There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
The Biscuit King: Dogs Need Healthy Treats Too!
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...
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Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name. There is a a method to the madness.
Speaker 1:Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. With me today I have a very special guest, mr Brent Robich, and he is the biscuit king. He is producing, manufacturing Brent's Biscuits, which are healthy dog treats which I've been selling here at the gym for a while and my dog Hazel has been loving and other friends of mine's dogs have been loving them. So let me introduce Brent here and he's going to tell us a little bit of the origin story, of how he got into making Brent's biscuits. Hello, brent.
Speaker 2:Hey, good afternoon Rob, and thanks for having me on. Yeah, it kind of was out of just an idea I had. I started working at New Smyrna Beach Brewing Company three and a half years ago and right away people were allowed to bring their dogs in but the only service dogs and they used to be able to, but, but during covid they had to get a food license, and so that meant the dogs weren't allowed inside the brewery anymore. So I started making dog biscuits, more of a of a peace offering, and I got the idea to, because I'm kind of cheap. Uh, instead of using a regular flour or paying for anything, uh, I just thought, well, maybe I can use the spent grain from the brewery. Uh, so that's what I did. I took some home, uh, I had a small dehydr, I dried it out and I made it into a dough and made dog biscuits out of it. Then I really started. Well, they became really popular. People wanted to buy them. The brewery told me that I could start selling them, and so that's how I got my start them, and so that's how I got my start. That became a little bit more popular and I ended up having to do a list of ingredients, get an LLC, send them off, have them analyzed. So that's where I'm at today with it.
Speaker 2:I really started thinking about more of the health benefits for dogs and I know that people would ask me is there any chicken products in it or things that weren't really necessary? I know a lot of grain dog food and cat food. They put a lot of fillers in there and they put cheap stuff in there. So I wanted to make it, you know, as healthy as possible. So I started using local eggs, local honey and natural peanut butter.
Speaker 2:Then I started to explore a little bit more into spent grain. The spent grain flour is seven times the fiber, a third of the carbs, twice the protein as compared to normal flour. In addition, I use or in the brewing process we use malted grains, and what that is is when you a grain goes through the malting process for a short period of time, there's water added and the grains they just start to germinate and then they stop that process. But in that short little process, beneficial enzymes are developed in the grains and they actually benefit gut health, gut health. So all of a sudden I realized not only is this a good tasting product and dogs love it, but it's a super healthy treat, you know, for the dogs.
Speaker 1:And I'm looking at this here and what I've always loved is you have the expiration date on that? Yes, and it looks like you know. Is you have the expiration date on that? Yes, and it looks like you know. Just a few ingredients, like you just said spent grain, eggs, flour, natural peanut butter, honey and yeast, yeast, yeast and water yeah, I don't put yeast in Baking powder, sorry, baking powder, baking powder. Yeah.
Speaker 2:The yeast in the brewing process. The yeast is added after, and that's when hops are added after the brewing process. The yeast is added after, uh, and that's when hops are added after the brewing process. Because a lot of people the the misconception of of uh, oh, you put hops in there and um, actually hops are not, uh, are not health, are not good for dogs. Um, the, the, uh, the raw green veggie, you know vegetation hops? Um are not healthy for dogs, so that doesn't get anywhere near, uh, near my product and you're you're an animal lover.
Speaker 1:I've known that since I've known you, so obviously that's a big driving force to you too. I mean healthy products and I mean you've always loved animals, so you're only going to give them what's the best.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so yeah, I've had dogs, cats, turtles, birds, birds. I have an African gray parrot right now that she kind of rules the roost and tells us all what to do.
Speaker 1:So where did the biscuit king come from? I saw him on social media the other day. I mean, you've become a celebrity down in New Smyrna. You're down there signing shirts.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I'm a big fish in a small pond. The dog biscuits have become very popular with my customers at the brewing company at New Smyrna Beach Brewing Company. Also, a little shout-out to Chris and Sarah, the owners. They got me started in this business. They give me the grain for free. That's awesome. Yeah, the majority of the grain spent grain does go to a local cattle farmer who feeds it to his cattle. So yeah, the nickname Biscuit King it was just kind of thrown on me by the employees there at the brewing company and the customers. And this past week Sarah and Chris were so nice to make a shirt that incorporates my business with their business. It has my likeness on the back, surrounded by dogs and dog biscuit in it, and it says I met the biscuit king at New Samaritan Beach Brewing Company. A silly thing, but it's pretty cool. It's very cool. I thought it was great.
Speaker 1:I thought it was great Social media.
Speaker 2:So you know, going back, I mean, we've known each other since we were you know, basically in high school, yeah, you were a couple years ahead of me, and then we you know, don't remind me how much, how old I am, maybe just two years, no, three years old. I'm 62, and you're 59. Yeah, so three years, three years, close. And.
Speaker 1:I know your brother. We were all friends in college. You and I would commute from New Smyrna to UCF in Orlando. Then I got to know your brother when I was over there. We took classes, so you were the first person I knew that was doing triathlons. Back then this would have been very early 90s, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I started doing triathlons in then. This would have been very early 90s, I guess. Yeah, I think I started doing triathlons in the uh in the mid, the mid 80s, uh through the through, you know, into the 90s for sure you were the first person I knew like, and now of course it's it's way different, but I mean that's pretty neat and I remember a ritual you used to have I don't know if you still do it, but pretty neat.
Speaker 1:And I remember a ritual you used to have I don't know if you still do it, but you used to ride in miles.
Speaker 2:I think on your birthday yeah, um, I, I stopped that a couple years ago. Uh, probably should pick it back up again. But yeah, I'd go out on my birthday and ride and run like a combination of of of miles, whatever my age was. Um, so I would. I would do that as a tradition. That's because I was a school teacher for 30 years and always had January 2nd, which is my birthday. I always had that day off, so I would do that over Christmas break, part of my birthday tradition. But now I sometimes have to work on my birthday, right, right, different lifestyle?
Speaker 1:Yeah, different lifestyle. So what did you teach?
Speaker 2:I was a teacher for 30 years. I started in high school science and ended in high school science, but in the middle 17 years, in the middle there I was a PE teacher, an elementary PE teacher at Indian River Elementary down in Edgewater.
Speaker 1:Were you always in the New Smyrna area.
Speaker 2:I was at Mainland. I started at Mainland from 1992 until the mid to late 90s, actually 2000. I started at Indian River in January of 2000. Vince Carter was one of my students, probably one of my more famous students, great guy, he was a biology student. Loved having him in my class. Then, like I said, 17 years elementary PE. I do have that passion for fitness, for sure.
Speaker 1:I used to see you at all of 5Ks. Hopefully I'll see you back out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm planning on doing one in November with a co worker. She's got me motivated to get back out there and start doing it again between making biscuits. Did you just have to?
Speaker 1:give running a little bit of a break.
Speaker 2:It just it was my schedule. I really don't have an excuse, but whenever I stopped teaching school because I had a set schedule, as soon as I got off I'd go run. But my schedule now is just all over the place, and so I do need to just to definitely get it make it part of my routine again, for sure.
Speaker 1:I think, if I remember right, you were always pretty good about injuries. Like you were one that, uh, you didn't do too much, you didn't over train, you didn't seem to pick up a lot of the running injuries people did, maybe here or there, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I always have people go oh yeah, my knees, I can't no nothing, Never injured.
Speaker 1:That's great, though, and I think, if I remember correctly, you were a lifeguard too, and that was keeping you fit 42 summers I lifeguarded on New Smyrna Beach.
Speaker 2:Summers I lifeguarded on New Smyrna Beach.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's such a small world because you know, kind of bringing it back to the dog biscuits. When I took my dog Hazel in, she had to get some surgery and her vet, maggie Lowe. We started talking about animals and stuff and, as you probably know, she's such a wonderful person when it comes to that and I was telling her about your business and she goes.
Speaker 2:Wait a minute, brent it turned out, I guess you guys swam guard together. Yeah, we were lifeguards to together. For sure, um, there's a lot of people that have used uh that, that lifeguarding, as a a springboard into their, into careers, uh, you know, kind of a stopping off place, maybe college break or whatever. We've had a lot of guards that have become great people and contributors to the community, like Maggie for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, we've got mutual friends that have done that as well. So did you do some of the lifeguard competitions back in the day?
Speaker 2:Yes, I competed well into my 50s doing a lot of paddling. I've raced a surf ski for years, raced around, done a Key West around the island. Uh, a number of times I've done that also on a, on a surfboard. Uh, you know, a paddle prone, paddle board that you know now that's we call them because stand up. If you say paddleboard, everyone equates that with a stand-up board, which so they're different. Yes, yeah, paddleboard. You're laying or kneeling on, paddling with your hands. Uh, a paddleboard is. You know that you stand, you stand up and you have a paddle are they?
Speaker 1:uh? Are the stand-up paddleboards like um thicker? Are they like maintain balance better?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, standing up on a paddleboard is a stand-up board is like being on the sidewalk compared to a true paddle board.
Speaker 1:So you just wouldn't be able to really do it, I guess, right, no, okay, well, that's pretty, that's pretty neat. So bringing it back to the biscuits again, um, so you've got customers even down in the keys, is that right?
Speaker 2:yes, um, that kind of started with my love for going to Key West. Friends of mine have a bar down there, the Dive Bar Shirt Club over on Grennell, and they opened up and they're dog friendly. And I asked them hey, would you mind selling my dog biscuits and giving me an excuse to come to Key West, because I deliver you know I don't ship anything. So they said yes and I started talking to the people over at Hank's Hank's Hair of the Dog Saloon on Caroline. Got with them, they're very dog-friendly, they love the product, so I sell them over there. And just in, you know, news flash, um, probably in the next month I'll be in a third location, uh, max uh, which is on truman. Uh, down in key west. They're very dog friendly. They even have a dog menu, a separate dog menu uh, that you can choose what your dog would like to eat like ice cream and stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh no, it's, it's fresh. Uh, they, they cook food in their, in their kitchen. Uh, for dogs, uh, there's like seven or eight different items on the menu so where else do you go?
Speaker 1:like you got the keys, I know you um come up here from new smyrna Port, orange. So where else do you deliver to? Do you have quite a few? I?
Speaker 2:have a few other places Out in Venetian Bay the NSB Brew, and then there's Pets on the Bay. It's a pets grooming place. They sell my biscuits and in addition to that, another big customer I have is over in DeBerry Central 28 Brewing Company. Yeah, they're getting a pretty good following. That's awesome. I have like a cult-like following, as you can imagine, at New Smyrna Beach Brewing Company, though Nothing wrong with that. No, it's been very popular.
Speaker 1:Where do you cook them? So is this all happening at the bar now?
Speaker 2:Oh no, I do this all from home, so I have some dehydrators. The process is pretty simple I dehydrate the grain and I make a flour. I have a commercial grinder flour mill so I grind that up first and then, like I said, I I put, stamp them out, I roll out the dough after I combined all the ingredients. And every one of my large bags has a shark in it, because you know news where it is the shark by Coppock, capital of the world, in the small bags, one shark yeah, put one shark in each.
Speaker 2:You know, I never even picked up on that One shark in a bag I do that for the small bags too. One little shark in each of the bags. That's pretty neat.
Speaker 1:So how long does it take to cook like a batch?
Speaker 2:Well, this morning I cooked three batches before coming up here. That took me about two hours. Okay, um and they're ready to go like after oh no, I put them back into the dehydrator um afterwards so that all the moisture um is is dried out. I don't have any um uh any preservatives in there right, right.
Speaker 1:That's why you got the expiration right, which I really appreciate, customers really appreciate. They're always saying, oh wow, you know, we know there's gonna to be good, you know.
Speaker 2:I put a four-month date on there just kind of as a guideline. I baked some biscuits about 10 months ago and I left them in a bowl on my counter. They're still there and they're still good. So I know the shelf life is a lot longer than what's on there, but yeah, I just want to use that kind of as a reminder that you know.
Speaker 1:Got to use them yeah.
Speaker 2:They're at their prime, you know, for about four months, and then yeah.
Speaker 1:So would you happen to know how many calories would be in one small biscuit? I don't, I'm just trying to guess.
Speaker 2:They didn't analyze that with. You know, I could probably go back and do some calculations with. Well, how?
Speaker 1:many eggs are in a batch.
Speaker 2:So in a batch I put an egg. I don't want to give away my recipe. No, no you don't. But yeah, in every batch I put one egg in every batch okay, that's probably the highest calorie, I would guess maybe yeah, well, I don't know. I do put natural peanut butter in there, so that's going to add some. Uh, that's going to definitely add some calories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's that's pretty cool, though I was just trying to guess and figure it out. There's some. I'm not even sure if the commercial duck biscuits have a calorie on them. I don't think they do. I think it's very hard to probably calculate based on what they're using. But you got the ingredients and that's the important part, right.
Speaker 2:I know I could break it down to probably. I don't know how many ounces I get out of every batch either. I think it's like 20. Out of a batch of biscuits, I think, I end up with like 26 ounces of product. So and then, um, to break it down, I'd have to do some some calculations to break it down and well, I can say, this hazel hasn't gotten any fatter so no no, and she's been eating them for what a good year, at least you know we started giving her one, you know basically as a treat.
Speaker 1:You know every time she's good she gets her cookie and she probably eats four a day. So she hasn't gained any weight. Her last checkup yeah, well that.
Speaker 2:Well, one little interesting side note. Um, like I said before, I'm kind of cheap, so I do. I do use a little bit of regular flour in there, uh. So I started uh the I, you know the I make this, this spent grain flour. Um, so I started giving, uh, giving Greg at Prima, the owner of Prima. I've been trading him some of my spent grain flour for some of his regular flour and so he makes breads with the spent grain flour for Prima Barleona, another restaurant there in New Smyrna, uses the spent grain flour in their breads, uses the spent grain flour in their breads, and I recently gave some to the Dutch oven in Edgewater to experiment with and the breads and the pizza crust that Greg is coming up with. It's incredible, the taste, the texture. It just adds like an extra dimension that spent grain flour does.
Speaker 1:I think it's cool how you are using like local businesses too. Like you said, you're getting your eggs from a local farmer down there. There's somebody out on Glencoe, I think I used to get eggs from. Sometimes he, you know, just go out there and he gets them for you. And then you said that you're donating some of the other, or they were. Yeah, the bar was donating some of it to the cattle, oh yeah, yeah, that's good, I mean we got to support local farms oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, that's another thing. Um, chickens really like the spent grain. So, um, I kind of do a little trading with that with the local chicken farmer. I get them some spent grain, they feed it to their chickens and then I get the eggs back from them.
Speaker 1:So how's your little big brother Grant taking all this? What's he think of the biscuits?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, my whole family. It's kind of a chuckle thing, like you make dog biscuits and it, like I said, it just started out just kind of as a peace offering to people that couldn't bring their dogs in yeah, yeah. But yeah, they think it's great. My family are really very supportive.
Speaker 1:I mean, your brother was my big workout partner in college. You know he got big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's a lot bigger than I am, but he's still my little brother. Yes, we played rugby together.
Speaker 1:but yeah, I think that's pretty neat. I'm going to definitely have to send him this podcast. Oh, definitely He'll enjoy listening to it. Now is he retired military now?
Speaker 2:Yes, he retired from the military. He did a little bit of contract work. Then he had a child and he realized that his child care was so expensive that he became a stay-at-home dad. He worked on a master's with the GI Bill while he was at home he became he's. Now he went back into the workforce. He's analyzing data for a fire department in Columbia, recently moved to New York and he's um York York, new York, um up, I think it's uh on the, the Northern border of of uh, of New York, so it's, it's real, far North, almost to Canada, yeah, and then um, so he, he lost, he, he didn't lose that job, but he had to get a um an LLC, become a private contractor, and so that's what he's doing, uh data analysis, which I have no idea what that is right, like he's yeah, maybe a few years younger than me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's right he's eight years younger than me, so he's five years younger than you. Yeah, yeah, so I mean you guys got the fit family I mean like I, I said you and I worked out some too.
Speaker 1:New Smyrna before college and then you were one of the triggers that got me into triathlon, and then he was my workout buddy all at UCF, so quite the fitness family there, and you've always done a lot for the community in your communities and I think that's great. And what else do you want to tell us? We've got a few minutes left. What do you want to tell us about? Like, maybe you mentioned how people can find you locally, but what about online or social media?
Speaker 2:The only social media I have is Instagram Brent's Brewery Biscuits. Yeah, that's the only social media I have right now. Can they order from there? No, I haven't developed a website yet, it's just I'm getting to that point. Yeah, that's my next step.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I mean you're doing this because you love dogs, you love what you do, you love being around people and, like you said, you got into it because trying to make the peace, offering.
Speaker 2:So maybe you know huge manufacturing maybe isn't something you want to do, um no, well, I don't, I don't really know because and I don't make a lot of money doing this, but it is the hustle. I love the hustle, I love making them, I love making the, the phone calls and the text messages and the connections. Island Roasters I haven't mentioned them, but they I really I need to, because they buy my dog biscuits and then give them out to their customers.
Speaker 1:We go there a lot. We were just there the other yesterday.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll have to give you a, uh, a little discount card I made since you, since you.
Speaker 1:You mentioned them oh yeah, I mean they're great. Yeah, coffee, I love them. They're egg sandwiches we get oh, they're great people either grind you know, I buy their coffee oh, yeah, take it home and yeah, they're really really good uh matter of fact, um, I believe there's going to be a one-mile race. I don't know if they have anything to do with it, but it's starting at Island Roasters and going over the bridge to Flagler is one mile.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, so they're going to be.
Speaker 1:I think it's in February of next year. So a little shout-out to them. Oh yeah, they've got some publicity for that. That's cool. Yeah, I mean I love supporting local businesses and, before I forget, you're one of our sponsors for the Max Fit Games. I'm looking forward to that. Max Fit Games on August 9th August 9th, that's right. You gave us some samples, so everybody coming out is going to have a thing of them in their goodie bag. Naturally, you're on the logo and everything, and.
Speaker 2:I'll be there. If someone wants to purchase some dog biscuits, I'll have some with me.
Speaker 1:That's great. You know some of our other sponsors are going to come out with tables too. So ProCharge I don't know if you're able to hear that, but a client friend of mine started a little protein supplement company and they'll be there. You'll be there. So I think that'd be awesome, so you might have a table. And yeah, great, great, great. And you know, our recipient of what we're gonna donate is going to be out there too. She's gonna have some of her dogs out there, so that's gonna be really neat. So have you got a chance to meet Kathy yet? I have not. Okay.
Speaker 2:I did send you my contact information. Okay, I believe I sent it to her. Hopefully we can get in contact, and I think I told her that too.
Speaker 1:I said we would hook everybody up at the games, because you know.
Speaker 2:I think helping out animals right now is so important and from what I understand with the adoption stuff.
Speaker 1:I mean it is so hard. Yeah, people are adopting pets and then changing their mind and it's heartbreaking.
Speaker 2:So you know, whatever we can do, you know to help. We're months away from it, but every Valentine's Day at New Smyrna Beach Brewing Company we do an adoption Awesome and we partner with Southeast Humane Society. Very, very nice yeah. And so what else?
Speaker 1:Anything else you want to tell us last minute to. You know, get us to. I mean, I think everybody's on board. I mean it's like it's not even a sales pitch. I mean, this is good stuff.
Speaker 2:They definitely. They sell themselves. I do have to give a shout-out to a couple of my customers. I've got a dog that comes by the brewery every day Belle, she's a yellow lab. She will not pass by the brewery without getting a biscuit, and it's been so popular that if we're busy our customers will recognize it and the customer will go out there and make sure she gets her biscuit so she can complete her walk. Really a sweet thing to see.
Speaker 1:That is awesome. Now are you going to start selling your shirts.
Speaker 2:They're almost sold out. Oh wow, You're going to order some more. That's up to the brewery. Okay, that was a brewery thing. They made them for me and they're selling them.
Speaker 1:So maybe, if they do make any more before August 9th, maybe bring them out to the table and people will probably buy them from you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could definitely. If we have anything left over by then, they're sold pretty quick. That's pretty awesome. Well thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Biscuit King, looking forward to seeing you at the games. Sold pretty quick. That's pretty awesome. Well, thank you very much, miskit King, and you know, looking forward to seeing you at the games.
Speaker 2:I thank you for coming up and coming on the show and I appreciate it, Brent. This is my first podcast.
Speaker 1:I really appreciate you for having me on. For sure, really love it. I think you did great. You're like a pro, you're like an expert already. I think Rogan's going to call you up next.
Speaker 2:One take wonders here. All right, thanks, brian. All right, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's program. I ask you to please follow the show wherever you get your podcasts and please select automatic download, because that really helps the show. Now I want to thank overhead door of daytona beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product. They have the best service. I personally vouch for jeff and zach hawk, the owners. They are great people with a great company. If you have have any garage door needs, please give them a shout at 386-222-3165.
