The tangled web of Smalltimore we weave is woven into this Maryland Crab Cake Tour stop with Mike McKelvin of 1623 Brewing sharing his Essex hard rock Child’s Play roots with Stone Horses singer John Allen and Nestor over a beer in Eldersburg.
Mike McKelvin of 1623 Brewing shared the origin of his brewery, named after the distance from his cousin’s home in Colorado. The brewery offers a variety of beers, including a milk stout, a black IPA, and a Mexican lager. Mike and John Allen reminisced about their Essex roots, highlighting their shared history and connections within the community. They discussed the impact of COVID-19 on local businesses, the importance of land preservation, and the evolution of the beer industry. The conversation also touched on their media backgrounds and the significance of local culture and traditions.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
1623 Brewing, Maryland lottery, beer crafting, Essex roots, rock and roll, media background, Carroll County, crab cakes, COVID-19 impact, local businesses, farm preservation, Kolsch beer, live music, community connections, storytelling.
SPEAKERS
Speaker 1, Nestor Aparicio, John Allen, Mike McKelvin
Nestor Aparicio 00:00
Welcome home. We are W, N, S, T am 1570 tasks in Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. John Allen is grabbing the lottery tickets that I’ve already given to him. We’re out at 1623. Is all brought to you by our friends at the Maryland lottery. In conjunction with our friends at Curia wellness, I have new ones, pressure luck. These are these are brand new scratch offs. See what happens. And I told John Martin is John is scratching right now. And there’s schmutz, that’s the official word for this. And there’s schmutz all over my table cloth. Here, little silver things, because we get schmutz all over this every single week. We’re at 1623, we’re drinking beer. So if the show gets a little crazy, it’s because what am I drinking? Mike mcelvin, what is this? 1620, this is you’ve
Mike McKelvin 00:44
got utter orbit, our milk stout, and John’s got two. He’s got our black eye pay, known as midnight muscle, perfect for him. And then he also has our Mexican lager, nuestra playa. That’s our beach right there. And I figured I’d bring something over that you won’t don’t often see what is that we actually craft our own cocktails here now. So we that looks very beachy. That looks like I got an Orange Crush here. It’s our version of an Orange Crush. Matt, our head brewer, who you all going to meet later. He crafts cocktails in the back force. We cake these as well. And so this came right off the cake, so I
Nestor Aparicio 01:19
can bring this home, is what you’re telling me. Yep, you can bring it home. All right. Well, I’ve been trying to get out here for a long time. So what’s
Mike McKelvin 01:25
the 1623, significance? You know, Nestor has gotten to hear this story a few times, but back in 2018 and literally, a drunken moment, I gave a call to my cousin in Elizabeth, Colorado, and said, I know I can do a brewery here. We need one here, and give me some ideas. He’s a gypsy Brewer out there. He was helping companies get going. He’s a great Brewer. Won a bunch of medals, and so he spent the next two years with me getting this place open. And the one piece we could never come up with was a name, yeah. And so his commute was 16 123 miles. And that’s where we came up with 16. I
Nestor Aparicio 02:04
thought it was when I drove out on 70 at here. St Louis is 945
Mike McKelvin 02:09
miles. Collins, look at that. It’s really close to 60.
Nestor Aparicio 02:12
Denver’s 2200 mile. You know, it’s like all of that,
Mike McKelvin 02:15
right? So the funniest part was the very first day we opened, I get a group of English teachers sitting right here. And they go, we know what the name is all about. And I go, give it to me. They said it’s Shakespeare’s First Folio. Was printed in 1623, wow. I said, you obviously don’t know. I’m from Essex.
Nestor Aparicio 02:33
Almost failed English. All right, so this is what I didn’t know. Mike and I have known each other a number of years, and I think of you as the Bal Vince Bagley, Chris Thomas guy. That’s why I wore this shirt today. You think of me as your friend who knows Dante libertor Because Dante was in our graduating class, yep. So we did 1985 last segment. That’s so last segment ago. I walked in here an hour and a half ago, maybe half an hour before John got here, and I said, Yeah, I got John Allen coming out. You know, he’s been in some bands and stuff. He’s like, I know all about John. I’m like, about John. I’m like, How do you know about John? You’re like, well, let me tell you that story. So I had no idea you were an Essex guy, and we’re two done dog guys. I think of you as a Bal I think of you as an Eldersburg guy out in Carroll County. Um, we are three guys that were grew up within a couple two mile he and I were six blocks from each other. You were two three miles away. You were very close to his band mates. You were you an Essex fan, or Dundalk band? Charles play, what do
Mike McKelvin 03:29
you consider half and half? There’s a bridge, there’s a cube, the Essex cube, the gateway, three quarters.
Nestor Aparicio 03:34
Dundalk, if I get Izzy and Nick Right, right? Because yeah,
John Allen 03:37
eventually it became, yeah, more, but it’s more Dundalk, Baltimore’s band,
Nestor Aparicio 03:41
and we could not be at 1623, in this factory of awesomeness in here, any further we in Essex on? No, you know, I mean, this is a long way. I did not know you were an Essex guy, so I’m gonna get out of the way you guys, you have a good time, because you you have, there’s so much synergy here amongst rock and roll and beer and media that you have like a photographic memory of his band, which is
Mike McKelvin 04:06
amazing, without a doubt. So 1967 I was born in Hyde Park in Essex, so and then from there, got to move literally two streets. They didn’t
John Allen 04:16
even take you to a hospital. I
Mike McKelvin 04:19
think I think I was at GBMC for a day, but, uh, and then moved two streets over to Foxcroft lane. So from Foxcroft lane, it took three minutes to walk to Phil’s house. Phil Weiser, great Child’s Play member, and he was unbelievably close friends with my cousin Bruce. They grew up together. I’ve known Phil since before entering kindergarten. Oh, wow. And hit, you know, his mom and dad and brother grew up right there in East rock and Budweiser. Yeah, exactly right. And we used to play football in the in the back of their house, between two transformers, one to the end. That was east. Goal line was a transformer behind his house, nice. And then my wife, Sandy, who I met in in sixth grade, she actually grew up with Brian. Okay, she lived right near seagull in, okay, off of tredevon Road, and there she this
Nestor Aparicio 05:16
shit back river neck road. You better believe she’s had some pizza John’s. Oh, we all have, yeah,
Mike McKelvin 05:21
right, and, and that’s where she grew up. She went to elementary, middle, and then we both went to high school with Brian, with Brian,
John Allen 05:28
nice. Did you see us play in the hallways of Chesapeake
Mike McKelvin 05:31
when you die? I never saw that, you know, I think because I was on the bus for football or baseball, that I missed those and I always got told the story, you were a bay hawks, right? I was a bay house. Long there. Then Jeff Long was our quarterback man. Jeff was a legend. Yeah, absolutely. I
Nestor Aparicio 05:47
was scholar athlete. All that. I I reconnected with him a couple of years ago, and I think I saw him in pizza John’s at one point. But he was in the finance world, banking world,
Mike McKelvin 05:56
yeah, he went, he was a full scholarship to brown. And he was art guy too. He was honorable. I mean, I’m sorry, first team all Metro, 1985 we were
Nestor Aparicio 06:06
on I wrote about him in the paper because he was the McCormick scholar athlete winner, and I wrote about him many, many years ago. Yeah. Imagine what the Iowa where did he go? Brown. Brown, Brown. Okay,
Mike McKelvin 06:18
imagine the center of our football team goes to West Point, our quarterback goes to brown and we’re a 10 and Oh, football team in Baltimore County. I mean, just the smartest group of people I’ve think I’ve ever been around, yeah, and I always tell people all the time my my storytelling of Essex is very simple. We were a bunch of poor kids who didn’t know we were poor, right? And a bunch of smart kids, and I include a lot of our friends in Dundalk. A bunch of smart kids and talented people came out of Essex and Dundalk back then,
Nestor Aparicio 06:52
we had hard working parents,
Mike McKelvin 06:54
all of us, we, you know, we, we brought his name up earlier, but part of Russ show on 98 rock was to make fun of us all the time, you know, you know, you know, growing up in an Essex Wonderland, right? So, you know, it was, you know, we were sort of the joke, along with our friends over in Glen, Burnie. But at the same time, bunch of hard working people that, you know,
John Allen 07:14
create any blue collar area, you know, kind of gets the, you know, it’s
Mike McKelvin 07:18
created a radio station, created an awesome band and a legacy. And then, you know, I got lucky enough to have this in a construction company. And, you know, look at, look, look, look where we are. Well, your
Nestor Aparicio 07:27
background was media, right? Yeah, you worked with television Hill, and I didn’t know this whole ride. This is, I didn’t find a John two days ago because he lives out this way. You know, I mean, I didn’t realize it was that small tour would be so small in this segment, really, it really is. I find people come in here all the time, and it’s gets smaller and smaller when we link it. You know, Kevin Bacon has seven degrees of separation. We’ve got one all of a sudden. You’re, you know, it’s right there, especially, you know, me or John. Yeah, it is fireboard and Dante, as you mentioned, Mickey in there too. We got to put Mickey. If you Yeah. Mickey Coachella, well, I mean, that goes back to the hammer Jackson links. And people think John and I know each other from hammer jacks, but nah, I was way, but way, way, way before then, and you and I would know each other through business and beer. I think I connected with you when Owings Mills, the Marriott opened. I was out there. You were pouring some beer. Yeah. I was dressed nice. My wife and I were having a really good band played that night, and we were drinking your beer, and you came up to me, and I said, Oh, I know what this is out in Eldersburg. I had no idea you had these links, because last time Mike came on, we were over at libertories. Now, Dante and I went to school together, so Dante’s story is unbelievable. The whole libratory family story of working a little Italy as Busboys and falling into this location in Eldersburg. Why Eldersburg? What are you doing in Eldersburg?
Mike McKelvin 08:49
So I ended up going to Western Maryland back then. It’s not McDaniel graduated there green terror. I was a terror. Actually got out a half semester early because, or a semester early, half year early, because Vince Bagley offered me a job, and so I literally called him up in the summer of eight. Was this because you were sports? Goober, yeah, okay, I called him up in the summer of 87 and said, Vince, can I come do an interview with you and write a school paper about, you know, Bal sports, blah, blah, blah. And he was like, Hey, come on down. You’re welcome anytime. And so I show up your left hander, and he goes, You need to come work for me. And I said, you just name it. I go, but I’m at that point. I was, I was just finishing my sophomore year, going into my junior year of college. And he calls me in the middle of my junior year and goes, I need you by May. And so may I get the job? And literally, my last semester, I’m full time at Bal. I almost failed my last semester because I was riding back and forth Westminster there all the time. And it worked out. In the end, I had just 795
John Allen 09:57
probably wasn’t even open. And. Was, you know, million lights
Mike McKelvin 10:03
on. I have a really funny story about that. So just how goofy this ride and sports is. I was working for P and H Fence Company. I think they still exist, putting fence up along what will be 795, when I heard Len bias died,
Nestor Aparicio 10:21
June, 19, 1986 I was in the newsroom at the sun that
Mike McKelvin 10:24
morning. Yep, I was, I was busting fence down. What would be 795
Nestor Aparicio 10:28
Chris Thomas was at the hospital by 930 in the morning that day, because I was in the newsroom
Mike McKelvin 10:33
that day. Chris and I were really close, you know, so Vince hired me, Chris after though this was 86 Yeah, yes. And I were really close. And it was, you know, he and I.
Nestor Aparicio 10:42
This is one why
Mike McKelvin 10:46
Chris and I became really close, because back then, Vince had pulled his schedule back to just six o’clock. And so Chris and I were always through the 11 together. And we have some really funny stories about the, you know, when Bob Malachi is that Christopher’s by himself at the bar and all that, and those, all those Orioles that didn’t know where they were going in 8889 90 they were, you know, they were so lost back
Nestor Aparicio 11:08
then, Kurt Schilling, without question, was at that point, oh, yeah, who married our childhood friend Pete Harnish, before he lost his mind.
John Allen 11:15
My eighth grade girlfriend, John
Nestor Aparicio 11:18
Allen is here. Mike mcelvin is here. Mike McKelvin is here. We’re at 1623, it’s all brought to you by the Maryland a lot of her storytelling, the storytelling part of you at Bal and your sports background. How long did you work there?
Mike McKelvin 11:34
I was at Bal for six years. Became an 87
Nestor Aparicio 11:37
and 93 Yeah. So I was an intern for gar so with show Hammond. Well, Joe was an intern for me. I know that Joe came from Bal and then I was with Mike Gaffigan, Scott gar so and Keith Mills, all at Channel Two. My internship was in the spring of 92 when Camden Yards open is when I graduated. So we were very much, oh, Camden Yards opening in 92 you’re working for Vince, yeah.
Mike McKelvin 12:10
So here’s one of the things, and this is, you know, Bill kissner, God rest his soul, one of
Nestor Aparicio 12:15
my colleague. Kissner, oh, wow, sure. You know,
Mike McKelvin 12:18
he took over as the sports director, and I got handed the producer ship for Live at Five, and
Nestor Aparicio 12:26
you’re doing the news Miller like all that.
Mike McKelvin 12:29
So I say, God bless the soul the I’m producing from the dark confines. You’ve been in the studios at 98 rock right across the hall, dark confines of the Bal control television room, yeah, and Bill comes walking in with everything they gave that day just for me. Because he goes, I can’t believe you missed this. He goes, we’ve been working this day for the last six years, and you miss this. And handed me everything the Orioles gave out that day. But it’s, you know, opening day, very special. 92 the, I tell you the best parts about working in sports in Baltimore, and we’re going to talk a little bit about it later. But it was the people, you know, you had John Steadman, I had Vince Bagley. We all got the weave through, Bill Tanton and that whole group, Jim Henneman, who we, oh, she
Nestor Aparicio 13:21
just lost this December, yeah, man, it was,
Mike McKelvin 13:25
it was an amazing group. And John, you and I were talking about how we love writers now, and don’t, don’t let the music get lost in the writing, right? That those right. They were even Vince, they were writers first, right? And, you know, even, you know, I think we look at people today like Tim kirken, writer first became a TV personality, but writer first. And when you really look at all of our growth right here, the three of us and the people we surrounded ourselves with, it was writers first.
Nestor Aparicio 13:55
Well, AI is going to replace all that, yeah, yeah. Let’s hope not to worry about let’s hope not AI is going to write just like me, yeah,
Mike McKelvin 14:01
but so many you know, great, you know. And what happened was that I I’d like to ramble a little like you. I went, I became the spokesman for the Maryland State Police. I wanted something bigger. I wanted I wanted more. And at that time, I wanted to be a little bit more in the camera. And then while I was doing that, what I realized was, I’m not a camera guy. I really am a business guy. And I came back to TV, but I came back on the sales side and ended up becoming the local sales manager at WBFF. Built up a nice little business there. And then that’s in, why beer, though? What happened here? So in, I bought my first business in 2002 and and sold three businesses, and then I bought a company out of fallston in 2008 called Griffith brothers, and we build large scale retaining structures. And got built it up to right where I want it, and we still have it today. That’s the family legacy business. And this became sort of the the hobby, the. Passion, though, let’s do something else. Did you live out here? Yeah, we moved when I graduated Western Maryland, I swore I was never coming back to Westminster. You know, back
Nestor Aparicio 15:08
it’s an Essex government coming back to Carroll County. I was, you guys both went west and I’m, you know, I’m still North Baltimore County. But, like, I
Mike McKelvin 15:15
swore I was never coming back to this county. And that was I left. I left here when I was 21 Yeah, left here when I was 21 at 27 moved in, and that’s where I’ve been for for the last 30 plus.
Nestor Aparicio 15:29
So I give you guys, by the way, John Allen is here. Mike mcelvin is here. We’re at 1623, we’re drinking some beer. We’re telling some stories. It’s a Maryland crab cake tour. Even though you have crab dip here, I had a couple of recommendations for crab balls and different stuff along, along the Eldersburg pike. So I, I’ll get back out here at some point in season. We’ll do all that.
Mike McKelvin 15:47
Let me tell you. Can I you mind? I’ll show a couple of businesses, sure, please. So first of all, this block, this box right here, behind this wall, this is a libertories kitchen. Okay? We call it craft culture. That’s what this room is. These guys do great work. Dante Pinot, eat a low and John and I teamed up to build that kid. But not Nick, forget him. He’s working on lips. Girl, actually Nick right. Nick’s works with us closer than all so out front, when you came in, there’s a place called basta pasta, amazing crab cakes. Amazing crab cake.
Nestor Aparicio 16:18
We should have brought that over here today. I probably should have grabbed one of them. And then
Mike McKelvin 16:21
when you go down to obviously, Dante does a great crab cake down there. He Pinot up in Westminster. And then I’ll give two other Carroll County businesses a shout, because they do such a great job. Rock salt has an amazing
Nestor Aparicio 16:33
I have been to rock salt, I have done a crab cake there on the tour two years ago. And
Mike McKelvin 16:37
then if you go out to Hampstead, Fratellis, Fratellis does an amazing crab cake, but they do something that we don’t see on the east side. They add red pepper to
Nestor Aparicio 16:47
there. That’s Greek or Italian. But agree, I know for Telly is over an Eastern Shore. They were an Essex family, and I did the show over in Salisbury. It was a it was an Essex family with a crab cake. Was the old Essex diner at Eastern Avenue. Two girls get into Salisbury, and the kids went to Salisbury state. Dad said, I sell your business in Essex. I moved to Salisbury, and they’ve been there for 35 years making crab cakes there. So, so I’ve had crab cakes in Salisbury with
Mike McKelvin 17:14
them. What was our What was our Greek place across the street from the midway?
Nestor Aparicio 17:19
Oh, geez. Now they’re going back into the Wayback Machine. Oh, here we go. I knew this was
Mike McKelvin 17:24
the Midway cafe. Was, you know what? Our friend who now does the Bob Seger tribute stuff? Lonnie Fletcher, yeah, Lonnie was playing across the street in his queens right type band, uh huh. And then we would go over to whatever, the Greek restaurant. And now I’m forgetting. I can’t remember it. Yeah, Lonnie. Lonnie almost blew the roof off the midway. That band was too big for that little they were,
John Allen 17:48
oh, geez, in force, enforce. So Lonnie, this is all the connections, right? And the little work, small world. So before I joined Child’s Play, I went up to a band practice of theirs, and they were kind of farting around with a scorpion song cover, and no one could sing it. This guy with curly hair kind of looked like Lafe Garrett, a little bit Absolutely, gets up and starts just wailing this, this Scorpion song. And my band was looking for a singer, and I was like, Hey, what’s your number? You want to be in a band, you know? So he was, he was a singer, and like our band, before I left and joined Child’s Play, I don’t know what we were called that that month, maybe fury
Nestor Aparicio 18:36
or something, was no you keep saying that, what was the name of your
Speaker 1 18:39
name? You got it lost.
Nestor Aparicio 18:43
I got the wrong band, wasn’t it?
John Allen 18:45
Fury was Nick and out of here somebody was in that virgin fury.
Nestor Aparicio 18:49
I don’t know what it was, so I the general manager at Sarah restaurant, said to me that I need to get a crab cake there. So I want to plug them, I
Mike McKelvin 18:59
gotta tell you. James Hansen, thank you. They’re up on Main Street in Westminster, and we haven’t been there yet. Sandy, and I have been so busy this year, we, we haven’t been there yet. So what’s
Nestor Aparicio 19:09
going on here? I was in here, like, three years ago. I mean, alive and well, you got people you’re drinking, you
Mike McKelvin 19:14
know, it’s, it’s been going really well, especially since we added the kitchen, you know, it’s, you know, COVID changed everything you could before COVID, you could easily open up brew tap room, and that was all you needed. And people would come, we’d throw out, throw a band, or, you know, a trio, a little acoustic in here, everybody would come. COVID changed all that. It’s a totally different dynamic. People want to go one place. They want to be entertained quickly. They want to get some food, and then they’ll give you two three hours of their time, but entertain them and have an enjoyable spot. And then they’re probably going home. We’re, you know, when we grew up, what we’d hit four, yeah, that I will tell you all of Carroll County, except for liquid library, which you should try sometime if you get up there, all of. County closes by 10
John Allen 20:01
o’clock. It’s where I live, like Clarksville. It’s like nothing happening. Yeah, since COVID,
Mike McKelvin 20:06
you can’t, you you won’t. There’s not a late night there’s no late night place anymore. And I will tell you our good friends, Chad and drew up at liquid library. They do an amazing job. And what town are they in? They’re up in Westminster on Main Street, not far from Sarah so it’s, uh, it’s places like that that, you know, they’re gonna niche, and maybe they’ll kick start a new late night. But right now, late night doesn’t exist. I’m I’m done on a Friday. Saturday night, we’ll have a great, great day brunch. Brunch will go through the roof. 839 o’clock. We’ll have 40 people in here. Yeah, 10 o’clock, you know, they’re walking out here, eyes half closed, and you know, it’s, it’s
Nestor Aparicio 20:45
just a different I fell asleep with the all star game. I didn’t get to watch all the knock off. It’s get off, whatever the hell that thing was.
Mike McKelvin 20:50
If you tell goofy, if you talk to Cam later, she’ll tell you about me. Fall asleep. I miss so much stuff
John Allen 20:55
now. No, you know, it’s just by getting old. Well, my 18 year old, she doesn’t go out until 11 o’clock and she’s going to the wrecker, you know, they have college, like, dance night or whatever. So, yeah, so I’m like, wow, like, I
Nestor Aparicio 21:10
live close to the record, so I’m pleased that you’re playing the right
John Allen 21:12
like, I remember doing that like, you know, but that doesn’t happen anymore, you know. I guess maybe, maybe we’ve aged out,
Mike McKelvin 21:21
maybe, like we were talking, were talking earlier, maybe we’re classic rock,
Nestor Aparicio 21:27
white stakes car. But I never did. So I was at Pt flags. Oh, my God, I knew I’d get you guys on that. So I met a girl at Pt flags in 1986 Christmas 86 and I’m from Dundalk, and I’m living on cane Street. And, you know, I was a single parent at the time, working at the paper, and I met this girl, and we fell in a little bit. She lived out here, and I lived over there. You’re like, oh, man,
John Allen 21:53
that’s too far for me to drive
Nestor Aparicio 21:56
way. And I took my 1977 caprice classic wagon with that pea green and the brown panel and the holes in the bow,
Mike McKelvin 22:05
right? Yes, the subway ended at 70 I had a girl,
Nestor Aparicio 22:09
Krista. I love you. You know that I wrote to you today, but Krista was a class 88 Liberty High School, right there, right? I went a fellow with her best friend become my girlfriend. But that’s a long story, but I met a girl at Pt flags in 86 was it she dance night? Yeah, Sunday night was it was teen night. I mean, it was teen night. It was a Sunday night, teen night. Everybody. We were all drinking Shirley Temples. And I met a girl. She gave me her number. We had the little PT flags card. Remember that? Yeah, card, but, you know, so I drove it. She said, I live in Eldersburg. I’m like, You got like, a country accent. What the hell are where you from? You know, she still did, Christine, you know, I should watch
John Allen 22:43
this. My cousins lived in New Windsor, and they sounded like they’re from Oklahoma, right? I was like, Where the hell you were born in Baltimore? You you lived in North Point village until you were like, 10. How come speak, right? Yeah, that’s right. They he was like, hey, hey, John, remember when you called that steer a moo, moo. Yeah, Chris, I was five.
Nestor Aparicio 23:08
I’ve got a girl out here, and I’ve never seen one. I’m trying to score. You know, I miss this 1986, 87 I’m 1819, whatever was 17, and it was after live eight, after I wrote that terrible live eight, thing we’re gonna get to later. And I drove out
John Allen 23:22
here, and she still dated you, even after I had to get a nap
Nestor Aparicio 23:26
to figure out where she lived. Dude. She’s like, it’s 26 you go at Liberty Road. I’m like, Where the hell is Liberty Road? Is that left to freedom? Where’s Liberty Road? So this is 1987 I drove outside a girlfriend out here, and I would come pick her up at her house, and we would go get a crab cake. And do you know, whatever we do out here, but it was literally, there was an Ames, and it was like a road there was nothing. I came in because I came from the lottery, because I had to pick up these, did you win? Did you not win? I don’t think go on. I don’t think you won lucky sevens. And I was picking up the pressure locks. So I went downtown. I came out of your way. I’ve never come I was down 10. I google mapped it, or raised it, as my cool friend John does, and it wrote me out 70 to 30. So like 70 to 32 North right up to come up the highway. And I have never come up that road in my life, through Sykesville, crossing from Howard County, your county, into Carroll County. I’ve literally never been on that road in my life. Why would I be? And I’m like, look at how amazing this is. And I think, Oh, my God, it’s been 38 years since I had a girlfriend here and I came out here. But this community, dude, no offense. The last time I was out here when as I was at the bar drinking with you, and when I did the show, it’s not a place you come through, right? Eldersburg. The reason you like it is they leave us alone out here. You know what I mean? It’s sort of like, like when I’m in a Hampstead up at Greenmount. It’s sort of like, you know, unless you’re on your way to Hanover, unless you’re on your way to something else, right? Elders, this is a real bedroom community that’s exploded out here in our lifetime, right? Well, you.
Mike McKelvin 25:00
The southern part of the county, absolutely. So if you go, literally go towards My House in Westminster, it’s still not a lot like, not a lot different than when I first moved out here.
Nestor Aparicio 25:11
When you drive a Reisterstown Road, you feel the commerce. But if you go 10 feet off, there’s either a golf course or a farm. That’s literally, right,
Mike McKelvin 25:18
exactly, and it’s a lot of land preservation that goes on. A lot of the farms are stuck there that so they’ll be farms forever. You know, they good. The farmers can defeat. They can add, I think the way it works now is you can add two houses on if you have 100 acres or more, but that’s it. You know, they got some government subsidy to help keep the farms alive, and that locked the land as farm forever. It can’t be changed.
Nestor Aparicio 25:45
Well, near cities, it’s so important that we have these farm detainees. We
Mike McKelvin 25:48
have an unbelievable farming community here, northern Baltimore County, Harford County, and I can only speak to those because I travel those so much. But between the crop farmers and the cattle farmers it, they’re unbelievable, and the work they put in. A very close friend of mine is a dairy cow farmer. That’s a lot of work. And his his wife and his sister in law, get up every morning, 330 Yeah, and start the cows. And
John Allen 26:16
I could never do that. I mean, if I stayed up the night before I could stay I’m
Mike McKelvin 26:19
gonna tell you a really funny story about how women work harder than us and it can handle more pain. Oh, yeah, I show up at their farm and this cow had just given birth to a calf three hours earlier and is on the milk machine three hours later.
John Allen 26:36
Yep. I like, yep. That’s
Mike McKelvin 26:38
That’s why guy cows don’t give birth and have milk,
Nestor Aparicio 26:43
so they chase the girl, that’s right, might be Calvin. This year, 1623, what makes your beer Great? What do you love about your
Mike McKelvin 26:50
beer? Matt Evans, all right, our head brewer, he makes our beer great. We’re very classic oriented. You know, a lot of ours is a stout I’m drinking. It’s delicious. Yeah, a lot of our friends go heavy, heavy IPA. And we love them. They do a great with them that we we do a lot of we do a lot of pilsners here, a lot of lagers. We do coaches. We do we do two IPAs.
Nestor Aparicio 27:13
You’re been a cologne?
Mike McKelvin 27:14
Yeah? Man, you’ve been to Cologne? Nice,
John Allen 27:17
yeah. First place I
Nestor Aparicio 27:18
played in Germany, the place that where my wife’s the man who saved my wife’s life. He lives up the road from there, up toward Gelson Kirchen and Essen, but we meet him in Cologne when we go over there. Cologne has the bridge and the locks and the incredible DOM. Cologne is one of the great places on earth. It’s one of my favorite cities on earth, but it has a true beer culture in Cole were, if you seen it, they bring it by in these these metal carts in little cups with little heads of beer on him. But I love coals. I could drink coals all night. Ask
Mike McKelvin 27:50
him out about it. When he comes over, he just said to me, what when you guys got started today, we’re sitting over there at the bar, and we’re looking at the tap handles, and he says to me, he goes, I think I want to take the Italian Pilsner off, which is a fan favorite, but more people like the Mexican lager. And he goes, I think I’m going to take that off. And I’d like to make worth the wait, our permanent fifth line. And worth the wait is an unbelievable coach that he made. We’ll get you guys some. I think we still have. I can’t drink anymore. I’m done. And let you try that. But a coach, a coach, is an unbelievable beer that a lot of people don’t introduce themselves to, because being Americans, we like sugar, yeah, and so we, we falsify some beers by sugar additives and things like that. And when I interviewed Matt the I said the same thing. I interviewed seven Brewer potentials back in 2019 and I said, if I told you I only want to do one style of beer, what would it be? And he said, Kolsch. Right away. Everybody else said, Well, we got to be in the IPA market, everybody else. And he said, Kolsch, and I fell in love. Well, you like his beer guys, right? Yeah, it does. And he’s an amazing young man. I tell people all the time, he gives me hope for 30 somethings all the time because he just works his ass off and he cares.
Nestor Aparicio 29:11
Yeah. Well, great. John Allen is here. You gotta go. You got you don’t
John Allen 29:16
be kicking me out. No, John
Nestor Aparicio 29:19
Allen is staying. And the food’s coming from libertories and kitchen. It’s
Mike McKelvin 29:23
called craft culture. It’s, it’s a dynamic little emulsion of 1623, in the libertory group. And they helped me get that thing going. And it’s, it’s amazing. They’ve done. We’ve been open one year now, and we’ve had six menus. We’ve let we’ve given our customers the group of gentlemen you see over my my shoulder here, we literally called them in on a Monday. Can you guys show up on Monday? We’re gonna throw all this food out. We need some we need some old school feedback. And that’s how we did it, and that’s how we got started, and we loved it, all right? We’re gonna come back
Nestor Aparicio 29:56
drink some more beer. We’re gonna give some more lottery tickets wherever it’s. Tell some more rock and roll stories. My dudes, David and Richard Abrahams, are going to be here later on. They’re two of my oldest friends in the whole world. I haven’t seen David probably 30 years. So this is going to be unbelievable. They have their Live Aid London stuff. I have my Live Aid Philly stuff. I brought my rock star buddy because we should all have one. John Allen’s band is not playing, soundstage playing. Paul man is joined a record. You’re really close to the house I live in, Towson. So I’m into this with 27th of September. Correct, correct.
Mike McKelvin 30:25
And Fury is playing, right?
John Allen 30:30
All right. How much? Every time, every time he get together, it was fury, right? No. What was the band called? Which? Which band?
Nestor Aparicio 30:39
They’re early, the
John Allen 30:40
8182 83 band, I don’t know 81 that that band’s name was even worse than fury, execution.
Nestor Aparicio 30:55
It was like a wrestling match. That’s it. Were you executioner? One or two? It was bad. He’s right. Um, you know, the minute I get home, you’re getting a picture. I am Nestor. He’s John, he’s Mike. We’re at 1623, we’re half in the bag. That’s what the Maryland crab cake tour is all about. Stay with us. Fury, fury, yeah.
