Oral history interview with Brent and Ashlee Moore, 2021

Richard Cox: Okay to start. Could you please say and spell your names?

Ashlee Moore: Ashlee Moore, A-S-H-L-E-E M-O-O-R-E.

Brent Moore: Brent Moore, B-R-E-N-T M-O-O-R-E.

Richard Cox: Awesome. And today is Wednesday, May 26th, 2021. I'm Richard Cox talking today with Brent Moore president and co-owner, and Ashlee Moore co-owner and CEO of Goose and the Monkey Brewhouse in Lexington as a part of the Well Crafted NC project. So to start, could you please each tell us a little bit about yourselves?

Brent Moore: Ashlee.

Ashlee Moore: You go first.

Brent Moore: Well, I'm married to my beautiful wife of 21 years. I have four kids. Their age is 19 to six and we work. We have fun working. We have fun with 00:01:00our kids. We have fun traveling. We just try to enjoy life and have a good time together, in no matter what we're doing.

Ashlee Moore: We've always worked together. We got married in 2000 and ever since then we've always had our job together.

Richard Cox: So you have an awesome personal and working relationship.

Brent Moore: Yeah. We don't never really take a break. We just always-

Ashlee Moore: Yup. It's either work or play.

Brent Moore: ... Yup.

Richard Cox: So how did you each first become interested in the brewing industry?

Brent Moore: We like craft beer and we would go to Asheville and just visit in breweries in Charlotte, Winston. We remember going to Foothills back in the day when they were new to Fourth Street and seeing how they've developed. And as through the years, we just wanted to do something that was ours and that would 00:02:00benefit Lexington, that would keep the tax dollars here at home. We knew that breweries generated economic growth. And we, I mean, I've personally said, "I don't want to be in the Depot district. I want to go somewhere else." When we first started looking at this. And so here we are five years later, and we're in the Depot district, and you're getting ready to watch it explode and develop, and-

Ashlee Moore: We were in commercial masonry for all the years since 2000 and it's a family business. And so we just decided that we wanted to do something different and something fun, and something that was our own, ?and start our own family business, and so.

Richard Cox: And you mentioned not wanting to be in the depot yet you are here now. What changed for you?

Brent Moore: The building itself.

Ashlee Moore: The masonry and the building.

Brent Moore: We knew that it was a good building that the structural part of it was great. It was brick and block. We've done it enough to know that we had a good building that we couldn't turn down and say no to them walk away from. We had to take it.

Ashlee Moore: So we started leasing the building from the city of Lexington.

Brent Moore: In February of 2017.

Ashlee Moore: And then we purchased the building the next year.

Brent Moore: June of 18.

Ashlee Moore: And we just, I mean, we did not know exactly what we were going to do, how we were going to do it, but that's where it all started.

Richard Cox: Awesome. I like how you tied it back into the masonry business as well and you're interested in masonry when... So, this is sort of, so you purchased a building and think said, or leased it in 2017 and you opened in 00:04:00March of 2020. So first we'll start with what led you to open Goose and the Monkey, which I think you've already, you just talked to a little bit about seeing Foothills, but is there any... Do you want to elaborate on that anymore?

Ashlee Moore: Just that we wanted to do something that was our own and we wanted our own business. And so we thought at first we were like, well, what can we do? What do we like to do? This was a legitimate conversation. We sat down and we said, "What do we enjoy doing? Let's go in that direction." And we said, "Well, there's we like to drink beer?" It was that simple.

Brent Moore: And we were at Foothills when we had that conversation.

Ashlee Moore: And we said, and we looked around and we were at Foothills on Fourth Street in Winston-Salem. And we looked around and we thought, this is what we want. We want something exactly like this, so

Richard Cox: That's awesome.

Brent Moore: And then that-

Ashlee Moore: That was how the idea was born.

Brent Moore: And we drove around Lexington.

Ashlee Moore: Every weekend we would drive around Lexington and see what properties were available, and see where we thought we could make a space. And then one day we went over to Bull City Ciderworks, which is the neighbor. And, I think it was John [Clowney, owner of Bull City] who said-

Brent Moore: Yeah. John was outside.

Ashlee Moore: ... "Have you looked at this building over there and this one that we're in." And so we got an appointment with the city the next week and came in and looked at it, and you could not see anything. It was pitch black dark in here, even with flashlights or your phones or anything. It was so dark you couldn't see.

Brent Moore: Dark, wet [crosstalk 00:05:39]-

Ashlee Moore: And wet.

Brent Moore: ... water.

Ashlee Moore: But we just, we could see enough of the structure that we knew that the building was very sound. And so, I mean, immediately, we were like, "That's it."

Richard Cox: That's awesome. And again, tying back to your experience in masonry and construction.

Brent Moore: Right. And that's when we said, told the city, we want to build and 00:06:00what we have to do to get it. And so that, then the process just started.

Richard Cox: So they were really supportive?

Brent Moore: Oh, they were 100% supportive. I mean, from start to finish. And even now, I mean, the things that they've done to help us have been amazing that you don't see in other cities. From day one, I mean, they made it a priority, for city council meetings, for economic grants to help us. We got a building reuse grant that they were very supportive, of which was a tremendous help to us, but they were, they knew. And Ashlee and I grew up here in Lexington. So we remember Lexington furniture. We remember forklifts running around what they used to do down here. And so that's kind of how we approached city council with it.

Brent Moore: When we went was like, what we were doing, want to do, and what Bull City was doing, it's a different type of manufacturing, but still manufacturing. And we wanted it to be a community event or community space. And 00:07:00so they were, the more we taught and the more that they got on board with us, the more supportive they became of, we just didn't want to do it just to do it to make money, we wanted to do it for our community for Lexington.

Richard Cox: Awesome. So what are each of your roles here as CEO and president?

Brent Moore: That's what we were talking about a while ago, we were talking about that question coming back to the brewery. And we were at Lowe's and buying everything Lowe's had, I think, just stuff for the brewery. So we were like, one minute we were-

Ashlee Moore: And so it's hot and we're sweating and we're-

Brent Moore: We're [crosstalk 00:07:40].

Ashlee Moore: ... stacking wood. And then we're like, okay, we get to do everything from clean the bathrooms, to go to Lowe's, oversee all the decisions. But I wouldn't trade any of it for the world because we get to do a variety of things and I like to do it all.

Brent Moore: Yeah. We just do whatever needs to be done and have a good time doing it. I mean, it's, you see cigarette butts outside, pick them up. If you see trash outside, pick it up. I mean, it's not like that's somebody else's job that's our responsibility just as much as it is anyone else's.

Ashlee Moore: I think that we like to problem solve. And I think that that's what we try to do regularly in any of that.

Richard Cox: Do you have a favorite thing among your roles that you like to do or you're really grabbed onto other than drink the beer?

Brent Moore: I was going to say, drink the beer.

Ashlee Moore: I probably, I handle more of the financial side of things on a daily basis. And what do you handle more of?

Brent Moore: Just the day-to-day stuff along with Justin, our manager. I mean, he kind of encompasses the whole thing brew side, taproom side, managing the staff, but we're kind of him and our social media guy, we sit around and talk 00:09:00about what's events? What can we do to get more people out here? And then whatever Justin tells me to do is what I do, sometimes.

Richard Cox: That's fair enough. So though, only it, what a year ago, what was Lexington like when you opened in March of 2020? Because I think you're the first brewery here.

Brent Moore: Right. Well, and we were discussing that also we were like at the time uptown Lexington was, I mean, it's still full on this date. Their vacancy and uptown areas is, I don't even think it's existing. I think they're mixed, all the buildings are spoken for and they're booming, and they're doing great. So we're kind of outside of that uptown district. So it was seeing how it was nothing down here other than Bull City. And in Bull City, we even tell you, it was kind of a, this area was kind of sketchy at the time.

Brent Moore: And as we came down here, it brings more and more people out to our 00:10:00space, and to Bull City space. And it's just another option for Lexington to come to, and to do, and to have the space that we have, it's, we have one of these biggest spaces in Lexington now. And the people come and enjoy, and have fun. And they can bring their kids, and bring their dogs. So it's, I think just as far as just giving the community another thing to do has just been a good thing for the community as well.

Richard Cox: And why did you pick the name Goose and the Monkey?

Ashlee Moore: Because-

Brent Moore: We didn't want to take ourselves too seriously.

Ashlee Moore: ... we didn't want to take ourselves seriously at all. We just wanted to have fun. We just wanted to be lighthearted. We didn't want to, I don't know, we just-

Richard Cox: So one of you isn't goose and one the monkey or?

Brent Moore: Depends on the day.

Richard Cox: So if you were describing Goose and the Monkey to people unaware of the brewery, how would you describe it?

Ashlee Moore: I would say, whenever I do tell people to come down here, I tell them that to bring their family, come hang out it's really laid back. Bring your dog. You can sit outside the doors are open. If we do have music, it's not going to be so loud that it'll run you out of here. Just a fun place.

Brent Moore: Chill, relaxed environment. Yeah.

Richard Cox: Yeah. So how would you describe your location, the depot area, and how would you describe your space?

Brent Moore: You're inside, but you're outside. We've got two huge garage doors we can open, we can open our front doors. I mean, it's you just get that vibe where you're outside, but you're inside. It's always not... Yes, it's hot right now, but we got the doors open, which has been a good thing with COVID. So we 00:12:00tell people a lot, like during COVID we got the doors open and we would do it as much as we could in the winter time also. But it's just a-

Ashlee Moore: I think, oh, and like we have exposed beams, we have the fire doors.

Brent Moore: Fire doors.

Ashlee Moore: We have a lot of glass so that you can see the trains going by. We have the concrete floors that were here, the ceiling we did not do anything to. Either we try had to keep it as much concrete, masonry and steel as possible.

Brent Moore: Yeah. As natural as it was-

Ashlee Moore: Right.

Brent Moore: ... when you came in.

Richard Cox: So try to stick as much as you could with the original integrity of the building and space?

Brent Moore: Yeah. Right.

Ashlee Moore: Right.

Richard Cox: Yeah. That's awesome.

Brent Moore: And the trains are a draw for, I mean, not just for kids, but for adults. I mean, you see them waving at them in motion for them to do the train horn and all that. So it's, everybody loves trains.

Ashlee Moore: And I will tell you this, it's never lost on me whenever we come 00:13:00here and see kids waving to the trains, and everybody stopping and looking at the trains. It just makes me like, that's why we wanted to do that's right here.

Brent Moore: So see them having fun-

Ashlee Moore: Every time.

Brent Moore: ... and enjoying it.

Richard Cox: Yeah. That's great. You also brew... You don't brew just beer here either you also have coffee and other-

Brent Moore: Yeah. So one of my good friends, he owns the perfect blend coffee shop and roastery, and now bistro in Lexington on the Square.

Ashlee Moore: Tyler Prevatte.

Brent Moore: Tyler and Madison Prevatte. And through the years we just have talked about what Ashlee and I could do. And he actually, he is the one that was like, "You just need to open a brewery." I was like, "It's good. I idea. But I don't really know the brew side of it. I know the business side of it, so."

Ashlee Moore: We like drink to drink beer. We don't know how to brew beer.

Brent Moore: So he was kind of the one that made us really start thinking and dreaming and getting a vision for what we wanted to do down here. And then as time went on, we got this space and this building. I just told him one day I was like, "Why don't you bring the roaster down there and you need to expand anyway." Because he was upstairs he was out of room and he really needed to expand as well. So they talked about it. They were on board. So he's in here. And so that gave us option for coffee drinks, which at the time there were not a lot of breweries that were doing it.

Brent Moore: So now whenever we're brewing, you can... He's in here in the mornings also roasting coffee and you just get a really smell from the coffee to the brew. And people love seeing him doing his thing. You can see the brewers doing their thing on that side. So it's always fun when there's a ton of action 00:15:00going on. You have customers in here first thing in the morning at nine, 10 o'clock and we're working, and doing our things. So it's been a good thing. We've enjoyed having him and his family involved with this also.

Richard Cox: So what challenges did you face when opening Goose and the Monkey? Yeah.

Brent Moore: So as we said, we started leasing the building in February, 2017 from the city. And the plan was from day one, was to purchase the building. So as time went on we were making plans with architects, engineers, brewers. We were just, it was moving right along. And then December of that year, December 19th, I can't believe, I don't remember the date exactly, but-

Ashlee Moore: I think it was December 19th.

Brent Moore: ... Tyler called and he was like, "Hey, there's a fire in town. You 00:16:00might want to go there and check on your building." All right. At the time we had nothing in here. We had not started construction. We were getting ready to in January of, it was not 19 it was 17. We were going to start construction in January. And then we rode down here that night and all of Lexington furniture was, the buildings were on fire. And we were down here-

Ashlee Moore: 300 square feet-

Brent Moore: ... 300,000 square feet.

Ashlee Moore: 300,000 square feet.

Brent Moore: ... at the end of the night burned. And we got here we were up in town. And then at the end of the night, we were down here on Bull City's back dock, drinking beer, eating pizza, watching the fire. I mean, what do you do? Because, I mean, they were doing everything they could to save our building, but they had a ladder truck was on this opposite end of the building, just water on it for hours. They had a truck across the tracks. They stopped Norfolk Southern 00:17:00stopped the trains for four or five hours, just dowsing water. And so they were trying to do everything they could to not only save this building, but to save Bull City and the building next door to us as well.

Brent Moore: And so finally, 11:30 or 12 o'clock that night, it was like knocking on our door and the wind had shifted. And around that time we were getting ready to leave the fire chief at the time was Chief [Phillip] Hartley. He wanted to know where the fire doors were located inside of the building that was adjacent to us, because he was going to come in here and shut them. They were trying to do everything they could to save the building and shut the doors. So there was an existing wall between us and another building, and it had two openings. And that week we had taken the plywood down off of the openings, because an engineer had been in here looking at different things. And the fire 00:18:00chief came in, shut the fire doors. After he did that, he came out, and we just left, went home, we were like, there's, we might not have a building. Well, the next morning early I got up, came down here, everything was blocked off.

Brent Moore: You could still get in on Sixth Avenue. I rolled in here, transfer truck was in the way I was like, I don't know if I have a building or not. And he kind of pulled up a little bit and was like, "The building is there." I couldn't believe it. I mean really to see what was happening that night and where we had talked about doing demolition in the building adjacent to us for a parking that's basically where the fire was stopped at. I mean, it was like right here at us and if the fire doors would not have been shut, we would have probably lost it. So before they did demo and clean up, we went and got the fire doors, and took them out, put them down at our shop. And right before we opened, we brought them back in here, hung them up. And they're now part of the fire 00:19:00history, and they're in our brewery. And the first beer we brew was the Fire Door Red.

Brent Moore: So we got through that and then, construction kind of just, it was construction. You have their laws and you don't meet it. So that kind of delayed us a little bit. We were trying to be open by Barbecue Festival of-

Ashlee Moore: 19.

Brent Moore: ... 19. And we got-

Ashlee Moore: Which was in October and we that deadline. And so we thought, okay, how about Christmas of 19? And as we got closer, we knew we were not going to meet that deadline. And so we just said, "Okay, let's take a break for Christmas and when we get back, we're going to try to be open by the February." We thought we could reasonably be open in February. And so we decided to open on... It was a leap year in 2020. So we decided to be open on the 29th, February 29th.

Brent Moore: ... And we opened February 29th and threw one heck of a party. And it wasn't even like an official grand opening we didn't have a ribbon cutting. We just got everything ready, we just opened. And it was insane the amount of support that came out that day. And we've, I don't even think-

Ashlee Moore: Biggest party I've ever had. Yeah.

Brent Moore: ... Yeah. There was so many people inside and outside. And that was like, at that time, you were starting to hear rings of COVID, but nobody knew what COVID was. So we were open for 16 days and the day that he handed down the first order for the shutdown, we were leaving our lawyer's office, going from construction to operational. And Tyler-

Ashlee Moore: And that day-

Brent Moore: ... again, Tyler calls me and says, "Hey, we're going to be shutdown today." And we were like, "You've, what? What are you talking about? 00:21:00We're going to be shutdown." Because, I mean we knew, but it was just crazy. How do we be, can open and then what are we going to do? And that's-

Ashlee Moore: ... And so we had a lot to think about, because we did not know what to do. I mean, we had employees and we just started, and how are we going to make money if-

Brent Moore: ... We had beer in the tank that was ready to come out and that nobody had tried on. It was a new beer. What are we going to do? How are we going to get this out? We did have a crowler machine so that we could and sell to go beer, we ended up having-

Ashlee Moore: ... Which was a last minute purchase.

Brent Moore: That was right before we shutdown, we got it in.

Ashlee Moore: Yeah. And I didn't even think, I did not know how valuable that 00:22:00one little piece of equipment was going to be because that is what basically got us through COVID, just that little machine gets-

Brent Moore: And we did have Tap Hopper canning came in and canned the beers that were in the tank for us. And so, that was a blessing that they were able to get to us like that, I mean, right here in [crosstalk 00:22:24].

Ashlee Moore: But we were not planning on canning at all.

Brent Moore: But, yeah, that was down the road.

Ashlee Moore: So we had to figure all of that out really quickly because we didn't know how to make a label, we didn't know where to get the labels. I mean, we knew none of these things, because we weren't even going to try to start canning until at least six months to a year later.

Brent Moore: Yeah. We were just trying to get open and to get our community involved and you know, to introduce craft beer to Lexington. So canning just wasn't part of our plan at the time. But we learned very quickly, well throughout the whole process, but really during COVID, we say all the time that 00:23:00we had to learn how to pivot and pivot quickly, because if we didn't, we were going to be shutting the doors quickly, forever. And that was not even on the table. So we just rolled with it and we set up.

Ashlee Moore: And we said, "Okay, we've got figure this out."

Brent Moore: We took one of our tables-

Ashlee Moore: How do you do this?

Brent Moore: ... opened up the garage door, brought all the picnic tables inside, set up a little display, opened 12 to six every day. And just sold-

Ashlee Moore: A little storefront.

Brent Moore: ... seven days a week. We didn't close. We just had somebody manning it the whole time. And it worked. I mean it worked for us and I mean that's, was it the best? No, but did it work? Yeah, I mean, people would come up and offer just to buy a stool, what they just wanted to buy stuff, during that time. Just to support us and-

Ashlee Moore: They helped us.

Brent Moore: ... yeah, they were like, "You're brand new and you're already having this." We don't know any different, like we're not the only ones that are in this boat. There's plenty of other brewery throughout the whole United States world that we're in the same spot, other businesses. So that was a lot of 00:24:00learning and a lot of frustrations, and a lot of praying, and hoping, and just trying to, to navigate it the best we could. And then that's how we operated until two weeks ago when he just dropped the order and we were like, "What? We thought this was going to be going on through July, everybody else did." So we were-

Ashlee Moore: Surprised.

Brent Moore: ... very surprised.

Ashlee Moore: And happy, and-

Richard Cox: And pivoting again.

Ashlee Moore: ... And pivoting.

Brent Moore: Pivoting again.

Ashlee Moore: Trying to figure out what we're going to do.

Brent Moore: ... Events and what can we do to get... Because we were just trying to, even through the whole thing, we weren't trying to have tons of things going on to draw people down here, yup, we were still trying to have-

Ashlee Moore: We were trying to have balance.

Brent Moore: ... business, to find and have a good balance. Yeah.

Ashlee Moore: Being responsible with our customers and-

Brent Moore: To our community and not look like we were down here having a big 00:25:00frat party with stuff, because we have a good space and we could get people outside. We didn't want to do that. We wanted to be smart about it but, so now we're in the pivot and pivot quickly aspect again of trying to get things planned to get people out. School was getting ready to be out and that was just something we weren't really anticipate happening. So like everybody else, we're trying to figure out what to do, how to get people back out, get them trained again, without their mask.

Ashlee Moore: I think they're scared a little bit still.

Brent Moore: Yeah. Because it's like they got so and we got so accustomed to... Even now I walk out of office, I'm like, "Oh, I got to get my mask." Where I'm going and it's, we don't have to have that now.

Richard Cox: So, yeah, you've never had a time when you weren't pivoting starting.

Brent Moore: Yeah. It's always-

Richard Cox: ... Starting with a fire through-

Brent Moore: Fire, through COVID through opening back up and it's been-

Ashlee Moore: What is normal? We don't know.

Brent Moore: ... Yeah. What is normal? We don't know. We don't have any kind of baseline for what normal is for a brewery. And that's what you've said too. Our whole business plan we can throw that out of the window right now. That's another issue that we've had to face because not that we were going to go about the plan, but it was like, in our view of it, the whole brewing aspect of a taproom and all that, that's gone.

Ashlee Moore: The industry has changed.

Brent Moore: Yeah. The industry's changed so much through this.

Richard Cox: And that's interesting because I mean, for smaller breweries, the taproom model has been the driving force and to force a pivot to distribution. However you want to describe your level of distribution for a lot of people's a major move. And now back, do you think, because you weren't fully open running taproom at the time that may have helped or hindered all of that moving you were having to do?

Brent Moore: I think initially, it probably hurt us just, I mean, and even 00:27:00today, just because of, we were new, we weren't able to open and it's just name recognition right now. But with that being said, we have since started doing self-distribution just hearing the triad. And that's, I mean, it's gone, that's even gone better than I thought it was going to. People have been receptive to being out. You hear about the market being flooded and too many brew and too, all of this, but that's not... I don't find that to be the case-

Ashlee Moore: I don't even.

Brent Moore: ... per se because I mean, there's local grocery stores that have been receptive to it. There's mom and pop bottle shops that have been open to it. The other breweries have been open to it. Just, for us, that's not... We haven't seen any kind of negativity or for the distribution, it's been a good thing.

Ashlee Moore: Yeah, I think so.

Richard Cox: So I think you've already talked about this, but at least touched upon, but what do you see as your main mission or theme here, have fun, family space?

Brent Moore: Yeah. Have fun, community.

Ashlee Moore: We really want to known as the local watering hall, where everybody goes and gets caught up, and checks in, and we really want to learn everybody's names. And I mean, we have a lot of family and friends here anyway. And so we just want to continue to build on that. And we'll have a space that we can all meet at.

Richard Cox: Yeah. So what resources would you say you all have drawn on to help you in opening and growing Goose and the Monkey, through all of this?

Brent Moore: Well, from before we even opened, we went to a, what was that? The Triad Business Journal did a thing with-

Ashlee Moore: That was really good.

Brent Moore: ... Foothills at the tasting room. And Jamie [Bartholomaus, president and founder of Foothills Brewing] was there.

Ashlee Moore: Joel [McCloskey] with Four Saints.

Brent Moore: Eric [Swaim] with Hoots-

Ashlee Moore: [Crosstalk 00:28:58].

Brent Moore: ... And Kane Fisher [formerly of Natty Greene's Brewing] was there. 00:29:00And so they were just talking about breweries and the brewery life. And we were like, well, that's us, that's kind of when we first got ours started. And they were like, "It's hard work, you never get away from it." And we were like, "That's how it's like in the masonry world. It's hard work you never get away from, you always take it home." And then from that point on-

Ashlee Moore: So we were already doing that. So we were like, check.

Brent Moore: ... That's a check.

Ashlee Moore: We can do that.

Brent Moore: Right. And then we go through, we join the TBA, Triad Brewers Alliance. And that was like, basically we got took the school without going to school when we joined that and waited for-

Ashlee Moore: That was a year, that we started going to those meetings.

Brent Moore: ... Before we did anything here.

Ashlee Moore: We learned so much and everybody was so helpful, and willing to share, and willing to give you information. And we're grateful for The Triad Brewers Alliance.

Brent Moore: Yeah. And everything from... That's one of the things that Jamie 00:30:00told us too about community. He was like, "If somebody asked you for something in the community, he was like, your answer is yes. He was like, you have to just be there for them." He said, "I've never turned anybody away that's within reason." And he said, "You have to be there for that." And then Joel at Four Saints. I mean, he talked too, we talked to him some, a lot about just the area because Randolph County, Davidson County, Lexington and Asheboro, they're very similar.

Brent Moore: And so we just, we picked his brain a lot about just the area, his clientele, brew systems. And so we can't say enough about the community helping us. It wasn't anybody like against it. They were all open arms helping us, they wanted just to see us succeed just as much as anybody else.

Ashlee Moore: Yeah.

Richard Cox: That's great. So how would you each describe your average work week, constant?

Brent Moore: Long and it all runs together, but it's fun. I mean there's some days I don't like.

Ashlee Moore: Well, one of the things that we changed-

Brent Moore: Look what they did.

Ashlee Moore: ... during COVID was we were opening in the afternoons, because breweries normally typically open in the afternoon. So we would open around two-

Brent Moore: We would open at two and then all weekends.

Ashlee Moore: ... and stay until-

Brent Moore: Nine or 10, 11.

Ashlee Moore: ... 9 or 10 11, depending on the day. And so that was the norm. Well, towards the end of 2020, it became apparent that become of all the shutdowns and because of the, we were under the mandate where you had to close at nine. So we were only open from two to nine

Brent Moore: Or like they said, "At night we're not going to make it."

Ashlee Moore: Yeah. And we thought, oh, this is not good. We've got to figure something out. And so we decided to, since we couldn't stay open later, we 00:32:00decided we would open earlier. And so we started opening at nine, and we started calling on the community, telling them, "Let this be your workspace, let this be the place you do school." Because a lot of schools may or may not still be open and people were homeschooling. And we thought, okay, if we're going to do that, we're going to have to get some down here, at four in the morning, we already have the coffee. So we thought we'll serve pastries for breakfast, we'll have some things like that, some snacks, and then we'll have a food truck here for lunch. And so that has been wonderful. We were already here and so we thought it would be, it's ridiculous not to be open to the public-

Brent Moore: That's right.

Ashlee Moore: ... when we are already here.

Brent Moore: It's offered to the community because there was really nowhere for them to go.

Ashlee Moore: And we had so much space.

Brent Moore: They couldn't go to work, they couldn't go to school. We had the 00:33:00space, we could open the doors, we have WiFi, we have everything. So why not just offer it? And it's not like we came out here and had 200 people in here the first day. I mean, it's been, it's a growing thing, but it's been very well received. It's been very good. I mean, so people come in here and they just come in here just to work. You might get lemonade or whatever, but they just, they need a space. That's cool. That's what it's for.

Brent Moore: But they'll come back and eat, drink. They'll do that stuff later. So it's been good, it's and it has been fun. I mean, our staff has done a great job of even trying to pivot, figure out how to do that at first, because some of them gave up some shifts, just to be here in the mornings when they weren't making a lot in tips, but they knew that that was what needed to be done. And so they jumped in and did it and without complaining or anything. So, that's been good.

Ashlee Moore: And so a typical day is we open at nine, we close at 10 or 11. And 00:34:00it stays very, I mean it's laid back, it's calm, people work on their computers. They do schoolwork, they'll take a big long table and spread out. And then when it's kind of around afternoon, it kind of switches over to a little bit different the after work vibe. And we have lots of events. We try to stay filled up with offering things to the community like trivia and, and typical things that breweries offer. We try to offer bands, but very like one man band kind of thing, cornhole, all the good fun things. Yeah. And

Richard Cox: Yeah. And one of the things that seems to be going through everything you're talking about is your attachment to the community. Is there any community engagement work that you've done or looking to work on?

Brent Moore: Yeah. We've we partner with Operation Fly Our Flag for two events 00:35:00down here. One of them, the last one they did was, it started in Kernersville, was for the police officer who was shot. So they had a big jeep rally that started over there and came through Lexington and ended up here. And there was 200 motorcycles and jeeps out here. And that was end of February. So there was people spread out everywhere on this complex, which was crazy to see. And we were kind of a little nervous about that, that day with that many people, but they spread out and it was for a good cause. We've also raised, did some fundraising for the Sarcoma Foundation. And then one of the things was just past weekend, a friend of ours, she has a ... called it craftable. She does different of arts. She did a glass etching thing here Sunday.

Brent Moore: It was past Sunday and she raised money for the nonprofit that Ashlee and I have for foster kids locally. I Am J Three. And so she raised money and gave money back to that. And anything that we... And we did at Ginger's Revenge in Asheville, we... One of the guys, his sister was in a very bad automobile wreck. And so for the months of April, we, for every, I think pain of ginger being sold, we donated tailored back and then they matched it. It's just things like that just to help out. And we want to do more. And is that?

Ashlee Moore: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's it.

Brent Moore: Yeah. And it's whatever they... People come in and ask us. I mean, yes, we're going to, we're going to figure out a way to do it and make it happen.

Ashlee Moore: Yeah. We try to come for a place of yes.

Brent Moore: Because people are struggling to need help all day, every day. And if for more than anything else, it's just getting their calls out there, of what needs to be done and raised for.

Richard Cox: Great. So how do you see Goose and the Monkey growing in the future?

Brent Moore: I know my idea what's yours? That's probably where we're different.

Ashlee Moore: What do you think?

Brent Moore: Now, I want to see us, distribution take off, with that would be take expansion.

Ashlee Moore: I agree.

Brent Moore: And I would, I just want to continue to grow, if it's another space we're open to that, or if it's a barrel age program that we're talking about, just to continue to move forward. This is not where we want to... This ain't it. Our 10 barrels system is not it.

Ashlee Moore: Right.

Brent Moore: And we're open to any kind of change. We're not going to come from a place of no where like, well, if Justin has an idea or our brewers have an idea, they want to do something then, yeah, we'll sit down and talk about it and entertain it. So I mean our five year plan, I mean, I don't know, because I couldn't tell you my five plan that we had.

Ashlee Moore: Before.

Brent Moore: ... is gone.

Ashlee Moore: I know.

Brent Moore: I couldn't even tell you a one year plan because that didn't even work out well.

Richard Cox: Well, you started either six months out and then stuck around.

Brent Moore: It's just, we're just open to expansion, whatever that looks like when the time comes that's how-

Ashlee Moore: Yes. And I agree with you.

Brent Moore: ... Okay, good.

Richard Cox: Do you have anything different you want to-

Ashlee Moore: I agree with all that. I think we're... I mean, there's definitely things that we want to do, like expansion and things, we're not sure exactly how that's going to look.

Brent Moore: And that's okay.

Ashlee Moore: And that's okay. And I do want to add that we also have to... I mean, this industry as a whole, I think has to stay fluid, we've got to be able to change. So if it's anything like this past year, it could happen really quickly. So we just, I don't know, but it's exciting.

Richard Cox: Yeah. And you all haven't been open long, relatively speaking, but 00:39:00how would you say the brewing scene has changed maybe since you first started looking at getting into the industry?

Brent Moore: Well, when we first started looking at it, everything was bottles. It was very little cans. And now-

Ashlee Moore: So we were looking at a bottling line.

Brent Moore: ... And now it's like-

Ashlee Moore: And now everything's cans

Brent Moore: ... And can shortage. And you hear all these rumblings about that. And will it get back to bottles or will not get back to bottles. And so it's just, that's like-

Ashlee Moore: Will we be drinking out plastic pouches? I don't know.

Brent Moore: ... Yeah. For the biggest thing change that we've seen.

Ashlee Moore: That is one of the biggest.

Brent Moore: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Richard Cox: Yeah. Wow! So what would you say it's like working in the craft brewing industry today?

Brent Moore: I love it because there's no... In the masonry commercial world, it was-

Ashlee Moore: Oh, goodness.

Brent Moore: ... at, towards the end of it, it was a lot of fighting with 00:40:00general contractors. This is not like that. This is-

Ashlee Moore: It was very stressful, high stress, this is not. Even though we've been through a lot of really hard things, it's still a different kind of stress.

Brent Moore: ... And for me that's the biggest thing is that I love masonry.

Ashlee Moore: I do too.

Brent Moore: I love that world. I did not like the fussing and fighting, and the scheduling, and all that. So it wasn't fun. This is fun.

Ashlee Moore: It is fun.

Brent Moore: And we can... We've had other issues going on to about this year and they were nowhere near the stress level as what that was.

Richard Cox: Wow!

Brent Moore: So this is, we enjoy it, it's fun. And that taught us a lot, going through that for 20 plus years in the masonry world like that, that you have to enjoy what you're doing, because if you're not, you're not living and you're going to make everyone else around you miserable. Our kids will vouch for that.

Ashlee Moore: Yeah.

Richard Cox: So are there any trends today in the industry that you really do like or dislike?

Ashlee Moore: I've got an answer for this one.

Richard Cox: Ooh.

Ashlee Moore: There is a trend that's happening that I've seen and it kind of ties to the other question about the change in the industry, is I love that everyone now is, there's such a variety and people are trying to be creative, and there's such innovation with trying different beers and different flavors. And whereas I think it used to, you used to have maybe your flagships that, that was it. And that was craft beer. Now it's expanding in all these flavors and possibilities, and stuff that tastes like smoothies or, I think that is great. 00:42:00And I enjoy that side of it. Because I like tasting all the different styles.

Brent Moore: That's fun. Just like you said, just experiment. And just getting-

Ashlee Moore: Yeah. Experimental.

Brent Moore: ... We thought was a guy that does our social media, our brewery just get funky with it. There's no rules, there's nothing, just roll, just whatever you think let's do it. Let's give it a shot.

Ashlee Moore: And I think that's a good way to describe the brewery in a nutshell is just get... They don't feel confined to rules and I like that, so.

Richard Cox: Great. So what role do you feel brewery such as Goose and the Monkey have played in changes in Lexington being the first and in the broader triad?

Brent Moore: I think they bring economic growth and revitalization to the area. I mean, that was the other part of us coming here is we wanted to keep the tax dollars here in Lexington and Davidson County versus going out to Winston, 00:43:00Greensboro, the surrounding area, that was a huge part. And then plus just being part of the depot district revitalization down here, and we... I said early on that I didn't want to be a part... It wasn't that I didn't want to be a part of it, I didn't want to wait until it got to that point-

Ashlee Moore: And because it takes time to change an area.

Brent Moore: ... and for all that to change. And so that doesn't happen every night. But if, example, you look at Foothills and Fourth Street, when they went in, it was sketched like this was, and now that all of Fourth Street is beautiful. Well, that's kind of how we envision this is like when there was times we walked in here before the fire happened and we turned around, and walked out because there was people in here doing Lord knows what or we smelled, Lord knows what, and we're like, we're out of here. But now that stuff's is gone and it's open and it's kind of, it's on the verge of doing all of that, like 00:44:00Fourth Street, it's getting ready to blow up. So, to me, that's it economic growth and revitalization for the area. And I think it's much can be said for the triad also for those areas. I know what Joel's done on Four Saints. I mean, it's revitalize that whole area too. So I think that's probably it in a nutshell at least for this triad.

Richard Cox: Yeah. And where do you see the brewing industry going in the next three to five years?

Ashlee Moore: I'm not sure either. What do you think?

Brent Moore: I don't know, because just of everything that's happened, that would be more-

Ashlee Moore: I know.

Brent Moore: ... Justin Mike could give me more definitive-

Ashlee Moore: Information on those things, because-

Brent Moore: ... Yeah. His opinion on that.

Richard Cox: Yeah. So what do you see as unique about Southern beer or North Carolina beer, if anything?

Ashlee Moore: I think that it is well rounded in my opinion. And I don't know how to explain that better. And that's probably a Justin question too.

Brent Moore: I think a lot of it for North Carolina, for Southern beer, I still think that it's-

Ashlee Moore: I think it's the best.

Brent Moore: ... It's the best. And I think it's community. I mean, we've... When we needed cans and different things, I mean, there was people just open to help us out, whatever needed to be done. I mean, Justin could contact whoever, wherever, and they would be like, yeah, we got to come get it. Or somebody else would say that they needed something. And we could offer it back to them. So, I think community also with that.

Richard Cox: Great. And how do you see the triad brewing scene as different or unique than perhaps other areas of North Carolina?

Brent Moore: For us, I say that they just kind of took us under their wing and accepted us in there, and taught us a lot, give us good information. And even to this day, they help us out when we need something or vice versa. It's just, 00:46:00little brother, big brother, I mean just helping each other out when you can and no matter what they need.

Ashlee Moore: Right.

Richard Cox: Great. So the three, either fun or difficult questions, depending on your perspective, what is your favorite beer from a North Caroline brewery other than Goose and the Monkey?

Ashlee Moore: Seeing Double by Foothills, hands down.

Richard Cox: Okay.

Brent Moore: Yeah. That's mine too. I like that.

Richard Cox: What do you like about it?

Brent Moore: Seeing double.

Ashlee Moore: Yeah. Seeing double, it's just it's-

Brent Moore: It's kind of corny, but it's true.

Ashlee Moore: ... Yeah. It's just so good. It's my favorite.

Richard Cox: Oh, great. So would you say Goose and the Monkey has a flagship or signature beer yet?

Ashlee Moore: We do. It is the L Cube or L3 as a lot of people Lexington like to call it.

Brent Moore: It's the L Cubed. Everybody is like, "Can I have the L3?" It's the Lexington light lager. It's our light lager. And we can't keep that.

Ashlee Moore: We can't keep it in.

Brent Moore: In the end it goes quickly.

Richard Cox: It's interesting that it's a lager.

Ashlee Moore: I know, we're surprised too.

Richard Cox: Well, it's great.

Ashlee Moore: We thought it would be an IPA and Lexington is just a little different like that.

Richard Cox: That's one of the great things though, right?

Brent Moore: Yeah.

Richard Cox: So the lager is your signature beer, what would you say you all's favorite beers are though from Goose and the Monkey?

Ashlee Moore: Mine is the L Cubed. And I used to be an IPA drinker all the time across the board, but I love our lager and that's what I always choose.

Richard Cox: Great.

Brent Moore: I like our IPAs, the Wandering Pig, Mango Pig, Triad Transplant. And I've also learned to like sours and-

Ashlee Moore: I do like our sours too, they're really good.

Brent Moore: ... Yeah. I like their sours.

Richard Cox: So what are you drinking right now?

Ashlee Moore: I'm drinking a sour.

Brent Moore: I'm drinking the Mango Pig.

Richard Cox: Oh, there you're and that's all I've got. Is there anything y'all like to add?

Brent Moore: I just want to thank the community for supporting us through everything from day one through right now, opening back up. I mean, their support has been absolutely amazing. I cannot have asked for a better place and especially growing up here being from here, it's just awesome to see the support from everyone. And just them getting to come out here and see. We still have people come in here and like my dad worked in here, my grandfather worked in here. I remember coming here when I was a little kid and we've kept the space as natural as possible. So it's good for that to hear the feedback from them also. So I just say thank you to our community. Not just Lexington but the triad, I mean, they've, people come from all over.

Ashlee Moore: That. I'd like to say thank you to the Triad Brewers Alliance, because they just took us in and taught us so much, and kept us from making big 00:49:00mistakes. And we made friendships there that we feel like we could call and ask anything, and they would help us. And that I'm really grateful for that.

Richard Cox: Awesome.

Brent Moore: And to you and Well Crafted for coming out here early on and staying in touch with us through everything.

Ashlee Moore: Talking to us from the beginning.

Brent Moore: So thank you for that.

Richard Cox: You're welcome. Thank you for participating. That's it. Thanks a lot.