About the episode 

Conor Begley and Joe Cloyes spent $25K testing the top 20 US beers and found microplastics, lead, and forever chemicals 45-50X the legal limit for drinking water.

That’s where Fathers Brewing started. In this candid conversation, the Fathers co-founders walk Mike through the clean beer playbook: why taste had to win before the clean story, how they ran a Super Bowl activation while selling in two Bay Area counties, and why bartenders (not Instagram) are the real influencers in beer.

Conor is a returning MWM guest (Season 2 Ep. 10). That conversation was Conor the analytics exec. This one is Conor the founder. He built Tribe Dynamics to a ~$70M CreatorIQ exit before leaving in 2025. Joe co-founded Youth to the People (L’Oréal, 2021).

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 – Cold Open: Focus Over Urgency

2:14 – Welcome Back + Meet Joe Cloyes

2:58 – From Software to Clean Beer

3:48 – Why Joe Said Yes

5:32 – The Plastics Wake-Up Call

6:33 – What Clean Beer Actually Means

9:05 – First Sales, First Stumbles

11:17 – The Three-Tier Beer Business

13:32 – Shipping Alcohol Across States

17:58 – Building in Public

25:20 – The Super Bowl Activation

30:52 – Creators: Beer vs Beauty

35:02 – Where the Industry Is Going

42:07 – How Founders Handle Chaos

48:20 – Family Always Comes First

MENTIONED:

Fathers Brewing – https://www.fathersbrewing.com/

Fathers Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/fathersbrewing/

Conor Begley – https://www.linkedin.com/in/conormbegley/

Joe Cloyes – https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-cloyes-9a856833/

Youth to the People – https://www.youthtothepeople.com/