Seth Griggs-Ryan assistant brewer at Gentle Ben's

Brewer reveals Gentle Ben's facts, myths and trade secrets, invents chicken-money pizza

WILDCAT: Is Gentle Ben a bear?

GRIGGS-RYAN: Actually, it was the name come up with by the owner a long time ago. In a galaxy far far away.

WILDCAT: I was under the impression that it was from a Michael Jackson song. See, he did a song about a bear named Gentle Ben.

GRIGGS-RYAN: A lot of people think it has to do with the old bear, you know, Grizzly Adams, and Gentle Ben was the name of his bear.

WILDCAT: I see. Would you ever want to be Michael Jackson's teddy bear?

GRIGGS-RYAN: Probably not.

WILDCAT: What exactly is your job here?

GRIGGS-RYAN: Do everything from moving beer to mashing in to actually making the beer.

WILDCAT: What do they put in it during St. Patrick's Day, when it's green?

GRIGGS-RYAN: I could tell you that · I could tell you that, but I would probably get killed.

WILDCAT: Is it food dye?

GRIGGS-RYAN: Yeah.

WILDCAT: It's just food coloring?

GRIGGS-RYAN: It's easy, that's why every place does it. You always know the people that make green beer around St. Patrick's day because they always have green fingers and thumbs.

WILDCAT: Interesting. Do you ever get to taste the beer and make sure it is good?

GRIGGS-RYAN: Quite often. It could change over the course of an hour. So maybe you've got to have a beer in an hour and in another hour. It's beer every hour ÷ it's beer o'clock.

WILDCAT: If you were to open your own beer company, what would it be called?

GRIGGS-RYAN: Catamaran brewery.

WILDCAT: What would your jingle be?

GRIGGS-RYAN: The best beer in the West.

WILDCAT: If you were a pizza, what toppings would you want on you?

GRIGGS-RYAN: Definitely chicken. You always got to have chicken. Love, love, love chicken.

WILDCAT: I don't think that's the way God intended it to be. Anything else, off the wall and random?

GRIGGS-RYAN: No. Maybe some quarters, dollar bills. A money pizza ÷ I'm fine with that.