The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys love Whiskey and every thing about the industry! Martin "Super Nash", Jeff "Tiny", Rachel "Roxy" Karl "Whisky" and Chris "CT" all make up The Scotchy Bourbon Boys! Join us in talking everything and anything Whiskey, with the innovators, and distillers around the globe. Go behind the scenes of making great whiskey and learn how some of the best in the whiskey industry make their product! Remember good whiskey means great friends and good times! Go out and Live Your Life Dangerously!
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
From Grain to Glass: Exploring America's Authentic Craft Distilleries where Brands Like The Mad Angler Reside
Randy and Tiny explore the true meaning of craft distilleries and what distinguishes authentic craft operations from marketing gimmicks. They delve into personal experiences with Iron Fish Distillery in Michigan and St. Augustine Distillery in Florida, highlighting how these operations represent the soul of American craft whiskey.
• Craft distilleries aren't just about size but about commitment to authentic processes, community engagement, and offering immersive visitor experiences
• True craft distillers typically own and operate their stills, grow or locally source ingredients, and maintain independence from corporate ownership
• Iron Fish Distillery exemplifies farm-based craft production, growing their own rye that becomes part of their distinctive whiskeys
• The Mad Angler Manifesto showcases craft creativity with its unique seven-whiskey blend and balanced four-grain profile
• St. Augustine Distillery demonstrates how craft operations often preserve historic buildings and create community gathering spaces
• Small batch production allows craft distillers to take creative risks impossible for large producers
• Regional climate differences create unique aging environments that contribute to distinctly local whiskey profiles
• Many of today's craft distilleries could become tomorrow's heritage brands as they gain age and experience
Visit www.scotchiebourbonboys.com for merchandise including t-shirts and Glen Cairns. Check out Bourbon Capital Academy's educational experiences in Bardstown for the perfect introduction to bourbon country.
The true essence of craft distilling isn't found in marketing materials—it's written in golden fields of rye, preserved in century-old buildings, and most importantly, created by passionate individuals committed to authentic spirits production. This episode peels back the label to reveal what makes a genuine craft distillery and why these producers represent the soul of American whiskey innovation.
Randy "The Whiskey Doc" joins Tiny to explore the distinction between authentic craft distillers and those merely wearing the craft label. Through their personal experiences at Iron Fish Distillery in northern Michigan and St. Augustine Distillery in Florida, they showcase how true craft operations are transforming communities while creating distinctive spirits.
Iron Fish exemplifies farm-based distilling, where rye grown on-site becomes part of their whiskey, including their remarkable Mad Angler Manifesto—a seven-whiskey blend that defies convention with nearly equal parts corn, rye, barley, and wheat. Meanwhile, St. Augustine demonstrates how craft distilleries often preserve historical architecture, with their operation housed in a 1907 ice plant saved by twenty local families who banded together to create something meaningful.
Beyond the romance lies practical realities that shape craft whiskey. Regional climate differences impact aging conditions, smaller production allows for creative risk-taking impossible at larger scales, and community integration means these distilleries become far more than just production facilities—they're destinations that celebrate local heritage while creating new traditions.
Whether you're a whiskey enthusiast curious about the craft movement or someone who appreciates the stories behind your spirits, this conversation offers genuine insight into an industry where authenticity
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Tiny here to tell you about Whiskey Thief Distilling Company and their newly opened tasting room. Whether you are up for a farm-to-glass distilling experience on the Three Boys Farm in Frankfort, kentucky, or an out-of-this-world tasting experience in New Loop, you won't be disappointed. At both locations. Their barrel picks all day, every day, every day, like none other. Each location features stations with five barrels, each featuring their pot, distilled bourbons and rye. Once the barrels have been thieved and tasted, you can make a selection and feed your own bottle. A day at whiskey thief, with their friendly staff and ownership, will ensure you many good times with good friends and family. Remember to always drink responsibly, never drink and drive, and live your life uncut and unfiltered. We'll be, we do.
Speaker 2:We're drinking every drink, man. We talk songs, but we're telling the truth. Yeah, we're the Scotchy Burden Boys. We race to hell to make this song go. Yeah, we're the Scotchy Burden Boys. We're here to have fun and we, hopeanny boys, we're here to have fun, can't we go? We're here to have fun, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, welcome back to another podcast of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys. Again, it looked like it froze on Facebook, which was kind of bizarre. I don't know why. It looked like it said pause, but I didn't want to do anything. It must be something that I do.
Speaker 1:And now we're back to oh, that messed everything up. Now let's see if I could get it back to where it was right. Let's see Facebook view gallery. Facebook view gallery. Now let's go back to speaker. All right, hopefully that'll be what it is, but it seemed to you see that now it's now on you on facebook. It looks like it's just me up there. We go, I got it back there, you go. Yep, all right, nope, oh, let's see, I'll put it back to gallery. You can see that. I'll try it one more time. Is it back to just me talking? Yeah, let's try it gallery, and then back to speaker. I'll try it one more time and see if that does it. All right, anyways, um, as usual. Uh, welcome to this podcast of the scotchy bourbon boys. Tonight we have the whiskey doctor in the house hey, randy, great to be here.
Speaker 3:Thank y'all for for having me. This is going to be a really exciting podcast because we're looking at one of my favorite things, which is craft distilleries.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you're not on. You're going to be on, I believe, tuesday, august 5th, for Whiskey Without Borders, which is your standard thing. But you, you know, when you found out it was craft distilleries and you knew that Supernation CT were going to leave me high and dry, so you offered to come on tonight and I graciously accepted Welcome, welcome. So all right. So tonight, that's what it is. We're going to be talking small craft distilleries and what it means to us. We're going to be talking small craft distilleries and what it means to us because there's so many different meanings of what. That kind of. What does it really mean and who are the true small craft distilleries and who are? Are they pretending? Are they big money supporting? You know what makes up a small craft distillery and you know we could talk about that as we go forward. But remember wwwscotchiebourbonboyscom for all things Scotchie Bourbon Boys. And then T-shirts Glen Cairns, like I'm drinking out of tonight, and check the website out. I will be getting the Crystal Glen Caring Club up there soon too. I keep having to do changes to the website. It's all ready to go, but it's just like I always work with Roxy and Roxy's been really busy, so hopefully looking forward to sometime in August getting that updated, and then also check us out on facebook, youtube, instagram and x also the major podcast formats mainly apple, I heart, spotify, but any other podcast format that you're listening to. We're probably there. Uh, and remember, no matter whether you uh watch us or listen to us, make sure you listen, like, comment, subscribe and leave good feedback.
Speaker 1:So, as we go in now tonight, there's a couple things I wanted to cover before we get into this, and one of them is that I got a press release from about from explore bardstown, bourbon. Um, there is going to be the bourbon capital academy, um, which they are doing their two-hour educational experience. Uh, they're offering it. They're they. They announced it in may. It's called bourbon in bardstown and it's offered to people coming down for uh touring in the bardstown area, touring the distilleries, and it's kind of like a saturday it's a saturday morning at 10 am, it's's a Saturday morning kickoff, kind of thing before you go off to the distilleries for your tours. Now, what they said, it's a two-hour educational experience. It's offered in the recently renovated Brendiamo Penthouse in historic Spalding Hall. Renovated Brendiamo Penthouse in historic Spalding Hall.
Speaker 1:Attendees start with a guided tour of the Oscar Goetz Museum of Bourbon history and that is on the first floor, and then the Kentucky Bourbon Festival offices are up in the Brendiamo Penthouse. So you get the whole tour of the building basically, and then in the basement is the rickhouse restaurant. So if you're done, you could probably have lunch before you go off. You know touring and then it gives you um, then you then, after you take the tour in the museum and you get a lot of history there, then you dive into the history of Bardstown, taking an old school versus a new school with an innovative tasting. So you're going to basically taste the older and the newer up against each other and then attendees learn about Bourbon, bardstown and so much more, preparing you to fully enjoy distillery tours and the tastings that come with them. Designed to be the perfect kickoff to a day at the distilleries.
Speaker 1:Bourbon Capital Academy's Bourbon in Bardstown is offered at 10 am on Saturdays, with five more opportunities this year. Bardstown is offered at 10 am on Saturdays, with five more opportunities this year August 2nd, september 7th, october 25th, november 22nd and December 20th. You can check it out at the Bourbon Capital Academy. Sign up for those and let's see. Completing. The course comes with a Bardstown Distillers Map, a branded glass tasting notebook and more. It's $85 per person. Partner distilleries of the Bourbon Capital Academy include Bardstown Bourbon Company 1792, barton's, heaven Hill, james B Beam Distilling Company, log Still Distillery, lux Row Distillery, maker's Mark, old Steelhouse Distillery and Preservation Distillery.
Speaker 1:So check that out. That is something to really check out. It seems to be something that everybody would want to do. It's reasonably priced. You're getting a tasting. It's two hours, you know, and you're getting a. You get to go to the museum. You know there's and you're up there in a, really one of the coolest places in Bardstown, up at the Brendiamo penthouse. So you should check that out if you're going to be in the area in August 2nd, september 27th, october 25th, november 22nd and December 20th. Check the website for availability. So there we go. Did you know about that, randy, or Whiskey Doc? I had not heard about that Whiskey Dock.
Speaker 3:I had not heard about that. But for those of us that are early risers on Saturday, you can actually go get in line at Heaven Hill or some of the other places that might be putting things out and then still head straight on over there and make your 10 o'clock, so that would work out well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, although I don't think Kevin Hill opens till 11. If I'm not mistaken, saturday.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they normally open at 9.30, I think Full screen On Sundays they open later, okay.
Speaker 1:Let's go with gallery, all right, we're going to go, gallery for everybody, all right. So what I wanted to say let's well. So I've got a couple of things tonight. You basically what would you say? You said you wanted to. We kind of got together and you want to promote a distillery and I'm going to promote a distillery and we'll after that we'll get into the discussion of what, because we're both promoting a craft distillery.
Speaker 1:We really think is a craft distillery, and there's reasons why I, um, some craft distilleries, really, what would you say? Own that category, right, and then one. I mean the main thing is is you gotta have to be a craft distillery? In my, my opinion, an actual craft distillery. You got to have a distillery with an experience, you know, and where people can go and see what you're doing. Whether it's in a, whether it's in a strip mall or it's in a its own building or it's on a farm, it's just there's got to be an aspect of the craft distillery that you can experience. That's just my opinion. There's so many different ways to do this and one of the things I really believe is distilling your own whiskey, even though you might have to get through it, you know, to get to the aged stuff you have as a craft distillery. One of the things why they're, one of the reasons why they're called craft distillers, is because they're damn crafty on what they do.
Speaker 3:You know, one of the things that I think of that really two things that make a craft distillery that I think of that really, two things that make a craft distillery, generally speaking is they're not corporately owned, they're individually owned or they're owned by a family or a small group.
Speaker 3:So they're not, you know, they're not owned by a multi-billion dollar corporation like some of these big boys that we know.
Speaker 3:Also, they tend to be smaller, obviously, because they're not multi-billion dollars, or at least they don't start off that way. We've got some folks on tonight that actually own craft distilleries and I would bet they would be glad to tell you that they didn't start off with several billion dollars in their pocket to start it. But those are two of the things and those are the kind of things that really create that experience that you're talking about, the fact that you get to meet and talk with the owners and the distillers, and sometimes that's the same person, Sometimes it's not, but sometimes it is. And so you find the story. The St Augustine distillery, which is one down here in Florida that I'll talk about, started partially as a community project to save a building that was a historic building, and we'll talk about that later. I'll hush and let you say a little bit more, but that's some of the things that I think of that make a distillery a craft distillery more.
Speaker 1:But that's, that's some of the things that I think of that make a distillery a craft distillery. So the the one. What made me come up with this idea, honestly, is right now, uh, this past weekend I went up to see my son uh knobs in in uh michigan and he's out of Thompsonville, which is right, probably about 35 minutes out of Traverse City, it's about 15 minutes out of Interlochen, and so up in that area there is a lot of vacation. It's a vacation town, a vacation community. Now Thompsonville's more uh, you know, it's more of a, a town with uh, a township, it's like that, and it's right next to the Crystal Ridge Crystal Mountain uh ski resort, which is one of the biggest ski resorts in michigan. Um, he's right up there near lake, 15 minutes away from lake michigan. We did a bunch of things, but I was looking at, I did a post and someone responded with an iron fish bottle like this, and I was looking at it and it said thompsonville, michigan, and I'm like I've had the.
Speaker 1:About three years ago, me and whiskey did uh what we were doing our uh rapid tastings and one of them was an iron fish maple cask finish whiskey. Now, three years ago I was completely out on flavored type whiskeys and maple cast. Uh, we, I even talked to jeff the coo there and when you're dealing with a maple syrup cast, the one thing about a maple barrel and why maple syrup whiskey, uh, or bourbon finished in whiskey cast with maple syrup is it's you can't get that dry. When you get that, that you can't get all the maple syrup out. And when you get the barrel from the, the syrup company who was aging their syrup in your bourbon barrel so that you could, they could produce bourbon barrel aged syrup, you get that. You get that barrel back, you're gonna have unless you're gonna wait 10 years for it to dry out syrup just doesn't dry out of that barrel. So that is a certain amount of the maple syrup. It's just going to be going in, which makes it good. So for me a lot of times the maple syrup ones are a little bit too much. I did like decadence and this one in the rapid tasting I wasn't a huge fan of at the time, three years ago.
Speaker 1:Now, fast forward to this past weekend. They're going to be turning nine years old on labor day weekend invited me up for that, but I'm going to, on labor day weekend, be headed down to kentucky for kentucky bourbon festival this year. So I won't be able to do that, but I'm going back in august and iron fish it's I. I I just grabbed my son. We spent the whole day on the lake with with my grandson and my granddaughter went to dinner. We came back. My wife's like well, I'll watch the kids, roxy's like I can watch kids while you and um, it was, uh, my son and my daughter-in-law and we went over to check it out. Now it's it's leads. You go there. It's 10 minutes from his house and five minutes is on a dirt road leading up to the farm that they have.
Speaker 1:Now the coolest thing is is that at this is the time that all the rye, uh, that they're growing on the farm is getting ready to be harvest. It has turned this gold, beautiful golden color, and you know the difference. And they do grow some wheat, they grow some rye. They initially sourced, to get through this, to get to this nine-year point, ironfish. This right here is sourced with MGP mixed with what they're doing, so it's their distilled product. They were doing three to four barrels a day. That is their production.
Speaker 1:Right now they've got, um, two, three rick houses. They just put in their just newest one and um, but they have this other product which is called mad ang, and I'm going to go over this real quick and talk about Mad Angler because this is what, in my opinion, how this craft distillery, they did their own thing. They were sourcing to get through to their own stuff Spirit of French Lick kind of does that also. They source to get through that type thing. But the mad angler really told me that this was a craft distillery and I am going to share a quick video and let's see, let's take this over here, and let's see, let's take this over here and let's see Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-uh.
Speaker 1:I think that's it. I want to say, yes, that's got to be it. Share All right. There it is, let's see. All right, this is the bottle. I have the mad angler manifesto. Now this is the mad their brand right here and I will full screen that and play.
Speaker 4:It takes a lot of time and it takes patience to do something well. And it takes patience to do something well. I don't remember, actually, the first mad angler poem I wrote, but when I think back about it I was mad. I'm still mad crazy, I hope in the right ways. But also I'm mad about what's happened to rivers. Every major river in the country is probably undersea. You know, I don't know anything about distilling at all, but to me it's all about.
Speaker 4:You have an idea in your mind about what you want, and so that idea is translated here. It's translated into your tongue, into your taste buds, and so when you think about the locally sourced grains and the water coming out of the aquifer, that water's been around a long time that aspect of it, the wildness, is embedded in this product, in this whiskey. It's there. Consider wholly the wildness of a place in your hand and then tossing it back, dreaming of rivers, wild fish, pure water. The spirit luminous inside you allowed to roam where it wishes. In that angle, that fish is there. The spirit luminous inside you allowed to roam where it wishes, in that angle, that fishing stick.
Speaker 2:Again, we should go fishing.
Speaker 1:Alright, I don't know if you can see that on Facebook, but let's.
Speaker 3:So that was kind of cool. Could you see that, randy? All right, all we could see was the screen behind you I could see it on the TV.
Speaker 1:I couldn't see it All right, so what I'm going to do? Really interesting though, but I'm going to let you see it on the screen behind me. Now, on this one, this is their manifesto, and it's kind of cool because there it is now that you can see better now because we're split screen right yeah, in the kingdom of fish, a manifesto.
Speaker 4:The water's singing never ceases, assuming its tempo from the current Words rising out of gravel beds, the sky gossamer, every cloud passing as if carrying a story. This sacred place of origins, the ancient ones living along the riverbank in their invisible huts of silence. On occasion, one of them rises from prayer and another, wild, pure fish, tattooed with light and color, pulses from their hands into the river. Enter this kingdom if your heart is true enough, if you believe that rivers are holy veins, if you discern the weight of your soul sheltered inside the currents, dwell here if you believe the truth of the world is written on the skins of holy fish, brook, trout, brown rainbow. They're flashed like a sudden burst of stained glass in the wash of it all. Sudden burst of stained glass and the wash of it all, matt Angler a manifesto in the kingdom of fish.
Speaker 1:That's definitely a. Oh, they call me Flubber. I gotta turn that one off. That was better, right, okay, now I gotta get off full screen. There we go, I'm. I'm doing my best here, folks. All right, we're back up. All right, there we go, um that one. So that to me, with that though, that video, and them pairing with this fisherman, a writer and you know, and basically a poet who appreciates the northern, uh, michigan fish fishing, uh, trout fishing aspect, and they made this. He worked with the blender. He doesn't know how to distill, but they worked in this.
Speaker 1:This one that I've got, it's a seven whiskey blend. It's made from seven different whiskeys, so I'll go back into it a little bit heavier once you talk about your craft distillery, but I mean to me that is the. This place is the essence. It's a farm that's growing wheat and mad angler is the the brand that uses only sourced from their farm rise and they're, and then they pull corn locally and they pull their wheat locally and it's all local, whereas the iron fish is partially MGP and they think it might always be partially MGP, but as they make more and more barrels, they'll be able to substitute more and more of what they're doing. But that Mad Angler brand to me and what they're doing and getting, it's the grain-to-glass thing that's happening and that's where you get into those small craft distilleries and the bottles and their little club that they have, their club for, you know, purchasing some special barrel picks or their their barrel proof release of their other whiskeys. So that's kind of what what the small craft distillery means to me.
Speaker 3:You know that's exactly right. But one of the things I was reading that's interesting you don't have to be on a 100-acre farm, like a lot of these distilleries are. The St Augustine Distillery is actually a 13,000-square-foot former ice plant. The building was built in 1907, so it's 118 years old now.
Speaker 1:Is it on a river?
Speaker 3:And the two owners of the distillery would drive by this building and see it and they decided they wanted to be able to preserve the building. And they and some other folks in the community the 20 families got together to basically save that building and start a distillery. They had to go through and modernize it while still keeping the ancient characteristics of it. They had to get permission, obviously from the state, had to learn the industry Neither one had really been in the industry before, as far as I know and they found a couple of industry experts and went out and talked to them. It's amazing, the people you know. I've been doing this to a little over two years now and I've been to probably over a hundred distilleries and many of them, especially some of the big boys. I'll go in and say hi, you know I'm Randy Ford. I've worked with St Augustine Distillery before because I worked with them as a taster in Total Wines. I would go into Total Wines and I would share their bottles, everything from their lowest price up to this one which is their highest price or one of their highest-priced bottles, and people would say, oh yeah, we met Phil, we met Mike. When they were first starting they came up and picked our brains or we got together with them and shared information. And I'm talking Peerless told me that. I was told that by the guys at Whiskey Thief. I was told that by a lot of folks about how they all just collaborated and shared their knowledge. Bardstown, buffalo Trace, just a lot of different places. They went and talked. They were thinking about doing a Sherry Oloroso cask for some of their finished whiskeys and they went over to Europe, to Spain, with somebody that's big in the industry to meet the right people and they found out there was a years-long waiting list. They came back and they were talking to eating lunch with the guy down the street literally two blocks away, that owns St Sebastian Winery and he said you know, we've got a port wine that we make and we need barrels for it. Why don't we see what we can do? A port wine that we make and we need barrels for it, why don't we see what we can do? So their port finish is made from barrels that are stored in the St Augustine barrels two blocks away. So they conserve energy, they conserve carbon footprint by being that close.
Speaker 3:They use Florida corn, they use Florida wheat, they use Florida sugar cane, because they also make vodka, and they make sugar cane vodka and they make rum and they make gin. They make some of the best gin that I've ever had and they started off instead of doing like a lot of these others and getting other people's juice and sourcing their juice from somebody. They just started off with making vodka because you don't have to have any wait time on that. They make vodka, gin and rum and start putting their whiskeys out after two years. Now a two-year-old whiskey is not as good as some of their new stuff that's been out. Now they're making 10-year stuff, which is really, really good. I've noticed just in the two and a half years I've been with them they're getting a lot, lot better. Just that extra age makes a huge difference and you know I really enjoy that.
Speaker 3:I enjoy the story and that, like you were saying earlier, that's part of what makes the craft just so cool is the story and generally with it. You know we can hear, we can hear the story of amartili, but let's face it, most of us weren't around during h taylor's time and mrt lee's time. We just weren't right. But we're around during greg's time, we're around during phil's time. You know we're around. The people are doing it now with these small craft distilleries. We get to live the history with them, which is what's huge. Well, I like so much about it and people don't realize that.
Speaker 1:You know when you're, when you're starting out something, you know that will, jacob. When you're starting out something, you know Jacob Beam, I mean, when he was doing his thing it was a small farm craft distillery and it turned. You know who knows what distillery is going to explode and eventually, you know. You look at Wilderness Trail, they've sold, you know, and that is when they sell out to a big corporation. It's just going to get bigger. And so there's a lot of distilleries that will do a brand and then sell the brand you know, and then sell the brand, uh, you know. And so the one thing I want to say is it's hard. It's like I look at you can be a smaller distiller and you could be contract distilling and promoting a brand and making some damn good whiskey. Or you can be, uh, ndr, you know, non-dist, an ndp, non-distilling producer, and you could be buying stuff and blending and making some damn good whiskey. But that doesn't mean your craft to me is you've got a pot still or a column still, um, and you're just and you're distilling the barrels and you're aging the barrels on a small. So your batches are going to be three barrel batches or four barrel batches or five. Uh, now it's like this the, this iron fish, the. It was just the epitome, the whole experience. You know, I didn't even know who, um, jeff was until I met him. Uh, and he, I met him at the end. I first did a a flight with my son. We, we both got a couple different things in the same. We liked, liked some things. I was impressed. So then we went over and did another small flight at the event that they were having. They told us to go over there and when I was on the small flight, the last pour, jeff had come over. I mentioned we were the Scotchie Bourbon Boys and I really think that even the whole experience was so cool and how friendly and open he was to show us around, even though the tours were over. He gave us a tour, he let us taste the whiskey, told us what they were doing, showed us what they were doing. You know, when you go on their farm, while you're passing a field with rye in it it says this is the next 52 barrels of rye we're going to make, or this is the next 32 barrels of bourbon. Um, you know, rye bourbon we're going to make, or this is the next 12 barrels of weeded, you know they, and so that they actually have little signs in front of the field. And it was cool to see the whole field. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous evening, family orientated, I mean.
Speaker 1:Another great craft distillery to me is starlight. I mean that is on a farm that they source fruits, apple picking, they got vineyards, they've got, you know, they got the whole thing going. They all live, you know, and it's a little bit bigger, but it's still craft. You know what I mean and you know that's just one thing, that you know what. What to me is, there's craft distilleries that are defined in the rules, but then there's the small craft distilleries that are the, the pure truth of distilling. You know, and I think when alan bishop was at spirit of french lake and they're now at old homestead, he is definitely a craft distiller.
Speaker 1:Uh, craft distillers, distilleries, don't mass produce the whiskey. They might get to the point where they start mass producing. I I mean it is an evolution. I think all of them, when they start off, want to be able to make a really good product and take it up to the size. Don't you think, randy I mean the distillers themselves either want to make a brand that they eventually sell off, or they want to take that brand to the level of where they you know, to a level of where they want to be correct but you know that's that's true.
Speaker 3:There are, I know, a couple of distilleries that don't have those aspirations, but they're people that started later or have already done that, and they just want to produce a superior product, a product that's distinctive, that a product that has their stamp on it, if you will, and that's their goal is let's make this particular product. They're not out there trying to make something to sell to the masses, necessarily. They're out there to make something that is just wonderful. There's a distillery and I'm just going to mention real briefly out near Ocala. They make this product right here. It's a fish hog distillery.
Speaker 3:This is made by Silver Queen Corn and I'm having a hard time with my camera, but this is grown the corn. I could literally look and see where the corn was grown from where I was sitting. I could turn my head and watch. They grew like 40 acres worth of corn, but he's very small. He built his own still. He's had it inspected and everything, but he literally built his own still. But that's not the normal, that's. This one guy really wants to do this and the whole idea between what he's doing and what other craft distillers do is they want to make something that's special, something that people can really enjoy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now Alan Bishop, at Old Homestead, when he was at French Lick he dealt with the stills that they put in At Old Homestead. He assembled and purchased and assembled and built all of his stills because he has, you know, gin baskets and whiskey baskets all over the place. How he goes about it. Now, ricky Edwards had two things Is there a difference from wheat from Iowa, from wheat from Ohio, from wheat from Kentucky or Indiana?
Speaker 1:And that's where you get into the terroir which these craft distilleries are going to basically have. And I will say that whiskey from Indiana definitely tastes a little bit different than whiskey from Kentucky. And whether it's the fact that it's being done on a pot still or it's a column still and that type of thing. So there's no doubt Plus, like, like you said, said this craft distillery with this mad angler this is the manifesto the seven different whiskeys put together to come up, and I'm gonna do on this one, I'm going to do the old louisville whiskey company, uh barrel bottle breakdown on this real quick, because what you said is exactly why a craft distillery like this, this particular bottle, with the seven whiskey blend, they didn't have the rules.
Speaker 1:You know most places if they're going to this and try to get it to the masses. You're talking about. You know thousands and thousands of gallons that you'd have to bank on to know if people are going to like it. Where this blend is probably seven barrels that were put together right and if not, that.
Speaker 1:But if it's not the same risk that they take when you're dealing, the little guys can be more creative because of the fact of how they're on a smaller scale and then their production and their distribution is smaller, they don't have to worry about getting it out to the masses. A lot of distilleries, like Heaven Hill which is, when they do something like this, they do it distillery release only, which then they don't have to take the chance on, but they're set up for making large, small batches or large batches. So when they do that that's one of the reasons why they basically Jim Beam went out and built another distillery that wasn't the size of these giant column stills, it was more of a craft still so that Freddie could mess around on it and come up with something that can compete with the craft distilleries. So that's even unique in itself, right?
Speaker 3:Yes, you know some distilleries, for instance, and I'd show you the Garrison Brothers I went out there this weekend to pick this bottle up. This is their Guadalupe Cast Strength and they use generally a variety of different barrels. A lot of times they use 15 gallons for their single barrel products. So they don't have to risk. You know, 53 gallons, they use 53, they use 25, 27 and also 30 gallons, depending on what they're doing, but they're able to make stuff, especially to start off with in smaller batches. So so, like you said, they don't have the risk there. So that's a very nice factor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then John was saying Frey Ranch Whiskey Acres, which is out by him. You know, sometimes Ricky Edwards saying, well, maybe it's the water he says all whiskey comes from a good story that people will purchase. Well, some of the stories are better than others, right. But you know the ownership at Iron Fish, the story isn't the people, the owners that started it, it's the community and it's the land. It's their story, right. And so you know there's different stories for all different things.
Speaker 1:And when you're a craft distiller, I think you really get into, for instance, I believe, glen's Creek. You've met Dave there. I mean that is the epitome of a craft distillery. You know, while you're there, alarms are going off. It's got its own mad scientist whole thing going there and its own story. It's in the old old crow distillery, right next door to castling key. I mean there's some really spectacular things that go on there and those are.
Speaker 1:I really think, like you said, it doesn't have to be a farm, but it has to be some sort of sacrifice or, um, no, not sacrifice commitment to the, the whiskey itself. And usually, if you're going to make that commitment when you got to put, you make a commitment to the community around you and that's what you know with, with buying the old ice house and fixing it, making it work. That's a commitment to the community. You know, when you're farming your own wheat and grains, that's a commitment to the community too. It takes, you know, not only do you have to have distillery workers. There's a restaurant on site, site and you need the servers and the, the front house, and then you need a back house, cooks you, and then you got a farm.
Speaker 1:So you need a farmer and sometimes ownership's that, but you know, but still farm equipment. It's a whole commitment to the community and people and jobs and that kind of thing. And that's one of the things that I always like. This you know small, if your contract ising, you have a commitment to the brand and that doesn't mean that the whiskey is not going to be good. But the commitment to the actual community is not the same that if you're forming that brand, what you know you do have to have marketers and you have to have design things, but overall you know you want to be, you want to have that still and making your own juice right and you know the other thing you can have best story on the planet, and I can think of a couple of stories that have just stellar stories, but any whiskey's got to taste great.
Speaker 3:It's gotta be good. Somebody has to like it. Now we all have different palates and something I like, which I love a lot of rice, but traditionally rice have not been. Some other people's maybe your jam although you're coming around, I understand, but they're just different types of whiskey that different people like.
Speaker 1:But you got to make something that somebody loves, because if you don't, you're not going to stay around yeah, and and up up in Michigan, I mean, they're a distiller's club up there and they sell out those bottles quickly Right now. When you talk about this and you post this up, you're not getting any negativity towards it. You're getting tons of positivity because the whiskey now is getting a decent age. They just released their sixth year. And six, seven years, eight, nine years, it's going to even be better. But you're putting out quality whiskey but then they go off and do all these. You know they'll pick out four great casks and put them together, or they'll do the Mad Angler. You know bourbon and they're winning awards for it, you know, and it's really kind of cool.
Speaker 1:So let's do the Old Louisville Whiskey Company Barrel Bottle Breakdown of Mad Angler Manifesto. Excited to do this. Check out, when you're down in Louisville. You've got to stop and say hi to Amin at the Old Louisville Whiskey Company An experience unlike any other. Um, check out the website and in a lot of cases you can call ahead and set up a tour and a tasting. And when you, if you haven't hung out with amin, it's one of the things you really got to do. Uh, you got to help with amin down in louisville. He's becoming a craft store too. He just put his still in, so we got a couple years before that stuff starts to get aged, because he pretty much doesn't release anything. Seven years or younger and it just started running. So we got a couple years for that. But I'm looking forward to that at the same time.
Speaker 1:All right, so the Louisville Whiskey Company comfy barrel out breakdown, uh, rating scale is uh, four categories nose, uh, body, taste and finish. You can get up to four barrel um knocks on the barrel on the taste and the fish no, on the tape on the nose and the body, and up to five knocks on the taste and the finish. And if one of them is exceptional you can give it a butt up up. And so I was. You know, I went there with somewhat of a skeptical kind of thing, because I've been up there a couple times and drove by it and just didn't. But this time I really wanted to get up there. I I mean, it's from my son's hometown. So I tried to make that a thing and was very, very, very pleasantly surprised at everything. And I bought a bottle of the Manfesto, because there's an aspect on this that's very different.
Speaker 1:So I'll give you a quick rundown of the match bill and what it says here. We already watched the video. It says this is 129.6. This is batch one, which is cool. It gives you an origin story which you know, a QR code, which is kind of cool. Take you right to the YouTube. But it's a blend of seven, a blend of seven whiskeys, straight whiskeys, and so that means there's. So what the mash bill on this came out to be is 28.73 corn, 27.78 rye, 23.03 barley and 20.46 wheat. So it's well-balanced and, unlike anything I've ever had, randy, I mean, I don't think I've had that low 25, 25, 20,. Basically a 25, 25, 25, 4 grain, right, right, that's kind of crazy. It's not bourbon, it's far from a 23, but it's still, as far as the four grain, the main grain, of course, main grain, you know.
Speaker 3:So, all right that's why you're doing that, because they they're really interesting the way their histories are kind of well, let me rephrase that not exactly a history, not even a mini-blend. But you said that's finished in maple barrels. This is finished in old-fashioned barrels. They actually have old-fashioned mix made for them and it's stored in their barrels and then when they empty the old-fashioned mix out, it's like this maple syrup, it just kind of sticks there. In the port they put five of their best barrels in to make a five-barrel small batch, which is an ultra-small batch. Right, you're getting maple, probably, and I'm getting old-fashioned mix. I'm.
Speaker 1:What I get off of this, as far as I know, is the best. What I get off of this as far as I know, the best I can describe it. I get a little bit of caramel, okay, but at Taco Bell they have different sauces. I'm not a guy that loves a lot of heat, but my favorite sauce from Taco Bell is fire sauce, because there's this roasted tomato red pepper taste on the end and I'm getting that on the nose. Okay, now they use these barrels that are specific Cooperage. Now they use these barrels that are specific to Cooperage and he thinks Jeff thinks that some of that flavor might come from those barrels, because the other stuff they do that they don't use those barrels for doesn't have that. So he likes that and they put it in.
Speaker 1:I can tell you this After watching the video and having this bottle. This bottle would be a bottle that if I go fishing with anyone, I would absolutely choose this bottle to go and take on, you know, as far as in my flask, for, you know, a little sip with cold to keep warm or whatever when you're fishing. Fantastic, fantastic, uh, whiskey, um. We got eric from australia there and he said he found a batch of old louisville two, two batch two of old louisville in australia for three hundred dollars. Now I would tell him, if he that's insane, that a bottle of old louisville made it. It made it to australia in the first place. So and then he said he could get like a taylor single barrel or a weller foolproof for that price and it was hard for him to pull the trigger. But honestly I think um, it's, I think I would pull the trigger. 300, $300 for an old Louisville, that's you Good stuff. That's right around what it costs here. It's not a cheap bottle here. So all right.
Speaker 3:It was $300, a little over $300 for a 17-year-old Louisville. That's what I was looking at.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I had the one that 17-140 proof one, and that one that I got it was like 400 bucks.
Speaker 3:I think mine was 126 proof, but I don't know. I did not buy any.
Speaker 1:So the nose is unlike any other nose and the fact that it's not medium sauce or red hot Tabasco sauce or whatever, and it's that fire sauce with a little bit caramel coming through, it's the most unique. I like it. It's close to a buttermilk, but I'm going to go with four ocks Did you hear those?
Speaker 3:Absolutely yes, Make sure you bring a little bit of that when we go fishing in Wrigley Field.
Speaker 1:When we go fishing in Wrigley Field.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're going to fish for some runs. I will bring some of this for your tribe if you haven't gotten a chance yet. I don't know if you have or not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you poured me some. It's St Augustine. Yeah, you poured me some when I was there. You made me. That was like the first pour when I got to your place. That was good, all right, all right so.
Speaker 3:Buddy, what do?
Speaker 1:you think about what the legs look like on it. Let's roll her. I'll roll in the glen. Put that up. I already touched in the Glenn Puck that up. I already touched it a ton. Oh, they're really thick, like as thick you probably can see that.
Speaker 3:Can you? Yeah, a little bit. I'm sure they're on a bigger screen than I can see better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're thick.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful, randy. I mean it's like the lake and the Northwood aspect of it is fantastic. You know what I mean. Then you've got Lake Michigan right there Vineyards, distilleries, lighthouses.
Speaker 3:That sounds like St Augustine.
Speaker 1:you got the Atlantic Ocean right and you got palm trees. You don't got pine trees and forest. You know what I mean. And it smells like so clean and pure up there where Florida most of the time it's burning well.
Speaker 3:Thank you for that. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Thomas Anderson said because of the finishes. Well, these are now Thomas. They've evolved with no more finishes. It's kind of cool, and you know if you're not into. You know they basically got aged whiskey coming out and their burns are fantastic. Thomas Anderson said that, all right, so I'm going to give it a three on body. So you know, they basically got aged whiskey coming out and their friends are fantastic. Thomas Anderson said that, all right, so I'm going to give it a three on the body. And the reason why is it's most of this is happening in the taste and the back of your throat into the finish. That's where this thing goes crazy.
Speaker 3:Nice, that's nice when it does that.
Speaker 1:The geeks just don't get it For 129 proof. This is drinking way easier than 129. And they get that. So it's weed up front, it numbs your side, mid palate and then you get the fire. So as far as pesos, I have to say I really like this and I'm going to give that five knocks Okay.
Speaker 3:Well, if I were mine, you already know what I would get. I could give it six, I would.
Speaker 1:Well, you can. This was a bup, but a bup.
Speaker 3:This one would get a bup for six. For a taste, I would love to flavor that, just absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's better wheels.
Speaker 3:I'd say this one's only under weatherproof. It warms you all the way down.
Speaker 1:Just nice Floor hug what 129 is just warming you all the way down. And then I would say the finish. It's the strong point of this bourbon or this whiskey You're going to if you're fishing. It keeps, it's going to keep warm and you can taste that, I can taste that. I could stop drinking now and it's uh. I'll watch the rest of the all-star game and go to bed about 11 30 and I probably will still taste this in my mouth. I would have to say it's one of the best finishes and that's why it's strong. It's got a five on the taste, which is good, but I'm gonna give it the, the fish, and I never do this. I'm gonna get a five, but up, up this finish is amazing.
Speaker 1:Now, if you don't like red roasted, have you ever had a hot sauce that has roasted a little bit of tomato and then it's got that little bit of space, but it's almost like it's burnt?
Speaker 3:Most has one like that. What Most has one like that, it's almost smoke.
Speaker 1:My wife says it's similar to a scotch, but I this is. It doesn't have the smoky, it's got a little bit of what you say. What she also said is that this would go fantastic with the cigar. So the 6 and a 5 is 11, the 3 is a 14 and the 4 is an 18. 17, 4 is 7, 6 and 5 is 11. 18. So I gave this an 18 out of 19.
Speaker 1:So give the craft distillery. Now, this here is good bourbon, but it's not on the level of this mad angler and if you like that type of to pull, pull that off. I've had it on a couple couple of ribbons that spicy, but not to the point of perfection like this. Yeah, you know what I mean. And then it's 130 and it tells you it's 130 on the. It tells you it's 130, and so so this stuff you get out of craft distiller. I mean, it's like I can tell you, randy, I was biased, I wasn't happy three years ago with the maple finish one, I thought, but I tasted their maple finish. It's now uh, it's like not greek maple, so they want to bounce because this blender that they were able to get. I'm going to meet him, I'll find out his name, but he knows what he's doing and they hired him two and a half years ago, so it makes sense they turned completely around.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah the experience was fantastic. But in that, you know, I've been to jeff through cookie and had the experience is fantastic. There there's a lot of people but I'm not a huge fan of like I don't think there was. You know, there's some of the whiskey that they produce, but they're there, they have a good story, they got the thing and they keep coming on, just like this place. You know what I mean the older you get and the more of yours ages.
Speaker 1:Because, honestly, the reason why Jim B is putting stuff out at five, six, seven, eight years, they want to put it out any younger than that because they need the barrel influence, they need to flip out all the stuff that comes stealing us and then they need to get that flavor in there. And when they do that, those barrels will really get that flavor in there. And when they do that, those barrels will really get that flavor. And alan bishop always was saying at french lick, respect the grain, respect the grain. And you hated it. He was always putting grain forward. Some people would treat it to be too young, but that he was competing against kentucky bourbon. But before he left I tasted a barrel of his that was eight and a half years old of the Lee Sinclair and the barrel definitely was overtaking at this point the grainy taste and it had the right age and that was some damn good whiskey, you know what?
Speaker 3:I mean, that's not what I'm saying. I got a couple of distiller's picks from St Austin and some fucking barrels that are just like you to have some. You know what I mean that stuff. Now, other thing is the heat factor a difference in us being here in Florida and and Garrison brothers got a picture of earlier being in Texas. It doesn't take as long. If you did what some say with you, 28 year old, aiding whiskey beer, you in 20 years in Florida, or tutoring, well, no, she did for the Texas or a lot of is whatever.
Speaker 1:There would be nothing left. That I was talking to the the. You know, um, who is it from? Aaron, from uh smoke wagon this brings up down there and age, you bring gp up there and use it in las vegas. It's not, it doesn't have to be out there very long to do what he wants it to do. And you know, it's like there's a distillery there in las vegas and he said they put it in the barrel and after four years it was all gone. It's dry. If the barrel basically will dry out and it's hot and it'll evaporate the whiskey. Um, what happens in kentucky is? I mean, if it was, if it was the kentucky summer year long. There's a certain humidity in that summer, but if it was that all year long, this would be gone.
Speaker 3:I don't remember the exact temperature, but it comes around 50 degrees, 40 to 50. It basically quits aging. It's like a fat, warmer than that.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a quits, it just all goes back into the surface, then comes, it's all back in the barrel. There's a point where it all just goes out of the way, goes in the barrel. If it's in the barrel and it's, you know, 20 degrees, that's even more so. But they say chemical compound of getting that wicky cold and then heating it up and then it not just being a barrel but making it cold and hot.
Speaker 3:You knew that I used to teach chemistry. Yeah, but when I say it quits aging, the chemical process slows down.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, but the wood.
Speaker 3:Right, so that's why it quits aging. It slows us down.
Speaker 1:And hence that's why people always try to rapid age by heating up artificially, and that's rapid aging, and sometimes they put it in a a. They rapid age it by heating and cooling it artificially and then also maybe mulch sounding it and, um, you know, vibrating it with wood chips and everything, but there's no substitute for years in the barrel. Now there's a reason why below tracing such good damn whiskey because they do keep their steam, heat their houses in the. It's a fact. You can see, you go there. You saw the pipes, same pipes that EH Taylor's been used since they really late on. So that's really a cool thing. The other place that has that ability is Kathleen Key. I don't know if those same pips work at Stillery yet or if they're ever gonna, but he was a very, very you know he was breaking down boundaries and doing things that no one else was doing, and you know there's no way, way. Buffalo chicken, we rapid age our bread. They're nine years. They're nine years and it tastes really good because they basically eat ants. But they're cool in the wintertime, which is that process to keep point Now in and out of the barrel.
Speaker 1:It's very important for the whiskey to be in the barrel, but it's also important for it to come out for a little bit. You know what I mean. When it comes back out, it passes through that filter again. So there's a lot of things that so many people do, but it's all fun In Michigan. Their thing is there was some heat. It's not like Tiki. It's going to be cool in September and October up there. It's going to be cool in september and october up there and it's going to be still 80s and 90s in kentucky for a little bit longer. So they get. I honestly think that when you're talking about kentucky, ohio, um, indiana, you're talking about the perfect aging weather for whiskey, where you get enough cool energy, enough heat. For some. You get some into a sign again there's probably too much cooling and enough heating and all I'm going to say is, I think, honestly, warming you know it has been a really good friend to burn it.
Speaker 3:It's one of the advantages of gloaming. Ken Edwards and Walker both kind of agree with you. You know the way trolls exploit Sam Walker's disco butt fight. I like your description a little bit better as to why Kimberley action slows down as it gets a little in there.
Speaker 1:Well, that's like you were right in the fact that. Look you can. They proved it. They stuck heaven, hell, 12 year in a steel barrel for 13 years and when they leased it this past year it's been not distributed for 25 years. That 13 years in that stainless steel container. In my opinion, honestly, it still does its aging, oxidizing and it gets heating up and cool it and heat it up and cool it and you know, if it was in a cold room, even just sitting in the control room, that baby picked up a dusty flavor that you pick up when a bottle sits for 20 years, when when the whiskey sits 20 years in the bottle. So there is some sort of chemical composition change that happens even if it's not in a window. Just my opinion.
Speaker 3:I think that's actually right. You know, wood certainly has a huge, huge influence on it, but they're still, you know, on a time level you're going to have some changeable things going on.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I think we're at 10 o'clock. Yeah, we've got to say goodbye on the audio and I will finish this up.
Speaker 3:Thank you all so much for joining us. I hope that you enjoyed it and hopefully a little bit of the online knowledge you shared with us, and we really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:And yourself too. I mean, this is how we learn by going to different distilleries. It's one thing that we both love is that everybody has a different take on what they're doing, and it's so exciting. People always ask me are you ever going to commit to distillery? I've had job offers before, or you know I could work at this distillery from through. You know I've had um job offers before, or you know I could work at this distillery through. You know I've had a different level and I love distilling process, but one I it goes down to the people that you meet, and the people doing it always are so creative. It's a great um they. They have their shoes off and their bare feet to the front, and this is why Appalachian steels yeah, whether it be somebody who's moonshining in Hell's Half Acre or what Alan Bickle and Steve Scherr and what they're doing over at Mount Vernon, that's a good bet. Mount Vernon, I really believe, is one of the great craft distilleries on here, plus Stolen Wolf in Pennsylvania. You can go down to Liberty Pole in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1:Every single state has their what would you say, their craft distilleries, and those are distilleries that are making up the history of our country. So there's brands that keep coming back and those make up cities that are making up the history of our country. So there's brands that keep coming back and those make up, you know, but at the same time, a certain amount of what would you say marketing or uh, it's not quite the same as those, those startup distilleries, those craft distilleries. I think it will be very, very telling. Telling in the fact that there's going to be some more brands among the craft distilleries. Plus, it'll be the time that we live in of the craft distillery.
Speaker 3:You agree with me. I want to just briefly from my side I want to give a shout out to the guys at Airbenders. They do really care but they earn their relief effort. They raise funds and they donate $1, $3. That was collected at the gates in donations on Saturday and the relief I remember the number, probably $0.10. Or relief for those that are just suffering. For them they did that. That's a lot of effort on their part and I really appreciate everything that St Augustine's done. They have a hundred and fifty-five thousand visitors coming every year and they promote the entire city. They promote the church. Part of Augustine that is in Collingville is a North American community, a select community, and it was a community that freed, with that special promotion. It came for the city because it was a city and that's where there still is, and so they have built a community. They have a community. They all have their own stuff there and I'm your. A guy out in Minneapolis has the same thing. That's the way you practice learning things. That's involved in the inside.
Speaker 1:In a mission. They are about observing. You know the land around them. We don't recycle the water.
