#72: Dan Gordon – the man behind Gordon Biersch!

Hilarious Gordon Biersch YouTube video referenced

 The Gordon Biersch way to deliver kegs!

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Sam:                      All right. Let's bring in our guest today. Sergio, pretty pumped. We're at Gordon Biersch Brewery and we're sitting with Dan Gordon.

Sergio:                  We're not only at Gordon Biersch, we're at the headquarters of Gordon Biersch in Japantown.

Dan Gordon:      That's at the brewery.

Sergio:                  At the brewery.

Sam:                      So Dan, we like to ask our guests to give us when a what up when we introduce them here.

Dan Gordon:      Okay. Yeah. What up? We were just bottling today.

Sam:                      Nice.

Sergio:                  Oh, nice.

Dan Gordon:      What a surprise? We bottle about five days a week. [00:00:30] So the likelihood of us bottling is pretty darn good.

Sam:                      And lets kind of just jump right in. You are the co-founder and the COO of Gordon Biersch. And I was doing some research and I saw that you guys do a lot of private labeling and bottling. So are you able to tell us who you're bottling for today?

Dan Gordon:      No, I'd have to kill you.

Sergio:                  No, absolutely not.

Sam:                      Well, I think it's pretty public that you guys do bottling for Trader Joe's and-

Dan Gordon:      No, I'm the Michael Cullen of brewers. I'm going to lie [00:01:00] and get mislead and discredit.

Sam:                      Got it.

Sergio:                  Well, we did see-

Dan Gordon:      But we probably were bottling for one of the brands that we produce for.

Sam:                      Nice.

Dan Gordon:      Yeah. That's a nice picture that gives some specifics.

Sergio:                  Go figure.

Sam:                      Good stuff. Okay. So everyone knows the brand, especially around here in Silicon Valley in the Bay Area. You can't go to stay in Marina and not see Gordon Biersch, garlic fries, right?

Sergio:                  Oh, yes.

Dan Gordon:      Not if it's any quality place, [00:01:30] that's for sure.

Sam:                      Well, we actually we're partners with the Silicon Valley Business Journal and they'd produced an article saying Gordon Biersch was the number one brewery in the Bay Area producing, what was it, 112000 barrels last year.

Dan Gordon:      That was a very good stat, yeah.

Sam:                      Congratulations to that.

Dan Gordon:      Yes.

Sergio:                  That's impressive. I would have figured there's a lot of breweries out here like Lagunitas. They weren't even top five.

Dan Gordon:      [00:02:00] They're not in the Bay Area.

Sergio:                  Were they Chicago now?

Dan Gordon:      No, Petaluma is not the Bay area.

Sergio:                  Got you.

Dan Gordon:      We don't call Sonoma County the Bay Area.

Sam:                      Yeah. Sometimes they get mixed in those lists with like North Bay and it's a big stretch.

Sergio:                  Is Gilroy really the South Bay or is it-

Dan Gordon:      We are the largest American owned as you were alluding to.