The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys love Whiskey and every thing about the industry! Martin "Super Nash", Jeff "Tiny", Rachel "Roxy" Karl "Whisky" and Chris "CT" all make up The Scotchy Bourbon Boys! Join us in talking everything and anything Whiskey, with the innovators, and distillers around the globe. Go behind the scenes of making great whiskey and learn how some of the best in the whiskey industry make their product! Remember good whiskey means great friends and good times! Go out and Live Your Life Dangerously!
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
A Spirited Journey Through Dogs, Craft Distilling Challenges, and Triumphs with Four Dog Distilling co Owner Jeff Kline
Join us as we uncork the alluring world of craft distilling with the charismatic Jeff Klein from Four Dog Distilling. Settle into our basement studio—a veritable man cave of spirits—where tales of distillery origins flow as freely as the moonshine. Jeff shares the raw and often unspoken challenges faced by craft distillers, from the labyrinth of licensing to the taxing realities of taxation, all punctuated by the camaraderie that only a good pour can foster. Our conversation isn't just about the hurdles; it’s a toast to the shared passion that turns camping trip moonshine into cinnamon whiskey sensations.
Craft distilling is both a science and an art, as our friend and fellow distiller Alan Bishop can attest. Together, we journey through the nuances of flavoring spirits, the consistency of taste, and the legal dance of ingredient inclusion. Your palate will wander through the world of canal-aged whiskey, as we reveal how different climates and aging techniques coax out the most tantalizing flavors in bourbon. Hang on to your tasting glasses as we reminisce about distiller Mike's early adventures and how they've shaped our pursuit of exceptional spirits.
As we wrap up, we're lifting the veil on the economics of the distilling game and pondering the trends that keep the spirits market buzzing. From the unique moonshine flavors emerging from Four Dogs Distilling at 815 East Talmadge Avenue to the grassroots marketing efforts that bind us to bourbon enthusiasts, we're celebrating the personal connections at the heart of the industry. So grab a glass, and let’s share in the warmth of good bourbon, good friends, and the musical homage to whiskey's role in life's most convivial moments.
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https://www.scotchybourbonboys.com
Hey Scotchy Bourbon Boys fans, this is Alan Bishop, Indiana's Alchemist of the Black Forest, so I'm tuning in here today to tell you all about the One Piece at a Time Distilling Institute channel on YouTube. If you're at all interested in the art of distilling whether it be home distilling or professional distilling, and the intense geekery that goes into that process, then check out the One Piece at a Time Distilling Institute on YouTube. I promise you're going to learn something you didn't know before about the arts.
Speaker 2:We'll be right back. We thought what?
Speaker 3:we'd do. We're drinking every brew and we're talking songs, but we're telling the truth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're the Scotch and Bernie boys Raising the hill and making some noise. Yeah, we're the Scotch and Bernie boys. We're here to have fun and we hope you enjoy. We're here to have fun and keep our open doors open.
Speaker 4:We need to have fun. Yeah, alright, alright, all right, all right. Welcome back to another podcast of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys Tonight we are in studio with our guest. We do this every once in a while, but it's not something that is consistent as far as the podcast goes.
Speaker 5:So it's great when people actually no one wants to drive five hours to hang out in your basement Right exactly, especially if they've never met me.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean? Just think about that. How did you sell it? Yeah, we could come down. His podcast is in the basement, he's am I gonna make it out of here? Yeah, well, that's what. That's why we have to drink whiskey, because we're in the basement. But that's where, honestly, where most man caves are in the basement, right? So you got the, the man cave combined with the podcast studios. It's funny on youtube, if you type in the scotchy bourbon boys uh, in the you know for a location, it comes up with this address.
Speaker 5:So it's now official the scotchy bourbon wow, so now everybody knows where you live, and lucky you hey, everybody knew where I lived before, so every I throw this out all the time to our to our 14 uh avid listeners.
Speaker 4:Anytime you're in the area, stop by and have a pour with me. I'm a friendly guy.
Speaker 5:Are you?
Speaker 4:Yes, I am. Anyways, we're here with Four Dog Distilling and Jeff Klein Welcome. Thank you, it's great to have you on the podcast and I've been looking forward to this Because, like we were talking a little bit beforehand last year, when I was at the craft distillery when we were talking about, you said the name of the place yeah, I'm not going to say it right now no, it's not going to come right it just came right to you before.
Speaker 4:But anyways, we were down there and that's when I kind of found out about you guys, but I really didn't know much about you. And Whiskey. Here he's in studio, the background is real folks. This time it's not stripped in, he's actually here.
Speaker 6:So that's kind of cool, that's a way to jump in on it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he does. It's like, oh, he's there, he'll switch to uh woodford reserve, then he's at uh, he's in scotland and he's in ireland sitting in a pool in south africa you never know where I might be with.
Speaker 5:Yeah for a podcast exactly so.
Speaker 4:anyways, uh, that's pretty cool, but uh, he, he met you and uh, that you know, and just how he brought it up, it's like I met them and they want to come down and do it in studio. So that's really kind of that. Thanks for coming down.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I wanted you to try a couple of the things that we have and let's talk about.
Speaker 4:Yeah, for sure. Well, first let's talk about how you guys started your partners. Your wife's a partner yeah, there's four of us.
Speaker 6:I'll tell you that the name came up. There's four of us that are partners. It's my wife and myself, and then our distiller and his wife, mike Chapman and Susan Chapman are the other couple that's part of this, and Susan Chapman are the other couple that's part of this, and it came about during the pandemic we were.
Speaker 6:I have two other businesses I have a fundraising business and then I have a catering business and at that time there was nothing really going on. So while nothing was going on, I was a little bored and we all like to camp together and our distiller, mike, made some pretty mean moonshine and he would bring that out while we were camping and different flavors and we try this and try that. And he and I one day said, hey, why don't we, uh, why don't we look at this and see what we could do to make it a real legitimate business? There weren't a whole lot of distillers here in northeast Ohio, so we said, uh, let's, let's buy a couple of stills and see what we can do. Yep, and so we placed an order and a bunch of paperwork later and going through the learning, what it is for the state license and the federal license to become a distiller Well, that must have been fun. Yeah, it's a great process, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:And then also I mean, you're going into the spirits industry, which is very heavy on taxation.
Speaker 6:That is true, and a lot of the labeling too. That's the thing that really threw us for a curve. We didn't realize how much work had to go in and how much wording had to go in to the labeling that you're putting on every bottle.
Speaker 5:That's why the print's always so fine. That's right, and then Jeff and I can't read it, so it makes it hard.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we call it, the old geezers, when you've got to start reading that. I mean, when I first started five years ago, I could get it in the light and whatever. Now that just looks like blocks of white right there. So no, but yeah, and the label isn't. You know, that's one thing. As you know, when you first start podcasting, you start to learn as much as you possibly can, and when we first started, we pretty much knew almost nothing.
Speaker 2:And we still know nothing.
Speaker 4:Well, we made a lot of common mistakes, but the label is important. Not only is the label important as far as what goes on the label, but it's also in the label is what you're charged. That's how they keep track of how many bottles you make. I mean, it's how many labels you put on bottles. They don't count the bottles. You know what I mean? Right, it's all based off. You order the labels, you know how many bottles and you have to order that many labels specifically, and that's how the government, on all levels, keeps track of what you're making correct?
Speaker 4:yeah, and then yes, and then we report, report, report yep, yeah, and they are very, very, um, organized in this. That is a long time. Uh, you know constant thing that they've evolved over the years to be very specific, so that they very specific I mean you to be very specific so that they. Honestly, I understand why the government does it. If it wasn't for alcohol sales, we would have Another $4 trillion in national debt.
Speaker 5:That's right.
Speaker 4:We would be done. The whiskey is so responsible for our history and us getting through it financially. It's ridiculous, and the one time they decided to not allow us to make it, it put us in the Great Depression.
Speaker 5:I mean, it was just straightforward that Well I know, when I run out of whiskey, I'm in the Great Depression.
Speaker 4:I don't know. I think I have so much lately that I come down here and I can't decide, and that depresses me. It's just like what am I drinking, wait what? Oh, I'm going to have bookers, no bakers, no makers for it. It's just yeah, crazy let's talk about okay. So you guys decided to do this. But you guys love dogs, we do, and it makes your distillery a little bit unique. You know I there's always beers that are named thirsty dog, whatever you get, all that, but you guys, on your four dogs, it's literally your four dogs.
Speaker 6:It's our four dogs. That's that's how this came about. Yeah, there's four of us that are partners and that helped a little bit with the idea of the four. But then we really Mike, our distiller, looked at it and said hey wait, we've got between the four of us. We have four dogs. Angelique and I had two and then Mike and Susan had the other two. Three of those four are labs. There's a story as to if I go in order of the labs, as to how each lab came about, and it's because one fell in love One of the owners fell in love with the other lab owner's dog there and boom, boom, boom ended up with a bunch of them and four dogs distilling, and that's not how you guys met your wives, though.
Speaker 4:No that is not no, no, yeah, yeah there. So, anyways, that's, that's a great story right there, and when you think about it it makes you guys a little bit unique. Do you have plans to take that? You know, because it would make sense. You know dog lovers and I know a lot, a lot of people that have that like drinking bourbon and whiskey, have dogs, yep, and you know, dog people are very unique.
Speaker 4:We got Whiskey here. He loves his dog. I do love my dog. Yes, you do. You can tell you love him, it's a her.
Speaker 5:I meant her, yes.
Speaker 4:And you know, it's Not that there's anything wrong with that?
Speaker 5:It's the new millennium. But yeah, no, it's definitely her.
Speaker 4:She fits your personality very well, I mean in what you do. I mean it's kind of like she wasn't completely. At first you didn't even know what to do with her and then eventually she became like your best friend, right?
Speaker 5:She talks to me more than my wife.
Speaker 4:All day long. I mean when you go over there. It's just so funny. She's very cute, gets excited and friendly. Also like my wife.
Speaker 5:You don't have to worry about any aspects, and they both bark at me on occasion.
Speaker 4:There's a lot of parallels. See, you went right away from the parallel and he went right to it, so I knew you were just.
Speaker 5:It's a good thing, sheila sheila doesn't even know how to get on a podcast. I know.
Speaker 4:So it's like it's a thing, uh, I want to say hi to christy and walker uh, thanks for watching tonight and ed, uh also. Uh, he he's, uh, he does a similar thing. He does. He's a what up, christy, and so it's kind of cool. So we got a lot of people watching and so you do this and you come up with this idea and everything. And let's talk about from when you first started to March of last year, what kind of work and effort had to go into that.
Speaker 6:Well, there was a lot of the building that we were at. We had to redo an entire area of the building that we had just to fit the stills in, to put the electricity in, to get everything ready to go so that the state can come in and take a look at it and make sure that it was okay to run our distillery inside those rooms.
Speaker 6:And then, once we have the okay for that, then you still have to all the equipment that you have to buy, the fermenters or the places that you're going to, holding tanks for everything, the water that you're going to use. I mean, that makes a huge difference as to what you're doing in making any of your spirits. And then what are we going to produce? That was the other thing too. Moonshine was what our distiller did quite a bit that's what he was doing in his spare time. There was, you know, we're tasting and sampling different moonshines. You had to learn how to mix the flavors. You know, today you're going to try our cinnamon whiskey.
Speaker 6:It started out as a moonshine. We had to figure out how to mix those flavors so that not only is it something that we could enjoy, what we thought tasted great, but also then what are we allowed to put in there to make it sellable to the public too? You can't just take the fruit that you would put into it. I'm not going to stuff a bunch of pieces of pineapple inside of one of those bottles and make that work. We want it to be consistent and tasting great all the way across the way.
Speaker 6:So I had to find our special blends.
Speaker 4:I mean, especially when you get it like what you put in those gin baskets and everything and all that.
Speaker 2:Exactly. It's a whole different.
Speaker 4:But I find that just we are good friends with distillers, uh uh, that work at craft distilleries. Alan bishop one, and he started out as a moonshiner. He still will do some home distilling and he believes that to understand distilling legally, having some home distilling experience really, can you know, helps you in understanding flavor, taste, that kind of thing going into it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and it's safest to have that experience, to know what you're putting into a bottle, as to what you're going to go ahead and sell to the public too.
Speaker 4:Okay, so we've got the three. What do you think we should start with Now? I'm lending to the single barrel bourbon I think you should start with Now. I'm lending to the single barrel bourbon.
Speaker 2:I think you should start with that one, because that will keep our glasses clean.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean? Sure, exactly. So you do the honors Whiskey.
Speaker 5:Nice Black dog.
Speaker 4:It's one of the things that you tried this already.
Speaker 5:Right, you did yes.
Speaker 6:You may have tried the barrel number one. They're all single barrels is what the bottles are. So this is barrel number two, this one's 110 proof. Age 64 months.
Speaker 4:Okay, so that is five years, four months, right, that's correct yeah and then a question it's in the neck, poor.
Speaker 4:so I absolutely know. You know there's a lot of distillers that don't believe in it. Okay, and that's because they basically get their whiskey and it doesn't get shipped to. It comes to them but then it doesn't get shipped to another state and then to a warehouse. Then sit on a hot truck and then go to the warehouse, sit in the warehouse, then go to the agency, the liquor store, sit on the shelf on the liquor store, then you purchase it. There's a lot of stuff that happens to that whiskey.
Speaker 5:That sounds like your work day.
Speaker 4:Sounds like it yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, there you go all right.
Speaker 5:so you, you pouring I can I mean I, I have the skill set. So yeah, it's, it's, you want to hand me um mr klein's glass?
Speaker 4:yeah, I'll give you. Let's start off with mr klein. So do you have um any distilling in your, in your background, in your family at all? I did?
Speaker 6:not. That's awesome. No, I did not. Mine was more on the business side of things. Our distiller, mike he definitely had some in his background and he learned the still that he learned off of is sitting in our tasting room right now. Looks like an old five-gallon milk jug with a copper head to it and he said it took hours and hours, and hours to get anything produced out of there.
Speaker 5:Really yeah, that's a nice nose. Thank you, it's head work.
Speaker 4:Vanilla, I get a little black walnut. Okay, so this is five years, five years. So, obviously you're Five years right. Now what kind of investment are you making into that? You know what you're doing with the single barrels. I mean, do you have? Are you aging single barrels at your place at the moment and then bottling?
Speaker 6:them. So we're purchasing them from this bourbon here, them from this bourbon here. We're able to call it a Kentucky straight bourbon because we are sourcing it from a distillery in Kentucky, kentucky. There you go, we are, and they're aging it for the majority of the time, and then we're bringing it back into our warehouse, leaving it in barrels until we're ready to put them into bottles, and then barreling it as or bottling it as needed is what we're doing. So that's why the first one came out, and we're going to keep these all at single barrel. The first one came out at 100. Proof is what we had it at. This one here is at 110. Our distiller is putting it at the flavor that he finds the right flavor as it's coming out of the single barrel.
Speaker 4:So I'm proofing down to where he feels it's the most flavorful, Correct and honestly I'm always for that. There's no doubt because we've talked to many master distillers and they will talk about when they're proofing down. There's a sweet spot and you know, a lot of times the sweet spot might be at 104. Right, and a lot of times they will put it out and they'll take it. They don't put it out at that 104. They like to keep it at close to the fives or the zeros, To put it on a zero Right.
Speaker 6:Actually, this one I think the sweet spot on this one came out exactly at 109. And so we put it on a zero Right. Actually, this one I think the sweet spot on this one came out exactly at 109. Yeah, and so we put it at 110, so that it was at the zeros. Although when we get to the Mountain Dog Whiskey that one is at an odd number. We didn't end that one at the zero.
Speaker 2:This one is Nice A little rye.
Speaker 6:Yep, a little rye heavy on the.
Speaker 4:You said it was 70.
Speaker 6:70% corn, 20% rye, 10% malted barley, so it does give it a little rye, finish it really has nice legs.
Speaker 4:Look at the legs on that, you know. As far as coming down on the side, Well, you know why?
Speaker 5:right, Jeff, it's a pot still. It's a pot still.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 6:That's correct, yeah, mm-hmm.
Speaker 4:Well then that Jeff loves pot, still bourbons.
Speaker 4:I do. I love craft bourbons. I like what craft bourbons bring to the table. I mean there's uniqueness. I've, we've Like the Spirit of French Lick. Then there's another what right now in Ohio, which is Middle West Spirits. They were a really nice craft distillery that really started upping their production and now they just put in a giant, huge I mean Ryan, down there. It's no longer a craft distillery. The size of it, the still that he put in, is bigger than the still that Buffalo Trace doubled up on. Oh, speaking of that, did you ever know that Buffalo Trace has like nine stills, not just two, just two that they show people they doubled it, but in the back they're just producing massive amounts of waste.
Speaker 5:That's where all the Fireball comes from, it's probably they make Fireball, they do.
Speaker 6:Yeah, sazerac makes Fireball right, but it's made at Buffalo Trace. Well, it's one of the many products that they make there. What?
Speaker 5:do you know? Yeah, you can't miss there's actually a dedicated pipe system for Fireball at Buffalo Trace, because they don't want to mix it with the other stuff that they have going there.
Speaker 4:Anyways all right, get back on track. Delicious, I would. On track.
Speaker 5:Is this what you're?
Speaker 4:Do you sell out of your? We sell it out of our distillery.
Speaker 6:And we have five liquor stores that we are in currently.
Speaker 2:Which ones the distillery first off?
Speaker 6:this product here won a gold medal at the Whiskey Radar Festival in St Louis and came back with Best Bourbon under $60. Okay. So, under $60 is what the purchase price is for that.
Speaker 4:So I know I clicked on the link. Who runs that particular? The ABV? Was it the ABV network? I believe that is correct.
Speaker 6:Yeah, because that went to there and I was like okay, yeah, we sent even before that bottle was sent off to St Louis, before we even opened our distillery, before we were able to have the bourbon on our shelves, they were able to test that, taste it and, yeah, came back with a gold medal with it, which was great and the best bourbon under $60. These you can currently find this bourbon under $60. You can currently find this bourbon in the Giant Eagle at the Market District in the Green Union Town area there. Silver Spirits in Akron, Down in the valley, the Lakes Beverage in Portage Lakes.
Speaker 2:You can find it at the Right next door to you.
Speaker 6:That's right. You can find it at the Right next door to you.
Speaker 4:That's right.
Speaker 5:You can find it at the Stowe Giant Eagle.
Speaker 6:It's the Stowe-Hudson border there.
Speaker 2:And then also the Cuyahoga Falls Market.
Speaker 6:District as well, okay.
Speaker 4:Wonderful. I'm just going to say you need to go to the distillery and get a bottle of this.
Speaker 6:It's pretty good. Come by and see us.
Speaker 5:Saturday need to go to the distillery and get a bottle of this.
Speaker 6:It's pretty good, come by and see us. So why don't you do four? I was going to say why don't you tell people where you are, since you have a tasting room? Yeah, absolutely. Um, 815 east talmadge avenue is where our distillery is. It's we've got a great little tasting room, small little tasting room, open noon to four on saturdays uh, fridays, I'm sorry. Monday through friday it's by appointment, is what we do. There's normally somebody that's in there, but we do ask that you give us a call ahead of time on that.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you want to know whether they're going to have to do the spiel or they're just going to work and we run two other businesses out of that property as well, so sometimes we're out running a catering event or a fundraising event. Okay, that's a good flavor.
Speaker 5:That's delicious. Good flavor. This is a nice that's delicious.
Speaker 4:Nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 5:So actually, I guess the only thing I would add to where you're located is you're only about 12 or 14 minutes right off of the Interstate 77.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and it's just off of Route 8 too.
Speaker 4:Yeah, is it industrial like?
Speaker 6:It is industrial like there. Yes, and it eight too, yeah just, is it industrial like? It is industrial like there, yes, um, and it makes you all right across the street from us. So that's one of the reasons that, um, I mean we've got a great building to to be able to put our stills into and to do our production there um great place to to store the bottles.
Speaker 6:As we're bottling the bottles, we're even able to put some of the? Um the barrels that we make up in the warehouse that we have, so that it is getting the hot and the cold, non-climate, controlled warehouse that we have together for some of those barrels, okay, and so that's kind of cool.
Speaker 4:So there's a thing about purchasing barrels out of Kentucky and driving them aged whiskey and then driving it up here that voyage on a semi or a box truck or whatever way you're getting them up, that voyage will mix that whiskey a little bit.
Speaker 3:It sure does.
Speaker 4:We talked a little bit with Luca Mariano because they bottle in Michigan and they basically distill and have been contract distilling before. They built their distillery in Kentucky and they were driving the barrels up and then sometimes we were talking with the blender and she was like sometimes it changes from what you tasted down there to what you get up here and she says most of the time it's for the good, and sometimes you've got to let it age a little bit longer. So that's kind of a cool thing to throw that in there.
Speaker 5:Should we call that like interstate? No, you know, like Jefferson's Ocean.
Speaker 6:I was going to say I see an ocean. It is very similar. It's over there too.
Speaker 4:I would call it you know, what would be really cool is if you could get the canal system working and ship it up the canal on a boat, you know, then you'd have canal-aged whiskey. Not river or not ocean, you'd get canal-aged whiskey. That'd be interesting. Yeah, I wonder if you could do it.
Speaker 6:Now you're going to go build a canal boat and just park it in one of the logs Just leave it, that'll be your tasting room, and then it can move around a little bit too.
Speaker 4:I mean just throw them on in Canal Fulton and you could even have an extra tasting room there. Eventually, right, right, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so anyways eventually Right.
Speaker 4:Right, right, yeah, so anyways, but that's they. People like to talk about that as gimmicks, but it's not so. You take a Kentucky barrel, that's just like, just say, a Jim Beam, and they put it in the risk, rick house, they don't rotate them, it sits there till it's ready. They pull some samples and whatever, and it, and then it gets gets. You pull some samples and whatever, and then it gets ready, or it just becomes one of the millions of barrels that they basically wait and it's ready and they just start dumping for making Jim Beam.
Speaker 3:The special ones.
Speaker 4:But at the same time, when you think about it, you're taking something that normally, once it's ready, they pull it out of the warehouse and they dump it. Once it's ready, they pull it out of the warehouse and they dump it. You know it goes right. You know, maybe you know 20 yards or whatever to where they're bottling up. You know, but you're shipping it and it's moving. You know, just there's no way around it. It's moving and it's getting all that. So one you wouldn't want to want to. You have to let it settle a little bit. Almost every single.
Speaker 4:You know you get it, you roll it in, you put it in place yes you're going to want to let it settle, because that's got to have a ton of stuff mixed in or whatever. But once it settles, it's got it. You know it adds something, and then you're putting it in an ohio climate opposed to the kentucky climate which know humidity and everything matters. So you know, that's really kind of. I know the one, rosewood, who is one of our sponsors, rosewood. Yeah he basically ships it to Texas and then ages it in Texas. It's there for a year in the Texas heat.
Speaker 4:So you know now that you don't want to do a lot of Texas heat. I always find that the Texas bourbons are a little bit more spicy and that Texas heat really, really does a number on it. But bringing it up to Ohio, that's, I think that's a spectacular.
Speaker 6:And I know that even these barrels here while they were in Kentucky, part of their life was indoors in a rickhouse and part of their life was outdoors as well, so it was catching over a year's worth of elements outside of that rickhouse Excellent.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Excellent.
Speaker 4:So now comes the fun part. You guys opened last March, but now that's opened the doors right now. Now, when were you? Is that when you started distilling, or were you just no, we started distilling a little before that. Yeah, so so they do, let you do that. You know, until right that's correct.
Speaker 6:Yes, yes, because we had our license. We just didn't have our light. We had our license to distill, but we did not have all of the the paperwork to be able to open the doors, all of the approvals to have any of the products on the shelf.
Speaker 4:So I love the name Mountain Dog Whiskey Right, and it's a Burmese Mountain Dog right. That's why this is the non-lab.
Speaker 1:Correct, yes.
Speaker 4:So talk about this, and I'm excited to taste it. I mean, I understand that this is what you've been distilling.
Speaker 6:It's. It's British Mountain Dog, and St Bernard Mix is what Brandy is Um and Brandy is that. That's. That's the name of the dog. It's on here. It doesn't say Brandy on any of the labels because Brandy's an already an alcohol. So, but still probably wouldn't want Her name's on the back. Here you can confuse people.
Speaker 6:That's right, and that's why you don't put it on the front of it, but just her name is on there. As to who that is, yeah, we make this in-house. It's a very young whiskey. We're not that old with it. More along the lines of an Irish whiskey is what that would be.
Speaker 4:It kind of gives that the taste. It's got all right color, though. I mean it's picked up the color, that's for sure it's got a great color to it.
Speaker 6:Now when you're there is a little bit of brandy chips that are in there just because of her name, so we do a little brandy chip aging with that as well.
Speaker 5:So what kind of chips are those? Because I know what I call chips.
Speaker 6:Wood chips.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 2:What kind of chips are you talking about?
Speaker 6:Yard chips.
Speaker 4:Yard chips, chocolate chips. I think you're talking more like chocolate chips.
Speaker 5:Well, you know, when the chips are down, they're not down for you very often. Well, that's all good.
Speaker 4:Isn't it, if I can get the cork out. Thanks for doing this whiskey.
Speaker 5:Well, I just think I appreciate it. You struggle with words, I'll struggle with corks, that's close.
Speaker 4:Nice Aaron says ooh, irish whiskey.
Speaker 6:So what is the distilling mash bill that you work with? This is a 100% corn mash bill here.
Speaker 4:Okay, so we're talking about corn.
Speaker 6:It's a corn whiskey.
Speaker 4:Yes, no corn, although I know that. Uh, wow, you know what was the 99 one on the old carter, on that old carter yeah, yeah, that was 99 corn, one percent barley, yeah, this one is 100% corn. So this definitely has that. It's corny too, yes.
Speaker 5:I mean, it's not corn forward, it's corn in a cup, corn in a cup. I wonder if this counts as one of my vegetables for today.
Speaker 4:I get a ton of chocolate too, like a dark chocolate right underneath All over the place. All right, so here we go. Definitely has the the moon, moonshinesque taste, you know, yeah, but the brandy chips.
Speaker 5:I mean it's very smooth it does. It feels a little bit like moonshine on the tongue.
Speaker 4:What's the proof on this?
Speaker 6:This one is, and I'm going to remember here. So this is a 104. Wow.
Speaker 5:You get the sweetness of the corn for sure. I'd like to see what that tastes like in five years sitting there in the house to be honest with you, and we have some put away too. I think it has potential to really develop. There's some candy corn in there there's definitely a young whiskey, candy corn, that's a good one.
Speaker 4:That last one pulled some candy corn.
Speaker 5:The yellow part, or the white part, the orange part. Everyone starts either breaking off the white part or you break off the yellow part. Nobody starts in the orange part.
Speaker 4:No one does. I break off the yellow, I break off the orange I mean the white and then I eat the orange. This is the bulk of the candy corn. So you're like a I break off the orange I mean the white and then I eat the orange the bulk.
Speaker 5:This is the bulk of the candy corn. So you're like a one percenter, you're the one percent of the population.
Speaker 4:I'm one percent in everything.
Speaker 5:Yeah, especially I've seen your report cards.
Speaker 3:Report cards.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm that smart. No, I'm not that smart, I'm really not, I'm not smart, I'm not.
Speaker 5:I am not in the 1%. I wasn't insinuating you were in the top 1%, but I'm going to take it that way because I'm a 1%-er.
Speaker 4:Anyways, yeah, I mean honestly nice. So I'm getting the feeling that Mike knows what he's doing all the way around.
Speaker 6:He does, absolutely. He's got a good palate, he knows what good whiskey should taste like he's.
Speaker 4:He you know, because he, he obviously knows it's a young whiskey but he's produced. So a lot of times when you do this kind, this kind of thing, it's too sweet with the or or too hot, right.
Speaker 5:Right, or it's too much moonshine.
Speaker 4:Or too tangy. Right right, this is a nice balance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jeff would love to mix that and I'm not lying.
Speaker 5:Some Diet Dr. Pepper.
Speaker 4:No, I wouldn't. Where does the diet come in from? I haven't had a diet soda in 30 years.
Speaker 5:You're getting kind of thick. Maybe you should switch.
Speaker 4:The diet soda. In 30 years You're getting kind of thick. Maybe you should switch. The diet soda made me heavier. I don't drink soda, so I don't need to switch.
Speaker 5:You sound defensive about that, jeff, I know.
Speaker 4:No, I would put. You know, if I ever put a mixer, it's either ginger, ale or Coke. How about you? Do you ever do a mixer?
Speaker 6:ever. I like to drink whiskeys and bourbon straight, but a ginger ale if you're going to do it.
Speaker 4:Okay, and then do you like old fashions? Yes, right, not the brandy old fashions from the 70s.
Speaker 6:No, we're talking about these boury old fashions from the 70s.
Speaker 2:No, we're talking about these, the bourbon old fashions from now, absolutely All right.
Speaker 4:So one of the things that that I've noticed lately is that there is, especially with the craft distillers, a kind of a thing that's coming up where it's a little bit hot, where the clear people are kind of being through the moonshine and the clear whiskey and we all know for a long time whiskey. When people talk about whiskey on the frontier, it was clear. It was only until the, the, the, you know the mid 1800s, when they started putting in barrels to ship down to New Orleans.
Speaker 2:New Orleans.
Speaker 4:Did they realize that? That it turned it brown? Right, but before that, if you were a cowboy and you wanted whiskey, now they did put it in barrels when they got it to the bars. That's another thing that would turn it, and along with the shoe polish that they would add. Or the front the bars, you know, that's another thing that would turn it, and along with the shoe polish that they would add, or the spit from the spittoon. So we have a clear, cinnamon flavored whiskey.
Speaker 5:This is Miss May.
Speaker 6:So Miss May is named for all of the moonshines that we do. Originally this was a moonshine. We had it listed as a moonshine and decided that, well, moonshines that we do. Originally this was a moonshine. Uh, we, we had it listed as a moonshine and decided that, um well, moonshine doesn't get any preferential treatment in the liquor stores. It's on the bottom shelf yeah, and it's hard.
Speaker 4:I mean, realistically it's it. Can't you know what's? What's the different? What's the definition of shine? Right right, it's illegally produced. You're legally producing it so that's right. But it's, but at the same time you're. It means that you're producing it off the still and making it taste with um. You use sugar, um in the mash. You know what I mean. A lot of of people and there's it's not just a cereal grain mash. It has you know they'll use sugar to speed up the yeast consumption.
Speaker 5:That's correct. Yes, it's hard to score this because it's so clear. When you're looking down in the kitchen, you don't know what's in there.
Speaker 6:So Miss May and Miss May you asked who Miss May is Miss Dixie May is Mike and Susan's black lab and she again. She's on all the moonshine bottles that we have, and this started as a moonshine. That's why we kept her on the whiskey label for this. Dixie was hanging out with Mike as he was learning how to produce Moonshine on that original still and we wanted to. This is the original name for all of the products that we were going to do with. Four Dogs Distilling was going to. We started out with the Moonshine. We were starting as a Moonshine company and then decided to move into the whiskey and the bourbon and the vodka with it.
Speaker 6:Got to jump on the craze Right right.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. Yeah, Well, put it this way, the skill level of what people like when it comes to, you know, the aging, the maturation and everything that goes along with it. You know, it's funny because when I first went down Fireball.
Speaker 6:Oh no, you hopefully will never drink Fireball again after you try this.
Speaker 5:This is, you know what.
Speaker 4:I only drank it once last year and I'm not going to say it was a horrible experience, but it wasn't something that I ever wanted to do again. So this is not going to say it was a horrible experience, but it wasn't something that I ever wanted to do again.
Speaker 6:So this is not going to give you that syrupy feel when you take this sip.
Speaker 2:This is 90. Proof is where this is at.
Speaker 5:Nice, I smelled it and you know what it reminds me of. Go ahead, those Red Rocks candies, that's right. The little Red Hots, right? Yeah, not the little teeny ones, I'm talking about the round ones.
Speaker 6:Oh, you're talking those. Okay, so we think of the red.
Speaker 4:The red hots, the big round jawbreakers.
Speaker 5:They look like the butterscotch ones. Rocks made cinnamon.
Speaker 4:Yes, it's that one, but also there's the jawbreaker, the whole.
Speaker 6:Those are actually fireballs. I think this one's the little ones. They're actually fireballs.
Speaker 5:I think this one's yeah but that's similar Big red gum. Well, you know that big red freshness lasts right through you, that's how you can do it.
Speaker 4:I don't even I would use this to mask drinking too much whiskey. Well, you could.
Speaker 5:This might be my new mouthwash in the morning. I wouldn't eat it all swallowed.
Speaker 4:I will give you that. It does have a cinnamon flavor. It's like my toothpaste?
Speaker 5:No officer, I just brush my teeth no officer, I just brush my teeth, teeth, teeth, fur. Yeah yeah, I think Fireball serves one purpose it's to be mixed with cream banana rum, interesting. So you know it tastes like a cinnamon roll.
Speaker 6:So if you mix this with our toasted marshmallow and I think we have the ratio back at the distillery you get a cinnamon toast crunch.
Speaker 5:Nice, I love cinnamon toast crunch yeah, what we need to do?
Speaker 4:is we need to do that, okay, and then put cinnamon toast crunch in it.
Speaker 3:That sounds disgusting have.
Speaker 4:CT, do a pie.
Speaker 5:Actually, you know what Super Nash would eat that CT will eat it.
Speaker 4:I mean he just does them one right after another. I mean he put EH Taylor in honeycombs and his friend, and his friend liked it well, I think he said it right so, um, yeah, that's that. Getting back to that, okay, I mean jim beam is my favorite salad dressing so so a purpose, let's just eat that green stuff so you've got your sippers, you've got your whiskey.
Speaker 4:You know, like, if, if you want to have, so I always, uh, when it comes to whiskey, there's those levels of different types. You got the ones that you want to sip or sip, enjoy. You're not, you're just looking to relax and that.
Speaker 4:And then you've got the whiskey that you're drinking and you're having fun with your friends and maybe you're doing your fantasy baseball draft kind of thing. You're drinking it, right, and I think that the second one, the second one especially if you like moonshine, you know what I mean. Now I look forward to, as your stuff keeps aging, aging.
Speaker 4:I look forward to as your stuff keeps aging, aging, and it I, I for a moonshine, or you know the cinnamon whiskey. And then what you're dealing with with your whiskey, your young whiskey I get, I we all know it's young, but I still get you've. You're putting the quality of the spirit in the bottle so as it ages through maturation. Now, what barrel company do you use to get the barrels for maturing your whiskey?
Speaker 6:So right now our whiskey barrels are coming as used barrels from all over the place.
Speaker 4:So you're putting, okay, the whiskey barrels. Now you're obviously making bourbon, right? We're not yet.
Speaker 6:We're not set so far. We're just sourcing the bourbon. Okay, so you haven't been putting the whiskey in the new charred oak barrels yet. No, we have not started that bourbon process yet.
Speaker 5:You know, I usually shy away from flavored things, and cinnamon in particular. We will you do, but this is shy away from flavored things, and cinnamon in particular.
Speaker 3:We will, you do.
Speaker 5:This is good. I mean that's a really. I mean that's a nice product. I really want to meet Mike. Oh, we can arrange that yeah. We'll have Mike down to the basement.
Speaker 4:Mike will come down to the basement. You're not going to let me leave here, are you? You're just trying to keep me down here. Well, dude, that's where you deserve to be. It's where I need to be, not deserve to be. It's funny because, um, you know, you do a podcast and you guys are distillers. So you, you, you gotta really watch your consumption. It's what you try to do the best, you know the most, right, right, just keep watching the consumption. And it's kind of like there's days where I want to put three, four days.
Speaker 4:So, Thursday is when I, so Tuesday and Thursday is almost always guaranteed to have whiskey. So Friday, saturday, sunday, Monday, so you can put four days of no whiskey, but at the same time I try and do that like once a month, you know, but coming down so he gets his four-day chip no the worst.
Speaker 4:the worst the worst is is if you have a little bit of a cold going right and my wife, my wife works, um, she's a midwife, so she works with young mothers and everything. So it's always running around, you know, coughs, colds, everything, and I'll be, she'll be like, and I'm just like I gotta have a pour before bed. The four day thing is over. Just, and it works. Honestly, it definitely works. So cheers to you. Yeah, absolutely, that was wonderful.
Speaker 5:Thank you. I was a little apprehensive when you said you brought a cinnamon with you.
Speaker 6:That's right, because you poured a small little pour. I did pour a small little pour. Did you get more?
Speaker 5:No, I didn't get more, because it's sitting right there. I can get more if I'd like more. Would you like some more?
Speaker 4:I will have to say I like the amount of cinnamon, yeah, so that's the thing.
Speaker 5:It's not overbearing, it's not like a lot of the cinnamon stuff that's out there, including one of the big brands, right it, literally I feel like I finished. I can never suck on those little Brock cinnamon candies all the way to the end. You know, it's like you get five minutes in and then you're crunching on it and now you feel like you did it and, yeah, I feel like I crunched it, swallowed it, and it's like five minutes in and then you're crunching on it and now you feel like you did it and, yeah, I feel like I crunched it, swallowed it, and it's like five minutes after.
Speaker 4:Or you just took a whole handful of the little ones and just like yep, Red hot those red hots, yes, just chowdy yeah, no, that's tasty. Yeah, definitely so. Do you have a website? Yeah, we do.
Speaker 6:So let's talk about how people can find you. Www.4dogsdistillingcom is the website Again. 815 East Talmadge Avenue in Akron is where our distillery is. Come on over and see us and taste one of the things that we have. I think we've got right now. Lemon and toasted marshmallow are the two flavored moonshines that we're carrying Right now. Lemon and toasted marshmallow are the two flavored moonshines that we're carrying. I think in a couple of weeks we come out with a new one that's called Leprechaun P.
Speaker 2:Nice Is there a P to it, yeah.
Speaker 6:Leprechaun, Leprechaun P. Yeah, it will actually. That one is the one that will actually have a color to it. It will be green. It's coming out for the Irish Fest. It's coming out for the Irish Fest in Cuyahoga Falls. It tastes pretty close to maybe a shake that you get somewhere at one of the big which you can't say but yeah, Places there that, yeah. Yeah, well, okay, so it's a minty fresh, and then over the Christmas in July holiday we're going to bring back our candy cane moonshine. That was a hit.
Speaker 4:We made 102 bottles in December and every one of them gone, so okay. So, just because we've got a couple more minutes, let's so. Market aspects Okay, so you're talking about selling out your candy cane, moonshine. There's two different levels of market. There's the bourbon connoisseur, who likes sipping and whatnot, which is like all the small batches, the single barrels, that type of thing. Then there's your standard, uh, drinking bourbon. And then the moonshine, which is probably you know. When it comes to market share, uh, you know, they the whole thing of whiskey went from 12 to like 14, 15 percent of. So does moonshine then fall into like closer to what's happening with vodkas and the gins? And what does your vodkas and gins do as far as selling? Do they sell at a clip? Pretty good, are you moving those compared to your whiskeys, because of the fact that marketplace is a lot bigger?
Speaker 6:The vodkas. The vodka was there because we started with the vodka, because it's one thing that you can make right away. Again, these are all you put it in a bottle and you can sell it.
Speaker 4:That's correct, and you can be very productive as far as producing the amount.
Speaker 6:People don't care.
Speaker 4:They want it to not taste. That's correct.
Speaker 6:And our vodka at the beginning want it to not taste. That's correct. And our vodka at the beginning it was very good. It was going because a brand new distillery going out the door, the moonshines and the whiskeys and the bourbon are doing much better than the vodka and the gin right now, just because that's the hot items and really the moonshines are really hot items. People like the flavored moonshines.
Speaker 4:Right now it's on the fad up, so you're familiar with the limestone branch which makes the limestone.
Speaker 6:Yes, absolutely, when they first started.
Speaker 4:They did it the same way. They had moonshines. And in 2019, me and my wife went to Kentucky Bourbon Festival and we visited the distillery. Wife went to Kentucky Bourbon Festival and we visited the distillery. And when we took the tour, they were just cutting off the moonshines because their bourbon and Yellowstone was taking off. They were distilling in Louisville the Yellowstone brand.
Speaker 5:They had laid up enough product that they could get there to supply.
Speaker 4:They had their barrels and whatever, and they were aging 15 gallon barrels out in the back in containers.
Speaker 6:In containers.
Speaker 4:I visited the place as well, yeah but there was people, when they cut that moonshine off that lost their shit. They just lost it because they were calling up, because they loved that moonshine. And people, you know the whiskey people, you know that especially, you know that love to sip and you know that high-end whiskey. They don't always understand that. That's a little bit the whiskey marketplace. And then there's 90% that just love Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, percent that just love jack daniels, jim beam. Right, you know they, they don't quite get how much more of that is served compared to those small batches.
Speaker 4:And you know the, the, you know single barrels and everything that goes out but at the same time, we all we, as how we appreciate it love that part of the market.
Speaker 6:so we we started as a really as a moonshine company. That's how we appreciate it, love that part of the market. So we started really as a moonshine company. That's how we were going to start this. It was only going to be a moonshine company, but we also realized that you can't just do that too. You need the whiskey and the bourbon market as well to be in there. So our moonshines won't go away and we keep experimenting. You want to keep experimenting with them all the time. We keep experimenting with new flavors. I mean, we have that one still that's just dedicated to making moonshine.
Speaker 4:And I understand that there's no doubt, but seriously, a good distiller when they get into those whiskeys and that starts to take off, that's where you just Because the price point's different, right.
Speaker 5:I mean the economics are different. Yes, I mean, it's hard to get $50, $75, $100 out of a bottle of moonshine. You're not going to do it. No, but you know, if you produce an amazing bourbon and it gets some legs, you can right, you can have a 90 bottle.
Speaker 4:That can't, that just won't stay on the shelf, and if you get through those four or five years and you've, then moonshine's powering you, there's no doubt. But once you hit that and you're all of a sudden, you're making instead of 20 bottles of moonshine, how much is your?
Speaker 6:moonshine it's uh the, the flavored moonshine is 34.95 okay, so instead of that, you're selling them.
Speaker 4:You're consistently selling the 70 it makes and you get through that.
Speaker 5:That's where limestone branch was you're sure, it just makes sense. You know, 60 or the, I call it bourbonomics yeah, or just distilling up anomics there.
Speaker 4:There you go that doesn't flow, that sucked actually Distilling-onomics, distilling-onomics.
Speaker 2:Yeah bourbonomics.
Speaker 5:Like economics, it flows. Just stick with mine. It's better.
Speaker 4:Distilling-onomics yeah but you're leaving vodka out of it. Screw vodka.
Speaker 5:I don't drink that. I didn't say that.
Speaker 4:But, there's a lot of girls that go to Taylor Swift concerts that drink vodka Because they don't want to taste it.
Speaker 6:We made a cucumber vodka. That's really really good as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I did see that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the cucumber vodka, you know cucumbers are always popular with the ladies.
Speaker 6:It's a very good martini.
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely yeah, that's what I meant.
Speaker 4:So Greg Schneider, the master distiller of chicken cock whiskey says cheers, and then also Terry Dant who is part of the Dant family, that is Log Still Distillery, said great podcast.
Speaker 5:He enjoyed the content, so I have a question, and actually this is one I had saved up. I actually thought of it ahead of time. So you know, jeff, we have a lot of people on the podcast that are the master distillers at Heaven Hill or Buffalo Trace, sure, and they have no idea what it's like to try and start a brand. I mean, can you tell us a little bit about what that was to go from zero I mean less than zero, really, because of the paperwork.
Speaker 6:And it still is.
Speaker 5:And then you have to pick a name, and then you have to start marketing, and then you have to do merchandise and you're still very early in and how, and you're still very early in your journey very early in the journey but, but we have the dog that's the dog aspect which is real helped absolutely yes and have the dogs tried to renegotiate their contracts because now that it's gaining some popularity, they need more endorsement dollars.
Speaker 6:Yeah, the one, my lab right here, that's on the Black Dog bourbon there just needed a trip and we just had to bring her home from a little vacation the last week.
Speaker 3:But you know no.
Speaker 2:The struggle is real right.
Speaker 5:Yes, and bourbon is one of the worst investments you can make, because you pile cash into the business and if you want to sell a five-year product, you got nothing coming back for five for five years.
Speaker 4:That's kind of like buying a baseball team or getting married.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah will you buy a baseball?
Speaker 4:team. It's like at first. It's like you know, I've watched owners own baseball teams and that until you sell it, you know that's money, yeah, yeah but that's where you know You're losing money all the time. Yeah, but that's where you make all the money and it's the same thing. Yeah, not that you have to sell the distillery. No, no, but you have to get through those years.
Speaker 6:And that's where the moonshine. It's talking about the product all the time. Is it working?
Speaker 5:Yes, yeah, so you're making a living, you're still bleeding money and that type of thing, but you get enough out of it so that you can For people that are sitting at home. And, as a matter of fact, one of the brands out there was three guys watching football and said, hey, we should do this. And of course they hit the lottery because when they sold they made a ton of money. But I don't think people appreciate and I don't think we've ever had anybody on that really talked about just that whole.
Speaker 6:How do you know, how do you get from the sofa to having a room with a still in it, to creating a bottle and then getting it into the marketplace. That struggle it is real. It's the just trying to even just getting the bottle. For a while, when we again we started during the whole pandemic, the bottle we couldn't even find bottles at the time and we talked to other distillers and learned that, yeah, you better choose a bottle that you know that there's going to be a lot of, because you know you've got weird bottle shapes that are all around this place here. For a while you couldn't find those bottle shapes just because of the shortage.
Speaker 5:Yeah, there was a glass shortage, the real supply chain shortage.
Speaker 6:That was there. So there was that struggle of figuring out which one we're going to do and who's going to work with you and who's got the best price on bottles and labels and how do you do the labels and putting it all together, and a lot of it was just us saying this is what we want to do and we did the work with it. It's us going out and just talking to people about who we are and what our brand is and getting people to know who we are. Come into our distillery, try our stuff, go out to festivals. Be down at the whiskey festival that was down there in Columbus. We're not even in the market in Columbus yet.
Speaker 1:Right, we're not ready to be in the market in Columbus yet.
Speaker 6:No, no, that was one thing, but we still wanted to be there to push our name out there and to get into as many of those tastings as uh as we can. That's what you okay.
Speaker 4:So, um, shelf space on on, you know, at the liquor store when somebody comes in and meets you at your distillery and then they taste your stuff. So when they walk into the liquor store the next time and they see your stuff there and they're trying to make a decision, the recognition and then the connection to the people making that there's a lot of good whiskey on those shelves and there's a lot of whiskey on those shelves. But in the state of Ohio, if you don't do the work and the work is one do podcasts like this and get the word out Absolutely. Work is one do podcasts like this and get the word out Absolutely. And then two, make sure that you go around to the liquor stores. You can do bottle signings, you can have your distiller there talking about it. Be there when you can Sometimes.
Speaker 6:It depends on where it's at. But yes, you're right you have to basically do that.
Speaker 4:You know, boots on the ground.
Speaker 6:That's what it is yes, Go in and do tastings at the liquor stores.
Speaker 4:Even Jim Beam knows boots on the ground means something.
Speaker 4:Yes, you know, Booker started it, fred, and Freddie still does it. You want it? Same thing, wild Turkey. You'll see Bruce now, the grandson of Jimmy Russell. He's all over the place doing boots on the ground, because that's very important. You know even Greg Schneider of Chicken Cock Whiskey. He came up here. I walked, I went on a tour of the different places. He went up to a golf place up in Cleveland you know they do the and he was basically selling cases of the stuff to the bar. And then you know, and if you don't do that, it just it doesn't sell. It's a lot of hard work.
Speaker 6:That's right. You do have to, you have to be out, you have to talk to the people. Yeah, and the fun thing and the interesting thing is that people want to come to the distillery too, which is great. We love having people come into the distillery. People that know that we're in liquor stores still want to come to the distillery and see us, and that's nice about being small and being craft.
Speaker 5:It's that barrel weave wall. That part of the wall yeah, that's really cool, they really do, yeah, I saw it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that really was a piece of work. It's great. But yeah, they want to come in and talk to us and talk to the distiller and see where the stills are. And even if they've been in there two and three times, they still want to come back there and do it. And we have to remind people that you can just run down to the liquor store and go get it right there.
Speaker 4:But just remember, the whole aspect of whiskey as a whole is friendship, yes, and sharing. Even what you were doing to start this, you were sharing moonshine. You know he was making moonshine while you were camping. Those are experiences. It's part of experiences that it the the almost sometimes the whiskey is secondary to the event. Yeah, but it becomes part of the event and that's why I that's what I love about the industry meeting people, making friends. Before this, before we started doing this, I had just a couple of friends. I was in my own little friends no I have a couple of friends.
Speaker 4:One of my friends who called me tonight. I remember the day he was born my mom was friends with his mom and I remember I was like six and I remember they told us you know that he was, you know so and we've been friends our whole lives so and best friends so that's kind of you know, but not a lot of people like that. But when I got into this I'd say I have at least 12 friends I call family and then about another 20 people who are just really good friends and that's something that I just that's where.
Speaker 6:All because we're sharing a drink. Yes, yes.
Speaker 4:And we all still, when we get together, we have pours, we talk about it, but then experiences you know we go to Kentucky, we go to. You know I'm going to be going down tomorrow to Indiana for a barrel pick with the state of Ohio and then this weekend I'm going down to Pennsylvania. Stolen Wolf down there they're doing teaching veterans how to distill there, and Super Nash who comes on the podcast and whatever, and he's going to be there. So I'm going to go down there Saturday and then stay over. So I'm going to visit it Saturday and Sunday night. So, and it's Moonshiners oh my god, I had it already Saturday and Sunday night. So you know, and it's moonshiners. What's? Oh my God, I had it already. Anyways, it's the people who are presenter. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4:OK, wait, I got it. I'm trying to remember her name, or it's not coming to me. It's funny because I forgot it earlier and then I remembered what her name and then now it's forgotten again. But JJ, who has been on Moonshiners, and then also Alan Bishop from now Old Homestead in Indiana, formerly of Spirit of French Lake. He's going to be there and they're going to teach. They're just going to go from mash, you know know cooking, then fermenting, and you know the whole thing thursday, friday, saturday, and finish up sunday, to barreling, very nice, so they're doing a whole you know thing. So, uh, that's all part of it, right, yeah?
Speaker 5:and then it's a community and, uh, it's an interesting community because, uh, the bourbon community is probably some of the most friendly people I've ever met. Uh, and you know I get to put my toes in the water in a lot of different places, um, but you know as tiny was saying, you know it's, we've had some pretty wild experiences, stuff that most people are like, wow, that sounds amazing and it's like, yeah, it was okay, but doing cannonballs into some wacky woman's pool.
Speaker 4:I was thinking the same thing.
Speaker 5:Were you really.
Speaker 3:That whole experience was it was what we will talk about that.
Speaker 4:I will suffer from PTSD and then also talk about how awesome it was all at the same time.
Speaker 5:Absolutely yeah, we had an Airbnb that kind of went sideways. A little too much bourbon, no, no, a little too much owner.
Speaker 4:Yeah, whatever it was, it still was a great time. We were having a great time, but just got really really weird.
Speaker 5:It did it involved involved cleaning supplies oh yeah, let's not get into that. Let's go back to. Let's go back to four dogs. How about that?
Speaker 5:there's a novel thought all right right so I I'll tell you, uh, the the cinnamon, the cinnamon, if you, if you're, if you're gonna stop by and you're going to say hi to Jeff, you've got to try the cinnamon. It's really, it's pretty, it's actually good. And I don't really don't really don't like flavored stuff. And the Black Dog is a bottle I think a lot of people should probably pick up For under $60,.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of flavor, that's a lot of bourbon flavor for under $60,.
Speaker 5:that's a lot of flavor. That's a lot of bourbon flavor for under $60. When you walk into the shelves nowadays and you have your 400 selections to choose from, and the great thing about coming to the tasting room is they can try a little sip before they buy it.
Speaker 4:Are you talking about the cinnamon whiskey? No, no. Black Dog, no Mountain.
Speaker 5:Dog, no, mountain Dog's the cinnamon whiskey. No, no, black Dog. Mountain Dog, no Mountain Dog's the corn whiskey.
Speaker 4:Okay, and then?
Speaker 2:the.
Speaker 4:Black.
Speaker 5:Dog you're talking about?
Speaker 4:Okay, all right, yes, the single barrel.
Speaker 5:Okay, I think the single barrel. I mean, I think people would buy that and take it home and say, hey, man, you should try the single barrel.
Speaker 4:I think that's right on all levels. You got a good thing right there.
Speaker 2:I would say I would strongly suggest to go and go get it. There's no doubt it's a bottle you want to have.
Speaker 5:You know, yeah, it's a little different. So you know, we certainly get to try a lot of whiskey. To me it's that creamy caramel kind of flavor, but then you do get a punch of rye on the finish, that's. That's not overwhelming, it's not overbearing. There's a lot of people that don't really like a lot of rye spice in their, in their bourbon.
Speaker 6:So for those that, don't like in two months. I think we're releasing our weeded spice, or the weeded bourbon is worth Really, I think that is in July. I think is when we get to release that one, and that's going to be coincided with a holiday in July, fourth of July, oh, so that's going to be your Fourth of July in wheat?
Speaker 5:Yeah, ember, waves of grain is that what it is? Yeah, that's right, yeah you're going to play the song in the tasting room that would be good.
Speaker 6:Thanks for the marketing. Yeah, there you go, that's what I do.
Speaker 5:You can look at me and just say, hey, man, that guy's all about marketing.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:I get that a lot. I'm sure Never no. But you know, actually that would make a pretty mean old-fashioned.
Speaker 6:This does make a nice old-fashioned.
Speaker 5:Yeah, with uh, with the, the proof being where it is, it'll hold up. Um, that's that actually tiny. Introduced me to make it an old-fashioned with some rise, because I really don't usually appreciate a lot of rise. Um and uh and that, that little bit of spiciness. I think I would enjoy that more than throw in a you know a name brand rye in my glass Sure.
Speaker 4:Well, and then also, I always find that, even though we even did a podcast on it, if you use a better bourbon for your old fashioned, it does make a difference.
Speaker 5:It tastes better People don't realize that you know people are like well, if you're going to make an old fashioned, just use this.
Speaker 4:You know, use that, use the well. You know people are like, well, if you're going to make an old-fashioned, just use this. You know, use that, use the well. But, but honestly, you make it with a better bourbon.
Speaker 5:It's it's a better tasting.
Speaker 4:Yeah, shocking yeah, yep so all right, anything else you want to add? Jeff, I'm great, you're great, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me no, thanks for coming down. Yeah, well, when you release that we didn't you?
Speaker 5:cross the chinese. You cross the Chinese wall at the county line Right.
Speaker 4:All right, everybody.
Speaker 5:Wwwscotchiebourbonboyscom for all things Scotchie, all your Scotchie Bourbon Boy needs.
Speaker 4:And also make sure you check us out on.
Speaker 5:Facebook, youtube, all your major podcast formats, instagram and X Yep, and occasionally on TikTok, but not so much anymore. Those people are paying.
Speaker 4:No, not occasionally. I got on a TikTok. Once you know I'm not into the Chinese thing. That was for a while I did TikTok, but Okay, yeah, okay yeah and then also, um, remember good bourbon equals good friends and good times.
Speaker 5:Uh, drink responsibly. Don't drink and drive and go out and live your life dangerously little steve-o is gonna take us out, I hit it. Where'd it go? There we go. Everyone needs a little oompa Ah.
Speaker 3:Oh, show me the way to the next whiskey bar, oh, don't ask why. Oh, don't ask why. Oh don't ask why. Show me the way To the next whiskey bar, oh, don't ask why. Oh, don't ask why. For if we don't find the next whiskey bar, I tell you we must die. For if we don't find the next whiskey bar, I tell you we must die. I tell you we must die. I tell you, I tell you, I tell you we must die.
Speaker 5:Peace.
