All right. Here we are. Turning down the volume
on my phone there. Yeah, I did silence on it
as well. Another glorious night of podcast. You
guys are like scrambling. It's like you're at
church. It's not the last second. It's all happened
to every single one of us. Right? Yeah, especially
when somebody does go off in church. Everybody.
You see everybody. It's great. I love it. All
right. It's May 27th. It's the first half of
our Dudes Like Us podcast. We have guests tonight.
Super excited about you guys being on. I'm trying
to get you on for at least, what, two weeks?
No, it's been longer than that. It's been a while.
We're wanted. We're wanted. Yeah, you know what?
It's interesting, the whole story. Yeah, you
are. We'll kind of get up to that, but I want
our guests to understand where this whole thing
came about. We talked about it a little bit out
in the podcast, Green Room. Is it Blue Room or
Green Room? I'm getting confused. Still Green.
Still Green, all right. We're just basically
some guys that hung out, just kind of similar
story to yours, but we just hung out together.
Somebody said, you guys ought to do a podcast.
You guys are goofy. And I was like, you know
what? We are goofy. And, you know, I had some
equipment laying around. We went into my office
in my room. Remember that? Yeah, the first couple
or five years ago. And we had this big soundboard
and we're just sitting there talking and we're
idiots. It was all. But I tell you what, it was
so fun. And so stimulating. And it was addictive.
And we just enjoyed it. And we've got a fantastic
chemistry. We're great friends. And that's what
made dudes like us and want us to promote it.
So that's basically the story. We come from different
backgrounds. We have different opinions about
stuff, which are great. You know, Jeff and Paul
both. don't like different types of bourbons
and whiskeys, and we're all kind of different.
Sean likes all of them. Oh, you're all Texans.
Is everybody Texan? No, none of us are. No, it's
the same way we are. Yeah. Well, we're all Texans
now. I've been here 40 years maybe, but we're
all born from, Paul's born in like where? Bangladesh?
Colorado. I knew you were going to say something
crazy. All right. Jeff's born in the bowels of
Ohio. I was. I grew up outside of Cincinnati.
Okay. Mr. Producer, where were you born? Born
in Chicago. Born in Chicago. None of us. And
I'm a military brat. So, you know, I was technically
born in Maryland, but, you know, I was whisked
away over to Europe and I lived there for a long
time. And then it was like Jersey, Europe, Jersey,
Europe. Where were you conceived? Did you ever
figure that out? Somewhere over Jersey and Europe.
Why would we even want to know that? Probably
the back of the Oktoberfest bus. I think overseas
would be against the law, Jim, right? If he was
conceived there. All right. This is the first
half of the podcast, Dudes Like Us. I'm Sean.
I'm Paul. I am Jeff. I'm Jim. I'm Darren. And
welcome to the podcast. Tonight, guys, we've
got guys from Horseneck. Yes. And we're going
to jump right in it. And I want to ask you guys
to start out, whoever wants to start, kind of
go over your buzz. Yeah. Take it away, Darren.
similar very to your story you guys it's uh five
guys who have known each other for 25 30 years
coach each other's kids in baseball and soccer
and church together vacations together here in
texas right yeah yeah yeah and the wives like
each other so that's really that's really a good
side that's a bonus like really like like Like
have too much drinks kind of like? They like
each other more than they like us. Well, that's
normal. Go ahead. So, yeah, we've probably 10
years ago, we started drinking, really started
with craft beer on Thursday nights. And it was
the first Thursday of the month. The Thirsty
Growler. I know exactly where that is. I've been
there many times. And so it started, we called
it the Thirsty Thursday. First Thursday of the
month, right? And so we did that for years. And
I don't know why we switched to bourbon, but
at some point we did. We did. Sean and I started
with the craft beer. And we had everything. We
started on the adventure of let's find the highest
proof craft beer. And then we both put on 20
pounds. Yeah. And then I was like, I'm done with
that. Right. So that was a lot of this. They
did a Weight Watchers group meet. Yes. Well,
I think we all, the four of us really enjoyed
bourbon, but one of them, his name's Brian, he
really couldn't, he hadn't grown up very much
yet, so he didn't want to drink bourbon. Right.
He was the craft beer specialist. So we went
to the craft beer, right. But he's finally grown
up, so he likes bourbon now. Yeah, but I don't
know when that evolution occurred to, but when
it did, we never looked back. It's been bourbon
ever since. I've found it hard to drink some
of those craft beers now. I've had so many of
them. I don't know if Sean's the same way, but
they're almost too rich for me now. They sit
too heavy on my gut when I drink these things.
Yeah, it's funny. All right, so you all drink
bourbon and? So, yeah, we've, you know, and there's
kind of a core group of five or six or seven
that we always kind of hang out together. But
on any given Thursday, there might be 12, 15,
20 guys. And, uh, and so one of them, we, uh,
so Kurt are kind of acting CEO. He had a business
meeting in Kentucky and he says, Hey, you guys
come on out and we'll do a, we'll do a bourbon
trail. Nice. So we did. Yeah. So we, we went
out there and, uh, I think it was at maker's
Mark. They made us a drink. They have that slush.
They make that slush drink. Oh yeah. There you
go down with ale eight one. It's that kind of
a flat ginger ale. They only offer it in like
Kentucky, get it on Amazon. He found some bottles
in, uh, Cracker Barrel. Cracker Barrel. Yeah.
And so, and we drink it. So there was just, it
was, you know, bourbon and alate one. This is
really, really good. We got to sell this in Texas.
And our tour was a little late, so we might have
had more than one. I don't quite remember, but
it was that good. So this was late 2020. So we
were just coming out of COVID. We went to 1792.
We went to Willett. We went to Sazerac, Buffalo
Trace. You notice that was really weird. So it
was right at the end of COVID. So we walked into
the Buffalo Trace, Sazerac, Buffalo Trace. And
we walked in and there was a... You had to put
your face up in this camera and it registered
whether you had a temperature or not. None of
us did. That's all it was supposed to do. So
we're in Kentucky and we're all from Texas. And
so then we go up and we hand our driver's license
to the person checking us in. And one of our
guys, the lady said, excuse me, sir, you had
COVID recently. Are you okay? What? Yeah. And
so we're like, seriously? Like we're in Kentucky
that we're all from Dallas and they knew which
one of us had, they checked. How fast did you
whip out that middle finger? Wow. It was, it
was weird. It really was. Yeah. And on top of
that, that I don't, I hope nobody from Buffalo
trace listens to this, but it was not that good
of a tour. We had, we had a, we had a 20 year
old telling us about bourbon. Oh, yeah. And it
was the flavored bourbon that he was trying to
get us to taste. Oh, come on. It was not good.
One of our best was 1792. It was a very small,
short tour, but they put us in a room about this
size with our tour guide, all whiteboards all
around, and he's trying to keep it going a little
bit. All of a sudden, someone walks in the door,
and the guy at the door goes, hey, what's going
on here? He says, well, this is a tour that I've
got going on. He says, ah. I've got a few minutes.
Well, who are you? I'm the head distiller. Swirl
it around. Bring it up and say, hello. Then you
go back to it. How are you? And then you go back
to it. Quite well. Thank you very much. It was
awesome. He spent 45 minutes with us in there.
It was awesome. It was awesome, yeah. You can't
pay for that. No, that is cool. Some of those
things will happen. I hear my wife and I were
up there in March, and we went to Wild Turkey.
And I guess Jimmy Russell was just there right
before we got there. I guess he makes a regular
appearance at their tasting room. Absolutely.
How fun would that be for those guys, right?
I mean, this is their prized creation, right?
Well, it's funny. A couple of years ago, we had
a little weekend vacation down in Fredericksburg,
so we went to Garrison Brothers. And we walked
in, and we were getting ready to start a tour,
and who walks up? Dan Garrison. He did the tour
for us. Don't tell them that, though, because
we all did a tasting. At the end, they allow
you to go in. I'm telling the story, Jim. No,
you're not. And we were first in line for the
tastings. So there's a huge line behind us, people
wanting to get a tasting. So they say, go ahead,
I'll pay us later when you go out. gift shop
or whatever. So you can take the story from there.
Well, we still owe. We never paid. Because you
were just too lit or what? We had a designated
driver. That's a yes. We stumbled out of there
and skipped the tab. But about two months later,
our designated driver, Mark, goes, hey guys,
did anybody pay that tab? And like, oh, I didn't
know one. So we walked on Dan Garris. The intention
was there. Yeah, the intention was there. You
know, he frequents our podcast. Yeah. And you
know, the next time you go, they'll scan you
and they'll know. The checks and special scanners.
The checks in the mail. Yeah, they'll know. The
checks in the mail. Dan, it was the best tour
we've ever had. Super cool. And you saw the waxing,
the waxing of the bottles. So cool. Such a fun
tour. Yeah. All right. So you guys were inspired.
By the bourbon truck. So, yeah. So, I mean, really.
Either that or drunk one. They poured us this
drink and we, at the time, we just said, man,
this is really good. I wish we could get this
in Texas. And then we went on our merry way with
the rest of the tours and the weekend and came
back. That had to be October of 2020, something
like that. And so it was probably January of
21. We just said, hey, you want to try? Yeah.
How do you even get started with that? Oh, that's
a good question. I think Darren and I have been
more on the sales end of it, and Kurt was more
on the initiation of, you know, what's the rules
and regulations and all that stuff. Develop a
business plan? Yeah. Which you did? Yeah, we
did. Sort of, kind of. We just said we want to
sell it. Wow. How hard can it be, right? We just
need to make it and sell it. We did a family
and friends raise and raised enough there to
get started. Okay. That got us off. We started
with the RTDs. Yeah. And so we partnered with,
again, through one of the guys, Kurt. He did
a lot of the research. And we found a, I don't
know what you call it, a recipe company. a production
company in California. And so we started out
with, I don't know. In Compton. Compton. All
right. Yeah. Interesting. Does it have like theme
music? But we did it all by, we did it all by,
by mail. We started out with like eight or 10
flavors and they, they whipped up some concoctions
for us. They would send it by mail. We'd sit,
we'd sit around the table and we'd say, that
sucks. And this is good. And so. We narrowed
it down to four. Painstakingly, we had to do
all that tasting. And we did this for months.
Painstakingly. Yeah, I can imagine. It matters.
Stomach issues. And we did try lower alcohol
content and higher alcohol content. Nice. So
we had some samples at six. We had some samples
at 12. Is that me? What is that? Oh, boy. Uh
-oh. Oh, please. Somebody didn't silence the
phone. We literally just talked about this, Jim.
He's drunk already. Yeah. They do phone training,
as my son told me. Jeez, I thought it was an
alarm going on. That's what I thought. I just
got a new phone and an Apple Watch, so I have
no clue what I'm doing. I'm embarrassed for you,
Jim. Well, if it makes you feel better, I was
trying to do something on my phone, and my son
said, Dad, they have iPhone training for seniors.
And he was serious. He was serious. I wanted
to kill him. You guys are taking it really easy.
You're taking it easy on him. Yeah. His phone
went off after we just said, turn your phones
off. I thought it was at church. Yeah, he's lasted
longer than any guest so far. Oh, really? With
that kind of faux pas. Well, that's all right.
I think his is the loudest, though. I heard it,
too. It was rather comforting. It was calming.
You were saying that you were trying him. They
were through the mail, right? They'd send us
samples. In the mail? Yeah. Little vials. And
so we'd say, this needs more. Sweet, more bourbon,
more lime juice, whatever. Are those filled with
natural flavors and stuff that they're giving
you? Are they super concentrated? We tried real
juice. We tried flavors. We tried sweeteners.
We tried a lot of different versions. We got
really close on four flavors, and we said, okay,
these are close, but we've got to dial them in
a little bit more. So the four of us, we flew
out to California, and we walked into this place,
and this lady walks out in a white scientist
lab coat? Was she hot? Oh, you're not allowed
to answer that. That's the break. Break talk.
I didn't go on that trip, so I can't attest to
that. Oh, that's right. You weren't there. Darren
got awfully quiet, I noticed. So did you give
them the... Jim, it's your turn to take over.
That's the topic of interest. Yes. Did you give
them the parameters of... Just turn that off.
Okay. Yeah. Okay. This is a problem. It's time
to break the phone. Is that an alarm? It's gone
in the Faraday bag. I turned it off. I literally
turned it off. Put the phone out in the other
room. Okay. Little job my wife does. This phone
keeps going off. What was that training you were
talking about for seniors? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'll send you the link, Jim. No, it has to be
like paper. Very large font. It's got to be a
manual, yes. Print, not cursive. Jeff had a good
question. What were the parameters? Did you tell
him it needs to this bourbon and it has to have
this or this or that? Or the natural, because
I know you call out how the natural flavors know.
on natural sweeteners and all that stuff, right?
Yeah. Was that a directive from the beginning
or is that kind of where you ended up? No, we
kind of worked our way in. I mean, I don't think
we started out by saying it has to have no sugar,
real juice, 9%. We didn't. Right. We knew what
we didn't want. We didn't want another Jack and
Coke. We didn't want something on the market
that's going to be all sugary or high carbonation.
So those are the two things And we didn't want
it to be a seltzer. We didn't think the world
needed another seltzer. Right. Right. Because
we would have made fun of you. So they were kind
of broad, but as time went on, we said, okay,
well, the sugar is too sweet or too sugary, and
plus it's high carbs. And we tried out of the
real juice. This was interesting. So they sent
us some flavors, and we were using real juice.
And it was about, I don't know, two or three
weeks before we got to actually try one of them.
And so we all got together, and we poured it
out of the glass. It might have been the La Paloma,
which had the grapefruit, and this glob of just
nasty. something fell out of the can that's advertising
yeah right and so the last thing we said was
said we can't have that happen and so come to
find out is because it was real juice and after
two weeks like it the sediment there's no way
you can filter it out no way so we said okay
well what's the alternative the alternative is
not to use real juice and use like flavorings
right so we went down that path and then and
we could never repeat that how good it tasted
with the real juice yeah and so now what it says
if you look at the can so we had to go with the
real juice and we would filter it as much as
we can but you put out you literally the can
it says rolled gently twice before you open it.
So you mix up, if it has been sitting for a while,
it mixes it up and you don't see that glob. We've
not had a glob complaint yet. To avoid globs.
They're carbonated. A little bit. Slightly, yeah.
We were told that we kept down back because we
went out there when they actually produced the
run also. And we kept dialing back the carbonation
on the samples they would bring into us. And
we were told, at least the explanation I got,
is it had to have some carbonation or the can
would collapse. Wow. So it has to have something
in it. So you've got collapsing cans. You've
got sludge. A lot to overcome. You're fighting
over all these things here, I guess. But it tasted
good. All right. So how long did the process
begin to end? When you started to when you decided
this is it? When we formed the company? No, no,
no. To picking the flavor. Like you said, you
started trying out the flavors and then you finally
said... And I imagine every session cost money.
Oh, yeah. Well, not every session. We paid them
X amount to come up with our flavors. And they
said, we'll do... I don't remember what the numbers
were, but they said, we'll do X number of variations
or attempts. That's the word I'm looking for.
And you have four flavors, so you had to do this
basically four times. So when we went out to
L .A., To dial in the really small changes, the
Compton and the lady in the lab coat walks in.
So we started about 9 o 'clock in the morning.
To your point, we had four flavors. And by about
11 .30 or 12, we had finished the first one.
And we were all a little bit looped already.
The thing, you want to get it right. Oh, absolutely.
You have to get it right. Oh, totally. So we
went to lunch and we came back and finished up
the last three. There we go. Yeah, we've got
some really good video of the actual operation.
It's pretty amazing. It's just a very big assembly
line where they're just shoving cans through
there, filling them, capping them, putting labels
on in the box. Now, was that the same company
that did the flavoring? Yes. Like a one -stop
shop? What we did when we had the idea, we decided
that we needed someone to take this from cradle
all the way to production. So we went with...
They had a lab. They could start putting things
together for us, give us formulations, and they
could produce it also. Excellent. So that's exactly
why we went with that group. Awesome. Well, that's,
I mean, how convenient when you're trying to
start up quickly. Yes. Right? And not have to
get involved in all those details, right? There
were still a lot of details. Luckily, Kurt handled
all of them. Because we still had to order all
the ingredients. So we're running so many cans,
and you've got to figure out how much ingredients.
And you can't order specific amounts. You've
got to order, if their minimum is five gallons
of this, you're getting five gallons, you may
be using two of it. Depending on what you're
selling. Exactly. Depending on what you're selling,
yep. You want to tell them about the pre -production
and coming up with the cans and getting the jalapeno
juice? Oh, the can, the design actually, Kurt,
again, marketing entrepreneur of his life, he
did a national survey. on can designs. So we
had probably about 20 different variations, the
light can, the dark can, different things. And
we actually got feedback by about, I think, 3
,500 people nationally that said we like that
black can. Beautiful. So we started with that,
but then we started, we thought we were going
to be big time. So we went after a spokesperson.
Ooh. Was it Jake Plummer? No. No? Second guess.
Hulk Hogan. No. Do we get a third guess? Sean,
you get a guess. Think cowboy. Think... Devon
Eriks. Yellowstone. No. I was listening. I thought
we have a crisis at the house. You're talking
about the... Not Kevin Costner, but... You're
talking about wrestling? But another one of the
main characters. Rip. Rip. We went after Rip.
We went after Rip pretty hard. We sent him samples
to his house in Florida, sent him samples on
set twice. No way. One of the samples, the mule
spice, we had gotten samples from the company,
and we were canning it ourselves at a craft beer
place in Euless, I think it was. I think they're
out of business now, but they let us use their
hand canner. So we were canning and labeling
and all that, and the mule spice just didn't
taste spicy enough. So we sent one of our guys
off to buy some jalapeno juice. I'll tell you
what. Let's pause for a second. Let's grab that
bag, wherever you got your magic juice at, and
let's pull out one of those mule spice things.
Mr. Purser, you got it? Chuck's going to go grab
that, and we'll pour a couple ounces each. Go
ahead with your story while we're... So anyways,
we send Rip all these samples and everything,
and we never heard back. And then finally, his
publicist, I think, got back with us. He came
back with an offer. He wanted 51 % of the company.
Oh, damn. He'd be our spokesman for 51%. Right.
So Kurt, being the ingenious entrepreneur that
he is, he went on the name, image, and likeness
site where you can buy those things. Yeah. And
if you look at some of our marketing, I don't
know if any of it's on here or not, but there's
a cowboy image there that looks exactly like
Rip. Oh, boy. We got him for $500 for life. Nice.
A lot less than 51%. A lot less than 51%. And
people could think, hey, that's the guy from
your show. A lot of them do. A lot of them do.
Well, sometimes they think it's me. Oh, right,
right. Well, you would have needed to bring your
cowboy hat for us to confirm that. It doesn't
matter. The variety pack. Oh, it's on the thing.
So those are cold, right? Yeah, those are cold.
There's a four -pack sitting right there under
the baseball cap. That's one of many stories.
They've been sitting there doing the pre -production
cans with a hair dryer trying to get them to
shrink around the can. But that's really part
of their story. Kind of like you guys. We would
do these things and we would laugh so much while
we were putting these things together. You're
having fun. Absolutely. And it's exciting. There's
a little bit of... Well, we already put a lot
of money into it, so this has to work. That's
what I'm saying. There's a little bit of stress
behind it saying, man, we've got to get a win
on this. Oh, yeah. All right, so while you guys
are pouring that, you've got four flavors. Let's
talk about what they are real quick. So we've
got four flavors. We've got the green can is
ginger ale, bourbon, and bitters. Okay. Just
maybe a little bit of lime juice, and that's
called a horse's neck. Yeah. Or Kentucky Gentleman.
Or Kentucky Gentleman. I've heard it called that,
too. So that's the one. But that's where it got
it all started, right? It used to be an elixir
in late 1800s, early 1900s. I think it was made
with brandy at first, and somebody swapped out
and put bourbon in it. So then the mule spice
is basically the same recipe or the same flavor
profile as the ginger ale, but we add capsaicin.
So it's just a little bit of heat to it, so you
get a little bit of tickle on your throat. I
like it. That's the one we started with just
now, the mule spice. It cuts back with the ginger.
So if people don't like a lot of ginger, this
is what they go to. If they like more ginger,
the ginger ale, you'll get much more ginger.
So ginger is good for you. It's healthy. It is.
It's healthy. We tried going that route, but
we couldn't make healthy claims. Well, but that
would be the Paloma. The Paloma is grapefruit,
so we call that our breakfast drink. There you
go. Drink four every day for a good heart. And
then the cherry, which is... I guess it would
be this. If people say, give me a sweet one,
that would be the cherry. When we were at Total
Wine and picked it up, that's the only flavor
they had at the time. The cherry rye. I'm a cherry.
Any of these kind of true leaves, I don't really
like those, but if there is one that I can grab
from somebody's cooler, it's usually cherry.
Usually it's Zima. Yeah. Not Zima. Wow. And by
the way, there is no usual. I'm just saying,
if I'm somewhere where somebody's offering. Hi,
my name's Paul and I want some Zima. Here we
go. Here we go. Unprovoked. Well, the cherry
was one that we actually, it almost didn't make
the cut. And one of the wives, who is Sicilian,
said we must have a cherry. She says we walk.
Yeah. What is she? What do you call her? Sicilian.
Sicilian? Italian Sicilian. Yeah, I just didn't.
I'd like to hear him say it. But anyways, so
we. It's a pizza. He knows I'll get in trouble
with her. We won't let her listen to the podcast.
No, no, no. She's not listening. Well, we'll
fix that. She won't get past the first minute.
Don't worry. They lose interest very quickly.
But this is the one that any lady that comes
up to any of our tastings and says, I don't do
bourbon. I can't drink it. Don't drink it. Yep.
Pour me a little of this. they walk away going,
I can drink this. Yeah, how many people are going
to really have an adversity to bourbon and they're
going to taste it enough in any of this to not
like it? You know what I mean? Well, it's funny
because everybody's palate's different. At 9%,
it's high for a can. But I've had people who
would come up and they'll say, man, do you put
any bourbon in this? And I've had some people
say, oh my, no, seriously. Not often, but on
the other end of the spectrum, I've had people
say, Oh my God, there's too much bourbon in this.
I mean, 9 % is, it's a wine cooler. It's most
wines. Wines are usually around 12, 13. This
is way higher than your seltzer. Most seltzers
are like four and a half, maybe 5%. So this is
a lot higher than that. So the bourbon and the
rye you have in this, is it the same as this
or is it something else? No, it's young bourbon.
We would have got crucified if we'd have put.
Five -year -old bourbon in a can. Oh, for sure.
See? See? Right here. We would not be on this
podcast if we put five -year -old bourbon in
a can. Yeah, the cost alone. And don't start
coming out with your age premium brain. Yeah,
you're right. And it's right here. Happy infused
horse neck. Horse neck premium. No, this is two
-year -old bourbon. It's old enough to be called
bourbon, but it's very young bourbon. That's
all right. It's in the box. You can still say
straight bourbon though, right? Yeah. When it's
hot outside and those are cold, they're really
good. That cherry was the hardest one to dial
in. The first time we did that, it was more like
NyQuil. It was like cough syrup. Those berries
are tricky. It took us a while to get that one
nailed in. Interesting. Dialed in or nailed down?
We're moving on to the cherry rye. We're flying.
All right. Here, pass mine over here, Mr. Aaron.
Here's something for you. Jeff's hogging the
glasses. I'm not a cherry fan, so I like that
one, but I'm just not a big cherry fan. This
is what we drank the first night, I believe,
wasn't it? It was the only flavor they had. That's
what I got. It's very good as a slush also. We
have a slush recipe on our website. You put that
over some crushed ice with a straw. Shoot, man.
You can order this by the gallon, pour it straight
in one of those little slushy mixers. We've thought
about that. We've thought about that, yeah. We've
thought about doing that. Because it's the right
consistency. Dude, also, sitting on a floaty
in the lake next to the boat. That's it. With
this being ice cold. Yep. It's absolutely perfect.
It would go down so fast. That's the thing with
9%. Two of these. What's your line? After two
cans, don't text anybody. Yeah. Yeah, there you
go. Or drive. Or drive, yeah. Yeah, mow the lawn
first and then drink, not the other way around.
Yeah, this is good. It's tasty. Very refreshing.
This will sneak up on you. Exactly. Because it
tastes great. The one I drank was warm and didn't
quite embrace it the same way. Well, we probably
didn't slush either, did we? No. We just shotgun.
Oh, yeah, we did. Yeah, we didn't waste any time.
The burp tastes better than the downy. You could
taste it, though. I like cherry. They're both
actually good. Thank you. Thank you. They're
both good. I was thinking which one to like more,
but no. We appreciate that. My wife's a huge
mule fan, so I'm going to get some of those.
That's my favorite one. The mule actually does
not have any ginger beer in it. Really? Yes.
What's that? Ginger flavor? It's just the ginger.
It's real ginger, yeah. Yeah, the real ginger
and the pepper play off each other to where it
just cuts it enough and gives you a little bit
different flavor profile. Yeah, well, it's close.
It was very, very good for a mule. Yeah. She
fixes me some every now and then, and it was
tasty. The cherry has a little ginger, right?
It's got some lime juice. I don't know if it
has a hint of ginger in there or not. No, it
has lime juice in it. I don't think it has any
ginger in the cherry. If it does, it may have
some of the low -carbonated ginger ale. It says
the bold flavors of ginger, tart, dark cherry.
That's what I said. That's what I said. No, no,
you had a microphone malfunction. It wasn't what
you said. Yeah, no. There's a bite. There's a
bite to it. A ginger bite. You can tell. The
other thing, too, you can tell. We've got four
to go through. This goes to, again, to Kurt.
The one thing that we did on the cans, we were
always going to have bourbon on the cans, but
we had to have some other name that fit the can.
So when we came up with Cherry, it was like,
okay, what goes with Cherry? You know, we need
a three -letter word. Well, it's a rye bourbon,
so it's, okay, cherry rye. So if you look at
our cans, anywhere you're looking at, you can
see the entire, there's nothing wrapped around.
And he always wanted that for marketing. Oh,
I see. He's a stickler for marketing. The cans
look great. Yeah, they do. He's done a great
job. The white logo on that black background
was brilliant. Actually, it's very sharp can.
But we enjoy the bottom, too, the three circles
on the bottom with the barrel, the Kentucky and
the Texas. Right now, that is a battle. We have
the promise and the feeling, the notion that
Texas is going to whip Kentucky's ass when it
comes to some of these spirits. Well, we debated
that amongst the four of us, actually five of
us back then, as to do we go with Texas bourbon,
do we go MGP, or do we go Kentucky? And what
it came down to, I think, was just the Kentucky
name. It may not be any better or worse, but
it's just, as a new brand starting out, having
St. Kentucky bourbon could carry you someplace.
If all things equal, there's going to be somebody
who says, it's got to be Kentucky before I'm
going to drink bourbon. I love the fact that
you have Texas on there as well. Yeah, we played
with this idea, like born in Kentucky and raised
in Texas, that kind of thing. Look, there are...
Fantastic whiskey companies coming out of Texas
right now. Oh, absolutely. They really are. 1845,
Iron Root Republic, Rebecca Creek, Garrison Brothers.
Balconas. Yeah, there's just tons coming out.
Hell, man, it's a little scary, not for me, maybe
for you guys, but I kind of make an analogy.
When you think about how the craft beers boom
hit, and then it became over. diluted with so
many different flavors out there. I'm wondering
if that's going to happen with the bourbon boom
as well. You may guys have a little more insight,
but I've read some articles where they talk about
that it's starting to decline the bourbon business.
There's a lot of bourbon on the market now if
you want to buy a barrel, put it that way. It's
cheaper now than it always started. It used to
not be four or five years ago. Four or five years
ago it was... It wasn't easy. You could find
some, but you're paying for it. Now there's a
lot of bourbon on the secondary market that you
could buy a barrel very easily. In fact, there
was a distiller, I think, in San Antonio, right
downtown, that just went bottoms up here in the
last month or two. So some of that is happening.
It's one reason we don't want to own a distillery.
We want to source everything. Unless I win the
Powerball, I might buy a distillery. Yeah, well,
we're going to want to address that, too, regarding
some of the specialty woods. that you guys are
using. I don't know what you can share as far
as proprietary goes, but I kind of want to see
if you guys can name some of the species. I think
when we get to the bourbon. Yeah, let's transition.
The last one I poured you guys, it's the healthy
one. It's the grapefruit. Is that a thing? Of
course it's a thing. If you like grapefruit.
Have this in the morning. I tell everybody, my
doctor said I need more fresh fruit, so I drink
these in the morning. There you go. It's either
a can or a pill. Yeah. You went with a can. All
right. But this one, you really have to like
grapefruit juice. If you don't like grapefruit
juice, you may not like it. Yeah, I'm not a huge
grapefruit juice fan, but I can still drink this.
It's still refreshing. It's not tart. It's not
tart at all. I love grapefruit. Chuck, can you
put up this one here? What's going on? Oh, it
is? Oh, gosh. I thought the can was yellow. No.
That looks yellow. That's pink. Colorblind, too?
Yeah, I guess I'm colorblind. Depending on the
light, yeah. Yeah, okay, sorry. Unprovoked. Yeah,
another unprovoked attack. All right, so ruby
red grapefruit juice. All right, perfect pairing
for a brunch or out on a boat. Hey, I said that
earlier. These are definitely boat drinks, I'm
telling you right now. Excellent. All this you
see from the standpoint of the descriptions and
all that, we didn't source that out anywhere.
That, again, is Kurt. Kurt's on all of our markets.
Really? All in -house. All in -house, yeah. So
he's making a dollar more than the rest of you?
Yes, yes. He makes a penny more than me. A penny,
a penny. Well, I did notice a few typos. He always
asks us about that. I groomed it. We don't tell
him until it comes out in print. Then we say,
look, you screwed up. I pointed out a few. I
had to correct it before I printed it, so I know
exactly which ones they are. We have to keep
him humble. We have one more ginger if you want
to open it, or you can save it, or we can move
on. No, let's do one more. Let's get out of the
way. It's all four. Absolutely. Let's do it.
Get a whole four -pack going. This is terrific.
Second half may be a blast. All right, so you
obviously have some competitors in this market,
or maybe not. I mean, nothing exactly like what
you have. I haven't found one. Okay. I was going
to say, this is kind of a good niche here. I
think it makes us unique in two aspects because
I haven't found a product like this. I mean,
Jack, there's Jack and Coke. Jim Beam has a bourbon
drink, but they're all high sugar and they don't
taste good. Right. I mean, I'll even go into
a liquor store and they'll say, no, the Jack's
not good, but I got to carry it because it's
Jack. I know Jeff and I, it's a big deterrent
having like Jack and Cokes. So when we go to...
Well, we do go, which is rare, but sometimes
we go to the Revel up the street and we'll listen
to some 80s, 60s, 70s band up there when they
have a tribute band. And, you know, we've gone
through periods where we had a bunch of Jack
Cokes. And we're just kind of, God bless, I'm
hung the hell over. You know, and it's not so
much the bourbon. It's just all that sugar. So
that's another reason why we kind of changed
gears and started drinking it neat or on cubes
or, you know, maybe with a club soda. We just
kind of omit the, Paul is still drinking with
Coke. And I will once in a while, but it's more
then than now because it makes it so easy to
drink. If you tried the Jack and Coke in a can.
Yes. Have you tried that? What's your opinion
there? I actually have one downstairs. I think
they're awful. Yeah, the problem with that is
that I make my Jack and Coke different. Right.
It's four parts Jack and one part Coke. Well,
seriously, it doesn't taste anything like Jack
and Coke. No, no. It's a malt beverage. But to
your point of competition. That's our competition.
And we really think without the sugar, that's
my point. Without the sugar and without the carbonation,
we think we're that much better. Our biggest
challenge is the non -bourbon drinks. Because
as a bourbon, this is a premium drink, and the
price kind of reflects that. And if somebody
says, especially the younger people, I can get
a 10 -pack or an 8 -pack of White Claw for the
price of four -year cans. They're like, well,
but that's either going to be malt -based or
it's going to be vodka. It's a different animal.
It's a totally different animal. So that's why
they need to be educated on that specifically.
We do a lot of that. We do a lot of that. This
really does matter in terms of what generation
you're targeting because my oldest son, who's
26, he's like, there's only one purpose of drinking,
Dad, and that's to get shit -based. So if that's
the case of that generation, They're not looking
for a high price. They're looking for the cheapest.
They can't appreciate this. Exactly. Exactly.
So your target audience then is somebody who's
like, oh, wow. It's dudes like us. It's like
shit dudes like us. It's like Schlitz malt liquor
back in the day or Colt 45. Or am I aging myself
with my beer? No. Billy Dee Williams. I don't
claim you can have a better time with Colt 45
than without it. But boy, it takes chances. Yeah.
Yeah. No, I mean, for real. The cool side of
the pillow. Because like you said, I mean, if
I can be honest, I mean, for a four -pack, what's
your price for a four -pack? $16, $17? $14 .99
the total wines. But anywhere from $14 to, I've
seen it as high as $22. Someone trying to get
that, don't know what to get that for. Suggest
it. We try to get it like at $16, $4 a can. Right.
We can suggest, but they price it the way they
want. Sure. Right. And you're never going to
get a $4 drink at a bar. No, not 9%. Darren and
I had a fun time when we first launched this.
We had a lot of fun times, but we went down to
the Total Wines in Baytown. Total Wines gave
us five test stores, and in three months they
put us in every store in the state. Excellent.
And actually, not with the variety pack, but
in the DFW area, they went to the variety pack,
and they went to the ginger and the cherry. Beautiful.
We went down to Baytown. It's the last store
before the coast for Total Wine. They set us
up in front of the store. We did a Friday night
and a Saturday afternoon tasting, and we sold
60 or 74 packs the first night and probably sold
them out the next day. And it was all people
going out on a boat. That's terrific. Yeah. Out
on a boat. They would taste it, and they'd go,
oh, my God, I haven't had anything like this.
It's real. Regarding intellectual property, you've
got the folks out in California that are whipping
this stuff out. How do you protect them? I kind
of think of them like sending the technical data
to make a TV in China. Now they have that proprietary
knowledge. How do you protect yourself with those
folks? That would be my kind of fear. It was
written in the agreement. We have an agreement
that we own the product. We own the recipe. That's
what you paid for. Yeah, absolutely. So what's
the turnaround like that? We just sold 100 cases.
Oh, my gosh, we need 100 more. What's the turnaround
on that? Well, we ran the first run was 50 ,000
cans or how many cases? Yeah, 12 .5 of each one.
12 .5 of each. And then we did a second batch
of 50. We're almost through that now. Depending
on when we start with them and getting in the
materials, they can probably turn it, I'm going
to say, two months. Yeah, because you have to
get in on their production schedule. So they've
got multiple things going on. Yeah, they have
other providers. And not every production line
can do our drinks because for ours it has to
take refrigeration because the juice is shipped
cold. It has to have carbonation and it has to
have a license to do spirits. And so sometimes
they're called co -packers. Some of them have
two out of three. Do these need to be refrigerated
at the house? Nope. Because of the process that
we go through, it doesn't need to be refrigerated.
The sludge only starts after an hour or two.
I still have a can. I've had some cans from our
original production run three years, two and
a half years ago, three years? I just drank one
the other night. And they taste as good as the
first day. They really do. All right, cool. So
you were doing these cans, and that was kind
of the focus. Yep. And then at some point, you
pivoted. Are we going to rate this? Oh. Oh, the
ginger. The ginger. The dudes like us listeners
out there, on the first half and the second half,
we usually rate the whiskeys. Yeah, we're not
going to rate yours because we're featuring you,
but we'll rate like the other ones. You're going
to rate us behind our back? Yeah, 100%. Wait,
wait, wait. The moment you go to the bathroom.
We'll turn around. We'll turn around and you
can rate us. Yeah, we'll ask you to go to. Paul,
pull your pants up. I'll tell you what I'll do
is I'll rank the flavors that I like. There you
go. I like the mule spice and the ginger the
best and the cherry. And then the LaPole, just
because I'm not a grapefruit fan. Right. But
all of them, if you bought this mixed pack. I'm
a fan of all of them. Yeah. All of them. I really
am. Usually, I'm squirrely. You know. No, all
of them I can drink. Even the cherry. Bottom
line is, if I'm sitting in a tube on the lake
and I hollered at somebody on the boat to throw
me a can, I don't care which one hits me. Just
throw one. I'm telling you, they would all be
fantastic. How often are you on a tube on a lake?
I'd like to think walking from the car to the
garage. God bless, I'm hot. That's my point.
I'm going to grab the coldest thing that's closest
to me of these four cans. To me, I think they're
all kind of... Equal in terms of enjoyment. It
may just be our wives, but females love this.
Females love this drink. Oh, it's perfect. My
wife drinks the mule spice and the cherry. She
loves those, too. So availability, I'm looking
at the map up here. It's just Texas, Oklahoma
so far? Yes. Are you looking to go nationwide
or expansion a little bit? Well, we've got a
real good e -commerce platform, and I don't remember
what the number is, but we can legally ship to
42 states, something like that. Is that really
California? I believe it does. I believe it does.
A little side note on California. You know who
the biggest liquor sales store is in California?
Probably Costco. The chain? Trader Joe's. CVS.
Really? Really. The drugstore. A little scary,
huh? I mean, they don't know, you know, any one
store doesn't sell a lot, but there are so many
stinking CVSs, right? Well, and they probably
sell for a premium. Oh, yeah. Right? So are they
doing it by revenue? They're doing it by revenue.
Oh, yeah. If you look at California, you got
to go down to about number 12 or 13 to hit a
liquor store. These are definitely locked up
in a cage, too. Yeah. Right next to the deodorant.
So we have a good e -commerce program so anybody
across the United States can order. And you're
allowed to ship to any of those 42? Every state
has a different law. That includes the bourbon?
Yeah. Sometimes there's rules against the hard
liquor than other things. We'll talk later, I
guess, but if you want to sign up for our newsletter,
we're always doing promos and putting out codes
so you can get some discounts off. I signed up
for the newsletter on your website. Is that the
same thing? Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Is there a special
VIP? You know, it's all in who you, it's not
what you know. The, uh, the other thing with
the, with this right now, there's a bill, I believe
it's still trying to pass it. They're trying
to pass a bill that you can buy up to 17 % alcohol
in grocery stores. Because that's what I think
the max wine is, 17%. I think it's silly that
you can't buy liquor at the liquor stores. It
is. It is. I know it'll kill some of the other
liquor distributors, but it's just like, come
on. I used to go out to Nevada a lot because
my dad lived out there. And you would find Kroger
has it. Walmart has it. Walgreens, CVS, they
don't have a huge selection like Walgreens. Sam's
Club. But you'd see the Jim Beam, the Jack, the
Makers. It's a good business model. But it was
everywhere. Every store you essentially went
in, you'd see bottles of booze. Well, let's not
forget, Frisco didn't have beer and wine. Not
too long ago. They had nothing. Yeah. Until,
how long have you guys been in Frisco? Are you
from Frisco? Plano. Plano here. Plano. I'm in
Carrollton, actually. Okay, so you remember then
how Frisco couldn't, we had to go to Plano to
buy your beer and wine. Was it about 15 years
ago? 20 years ago? It was a chore. 20 years ago.
We had to pass legislation at the Texas legislature
to have the ability to vote on it. And then we
voted. And then, yes, we passed it. They got
beer and wine, but no liquor. It's kind of the
same time that the Hooters, remember the Hooters
restaurant that opened up? It's the same time
the airplane was flying around with the little
tail behind it saying, we're open. And the story
behind that was when they went to get their license,
their liquor license, they said they were Texas
Wings. They didn't say they were hooters. And
so when they saw that, they were like, yeah,
we're not going to give you a liquor license.
You were not being forthcoming with who you guys
really were. And then they battled it out and
battled it out, and they were giving out free
beer during that period. Did you ever go to a
restaurant and buy the club membership for like
a dollar? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, that was
plain up. The Unicard. The Unicard. The Unicard,
yeah. When I moved down here from Wichita Falls
years ago, I used to have to drive to Addison
to get any of my alcohol. That was the only liquor
stores that were available. You had to go to
Addison. That was me. I don't know how they got
it, but Addison was the only one that had it.
And you know what's funny? I spent my high school
years in Houston, right? And they have liquor
everywhere. As a matter of fact, you open your
front door and there's a guy pushing around a
liquor. Anyway, I get to Dallas and my girlfriend
comes up from Texas A &M and I was like, I'm
going to go out and get us some Captain Morgan.
And I leave. And I hadn't been here very long.
And I drove and I drove and I drove. And I was
like, I can't believe this. I found myself in
like... In East Plano, and I had to call it from
a payphone. A what? A payphone. And I was like,
listen, I'm sorry, I'm not lost. I'm looking
for a liquor store. I don't know why I can't
find any liquor. And I had to go over to Addison
to find it. It's unbelievable. Times have changed.
She just plugged it into Google Maps. Yeah, there
was no Google Maps. Now it's crazy. You can get
it delivered to your house. So let me do a quick
little plug here. Horsenegg bourbon RTD cocktail.
Saddle up from the rich caramel flavors of aged
Kentucky bourbon to the clean, natural ingredients.
Horsenegg stands alone in the spirit -based,
ready -to -drink market. No sugar or artificial
sugar substitutes are added to Horsenegg, only
natural sweeteners. Then the high -quality essential
ingredients. used to make each flavor profile
unique, distinct, and delicious, such as real
fruit juice like ginger, lime, dark cherry, grapefruit,
and lemon. The recipes have been carefully crafted
to bring out the best flavors that complement
the layered flares found in Kentucky straight
bourbon. Delight in every sip. That's fantastic.
Stuff going on here tonight. Thank you guys for
bringing that. We haven't practiced it for hours.
Because he's not really that literate. I take
really long shits. A lot of practice time. Don't
smell that paper. I'm not going to touch it either.
Touch it, don't smell it. So locally, where can
we find this? I know we talked about Total Wine
and there's been some challenges there. Are you
back there? We're trying. Like Jim said, we were
in... A test of five and two months, three months
later, they put us in every 36 stores across
the state, 16 in the Metroplex. And we switched
distributors last year. And so when our old one
found out that we were moving, you know, they
wiped their hands. They said, they put us off
in the corner, not going to do anything with
you. It took a couple of months before our other
distributor picked us up. And so we went for
two months without any distribution. So there
were a number of stores across the state that
we fell below. They measured on a five week moving
average and we fell below and they said. You're
out. Sorry, it's not selling. It's not selling.
Well, it wasn't because of you. Well, our current
distributor went up to Total Wine in Maryland
and said it wasn't their fault. They said, sorry,
that's what the numbers show. So we're trying
to dig ourselves back into that. We're in 12
Total Wines now, most of them in the Metroplex.
Most Total Wines in the Metroplex. So you're
inching your way back in. It's in the system.
So anybody who's listening to this, if you go
into Total Wine, if you ask the store manager
to bring it in, they can bring it in. This is
dudes like us endorsed. 100%. That shows you
the power of these distributors, man. They make
or break companies. It's almost like a union,
right? You go against them. Don't talk too much
about it. You'll get whacked. Since we started
Carrollton Plano. A lot of the liquor stores
around Grandscape and all that, they have us.
Some of the independents, because that's where
we started. We went to independents first. Hilltop
Liquor in Louisville carries everything of our
products. Really good store there, too. There's
a lot of independents, at least in North Dallas,
that's carrying it. How easy is it for these
bars out there to pour some of this stuff? People
ask for a mule at a local club, restaurant. Crack
one of these babies open. We got it. How easy
is that? You would think that would be. It's
easy for the bartender, no doubt about it. But
here's the dilemma. Every bar has to buy from
Specs. Yeah. Or Goody Goody. Or something like
that. They can't buy directly from our distributor.
So you've got to get into their system first.
The middleman. Exactly. That's a whole thing.
Unless you bring your. Your productivity here.
If you start manufacturing it here locally, I
think you could sell, like if you're in Plano,
you could sell to Plano Bars. Yeah, and that's
what we're looking at. We'd like to bring all
the canning back here to Texas. We'd really like
to do everything here in Texas if we could. And
we've talked to a couple canneries. We just haven't
had to make another run yet. Excellent. Now,
I also read that you're at the Gents Place. Yes.
All Darren's doing. Yeah, if you need a good
haircut, what's the beard? It's a high -end men's
salon. No, no, no. The gents place. Is that spelled
G -E -N -T -Z? Gents. So is this where guys go?
Yeah. It's a male barbershop. Yeah. But they
offer everything. They offer hand repairs, foot
repairs, beard trims. And the membership. Stop
there, Darren. Hold on. When you say hand repairs,
is that code for something? No. You'll come for
happy ending. You winked when you said that.
I was sure that was something in your eye. We
give you a horse neck. Actually, when you do
walk in, if you have a membership, you get, I
think it's two or three drinks a night. Two drinks.
Two drinks. They give it away. Yeah, and Horsenick
is their featured bourbon. $50 haircut, right?
Probably the least. I honestly don't know what
their annual membership is run, but it's an annual
membership. It's a cool place. The best haircuts
I have were from a barber shop, so there's a
distinct difference between a barber and a hairstylist.
I went to a barber, and they take a knife to
you, and they whip you up, shave you, and I was
like, Get out of here. It's the first time I
didn't whip somebody's ass for pulling a knife
on me. It's such a clean shave. And we partnered
with them because we want Horseneck to be a premium
bourbon. It's always going to be that image that
we want to have. And the gins place is a premium
place. But they also do really good work. Oh,
look at this. Very regularly, they go off. I
don't know what we've got here. Mr. Producer
pulled up three course clubs starting at $16
.85 a year. Monthly price of $50. Does that add
up? No. That's $600 a year and $50 a month. What
is that $16 .85? I don't know. That's yearly.
Well, they're about $1 ,000 off their math. Is
this the back room stuff? What's going on here?
I don't know. Sorry, guys. We're looking at the
Gents Place website here, and obviously we're
a little confused about some of the pricing they
have listed here. So essentially, let's say it's
$50 a month for the base. That's actually not
too bad. Is that like unlimited haircuts? I believe
so. Can you just go in and hang out? Oh yeah,
you can go in and hang out. They've got a nice
little cigar club. It's more like a club. They
must have a room where you just sit and hang
out. We've done tastings at least all of them
in the Metroplex. They've got like eight stores
across the state. We'll go in there and they'll
do, they have a happy hour. They'll bring in
food for all their clientele. They've got a bar
there and they'll set us up in the next room
and we're tasting horse snack. They got an area
where we can set up a little mobile podcast?
That could be. They also do a lot of good work.
They do, on a regular basis, they do all the
barbers or stylists from a just place. They'll
bring a bunch of homeless people and they'll
cut their hair, trim their beards, and just make
them look a lot better. It's really awesome.
Can a female be a barber? Absolutely. Was it
a Barberette? Barberette. That's a Barberette.
Barberette. I think there's one here in Frisco,
isn't there? Yes. Correct. Not by the Star. At
the Star. Frisco, right there. It's Barbarella,
by the way. That's interesting. Isn't it Barbarella
if they're a female? Barbarella with Jane Fonda
movie. Oh, it was. I don't know if they show
any of... Did they show us on their website?
I know they show us at their... Yeah, all their...
They have featured drinks and things of that
nature, and they featured horse neck and a lot
of different drinks right now. I wouldn't mind
Barbarella shaving my head. I don't know. What
about you guys? That's an old Raquel, right?
Yeah. I missed that. I'd be okay with that. I'm
just saying. How you doing? How you doing? You
know what? Look, let's be honest. There's something
about going to a hairstylist and then sitting
down and getting your hair cut by some dude.
I mean, I'm not against it, but at the same time,
I'm like, I like options. So you just want to
vary it up a little bit. I usually, I'm very
particular. You'll get your rectal exam bag out.
Yeah. There you go. Oh, yeah. There you go. You're
not suggesting that's what Gents does for the
extra $1 ,600 a month, right? No, no, no. Those
are free. You won't let them cut your hair, but
they'll let you do other things. Oh, Lord have
mercy. I'm kind of curious. You know, we pulled
up the Gents thing, you know. Yes. I may have
to investigate this. I mean, for $50 a month,
it seems. You're really into the night shaves.
Aren't you, Jeff? I mean, does it include shaves?
You can, yeah. Of course. I mean, for $50 a month,
look, I don't shave. Like, I mean, like every
now and then I've got some really nice trimmers
that I picked up and they get me really close.
But, you know, I've got a job where I don't really
have to shave unless I have something that I
need to shave for, which is rare. I have to shave
this weekend. Damn it, I'm going to a freaking
wedding. Son of a bitch. Jets plays, here you
come. You know what? There you go. We usually
go to, honestly, I go to, is it Clips? Jeff and
I see the same person. Great Clips. Great Clips.
I've seen the same person there. This is the
same thing. Yeah, they don't hand you a drink.
No, they don't. You know, it's not about the
drink for me. To me, it's about going in there
and being comfortable with the same person and
having an expectation and getting a good quality
haircut. Well, that is a fancy room, though,
though. Look at the chairs. They're very well
done. Look at all those TVs. They do good work.
They do a shoe shine in the corner. Yep, they
do good work. They really do. That guy looks
familiar. Who the hell is that? That's Shane.
Shane Corral? Oh, my God. You guys know him?
Dude, he took over Chuck's position and my position
as the HOA president. Oh, jeez. Shout out Shane
Corral. What the hell? Is that a picture of Frisco?
That must be. Yeah, I mean, this is a Google
review. Google review. He's not freaking hilarious.
He's not the owner or anything. Okay, I get it.
No, he lives up the street from here. He's a
customer. I got you. Look at that guy in those
glasses. Go back up. I got to see those little
red things. You want to see them red things?
All right, let's move on. Here's the problem.
We have a buzz from your can. And you guys do
not have a buzz. So that's a problem. All right.
So let's talk about the transition. Well, we
do have the whiskey. So how did that happen?
You guys were like, Jesus. Having an Archie Bunker
moment. Jesus, Edith. Actually, I think in the
back of all of our minds, we knew we would make
a bourbon. I think we always knew we were going
to. We just didn't know we'd do it this soon.
So you were thinking almost like, you know how
distilleries have to make a vodka? before they're
able to make bourbon because they have to age
it? Right, right. Was it kind of like that? You
guys, you wanted to get started with something
and then finally transition to a bourbon? Is
that kind of what you were thinking? I don't
think it was more so a transition. I think it
was just that we all knew we liked bourbon and
this was just our entry in. In fact, if you look
at some of the... Early meetings, we even have
a next phase beyond this that we're talking about.
Well, it's like vodkas. No, no, no. We'll never
leave bourbon. We'll never leave bourbon. It'll
always be bourbon. Ready to drinks. Ready to
serves. Ready to serves. As in old -fashioned.
As in those types of things. Nice. Manhattans
and every other kind of. Yeah. Bourbon -y time.
Either in like a large one so you can pour out
multiple ones or just a single service. Or a
single service that might fit on an airline or
something like that. Ooh. A little mini bottle
you can pick up at the golf course. Yes. God
bless. So it'll always be bourbon. I think we
just knew we had to get into the bourbon to move
on to the next phase. And you guys have learned
so much going through this process. Oh, Lordy.
Right? What not to do, what to do, all about
that. One of the things looking back, you're
going, I wish we wouldn't have done that. Yeah,
what mistakes? Some of the mistakes you've made.
So, Kurt and I were... I wish we wouldn't have
Darren involved. There we go. No Darren. Why
did you start picking on me? The truth comes
out. Because you always say, I just got out of
jail, and I really, six months ago, the truth
hurts. The truth hurts. Do you want to talk about
that for a little while, Jim? I noticed you got
your tats all removed. Those little teardrops
on his face. Did you just escape out of Louisiana?
Yankee prison. You brought that one on yourself,
dude. I know. I don't know. Is there anything?
Yeah, here's a funny story. So Kurt and I are
making a presentation. So Specs does a cattle
call twice a year where they bring in new products,
and you've got 30 minutes to pitch. Oh, wow.
It's like Shark Tank. Totally. And so we're in
our cowboy hats, and we're pitching, and Kurt's
talking, and I'm pouring the samples, and there's
10 people, like two rows of five, and there's
this dude at the top left, and he's obviously
the leader of this whole group. And we got 30
minutes. Five minutes into it, he said, so what
do you think about this new law that Texas is
trying to pass where we can sell spirits in convenience
stores? And again, it's the first time in a little
bit we've been asked that question. And so Kurt
said, oh, man, we can't. We're excited. We can't
wait for that to pass. Wrong answer. 20 minutes
later, the guy in front, who's the ringleader,
he said, you know, I quit listening to you 20
minutes ago. Because they don't want it to pass
because that hurts their business. And so looking
back, to your question, I wish we wouldn't have
said that. But think about it. It's kind of a
stupid question. That was a setup. The right
answer was, hey, from our perspective, it's good.
We realize from you it's not and we'll be a good
partner and support you. Yeah, but that's a bullshit
setup. Well, it is because what he was saying
was, would you like... 10 ,000 more places to
sell your product? Right. And if you say no...
Of course we do, right? Meaning they want you
to kiss the ring. Exactly. That's what it was.
It took us forever to get that. Yeah, but at
the same time, I think you guys came clean, and
I think you feel better about it. Oh, yeah. At
least you gave an honest answer. Oh, yeah. And
it sucks, but you know what? Fuck him. Move on.
And who's the one that said it? Uh, Kurt. Yeah,
Kurt was one of them. He's out, right? You kicked
him out? He's done. I mean, I know he did a lot
of work up until this point, but yeah, you can't
accept mistakes. No mistakes in this business,
guys. He lost his O. One more typo. One more
typo and he's out. We had two other guys. We
had two or three other guys on this podcast.
They're not here. They're not here today. You
don't mistakes. No mistakes. We groomed these
guys. I think one thing we want to get into is
bourbon. I know we're getting close, and I want
to make sure we talk about this bourbon because
How new is this venture as the bourbon? I know
you started with the ready -to -drinks. What
about the bourbon? We made our first run of 300
bottles. We did a very small run. Just as a test
case. Just as a test case. And the next century
who we used, they didn't even want to do it for
us. So it was a rather high -priced run. But
we brought that in for ourselves and our investors.
Everyone loved it. I think we sold the first
bottle of bourbon in December of 23, literally
like on Christmas Eve at a little independent
liquor store. But we really didn't start selling
the bourbon until early last year, the first
test run. And then we did a bigger production
run of both of them. So that's probably mid -year
before we got into some stores. Of 24? 24, yeah.
Okay. So we've been selling for less than a year,
actually. And is this available where you're
selling the ready -to -drink stuff? Not as much.
Total Wines has a system where you have to go
online to get another product in the store, and
they do not take any new product store in October,
November, December, which most places don't.
That's OND, where that's what they call their
busiest time of the season, so they don't want
wraps or anything. What does that mean? O -N
-D. O -N -D. October. November, December. Oh.
Yeah. Time for a break. I need to slow down.
These damn, like, you know, sugar cans. The horse
neck double barrel. Are you actually putting
these in double barrels? Are they double barreled
or are they barreled and then staved? They're
not staved. It's a proprietary finishing method
at Next Century Spirits that he can, because
it's one person that developed it, he can accelerate
the flavoring process, which would take probably
about two years in a barrel, get it done in about
two months. So post -barrel. So we take... Is
that a secret? This is post -barrel. He's got
a proprietary finishing process, so nobody...
He owns the process, the finishing process. We
take the five -year bourbon, send it to Next
Century, which is located in Zebulon, North Carolina,
and he puts it through his process of putting
that bourbon through either oak staves, in our
case, oak staves or sherry staves, and it picks
up those flavors. The nice thing about it is
it's a process, which is repeatable. And so we've
done two production runs, and we did a blind
taste test after, and we couldn't tell the difference
between either one. Even though the original
Juice was the same mash bill, but it was different
production runs. And so because he can dial in,
you know, he varies the variables. He can make
it so consistent. So consistent, yes. And I don't
want you to divulge information you don't want
to, but it sounds to me like it's post -barrel,
almost like what Jack Daniels does, drips it
through, you know, to their mellowing process.
To their charcoal. Right? So he's doing something
post -barrel through a process, and then you're
bottling. Yeah, we all questioned it a little
bit at the first one until we ran the first 300
bottles and went, this stuff's good. It's good.
And then Kurt actually went and watched the production
one time and said, it's real. It's not hocus
pocus. So anywhere in that post -production stuff,
are they using charred wood or is it just wood?
No, it's just wood. It's wood. So obviously to
be bourbon, it's got to be in the charred virgin
barrel. Then it goes through either staves soaked
in sherry or staves soaked in, or just oak staves.
Here's what we did on the sherry. It was easy.
We want a sherry finish. So that's sherry wood.
Yeah. On the double barrel, we told them we wanted
maple, caramel, oak, smoky, and smooth. Those
types of finish. Beautiful. And so he may have
soaked it in oak. He may have soaked it in maple.
I don't know the combination. The magic is in
what he does. Exactly. But we went through the
same process where he made some samples and sent
them to us, and we tasted it, and we'd say, it's
a little too bitey. It's a little too oaky. It's
a little too sweet. You can make it that consistent.
That precise and that consistent. Well, we've
had some bottles out there. We went to... Whiskey
Fest, World of Whiskey, and we've had one where
they said, this has been aged two weeks by our
proprietary thing. And it was horrible. Horrible.
It was horrible. I was like, seriously. Sean
went to the hospital. It was. I had a gallon
of it. Aged two weeks. Yeah. And as he was trying
to pitch, I was like, no, this is not going to
be good. But this, you can't tell that it's gone
through any kind of crazy. Whatever he's doing,
right? Right, right, right. And my wife was the
first to taste it. She really liked it. She goes,
this is smooth. It goes down really easy. Do
you think it drinks like a 101? No. I don't either.
No. That's what we get. It's definitely different
from Wild Turkey 101. I mean, Wild Turkey 101
is a staple in the industry. Yes. And they may
have changed their recipe a couple times. It's
still a staple, and everyone should have that
on the shelf. This one is a high -end 101. It
really is. It's got that double barrel, adds
an extra layer of oakness that you want. Not
too much smoke. You mentioned that you want it
in there. I do like the smoke. Jeff hates the
smoke. Paul's in the fan. I love smoke. But I
like this. I'm not... I was going to unprovoked
attack you, but again, fourth one today. Yeah,
the smoky finishes. Now, we have some out there
like the Balcones Brimstone, which is like an
ashtray, right? Oh, I love it. Yeah, I like it
too, man. Not a fan. Even some of the others,
we've got some High West out there that's campfire
stuff. So I'm looking for longevity. Yeah, this
is not something that is offensive to me, and
I'm really susceptible to it. And I know this
is not the way that... The real bourbon drinkers
drink it, but when you put this on a rock, it
even gets smoother. Yeah, no. It really comes
up. I wouldn't even say real. You know what?
We've had this debate about how we enjoy our
bourbon. Right. And everyone's different. And
we need to, there's no judgment on any of it.
You know what I'm saying? I told you, Darren.
There are a lot of experts out there. I judge
you all the time, Jim. There are a lot of experts
out there that really encourage you to drop this
down to 70 % to 90%. and they don't necessarily
endorse putting it on a cube or a rock or ice.
A lot of times they just say, let's take some
distilled water and blot it half ounce, and that
opens up some of the richness. I don't subscribe
to that, but I'm not against that. The reason
why I don't subscribe to that is because it's
so, God bless, and easy to drink. It'll go down
so quick. That's the problem for me. That's the
problem for me too. That's why our palates, I'd
say our collectively, is that we've kind of been
gravitating towards the higher proof stuff because
we're not drinking as much. We're interested
more in taking a small sip and running it through
the mouth and letting the natural juices kind
of create those aromas. And that for us works.
But if you're wanting a, I don't want to say
quick fix, you can add the distilled water. I'm
just not a fan. I tried it. Well, I think if
you're serving, not necessarily this 101, but
if you're trying to serve a 110, 115 to somebody
who's not used to drinking that. They can't do
it. They won't do it, yeah. Here, put a nice
cube in it, let it sit for a couple minutes,
and you're really going to enjoy it kind of thing.
So here's the bigger question. Is it a cube or
a ball? Either one. Either one. I mean, Sean's
into balls. It depends if you're talking about
poop or bat poop, you know? Does anybody have
the LG fridge that makes balls? I got it downstairs.
Oh, love you, man. I got mine, too. I was going
to say, I've got a fridge that makes the balls.
Yes. Yeah. But they're small. I'm not. No, no,
no. Sean's into big balls. He's got big balls.
I love those big balls. They're not that big.
We've got big balls. I don't like, I'm telling
you, I like my whiskey straight up. Yeah. Period.
I don't like it. If anything, I'll add a little
club soda to it, a little San Pellegrino, and
that's about it. But typically, no. Straight
up. Just drink it slow. Drink it nice and slow.
Yeah, and again, my attitude is however you enjoy
your drink, that's the key. There you go. Yeah,
Chuck likes to have Orange Fanta. Exactly. And
we still love him. I mean, you know. Have a look
at him. He shows up. Sometimes we'll hit some
of the bourbons. When we first started Purgacy,
we were in the 90 range, right? So every now
and then, we'll pull one of those out, and we're
doing like. five of these instead. It drinks
like tea. It does. Quick question because I know
we're getting up against it. We're thinking of
coming out with a, well we are, I'm not thinking,
we are going to come out with a third, what we
call the stable. So we'll always have sherry
finish, we'll always have the double barrel.
Higher or lower ABV? Higher. Always higher. Higher.
But we're a niche. We are. Okay, because it's,
I think it'd be, I think the smart decision,
would be maybe a little higher but selfishly
we want it 115 120 i think if you got 107 range
well that's our our goal our goal is we're going
to have a core series where there's going to
be in a double barrel and the sherry and probably
this high ride that's going to be our uh core
series always available and then after that it's
going to we're going to build the company on
on limited releases high age high high proof
right different grain, right? And we'll do X
number of barrels, and once it's gone, it's gone.
And I think that's when we'll start getting into
those higher proofs. I think you'll sell more
in this range than your higher proof, right?
So business -wise, I think that's... But you
can always dumb down. Higher proof, because you'll
get the nerds buying those things, right? Oh,
it's limited, it's higher. Have a couple limited
ones out there, and then just dumb it down to
this stuff, because this is terrific, you know?
And if there's anything that I could add as far
as constructive criticism, The front end is great.
It doesn't last long. So it dies down at the
end. I think it lacks a little pepper. I would
say the front end kind of touches on the Mictors
10, and then it just dies out. But I give this
a fantastic score. But it's 101. 100%. You're
expecting the richness of a 115. Well, I'm talking
about something that's 90 proof. That's what
we have found. You can't compare it to the Mictors
10. I think that's in a box by itself. It's a
unique. I'm just saying, if we're going to, like
I said, I share with you guys, we're going to
put goals in this. Sure. God bless. I just took
it right now. In the front end, it's fantastic.
I'm enjoying the hell out of it. The mid is fine.
It just dies. After about 20 seconds, it kind
of dies. But I'm still loving it. Thank you.
This should be on everyone's shelf. On the second
half, I definitely want to hit on this some more
because there are some fascinating things that
you guys know you can do with this proprietary.
Yes. Because if you find just a unique. Something
that tastes really unique, but you don't want
to mass produce it, but you want to make it limited.
Right. Yes. Wow. That's what we're looking at
doing. That's what we're looking at doing. The
power of that is fantastic. All right. We've
got to wrap this up. The Horse Neck Double Barrel,
a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey known for
its smooth, layered, and complex flavor profile.
It's featured tasting notes of butterscotch,
vanilla, and dark cherry along with hints of
cinnamon, licorice, and spicy oak. The proprietary
wood filtering and finishing technology used
allows for these unique flavors to be dialed
in. You guys from Horseneck, God bless. Thank
you guys for coming out. Thanks, guys. You the
man, Mr. Producer behind it. Any last things?
Yeah, yeah. How'd you feel about the first guy?
Yeah. I don't know. I'm still alive, I guess.
Do you want to stick around for the second half?
Yeah, well, yeah. You've been easier than I thought
you were going to be, honestly. Oh, no, no, no.
Second half, you're getting brutal. I've always
wanted to say this on a podcast in case I don't
stay. I do have sweaty balls, though. Whenever
Paul's shirt comes off, we're sweaty. That's
why we don't let you out very often, Jim. That's
exactly why we don't let you out. There's no
nudity in the second half. Check us out on Facebook
and Instagram, dudeslikeus -podcast. DudesLikeUs
-Woodcraft. Instagram, follow us, like us, punch
that button. It's May 27th. Stars are on right
now, right? Yeah. Check out that score. Can you
believe they're playing tonight? What are you
guys doing here? DudesLikeUs, I'm Sean. I'm Paul.
I'm Jeff. I'm Jim. I'm Darren. Sweaty Jim. Peace
out. Sweaty balls.