Dream State Brewing and Tripping Animals Brewing Co.

For this episode of the UnCapped podcast, host Chris Sands headed up to Rochester, New York, for the Mortalis Brewing Company and Swiftwater Brewing Luau beer festival. He asks Will Rivera of Dream State Brewing and Molly Flynn of Tripping Animals Brewing Co. a litany of “stupid questions.” Here are the responses.

UnCapped: What’s better, cats or dogs?

Will Rivera: Molly has a lot of cats.

Molly Flynn: I have two cats. I work seven days a week, so I can’t have a dog. But one of my cats plays fetch. Does that count … as a dog?

Rivera: Yes.

UnCapped: That’s like half dog.

Flynn: But I’d have to say I’m a cat person.

UnCapped: What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever purchased?

Rivera: I order stupid stuff every week. I have a problem.

UnCapped: You do drunken Instagram shopping, don’t you?

Rivera: I do. I do it every week.

Flynn: Probably drunk Uber Eats, like McDonald’s or Wendy’s. That’s a really stupid purchase because you’re paying, like, $30 when you could drive half a block and spend $4.

UnCapped: It’d actually probably be cheaper to just order and Uber and go get it.

Rivera: It would be, yeah.

UnCapped: What is the worst fashion decision you’ve ever made.

Rivera: I’ve f— up a lot in my life with fashion ... a lot of beer events where I thought, I’m gonna wear this, it’s gonna be cool, it’s gonna be great — and then everyone’s like, “Yo, what are you wearing?”

Flynn: Mine is probably, “These high-waisted shorts are cool.” But they’re a size too small and they have, like, six buttons. And I have a whole pumpkin coming over the top of that. But I keep them because I’m like, someday I’ll fit into them, and they’ll look good — someday. High-waisted shorts, OK, but the six buttons? Not so much.

UnCapped: If you could be the best in the world at something, what would it be?

Rivera: This is gonna sound corny, but I don’t care. Representing a brewery, for me as a minority, as a person of color, as a person who’s been trying to change the way we look at craft beer for a long time.

Flynn: I think you’re already doing that.

UnCapped: Yeah, I think you’ve accomplished that.

Rivera: For me personally, I feel like I’m still struggling with that and still pushing for that. I just want to change the way we look at everything when it comes to craft beer. See me for who I am, something different, and Molly, a female brewer who kills it every week. You guys drink her beer, not knowing that this girl sitting next to me murders it, like she puts in the work, and I love that. I wanna show the world that it’s not just one thing, it’s all of us together as a culture in this craft beer game. We need more of that just in general.

UnCapped: What’s the strangest food you’ve ever eaten?

Rivera: Rocky Mountain oysters.

Flynn: I haven’t eaten balls.

Rivera: That was the worst thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. I had it in Colorado. It was horrible. Because I knew what I was eating, and I hated my life for it.

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Flynn: I’ve eaten brains, eyeballs, tongue … every part of the body, pretty much. So, you win that one. I grew up in Texas, so we ate a lot of cow body parts.

UnCapped: I grew up having the most well-raised cattle — my grandfather did everything to raise them perfectly — and I could never understand why people thought steak was so good. And it was because they burnt the hell out of everything. It wasn’t until I moved to Maryland and ordered a steak the way it’s intended that I realized how amazing it is. We would’ve had the most amazing steaks growing up, if they just wouldn’t have burnt them. … What’s your most unpopular food opinion?

Flynn: I am not big on ketchup. I’m sorry. I like mustard, hot sauce, pickles. I will eat ketchup, but I am not a ketchup person. Ketchup is so overrated. It’s so acidic. I’d rather eat anything else — ranch or hot sauce or blue cheese or anything. It’s my unpopular opinion.

Rivera: For me, food-wise, I eat everything. I love it all. I’ll try everything once. I hate beets. I don’t care how you make it for me.

UnCapped: What’s your go-to excuse to get out of plans?

Flynn: My favorite one is, “Oh, I have to work in the morning.” I make up a lot of stuff because I work all the time and just wanna go home to my cats most of the time. It’s sounds weird, I know, but my job is overly stimulated with people all the time.

This excerpt has been edited for space and clarity. Listen to the full podcast at fnppodcasts.com/uncapped. Got UnCapped news? Email csands@ newspost.com.