharmacy and a coffee house over

there across from mcdonald's

um we have an owl's discount liquor and

decatur

and we have it at big z gas station

there in rome

okay great well we appreciate you

joining us for this episode of the wolf

and the shepherd

hopefully everybody will go out and try

this excellent beer

lovely it it is it is bloody lovely it

does not taste like

avocados no matter what no matter what

the wolf

has to say about that but uh please

please check out all these uh good

things as far as martian margaritas and

alien ale on

uh social media we'll post all these to

our sites as well as well as uh smoking

windmill bbq

uh shout out to them uh appreciate you

jason yeah really appreciate you

appreciate you uh

coming out here and uh sharing your beer

with us

sharing your story and thank you very

much to

all of our listeners for your continued

support

we certainly appreciate that and we'll

catch you the next time

thank you