There we go. We are rolling. We are. Shoot, man.
So it's the first half of a Dudes Like Us podcast
on April 8th, 2025. Shoot, man. For being April,
I'm pretty much enjoying this weather so far.
It's nice. It's pretty shitty last week. A lot
of rain. Yeah, but I love the temperature. No
spring storms. You know they're going to hit.
Perfect. No humidity. For Texas, that's great.
Yes. Agreed. A lot of storms, though, man. I'm
not a huge fan of that. Chuck, thank you for
being here and taking care of us on the first
half. Chuck's our producer. Dudes Like Us. I'm
Sean. I'm Paul. I am Jeff. And Mike. And Mike.
Big Mike. What do you want to call us? Mike.
Mike. Sir. Sir. Sir Mike. Have you been knighted?
Great Moana. All right. Well, you are our special
guest tonight. We're excited to have you. Thank
you. All right. It's kind of crazy. Are we going
to just dive in head first? Let's do a little
backup story here. For the guests out there,
our listeners that don't know what Dudes Like
Us podcast is, we're a bunch of dorks that hang
out with each other all the time and thought,
hey, man, what kind of narcissist would we be
without a podcast? There you go. We could hear
ourselves at all times. You know, and we kind
of moved forward with it. We just happened to
have some gear laying around and we pieced some
stuff together and we're a bunch of guys from
a bunch of different backgrounds. So by gear,
you mean bourbon? God bless. Yeah, bourbon, whiskey.
That seems to be the glue that pulled everything
together. Accidental microphones for recording,
you know. Yes. We really did. I mean, we had
a bunch of stuff just kind of hanging around.
We had some other, whatever, it doesn't matter.
But at the end of the day, These guys are my
best friends. Producer, we're all just a tight
group of friends. We enjoy, love each other.
Not like that. We enjoy being around each other.
It's not a weird podcast. Our kids are all friends
with each other. They've grown up. They've gone
to college together. That's awesome. This is
a big hobby for us. I was able to tell Sean that
his penis was out earlier, so it's all right.
Yeah, it was. Yeah. It happens a lot. It does.
Wonderful. Well, it likes to come out because
it's usually stuck to my lower leg. Okay. It's
got nothing to do with our whiskey. God bless.
That's just normal shit, man. This is going to
be the shortest guest we've ever had. But we
enjoy getting together and talking about this
stuff. And we like talking about the things that
dudes like us do in life. That is the common
denominator. And that's kind of the purpose of
this podcast. Yes, we do talk about the whiskeys.
It's kind of what drives us a little bit to introduce
it every single podcast. A new whiskey and try
to convey people to life. Lighten up a little
bit. It's not your enemy. This stuff is good.
I think people freak out a little bit too much.
They pick up a glass of, it doesn't matter what
it is, and they're like, oh my God. You're not
supposed to fucking shoot it. You're supposed
to sip it, drink it, enjoy it, love it. You're
doing it wrong. People forget about conversation
in between. Yes. Cigars, conversations, music.
It's a variable in a whole equation that you've
got to dive in head first. Dudes like us, we
go out to these events, these whiskey events,
the World of Whiskies, and what is the other
one you mentioned? The Whiskey Riot. Yeah, Whiskey
Riot's coming up. Yeah, Fort Worth. We were just
at the Plano event in Plano, Texas. Jeff, you're
the almanac here. I was not there. Spirit of
Whiskey. Yeah, but you still know. Wasn't it?
Yeah, it's something like that. Spirit of whiskey.
But anyway, so we had like 14 vendors out there.
So we meet a lot of the vendors and we try to
connect with them. We go to Total Wine every
Friday. We typically try to hit Liquor King,
Total Wine, and Specs and kind of scout out for
the unicorns. But, you know, they're never there.
But, you know, it's that we're fishing. We're
just fishing to see what sticks. Every now and
then you'll get a bite. Well, everything's changed
now because of the economy. All the supposedly
allocated whiskeys are starting to show up on
the shelves. Yes. Because they were afraid they
would be getting tariffed from Europe. Right.
So all of a sudden, stuff that was rare is not
rare anymore. Wow. Shocking. Wow. Can't wait
to see that. Conspiracy, huh? Crazy. Well, I
mean, well, hopefully this is a short -lived
thing. We have no idea. We understand some of
the tariffs they apply today in China is 104,
105, 104%. Crazy. Yep. God bless. The trade war
has started. Well, the reason we have our guest
here is one of our many trips to Total Wine is
we met... Lori. Lori. Yeah, your local rep, right?
We got to know her. I was talking to her for
quite a while, bought a couple bottles. And she's
great, by the way. Very personable. She took
some pictures. I don't know if she sent them
your way or not. A few junk pics. Heard that
too, yeah. Some good dick pics. Posted them on
Instagram. Yeah, but this was a while back, and
it's been an exercise of just coordinating dates
and schedules and everything, right? She doesn't
have a dick? That's crazy. I said junk, you nut.
What's wrong with you people? We're going to
have to start over. I know, gosh. Anyways, yeah,
so she immediately texted you, I'm assuming,
right? Right, right. Sent us a picture, and it
got a bunch of... It's just been forever trying
to get the schedule. Oh, that's normal. We figured
you're a busy guy, yeah. We're all busy. I mean,
we've been kind of backed up. There's just trips.
Life is busy. I'm thankful that you're here.
We're starting to get a few people to show up.
We had Garrison Brothers, James on a couple weeks
ago. We had Jackie Mack, one of the reps for
6th Street. We're getting 1845 in Q, Lowry Crossing,
Texas. We've got a couple more. We've got RD1
Spirits. They're scheduled to come out here the
last week of May. So when you're out here for
the May 25th Whiskey Riot event. They may be
out there. They may be coming down to that as
well. That may be why he's coming down. There's
over 1 ,000 people at Whiskey Riot. That's great.
Yeah, well, I'm on board with that. The only
thing that is, is it inside? Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, because they've got. I'm passing on that
one. Hell, yeah. So they got the world of whiskeys.
That's supposed to be happening here in, is it
July 9th? It's July. No, it's late July. It's,
yeah, July 27th. They have it. It's an outdoor
venue. It's a farmer's market. It's basically
just an awning. Yeah. And I sent them messages,
and I put them on Facebook and Instagram, and
I copy and pasted them. It's the same message.
And I was like, I explained to them that we really
enjoy your event, and it was great last year
at the Hilton Indoor. And what's up with Sunday?
It's on a Sunday morning. Two, it's an event
that it's outside. It doesn't make sense. You're
going to need, read the room. You're going to
need to wrap that thing in plastic. You've got
a bunch of guys shaped like Chuck, Jeff, Paul,
you and I. Like pears. They're going to need
defibrillators on every wall just to remove our
dumb asses. That seems like a surprising idea.
They charge you $100 or $150 to be in the heat
longer. Well, anyway, so that's how we got introduced
to the Big Sticks Distillery. We're happy you
made it here, and we've got your product in front
of us. And frankly, we're ready to rock and roll.
Yeah, we're excited to hear your story. So you
are the founder? Yes, sir, I am. Of Big Sticks?
Correct. Yeah, I started it, and then my partner,
Joe, joined me. Joe's a retired Lieutenant Colonel,
Marine Corps. I've known him for 30, 35 years.
We're old guys now. But long story. his wife
and my wife were friends since sixth grade. Oh,
okay. So that's, so yeah, we've been each other's
weddings and watched our kids grow up and yada,
yada kind of thing. So that's kind of how that
started. But it was really, I guess just pre
COVID, you know, it was maybe five, six years
ago. Now, um, I had a bar just like you guys.
Right. And we moved into this house years ago,
years, years, years ago when our kids were little
out in Katie, when we could still drive down
the street without traffic. Yeah. And, um, The
lady that left, she was elderly. Her husband
had passed away, and he had a big bar, like 100
-plus bottles. And she said, I'm downsizing,
moving to a much smaller place. She called my
wife and said, would your husband mind if I left
all my whiskey bottles behind? Oh, my gosh. And
you were like, no, I'm sorry, I can't do that.
Yeah, so the movers don't move whiskey bottles.
They don't move guns, ammo, and whiskey. Okay.
So all the fun stuff, they don't move. Excellent.
They just keep it? Well, either that or they
throw it out on the street. Yeah. One or the
other. So, so we said, yeah, we'll keep it. And
then what happened through the years, years and
years ago, I used to travel a lot as an engineer,
traveled all over the country, all over the world.
And if you remember early on the good old days
in Texas, you could buy liquor till like midnight.
Yeah. Now it's not 9am, 9pm. They close. You
used to buy. So I used to get off the frequent
flyer magazines, rip out the latest vodka of
the month, gin of the month, the latest. you
know, whiskey of the month, this and that, the
rum of the month. Sure. And I wouldn't get home
till like, you know, 11 o 'clock at night on
a Friday night. Okay. And I would drive by this
liquor store and they had this stuff. So I'd
go in with ripped out piece of paper from the
frequent flyer magazine. Right. I want this one.
And I started with the collection. So over the
years, I had probably another hundred bottles
or so. Sure. Nice. And so I had, there were literally
like four deep on the bar. There's no bar surface
room. Right. But you're saying they weren't all
bourbons. They were rums. Well, mostly whiskeys
and scotches. Whiskies and scotches. And bourbons.
Yeah. And then the occasional vodka for people
that don't know any better. Right. So anyways,
my wife said, you've got to get rid of all this
stuff. It's too cluttered. Throw it away. Dump
it down the drain. I went, oh, hell no. Yeah.
There's no way. So I started sipping them all.
And like you guys, if you sip 10 or 20 bottles
at a time, you're going to find out there's always
one that you like. The rest are okay. And then
you pour some of them in your forever bottle
and you just mix them up. Well, I decided that
I could do better. And I'm an engineer and sometimes
I don't sleep much. The creative thing hit me
and the bug hit me. I said, I can do better.
I said, why can't whiskey age like a nice red
wine in a bottle? Well, red wine's organic, right?
So you have to have organic compounds for it
to age because you could take a $20 bottle of
wine, five years later, it's worth a thousand
bucks. Right. So with whiskey, it's only worth
the rarity. Sure. My wife got me a bottle once
for my birthday years ago. It was a couple hundred
dollars, maybe for a nice 16 -year -old whiskey.
And I started drinking it, and I said, not bad.
You know what it tastes like? It tastes like
a $60 bottle of Basil Hayden, which is fine.
It's still a very nice whiskey. And then I looked
online, and it was $3 ,000 a bottle because the
distillery went out of business. Right. And they
only made a thousand bottles and then they went
into business. And now it's a rarity. And there
was the last restaurant in Dallas bought the
$3 ,000 for three bottles and they were selling
like one or 200 bucks a shot. That's insane.
But you know what it tastes like? It tastes like
a really good Booker's or Basil Hayden's. Sure.
And I just said, I'm just going to drink it.
I'm going to tell my friends, hey, this is a
$3 ,000 bottle of whiskey. I didn't pay that,
but hey. Right. So I said, it's not about that.
It's about the quality. So I literally, I bought
a chemistry set on Amazon. Oh, wow. Got the test
tubes, got the proof meters and all that kind
of stuff and started researching. A lot of people
put their mash bills online. Yeah. And I started
mixing and blending different whiskeys on the
bar. And I just figured, I came up with a special
one that I liked. And then I went, I got a carpentry
shop. So I went in my workshop and said, the
only way to make whiskey organic is to put something
in it. Yeah. So we're going to put in one. Why
not put in the original wood that the barrels
are from? The stave. Right. So I looked at that
and I said, well, double oaked, I'm an engineer.
So I'm a simple guy. You know, you put an oak
stave in there, double oak, that's a gimmick
because it's a used barrel. Right. They say it's
a spent barrel. I'm an old guy. That means used.
Right. Right. So it's got limited flavor. You
could do that till the cows come home. You know,
90, 95 % of the flavor is going to come from
the first barrel. Yes. And then what they're
doing now, I don't agree with. I mean, maybe
I'm a snob, but now they're putting in flavored
staves in the barrels. And it's like, okay, you
want one that tastes like a Cabernet? Well, then
buy a $20 bottle of Cabernet. Right. You know,
have a shot of whiskey and then go drink your
wine, you know, with your dinner or something.
But I'm not a flavored whiskey guy. Okay. And
you mean being finished in something? Like a
wine barrel. Like a Cabernet barrel. Correct.
Okay. So you're not on board with the different
types of finishes that they're doing. Okay. I
respect that. Yeah. I mean, okay. So you can
do French oak. You can do Ambarana. Sure. And
some of that's okay. I mean, that's not bad,
you know, because it's still theoretically an
original oak. Right. Right. But you're not a
fan of the wine barrels. Not really. Okay. Cognac
barrels or the pork barrels. They got everything
now, right? I think some of the red wines, whenever
they add it to a red wine barrel, I'm going to
use the word muddled. It takes a bourbon that's
crisp and it kind of muddles it. Right. In my
opinion. Well, you're going for a different taste,
but I get it. Yeah. I get it. Anyways, so that's
just me. So I just said, let's just take a piece
of oak. And so what I did, so here's the first
piece of geeky knowledge. Okay. Even though we
joke, we say the size of your stick matters.
Right. It does because the surface area ratio
of the stick relative to the liquid in the bottle
is the same number as if the bourbon was still
in the 53 -gallon barrel. Interesting. Okay.
Yep. So I tried to mimic the aging process by
saying it'll do it at the same rate. Right. Now,
legally, you can't say aging. We found that out
because aging only takes place in the barrel
when the barrel expands and contracts. Right.
But then you'll lose the angel's share. So with
us, we put in a brand new piece of wood. It's
not a used stave. Okay. So because it's brand
new, it's got fresh resin and it starts the flavor
process all over again. So they call it the finishing
process. Sure. But it's even better because everybody
else is doing this. Their barrels are still expanding,
contracting, and you're still losing the angel's
share. So with us, we seal it in glass and literally
we keep the angel's share from the second go
round. Right. So we trademark, we make the angels
thirsty. Right. So that's going to be on our
next round of t -shirts. That's actually pretty
good. Now, do you char the... That's why it says
TM. That's okay. Do you charge, char the stave?
Yes. I designed the machine to cut the sticks.
I designed the machine to char the sticks on
my own, designed it and built it. What level
char is it? So relatively speaking, probably
a four. Okay, good. You know, if you do like,
I mean, it depends on how you classify. If you
do like a five something, it's almost like it'll
break. Yeah. Right. So if you think of, in my
mind, like searing a steak, You've got a really
good char on the inside, but you've got to have
some of the wood not charred on the inside. Right.
On the outside versus the inside. Right. And
you have to have that because if you just take
those spirals and you toast them. That was my
next question regarding the shapes of them. What
drew you to the shape of this one versus the
spirals? So the spirals, it's hard to calculate
the surface area ratio. So first of all, you
know, what's unique about us is I actually, I
started by calculating the surface area ratio
to get that right. So wood, all natural wood
has about 140 chemicals in it. So here's your
chemistry lesson. So pay attention, boys and
girls, learn chemistry. So about 140 chemicals
out of that, maybe four of those are fructoses,
which sugars, which is a complex carbohydrate,
right? So it's a bigger molecule than sucrose
or glucose. It's just a bigger molecule. Exact
same chemicals are in strawberries, blackberries,
blueberries. That's the chemical name. It's just
fructose. So as you know from cooking, when you
char sugar, you get caramel, right? Well, the
other resins in there, the stuff that keeps the
resin from hardening into a rock, they're called
phenolic acids. They're a weak acid. That's the
chemical name. Everybody else knows them as aromatics.
Right. Oh, so there's multiple phenolic acids.
Those are the exact same chemicals that are in
vanilla beans. Nice. Okay. So that's where the
flavor comes from. By all natural charring, a
100 % natural, you know, as God made it, a piece
of American white oak, you get multiple layers
of caramel and vanilla. In addition to the char,
as you know, since if we're all old guys, you
know that in the caveman days, if you got sick
eating poison berries, you would. eat charcoal
from the fire. It would absorb the poisons. Well,
so likewise, whenever you distill whiskey, there's
always some, they call them co -geners, they
call them different kinds of phenolic acids,
whatever, but there's different kinds of chemicals
in there that give you the headaches and they're
not good. Right. Right. Well, the charcoal actually
filters those out at the same time it's adding
the good stuff. Right. So it adds the good stuff,
takes away the bad stuff. So does that mean like
hangover free? To a degree. Well, I'm going to
test that theory today. Indigestion -free. Indigestion
-free. That's actually interesting. Some of the
bourbons I've drank, and maybe just because I
like too much Italian food or pizza, gives me
a little bit of a heartburn. Sure. And this doesn't.
Interesting. Interesting. And I can only speak
for myself, but right? I mean, for me, that doesn't.
I tell people that, and they say, oh, it's smooth.
I said, yeah, well, just wait. You're not going
to get any heartburn either. Yeah. Which was
an unintended and probably a, you know. It's
awesome. An awesome. That means you can have
more. No, what I'm saying is you didn't design
it for that purpose. You designed it to continue
the aging process. Correct. But, you know, with
that comes a nice byproduct. Nice little consolation.
Right, yeah. Yeah, nice. So what happens, and
again, we made it 95 proof for two reasons. One
is the marketing, if you will, but we do 5 %
back to military charities. Yeah, that's awesome.
So 95, five. And again, this is all subjective.
If you're a bourbon connoisseur, bourbon snob,
it's all personal preference. Sure. Some people
like one 10, one 15. I'm not crazy about that.
That's more alcohol than flavor. Okay. It's just
math, right? You get over a hundred proof. You're
buying more alcohol than your flavor for me personally.
So the other thing engineering wise is that if
you get too high of a proof, you dilute more
of those resins and acids. that are in the wood,
and it can make it taste a little sharper. That's
in your staved bottles, right? Well, this is
100 % natural American white oak, so anybody
would have that. So again, just for me personally,
not to insult anybody, but I don't like the 115
proof because they taste harsher, I think, in
my mind. Because the higher alcohol is a solvent,
and it dilutes even more of those resins and
chemicals that are in there. Now, some people
have said they want one. You're specifically
talking about the staves that are in bottles,
right? Correct. Okay. So if you just have a...
Because, I mean... Well, no. It also applies
to the higher barrel proofs. Any barrel. Okay.
Yeah. Because we're talking about... In theory,
anyways, you're supposed to distill bourbon at
125 to 130 proof. And some people overproof them.
They go to 140. Yeah. Well, as bourbon ages,
in my experience, you always lose proof. Because
it evaporates. Because the alcohol evaporates
faster than the water. So a barrel that's older
generally has a little bit less proof. Right.
By four or five points. Not just volume, but
also proof. It's a wacky, wacky thing. You never
know what the heck's going to happen. Yeah. And
it's interesting because we have tried many that
have been 120, 125, 130, 140. Right. You know
what I mean? And I kind of, I've always assumed
that in certain situations, the alcohol, you
know, the angel's share, right, evaporates. And
in certain situations, the water does. Which,
if the water evaporates before the alcohol, it
must be in some sort of climate or some situation
because the proof does go up. Right, right, right.
Well, again, bourbon is so subjective, right?
It's the most subjective thing, which is why
you got guys having 100 different bottles. Right.
you know, and that's okay with me as long as
I'm one of them. Right, right, right. I don't
expect, you know, so yeah, so that's great. Just
add us to your shelf in your collection. Well,
Big Sticks is easy to drink. I mean, for guys
that typically strive off that 105 to 125 realm,
somewhere in there, it's easy to drink. It tastes
great. I'm enjoying it. I can drink this. Well,
I tell you, I can literally drink this. This
is really good. What we've noticed is that when
we, When we're drinking the 110, 15, 20s, and
we dip down to the 90s, the flavors aren't there
a lot. They thin out. The intensity is not there.
Because you're used to more dilution of all the
chemicals from the wood. Right. Yeah. But this
has a lot of flavor to it. It does. We've had
a couple that - Reminds me of the Mictors. Yeah.
The Mictors 10 had a lot of flavor at 95 proof,
and this has a lot of flavor as well. And I think
a lot of it goes to that stave that you have
in your bottle. uh, continuing to work. Correct.
Exactly. Yeah. I mean, that's the big thing.
If you look at this, I got a before and after,
but before it looks like iced tea and afterwards
it looks four shades darker. Oh wow. So, so yeah,
you're saying that's straight out of the barrel.
Correct. The one on the, so how long do you age
it in the barrel? So great question. As we get
more mature as a company, we get a little bit
older barrels. We're at like three and a half
to four and a half years right now. Okay. In
that range. Well, it's very respectable. Yeah.
I think most of them are around four years. Yeah,
yeah. Some are two. I mean, to be a straight
bourbon, you need two years, right? At least
two. So legally, again, a lot of people don't
know this. Maybe you guys do. But legally, to
be called bourbon, it has to be number one, made
in America. Correct. Yes. Number two, made from
51 % corn. Correct. After that, you can do anything.
The other 49 % can be whatever you want. Right.
Then it has to be aged in a brand new American
white oak charred barrel. Yes. For 24 hours.
Yeah. And that's called a young bourbon. I call
it crap. We call it shitty too, man. Yeah. So
yeah. So the word straight legally means two
years old. Yes. So obviously the thing about
straight bourbon is a lot of consumers don't
know this. And I tell folks, if it says straight
bourbon on the label. Probably means there's
two years in one day. Right. Because after that,
like they want the bare minimum, the bare minimum
to be legal, right. To check the box. And so,
so yes, I mean, ours does that. We did new labels
because the, the trade people said it's got to
stay straight bourbon because otherwise it doesn't
have an age statement on it. It's like, well,
it doesn't have an age statement on it because
my connoisseur says it tastes like a bourbon
that's much older than four years. Right. You
know, I can't say it tastes like a 10 or 12 year
old bourbon, even if it does, even if the sommelier
says that. Because legally it's not. Right. Because
it hasn't been in a barrel that long. Hasn't
been in the barrel. So all those laws are designed
to protect the big guys from the little guys.
So all the craft guys can't explain what they
do on their label. Right. Because a lot of it's
not legal. Every single word on our label had
to be approved. And in fact, when it's a straight
bourbon whiskey finish on Oak Staves, we had
to have every single word has to be at the exact
same font. And the exact same typeface in everything.
You can't change italics for one word. Really?
Or it's illegal. And who makes these rules? The
federal government, the Fed, the TTB. Why the
hell do they have to do that? Like we were saying
earlier about opening industries over here, the
regulations. They're nuts. They're nuts. Just
destroy you. And for what purpose? I mean, come
on. We couldn't say. Originally, I said ages
continuously in the bottle, and that was rejected
because it only ages in a barrel. Why? Because
that's the federal definition of aging. So you
change it to finishing instead of aging. Change
it to finishes, and that's fine. We did another
release. It's a very limited release. We did
a rye whiskey, and we did a rye with cinnamon.
Like I said, I'm a big believer. I'm an engineer.
I'm a purist. I don't believe in flavoring anything.
Right. We agree. You want sugar water. And go
buy sugar water. Yep. And make a great old fashioned.
You got to have a lisp. So I got a cinnamon stick,
right? The circular cinnamon sticks. I bought
them as a stick by the pound. So now I have two
sticks in the bottle. Right. So we added the
cinnamon stick to the rye whiskey and it came
out great. But it took us over six months to
get label approval because we said, you know,
straight bourbon whiskey or straight rye whiskey.
you know, flavored with a cinnamon stick. And
they kept on coming back and saying, you know,
like flavored with cinnamon. It's like, no, it's
a cinnamon stick. Right. And we had actually
called them. We have to get the lawyers on the
phone with the feds and say, it's literally a
stick. It's not caramel coloring. It's not cinnamon
syrup. Right. You know, it's not, you know, your
daddy's, you know, you know, the whiskey that
they claim is, you know, cinnamon flavored. It's
like, no, it's not that. Right. You know, and.
You can say it. Oh, Fireball. Fireball. Yeah,
that stuff's... For $20 a liter. Hangover waiting
to happen. Right, right, right. It's a party
starter, but it's not anything real. Yeah, maybe
if you're 20, you know? So I'm too old for that.
I'd rather have one really good glass of whiskey
than four or five cheap shots. So you obviously
were taken totally by surprise by the label.
The labeling's insane. Like you weren't anticipating
that at all. No, and then Texas, this is funny.
Texas, whatever the feds approve, Texas will
approve. And the feds do it for free, but it
costs you a lot of time and legal work, right?
But the feds do it for free. So Texas says, if
you have federal approval, you send your label
to Texas, they'll approve it, but they're going
to charge you $25 per label. Why? Because they
can. Per label? Yeah, because they can. That's
the design of the label. Yeah, well, yeah. Right,
okay. Not like per bottle you sell. No, no, no.
My first thought was, I was like, what? Per brand.
You know, if we do a rye, it's $25 for that.
Rye is... you know on and on everybody's got
to make their money yeah so yeah so that's the
thing so tell me about the uh the statue on or
the image okay so yeah everything about this
is symbolic um everything is hidden if you put
first of all what we did is we designed like
i said the concept of the ratio is the most important
thing so literally we designed the bottle with
the stick first then we figured out how to surround
that with a liquid the bourbon Then we figured
out what kind of bottle would fit. And there's
one bottle in the entire world that will do that.
And that's this bottle. Nice. So the bottle itself
is tall and square. Most people have seen it.
It's not perfectly square. It's actually hourglass.
You put two bottles together. It looks like a
Marine standing at attention with the trim waist,
square shoulders. Interesting. The cap is gold.
If you notice, the cap is gold. If you've ever
seen the dress blue Marine Corps uniform, the
gold buttons. are about the same size as this.
We couldn't put the Eagle Globe and Anchor on
it because that's trademark infringement. Sure.
But the gold buttons on the Marine Corps uniform
are about the same size. Excellent. So that's
how we started. Then we said, well, that's not
good enough again. So I'm anal retentive. I admit,
every single color on here is an exact Pantone
color match from the Marine Corps style guide.
Okay. So the red's an exact match per serial
number, the blue and the gold are exact color
matches for the uniform. Odin is the all -father
spirit in the military, so we got a little mythology
going on there. He's holding a spear. My nephew
just retired in Austin, Lieutenant Commander,
Navy SEALs, so the tip of the spear. Very nice.
You said your son? My nephew. Your nephew. Nephew,
yeah. Okay. My other niece is Lieutenant Colonel
Air Force, so I got the three birds flying in
formation. Beautiful. Really, really subtle stuff.
Obviously, our company name is Semper Fi Brands.
Duh. Marine Corps. Right. Okay. So big stick,
the whole symbolism here really represents the
military. And if you want to sum it up in one
word, like people who do branding say, your brand,
you have to sum it up in one word. What's the
one word that defines your essence? And I said,
bravado. Okay. That's us. Yeah. That's what we
do. We got a big stick. Yeah. And the label's
red, white, and blue, and we're not apologizing.
I love it. And so it's bottled at 95, and that's
why I tell people we donate 5 % back to military
charities. So explain that one a little bit more.
Sure. The 95. I mean, I totally get the 5 % to
charity, obviously. Right. But 95. So 95. We
tried 80. We tried 85, 90, 95, 100, 110. And
I found that for me, again, personally, subjectively,
that I liked, I think it made it the smoothest
out of everything at the 95 proof. Okay. I can
see that. At 80 proof. You don't, I guess, dilute
or enough of the alcohol as a solvent. You don't
dilute enough of the flavor to get the flavor.
Well, like Jeff said, the 95 works. I hate to
bring up, but I want to compare it to Michter's
10 -year. I mean, Michter's 10 -year is an extremely
desirable bottle. This is comparative to the
Michter's 10 -year, and both are fantastic. Thank
you. This has a lot of flavor. A lot of flavor.
And I don't know, and frankly, I don't... think
I would enjoy it at 80. I would actually be curious
to see what 110, 20 tastes like. Well, we are
experimenting. I've got a 116 proof that's in
the bottle now for several months. So I'm going
to get my... Actually, I have two ladies that
are kind of sommeliers. I'm going to get them
back together and have them taste it after they've
been sitting for a couple months. Two ladies?
Do I need to wear a dress to get that? Well,
I can make another trip up here. But, you know,
I can make another trip up here. We can do the
116. There you go. Private tasting. Love to do
that. Love to do that. I'll wear a kilt, not
a dress. It's already in the bottle, you said?
Ready to go? Well, R &D, yeah. I made the sticks.
I've even tried, you know, like maple. And the
people I talked to said, yes, you get a little
bit of the maple flavor, but it's so mild that
it's not enough. Right. And, you know, people
are buying like the maple Crown Royal, which
is Crown Royal with maple and sugar. Yes. And
it's like, I'm not going to do a $30 bottle of
whiskey. No, forget that. I'm just not going
to do that. Right. I get you. All right. So you
were holding up what it looks like when it comes
out of the barrel. So yeah. So when it comes
out of the barrel, it looks like - It's got that
light hue. Every other bourbon in the world,
right? Just like any other bourbon. Right. And
you're saying that's three or four years in the
barrel. Yeah. Okay. And so when you start to
finish it in the bottle - That's surprisingly
not that dark within that little vial you brought.
Right. Yes, pretty light. So one thing that's
interesting to me is, you know, if it's been
in the bottle for three months, six months, one
year, 18 months, I mean, like, when does it,
like, stop producing? Great question. So, again,
you know, the engineering perspective, right?
I'm brutally honest. The stick only has so much
resin to give. Correct. Right. So, again, in
my humble opinion, I'll always say that, after
about a year, it tapers off. Okay. But in three
to six months, it gets like you really like the
bell curve, right? You really start to max out
in three to six months. I was shocked. The color
in like two weeks, one or two weeks. Amazing.
It's just boom. The color goes like nobody's
business. So you hold the wattles. For a couple
months. For a couple months before you actually.
And if it's in the Texas heat in the warehouse,
we don't care. It just helps. It's all good.
That's extremely unique. Because nothing, Texas
doesn't hurt it. It actually helps it. No, but
the concept of holding your bottles in your warehouse,
you know. It's more expensive. Yeah. That's very
unique because nobody else does that, right?
They bottle it and they sell it immediately.
And they sell the crap out of it. But you're
holding it because you're aging it. We want quality.
Right. That's very interesting. And you hold
it for three months, you said? About, yeah. Okay.
Yeah, thereabouts, yeah. And then it stays on
the shelves. Well, I mean, it's not going to
stay on the shelves very long. No, no. No more
than another two, three months on the shelves.
I must have missed it, but who? chars the staves
me you do so you design the equipment you've
got the process and is it like on a conveyor
that like you cook those uh it's part of the
secret weed hopper you'd have to kill him please
do yeah all right well let's dive in as close
as we can without uh that's okay any secrets
i mean so yeah no again campfire or so my when
my wife and i first started dating you know She
was the English major. I was the engineer. And
I build stuff. My grandfather was a carpenter
on one side, electrician on the other side. So
my dad taught me all this stuff. So I can build
homes. I built missiles for the government. That
was my background as a research engineer. I built
missiles for the government, did computer simulations,
did this and that. I worked in advanced research
for General Motors. Right. You know, with either
computer simulations or in the test engineering
lab, you know, on and on and on. So her nickname
for me was MacGyver. Right. So when we first
got married, she'd pull stuff out of the Spiegel
catalog, a piece of furniture. She says, can
you make this? And I was an idiot. I said, yes.
Oh, yeah. So it's like, okay. So for the next
month or two, I'm in the garage in the workshop
making this table or this hutch for her because
it's like, okay. Oh, well. Yes, I can do it.
So now I'm stuck. Right. Yeah. You can't back
out of it. I wasn't smart enough to say, oh,
well, gee, that's going to require a special
tool. It's like, oh, man, I'll go buy the tool.
That's cool. I get another tool. And then she
never bought anything again. Tim Taylor. Because
you made everything from that point forward.
Pretty much. Yeah, I made all our bedroom furniture
on and on and on. Why aren't you doing the new
kitchen right now? You should be down there doing
that. Yeah, I just told her I'm retired. I'm
retired. You put your foot down on that one.
Yeah, I said no. Well, kitchen cabinets, those
guys. have specialized machinery and they crank
that stuff out sure it would take me a year to
do what they do in 30 days now you're busy making
bourbon i mean you know you got to pick and choose
your battles yeah well i think you made a smart
choice in fact i think i'm gonna probably pour
a little bit more of my glass in a few seconds
be my guest So I'd love to pour up. Go ahead.
I'd love your connection to the military. Sure.
You did not actually serve in the military. No,
I got. Your father did and you have family, obviously.
So yeah, my dad. So let's continue. So my dad,
my uncle and my nephew are in the army. Okay.
If you notice, Odin's holding the Captain America
shield. Right. From the label. That's army. So
I didn't know this till later. My father told
me before he passed away, our family has gone
through Notre Dame. So we've got a long history
there. I didn't know how long. And so we went
back there because my son went there and he actually
was in the marching band at Notre Dame for a
while. And so on the campus of Notre Dame, our
first relative in the United States, she was
a Catholic nun. She was a nurse, came over during
the Civil War. And during the Civil War, the
medical personnel were awarded military commissions.
So she was an army captain. Oh, wow. And so her
gravestone is in the Notre Dame Cemetery. It's
a military gravestone from the 1860s. That's
crazy. I didn't even know that. Yeah. Especially
women. Women. Our first, yeah. Army captain,
nurse, Catholic nun, all the above. Awesome.
So yeah. So that's pretty cool. So it's an honor
of everybody in my family. Gotcha. What I did
when I got out of college, I took this job with
a company and I was so fortunate because I traveled
all over the world. to all these military bases
to talk to people who were designing missiles
or designing airframes or blowing stuff up. Right.
And that's always exciting. It was really cool.
It was really cool. Yeah. So I got to meet all
the cool people and God bless them. They're all
engineers and nobody knows their name. Right.
And a lot of these folks were PhDs and it'd be
Dr. Joe or Dr. Mary. They didn't give out business
cards. Right. They called you, you didn't call
them. And it was the honest to God truth. We
never knew their phone number. We never knew
their full name. Yep. We didn't know who the
heck they were, but we just know, oh, Dr. Joe
called from Wright Patterson Air Force Base.
Okay, I know who you're talking about. Right.
You know, and they called and they said, this
line in our computer code needs to change because
he thinks he found a more efficient way. We just
said, okay. Right. Because they would get into
the source code of everything. These guys were
better than smart. Right. They're better than
smart. crazy so it was crazy stuff yeah and they're
like the stuff we did years ago now the young
people don't even know but that was now it's
like that's microsoft flight simulator you know
but 40 years ago that was a 50 million dollar
you know geodesic dome you know in the air force
base conducting private research right now it's
just your kid with an oculus Yeah, I remember
that SR -71 Chuck Yeager flight program for Microsoft.
That was badass. Crazy stuff. That was in the
late 80s. Crazy stuff, man. I'll tell you. I
think that was 1987 when that came out. I mean,
I was taking off the airstrip at 3 .5 Mach. Wings
ripped off. Well, you were like on the tarmac
going 3 .5. Well, on the computer, you know.
Yeah, there's some cool stuff out there. Sean,
get to dinner. So you remember the X -Men movies?
The X -Men movies, right? Xavier, he goes into
that dome. circular dome, and he looks up all
the people. Oh, yeah. They had those at Wright
-Patt, and it was white. And you walked into,
it was a 30 -foot dome, a sphere. It was a total
sphere. And you walked into the middle of it,
just like the X -Men. And at 30 feet, your eyes
can't perceive distance because it's pure white.
And so it's like in the movies where you think
you're in heaven. Right, right, right. If you're
not holding on to something, you can fall over.
I mean, you're holding on to the rail, and they
would put the pilot in that seat, and that would
be your simulator. this 30 foot dome no i mean
literally a sphere 30 foot sphere yeah pure white
and they would put the images up and then he
would fly the fighter jet crazy it was nuts and
you walk in and it's like i mean it's like you're
in heaven because there's no noise right there's
only white light and if you don't look down at
the at the gangplank you can't see anything of
color i mean it's just it's completely surreal
it's totally surreal it's like like you're surrounded
by white If you freak out, that's not the place
to be. No. Because you don't know how to get
out of there. No. Stuck in a round room, can't
find the door, right? No, I'm telling you, it's
for real. I've been to Right Pad a few times.
The museum up there is very, very good. My brother
-in -law was a colonel at Right Pad. He was a
vice wing commander. He's retired now, but he
still goes there. uh runs the air force marathon
and we were just up there as a matter of fact
and we drove by they have a new hangar there's
four hangars now at that uh air force museum
i think it's the best thing if you guys are into
the airplanes and all that kind of stuff that's
a destination you need to go see and we're exactly
exactly it's in dayton ohio the smithsonian now
has two museums okay for flight there's not one
but two okay they have the original but then
they have one about 30 miles outside of town
that's also I'm waiting for when they declassify
Area 51. I want to go in there and see that stuff
because that's really cool. And all the decomposing
aliens that they have there. They're kind of
like test tubes. Yeah, nice. Let me grab that
bottle there. I'm going to pour some. Oh, that's
more. That seems really full. I was like, God
bless. That was eight ounces? Let me finish with
the label and the symbolism. We haven't done
that. On the back, we've got the ancient sailing
ship for the navy and the coast guard okay so
the sailing ship is floating over the barcode
so then on top of that that is cool what we've
got is on the newer labels right above the barcode
in the sailing ship it's actually hard to see
but if you look real closely the figure is the
polaris north star polaris north star is in the
center of the logo for the space force Oh, nice.
So we've got all the service branches represented.
Right, you've got a hat tip to everybody. And
kind of real subtle, I mean, you have to be a
geek to know this, but you know when the Marines
were officially called the Marines? Mm -hmm.
I mean, when? Oh, when were they called the Marines?
I do not know that history. So it was actually
10 November, 1775. Okay. What I know that because
they drilled an enemy. So it was... The Marines
were formed in a bar in Boston because the harbor
needed protection. So they basically got a bunch
of drunk people to say, hey, how would you like
to have a gun and go patrol the harbor? And they
said, okay, cool. Yeah, I'm in. Because it's
something to do different from being in the bar.
So it's like they got all the rowdies. Were there
a bunch of Irish guys? Probably. Yeah. It's Boston.
Hello. It's Boston. Sean Murphy. Come on. Mike
Ryan. What do you think? Right. Can't throw a
rock in an Irishman. So yeah. So, but that's
the Marine Corps. So, the Marine Corps theoretically
was the only service that was a military service
before the USA was the USA. Right. 1775, not
1776. Right. Took another six months or so for
the Declaration of Independence. Right. Which
is kind of cool. Very cool. So, yeah. So, we've
got Army, Navy, Air Force, Navy, SEALs, even
in Space Force and the Coast Guard with dual
Coast Guard, Navy with the boat floating over.
Yeah, sure. Keep it simple. But yeah, simple
as that. And you donate to a number of charities
as well. Sure. I would imagine you have some
personal ties to some of those. I mean, the list
on the internet was pretty lengthy. Yeah, quite
a bit. So, I mean, the easy one, you know, Pets
for Vets, right? Okay. So what they do, they're
a Houston charity. The neat thing about them
is if you're a service member and you already
have a pet, they help you train your existing
one. Nice. Right? And so... Gunny Ortiz is a
friend of mine. I met him through the Marine
Corps, but I didn't even know this. You know,
for the last 10, 15 years, the military does
not pay for funerals. So Semper Fi 3, you can
look it up. There's Semper Fi 3. I'm sure there's
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, but 3 in Houston does the military
honor guard for funeral services. And that's
not paid for by the military. They have M1s and
they have, you know, they have, I mean, fake
ammo, you know, the blanks, right? guess what
m1 grand blanks cost probably more than the ones
with the bullets in them unbelievable you know
it's not cheap you know and so they have all
these guns and they had some van donated god
bless these guys because i went with them as
a guest honorary guest to a funeral about two
years ago in july so we all hop on this bus they're
dressed in their dress blues yeah they're marines
they're 50 60 70 years old most of them and they
get out in the july sun in texas in the middle
of a cemetery, you know, with their rifles. Yep.
And I'm wearing a suit, you know, I'm polite.
I'm wearing, you know, a nice dress suit. And
it's like, I'm sweating my brains out. Yeah.
It's like, I don't know how the hell they're
doing this. And they're doing it for somebody
they don't know. They're doing it for somebody
they don't know. They don't, they're not familiar
with. And they do the flag ceremony and they
give them the flag and they do the whole presentation.
And, you know, it's like, God bless them. Totally.
And they do that anytime they're asked. Yeah.
You know, so there's that. Well, it's an honor.
You know, it's just an honor knowing these guys.
Yeah, that too. You know, I mean, really. So
they're just, they're incredible people, and
they do this, and they don't ask for a penny.
But, you know, they need money. So is that Semper
Fi 3? I'm sorry, Semper 3? Semper Fi 3. Semper
Fi 3. So let's say the regular folk, we want
to donate to something like that because it's
a great cause. Everybody's listed on our website.
We don't take a dime. We just give you the link
to these various places. So one of them, Joe
is a big fan of jujitsu, right? So there's a
place he founded in Florida called We Defy Foundation.
We Defy teaches veterans to do jujitsu. Obviously
for physical therapy, for camaraderie. Staying
active, all that good stuff. And some of them
have lost arms and legs. Well, if you know jujitsu,
you roll around the floor. You don't need all
four. Okay. So if you're missing an arm or a
leg, you can still practice jujitsu and be relatively
effective. Paul likes doing jujitsu because he
likes to coddle with other guys. The easy ones,
I mean, the Houston PTSD Foundation. There's
a Dallas PTSD Foundation. If you guys are in
Dallas, Look them up. They all need money. The
Houston one, they take people in for counseling.
Sometimes they have overnight or week -long stays
for therapy and counseling. God bless them. I
mean, we donate to the charities. So coincidentally,
it's good karma. 95 % of the money that goes
to these charities, at least that we've checked
out, goes to the intended recipients. Nice. So
the 95 .5 seems like a good karma number. Only
5 % is used for overhead. Right. So that's that's
what's and that was a blessing, too, because
that was just pure dumb luck. Yeah. Yeah, that's
awesome. I mean, one thing that does frustrate
me, I'm so glad that these people step up and
do all this. I get frustrated that I would have
assumed the VA takes care of more than they do.
How disappointing. Is that something that Trump
is going to change? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Is it their
mission that needs to be changed? Is it their
money? How inefficient they are? What is the
VA's problem? Why don't they take care of this?
So part of its attitude, you know, Elon Musk
had it right. He said you have to have caring
as well as competence. A lot of these guys don't
have caring. Because they're not directly in
touch with the patient. And they're just going
through the motions. They could work for Medicare,
Medicaid. They could work for filling out requisitions
for toilet paper. Right. They don't care. They're
just filling out papers. They don't talk to people.
I mean, if there's anybody that you should be
taking care of, it is our vets. So what I learned
from my government experience is that the federal
government has some of the absolute brightest,
most diligent, hardworking people in the entire
world. Right. And you'll never hear their name.
Right. And then the other 50, 60 % of them, you
know what? Probably higher than that. You know,
I mean, they, you know. Collecting a paycheck.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't want to go into all
the negatives. Right. Can never get fired. Right,
can never get fired. Don't want to go into the
office anymore. Right, don't even go into the
office anymore. Don't get me started. I mean,
I filed half a dozen patents. And it takes, what,
three years? Oh, no, God. Long story short, but
my chainsaw patent, I got the idea 5 -15 -15,
May 15th, 2015. I was in the yard with my son.
I said, I can do better on the chainsaw chain.
I designed this thing, and I found a patent attorney,
yada, yada, yada. I filed a little while later.
Now, COVID's here. They take three or four years,
so Amazon gets a patent in six months. Why? Because
they have lawyers. Right. And the feds are afraid
of them, so they just give them a patent. Me,
I'm just a micro entity. I'm one guy. Yeah. Right?
And so it took them like five years to get the
first evaluate. Well, Germany was first. So the
Germans came back and said, we deny for this
and that reason. And then you write a rebuttal,
you argue back and forth. Meaning they had the
same idea you're saying. They were first. No,
I filed for an international. Oh, got you. So
the USPTO, there's two tracks. You can file domestic
or international. I see. So the PCT is the Patent
Cooperation Treaty. Okay. This is lawyer talk.
Oh, no kidding. Yeah, good God, yeah. So the
PCT means you file internationally. It goes through
a separate process. Well, it's first come, first
serve. So Germany is where the EPO, European
Patent Office. Right. So those guys came back
and said, no, no, no. And we argued back and
forth. It took about six months or a year. And
they said, okay. We award you the patent. They
don't say award you the patent. They say you're
granted an allowance. So they're allowing me
to use my own idea. Right. It's like, oh, nice.
Talk about fricking arrogance. Yeah. I get an
allowance to use my own idea. It's like, really?
Thank you so much. Right. I appreciate that.
Wow. So then we went to Canada because Canada
is a big lumber place, right? Yep. Yeah, a lot
of chainsaws. There's a lot of chainsaws. They're
giving you the allowance to have ownership. To
have ownership. Of that. Of my own idea. Yeah,
but I mean, it's kind of like naming a star.
Correct. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there is some pride
in that. And yeah, there is a level of arrogance.
But at the same time, if you're going to put
your flag, stab it in the ground and say, hey,
this is mine, I think that's impressive. So it's
like a bucket list thing. Some guys want to write
a book, right? I said, I'm an engineer. I worked
on all these high -tech designs. I want to get
a patent. On something, right? So I got that.
So then Canada came back and they said, no, no,
no, no, no. And I said, we said, yes, yes, yes,
yes. Here's why. Here's some rebuttal arguments.
And oh, by the way, Germany said yes. So we made
a few word changes. About a year later, Canada
said yes. USA came back and said, no, no, no,
no, no. We made the rebuttal changes. They went,
no, no, no, no, no. They are not, even to this
day, I don't think they work in the office. You
go to the USPTO and it's vacant. And how I know
it's vacant, because I know somebody that works
there. Right. And he goes there once a month
to check in to prove that he's still working.
And it's a ghost town. Yeah, I think we all...
What just happened? Yeah. Yeah, we had a glitch.
That was a glitch. A glitch in the matrix. Hold
on. There we go. There you go. Okay, I'm better
now. So yeah, I know they go in one day a week
to log in. That's Jeff's fault. To prove they're
in the office. Yeah, I belched. And of course,
I know they're honest people. They're not cheating.
They go back home and then they work. Right.
And they log in. So you can tell by your login
whether or not you're in the office or not. Of
course. Because you're on a different network.
Right. But for some reason, that's the job requirement.
So they go in once and there's nobody there except
maybe the janitor. Right. And they got to turn
on the coffee pot and find the bathroom and they
got to stay there for at least a couple hours.
And then they log out. So it clocks in. You log
in, you log out. So then you can go back. Yeah,
but how nice. He has to clean a clean building.
Yeah, yeah. It's spotless already. So you don't
have to do anything. We're all paying for HVAC
for this huge building. Don't get me started.
That's just one building of many. Many, many,
many, many, many. So literally, this past week,
I got the allowance for the USA. Congratulations.
So yeah. And so now it goes, but we had a - No,
eight years? Well, 2025. Yeah, 2015. It's 2025
now. 10 years. Yeah. And you just got it. Yeah.
Well, that's huge. Yeah, so don't ask me how
much it costs. Right. Oh, legal fees and everything
else. Legal fees, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because every
time you do a revision, you got to pay the lawyers,
right? So how, I mean, other than the - the acknowledgement,
how are you going to benefit? Is that people
use it? They're going to pay you. So now I have
to go to the manufacturers and say, Oh, Hey,
by the way, now it's, you know, it's a long story,
but right. I'm not, when you file internationally,
you have to pay a fee for every country in the
world. So you could wind up paying a hundred
thousand dollars if you want, you know, and a
lot of people don't even, I know friends that
have gotten patents for different firearms, gizmos,
right? Yeah. A special trigger gizmo or a special
or something like that. And then China copies
them and they sell it on Amazon and they go out
of business. Yes. Happens all the time. And you
could sue them, but now you have to spend, you
know, 50 grand on a lawyer and good luck suing
somebody. Amazon just says, well, we stopped
selling them. Right. You know, you told us we
stopped selling them. Right. And then guess what?
Six months later, somebody else pops up. It's
a different, same Chinese company, a different
name. Yeah, that happens all the time. Right.
piece of shit yeah china you know yeah very dishonest
so so sadly a lot of especially especially when
the firearms i notice is one of my uh one of
my close friends used to be a vice president
at remington okay and i hear a lot of the inside
stuff that goes on and a lot of that stuff because
if it's a firearm every country in the world
wants to know what kind of efficient improvement
you've made on a firearm yeah right and so That
stuff gets stolen all the time. So, but the sad
thing about that is that a lot of improvements
are not making it to market. Well, in the USA...
Or you're making it to market, but nobody's benefiting.
Not in the USA. Yeah, yeah. So that's the thing.
So it's funny because in the USA, what counts
more is who's your lawyer. Right. You know, not
if you have a good mousetrap. Right, right, right.
You know, and I'm hoping that some of that stuff
changes. All right. Well, we want the first prototype
chainsaw. Okay. Do you have a waiting list? I
got the plastic 3D model here. Okay. It's a chainsaw
chain. Perfect. It looks a lot like the bottle
you brought for... Oh, what is this? It's 3D
printed. This is the chain. I got it 3D printed.
Oh, you're being serious. I'm dead serious, yeah.
Okay. It's not metal. I thought you were shaking
the bottle of the bourbon that comes out of the
barrel. It's a bidirectional chainsaw chain.
It works in both directions. If it gets dull,
you just flip the chain around and keep right
on going. If you have an electric chainsaw -
Does it sharpen itself in theory? No. No. All
right. So you still have to do that, but it's
got about - That'd be kind of fun, though. It's
got about 200 % to 300 % more material on the
cutting edge, so it'll last a lot longer. Right.
So the whole point of this is it makes the chain
you buy last a lot longer. Correct. Twice as
long. Because you're flipping it. Two to 300
% longer life on your chainsaw. That's beautiful.
And in Houston, I don't know what you do here
in Dallas, but in Houston - The way we garden,
I garden with the chainsaw. Okay. Because, well,
this is, again, horticulture. The Chinese tallow
tree is an invasive species in Houston. Okay.
And the Chinese tallow tree sucks up a lot of
groundwater and it crowds out the oaks and the
mesquite and the other. Okay. So if you buy a
couple acres in South Texas, Southeast Texas,
you probably have got some. Chinese tallow trees.
And you want to get rid of them. You want to
get rid of them because their seeds, when their
seeds fall to the ground, they crack open and
they're like acorns. If you walk on the grass,
it'll cut your foot. They're like razor blades.
God. Oh my gosh, it's horrible. What a horrible
tree. Yeah, I know. And so, yeah, you've got
to cut them down and when you cut them down and
they're soaking wet, it's hard because they're
very moist. Heavy. They're heavy. Yeah. It's
heavy as hell. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh God. So the
Chinese tallow tree, what's this thing look like?
He's got a picture up here. Oh, he's got a picture,
yeah. Yeah, they're really round pear -shaped
leaves, and the bark is kind of sketchy. Is there
anything good from this tree? Not even firewood,
because it burns too quickly. Oak burns much
better. So actually, it's not even good for firewood.
You can't age bourbon in it? Oh, God, no. You
want to make staves out of this? No, no, no,
no, no. Well, it looks pretty. No. It doesn't
even... No. I was going to ask you about the
toxicity of some of these woods. Have you experimented
with some of these staves and you realize, oh
my God, this just made somebody shit themselves?
Well, so great question. I've lost a personal
story. A couple of years ago, I had cancer, right?
And I don't mind saying this, but I went through
MD Anderson. It's a great place. They're awesome
people. I had chemotherapy. I had radiation.
I had all kinds. I had surgeries, yada, yada,
yada. And ever since then, I didn't have COVID,
but I think I've lost about probably 50 % of
my taste buds. Oh, wow. So that's why I use these
other ladies who are the connoisseurs, because
you guys could probably tell me more about my
bourbon now than I could five years ago. That
must just bother the hell out of you. Well, when
we did the Whiskey Riot recently, we did one
at the fair, the fairgrounds. Yeah. We did one
in Houston. Hundreds of people came up to us
and said, don't change a thing. We love your
bourbon. I'm so glad you're here. We got all
kinds of reactions where some people tried it
for the first time. And the unique thing about
it, the ladies love it. A lot of the wives will
come up to us and say, this is the only bourbon
I will drink with my husband. And so the guys
are shocked because they say it's so smooth.
It's because the bottles are sexy. Well, there's
a subculture of women out there that drink bourbon.
Oh, yeah. My wife's one of them. But nobody pays
attention to them. It's like, ladies, I'll pay
attention to you. Sure. You know? It's like,
it's okay. Try my big stick. Nice. I'm sure you'll
like it, you know? So, yeah. Tell me about the
piece of plastic in the lid there that keeps
the stick in. So, this gets back to Joe. So,
Joe, and again, I love the guy to death. He's
more than my brother, you know? I mean, known
him for... I don't got at least 30, 35 years
now. I don't even know how long that's how long
I don't, it goes back years. So we're sitting
around one day and we decided to have like a
new year celebration in new Orleans. Right. And
so, so we get all dressed up. I've got my nice
suit on. My wife's got her like gold dress on.
We went out, we did it right. Right. He's got
his dress blues Marine Corps uniform. Oh wow.
You know, at midnight in new Orleans, you know,
on new year's Eve, we're walking around, you
know, and we look sharp. Right. And so, We were
having fun. We spent three, four days in New
Orleans. And then I brought some of my samples
of bourbon back to the hotel room. And we were
doing sampling and tasting. You like this? You
like that? Whatever. So I had these bottles.
And he said, Mike, we really need to put something
in the bottle so the stick doesn't fall out.
Yes. Oh, there you go. What a concept, huh? So,
well, again, Joe's a Marine. Yeah. He went to
UT, then he graduated, then he went to get his
law degree courtesy of Uncle Sam, right? So he's
got a couple law degrees, worked at the Pentagon
for, I think, General Mattis. So he was way up
there. Nice. His boss was a civilian, but he
was the chief legal counsel for the Commandant
of the Marine Corps. Okay. So he's been in meetings
with people like Mattis and Petraeus. Wow. And
he said, I probably was the youngest, you know,
most, you know, lowest rank officer there. but
I was still at the table. Sure. It's okay. It's
all good. Right. So he's a Marine. He's Lieutenant
Colonel and he's a Jack, right? So he's wound
pretty tight and he'll probably admit that, you
know? And so I said, Joe, you know, we really
don't need that. He goes, I mean, if you look
at the bottle and you tilt it over, the stick
will fall to the bottom. I said, you know, it's
not going to fall out. Even if you shake it,
it's just not going to fall out because the engineering
design, he goes, no, no, no, Mike, you don't
understand. I know my Marines. They'll try to
pull the stick out and light it on fire. So that's
why we have the bottle stop. It's called an in
-bottle pour spout. I think it's great. It worked
great for pouring my drink. You just turn the
bottle completely over. It pours better than
the bar spout pour, and it comes with it. That's
one of the first things I noticed when we were
at Total Wine, and Lori was showing. I was like,
dude, there's a weird stopper in this thing.
Yeah, well, the problem with some of those other
pour spouts, they've got the little ball bearing
in there. They're kind of like, you know, it
has gravity, and it gives you a half an ounce.
Yeah, I was like, come on, man. They've got all
kinds where they limit the pour. The anti -tamper
proof. So I learned one of the things which is
kind of weird, I guess trivial pursuit fact.
The number one country for counterfeit whiskey,
you know where it is? Saudi Arabia. Really? Wow.
They fake, I believe they fake Johnny Walker.
They scotch. And you know where they sell it
to? India. Because India is like the number one
country that consumes scotch. Right. So yeah,
it's crazy. Illicit liquor trade is nuts. So
they're looking at doing all kinds of things.
But those counterproof things, they're trying
to - What would they do to make it counterfeit?
I mean, is it they put like liquid peat in there?
I don't know. I mean - That's crazy. You can
get a chemistry set and you can do a lot of stuff.
Well, I know I've seen, there's been some of
the big distilleries will put, like you'll download
their app. and you'll hold your phone over the
top of the bottle, and it'll tell you if it's
real or not. It'll have some chip in it. Yep,
Buffalo Trace does that. Yeah, the RFIDs, yeah.
Well, there's also, and I think somebody told
me the Buffalo Trace bottles, they've got little
dots on the glass. It looks like Morse code,
but each one of those is from a different batch.
And so a different batch or different distillery,
it's just... So they're embedding anti... They're
embedding, you know, with no label. It's actually
in the glass. There's different dots, like Morse
code on the bottles. You can look and see that.
Yeah. And that delineates certain distilleries
or certain batches. Well, we all saw that Buffalo
Trace is underwater right now. Dude. You see
that? Yeah, yeah. Awful. They're just going to
charge more. It's even more rare now. So, buy
my stuff instead. Are they really underwater?
I mean, I know there's a lot of water, but, I
mean, they have, like, you know, six stories,
you know? Wow. So, years ago, if you remember,
there was five, ten years ago, there was a fire
in Kentucky where they had one of the warehouses,
the rack houses, went on fire. That was Heaven
Hill. Heaven, yeah. Was it Jim Beam or Heaven
Hill? It was Heaven Hill. In 1996. Yeah, we were
just there. So what happened was, I think, and
I'm just throwing a number out here. I could
be wrong. Maybe 50 ,000 barrels went on fire.
Look at the picture there. There's the flood.
Yeah. So the 50 ,000 barrels, I think, went on
fire, and there was so much on fire that it didn't
all burn. It ran off into the river. So the EPA
came after them for pollution, for water pollution.
Well, I think at the time, somebody in the business
said, That's no big deal. That represents maybe
a one -day supply for us, 50 ,000 barrels. Isn't
that crazy? That's insane. That's nuts. One -day
supply. I was literally just up there a couple
weeks ago when we were on spring break, and we
visited Heaven Hill, and they discussed the fire.
And right now, they produce 1 ,500 barrels a
day in just new distillate. I'm sure. And they're
about to open up a new distillery. new pot still
or whatever they're using. How much was that
facility worth? It was $200 million they built
on the property there, and it will double it.
So we'll be doing 3 ,000 barrels a day. Barrels
a day. Hey, guys, if you want to work with me
and make some big stick, just give me a call.
It's all good. What do you want us to do? You
want us to like... Well, I... Help you char the
staves? No, I need to go nationals. I need a
big brother to go national. Yeah. You know, that's
what I need. Yeah. Well, we'll do our part. Oh,
you can drink. We'll drink it. Drink, drink.
It's like, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We can handle that
for sure. Yeah. Drink all you can and we sell
the rest. There we go. Well, cool. It's a fantastic
story. Oh, thank you. And we're glad that you're
here to share it with us. Thank you, yeah. So
what a ride you've been on. And you said only
five years ago, right? Five years, yeah. So,
yeah. Could you have imagined you'd be, you know,
I know you've done a lot of different things,
but this bourbon thing, did you think it would
take off like it has or what? Well, we're doing
great in Texas. You know, getting to other states
is the issue because a lot of the, sadly, a lot
of the craft guys, I probably know personally
of four or five distilleries have gone out of
business in the last year. So between COVID.
In Texas? In Texas. Yeah, because the liquor
laws in Texas, what happened was. If you own
your distillery, you can sell two bottles per
person per month. And you've got to take a log
of people's driver's licenses, yada, yada, because...
That's what 1845 does. Yeah, I was wondering.
It's kind of stupid, man. A lot of rules. So
regarding... Oh, I'm sorry. They favor all the
big companies. And the little craft people...
And the other rule is, you may not know this,
but if you have your distillery, you make whiskey.
Great. You can serve whiskey. You can serve whiskey
on the rocks. You can serve whiskey and soda.
You can serve old fashions. But if somebody comes
in and says, I want a vodka tonic, what are you
going to do? You've got to make vodka too because
you can only sell what you make at that distillery.
You can't sell something else. You can't sell
Smirnoff vodka. Right. You can't sell Seagram's
gin for gin and tonics. You've got to make your
own. So that there's some guy out there like
me who says, I'm the expert in making this bourbon.
But if I open up a distillery and now I open
up a tasting room. Now I got to figure out how
to make a gin, a vodka, a rum, and yada, yada,
yada. Otherwise, I'm not going to get enough
customers. So all the tasting rooms, they're
operating at a loss. And then the distributors,
they say, well, if you sell it to Spex for a
total wine at, pick a number, $50 a bottle, if
you sell it at your distillery for $40 a bottle,
they're going to be mad at you. Yep. So you have
to sell it at the same price. Same price. Right?
Yeah, we noticed that too. Yeah. So that's the
thing. So you can't give in -house customers
any discount. Right. Because then you'll just
make all your retail channel mad. And you want
to. You want them to come to your distillery
and be excited about it and experience it. And
by the way, you get it for $10 off. Yeah. And
you can't even do that. Can't do that. You can
do it once, but not next month. You could throw
in glassware. That's illegal. Actually, that's
illegal in Texas. You can't incentivize. Well,
I think it's a dollar is the limit, TABC says.
I've never tested that. Right. I'm not interested
in testing their patients with me. Yeah, no kidding.
Yeah. Good Lord. You know, the reason why I know
that, at least that's what it was, was, you know,
I worked a lot of bars. And we had, like, Middle
Light, for example, used to give out a lot of
product. They used to give out, like, football
jerseys. Right, right, right. And then they passed
the law saying you can't give out stuff like
that. Anything you give out has to be less than
a dollar. So they started, like, giving out these
little stupid football jerseys. Well, if you
give it out, you have to give it out to everybody,
and it's not conditional on a purchase. Correct.
So I had a friend who had a distillery in Jacksonville
where Joe lives and he wanted to get a bunch
of t -shirts printed up. Well, they made a mistake.
They printed children's sizes. So he had to destroy
them all because you can't give a child, you
can't give them a koozie, you can't give them
a coaster because it's incentivizing a minor
to drink alcohol. So you can't do that. So they
all had to be destroyed. You can't give them
coasters, koozies. You can't give them a freaking
balloon. Yeah, but it's okay to give them the
booklet to turn themselves trans. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. You can do that to a child, but you can't
give them an alcohol shirt. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
exactly. Just put it in library books. That's
a different agency, so, yeah. That's what it
is, yeah. But still, it's just, you know, my
point about bringing that up in a sheepish way
was it's just the overreach of the government,
you know, from the text and the font of the bottles
to, you know, it's just, it's ridiculous. You
know, how about that judge today? The Supreme
Court weighed in. Was that yesterday or today?
Judge Boasberg, is that his name? Yeah, the Supreme
Court, my microphone's goofing up too. Yeah,
well, I think we, Whatever, you know, we'll...
The Supreme Court ruled against, what's his name,
Bozeman or something like that? Yeah, they ruled
against him, so it was actually a positive. It's
a positive for... So I'm kind of curious what
his... Because he's going to bring it back up
in court tomorrow, and I'm kind of curious what
he's going to say. So the Supreme Court, you
know, split hairs. They didn't rule against the
entire concept. They ruled against the fact that
he doesn't have jurisdiction. Correct. So if
he doesn't have jurisdiction, that doesn't do
anything on the merits of the case. So now you
have to start the cycle all over again. And here's
the chick that Trump endorsed. Amy Coney Barrett.
Yes. She was like... She's from Notre Dame. She
jumped the ball. She's from Notre Dame. So, I
mean, years ago, like I said, my family history
goes back 150 years at Notre Dame. And they used
to be very, very strict and very Catholic and
not anymore. I saw somebody outside had a Texas
A &M on their truck. And my friend, a dear friend
of mine, 10 years in the U .S. Marine Corps.
Drill instructor, sniper school, Sergeant Marine
Corps. Got out of the Corps, then he went to
A &M. Right. And got his college degree, courtesy
of Uncle Sam. God bless him, right? Yeah. It's
a good thing. It's all good. He even says, you
know, I sent my son to A &M. He just got the
ring ceremony last week. Yeah. Right? I mean,
again, God bless him, wonderful, but school's
not the same as it used to be. They just allowed
the drag queen thing. It's like... Really? I'm
not okay with it. So you got the Corps of Cadets
on one side, and then you've got the drag queen
on the other. It's like, what in the world? This
is at A &M? At A &M. In the last 10 years, it
has. They forced it. They forced it. Yep. They're
having some problems. Well, the alumni, everything
runs on money, and the alumni need to step up
and say, eh, no. Enough. Or Trump's going to
weigh in and be like, you know what? Fuck you.
You're losing funding. You know what, moreover,
does Governor Abbott have anything to say about
that? Notre Dame's got a, and I love Notre Dame,
you know, they've got a $10, $12 billion endowment.
Harvard's got a $50 billion endowment. Harvard
can afford to give every student free tuition
for the next 50 years, you know. And so they
have private offices now. They have people that
just churn money, you know. I mean, that's all
they do. Harvard, Yale, 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, Texas.
You know, I know people that work in the Texas
system was founded because they had all these
royalty rights, right? And so they still collect
hundreds of millions of dollars, and A &M too.
I think just recently, the politicians were saying
they're going to allow Texas tech in on the system.
To start splitting revenue with Texas Tech, maybe
Prairie View A &M, maybe a couple more schools.
Because there's so much money going around, everybody
else is saying, I want a piece of the pie. And
yet the tuition goes up and up. And the tuition
goes up nonstop. It's a racket. It's insane.
It is. It is. Well, that music means we are coming
to the end of the first half. It's crazy. It's
crazy. Time flies. So our listeners out there,
check us out on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook,
dudeslikeus - God bless it. Have another bourbon.
He had too much big stick. Big stick bourbon's
good. Woodcraft, smash that like button. And
thank you, Mr. Chuck, our producer, for staying
on task tonight. God bless. I am a little drunk.
Yeah, you're struggling. Are you staying for
the second half? Yeah, I'm staying. Okay, because
we're going to talk about a lot of fun things
in the second half. Yeah, we're going to change
it up a little bit and get crazy. For News Like
This, I'm Sean. I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. I'm Mike.
All right, we'll be right back. We'll see you.