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How I Opened Hyper Beer Co Arcade with the owner Hans | Ep 185

Indie Arcade Wave·video·28m 59s·analyzed·Feb 27, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Hans shares arcade ownership strategy, venue design, and operator advice for Hyper Beer Co in Anaheim.

Summary

Joe from Indie Arcade Wave interviews Hans, owner of Hyper Beer Co Arcade in Anaheim, California. Hans discusses his journey from childhood arcade enthusiast to operator managing 8 locations and opening his own 19-pinball, mixed-arcade venue. The conversation covers arcade game selection strategy, permitting/licensing, insurance, payment systems, and advice for aspiring arcade owners and operators.

Key Claims

  • Hans operates 8 locations throughout Southern California and opened Hyper Beer Co in Anaheim last year

    high confidence · Hans directly states this in the interview

  • Hans recommends a game mix of 3 modern games, 1 classic, and 1 crane machine for location viability

    high confidence · Hans explains his original game mix strategy for brewery locations

  • Cranes typically out-earn most pinball machines and are essential to location profitability

    high confidence · Hans and Joe both affirm crane earning potential multiple times

  • Hyper Beer Co required 9-month conditional use permit (CUP) review process with city council

    high confidence · Hans describes the permitting process in detail

  • Hans works in retail construction management and has previously built Apple Stores, including the first international location in Tokyo

    high confidence · Hans details his day job background

  • Smart switches are problematic; Hans prefers timers for on/off machine control

    high confidence · Hans directly compares the two technologies

  • Tokens cost 8-10 cents each vs. 25 cents per quarter, making tokens more profitable for larger operations

    high confidence · Hans explains token economics for 6+ game locations

  • Retro CRT arcade games have poor replay value and don't earn well despite initial nostalgia plays

    high confidence · Hans describes removing single classic games in favor of dual-game cabinets

  • California alcohol law requires food service to serve guest taps; Hyper Beer Co can only serve their brewery's beer

    high confidence · Hans explains California licensing constraints

Notable Quotes

  • “I've been into arcades forever. I just love electronic things that take coins and have bright flashing lights.”

    Hans @ early interview — Establishes Hans's core motivation and long-term passion for arcade business

  • “I own most of those games now so I can play the games that I played as a teen.”

    Hans @ childhood memory section — Shows how nostalgia drives collector behavior and business strategy

  • “You can't just have games, in my opinion. Pay-to-play is another tricky one, too, in an expensive market.”

    Hans @ business model discussion — Key insight on viable location economics: alcohol is essential in high-rent markets

  • “If you have one machine or two machines and you want to route them, just get out of your own way.”

    Hans @ advice section — Encourages operator entry despite perceived barriers like insurance/theft concerns

  • “I love tokens tokens work really well and then larger than that i use a card tap system at hyper and a couple of my other larger locations as well”

    Hans @ payment systems discussion — Demonstrates scalable payment infrastructure strategy for growing operations

  • “The homebrew area at Pinball Expo in Chicago is incredible now. I just can't believe how big it is now and the quality of the games that people are putting out there.”

    Hans @ homebrew discussion — Affirms growth and quality of homebrew pinball game space

  • “The problem with them is people play, they'll play once for nostalgia, but there's no replay value.”

    Hans @ retro game discussion — Identifies why classic CRT arcade games underperform in modern locations despite collector appeal

  • “I feel like I'm in a movie set.”

    Customer at Hyper Beer Co @ venue description — Third-party validation of nostalgic atmosphere design success

Entities

HanspersonJoepersonHyper Beer CocompanyCompulsive PinballcompanyElectric Bat ArcadecompanyKalepersonRachelpersonTommy Sebastian

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Homebrew pinball game quality and volume at Pinball Expo Chicago significantly improved; indie game development thriving in pinball space

    high · Hans notes homebrew area 'is incredible now' and 'I just can't believe how big it is now and the quality'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Expo (Chicago) and Amusement Pinball Expo (Vegas) serving as major industry hubs for operator networking, homebrew game discovery, and experimental arcade innovation

    high · Hans attends both expos regularly; highlights homebrew quality; references new experimental games debuted at Vegas expo

  • ?

    community_signal: Joe/Indie Arcade Wave partnered with Compulsive Pinball for distribution; promoting operator education and supporting arcade/pinball industry growth

    high · Joe announces partnership with Compulsive Pinball and promotes their operator pricing/routing services

  • $

    market_signal: Retro CRT arcade games unsuitable for commercial location earning despite collector demand; nostalgia alone insufficient for sustained play

    high · Hans: 'people play, they'll play once for nostalgia, but there's no replay value. They're not going to keep playing it to try to beat Pac-Man.'

  • $

    market_signal: Dual-cabinet retro arcade solutions (Class of '81, Space Invaders cocktail) emerging as response to poor earning performance of single classic games

    high · Hans explains pivot from single classic cabinets to dual-game cabinets to solve low replay value/earning issues

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.087

0:00
Heyo, welcome everyone to Today in the Scene by Indie Arcade Wave. I'm Joe, your host, and here on In the Scene, we dive into what's happening in the arcade space from arcade developers, arcade owners, and operators, pinball, and just news in the space in general. Now, I did recently partner up with Compulsive Pinball, so if you're looking for a new stern, definitely let me know. We'll have a little bit more about that later, but I'm ready to jump right into this week's episode. This is a really cool spot that I found in Anaheim, actually. I think Pinball Hans found me from my Perfect poor video that I posted from IAAPA and they're a very new location a great selection of retro games some modern games some claws a good beer selection they've got tons of great restaurants right by them and a pinball selection so let's bring Hans in here and kind of talk about Hyper Beer Co. How you doing Hans? Doing great how you doing Joe? I'm fantastic I'm fantastic we were just talking I'm jealous that you're you're out skiing in the mountains I'd love that but you I'm in Florida, so I can't really complain about that. That's right. Let's just talk about your history, man. How did you get into the arcade space? What are some of your early arcade memories? Fair enough. I appreciate that. I've been into arcades forever. I just love electronic things that take coins and have bright flashing lights. My earliest memory about arcades, since you asked, goes all the way back. Literally, I think I was four years old, and my mom put me in the nursery at a bowling alley. Yes, they had nurseries at bowling alleys. back then. And I didn't like it. And if I was good, she'd let me play the games. And I remember playing like probably a dime ball bowler. So one of those bowling games, you roll the ball and some sort of driving game. So anyway, all the way back. And then as a teenager, I loved going down to my local bowling alley. You got a game room there,
1:46
pinball, you know, rifle games and air hockey and all that stuff. And I've kind of rebuilt that game room in my mind exactly what games are there. I own most of those games now so I can play the games that I played as a teen. And then once I got my driver's license and freedom, I forgot all about pinball, Discover Girls, and that was it. So I went away from pinball for almost decades. I'd play them here and there if I saw them, but I'm an odd duck. The 90s era that everybody loves so much and pines over and overpays for games is my least favorite era. So I don't get stuck buying super expensive games that are more expensive than new ones. I do own a few of them, obviously, and I'm starting to warm up. But then I got back into it and became an operator probably 20 years ago. I lived in upstate New York and I had a mini golf arcade. I had an arcade in a shopping mall and some locations around town. Life changed, divorced, moved back to California, got out of it again, and then recently got back into but probably about four years ago, started operating one brewery at a time. I've got eight locations throughout Southern California and then took the plunge last year and opened up my own place, Hyper Beer Company in Anaheim, California, and partnered with a local brewery. He's got the Type 23 license to allow us to serve craft beer. And I've got a massive collection of games. And put those all in, and we're off and running.
person
Pinball Expoevent
Amusement Pinball Expoevent
Asylum Brewingcompany
Edperson
Kyleperson
Sterncompany
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
American Pinballcompany
Dutch Pinballcompany
Cointakercompany
Perfect Pourgame
Ghost in the Shellgame
Friday the 13thgame
Big Trouble in Little Chinagame
Ninja Eclipsegame
  • ?

    product_strategy: Arcade operator mix strategy emphasizes variety across eras and manufacturers (Stern, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Dutch Pinball) to drive discovery and engagement

    high · Hans describes deliberate mixing of new Stern, classic EM, boutique brands to encourage cross-game play and discovery

  • ?

    technology_signal: Payment technology evolution in location operations: quarters > smart switches > timers > tokens (6+ machines) > card tap systems (larger venues)

    high · Hans describes progression of payment/control systems based on location size and machine count

  • ?

    venue_signal: Alcohol service is essential to arcade profitability in high-rent markets; brewery partnerships provide licensing workaround and traffic driver

    high · Hans emphasizes alcohol as non-negotiable in metropolitan markets; partnership with Asylum Brewing provides beer and multi-tap tasting room license

    • 3:12
    Yeah, I love that story. just the idea of like you know you ran arcades so long ago you've been playing forever right you've been playing as long as you can remember um and you've got you know you kind of get out of the hobby you get back into the hobby there's there's this nice like ebb and flow kind of of how how this this all works right i mean i was i was huge into like the console stuff played some arcades when i was little got back into the console stuff then i got into arcades now i'm getting into pinball and i just i love how it evolves over time right but you you always have have this love for that. So when you started operating again, what was your focus on games? Like, were you going after the nostalgic games or were you going after like the newer stuff just for ease of operation? Yeah, great question, Joe. I had some good advice. So pinball primarily, I had a lot of pinball machines. I wasn't afraid of putting them out there, mostly stern. So I'd go with, on the early locations I started a few years back, like in a brewery, I'd say, okay, let's do, the game mix would be, let's do three modern games, probably two sterns and maybe an American or a Jersey Jack or something. And always one classic. So like an Elvira and the Party Monsters or a classic Evel Knievel or something like that. And then I always insisted on one crane because the crane will out earn most of all the pins usually. And that makes it viable. So that was originally the mix I started out with.
    4:29
    Yeah, I think the crane is a crucial part there that you touched on is like just one, right? You just need one. It earns good money. Everybody will walk up to a crane. Everybody's kids are going to ask to play the crane. So it helps kind of supplement some income for the other stuff when, you know, a game has a slower month or a slower week, whatever it may be. I mean, the cranes are very easy to maintain, right? You throw some cheap plushies in there and they just keep printing money.
    4:53
    You had quite a collection at home. Obviously, you said you weren't like super big on the 90s stuff. Nowadays, like since you have this collection, you have multiple locations. Like what games are you on the hunt for right now? Yeah, so I'm always on the hunt for. I love trades because I have so many games now that I'm into trading games as well as buying new ones. But not really anything as far as classics. I've got pretty much all the classics I want. I mean, I don't have a Whitewater. There are certain ones out there I'd love to get.
    5:23
    But definitely Harry Potter is high on my list right now, so I've got to make that happen. I've got Alice's Adventures in Wonderland coming from Cointaker, so that one's on its way. debating on whether or not to leave it in the box and trade it for Harry Potter. Put it on location, I've been warned. But I'm not afraid of putting pretty much anything on location. I have a Ninja Eclipse on location. So I like having unusual games that will pop off the screen when someone opens up Pinball Map and says, wait a minute, this place has a Ninja Eclipse. Wow, it's got a Dutch pinball machine. It's got, you know, these ones I'm not going to play. Love my sterns, but I don't like the look of 100% sterns all the way across. Plus, in the arcade, I've got a mix as well. I've got great advice from the electric bat down in Arizona to mix up the games. You know, you do a Stern, then you do a classic system on Gottlieb, and then you do a Jersey Jack, and then you mix it all up. So someone playing the new Stern might look over and say, wait, that old game looks kind of cool, actually. I better give it a try. So I just love a good game mix. I love the late 70s, early 80s. So the 80s solid states are great, but I know better than having more than one or two in there just from an earning standpoint and keeping people interested in the new stuff. And I always have at least one EM as well. So I'm always going to have one EM in there and rotate that out regularly as well. Yeah, I mean, advice from Cale and Rachel is always good. I mean, I love those guys. They're awesome. Their podcast is fun too. I mean, hanging out with them at Pinball Expo was a good time. So yeah, they're definitely right about mixing it up like that. I think that is a very good strategy to get the older games to earn a little bit more because, you know, you're playing a venom and you look over and you see an EM. You're like, Hmm, when's the last time I played one of those? I'll give it a game. I'll try it out. And, you know, maybe they play three or four games. You never know what's going to happen with it. I think that that a cool idea Hey guys quick break If you want to support the channel one of the best ways to do that is purchasing your next pinball through Compulsive Pinball They helping bring some amazing stern pinballs to players everywhere and the next game that they releasing you not going to want to miss. Whether you're looking to add a machine to your home collection or you're an arcade owner or operator, Compulsive Pinball has you covered. They offer special pricing for operators and can handle routing operations for businesses all over the East Coast as well as down in Orlando, Florida. So check out compulsivepinball.com for your next turn and let them know that you heard about them from Indie Arcade. Let's dive a little bit into Hyper Beer Co., like how it all started. So obviously you've owned arcades in the past. You've been operating for a while. You kind of started operating again in your local area. When did you make the decision to go, I don't want to just operate anymore. I want to actually run the whole business. Like what was that transition like?
    8:04
    Excellent question. So I've wanted to do it for a long time, but there's a lot of factors. It's a big plunge you need to make. If you're out in the country and you can do a handshake lease with a guy in a small strip mall and it's month to month, or let's just give this a try, that's obviously low risk. But in a metropolitan area like Southern California or New York or somewhere else, it's a major lease. You're signing up for 10 years plus. So it's a huge commitment. You really need to go in eyes wide open with a good business plan. And for me, that good business plan is having alcohol. You can't just have games, in my opinion. Pay-to-play is another tricky one, too, in an expensive market. Because you want people to come and go as much as they want to. You want people to walk through and just check it out, not have to commit to playing for a long period of time. And to sit and have a drink.
    8:53
    So looking for the right place to lease was really important. and then also finding either buying a liquor license or, in my case, I actually went with one of my locations who had a liquor license. And in California, you can have multiple tasting rooms on a single brewery license. So once I found a partner with a license and I had the games, then it became time to look for a lease. One thing I haven't let you know is my day job is retail construction management. So I've got a degree in construction management. I've been doing retail-specific development for decades. So I used to work in-house for Apple. I opened the first international Apple store in Tokyo in Noginza. I worked for Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Whole Foods, all kinds of companies doing retail stores from the ground up. So negotiating leases, doing construction estimating, design management, all that is my day job. So it was so, I don't know, fun is never the right word, but it was so engaging to do it for myself for a change, right, to actually take all the skills I learned over the decades and work with an architect to design it myself and then, you know, get the design done, walk to the city, get my permitting. We had to do a conditional use permit, a CUP. So basically the space we rented was retail, but it wasn't a bar. It was like an office retail, right? So we had to do a full CUP review, had to write a five-figure check to the city, go through a nine-month review process with all the departments, have a public hearing. Letters had to go out to like 500 neighbors around, all this stuff. So it culminated in a public hearing where nobody showed up but us, and the city council voted nine votes yes, or the planning department, I should say, voted nine votes yes to zero votes no. So we unanimously got approved and the good thing is once you do have a CUP conditionally used permit the city will protect you it's like oh you know someone's oh that's a bar down there I don't like it too bad you had your chance public to comment on this and you didn't so doing things right advice people out there don't do things without permits don't do things without getting approvals it's gonna bite you in the ass later so if people have questions out there want to know what it's like to go through I'm happy to answer as well yeah I mean that is That's solid advice. Obviously, in such a large area like yours, there's so many people out there. I'm sure there's tons of breweries, tons of bars. I haven't been to Anaheim personally. I've been to a couple of different spots in California, but everywhere I've been in California has just been crazy, super, super pissy. So I can't imagine that it was a quick process or anything with the city.
    11:39
    That's very interesting that you're in that position for your day job. I had no idea. And That's kind of a position that nobody ever really thinks about. But it's got to be so rewarding to be able to take all the knowledge you've learned over the years and turn it around to actually build out your own space. So I guess there's people that watch the podcast that are interested in opening up their arcade that want to start routing games or have a physical location. What advice would you give to someone like that that is interested in opening their arcade, other than obviously the permitting side of it?
    12:09
    Yeah, I'm happy to give advice. So I'll start with a really simple end of it, the whole operating, being a street operator. I see, I'm on a few Facebook groups out there and people all say, oh, what about insurance? And what if someone breaks all these what ifs? It's like all these reasons why you shouldn't do it. So, I mean, there's, it's like, you know, buying a house or having a baby. It's like, oh, it's never the right time and I have to worry about this and this. But you just have to do it at some point. So if you have one machine or two machines and you want to route them, just get out of your own way. Nobody's going to steal your machines unless it's in a really sketchy area. in the beginning I put, you know, air tags and games and stuff, but it's just not necessary. People just never, it's never happened to me and I've almost never heard of it happen to anybody. So obviously you want to put them in a good, you know, good place. Breweries are really good because there's almost always someone there for safety, right? Because brewers get in there real early to do, because when beer's ready, it's ready. It doesn't work on our schedule. So I like breweries a lot. And just the mix of pinball and beers is a great combination. so I would approach a brewery just you know offer them a split show them games say I'm going to bring customers here people love pinball and show them examples of the Stern website and you'll get featured on there and all that and then just get out and do it so insurance isn't that bad I have liability insurance for my route which is really important and there's companies out there provide that but if someone does get hurt and has to do with the machine they're going to try to sue everybody to the business and you and everybody. So you do want to have insurance. That's one thing I did before I did it. And then I also got a seller's permit or a retail permit for my local city as well. So that's pretty simple. Usually you just get a permit to operate. More difficult in some places. Some places require a permit for coin op and others just as a standard business for coin op. So you look into that stuff between insurance and those two things and then finding a location. And then once you get some momentum and you get locations open, they start coming to you and you can be a little bit more choosy instead of chasing. It's the other way around. People go, hey, so and so told me he has games. I love those games there. How about games over here? Then you check it out. Does it make sense? Is there foot traffic? Are there a lot of hours? That's another thing to look at. If they're closed three days a week, not good. You want to be open as much as possible. And then have the games on smart switches or actually I like timers better than smart switches I had a lot of problems with smart switches Timers are good I just put a timer in there where the games kick on a half hour an hour before the place opens and turn off an hour after they close. So anyway and then payment method of course if it's small if it's anywhere between I'd say three and four games I usually put bill acceptors on each game plus quarters leave it at that. If it gets into the six and up games then i do um tokens so i have a token machine put token mechs in all the games um reason being tokens cost about i pay about eight or ten cents each for them and a quarter cost a quarter so um i love tokens tokens work really well and then larger than that i use a card tap system at hyper and a couple of my other larger locations as well yeah i guess that's one thing that a lot of people don't think about is like the the on and off switches and payment methods right you just think you're just gonna put it on location it's just gonna take quarters that's just what it is right but having these different alternatives based on how many machines you have on location is is something that i've never really heard anybody talk about being specific on you know three to five or five ten or ten plus like that's that's an interesting take on it um and i i love what you're doing at hyper beer co like it's it's a really cool spot we we spoke a little bit about it before give us a little bit more of like the layout like what games can you expect here how big is it things like that yeah great i appreciate you asking that uh so it's uh on a store a busy storefront so it's like there's an area in anaheim called the packing district so in history 100 years ago there's a packing house there where they packed all the citrus your you know your limes your lemons your oranges um there's a railroad spur and they'd ship the citrus all over the country it's um two miles from disneyland it's old downtown anaheim and then we're one block away from that on Center Street Promenade and so there's a lot of parking garages around there so we have a decent amount of foot traffic you know sidewalk we've got three double doors that face the street and then we've got a side door that goes out to our own private patio so people can sit out you know drink or non drink or they can sit in the patio and have a beer in the afternoon Sun it's a fountain there it's very nice so we have we have regulars who don't even play the games they just come in for a beer and relax three doors on the on the main street on Center Street the center set is permanently closed to allow more space inside so just picture to you know glass storefront two sets of double doors on the left side if you're facing it it's all pins you walk in there's pins down both sides and then around the corner another set of pins there's 19 pin pin balls there all different areas like we talked about then we've got a row of classic arcades mostly two and four players so you get your Simpsons We've got your NBA Jam, a couple fighting games in there as well.
    17:09
    And then around in that corner is, you know, their peninsulas, basically. Got kind of rhythm sections. We've got a Guitar Hero. We've got a Japanese rhythm game, Groove Coaster, super fun. It's like a stand-up Dance Dance Revolution almost. You use your hands on these big joysticks. Really fun game. A lot of people play that. Then we've got a Star Wars Battle Pod. We've got Jet Pong near the bar. and then as kind of around the corner the bar is toward the back so we have a little bar area that's just carved out it's got a different floor looks kind of retro got all wood paneling not like what's behind me but the old the cheesy wood paneling from the 70s and then I've got a collection of old beer signs from the 70s as well and a jukebox so it's a really someone came in the other day I was bartending they came in they said they said I feel like I'm in a movie set. I'm like, awesome. Love to hear that.
    18:00
    So it's what I kind of what I grew up with and saw and nostalgia sells. And I still think if you go into the Midwest to some bars, you'll see the same exact decor. Anyway, we've got a walk in for it, you know, big walk in there for our beer. And we we cover the walk in and paneling as well. So just kind of disappears.
    18:20
    We've got some really cool plans coming up for the bar and for what's going on in there and decor. that's retro 80s that's going to be super exciting. So stay tuned on that. And then rounding toward the other end of the room, we've got a couple sets of drivers. We've got an original Mario Kart pair and then Cruisin' Blast. We've got an air hockey. That's the crane zone there as well. So we've got like three or four cranes. We've got a photo booth. And we've got two lanes of classic skeeball. And I just put a lane master, two lanes of lane master in there, which is a cool new bowling game. And then I've got a basketball shooter as well. And just some retro other games stuck in here and there. I've got a bubble hockey I just put in the bar. So, yeah, always mix it up. I love buying and selling games. I'm addicted to it. So we'll always have a good turnover, both on the pinball side as well as the arcade side.
    19:14
    Yeah, I love I love the selection there. I mean, that was something we spoke about earlier. It's just like you kind of have everything right. Like you kind of hit all the different eras. You've got a couple of different weird games. You've got some Japanese games, you've got sports games, you've got kind of a little bit of everything for everybody. And I love your description of like the bar area, like the Midwest stuff. That's where I'm from. So it's like I just immediately pictured like the middle of nowhere, Wisconsin dive bar, like that's probably that little corner there. And I like that. That's that's always what I'm looking for, right? Like you like you said, nostalgia is huge, like nostalgia is a hell of a drug. So if that's what I'm used to growing up, like that's that's I'm going to feel right at home with that. And you have a cool selection of games. Obviously, there's, you know, what we talk about on the channel a lot. I have a lot of developers, a lot of the indie stuff. What are your views on the indie space right now for for bringing into arcades? And are there any games that you've been looking at? Yeah, I mean, I think I haven't really. I need to get more into that of what what people are wanting on that. I've since I'm, you know, pinball. I'm always looking at the pinball side of that. The homebrew area at Expo in Chicago is incredible now. I just can't believe how big it is now and the quality of games that people are putting out there.
    20:29
    I love the Perfect Pour is really cool. It reminds me of Tapper. Actually, what it reminds me of is I go to Amusement Expo in Vegas every year, and two years ago they debuted this icy machine where you fill icy games like Slurpees, you know, and you have to fill without overflowing and all that. So it's massive and it's a ticket. It's not relevant to what I'm doing, but I like playing it. Like, this is really cool. But Perfect Force, it's basically that. I'm like, this is really cool. I love the diversity of all the people that come through and the glass sizes and whatnot. Very cool. So, yeah, I just like to see, you know, more what's out there. If it's, you know, retro based and kind of has that old feel. Unfortunately, the retro games, I mean, when I first opened, I had nothing but, you know, I had a whole line of, you know, Defender and Centipedes and Pac-Man and all those original classics with CRT monitors, you know, not the newer ones. And they just do not earn. The problem with them is people play, they'll play once for nostalgia, but there's no replay value. They're not going to keep playing it to try to beat Pac-Man. So now what I've done to kind of solve that, because I don't want to get rid of it. It's part of the vibe. They're cool. I've done a couple of the dual cabinets. So I got the um um class of 81 Ms Pack McGallagher both in one cabinet but it still a real professional cabinet It not a 101 or 501 And then I got the Space Invaders Quicks as well So there four classic games in two cabinets. Yeah, that's a great way to work around that. And you mentioned like Perfect Pour, super fun. I'll be at Amusement Expo this year, so we'll probably run into each other there. That's cool. The homebrew stuff, as you spoke about that, that was one thing that really really stood out to me at pinball expo i think it was my favorite thing um other than just you know meeting everybody else in the in the space the other podcasters and stuff it was good to meet everybody in person um i've already spoken with uh ed who made uh ghost in the shell and uh kyle who did friday the 13th and big trouble in little china and then i've actually got an interview tomorrow with another home brewer so that'll be out about a week after this episode goes live so um i'm excited to to continue covering that space i think the homebrew stuff is it's right up my alley, right? I started with developing arcade games and now I'm in the space of pinball and people are doing it in pinball too. So I'm really, really excited to share other people's stories like that.
    22:48
    That's really all I had for you, Hans. So just kind of wrap everything up, like let people know where they can follow along, social media and like give shout outs to anybody that's really helped you along the way. Absolutely right. So of course, as far as following goes, at Hyper Beer Co.
    23:04
    H-Y-P-E-R-B-E-E-R-C-O at Hyper Beer Co. on Instagram. That's where we lean in mostly. It goes over to Facebook as well, but that's it. I'm at Pinball Hans. I have my own Instagram as well. And then as far as Tommy Sebastian of Asylum Brewing is my business partner in this. His beer is fantastic. That's where the beer comes from, but it is brewed for Hyper Beer Co. So we've got our own brew. Some really cool, interesting, I mean, IPAs are huge in the West Coast, I'm sure, everywhere. I mean, there's West Coast IPA, right?
    23:35
    But we've got a lot of hazies that are really interesting. Some infused with cereal. Some we had tricks. We had a Crunch Berries. And don't knock it until you try it. It's like the cereal milk when you're done on Saturday mornings. We've got some really cool things. We've got some bourbon barrel-aged stout. Just some really, really good beers. The Blonde, obviously. We call our Blonde Tournament Mode because it's lower in alcohol. Good name if you're playing a tournament. you want to keep your wits about you and your coordination. So there's that.
    24:03
    Let's see, what else? Yeah, that's about it on where we're at. One thing I noticed, I love, Joe, that you're into pinball, but you're fairly young and you came from the console world and stuff like that. And we started by talking about snow sports. You said you're a skateboarder and snowboarder, so try skiing sometime. Since you've transitioned, so I love seeing snowboarders try skiing. to keep this sport alive also, aside.
    24:31
    Yeah, I skied for probably two years before I started snowboarding. Nice. So I'm comfortable with it. I can get onto skis and I'd be fine. And I water ski too, but I just love snowboarding. I love that feeling of having one foot in front of the other. We were talking about that. You like to have both your feet pointing forward. I like to be sideways. I just feel more stable that way.
    24:53
    Actually, I wanted to ask one more question since you mentioned it. was the brewery that you partnered with. Like I talked to a lot of people that are trying to open up smaller arcades, right? They don't want to go with this huge grandiose like vision of a hundred games or whatever. They just want to do like 20, 30 games. And I always propose, find some local breweries, put a fridge in there and just have their beer in cans. Like that's such an easy way to kind of get around a lot of the having taps and having bartenders and all that stuff. Like you can do it on a smaller scale with one or two people. So tell us a little bit about how that process was partnering up with a brewery and and bringing their beers in yeah so um i i personally i wanted i loved draft beer so i really taps were essential for me and then we could have done like keger raiders instead of a walk-in but i'm like i'm in construction management i figure out how to buy a walk-in got a huge walk-in we had a stock as much beer as we want and we have 12 taps they're not always on tap we have lots of options on that but that's a more expensive way to do it um it's all about the laws really in your state you got it but talk to a brewer that's already already brewing beer and say they'll know the laws for sure and then find out like you say the canning option to have that is just canned beer I know a lot of a lot of places have that just pinball and canned beer so just partner with that or maybe get your own license and then bring in guest taps the issue in California is we have only our own beer to have guest taps like a Sierra Nevada or something, you know, stone or whatever is locally, you have to have food. That's connected to food. And we don't have food. We plan to in the future, but considering where we are and how many restaurants around us, I'm kind of thinking no food and more games and just keep the, keep a good snack program and beer. So that, that's kind of what we're shooting for now, but just talk to a local brewery who's in your area. Who's going to know the laws and say, Hey, listen, this is what I want to do. If you want to open your own place, what if I brought cans in? There are consultants that handle alcohol licensing as well. You can look at that. But I highly recommend having, finding a way to have beer in your location or cider or, you know, something alcoholic besides just soda and games, because you need to draw people in. And our split's been really, I've been very impressed that the games and alcohol earn almost, it kind of fluctuates, but they're both earning very well. So that's super important. yeah that's a great point about the the food and alcohol and different regulations for different areas because i know like down in texas that's a big thing i think down in here here in florida i don't know if it was if it's mandatory but i know there was like a during all the lockdowns when all that ended like you could reopen if you had food and alcohol but if you just had alcohol you had to stay closed so it was like there's so many different regulations and different moves with that so look into it but i think that's a great pivot point to have alcohol in your location if you just want to have beer you can just partner up with a local brewery like you said ask them they'll have the answers about what the laws are and what you can do moving forward um yeah that's great hans like i really appreciate you coming on talking about hyper beer co talking about your experience and everything um i hope this helps someone that either wants to start an arcade or is looking to operate one or the other if you're still watching don't forget to like share and subscribe it helps us a ton the way we'll continue to grow we can all ride it together if you're looking for an indie game an allen one game a new stern anything like that email me at indie arcade wave we can get that all connected for you like i said i parted up with compulsive pinball i'm really enjoying it and that's all i got for you so until next time peace excellent bye
    28:35
    Thank you.