52: Aslin Brewing Founders: Outspoken with a No-Holds-Barred Approach
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Northern Virginia\\u2019s Aslin Brewing are brash and outspoken with a no-holds-barred approach that\\u2019s reflected in their progressive take on brewing. They\\u2019ve been tinkerers and experimenters from their earliest days brewing on a 2 bbl system, and this year they\\u2019re on track to brew over 5,000 barrels of beer on a small 8.5 bbl system, almost all of which is canned and sold from their dock because the brewery doesn\\u2019t currently have a taproom. In this conversation with Jamie Bogner, cofounders Kai Leszkowicz and Andrew Kelley discuss everything from their collaborative approach to competition (\\u201cAs much as it\\u2019s sad, we look at Untappd every day\\u201d), to their processes using hops, adding adjuncts, rousing tanks, and even their pricing strategy with margins that support employees, allow them to grow with little debt, and prepare for a shakeout in the brewing industry, if it ever comes.
\\n\\n\\u201cWe say that we\\u2019re competitive, and it sounds intimidating, but at the same time it doesn\\u2019t mean that we\\u2019re not going to be friends. That we can\\u2019t work together. That we don\\u2019t have something to learn from you, or you from us. We\\u2019ve never said \\u2018no\\u2019 to anybody. We\\u2019re still good people and nice. We\\u2019re just \\u2018if this is the field of play, we\\u2019re in a game right now, we\\u2019re going to win.\\u2019 We would like to win. We\\u2019re out here to do our best and be the best at what we do. We\\u2019ve definitely not achieved that yet, and there are tons of critics that are willing to tell us [so], which is great, because we\\u2019re using that as jet fuel to continue our search.\\u201d
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