Beer Sample Friday

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
And it's Beer Sample Friday.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:11)
I got some beers. Let's drink them, huh?

**Mark** (0:13)
Beer's on sale, people.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:15)
Come down and get some. Tons of furniture and mattress in Columbus, our sponsor for Beer Sample Friday, Hammer.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:25)
MashCraft Brewing is here. We got Deanne. We got Mark here. Now, I'm not sure how you end up getting hooked in with the Italian Street Festival, but you guys all came up here together. We're all singing Kumbaya. We're drinking. We're eating. How did this come together?
Deanne, we'll start with you.

**Deanne** (0:44)
Yeah. Then we'll go with me. I'm the outside events coordinator for MashCraft Brewing, and my job is to go to every single festival that I can possibly find.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:56)
Whoa, I'm so sorry to hear that.

**Deanne** (0:59)
Greatest retirement gig ever. I drive a truck around. I set up. I pour beer out of taps on the side, and I decided that I would love to try to get into the Italian festival.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:12)
And this is one of the big ones, like downtown. Like every year, the Italian Street Festival. It's a staple. Somebody on the YouTube chat asked, is this festival this weekend or next weekend? Next weekend.
Next weekend is when it is. So tell us a little bit about MashCraft. How are things going? How's the business?

**Deanne** (1:28)
Oh, MashCraft is doing just fine. We have three locations. One in Greenwood. We have one downtown at 22nd Delaware. And then we have one up on into Fishers, just south of Alisonville Road.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:41)
When did you guys start?

**Deanne** (1:43)
We are actually having our 12th anniversary. The Greenwood location is the OG. And our 12th anniversary is Saturday of the Italian Festival.
So I'll be doing double duty back and forth between.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:56)
As we would say, that's your reason to drink that night.

**Deanne** (1:58)
It is my reason to drink the entire weekend. So, yeah.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:02)
Mark, let me ask you this. Like, how have you guys been able to make it? Because it feels like at one point every other weekend, a new brewery was coming out. Like the market was really saturated here.

**Mark** (2:14)
So I'm here from the festival.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:16)
Open the festival? Okay.

**Mark** (2:18)
That's a good question, right? And so this is where the festival aligns with the community. And we saw an opportunity.
I was sitting a couple of years ago, I was sitting at the German American Club drinking a MashCraft beer and thought to myself, man, this would be a really cool partnership. And fast forward to this summer, had the chance to make it happen. So how are they making it? By the local community reaching out and supporting them. And that's, I think, the symbiosis between the festival and the local market. Like, let's keep it here and let's give them an opportunity.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:50)
Not only that, but good ownership too. I think the people that sustain life, especially in this business, have good ownership, which translates into good employees, which translates into excellent customer service. Am I wrong about that? Because I'm not a business owner, but I would assume that it just goes on down the line, like I was saying, right?

**Deanne** (3:11)
My boss had brewed in several different breweries around the Indianapolis area and decided he wanted to open his own 12 years ago.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:21)
You learn a lot because you learn what not to do, Hammer, by having that experience, which I think we've both done in radio as well. We've been a lot of different places, and we've learned what not to do.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:32)
I learned earlier in the show things you're not supposed to do.
Emails come in, bosses sometimes barge in during the show. That's happened this year, so yeah.
We're speaking with Deanne. Mark is here. The Italian Street Festival is happening next weekend. Deanne representing MashCraft Brewing. We've got a little sample here in front of us. What do we got?

**SPEAKER_1** (3:58)
I'm ready.

**Deanne** (3:59)
You have got, when we first started talking to Mark, what he requested of us. And as he said, he was drinking a beer at the Oktoberfest. We partner with the German Oktoberfest and make beer for them. And so we decided we would make a beer for the Italian Festival. So you are going to be drinking a delightful Italian Pilsner.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:23)
Ooh, I love a good Pilsner, man. You know me. That's the Beech Grover in me, baby. I love a good Pilsner.

**Deanne** (4:28)
But do you like a German Pilsner or do you like an Italian Pilsner?