How Drew Thorn Builds 10 To 14 Year Whiskey & Blends SilverThorn

We sit down with Drew Thorn of Silverthorn Reserve to trace his path from brewing and engineering into building whiskey brands, then we taste through his new lineup with a blender’s eye for detail. Along the way, we get a rare look at how older sourced barrels become small-batch, cask strength releases through careful selection, marrying time, and controlled finishing.

• Drew’s journey from craft beer to distilling leadership 
• Why Silverthorn stays independent while still working with Sagamore for storage and processing 
• What it means to source whiskey as an NDP and why 10 to 14 year barrels are still competitive 
• Blue label bourbon blend breakdown and how “build a base then flavor it” works 
• Returning blends to casks to let flavors marry before bottling 
• Port-finished rye process and the CO2 pressurised mist-conditioning method 
• Rye blend designed to welcome bourbon drinkers without losing rye character 
• Single barrel selection philosophy and logging a sensory library 
• Core portfolio plans, limited drops, and slow growth to protect quality 
• Where to buy, which states can ship, and how to try bottles locally

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A lot of brands talk about “blending” like it’s just mixing. We wanted the real thing, so we brought on Drew Thorn from Silverthorn Reserve to explain what actually happens when you build whiskey on purpose, barrel by barrel, with nothing to hide. Drew’s background spans brewing, engineering, and leading a major rye operation, and he’s now back in startup mode crafting small batch, cask strength whiskey with a tight focus on older barrels and precision finishing.

We dig into how Silverthorn works as an independent, sourced-whiskey producer while still using Sagamore’s aging barns for maturation and blending support, and why today’s whiskey market is shifting in a way that matters if you care about 10 to 14 year bourbon and rye. Drew breaks down his “build a base then flavor it” approach, how he selects barrels for specific roles in a blend, and why he often returns a finished blend back into the same casks to let it marry before bottling. If you’ve ever wondered why some blends taste stitched together while others feel seamless, this is the missing piece.

Then we taste. You’ll hear the full story behind the blue label bourbon blend, a port-finished rye that uses a custom barrel-conditioning method, and a rye blend designed to keep the classic rye identity while dialing back harsh pepper notes. We also talk single barrel picks, sensory logging, and how a small producer can scale without breaking the quality promise that got people excited in the first place.

If you like deep nerdy whiskey talk with practical takeaways you can taste, hit subscribe, share this with your whiskey group, and leave us a review where you listen. What’s your favorite finish or rye note right now?

voice over Whiskey Thief

If You Have Gohsts

Transcript

Opening And Sponsor Read

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Middlewest spirits were in 2008 for focusing on elevating the distinct flavors of the Ohio River Valley. Their spirits honor their roots and reflect their originality as makers, their integrity as producers, and their passion for crafting spirits from grain to glass. Their Michelone reserve line reflects their story from the start to the bottle to your glass with unique wheated and rye bourbons and also rye and wheat whiskeys. The Michelin brand is easy to stick. It might be a grain to glass experience, but I like to think of it as uncut and unfiltered from their family to yours. Big podcast tonight. We have Drew Thorne from Silver Thorne joining us. Welcome, Drew Drew. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here. And we also have CT in the house tonight. You know, you could talk for the audio.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

I just I'm just I'm gonna let Drew do it. I'm gonna let him. I didn't want to, you know, I'm gonna put Drew introduce himself and we'll just pause.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

You were just pointing like that girl basketball player the other night.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Oh yeah, that's uh what you yeah. Yeah, dude, that girl is bad. I wouldn't mess with that girl.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Nope.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

So Sophia, is it Sophia, whatever her name is? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Yeah, that was interesting.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Any legit.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

So, anyways, speaking of legit, we're here. I mean, honestly, Drew, one of the things that uh, you know, your journey is I think a lot of people want to know

Meet Drew Thorne And His Path

SPEAKER_00 2:55

your journey of how you got here. And, you know, you you were at one brand and then you're you came to this brand. And, you know, when you read about it, you're very, what would you say, on this brand, you're super focused on just the whole product and what's going in and and and the blends and everything that you're doing and how you're blending. And just, you know, maybe for everybody, talk about how you started beforehand, before it all, and what got you into whiskey, and then how it evolved to to where we are tonight.

SPEAKER_06 3:30

Yeah, no, absolutely. So I think I I started in in alcohol production and and and product development, honestly, probably a little before I should have, but but it was uh back in college, I I started brewing. And so I was I was kind of in the first wave of of craft beer back in the mid-90s and really enjoyed this as a hobby. I was a chemical engineering major at the time, and it this was a way to both use my science background and as a creative outlet, and I just really enjoyed it. So I I took that to a quasi-pro level and and got hired as a brewer at a a brew pub in in Maryland where I lived, and did that for a couple of years and and really just got my feet wet, literally. There's a lot a lot of a lot of cleaning out mash tons and scooping spent grain and and cleaning kegs and and and that basic level, but I loved it and pursued it further. And after I finished school, I I ultimately took a role with Flying Dog Brewery, and they were Denver-based, and they were in the process of relocating to a new facility they had acquired in Maryland, which was good timing for me. So I joined with them back in, I think it was 2006, and was with them for almost a decade, about nine years. And at that point, after, you know, I was in kind of senior management there, and I was offered a role with this new startup. It was going to be the the biggest, not quite the first, but the the the largest distilling operation in Maryland at the time. And I was pretty excited about it. So I, you know, I worked with that team. I came in, kind of, it was it was a big shift. So I went from a larger national brewery operation to a startup with three people working up business plans and spreadsheets and and getting started on construction and and those things. From there, this was Sagamore Spirit at the time. Uh it was October 2015, and the distillery hadn't been built yet, construction hadn't even started. It was it was really ground floor opportunity. And I loved it. I I jumped right in from there. We set up a small skeleton team, built the distillery in Baltimore City, commissioned the distillery, and and started distilling in April 2017. So it was about a two-year process, an 18-month process to build the distillery and and actually commission it and start distilling. From there, we we grew pretty rapidly. I my role at the time, I was overseeing all of the production operations. We added to the team, did that initial scaling process in a pretty measured way. Like quality came first always, and so we didn't want to outscale our ability to maintain quality. So we we took our time in the in the first year of production for sure. But yeah, it was a great opportunity to really take everything that's transferable from brewing into whiskey and start our brand from scratch, take that brand national and then ultimately international. And I was there for almost a decade and ultimately was the CEO. And and then they the owner decided they wanted to sell the distillery, which I helped facilitate. The new owners are uh amazing. They like it's kind of what you dream of when you sell your baby, is that it will be be left to carry on as it had. So like the whole team was kept in place. There's the the very little changes, if any, and and really they just came in with a very supportive mindset. So but at that point, I had gotten to a stage where I was I was kind of ready for my next chapter. I I'd been about 10 years in, seen it from startup to to international, grew it from three people to 90 plus, and decided I was I was ready for my next chapter. And that that was Silverthorn Reserve, which very exciting to say is is off to a great start uh very early in. Like we've only been on the market for six months, but I'm I'm very pleased with how the whiskeys are turning out, the the reception, and really kind of stepping back into those early days where it's we're we're a couple person operation and we're we're looking to grow something new.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Real quick question uh Greg Snyder commented, ask him if he knows Jim Moorhead. I do know Jim Moorhead. He's great Greg commented here, and I'm sure he'll he'll come on later, but he he was a good friend, dear friend in the industry. And that uh I think the founder he said something about was of Under Armour or something, so but asked if you know him. So yes, Greg he knows him. And so your barrels now, the the product that you got, are you working with Sagamore on your product or anything at all? Are you are you partnering with them to help your brand or are you separate completely?

SPEAKER_06 9:23

Well, from uh it it's a answer is almost yes to both of those. So as an entity, I'm completely separate from from Sagamore, completely independent businesses, product lines, separate companies. But I do still work with Sagamore. So I I still have a great relationship with everyone there. I have a long-term storage arrangement where my aging barrels are I'm storing at Sagamore Aging Barns. And so I I run my all of my maturation out of their aging barns, and then I do work with them

Leaving Sagamore And Starting Silverthorne

SPEAKER_06 10:00

for some blending and processing activities as well. Okay. But my my DSP is housed at a separate distillery, which is where I do the final blending and bottling and shipment. And that's out of the old line spirits in in Baltimore City as well. So I'm dueling across a couple of locations.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

So are you just are you distilling new spirits or is it just completely blending already aged whiskey?

SPEAKER_06 10:35

No, no distillation. So it is, we are an NDP, we're sourcing from across the country. I was fortunate enough to develop a lot of relationships over the decade. And so we are able to work directly with a lot of distilleries around the country. And so sourcing everything, really, the you know, you'll see our products uh we're the the space we like to be in is this like 10 to 14 year old whiskeys that we're working with. So most of our products are either age-faded 10 or above, or are 10 with older whiskeys blended in. And so that's all coming from other distilleries.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

So the two years that all of a sudden, these last two years where a lot of stuff

Sourcing Older Whiskey In A New Market

SPEAKER_00 11:30

has changed, have been very obviously this should have been, it's almost like you know, everything that I know about that market that you're dealing in is like all the barrel. There's a lot of whiskey on the market, there's a lot of reduction in prices. So that's been probably decently like when you wrote the business plan for this. It probably you weren't, I don't, were you counting on the industry like slowing up as it is, where there would be instead of there wasn't a lot of aged whiskey, you know, just three, four years ago, there wasn't a lot of aged whiskey on the market. And now three, four later years later, there's a lot of aged whiskey on the market. You know, and I I I guess I I would say that technology and everything, and how much of the production and all the stuff that's happened, it's happened pretty quick, of a lot quicker than I thought it would. Even, you know, you it could happen quick, but what I what I thought would be quick isn't what as quick as it happened. I mean, how fast it happened. So has that been kind of beneficial for you as far as to obtain stuff to make better blends and better, you know, can like you said, you're dealing with those, you know, 12, 14-year-old whiskeys. And that's a lot of times what I found that and the, you know, people who are blending, they were doing six, seven-year-old whiskey, and for the same price, they're pulling off a lot of the older whiskey and able to produce something a little bit not, I don't know if it's always better, but they're for they're able to do exactly what they want by using some aged whiskey.

SPEAKER_06 13:16

Yeah, so I I think certainly the environment for what I'm doing is better now than it would have been three years ago. I will say that within within this, what I would say is a bit of a recalibration of the market. So it it had gotten a little exuberant, uh, and I I think it has now corrected that somewhat. But within what I'm doing, there's a lot of this the glut in whiskey isn't a glut in 10-year to 14-year-old whiskey. That's still something that while it's a little less come down a little in price, it hasn't come down that much, and there isn't a ton of it out there. That still moves quite quickly. Where you see a, I think, a more of a stalling and higher quantity of whiskey is in the five to seven-year-old range. And it and it's really, I think the the whiskeys that were getting laid down pre-COVID and during COVID exuberance uh at the larger distilleries, they they really, I think, were producing all out. And as that period of exuberance calmed a bit, they they found themselves with a bit of a surplus. So it remains to be seen whether that seven-year-old surplus can resolve itself before it turns 10. And and in three years, there may be more 10-year whiskey on the market, or it the market may clear in the next year or two, and 10-year plus whiskey remains hard to hard to acquire.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Okay. So so let's go through like of your of your lineup, because like you said, you have 10-year minimum. That's that's the minimum product that you have. But let's let's start with what bottle do you want to start with, and let's talk about it and kind of talk about how that comes about. Because I know the blue label, which is the bourbon bourbon, that original bottle that you came out with a few months ago was not the same blend, correct?

SPEAKER_06 15:36

The original blue label?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:39

Yeah. So there was there was a a limited release that we came out initially back in the very beginning of the year, which was a boo rye. It was a it was a bourbon and rye blend. And that has that still is available online, but it but we're we're not distributing it in retail anymore. And we've moved to this this bourbon blend as a a more permanent fixture in in our portfolio. So it will be, I mean, it's they're all small batches. I mean, there was eight barrels in that batch, so this is batch one. There will be a batch two, it'll also be eight to ten barrels, but that one will will be around for a while.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

And let's start with that one, Jeff. It's A.

SPEAKER_06 16:24

It's what?

SPEAKER_01 16:25

A A is an apple.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

I don't have an A. I have XYZ and Oh, wrong one.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

I'm looking at it. Sorry, X.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

He's like I'm like, what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 16:40

I'm looking at the bottle, I just see the bottom. I thought it was an X.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

I thought you were the Fonz.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

So minimum, so this

Blue Label Bourbon Blend Tasting

SPEAKER_01 16:51

am I right? This bottle won. Did it win at San Diego? Where did this or San Francisco?

SPEAKER_06 16:57

I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah. It it it did it did well. So it got double gold. It got a 98-point rating. He said it did good. 98. It got a 98-point rating, and it's a finalist for best small batch bourbon 1926. Are you guys there? Yeah, we're here. We froze.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

Oh, we're here. I noticed he was he was breaking up a little. You guys have me now? I have you. You're still here. He C T froze. I hear you, but I can't, I can't, you haven't, you're still froze. Yeah. It's alright. It happens. People's internet go from time to time. Sometimes he might have to come go out and come back in. We'll see. You can keep talking about the uh all right. So yeah, there you go. He's coming yeah, he'll come back in. Or or he'll tell me, he'll be like, send me the link again. I hope not.

SPEAKER_06 18:11

Yeah. But yeah, like I was saying before he he jumped off, it it's a finalist with three other bourbons for the best small batch bourbon age six to ten years of 2026 at San Francisco, and they will announce in November the the winner of that. So I we get to patiently wait a couple more months and and see how we actually did.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Okay. So initially, how did so you went from Denver to Maryland, right? That's kind of what you were saying.

SPEAKER_06 18:50

Well, I never lived in Denver. I was always in Maryland. Okay. The company I worked for had been based in Denver and they relocated to Maryland, and that's when I joined them.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 19:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Yeah, because I I mean, there's there's a that the the East Coast is kind of picking up a little bit of steam. There's honestly, you know, I I there's one, there was one, I had a couple guys who were out on the West Coast and then came to Maryland and they did American single malt. You know, they were known for their American single malt. You probably know them. But I mean, it's like uh the do you guys in the Baltimore area and Maryland area, do you in Washington, do you have like a distillers guild there with everybody kind of?

SPEAKER_06 19:38

There's a Maryland Distillers Guild and and actually the the distillery that I have my DSP at, Old Line Spirits, they they focus on American single malt. And they they've been for about 10 years.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Okay, so that's old line was who I had on. I had them on probably a couple years ago for the American single malt. So how are they? They're doing good. Yeah, absolutely. They're doing great. Yeah, they do American single malt. So yeah, I think I think that category for a while kind of kind of like first it came on and then it kind of, you know, it kind of not flatlined, but just kind of what would you say, plateaued? And then now it's you can sense it's coming back again, you know, the American single. It's like at one point I think people will really appreciate it. All right, so we're back to where the tasting, you know. We we delayed as much as we could so that you could come back. Can you hear me? We can hear you. Can you hear us?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Technical difficulties have been averted. Okay, so we're on to the the blue one. We're on the blue label. Yeah, we're on the bourbon. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

And and he said that he talked about that it this year it's up right as far as the small batch from six to ten years, and you guys are waiting to you're you're patiently waiting, right? To find out.

SPEAKER_06 21:04

Yeah, until November. That's when they'll they'll announce the the winner of the category. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Well, 98 scoring is pretty freaking awesome. I mean, that's I was pretty happy with it. I was gonna say, don't don't don't seem so excited about it. Awesome.

SPEAKER_06 21:25

Yeah, but it it it's I'm very happy with how it turned out. It's it's a it's a bit of a unique product, and really everything we're trying to do has some form of twist on it for the most part. But this bourbon for is it's a blend of three different mash bills. And the what I what I think of as the base. So my approach to blending is is establish a base and then flavor it. And so the base for this is 10 year old Kentucky bourbon. I'm not allowed to say which distillery because I'm under an NDA with with that particular distillery, but it's a it's a 10-year-old Kentucky bourbon. The mash bill is 74188. Thanks. And and from there you can probably figure out where it came from. And and then adding to that, we have one one 14-year-old four-grain bourbon, which is from Georgia, and it is an 80 10 5 5. So it's got a little bit of wheat, a little bit of malt in it. And then I think what really is what adds distinctiveness to this is high malt bourbon. So there's two barrels of high malt bourbon. It's an unusual mash bill, not uh you don't commonly see it. And it's 51 corn, so as low corn as possible, 15 rye, 34% malted barley.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

I know that we know that mash bill too. Does that do you have an NDA for that? No, you're you're you got a bottle on your yeah, yeah, we're just talking, yeah, right there. Yeah. No, I mean, Greg, Greg met Greg, the the distiller there. I mean, that's one thing. I've I've I've met him, uh, talked about it, and he what he did there with that was so unique, and then went out and started a brand. And people, it never, I don't know if it gets the I mean, like you just gave what you're using to blend credit. It's it's basically um a malt bar a malted barley bourbon. You know, we talk about weeders and we talk about rice, and it's always a big thing. And now we have this, you know, you have this one and it's it's a barley, it's a barley bourbon, and people don't don't even know what to do with that because how many times I think he he was the one that did it. So yeah, uh, it's uh that's really nice.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

There's a really good mouthfeel to it, too. It's it's got a nice velvety kind of palette, which I like because definitely as you get older, that's something. And again, you said there's a 14-year-old in this? There's one, yeah, there's one 14-year-old Jordan. It's definitely not over tannic or anything. You don't get a ton of oak. There's there's a little bit of oak, but not definitely not like, oh my god, it's overpowered with it.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

It's yeah, it's really cool. I mean, so you went over that, and it's kind of like, I swear to God, it's a it's like a pinball machine. It's like it's like you taste, you, you taste this, you taste that, you taste this, you taste that, you taste this, and then it all comes together in a nice, there's a nice sweetness to it. Vanilla, a little bit of caramel sweetness to it, and then it finishes with that. You got the you pulled the 14-year-old oak finish of a lengthy finish. And it's like I you I was just took a sip and I was just like, I could taste that. Oh, I could taste that, I could taste that. And it, but it's just it's there, but then all of a sudden it goes boom, boom, boom, boom, and then it goes sweet, finish. So I mean, I always felt that that, you know, we've got John Rumpy doing the blood oath, where he buys barrels from everywhere, and the same thing of what you're doing. I really think the playground that you're playing in and with what, you know, the barrels that and when people take some, you're taking some of the best of the best of the, you know, and you're putting it together and making this blend, it's unique, but it's also what Scotch has been doing forever in, you know, over there. It's kind of like, you know, Johnny Walker is all the different, like, you know, different distilleries from everywhere they pull and then they make blends. And here we were so fixated on bourbon for such a long time, right? Where it's got to be this, this, and this. And now you're doing this. And I really think you can make some really special whiskey and bourbons.

SPEAKER_06 26:23

Yeah, no, I if you know this is a I see the, you know, the range of creativity in taking this approach expands a lot, right? So like you like most distilleries make a couple of mash bills and it's all from the same distillery. And so not to say that they don't, there's not a lot of distilleries making absolutely beautiful whiskey out there. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying as a blender, being able to take things from different distilleries and put them together in a new way that that no other single distillery would is a creative opportunity and one that I enjoy. And I just want to go back and say, I I love that you you had the background on Mets and and we're already familiar with this match bill because I I I I talk about this product a lot, and most a lot of people are not familiar with the mash bill. It's it's a bit obscure, and and certainly not that Greg Metz is was behind it. So I appreciate you bringing that up and very much appreciate that I I have access to some of these barrels to do what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

Well, that 34 barley for me is always kind of fruity. I get a lot of good fruit flavors. We talked about it the other day, strawberries, you know, there's just a lot of nice fruit notes that come out of that. But for sure, most people associate that brand and him with the 95.5s and all that kind of stuff, which are good in their own in their own way, and they and they make a great blend. We just did a blend with a brand here locally and used a 95.5 in a blend with a bourbon, and it married together beautifully, you know, like it was it had a lot of spearmint and mint, which I like to a point, and it mellowed it out. So, you know, sometimes it's just crazy. I I I envy you for being able to do what you do because I do that at home a lot. I take I take these bottles and I'm like, what would makers be like with this? And you're like, oh that that worked, or that's terrible.

SPEAKER_06 28:28

So so with something, I I do the same thing myself. Like even with even with these products, like I I'll blend the the the bourbon blend with the rye blend to to make buo rye. And I I do like 75 bourbon, 25 rye, and still consistent.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Yeah, so in other words, the only way you're getting that is if we come to your house.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Go ahead, Jeff, and then we'll move to the next file.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

So when you when you when you blend these, I I noticed uh with the little bit of research that I did, are you are you returning like you do the blend and then put them back in barrels? And then so I mean talk a little bit about that. I mean Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:14

So this this is something where I I liken it kind of to marination, where you you you let flavors combine over a longer period of time. And so the approach here, which we can do because we're doing these very small batches, it would not be, I think, feasible at a larger scale. But we we once we establish what the blend's going to be, we we dump all of the whiskey, blend it together, then return it into the same casks that it came out of so that it can basically have an extended blending period. And those barrels go back into the aging barn and they are at cast strength or or whatever the, you know, pretty much everything we do is cast strength. So they're at cast strength. And so essentially what you have in the barrel now is what's going to go into the bottle. And you can monitor it in the barns and and and sample it. And and what you are sampling is your final blend, it's final proof. So you really are are very confident with what your final product is going to be and when you are ready to package it.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

Yeah, and you nailed it because at a small scale you can do that, which is enjoyable, but on a large scale, holy crap, that would be next

Returning Blends To Barrels To Marry

SPEAKER_01 30:40

to impossible.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Well, yeah, if you were gonna go large scale, you'd just do small scale many, many times. Because that's how you would do it. And you would have all those intricate things happening, and people would be like, and then everybody would want all the releases, and you just you know what I mean, you just have this release or whatever. And you know, honestly, you were you're talking about aging barns. Do you have a specific place in the barn you like to put your barrels, you know, that you know it's gonna age it the way, or are you putting it in all different places in the barn?

SPEAKER_06 31:19

So I I mean all different places, depending on what is going on with those barrels. So I'm fortunate enough as Sagamore that I've got racks on all six floors and and have the ability to be intentional about what I'm aging where. Once I've done a blend and then I'm putting it back in the barn, I I keep that on a on a low floor to have as little additional uh aging would impact proof changes as possible, and really just let it let it marry.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Okay. And and and anybody who's done anything, like one time I did a decanter of all my Woodford double oak bottles that were down like this, and put it together. And I put it all together and I took a sip and it tasted like not anything I ever tasted. But then you let it sit for a couple weeks or a couple months or whatever, and you go back, and then it tastes like Woodford reserve double oak, the blend that you got. You know what I mean? And that that people don't realize that when you put whiskey together instantly in a blend, it doesn't, like you said, it's gotta actually become one actual whiskey, and it takes a while for that. It just if you put it all together and then you bottle it, it's like there's a lot of stuff that didn't happen that should have happened, right?

SPEAKER_06 32:50

Yeah, I mean, I think as I'm you know, across my sensory sampling, you you you get a more cohesive pour when when it's had time to fully integrate. Okay. Yeah. So what's what's next, C T?

SPEAKER_01 33:10

Let's move on to the port finish, the red bottle, which you have there.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

Oh, the this one?

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

So tell us tell us what this is, Drew, that uh so everybody knows what we're drinking.

SPEAKER_06 33:26

Yeah, sure. So this is a a 10-year age-stated blend of a high rye and a low rye whiskey that was then finished in 10-year tawny port. So the the mash bills are it's a 95.5 rye, that's the high rye. The the low rye is 51 rye, 44 corn, five malted barley. So there's uh a higher corn content in this. And then I have a very what I would say unique approach to finishing, which I developed over time. And what it is is I I conditioned the port barrels myself. So to just walk through the process real quick, we we take the the six barrels that were in this blend of whiskeys, we dump them and blend them. That leaves those barrels empty. I then take my favorite port that I have already done lab blends with, and I put about a gallon of that port in each of the barrels. And then I built a device that essentially sprays that

Port Finished Rye With Barrel Conditioning

SPEAKER_06 34:50

port in into a mist across the entire inner part of the barrel, and then I seal the barrel and I pressurize it with CO2 up to about six or seven psi, and then that forces that port mist into the walls of the barrel. And that is the conditioning process. Then I take the the whiskey blend and I put it back into those conditioned barrels and throw them back into the barn to further age.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

How long do you leave them pressurized with the port mist, the gallon of port mist, right? You put the whole, you miss the whole gallon right in there.

SPEAKER_06 35:31

Yeah. So basically it's a it's a stainless rod with an aerator on the end of it. It blasts the port up, and then once once you do that initial blast, you seal it and and run the pressure up. And it it's a an hour or two, really, just to let it let it set up, and and that's all there is to it. And then the whiskey goes back in and then it further ages for for a couple of months. The the reason behind this, just a little background, because people have been port finishing things for a long time, and it's like, why would you do that? So the reasons are it's very hard to get port barrels that you have any transparency on. Like what port was in it, how long had it been in it, what's the history on that barrel, what were its storage conditions and transit conditions to the US, etc. And so what will often happen is you can get a port barrel, spend six weeks in a sea container on the ocean, and that pork can oxidize, the pork can actually become vinegar and have like bacterial infection, or the barrels can be treated with sulfur, like a lot of wineries do, and then you now have sulfur impact on your whiskey, which you absolutely do not want. So there's quality variability in sourcing port finishing barrels. And then the last part is the oak. So a lot of port barrels are barrels that didn't really hold port for the duration of the port's aging, they were conditioned themselves with port in Portugal. And so then you don't really know how old the wood is. And what I found over time is you you run a risk of either getting off port or getting too much double oaking of your of your in your secondary maturation. And too much oak ruins a fortified wine finish, in my opinion. Um and and and certainly oxidation and sulfur ruin the finish. And because of the because of that unpredictability, uh, I developed this method to be able to control everything. So like I use a very high-end, like $35 a bottle, 10-year port for the finishing that I selected across many different ports that I really liked to marry with rye, particularly. So I can control that. And then I know the wood is good because it's the barrels that I just dumped the whiskey out of, and it's 10-year plus spent oak that isn't gonna come back and and double oak anything. And so really it just gives me control over it and I think leads to a more polished product.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Well, and consistency for you, because if you're gonna keep bringing that bottle out, you don't have to worry about the barrels changing. Each shipment gets different, has those nuances that you may not like, and you're trying to find a way to get them out of there. The the thing that's it's surprising is the the 95.5 for me comes out, and you get a that mint finish. That spearman is definitely there. Which I like. I like a lot. It's it's it's got it this one definitely takes you on a little different journey than the bourbon does. The bourbon, while it was delicious, this one kind of starts a certain way, and and you're like, okay, and then wow, it goes a whole nother way.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

Yeah, well, yeah, the high that the high corn, you know that the high corn aspect of this brings out the caramel. So as far as there's a lot of there's some some very popular brands that do port finishing, and it's not everything that you described, I could say and agree with completely based off of, but the fact that you're picking now. Do you like that port to the point where that's the wine you like to a wine port wine you like to drink just as a port wine? Or is it what you picked up because of the rye?

SPEAKER_06 40:09

Well, I I didn't drink it before. It I discovered it as a part of basically lab trials and and marrying flavors with rye. But I will say that after having discovered it, it is very delicious to drink on its own.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

All right. Well, let's uh let's move on to the rye.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

The last thing I want to say is just the balance of this to drink this, the the fact that you pick up a little bit of that port wine initially, the the what would you say, the the it's the sweet, sour taste of the wine of a port, you know, that's right there. And then the caramel fills in so nicely, and and and stuff it's almost like you've created a a bourbon or a finished port. It's a bourbon, right? The finished port bourbon.

SPEAKER_06 41:10

It's a rye.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

It's a okay, a finished rye, but you've you've created the ver the wine version of the the subtleties of wine, you've got the subtlety of a wine into it. You know, that there's no harsh flavors, it's all kind of that nice, smooth or easy kind of thing, but then there's caramel and there's everything that you want based off what you just were trying to achieve. You've achieved it.

SPEAKER_06 41:38

Yeah, that that is like being able to achieve that balance. So for example, I I'm using less port than you might often get in a port finishing barrel, right? Because a barrel itself, just in the walls of the barrel, can hold 10 plus pounds of liquid, which so the port barrel could have over a gallon just in that. And this lets me control the quantities so that it's not over porting it. Like I it I'm shooting for balance in this, right? So it opens with a bit of the port impacts and then smoothly transitions into a balanced rye finish. And that really was the the design objective of this.

unknown 42:24

Good.

SPEAKER_01 42:25

Look, you you get it, you hit it on the head because that's exactly what it felt like the journey was.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

To get to that point were there are some experiences or whatever that you like trial and error kind of things. That's one one of the guys on YouTube was asking, what kind of experiences led you to come up with this final product? You know what I mean? Where did you come up with missing the inside of the barrel? I mean, was that just I did were you like you woke up one morning and you're like, I'm gonna miss the inside of the barrel?

SPEAKER_06 42:59

Kind of. I mean, I so I mean, I had been finishing whiskeys for a long time and had a lot of experience with barrels that didn't work out. And that kind of forced me to say there has to be a better way. And when when you're at a larger operation and you're doing 50 finishing barrels going into a batch and a handful of them don't work out, you can absorb that and exclude them and and still have a wonderful finished product. When when you're when you're working with six barrel batches, if even one of those doesn't work out, it it's a it's a more meaningful impact. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

Like to the palate, it's you can't hide it.

SPEAKER_06 43:53

There's nothing, yeah. So it's like I I needed so basically I just challenged myself to say, all right. You need a better way if you're gonna do this consistently in a small scale and at a high level of quality. And then I like my engineering brain kicked in and I started getting just ordering parts and and building different prototypes for this device until I I found one that worked. That's cool. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Well, let's move on to the Rye, because if I'm not mistaken, the Rye you did not have in your original release, correct?

SPEAKER_06 44:34

No, so the Rye, the Rye was just released more recently. It too is intended to be an ongoing part of the portfolio, and we'll have future batches of it. This Rye, again, uh you know, having worked with Rye for a long time at Sagamore, and and I I love Rye, I I wanted to put a twist on it. And so this rye is maybe different. What's that? Oh yeah. Letter letter C. Z. Z, Z. C. Um so I I wanted to come up with a uh a bit of a different, uh, a unique take on rye. And so this rye, I I think is it downplays kind of the black pepper notes and some of the kind of I think more what some people might think of as harsh flavors in rye. And it doesn't smell like a rye. Yeah. So this is the thing. And like I got a lot of bourbon drinkers that are like, I don't drink rye, and I'm like, try this. You you you might be surprised. So what this is, is the base. Again, like I said, I like to build a base for a blend. The base of this is half low rye, half high rye. And the the all of those barrels were selected for having characteristics that are not overly herbaceous or peppery and lean more into I

Rye Blend Built For Bourbon Drinkers

SPEAKER_06 46:10

think gingerbread, graham cracker. There's like some vanilla icing in here. It's got it's got some very, I think, unique spice cakey type things going on. And onto that base, I I brought in a 13-year-old 95 rye, and that is to kind of ground it with what I would consider to be a very like classic rye. It it brings in baking spices, it brings in a little maturity. And then kind of the twist to this one is the last barrel is a double oak. So there's one double oak barrel in this and out of total eight barrels. And that double oak barrel was actually double oaked for eight years. So it's a very rich barrel. So it was two years in its original barrel and eight years in a secondary cask. And so what you get with this, or at least what I get when I drink it, is up front, it's it's sweeter than than a lot of rye's initially present. It comes across a little bit like spice cake, gingerbread house type thing in in the first half of the palette. And then it slides into a kind of a sweet oak finish. And that's that oak is coming from that that double oak barrel.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

I will I will say front palette sweet, like you said, and I pick up those, you know, the gingerbread, a little bit of that vanilla ice icing kind of thing. And then as it goes mid-pallate, it's there's no there's no spice. It hits the back of your throat. It's got a really nice hug, which is which, like from a rye, a lot of times it's so spicy on the back of your throat, it it kind of overshadows the, but that's not there. And then I pick up before I pick up the oak, like you talk about on the finish, I pick up the spearmint or mintiness of a rye, which lets you know definitely you are drinking a rye. I mean, the nose. I will say it's there's a lot of flavors in there, but it's if you didn't tell me this was a rye, I could think this is not a rye. But then when you drink it, you know it's it's it definitely has some of the the you it's a really complex, yep.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

It's the 90s I always leave that little bit of mint on the finish. It's just it's always there.

SPEAKER_00 49:05

But yeah, but I agree. But it's not a 95 five barrel that he just picked that he just got from a spreadsheet from from everything. No, but I mean it's definitely a barrel that that is is designed to be in there, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 49:21

Yeah, yeah, beautiful. The the way that it the nose is just I'm not kidding you, I could smell it all day. I I don't even need to drink it, it just smells this this thing has so much going on on the nose, and there's a a little bit of a we talk about cola, but for me, this has a cherry pepsi more. There's a difference, and it's there's a little bit more to it than just a cherry cola. It's it's almost like Pepsi has a to me, it's a little sweeter, not as the difference is it's like cherry, it's a cherry Pepsi with bourbon or rye in it.

SPEAKER_00 50:06

It's just like it's a spiked cherry Pepsi. Now, you know, sometimes when you're describing those flavors of cherry or whatever, you're pulling them out and you're uh absolving yourself of that it's in alcohol. With this, it's like you don't have to. It's like it's the cherry Pepsi spiked all in one. It's good. And that's that's really good.

SPEAKER_06 50:29

It's complex. And that uh that cherry cola note is is coming from those low rye barrels that are kind of in the base of the blend, the the the 51 ryes. They they they have if you drink those as a single barrel, like they can get like silly cherry cola.

SPEAKER_01 50:51

What a home run though. I mean, to be able to to pull in that and then throw in that 13 year that obviously anytime you're getting them up in that age, if they're good, they're really good.

SPEAKER_06 51:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

Well, um, that thing's wow, that's human.

SPEAKER_00 51:06

So in my prior life, I was a commercial artist and I've done some fine art.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

And I've always been in your previous life. How the hell is that possible?

SPEAKER_00 51:16

Well, I'm now a recycling plant manager. It's a totally different recycling plant manager in your previous life. What? Anyways, what I will say is people don't re a lot of people who drink whiskey or you know, this this type, they don't realize what kind of it's almost like as a blender, you have a it's a symphony. It's like you you have so much to choose from, and you are obviously it's you're you're not like okay, it's a band because a symphony would mean you're using, you know, maybe a lot more than the kind of barrels you've you've reduced it down to a band, but different types of bands, you know what I mean? So you you might have a string quartet one time, a rock band another time. You know, you're just using it's like, but people don't realize that whiskey making and blending is very similar to art, music, that type of thing. It's all tied together because you're it's a culinary experience.

SPEAKER_06 52:28

And you know totally, I completely agree. Like I view it as a, you know, when you when you think about when I think about whiskey, you think about the fermentation process, and this is mostly a biological process. So, like where you want to have it's it's scientific, it's biological, you you want to how you handle your yeast, the temperatures that you ferment at, your conditions, like this is a biological process. And then you you move into distillation, and this is a mixture of chemistry and engineering. And so, like, what you're you're taking that fermentation that the biologists produced, and you are running it through a machine that at a a certain speed and a certain temperature to create a balance that gives you the cleanest extraction of ethanol. Then you go into the aging process, right? This is where a ton of things happen to the whiskey that are somewhat in your control and somewhat out of your control. The just barrel to barrel, the wood differences can change whiskeys very meaningfully, even from the same batch of distillate, even in the same racks in the barns. Then you get to blending, and this is where you, I think, nailed it is it's basically a culinary art. So it's all a sensory process. You're evaluating everything, and and it starts from like an imagination of a flavor profile that you want to try and achieve, and then it's a trial and error process of making different recipes until you can marry the flavors in a way that that get to that vision. And it really is like it's all sensory. It's trial and error.

SPEAKER_00 54:22

It's like different guitar players in a band. All of them play the guitar, electric guitar, acoustic. They all play them different. They all have their whatever. And that's kind of what each barrel is. It's a different guitar player. And then when you're when you're basically tasting those barrels, you're auditioning them throughout their careers. And then you basically like, I'm hiring you today, and we're gonna we're gonna make this awesome song. And that's kind of like what you're doing. And and the possibilities are endless, but also there, you know, we're you're basically there is a guideline to pop songs and you know, or you know, different types of music, but the whole world right now is at a point in their in their they want those those subtle, kind of cool things because all of our palettes have matured. And so we're always, we love the the nuances and the differences that are happening. Whereas when we first got in this, there's a bunch of people who didn't care about nuances because all they wanted to do is basically be bourbon. They didn't, and when you talk about finishing barrels and you talk about double oaking, I mean, double oaking in itself, they say, well, it's double oak. I mean, there's about a thousand different ways to double oak it and come up with the, you know, so that's one thing that, like anything else, there's a million different notes out there to make music. It's the same thing. And people don't realize a lot of times the artistry that goes into it. But also, as far as as far as us as tasters, not so much drinkers, we love the experience that you're providing. So that brings us into Z. Are we on what are we on?

SPEAKER_01 56:15

Well, we before we we're gonna move on to the the last one, which is why.

unknown 56:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 56:21

I didn't do these in order of the alphabet, by the way. Obviously, wear that? I just put the damn stickers on. What they were is what they were. But question before we move to this, Drew, it is so on let's say like the uh the the rye blend, how long did it take you through the process of blending those, playing around with it before you actually came up with that blend and you were happy with it?

SPEAKER_06 56:48

It takes a couple months. No kidding. Oh yeah. I mean, one, you can only drink so much whiskey. So the the Cheers to that. It turns out to be a lot, but still so much. But but yeah, so I because I I I think you know, the back to the kind of the analogy of auditioning uh musicians for something, uh, there are a lot of musicians out there. And I I've I've got uh walls of of barrels, and I'm trying to get it down to a profile of eight. And so the the the different permutations that you can create in a blend become quite vast if you have a hundred barrels to choose from to find eight. Now, I I have different just kind of processes that don't let me go down that rabbit hole of doing like 150 different traps. But but but I I I probably did 20 full different separate blends before landing on that rye blend. And it's a matter of different ratio testing ratios first, and once you feel good about your ratios, then specific barrel picking to fit into that that formula.

SPEAKER_01 58:15

All right. Well, let's let's go on to bottle number four, I think is the single barrel. This is the only single barrel in the lineup currently, other than maybe a previous release, but this is the current one. 13 years. Tell us a little more as far as what it is proof, and because I can't read that label.

SPEAKER_06 58:38

So basically, yeah, like portfolio-wise, the the bulk of what we're doing are these like small batch blending projects that but at the same time it we have the single barrel series, which is the part of the portfolio where when we when we find something that just is standalone excellent that we want to showcase as a single barrel, we put it through this part of the portfolio. And prior to this one, we had a 13-year-old bourbon that was in the single barrel series. And when that sold out, we did a 13-year-old rye, and there will be different ones in the future as well. But this particular one, I believe you have barrel five. It is a 13-year-old 95 rye. It it we acquired it through Templeton, originally distilled at MGP. So it aged for many years in Iowa after leaving Indiana. And it it's a it's a batch in like the these February, these February 2013 barrels I I really liked. And so we we brought a handful of those in, and then within those, picked some single barrels. This was one of them, barrel

Single Barrel Picks And Sensory Library

SPEAKER_06 1:00:00

five, and then some of them are going into like the rye blend, for example. This barrel in particular I liked for for its distinctiveness. So while it it definitely drinks like a rye, it has some notes in it that I don't always find in 95 ryes, which I enjoyed in this. It it gets into some fruits.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:26

I get currant raisin.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:30

There's a little cocoa in there, even like it's different.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:33

I would got chocolate. There's even a little like I get like a little red jammy fruit note across the middle bit. And it still has like it's not super herbaceous, and by that I mean like heavy dill or or celery or or any of those notes. You mean those horrible notes?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:58

You just said it, dill and celery. I I mean I've you don't know how many ryes I've taken that I can't, I can they're it's so off-putting to me, right? But I can I can dump that into a bourbon Mary, you know, instead of a bloody, I just basically make because those those notes make sense with tomato juice. And and and then there's and then there's CT who will do who's who's out on that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:24

Do you know the only worse profile than dill and celery and a bourbon is if you ever get it, it's the worst. I'm just gonna tell you. Radish. Radish. I will say we haven't yet, but when we do, we'll know. What about the salsa understand stuff?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:45

Do you like do you like a salsa? I picked that up in Texas, Texas uh bourbons, a salsa flavor all the time, like a like it's a tomato spicy pepper thing. I get that from the butt anyways, let's go back to this. So so in other words, your single barrels are well thought out. Because you're just going to We don't do a lot of them.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:11

Like I'm handpicking all of them. Uh, and you know what I do a hundred percent sensory analysis on every barrel that we get. So I everything that comes through, I hand sample it, I run analysis on it, I profile its its flavor characteristics and and log that so that I have this like library for blending purposes, and I also have a library for single barrel purposes. And and so we don't do a ton of single barrels, but what when I find one that I think makes some sort of a statement, like it's really good, but it's also just not totally expected, then that'll that'll go into single barrel category. And and I I felt like this one kind of met that criteria. It's it's got a lot of different flavors going on and and not all entirely what you would expect.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

This would be what's your plans on so like you've come out with basically two type batch releases so far this year. Do you have a set schedule, or are you just gonna kind of let the barrels and the the market kind of dictate when your next release is, or do you already have that kind of yeah?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:25

So I mean, I I think what you know again to kind of frame where we're at, like we we launched in January and it's it's June. So we're we're six months on the market. We our intention is that we're gonna have somewhat of a core portfolio, which will be a bourbon blend, a rye blend, and that port finish. And then we'll have the single barrel being more of a rotator, and then we will in the future drop limited release items. So you've got like kind of a core three, that single barrel rotator, and then some and end of year like drops that are just one and done type drops, where we can continue to have like innovation and and and creativity, but we are having some level of uh consistency across that core portfolio. And how many states are you in right now? Uh we're in one state, which is Maryland, and on the internet, and and we're in one, we're in one city district, which is Washington, D.C., which they would love to be a state, but not quite yet. And and then we're on and so that's it. And honestly,

Releases Distribution Shipping And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_06 1:04:50

that's that's like it's probably that for two years. And then from there, we assuming that scaling didn't impact our quality and and business model, we we might look to move into a couple other states, but we're very much a mid-Atlantic East Coast for now. But I would say if we did look to expansion among all of the control markets, Ohio would be high on the list.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:20

I and I think I think that if you were to look at what would you what what is what how will I put this? I'm not making boo right while you're talking. Mark, Mark Carter has has very, very good, what would you say, distribution plan. He does batches for states. So that would be that would be something that I definitely think would be that would you would just be able to go straight right into that. You know what I mean? It instead of trying to do the batches to supply everybody and go bigger. Just go smaller and do special batches per you know per state that you that will take you.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:06

Yeah. That that would be when when we get there, that would be the the approach. Like we're we're not gonna change from doing 10 barrel batches to doing 100 barrel batches. Like that this would just completely undo what we're doing. Take you back where you were. But I but yeah, but for for us right now, just uh we're self-distributing. We have like a wonderful group of retailers here in Maryland that we want to provide a high level of service to and and really do right by our backyard market before we even contemplate going into brick and mortar retail outside of this area.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:49

But it but if somebody like somebody watching this, they were like, Man, I really want that one. It hits the notes, I want to buy that. They can go to your website and you do distribute to states, so they can go on and buy it and get it shipped, correct?

SPEAKER_06 1:07:03

Oh yeah, absolutely. So uh we're we through our we we ship through our we have web fulfillment through Washington, DC, which it makes us available in 40 states. So you can buy through our website in in uh most states. There's some control states, uh some of the southern control states uh don't allow for it, but uh Ohio, you can you can buy us Indiana, Illinois, like all all across. But but like I think Alabama and Mississippi and Idaho and Utah and maybe Maine. There states like that are control states that are more rigid. We just we can't ship to.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:47

Well, it's good that Ohio at one point was more rigid, but the people in control actually lightened up, and so we're not as rigid. So that's good to know. And and you're perfectly positioned with the place that we're not as rich, you know, through Washington, DC. It's like that place, that that is anybody who's shipping there, I know that we can get it.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:13

Yes. And this is a convenient thing about my location, is I I live one mile from Washington, DC, so I I can quite easily deliver to our fulfillment company down there.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:26

My my daughter-in-law is from Baltimore, and so now that I keep meeting so many people from this area, I'm gonna have to go visit her family with her one time because that will allow me to get out by you. So that's something that's let me know when you're coming.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:48

I I'd love to show you around.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:50

All right, yeah. I mean, it's uh this is a great step, and I mean, I can't believe six short months. It it feels we had to start talking about two months into the process then. So that is crazy that it's this short a period of time and and now up and running.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:11

And so what what's this last one you gave me, CT? The cigar, the pick. That's not even anything related to this. Well, why was it in the bottle? In the bag, so you no, you put it that was in this bag.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:28

And I specifically told you, but you like usual, do not listen. Where's your wife at? Let's ask her.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:33

She's sleeping.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:34

You do not listen. Listen, Drew, he has he has two phones, and if you text him or call him on one, he won't answer. And he so I have him in my phone with both of his phone numbers, so I text both at the same time. And so Roxy, Roxy's like, that's a great idea, because he doesn't answer her either. So Jeff, I'll tell you what that bottle is later. It has nothing to do with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:04

No, I I didn't know. I thought that was part of it, but XYZ, I should have made Are you drinking it now? Yeah, it's good. Well, that's a boo, that's a boo-raye. Okay. So, okay, so last thing, a boo-rai. What that is something that is by uh the folks at high west, I believe. Okay, but but I'm but I'm I'm you know, Drew, so when you mix a bourbon and a rye, and you call it a boo-rai, right? Which is something that's happening in the blending world, and it intrigues you, obviously, but doesn't it based off of whatever your blend is, it then becomes a bourbon or a rye because it just depends on the percentage.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:55

Technically, so I questioned it. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:02

Here's the slope.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:03

Yeah, so yeah, this I'm trying to stay out of the rabbit hole on this, but technically it becomes neither a bourbon or a rye, and it becomes like a blend of straight whiskeys. A as far as like TTB categories go. Yeah, it's a whiskey. Yeah, it's it's it's American whiskey.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:25

But so is it can qualify as American whiskey.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:30

If if if the rye didn't come from Canada you're drinking, Jeff, is labeled as a whiskey. That's that's how we had to label it. Because again, you can't call it a boo-rai because I was trademark that some years ago when they came out with their boo-raye, and nobody else is allowed to use that without their or or monetary consent.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:58

Yeah. So then you should just call it a ribo.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:04

Boy, don't don't do it. But no. Drew, I I appreciate you taking the time. This is this has been great to to talk, not only old and and definitely we don't want to to dwell on that, but I think it's it speaks a lot of who you are. And for people out there, I you know, when I told people, I'm like, you know, we we got Drew coming on, and they're like, all right, what's the brand? And I'm like, oh, you know what I'm telling it's Silverthorn, and they're like, what's that? And I'm like, have you had Sagamore? And they're like, oh yeah, yeah. So I think that for people around here, we built there was a lot of popularity with that brand. So knowing that you had a direct impact with it, and you can tell that with Silverthorn Reserve, it's it's that your palate and your passion for this is is what people looking for that quality, looking for something that's stepping out of the box a little bit, that's that's a very, very specific and well put together product. They're they're gonna want it. It's it's it's different.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:12

So tell everybody how they can find you and get it in most states.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:20

Sure. So I I mean I would say if you're interested, come to our website. You can drop your email into our we've got a whiskey group, drop your email in there. That'll put you on the mailing list. That will give you, like, I I'll send out newsletter kind of to that inner circle with like pre-releases, advanced access to things, any new batch releases, all of that. You're you're first to know. And and I I always like to do kind of a not on the main web pre-release for for those folks, and they also get special discounts. So that would be a good way to stay in the know on what's going on. If you're looking to try any of our bottles, you can buy them straight through the website. If you're outside of the the Maryland, DC area, and we're we two bottles and more is free shipping, so we cover all of that. And yeah, I I hope you give us a try.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:18

Well, and on that same note, Tiny and I would be totally happy. If somebody locally in Ohio wants to try it, they have not tried it. We have these bottles more than happy to share it with you. If you if you don't know before you buy it and you're willing to meet us somewhere, I'm more than happy to give samples out. So if you want to try it, meet us somewhere, you can try it before you order it on your website.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:44

Yeah, for sure. And then, you know, honestly, what you're doing as far as blending is spectacular. I would suggest it to anybody out there. If if you like certain, if you like that port, if you like port finished bourbons, you this is one you you're gonna want. And as far as any of the of what we've tried. But you know, I I honestly, Drew, based off of the fun that it does, you know, that my palate experienced tonight, I would seriously suggest anybody out there just grab grab something off the website and or grab a couple bottles off the website, get some free. You're not gonna be disappointed. It's just that simple. It's it's like what you're doing is artistry. So just keep it up and you know, go from there. Now, so we do afterwards, we do kind of an after-party kind of thing with anybody watching wants to come on and ask you questions. But if you need to go, let let us know and we'll let you go. If you want to stay on a little bit after.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:56

No, I can I can ask some questions.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:58

Okay, and then and then just as CT knows, anytime it's get if it get because these guys will stay on and they start whatever. Anytime you need to go, just say he does he Drew. I know you're just like, I'm gonna go and see you guys and bye. But CT, he just basically is gone. He's just he'll just be like, peace out. There's nothing. Where did CT go? So, anyways, all right. So I'm gonna finish up the podcast. Thank you so much tonight for coming on. We really appreciate it. Mad respect. It's just like everything, you know. You know, CT gave me, you know, gave me the samples this past weekend when we were together, and then I had the bottle, but I waited to taste it with you tonight and was not disappointed. So it was it was fantastic. Thanks.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:50

Yeah, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:53

All right, www.scotchyburbonboys.com. For all things Scotchy Bourbon Boys, we got Glenn Karen's, we got t-shirts. You guys all know that. And then also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X. And then also you can listen to us on Spotify, iHeart, and Apple. Whether you listen to us or you watch us, make sure that you leave uh good feedback anywhere that you're listening. Become a member. Top shelf Kirk, who will be on in a little bit. Thank you for your super chats. And remember, good bourbon equals good times and good friends. Make sure you drink responsibly, don't drink and drive, and live your life uncut and unfiltered. And let's see.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:40

And if you leave bad feedback, put Jeff's name on it, not mine.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:44

All of a sudden, where is it? Oh, well, there you go. The scotchy bourbon boys will take us out. I'll do it this way. And I'll reset it. Let's do it. Here we go. For some reason, I lost the comments. How did I do that? It always throws. That's crazy. Alright, we're just gonna reload the whole thing. Alright, let's see what happens. Then I click that. Okay. Now I have.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:39

Alright, we're just gonna. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:43

Turn to see. So Drew, while we're waiting on everybody to come in, so tell me about the there was a brand that is no longer in Georgia that you were getting some barrels curated from. Well, I I don't know that I know that brand, so I'm trying to understand what it is and what what they were about.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:04

Sure. So the the it was Ivy Mountain. They were I I don't know exactly when they started, I think probably a little before twenty ten. And they unfortunately did not survive COVID. So their their business shuddered