Yakety Yakima…Do Talk Back

Intro/Outro (00:04):

It takes a bit of a blend of art and science to get baking just right and having extra eyes, ears, and hands can make a big difference along the way. That’s where Ab Mauri, north America comes into play. We are the team behind industrial and artisan bakers that help optimize success. We’ll discuss more on this episode of the Oven Light. So let’s get going. Flip the switch.

Rick (00:31):

Well, welcome back everybody. The switches back on the oven, light is back on, and I tell you what, we’ve got a really interesting colleague of ours who’s joining today’s program, so lemme give you a little background. Gentlemen is a key account manager for the Midwest for Haas. And you may not know Haas, but that first initial gives you that first link to the largest distributor of hops in North America. So if you like brewing, today is the show for you. This gentleman has also been a part of the media and actually a politician. And curiously, we’re going to dive into this a little bit. One of the youngest mayors in the history of the United States at age 25. Let’s welcome to the show. Welcome to the Oven Light mic Cauley. How you doing buddy?

Micah (01:16):

Doing well, Rick. Thanks for having me on the show. Excited to be on the oven light.

Rick (01:20):

We’re thrilled to have you here. And when I first met you, I was like, wait, excuse me. Wait, did I hear that right? You served as the mayor of Yakima, Washington at age 25. Give me the scoop on this one.

Micah (01:32):

Yeah, it’s interesting because I’ve always been interested in politics or public service or civics, and I went to DC when I was 16 years old and on this closeup program, at the end of this trip, they send you back home after teaching you about the house, the senate, the presidency, how the federal government works. And they say it starts in your community. So go back home and get involved. So as a high school student, I came back and tried to get involved in local politics here in the Yakima Valley and was kind of told, yeah, we’re good kid, we don’t really need you.

Micah (02:02):

And that really motivated me to go, what do you mean you can’t make a youth seat on the parks and rec commission or you don’t have something for me to do? And I said, fine, I’ll just run against one of you guys on the city council and beat you. And they were even laughing that off more. So that kind of motivated me to run for office and to get involved and to represent a more youthful voice on the council and for our community in Yakima.

Rick (02:24):

Well, I mean, here’s the thing for Micah, three terms serving a city of more than a hundred thousand people, I’m reading some stats or $200 million budget, 700 plus employees all reporting up to the mayor. I mean you talk about seven years later what a change. And I’m sure those raised eyebrows are no longer raised, right?

Micah (02:46):

Yeah. You can either grow into these types of roles and learn a lot, especially at a young age or you can kind of spiral out of control and make the press for the wrong reasons. But we did a lot of great things as a council, as a city, and I think you’re right. I probably won over some detractors, maybe got a few more along the way, but I had a successful time at City Hall and felt good about what we did when I left office.

Rick (03:07):

Well he sounds pretty good. That sounds like a politician to me a little bit. I mean, you can tell a good leader when he says we. I like that. So really cool story. We may jump back into that a little bit, but there is one kind of interesting point there where the mayor is elected by the city council. Is that right? Yeah. Is that how that works?

Micah (03:25):

Yeah. Yakima is a council manager, former government. So we have a city manager who serves as the CEO and the mayor’s like the chairperson of the board of directors, but you’re in charge of the budget, which is really where you kind of either set policy or fund programs or really set the direction for the city for that time that you’re in office and then your colleagues elect you to chair the meetings and to represent them at the federal level, the state level, and around the country.

Rick (03:52):

So let me ask you this, I mean you probably learned a lot, right? In your latter twenties in that kind of role, how has it served your business career, gone in multiple directions and now you’re within this brewing industry that we’re going to talk about in a bit?

Micah (04:06):

Yeah, if I don’t become mayor of Yakima, even get on the city council, I don’t know if I get this free education basically for how to budget, how to handle personnel issues, how to deal with some really tough situations at different times, understanding the public’s needs, the community’s needs, and how to try to bring those together within the system of government and accomplish things. So I got basically a free degree in local government and was surrounded by a lot of great talented people who can teach you about law enforcement and parks and recreation or what the finance laws are in the state of Washington.

Micah (04:42):

Reasons you can’t spend the transit federal funds on other things when people are going, you have a surplus here and a deficit here. So all those things really helped translate to my current role at HAWS and being in business now, big business in the brewing business.

Rick (04:57):

Well, you were talking about getting educated and I had to look up your alma mater. I see Western Governor’s University and here’s the thing, I’ve seen these ads on TV for the last few years and especially during the pandemic, I think it was important, but I had to educate myself and say, what is this WGU all about? I see the owls, the night owls, but I didn’t realize 19 different state governors got together and put this university together in the latter part of the nineties, just trying to change the face of moving away from time and tradition and prestige and all that with universities and more about success and productivity.

Micah (05:34):

The schools charter is held in Utah actually, and companies like Microsoft or Boeing or those large employers in Washington state, we’re really looking to take people that had the right skillset or mindset and help educate them, but maybe they started their careers or lives or didn’t have time for traditional education, which is kind of my story. So I had dropped out of the community college when I was 21 to run for council, got elected and didn’t finish. So WGU gave me a chance later in life when I got through all that to say, Hey, I want to finish my business degree, but it’s pretty difficult with a wife and kids with a full-time job. How am I going to do this? And WGU was one of those options that I looked at and thought, well, do they have the prestige or if you’re going to a well-known university.

Micah (06:18):

But the education is really incredible and I had a mentor and I think the format like you’re talking about, to really put a new way of educating people in today’s world with online technology, still giving you the highest quality education you can get and making it affordable were things that check the boxes for me to get that education and get the degree.

Rick (06:38):

And let’s be honest, the night owl’s logo is pretty cool. I do enjoy it.

Micah (06:42):

It is fun. The only thing that I can’t come back with, the people say, how’s your football team doing? Okay, alright, I got you.

Rick (06:47):

Maybe it’s a fantasy team, I don’t know, but alright, so let’s have a little bit of fun here. I’ve been peppery a little bit, so alright, we’re going to talk beer, but I usually call ’em the hot pan questions. We talk a lot of baking on the show, but with wearing the brewing hat, we’re going to talk hot brew kettle questions today. So first one, right off the bat, no thinking favorite style of beer?

Micah (07:07):

Lagger or pilsner

Rick (07:09):

man. Okay, I wish you were local and we weren’t doing this virtual either, so. Alright, bottle can or pint glass.

Micah (07:17):

Pint glass as I can get it is beer was intended to be fresh from the tank and serve with that inch of foam and part of that experience, but I like it all.

Rick (07:26):

So question two B to go with that. Should a beer glass be ice cold or at room temperature?

Micah (07:31):

I personally like ice cold beer, especially loggers, not quite freezing, but definitely as cold as you can get. And then depends on the style. If it’s a IPI like it to warm up just a little bit so I can get some of that hop aroma, some of the nuanced flavor or even stouts a little bit warmer to get some of those multi characteristics that come out of that.

Rick (07:52):

I spent a few years at Anheuser-Busch, and I will tell you that I kind of tend to move away from the cold beer glass. You got to make sure you have a good beer, clean glass as they say. And what I think is really interesting when you get your beer served in a pint glass, don’t you look for any of that carbonation getting stuck on the glass. It drives me nuts because it means there’s other particles and things like that. You’re not getting a full clean experience if that carbonation dies right away, right?

Micah (08:18):

Yeah. You got to have clean glass for, and then of course lacing too as you’re drinking is always beautiful to see. And getting that whole experience of enjoying a pint glass of fresh beer.

Rick (08:27):

Okay, so you’re going to know this answer right better than me, but they do talk about malt is the soul of beer, but hops is the spice and you’re in this hops world. What’s your favorite type of hops?

Micah (08:38):

That’s a tough question.

Rick (08:39):

Yeah. And why?

Micah (08:41):

Yeah, so many commercial varieties, so many styles in today’s world it’s really amazing. But I love some of the unique flavor hops coming out of the hot breeding company, the HBC. There’s this new Hop 10 19 that is peaches and cream, it’s got this mouth feel, it’s got this peach nectarine flavor, it comes from the hops. It’s really this unique special variety and I’m excited to see it take off in some commercial beers.

Rick (09:06):

That’s awesome. Very cool. Well I was watching a little bit of a video on Haas and looking at the CEO Alex Barth, and I’m sure you know him very well, but he talked about the word passion and it’s something we hold true at AB Mauri, we’re passionate about baking, but looking at the history of your current company and your style just as a personality, you are passionate guy and why does passion work in this industry for you guys?

Micah (09:35):

It’s such a great question too because you always hear these cliche things like if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. But the hop industry is special, the brewing industry is special, obviously the history that goes back to Germany and our company’s roots and being family owned and being an agricultural product as well, we’re a hop grower, we have a brewery, we have a processing plant for all these different things and it really keeps me fired up and going is we’re paving the way with innovation on new ways to think about hops, new ways to get ’em into beer more efficiently. So the way our company operates and who we are is really what spoke to me. And being from the Yakima Valley, it allows me to stay connected to my hometown but really travel and see things I’ve never seen and meet all these interesting breweries from large to small across the country in the world and taste what they’re coming up with, their own unique recipes.

Micah (10:28):

So it’s really just as you mentioned, a passionate business or passionate industry. But I love the word and think if you have it, it is going to shine through in your professional life, your personal life, whatever you’re doing, you got to have passion for it and it’s got to make you tick or get you fired up. And what better than a fresh glass of beer at the end of the day? A shifty.

Rick (10:49):

Fantastic Micah. Alright, so you talked a little bit about the new hot varieties. Are there other trends out there? I mean what do you think of this whole lower alcohol, even non-alcohol For a long time it was tough to find the products that really mimicked maybe an alcohol beer. And do you agree that people have done a really good job kind of getting there?

Micah (11:08):

It’s interesting to watch the market evolve and the next generation of consumer or drinker and what they’re into hot waters have become this huge thing now I think we’re on the precipice of hot waters, hot teas, hot lemonades hops making their way into other things besides beer and a prominent fashion like hop cocktails potentially with different hop oils, but flavor and efficiency from the beer side, there’s still a lot of room there and whether that’s na beer and trying to find ways to make na beer that’s flavorful so you can still be in the game but not having the alcohol or whatever other reasons you may want to drink an NA beer at different times. There’s still a lot to be explored in that space. I think from a large scale manufacturing and production standpoint, it can be challenging. You got to have certain equipment to get that done, but it’s always interesting to see things evolve over time. And obviously logger IPA, they’re not going away. There’s been different styles that come into play. So I would say I’m excited about it. I like to take a break sometimes, but still want that hoppy flavor and if I can get it through a beer or hop water, I’ll pick that up and keep it around on the weekends.

Rick (12:14):

That’s pretty cool. That’s awesome. Alright, so let’s shift the tables a little bit here and turn our attention. Not many people have really gone through and done this, but you have your own website too that people can visit and you can go in and I know you’re talking about fashion, you’re talking about shoes, you’re talking about fast cars. What was the thinking there and what’s the goal?

Micah (12:37):

So I need to actually update it. It’s been a few years I was going back to school. I have quite the busy life and these aren’t excuses, they’re just reasons why it hasn’t gotten done. But I had mic cauley.com when I was running for office. I didn’t want to give up the domain so I kept it, but I had to do something with it. So my website developer, Brian proud was Square Monkey. He’s like, well we’ll get you set up on a personal blog and you can update it as needed and do some of the work yourself just to keep it going. And I’m not saying I won’t come back to politics someday, but I always want to have that domain. So right now I’m kind of in the middle of re-envisioning it, what’s it going to be? How’s it going to become modern and what can I do to share some of the insights I have with people, especially young people that were told, you can’t do this, you won’t do this, it’s not going to happen for you, it can happen for you. Anything can part of it’s that website to maybe be a vehicle to share those things with people that are feeling a little bit like where do I go from here and how do I get where I want to go?

Rick (13:34):

I love it. You’re being a champion for the next generation. I think that’s really cool. It’s admirable. So alright, so let’s jump back in. We got a couple rapid fire questions back to the brew kettle. So this is a little bit of a baking program, right? AB Mauri’s got a lot of history in yeast with fleischmann’s yeast, but obviously we play in the space and that’s how we get to know each other and great hops providers like you guys. So it’s a little bit of a baking show, but you have a favorite baked good out there across the board. It could be sweet goods, bread rolls, whatever. What do you like?

Micah (14:05):

Oh it’s so tough and I’m sure you guys are connected to all of ’em, but I love myself a good sourdough English muffin just to get that little tart and different flavor in the morning.

Rick (14:16):

Is there a certain maker or do you have a coffee shop up in Yakima? You’re like, boy this is my go-to I go see Regina and she gives me the right English muffin. How does that work?

Micah (14:26):

Traveling so much? We do have a local bakery. There’s a couple of ’em that I go to and get different things, but I travel and explore different places and try to find what sourdough offerings they may have.

Rick (14:36):

That’s awesome. Yeah, I mean you’re certainly tapping into something that continued to grow during the pandemic. People were home baking bread, people were testing out sourdoughs and having some fun within this space that was kind of not off limits but just was a little bit right.

Micah (14:52):

Yeah, pizza, even sourdough pizza is always fun too.

Rick (14:55):

Absolutely. Alright, so you like cars too? What’s your dream car?

Micah (14:59):

Oh man, that’s a great question. It’s changed over the years. Right now that I’m pushing 40, it’s a six premium plus sedan, so it’s very nice German engineering, great speed, great comfort. So it kind of split the difference between a business sedan and a sports sedan.

Rick (15:17):

So we’ll go two B on this one. Have you driven on the Audubon then?

Micah (15:21):

I have with the German colleagues. They drive and I ride and go home. I we’re going a lot of kilometers we’re going 130, 140 kilometers.

Rick (15:30):

So it’s a totally different day, isn’t it? It’s like a NASCAR race every day over there.

Micah (15:35):

Exactly. It’s exciting, it’s kind of fun and I think the traffic seems to flow well too, so maybe the US will look at this.

Rick (15:40):

I know. Alright, so last one on this rapid fire section. How about I have to talk a little bit of music, music’s fun. Can you tell me about maybe your first concert or maybe the first album or cassette or CD that you bought?

Micah (15:54):

Oh, this is a good one. I won a Boys to Men CD from 1 0 7 3 KFN when I was a younger guy. That’s one of my first CDs or records. But I grew up loving Nirvana. I’m actually a huge Elton John fan. And then I worked in country radio for 15 years. So there’s a ton of country stars like Tim McGraw who I still enjoy seeing and they perform at a high level. Can’t even remember my first concert. There’s been so many over the years. But I liked George Jones when he was touring and could still see some of these legends that I think are going to be unicorns down the road. But I know I’m a little all over the map there.

Rick (16:30):

Well I won, it’s a funny story, you talk about winning something, I was maybe nine years old, so it’s like 19 78, 79 and I won Beatles blue album. They had the blue and the red albums that were almost the same before the white album I think, or right after it. And I won that on BJ 1 0 5 FM in Orlando, Florida. I mean, how funny is that? It’s one of those rare things you just kind of recall, but that’s cool.

Micah (16:54):

Yeah, the memory sticks with you and it’s funny you knew the station name and all of that. It’s really cool.

Rick (17:00):

It is cool. Alright, so let’s get back on the business front a little bit. So what’s next out there for you? You’ve had this kind of charm life and you’ve spent some time, I mean if you want to talk about your media world, you talked about radio or is it brewing, is it politics? You left the door open like a good mayor maybe looking at a senate seat candidate. So what’s in your mindset? Where are you going?

Micah (17:26):

I’m focused at Haas and I truly mean that like a career path here at this company. And I’ve got great leadership and a place I can be developed, but I travel quite a bit for work. So focusing on some of our innovations and those things are what get me excited moving forward. I’m also trying to spend more time with my kids in between trips and my wife Allison Kingston and Kennedy.

Micah (17:47):

I have a 7-year-old son and a two and a half year old daughter and a beautiful wife and this really cool doberman named Phoenix. And we have the most fun as a family. So I try to put some more time into them and their interests and watch them discover the world. But it’s hard telling what’s next because if you would’ve told my 12-year-old self, Hey by the way you’re going to become the mayor, you’re going to be on the radio for 15 years with a country show and then you’re going to work for this hop company, John, I Hawes and sell hops all over the US and you’re going to travel to Germany and Australia and you’re going to do these things. I would’ve never have guessed that. So it’s hard telling what’s next, but my focus right now is innovating with Haws, getting the job done here and then spending time with my family when I’m not working.

Rick (18:32):

That’s kind of the beauty of a career. It’s a little bit of an uncharted territory. You never know where you’re going to go. I went from sports to beer to baking. It was not how I planned it when I was a 17-year-old kid going to the University of Florida. And you talk about kids and you talk about children just wait a few years. I’ve got a 15-year-old son. So if you’re driving on the streets of St. Louis now you’ve got a kid who’s got a permit and we’re parallel parking and doing all that kind of stuff. So watch out, you’re a few years away, but I tell you what, my kid stay off the auto bond, that’s what I’ll say.

Micah (19:02):

I’ll be calling you for advice. It was really cool to come to your building your facility to see ab biotech talk to that team and crew and really connect. You guys are in the yeast business as well and some of those Esthers and flavors that come out. So there’s a lot of synergies between our companies and then just us as dads and the whole thing. So I’m very blessed to get to know you guys and get to hang out on your award-winning podcast as well.

Rick (19:24):

Thank you so much. Yeah, I mean you mentioned that and again, thanks to our friends at Creative who helped put this together. But yeah, we’ve been lucky. We’ve won like five awards in the last couple months and it’s exciting because this show really started to talk about the expertise within our company, but we wanted to pull in people who are experts in their own fields and have really interesting stories. And obviously Micah, you fit the bill. So hey, one thing we didn’t really talk about was the country music and all that. You mentioned Tom Jones and some of the music tastes and things like that, but what an experience. I mean, that’s a whole different shift too, especially up in the northwest, right?

Micah (20:04):

Yeah. Yakima is not a huge town, but it’s big enough. And we were kind of an in-between market, but you really got to at least I got to grow up during the early nineties country era, some Clint Black, Alan Jackson, some of those artists, Garth Brooks at his height and watch it evolve over time. We have this big festival called Watershed in the Northwest. I used to go to that for the first few years, saw Blake Shelton. We actually had Blake Shelton in Yakima before. He was a huge star like he is. And we brought him to town with Katie Cook from CMT, and he had a song called Playboys of the Southwestern World.

Micah (20:41):

And the reason I’m telling you this story, because it’s kind of fun, you mentioned what’s it like to be in the radio world or country world, but there’s this line in the song that said the greatest memory of school that fall was the night John Roy came running down the hall with cowboy boots and a big sombrero. So I went on stage during that song without him knowing in a cowboy hat, some boxer shorts, cowboy boots, and ran across the stage in the crowd, went crazy. This is before everyone had a camera on their phone. It was kind of urban legend in Yakima. And I got backstage after the show and Blake Shelton goes Fuss, that was my radio name, fus, if you ever run across my stage without telling me, I’ll whoop you up. And he’s like, he’s like, I’m just kidding here, have a beer.

Micah (21:23):

I’m like, I’m not old enough to have a beer yet. Quite yet. He’s like, I have one anyway. And he signed the can and such a cool guy. But some of those experiences you’d never get, had I not been a radio stunt guy, which some people thought was cool and other people thought that’s just kind of a fun job, or not really a serious job, but radio’s a serious career.

Rick (21:41):

Well, I’ll tell you this, we have onboarding with new employees that come into the company and we talk a lot about what marketing does and what we can help deliver with the sales team and things like that. But I always try to make a point that you should have a little bit of fun in your business. And you mentioned earlier, right? If you’re enjoying it, you’re passionate, all those sorts of things, you really don’t work a day in your life. And I think there’s a lot of truth in that.

Micah (22:04):

Yea, and attending country concerts is always fun. Having a beer, which includes both of our ingredients is fun. And just connecting with people is the other thing that I love to do. And that’s always fun meeting new ones, and of course our old friends that we have for many, many years that just pick up where we left off.

Rick (22:20):

Well, I tell you what, Micah Colley, you’ve been a fun guy to have on the program. For our listeners out there, if you’re at home in your car taking a walk, whatever it may be, if you’ve got questions for Micah or for me, feel free to submit them to the oven light@abmary.com and maybe we’ll send you some cool swag. But stay connected with us. Check out Micah Cauley on his website, and I know there are beautiful, wonderful things happening in his career and we’re lucky to be working with you with AB Biotech. So Micah, thanks for joining us.

Micah (22:52):

Hey, thank you Rick. I’ll get you a swag bag, get your crew a swag bag and your listeners some swag as well to throw in if you get any questions or someone you need to send something ha’s related to.

Rick (23:01):

Hey, we appreciate it and for those listening out there, hey, the switch is now off the oven, light is off for this time and we appreciate you listening and we’ll see you soon.

Intro/Outro (23:15):

We hope you’ve enjoyed this episode of the Oven Light. Until next time, when we discuss more about the wonderful world of baking technology trends and more, the switch is officially off. Goodbye for now. See you next time.