Cross Roads Podcast
Introducing Jason Williams with Brass Tap here in Cross Roads, Texas
Jason Williams and Bayleigh Swanton share with us about the Brass Tap and what an amazing business it is to have here in Cross Roads.
Jason Williams and Bayleigh Swanton share with us about the Brass Tap and what an amazing business it is to have here in Cross Roads.
Cross Roads podcast for those who want to be in the know. Good morning Cross Roads. This is your host, Steven Killfoil. And on the show today we have owner manager, Jason Williams and his very good friend, Bayleigh Swanton. Welcome to the show, guys. Thank you. Thank you for coming on the show. Jason and Bayleigh are going to be enlightening us on the fine art and craft of brewing. Jason, would you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the business?
Jason Williams:Yeah, I'm Jason Williams, I'm kind of the multi unit manager for for the brass tap. Out here in the North DFW area. We own and operate a brass tap over in Allen, we have a location in Prosper, we have a location in Frisco, which opened this year, actually on December 26. So we're coming up on one year at that location. And now most recently, we have made it out of here to the Cross Roads area, and we're very proud to be out here. We, you know, we get asked a lot of times where or how we choose locations for the brass tap. And really, not only are we all about the beer and teaching people about craft beer, and that sort of thing, we we also want to want to connect with the community, we want to know more about our guests that are coming in, we would like to get to know them on a personal level. So I like to explain to people that if you've ever seen that, that that old show, the TV show cheers. It is really like that at the brass tap. We do know our guests, we know them by name, we know everything about their family, and they come in and a lot of times they don't know anything about us, they don't know anything about craft beer. And so we really like to look at low take locations where we can open that up and really grab the community by the hand and become good stewards and teachers of the brand and and really expand their knowledge about craft beer and explain to them what craft beer is all about how it's made. Really just to open their eyes to that and and to kind of wing them off the usual Miller lights and lights and all the kinds of stuff that you see at your at your local beer stores. Oh,
Steven Killfoil:Definitely! Well, what was it about our little neck of the woods Cross Roads that made you decide to come to our fair town?
Jason Williams:You know, we we definitely wanted to come to a place where we certainly could get a footprint and without a lot of competition. You know, for example, the location that we have over in Frisco, there are other bars in the area, there are other bars that carry craft beer, but we wanted to come somewhere where there there weren't those options. And it just made more sense for us to come out here and open. Here in a town that small is still growing. As you know, I think I mentioned it when I first met you we've had the mayor in quite a few times, again, going back to liking to partner with our guests and getting to know them and that sort of thing. It is not just about running the business, but it also allows us to get involved in the community. And to know more about the people that live there and what they're looking for. But that's really probably the biggest reason we wanted to do that is really to be the first ones out here. And and to help the town grow. And we wanted to you know, provide jobs for people as well. We want to take care of the community. So if we can put people to work we will. And we also do a lot of networking, a ton of networking. So we like to volunteer, we like to partner with all kinds of different businesses. So it's just a it's just a much better way. It's a lot more personable, I guess is where I'm going with it. As far as running a business than being in a bigger part of the town where everything is just transactional. You just don't know the people.
Steven Killfoil:Right. And that's great. We're looking forward to having you and getting to know you better. So I think you said you were going to share this interview with Bayleigh so I think this one will be for you.
Bayleigh Swanton:Awesome. Hello.
Steven Killfoil:Okay, the fine art of crafting beer. It's been around for a few centuries. Would you share with our listeners exactly what it is that Brass Tap does regarding the craft?
Bayleigh Swanton:Yeah, so like Jason was explaining we really are focused on just being really personable with our guests and creating an experience and really good relationships. I think that the history of beer it goes as far back as just sticking a loaf of bread in a tub of water and letting it sit for beaker two, and then downing it, you know. But now with the microbrewery brewing and craft brewing, we really see people starting to push boundaries and experiment and open up and push themselves and their creativity. And that's something we're really able to harvest like at the Brass Tab, we're able to focus on a lot of small local brews, put them on our wall and share them with a lot of people. And we're also able just just educate them about these local breweries, what they're about what they're doing, and all the crazy things that they're up to. So I think that we're really just able to appreciate the culture around beer and how far it's come. Yeah, and share with the community.
Steven Killfoil:That's great. That's great. When I came into the restaurant to meet you, for the first time, Jason, I was amazed at the reaction people had, when they were told that happy hour was from 11am to 7pm, Monday through Friday, or actually, every day, I think this is great, especially since it is every day, and not just a Monday or a Tuesday. So how did the company come up with this concept?
Jason Williams:We do offer happy hour we do that, Monday through Friday, the hours are 11am till 7pm. A lot of our competitors when they do happy hour, you're looking at probably the same days Monday through Friday. But a lot of the times they're happy hours are probably going to be somewhere between two and four, or two and five. So you know, again, we wanted to be out here in the community and available for the working class as well. Some people work until five till six o'clock, we wanted to extend that happy hour so that we had a place for them to go after work. We certainly want to provide, you know, some some great menu items, things that we like to discount down during during those times to make a little bit more affordable. Craft beer can be expensive. So we certainly want to make a good value. And that's how we develop that happy hour menu. We also change that menu. Sometimes it depends on the type of, you know event that we're doing, or it could be a certain time of the year. So we will do different themes and stuff during happy hour sometimes. Right now for the month of December, we have a lot of different Christmas themed drinks that we're focusing on. But we have quite a few drinks that you can come in quite a few drafts that you can get all at $5. But we highlight those in yellow on our menus every single day when you come in Monday through Friday. And you look at the menu, you see anything highlighted in yellow, those are going to be the $5 special draught beers that we offer for happy hour. And then we also have quite a few different menu items. For example, a lot of bars have like a Bavarian pretzel, we have that as well. But we have a happy hour version, which a lot of people don't have. So we're very proud to offer that also comes with some housemaid case. So that's really great. And we have an offer that we'll do today on your show a little bit later that we'll talk about the case. So, but anyway, I would say you know, that's, that's where that's where we came came as far as the happy hour goes. And it's really just a great time to connect with the business people when they get off work, different groups, we have a lot of professional women that come in different employers that bring their employees in after work and things like that. So it's all in all, just just a real good time and a real good value for the guest.
Steven Killfoil:Excellent, excellent. So, Jason, does the Brass Tap offer classes on craft beer making? Or is this a is this a Bayleigh question?
Jason Williams:Well, I think Bayleigh can talk a little bit more about it. Well, we don't offer classes on how to actually brew craft beer. But what we do do is we do educate our team quite a bit on the process. In fact, they have to take a lot of exams, they have to watch a lot of videos, they have to be able to articulate that to us. We get asked a lot of questions about the different beer styles and where they came from, and how they taste and how they're made and all that kind of stuff. So although we don't offer classes in that sense, it is kind of like going to beer school when you come and talk to our bartenders because they're so knowledgeable. They can literally grab you by the hand and just take you on a world tour of beer and styles and explain to you where they came from when they were invented, how they're made, how they taste, and Bayleigh can talk a little bit more about that.
Steven Killfoil:Okay,
Bayleigh Swanton:Yeah, so whenever we do a new store opening, we spend that first week in person. It's usually like Tuesday through Saturday, and we do have a beer school for all of our new employees. And it's very extensive. We go through literally the entire history of beer, like I said earlier from the first loaf of bread that was dunked in some water up to what we have now, which is like crazy triple Galactics spatial IPAs and whatnot. So it's very extensive in person training. We walk all of the new bartenders and servers through something called like the flavor wheel. Very similar to like a color wheel that artists will use, but it breaks down all the different flavors that you can find in beer. So we go through that, we break down how to taste beer on our tongue. Since we have so many different taste buds and so many different sections, we go through almost every single style of beer that there is, and there are hundreds, it is kind of insane, a little overwhelming at times. But once we go through all of that we actually are very hands on and will teach our staff how to pour specific styles out of bottles or out of cans or off the top wall. And we'll taste all of the different styles. And we have some tasting sheets that they do, actually, every single shift. Just got a little extra lucky with the opening, we got to taste a lot of good beers. But they'll fill out that tasting sheet and they'll rank them themselves. So while we might not be doing classes, as extensively, since we are open, the bartenders and servers do stay very knowledgeable and on their toes, whenever it comes to new beers that we're tapping, because they're tasting it. They're rolling it around in their mouth, they're applying what they've learned from our training week, and they're able to fill out their sheets from there. We also do have online video training, that's for any new hire that we'll get. So if they weren't able to make it to that one full week in person, they still do still do get a lot of the information online. It's pretty extensive. It's probably about eight hours of content. But again, it walks you through every single style of beer. I used to be a sole like Michelob drinker before I started working with the brass tap a little over two years ago. And now I can sit down and talk somebody's ear off about the difference between a half of Eisen and like a saison. So there's a lot of good information that they get on that. And we also just try to teach them about good steps of service, you know, how do you figure out how to get a guest a beer that they like, and it's very important to know the different flavor profiles and just the Oh, my goodness, what's the word? The structure, I guess I have a certain beer. So that I guess can sit down and say I like this, but I don't like this. And you're like, Okay, well, I have the perfect taster for you. Because we do offer tasters for free as well. So it's always an opportunity to find a new beer for anybody.
Steven Killfoil:That is, that's great. There's nothing worse than get somebody that. They're like, oh, I want just Coors. I can't stay in Coors. No offense, Colorado, but if we do, that's not good beer.
Bayleigh Swanton:If we do get somebody who just likes Coors, we'll definitely be able to find you a craft that's very similar to it. Because like I said, we do offer those tasters and since our bartenders are very knowledgeable, there are so many German pilsners that you'll be able to find that actually resemble Coors very, very well. So it's all about just being willing to step outside of your comfort zone and try those different new things. Oh, yeah.
Jason Williams:Wasn't the 903 the crispy one close to Coors banquet? Yes. Yeah. And 903 is the area code from Sherman, Texas if you didn't know they have?
Steven Killfoil:Definitely. Yeah. My first experience with drinking really good beer was when I stepped across the pond and I went into Amsterdam and in Europe. I didn't realize but our beer is really weak compared to the European beers. I mean, we're like three, two and over there. I mean, their low one is like 12. So you don't go back knock in a six pack or case?
Bayleigh Swanton:No, definitely not. But that's what's so exciting about new microbreweries though too, because you are starting to see a lot of those brews that are coming out sitting at like 15 16%. One like limited release that we get annually is from Dogfish Head. Sadly, they're not local wish they were incredible brews for those guys. They're up north, but it's their night, 120 minute bourbon barrel aged IPA. And last year, whenever we had it on our top wall, it came in at 18 or 19%, I believe, which is insane to think about a beer being that high. But again, it's just because all these breweries are stepping out of their comfort zone and trying to push those norms and you're getting crazy good brews that hit you halfway through. And
Steven Killfoil:that's the difference between just knocking off a beer and enjoying it. Right? Yeah, cuz I really like to take and sip mine and just let it really roll on my tongue and play around and enjoy knocking back one for sure. Especially you'll probably see me more often in the summertime right after I cut my grass. I'll be walking right over there saying I'm ready for a cold one. will be ready for you. Definitely. Okay, um Jason, what is the difference between microbrewery versus a craft brewery.
Jason Williams:Well, I'll let Bayleigh talk a little bit more in depth about that. Those two terms are almost identical. I can see how it can be quite confusing. And you know, going back to, again, you know, our mission as far as trying to bring craft beer to the world and teaching people about it. You know, like a little quick story about myself. Prior to working with the brass tap when I would go to the beer store, and I'm walking through there to get my Michelob Ultra. I'm passing by all of this craft beer coming from microbreweries, craft breweries, and things of that nature. And I'm wondering who drinks this? What is it? I don't know anything about it. And so now after being in the industry, and learning all of this stuff about the breweries and the microbrew process and how we make beer, it's really just opened my eyes, but I'll let Bayleigh talk to you a little bit more about that. Okay,
Steven Killfoil:Ok, great!
Bayleigh Swanton:Yeah, so like Jason said, they are pretty similar, the only difference is going to be the volume. So the amount of beer that the breweries are producing annually. So micro brews are only going to produce up to 15,000 barrels a year. And a barrel is almost 31 gallons, while macro breweries the bigger ones that you see like Anheuser Busch and stuff like that are producing millions of barrels a year, which is a significant difference, right. So with these micro breweries, you're able to see a lot more craft and unique and experimental brews. While they're not producing as much they have a lot more room to play around. Because they're more in control of whenever they're dropping these brews and what brews they're dropping specifically, because they're not having to fulfill orders of a million plus or 100,000 plus of this one specific brew, because it's flying off the shelves. So with microbreweries, since they are a lot smaller, you're also able to see a lot more tap rooms. There's a lot of breweries in the DFW area, anywhere from like Fort Worth, or like Jason machine up in Sherman, they'll have tap rooms where they host events or live music, you're able to talk to the bartenders, you're able to see the actual brewing process happening behind the bar and have that fresh beer directly. You're not really able to get that whenever you go look at like a macro brewery, it's more so just a tour of like the actual brew room. So I think it just creates a lot of culture. So while the volume of production is a lot different the culture around it is as well, because you're able to have more of like that mom and pop that family feel you sit down, you get to know the bartenders they get to know you. And you just get to try a lot of fun, different beers.
Steven Killfoil:Great. Well, how is your beer connected to the local area?
Jason Williams:So that's a great question. I'm glad you I'm glad you asked that. Bailey touched on this a little bit. We do partner with the breweries that we purchased the craft beer from. So in many cases, we we know the ownership and the head master brewers we personally know their their team, every employee that works there. We like to partner and and do things in the community and help each other as far as the breweries go. So I would say probably the closest brewery that we we do things in the community with would be the folks over at the roller town brewery. They're located in Salina which is from the our brass tap and prosper maybe about a six, seven minute drive down the road. So it is very common for us to go to their brewery to do things with them or them to come to the brass tap and do events we we sometimes sponsor to their beer. And so they'll bring their team over and do a lot of advertisement to drop business for us. And at the same time, those those breweries are not always open where we are. We're open seven days a week. A lot of breweries are not open on Mondays and Tuesdays. So in that sense, if you have a craft beer that you like to drink, and you can't get it on a Monday or Tuesday, you can certainly come to the brass tap and we probably have it.
Steven Killfoil:Right. So what is unique about Brass Tap beer.
Jason Williams:Well, we don't have our own beer yet. Yeah, we've talked about that. I mean, it's it's possible. We we've, we've talked to to two different breweries, and we're considering having an actual Brass Tap beer. What we're talking about is probably doing a seasonal IPA, I think is what we're looking at. That way we can have several different releases throughout the year and kind of change the flavor profile on that. We just haven't we just haven't made it there yet. A lot of the breweries are small. And so unfortunately, they wouldn't be able to provide the sheer volume of beer that we would need to support and sustain all the brass taps in North Texas. But we do know our friends over at roller town there They're, they're building a brand new location in Frisco. And it's going to be massive and they're in, they're expanding quite a bit. They've got a lot of cans out now that you can get locally at HEB, and some other places that the American Airlines center and that sort of thing. So we would have to partner with a brewery like them. That could do the volume. But that question has come up, and I definitely think it's in the works. And we will see that at some point.
Steven Killfoil:Excellent. Excellent. So how do you choose which styles of beer to brew?
Bayleigh Swanton:Yeah, so I think what makes us really unique, just the brass tap in as a whole is that we do like to focus a lot on local locally brewed beers. So what's really awesome is we're able to support local whenever we are putting all those taps on. And whenever it comes to choosing a beer, it really is dependent on what's in season right now, what are some limited releases that we can hopefully get our hands on what's in high demand. But because we are so personable with our guests, and we do want to create a unique experience for each and every one of them, we're open such suggestions all of the time, if you sit down at the bar, and you're like, oh my god, I had this incredible beer. But only at this one place this many years ago, I will be on the hunt. And I will find that beer for you, it is my goal to get it on the top wall. So that's probably like guest requests is probably like our number one way of keeping our tackle on. But because we do support local and a lot of those local breweries are going to be those micro breweries that we were talking about, you do see a lot of crazy seasonal brews that are only dropped once a year. And once in a lifetime kind of thing. They'll release one batch of it. And when the batch is out the batches out, we're not getting again, we're not doing anything. So that just creates high demand for us. We want our hands on that. Because we want to say, hey, look, this really good beer, we're the only one with it, you know. And it just allows us to have a lot of diversity on our top wall so that we're able to provide good, exciting fun, never tasted before beers. To all of our guests. at crossroads, we have 70 taps on, we have about 50 or 60 bottles and cans. So that puts us well over about 100 different beers on hand at all times. So again, that diversity is really really there in terms of flavor profile and abv and different styles. So yeah, there's really beers for anyone that's always available. So it's always just fun. Having those connections with microbreweries, and being able to talk to them and be like, Well, what's been flying off your shelves? What are you about to come up with, you know, and that's why those relationships for us are so important with them. Because sometimes we get the inside scoop on some not released beers yet, which is always really exciting.
Steven Killfoil:Oh yeah. Well, you heard it out there, folks. There's definitely plenty of suds to go around. So what are some of the problems you run into when producing beer?
Bayleigh Swanton:So our biggest problem went out sourcing beer with definitely, like I said, this seasonal brews. A lot of micro breweries in Texas, Martin house being a really good example. They do crazy stuff, okay, they will literally put, like one of their beers is called like puppy chow. I literally just saw it at HEB last night. That's why it's like fresh on my head, but they put literal chex mix in the brew like in the beer while they're making it. So that's going to be very, very small batch. Very limited, they're only going to make it once a year. So that that's a great example of a limited release. And I think that that is our biggest issue. Because if we're not quick enough, and we don't get our hands on it quick enough, then we kind of we just missed it. And you missed it and you missed it forever kind of thing. Oh, so again, that's why it's so important that we do have good connections, either with our beer reps, or with brewery owners or brewery reps. Because we're able to sit down with them and then be like, listen, you're gonna want to get your hands on this one, you know, preorder right now, if you can, and having those good connections does give us that opportunity, again, so that we can tell them like, hey, we have this, so and so doesn't come see us, you know. And honestly, that's probably the biggest problem. Whenever it comes to German beers. It's a little different because they're imported, of course. So sometimes prices run a little high in terms of like keg price, and we obviously want to keep our prices reasonable and obtainable for our community. So sometimes we have to turn down some good German import because we don't want to charge somebody $14 For one pour of a beer, you know, but other than that, it's really easy whenever you have good connections with your community and whenever you really are just focused on supporting local because if you're focused on supporting local The locals are so like, ready to support you as
Steven Killfoil:That's great. Where's the main brewery for the well. Brass Tap located where that you guys source from?
Jason Williams:So, the Brass Tap actually originated in Florida. They started in 2007 it was it was two guys that you know they they basically wanted to open their own bar and and become experts in the craft beer world. They started with importing and dealing with some of the beers like you were talking about earlier from from Europe and that sort of thing and then got into the breweries that we have here stateside, the craft breweries local to Florida in 2012, is when they started to franchise out. And then and then from that point, right now as it stands, we do have 60 Brass Taps nationwide. There's actually 15 right here in the DFW market. We own four of those currently, I think we're planning to scale out to six if I'm not mistaken. So we are currently looking for two more locations and that'll be determined at another date. But anyway, they you know, been around for a little while now and you're starting to see brass tabs here and there. I think we saw another new one down the road in McKinney that's getting ready to open and then just kind of going back to you know, the brass tap here and Cross Roads. We want to make sure that the guests know that we were slowly adding things to the building we we started to add live music recently. So this last Saturday, we had some music a band that came in for all the way from Arkansas. I think we have live music This Saturday from a couple of country guys and coincidentally enough the buildings on three ad. Their name is three ad acoustics. They're really good. Awesome. Yeah, they're really really good. But anybody who wants to know what's going on to brass tap just like what Bailey was talking about following craft beers. You can follow us on Facebook, we have all of our events listed. I think we are going to start music bingo on December the sixth, which is next Wednesday. We will start to do some form of trivia on Thursday nights. The live music on Saturdays and coming soon we will do full blown brunch menus on Saturday and Sundays from 11 to three.
Steven Killfoil:And you mentioned you had some kind of a special that you want to do now.
Jason Williams:Yes. So anybody that listened to the show between the dates of December 4 and December 17. If you come to the Brass Tap in Cross Roads and asked to speak with a manager and tell them to DRINK LOCAL. We'll give you a big basket of chips in our house made queso free. You can't that.
Steven Killfoil:No you can't.
Jason Williams:And we'll pair it with a beer that you'll really like.
Steven Killfoil:Yes. Awesome. Awesome. Well, folks, you heard today from Jason Williams, of the Brass Tap and his partner Bayleigh Swanton. Thank you again for coming on the show. For suggestions or emails, email me at crossroadspodcast2023@gmail.com. If you want to be on the show, give me a call at 469-230-5956. We'd love to have our local businesses on the show. Now for a few local announcements here in Cross Roads and in the surrounding area. The Planning and Zoning Committee will be meeting Tuesday December 5 at 7pm at the Cross Roads PD Meeting Center. Parks and Recreation Board will be meeting Wednesday December 6 at 6pm. At the same meeting center Town Council will be meeting Monday December 11 at 6pm at the Cross Roads Police Department meeting center. The Municipal Development District will be holding their meeting Thursday December 14 at 6pm at the Cross Roads Police Department meeting center. There will be a market on Saturday December 9 from 1pm to 5pm. At the park. Don't forget to bring the kids out to meet Santa Claus and the Grinch Saturday, December 16. For winter Fest at the park from 9am to 2pm. May all of you and your families be safe and have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay tuned in for new and exciting guests. Until next week. I'll see you at the top!