Brewbound Pitch Slam 14: Finals - Rincon Reservation Road Brewery

Speaker 1 [00:24] Up next, we have Rik Mazzetti, who is the chairman of Rincon Reservation Road Brewery. Come on up, Rik. Good to see you again. Good

Speaker 2 [00:36] to see you, sir. Thank you so much. It Good morning everyone. Yes sir, good morning everyone. Miu, that means hello or welcome in my native native tongue. So I'd like to just go back as we went yesterday to, uh, the original Californians. We've been here for 14,000 years and it's, you know, it's become our time to start. Handling misnomers and stereotypical things about Native Americans and, uh, alcohol as, as you all know, it's, it's been a stigma for us for ever since they've been making talking movies. So it's one of our things and it's a great passion for us to, to be able to bring a really good product to market and to show you that, you know, we're just like you, we're, we wanna be with you, sit down with you and have the conversation. Our, our tagline is savor the journey. Our journey's been going on a very, very long time. And for us to sit down and explain that to you and have that talk, that's huge for us. We, um, have two tasting rooms, one that is, uh, on the reservation that is 100% Indian owned and operated, the only one of its kind at this time. And for us, it's one of those things that it's a prideful thing for us to be able to push that through and use diversification to get our product out to market. Um, as you see here, this is, uh, this is Ocean Beach, which is a funny story is, uh, we had this old, uh, surfer guy rolling, probably in his 60s, and he goes, you guys aren't going to do well here because this is a locals only. And my manager at the time, Jose Rios, goes, well, you know, we've been here 14,000 years. The guy goes, Huh, I guess you're right. He's become a regular. So we see him, we see him all the time. Chet's his name. This is actually where we're at. This is the Rincon Indian Reservation, uh, Southern California. That's actually the most beautiful place in the world for me. Um, this is one of the waterways that we have. This is actually our deal is to build community, to have an outreach and to actually establish a way of giving back. We are a huge philanthropist for, uh, Southern California and surrounding areas. We, um, actually had a funny deal happen with, uh, we have our annual gathering in, uh, August and, uh, we're actually trying to make a Mars lemon beer. Ultimately we weren't able to. Get the product. So I talked to one of our local growers and we use watermelon beer, which we had no idea how that was going to come out, but it came out beautifully. And it was funny because at that gathering, people come from all the way around. We had, uh, one of the affiliates for the Susan G. Komen, uh, breast awareness, breast cancer awareness, and our beer was pink because we actually utilize the, uh, watermelon and it worked out very well. So now we're in uh. We're in relationships with them to get that out for them. This is actually our brew house here. We, uh, utilize our own water. We actually use the spent grains and we actually distribute that out to some of the cattle people in the surrounding area. So as I was telling you, we want to be 100% green. We're all about it. Um, some of the, uh, ingredients, as you know, as you guys are all beer makers, so you do understand, we can make beer pretty much out of anything. It's just making the right product. And for us to get to market, it was huge to reach out. We have 13 core beers on tap, uh, and 7 of those that we keg, can, and Sixel. Um, our other big thing is diversification, you know, we're utilizing that to get to market. And establish ourselves as, you know, I don't wanna say we're gonna be the biggest, but we are gonna be here for a while and it's worked very well with us getting through all that um I just wanna say thank you guys so much for this event. I, I met so many people and learned so many new things and it was fun sharing the culture with you guys. My boys out here from Funky Town, they took us right in. I love that. Thank you so much, brother. God bless.

Speaker 1 [04:48] Yeah, you can grab one of the microphones then. Slide on over here with me. Thank you. And let's start with one of the gentlemen from Funky Town, Rich, um, based on the story that you heard today, um, and the presentation you heard today, that deeper story, you're getting a better sense of what Rincon is doing and how they're trying to communicate that sense of community to their audience?

Speaker 3 [05:08] Yeah, I think it's a great Story, uh, I would definitely love for you to get that out maybe even in the forefront because like there's a ton of quality beer out here but what separates people is the story behind it and the green story behind it and the ingredients coming from the reservation. I, I think that's something people want to support. So, um, I guess my question is just like is that at the forefront in your marketing strategy like letting people know what the, uh, the Rincon is all about.

Speaker 2 [05:33] Yes sir. So on all our cans there's actually a story behind whatever that can is, and a lot of the names that are for our, uh, our beers themselves actually means something to us. Um, our Heffenvisen, which is red Dog, is actually what we are. We're resilient. And if you, you, you, you don't understand this, but because of the fact you've never lived on the reservation, but a res dog is something that you can't kill. They will live, they will continue, they will perpetuate because they survive. And when someone says, what's up Red Dog, that is actually someone giving you props to say, hey, you're a winner, don't give up, stay with it. And that's one of the things, one of just our core beers' names is, is Red Dog.

Speaker 1 [06:17] Ryan, what do you think of the, uh, strategy in terms of being sort of a production brewery and also an operator of taprooms?

Speaker 4 [06:22] I think it's smart. I think the taprooms are a great way to share the story, get the experience to the consumer directly. Um, I mean, I do have a question for you in terms of, you've got a lot of core beers, and I understand 13 in the taproom is fine. You can manage that. Hearing you do 7 and keg and and package, I guess my question for you is which of those 7, or is it all of them that you're actually trying to go out into wholesale and and third party off-premise and on-premise

Speaker 2 [06:45] with? So of the 7 that we have there, that's actually what is going like into the marketplace and, and such for that, um, as far as being packaged out as we're doing the 7 now as they change or if we come up, we just actually added a really, really good Mexican lager. Um, that one's also gonna, we're gonna start canning that one, and then we also did a tropical oasis, which is a blonde ale that's, you know, kind of fruity, and it's been doing very well. So that again, as we add one, it just depends on how the market will bear. So if those 7 beers are doing well, then we'll just add another one.

Speaker 4 [07:18] I mean, I think over time you're gonna have to pare those down. I think a lot we talked about with Gretchen with Shoal was focus, and I think. You'll talk more, but this tributor landscape is gonna be tough to let you have 678 core SKUs out there. It's probably going to be narrowed down over time.

Speaker 2 [07:31] Thank you.

Speaker 1 [07:31] Yeah, let's follow up on that. Jess, your thoughts? Yeah,

Speaker 5 [07:33] 100%. So, um. As a distributor when you just keep people saying well we're gonna bring this one on, I'm just trying to figure out the warehouse where it's gonna go, um, even though it's might only be a couple cases, it still takes up that spot, uh, as much as, you know, 100 pallets do when it comes to our inventory. So that's something that we gotta pay attention with plus you gotta look at a. Door and and see these doors aren't getting any bigger. We just talked to, you know, Mary just talked about that the space is actually kind of maybe in some cases getting smaller. So when you look at the cooler door and you've got 4 skews, will that just, you know, will that supply our retailer give you 5 or are you maxed out at 4? And if you're maxed out at 4. You know, you really need to be focused with your distributors saying, hey, if we get one SKU I want this. If we get two SKUs I want this one and then this one and then really be prescriptive with your supplier or distributor partner on, on what your priorities are.

Speaker 2 [08:24] So a question to you. So, and, and I mean, you know, like the bigger companies and stuff like that, usually I guess they're probably only running 4 or 5 with seasonal changes, so. Your advice to me, I'm asking you, is, so do you think 4 is a good number? What would, what would be that number that you would say?

Speaker 5 [08:43] Not knowing the market, um, you'd I'd probably say 4 is a good place, um, and if you've got a rotator, I would say probably 3 in a rotator just to make sure you get that coverage, you know, some distributors can go really deep on a portfolio, but I'd say an average salesperson can go like 3 or 4 really deep, but much past that, it's gonna be difficult for them to bring, bring it up with a retailer.

Speaker 2 [09:07] So 3 in a rotator. I like that.

Speaker 1 [09:10] Jamie, one way to differentiate is via ingredients and as we see on the screen right now, indigenous ingredients grown wild on reservation. What do you think about that as a way to uh get new customers, get, uh, interest in the brand?

Speaker 6 [09:21] I love it. I think that we've had a lot of conversation this week about the promiscuity of consumers and like their need for discovery. So I think bringing things that are indigenous, bringing new flavors, I think as long as you balance those with flavors that have high appeal and how do you have like a an awareness, um, a general awareness I think is smart, um, so I like that balance, and I do think that's a point of difference that you can bring.

Speaker 1 [09:45] Excellent. Do you, do you want to respond? I have

Speaker 2 [09:47] no, uh, yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. No, you go ahead. Um, no, I was just gonna say we actually grow, uh, guava. That's gonna actually be our next what we're gonna bring to, uh, to, uh, keg up here probably we've got about another month before we get it comes to. So that's, that's another thing that we're actually gonna try.

Speaker 1 [10:05] That's awesome. Excellent. Thank you so much, Rik. Well done. Thank you,

Speaker 2 [10:08] sir.