WEBVTT

00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:07.280
There we go. We are rolling. We are. Shoot, man.

00:00:07.400 --> 00:00:11.039
So it's the first half of a Dudes Like Us podcast

00:00:11.039 --> 00:00:16.399
on April 8th, 2025. Shoot, man. For being April,

00:00:16.539 --> 00:00:19.100
I'm pretty much enjoying this weather so far.

00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:21.120
It's nice. It's pretty shitty last week. A lot

00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:23.739
of rain. Yeah, but I love the temperature. No

00:00:23.739 --> 00:00:25.339
spring storms. You know they're going to hit.

00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:27.940
Perfect. No humidity. For Texas, that's great.

00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:30.600
Yes. Agreed. A lot of storms, though, man. I'm

00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:32.619
not a huge fan of that. Chuck, thank you for

00:00:32.619 --> 00:00:34.380
being here and taking care of us on the first

00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:36.200
half. Chuck's our producer. Dudes Like Us. I'm

00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:39.259
Sean. I'm Paul. I am Jeff. And Mike. And Mike.

00:00:39.340 --> 00:00:42.100
Big Mike. What do you want to call us? Mike.

00:00:42.619 --> 00:00:47.259
Mike. Sir. Sir. Sir Mike. Have you been knighted?

00:00:47.340 --> 00:00:50.679
Great Moana. All right. Well, you are our special

00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:52.890
guest tonight. We're excited to have you. Thank

00:00:52.890 --> 00:00:55.170
you. All right. It's kind of crazy. Are we going

00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:58.009
to just dive in head first? Let's do a little

00:00:58.009 --> 00:01:00.810
backup story here. For the guests out there,

00:01:00.850 --> 00:01:02.609
our listeners that don't know what Dudes Like

00:01:02.609 --> 00:01:05.450
Us podcast is, we're a bunch of dorks that hang

00:01:05.450 --> 00:01:06.909
out with each other all the time and thought,

00:01:07.030 --> 00:01:08.849
hey, man, what kind of narcissist would we be

00:01:08.849 --> 00:01:10.950
without a podcast? There you go. We could hear

00:01:10.950 --> 00:01:13.519
ourselves at all times. You know, and we kind

00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:15.260
of moved forward with it. We just happened to

00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:17.239
have some gear laying around and we pieced some

00:01:17.239 --> 00:01:20.299
stuff together and we're a bunch of guys from

00:01:20.299 --> 00:01:22.859
a bunch of different backgrounds. So by gear,

00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:25.599
you mean bourbon? God bless. Yeah, bourbon, whiskey.

00:01:26.299 --> 00:01:28.459
That seems to be the glue that pulled everything

00:01:28.459 --> 00:01:30.379
together. Accidental microphones for recording,

00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:34.239
you know. Yes. We really did. I mean, we had

00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:36.640
a bunch of stuff just kind of hanging around.

00:01:36.700 --> 00:01:38.700
We had some other, whatever, it doesn't matter.

00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:42.060
But at the end of the day, These guys are my

00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:44.200
best friends. Producer, we're all just a tight

00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:46.840
group of friends. We enjoy, love each other.

00:01:46.939 --> 00:01:49.099
Not like that. We enjoy being around each other.

00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:51.599
It's not a weird podcast. Our kids are all friends

00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:53.379
with each other. They've grown up. They've gone

00:01:53.379 --> 00:01:55.939
to college together. That's awesome. This is

00:01:55.939 --> 00:01:58.719
a big hobby for us. I was able to tell Sean that

00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:00.739
his penis was out earlier, so it's all right.

00:02:00.819 --> 00:02:04.019
Yeah, it was. Yeah. It happens a lot. It does.

00:02:04.909 --> 00:02:06.250
Wonderful. Well, it likes to come out because

00:02:06.250 --> 00:02:08.689
it's usually stuck to my lower leg. Okay. It's

00:02:08.689 --> 00:02:10.330
got nothing to do with our whiskey. God bless.

00:02:10.569 --> 00:02:12.789
That's just normal shit, man. This is going to

00:02:12.789 --> 00:02:15.210
be the shortest guest we've ever had. But we

00:02:15.210 --> 00:02:18.409
enjoy getting together and talking about this

00:02:18.409 --> 00:02:21.330
stuff. And we like talking about the things that

00:02:21.330 --> 00:02:23.449
dudes like us do in life. That is the common

00:02:23.449 --> 00:02:25.370
denominator. And that's kind of the purpose of

00:02:25.370 --> 00:02:27.849
this podcast. Yes, we do talk about the whiskeys.

00:02:27.889 --> 00:02:30.150
It's kind of what drives us a little bit to introduce

00:02:30.150 --> 00:02:32.349
it every single podcast. A new whiskey and try

00:02:32.349 --> 00:02:34.729
to convey people to life. Lighten up a little

00:02:34.729 --> 00:02:36.789
bit. It's not your enemy. This stuff is good.

00:02:36.909 --> 00:02:38.650
I think people freak out a little bit too much.

00:02:38.729 --> 00:02:41.090
They pick up a glass of, it doesn't matter what

00:02:41.090 --> 00:02:43.229
it is, and they're like, oh my God. You're not

00:02:43.229 --> 00:02:44.610
supposed to fucking shoot it. You're supposed

00:02:44.610 --> 00:02:47.289
to sip it, drink it, enjoy it, love it. You're

00:02:47.289 --> 00:02:50.349
doing it wrong. People forget about conversation

00:02:50.349 --> 00:02:54.469
in between. Yes. Cigars, conversations, music.

00:02:56.569 --> 00:03:01.310
It's a variable in a whole equation that you've

00:03:01.310 --> 00:03:04.020
got to dive in head first. Dudes like us, we

00:03:04.020 --> 00:03:06.960
go out to these events, these whiskey events,

00:03:07.099 --> 00:03:09.659
the World of Whiskies, and what is the other

00:03:09.659 --> 00:03:11.460
one you mentioned? The Whiskey Riot. Yeah, Whiskey

00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:13.759
Riot's coming up. Yeah, Fort Worth. We were just

00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:18.620
at the Plano event in Plano, Texas. Jeff, you're

00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:20.919
the almanac here. I was not there. Spirit of

00:03:20.919 --> 00:03:22.099
Whiskey. Yeah, but you still know. Wasn't it?

00:03:23.860 --> 00:03:25.520
Yeah, it's something like that. Spirit of whiskey.

00:03:25.599 --> 00:03:28.080
But anyway, so we had like 14 vendors out there.

00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:30.840
So we meet a lot of the vendors and we try to

00:03:30.840 --> 00:03:33.280
connect with them. We go to Total Wine every

00:03:33.280 --> 00:03:35.560
Friday. We typically try to hit Liquor King,

00:03:35.740 --> 00:03:38.860
Total Wine, and Specs and kind of scout out for

00:03:38.860 --> 00:03:41.039
the unicorns. But, you know, they're never there.

00:03:41.159 --> 00:03:43.740
But, you know, it's that we're fishing. We're

00:03:43.740 --> 00:03:45.159
just fishing to see what sticks. Every now and

00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:47.419
then you'll get a bite. Well, everything's changed

00:03:47.419 --> 00:03:49.979
now because of the economy. All the supposedly

00:03:49.979 --> 00:03:52.060
allocated whiskeys are starting to show up on

00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:54.240
the shelves. Yes. Because they were afraid they

00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:56.139
would be getting tariffed from Europe. Right.

00:03:56.280 --> 00:03:58.319
So all of a sudden, stuff that was rare is not

00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:01.280
rare anymore. Wow. Shocking. Wow. Can't wait

00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:04.719
to see that. Conspiracy, huh? Crazy. Well, I

00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:07.219
mean, well, hopefully this is a short -lived

00:04:07.219 --> 00:04:09.280
thing. We have no idea. We understand some of

00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:11.120
the tariffs they apply today in China is 104,

00:04:11.219 --> 00:04:15.419
105, 104%. Crazy. Yep. God bless. The trade war

00:04:15.419 --> 00:04:18.319
has started. Well, the reason we have our guest

00:04:18.319 --> 00:04:20.620
here is one of our many trips to Total Wine is

00:04:20.620 --> 00:04:25.120
we met... Lori. Lori. Yeah, your local rep, right?

00:04:25.180 --> 00:04:27.019
We got to know her. I was talking to her for

00:04:27.019 --> 00:04:29.800
quite a while, bought a couple bottles. And she's

00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:31.680
great, by the way. Very personable. She took

00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:33.399
some pictures. I don't know if she sent them

00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:36.569
your way or not. A few junk pics. Heard that

00:04:36.569 --> 00:04:38.790
too, yeah. Some good dick pics. Posted them on

00:04:38.790 --> 00:04:40.910
Instagram. Yeah, but this was a while back, and

00:04:40.910 --> 00:04:44.149
it's been an exercise of just coordinating dates

00:04:44.149 --> 00:04:46.529
and schedules and everything, right? She doesn't

00:04:46.529 --> 00:04:49.129
have a dick? That's crazy. I said junk, you nut.

00:04:49.689 --> 00:04:51.430
What's wrong with you people? We're going to

00:04:51.430 --> 00:04:53.610
have to start over. I know, gosh. Anyways, yeah,

00:04:53.629 --> 00:04:56.629
so she immediately texted you, I'm assuming,

00:04:56.670 --> 00:04:59.209
right? Right, right. Sent us a picture, and it

00:04:59.209 --> 00:05:00.649
got a bunch of... It's just been forever trying

00:05:00.649 --> 00:05:03.930
to get the schedule. Oh, that's normal. We figured

00:05:03.930 --> 00:05:07.069
you're a busy guy, yeah. We're all busy. I mean,

00:05:07.110 --> 00:05:10.129
we've been kind of backed up. There's just trips.

00:05:10.230 --> 00:05:13.269
Life is busy. I'm thankful that you're here.

00:05:13.769 --> 00:05:16.829
We're starting to get a few people to show up.

00:05:16.870 --> 00:05:19.410
We had Garrison Brothers, James on a couple weeks

00:05:19.410 --> 00:05:22.649
ago. We had Jackie Mack, one of the reps for

00:05:22.649 --> 00:05:29.970
6th Street. We're getting 1845 in Q, Lowry Crossing,

00:05:30.069 --> 00:05:33.610
Texas. We've got a couple more. We've got RD1

00:05:33.610 --> 00:05:35.550
Spirits. They're scheduled to come out here the

00:05:35.550 --> 00:05:38.029
last week of May. So when you're out here for

00:05:38.029 --> 00:05:41.449
the May 25th Whiskey Riot event. They may be

00:05:41.449 --> 00:05:42.949
out there. They may be coming down to that as

00:05:42.949 --> 00:05:43.970
well. That may be why he's coming down. There's

00:05:43.970 --> 00:05:46.550
over 1 ,000 people at Whiskey Riot. That's great.

00:05:46.629 --> 00:05:47.930
Yeah, well, I'm on board with that. The only

00:05:47.930 --> 00:05:50.829
thing that is, is it inside? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

00:05:50.910 --> 00:05:53.050
Yeah, because they've got. I'm passing on that

00:05:53.050 --> 00:05:55.410
one. Hell, yeah. So they got the world of whiskeys.

00:05:55.970 --> 00:05:58.930
That's supposed to be happening here in, is it

00:05:58.930 --> 00:06:02.449
July 9th? It's July. No, it's late July. It's,

00:06:02.449 --> 00:06:06.730
yeah, July 27th. They have it. It's an outdoor

00:06:06.730 --> 00:06:09.829
venue. It's a farmer's market. It's basically

00:06:09.829 --> 00:06:14.230
just an awning. Yeah. And I sent them messages,

00:06:14.290 --> 00:06:16.610
and I put them on Facebook and Instagram, and

00:06:16.610 --> 00:06:18.269
I copy and pasted them. It's the same message.

00:06:18.329 --> 00:06:20.850
And I was like, I explained to them that we really

00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:24.709
enjoy your event, and it was great last year

00:06:24.709 --> 00:06:29.170
at the Hilton Indoor. And what's up with Sunday?

00:06:29.389 --> 00:06:32.670
It's on a Sunday morning. Two, it's an event

00:06:32.670 --> 00:06:36.600
that it's outside. It doesn't make sense. You're

00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:39.560
going to need, read the room. You're going to

00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:41.379
need to wrap that thing in plastic. You've got

00:06:41.379 --> 00:06:44.639
a bunch of guys shaped like Chuck, Jeff, Paul,

00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:47.759
you and I. Like pears. They're going to need

00:06:47.759 --> 00:06:51.279
defibrillators on every wall just to remove our

00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:54.680
dumb asses. That seems like a surprising idea.

00:06:54.800 --> 00:06:57.860
They charge you $100 or $150 to be in the heat

00:06:57.860 --> 00:07:00.709
longer. Well, anyway, so that's how we got introduced

00:07:00.709 --> 00:07:04.110
to the Big Sticks Distillery. We're happy you

00:07:04.110 --> 00:07:05.889
made it here, and we've got your product in front

00:07:05.889 --> 00:07:08.290
of us. And frankly, we're ready to rock and roll.

00:07:08.470 --> 00:07:11.589
Yeah, we're excited to hear your story. So you

00:07:11.589 --> 00:07:14.250
are the founder? Yes, sir, I am. Of Big Sticks?

00:07:14.269 --> 00:07:17.370
Correct. Yeah, I started it, and then my partner,

00:07:17.529 --> 00:07:20.689
Joe, joined me. Joe's a retired Lieutenant Colonel,

00:07:20.750 --> 00:07:24.509
Marine Corps. I've known him for 30, 35 years.

00:07:24.589 --> 00:07:28.839
We're old guys now. But long story. his wife

00:07:28.839 --> 00:07:31.199
and my wife were friends since sixth grade. Oh,

00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:34.139
okay. So that's, so yeah, we've been each other's

00:07:34.139 --> 00:07:36.139
weddings and watched our kids grow up and yada,

00:07:36.139 --> 00:07:38.439
yada kind of thing. So that's kind of how that

00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:40.920
started. But it was really, I guess just pre

00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:43.660
COVID, you know, it was maybe five, six years

00:07:43.660 --> 00:07:46.439
ago. Now, um, I had a bar just like you guys.

00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:49.259
Right. And we moved into this house years ago,

00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.160
years, years, years ago when our kids were little

00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:54.620
out in Katie, when we could still drive down

00:07:54.620 --> 00:07:58.839
the street without traffic. Yeah. And, um, The

00:07:58.839 --> 00:08:00.860
lady that left, she was elderly. Her husband

00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:03.279
had passed away, and he had a big bar, like 100

00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:05.860
-plus bottles. And she said, I'm downsizing,

00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:08.779
moving to a much smaller place. She called my

00:08:08.779 --> 00:08:10.459
wife and said, would your husband mind if I left

00:08:10.459 --> 00:08:13.680
all my whiskey bottles behind? Oh, my gosh. And

00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:15.339
you were like, no, I'm sorry, I can't do that.

00:08:15.339 --> 00:08:18.560
Yeah, so the movers don't move whiskey bottles.

00:08:18.699 --> 00:08:20.959
They don't move guns, ammo, and whiskey. Okay.

00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:23.180
So all the fun stuff, they don't move. Excellent.

00:08:23.220 --> 00:08:26.319
They just keep it? Well, either that or they

00:08:26.319 --> 00:08:27.899
throw it out on the street. Yeah. One or the

00:08:27.899 --> 00:08:30.660
other. So, so we said, yeah, we'll keep it. And

00:08:30.660 --> 00:08:33.159
then what happened through the years, years and

00:08:33.159 --> 00:08:34.879
years ago, I used to travel a lot as an engineer,

00:08:35.019 --> 00:08:36.940
traveled all over the country, all over the world.

00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:40.159
And if you remember early on the good old days

00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:42.179
in Texas, you could buy liquor till like midnight.

00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:46.000
Yeah. Now it's not 9am, 9pm. They close. You

00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:48.720
used to buy. So I used to get off the frequent

00:08:48.720 --> 00:08:51.639
flyer magazines, rip out the latest vodka of

00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:53.600
the month, gin of the month, the latest. you

00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:54.980
know, whiskey of the month, this and that, the

00:08:54.980 --> 00:08:57.440
rum of the month. Sure. And I wouldn't get home

00:08:57.440 --> 00:08:59.279
till like, you know, 11 o 'clock at night on

00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:01.620
a Friday night. Okay. And I would drive by this

00:09:01.620 --> 00:09:04.120
liquor store and they had this stuff. So I'd

00:09:04.120 --> 00:09:06.120
go in with ripped out piece of paper from the

00:09:06.120 --> 00:09:08.639
frequent flyer magazine. Right. I want this one.

00:09:08.860 --> 00:09:10.879
And I started with the collection. So over the

00:09:10.879 --> 00:09:13.179
years, I had probably another hundred bottles

00:09:13.179 --> 00:09:16.159
or so. Sure. Nice. And so I had, there were literally

00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:19.039
like four deep on the bar. There's no bar surface

00:09:19.039 --> 00:09:21.320
room. Right. But you're saying they weren't all

00:09:21.320 --> 00:09:24.259
bourbons. They were rums. Well, mostly whiskeys

00:09:24.259 --> 00:09:26.639
and scotches. Whiskies and scotches. And bourbons.

00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:29.639
Yeah. And then the occasional vodka for people

00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:32.960
that don't know any better. Right. So anyways,

00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:35.000
my wife said, you've got to get rid of all this

00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.259
stuff. It's too cluttered. Throw it away. Dump

00:09:37.259 --> 00:09:39.460
it down the drain. I went, oh, hell no. Yeah.

00:09:39.679 --> 00:09:41.840
There's no way. So I started sipping them all.

00:09:42.120 --> 00:09:44.639
And like you guys, if you sip 10 or 20 bottles

00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:47.159
at a time, you're going to find out there's always

00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:49.659
one that you like. The rest are okay. And then

00:09:49.659 --> 00:09:52.799
you pour some of them in your forever bottle

00:09:52.799 --> 00:09:56.419
and you just mix them up. Well, I decided that

00:09:56.419 --> 00:09:59.840
I could do better. And I'm an engineer and sometimes

00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:02.659
I don't sleep much. The creative thing hit me

00:10:02.659 --> 00:10:04.679
and the bug hit me. I said, I can do better.

00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:08.740
I said, why can't whiskey age like a nice red

00:10:08.740 --> 00:10:11.299
wine in a bottle? Well, red wine's organic, right?

00:10:11.539 --> 00:10:13.500
So you have to have organic compounds for it

00:10:13.500 --> 00:10:15.419
to age because you could take a $20 bottle of

00:10:15.419 --> 00:10:17.620
wine, five years later, it's worth a thousand

00:10:17.620 --> 00:10:21.100
bucks. Right. So with whiskey, it's only worth

00:10:21.100 --> 00:10:24.720
the rarity. Sure. My wife got me a bottle once

00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:27.039
for my birthday years ago. It was a couple hundred

00:10:27.039 --> 00:10:29.720
dollars, maybe for a nice 16 -year -old whiskey.

00:10:30.419 --> 00:10:33.399
And I started drinking it, and I said, not bad.

00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:35.220
You know what it tastes like? It tastes like

00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:39.080
a $60 bottle of Basil Hayden, which is fine.

00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:42.600
It's still a very nice whiskey. And then I looked

00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:46.480
online, and it was $3 ,000 a bottle because the

00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:49.379
distillery went out of business. Right. And they

00:10:49.379 --> 00:10:51.120
only made a thousand bottles and then they went

00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:53.179
into business. And now it's a rarity. And there

00:10:53.179 --> 00:10:55.279
was the last restaurant in Dallas bought the

00:10:55.279 --> 00:10:59.039
$3 ,000 for three bottles and they were selling

00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:01.480
like one or 200 bucks a shot. That's insane.

00:11:01.899 --> 00:11:03.519
But you know what it tastes like? It tastes like

00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:06.659
a really good Booker's or Basil Hayden's. Sure.

00:11:06.779 --> 00:11:09.120
And I just said, I'm just going to drink it.

00:11:09.179 --> 00:11:10.419
I'm going to tell my friends, hey, this is a

00:11:10.419 --> 00:11:12.340
$3 ,000 bottle of whiskey. I didn't pay that,

00:11:12.419 --> 00:11:16.340
but hey. Right. So I said, it's not about that.

00:11:16.379 --> 00:11:19.450
It's about the quality. So I literally, I bought

00:11:19.450 --> 00:11:22.750
a chemistry set on Amazon. Oh, wow. Got the test

00:11:22.750 --> 00:11:25.830
tubes, got the proof meters and all that kind

00:11:25.830 --> 00:11:29.230
of stuff and started researching. A lot of people

00:11:29.230 --> 00:11:31.710
put their mash bills online. Yeah. And I started

00:11:31.710 --> 00:11:34.370
mixing and blending different whiskeys on the

00:11:34.370 --> 00:11:37.409
bar. And I just figured, I came up with a special

00:11:37.409 --> 00:11:41.629
one that I liked. And then I went, I got a carpentry

00:11:41.629 --> 00:11:43.850
shop. So I went in my workshop and said, the

00:11:43.850 --> 00:11:46.090
only way to make whiskey organic is to put something

00:11:46.090 --> 00:11:48.220
in it. Yeah. So we're going to put in one. Why

00:11:48.220 --> 00:11:50.440
not put in the original wood that the barrels

00:11:50.440 --> 00:11:53.720
are from? The stave. Right. So I looked at that

00:11:53.720 --> 00:11:55.940
and I said, well, double oaked, I'm an engineer.

00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:58.259
So I'm a simple guy. You know, you put an oak

00:11:58.259 --> 00:11:59.879
stave in there, double oak, that's a gimmick

00:11:59.879 --> 00:12:02.019
because it's a used barrel. Right. They say it's

00:12:02.019 --> 00:12:04.419
a spent barrel. I'm an old guy. That means used.

00:12:04.759 --> 00:12:06.779
Right. Right. So it's got limited flavor. You

00:12:06.779 --> 00:12:09.120
could do that till the cows come home. You know,

00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:11.220
90, 95 % of the flavor is going to come from

00:12:11.220 --> 00:12:13.779
the first barrel. Yes. And then what they're

00:12:13.779 --> 00:12:16.120
doing now, I don't agree with. I mean, maybe

00:12:16.120 --> 00:12:18.980
I'm a snob, but now they're putting in flavored

00:12:18.980 --> 00:12:22.320
staves in the barrels. And it's like, okay, you

00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:24.919
want one that tastes like a Cabernet? Well, then

00:12:24.919 --> 00:12:28.299
buy a $20 bottle of Cabernet. Right. You know,

00:12:28.340 --> 00:12:30.639
have a shot of whiskey and then go drink your

00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:32.340
wine, you know, with your dinner or something.

00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:36.539
But I'm not a flavored whiskey guy. Okay. And

00:12:36.539 --> 00:12:40.039
you mean being finished in something? Like a

00:12:40.039 --> 00:12:43.240
wine barrel. Like a Cabernet barrel. Correct.

00:12:43.500 --> 00:12:45.960
Okay. So you're not on board with the different

00:12:45.960 --> 00:12:48.000
types of finishes that they're doing. Okay. I

00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.159
respect that. Yeah. I mean, okay. So you can

00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:52.860
do French oak. You can do Ambarana. Sure. And

00:12:52.860 --> 00:12:55.139
some of that's okay. I mean, that's not bad,

00:12:55.360 --> 00:12:58.059
you know, because it's still theoretically an

00:12:58.059 --> 00:13:01.019
original oak. Right. Right. But you're not a

00:13:01.019 --> 00:13:04.620
fan of the wine barrels. Not really. Okay. Cognac

00:13:04.620 --> 00:13:06.960
barrels or the pork barrels. They got everything

00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:10.460
now, right? I think some of the red wines, whenever

00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:13.600
they add it to a red wine barrel, I'm going to

00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:16.419
use the word muddled. It takes a bourbon that's

00:13:16.419 --> 00:13:19.019
crisp and it kind of muddles it. Right. In my

00:13:19.019 --> 00:13:20.519
opinion. Well, you're going for a different taste,

00:13:20.580 --> 00:13:23.340
but I get it. Yeah. I get it. Anyways, so that's

00:13:23.340 --> 00:13:25.860
just me. So I just said, let's just take a piece

00:13:25.860 --> 00:13:28.639
of oak. And so what I did, so here's the first

00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:33.019
piece of geeky knowledge. Okay. Even though we

00:13:33.019 --> 00:13:34.700
joke, we say the size of your stick matters.

00:13:34.820 --> 00:13:37.519
Right. It does because the surface area ratio

00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:40.299
of the stick relative to the liquid in the bottle

00:13:40.299 --> 00:13:43.139
is the same number as if the bourbon was still

00:13:43.139 --> 00:13:45.440
in the 53 -gallon barrel. Interesting. Okay.

00:13:45.539 --> 00:13:48.700
Yep. So I tried to mimic the aging process by

00:13:48.700 --> 00:13:52.679
saying it'll do it at the same rate. Right. Now,

00:13:52.700 --> 00:13:54.600
legally, you can't say aging. We found that out

00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:56.820
because aging only takes place in the barrel

00:13:56.820 --> 00:13:59.080
when the barrel expands and contracts. Right.

00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:01.620
But then you'll lose the angel's share. So with

00:14:01.620 --> 00:14:03.580
us, we put in a brand new piece of wood. It's

00:14:03.580 --> 00:14:06.379
not a used stave. Okay. So because it's brand

00:14:06.379 --> 00:14:08.860
new, it's got fresh resin and it starts the flavor

00:14:08.860 --> 00:14:10.820
process all over again. So they call it the finishing

00:14:10.820 --> 00:14:14.299
process. Sure. But it's even better because everybody

00:14:14.299 --> 00:14:16.639
else is doing this. Their barrels are still expanding,

00:14:16.659 --> 00:14:19.059
contracting, and you're still losing the angel's

00:14:19.059 --> 00:14:22.379
share. So with us, we seal it in glass and literally

00:14:22.379 --> 00:14:24.360
we keep the angel's share from the second go

00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:26.980
round. Right. So we trademark, we make the angels

00:14:26.980 --> 00:14:29.139
thirsty. Right. So that's going to be on our

00:14:29.139 --> 00:14:30.879
next round of t -shirts. That's actually pretty

00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:33.000
good. Now, do you char the... That's why it says

00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:36.580
TM. That's okay. Do you charge, char the stave?

00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:38.779
Yes. I designed the machine to cut the sticks.

00:14:38.899 --> 00:14:40.919
I designed the machine to char the sticks on

00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:42.419
my own, designed it and built it. What level

00:14:42.419 --> 00:14:45.179
char is it? So relatively speaking, probably

00:14:45.179 --> 00:14:48.200
a four. Okay, good. You know, if you do like,

00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:50.980
I mean, it depends on how you classify. If you

00:14:50.980 --> 00:14:53.240
do like a five something, it's almost like it'll

00:14:53.240 --> 00:14:56.559
break. Yeah. Right. So if you think of, in my

00:14:56.559 --> 00:14:58.710
mind, like searing a steak, You've got a really

00:14:58.710 --> 00:15:00.789
good char on the inside, but you've got to have

00:15:00.789 --> 00:15:03.210
some of the wood not charred on the inside. Right.

00:15:03.269 --> 00:15:05.730
On the outside versus the inside. Right. And

00:15:05.730 --> 00:15:07.690
you have to have that because if you just take

00:15:07.690 --> 00:15:10.590
those spirals and you toast them. That was my

00:15:10.590 --> 00:15:15.029
next question regarding the shapes of them. What

00:15:15.029 --> 00:15:18.169
drew you to the shape of this one versus the

00:15:18.169 --> 00:15:21.909
spirals? So the spirals, it's hard to calculate

00:15:21.909 --> 00:15:24.570
the surface area ratio. So first of all, you

00:15:24.570 --> 00:15:26.529
know, what's unique about us is I actually, I

00:15:26.529 --> 00:15:28.590
started by calculating the surface area ratio

00:15:28.590 --> 00:15:33.389
to get that right. So wood, all natural wood

00:15:33.389 --> 00:15:35.870
has about 140 chemicals in it. So here's your

00:15:35.870 --> 00:15:37.909
chemistry lesson. So pay attention, boys and

00:15:37.909 --> 00:15:41.669
girls, learn chemistry. So about 140 chemicals

00:15:41.669 --> 00:15:43.669
out of that, maybe four of those are fructoses,

00:15:43.690 --> 00:15:46.090
which sugars, which is a complex carbohydrate,

00:15:46.350 --> 00:15:49.029
right? So it's a bigger molecule than sucrose

00:15:49.029 --> 00:15:52.019
or glucose. It's just a bigger molecule. Exact

00:15:52.019 --> 00:15:55.360
same chemicals are in strawberries, blackberries,

00:15:55.399 --> 00:15:57.600
blueberries. That's the chemical name. It's just

00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:00.679
fructose. So as you know from cooking, when you

00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:05.200
char sugar, you get caramel, right? Well, the

00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:07.639
other resins in there, the stuff that keeps the

00:16:07.639 --> 00:16:10.200
resin from hardening into a rock, they're called

00:16:10.200 --> 00:16:12.820
phenolic acids. They're a weak acid. That's the

00:16:12.820 --> 00:16:16.179
chemical name. Everybody else knows them as aromatics.

00:16:16.940 --> 00:16:20.320
Right. Oh, so there's multiple phenolic acids.

00:16:20.419 --> 00:16:23.700
Those are the exact same chemicals that are in

00:16:23.700 --> 00:16:27.759
vanilla beans. Nice. Okay. So that's where the

00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:30.000
flavor comes from. By all natural charring, a

00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:33.299
100 % natural, you know, as God made it, a piece

00:16:33.299 --> 00:16:35.100
of American white oak, you get multiple layers

00:16:35.100 --> 00:16:38.419
of caramel and vanilla. In addition to the char,

00:16:38.700 --> 00:16:42.279
as you know, since if we're all old guys, you

00:16:42.279 --> 00:16:44.179
know that in the caveman days, if you got sick

00:16:44.179 --> 00:16:46.620
eating poison berries, you would. eat charcoal

00:16:46.620 --> 00:16:49.740
from the fire. It would absorb the poisons. Well,

00:16:49.820 --> 00:16:52.039
so likewise, whenever you distill whiskey, there's

00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:54.419
always some, they call them co -geners, they

00:16:54.419 --> 00:16:56.279
call them different kinds of phenolic acids,

00:16:56.379 --> 00:16:57.700
whatever, but there's different kinds of chemicals

00:16:57.700 --> 00:17:00.440
in there that give you the headaches and they're

00:17:00.440 --> 00:17:03.240
not good. Right. Right. Well, the charcoal actually

00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:05.359
filters those out at the same time it's adding

00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:07.380
the good stuff. Right. So it adds the good stuff,

00:17:07.400 --> 00:17:09.799
takes away the bad stuff. So does that mean like

00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:14.460
hangover free? To a degree. Well, I'm going to

00:17:14.460 --> 00:17:17.980
test that theory today. Indigestion -free. Indigestion

00:17:17.980 --> 00:17:20.240
-free. That's actually interesting. Some of the

00:17:20.240 --> 00:17:22.700
bourbons I've drank, and maybe just because I

00:17:22.700 --> 00:17:24.880
like too much Italian food or pizza, gives me

00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:27.539
a little bit of a heartburn. Sure. And this doesn't.

00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:30.299
Interesting. Interesting. And I can only speak

00:17:30.299 --> 00:17:32.700
for myself, but right? I mean, for me, that doesn't.

00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:34.720
I tell people that, and they say, oh, it's smooth.

00:17:34.839 --> 00:17:36.900
I said, yeah, well, just wait. You're not going

00:17:36.900 --> 00:17:38.960
to get any heartburn either. Yeah. Which was

00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:42.359
an unintended and probably a, you know. It's

00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:44.519
awesome. An awesome. That means you can have

00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:46.900
more. No, what I'm saying is you didn't design

00:17:46.900 --> 00:17:49.259
it for that purpose. You designed it to continue

00:17:49.259 --> 00:17:52.240
the aging process. Correct. But, you know, with

00:17:52.240 --> 00:17:55.220
that comes a nice byproduct. Nice little consolation.

00:17:55.220 --> 00:17:57.940
Right, yeah. Yeah, nice. So what happens, and

00:17:57.940 --> 00:18:00.339
again, we made it 95 proof for two reasons. One

00:18:00.339 --> 00:18:03.640
is the marketing, if you will, but we do 5 %

00:18:03.640 --> 00:18:05.500
back to military charities. Yeah, that's awesome.

00:18:05.920 --> 00:18:08.839
So 95, five. And again, this is all subjective.

00:18:09.079 --> 00:18:11.119
If you're a bourbon connoisseur, bourbon snob,

00:18:11.180 --> 00:18:13.500
it's all personal preference. Sure. Some people

00:18:13.500 --> 00:18:16.319
like one 10, one 15. I'm not crazy about that.

00:18:16.380 --> 00:18:18.839
That's more alcohol than flavor. Okay. It's just

00:18:18.839 --> 00:18:21.779
math, right? You get over a hundred proof. You're

00:18:21.779 --> 00:18:24.599
buying more alcohol than your flavor for me personally.

00:18:24.700 --> 00:18:28.859
So the other thing engineering wise is that if

00:18:28.859 --> 00:18:32.619
you get too high of a proof, you dilute more

00:18:32.619 --> 00:18:36.549
of those resins and acids. that are in the wood,

00:18:36.650 --> 00:18:39.690
and it can make it taste a little sharper. That's

00:18:39.690 --> 00:18:42.690
in your staved bottles, right? Well, this is

00:18:42.690 --> 00:18:45.730
100 % natural American white oak, so anybody

00:18:45.730 --> 00:18:49.190
would have that. So again, just for me personally,

00:18:49.309 --> 00:18:52.329
not to insult anybody, but I don't like the 115

00:18:52.329 --> 00:18:55.190
proof because they taste harsher, I think, in

00:18:55.190 --> 00:18:58.829
my mind. Because the higher alcohol is a solvent,

00:18:58.890 --> 00:19:01.869
and it dilutes even more of those resins and

00:19:01.869 --> 00:19:04.690
chemicals that are in there. Now, some people

00:19:04.690 --> 00:19:06.009
have said they want one. You're specifically

00:19:06.009 --> 00:19:07.890
talking about the staves that are in bottles,

00:19:08.069 --> 00:19:10.349
right? Correct. Okay. So if you just have a...

00:19:10.349 --> 00:19:12.869
Because, I mean... Well, no. It also applies

00:19:12.869 --> 00:19:15.970
to the higher barrel proofs. Any barrel. Okay.

00:19:16.069 --> 00:19:18.849
Yeah. Because we're talking about... In theory,

00:19:18.849 --> 00:19:21.509
anyways, you're supposed to distill bourbon at

00:19:21.509 --> 00:19:24.589
125 to 130 proof. And some people overproof them.

00:19:24.670 --> 00:19:28.490
They go to 140. Yeah. Well, as bourbon ages,

00:19:28.670 --> 00:19:31.180
in my experience, you always lose proof. Because

00:19:31.180 --> 00:19:32.900
it evaporates. Because the alcohol evaporates

00:19:32.900 --> 00:19:37.079
faster than the water. So a barrel that's older

00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:39.559
generally has a little bit less proof. Right.

00:19:39.619 --> 00:19:41.779
By four or five points. Not just volume, but

00:19:41.779 --> 00:19:47.319
also proof. It's a wacky, wacky thing. You never

00:19:47.319 --> 00:19:49.099
know what the heck's going to happen. Yeah. And

00:19:49.099 --> 00:19:51.920
it's interesting because we have tried many that

00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:56.160
have been 120, 125, 130, 140. Right. You know

00:19:56.160 --> 00:19:59.720
what I mean? And I kind of, I've always assumed

00:19:59.720 --> 00:20:02.259
that in certain situations, the alcohol, you

00:20:02.259 --> 00:20:04.380
know, the angel's share, right, evaporates. And

00:20:04.380 --> 00:20:06.779
in certain situations, the water does. Which,

00:20:06.819 --> 00:20:09.640
if the water evaporates before the alcohol, it

00:20:09.640 --> 00:20:12.759
must be in some sort of climate or some situation

00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:15.900
because the proof does go up. Right, right, right.

00:20:16.019 --> 00:20:20.000
Well, again, bourbon is so subjective, right?

00:20:20.039 --> 00:20:21.700
It's the most subjective thing, which is why

00:20:21.700 --> 00:20:24.980
you got guys having 100 different bottles. Right.

00:20:25.349 --> 00:20:27.210
you know, and that's okay with me as long as

00:20:27.210 --> 00:20:29.410
I'm one of them. Right, right, right. I don't

00:20:29.410 --> 00:20:31.750
expect, you know, so yeah, so that's great. Just

00:20:31.750 --> 00:20:33.569
add us to your shelf in your collection. Well,

00:20:33.569 --> 00:20:36.769
Big Sticks is easy to drink. I mean, for guys

00:20:36.769 --> 00:20:41.750
that typically strive off that 105 to 125 realm,

00:20:42.170 --> 00:20:46.210
somewhere in there, it's easy to drink. It tastes

00:20:46.210 --> 00:20:50.170
great. I'm enjoying it. I can drink this. Well,

00:20:50.190 --> 00:20:51.829
I tell you, I can literally drink this. This

00:20:51.829 --> 00:20:53.930
is really good. What we've noticed is that when

00:20:53.930 --> 00:20:57.880
we, When we're drinking the 110, 15, 20s, and

00:20:57.880 --> 00:21:02.039
we dip down to the 90s, the flavors aren't there

00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:04.660
a lot. They thin out. The intensity is not there.

00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:07.519
Because you're used to more dilution of all the

00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:10.579
chemicals from the wood. Right. Yeah. But this

00:21:10.579 --> 00:21:12.759
has a lot of flavor to it. It does. We've had

00:21:12.759 --> 00:21:15.640
a couple that - Reminds me of the Mictors. Yeah.

00:21:15.660 --> 00:21:18.519
The Mictors 10 had a lot of flavor at 95 proof,

00:21:18.660 --> 00:21:21.279
and this has a lot of flavor as well. And I think

00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:23.019
a lot of it goes to that stave that you have

00:21:23.019 --> 00:21:25.660
in your bottle. uh, continuing to work. Correct.

00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:27.440
Exactly. Yeah. I mean, that's the big thing.

00:21:27.500 --> 00:21:29.440
If you look at this, I got a before and after,

00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:32.720
but before it looks like iced tea and afterwards

00:21:32.720 --> 00:21:35.740
it looks four shades darker. Oh wow. So, so yeah,

00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:37.619
you're saying that's straight out of the barrel.

00:21:37.700 --> 00:21:39.799
Correct. The one on the, so how long do you age

00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:42.839
it in the barrel? So great question. As we get

00:21:42.839 --> 00:21:44.640
more mature as a company, we get a little bit

00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:46.299
older barrels. We're at like three and a half

00:21:46.299 --> 00:21:48.519
to four and a half years right now. Okay. In

00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:50.359
that range. Well, it's very respectable. Yeah.

00:21:50.380 --> 00:21:52.180
I think most of them are around four years. Yeah,

00:21:52.180 --> 00:21:54.079
yeah. Some are two. I mean, to be a straight

00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:56.039
bourbon, you need two years, right? At least

00:21:56.039 --> 00:21:58.299
two. So legally, again, a lot of people don't

00:21:58.299 --> 00:22:01.240
know this. Maybe you guys do. But legally, to

00:22:01.240 --> 00:22:03.539
be called bourbon, it has to be number one, made

00:22:03.539 --> 00:22:05.740
in America. Correct. Yes. Number two, made from

00:22:05.740 --> 00:22:09.660
51 % corn. Correct. After that, you can do anything.

00:22:10.250 --> 00:22:13.150
The other 49 % can be whatever you want. Right.

00:22:13.210 --> 00:22:16.369
Then it has to be aged in a brand new American

00:22:16.369 --> 00:22:19.509
white oak charred barrel. Yes. For 24 hours.

00:22:19.750 --> 00:22:22.309
Yeah. And that's called a young bourbon. I call

00:22:22.309 --> 00:22:27.170
it crap. We call it shitty too, man. Yeah. So

00:22:27.170 --> 00:22:30.910
yeah. So the word straight legally means two

00:22:30.910 --> 00:22:34.150
years old. Yes. So obviously the thing about

00:22:34.150 --> 00:22:35.910
straight bourbon is a lot of consumers don't

00:22:35.910 --> 00:22:37.589
know this. And I tell folks, if it says straight

00:22:37.589 --> 00:22:39.490
bourbon on the label. Probably means there's

00:22:39.490 --> 00:22:41.990
two years in one day. Right. Because after that,

00:22:42.069 --> 00:22:44.150
like they want the bare minimum, the bare minimum

00:22:44.150 --> 00:22:46.329
to be legal, right. To check the box. And so,

00:22:46.410 --> 00:22:49.990
so yes, I mean, ours does that. We did new labels

00:22:49.990 --> 00:22:52.789
because the, the trade people said it's got to

00:22:52.789 --> 00:22:55.210
stay straight bourbon because otherwise it doesn't

00:22:55.210 --> 00:22:56.970
have an age statement on it. It's like, well,

00:22:56.990 --> 00:22:58.269
it doesn't have an age statement on it because

00:22:58.269 --> 00:23:01.049
my connoisseur says it tastes like a bourbon

00:23:01.049 --> 00:23:03.369
that's much older than four years. Right. You

00:23:03.369 --> 00:23:05.410
know, I can't say it tastes like a 10 or 12 year

00:23:05.410 --> 00:23:07.509
old bourbon, even if it does, even if the sommelier

00:23:07.509 --> 00:23:10.880
says that. Because legally it's not. Right. Because

00:23:10.880 --> 00:23:13.039
it hasn't been in a barrel that long. Hasn't

00:23:13.039 --> 00:23:15.480
been in the barrel. So all those laws are designed

00:23:15.480 --> 00:23:18.059
to protect the big guys from the little guys.

00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:22.359
So all the craft guys can't explain what they

00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:24.599
do on their label. Right. Because a lot of it's

00:23:24.599 --> 00:23:27.680
not legal. Every single word on our label had

00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:30.119
to be approved. And in fact, when it's a straight

00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:32.119
bourbon whiskey finish on Oak Staves, we had

00:23:32.119 --> 00:23:34.599
to have every single word has to be at the exact

00:23:34.599 --> 00:23:38.359
same font. And the exact same typeface in everything.

00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:41.279
You can't change italics for one word. Really?

00:23:41.400 --> 00:23:44.599
Or it's illegal. And who makes these rules? The

00:23:44.599 --> 00:23:47.680
federal government, the Fed, the TTB. Why the

00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:48.940
hell do they have to do that? Like we were saying

00:23:48.940 --> 00:23:53.640
earlier about opening industries over here, the

00:23:53.640 --> 00:23:56.690
regulations. They're nuts. They're nuts. Just

00:23:56.690 --> 00:23:59.490
destroy you. And for what purpose? I mean, come

00:23:59.490 --> 00:24:01.829
on. We couldn't say. Originally, I said ages

00:24:01.829 --> 00:24:03.829
continuously in the bottle, and that was rejected

00:24:03.829 --> 00:24:05.809
because it only ages in a barrel. Why? Because

00:24:05.809 --> 00:24:08.470
that's the federal definition of aging. So you

00:24:08.470 --> 00:24:10.049
change it to finishing instead of aging. Change

00:24:10.049 --> 00:24:12.210
it to finishes, and that's fine. We did another

00:24:12.210 --> 00:24:15.450
release. It's a very limited release. We did

00:24:15.450 --> 00:24:16.990
a rye whiskey, and we did a rye with cinnamon.

00:24:18.109 --> 00:24:19.750
Like I said, I'm a big believer. I'm an engineer.

00:24:19.809 --> 00:24:21.730
I'm a purist. I don't believe in flavoring anything.

00:24:22.049 --> 00:24:24.900
Right. We agree. You want sugar water. And go

00:24:24.900 --> 00:24:28.259
buy sugar water. Yep. And make a great old fashioned.

00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:32.019
You got to have a lisp. So I got a cinnamon stick,

00:24:32.180 --> 00:24:34.339
right? The circular cinnamon sticks. I bought

00:24:34.339 --> 00:24:37.440
them as a stick by the pound. So now I have two

00:24:37.440 --> 00:24:39.920
sticks in the bottle. Right. So we added the

00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:41.920
cinnamon stick to the rye whiskey and it came

00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:46.539
out great. But it took us over six months to

00:24:46.539 --> 00:24:48.700
get label approval because we said, you know,

00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:50.339
straight bourbon whiskey or straight rye whiskey.

00:24:50.839 --> 00:24:53.359
you know, flavored with a cinnamon stick. And

00:24:53.359 --> 00:24:55.359
they kept on coming back and saying, you know,

00:24:55.359 --> 00:24:58.240
like flavored with cinnamon. It's like, no, it's

00:24:58.240 --> 00:25:00.619
a cinnamon stick. Right. And we had actually

00:25:00.619 --> 00:25:02.299
called them. We have to get the lawyers on the

00:25:02.299 --> 00:25:05.559
phone with the feds and say, it's literally a

00:25:05.559 --> 00:25:08.220
stick. It's not caramel coloring. It's not cinnamon

00:25:08.220 --> 00:25:11.579
syrup. Right. You know, it's not, you know, your

00:25:11.579 --> 00:25:14.599
daddy's, you know, you know, the whiskey that

00:25:14.599 --> 00:25:16.640
they claim is, you know, cinnamon flavored. It's

00:25:16.640 --> 00:25:19.460
like, no, it's not that. Right. You know, and.

00:25:19.539 --> 00:25:22.970
You can say it. Oh, Fireball. Fireball. Yeah,

00:25:23.029 --> 00:25:25.130
that stuff's... For $20 a liter. Hangover waiting

00:25:25.130 --> 00:25:27.430
to happen. Right, right, right. It's a party

00:25:27.430 --> 00:25:29.569
starter, but it's not anything real. Yeah, maybe

00:25:29.569 --> 00:25:32.869
if you're 20, you know? So I'm too old for that.

00:25:32.890 --> 00:25:34.670
I'd rather have one really good glass of whiskey

00:25:34.670 --> 00:25:38.089
than four or five cheap shots. So you obviously

00:25:38.089 --> 00:25:40.890
were taken totally by surprise by the label.

00:25:41.009 --> 00:25:43.650
The labeling's insane. Like you weren't anticipating

00:25:43.650 --> 00:25:46.390
that at all. No, and then Texas, this is funny.

00:25:46.490 --> 00:25:48.750
Texas, whatever the feds approve, Texas will

00:25:48.750 --> 00:25:51.539
approve. And the feds do it for free, but it

00:25:51.539 --> 00:25:53.640
costs you a lot of time and legal work, right?

00:25:53.740 --> 00:25:56.180
But the feds do it for free. So Texas says, if

00:25:56.180 --> 00:25:58.339
you have federal approval, you send your label

00:25:58.339 --> 00:25:59.880
to Texas, they'll approve it, but they're going

00:25:59.880 --> 00:26:02.180
to charge you $25 per label. Why? Because they

00:26:02.180 --> 00:26:05.799
can. Per label? Yeah, because they can. That's

00:26:05.799 --> 00:26:09.380
the design of the label. Yeah, well, yeah. Right,

00:26:09.400 --> 00:26:12.079
okay. Not like per bottle you sell. No, no, no.

00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:14.519
My first thought was, I was like, what? Per brand.

00:26:14.759 --> 00:26:17.079
You know, if we do a rye, it's $25 for that.

00:26:17.299 --> 00:26:19.170
Rye is... you know on and on everybody's got

00:26:19.170 --> 00:26:22.250
to make their money yeah so yeah so that's the

00:26:22.250 --> 00:26:25.990
thing so tell me about the uh the statue on or

00:26:25.990 --> 00:26:28.589
the image okay so yeah everything about this

00:26:28.589 --> 00:26:31.769
is symbolic um everything is hidden if you put

00:26:31.769 --> 00:26:34.410
first of all what we did is we designed like

00:26:34.410 --> 00:26:36.789
i said the concept of the ratio is the most important

00:26:36.789 --> 00:26:39.349
thing so literally we designed the bottle with

00:26:39.349 --> 00:26:41.730
the stick first then we figured out how to surround

00:26:41.730 --> 00:26:43.890
that with a liquid the bourbon Then we figured

00:26:43.890 --> 00:26:45.529
out what kind of bottle would fit. And there's

00:26:45.529 --> 00:26:48.230
one bottle in the entire world that will do that.

00:26:48.329 --> 00:26:51.369
And that's this bottle. Nice. So the bottle itself

00:26:51.369 --> 00:26:54.130
is tall and square. Most people have seen it.

00:26:54.430 --> 00:26:57.730
It's not perfectly square. It's actually hourglass.

00:26:57.809 --> 00:27:00.349
You put two bottles together. It looks like a

00:27:00.349 --> 00:27:02.210
Marine standing at attention with the trim waist,

00:27:02.410 --> 00:27:06.369
square shoulders. Interesting. The cap is gold.

00:27:06.450 --> 00:27:08.509
If you notice, the cap is gold. If you've ever

00:27:08.509 --> 00:27:10.890
seen the dress blue Marine Corps uniform, the

00:27:10.890 --> 00:27:13.559
gold buttons. are about the same size as this.

00:27:13.579 --> 00:27:15.319
We couldn't put the Eagle Globe and Anchor on

00:27:15.319 --> 00:27:16.920
it because that's trademark infringement. Sure.

00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:19.140
But the gold buttons on the Marine Corps uniform

00:27:19.140 --> 00:27:23.240
are about the same size. Excellent. So that's

00:27:23.240 --> 00:27:24.579
how we started. Then we said, well, that's not

00:27:24.579 --> 00:27:27.079
good enough again. So I'm anal retentive. I admit,

00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:30.700
every single color on here is an exact Pantone

00:27:30.700 --> 00:27:32.500
color match from the Marine Corps style guide.

00:27:32.740 --> 00:27:35.599
Okay. So the red's an exact match per serial

00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:38.980
number, the blue and the gold are exact color

00:27:38.980 --> 00:27:42.059
matches for the uniform. Odin is the all -father

00:27:42.059 --> 00:27:44.119
spirit in the military, so we got a little mythology

00:27:44.119 --> 00:27:47.339
going on there. He's holding a spear. My nephew

00:27:47.339 --> 00:27:49.160
just retired in Austin, Lieutenant Commander,

00:27:49.319 --> 00:27:51.619
Navy SEALs, so the tip of the spear. Very nice.

00:27:52.140 --> 00:27:54.640
You said your son? My nephew. Your nephew. Nephew,

00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:57.460
yeah. Okay. My other niece is Lieutenant Colonel

00:27:57.460 --> 00:27:59.559
Air Force, so I got the three birds flying in

00:27:59.559 --> 00:28:02.160
formation. Beautiful. Really, really subtle stuff.

00:28:02.259 --> 00:28:04.940
Obviously, our company name is Semper Fi Brands.

00:28:05.079 --> 00:28:08.470
Duh. Marine Corps. Right. Okay. So big stick,

00:28:08.490 --> 00:28:10.890
the whole symbolism here really represents the

00:28:10.890 --> 00:28:13.329
military. And if you want to sum it up in one

00:28:13.329 --> 00:28:16.289
word, like people who do branding say, your brand,

00:28:16.369 --> 00:28:18.670
you have to sum it up in one word. What's the

00:28:18.670 --> 00:28:21.150
one word that defines your essence? And I said,

00:28:21.230 --> 00:28:25.170
bravado. Okay. That's us. Yeah. That's what we

00:28:25.170 --> 00:28:28.710
do. We got a big stick. Yeah. And the label's

00:28:28.710 --> 00:28:30.789
red, white, and blue, and we're not apologizing.

00:28:31.150 --> 00:28:33.960
I love it. And so it's bottled at 95, and that's

00:28:33.960 --> 00:28:35.900
why I tell people we donate 5 % back to military

00:28:35.900 --> 00:28:37.880
charities. So explain that one a little bit more.

00:28:37.980 --> 00:28:41.200
Sure. The 95. I mean, I totally get the 5 % to

00:28:41.200 --> 00:28:44.359
charity, obviously. Right. But 95. So 95. We

00:28:44.359 --> 00:28:47.420
tried 80. We tried 85, 90, 95, 100, 110. And

00:28:47.420 --> 00:28:50.819
I found that for me, again, personally, subjectively,

00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:53.740
that I liked, I think it made it the smoothest

00:28:53.740 --> 00:28:57.359
out of everything at the 95 proof. Okay. I can

00:28:57.359 --> 00:29:00.940
see that. At 80 proof. You don't, I guess, dilute

00:29:00.940 --> 00:29:04.740
or enough of the alcohol as a solvent. You don't

00:29:04.740 --> 00:29:07.259
dilute enough of the flavor to get the flavor.

00:29:07.400 --> 00:29:11.519
Well, like Jeff said, the 95 works. I hate to

00:29:11.519 --> 00:29:13.460
bring up, but I want to compare it to Michter's

00:29:13.460 --> 00:29:15.880
10 -year. I mean, Michter's 10 -year is an extremely

00:29:15.880 --> 00:29:19.160
desirable bottle. This is comparative to the

00:29:19.160 --> 00:29:22.000
Michter's 10 -year, and both are fantastic. Thank

00:29:22.000 --> 00:29:23.920
you. This has a lot of flavor. A lot of flavor.

00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:26.599
And I don't know, and frankly, I don't... think

00:29:26.599 --> 00:29:29.759
I would enjoy it at 80. I would actually be curious

00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:33.140
to see what 110, 20 tastes like. Well, we are

00:29:33.140 --> 00:29:36.819
experimenting. I've got a 116 proof that's in

00:29:36.819 --> 00:29:39.460
the bottle now for several months. So I'm going

00:29:39.460 --> 00:29:41.420
to get my... Actually, I have two ladies that

00:29:41.420 --> 00:29:43.200
are kind of sommeliers. I'm going to get them

00:29:43.200 --> 00:29:45.440
back together and have them taste it after they've

00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:47.380
been sitting for a couple months. Two ladies?

00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:50.019
Do I need to wear a dress to get that? Well,

00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:54.509
I can make another trip up here. But, you know,

00:29:54.549 --> 00:29:56.069
I can make another trip up here. We can do the

00:29:56.069 --> 00:29:59.069
116. There you go. Private tasting. Love to do

00:29:59.069 --> 00:30:01.609
that. Love to do that. I'll wear a kilt, not

00:30:01.609 --> 00:30:03.730
a dress. It's already in the bottle, you said?

00:30:04.009 --> 00:30:07.029
Ready to go? Well, R &D, yeah. I made the sticks.

00:30:07.490 --> 00:30:11.430
I've even tried, you know, like maple. And the

00:30:11.430 --> 00:30:13.369
people I talked to said, yes, you get a little

00:30:13.369 --> 00:30:16.569
bit of the maple flavor, but it's so mild that

00:30:16.569 --> 00:30:18.869
it's not enough. Right. And, you know, people

00:30:18.869 --> 00:30:20.809
are buying like the maple Crown Royal, which

00:30:20.809 --> 00:30:23.680
is Crown Royal with maple and sugar. Yes. And

00:30:23.680 --> 00:30:25.660
it's like, I'm not going to do a $30 bottle of

00:30:25.660 --> 00:30:28.480
whiskey. No, forget that. I'm just not going

00:30:28.480 --> 00:30:31.279
to do that. Right. I get you. All right. So you

00:30:31.279 --> 00:30:33.299
were holding up what it looks like when it comes

00:30:33.299 --> 00:30:35.500
out of the barrel. So yeah. So when it comes

00:30:35.500 --> 00:30:36.880
out of the barrel, it looks like - It's got that

00:30:36.880 --> 00:30:38.900
light hue. Every other bourbon in the world,

00:30:38.980 --> 00:30:40.700
right? Just like any other bourbon. Right. And

00:30:40.700 --> 00:30:43.440
you're saying that's three or four years in the

00:30:43.440 --> 00:30:45.859
barrel. Yeah. Okay. And so when you start to

00:30:45.859 --> 00:30:47.680
finish it in the bottle - That's surprisingly

00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:50.660
not that dark within that little vial you brought.

00:30:50.819 --> 00:30:55.420
Right. Yes, pretty light. So one thing that's

00:30:55.420 --> 00:30:57.579
interesting to me is, you know, if it's been

00:30:57.579 --> 00:30:59.480
in the bottle for three months, six months, one

00:30:59.480 --> 00:31:02.380
year, 18 months, I mean, like, when does it,

00:31:02.400 --> 00:31:05.720
like, stop producing? Great question. So, again,

00:31:05.960 --> 00:31:07.599
you know, the engineering perspective, right?

00:31:07.859 --> 00:31:11.140
I'm brutally honest. The stick only has so much

00:31:11.140 --> 00:31:13.940
resin to give. Correct. Right. So, again, in

00:31:13.940 --> 00:31:16.200
my humble opinion, I'll always say that, after

00:31:16.200 --> 00:31:19.079
about a year, it tapers off. Okay. But in three

00:31:19.079 --> 00:31:21.519
to six months, it gets like you really like the

00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:23.440
bell curve, right? You really start to max out

00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:26.420
in three to six months. I was shocked. The color

00:31:26.420 --> 00:31:29.119
in like two weeks, one or two weeks. Amazing.

00:31:29.220 --> 00:31:31.980
It's just boom. The color goes like nobody's

00:31:31.980 --> 00:31:35.099
business. So you hold the wattles. For a couple

00:31:35.099 --> 00:31:36.819
months. For a couple months before you actually.

00:31:36.980 --> 00:31:38.880
And if it's in the Texas heat in the warehouse,

00:31:39.079 --> 00:31:40.799
we don't care. It just helps. It's all good.

00:31:40.880 --> 00:31:43.440
That's extremely unique. Because nothing, Texas

00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:45.700
doesn't hurt it. It actually helps it. No, but

00:31:45.700 --> 00:31:48.539
the concept of holding your bottles in your warehouse,

00:31:48.960 --> 00:31:52.400
you know. It's more expensive. Yeah. That's very

00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:53.779
unique because nobody else does that, right?

00:31:53.839 --> 00:31:54.720
They bottle it and they sell it immediately.

00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:55.960
And they sell the crap out of it. But you're

00:31:55.960 --> 00:31:58.420
holding it because you're aging it. We want quality.

00:31:58.599 --> 00:32:00.980
Right. That's very interesting. And you hold

00:32:00.980 --> 00:32:03.740
it for three months, you said? About, yeah. Okay.

00:32:03.920 --> 00:32:05.579
Yeah, thereabouts, yeah. And then it stays on

00:32:05.579 --> 00:32:06.799
the shelves. Well, I mean, it's not going to

00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:09.539
stay on the shelves very long. No, no. No more

00:32:09.539 --> 00:32:11.000
than another two, three months on the shelves.

00:32:11.240 --> 00:32:15.000
I must have missed it, but who? chars the staves

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:18.740
me you do so you design the equipment you've

00:32:18.740 --> 00:32:22.279
got the process and is it like on a conveyor

00:32:22.279 --> 00:32:24.859
that like you cook those uh it's part of the

00:32:24.859 --> 00:32:28.400
secret weed hopper you'd have to kill him please

00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:31.759
do yeah all right well let's dive in as close

00:32:31.759 --> 00:32:34.099
as we can without uh that's okay any secrets

00:32:34.099 --> 00:32:38.299
i mean so yeah no again campfire or so my when

00:32:38.299 --> 00:32:41.569
my wife and i first started dating you know She

00:32:41.569 --> 00:32:43.430
was the English major. I was the engineer. And

00:32:43.430 --> 00:32:45.910
I build stuff. My grandfather was a carpenter

00:32:45.910 --> 00:32:48.690
on one side, electrician on the other side. So

00:32:48.690 --> 00:32:50.849
my dad taught me all this stuff. So I can build

00:32:50.849 --> 00:32:53.849
homes. I built missiles for the government. That

00:32:53.849 --> 00:32:56.430
was my background as a research engineer. I built

00:32:56.430 --> 00:32:58.849
missiles for the government, did computer simulations,

00:32:59.089 --> 00:33:00.930
did this and that. I worked in advanced research

00:33:00.930 --> 00:33:03.410
for General Motors. Right. You know, with either

00:33:03.410 --> 00:33:05.210
computer simulations or in the test engineering

00:33:05.210 --> 00:33:08.369
lab, you know, on and on and on. So her nickname

00:33:08.369 --> 00:33:11.630
for me was MacGyver. Right. So when we first

00:33:11.630 --> 00:33:13.670
got married, she'd pull stuff out of the Spiegel

00:33:13.670 --> 00:33:15.569
catalog, a piece of furniture. She says, can

00:33:15.569 --> 00:33:18.049
you make this? And I was an idiot. I said, yes.

00:33:18.289 --> 00:33:20.809
Oh, yeah. So it's like, okay. So for the next

00:33:20.809 --> 00:33:22.750
month or two, I'm in the garage in the workshop

00:33:22.750 --> 00:33:25.250
making this table or this hutch for her because

00:33:25.250 --> 00:33:29.089
it's like, okay. Oh, well. Yes, I can do it.

00:33:29.130 --> 00:33:31.710
So now I'm stuck. Right. Yeah. You can't back

00:33:31.710 --> 00:33:33.890
out of it. I wasn't smart enough to say, oh,

00:33:34.069 --> 00:33:35.650
well, gee, that's going to require a special

00:33:35.650 --> 00:33:37.589
tool. It's like, oh, man, I'll go buy the tool.

00:33:38.049 --> 00:33:40.160
That's cool. I get another tool. And then she

00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:41.720
never bought anything again. Tim Taylor. Because

00:33:41.720 --> 00:33:43.119
you made everything from that point forward.

00:33:43.160 --> 00:33:45.339
Pretty much. Yeah, I made all our bedroom furniture

00:33:45.339 --> 00:33:47.400
on and on and on. Why aren't you doing the new

00:33:47.400 --> 00:33:48.980
kitchen right now? You should be down there doing

00:33:48.980 --> 00:33:51.720
that. Yeah, I just told her I'm retired. I'm

00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:53.599
retired. You put your foot down on that one.

00:33:53.619 --> 00:33:55.880
Yeah, I said no. Well, kitchen cabinets, those

00:33:55.880 --> 00:33:58.440
guys. have specialized machinery and they crank

00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:00.859
that stuff out sure it would take me a year to

00:34:00.859 --> 00:34:03.059
do what they do in 30 days now you're busy making

00:34:03.059 --> 00:34:05.000
bourbon i mean you know you got to pick and choose

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:08.119
your battles yeah well i think you made a smart

00:34:08.119 --> 00:34:11.139
choice in fact i think i'm gonna probably pour

00:34:11.139 --> 00:34:12.719
a little bit more of my glass in a few seconds

00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:15.739
be my guest So I'd love to pour up. Go ahead.

00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:18.320
I'd love your connection to the military. Sure.

00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:20.639
You did not actually serve in the military. No,

00:34:20.659 --> 00:34:22.860
I got. Your father did and you have family, obviously.

00:34:22.860 --> 00:34:25.880
So yeah, my dad. So let's continue. So my dad,

00:34:25.960 --> 00:34:28.179
my uncle and my nephew are in the army. Okay.

00:34:28.239 --> 00:34:30.019
If you notice, Odin's holding the Captain America

00:34:30.019 --> 00:34:32.260
shield. Right. From the label. That's army. So

00:34:32.260 --> 00:34:35.179
I didn't know this till later. My father told

00:34:35.179 --> 00:34:38.559
me before he passed away, our family has gone

00:34:38.559 --> 00:34:40.639
through Notre Dame. So we've got a long history

00:34:40.639 --> 00:34:44.300
there. I didn't know how long. And so we went

00:34:44.300 --> 00:34:46.440
back there because my son went there and he actually

00:34:46.440 --> 00:34:48.420
was in the marching band at Notre Dame for a

00:34:48.420 --> 00:34:52.280
while. And so on the campus of Notre Dame, our

00:34:52.280 --> 00:34:55.559
first relative in the United States, she was

00:34:55.559 --> 00:34:59.539
a Catholic nun. She was a nurse, came over during

00:34:59.539 --> 00:35:01.860
the Civil War. And during the Civil War, the

00:35:01.860 --> 00:35:04.559
medical personnel were awarded military commissions.

00:35:04.679 --> 00:35:07.550
So she was an army captain. Oh, wow. And so her

00:35:07.550 --> 00:35:09.469
gravestone is in the Notre Dame Cemetery. It's

00:35:09.469 --> 00:35:12.750
a military gravestone from the 1860s. That's

00:35:12.750 --> 00:35:14.849
crazy. I didn't even know that. Yeah. Especially

00:35:14.849 --> 00:35:17.869
women. Women. Our first, yeah. Army captain,

00:35:18.130 --> 00:35:20.570
nurse, Catholic nun, all the above. Awesome.

00:35:20.710 --> 00:35:23.630
So yeah. So that's pretty cool. So it's an honor

00:35:23.630 --> 00:35:27.210
of everybody in my family. Gotcha. What I did

00:35:27.210 --> 00:35:28.889
when I got out of college, I took this job with

00:35:28.889 --> 00:35:32.949
a company and I was so fortunate because I traveled

00:35:32.949 --> 00:35:35.619
all over the world. to all these military bases

00:35:35.619 --> 00:35:38.079
to talk to people who were designing missiles

00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:41.320
or designing airframes or blowing stuff up. Right.

00:35:41.380 --> 00:35:43.519
And that's always exciting. It was really cool.

00:35:44.059 --> 00:35:47.019
It was really cool. Yeah. So I got to meet all

00:35:47.019 --> 00:35:49.860
the cool people and God bless them. They're all

00:35:49.860 --> 00:35:52.800
engineers and nobody knows their name. Right.

00:35:53.019 --> 00:35:55.880
And a lot of these folks were PhDs and it'd be

00:35:55.880 --> 00:35:59.300
Dr. Joe or Dr. Mary. They didn't give out business

00:35:59.300 --> 00:36:01.960
cards. Right. They called you, you didn't call

00:36:01.960 --> 00:36:04.829
them. And it was the honest to God truth. We

00:36:04.829 --> 00:36:06.489
never knew their phone number. We never knew

00:36:06.489 --> 00:36:08.510
their full name. Yep. We didn't know who the

00:36:08.510 --> 00:36:10.250
heck they were, but we just know, oh, Dr. Joe

00:36:10.250 --> 00:36:12.809
called from Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

00:36:12.929 --> 00:36:14.449
Okay, I know who you're talking about. Right.

00:36:14.610 --> 00:36:17.349
You know, and they called and they said, this

00:36:17.349 --> 00:36:19.809
line in our computer code needs to change because

00:36:19.809 --> 00:36:22.110
he thinks he found a more efficient way. We just

00:36:22.110 --> 00:36:25.110
said, okay. Right. Because they would get into

00:36:25.110 --> 00:36:28.170
the source code of everything. These guys were

00:36:28.170 --> 00:36:30.630
better than smart. Right. They're better than

00:36:30.630 --> 00:36:34.389
smart. crazy so it was crazy stuff yeah and they're

00:36:34.389 --> 00:36:38.110
like the stuff we did years ago now the young

00:36:38.110 --> 00:36:40.769
people don't even know but that was now it's

00:36:40.769 --> 00:36:43.670
like that's microsoft flight simulator you know

00:36:43.670 --> 00:36:46.389
but 40 years ago that was a 50 million dollar

00:36:46.389 --> 00:36:50.010
you know geodesic dome you know in the air force

00:36:50.010 --> 00:36:53.110
base conducting private research right now it's

00:36:53.110 --> 00:36:55.579
just your kid with an oculus Yeah, I remember

00:36:55.579 --> 00:37:00.059
that SR -71 Chuck Yeager flight program for Microsoft.

00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:02.079
That was badass. Crazy stuff. That was in the

00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:04.519
late 80s. Crazy stuff, man. I'll tell you. I

00:37:04.519 --> 00:37:06.400
think that was 1987 when that came out. I mean,

00:37:06.420 --> 00:37:09.340
I was taking off the airstrip at 3 .5 Mach. Wings

00:37:09.340 --> 00:37:12.199
ripped off. Well, you were like on the tarmac

00:37:12.199 --> 00:37:14.340
going 3 .5. Well, on the computer, you know.

00:37:14.460 --> 00:37:17.420
Yeah, there's some cool stuff out there. Sean,

00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:20.000
get to dinner. So you remember the X -Men movies?

00:37:20.099 --> 00:37:23.739
The X -Men movies, right? Xavier, he goes into

00:37:23.739 --> 00:37:25.989
that dome. circular dome, and he looks up all

00:37:25.989 --> 00:37:27.929
the people. Oh, yeah. They had those at Wright

00:37:27.929 --> 00:37:30.670
-Patt, and it was white. And you walked into,

00:37:30.789 --> 00:37:33.809
it was a 30 -foot dome, a sphere. It was a total

00:37:33.809 --> 00:37:35.670
sphere. And you walked into the middle of it,

00:37:35.690 --> 00:37:38.570
just like the X -Men. And at 30 feet, your eyes

00:37:38.570 --> 00:37:41.710
can't perceive distance because it's pure white.

00:37:42.110 --> 00:37:44.630
And so it's like in the movies where you think

00:37:44.630 --> 00:37:46.610
you're in heaven. Right, right, right. If you're

00:37:46.610 --> 00:37:48.789
not holding on to something, you can fall over.

00:37:48.909 --> 00:37:50.929
I mean, you're holding on to the rail, and they

00:37:50.929 --> 00:37:53.329
would put the pilot in that seat, and that would

00:37:53.329 --> 00:37:57.719
be your simulator. this 30 foot dome no i mean

00:37:57.719 --> 00:38:00.320
literally a sphere 30 foot sphere yeah pure white

00:38:00.320 --> 00:38:02.500
and they would put the images up and then he

00:38:02.500 --> 00:38:06.079
would fly the fighter jet crazy it was nuts and

00:38:06.079 --> 00:38:09.119
you walk in and it's like i mean it's like you're

00:38:09.119 --> 00:38:12.539
in heaven because there's no noise right there's

00:38:12.539 --> 00:38:14.719
only white light and if you don't look down at

00:38:14.719 --> 00:38:17.179
the at the gangplank you can't see anything of

00:38:17.179 --> 00:38:19.380
color i mean it's just it's completely surreal

00:38:19.380 --> 00:38:22.079
it's totally surreal it's like like you're surrounded

00:38:22.079 --> 00:38:26.179
by white If you freak out, that's not the place

00:38:26.179 --> 00:38:28.980
to be. No. Because you don't know how to get

00:38:28.980 --> 00:38:33.079
out of there. No. Stuck in a round room, can't

00:38:33.079 --> 00:38:34.940
find the door, right? No, I'm telling you, it's

00:38:34.940 --> 00:38:38.960
for real. I've been to Right Pad a few times.

00:38:39.079 --> 00:38:43.539
The museum up there is very, very good. My brother

00:38:43.539 --> 00:38:47.139
-in -law was a colonel at Right Pad. He was a

00:38:47.139 --> 00:38:50.760
vice wing commander. He's retired now, but he

00:38:50.760 --> 00:38:53.619
still goes there. uh runs the air force marathon

00:38:53.619 --> 00:38:56.099
and we were just up there as a matter of fact

00:38:56.099 --> 00:38:57.880
and we drove by they have a new hangar there's

00:38:57.880 --> 00:39:00.300
four hangars now at that uh air force museum

00:39:00.300 --> 00:39:02.539
i think it's the best thing if you guys are into

00:39:02.539 --> 00:39:05.000
the airplanes and all that kind of stuff that's

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:07.380
a destination you need to go see and we're exactly

00:39:07.380 --> 00:39:11.579
exactly it's in dayton ohio the smithsonian now

00:39:11.579 --> 00:39:13.920
has two museums okay for flight there's not one

00:39:13.920 --> 00:39:16.159
but two okay they have the original but then

00:39:16.159 --> 00:39:17.940
they have one about 30 miles outside of town

00:39:17.940 --> 00:39:21.699
that's also I'm waiting for when they declassify

00:39:21.699 --> 00:39:24.280
Area 51. I want to go in there and see that stuff

00:39:24.280 --> 00:39:27.460
because that's really cool. And all the decomposing

00:39:27.460 --> 00:39:30.239
aliens that they have there. They're kind of

00:39:30.239 --> 00:39:34.739
like test tubes. Yeah, nice. Let me grab that

00:39:34.739 --> 00:39:38.079
bottle there. I'm going to pour some. Oh, that's

00:39:38.079 --> 00:39:40.360
more. That seems really full. I was like, God

00:39:40.360 --> 00:39:42.980
bless. That was eight ounces? Let me finish with

00:39:42.980 --> 00:39:44.460
the label and the symbolism. We haven't done

00:39:44.460 --> 00:39:49.260
that. On the back, we've got the ancient sailing

00:39:49.260 --> 00:39:52.099
ship for the navy and the coast guard okay so

00:39:52.099 --> 00:39:53.820
the sailing ship is floating over the barcode

00:39:53.820 --> 00:39:57.800
so then on top of that that is cool what we've

00:39:57.800 --> 00:40:02.159
got is on the newer labels right above the barcode

00:40:02.159 --> 00:40:04.659
in the sailing ship it's actually hard to see

00:40:04.659 --> 00:40:07.159
but if you look real closely the figure is the

00:40:07.159 --> 00:40:10.940
polaris north star polaris north star is in the

00:40:10.940 --> 00:40:13.570
center of the logo for the space force Oh, nice.

00:40:13.789 --> 00:40:15.929
So we've got all the service branches represented.

00:40:16.010 --> 00:40:18.489
Right, you've got a hat tip to everybody. And

00:40:18.489 --> 00:40:20.929
kind of real subtle, I mean, you have to be a

00:40:20.929 --> 00:40:22.550
geek to know this, but you know when the Marines

00:40:22.550 --> 00:40:27.010
were officially called the Marines? Mm -hmm.

00:40:27.769 --> 00:40:30.909
I mean, when? Oh, when were they called the Marines?

00:40:31.130 --> 00:40:33.050
I do not know that history. So it was actually

00:40:33.050 --> 00:40:36.849
10 November, 1775. Okay. What I know that because

00:40:36.849 --> 00:40:39.050
they drilled an enemy. So it was... The Marines

00:40:39.050 --> 00:40:41.889
were formed in a bar in Boston because the harbor

00:40:41.889 --> 00:40:44.150
needed protection. So they basically got a bunch

00:40:44.150 --> 00:40:46.710
of drunk people to say, hey, how would you like

00:40:46.710 --> 00:40:48.510
to have a gun and go patrol the harbor? And they

00:40:48.510 --> 00:40:50.510
said, okay, cool. Yeah, I'm in. Because it's

00:40:50.510 --> 00:40:51.869
something to do different from being in the bar.

00:40:52.030 --> 00:40:54.590
So it's like they got all the rowdies. Were there

00:40:54.590 --> 00:40:57.869
a bunch of Irish guys? Probably. Yeah. It's Boston.

00:40:58.130 --> 00:41:00.670
Hello. It's Boston. Sean Murphy. Come on. Mike

00:41:00.670 --> 00:41:02.989
Ryan. What do you think? Right. Can't throw a

00:41:02.989 --> 00:41:06.239
rock in an Irishman. So yeah. So, but that's

00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:08.000
the Marine Corps. So, the Marine Corps theoretically

00:41:08.000 --> 00:41:12.099
was the only service that was a military service

00:41:12.099 --> 00:41:17.420
before the USA was the USA. Right. 1775, not

00:41:17.420 --> 00:41:20.559
1776. Right. Took another six months or so for

00:41:20.559 --> 00:41:22.159
the Declaration of Independence. Right. Which

00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:25.639
is kind of cool. Very cool. So, yeah. So, we've

00:41:25.639 --> 00:41:28.340
got Army, Navy, Air Force, Navy, SEALs, even

00:41:28.340 --> 00:41:31.219
in Space Force and the Coast Guard with dual

00:41:31.219 --> 00:41:33.000
Coast Guard, Navy with the boat floating over.

00:41:33.210 --> 00:41:35.190
Yeah, sure. Keep it simple. But yeah, simple

00:41:35.190 --> 00:41:37.570
as that. And you donate to a number of charities

00:41:37.570 --> 00:41:39.710
as well. Sure. I would imagine you have some

00:41:39.710 --> 00:41:41.750
personal ties to some of those. I mean, the list

00:41:41.750 --> 00:41:43.789
on the internet was pretty lengthy. Yeah, quite

00:41:43.789 --> 00:41:46.670
a bit. So, I mean, the easy one, you know, Pets

00:41:46.670 --> 00:41:49.389
for Vets, right? Okay. So what they do, they're

00:41:49.389 --> 00:41:51.469
a Houston charity. The neat thing about them

00:41:51.469 --> 00:41:54.230
is if you're a service member and you already

00:41:54.230 --> 00:41:58.449
have a pet, they help you train your existing

00:41:58.449 --> 00:42:03.210
one. Nice. Right? And so... Gunny Ortiz is a

00:42:03.210 --> 00:42:04.610
friend of mine. I met him through the Marine

00:42:04.610 --> 00:42:07.329
Corps, but I didn't even know this. You know,

00:42:07.329 --> 00:42:09.329
for the last 10, 15 years, the military does

00:42:09.329 --> 00:42:12.869
not pay for funerals. So Semper Fi 3, you can

00:42:12.869 --> 00:42:15.409
look it up. There's Semper Fi 3. I'm sure there's

00:42:15.409 --> 00:42:18.510
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, but 3 in Houston does the military

00:42:18.510 --> 00:42:21.170
honor guard for funeral services. And that's

00:42:21.170 --> 00:42:24.230
not paid for by the military. They have M1s and

00:42:24.230 --> 00:42:27.210
they have, you know, they have, I mean, fake

00:42:27.210 --> 00:42:30.920
ammo, you know, the blanks, right? guess what

00:42:30.920 --> 00:42:33.820
m1 grand blanks cost probably more than the ones

00:42:33.820 --> 00:42:35.880
with the bullets in them unbelievable you know

00:42:35.880 --> 00:42:38.519
it's not cheap you know and so they have all

00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:41.599
these guns and they had some van donated god

00:42:41.599 --> 00:42:43.739
bless these guys because i went with them as

00:42:43.739 --> 00:42:45.860
a guest honorary guest to a funeral about two

00:42:45.860 --> 00:42:50.679
years ago in july so we all hop on this bus they're

00:42:50.679 --> 00:42:53.480
dressed in their dress blues yeah they're marines

00:42:53.480 --> 00:42:57.239
they're 50 60 70 years old most of them and they

00:42:57.239 --> 00:42:59.969
get out in the july sun in texas in the middle

00:42:59.969 --> 00:43:03.170
of a cemetery, you know, with their rifles. Yep.

00:43:03.269 --> 00:43:05.750
And I'm wearing a suit, you know, I'm polite.

00:43:05.889 --> 00:43:07.809
I'm wearing, you know, a nice dress suit. And

00:43:07.809 --> 00:43:10.190
it's like, I'm sweating my brains out. Yeah.

00:43:10.250 --> 00:43:11.829
It's like, I don't know how the hell they're

00:43:11.829 --> 00:43:13.530
doing this. And they're doing it for somebody

00:43:13.530 --> 00:43:14.889
they don't know. They're doing it for somebody

00:43:14.889 --> 00:43:16.630
they don't know. They don't, they're not familiar

00:43:16.630 --> 00:43:18.389
with. And they do the flag ceremony and they

00:43:18.389 --> 00:43:20.710
give them the flag and they do the whole presentation.

00:43:20.969 --> 00:43:24.170
And, you know, it's like, God bless them. Totally.

00:43:24.929 --> 00:43:27.809
And they do that anytime they're asked. Yeah.

00:43:28.170 --> 00:43:31.289
You know, so there's that. Well, it's an honor.

00:43:32.190 --> 00:43:34.630
You know, it's just an honor knowing these guys.

00:43:34.769 --> 00:43:37.449
Yeah, that too. You know, I mean, really. So

00:43:37.449 --> 00:43:40.429
they're just, they're incredible people, and

00:43:40.429 --> 00:43:42.289
they do this, and they don't ask for a penny.

00:43:42.570 --> 00:43:46.309
But, you know, they need money. So is that Semper

00:43:46.309 --> 00:43:49.030
Fi 3? I'm sorry, Semper 3? Semper Fi 3. Semper

00:43:49.030 --> 00:43:53.170
Fi 3. So let's say the regular folk, we want

00:43:53.170 --> 00:43:54.590
to donate to something like that because it's

00:43:54.590 --> 00:43:56.769
a great cause. Everybody's listed on our website.

00:43:56.869 --> 00:43:59.809
We don't take a dime. We just give you the link

00:43:59.809 --> 00:44:03.429
to these various places. So one of them, Joe

00:44:03.429 --> 00:44:07.170
is a big fan of jujitsu, right? So there's a

00:44:07.170 --> 00:44:09.730
place he founded in Florida called We Defy Foundation.

00:44:10.030 --> 00:44:14.760
We Defy teaches veterans to do jujitsu. Obviously

00:44:14.760 --> 00:44:17.840
for physical therapy, for camaraderie. Staying

00:44:17.840 --> 00:44:19.880
active, all that good stuff. And some of them

00:44:19.880 --> 00:44:22.719
have lost arms and legs. Well, if you know jujitsu,

00:44:22.860 --> 00:44:24.539
you roll around the floor. You don't need all

00:44:24.539 --> 00:44:27.800
four. Okay. So if you're missing an arm or a

00:44:27.800 --> 00:44:30.599
leg, you can still practice jujitsu and be relatively

00:44:30.599 --> 00:44:33.179
effective. Paul likes doing jujitsu because he

00:44:33.179 --> 00:44:36.599
likes to coddle with other guys. The easy ones,

00:44:36.780 --> 00:44:40.099
I mean, the Houston PTSD Foundation. There's

00:44:40.099 --> 00:44:43.179
a Dallas PTSD Foundation. If you guys are in

00:44:43.179 --> 00:44:46.030
Dallas, Look them up. They all need money. The

00:44:46.030 --> 00:44:48.969
Houston one, they take people in for counseling.

00:44:49.190 --> 00:44:52.070
Sometimes they have overnight or week -long stays

00:44:52.070 --> 00:44:54.989
for therapy and counseling. God bless them. I

00:44:54.989 --> 00:44:59.489
mean, we donate to the charities. So coincidentally,

00:44:59.610 --> 00:45:04.050
it's good karma. 95 % of the money that goes

00:45:04.050 --> 00:45:06.170
to these charities, at least that we've checked

00:45:06.170 --> 00:45:09.230
out, goes to the intended recipients. Nice. So

00:45:09.230 --> 00:45:11.530
the 95 .5 seems like a good karma number. Only

00:45:11.530 --> 00:45:14.980
5 % is used for overhead. Right. So that's that's

00:45:14.980 --> 00:45:16.559
what's and that was a blessing, too, because

00:45:16.559 --> 00:45:19.480
that was just pure dumb luck. Yeah. Yeah, that's

00:45:19.480 --> 00:45:21.539
awesome. I mean, one thing that does frustrate

00:45:21.539 --> 00:45:24.159
me, I'm so glad that these people step up and

00:45:24.159 --> 00:45:26.420
do all this. I get frustrated that I would have

00:45:26.420 --> 00:45:29.420
assumed the VA takes care of more than they do.

00:45:29.579 --> 00:45:33.110
How disappointing. Is that something that Trump

00:45:33.110 --> 00:45:36.570
is going to change? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Is it their

00:45:36.570 --> 00:45:38.329
mission that needs to be changed? Is it their

00:45:38.329 --> 00:45:40.969
money? How inefficient they are? What is the

00:45:40.969 --> 00:45:42.969
VA's problem? Why don't they take care of this?

00:45:43.090 --> 00:45:46.170
So part of its attitude, you know, Elon Musk

00:45:46.170 --> 00:45:48.730
had it right. He said you have to have caring

00:45:48.730 --> 00:45:52.409
as well as competence. A lot of these guys don't

00:45:52.409 --> 00:45:55.090
have caring. Because they're not directly in

00:45:55.090 --> 00:45:56.750
touch with the patient. And they're just going

00:45:56.750 --> 00:45:59.710
through the motions. They could work for Medicare,

00:45:59.829 --> 00:46:03.590
Medicaid. They could work for filling out requisitions

00:46:03.590 --> 00:46:06.289
for toilet paper. Right. They don't care. They're

00:46:06.289 --> 00:46:08.289
just filling out papers. They don't talk to people.

00:46:08.610 --> 00:46:10.250
I mean, if there's anybody that you should be

00:46:10.250 --> 00:46:12.690
taking care of, it is our vets. So what I learned

00:46:12.690 --> 00:46:15.230
from my government experience is that the federal

00:46:15.230 --> 00:46:18.409
government has some of the absolute brightest,

00:46:18.670 --> 00:46:22.050
most diligent, hardworking people in the entire

00:46:22.050 --> 00:46:24.289
world. Right. And you'll never hear their name.

00:46:24.570 --> 00:46:28.989
Right. And then the other 50, 60 % of them, you

00:46:28.989 --> 00:46:30.690
know what? Probably higher than that. You know,

00:46:30.750 --> 00:46:33.409
I mean, they, you know. Collecting a paycheck.

00:46:33.829 --> 00:46:36.309
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't want to go into all

00:46:36.309 --> 00:46:39.070
the negatives. Right. Can never get fired. Right,

00:46:39.150 --> 00:46:40.349
can never get fired. Don't want to go into the

00:46:40.349 --> 00:46:42.449
office anymore. Right, don't even go into the

00:46:42.449 --> 00:46:44.550
office anymore. Don't get me started. I mean,

00:46:44.570 --> 00:46:49.550
I filed half a dozen patents. And it takes, what,

00:46:49.590 --> 00:46:54.150
three years? Oh, no, God. Long story short, but

00:46:54.150 --> 00:46:58.989
my chainsaw patent, I got the idea 5 -15 -15,

00:46:59.269 --> 00:47:03.090
May 15th, 2015. I was in the yard with my son.

00:47:03.150 --> 00:47:04.789
I said, I can do better on the chainsaw chain.

00:47:04.909 --> 00:47:07.050
I designed this thing, and I found a patent attorney,

00:47:07.190 --> 00:47:09.429
yada, yada, yada. I filed a little while later.

00:47:10.690 --> 00:47:14.070
Now, COVID's here. They take three or four years,

00:47:14.110 --> 00:47:16.530
so Amazon gets a patent in six months. Why? Because

00:47:16.530 --> 00:47:18.980
they have lawyers. Right. And the feds are afraid

00:47:18.980 --> 00:47:20.659
of them, so they just give them a patent. Me,

00:47:20.800 --> 00:47:24.059
I'm just a micro entity. I'm one guy. Yeah. Right?

00:47:24.139 --> 00:47:26.800
And so it took them like five years to get the

00:47:26.800 --> 00:47:29.440
first evaluate. Well, Germany was first. So the

00:47:29.440 --> 00:47:32.159
Germans came back and said, we deny for this

00:47:32.159 --> 00:47:34.800
and that reason. And then you write a rebuttal,

00:47:34.800 --> 00:47:36.900
you argue back and forth. Meaning they had the

00:47:36.900 --> 00:47:38.980
same idea you're saying. They were first. No,

00:47:39.400 --> 00:47:41.929
I filed for an international. Oh, got you. So

00:47:41.929 --> 00:47:44.409
the USPTO, there's two tracks. You can file domestic

00:47:44.409 --> 00:47:47.550
or international. I see. So the PCT is the Patent

00:47:47.550 --> 00:47:50.329
Cooperation Treaty. Okay. This is lawyer talk.

00:47:50.489 --> 00:47:53.449
Oh, no kidding. Yeah, good God, yeah. So the

00:47:53.449 --> 00:47:55.429
PCT means you file internationally. It goes through

00:47:55.429 --> 00:47:57.849
a separate process. Well, it's first come, first

00:47:57.849 --> 00:48:01.070
serve. So Germany is where the EPO, European

00:48:01.070 --> 00:48:03.469
Patent Office. Right. So those guys came back

00:48:03.469 --> 00:48:06.289
and said, no, no, no. And we argued back and

00:48:06.289 --> 00:48:07.869
forth. It took about six months or a year. And

00:48:07.869 --> 00:48:10.030
they said, okay. We award you the patent. They

00:48:10.030 --> 00:48:12.750
don't say award you the patent. They say you're

00:48:12.750 --> 00:48:16.030
granted an allowance. So they're allowing me

00:48:16.030 --> 00:48:18.849
to use my own idea. Right. It's like, oh, nice.

00:48:18.889 --> 00:48:21.769
Talk about fricking arrogance. Yeah. I get an

00:48:21.769 --> 00:48:23.670
allowance to use my own idea. It's like, really?

00:48:23.730 --> 00:48:25.190
Thank you so much. Right. I appreciate that.

00:48:25.269 --> 00:48:29.250
Wow. So then we went to Canada because Canada

00:48:29.250 --> 00:48:31.940
is a big lumber place, right? Yep. Yeah, a lot

00:48:31.940 --> 00:48:32.980
of chainsaws. There's a lot of chainsaws. They're

00:48:32.980 --> 00:48:36.360
giving you the allowance to have ownership. To

00:48:36.360 --> 00:48:38.400
have ownership. Of that. Of my own idea. Yeah,

00:48:38.400 --> 00:48:41.500
but I mean, it's kind of like naming a star.

00:48:42.019 --> 00:48:44.679
Correct. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there is some pride

00:48:44.679 --> 00:48:47.039
in that. And yeah, there is a level of arrogance.

00:48:47.159 --> 00:48:50.320
But at the same time, if you're going to put

00:48:50.320 --> 00:48:54.099
your flag, stab it in the ground and say, hey,

00:48:54.099 --> 00:48:56.780
this is mine, I think that's impressive. So it's

00:48:56.780 --> 00:48:59.659
like a bucket list thing. Some guys want to write

00:48:59.659 --> 00:49:02.280
a book, right? I said, I'm an engineer. I worked

00:49:02.280 --> 00:49:04.539
on all these high -tech designs. I want to get

00:49:04.539 --> 00:49:07.409
a patent. On something, right? So I got that.

00:49:07.469 --> 00:49:09.969
So then Canada came back and they said, no, no,

00:49:09.989 --> 00:49:11.710
no, no, no. And I said, we said, yes, yes, yes,

00:49:11.730 --> 00:49:14.130
yes. Here's why. Here's some rebuttal arguments.

00:49:14.690 --> 00:49:17.289
And oh, by the way, Germany said yes. So we made

00:49:17.289 --> 00:49:19.170
a few word changes. About a year later, Canada

00:49:19.170 --> 00:49:22.809
said yes. USA came back and said, no, no, no,

00:49:22.889 --> 00:49:24.590
no, no. We made the rebuttal changes. They went,

00:49:24.610 --> 00:49:29.449
no, no, no, no, no. They are not, even to this

00:49:29.449 --> 00:49:32.199
day, I don't think they work in the office. You

00:49:32.199 --> 00:49:34.579
go to the USPTO and it's vacant. And how I know

00:49:34.579 --> 00:49:36.440
it's vacant, because I know somebody that works

00:49:36.440 --> 00:49:38.639
there. Right. And he goes there once a month

00:49:38.639 --> 00:49:40.480
to check in to prove that he's still working.

00:49:40.699 --> 00:49:44.940
And it's a ghost town. Yeah, I think we all...

00:49:44.940 --> 00:49:46.559
What just happened? Yeah. Yeah, we had a glitch.

00:49:46.699 --> 00:49:48.559
That was a glitch. A glitch in the matrix. Hold

00:49:48.559 --> 00:49:56.320
on. There we go. There you go. Okay, I'm better

00:49:56.320 --> 00:49:59.380
now. So yeah, I know they go in one day a week

00:49:59.380 --> 00:50:02.230
to log in. That's Jeff's fault. To prove they're

00:50:02.230 --> 00:50:04.849
in the office. Yeah, I belched. And of course,

00:50:04.889 --> 00:50:07.630
I know they're honest people. They're not cheating.

00:50:07.750 --> 00:50:09.909
They go back home and then they work. Right.

00:50:09.989 --> 00:50:12.690
And they log in. So you can tell by your login

00:50:12.690 --> 00:50:14.469
whether or not you're in the office or not. Of

00:50:14.469 --> 00:50:15.670
course. Because you're on a different network.

00:50:15.849 --> 00:50:18.230
Right. But for some reason, that's the job requirement.

00:50:18.809 --> 00:50:21.090
So they go in once and there's nobody there except

00:50:21.090 --> 00:50:24.489
maybe the janitor. Right. And they got to turn

00:50:24.489 --> 00:50:26.489
on the coffee pot and find the bathroom and they

00:50:26.489 --> 00:50:28.570
got to stay there for at least a couple hours.

00:50:29.079 --> 00:50:31.340
And then they log out. So it clocks in. You log

00:50:31.340 --> 00:50:34.739
in, you log out. So then you can go back. Yeah,

00:50:34.800 --> 00:50:37.519
but how nice. He has to clean a clean building.

00:50:37.820 --> 00:50:40.599
Yeah, yeah. It's spotless already. So you don't

00:50:40.599 --> 00:50:43.500
have to do anything. We're all paying for HVAC

00:50:43.500 --> 00:50:46.079
for this huge building. Don't get me started.

00:50:46.199 --> 00:50:48.619
That's just one building of many. Many, many,

00:50:48.699 --> 00:50:52.559
many, many, many. So literally, this past week,

00:50:52.739 --> 00:50:56.000
I got the allowance for the USA. Congratulations.

00:50:56.119 --> 00:50:59.800
So yeah. And so now it goes, but we had a - No,

00:51:00.019 --> 00:51:04.760
eight years? Well, 2025. Yeah, 2015. It's 2025

00:51:04.760 --> 00:51:07.940
now. 10 years. Yeah. And you just got it. Yeah.

00:51:08.219 --> 00:51:10.380
Well, that's huge. Yeah, so don't ask me how

00:51:10.380 --> 00:51:13.280
much it costs. Right. Oh, legal fees and everything

00:51:13.280 --> 00:51:15.139
else. Legal fees, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because every

00:51:15.139 --> 00:51:16.900
time you do a revision, you got to pay the lawyers,

00:51:17.019 --> 00:51:21.760
right? So how, I mean, other than the - the acknowledgement,

00:51:22.019 --> 00:51:24.300
how are you going to benefit? Is that people

00:51:24.300 --> 00:51:26.219
use it? They're going to pay you. So now I have

00:51:26.219 --> 00:51:28.199
to go to the manufacturers and say, Oh, Hey,

00:51:28.280 --> 00:51:30.900
by the way, now it's, you know, it's a long story,

00:51:30.940 --> 00:51:32.780
but right. I'm not, when you file internationally,

00:51:33.099 --> 00:51:35.099
you have to pay a fee for every country in the

00:51:35.099 --> 00:51:36.820
world. So you could wind up paying a hundred

00:51:36.820 --> 00:51:39.579
thousand dollars if you want, you know, and a

00:51:39.579 --> 00:51:42.019
lot of people don't even, I know friends that

00:51:42.019 --> 00:51:45.480
have gotten patents for different firearms, gizmos,

00:51:45.539 --> 00:51:48.719
right? Yeah. A special trigger gizmo or a special

00:51:48.719 --> 00:51:51.469
or something like that. And then China copies

00:51:51.469 --> 00:51:53.570
them and they sell it on Amazon and they go out

00:51:53.570 --> 00:51:56.010
of business. Yes. Happens all the time. And you

00:51:56.010 --> 00:51:58.469
could sue them, but now you have to spend, you

00:51:58.469 --> 00:52:00.769
know, 50 grand on a lawyer and good luck suing

00:52:00.769 --> 00:52:03.070
somebody. Amazon just says, well, we stopped

00:52:03.070 --> 00:52:05.329
selling them. Right. You know, you told us we

00:52:05.329 --> 00:52:07.110
stopped selling them. Right. And then guess what?

00:52:07.130 --> 00:52:08.789
Six months later, somebody else pops up. It's

00:52:08.789 --> 00:52:11.090
a different, same Chinese company, a different

00:52:11.090 --> 00:52:13.289
name. Yeah, that happens all the time. Right.

00:52:13.849 --> 00:52:17.630
piece of shit yeah china you know yeah very dishonest

00:52:17.630 --> 00:52:20.449
so so sadly a lot of especially especially when

00:52:20.449 --> 00:52:24.730
the firearms i notice is one of my uh one of

00:52:24.730 --> 00:52:26.630
my close friends used to be a vice president

00:52:26.630 --> 00:52:29.150
at remington okay and i hear a lot of the inside

00:52:29.150 --> 00:52:32.170
stuff that goes on and a lot of that stuff because

00:52:32.170 --> 00:52:35.050
if it's a firearm every country in the world

00:52:35.050 --> 00:52:38.170
wants to know what kind of efficient improvement

00:52:38.170 --> 00:52:41.559
you've made on a firearm yeah right and so That

00:52:41.559 --> 00:52:44.820
stuff gets stolen all the time. So, but the sad

00:52:44.820 --> 00:52:46.780
thing about that is that a lot of improvements

00:52:46.780 --> 00:52:50.619
are not making it to market. Well, in the USA...

00:52:50.619 --> 00:52:52.679
Or you're making it to market, but nobody's benefiting.

00:52:52.679 --> 00:52:55.179
Not in the USA. Yeah, yeah. So that's the thing.

00:52:55.340 --> 00:52:58.360
So it's funny because in the USA, what counts

00:52:58.360 --> 00:53:01.139
more is who's your lawyer. Right. You know, not

00:53:01.139 --> 00:53:03.300
if you have a good mousetrap. Right, right, right.

00:53:03.320 --> 00:53:05.440
You know, and I'm hoping that some of that stuff

00:53:05.440 --> 00:53:07.960
changes. All right. Well, we want the first prototype

00:53:07.960 --> 00:53:12.039
chainsaw. Okay. Do you have a waiting list? I

00:53:12.039 --> 00:53:14.860
got the plastic 3D model here. Okay. It's a chainsaw

00:53:14.860 --> 00:53:17.559
chain. Perfect. It looks a lot like the bottle

00:53:17.559 --> 00:53:19.960
you brought for... Oh, what is this? It's 3D

00:53:19.960 --> 00:53:21.659
printed. This is the chain. I got it 3D printed.

00:53:21.860 --> 00:53:24.639
Oh, you're being serious. I'm dead serious, yeah.

00:53:24.900 --> 00:53:27.079
Okay. It's not metal. I thought you were shaking

00:53:27.079 --> 00:53:29.260
the bottle of the bourbon that comes out of the

00:53:29.260 --> 00:53:33.719
barrel. It's a bidirectional chainsaw chain.

00:53:33.800 --> 00:53:36.099
It works in both directions. If it gets dull,

00:53:36.239 --> 00:53:37.440
you just flip the chain around and keep right

00:53:37.440 --> 00:53:39.590
on going. If you have an electric chainsaw -

00:53:39.590 --> 00:53:44.469
Does it sharpen itself in theory? No. No. All

00:53:44.469 --> 00:53:46.550
right. So you still have to do that, but it's

00:53:46.550 --> 00:53:47.530
got about - That'd be kind of fun, though. It's

00:53:47.530 --> 00:53:49.889
got about 200 % to 300 % more material on the

00:53:49.889 --> 00:53:52.949
cutting edge, so it'll last a lot longer. Right.

00:53:52.989 --> 00:53:56.849
So the whole point of this is it makes the chain

00:53:56.849 --> 00:53:59.349
you buy last a lot longer. Correct. Twice as

00:53:59.349 --> 00:54:00.989
long. Because you're flipping it. Two to 300

00:54:00.989 --> 00:54:04.030
% longer life on your chainsaw. That's beautiful.

00:54:04.050 --> 00:54:05.610
And in Houston, I don't know what you do here

00:54:05.610 --> 00:54:07.849
in Dallas, but in Houston - The way we garden,

00:54:07.949 --> 00:54:11.449
I garden with the chainsaw. Okay. Because, well,

00:54:11.630 --> 00:54:17.090
this is, again, horticulture. The Chinese tallow

00:54:17.090 --> 00:54:20.210
tree is an invasive species in Houston. Okay.

00:54:20.269 --> 00:54:22.670
And the Chinese tallow tree sucks up a lot of

00:54:22.670 --> 00:54:26.030
groundwater and it crowds out the oaks and the

00:54:26.030 --> 00:54:28.730
mesquite and the other. Okay. So if you buy a

00:54:28.730 --> 00:54:32.409
couple acres in South Texas, Southeast Texas,

00:54:32.409 --> 00:54:35.130
you probably have got some. Chinese tallow trees.

00:54:35.349 --> 00:54:36.409
And you want to get rid of them. You want to

00:54:36.409 --> 00:54:38.690
get rid of them because their seeds, when their

00:54:38.690 --> 00:54:40.409
seeds fall to the ground, they crack open and

00:54:40.409 --> 00:54:42.650
they're like acorns. If you walk on the grass,

00:54:42.829 --> 00:54:45.210
it'll cut your foot. They're like razor blades.

00:54:45.429 --> 00:54:47.110
God. Oh my gosh, it's horrible. What a horrible

00:54:47.110 --> 00:54:49.809
tree. Yeah, I know. And so, yeah, you've got

00:54:49.809 --> 00:54:51.690
to cut them down and when you cut them down and

00:54:51.690 --> 00:54:53.989
they're soaking wet, it's hard because they're

00:54:53.989 --> 00:54:57.550
very moist. Heavy. They're heavy. Yeah. It's

00:54:57.550 --> 00:54:59.469
heavy as hell. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh God. So the

00:54:59.469 --> 00:55:01.329
Chinese tallow tree, what's this thing look like?

00:55:02.440 --> 00:55:04.360
He's got a picture up here. Oh, he's got a picture,

00:55:04.539 --> 00:55:07.159
yeah. Yeah, they're really round pear -shaped

00:55:07.159 --> 00:55:11.519
leaves, and the bark is kind of sketchy. Is there

00:55:11.519 --> 00:55:15.619
anything good from this tree? Not even firewood,

00:55:15.719 --> 00:55:18.079
because it burns too quickly. Oak burns much

00:55:18.079 --> 00:55:20.880
better. So actually, it's not even good for firewood.

00:55:21.039 --> 00:55:24.820
You can't age bourbon in it? Oh, God, no. You

00:55:24.820 --> 00:55:26.579
want to make staves out of this? No, no, no,

00:55:26.619 --> 00:55:29.820
no, no. Well, it looks pretty. No. It doesn't

00:55:29.820 --> 00:55:34.320
even... No. I was going to ask you about the

00:55:34.320 --> 00:55:37.579
toxicity of some of these woods. Have you experimented

00:55:37.579 --> 00:55:39.400
with some of these staves and you realize, oh

00:55:39.400 --> 00:55:42.599
my God, this just made somebody shit themselves?

00:55:43.159 --> 00:55:46.679
Well, so great question. I've lost a personal

00:55:46.679 --> 00:55:49.039
story. A couple of years ago, I had cancer, right?

00:55:49.159 --> 00:55:51.539
And I don't mind saying this, but I went through

00:55:51.539 --> 00:55:54.139
MD Anderson. It's a great place. They're awesome

00:55:54.139 --> 00:55:57.960
people. I had chemotherapy. I had radiation.

00:55:58.360 --> 00:56:00.699
I had all kinds. I had surgeries, yada, yada,

00:56:00.739 --> 00:56:03.489
yada. And ever since then, I didn't have COVID,

00:56:03.590 --> 00:56:06.309
but I think I've lost about probably 50 % of

00:56:06.309 --> 00:56:10.030
my taste buds. Oh, wow. So that's why I use these

00:56:10.030 --> 00:56:12.030
other ladies who are the connoisseurs, because

00:56:12.030 --> 00:56:16.730
you guys could probably tell me more about my

00:56:16.730 --> 00:56:19.730
bourbon now than I could five years ago. That

00:56:19.730 --> 00:56:23.050
must just bother the hell out of you. Well, when

00:56:23.050 --> 00:56:25.730
we did the Whiskey Riot recently, we did one

00:56:25.730 --> 00:56:30.090
at the fair, the fairgrounds. Yeah. We did one

00:56:30.090 --> 00:56:32.219
in Houston. Hundreds of people came up to us

00:56:32.219 --> 00:56:34.079
and said, don't change a thing. We love your

00:56:34.079 --> 00:56:36.920
bourbon. I'm so glad you're here. We got all

00:56:36.920 --> 00:56:38.840
kinds of reactions where some people tried it

00:56:38.840 --> 00:56:40.480
for the first time. And the unique thing about

00:56:40.480 --> 00:56:44.300
it, the ladies love it. A lot of the wives will

00:56:44.300 --> 00:56:45.860
come up to us and say, this is the only bourbon

00:56:45.860 --> 00:56:48.679
I will drink with my husband. And so the guys

00:56:48.679 --> 00:56:50.599
are shocked because they say it's so smooth.

00:56:51.000 --> 00:56:54.079
It's because the bottles are sexy. Well, there's

00:56:54.079 --> 00:56:57.159
a subculture of women out there that drink bourbon.

00:56:57.449 --> 00:57:00.289
Oh, yeah. My wife's one of them. But nobody pays

00:57:00.289 --> 00:57:02.250
attention to them. It's like, ladies, I'll pay

00:57:02.250 --> 00:57:04.289
attention to you. Sure. You know? It's like,

00:57:04.369 --> 00:57:09.630
it's okay. Try my big stick. Nice. I'm sure you'll

00:57:09.630 --> 00:57:12.090
like it, you know? So, yeah. Tell me about the

00:57:12.090 --> 00:57:15.670
piece of plastic in the lid there that keeps

00:57:15.670 --> 00:57:19.429
the stick in. So, this gets back to Joe. So,

00:57:19.429 --> 00:57:22.170
Joe, and again, I love the guy to death. He's

00:57:22.170 --> 00:57:25.489
more than my brother, you know? I mean, known

00:57:25.489 --> 00:57:28.159
him for... I don't got at least 30, 35 years

00:57:28.159 --> 00:57:30.340
now. I don't even know how long that's how long

00:57:30.340 --> 00:57:34.139
I don't, it goes back years. So we're sitting

00:57:34.139 --> 00:57:36.360
around one day and we decided to have like a

00:57:36.360 --> 00:57:38.760
new year celebration in new Orleans. Right. And

00:57:38.760 --> 00:57:41.619
so, so we get all dressed up. I've got my nice

00:57:41.619 --> 00:57:43.860
suit on. My wife's got her like gold dress on.

00:57:43.880 --> 00:57:46.139
We went out, we did it right. Right. He's got

00:57:46.139 --> 00:57:48.679
his dress blues Marine Corps uniform. Oh wow.

00:57:48.760 --> 00:57:51.199
You know, at midnight in new Orleans, you know,

00:57:51.199 --> 00:57:52.840
on new year's Eve, we're walking around, you

00:57:52.840 --> 00:57:56.409
know, and we look sharp. Right. And so, We were

00:57:56.409 --> 00:57:58.309
having fun. We spent three, four days in New

00:57:58.309 --> 00:58:00.710
Orleans. And then I brought some of my samples

00:58:00.710 --> 00:58:03.550
of bourbon back to the hotel room. And we were

00:58:03.550 --> 00:58:05.650
doing sampling and tasting. You like this? You

00:58:05.650 --> 00:58:09.050
like that? Whatever. So I had these bottles.

00:58:09.090 --> 00:58:14.349
And he said, Mike, we really need to put something

00:58:14.349 --> 00:58:16.510
in the bottle so the stick doesn't fall out.

00:58:16.849 --> 00:58:21.090
Yes. Oh, there you go. What a concept, huh? So,

00:58:21.090 --> 00:58:25.389
well, again, Joe's a Marine. Yeah. He went to

00:58:25.389 --> 00:58:27.489
UT, then he graduated, then he went to get his

00:58:27.489 --> 00:58:30.070
law degree courtesy of Uncle Sam, right? So he's

00:58:30.070 --> 00:58:32.769
got a couple law degrees, worked at the Pentagon

00:58:32.769 --> 00:58:35.650
for, I think, General Mattis. So he was way up

00:58:35.650 --> 00:58:39.010
there. Nice. His boss was a civilian, but he

00:58:39.010 --> 00:58:41.349
was the chief legal counsel for the Commandant

00:58:41.349 --> 00:58:43.610
of the Marine Corps. Okay. So he's been in meetings

00:58:43.610 --> 00:58:46.409
with people like Mattis and Petraeus. Wow. And

00:58:46.409 --> 00:58:48.329
he said, I probably was the youngest, you know,

00:58:48.369 --> 00:58:51.260
most, you know, lowest rank officer there. but

00:58:51.260 --> 00:58:53.980
I was still at the table. Sure. It's okay. It's

00:58:53.980 --> 00:58:56.960
all good. Right. So he's a Marine. He's Lieutenant

00:58:56.960 --> 00:58:59.800
Colonel and he's a Jack, right? So he's wound

00:58:59.800 --> 00:59:02.460
pretty tight and he'll probably admit that, you

00:59:02.460 --> 00:59:05.059
know? And so I said, Joe, you know, we really

00:59:05.059 --> 00:59:08.320
don't need that. He goes, I mean, if you look

00:59:08.320 --> 00:59:10.019
at the bottle and you tilt it over, the stick

00:59:10.019 --> 00:59:12.500
will fall to the bottom. I said, you know, it's

00:59:12.500 --> 00:59:14.880
not going to fall out. Even if you shake it,

00:59:14.940 --> 00:59:16.619
it's just not going to fall out because the engineering

00:59:16.619 --> 00:59:19.300
design, he goes, no, no, no, Mike, you don't

00:59:19.300 --> 00:59:22.710
understand. I know my Marines. They'll try to

00:59:22.710 --> 00:59:27.670
pull the stick out and light it on fire. So that's

00:59:27.670 --> 00:59:29.929
why we have the bottle stop. It's called an in

00:59:29.929 --> 00:59:33.539
-bottle pour spout. I think it's great. It worked

00:59:33.539 --> 00:59:35.420
great for pouring my drink. You just turn the

00:59:35.420 --> 00:59:37.239
bottle completely over. It pours better than

00:59:37.239 --> 00:59:39.500
the bar spout pour, and it comes with it. That's

00:59:39.500 --> 00:59:41.360
one of the first things I noticed when we were

00:59:41.360 --> 00:59:44.039
at Total Wine, and Lori was showing. I was like,

00:59:44.099 --> 00:59:46.500
dude, there's a weird stopper in this thing.

00:59:46.539 --> 00:59:48.000
Yeah, well, the problem with some of those other

00:59:48.000 --> 00:59:49.780
pour spouts, they've got the little ball bearing

00:59:49.780 --> 00:59:52.099
in there. They're kind of like, you know, it

00:59:52.099 --> 00:59:55.880
has gravity, and it gives you a half an ounce.

00:59:56.000 --> 00:59:58.380
Yeah, I was like, come on, man. They've got all

00:59:58.380 --> 01:00:01.800
kinds where they limit the pour. The anti -tamper

01:00:01.800 --> 01:00:04.639
proof. So I learned one of the things which is

01:00:04.639 --> 01:00:06.800
kind of weird, I guess trivial pursuit fact.

01:00:06.900 --> 01:00:09.880
The number one country for counterfeit whiskey,

01:00:10.079 --> 01:00:15.500
you know where it is? Saudi Arabia. Really? Wow.

01:00:15.699 --> 01:00:19.179
They fake, I believe they fake Johnny Walker.

01:00:19.940 --> 01:00:21.739
They scotch. And you know where they sell it

01:00:21.739 --> 01:00:24.699
to? India. Because India is like the number one

01:00:24.699 --> 01:00:28.989
country that consumes scotch. Right. So yeah,

01:00:29.030 --> 01:00:33.090
it's crazy. Illicit liquor trade is nuts. So

01:00:33.090 --> 01:00:34.690
they're looking at doing all kinds of things.

01:00:34.809 --> 01:00:37.349
But those counterproof things, they're trying

01:00:37.349 --> 01:00:39.469
to - What would they do to make it counterfeit?

01:00:39.630 --> 01:00:41.829
I mean, is it they put like liquid peat in there?

01:00:42.789 --> 01:00:45.269
I don't know. I mean - That's crazy. You can

01:00:45.269 --> 01:00:48.530
get a chemistry set and you can do a lot of stuff.

01:00:48.789 --> 01:00:51.409
Well, I know I've seen, there's been some of

01:00:51.409 --> 01:00:53.889
the big distilleries will put, like you'll download

01:00:53.889 --> 01:00:58.179
their app. and you'll hold your phone over the

01:00:58.179 --> 01:01:00.639
top of the bottle, and it'll tell you if it's

01:01:00.639 --> 01:01:03.880
real or not. It'll have some chip in it. Yep,

01:01:03.900 --> 01:01:06.119
Buffalo Trace does that. Yeah, the RFIDs, yeah.

01:01:06.199 --> 01:01:08.579
Well, there's also, and I think somebody told

01:01:08.579 --> 01:01:10.440
me the Buffalo Trace bottles, they've got little

01:01:10.440 --> 01:01:13.219
dots on the glass. It looks like Morse code,

01:01:13.400 --> 01:01:15.519
but each one of those is from a different batch.

01:01:16.190 --> 01:01:18.070
And so a different batch or different distillery,

01:01:18.130 --> 01:01:20.150
it's just... So they're embedding anti... They're

01:01:20.150 --> 01:01:23.429
embedding, you know, with no label. It's actually

01:01:23.429 --> 01:01:25.570
in the glass. There's different dots, like Morse

01:01:25.570 --> 01:01:27.309
code on the bottles. You can look and see that.

01:01:27.429 --> 01:01:29.610
Yeah. And that delineates certain distilleries

01:01:29.610 --> 01:01:31.800
or certain batches. Well, we all saw that Buffalo

01:01:31.800 --> 01:01:33.719
Trace is underwater right now. Dude. You see

01:01:33.719 --> 01:01:35.920
that? Yeah, yeah. Awful. They're just going to

01:01:35.920 --> 01:01:38.480
charge more. It's even more rare now. So, buy

01:01:38.480 --> 01:01:39.659
my stuff instead. Are they really underwater?

01:01:39.659 --> 01:01:41.500
I mean, I know there's a lot of water, but, I

01:01:41.500 --> 01:01:43.460
mean, they have, like, you know, six stories,

01:01:43.579 --> 01:01:45.960
you know? Wow. So, years ago, if you remember,

01:01:46.119 --> 01:01:49.119
there was five, ten years ago, there was a fire

01:01:49.119 --> 01:01:51.320
in Kentucky where they had one of the warehouses,

01:01:51.340 --> 01:01:52.980
the rack houses, went on fire. That was Heaven

01:01:52.980 --> 01:01:55.460
Hill. Heaven, yeah. Was it Jim Beam or Heaven

01:01:55.460 --> 01:01:57.940
Hill? It was Heaven Hill. In 1996. Yeah, we were

01:01:57.940 --> 01:02:02.780
just there. So what happened was, I think, and

01:02:02.780 --> 01:02:03.900
I'm just throwing a number out here. I could

01:02:03.900 --> 01:02:07.780
be wrong. Maybe 50 ,000 barrels went on fire.

01:02:07.780 --> 01:02:09.079
Look at the picture there. There's the flood.

01:02:09.179 --> 01:02:12.539
Yeah. So the 50 ,000 barrels, I think, went on

01:02:12.539 --> 01:02:16.820
fire, and there was so much on fire that it didn't

01:02:16.820 --> 01:02:19.420
all burn. It ran off into the river. So the EPA

01:02:19.420 --> 01:02:22.300
came after them for pollution, for water pollution.

01:02:22.440 --> 01:02:25.840
Well, I think at the time, somebody in the business

01:02:25.840 --> 01:02:28.440
said, That's no big deal. That represents maybe

01:02:28.440 --> 01:02:32.820
a one -day supply for us, 50 ,000 barrels. Isn't

01:02:32.820 --> 01:02:36.059
that crazy? That's insane. That's nuts. One -day

01:02:36.059 --> 01:02:39.639
supply. I was literally just up there a couple

01:02:39.639 --> 01:02:41.599
weeks ago when we were on spring break, and we

01:02:41.599 --> 01:02:43.880
visited Heaven Hill, and they discussed the fire.

01:02:44.099 --> 01:02:48.039
And right now, they produce 1 ,500 barrels a

01:02:48.039 --> 01:02:51.840
day in just new distillate. I'm sure. And they're

01:02:51.840 --> 01:02:56.179
about to open up a new distillery. new pot still

01:02:56.179 --> 01:02:58.800
or whatever they're using. How much was that

01:02:58.800 --> 01:03:02.119
facility worth? It was $200 million they built

01:03:02.119 --> 01:03:04.599
on the property there, and it will double it.

01:03:04.619 --> 01:03:07.800
So we'll be doing 3 ,000 barrels a day. Barrels

01:03:07.800 --> 01:03:10.039
a day. Hey, guys, if you want to work with me

01:03:10.039 --> 01:03:11.719
and make some big stick, just give me a call.

01:03:11.840 --> 01:03:14.219
It's all good. What do you want us to do? You

01:03:14.219 --> 01:03:17.519
want us to like... Well, I... Help you char the

01:03:17.519 --> 01:03:21.559
staves? No, I need to go nationals. I need a

01:03:21.559 --> 01:03:24.260
big brother to go national. Yeah. You know, that's

01:03:24.260 --> 01:03:26.639
what I need. Yeah. Well, we'll do our part. Oh,

01:03:26.659 --> 01:03:28.000
you can drink. We'll drink it. Drink, drink.

01:03:28.019 --> 01:03:30.000
It's like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We can handle that

01:03:30.000 --> 01:03:32.639
for sure. Yeah. Drink all you can and we sell

01:03:32.639 --> 01:03:36.659
the rest. There we go. Well, cool. It's a fantastic

01:03:36.659 --> 01:03:39.260
story. Oh, thank you. And we're glad that you're

01:03:39.260 --> 01:03:40.880
here to share it with us. Thank you, yeah. So

01:03:40.880 --> 01:03:43.179
what a ride you've been on. And you said only

01:03:43.179 --> 01:03:45.239
five years ago, right? Five years, yeah. So,

01:03:45.300 --> 01:03:48.559
yeah. Could you have imagined you'd be, you know,

01:03:48.579 --> 01:03:50.739
I know you've done a lot of different things,

01:03:50.800 --> 01:03:52.500
but this bourbon thing, did you think it would

01:03:52.500 --> 01:03:55.780
take off like it has or what? Well, we're doing

01:03:55.780 --> 01:03:58.820
great in Texas. You know, getting to other states

01:03:58.820 --> 01:04:02.559
is the issue because a lot of the, sadly, a lot

01:04:02.559 --> 01:04:05.059
of the craft guys, I probably know personally

01:04:05.059 --> 01:04:06.559
of four or five distilleries have gone out of

01:04:06.559 --> 01:04:08.900
business in the last year. So between COVID.

01:04:09.099 --> 01:04:11.420
In Texas? In Texas. Yeah, because the liquor

01:04:11.420 --> 01:04:13.760
laws in Texas, what happened was. If you own

01:04:13.760 --> 01:04:16.699
your distillery, you can sell two bottles per

01:04:16.699 --> 01:04:19.059
person per month. And you've got to take a log

01:04:19.059 --> 01:04:22.539
of people's driver's licenses, yada, yada, because...

01:04:22.539 --> 01:04:24.960
That's what 1845 does. Yeah, I was wondering.

01:04:25.679 --> 01:04:28.159
It's kind of stupid, man. A lot of rules. So

01:04:28.159 --> 01:04:29.960
regarding... Oh, I'm sorry. They favor all the

01:04:29.960 --> 01:04:33.340
big companies. And the little craft people...

01:04:33.340 --> 01:04:35.360
And the other rule is, you may not know this,

01:04:35.440 --> 01:04:37.619
but if you have your distillery, you make whiskey.

01:04:37.679 --> 01:04:39.599
Great. You can serve whiskey. You can serve whiskey

01:04:39.599 --> 01:04:40.980
on the rocks. You can serve whiskey and soda.

01:04:41.199 --> 01:04:44.289
You can serve old fashions. But if somebody comes

01:04:44.289 --> 01:04:46.909
in and says, I want a vodka tonic, what are you

01:04:46.909 --> 01:04:49.050
going to do? You've got to make vodka too because

01:04:49.050 --> 01:04:50.969
you can only sell what you make at that distillery.

01:04:51.110 --> 01:04:53.269
You can't sell something else. You can't sell

01:04:53.269 --> 01:04:57.269
Smirnoff vodka. Right. You can't sell Seagram's

01:04:57.269 --> 01:04:59.730
gin for gin and tonics. You've got to make your

01:04:59.730 --> 01:05:02.889
own. So that there's some guy out there like

01:05:02.889 --> 01:05:05.070
me who says, I'm the expert in making this bourbon.

01:05:05.349 --> 01:05:07.469
But if I open up a distillery and now I open

01:05:07.469 --> 01:05:09.920
up a tasting room. Now I got to figure out how

01:05:09.920 --> 01:05:12.139
to make a gin, a vodka, a rum, and yada, yada,

01:05:12.139 --> 01:05:13.420
yada. Otherwise, I'm not going to get enough

01:05:13.420 --> 01:05:15.420
customers. So all the tasting rooms, they're

01:05:15.420 --> 01:05:19.139
operating at a loss. And then the distributors,

01:05:19.260 --> 01:05:22.780
they say, well, if you sell it to Spex for a

01:05:22.780 --> 01:05:27.219
total wine at, pick a number, $50 a bottle, if

01:05:27.219 --> 01:05:29.260
you sell it at your distillery for $40 a bottle,

01:05:29.460 --> 01:05:31.539
they're going to be mad at you. Yep. So you have

01:05:31.539 --> 01:05:33.500
to sell it at the same price. Same price. Right?

01:05:33.980 --> 01:05:36.820
Yeah, we noticed that too. Yeah. So that's the

01:05:36.820 --> 01:05:38.639
thing. So you can't give in -house customers

01:05:38.639 --> 01:05:40.860
any discount. Right. Because then you'll just

01:05:40.860 --> 01:05:43.320
make all your retail channel mad. And you want

01:05:43.320 --> 01:05:45.300
to. You want them to come to your distillery

01:05:45.300 --> 01:05:48.179
and be excited about it and experience it. And

01:05:48.179 --> 01:05:51.019
by the way, you get it for $10 off. Yeah. And

01:05:51.019 --> 01:05:52.840
you can't even do that. Can't do that. You can

01:05:52.840 --> 01:05:56.019
do it once, but not next month. You could throw

01:05:56.019 --> 01:06:01.150
in glassware. That's illegal. Actually, that's

01:06:01.150 --> 01:06:04.429
illegal in Texas. You can't incentivize. Well,

01:06:04.789 --> 01:06:07.789
I think it's a dollar is the limit, TABC says.

01:06:09.489 --> 01:06:12.849
I've never tested that. Right. I'm not interested

01:06:12.849 --> 01:06:15.329
in testing their patients with me. Yeah, no kidding.

01:06:15.550 --> 01:06:19.460
Yeah. Good Lord. You know, the reason why I know

01:06:19.460 --> 01:06:22.679
that, at least that's what it was, was, you know,

01:06:22.699 --> 01:06:26.239
I worked a lot of bars. And we had, like, Middle

01:06:26.239 --> 01:06:28.659
Light, for example, used to give out a lot of

01:06:28.659 --> 01:06:30.679
product. They used to give out, like, football

01:06:30.679 --> 01:06:33.920
jerseys. Right, right, right. And then they passed

01:06:33.920 --> 01:06:36.079
the law saying you can't give out stuff like

01:06:36.079 --> 01:06:37.599
that. Anything you give out has to be less than

01:06:37.599 --> 01:06:39.039
a dollar. So they started, like, giving out these

01:06:39.039 --> 01:06:39.880
little stupid football jerseys. Well, if you

01:06:39.880 --> 01:06:41.579
give it out, you have to give it out to everybody,

01:06:41.659 --> 01:06:44.469
and it's not conditional on a purchase. Correct.

01:06:44.510 --> 01:06:47.230
So I had a friend who had a distillery in Jacksonville

01:06:47.230 --> 01:06:49.710
where Joe lives and he wanted to get a bunch

01:06:49.710 --> 01:06:52.050
of t -shirts printed up. Well, they made a mistake.

01:06:52.190 --> 01:06:55.750
They printed children's sizes. So he had to destroy

01:06:55.750 --> 01:06:59.329
them all because you can't give a child, you

01:06:59.329 --> 01:07:01.170
can't give them a koozie, you can't give them

01:07:01.170 --> 01:07:04.090
a coaster because it's incentivizing a minor

01:07:04.090 --> 01:07:06.210
to drink alcohol. So you can't do that. So they

01:07:06.210 --> 01:07:07.940
all had to be destroyed. You can't give them

01:07:07.940 --> 01:07:10.619
coasters, koozies. You can't give them a freaking

01:07:10.619 --> 01:07:13.360
balloon. Yeah, but it's okay to give them the

01:07:13.360 --> 01:07:17.039
booklet to turn themselves trans. Yeah, yeah,

01:07:17.039 --> 01:07:18.739
yeah. You can do that to a child, but you can't

01:07:18.739 --> 01:07:20.539
give them an alcohol shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

01:07:20.579 --> 01:07:22.380
exactly. Just put it in library books. That's

01:07:22.380 --> 01:07:24.610
a different agency, so, yeah. That's what it

01:07:24.610 --> 01:07:26.789
is, yeah. But still, it's just, you know, my

01:07:26.789 --> 01:07:28.909
point about bringing that up in a sheepish way

01:07:28.909 --> 01:07:31.929
was it's just the overreach of the government,

01:07:32.050 --> 01:07:35.429
you know, from the text and the font of the bottles

01:07:35.429 --> 01:07:38.750
to, you know, it's just, it's ridiculous. You

01:07:38.750 --> 01:07:41.650
know, how about that judge today? The Supreme

01:07:41.650 --> 01:07:44.369
Court weighed in. Was that yesterday or today?

01:07:45.389 --> 01:07:49.630
Judge Boasberg, is that his name? Yeah, the Supreme

01:07:49.630 --> 01:07:52.070
Court, my microphone's goofing up too. Yeah,

01:07:52.070 --> 01:07:54.130
well, I think we, Whatever, you know, we'll...

01:07:54.130 --> 01:07:56.730
The Supreme Court ruled against, what's his name,

01:07:56.789 --> 01:07:58.750
Bozeman or something like that? Yeah, they ruled

01:07:58.750 --> 01:08:01.269
against him, so it was actually a positive. It's

01:08:01.269 --> 01:08:03.349
a positive for... So I'm kind of curious what

01:08:03.349 --> 01:08:05.110
his... Because he's going to bring it back up

01:08:05.110 --> 01:08:07.230
in court tomorrow, and I'm kind of curious what

01:08:07.230 --> 01:08:09.110
he's going to say. So the Supreme Court, you

01:08:09.110 --> 01:08:11.369
know, split hairs. They didn't rule against the

01:08:11.369 --> 01:08:13.949
entire concept. They ruled against the fact that

01:08:13.949 --> 01:08:16.729
he doesn't have jurisdiction. Correct. So if

01:08:16.729 --> 01:08:18.369
he doesn't have jurisdiction, that doesn't do

01:08:18.369 --> 01:08:20.369
anything on the merits of the case. So now you

01:08:20.369 --> 01:08:22.819
have to start the cycle all over again. And here's

01:08:22.819 --> 01:08:26.859
the chick that Trump endorsed. Amy Coney Barrett.

01:08:26.960 --> 01:08:30.039
Yes. She was like... She's from Notre Dame. She

01:08:30.039 --> 01:08:33.359
jumped the ball. She's from Notre Dame. So, I

01:08:33.359 --> 01:08:36.100
mean, years ago, like I said, my family history

01:08:36.100 --> 01:08:40.279
goes back 150 years at Notre Dame. And they used

01:08:40.279 --> 01:08:42.680
to be very, very strict and very Catholic and

01:08:42.680 --> 01:08:46.500
not anymore. I saw somebody outside had a Texas

01:08:46.500 --> 01:08:50.899
A &M on their truck. And my friend, a dear friend

01:08:50.899 --> 01:08:53.960
of mine, 10 years in the U .S. Marine Corps.

01:08:54.520 --> 01:08:57.239
Drill instructor, sniper school, Sergeant Marine

01:08:57.239 --> 01:08:59.539
Corps. Got out of the Corps, then he went to

01:08:59.539 --> 01:09:03.260
A &M. Right. And got his college degree, courtesy

01:09:03.260 --> 01:09:06.079
of Uncle Sam. God bless him, right? Yeah. It's

01:09:06.079 --> 01:09:08.880
a good thing. It's all good. He even says, you

01:09:08.880 --> 01:09:10.979
know, I sent my son to A &M. He just got the

01:09:10.979 --> 01:09:13.199
ring ceremony last week. Yeah. Right? I mean,

01:09:13.220 --> 01:09:15.739
again, God bless him, wonderful, but school's

01:09:15.739 --> 01:09:18.520
not the same as it used to be. They just allowed

01:09:18.520 --> 01:09:21.029
the drag queen thing. It's like... Really? I'm

01:09:21.029 --> 01:09:23.630
not okay with it. So you got the Corps of Cadets

01:09:23.630 --> 01:09:27.170
on one side, and then you've got the drag queen

01:09:27.170 --> 01:09:29.250
on the other. It's like, what in the world? This

01:09:29.250 --> 01:09:31.770
is at A &M? At A &M. In the last 10 years, it

01:09:31.770 --> 01:09:35.789
has. They forced it. They forced it. Yep. They're

01:09:35.789 --> 01:09:38.850
having some problems. Well, the alumni, everything

01:09:38.850 --> 01:09:42.210
runs on money, and the alumni need to step up

01:09:42.210 --> 01:09:46.149
and say, eh, no. Enough. Or Trump's going to

01:09:46.149 --> 01:09:47.930
weigh in and be like, you know what? Fuck you.

01:09:47.970 --> 01:09:50.039
You're losing funding. You know what, moreover,

01:09:50.100 --> 01:09:51.859
does Governor Abbott have anything to say about

01:09:51.859 --> 01:09:54.140
that? Notre Dame's got a, and I love Notre Dame,

01:09:54.239 --> 01:09:56.640
you know, they've got a $10, $12 billion endowment.

01:09:56.720 --> 01:09:59.020
Harvard's got a $50 billion endowment. Harvard

01:09:59.020 --> 01:10:01.539
can afford to give every student free tuition

01:10:01.539 --> 01:10:05.920
for the next 50 years, you know. And so they

01:10:05.920 --> 01:10:08.119
have private offices now. They have people that

01:10:08.119 --> 01:10:10.979
just churn money, you know. I mean, that's all

01:10:10.979 --> 01:10:14.420
they do. Harvard, Yale, 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, Texas.

01:10:15.239 --> 01:10:17.979
You know, I know people that work in the Texas

01:10:17.979 --> 01:10:20.800
system was founded because they had all these

01:10:20.800 --> 01:10:25.640
royalty rights, right? And so they still collect

01:10:25.640 --> 01:10:27.619
hundreds of millions of dollars, and A &M too.

01:10:27.739 --> 01:10:30.979
I think just recently, the politicians were saying

01:10:30.979 --> 01:10:33.720
they're going to allow Texas tech in on the system.

01:10:34.439 --> 01:10:36.920
To start splitting revenue with Texas Tech, maybe

01:10:36.920 --> 01:10:39.020
Prairie View A &M, maybe a couple more schools.

01:10:39.180 --> 01:10:41.439
Because there's so much money going around, everybody

01:10:41.439 --> 01:10:43.819
else is saying, I want a piece of the pie. And

01:10:43.819 --> 01:10:45.819
yet the tuition goes up and up. And the tuition

01:10:45.819 --> 01:10:48.399
goes up nonstop. It's a racket. It's insane.

01:10:48.579 --> 01:10:52.359
It is. It is. Well, that music means we are coming

01:10:52.359 --> 01:10:55.520
to the end of the first half. It's crazy. It's

01:10:55.520 --> 01:10:58.439
crazy. Time flies. So our listeners out there,

01:10:58.500 --> 01:11:01.899
check us out on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook,

01:11:02.159 --> 01:11:08.079
dudeslikeus - God bless it. Have another bourbon.

01:11:08.319 --> 01:11:10.399
He had too much big stick. Big stick bourbon's

01:11:10.399 --> 01:11:14.119
good. Woodcraft, smash that like button. And

01:11:14.119 --> 01:11:17.520
thank you, Mr. Chuck, our producer, for staying

01:11:17.520 --> 01:11:19.199
on task tonight. God bless. I am a little drunk.

01:11:19.199 --> 01:11:22.000
Yeah, you're struggling. Are you staying for

01:11:22.000 --> 01:11:24.380
the second half? Yeah, I'm staying. Okay, because

01:11:24.380 --> 01:11:25.619
we're going to talk about a lot of fun things

01:11:25.619 --> 01:11:27.539
in the second half. Yeah, we're going to change

01:11:27.539 --> 01:11:28.899
it up a little bit and get crazy. For News Like

01:11:28.899 --> 01:11:31.239
This, I'm Sean. I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. I'm Mike.

01:11:31.819 --> 01:11:32.899
All right, we'll be right back. We'll see you.