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This is Whiskey Wanderlust.

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And we're on an expedition to discover how Colorado is elevating craft spirits from grain

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to glass.

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We bring whiskey explorers like you an inside look at the distilled stories, colorful characters,

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and rich flavors that make Colorado a true whiskey frontier.

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So pour yourself a dram.

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And join us on an unforgettable journey.

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In this episode, Law's Whiskey House.

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Welcome everyone to the fourth episode of Whiskey Wanderlust.

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I'm Corey.

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I'm Ryan.

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Ryan.

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Thanks for joining us again today.

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First of all, we want to thank everybody for their ongoing support.

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We're now on episode four and we've seen a lot of great support throughout to get us

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to this point.

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Awesome interviews and we're building a little bit of a fan base, which has been great.

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And we really want to appreciate you guys for your involvement with that, sharing stuff

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on social or spreading the word.

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It's been great.

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And be sure if you're not subscribed yet, be sure to like and subscribe this episode

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here and be sure to drop us a rating.

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And we'll be giving out some shirts to some of your viewers out there.

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So really cool, fun shirts we've been making.

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So be sure to drop us a note and we'll get in touch.

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But today's episode is now episode four and we are interviewing Law's Whiskey House up

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in Denver.

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And Ryan, why don't you tell us a little bit about what we're going to talk about today.

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Yeah.

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So we had the opportunity to talk to Casey Rizzo, who is the brand manager at Law's Whiskey

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House and Sam Poirier, who is the head distiller.

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Yeah.

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So it was a really fun time going up there and talking with them and getting a tour of

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the facility and just talking whiskey with those two.

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Oh, one of the cool things, which we'll talk about in a minute, but we were able to get

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not only a tour of their facility there, but before it was finished, their tasting room,

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which might as well talk about it now.

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We were able to kind of see the new tasting room while it was still in progress.

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And in December, we were able to go back and actually attend the soft opening for that

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space there, the Whiskey Sanctuary.

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And it is, it's a beautiful, it is fantastic.

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Yeah.

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You guys are in the Denver area.

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Look up the Whiskey Sanctuary, go get a taste, go get a tour.

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The lounge there is top rate, beautiful staircase.

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It's down and down like a whiskey barrel.

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If you want to check out the more, check out the real we put up on Instagram in December.

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But tell us a bit more what else stood out to you.

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So the thing that I really like about laws is their whole, there are no shortcuts, ethos.

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And just so that's something that I try to live my life by, like, you know, personal

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development and I don't want to take any shortcuts.

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I want to do things the right way.

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I want to, you know, make things methodical and do it the right way.

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And so I really appreciated that, that they're, you know, not taking any shortcuts, which

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also led into, you know, with Al, the decision to not really open up and make other spirits

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early on.

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Right.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, I mean, so Al, the founder, right from Canada, came to Denver by way of New York

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for a long time.

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And he founded the facility really incognito, right.

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And apparently gargoyle industries and Sam even talks about it.

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It was trying to find the place before it was even open.

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And so Sam's been there for 13 years, right.

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Cause they just celebrated 13 years.

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So he's been there a long time.

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But the dedication to just crafting whiskey and then him making a certain promise to his

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wife, which is kind of fun, which you guys go to the tasting room, they see two things.

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First of all, that there is no shortcuts.

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Ethos is in the speakeasy, speakeasy tasting room that you come into at the end of the

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tours and there's a big black wall of gold lettering.

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It says there are no shortcuts.

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And there you can also get samplings of Marianne's promise, which is the rum that they make specifically

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for the tasting room.

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So we should check that out as well.

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But the whole gargoyle thing, the whole Gothic theme runs really throughout the new tasting

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room itself.

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It's really cool.

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Yeah.

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Which is called the whiskey sanctuary.

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Right.

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And it's really cool.

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They've got like this, the tour starts and they're in this little kind of like a chapel

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almost.

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Yeah.

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With real pews from a Methodist church.

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And then huge windows where you can see their grain storage outside.

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And so it's an awesome space.

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Well, and one of the fun things you'll see in the episode today is behind us, there's

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a drawing, it's a chalkboard drawing.

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And I remember this chalkboard drawing and there's been some debate over which version

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I saw originally, but they see drew the one that you see in the episode and they've carried

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that.

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It's basically a diagram of the distilling process and their practices there and it's

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hand drawn and they've kept some of those elements in the new tasting room.

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So now they have chalkboard with that same kind of hand drawings in the new whiskey church

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there and it's really, really cool.

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And the original chalkboard still lives on.

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It's in the tasting room.

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You got to look for it.

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You got to keep your eyes open.

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So if you stop in there, look for it.

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There's a special place for that one in the hallway.

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Yes, it still lives on, which is cool.

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But talking with Casey and stuff about that and her involvement with it, she's been with

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Laws a long time as well.

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And kind of on the same note, it takes a village ethos.

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The thing that stood out to me and Casey and Sam both really talked about this a lot was

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the family, it takes a village methodology that they go through and they really seem

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like a tight knit group.

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Obviously, their efforts come out in their spirits.

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I mean, they're producing some of the best bourbon coming out of Colorado today.

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And I think anywhere really, that's my personal opinion.

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I really love their work.

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But it comes out in anything they're doing, including the new tasting room, including

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the interview.

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I think you guys will see it come through really how they talk about everything.

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It's really cool.

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So it's a good family oriented project there for sure.

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And I really appreciate how, you know, with it taking the village, just how everybody

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kind of has some input into the final product.

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And Sam's title is head distiller, but he's not master distiller because they don't have

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a master distiller because they just have a team working on all the products they're

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putting out.

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Yes, it's super cool.

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And some of the things that you weren't privy to were some things that happened off screen,

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which actually speaks to this particular version of the bourbon here.

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This is a special release that they released only to Costco.

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But Sam and Al both spoke very highly of that particular release.

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If you have an opportunity to get their hands on a bottle of that from secondary markets

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somewhere, I encourage you to do so.

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It's one of their best.

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Maybe someone can reach out to you and buy a couple of the stock.

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They're going to pay a premium price for that for sure.

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I may have gotten more than one bottle.

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Yeah, same here.

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But the other thing is to, that's a good way to mention this.

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One of the cool things they had is a calligrapher who was etching on the glasses or the bottles

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for everybody.

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So we ended up getting whiskey wine to lust etched on the one.

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We each got a bottle and got whiskey wine to lust etched on the bottle.

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So it was a special thing.

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And really this is a big thank you to Casey and Sam for inviting us out for that particular

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soft opening event.

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It was great.

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It was a great, great event.

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And just really goes back to the start where we interviewed them and just had a great time.

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So thank you guys for inviting us up there and let us participate in that.

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Appreciate that.

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And then also there'll be a bonus or bootleg episode.

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We'll call it bootleg.

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Coming out, we got to catch up with Al at the soft opening event and we expected to

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have maybe like a couple of minutes.

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He could just tell us, you know, like, oh, it's great to have it open now.

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But he sat down and had a full conversation.

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And so you were able to have a full interview conversation with him.

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And so what we put in that out here in the short time.

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So if you're not subscribed, subscribe so you can be on the lookout for that too.

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But it was a really cool, really cool conversation.

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We had, we talked about the, about the process for the building and then the whiskey and

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he really dove into it there as well.

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And you probably won't see it in the final cut, but we got interrupted by a state senator,

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which was really cool.

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It was really cool to meet her and just it, it really, the moment really was like the

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impact that Alice had on local community there and people walked in, they were really drawn

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to him.

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And he's a very warm and friendly guy.

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And so we were, we were greatly honored to have the time that he gave us.

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Like we felt really, like we're really grateful for that.

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So thank you Al.

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I thank you Al for that.

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I mean, you had a ton of other things to do, shaking hands and you know, but the time you

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gave us was great.

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So we really appreciate that.

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So we'll get to that though and that moving episode.

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So yeah.

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And so without further ado, here's our conversation with Casey and Sam.

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Welcome to Whiskey Waterlust, Corey and Ryan, and we're here with Casey and Sam from Laws

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Whiskey House here in Denver.

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And we're excited that they're going to be able to join us and talk to us about their

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awesome whiskies they have here.

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So yeah, let's just get into it.

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So Casey, let's start with you.

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Tell us Laws, give us a background.

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How did this place come into being and tell us a little bit more about Al and Mary Ann.

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Yeah.

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Well, Laws, we've been around for almost 13 years now.

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So we started distilling in 2011.

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We didn't open our doors or sell any whiskey until 2013, but Al Laws, our owner, founder,

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CEO, puts the Laws in Laws Whiskey and his wife, Mary Ann, they actually come from Canada.

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And so he kind of developed a love of whiskey fairly early on in life.

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You know, I hear that up in Canada, it's pretty much like hockey maple syrup whiskey.

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So started drinking whiskey early on, developed quite a love for whiskey early on, grew up,

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became an adult, moved to New York and worked on Wall Street for Merrill Lynch.

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So he was in the oil and gas industry.

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Maybe not a job that he loved, but maybe not his passion.

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Definitely paid the bills and supported his whiskey habit.

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So he has over 600 bottles in his own personal collection at home.

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All open, all willing to share with family and friends.

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He's the first person to tell you if you have a good bottle of whiskey, open it, drink it,

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share it, enjoy it.

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There's always going to be whiskey aging in a barrel somewhere.

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So he really was thinking about starting a distillery.

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He was talking with his wife, Mary Ann.

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They were actually thinking about starting it out in Brooklyn where they were located

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at the time.

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But Merrill Lynch transferred him and his family out here to Colorado where he realized

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very quickly what a lot of us transplants to Colorado realize that it's a great place

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to live.

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It's a great place to raise your family.

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And it also happens to be a great place to make and age whiskey.

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So there seems to be a lot more room out here to take that endeavor on.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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You know, we are very much known for this big craft beer boom out here in Colorado,

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which has been very exciting.

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And now we're kind of right in the middle of this big kind of craft spirits and whiskey

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boom, which is awesome.

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Got a really educated consumer base here in Colorado.

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Yeah, well, I mean, in Beard, Colorado, I've got a long history, right?

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Got a few small guys here, right?

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But it's been fun to, like you said, transplants, right?

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I'm a transplant.

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And I moved here from Arizona where I think when I left, there were like five distilleries

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in the state.

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And I like, you know, I ran across one of the trail maps here.

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I was like, holy smokes.

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And on the map of the 60 some odd distilleries, I was like, this place is.

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Yeah, I think it's probably upwards to 100 now.

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Yeah, I think you're right.

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So I mean, it's a great place to start up.

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So tell us more about that journey, though, like he didn't just decide to open up a distillery

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here.

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Like he did some he did some massive research.

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Yeah, you know, he's an analyst by trade.

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So he sat back and analyzed everything, read a lot of books.

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Him and his wife went down to Kentucky to travel the Bourbon Trail, do a little bit

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of research, kind of met some people along the way.

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And one of those people that he met was a gentleman by the name of Bill Friel.

240
00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:04,240
Bill was the master distiller of Barton's for over 35 years.

241
00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:08,720
He's one of the only living members in the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.

242
00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:13,480
He was a consultant in the whiskey world for a long time and then very happily retired

243
00:13:13,480 --> 00:13:18,480
when Al was able to kind of set up this very quick, almost 30 minute meet and greet with

244
00:13:18,480 --> 00:13:20,680
them to pick his brain.

245
00:13:20,680 --> 00:13:24,840
They were chatting, drinking 30 minutes turned into an hour, turned into two hours.

246
00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:31,040
At the end of this conversation, he had convinced Bill to come out here to Denver and help him

247
00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:32,360
start this distillery.

248
00:13:32,360 --> 00:13:36,080
So Al obviously has this big passion for whiskey.

249
00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:40,800
Bill saw that and really wanted to cultivate that, which we all appreciate.

250
00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:44,800
So they came out here, we got this building, all the equipment.

251
00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:52,040
And then July 4th, 2011 is when we distilled our first bourbon here.

252
00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:56,880
And Bill was very much a guide in that whole process for Al, but he wasn't necessarily

253
00:13:56,880 --> 00:13:58,600
teaching him exactly how to make whiskey.

254
00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:03,840
Because when he was back here with Bill and they're running their first batches, Al was

255
00:14:03,840 --> 00:14:05,160
asking every question he could.

256
00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:09,000
He wanted to use that time while Bill was out here.

257
00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:12,560
And Bill would be like, I'm not going to make your whiskey for you son.

258
00:14:12,560 --> 00:14:13,560
What do you think?

259
00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:14,560
Interesting.

260
00:14:14,560 --> 00:14:20,080
So he was answering every question with a question and guiding Al through that process,

261
00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:22,280
but he wasn't going to tell him how to make his whiskey.

262
00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:23,280
Interesting.

263
00:14:23,280 --> 00:14:26,760
That's definitely that guide mentality is a good thing, right?

264
00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:27,760
Yeah.

265
00:14:27,760 --> 00:14:31,960
Well, Al refers to Bill as his Yoda because of that kind of cryptic response to every

266
00:14:31,960 --> 00:14:32,960
question.

267
00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:33,960
Yeah.

268
00:14:33,960 --> 00:14:38,360
But then it allowed Al to kind of create everything his own.

269
00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:41,000
And so it wasn't just a remake of something else.

270
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:42,800
It was very much his own.

271
00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:43,800
Absolutely.

272
00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:47,480
With the confidence that he had someone there who's been doing it for 40 plus years.

273
00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:48,480
Yeah.

274
00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:52,480
He didn't guide him or show him the way he basically kind of hopped on his back and whipped

275
00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:53,480
him into shape.

276
00:14:53,480 --> 00:14:54,480
Yeah.

277
00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:58,080
Just wax on and wax off a couple of times.

278
00:14:58,080 --> 00:15:01,200
So let's kind of back up too.

279
00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:05,960
Because it sounds like Al does research, right?

280
00:15:05,960 --> 00:15:10,600
They're making a huge leap coming from New York out here with the transfer, but they're

281
00:15:10,600 --> 00:15:13,400
in a new area, right?

282
00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:17,720
Obviously doing, they're tapping some good talent, right?

283
00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:22,040
But what was the vision that he originally set out to cast for laws?

284
00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:23,680
And tell us more about that.

285
00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:24,680
Yeah.

286
00:15:24,680 --> 00:15:30,320
You know, we have our flagship four grain bourbon, which is what started it all.

287
00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:37,760
And that was really Al's vision and still fairly unique to us with our mashbills, 60%

288
00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:42,240
corn, 20% wheat, 10% rye, 10% barley.

289
00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:48,160
And usually in the bourbon world, you see bourbons either referred to as, you know,

290
00:15:48,160 --> 00:15:50,600
weeded bourbons or rye heavy bourbons.

291
00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:53,240
So either or is the flavor grain.

292
00:15:53,240 --> 00:15:56,880
Because sometimes those grains don't really play together very well.

293
00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:04,160
Al really liked the idea of the drinkability of a weeded bourbon, something like Maker's

294
00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:09,720
Mark with the complexity of a rye heavy bourbon.

295
00:16:09,720 --> 00:16:14,360
Something like four roses was kind of some inspiration for him.

296
00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:21,560
So he really wanted to be able to capture that drinkability of the wheat and the complexity

297
00:16:21,560 --> 00:16:24,920
of the rye in a four grain bourbon.

298
00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:30,500
So it is a little bit more detailed process to be able to express those grains together

299
00:16:30,500 --> 00:16:33,480
and get them to play well.

300
00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:37,640
But that was really the first thing that started it all.

301
00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:40,040
Yeah, I think he saw there was kind of a gap.

302
00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:42,640
There was this missing piece in American whiskey.

303
00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:48,720
He wanted to make great traditional American whiskey, but he wanted to have all of his

304
00:16:48,720 --> 00:16:55,080
favorite components from whiskeys in one drink and to experience those flavors or aromas

305
00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:56,960
throughout that one sip.

306
00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:58,960
So I mean, he does a good job.

307
00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:03,880
And one of the unique things I've been talking to you guys too is your history, right?

308
00:17:03,880 --> 00:17:06,880
Is you guys, Al set up to make whiskey, right?

309
00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:07,880
And that's it.

310
00:17:07,880 --> 00:17:11,400
So there was a three year gap between the time that he started distilling to the time

311
00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:13,640
that started selling, right?

312
00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:20,760
Whereas a lot of other facilities go and make other spirits, vodka, gin or whatever.

313
00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:22,760
Al didn't do that at first, right?

314
00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:25,120
Even though I know you guys have some side projects going on, which we would hopefully

315
00:17:25,120 --> 00:17:31,160
talk about too, but it's exclusively whiskey throughout with a Laws label on it, correct?

316
00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:32,160
Yeah, yeah.

317
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:35,520
And that was really important to us as well.

318
00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:38,320
We've never ever sourced.

319
00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:43,640
We've never released kind of a young whiskey under three years really.

320
00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:45,880
So that was a big goal.

321
00:17:45,880 --> 00:17:50,000
Al wanted to make a straight whiskey.

322
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:54,320
He always wanted to put that on the label from day one, which is at least two years

323
00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:55,320
old.

324
00:17:55,320 --> 00:17:59,200
He made some stuff, aged it for two years, kind of was tasting through it.

325
00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:03,240
We were well on our way, but not quite there yet.

326
00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:05,720
So waited a whole nother year at three years.

327
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,440
It was kind of like, yep, this is a great profile.

328
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:09,680
This is where we want to start.

329
00:18:09,680 --> 00:18:11,780
And that's when we first bottled.

330
00:18:11,780 --> 00:18:14,120
So we've never released anything under three years.

331
00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:20,040
And anything that you ever have had from Laws or will have from Laws has always been distilled

332
00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:21,640
right here in our distillery.

333
00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:27,240
It's definitely a unique position to be in, to be able to lay down product for three years

334
00:18:27,240 --> 00:18:29,000
and not put something out.

335
00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:32,600
But Al is pretty stubborn and he loves whiskey.

336
00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:35,600
He doesn't drink vodka.

337
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:37,420
Doesn't drink beer or wine.

338
00:18:37,420 --> 00:18:40,440
This is what he set out to do is make great whiskey.

339
00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:42,760
And you have to be patient to do that.

340
00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:47,680
And I understand he had some creative methods to kind of stay afloat during that time, right?

341
00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:49,840
As you guys were waiting for things to age.

342
00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:50,840
Yeah.

343
00:18:50,840 --> 00:18:53,560
Well, for one, I mean, Al and Marion had their day jobs.

344
00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:56,440
It was just them when they started this place.

345
00:18:56,440 --> 00:19:02,360
So I think they made the first 50 barrels or so before they brought anyone else in.

346
00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:05,800
But yeah, he also had some friends around that.

347
00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:10,920
The industry he worked in and met through the corporate side of the world that he was

348
00:19:10,920 --> 00:19:15,680
able to sell off the first barrels that he made to bring some money back in.

349
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:19,720
And those barrels, some of them still exist or referred to as their origins barrels because

350
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:22,560
they're the start of it all here at Laws & Ska.

351
00:19:22,560 --> 00:19:25,480
Well, Wall Street's no stranger to liking good whiskey.

352
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:31,320
So I think he probably had some deep pockets to friends that would enjoy the product.

353
00:19:31,320 --> 00:19:32,320
So that's good.

354
00:19:32,320 --> 00:19:35,520
We've been able to buy some of those barrels back over the years.

355
00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:40,600
I feel maybe a few of those friends originally kind of bought those barrels.

356
00:19:40,600 --> 00:19:42,680
It's like, oh yeah, we'll help you out.

357
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:46,560
And in the first couple of years, realized very quickly what they had.

358
00:19:46,560 --> 00:19:49,520
So we've been able to sell or buy a few barrels back.

359
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:53,120
But some of those barrels are definitely owned by those people now.

360
00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:55,160
And they're like, no, we know what we have.

361
00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:56,160
We're not letting those go.

362
00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:58,040
And they're still aging here, correct?

363
00:19:58,040 --> 00:19:59,040
There's not many back there.

364
00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:00,040
Oh, okay.

365
00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,440
They have their names written on the outside of the barrels too?

366
00:20:02,440 --> 00:20:03,440
Yep, they're painted black.

367
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:04,440
They say origins.

368
00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:08,400
And the origin series still to this day is kind of our limited release.

369
00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:11,320
We do once a year to put out something special.

370
00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:17,840
Now you said Al doesn't drink vodka, but I understand there might be an exception to

371
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:18,840
that.

372
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:21,480
I don't see how to drink vodka.

373
00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:22,480
Perhaps there is.

374
00:20:22,480 --> 00:20:23,480
Please remind me.

375
00:20:23,480 --> 00:20:26,560
I should recall a conversation with some of your friends down the street.

376
00:20:26,560 --> 00:20:28,080
Oh, I mean, I'm sorry.

377
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:33,560
What he does, he prefers the rye vodka from Bear Creek.

378
00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:37,840
The Bear Creek vodka they make down there definitely has a soul and has some flavor

379
00:20:37,840 --> 00:20:39,880
to it and some body to it.

380
00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:44,360
It's a great vodka, but it has more complexity than something you're buying off the shelf.

381
00:20:44,360 --> 00:20:47,400
Yeah, we had the pleasure of tasting that when we were down there too.

382
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:48,400
And it was awesome.

383
00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:49,400
Yeah.

384
00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:51,600
I don't like vodka really either, especially straight.

385
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:53,080
But yeah, it was really good.

386
00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:54,080
So yeah.

387
00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:57,680
Now there was also kind of a unique story behind because when Al first started this

388
00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:58,680
place, a little incognito, right?

389
00:20:58,680 --> 00:21:00,520
A little nondescript, right?

390
00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:05,080
And even had a certain sign that was up before it was Laws, right?

391
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:06,080
Yeah.

392
00:21:06,080 --> 00:21:13,160
You'll see throughout this distillery as well, quite a few gargoyles hanging around.

393
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:17,760
Some of our barrels even say Gargoyle Enterprise as opposed to Laws Whiskey House, some of

394
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:20,040
those older barrels.

395
00:21:20,040 --> 00:21:27,000
And Laws Whiskey Houses are doing business name, but Gargoyle Enterprise is what we fall

396
00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:28,000
under.

397
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:33,160
So for the first couple of years, this building did say Gargoyle Enterprise out front, you

398
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:35,680
know, Whiskey is a long game.

399
00:21:35,680 --> 00:21:40,360
We didn't really want people talking about what we're doing in those first few years.

400
00:21:40,360 --> 00:21:41,360
Knocking on the door.

401
00:21:41,360 --> 00:21:42,360
Hey, what are you doing in there?

402
00:21:42,360 --> 00:21:46,040
Yeah, like what's going on in there?

403
00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:47,040
That's happened though, right?

404
00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:48,040
Of course it happened.

405
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:51,960
We'll get more into that later.

406
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:58,040
So yeah, we were very incognito the first three years, just kind of making an aging

407
00:21:58,040 --> 00:21:59,040
whiskey.

408
00:21:59,040 --> 00:22:05,600
And when we were ready to bottle and sell, that is when Gargoyle Enterprise came down

409
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,200
and then Laws Whiskey House came up.

410
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,680
And so we've been known as Laws Whiskey House forevermore.

411
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:14,860
And that Gargoyle name lives on.

412
00:22:14,860 --> 00:22:16,720
The Gargoyle name lives on.

413
00:22:16,720 --> 00:22:21,060
So gargoyles are here to protect the good spirits from the bad spirits.

414
00:22:21,060 --> 00:22:25,040
So we appreciate them being in our distillery.

415
00:22:25,040 --> 00:22:32,660
And we also, you mentioned, you know, we do do some side projects and Sam gets to do some

416
00:22:32,660 --> 00:22:34,480
fun things.

417
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:38,560
And that goes under our Gargoyle name if we're not producing whiskey.

418
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:42,480
And there was one particular promise that...

419
00:22:42,480 --> 00:22:45,480
Ah, yes.

420
00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:54,800
Internally, we refer to it as the broken promise, but yeah, so Al's wife, Mary Ann, is a rum

421
00:22:54,800 --> 00:22:56,560
drinker and she loves rum.

422
00:22:56,560 --> 00:23:02,120
So yeah, I think part of the negotiation when they were coming up with the ideas to start

423
00:23:02,120 --> 00:23:04,840
the distillery was, well, you have to make me rum.

424
00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:05,840
Sure.

425
00:23:05,840 --> 00:23:06,840
And we have made that rum.

426
00:23:06,840 --> 00:23:12,120
We have never put it out, but we do have a good amount of rum and I think it's pretty

427
00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:13,120
good.

428
00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:15,020
Mary Ann likes it most importantly.

429
00:23:15,020 --> 00:23:20,840
So that was referred to as Mary Ann's promise or Mary Ann's broken promise throughout the

430
00:23:20,840 --> 00:23:21,840
years.

431
00:23:21,840 --> 00:23:22,840
That's what you do.

432
00:23:22,840 --> 00:23:23,840
You get a label, right?

433
00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:27,200
Mary Ann's promise and you have like a forged crack right in the bottom.

434
00:23:27,200 --> 00:23:28,760
We do have labels.

435
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:30,240
It is called Mary Ann's promise.

436
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:34,600
And you'll see that at some point from us, maybe when we open our new taster room that

437
00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:35,600
we have.

438
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:36,880
Yes, the label's done.

439
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:37,880
It's ready to go.

440
00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:42,000
We will launch it with the new tasting room.

441
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:51,960
There may be some different things associated with time and waiting on the label as well,

442
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:52,960
but it is here.

443
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:55,040
So I think Mary Ann is happy.

444
00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:58,120
That's one of the things that I really appreciate about your distilleries is that your whole

445
00:23:58,120 --> 00:24:03,640
ethos is of patience and slowing down and on the wall in there, yeah, there's no shortcuts.

446
00:24:03,640 --> 00:24:08,000
Can you tell us more about that ethos, the patience and the waiting?

447
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,000
Yeah.

448
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:10,000
I mean, we live by that here.

449
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,000
We do everything the hard way and the slow way.

450
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:21,640
So from the traditional process we use in our whiskey production to building the company

451
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:28,200
and the brand, we want to do it right and make sure that everything's up to our standards.

452
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:32,120
So it's not a fast process.

453
00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:33,120
It's not.

454
00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:34,120
Whiskey takes time.

455
00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:40,440
It takes patience between that second and third year that Al decided to age that whiskey

456
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:42,040
for that additional year.

457
00:24:42,040 --> 00:24:48,240
He went out and got a tattoo of a gargoyle just kind of sitting on a barrel waiting to

458
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:53,000
just symbolize that you need to be patient.

459
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:54,000
It takes time.

460
00:24:54,000 --> 00:25:00,440
So that's a big component of whiskey and good whiskey for sure.

461
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:05,800
The gargoyle is such a cool icon that you guys have it kind of more incognito and not

462
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:10,240
a script as you kind of layered in things, but it'd be cool to see the gargoyle of the

463
00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:12,880
last one of your bottles eventually.

464
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:17,640
So tell me, and I'm a little bit of a brand nerd and talking to you now, I'm kind of realizing

465
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:22,560
is there a significance behind the design of the mark there on the logo?

466
00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:25,720
Yes, there's significance behind everything here.

467
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:28,840
I kind of figure not every distillery though has that approach.

468
00:25:28,840 --> 00:25:32,480
So tell us more about, I mean, that looks like a Celtic knot at first glance, but tell

469
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:33,480
me more about it.

470
00:25:33,480 --> 00:25:34,480
Yeah, absolutely.

471
00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:42,960
So it is essentially kind of two knots intertwined, really one symbolizing time and one symbolizing

472
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:48,560
process and where they meet in the middle is where you get that great whiskey.

473
00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:49,560
All right.

474
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:53,720
So let's talk a lot about laws and the origins, but tell us more about your origins, right?

475
00:25:53,720 --> 00:26:00,720
Because you've got quite a journey to get here, right, and work at events and hospitality,

476
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:01,720
right?

477
00:26:01,720 --> 00:26:06,600
Tell us how you ended up here and your journey to become a brand manager here at Laws.

478
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:14,320
Yeah, well, I have always loved whiskey and kind of the beer scene as well.

479
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:19,440
And I really started kind of in this hospitality and events field.

480
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:27,400
I worked in a very service industry, hospitality focused world for a long time, 60 hours a

481
00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:35,880
week till four o'clock in the morning and got kind of very burnt out on that and pivoted

482
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:42,560
at one point into kind of like an HR role that was fine, but not in any way of passion

483
00:26:42,560 --> 00:26:43,800
at all.

484
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:49,880
And I was introduced to laws and I actually took my husband here on a tour and I just

485
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:51,800
instantly fell in love.

486
00:26:51,800 --> 00:26:56,800
And after the tour, I was like, I could do that.

487
00:26:56,800 --> 00:26:59,240
And he was like, you really could do that.

488
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:07,680
And a few years later, it was kind of by happenstance that I was even seeking anything out because

489
00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:10,320
I had just had a child.

490
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:12,120
So I was on maternity leave.

491
00:27:12,120 --> 00:27:17,400
I wasn't thinking about going back to my corporate job.

492
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:24,720
And I was working at a brewery and Laws just posted that they were hiring for the tasting

493
00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:27,360
room for brand ambassadors in the tasting room.

494
00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:30,920
And at the time I had a very small baby.

495
00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:32,840
Like I didn't know if the schedule would work for me.

496
00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:35,640
I didn't know like what the hours were, what they were offering.

497
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:40,960
I was like, I have to come in and interview for this position.

498
00:27:40,960 --> 00:27:46,160
And I interviewed with the tasting room manager and Sam's wife, Julia, actually, she was in

499
00:27:46,160 --> 00:27:48,040
the tasting room at the time.

500
00:27:48,040 --> 00:27:51,160
And she was my very first interview.

501
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:52,160
And I got it.

502
00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:56,360
And it was like, essentially dream job from the beginning.

503
00:27:56,360 --> 00:27:59,480
I never miss a chance to talk about or drink whiskey.

504
00:27:59,480 --> 00:28:03,160
So I was just in love from the very beginning.

505
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:13,480
I really like being able to kind of take information about distilling and kind of compress it down

506
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:17,760
to smaller parts for people to understand, for the masses to understand.

507
00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:18,760
Sure.

508
00:28:18,760 --> 00:28:20,680
Well, you've done a good job with this thing, right?

509
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:22,080
Because I understand you drew this.

510
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,440
I did draw that, yes.

511
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:25,960
And that's a big part here.

512
00:28:25,960 --> 00:28:26,960
We're super nerdy.

513
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:28,760
We really get into education.

514
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:33,760
And I think all our brand ambassadors do a really, really great job at introducing whiskey

515
00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:34,760
to the masses.

516
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:43,880
So you can come here with very little knowledge or even any sort of love for whiskey and really

517
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:49,300
experience a great tour and get a love for whiskey.

518
00:28:49,300 --> 00:28:55,640
And also you can come as an Uber whiskey nerd and find stuff for you as well.

519
00:28:55,640 --> 00:29:02,100
So yeah, I've kind of just used this opportunity to get my hands dirty wherever I can and say

520
00:29:02,100 --> 00:29:06,360
yes to any opportunity that has come my way.

521
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:12,040
Now I get to be more on the brand and marketing side of things, which is pretty awesome.

522
00:29:12,040 --> 00:29:14,000
Do you remember who did your tour when you first came in?

523
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:15,720
Are the others still here?

524
00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:17,160
They are not still here now.

525
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:18,960
I don't remember who it was actually.

526
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:19,960
You can ask for the Sam.

527
00:29:19,960 --> 00:29:21,960
Oh, I don't give tours.

528
00:29:21,960 --> 00:29:22,960
No.

529
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:27,160
But Sam did watch my first tour.

530
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:30,920
So when you become a brand ambassador, one of the first things that you have to do is

531
00:29:30,920 --> 00:29:33,600
like do the tour for one of the distillers.

532
00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:34,600
You're a pretty intimidating guy.

533
00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:35,600
How did that go?

534
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:36,600
It was intimidating.

535
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:37,600
It was very intimidating.

536
00:29:37,600 --> 00:29:39,960
And I didn't know Sam very well.

537
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:43,720
So I was like, oh, and Sam is obviously a wealth of knowledge.

538
00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:46,880
So I was like, oh yeah, here, jump on your first tour.

539
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:51,920
And Sam's going to be here with like a notepad taking notes about how you do.

540
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:52,920
So that was intimidating.

541
00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:58,000
But I made it and he said that I could, I passed and I could go on to the next thing.

542
00:29:58,000 --> 00:29:59,000
So here you are.

543
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,160
How many years ago was that now?

544
00:30:01,160 --> 00:30:02,720
That was five years ago.

545
00:30:02,720 --> 00:30:03,720
Okay.

546
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:04,720
Yeah.

547
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:05,720
Okay.

548
00:30:05,720 --> 00:30:06,720
Or five years soon.

549
00:30:06,720 --> 00:30:07,720
My five year anniversary is coming up.

550
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:08,720
Very cool.

551
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:09,720
Yeah.

552
00:30:09,720 --> 00:30:10,720
Awesome.

553
00:30:10,720 --> 00:30:14,760
So we back up too, because you mentioned that you kind of have roots here in Colorado,

554
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,760
but you're also out from Mount East, right?

555
00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:21,040
Tell us a little more about like, you had some family in both places, right?

556
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:22,040
Yes.

557
00:30:22,040 --> 00:30:28,720
I kind of bounced back and forth between like the four corners area, Durango and Massachusetts.

558
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,800
So my dad's always lived in Mass.

559
00:30:31,800 --> 00:30:35,680
I moved out here to Durango with my mom when I was very young.

560
00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:41,480
So yeah, I bounced back and forth, met my husband back East, and then we moved back

561
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:45,160
out to Denver in 2007.

562
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,480
So we've been out here for quite a long time now.

563
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:54,800
We got two data points now from Al and Marian moving out from Mount East.

564
00:30:54,800 --> 00:30:55,800
You're now from Mount East.

565
00:30:55,800 --> 00:30:56,800
And I think we've got one more coming, right?

566
00:30:56,800 --> 00:30:57,800
Because that's where you're from.

567
00:30:57,800 --> 00:30:58,800
Yes.

568
00:30:58,800 --> 00:30:59,800
Right.

569
00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:00,800
I'm from Maine originally.

570
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:04,040
And I will say Al and Marian are actually from Alberta, Canada.

571
00:31:04,040 --> 00:31:05,040
So that's true.

572
00:31:05,040 --> 00:31:06,040
That's true.

573
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:10,720
Not out East, but they were in New York for a long time, pretty far North.

574
00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:12,720
So tell us more about your journey than getting here.

575
00:31:12,720 --> 00:31:18,080
How did you, I mean, Portland to Colorado, fill us in.

576
00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:19,080
Yeah.

577
00:31:19,080 --> 00:31:22,440
So I mean, I grew up, my dad had a home still at home.

578
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:26,360
I think as a kid, that image, just the vessel is pretty cool in itself.

579
00:31:26,360 --> 00:31:30,520
You know, it's kind of copper pot sitting on the stove with a long copper little coil

580
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:33,600
going through the sink with ice in it and then dripping down into a bottle.

581
00:31:33,600 --> 00:31:39,640
I think also there was kind of a rebellious nature to that that stuck with me.

582
00:31:39,640 --> 00:31:43,880
But my dad made very poor quality country wine.

583
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,640
I don't, you know, I was a kid.

584
00:31:46,640 --> 00:31:47,640
I didn't consume it.

585
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:50,800
I'm told it was pretty terrible.

586
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:54,480
But he would distill it into some version of brandy.

587
00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:56,920
So that was my first introduction into distilling when I was a kid.

588
00:31:56,920 --> 00:31:58,400
And I think that image always stuck with me.

589
00:31:58,400 --> 00:32:01,880
And then growing up in Portland, I grew up around the restaurant scene and the craft

590
00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:07,640
beer scene and worked for a really great spot that took me all over, all over the world

591
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:12,400
visiting these small farmhouse breweries in Belgium.

592
00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:16,360
We would travel to all different places and get to experience that meet people.

593
00:32:16,360 --> 00:32:21,200
And that was my introduction into the passion of why people do this.

594
00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:22,800
So I wanted to learn more about that.

595
00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:30,480
And ultimately, I dove into reading everything I could about distilling, took some courses

596
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:33,400
and eventually got an internship here in Colorado.

597
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:41,960
That's what brought me out here in 2012, which is where I met my wife at a distillery and

598
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:43,600
been making whiskey ever since.

599
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,740
We did a short stint back in Maine helping a friend open a distillery, but my wife is

600
00:32:47,740 --> 00:32:50,120
from the Denver area and wanted to come back here.

601
00:32:50,120 --> 00:32:53,040
So that brought us back out here.

602
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:58,560
And I was looking for work and I was talking to the distilleries around the area.

603
00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:01,200
And Laws was one of them and I didn't have an appointment or anything.

604
00:33:01,200 --> 00:33:02,880
I just came and I knocked on the door.

605
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:03,880
There's no one out front.

606
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:08,920
But it happened to be Al who was back here running all the equipment that day.

607
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:10,160
And he was like, oh, come on in.

608
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:13,920
And he showed me around and I think that probably lasted for about an hour.

609
00:33:13,920 --> 00:33:19,040
And you could just feel the passion and the reason behind everything he was doing here

610
00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:20,800
really struck a chord with me.

611
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:25,400
And when I walked out the door, I called my wife and I was like, this is the spot I want

612
00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:26,400
to work at.

613
00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:27,760
I need to be here.

614
00:33:27,760 --> 00:33:32,640
And luckily, the cards aligned or the stars aligned.

615
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:33,640
The gargoyles aligned.

616
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:34,640
The gargoyles aligned.

617
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:38,080
And about a month later, he gave me a call and they had an opening.

618
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:42,040
And I've been here for almost 10 years.

619
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:43,040
OK.

620
00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:45,240
So had the gargoyle sign come off when you walked in the door?

621
00:33:45,240 --> 00:33:49,960
No, it's funny is this whole space we're sitting in now was one of our rack houses, the main

622
00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,520
rack house at the time.

623
00:33:52,520 --> 00:33:58,640
And all of the barrels were painted as the gargoyle that we see up here behind us.

624
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:03,140
And when we did our public launch, we had to go in and reface all the barrels because

625
00:34:03,140 --> 00:34:04,920
we didn't want to have some confusion.

626
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,280
So we had to sand them all down, paint them.

627
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,640
Originally, all of the barrels were painted white.

628
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:15,560
Like this is barrel number 100 we have behind me because we were painting over that gargoyle

629
00:34:15,560 --> 00:34:20,200
and making sure it was all branded properly for the launch.

630
00:34:20,200 --> 00:34:23,440
So you just I mean, you go around and look at it for every gargoyle sign on the neighborhood

631
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:27,160
knock or did you did you have an inkling that he was doing some stealing?

632
00:34:27,160 --> 00:34:32,280
Well, I had known about it when I was working at another distiller in Colorado.

633
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:34,200
I had heard about him starting up.

634
00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:37,600
And so I knew it existed here.

635
00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:41,440
I don't know that there was any sign on the front of the building at the time.

636
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:45,520
So kind of nondescript warehouse, I think I got the address off the Internet.

637
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:46,520
Yeah.

638
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,160
So where did travel says you landed here.

639
00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:55,520
So so so in that time, since you've been here almost 10 years, how have you seen the whiskey

640
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:59,680
itself kind of evolve and change or has it evolved and change at all?

641
00:34:59,680 --> 00:35:00,680
Yeah, absolutely.

642
00:35:00,680 --> 00:35:05,360
I haven't moved away from any of the core kind of foundations of what we started the

643
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:06,360
company on.

644
00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:09,840
But I would say that every little factor has changed over the years.

645
00:35:09,840 --> 00:35:13,840
I mean, we're obsessed with making the best whiskey we can.

646
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,600
And for us, that means we run experiments constantly.

647
00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:19,840
If anyone proposes something, we'll we'll debate it.

648
00:35:19,840 --> 00:35:20,960
We'll test it out.

649
00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:24,760
We'll patiently wait and then we'll get to taste it on the back end and talk about these

650
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:25,760
things we've seen.

651
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:29,520
But we we're not set in stone with like, this is how we make whiskey.

652
00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:30,920
You won't ever change.

653
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:35,460
We have changed little things slowly over the years.

654
00:35:35,460 --> 00:35:40,240
But we like to think we're making our best whiskey today.

655
00:35:40,240 --> 00:35:43,960
Because of the experience we've had, you know, in all these little test runs that we've done

656
00:35:43,960 --> 00:35:45,200
over the years.

657
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:48,120
But it's a slow process in whiskey changing things.

658
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:49,120
Sure.

659
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:52,240
And you have to be pretty confident to make a consistent change like that.

660
00:35:52,240 --> 00:35:56,640
But really, you know, quarter everything we do is showcasing the beautiful grains that

661
00:35:56,640 --> 00:35:59,760
we grow here in Colorado and maximizing those flavors.

662
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:04,400
So that that's what we're looking at when we're doing anything.

663
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:07,280
That is the pinnacle of what we're trying to do.

664
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:12,320
So I certainly want to talk to you about, you know, sourcing locally, sort of Colorado.

665
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:17,920
But before we get there, I mean, when I moved out to Colorado, I had journeyed through Colorado

666
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,680
a couple of different times.

667
00:36:20,680 --> 00:36:26,600
I discovered like, my other state when we first moved to Springs, though, I just found

668
00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:30,480
a whiskey trail map and was like, starting to explore and end up down.

669
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:33,480
I remember where I first tasted your whiskey because I was down at the Edelweiss restaurant

670
00:36:33,480 --> 00:36:37,560
in Colorado Springs, a little German restaurant, great place, by the way.

671
00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:40,960
And I asked the guy, what local Colorado whiskeys do you have?

672
00:36:40,960 --> 00:36:42,320
And he said, we have Bloss.

673
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:44,320
I said, well, tell me about it.

674
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:45,880
It's like the best whiskey I've ever had.

675
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:47,260
I was like, OK, I'll try one.

676
00:36:47,260 --> 00:36:48,520
And so sure enough, I tried it.

677
00:36:48,520 --> 00:36:49,520
It was like really good.

678
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:51,520
That was near six years ago, right?

679
00:36:51,520 --> 00:36:57,980
So you guys had been producing for a handful of years at that time, but obviously, I mean,

680
00:36:57,980 --> 00:36:59,760
you guys were doing something really good early, right?

681
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:02,740
And you guys have developed a brand for yourself and reputation.

682
00:37:02,740 --> 00:37:07,080
So tell me more about how you help maintain the reputation from what you guys are doing

683
00:37:07,080 --> 00:37:09,880
while still evolving the future of the brand.

684
00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:12,920
And tell me about your role, specifically your role in that.

685
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:13,920
Yeah.

686
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:14,920
Yeah, absolutely.

687
00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:20,320
I mean, we are not reinventing how to make whiskey, you know, and Al had Bill here with

688
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:22,640
him to kind of guide him through that process.

689
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:28,400
But what we do here is we're using local Colorado grains with big flavor grains grown for their

690
00:37:28,400 --> 00:37:34,680
flavor, not for their big yield or how easily they are to process in the whiskey production

691
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:36,360
process.

692
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,960
We do traditional sour mash whiskey, open air fermentation.

693
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:46,840
We double the still in copper pot stills, and then we age in full size, 53 gallon barrels.

694
00:37:46,840 --> 00:37:53,000
So following these traditional methods, there isn't a desired end result that's going to

695
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:54,000
be the highest quality.

696
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:58,000
And we believe that we're using the highest quality ingredients to start with.

697
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,280
One of the reasons Al wanted to start this year in Colorado.

698
00:38:01,280 --> 00:38:07,280
So maintaining and building off what we already have going for us is pretty easy because we

699
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:09,120
have such a strong system here.

700
00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:13,600
And so many people are so passionate about what we do that it makes it pretty easy for

701
00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:14,600
us.

702
00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:15,600
Yeah.

703
00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:16,600
Okay.

704
00:38:16,600 --> 00:38:22,040
And then with being here in Colorado, you really want the flavors of Colorado, the terroir

705
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:23,800
of Colorado to come through in the glass.

706
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:29,600
And so what are some of the ways that you feel the grains are coming through in the

707
00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:30,600
end product?

708
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:31,600
Yeah.

709
00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:32,600
I mean, we focus on terroir a lot.

710
00:38:32,600 --> 00:38:37,940
That's something that is discussed less in the whiskey industry than it is in, say, wine.

711
00:38:37,940 --> 00:38:40,560
But it plays a huge role in what we do.

712
00:38:40,560 --> 00:38:43,200
And that, of course, starts with the grains that we use.

713
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:47,600
When we talk about terroir, we're talking about the variety of grain that we're using,

714
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,280
the conditions it's grown in.

715
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:54,120
Of course, the production process here in Colorado is pretty unique.

716
00:38:54,120 --> 00:38:59,480
And that's mostly a factor when it comes to maturation here at high elevation.

717
00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:06,440
But the grains that we're using terroir, most of those, the three grains, the wheat, the

718
00:39:06,440 --> 00:39:10,640
rye and the barley are coming from Alamosa in the San Luis Valley, where it's a very

719
00:39:10,640 --> 00:39:13,320
unique climate to grow grain because it's high elevation.

720
00:39:13,320 --> 00:39:15,360
It's about 7,500 feet there.

721
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:16,660
It's dry.

722
00:39:16,660 --> 00:39:18,520
It's hot in the daytime.

723
00:39:18,520 --> 00:39:20,640
It's cold at night.

724
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:25,040
And then that whole valley is an ancient lake bed, so it has a really unique soil type.

725
00:39:25,040 --> 00:39:31,100
So they're growing these heirloom varietals of grain that were brought there generations

726
00:39:31,100 --> 00:39:37,740
ago and now have kind of cross-bred over the generations to become their own unique varietals

727
00:39:37,740 --> 00:39:38,740
of grain.

728
00:39:38,740 --> 00:39:42,640
Yeah, and we obviously focus on terroir a lot.

729
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,960
And Sam said you hear that word a lot in the wine world.

730
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:52,560
It was actually kind of argued for a long time that grains didn't express the same flavor

731
00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:56,260
terroir as wine.

732
00:39:56,260 --> 00:40:01,760
And one of those reasons is because farmers never really, grain farmers have never really

733
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:04,600
had to grow for flavor, right?

734
00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:09,920
They typically grow these high yield commodity grains.

735
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:15,960
About 85% of distilleries in the entire country still get their grains from five commodity

736
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:17,200
huge farms.

737
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:22,560
So a lot of the whiskey that you're getting, good, bad, expensive, cheap, that's still

738
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:28,660
probably coming from these five commodity grain farms.

739
00:40:28,660 --> 00:40:32,320
And a lot of distilleries won't focus on their grain at all.

740
00:40:32,320 --> 00:40:37,560
If you go to a lot of distillery tours, they'll kind of go right by that, what their grain

741
00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:40,920
is or where they source their grain from.

742
00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:46,680
So by being able to really dive into our regionality and have such great relationships with our

743
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:53,840
farmers and know exactly what season our grains are coming from, being able to go down to

744
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:59,280
our farms and discuss all those elements with our farmers, it really shines and makes a

745
00:40:59,280 --> 00:41:01,080
difference in our whiskey for sure.

746
00:41:01,080 --> 00:41:05,720
On Colorado, I mean, Colorado's been producing these grains for a long time.

747
00:41:05,720 --> 00:41:10,280
So it's not like it's unfamiliar to Colorado farmers that this stuff is here, right?

748
00:41:10,280 --> 00:41:14,680
So it's interesting though that, and speaking of different distillers and different people

749
00:41:14,680 --> 00:41:15,680
in the industry, right?

750
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,600
I mean, they've mentioned that, you mentioned the commodity farms, like there was basically

751
00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:19,600
was like beer feed.

752
00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:21,960
That was like the two things that people grew it for.

753
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:24,720
I don't think beer is actually looking for the same flavor profile as the whiskeys are,

754
00:41:24,720 --> 00:41:25,720
right?

755
00:41:25,720 --> 00:41:28,000
You're not getting that refined flavor profile.

756
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:34,280
So it's interesting though that we're coming around now and the craft distillery world

757
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:35,280
is driving that, right?

758
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:36,280
Yeah.

759
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:40,400
And the craft distillery world and the craft beer world is really driving the survival

760
00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:46,220
of a lot of these small farms too, because they can't necessarily compete against these

761
00:41:46,220 --> 00:41:47,600
larger commodity farms.

762
00:41:47,600 --> 00:41:52,200
So we've had the pleasure of working with some of these farmers who have pulled back

763
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:55,600
and really focused on these flavor grains, which is really nice.

764
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:57,280
The relationship is totally codependent.

765
00:41:57,280 --> 00:42:01,880
I mean, we couldn't do what we do without these farmers.

766
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:07,600
And for their business, selling grain to distilleries has been huge.

767
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:09,400
It's changed the entire business.

768
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:10,400
Right.

769
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:13,680
Well, and I know obviously you guys are very proud of your rye as well as your bourbon,

770
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:19,080
but specifically rye, as I understand rye thrives here in Colorado in the high country

771
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,040
and the climate we have here, right?

772
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:27,840
So tell us a little bit more about how that rye would stand out based on the grains that

773
00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,560
you're using here versus lower elevations and other places where you're going to find

774
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:32,560
that product.

775
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:33,560
Yeah.

776
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:37,240
Well, this rye in particular is such a big, bold flavor.

777
00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:38,240
It's beautiful.

778
00:42:38,240 --> 00:42:45,760
And that rye is able to produce those flavors because it's stressed out in that environment.

779
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:48,680
They have ancient water rights down there because the family has been down there for

780
00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:50,040
a hundred years.

781
00:42:50,040 --> 00:42:53,080
So they can give it water when it needs to, but it's a very dry climate.

782
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:57,800
And those hot days and the cold nights stress the plant out, force the roots to go deeper

783
00:42:57,800 --> 00:43:00,520
and produce this big grain forward flavor.

784
00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:05,000
So the San Luis Valley rye that we have here are whiskey.

785
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:10,680
The rye varietal is called SLB rye because it is now recognized as being unique to that

786
00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:12,720
one valley.

787
00:43:12,720 --> 00:43:18,160
But a lot of people think with rye as being kind of one dimensional, it has spice, right?

788
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:21,100
And it's kind of like a cracked black pepper.

789
00:43:21,100 --> 00:43:22,960
This has so much complexity to it.

790
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:24,880
There's these beautiful vegetal notes.

791
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:26,560
There's some citrus notes.

792
00:43:26,560 --> 00:43:31,280
We get a lot of black tea in our whiskies because of the grain we use and it's in the

793
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:37,160
rye, it's in the bourbon, all of our whiskies.

794
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:39,960
It's unique and it's full body.

795
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:41,360
It coats your mouth.

796
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:44,440
It's just a really fun experience sipping on that whiskey.

797
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:51,520
And not only do we use this very special varietal of rye that can only be found in this one

798
00:43:51,520 --> 00:43:55,120
pocket of Colorado, but it is 100% of that rye.

799
00:43:55,120 --> 00:44:02,480
So much like bourbon has to be 51% corn, rye has to be at least 51% rye.

800
00:44:02,480 --> 00:44:08,400
And a lot of ryes that you see on the market will still be at that 60, 70%.

801
00:44:08,400 --> 00:44:12,300
Throw a little bit of corn in it to sweeten it up.

802
00:44:12,300 --> 00:44:16,360
Some malted barley for that conversion factor.

803
00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:21,640
You'll see some 95, 5 ryes out there now with that 5% barley for that conversion of starch

804
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:23,240
to sugar.

805
00:44:23,240 --> 00:44:25,520
But we do this 100% rye.

806
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:29,600
It's 50% raw rye, 50% malted rye to still get that conversion.

807
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:37,200
So not only do you have a rye with a very unique varietal of rye grain, but you're just

808
00:44:37,200 --> 00:44:41,960
getting 100% expression of that rye, which is pretty unique.

809
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:42,960
Right.

810
00:44:42,960 --> 00:44:46,680
And you had mentioned you're doing a sour mash process for that too.

811
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:49,520
We do a sour mash for all of our whiskey series.

812
00:44:49,520 --> 00:44:57,120
And then so like how, I guess going back, how far is that mash still from?

813
00:44:57,120 --> 00:44:58,360
So it's fresh back set.

814
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:04,040
So what we do is when we are running a stripping run, when that waste product, which is the

815
00:45:04,040 --> 00:45:09,540
grain, the water, dead yeast, whatever other trace alcohols may be in there, that gets

816
00:45:09,540 --> 00:45:10,540
separated off.

817
00:45:10,540 --> 00:45:17,160
The solids go out for cattle feed and that sour liquid back set is separated off.

818
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:22,000
And we'll add a little bit of that back set from the last distillation to the next cook.

819
00:45:22,000 --> 00:45:26,600
And that's going to acidify the strike water to get us in those ranges we like to be for

820
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:28,040
the brewing process.

821
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:32,720
But it also adds a substantial amount of flavor and character to your whiskey.

822
00:45:32,720 --> 00:45:36,160
There's been times where we don't have back set available and we've used some other kind

823
00:45:36,160 --> 00:45:39,720
of acid to acidify the strike water.

824
00:45:39,720 --> 00:45:45,640
It just doesn't have the same character to it as sour mash whiskey does.

825
00:45:45,640 --> 00:45:50,200
So I mean, the seasonality here in Colorado is wild.

826
00:45:50,200 --> 00:45:56,400
I mean, if you've never spent the springtime in Colorado, come prepared for everything

827
00:45:56,400 --> 00:46:01,240
from, you know, shorts weather to frigid cold.

828
00:46:01,240 --> 00:46:03,560
But that and fall can be very similar, right?

829
00:46:03,560 --> 00:46:04,720
And that's harvest time.

830
00:46:04,720 --> 00:46:07,580
So even summers vary a lot.

831
00:46:07,580 --> 00:46:10,120
So tell us how, especially when you're making whiskey, right?

832
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:16,280
You're trying to make a more consistent product every year, but your grains can vary every

833
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:17,280
year.

834
00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:22,320
The harvest time can be cut dramatically short, like all that stuff, right?

835
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:23,720
How in the world do you manage that?

836
00:46:23,720 --> 00:46:24,720
Yeah, absolutely.

837
00:46:24,720 --> 00:46:29,400
I mean, that's huge for us because we're buying grains from just two small family farms and

838
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:33,160
the conditions of each growing season change the grain pretty drastically.

839
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:39,040
Now our head blender, James Coons, strives for consistency, but we know that we're at

840
00:46:39,040 --> 00:46:42,720
the mercy of the grains we're using because we're just buying them from two farms.

841
00:46:42,720 --> 00:46:47,000
So season to season, the flavors are going to change a little bit.

842
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:48,820
It's been most evident.

843
00:46:48,820 --> 00:46:56,000
There was one year in particular that is burned into our memories because the rye was very

844
00:46:56,000 --> 00:47:02,040
heavy in certain protein that made it very difficult and challenging to process in our

845
00:47:02,040 --> 00:47:03,040
plant.

846
00:47:03,040 --> 00:47:04,240
It was very difficult in fermenters.

847
00:47:04,240 --> 00:47:05,640
It would just blow up.

848
00:47:05,640 --> 00:47:10,240
And so every morning you'd come in and you hear it just dripping over the fermenters

849
00:47:10,240 --> 00:47:13,840
as you come in and you got to get the pressure washer out and clean everything off the first

850
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:15,920
thing you do.

851
00:47:15,920 --> 00:47:20,560
But it's a factor in flavor for sure, but we lean into that.

852
00:47:20,560 --> 00:47:28,520
I think our whiskey year to year is very similar, but there's going to be nuanced flavor differences.

853
00:47:28,520 --> 00:47:35,040
And some of the grains, like you said, the rye is actually planted in the fall.

854
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:38,680
It goes dormant over the winter and then it sprouts in the spring.

855
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,240
They bring in, they have it grazed down by sheep and goats.

856
00:47:42,240 --> 00:47:45,600
So it produces a viable crop for them.

857
00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:48,920
Get fertilized to it at the same time and it's good.

858
00:47:48,920 --> 00:47:49,920
Yeah, absolutely.

859
00:47:49,920 --> 00:47:50,920
Yeah, absolutely.

860
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:54,600
The wheat and the barley are the spring crops and corn.

861
00:47:54,600 --> 00:48:00,440
It's fun to see kind of some of that seasonality as well.

862
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:06,240
Sam mentioned our head blender, James, and he does a wonderful job of our kind of flagship

863
00:48:06,240 --> 00:48:07,400
bourbon and rye.

864
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:09,720
Those will be batched in a hundred barrels.

865
00:48:09,720 --> 00:48:16,000
So there are about a hundred barrels that come together and he chooses those barrels

866
00:48:16,000 --> 00:48:19,320
and blends them together to get that consistency.

867
00:48:19,320 --> 00:48:23,280
But in some of our bonded products, we release a bottled and bond.

868
00:48:23,280 --> 00:48:28,160
We were actually the first distillery in Colorado to ever produce a bottle in bond bourbon.

869
00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:34,240
And now this year's release, we have a seven-year bonded bourbon, a seven-year bonded rye, and

870
00:48:34,240 --> 00:48:35,440
a seven-year bonded wheat.

871
00:48:35,440 --> 00:48:37,120
So they're all at seven years this year.

872
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:44,340
But one of the big things about bonded is that it has to be made in one distillery,

873
00:48:44,340 --> 00:48:47,560
in one distilling season, which is just six months out of the year.

874
00:48:47,560 --> 00:48:51,520
So for us, that also means one harvest season.

875
00:48:51,520 --> 00:49:00,000
So you do see some really cool grain variation from year to year and even season to season.

876
00:49:00,000 --> 00:49:07,840
So last year we produced and put out an eight-year bonded bourbon and we did two of them.

877
00:49:07,840 --> 00:49:14,740
And so if you see those on the shelf, you'll see it either says F or S on it.

878
00:49:14,740 --> 00:49:18,440
So that's the spring or fall distilling season.

879
00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:25,200
And even though they were produced in the same year, in this exact same process, same

880
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:32,640
facility, aged for the exact same amount of time, they do have really cool nuances to

881
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:33,640
them.

882
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:38,960
So that's really fun too, because again, we are a grain forward distillery.

883
00:49:38,960 --> 00:49:45,740
We want to highlight those grains and highlight the personality and what the grain flavor

884
00:49:45,740 --> 00:49:48,420
actually brings to the whiskey for sure.

885
00:49:48,420 --> 00:49:54,760
And so being that these releases are all small batch, that you have people who drink your

886
00:49:54,760 --> 00:49:58,440
whiskey specifically for that, because they're not looking necessarily for consistency, but

887
00:49:58,440 --> 00:50:04,920
because of the uniqueness of your product experience.

888
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:15,000
So tell me, I mean, we talked about your wife works here, Al and Mary Ann, I mean, you guys

889
00:50:15,000 --> 00:50:21,240
have mentioned this before, but local sourcing, it takes a village, right?

890
00:50:21,240 --> 00:50:23,120
It's really the mantra that Al's is-

891
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:25,560
It's one of our many mantras we have here for sure.

892
00:50:25,560 --> 00:50:27,080
I mean, it sounds like you're building a village.

893
00:50:27,080 --> 00:50:30,800
I mean, you got farm, you got whiskey, it's like everything and family involved.

894
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:36,080
Tell us more about that and how that impacts not only the product, which love to hear that

895
00:50:36,080 --> 00:50:40,840
too, but the working culture and like you guys and it sounds like you guys are very,

896
00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:44,200
it's not like you're more of a family than you are.

897
00:50:44,200 --> 00:50:46,640
I think we're very lucky to work in this industry.

898
00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:52,880
It's a great industry to work in and we don't want anyone here who doesn't want to be here.

899
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:57,080
It's a job at the end of the day, of course, but it's not a job to a lot of us.

900
00:50:57,080 --> 00:51:02,120
I mean, we're all very passionate about whiskey and about what we do and proud of what we

901
00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:07,880
do because we're all so involved in the decisions made for our product.

902
00:51:07,880 --> 00:51:09,640
We don't have a master distiller here.

903
00:51:09,640 --> 00:51:10,640
It's not my title.

904
00:51:10,640 --> 00:51:11,640
I'm the head distiller.

905
00:51:11,640 --> 00:51:18,200
I manage the production of spirits, but everyone on our team over here and on James's side

906
00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:21,640
at the barrel house, they have an input and if they want to try something, they want to

907
00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:24,360
learn something or bring something in, we'll do it different.

908
00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:30,360
So we create a culture that everyone has committed something to the product and it means a little

909
00:51:30,360 --> 00:51:32,680
bit more for sure to us because of that.

910
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:33,680
Yeah.

911
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:41,440
I mean, Al is a self-described whiskey nerd and he has a, I think, great habit of seeing

912
00:51:41,440 --> 00:51:45,100
and seeking out and kind of collecting other whiskey nerds.

913
00:51:45,100 --> 00:51:50,760
So I think our village is just a collection of whiskey nerds right now.

914
00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:57,000
And yeah, it's one of those things that everybody does have input.

915
00:51:57,000 --> 00:52:01,720
No matter what your position is in the company, when you come in, one of the first things

916
00:52:01,720 --> 00:52:07,520
that you do is work alongs with the distillers on the production floor so you really get

917
00:52:07,520 --> 00:52:13,760
a sense to understand it from the ground up and then we do have such great relationships

918
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:15,560
with our farmers as well.

919
00:52:15,560 --> 00:52:25,320
So I think it's a great sense of pride to be able to say that when you drink our whiskey,

920
00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:31,000
the brain in our whiskey has only ever been two places, on the farm where it's grown and

921
00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:40,800
malted and then in our distillery and if someone asks me a question that I can't answer about

922
00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:46,680
grains, I can text any one of our farmers and they will get back to me right away.

923
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:51,720
So it's great to have that relationship and understanding because you can really wrap

924
00:52:51,720 --> 00:53:00,280
your head around the whole process and everybody in our company in this village has that knowledge

925
00:53:00,280 --> 00:53:03,840
and understanding which is really cool.

926
00:53:03,840 --> 00:53:10,520
It's clear to me that for all we talked about today and Al's original approach to this,

927
00:53:10,520 --> 00:53:14,720
there's a lot of heart in these products and I taste that coming through the bottle and

928
00:53:14,720 --> 00:53:15,720
it's...

929
00:53:15,720 --> 00:53:16,720
Definitely.

930
00:53:16,720 --> 00:53:23,560
Laws is one of my favorites that I enjoy routinely and it's a great product that comes through

931
00:53:23,560 --> 00:53:24,560
like that.

932
00:53:24,560 --> 00:53:31,240
So Sam, let's circle back just a little bit and tell us more about some unique stuff that

933
00:53:31,240 --> 00:53:36,080
you're excited about coming up and any new techniques you're using or any new experiments

934
00:53:36,080 --> 00:53:37,880
that are coming out.

935
00:53:37,880 --> 00:53:39,640
Tell us more about what's coming up.

936
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:41,400
Yeah, absolutely.

937
00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:47,040
We probably make 99% whiskey here and most of that production time is spent between our

938
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:50,440
two flagship products, the bourbon and the rye.

939
00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:54,760
But with Al's approach, he always wanted to make four grain bourbon but he also wanted

940
00:53:54,760 --> 00:53:57,020
to showcase each one of those mother grains.

941
00:53:57,020 --> 00:54:00,860
So we do make some 100% wheat whiskey, 100% rye whiskey.

942
00:54:00,860 --> 00:54:03,880
We make some fun corn whiskey.

943
00:54:03,880 --> 00:54:07,680
Most people don't think of corn as contributing too much flavor but it definitely does and

944
00:54:07,680 --> 00:54:13,040
it's fun to be able to taste those whiskeys as well as 100% malt whiskey and see what

945
00:54:13,040 --> 00:54:14,560
they're contributing to our whiskies.

946
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:19,840
But beyond whiskey, like I kind of just said about the community and about people wanting

947
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:24,280
to learn something, if we want to make something else, then we'll bring it in and we'll run

948
00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:26,360
a short run towards the end of the year usually.

949
00:54:26,360 --> 00:54:30,880
So we've made some agave recently, agave spirit.

950
00:54:30,880 --> 00:54:33,660
We've made a good amount of fruit brandies here.

951
00:54:33,660 --> 00:54:40,680
We've made apple brandy, plum brandy and then all different grape riles.

952
00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:46,080
And then because we're opening this new tasting room, we want to have a full vibrant cocktail

953
00:54:46,080 --> 00:54:47,080
menu, right?

954
00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:51,500
We have to make some of these things that contribute to those great cocktails.

955
00:54:51,500 --> 00:54:56,880
So we've made a curacao, which is based on the aged brandy that we have, which is now

956
00:54:56,880 --> 00:55:00,020
about seven years, been aging in French oak.

957
00:55:00,020 --> 00:55:03,480
There's a Amaro, which this one is more like an aperitif.

958
00:55:03,480 --> 00:55:07,740
So it's a little lighter, sweeter, floral and fun.

959
00:55:07,740 --> 00:55:08,820
But we've put out some of the brandies.

960
00:55:08,820 --> 00:55:12,140
We'll have Mary Ann's Promise, the rum that we've made.

961
00:55:12,140 --> 00:55:18,360
We made it quite a long time ago and it has been aging, will be showing its label here

962
00:55:18,360 --> 00:55:19,360
soon.

963
00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:20,360
No one is missing anything.

964
00:55:20,360 --> 00:55:21,360
What are you working on?

965
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:22,360
Are you doing some vermouth?

966
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:23,360
Are you working with some vermouth?

967
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:24,360
Oh, yeah.

968
00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:30,000
So we're going to be working on a sweet vermouth for a cocktail program over there working

969
00:55:30,000 --> 00:55:33,840
with a local winery, which I'm very excited about.

970
00:55:33,840 --> 00:55:35,200
I think it's coming along nicely.

971
00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:37,600
I love a Manhattan.

972
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:43,240
On James's side, he has a lot of flexibility with specialty aging, especially finishing

973
00:55:43,240 --> 00:55:46,660
and casts that he sources from all over the place.

974
00:55:46,660 --> 00:55:50,980
So that's a big product line in our experiential series.

975
00:55:50,980 --> 00:55:53,220
He does a really great job with that.

976
00:55:53,220 --> 00:55:59,780
One of them being the Cognac finished bourbon whiskey that we put out, which is mature bourbon

977
00:55:59,780 --> 00:56:05,200
that rolls into first fill Cognac casts, French oak casts from the Cognac region.

978
00:56:05,200 --> 00:56:09,760
And then they're aged for another year or beyond in those first fill casts before they're

979
00:56:09,760 --> 00:56:15,560
rolled into a giant Cognac footer, which is a large scale oak vessel.

980
00:56:15,560 --> 00:56:19,240
It's about 32 barrels, I think of bourbon.

981
00:56:19,240 --> 00:56:25,960
And that Cognac footer was used as a blending vessel for Cognac for 50 years or so before

982
00:56:25,960 --> 00:56:27,680
we got it.

983
00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:31,840
So James does somewhat of a slayer process over there where he now has this thing full

984
00:56:31,840 --> 00:56:33,480
and been aging for years.

985
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:39,200
He'll deplete it by one third every year and have those first fill Cognac cast bourbon

986
00:56:39,200 --> 00:56:41,840
agent ready to top it back off.

987
00:56:41,840 --> 00:56:43,200
It's almost like an affinity barrel.

988
00:56:43,200 --> 00:56:44,200
Just keep it.

989
00:56:44,200 --> 00:56:45,200
That's cool.

990
00:56:45,200 --> 00:56:46,200
Yeah.

991
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:51,960
James has a lot of really cool projects under the bourbon or whiskey line at least.

992
00:56:51,960 --> 00:56:52,960
Yeah.

993
00:56:52,960 --> 00:56:59,480
The Cognac was kind of an insider and fan favorite that we released in the tasting room.

994
00:56:59,480 --> 00:57:04,960
And now 2024, we'll release it again.

995
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:08,920
I guess 2025, we'll release it in the fall.

996
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:14,840
And it will be our fourth year, our fourth iteration of this now kind of wider release.

997
00:57:14,840 --> 00:57:21,840
So every year, because we're layering that bourbon into the footer and only harvesting

998
00:57:21,840 --> 00:57:28,600
about 25% for every single release and then immediately topping it back up with bourbon

999
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:30,480
aged and those Cognac barrels.

1000
00:57:30,480 --> 00:57:35,360
It has a personality and really cool uniqueness to it every year.

1001
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:39,600
We'll always have a couple of these bottles offerings on the shelf in our tasting room

1002
00:57:39,600 --> 00:57:41,080
if people want to try them.

1003
00:57:41,080 --> 00:57:45,760
But soon you'll be able to sit down and have them in a cocktail too at our tasting room.

1004
00:57:45,760 --> 00:57:49,240
And for our listeners, don't expect them finding this stuff on shelves.

1005
00:57:49,240 --> 00:57:52,160
You have to come to the tasting room to try this stuff.

1006
00:57:52,160 --> 00:57:53,160
So be sure to stop by.

1007
00:57:53,160 --> 00:57:57,680
Again, you guys have a new tasting room, which by the time this episode launches, it'll probably

1008
00:57:57,680 --> 00:57:58,680
be open, right?

1009
00:57:58,680 --> 00:57:59,680
Knock on wood, Sam.

1010
00:57:59,680 --> 00:58:05,040
But tell us a little bit more about the tasting room and what you guys are excited about there.

1011
00:58:05,040 --> 00:58:08,160
Yeah, well, I mean, this has been a long time coming.

1012
00:58:08,160 --> 00:58:11,560
I've been here for five years and we've been talking about it enthusiastically for the

1013
00:58:11,560 --> 00:58:14,840
five years that I've been here.

1014
00:58:14,840 --> 00:58:20,640
And yeah, right now we have a small little tasting room that is very loved and we obviously

1015
00:58:20,640 --> 00:58:28,880
offer these tours and we can do neat tours and flights of whiskey.

1016
00:58:28,880 --> 00:58:33,640
And we're just really excited to kind of launch this brand new tasting room right next to

1017
00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:35,680
our current distillery.

1018
00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:40,600
That's really going to be more of a visitor experience.

1019
00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:46,520
Al was really intentional about getting the whiskey right first.

1020
00:58:46,520 --> 00:58:52,200
There's a lot of distilleries out there that have these kind of big grand tasting rooms

1021
00:58:52,200 --> 00:58:58,160
and like the whiskey is kind of like the secondary part to the experience.

1022
00:58:58,160 --> 00:59:07,480
And we focused on our product and now we're excited to unveil this new tasting room that

1023
00:59:07,480 --> 00:59:12,360
is at the quality level of what we think we're pouring into your glass.

1024
00:59:12,360 --> 00:59:18,400
So this will be the first time we will be able to have cocktails in a cocktail lounge

1025
00:59:18,400 --> 00:59:23,520
and really express the whiskey in that type of way as well.

1026
00:59:23,520 --> 00:59:32,560
So we're really excited to have this as like a staple and really an educational space for

1027
00:59:32,560 --> 00:59:33,800
our whiskey.

1028
00:59:33,800 --> 00:59:37,840
Circling back to something you said, Al wanted to make sure that the whiskey was right first

1029
00:59:37,840 --> 00:59:43,600
and understand that you've received a few accolades recently for that whiskey.

1030
00:59:43,600 --> 00:59:45,440
Can you talk a little bit about that?

1031
00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:51,320
Yeah, I mean, we've received a few accolades throughout the years that we're very proud

1032
00:59:51,320 --> 00:59:54,900
of that we can really hang our hat on.

1033
00:59:54,900 --> 01:00:01,760
This year though, we received through the World of Whiskey Awards, the honor of best

1034
01:00:01,760 --> 01:00:04,720
small batch bourbon in the world.

1035
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:10,520
So that's something that we're really excited about and hanging our hat on.

1036
01:00:10,520 --> 01:00:12,560
People always talk about Kentucky bourbon.

1037
01:00:12,560 --> 01:00:16,320
You compete with some big names for that, right?

1038
01:00:16,320 --> 01:00:18,480
Yeah, Kentucky bourbon is great.

1039
01:00:18,480 --> 01:00:21,000
We are not trying to be Kentucky bourbon.

1040
01:00:21,000 --> 01:00:23,440
We are a Colorado bourbon.

1041
01:00:23,440 --> 01:00:29,600
But the way kind of this competition does break down is it's the best small batch Kentucky

1042
01:00:29,600 --> 01:00:34,480
bourbon and then non Kentucky bourbon, but then it goes for world's best.

1043
01:00:34,480 --> 01:00:41,800
So this year, not only did we get best non Kentucky bourbon, but then we did be out four

1044
01:00:41,800 --> 01:00:45,480
roses to be the world's best small batch bourbon.

1045
01:00:45,480 --> 01:00:46,480
So definitely something that we're-

1046
01:00:46,480 --> 01:00:47,480
Do we have to bleep that out or four roses?

1047
01:00:47,480 --> 01:00:48,480
I don't think so.

1048
01:00:48,480 --> 01:00:49,480
I don't think so.

1049
01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:50,480
Send a cease and desist to like, oh yeah, we're that.

1050
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:51,480
So all right, sorry, man.

1051
01:00:51,480 --> 01:00:52,480
I don't think they're too worried about us.

1052
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:53,480
I don't think so.

1053
01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:54,480
It's nice to be recognized.

1054
01:00:54,480 --> 01:00:55,480
I mean, we put so much work into this.

1055
01:00:55,480 --> 01:00:56,480
And of course we believe we're producing world class bourbon.

1056
01:00:56,480 --> 01:01:06,320
Sure.

1057
01:01:06,320 --> 01:01:09,120
I mean, four roses, I mean, the name carries, right?

1058
01:01:09,120 --> 01:01:10,120
And it's-

1059
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:11,120
I love four roses.

1060
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:12,120
Yeah.

1061
01:01:12,120 --> 01:01:13,120
It's great, right?

1062
01:01:13,120 --> 01:01:14,120
And they do a great product and they're well known.

1063
01:01:14,120 --> 01:01:19,080
And it's cool to see Colorado, you know, it's not the only distillery recently it's

1064
01:01:19,080 --> 01:01:22,080
been recognized in that space.

1065
01:01:22,080 --> 01:01:24,120
So to me, that's exciting, right?

1066
01:01:24,120 --> 01:01:28,240
Because it's, and I think we talked a little bit before about, you know, Colorado and it's

1067
01:01:28,240 --> 01:01:31,720
where it's going with in the craft world and the name it's making for itself.

1068
01:01:31,720 --> 01:01:35,920
But you know, tell us more about like how you guys are playing a role in that.

1069
01:01:35,920 --> 01:01:36,920
Yeah.

1070
01:01:36,920 --> 01:01:43,080
I mean, I think that, you know, going back to Kentucky bourbon, that's kind of recognized

1071
01:01:43,080 --> 01:01:49,080
as something in the United States as quality bourbon.

1072
01:01:49,080 --> 01:01:52,720
But I think we are seeing kind of a new wave of bourbon as well.

1073
01:01:52,720 --> 01:01:58,360
So I think really in the next 10 to 20 years, as more distilleries across the country are

1074
01:01:58,360 --> 01:02:04,600
able to pull back and embrace their regionality and use those grains from their region and

1075
01:02:04,600 --> 01:02:09,000
those resources, we're going to see a very different American whiskey map develop where

1076
01:02:09,000 --> 01:02:15,360
you see very much in Scotland with the different regions of Scotch, where you will start to

1077
01:02:15,360 --> 01:02:19,600
see kind of, you know, like those and recognize those New York whiskeys.

1078
01:02:19,600 --> 01:02:26,120
You know, they have that big Empire Rye program and Texas whiskeys and Colorado whiskeys.

1079
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:34,000
And so I think now people are really starting to perk up and pay attention to kind of that

1080
01:02:34,000 --> 01:02:35,600
regionality.

1081
01:02:35,600 --> 01:02:41,080
And that's really important to us and be able to say that we are, you know, from the beginning,

1082
01:02:41,080 --> 01:02:47,000
you know, grown, distilled, aged and bottled in Colorado and foofed down with Colorado

1083
01:02:47,000 --> 01:02:48,000
water.

1084
01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:52,120
So we're really excited to kind of at the beginning of all of this, really plant our

1085
01:02:52,120 --> 01:03:00,160
flag in the ground and be a Colorado whiskey and really represent those Colorado flavors

1086
01:03:00,160 --> 01:03:01,160
in our whiskey.

1087
01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:02,160
Yeah.

1088
01:03:02,160 --> 01:03:04,680
And at the same time, I think we're very fond of our peers here in Colorado, too.

1089
01:03:04,680 --> 01:03:07,520
I think there's some really great stuff coming out now.

1090
01:03:07,520 --> 01:03:12,940
We've been making whiskey here for 15 plus years and there's some mature, really well

1091
01:03:12,940 --> 01:03:15,120
made whiskies on the market from Colorado.

1092
01:03:15,120 --> 01:03:21,320
So, yeah, I mean, the other folks we've interviewed, I mean, great people making great products

1093
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:24,120
and it's exciting to see that come around.

1094
01:03:24,120 --> 01:03:29,840
But I mean, for you guys, it doesn't end here in Stillerite, right?

1095
01:03:29,840 --> 01:03:33,920
Like it goes beyond that to the knowledge where you're sourcing stuff, but where you're

1096
01:03:33,920 --> 01:03:36,480
making whiskey, but you guys are also giving back to the community.

1097
01:03:36,480 --> 01:03:39,600
So we'd like to spend a few minutes talking about our Angel Share segment, which is where

1098
01:03:39,600 --> 01:03:46,120
Ryan and I, we met through a fostering program for fostering kids.

1099
01:03:46,120 --> 01:03:51,160
And so it's a part that is near and dear to our heart to give back to the community and

1100
01:03:51,160 --> 01:03:52,160
stuff.

1101
01:03:52,160 --> 01:03:54,840
And so, you know, heavily involved in our faith based program stuff in Colorado Springs

1102
01:03:54,840 --> 01:03:58,880
there and we love highlighting the opportunity that you guys have had to give back to the

1103
01:03:58,880 --> 01:03:59,880
community.

1104
01:03:59,880 --> 01:04:00,880
And I understand you've been a part of a number, right?

1105
01:04:00,880 --> 01:04:05,360
And I think one that you shared with a distillery down the way here, tell us a little bit about

1106
01:04:05,360 --> 01:04:06,360
that one.

1107
01:04:06,360 --> 01:04:07,760
And then you spoke about waters too.

1108
01:04:07,760 --> 01:04:10,680
Why don't you give a segue into that as well?

1109
01:04:10,680 --> 01:04:11,680
Yeah.

1110
01:04:11,680 --> 01:04:15,320
So one that we released last year that we're really proud of, and it goes along with what

1111
01:04:15,320 --> 01:04:21,320
Sam was saying about just the Colorado distilling community as a whole.

1112
01:04:21,320 --> 01:04:27,120
We did a collaboration wheat whiskey that we released last year with six other distilleries.

1113
01:04:27,120 --> 01:04:30,360
So it was seven Colorado distilleries total.

1114
01:04:30,360 --> 01:04:36,000
And that was really great because you, to really first highlight the camaraderie within

1115
01:04:36,000 --> 01:04:38,760
the Colorado distilling industry.

1116
01:04:38,760 --> 01:04:42,960
You see a lot of collaborations in the beer industry, but you don't really see a lot of

1117
01:04:42,960 --> 01:04:47,640
collaborations in the spirits or just our whiskey industry.

1118
01:04:47,640 --> 01:04:53,240
And so A, we wanted to highlight that to show that, you know, we are all friends.

1119
01:04:53,240 --> 01:04:57,660
We all appreciate each other and learn from each other and talk.

1120
01:04:57,660 --> 01:05:02,280
So this was almost nine years in the making.

1121
01:05:02,280 --> 01:05:10,680
But quite a long time ago, all of these seven distilleries got together, chose a mash bill,

1122
01:05:10,680 --> 01:05:16,920
took the same wheat from the Cody family farm down in the San Luis Valley and distilled

1123
01:05:16,920 --> 01:05:19,560
wheat whiskey at all of our distilleries.

1124
01:05:19,560 --> 01:05:24,680
And then we brought them back and married them together and then aged them in barrels

1125
01:05:24,680 --> 01:05:31,120
in our distillery and then released that as a collaboration wheat whiskey.

1126
01:05:31,120 --> 01:05:35,040
And from the beginning, we got every aspect of that donated.

1127
01:05:35,040 --> 01:05:37,680
So the Cody farm donated those grains.

1128
01:05:37,680 --> 01:05:39,240
We got the bottles donated.

1129
01:05:39,240 --> 01:05:41,780
We got the labels donated.

1130
01:05:41,780 --> 01:05:44,560
Every distillery donated their time and resources.

1131
01:05:44,560 --> 01:05:52,080
So we were able to, when we sold that, a hundred percent of the proceeds from those bottles

1132
01:05:52,080 --> 01:05:55,180
went to Colorado causes that we cared about.

1133
01:05:55,180 --> 01:06:04,880
So each distillery was able to pick a cause and us and Bear Creek teamed up and we did

1134
01:06:04,880 --> 01:06:11,600
do the same cause, which is actually a building right down the street that is going to help

1135
01:06:11,600 --> 01:06:18,840
and house homeless and unhoused youth of Colorado, which was something that's really close.

1136
01:06:18,840 --> 01:06:21,160
We had an opportunity to talk to Jay about the project and it sounds like a really good

1137
01:06:21,160 --> 01:06:22,160
project.

1138
01:06:22,160 --> 01:06:24,440
Yeah, it should be opening that building soon.

1139
01:06:24,440 --> 01:06:25,440
Yeah.

1140
01:06:25,440 --> 01:06:26,440
And it's hyper local.

1141
01:06:26,440 --> 01:06:27,440
It's here in your neighborhood.

1142
01:06:27,440 --> 01:06:29,680
And so that's a really beautiful thing to be able to.

1143
01:06:29,680 --> 01:06:30,680
Yeah.

1144
01:06:30,680 --> 01:06:33,720
They always had a youth center down there, but now it's going to have a lot more resources

1145
01:06:33,720 --> 01:06:36,520
and housing for these kids too.

1146
01:06:36,520 --> 01:06:40,440
So just to be able for everyone to get together.

1147
01:06:40,440 --> 01:06:44,200
And then it was aged for, was it seven years?

1148
01:06:44,200 --> 01:06:47,720
I'm thinking seven distilleries and it was aged for seven years as well.

1149
01:06:47,720 --> 01:06:55,560
So just for everyone to see that so long ago and donate to that and really it's quite a

1150
01:06:55,560 --> 01:06:59,680
feat to be able to give a hundred percent of proceeds from those sales as well.

1151
01:06:59,680 --> 01:07:01,040
That's a big commitment, right?

1152
01:07:01,040 --> 01:07:05,080
Because you're talking about production volume, yes, but then you're talking about storage

1153
01:07:05,080 --> 01:07:06,640
for seven years, right?

1154
01:07:06,640 --> 01:07:12,160
And that's, I mean, yes, there was a financial contribution given, but to me it sounds like

1155
01:07:12,160 --> 01:07:16,600
you guys gave a lot more than just even what maybe came out in the financial, the big check

1156
01:07:16,600 --> 01:07:22,120
that went to the program, which totally worthy cause with a lot of on-house kids and stuff.

1157
01:07:22,120 --> 01:07:27,360
And unfortunately, like we were privy to watching some of the dissolution of like the big group

1158
01:07:27,360 --> 01:07:28,360
homes, right?

1159
01:07:28,360 --> 01:07:31,880
And where those kids go, you know, a lot of them ended up on the street.

1160
01:07:31,880 --> 01:07:34,400
So we, on a word, we fully backed that project.

1161
01:07:34,400 --> 01:07:38,920
That was a really great project to do, but I mean, you put a little more than just, you

1162
01:07:38,920 --> 01:07:40,520
know, whiskey behind that.

1163
01:07:40,520 --> 01:07:41,520
So that's-

1164
01:07:41,520 --> 01:07:42,520
You guys put time.

1165
01:07:42,520 --> 01:07:43,520
Yeah.

1166
01:07:43,520 --> 01:07:44,520
Which is a much bigger investment.

1167
01:07:44,520 --> 01:07:45,520
We're all happy to do it.

1168
01:07:45,520 --> 01:07:52,680
And we are lucky to be able to have, you know, quite a few releases that we're able to do

1169
01:07:52,680 --> 01:07:55,160
something with like that.

1170
01:07:55,160 --> 01:08:01,960
You know, last year we did our first woman of laws barrel, single barrel pick where we

1171
01:08:01,960 --> 01:08:04,960
kind of organize all the women within our organization.

1172
01:08:04,960 --> 01:08:09,200
And we got to do this really cool barrel pick from, you know, we all got together, talked

1173
01:08:09,200 --> 01:08:11,360
about the Tasty Notes, picked this barrel.

1174
01:08:11,360 --> 01:08:13,760
We worked on the label together.

1175
01:08:13,760 --> 01:08:19,680
It was a very collaborative label design and then who we were going to donate some of these

1176
01:08:19,680 --> 01:08:20,840
proceeds to.

1177
01:08:20,840 --> 01:08:26,880
And for the woman of laws barrel, last year we were able to donate to frontline farming,

1178
01:08:26,880 --> 01:08:35,120
which is a, you know, BIPOC and woman-led farming advocacy program within Denver.

1179
01:08:35,120 --> 01:08:37,240
So that was really exciting.

1180
01:08:37,240 --> 01:08:45,320
Our origin series that Sam mentioned every year, we donate a portion of the origins on

1181
01:08:45,320 --> 01:08:51,160
Colorado gives day, which allows our donation to be matched.

1182
01:08:51,160 --> 01:08:59,560
And then each villager employee within our village is able to pick their own organization

1183
01:08:59,560 --> 01:09:00,920
that they donate to.

1184
01:09:00,920 --> 01:09:07,280
So that's another thing where, you know, we focus on a lot of philanthropy, but we also

1185
01:09:07,280 --> 01:09:12,640
allow everyone to kind of focus on something that they personally care about as well.

1186
01:09:12,640 --> 01:09:17,960
So the origins releases is really close to our heart and every teammate's heart as well.

1187
01:09:17,960 --> 01:09:18,960
Right.

1188
01:09:18,960 --> 01:09:19,960
That's good.

1189
01:09:19,960 --> 01:09:21,680
Well, then you have a new one coming up, correct?

1190
01:09:21,680 --> 01:09:25,320
We do have a new one coming up, which is super exciting.

1191
01:09:25,320 --> 01:09:27,920
It's going to be the first in a series release.

1192
01:09:27,920 --> 01:09:28,920
There it is.

1193
01:09:28,920 --> 01:09:30,380
There it is.

1194
01:09:30,380 --> 01:09:31,820
And it's our headwater series.

1195
01:09:31,820 --> 01:09:40,480
So a lot of our focus is around kind of water conservation and water rights.

1196
01:09:40,480 --> 01:09:45,160
And, you know, we've done a lot within the distillery.

1197
01:09:45,160 --> 01:09:51,380
Sam can talk to that about, you know, how, how we're trying to, you know, save and recycle

1198
01:09:51,380 --> 01:09:54,160
and reuse water.

1199
01:09:54,160 --> 01:09:59,360
So we will have, this is the first headwater series that's focused on the Colorado river.

1200
01:09:59,360 --> 01:10:04,260
But you know, Colorado is, is the headwater state.

1201
01:10:04,260 --> 01:10:09,760
There's a lot of rivers that, that are very important to a lot of different states that

1202
01:10:09,760 --> 01:10:11,300
kind of start in Colorado.

1203
01:10:11,300 --> 01:10:19,080
So we want to focus on those and focus on the, the water rights and water conservation of

1204
01:10:19,080 --> 01:10:20,840
each of those rivers.

1205
01:10:20,840 --> 01:10:27,560
So this one is a special four grain bourbon that is also proofed down with a little bit

1206
01:10:27,560 --> 01:10:30,040
of water from the Colorado river as well.

1207
01:10:30,040 --> 01:10:36,200
And then proceeds, a percentage of proceeds from this will go to an organization that

1208
01:10:36,200 --> 01:10:40,960
is focused on protecting and conserving specifically the Colorado river.

1209
01:10:40,960 --> 01:10:43,200
That's a, that's a huge topic, right?

1210
01:10:43,200 --> 01:10:50,840
Because I mean, Colorado river for those who don't know is pretty much the main water source

1211
01:10:50,840 --> 01:10:57,480
for the Southwest region, including Nevada, Utah, Arizona, obviously Colorado and California.

1212
01:10:57,480 --> 01:10:59,240
And even Mexico, right?

1213
01:10:59,240 --> 01:11:01,320
So it's a huge river, right?

1214
01:11:01,320 --> 01:11:05,560
There's been concerns about water levels of the reservoirs along the Colorado river all

1215
01:11:05,560 --> 01:11:08,020
the way down into Arizona and further.

1216
01:11:08,020 --> 01:11:16,380
So this is a really, I know this type of effort is going to have multi-generational impacts

1217
01:11:16,380 --> 01:11:17,380
if we do it right.

1218
01:11:17,380 --> 01:11:18,380
Right.

1219
01:11:18,380 --> 01:11:19,380
So absolutely.

1220
01:11:19,380 --> 01:11:24,360
And you know, we recognize that whiskey alone can't, you know, do all for, for any of this,

1221
01:11:24,360 --> 01:11:26,840
but it is something that we, it's important to us.

1222
01:11:26,840 --> 01:11:32,640
You know, water is a huge component of whiskey from our productions to growing the grains.

1223
01:11:32,640 --> 01:11:41,240
So we really just want to highlight that and really, you know, kind of one drop at a time

1224
01:11:41,240 --> 01:11:42,240
help with this project.

1225
01:11:42,240 --> 01:11:47,040
So Sam, tell me about what went into this and tell us what makes this particular product

1226
01:11:47,040 --> 01:11:48,040
special.

1227
01:11:48,040 --> 01:11:49,040
Yeah.

1228
01:11:49,040 --> 01:11:54,340
So this is a small batch blended by James and the team over there.

1229
01:11:54,340 --> 01:11:59,840
So when James is picking out barrels for the batch, our flagship product, he's going to

1230
01:11:59,840 --> 01:12:04,160
pull down a couple hundred barrels and taste through them all, kind of categorize them

1231
01:12:04,160 --> 01:12:06,080
and flavor profiles.

1232
01:12:06,080 --> 01:12:09,360
But he's also going to go through and pick out some outliers that he thinks are special

1233
01:12:09,360 --> 01:12:10,360
as well.

1234
01:12:10,360 --> 01:12:15,600
So those barrels are always something that you can go back and use to create a small

1235
01:12:15,600 --> 01:12:18,120
blend or something special we're putting out.

1236
01:12:18,120 --> 01:12:21,280
First impressions drinking this whiskey, it's going to hit all of our classic notes that

1237
01:12:21,280 --> 01:12:23,280
we get with our four grain bourbon from the grain.

1238
01:12:23,280 --> 01:12:29,480
So black tea or Pico tea that we talk about a lot because it has that nice orange citrus

1239
01:12:29,480 --> 01:12:31,440
notes to it.

1240
01:12:31,440 --> 01:12:34,160
Honeysuckle even honey.

1241
01:12:34,160 --> 01:12:38,320
But you're going to get to taste all the great grains that we have in it too.

1242
01:12:38,320 --> 01:12:43,160
Peyton our CFO actually got some water from the headwaters of the Colorado River right

1243
01:12:43,160 --> 01:12:48,400
where it starts and a very small amount was added to proof this whiskey back as well.

1244
01:12:48,400 --> 01:12:52,280
So it's just a little fun thing to tie it all back together.

1245
01:12:52,280 --> 01:12:53,280
Portoir right?

1246
01:12:53,280 --> 01:12:54,280
Exactly, exactly.

1247
01:12:54,280 --> 01:12:57,640
And the label is a topo design.

1248
01:12:57,640 --> 01:13:00,600
We worked with a local company kind design on that.

1249
01:13:00,600 --> 01:13:08,560
So on that front label that bend in the river is actually a part of the Colorado River right

1250
01:13:08,560 --> 01:13:11,680
kind of in the Grand Junction area.

1251
01:13:11,680 --> 01:13:16,700
I believe it's called knee Canyon kind of that that horse thief Canyon down there.

1252
01:13:16,700 --> 01:13:22,520
So that is part of the Colorado River that you see on the label as well.

1253
01:13:22,520 --> 01:13:26,520
So you guys are obviously producing whiskey and sounds like sounds like it's gonna be

1254
01:13:26,520 --> 01:13:31,040
great but that would not be without people buying this thing right.

1255
01:13:31,040 --> 01:13:34,400
So how do how do people get involved with this particular initiative and how can they

1256
01:13:34,400 --> 01:13:35,760
help support the cause here?

1257
01:13:35,760 --> 01:13:42,240
Yeah this is going to be available both in our tasting room and then online to ship to

1258
01:13:42,240 --> 01:13:45,000
your door from lawswhiskeyhouse.com.

1259
01:13:45,000 --> 01:13:49,640
Well I think right now we're gonna move into the tasting segment but for now we'll close

1260
01:13:49,640 --> 01:13:50,640
off here.

1261
01:13:50,640 --> 01:13:53,560
Sam, Casey thank you guys for joining us today.

1262
01:13:53,560 --> 01:13:56,560
This has been a great conversation and we're looking forward to seeing the impact this

1263
01:13:56,560 --> 01:14:01,800
does when and we maybe circle back and cap off what contributions you guys are able to

1264
01:14:01,800 --> 01:14:02,800
get for that.

1265
01:14:02,800 --> 01:14:03,800
So that'll be exciting.

1266
01:14:03,800 --> 01:14:04,800
So anything else?

1267
01:14:04,800 --> 01:14:05,800
No thank you guys very much.

1268
01:14:05,800 --> 01:14:06,800
Yeah thank you.

1269
01:14:06,800 --> 01:14:09,800
Yeah awesome.

1270
01:14:09,800 --> 01:14:15,120
So we're gonna do our tasting segment now with Sam and Casey here at Laws Whiskey House

1271
01:14:15,120 --> 01:14:18,920
and we're gonna be they're gonna be featuring a special release that they're releasing this

1272
01:14:18,920 --> 01:14:19,920
year.

1273
01:14:19,920 --> 01:14:22,560
Sam or Casey why don't you guys kick it off.

1274
01:14:22,560 --> 01:14:23,560
The fun part.

1275
01:14:23,560 --> 01:14:24,560
The fun part.

1276
01:14:24,560 --> 01:14:26,600
The whiskey drinking part.

1277
01:14:26,600 --> 01:14:30,840
So we are going to do I'm gonna walk you guys through kind of our three step tasting process.

1278
01:14:30,840 --> 01:14:37,860
This is a way we really like to introduce kind of whiskey to everybody.

1279
01:14:37,860 --> 01:14:41,320
So we are going to take three sips out of this total.

1280
01:14:41,320 --> 01:14:45,720
So every time I do say you know like here's our sip or not you know chugging it all back

1281
01:14:45,720 --> 01:14:48,720
we want to save some.

1282
01:14:48,720 --> 01:14:49,720
Good note.

1283
01:14:49,720 --> 01:14:50,720
Good note.

1284
01:14:50,720 --> 01:14:51,720
Good start.

1285
01:14:51,720 --> 01:14:58,360
Before we do anything do not put this up to your nose until I tell you to.

1286
01:14:58,360 --> 01:15:00,520
You know that's the most important important part.

1287
01:15:00,520 --> 01:15:04,800
You just have to listen to me for a little bit because that's the first mistake that

1288
01:15:04,800 --> 01:15:08,240
lots of people make when they're nosing and tasting whiskey.

1289
01:15:08,240 --> 01:15:12,200
You know I pour whiskey and the first thing people want to do is kind of dig their nose

1290
01:15:12,200 --> 01:15:13,200
right into it.

1291
01:15:13,200 --> 01:15:14,200
That's what I do.

1292
01:15:14,200 --> 01:15:19,400
Yeah and you can actually kind of ruin your tasting experience with that.

1293
01:15:19,400 --> 01:15:22,160
You want to get your your poking stick so you can slap it.

1294
01:15:22,160 --> 01:15:25,160
My my teacher.

1295
01:15:25,160 --> 01:15:28,600
I can't see this is Casey's awesome design here.

1296
01:15:28,600 --> 01:15:31,000
He even has her poking stick.

1297
01:15:31,000 --> 01:15:35,520
I need to whip anybody in shape.

1298
01:15:35,520 --> 01:15:39,080
But it's not like you know whiskey is a high proof spirit.

1299
01:15:39,080 --> 01:15:40,200
It's not like a fine wine.

1300
01:15:40,200 --> 01:15:45,320
We don't want to dig our nose too far into it because it can actually singe or burn our

1301
01:15:45,320 --> 01:15:51,400
olfactory nerves in our nose and the olfactory nerves are what help us smell and evaluate

1302
01:15:51,400 --> 01:15:56,920
whiskey and when you actually singe your olfactory nerves it takes your body about 30 to 40 minutes

1303
01:15:56,920 --> 01:15:59,360
to regenerate those nerves.

1304
01:15:59,360 --> 01:16:05,480
So when you dig your nose too far into a glass of whiskey you can really almost ruin a huge

1305
01:16:05,480 --> 01:16:07,640
huge part of that experience.

1306
01:16:07,640 --> 01:16:13,600
So I really like the nose my whiskey kind of chin to chest area is a good area to kind

1307
01:16:13,600 --> 01:16:16,080
of walk the whiskey around the glass around.

1308
01:16:16,080 --> 01:16:18,920
I even like to roll it along my chin.

1309
01:16:18,920 --> 01:16:24,320
That almost forces you to open your mouth because that's how you want to nose your whiskey.

1310
01:16:24,320 --> 01:16:27,400
You want to breathe in your nose and then out your open mouth.

1311
01:16:27,400 --> 01:16:30,080
You're just going to get a lot more nosing notes.

1312
01:16:30,080 --> 01:16:31,560
Don't believe me.

1313
01:16:31,560 --> 01:16:32,560
Open your mouth.

1314
01:16:32,560 --> 01:16:33,560
Close your mouth.

1315
01:16:33,560 --> 01:16:34,560
I'm telling you the truth.

1316
01:16:34,560 --> 01:16:35,560
It's science.

1317
01:16:35,560 --> 01:16:36,560
I don't know.

1318
01:16:36,560 --> 01:16:43,480
So yeah let's just kind of nose that first and this is what we like to call kind of just

1319
01:16:43,480 --> 01:16:47,240
our acclimation nose and sip.

1320
01:16:47,240 --> 01:16:53,040
So you know this may be your first I think first whiskey of the day.

1321
01:16:53,040 --> 01:17:00,040
We'll say it's five o'clock.

1322
01:17:00,040 --> 01:17:02,080
It's my first whiskey of the day for sure.

1323
01:17:02,080 --> 01:17:05,200
For the record it is five o'clock in the evening.

1324
01:17:05,200 --> 01:17:06,200
It's not 10.45.

1325
01:17:06,200 --> 01:17:15,600
But you know if I not to put any pressure on you but like what do you smell in this?

1326
01:17:15,600 --> 01:17:18,240
Certainly smell sweetness obviously.

1327
01:17:18,240 --> 01:17:20,800
Particularly with this the sweetness is really present.

1328
01:17:20,800 --> 01:17:23,280
I mean honey or honeysuckle.

1329
01:17:23,280 --> 01:17:27,280
I can get some of that black tea I think is one thing to describe.

1330
01:17:27,280 --> 01:17:29,320
I get some barrel flavors too.

1331
01:17:29,320 --> 01:17:30,320
So caramel.

1332
01:17:30,320 --> 01:17:33,320
Some of those barrel notes are coming through nicely.

1333
01:17:33,320 --> 01:17:35,840
And again this is our acclimation smell.

1334
01:17:35,840 --> 01:17:38,720
So you get a lot of people that say like I smell whiskey.

1335
01:17:38,720 --> 01:17:39,720
I smell alcohol.

1336
01:17:39,720 --> 01:17:40,720
Ha ha ha.

1337
01:17:40,720 --> 01:17:41,720
Yes absolutely.

1338
01:17:41,720 --> 01:17:45,920
If you smell whiskey, alcohol, college, regret.

1339
01:17:45,920 --> 01:17:47,920
Like those are the answers.

1340
01:17:47,920 --> 01:17:49,920
This is what you're smelling.

1341
01:17:49,920 --> 01:17:53,600
So now we're going to do our first sip.

1342
01:17:53,600 --> 01:18:00,160
And this sip we're not really trying to taste the whiskey or pick up any tasty notes.

1343
01:18:00,160 --> 01:18:03,160
We're really just coating our palate and getting our whole mouth ready.

1344
01:18:03,160 --> 01:18:05,000
So we're going to take a little sip.

1345
01:18:05,000 --> 01:18:06,720
We're going to chew on it.

1346
01:18:06,720 --> 01:18:09,480
Swish it around like mouthwash.

1347
01:18:09,480 --> 01:18:10,480
And then swallow it.

1348
01:18:10,480 --> 01:18:11,480
So cheers.

1349
01:18:11,480 --> 01:18:12,480
Cheers.

1350
01:18:12,480 --> 01:18:13,480
Cheers.

1351
01:18:13,480 --> 01:18:14,480
Cheers.

1352
01:18:14,480 --> 01:18:15,480
Cheers.

1353
01:18:15,480 --> 01:18:16,480
Cheers.

1354
01:18:16,480 --> 01:18:17,480
Cheers.

1355
01:18:17,480 --> 01:18:18,480
Cheers.

1356
01:18:18,480 --> 01:18:19,480
Cheers.

1357
01:18:19,480 --> 01:18:20,480
Cheers.

1358
01:18:20,480 --> 01:18:25,760
So I had an opportunity to meet a sommelier in Wisconsin at a distillery up there.

1359
01:18:25,760 --> 01:18:28,040
The one called J. Henry.

1360
01:18:28,040 --> 01:18:32,120
And the term what your whistle comes from this process of initially wedding your.

1361
01:18:32,120 --> 01:18:33,120
I don't know.

1362
01:18:33,120 --> 01:18:36,440
Maybe there's probably a parameter out there.

1363
01:18:36,440 --> 01:18:38,480
But someone will comment and say.

1364
01:18:38,480 --> 01:18:41,720
So the term what your whistle came from this process of what we're doing right now.

1365
01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:44,680
Or wedding whistle getting the first part off.

1366
01:18:44,680 --> 01:18:45,680
Acclimating.

1367
01:18:45,680 --> 01:18:46,680
Yeah.

1368
01:18:46,680 --> 01:18:47,680
There you go.

1369
01:18:47,680 --> 01:18:54,240
So you know if you have someone in your life that does not like whiskey so sad I know.

1370
01:18:54,240 --> 01:18:58,040
But sit them down and do this process with them because you can turn a lot of people.

1371
01:18:58,040 --> 01:19:02,880
We lose a lot of potential whiskey drinkers on that first sip.

1372
01:19:02,880 --> 01:19:03,880
Right.

1373
01:19:03,880 --> 01:19:07,280
People you know you're at a bar in college the first time someone's like take this.

1374
01:19:07,280 --> 01:19:08,280
Here's a shot.

1375
01:19:08,280 --> 01:19:09,280
You do it.

1376
01:19:09,280 --> 01:19:10,280
You're like oh what was that.

1377
01:19:10,280 --> 01:19:11,280
Thank you.

1378
01:19:11,280 --> 01:19:12,280
No thank you.

1379
01:19:12,280 --> 01:19:13,280
Yeah.

1380
01:19:13,280 --> 01:19:15,680
Because it's this type of spirit we do kind of want to acclimate and prepare our palate.

1381
01:19:15,680 --> 01:19:21,960
So now we're going to go in for just that second smell.

1382
01:19:21,960 --> 01:19:24,840
And you guys did a really great job at picking some of that stuff out.

1383
01:19:24,840 --> 01:19:26,520
I get more floral notes for me.

1384
01:19:26,520 --> 01:19:27,520
I mean there's some.

1385
01:19:27,520 --> 01:19:28,520
Yeah.

1386
01:19:28,520 --> 01:19:31,600
I can't pin down the flower scent perfectly right now.

1387
01:19:31,600 --> 01:19:32,600
Like an herbal.

1388
01:19:32,600 --> 01:19:34,960
I'm getting a little bit of like toffee I think.

1389
01:19:34,960 --> 01:19:35,960
Yeah.

1390
01:19:35,960 --> 01:19:37,520
I get a lot more of that herbaceous.

1391
01:19:37,520 --> 01:19:42,960
So where you might have gotten like whiskey or alcohol on that first maybe you can get

1392
01:19:42,960 --> 01:19:44,360
some of those sweet notes.

1393
01:19:44,360 --> 01:19:46,600
You guys got really great sweet notes on that first one.

1394
01:19:46,600 --> 01:19:47,600
Yeah.

1395
01:19:47,600 --> 01:19:52,480
And I think for us sometimes it's easy to overlook the standout flavors and aromas because

1396
01:19:52,480 --> 01:19:57,520
we're so used to our whiskey we're sometimes looking deeper and looking what's different

1397
01:19:57,520 --> 01:20:00,760
or what nuance flavors are in this batch in particular.

1398
01:20:00,760 --> 01:20:01,760
Yeah.

1399
01:20:01,760 --> 01:20:06,280
I mean I'm picking up a little bit like a hint of citrus too a little bit.

1400
01:20:06,280 --> 01:20:11,040
It's not heavy but you know there's I mean getting that herbal stuff too but other than

1401
01:20:11,040 --> 01:20:14,440
it's like smells a bit orange peel or something that's.

1402
01:20:14,440 --> 01:20:17,160
Yeah almost like orange.

1403
01:20:17,160 --> 01:20:18,160
Yeah.

1404
01:20:18,160 --> 01:20:19,160
Peel.

1405
01:20:19,160 --> 01:20:20,160
Like clove.

1406
01:20:20,160 --> 01:20:21,160
Yeah.

1407
01:20:21,160 --> 01:20:22,160
Yeah.

1408
01:20:22,160 --> 01:20:23,160
Totally.

1409
01:20:23,160 --> 01:20:25,000
Usually comes from the rye.

1410
01:20:25,000 --> 01:20:28,120
And then the second sip is our evaluation sip.

1411
01:20:28,120 --> 01:20:33,360
So we've acclimated now we can kind of sip and appreciate and taste this whiskey this

1412
01:20:33,360 --> 01:20:34,360
bourbon.

1413
01:20:34,360 --> 01:20:35,360
So cheers.

1414
01:20:35,360 --> 01:20:48,960
I get a lot of citrus kind of hits me in the right up front but also there's a fun playfulness

1415
01:20:48,960 --> 01:20:52,400
between I think wheat and rye initially.

1416
01:20:52,400 --> 01:20:57,440
You get you get some of the spice you get some of the herbal notes from rye but I think

1417
01:20:57,440 --> 01:21:01,840
that's really the wheat has that really nice sweetness but it has the kind of this feisty

1418
01:21:01,840 --> 01:21:08,200
peppery note our wheat in particular it's a fun kind of spice.

1419
01:21:08,200 --> 01:21:12,840
And the finish lingers like in a very pleasant like it's hanging out with you.

1420
01:21:12,840 --> 01:21:13,840
Yeah.

1421
01:21:13,840 --> 01:21:18,920
Like I'm still experiencing and you know and you're getting that quite warm from the rye

1422
01:21:18,920 --> 01:21:21,480
right that peppery warmth that comes in right.

1423
01:21:21,480 --> 01:21:24,600
And you get on that finish you get those oak notes coming in.

1424
01:21:24,600 --> 01:21:29,800
I think this has quite a bit of mature barrel notes in it that come towards the backside.

1425
01:21:29,800 --> 01:21:34,440
But for someone who might be afraid of a rye finish because it has a high intensity peppery

1426
01:21:34,440 --> 01:21:38,320
finish this is not this is very subdued but still nice.

1427
01:21:38,320 --> 01:21:42,960
You know it kind of hits you on the back end like the first when you first taste it it's

1428
01:21:42,960 --> 01:21:45,880
sweeter and then that pepper note kind of comes through on the finish.

1429
01:21:45,880 --> 01:21:51,000
Yeah we seek out that mint note in our rye we really love it and some barrels it's a

1430
01:21:51,000 --> 01:21:54,720
little more subdued but when we get that kind of bright mint note we definitely want to

1431
01:21:54,720 --> 01:21:57,180
include those barrels because that's something we really like.

1432
01:21:57,180 --> 01:22:05,240
With the rye you get anise you get herbaceous notes but the mint is something we seek out.

1433
01:22:05,240 --> 01:22:09,400
And when I'm kind of picking out tasty notes sometimes I get really dorky and I close my

1434
01:22:09,400 --> 01:22:14,040
eyes and I have to kind of sit in the dark with it for a little bit but a lot of times

1435
01:22:14,040 --> 01:22:21,360
I'm really pulling from my memories so a lot of my notes will be like oh this one camping

1436
01:22:21,360 --> 01:22:27,120
trip or oh like sitting in the kitchen cooking at this one time before I really am able to

1437
01:22:27,120 --> 01:22:30,480
narrow it down to what that tasty note is.

1438
01:22:30,480 --> 01:22:36,520
And you know there is no right or wrong answers when you're talking about tasting.

1439
01:22:36,520 --> 01:22:41,960
That's one of the coolest parts about whiskey is it's so subjective and everybody evaluates

1440
01:22:41,960 --> 01:22:47,320
whiskey differently so I always tell like people you know don't get hung up on these

1441
01:22:47,320 --> 01:22:48,880
hoity-toity tasty notes.

1442
01:22:48,880 --> 01:22:51,160
Absolutely go with what you know.

1443
01:22:51,160 --> 01:22:54,840
You know the reason that I told you not to dig your nose too far into this glass and

1444
01:22:54,840 --> 01:22:59,640
your olfactory nerves are so important is because the olfactory nerves are the only

1445
01:22:59,640 --> 01:23:04,440
nerve in your entire body that have like a straight shot to the limbic system in your

1446
01:23:04,440 --> 01:23:07,920
brain which is the part of your brain that stores memories.

1447
01:23:07,920 --> 01:23:15,280
So usually the first thing you get is a memory so you know one tasty note that I always joke

1448
01:23:15,280 --> 01:23:19,760
about that personally I don't like is marzipan.

1449
01:23:19,760 --> 01:23:26,200
You know you hear it everywhere you see it in big tasty notes in write-ups and magazines

1450
01:23:26,200 --> 01:23:30,240
on the little tasty notes in the liquor store.

1451
01:23:30,240 --> 01:23:31,240
Marzipan is everywhere.

1452
01:23:31,240 --> 01:23:38,880
I don't know how often you all eat marzipan but I can say I have only had marzipan like

1453
01:23:38,880 --> 01:23:43,840
twice in my life so marzipan will never be a tasty note for me.

1454
01:23:43,840 --> 01:23:46,200
I don't know if I've ever had marzipan I've had marzipan.

1455
01:23:46,200 --> 01:23:47,200
That is similar.

1456
01:23:47,200 --> 01:23:52,000
That's like more peanut buttery.

1457
01:23:52,000 --> 01:23:57,240
So yeah you really want to go with what you know you could really throw out any tasty

1458
01:23:57,240 --> 01:24:04,280
note and I'd be like oh yeah absolutely great talent wow and that's why you know whiskey

1459
01:24:04,280 --> 01:24:11,600
is so fun there I truly believe there is a whiskey for everybody because people pick

1460
01:24:11,600 --> 01:24:14,600
out different notes and people evaluate whiskey differently.

1461
01:24:14,600 --> 01:24:20,400
To your point I have a tendency to smell a lot of trees because I grew up camping and

1462
01:24:20,400 --> 01:24:25,040
I love to smell the trees and so but I try to stay away from trees because it's not a

1463
01:24:25,040 --> 01:24:26,040
tasty note most people recognize.

1464
01:24:26,040 --> 01:24:30,480
I don't know what a ponderosa's pine smells like.

1465
01:24:30,480 --> 01:24:34,440
And when we're talking about the four grain and wanting to taste all of the grains we're

1466
01:24:34,440 --> 01:24:35,640
looking for it.

1467
01:24:35,640 --> 01:24:39,440
Corn you know people don't associate it with a ton of flavor but it does have flavor and

1468
01:24:39,440 --> 01:24:45,280
I think it has a corn silk kind of note it sometimes comes off kind of nutty and you

1469
01:24:45,280 --> 01:24:47,040
can you can look for that in there.

1470
01:24:47,040 --> 01:24:53,040
Of course sweetness comes from corn whiskey as well but the barley presents as kind of

1471
01:24:53,040 --> 01:24:59,360
a toasted bread or biscuity note and oftentimes nutty as well.

1472
01:24:59,360 --> 01:25:07,520
You get obviously kind of that spiciness that are basis from the rye.

1473
01:25:07,520 --> 01:25:13,280
Wheat actually tends to surprise people you can get a lot of you know cinnamon and baking

1474
01:25:13,280 --> 01:25:19,400
spices from the wheat as well so I always describe wheat as like a warm hug.

1475
01:25:19,400 --> 01:25:26,880
We talk about a lot about nosing and tasting but there's another nerve in your body and

1476
01:25:26,880 --> 01:25:30,920
your face that's really affected by whiskey drinking as well it's your trigeminal nerve

1477
01:25:30,920 --> 01:25:33,280
that's kind of throughout your face right here.

1478
01:25:33,280 --> 01:25:40,160
I'm doing kind of a whiskey trigeminal nerve you know there's always like a nurse or a

1479
01:25:40,160 --> 01:25:44,160
doctor that knows more about the trigeminal nerve than me and is like well actually the

1480
01:25:44,160 --> 01:25:46,820
trigeminal nerve does all of these things.

1481
01:25:46,820 --> 01:25:51,600
One of my best friends is a reconstructive facial surgeon I asked him if I was saying

1482
01:25:51,600 --> 01:25:56,160
this correctly and he told me I was.

1483
01:25:56,160 --> 01:26:01,280
But the trigeminal nerve when you're drinking whiskey specifically tells you a feeling which

1484
01:26:01,280 --> 01:26:06,680
is heating or cooling so when you drink a whiskey you can't really pinpoint that flavor

1485
01:26:06,680 --> 01:26:11,520
but you get that heat or that cooling that's really just your trigeminal nerve telling

1486
01:26:11,520 --> 01:26:13,400
you that.

1487
01:26:13,400 --> 01:26:18,000
We have those hundred percent expressions as well and I can very much tell the difference

1488
01:26:18,000 --> 01:26:19,200
between the wheat and the rye.

1489
01:26:19,200 --> 01:26:24,160
The wheat does hit me kind of in my cheeks and flushes my cheeks and I get those warming

1490
01:26:24,160 --> 01:26:31,000
notes the rye hits me right along my jaw line and gives me more of like that mint beer mint.

1491
01:26:31,000 --> 01:26:34,920
That's the same effect you get like when you eat something sour right it's that same nerve

1492
01:26:34,920 --> 01:26:38,360
right that same tingle right yeah.

1493
01:26:38,360 --> 01:26:42,680
So you know you focus on smell you focus on taste but then when you kind of recognize

1494
01:26:42,680 --> 01:26:48,000
also what that trigeminal nerve does as well it kind of adds another element of being able

1495
01:26:48,000 --> 01:26:50,720
to pick out notes in there.

1496
01:26:50,720 --> 01:26:55,080
And then finally the last part is we like to add just a little bit of water so we have

1497
01:26:55,080 --> 01:26:58,720
this Eldorado Springs water that we proof our whiskey down with.

1498
01:26:58,720 --> 01:27:01,920
Sam I told you I don't have any left.

1499
01:27:01,920 --> 01:27:10,240
Yeah yeah so I'll let you guys do this however you prefer I like to do just start with a

1500
01:27:10,240 --> 01:27:14,720
little tiny squirt and see how it's going to open up your glass.

1501
01:27:14,720 --> 01:27:19,080
Everybody again whiskey subjective so everybody likes a different amount of water.

1502
01:27:19,080 --> 01:27:24,040
I will say it's like a haircut like once you cut it all off you can't go back once you

1503
01:27:24,040 --> 01:27:27,440
had too much water you can't take it out so start a little at a time.

1504
01:27:27,440 --> 01:27:31,480
Maybe like to also let it sit for a second because as you're adding water that that whiskey

1505
01:27:31,480 --> 01:27:35,440
is interacting with the water and it gets a little feisty so 30 seconds or so it's going

1506
01:27:35,440 --> 01:27:37,440
to mellow out.

1507
01:27:37,440 --> 01:27:42,440
Some people are kind of snobby about water I would never be also there is no wrong way

1508
01:27:42,440 --> 01:27:47,040
to drink whiskey if you are drinking whiskey you are drinking it right so don't ever let

1509
01:27:47,040 --> 01:27:48,760
anyone tell you otherwise.

1510
01:27:48,760 --> 01:27:50,560
I would say maybe don't put Coca-Cola.

1511
01:27:50,560 --> 01:27:58,560
We won't judge you to your face in that we might talk about you behind your back but

1512
01:27:58,560 --> 01:28:01,600
you know if you're drinking whiskey we applaud.

1513
01:28:01,600 --> 01:28:04,080
And there's that one guy from Kentucky.

1514
01:28:04,080 --> 01:28:09,680
I like a bunch of ice and a big pour whiskey end of the day.

1515
01:28:09,680 --> 01:28:14,640
You know just even adding just a little bit of water changes everything about that whiskey

1516
01:28:14,640 --> 01:28:21,480
so you know you hear about it opening up and it really does so even just a little bit of

1517
01:28:21,480 --> 01:28:26,640
water is just going to change your whiskey drinking experience completely.

1518
01:28:26,640 --> 01:28:34,760
So here's.

1519
01:28:34,760 --> 01:28:39,920
You know back to one of our friends a little north of us that just that's just fantastic

1520
01:28:39,920 --> 01:28:40,920
and delicious in there.

1521
01:28:40,920 --> 01:28:46,640
So I mean water not that's that's really good maybe a little softer now.

1522
01:28:46,640 --> 01:28:50,520
Yeah I think I can taste a lot more of the corn I think once we added the water totally

1523
01:28:50,520 --> 01:28:51,520
getting more of that mint.

1524
01:28:51,520 --> 01:28:52,520
Yeah.

1525
01:28:52,520 --> 01:28:55,440
So some of those more subtle flavors are starting to kind of come through.

1526
01:28:55,440 --> 01:28:58,960
Yeah and this is at a hundred proof.

1527
01:28:58,960 --> 01:29:04,920
So we don't do anything under 95 proof we are a high proof distillery sorry not sorry

1528
01:29:04,920 --> 01:29:09,040
so we kind of start at 95 and go up from there.

1529
01:29:09,040 --> 01:29:13,760
But one of the things about you know having a higher proof is being able to express all

1530
01:29:13,760 --> 01:29:20,160
those flavors but also allow you you know as a consumer yourself to like add water and

1531
01:29:20,160 --> 01:29:24,680
move it down in your glass and get that whiskey expression that you.

1532
01:29:24,680 --> 01:29:29,280
And like we said we cater to the whiskey nerds so if there's something you're looking for

1533
01:29:29,280 --> 01:29:33,640
we probably have it we have castor and there's some big whiskeys down there.

1534
01:29:33,640 --> 01:29:35,640
Bonded and then our flagship products.

1535
01:29:35,640 --> 01:29:39,000
Yeah we have we have something for everyone single barrels.

1536
01:29:39,000 --> 01:29:43,520
Well for our audience to you know water is cheaper than whiskey right.

1537
01:29:43,520 --> 01:29:48,160
So when when still these are proofing down it's nothing wrong right 80 proof is common

1538
01:29:48,160 --> 01:29:49,840
right.

1539
01:29:49,840 --> 01:29:54,480
But when you do see higher proof whiskeys it doesn't necessarily mean it's burns and

1540
01:29:54,480 --> 01:29:56,860
especially craft distillery like laws right.

1541
01:29:56,860 --> 01:30:00,640
You guys I've never experienced the burn that you might get from a higher proof whiskey

1542
01:30:00,640 --> 01:30:02,560
even if you're going all the way up to castor.

1543
01:30:02,560 --> 01:30:06,520
There's there's a certain craft that's put in that that comes from blending and all those

1544
01:30:06,520 --> 01:30:08,840
other practices you guys put in before you put in the bottle.

1545
01:30:08,840 --> 01:30:13,640
So I've never been off put by the higher proof that you guys put in the bottle.

1546
01:30:13,640 --> 01:30:14,640
So you guys do a good job.

1547
01:30:14,640 --> 01:30:18,760
Some of them get pretty high proof in this unique dry climate that we age whiskey.

1548
01:30:18,760 --> 01:30:19,760
Absolutely.

1549
01:30:19,760 --> 01:30:24,160
It's not uncommon for us to see something coming out of the barrel north of 140 proof.

1550
01:30:24,160 --> 01:30:25,160
Yeah yeah.

1551
01:30:25,160 --> 01:30:29,960
On weed and there's some neighboring facilities that are right now the bottling 130.

1552
01:30:29,960 --> 01:30:30,960
130.

1553
01:30:30,960 --> 01:30:35,200
I think whatever 291.

1554
01:30:35,200 --> 01:30:37,920
You know I like it with a little lower proof personally.

1555
01:30:37,920 --> 01:30:38,920
Yeah.

1556
01:30:38,920 --> 01:30:39,920
Okay.

1557
01:30:39,920 --> 01:30:40,920
Yeah.

1558
01:30:40,920 --> 01:30:41,920
I mean you're seeing it go to the bottle like that.

1559
01:30:41,920 --> 01:30:42,920
It's a lot of fun.

1560
01:30:42,920 --> 01:30:51,680
So yeah our castor drink dry especially it's it's good at a higher proof and it is surprisingly

1561
01:30:51,680 --> 01:30:52,680
dangerously drinkable.

1562
01:30:52,680 --> 01:30:59,720
You would be surprised taking a sip and realizing.

1563
01:30:59,720 --> 01:31:04,040
Well as a as a closing note cheers.

1564
01:31:04,040 --> 01:31:05,040
Cheers.

1565
01:31:05,040 --> 01:31:06,040
Cheers.

1566
01:31:06,040 --> 01:31:08,160
This is great thanks guys for guiding us through this.

1567
01:31:08,160 --> 01:31:09,160
Thanks so much.

1568
01:31:09,160 --> 01:31:12,200
And look for the headwater series release on their website right.

1569
01:31:12,200 --> 01:31:16,600
You can go to the website and or better yet come down to their tasting room and check

1570
01:31:16,600 --> 01:31:18,920
out their new digs here and enjoy it.

1571
01:31:18,920 --> 01:31:19,920
Enjoy a nice drink here.

1572
01:31:19,920 --> 01:31:20,920
So thanks guys.

1573
01:31:20,920 --> 01:31:21,920
Thank you very much.

1574
01:31:21,920 --> 01:31:22,920
Cheers.

1575
01:31:22,920 --> 01:31:25,440
Thank you for joining us on Whiskey Wanderlust.

1576
01:31:25,440 --> 01:31:30,480
Subscribe to the show on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and all other major

1577
01:31:30,480 --> 01:31:34,160
podcast platforms and be sure to leave us a rating and review.

1578
01:31:34,160 --> 01:31:38,200
Follow us on social media and visit us online at WhiskeyWanderlust.co.