We can dim those lights now to, what is it, 40
%? This is 25. It's already there. Oh, it is?
Yeah. You're looking for the ambiance again?
I don't know. It's very relaxing. Oh, isn't it?
Yeah. Wait till the misters come on. Yeah. I'm
going to break out the bourbon in just a second.
We have aromatherapy, too. The scents are going
to start coming out. Oh, it's amazing. It's called
Sean. No, no, no. I'm out. I'm out. I am out.
All right, here we go. All right, so it's the
first half of the Dudes Like Us podcast. It's
May 20th. We have a special guest. We're super
excited. We've got tons of history we're going
to be learning today. I'm super excited about
you guys. Me too. I'm pumped, man. Chuck, thank
you for showing up and being engaged. Dudes Like
Us, I'm Sean. I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. I'm Barry Brenninger.
There you go. Very nice. Welcome to the podcast.
We're happy to have you, man. Glad to be here.
We're drinking bourbon. You know, it's kind of
my favorite bourbon is I come over to your house.
You open up your liquor cabinet. It's free. There
you go. It's no better bourbon than free, right?
Excellent. Excellent. Somebody else's bourbon
is always the better bourbon. It always tastes
better. It does. And we pride ourselves on our
collection. So for those first -time listeners
out there that have not heard the Dudes Like
Us podcast before, we're a collection of dorks,
essentially. We're average guys in our mid -50s,
and we've been friends for a really long time.
And it was just something that we... fell into
and we had some extra equipment laying around
and we just started investing in it and building
it. And next thing you know, we're doing this
thing and we're just shooting from the hip. We
have no idea what we're doing. And we're just
having fun doing it. Regardless whether this
podcast goes anywhere or not, we have fun doing
it. Of course, we want to go somewhere eventually.
I don't know if we're ever going to get the Joe
Rogan status, but God bless. That's the goal.
That's the goal for sure. Wouldn't that be cool?
I'm in. Nice. So, you know, we talk about anything
that we endure or go through life. Thresholds,
just normal stuff. Taking the kids to school,
college, you know. Childhood memories. Just anything.
Growing up in the 70s, 80s, some of them 60s.
Aging parents. Some 90s. Aging parents and what
that means and brings to your life. Skipping
school, drinking bourbon. Drinking whiskey, drinking
bourbons. Playing hooky. Horrible. Horrible decision
making. Yeah, you know, and everyone has their
own version of what that was. And we just kind
of, plus, you know, we go through different things,
too. You know, the medical conditions in life
and, you know, the changes that you have to make
as we start to get physically and emotionally
more mature. You know, and, you know, taking
testosterone. and just whatever works for each
individual. It's crazy. Don't forget the mysteries
of the universe. Crystal skulls and things that
are underneath the pyramids. The crystals. Yeah.
There's all sorts of things that we can... And
I think another interesting thing is there's...
Yes, we're all three guys in our mid -50s, but
we all have a very distinct childhood. Sean was
a military brat. Paul is an illegal alien from
Cambodia. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Wow. I think it's
from Cloud City. Yeah. And I lived my entire
life in the same small town in Ohio, out of Ohio,
just north of Cincinnati. Also illegal, right?
Yes. Illegal. It's illegal. And it turns out
Jeff was hanging out in the bowels underneath
the city or hanging out in the sewer system.
That was a thing growing up for him. And we can't
wait to hear your story, Barry. You know, it's
very similar. all of that so you're also i'm
hanging out cambodia nice all right well let's
uh let's dive into it so uh so yeah so uh well
welcome to the podcast have you how often do
you come to texas texas is probably one of the
states that i visit most because it's it's its
own country So I'm going down to Houston, Southeast
Texas, Dallas. I was in Austin a couple of months
ago. Love, man, I love the barbecue. God, when
I come here, I'm just like, can we just go to
the best barbecue? Oh, that's it. Oh, no, I go
to another one. That's the best barbecue. Well,
there's a Hutchins a mile and a half from here
right now, which is quite possibly one of the
best in Texas. All right, I'm going there this
trip. Shout out to Hutchins. Yeah, seriously.
Definitely tasty. We're excited to have you on
here. I'm going to wind you up and let you talk.
We're going to poke holes in your stories. Jeff
had brought up some factoids about RD1 Spirits
and how it got its name. We've all individually
did some research on you and some of the history.
Not necessarily you, but the whole company as
a whole. Me personally, was turned on to RD1
Spirits from the Ambarano one. Yeah. Because
it's got such a unique taste. I fell in, I don't
want to say love with it. No, you did. But it
was like one of my favorites instantly. Got to
have it on the shelf. Yeah. Oh, it's totally
unique to any others right now. And like I said
earlier, we're at the point where we're like,
we need to try other Ambarano bourbons. Yeah.
And we can't find any. There's not a lot. There's
one we found. Lasso. Yeah. Well, we, yeah, that's
what I said. And they make it. We haven't tried
it, but from what I've heard, it's nothing close
to what you're putting together. Yeah, I think
the key is restraint. You want to give influence,
but you don't want to over -influence it. You
had anything over -influenced, and it's not pleasing.
And we can certainly talk a little bit about
the exotic woods that we use. You know, RD1 Spirits,
registered distillery number one out of Lexington,
Kentucky. It was the first registered distillery
from 1865. We started the brand in January of
2020 to write that next chapter and then to help
bring bourbon tourism to Lexington because people
come on the bourbon trail. Have you guys been
on the bourbon trail? I have. I just got back
and. We didn't hit Lexington. All right. So next
time, next trip, you got to hit Lexington. Lexington
is on the bourbon trail. And part of the reason
that we started this brand was to help drive
that bourbon tourism to Lexington, Kentucky.
Right. That's good. Yeah, because if. You know,
my wife and I went up there. We only had two
days, so we didn't have a whole bunch of time.
But we ended up, because it's a standard in Bardstown,
right? Yeah. And we just kind of sprayed from
there. Then I'm from Cincinnati, and then we
drove up to Cincinnati. Now, if we were to go
to every single distillery and just take your
time. Oh, that'd take a long time. How long would
that take? A long time. Like a month? Well, there's
60 distilleries that are on the Berman Trail.
Challenge accepted. Yeah. And you can't do more
than, you could do three a day. That's too many.
You know, you think about it. When you go to
a distillery, you're sampling different samples.
Two's probably the maximum. And you're there
for an hour and a half. Yeah. About maybe two
hours if you're really just loitering in the
gift shop and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. True. So what
a day. Two. Two in the morning. Well, we could
probably do three ourselves. You know, we're
expert drinkers. Right. But, you know, as a rule.
Yeah, but if you're going to be there for a week.
You know, and you're hitting 21, three a day.
Yeah. Lord. You better get the patch and, you
know, that liquid IV. You better be all prepared.
A defibrillator. A nurse on call. And I tell
you what, they're not big highways. You're going
down country roads. Yeah. You know, and Kentucky's
hilly and you're doing this kind of thing. You
have to be prepared for that as well. It's beautiful
country. It is. You know, we complain about the
traffic in Lexington. You know, I mean, rush
hour is about an hour, an hour and a half. And
it might take us 10 minutes instead of seven
minutes to get somewhere. And I come down to
Dallas or Houston. I'm like, holy crap, man.
This is nothing like Lexington. Well, even here
in Frisco, I just assume it's going to take me
20 minutes to a half hour to get anywhere. To
get out of the town. Yeah. getting out what the
hell it's it's ridiculous it's called too many
people in too confined a space yeah people get
out of here man and i think it's uh it's too
late man they're they're taking over and there's
more coming i can tell you yeah it's i drive
every day uh i've kind of recently gotten out
of corporate my wife hates when i say i'm semi
-retired and i drive school bus for the special
needs kids right now oh nice i'm about to and
i drive all day through the neighborhoods here
in Frisco and there's so many apartment buildings
going up and houses going up and neighborhoods
going up that I just groan because I live here
and the traffic is already bad. There's multi
-hundred dwelling master plan communities north
of us and there's nowhere to go but south. You
know what I mean? If you don't work from home,
you're coming south, which means it's already.
Crazy. Yeah, yeah. And they're putting in a Universal
Studios theme park here. Yeah. Because we needed
that. Why? About six miles from here. No. Oh,
my gosh. We needed that. That's like the famous
line from the Jim Gaffigan stand -up comedy where
he's like, well, how many kids do you have? Five
or six? He's got a bunch. He's got a gaggle.
He's kind of like, you know what? He says, you
know what having five kids is like? It's like,
imagine having four kids and you're drowning.
Or imagine you're in a body of water and you're
drowning and someone hands you another kid. That's
kind of like the population up here. It's just
like, why are you doing this? that to us. It
makes something because, look, this was a desirable
place to live. Being in Collin County here in
Frisco, the school systems are great. They allocated
a lot of money. They really are. The money is
getting more and more thin. Our kids are graduated.
I don't care anymore. I'm done. We still should
be involved in it because we got to make sure
they're teaching our kids right. It's a little
frustrating that the money that we make has to
go towards the taxes that we're not using. Yeah,
but we also live here. And when we want to go
to Home Depot to pick up one little tiny item,
we don't want to be gone for an hour and 15 minutes.
Yes. Well, I'm going to. You know what I mean?
I'm thinking we're just going to have to buy
the little mini helicopters. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The flying cars. I saw they're going to go. Amazon.
Yes. You want to order it. I wonder how Amazon.
I mean, because, you know, the Amazon drivers
are all over the place, right? I mean, they've
got to be dealing with the traffic. And it matters.
It matters because they've got like a half a
billion boxes they have to deliver. And they
have all these. tight timelines. I mean, I wonder
how they're feeling about the track. Well, that's
what I deal with. We have tight timelines and
we're in the rush hour every day, both times.
You have Amazon boxes in the back of your bus?
Yeah, they're called students. And there's an
expiration on those kids, too. You got to get
them back stat. Yeah, I see crazy shit happening.
every day these drivers and and i and i've told
these guys i i sit up high and i and i can look
over at the drivers and it's the adults who are
driving on their phone on their phone yeah and
texting and facebooking or whatever honk at them
no i'm not driving yet so i will you i'll be
Well, I don't know. Well, how are they doing
with the school bus rules? I mean, you put out
the little stop sign and you flash the lights.
I mean, these people need to be stopping, right?
We had someone today. Blast through. No. Didn't
even stop. No. You take out your sidearm and
just start unloading your clip on him. Yeah,
the driver that I'm with today honks. And they
recommend not honking because they don't want
anything to start, right? But she's honking her
horn. And he just blasted right through. Dude.
And that's happened probably six times since
I've been on it. I think that for a school bus
like that, they should invest a little bit of
extra money on one of those foghorn. uh yeah
horns that comes out as low frequency and they're
like oh my god well they record everything they
record the entire inside they record the entire
outside so all those cars that are passing it
gets recorded no and they get reported i don't
i don't know if they report or not but everything
gets if they should they should yeah so i don't
know if our admin team reports them or not if
we let them know uh or not because we have a
way to bookmark the video And they can go back
and say, hey, there is a guy who ran at this
part and they can find it real quick. You know
what you guys need to do? You guys ever seen
the movie Heat? where they string out that spiked
chain across the road and it blows out all the
tires. You need that. You've got to deploy that.
And then it goes boom, boom, boom, boom. And
then it pulls back in when we're done. Yes, exactly.
It pulls back in. Speaking of pulling back in,
let's dial it back in. Barry, walk us through
the RD1. I want to know your involvement with
RD1. How did you get started with it? Actually,
you could take it from the history of it, but
what's your involvement? Yeah. Well, I first
want to say that, you know, I've got a sales
guy that I worked with down here a year and a
half ago. And John, he said, Barry, don't beep
at anybody. Don't blow your horn at anybody because
we're all packing here. Yeah. Don't do that.
Bad idea. As long as you have a bigger gun. Yeah.
Right. Right. Yeah. So, yeah. Body armor. yeah
my uh my involvement with this brand i'm the
co -founder so i you know i me and and a few
other people got together and we love bourbon
and um i i followed this club around called the
lexington bourbon society and and fell in love
with the industry but the first event i went
to was with um jimmy russell oh yeah with wild
turkey i mean he's a rock star i mean this guy
you you go and see jimmy and and we're all just
a guy of oh my gosh this guy you know we we want
him to sign our bottles and you know so again
fell in love with the industry this was before
covid And so we wrote a business plan in late
January or late 2019. And we, we pitched to the
university of Kentucky football coach, Mark Stoops.
Mark is a division one football coach. Love the
story, love the liquid that we had at the time.
And he said, I'm all in, I'm going to give you
what you're asking for. And fortunately the next
day I met with an angel investor, Mike Tatterton
and Marcia couch. They've started serial entrepreneurs.
They've started, you know, 40 companies worth
tens of millions of dollars. And Mike said, you're
not asking for enough money. And I laughed at
his face. I laughed at him. But then I came to
my senses and I said, wait a minute. He probably
knows a thing or two about business. Probably,
yeah. So we brought him in. And so from January
of 2020, right during COVID, we had a product
on the shelf in October of 2020 during COVID.
to have a product you have to buy liquid cost
of goods corks bottles you have to have a still
you have to have an installed a lease agreement
you have to have the local government inspect
you state and federal abc And we had a product
on the shelf in October. And then three months
later, Mike's words came ringing true. We're
out of money. And so we went back to the investors,
opened up all the books and said, here's where
we are. And so they looked at it and said, we're
going to go forward. We're going to take over
the company, but we want you to come with us.
And all the other co -founders were. giving a
buyout. They're gone. And so I came with them.
Now I've got ownership in it. I'm the national
brand champion. I get to go around and do fun
things like this. They have to stay back at home
and sell and take care of business. But I've
got a dream job. I don't feel like I work a day
in my life, although I work very hard. I'm traveling
42 weeks out of the year. That's a lot. I absolutely
love the business. It is tough. It doesn't matter
what business you're in right now. You better
be proactive. You better understand your customer
avatar because it's changing. That customer demographic
is changing, and you better be able to change
with it. You better be able to price your cost
of goods appropriately. Otherwise you're going
to get left in the dust. I mean, so, so I, you
know, I, again, have a dream job already won
spirits. We started just again, just to pay honor
and respect to Lexington's first registered distillery,
but then write that next chapter. And that next
chapter is what more can Kentucky bourbon do
with wood finishing? So that's your focus is
finishing in different exotic woods. That's your
focus. Yep. It is. It is. So. how did you or
i guess you say you're distilling your own product
is that correct so this is um we um we sourced
our product initially from from green river jacob
call if you all know jacob call eighth generation
master distiller he was the one that laid the
barrels down that these bottles came from you
know so all of our product came from green river
at that time um jacob left And then when they
were bought out by Bardstown Bourbon Company,
he left and established Western Kentucky Distilling
Company. And my partner, Mike Tetterton, is a
49 % owner in that distillery. So Jacob's laying
down all of our new make. Nice. And what we're
doing with our wood finishing is we're taking
that same mash bill and we're just finishing
it with different exotic woods. And your own
rickhouses and stuff like that? Yep. So we have
rickhouses. Sorry. You're finishing it in exotic
woods. So walk us through that process. Is the
barrel itself the exotic or are you putting staves
in there or mixing up lids? Great point. Great
point. So, you know, our cost of our bottle is
$69. If we used a secondary barrel, a secondary
cask, that price per bottle would be $100. So
we're using the existing American oak barrel,
and we're putting those staves in that barrel,
and we're tasting everything to finish. So, you
know, what we had talked about earlier is, you
know, the Ambarana, it's got a nice balance.
It's got a nice balance because we don't over
-influence it. We put that wood in there, taste
to finish. Once it gets to the point where it's
not over -influenced, but it's got the right
influence, we take those staves out, put it in
a bottle. Is there a standard time frame where
you say, okay, normally three months, six months,
or is it all? Yeah, some of that's proprietary.
We don't we don't really talk about it. But,
you know, I mean, think about it. If we're in
the summertime, the liquid expands at different
equation. You know, so we got to be more on it
during summertime than we do in the wintertime.
Regarding charring, do you char your staves?
Yeah. So great question. The most of the staves
that's virgin wood, some of them are toasted.
Some of them are just the plain wood. Really?
Yep. The Ambarana, for instance. If you've seen
Ambarana wood, the way that we use it. I mean,
I've seen barrels. I've seen people age whiskey
in Ambarana barrels, and I'm like, oh, my God,
you put that in the barrel, and it's going to
be over -influenced in a matter of days. It'll
almost be, you know, you can't even drink it.
Yeah, there's a strong, I mean, you can definitely
tell there's a strong. influence of the amber
on it huge and it just staves yeah that's amazing
right the whole barrel would be like you said
it's over the top yeah and you know some of the
woods that that or maybe not i don't know have
you done it done the the barrel yeah have you
just experimented now we never we never would
we know now we've experimented with a blackberry
wine cask We we've experimented with a dunkle
beer cask, you know, so we have done some experiment
experimentation. But by and large, it's wood
staves going into the existing American oak barrel
barrels. Interesting. So are you so are you getting
the barrels directly from Green River or you
have your own barrels that you're putting Green
River's distillate in and then you're putting
your staves in? Like, how's that work? We've
got a secondary company that I'm a part of, and
we've got 32 ,000 barrels in our inventory. So
when RD1, the company, needs more inventory,
we move it from the holding company into RD1
Spirits. But if you look at most contract distillers,
they've got wholesale barrels, and then they
have brands. So Green River, Bardstown Bourbon
Company, they have a lot of brands. under their
umbrella, but they also do contract distilling
and wholesale barrel sales. That's part of the
bourbon industry. I mean, you've got to be able
to make revenue on the labels as well as the
barrels. Sure. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. So tell
us about your footprint. So how many rickhouses
do you have? And are you growing, expanding?
What's the future look like? We've got two rickhouses
in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. And so Lawrenceburg
is just about 20 minutes away from Lexington.
We have a rickhouse in Nicholasville, Kentucky.
probably no more than 10 minutes away from downtown
Lexington. Those are the areas where we've got
our new make and our age barrels and then our
barrel finishing. So we're doing the barrel finishing
in those rickhouses. We just opened up a new
distillery in Lexington. So that just opened
up last week. We had our ribbon cutting and our
VIP event. And it is so nice. This location is
in downtown Lexington on Main Street. property
the area is called the commons lex and that is
going to be a new entertainment district for
lexington so we've got a distillery district
in lexington on manchester street just a mile
away we've got on main street this um entertainment
district there will be a 2000 person capacity
amphitheater right across from where our distillery
is you guys do pickleball Not yet. We're not
old enough. It's on the list. We're not old enough.
Yeah, we're not old enough yet. Yeah, I'm in
that age category now. So we've got the largest
pickleball court that's being built right there.
And so we're going to have two different pickleball
tournaments a year where people from all over
the U .S. are going to come in. Very nice. How
is it? Pickleball is two -on -two, right? No.
I don't know. I don't know. Yes, two on two.
You're right. It is. Yes, you're right. Well,
I'm thinking ping pong. It's way off. Two people.
I don't know. I don't know. Ten on ten. I think
it can be just like tennis. It's not your brothel.
It can be singles and doubles just like tennis.
Yeah. Right. It's kind of like table tennis meets
tennis. It is. Totally. Totally. Well, now that
you guys are open. I definitely want to stop
by and see this because your place looks absolutely
very, very nice. It does. It's absolutely beautiful.
It's super incredible. It's an immersive experience.
So when you come there, you know, if you want
to do the typical tour, we've got different kiosks
that you can see how it's made. You can see,
you know, the finished product. You can see our
wood finishing. And then we have a wood science
lab that you can come in and meet with our research
and development master distiller, Jared Golohue.
Dr. Golohue, he's got his Ph .D. in wood. maturation
we lovingly call him dr wood dr wood's in the
house it's funny with his wood a lot yeah it's
funny dr wood lots of good jokes there yeah i
know i know i know typically when i say that
in mixed company i you know i just kind of look
and wait and see people snicker yeah it's a great
but but again This guy has his PhD in wood maturation.
He wrote his thesis on— What is wood maturation?
Well, so he wrote his thesis paper on how American
oak and the wood taloses that occur in that wood
affect the distilled spirit. He is a smart guy.
I mean, he will nerd out on you if you want to
take a deep dive into the wood piece of wood
maturation. I'm always curious on what to use,
what not to use. some of this stuff poisonous
yeah so uh you gave me a um you know a couple
of things that are walnut wood right and thank
you great gifts a keychain a magnet um there's
two types of walnut um one is black walnut poisonous
will kill people if we would finish that and
then you know the other walnut so we haven't
experimented with that yet when you gave that
to me i sent it i sent jared a message hey do
we have this in the hopper yet he's like not
yet we're not using black walnut berry okay so
yeah good good good good is that black walnut
the same as brazilian walnut is that is that
the same thing we we have to ask dr wood i i
don't know i'm you know i'm not gonna bullshit
here I'm not going to throw it. Yeah, not yet.
Hold on to that challenge flag. Hold on to the
challenge flag. All right, so Chuck, on the website
that we have pulled up, is Dr. Wood on there?
He is not, no. He's not on the thing? Go to the
people. Yeah, here's the who's who of everybody
in RV1. There he is. Jared Gollaghy. There he
is. Look at him. Look at that. All right. He's
a young buck. Master blaster. Young buck. Now,
he is clean shaven, and you are not. So you don't
even have time to shave because of all this travel
you're doing. I don't shave. I let it all grow
out. Now, I can't grow it on the top of my head.
I think there's some kind of gene that you have
where you're either bald or you keep your hair
forever. I have the gene that I lose that. hair
on the top of my head right but but i'm compensating
here on my face nice so we don't have video but
for our listeners it's about a six foot beard
rumple still skin yeah yeah so so funny i came
i came and got my rental car and the girl looked
at me and she's like I'm getting Lord of the
Ring vibes here. You shall not pass! Oh, just
sign your agreement, then you can pass. Now,
you're trying to grow a comb -over type thing
over top? Excellent. It's going to happen. You
know it's going to happen. I can go both ways.
It's an extremely, extremely impressive beard.
And you said you've been growing it for three
years, which I'm jealous, because if I tried
to do that, it would not happen. Yeah, I've got
a really good girl, Allison, at... the rooster's
nest in lexington kentucky she trims my beard
great girl young you know and she knows i'm just
like allison was trimming we're letting it grow
she's like i got you barry nice nice okay well
what does she exactly trim the bottom so um i
mean i guess how do you trim a beard like that
she i she she has this whole process she takes
this buzzer and and she you know makes it to
where it's um down to a point yeah yeah yeah
yeah But she just levels it off at the bottom.
Good girl. Does it drive you crazy sometimes?
No. I mean, when I'm traveling, I'll usually
put it in a ponytail. But when I'm out, my wife
says, when you're out and you're on TV or you're
presenting, you just want it to be out in all
its glory. Oh, yeah. Well, if you're well bearded,
it looks great. It does. I've tried. To get a
beard and, I mean, I can grow a beard, but I
mean, I got mine long and I couldn't handle it.
I don't even know how long it got. It definitely
wasn't that long. Well, didn't you say you got
it caught in like some rafters? Yeah, well, I
did like construction, you know? And I'm climbing
up through there, putting lights and just doing
all kinds of stuff. Rafters? Yeah, it was like
they had Douglas for big beams up there. And
here I am like. installing shit and you know
it's getting stuck and you know when you pull
a hair out of your beard it hurts you know it's
like pulling a nostril hair out it's like childbirth
well i thought the issue was you were losing
a lot of yeah a lot of your lunch Oh, yeah. Well,
he was just saving it for later. Yeah. Well,
it's a flavor saver. I mean, you were like, shit.
So I want to get back to the woods that you're
using, because I know you have a LTO coming out
you want to talk about, and I'm very interested
in it as well. Yeah. Can you speak to that and
kind of what the flavors are going to be of this
one? Yeah. So this LTO is an eight -year Kentucky
straight rye and a five - and seven -year Kentucky
straight bourbon. It's at 102 proof. It's been
extra finish in Mizunara wood from Japan and
French oak from France. We lovingly call this
sister cities because Lexington, Kentucky has
a sister city in Japan and one in France. It's
1 ,500 six -pack cases going to the whole U .S.
market. I do know Texas is going to get about
150 cases of it. It's only $69. And the flavor
profiles, if you can follow me here, that eight
-year rye gives really nice floral notes. You
know, it's a mature rye. And then you've got
this French oak. And I love French oak. I think
French oak is a great wood finisher because it
brings a sweet kind of baking chocolate component.
But a lot of people get wood tannin. Some people
are really sensitive to the wood, and it comes
off wood to them. But it brings a sweet component
to this blend. And then the mizunaro wood brings
spiciness. So mizunaro brings some sandalwood.
There's a little bit of a Japanese incense on
the finish. Nice. So it's balanced. From the
aroma to the finish, you're getting sweet, Floral,
spicy. It is a very well -rounded port. Already
won gold in the New York International Spirits
Competition. It won 95 points there. I think
it's going to go on to win some major awards,
but it's going to be here and gone. Yeah, when
does that come out now? It's already bottled,
and we've got our distributor. Our distributor
in most states is RNDC Republic, and same here
in... Texas, but the supply chain, you just can't
tell. I can tell you it is registered. They have
submitted a PO. That timeline could be four weeks.
It could be six weeks before it gets to the market.
How do we get a bottle of this? You know, you
might know a guy. You might know a guy. Help
us out here. Yeah, we'll talk. We'll talk. Okay.
We'll pay for it. We're not asking for anything
for free. We just want the God -blessed bottle.
Right. It's good. And, you know, what we've had
today so far, I think we're getting ready to
drink a pretty high proof, but this one at 102
proof, it's crushable. You know, when's the first
time that you opened a bottle and you shared
it with people and you... damn near drank the
whole bottle, or you did drink the whole bottle.
Yeah, well, because it's crushable. It is. 100
proof. When it's 102, or even, hell, we had 115,
120 proof that was crushable, because it's just
like, it doesn't even taste this strong. And
then all of a sudden, you stick a straw in there,
and you're like, and it just goes down like nothing.
It's true. I think the last bottle we killed
was Demichter's 10. Yeah. Yeah, that one was
terrific. It went down so easy. It was good.
Crushable. And we couldn't post that one. Yeah.
There's no proof of it. And that was some of
our best material, too. It didn't go well. It
unraveled. There were a lot of good things in
there, but equally... The opposite. Yeah. Yes.
Unpostable. We don't want to get into it because
I won't be able to post this. We're not going
down that rabbit hole. Right. To place into a
brothel. So are you allowed to talk about some
of the other things you're working on that may
be coming out? Yeah. Let's see. My team, they're
like, Barry, you can't say this. Do it anyway.
Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Let me think about
this. We can have a couple of nuggets. Typically,
we do a couple of allocated releases a year.
We did settle on an allocated release for the...
fall it's gonna be incredible what what what
i love about jared um our master distiller um
is that he is in this this this research phase
so i mean we've done some wood finishing that
um you ever you ever go into somebody's house
and and and they they've just cleaned it from
top to bottom with fabuloso you know you you
come in you get this aroma of of oh my god it's
It's a cleaning agent. We did some wood finishing,
and I'm like, that's fabuloso. That's not a good
flavor profile. So we've done some funky stuff.
You had some aged glade in there? Yeah. But you
know a lot of these exotic woods are made with
cologne and perfume. So you could get some weird
off notes that just don't belong in a whiskey.
Sure. But what I love about what we're doing
is we're wood finishing, and then we're blending
the two different wood finishes together to create
like the sister cities, that Mizunara wood and
the French oak. French oak, yeah. It is incredible.
And the key to— Is it the same way, though? Is
it with staves? Yep, yep. So we do staves right
now, and probably 95 % of everything we do is
staves. And it's working. Yep. Because I know
Iron Root Republic in Denison, Texas, they mix
it up by using the lids, the tops, bottoms, French
oak. They just mix it up that way. They don't
use the staves. Interesting. Yeah, I'm kind of
curious. I wouldn't think that would be as much
surface area kind of absorption. I don't know,
but maybe. Well, it would limit it because you're
using 360 of that stain that's going in. And
the Ambarana, we're drilling it out. So it's
honeycomb drilled, so there's a lot more surface
area. Oh, very nice. Yeah. That matters. Huge,
huge fan of the Ambarano. Honestly, I haven't
had any of the RD1 spirits outside of what we're
currently drinking. Well, we tried all of them
down at the Whiskey Riot. The maple one, I'm
a huge fan of as well. But that whiskey, that
was a fucking blur. Yeah. I remember the maple
one. There's only so much bourbon that you can
drink. You know, those whiskey festivals. And
we received that challenge a pin. And I'm recalling,
you had an outstanding sales representative there.
What was her name? Elizabeth? Yes, yes. She's
outstanding, by the way. She is our marketing
leader. She lives in Dallas. And so she'll be
with me on Saturday at the Whiskey Riot. Elizabeth
Cornelius. Hold on to her because she is the
real deal. She has chops. She is really good.
I'm very lucky to have her. Yeah, absolutely.
We were very impressed. And she was extremely
personable. She put up with us, basically. She
really did. And nobody does. Nobody does. She
had fun with us, basically. We were idiots. That's
what we do, though. We love going out. We love
having a good time. And we love meeting people.
We love sharing what we do, just like you guys.
And this is our area. And we love it. We're excited
for you to be here, and we're excited about all
the stuff we're talking about. I am so interested
in some of the new stuff coming out. Let's talk
about that. You have some expansion coming up.
We just opened up our distillery in Lexington.
We're anticipating 30 ,000 to 35 ,000 unique
visitors a year at that location. Now, I read
that the distillery there, it's a small one,
and you're anticipating about a barrel a week,
I think? Yeah, and it's really R &D. Yeah, correct.
It's just R &D. I'm pushing us to do some Aquavit.
so that we can kind of play on it it's called
the water of life it's it's a scandinavian it's
its own classification of spirit okay and instead
of like a gin that has coriander as some of the
stuff that's seeped into the distillate this
has more um it has it has coriander and it's
got some unique spirits and and so what that
does is um it it creates this whole different
flavor profile i want to barrel age aquavit and
then i want to take our bourbon and finish it
in the aquavit barrel aquavit yeah how are you
saying that what V -E -E -T? You know what? I'm
going to tell on myself. I went to Bryan Station
in Lexington, Kentucky, and we were hooked on
phonics. So if you want me to spell anything
for you, it just isn't going to happen. Well,
that's why we have Mr. Chuck in our back pocket.
Everybody needs a Chuck in their back pocket.
Absolutely. I 100 % agree. All right. So is that
what it is? Aqua V -I -T -A -E? That's Vitae.
Aqua Vitae. Is that something different? That
looks Latin. It does look Latin. It could be
road to death. We're fluent. Scandinavian. Oh,
no. Scandinavian. Okay. There's an inside joke
there, but we're going to get to that in the
second half because that was the most ridiculous
back and forth I've ever heard from these fools.
All right. We're going to talk about that in
the second half. All right. Okay. So it's a certain.
It's its own category. Of water. Water of life.
Water of life. Water of life is what it stands
for. It's fascinating. It's alcoholic. It is.
It is. And it's kind of like gin, only it's a
Scandinavian clear. Does it still have the juniper
in it? Wait a second. So no juniper. So it's
not real piney. Yeah. No, it's not. It's good.
You could make it out of potatoes or grain, but
it has, it's similar to gin, but you don't use
the juniper and the other. So it's a clear distilled,
kind of like a vodka, but you put the herbs,
but different than gin, basically. That's right.
So when we had the lovely lady that went through
wine, a wine sommelier, she had an interesting
bottle. Yes, yes. She had a bottle at the very
end of that that had nothing to do with this,
right? It was distilled wine. Do you remember
that? That was distilled wine? Correct. Okay.
I wanted to make sure that wasn't something similar
because I remember that bottle looking sort of
similar to that. No, no. Okay. The distilled
wine was very, very similar to a port. It was
really, really good. And she said it wasn't a
port, but it's a distilled wine. It was excellent.
Yeah, it was outstanding. Okay. And so you have
something, not similar, but you have something
unique that you guys are trying to play with.
Other distilleries are doing it across the U
.S. market. So, I mean, we're not the only one,
but... What I want to do is I would love to see
some bourbon finished in those barrels that have
Aquavit in them. Yeah. All right. All right.
So if I were to ask you, what is something that,
I mean, you know, obviously the Stabes is something
unique about what you're doing. Yeah. But what
is it that you guys are most proud of? Like something
unique or something different or what you're
going for? Like what really, really sets you
apart that you guys are really, really shooting
for? Well, you know, we're we're in a category
with a lot of other distillers, whether they're
legacy or craft distillers that are looking at
innovation. Right. You know, I think that. The
market is just a little saturated. So you've
got to do something different. You've got to
stand out, but you've got to have a good product.
You can't just throw something in there, some
wood in there, or finish in a different barrel,
and people are going to flock to it. It's got
to hit. When we taste, when we're doing a tasting,
we first look at the appearance. Smell the aroma.
We taste it, and then we get a finish. There's
four different parts to consumption. So if a
consumer is going into a liquor store, the first
thing they're doing is they're looking at that
label. They're looking at that bottle. Is that
capturing their attention? And the hue. All of
it. The color, and we can't add any artificial
coloring to our distilled spirit. So if you see
a Kentucky straight bourbon. That is then finished
in French oak. If it's a Kentucky straight bourbon
and it's dark, it's probably barrel strength.
It's probably higher proof. Yep. If it's a Kentucky
straight bourbon. finished in french oak and
it's dark then you probably know it's barrel
proof or it's also extra aged with wood and so
wood provides 50 to 70 percent of the flavor
that's coming from that whiskey or that bourbon
we're just changing the equation we're just adding
more wood staves so we're changing that percentage
of how much of the flavor is coming from the
wood right yeah excellent excellent because we've
done this multiple times we've been looking at
bottles on the shelf and be like wow that's a
really light hue uh -huh right regardless of
what the proof is you know you're saying we're
like i mean everclear is pretty high yeah exactly
exactly so i mean it's a lot right we like we
love we enjoy rich Rich, tasty whiskeys. And
it can be all over the place. You have to chew
those. Yeah, but we don't. I mean, me personally,
I don't want to speak for these guys, but I personally
like mine over 105, 15, 25, 35. In this progression
that we have gone through, like we started out
buying the $30, $40, $50 bourbons, and we didn't
really know what we were buying. We were just
looking at price point. We found very quickly
that the higher the proof, the richer it is.
But it took a while to work up to that because
you just can't jump into that. No, you can't
because we all have a chemical receptor. And
if you're new into bourbon and you drink fire
water, you haven't challenged that chemical receptor.
That chemical receptor is saying, this is a caustic
chemical. Get it out of your body. But then after
we mute that with drinking lots and lots of...
When we burn off the nerve endings. That's why
I can't throw up anymore. That's why. People
are kind of like, oh, I threw up earlier than
I was. Rookie. That's why. I've killed that system.
Yeah, that's why I don't taste any of the food
I eat. I can't smell. I can't smell. I can't
eat. Well, it's also a detriment because. You
want to top off, Barry? No, no, no. I'm going
to wait. We've got a high proof coming on the
second. Yeah. Oh, you gave it away. Oh, you spilled
the beans. No one heard me say that. We all did.
Oh, I said shag. Even I heard it. Even I heard
it. I'm hearing impaired for God's sake. We used
to have soccer yellow cards and red cards up
here. I would have thrown a red card at that
one. Big time red card. Yeah. Then he would have
challenged it. I would have. I was getting ready
to. Yeah. Well, one of the things when you start
getting into the high proof, sometimes what happens
is you miss some really good lower proof ones.
Yes. Because those seem, even though they're
good, They're just not as flavorful. You're not
used to it. And it's almost like too watery.
It's not as strong. It's not as flavorful. It
doesn't have it. But there's a couple companies
that are, like Michter's 10 is one. Garrison
Brothers is another. Those guys have kind of
broken the mold a little bit where it actually
does have flavor. What are some other ones? But
the point is we started to turn our nose up at
like 90 to 95 proof. Oh, yeah. And we became
snobs. Yeah. Right? I mean, so you don't want
to do that because there are some flavorful,
rich, nice hue. But they're so hard to find.
Yeah, true. Well, a lot of what I do is I'm tasting
for faults. You know, I'm not tasting for flavor.
So if I'm tasting something and I'm seeing some.
environmental contaminants, I'm able to pick
that up. Yep. And, and that to me, that's kind
of frustrating because I'm tasting now some really
good bottles and I'm picking them apart. Right.
So instead of tasting for enjoyment, right. I'm,
I'm, I'm bringing my work home and, you know,
so, so a lot of what you see on my bar is going
to be. really high proof stuff. Um, I like rye,
you know, I think we all graduate into a high
rye mash bill or a rye whiskey that, that is
higher proof. You know, uh, some of my favorite
bourbons and whiskeys are, um, are, are rise,
you know? So, um, uh, Jack Daniels barrel proof
rye. Absolutely love it. Every store, it's so
funny, every store I go to, I'm looking, is already
one on the shelf? Yep. Okay, now where's the
Jack Daniels? Really? Nice. Well, that's a huge
testament right there. Yeah, I love it. I love
what Jack Daniels does is outside the U .S. People
think of American bourbon as Jack Daniels. When
you go to Lynchburg and you see these visitors
and one out of every three visitors is from outside
the U .S., that tells me we have an opportunity
in Kentucky to brand ourselves. Massive market.
Massive market. We've got to do something to.
attract people that are outside the u .s to come
to kentucky and and experience kentucky bourbon
and um i've got a i've got a trademark um that
is going to come to market and i'm hoping that's
going to help do that nice yeah Interesting.
So you're leaving these little Easter eggs that
we're going to have to unveil later. What's the
time span? When are we going to release this?
When is this information coming out? Well, I'm
still talking with our team to try to figure
out how we release this. But I've talked to the
Kentucky Distillers Association president. Everybody
wants to bring more tourism to Kentucky, whether
it's inside the U .S. or outside the U .S. So
more to come on that. It sounds like you guys
are opening up a venue, not just for your distillery,
but it sounds like you guys are going to have
restaurants. Are you going to have weddings there?
Yep. Large functions? Yep. And that is fantastic.
It's a great thing to do. What a way to celebrate.
Yeah, you know, when you look at what's happening
on the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky, it's that experience
level. It's the and in the Bourbon Trail. It's
bourbon and a four -star restaurant. It's bourbon
and an entertainment venue. You know, we do tastings
at our distillery now, and we combine different
tasting elements so that people that are coming
in, that, you know, we're kind of, I can say
this, we're probably some bourbon nerds. You
know, we drink a lot of bourbon, but we can discern
flavor profiles. It's that novice that comes
in that we're adding different tasting components,
kind of like a wine tasting where we're enhancing
or it's an inverse kind of flavor to what you're
tasting so that the person can say, I get it.
Oh, my God, I'm tasting stone fruit. I'm tasting
baking chocolate. And it's not frying my throat.
And it's not burning your throat. You know, because
that's part of the problem. So, like, we've been
talking about this. So, you know, I don't know
what percentage of the bourbon drinkers, like,
you know, 10 to 15 % may be like the 115 plus
proof, but the rest of the bourbon drinkers.
are still down at the 90 and the 80. And you
have to cater to that. And we don't like the
idea. Hold on one second. We do not like the
idea. I apologize. Chuck, can you do us a favor,
please? Can you bring us the bottle of RD1 Spirits?
Yep. I'm going to pour a little bit more. Oh.
Look at you. Well, you're out. Everyone's out.
Everybody's out. You know what? In fact, I don't
know what the deal is. Maybe it was a hot day.
It's crushable. That's what he said. It's crushable.
It's crushable. But the point I was going to
make is that none of us are on board with adding
water. Yeah. Which it's not. Nope. We don't like
the idea of diluting a wonderful cast strength
barrel down to 90 proof. But we've also heard
that adding a drop or two also brings out other
notes. Correct. As well. I don't know if that's
true. We've never actually. Yeah, you know, one
of my good friends, and I have to pinch myself
that, you know, here's a Bourbon Hall of Fame,
Freddie Johnson. So if you all know Freddie Johnson
with Buffalo Trace, he is the only tour guide
that is in the Bourbon Hall of Fame. Tour guide?
Tour guide. So he's a third generation tour guide.
Sazerac, Buffalo Trace. Sazerac. Yeah, so have
you guys seen Neat, the Story of Bourbon? no
have not gotta put that on your watch list you
will have a whole different appreciation for
what goes into the whole thing trail but but
you know freddie says don't add water to to your
bourbon because what happens is you already watched
that the need the story of bourbon i got it here
it's a documentary 2018 yep Keep going. What
he says, especially for newbies, women that are
doing tastings, he has them take a sip of water.
You had to call out women. Or guys. Is this handmaid's
tale? What's going on right now? Sailors. That's
not true. That's not true. What he says is take
a sip of water and then take a sip of the pour
that you have. Sure. And so that's going to help
dilute it. But then you're not diluting the whole
thing. Yes. And then so what you're doing is
you're challenging your chemical receptors. You're
kind of acclimating them to the alcohol. Then
you can go back in and take a neat pour. Yeah,
because otherwise you've changed it. You've changed
the proof. You've tainted the rest of it, right?
Not tainted is a strong word. You're not going
to have an opportunity to go back to the source.
I like uncut, unfiltered, you know, let me prove
it. Let me prove it down if I want to. That's
exactly what I say. Amen. Yeah. Amen. Yeah, I
love it. It's like, no offense to those bottle
and bond folks out there. That's important. But
to me, no thank you. I will water my own stuff
down. Yeah, because, I mean, they're trying to
cater to the majority of the market. You have
to cater. It's about selling bottles, guys. So
we're probably 1%. You know, there's 10 % that
drink above 100, 110 proof. We're probably in
that 1%. Is it really 1 %? Well, 1 % are those
of us that have a collection like you have. Is
that synonymous to losers? Yes. No, no, no, no,
no, no. No, the people that aren't drinking are
losers. Or they're quitters. They're quitters.
They are quitters. No fortitude. Dry January,
quitters. Yeah, come on. Come on. throat is stronger
than that we're making more take it take it off
squeal like a pig okay wow that's not where we
went sure i mean just you know yeah there you
go oh god all right with this you know what this
actually you know what we I love how we're covering
a lot of aspects about how to drink bourbon and
what goes into drinking bourbon. Right. You're
really touching on a lot of it. Yeah. Well, we're
about to end, I believe, the first half, and
I want to actually talk about what we're drinking.
Let's do it. We've talked about RD -1 a lot,
and this is the Ambarana bottle. So the RD -1
Ambarana bottle, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey,
finished with Brazilian Ambarana wood. Offers
a complex and distinctive flavor profile. I don't
even know if I want to get into this. I think
Barry should be narrating this. Yeah, well, I
can tell you that it's 110 proof. It is finished
to taste. And so for me, this is 50 % of our
sales across the U .S. market. I have to be a
fan of Ambarana. I'm an uncut, unfiltered guy.
But as an owner... And the National Brand Ambassador,
I'm a huge fan of this. It's a cash cow. It's
driving sales. But so the flavor profiles that
you get with Ambarana, you guys have had Cachaca
from Brazil. Cachaca is a rum -based spirit.
Yes. They use Ambarana to finish in it. So you're
getting flavors way outside the flavor wheel
of a traditional bourbon. So you're getting,
you know, I hate to say cinnamon first. You're
getting clove, nutmeg. all spice you're getting
baking spices obviously you're getting cinnamon
but it morphs from that initial flavor on the
palate to a cinnamon apple kind of a kind of
a wonderful mouthfeel and then it finishes with
tropical some people get coconut some people
get pineapple Um, and I'm, I'm a, I'm a huge
fan of drink it like you like it. I'm not going
to judge you if you don't drink it like I drink
it, but there is cocktails. So there's a paper
plane cocktail. It has Aperol, Anino, lemon,
and, and the bourbon. It sings in that cocktail.
I bet. There's another cocktail. We do a rum,
a plantery rum. It's a barrel -strength rum that
we combine with that with a tortino sugar, kind
of a maple sugar, and then we add rhubarb and
Regan orange bitters. You don't hear that every
day. No, you don't. It is delicious. But do you
guys like rum? Are you fans? Oh, I'm a big rum
fan. Yeah. I mean, I'm not a big cocktail person,
but I want to accentuate the flavors in this
because we're casting a wide net with these different
wood finishes. This one's absolutely delicious.
We didn't talk about the oak and maple. We make
a barrel strength oak and maple. It crushes a
Manhattan. I mean, you do a black Manhattan,
black walnut bitters. Oh, my God. best cocktail
if i do a cocktail i damn well want to taste
alcohol yeah it has to be booze forward for me
absolutely what's the point otherwise that's
just me now you have these barrel proofs are
those widely released or is it distillery only
type of thing or no no no we i've got i came
to the texas market i've got a bag full of uh
barrel selects that I'm going to be meeting with
retailers. Can you go to your car and get those
right now? Can you go get some of those? Do you
have any pull? Can we follow you to the place?
I'll give you where I'm going. We'll tail you.
We just need one. We need one for the podcast.
You need one. I'll make sure you guys get some
nice samples. I'll make sure to mail you guys
some really good samples. That would be awesome.
This Emberano, unique to the point where everyone
should have it on their shelves. Absolutely.
Because it's different. It's not a normal whiskey.
To me, it's almost like in the category of a
dessert whiskey. I don't want to say it's in
the same category as TX whiskey, because it's
kind of praline kind of mix, but it is a little
bit. It's dessert -like. TX whiskey is kind of
dessert -like, but this one... It's a ballsy
dessert. It's got that fun, wonderful taste that's
not like regular bourbons or whiskeys. Let me
tell you the story of how we stumbled on this.
I'm the first one that bought the bottle before
we brought it to the podcast. I didn't know what
to think, to be honest. I poured it, and I was
drinking bourbon, and I was like... This is not
bourbon to me. I didn't even know what to think.
I didn't like it. I wasn't sure what to think.
So I brought it to you guys, and they were like,
oh, my God, this is amazing. I was like, well,
maybe I need to try it again. Maybe I'm an idiot.
I don't know what's going on here. I'm pretty
sure that's what it was. It turns out I am an
idiot. We're like, this tastes like cinnamon
toast crunch. Cinnamon toast crunch. So somebody
has said that before. It tastes like cinnamon
toast crunch. It's very distinctive to me. And
I love cinnamon toast crunch. But it wasn't a
bourbon to me. Since then, yeah, huge fan. Thank
you. Huge fan. And we all are, obviously, since
we're crushing it at the moment. Love that term,
too. I've never heard that. It's crushable. Crushable.
Yeah, we're going to be using that. Yeah. We're
stealing that from you. Love it. We're going
to coin that. Yeah. Barry, what is your last
name again? It's like Vinegar, only B -R -N -O
-V, Brinegar. Brinegar. Okay. Brinegar. Brinegar.
Brinegar. So I am going to be in Nicholasville.
Nice. In mid -June. Really? So I'm going to come
see you if you're going to be around. He travels
42 weeks a year. How many other weeks are there?
How many other weeks are there? Ten more weeks.
We've got ten other weeks. So in June, I just
changed. So the first week of June, I'm going
to Las Vegas. And then the second week, I'm going
to Southern California. And then from Southern
California, I'm going to Colorado. So there's
three weeks straight. I am on the road. In June.
But you have to go. Does your wife go with you
sometimes? She's going to Colorado. Yeah, she's
going to Colorado. So she cherry picks. She does.
She's like, when can I retire? And I'm like,
well, when we make it. When we make bank. When
you pass the $1 billion mark. Right. $1 billion.
Yeah. But you need to come by the distillery.
I will. Jared, our master distiller, will be
there. He'll take you into the wood science lab.
He'll have his white lab coat on, and you guys
can experiment. 100%. Yeah. You definitely want
to do that. We'll talk after this. I have Brandon's
white lab coat. You can take that so you can
like. I'll fit in. Yeah. They're going to be
like, we got another wood scientist here. Doctor.
Doctor. Doctor. Doctor. Doctor. Doctor. Doctor.
And doctor. Well, we miss anyone? Perfect. Oh,
spies like us. We should talk about movies like
that in the second podcast. Yeah. I'm looking
forward to it. Who's going to know that? God,
what a great movie. It's kind of like the overdone...
What is it? Airplane. Airplane, yeah. Help us,
Chuck. Not doctor, doctor, but it's... I picked
a bag wheat to quit smoking pot. He goes, Roger.
Roger, Roger. I'm talking about the Roger, Roger.
Overdone, overdone. Yes, same thing, same thing.
I got a quick question before we wrap it up.
I know I did a deep dive into Barry, and you
were in the Navy. Yep. What ship were you on?
So I was at 8404. So I was a field medic in the
1st Marine Division. So my sea duty was with
the Marine Corps. Wonderful time out in Camp
Pendleton, California, did a Westpac and, you
know, have ultimate respect for the military.
I've found through that experience that I valued
an education. And so got out of the Navy and
went back, got a nursing degree and worked in
the operating room. And then I found out I enjoy
talking to people better. They're not knocked
out on the table, right? Right. You just sit
there talking. They're not responding to me.
I'm talking and I'm talking. We like you even
more, man. Nice. Thank you for your service.
That is fantastic. That was going to be my follow
-up is I know you went into, you became a registered
nurse and you went into nursing and you're into
surgery. Yeah. And then, you know, kind of walked
through, I think you went into sales after that
in the market and just kind of worked your way
up and then you got into the situation where
like. We like bourbon. Let's do this thing. Yeah.
So so the way that it evolved was, you know,
got out of sale or got out of the operating room
and then went work with a medical device company
called Medtronic out of Minnesota, sold medical
devices and then moved over into pharmaceutical
sales. I sold compound pharmacy formulations.
And I mean, I had a market up in Kentucky. It
was it was a thriving market. And you may or
may not recall there was a there was a federal.
judge that got injected with tainted steroids
from a New England compounding pharmacy and it
tanked the whole compound. market right so so
it made it seem unsafe for any compounding anything
even if it's topical so so dumb yeah well so
so i moved out of that and then you know hopped
around a couple of places where i was doing senior
living you know started a senior living community
from the ground up and um and then and then i
i've started my own digital marketing company
so i've got this digital marketing company and
i'm talking to local business owners and at the
same time i'm i'm following the Lexington Bourbon
Society around. Lexington Bourbon Society, it's
a social club. Um, is this something that we
could utilize to enhance our, our podcast? Absolutely.
Absolutely. We'll, we'll talk about that more,
but, but so the Lexington bourbon society, the
first event I told you, I met Jimmy Russell,
you know, he's a rock star, you know? So, so
I'm just, I'm falling in love with the industry.
So now I'm talking to local business owners about
how important it is for your marketing to be
seen, heard and found online. And, you know,
these are the things you need to do to, to, to
reach. that customer in that point where they're
going to make a decision. Target audience. Target
audience. And then after 10 minutes, I start
talking about bourbon. And so I've got business
owners that are like, you probably should go
into bourbon. And so fortunately, you know, surrounded
myself with other like -minded people and wrote
a business plan. And, you know, we were off to
the races. So digital advertising drove you to
drink. Okay. That's all you had to say. That's
all you had to say. It drops us all to drink.
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, but it's awesome. What
a great story. It is a great story. And we're
super excited that you came on here. I am. And
we did nothing but talk about this all, you know,
usually we're everywhere. Well, we kind of started
out everywhere. Yeah, you pulled us back. That
never happened. You, Sean, you pulled us back.
That's a first. But the second episode, it's
off the hook, right? Typically, yes. Before we
log off, we've got six minutes left. I want you
to go in, because I did some research. Jeff brought
it up. The RD1 spirits, RD1, where it came from.
Is that Rick House number one? Is that where?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the name. Where did the
name come from? Think about in our country's
history when we go through the Revolutionary
War and then President Washington wants to get
tax revenue from distilleries. And so in the
Northeast, it's very flat land. He can overtake
anybody that's distilling and saying, you're
going to pay taxes. But in the foothills of Kentucky,
there's... You got to find them. damn well you're
never going to find us and we're not going to
pay taxes. So the Whiskey Rebellion of the late
1700s stopped any kind of taxation on distilled
spirits. It wasn't until 1862 when President
Lincoln needs to re -register distilleries to
get tax revenue to fund the Civil War effort.
So every tax district had an RD -1, an RD -2,
an RD -3. We now know after Prohibition, that
that tax designation is dsp distilled spirits
plant right okay so heaven hill has dsp number
one because they bought the bernheim um yep distillery
right so in 1860 that was the dsp rd was the
dsp in the 1860s so in lexington kentucky the
first registered distillery was called the ashland
distillery The Ashland Distillery. And we didn't
want to call ourselves the Ashland Distillery
because, number one, we're not resurrecting a
distillery. We're not on the same property. And
then the other thing is there's a whole host
of issues of calling ourselves Ashland. You have
Ashland Oil. You have Ashland Estate. So it was
just problematic. But RD helps us tell that whole
story. It helps us tell the history of the brand,
get recognition for Lexington, but then write
that next chapter, which is what we're doing.
So that stands for registered distillery. Very
well said. Nice. Very nice. And it's a great
business plan. I mean, I've downloaded, I believe,
from your website. Is there a history part on
there? You've got quite the elaborate history
from 65 to 1866. All right, so let me tell you
a little bit more. So 1865, Turner, Clay & Company
start Ashland Distillery. William Tarr grew up
in Paris, Kentucky, had ownership in the Chicken
Cock Distillery. That was sold, and then he bought
the Ashland Distillery in 1871. And then two
distillery fires later, he rebuilds and then
renames it the William Tarr Distillery. One of
his partners was T .J. McGibbon, Tom McGibbon.
He was the first Kentucky Distillers Association
president that was established in 1880. So I
have a trademark of a label that Tom McGibbon.
owned no way yeah the first kda president that's
insane it's huge so so then william tarr starts
speculating on the railroad industry so if you
understand our country's history we were initially
moving barrels and goods on riverways and waterways
Would they literally float the barrels down the
river? Flat boat bottom. I've got a story. We'll
tell it in the second issue. We're going to do
storytelling next. Railroad. He speculated on
the railroad industry and became bankrupt. What?
In the 1890s, have you all heard of Old Elk?
Old Elk just got bought out by... mid Midwest,
Midwest barrel out of Ohio. But Old Elk was owned
by Richard and James Stoll, Stoll and Bonetta.
So they were part of the, and one of the Stolls
was on the board of trustees for the University
of Kentucky. So when they chose the blue and
white colors, one of the Stolls had a blue tie.
And so the board's meeting and they said, we
want the colors that look just like Stoll's No
way. That's how we got the blue and white color.
That's insane. So then the Stoll and Company
bought out William Tarr. And then have you all
heard of the Whiskey Trust? The Whiskey Trust
was, they were a monopoly. They bought up distilleries
all over the region. In what time period? This
was late 1800s, early 1900s. 1902. Yep. So they
bought the William Tarr Distillery. through a
straw bid that Richard Stoll had. So he kind
of had it in his back pocket. He sold it to him.
The only time when the Whiskey Trust sold a distillery
back was to Richard and James Stoll. They sold
the William Tarr Distillery back to them. Then
they bought New Hope, Bond and Lillard. Bella
Marion. RD1 at that point was the largest distilling
concern in the state of Kentucky in the early
1900s. Bond and Lillard won a gold medal at the
Louisiana World Fair and Exposition in 1904.
I've got that gold medal in my inventory. Are
you kidding me? I got it. That's so cool. I didn't
even think they would have a competition back
then. It's crazy. I mean, it's crazy that they
had losers like us back then. And it's probably
real gold, too. It's not gold -plated. Did you
check that? Dude, that's insane. It is insane.
And you just rattled this shit right off the
top of your head. Yeah, yeah. Do we need to call
bullshit? Do I need to call a challenge flight?
Challenge me, but I think I can back it up. He's
going to throw it right back at you. Yeah, amen.
Amen. You've got to put that picture on the website,
what that medal looks like. we've um so we do
i'm gonna do all right so i'm so excited i know
you are you're amped right now i i am gonna do
a dark tour have y 'all heard of dark tours No.
Well, Jeff kind of stirs us into his Iron Maiden
sometimes. Is that where you're naked in the
cellar? Do we need to talk about this next time?
Yeah, probably. All right. Yeah, because Jeff's
going to get all excited. Dark tours. Yeah, he
likes that kind of stuff. He's throwing shit
at himself. You good? Are you good on time? Hell
yeah, man. Let's drink some more bourbon. All
right. God bless. All right. Well, this is the
first half of our Dudes Like Us podcast. Shout
out to RD1 Spirits. Absolutely. Thank you for
coming out. Are you going to stick around for
the second half? Yeah, man. And I'm excited about
that. Check us out on Dudes Like Us podcast on
Facebook and Instagram or dudeslikeus -woodcraft
for those little knickknacks. I think Barry received
his little refrigerator magnet. Yeah, the toxic
black walnut. Made of black walnut. Yeah, don't
eat it. Don't eat it, though. That's the good
walnut, though. You don't want to soak that in
your bourbon. Don't use it as a stave. Highly
recommended the RD1 Spirits Ambarano. That's
one of our favorites. You got to have it on there.
You got different types of drinks. This is one
of them. I mean, it should have its own little
category. And it's 110 proof. Are you kidding
me? I didn't realize. I didn't even realize that.
That's outstanding. Thank you, Chuck, Mr. Producer,
for staying on top of stuff. Dudes Like Us. I'm
Sean. I am Paul. I am Chuck. I'm Barry. There
you go. Peace out.