Our interview with Liberty Pole Spirits

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Welcome to the Whiskey Chasers, where we talk about our passion for whiskey and its history, either amongst ourselves or while interviewing distilleries. All while enjoying a glass. I'm Steve. I'm Nick, and I'm Chris. Please enjoy responsibly while enjoying this week's episode of The Whiskey Chasers. Welcome to the Whiskey Chasers. We are in Pennsylvania still, and we are at Liberty Pole Spirits. Yes, we are. In uh what what town are we in? Washington. Washington, okay. Washington PA. We've had have we had a bottle on the podcast, or have we just talked about it?

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Oh, we've had a bottle. We've had a bottle. Okay, yeah. We had a surprise bottle with the other bottle. Yeah. Yeah. So we had two bottles one, right?

SPEAKER_07 0:52

The way we normally do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Because we did the uh Monica Halo barrel proof. Okay. And then we did the toasted barrel.

SPEAKER_07 1:00

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Yep. So we we had those two barrel or bottles, and uh they were well loved and appreciated.

SPEAKER_03 1:07

Very nice. Yeah, Nick, you came up to the distillery in the past, told us about it, and we decided we had to get over this direction. So here we are. We just did a tour of the place, went through the Rick House, the restaurant, everything else. So we've been uh well received so far. Glad to hear it.

SPEAKER_10 1:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

And we've got Jim and Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Rob. Robin.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

They're they're interchangeable. Interchangeable, okay. Jim and Rob.

SPEAKER_04 1:39

So welcome you guys. We're excited to have you. Thanks for coming out. This is awesome. Excited to be here.

SPEAKER_03 1:45

You guys are the founders, correct? Oh, you're owners, founders.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

We all are. Yeah. Yeah. This is a very family uh-oriented, family-friendly distillery. Sure is. And lots of history involved with this. Uh the name, what you guys theme, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 2:03

Yeah. Part of the whiskey rebellion territory.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah, right. So why why the history? Well, why does that matter so much for you guys?

SPEAKER_04 2:12

You know, so we we have honestly the the like unparalleled opportunity to have a distillery in kind of the birthplace of what was American whiskey, uh, Western Pennsylvania. So um, you know, we honor the you know, the the history of of whiskey, rye whiskey in Pennsylvania, the whiskey rebellion. It's just such an incredible history that we're a part of, and we couldn't, you know, we could not honor that um, you know, uh any other way.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Well, I mean, to the point of the history, even downstairs, you guys have a picture of who who again uh turned upside down?

SPEAKER_09 2:55

Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton. Yeah, yeah, the father of the excise tax that we still pay to this day.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Which is is great because uh I think Chris appreciates the petty uh what the not pettiness, the You get you gotta yeah, you gotta speak out against that cruel.

SPEAKER_08 3:11

Exactly. They even get with the with the tobacco, like they even stuck with the excise tax, it's still a thing, it's still corn in our side after all these years.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

It's not a petty, it's a it's kind of a jab. This this is not okay.

SPEAKER_08 3:23

It's uh it's a way of rebelling a little bit.

SPEAKER_09 3:25

Like hey like maybe seven or eight years ago we were deciding whether or not we should accept ten dollar bills.

SPEAKER_08 3:30

Really? That's great. We decided that we would accept them, though. It's uh, you know, it's something that we as Americans kind of have, you know. I mean, uh you've seen recently uh you're newly founded pipe smoker here. Yes. So you'll see that. If you get stuff like uh pipe tobacco and stuff, all of a sudden there's this excise tax. We we've been taxed uh the last couple of years, they imposed another tax upon us as pipe smokers that we used to be exempt from. All of a sudden, you'll place a pipe order for some some tobacco, and you'll what's this $30 charge? It's the excise tax. Yeah, all of a sudden we're getting taxed on our pipe tobacco too. So we're still fighting that to this day. And so I really appreciate the upside down. Uh I might put that in my house.

SPEAKER_07 4:12

Like, yeah, yeah, I I I agree. Like, let's let's let's let's get rid of this. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, love that idea. So history plays a huge role, uh, not only to kind of that that idea of the distillery, but you also the liberty pole, uh that that pole itself has a role to play within that. Oh yeah, right?

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Yeah, so so liberty polls, you know, that you can actually trace Liberty Poles' origin back to ancient Greek times, but they have always been a symbol of protest. So during colonial America, you know, before we gained independence, Liberty Poles were raised to protest English rule. Once we gained independence and this new excise tax was placed, you know, the farmer distillers here on the Western frontier kind of resurrected the Liberty Pole to protest that excise tax on whiskey. They have always been a symbol of protest.

SPEAKER_03 5:12

And you still have one downstairs in the corner. We throw it up there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Yeah. When you guys opened here, was there a poll raising? Oh, yeah. Okay. I I thought I remembered something about a poll raising ceremony.

SPEAKER_04 5:22

So in fact, if you look at it, if you look on the wall, when when we did the ground, because we built this campus, you know, from a from an empty lot. So, you know, rather than having a a golden shovel groundbreaking ceremony, you know, true to our brand, we erected a Liberty Pole. And that Liberty Pole that is in the picture on the wall, that stood watch over the entire 18, 19 month construction process. And that is the same Liberty Pole that's in our meeting house right now. We brought that in. So yeah.

SPEAKER_08 5:56

That's pro that's it's protest in the right way, done in a in a in the right kind of respect and manner that fits this country.

SPEAKER_04 6:05

Because I I do want to be perfectly clear. We do pay our taxes. Absolutely. Absolutely. We do pay our excise taxes.

SPEAKER_03 6:12

So we're not happy about it, but we do it.

SPEAKER_08 6:15

You know, instead of protesting in this way or that way, it's it's do it's doing it in the way that this country was founded, uh the way that they protested way, you know, way back in the day with the founding of this country. And it's that's fantastic, done in a respectful way, but still like, hey, you know, we have rights and liberties, and let's remember that. And I'm gonna bring it up so people can think about that.

SPEAKER_03 6:34

And uh, while we were talking, another son slash brother just hopped in, hopped in the room. Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm late, guys, but Kevin, great to see you guys. That's Rob. That's Rob.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

That is Rob.

unknown 6:45

All right.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

My bad.

SPEAKER_03 6:47

The whole family's here, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Well, mine is mom. Mine is mom, yeah, sure, sure. Again, you guys got started with history, but you guys got started as a family, and you guys have stood beside each other through this whole thing. I I love Beam. Jim Beam is my favorite, one of my favorite distilleries because of that family legacy. But it's not this. It's it's not this kind of family pull together. Yeah, this close-knit family pull. We do everything together. We we laugh and we smile, but the same trying the same barrels. We just tried three barrels downstairs. And and the the fun of watching you guys be able to open that together and try and be like, oh, this is wonderful. Like, can we can we pull this now? Like, what can we just have it now? What what keeps you guys going for that? Like, why do you keep coming day in and day out and annoying each other but still loving each other at the same time? You say we still love each other.

SPEAKER_04 7:46

Well, if you sound like you've been in a family business before, Nick. Yeah, you you captured all the emotions there, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 7:52

No, it is fun. I mean, the um I think we're very passionate uh about it for sure. And I think that's what's kept us going. But we all have different strengths and we certainly do fight, but I think we care about we care about this so much that it and probably we rank the the stability of the family more than the business. I think we'd lose the business before we lost the family, I think is is probably an important priority. But yeah, you see how I mean a lot of family b businesses don't survive, and uh so I think it's a cool testament.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

We got a chance to talk to a family distillery, a father-son distillery not too long ago, and the son was all for it. And the dad kept making the comment of I can't wait to retire again. I can't wait to sell because I pulled out my retirement for this. I can't wait to make that money up.

SPEAKER_07 8:40

Like almost lost faith in it.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

Like he lost faith in it, and I I saw that and I was like, Oh man, that my heart hurts for that idea of like getting excited, then starting like, okay, we lost hope that this is gonna go somewhere. I don't know that I've seen you guys lose hope. This is my second time meeting you guys, talking to you guys. I don't know that I've seen you guys lose hope.

SPEAKER_04 8:59

So so so I think you know, hope might be, you know, a lot of distilleries start with the hope of having Diagio or Beam or Santori come in and buy them out. That that that was never our hope. So, you know, that has not dissipated due to the whiskey downturn that we've seen. You know, we we were all about passion, we were all about making the best whiskey we could make, making the best whiskey experience we could make. And that that's still very much alive. Um, you know, we didn't we didn't plan on exiting in five years, you know. That's just not a a really achievable goal these days.

SPEAKER_08 9:44

So that's what I've kind of seen so far uh after speaking with you guys and seeing everything. The word that keeps coming to my mind with Liberty Pole is integrity. That's what I'm seeing. And such a cool position for you to be in. I have two boys. And I mean, just the idea of this like like family business with you, you know what I mean, and uh to have you know everybody in on it.

SPEAKER_05 10:13

Rob actually says that dad and mom started a distillery, so I'd have a job.

SPEAKER_10 10:17

So that's I'm that son too.

SPEAKER_08 10:22

Not true.

SPEAKER_06 10:24

I mean, I can I can attest to the fact that we were, you know, we were talking before you guys came back, and it was like we kind of all sat here and we're like, man, this is it's feels different. We've we've all been on tons of distillery tours and things like that, and just kind of being here with you guys, you it's a palpable passion that you can feel like with each one of you, regardless of whether we were, you know, we were tasting whiskey out of the barrel. You're you know, you're talking about your Rick House and and how you guys built it and um spent time, you know, thinking about it and how that process went and all the stories that go into it, and there's a lot of emotion and feeling, and that's all kind of very raw, but it's also palpable. You can feel that you are connected to this place, it's not a kind of a one-off, like we're just this is just a business, this is a way for us to make money. Very much feels like this is a passion for you guys.

SPEAKER_05 11:14

We appreciate that. I think I think that is, I'm really honored to hear that. I feel like that's that's why we do this. We love, we just love making good whiskey, and I feel like we're so happy, especially with this place. There's not a lot of places that you get to build like a new distillery. So everything we set up from the still shapes to the rick house to how we do our fermentations was entirely from, you know, we had seven years of experience prior to it, and then got to set something up that is kind of our own. There's really no other excuse, you know, to, you know, we're not like cutting corners on something. And, you know, we still are two years away from this whiskey being fully aged that we made at this location, and we're excited about, you know, the whiskey from the old place, but we're really excited about yeah, yeah, it's coming down.

SPEAKER_09 11:56

I think that's what I get most proud about is we we haven't really set out with the idea to make any. Um we knew exactly where we wanted to drive the whiskey, right? And so we started off in five-gallon barrels that aged for three to five months, right? Sounds crazy now, but like what was cool about it is that whiskey tasted nothing like the stuff that we drink today, but we got it into probably the best spot that we could find. And then we adapted that whenever we moved to tens, and then we adapted that whenever we moved to 25 gallon barrels. So we didn't just kind of throw a dart at the wall and let the whiskey sit for four years. So it's really cool whenever we've been able to kind of track data all the way back to 2016 and make subtle changes and constantly watching that, and then get to build a place around kind of what data points you think are super important for the process.

SPEAKER_08 12:42

You guys have been innovating from the beginning and you haven't stopped with that. Like you guys are still innovating with different finishings and everything else. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:51

We're in a room that's covered with the walls of different bottles that you guys have done previously. So there's lots of things that you guys have done either currently or in the past. So while you're doing that and you're coming up with new ideas, one is there one of you that is coming up with the crazy ideas and the rest of you are following behind. Or is it kind of a collaborative, all of you come up with different crazy ideas?

SPEAKER_09 13:15

One of the girls has the crazy ideas, the rest have good ideas.

SPEAKER_10 13:19

All right.

SPEAKER_04 13:23

Oh, it's it's definitely a collaborative effort. I mean, there there is not one driver of the bus here. We we really, we really all work together really well.

SPEAKER_05 13:33

Even Chef Alex, who's been with us for a bit now, is a stud and a great with you know, flavor and obviously in the in the kitchen, but it's also got a great palette for whiskey too. And and that's been another great addition to the team. It's been cool to see.

SPEAKER_03 13:47

And uh, our audience will know that food and the mixing of that is is really important and hard to do, but also very, very rewarding with with our collaboration with Prince and everything else. So it's cool to see that done someplace else because whiskey isn't necessarily always prepared like that. You know, it's normally wine or or whatever else. So having a whiskey pairing like that is is a cool thing, and I'm really glad to see another chef out there doing that.

SPEAKER_08 14:12

Yeah, because we were talking about earlier on the floor there, that how when you when you pair the right meal or the right, you know, whiskey and the right pipe or or cigar or whatever it is, uh, it becomes a whole experience, right? It's not just the one thing or the other. It's not you know, three different things put together, but it becomes a whole experience which wraps itself around a memory, right? Right? And in a night spent together uh talking, or you know, uh whatever it is you're going through. You pair that with the whiskey, and and the whole memory becomes something that you will not forget. That is like the whole idea.

SPEAKER_04 14:50

Yeah, whiskey. I mean, we we tell the story all the time. Whiskey is really about memories, right? I mean, you know, there's something about whiskey when you sip it that triggers memories in your brain. I mean, my wife is a massive peat head, and and which is one of the the the reasons, not one of the reasons, the only reason we actually have peted whiskies on in our portfolio because she she she loved them, and and she would tell you that when she was drinking a peted scotch, it took her back to her grandmother's basement, right? In Ohio, where you guys are from, you know, her grandmother had like a dirt basement, and when she drank that those peted whiskies, it took her back to being a kid and being in her grandmother's basement. And yeah, maybe not drinking whiskey, but yeah, but yeah, memories are so crucial. And that and that's what that's what you know, nobody remembers sipping their first vodka, right? I mean, but you know, the vodka doesn't take you back anywhere, but but whiskey, you know, just triggers those memories, and that's what's so open special about it.

SPEAKER_06 16:02

Shared with somebody and uh the the whole thing that encompasses Chris talks a lot about like where whiskey, a lot, especially craft whiskey, takes you when you're drinking it. It takes you to that old dusty barn, it takes it reminds you of when you were mowing grass when you were a teenager. Uh it reminds you of what you know, whatever that time is in your life that it kind of takes you back to. I think that's there's a testament to that, like that you don't get with other alcohol.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

Yeah, and it's not it's not a reminder of a past drinking experience, it's just past in general. Past in general. So like I I grew up in essentially a non-drinking household. Like my parents didn't hardly drink at all. Um, but all the time we'll taste something and I'll like think about a memory of a camping trip with dad or something like that. It's always in there like that, and it's just this this amazing thing that whiskey has, that they're just these little bits inside of it that remind you of usually outdoor things of various forms, but uh, but how they do that. Um, also on the peted rye thing, I'm drinking the peted rye right now. There you go. All right, and this is heavenly. I'm also well, I think all of us here are are pretty big Scotch fans, but this is heavenly. Is this still available? Yes, it is. We've been trying to tell you about this stuff. I'll be going home with this.

SPEAKER_08 17:22

We've been hitting on this, but yeah, yeah, the idea of mixing this the style of rye with with peat. Yeah, what an idea. Like, and and what a combination.

SPEAKER_04 17:31

So, you know, I mentioned my wife. So, so from day one, we had produced a peated bourbon. You know, we we brought in peted malt from from Scotland, made a you know, a bourbon mash, 60% bloody butcher corn, 30% peated malt. And it was great. It was kind of what put us on the map, I think, in terms of a very unique whiskey. But these guys, you know, Rob and Kevin came up with the idea of like, well, can we replicate that mash, but with a rye Yeah, we're in Pennsylvania. Instead, yeah, right. Instead of instead of corn. And you know, it it just it it hit so perfectly.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

Based on talks that we've already had before, it sounds like the two boys here, the sons, are the are really the distillers. They're the ones that are doing a lot of the I don't even know how to turn the boiler on. So at least at least you know you have the boiler.

SPEAKER_07 18:27

That would be me in this situation.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

So, with that idea that you guys are like, well, we're in Pennsylvania, we need to do a rye. When you guys are coming up with mash bills and thinking about flavors and what are gonna match together, is there somebody that's that's primarily doing that, or is that kind of everybody?

SPEAKER_05 18:45

Ironically, the mash bills have all been dead. We haven't changed the mash bills.

SPEAKER_09 18:49

Yeah, we really haven't made with the mash bills, were set whenever the company was was open, and we haven't really messed with those too much. Yeah, yeah. We've had ability to kind of like adjust fermentation temps, yeast strains, distillation parameters, all barrel sizes, all that stuff. But the one thing we've never really messed with is the mash bills. We are still. I mean, I say that, but we whittle down the malt percentage pretty good. So we've had so like we've had like subtle influences, but we haven't really. But that's interesting.

SPEAKER_08 19:15

You're able to get that much variation out of basically the same mash pillet you've been using.

SPEAKER_09 19:20

Well, and if you ask me, whenever it comes to making whiskey, it's really tough to say which mash which variables the most important, right? Because really it's all about there's 800 of them, yeah, and you need to line them up in a way that they all work together. Right, right. It's really the yeah, there's four different ways you can make a mash and it all work out great. It's just, you know, marrying that with how you run your stills, with what your barrels are and where you stick them for four years or how long you age them for.

SPEAKER_08 19:43

So I mean that that just is a testament to like it doesn't matter how much you you know people think they know about, okay. I'm gonna let me read the stats on this bottle or whatever. That means nothing. But there's so many variables that come to this specific product, the spirit, that everything changes, even if the mash bill doesn't. Like you have so many things that can change that. I mean, what a crazy commodity.

SPEAKER_09 20:08

Yeah, like for instance, before we introduce my mom, for instance, like one thing you'll be really excited about is like with this, we run a high rye bourbon mash bill. It's not always available. We started making it for real in early 2022, so it'll be four years old after Christmas. So it's it's getting close. Like we can we can start to taste it in the and the barrels are the barrels seem to be cooperating and seem to be on about that four-year timeline. We're really messing around right now with whether or not the rye goes in with the corn or the rye goes in after the corn. Seems like such a subtle change, but like you can really drive floral rye flavors, you can really drive like spicy cinnamon kind of rye flavors. So it's interesting.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

It is really interesting, and now that we have we have another member joining us. We do, yeah. Come on, sit down. We got a church. We've been talking amongst the podcast group for a while about maybe changing up our setup and adding more mics. And I think this just confirms we need to do that. Yeah, we need we need more mics. Yeah. So mom has joined us. Yes, what's your name? Ellen. Good to meet you, Ellen. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

This is an honor.

SPEAKER_04 21:14

So the brains are the operation. That's right. That's that's we have the brains, yeah. The brains, the the reason behind our branding and our story. Yeah, Ellen.

SPEAKER_06 21:25

So I'd like to ask you, well, then in that case, I'd like to ask you a question about the branding. So we talked a lot about like the Liberty Pole and a lot about the whiskey rebellion. So I'm assuming it was probably you that kind of had the say-so on the building, the facility, right? It's beautiful. You've got the wood beams, you've got the stone, the old style tables, you know, colonial style, you know, tables for people to sit at. Talk me through a little bit about that, kind of where you went with that and how you got to where you are with the with the facility now.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Oh, that's really um I'll be flat out. Honest with you, I like everything to be where I would enjoy drinking a whiskey with Jim and the boys. Could I just sit down and relax and drink whiskey with them? When we first started, it was difficult to find a brand because everything related to whiskey rebellion had already been trademarked. And so the only thing that was unique was, of course, did you guys tell them about the Liberty Pole? Yep.

SPEAKER_10 22:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

And so the only thing that was unique was that Liberty Pole concept. And so it was easy to pronounce, easy to remember. And we thought that was the one thing that made us unique. But I still stand by. Our whiskey is fabulous in my mind. I think my family is amazing. Therefore, the way that you decorate the tasting room and the way that the experience that everyone has to have has to be perfect and well balanced for I gotta have good food. I gotta have good whiskey. I gotta have a beautiful environment. And we just seem to be very blessed in that we've been lucky enough to hit all those points.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

So you guys have done a wonderful job of it. I mean, the the place does scream colonial, and so it does have that that feel to it. I'm the history buff in the group. And so I'm a history major, and like I was Civil War was kind of my period that I really liked. And as time has gone on, I've I've moved farther and farther back to Revolution and Whiskey Rebellion era. So all of this is just really cool, and it's a really awesome space the way you've decorated it and the way it's done up, and calling it a meeting room and all of that. It's it's it's staying very honest to the brand. So it works out really well. So you but not as a gimmick. No, not as a gimmick, exactly. Yeah, this is not Colonial Williams.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

This is yeah, but as a good whiskey and a good soft chair in a really high beamed, yeah, it's perfect. I think it's perfect. I feel really blessed.

SPEAKER_03 23:49

It is, and thank you for they told us the story before you got here about peted whiskey and you being the impetus for that.

SPEAKER_09 23:57

So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Oh, you ought to have Steve's over the moon. Yeah, yeah. Between this and then having an American single malt that Chris likes, which is amazing. He's he doesn't like any of them. I love them. I I always like them.

SPEAKER_08 24:12

I I have not I've not committed to being to liking any American single mall.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 24:17

I think this is it. I think this is so but I think that's interesting. Like again, it shows that there's so many facets of this whole company, you guys' whole brand, and that you guys all are working together to fill out every facet.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

I think I think that it's a very competitive market when you take a look at how great Kentucky bourbons are and you look at great scotches, and Japan's even entering the market. Then we have to be on our toes on every part of it. It has to be the full experience.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

You know, I I like to say that like we're we're I think we're like phase two of the craft revolution in in craft whiskey, right? We stand on the shoulders of you know the the the initial guys that started craft whiskey. We're in we're in that second generation, you know, 2014, 15, 16 when we got our start. You know, I I think, you know, we we in the early days craft spirits were so unique. You could have literally put up a pole barn, had a still, and and people would beat down the door to come to you. That's not the case anymore. You you really have to have an experience, you have to have great liquid, you have to have an experience, good cocktails, good food. And I think that's what you know, that's what this new location has has really given us.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

Do you did you ever um tell them about Bill Samuels talking to you that one night?

SPEAKER_04 25:49

So, so I mentioned that we were so lucky to be in Washington, Pennsylvania, right? Home of the whiskey rebellion. So Washington, Pennsylvania actually has a annual whiskey rebellion festival. And Jim Beam, Beam Santuri, is a big sponsor of that. And so they used to bring in the heavy hitters, man. Fred No came in, and and and uh who's the guy from uh LaFroy. Simon Brookings was there. And one year Bill Samuels came in, makers mark, right? So that was the year that we were getting close to opening up. And the city was so proud of us. So proud that we were gonna have a whiskey distillery in the city. They they made, you know, they they made sure that we got to meet Bill Samuels.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

We got all dressed up.

SPEAKER_04 26:34

We got all dressed up, and and and have you ever met Bill Samuels? He's he's a very kind of frank guy. I mean, but he's nice, he's very nice, but he's you know, he doesn't have a filter. And so we, you know, we met Bill Samuels and and Tripp, the guy from the Whiskey Rebellion Festival, said, Bill, this is Jim and Ellen. They're opening up a whiskey distillery right here in Washington, Pennsylvania. Bill Samuels looked me in the eye and said, Why the hell would you do that?

SPEAKER_02 27:01

You'll never succeed, he said.

SPEAKER_04 27:03

You know, and honestly, you know, he was right. I mean, opening up a whiskey distillery is is very, you know, it's it's a challenge. And I mean, I can see from his point of view how he would, you know, offer that experience, you know, offer that advice.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

So truthfully, you kind of you kind of felt sad, and you and you go out, you go back out to the car when the banquet's over, and you're like, oh, and I say, Come on, Jim, that's the fire we need.

SPEAKER_07 27:32

Yeah, and that's a good wife.

SPEAKER_04 27:36

Yeah, we need that. Yeah, you know what they say. The easiest way to make a small fortune and distilling, start with a large fortune. And we had neither.

SPEAKER_08 27:47

So you guys had a great idea, yeah, and you have. I I I think through the family aspect and the integrity that you guys have shown and everything else, you guys have worked and built this thing up to be something that is really something.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

The the integrity part I really want to hit on now that you guys are all here. So we know on the podcast we talked about my first experience when I came here. And having the experience of uh someone in the bottle shop not necessarily saying wonderful words about uh another local distillery. And that really immediately was like, okay, we're done. But then we got to meet you guys, and that completely changed everything, completely changed the moment, the the story behind the whiskey, the story behind the distillery. Uh, the integrity piece that I want to hit on, and and really, if you guys are open, ask you guys when you guys heard that, you reached out to us and said, that hurts. Like that that really hurt when we when we heard that, that kind of broke our heart of that would happen here. And we wanna we want to try to help change that. Why? Why why would you why would that matter that much?

SPEAKER_05 28:59

I think anyone could answer this of us. Yeah. But the uh I mean shoot, reputation is the hardest thing to build and it's the fastest thing to lose, right? And uh, so we would rather be known for doing great stuff and having our own stuff that it builds the reputation that way than putting other people down. So that's not like you don't you don't really get ahead by doing that.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

So um, but I feel like it goes deeper than that. And here's why I'm gonna say this we were just at Wiggle, and the guy that we spoke with had nothing but great things to say about you guys. I mean, he was he was actually kind of jealous of the fact he wasn't coming with us to be a part of this. He had nothing but great things. He kept talking about you guys brought them over here, uh, kind of wind them, dined them, got to talk to him, got to, and it just everything just kept coming out, and he couldn't believe it. It was just one of those moments of like it goes beyond a reputation. It goes beyond that. It goes, I see a moment of you guys saying, We're family, we want to make this happen. Everyone else around you's like, Why would you do this? Like, what out here, why would you do this? You're not gonna survive. How would you survive? You're it's craft, it's local. Well, it's really it's a rough area to possibly start that. But I think you guys have the integrity that is necessary to allow this to survive.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

Yeah, it really is showing. Yeah, so so you know, we like to, you know, say that we're we're not competing with Wiggle, we're not competing with Iron City distilling, we're partners, you know. The you know, it's an overused phrase, but a rising tide lists all boats. We want all craft distilleries to do well, we want them all to produce great whiskeys because you know, you may not come to us first, you may go somewhere else, and if you have a bad experience, you may not come to see us. So, so we root for all of these guys. You know, we're we're really partners, we're we're not competitors. Honestly, we're we're friends, uh, we we hang out. Yeah, it's um it's just such a a really fun industry. We help each other.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

I would also like to add that I think we have customers who fully appreciate the craft. And I don't think you find that in other industries. We are just we can't let our customers down.

SPEAKER_09 31:17

It's exact it's exciting to see what happens with whiskey whenever you go outside of that realm of Kentucky, because that's arguably some of the best whiskey you get in America, right? It's just it's if this is the big umbrella of what American whiskey could be, they'd stay in a very small sliver of it. So it's cool whenever you get more and more of these craft distilleries coming up where one person likes to play over here, another person likes to play over here, and you start getting a lot more diversity all of a sudden in the products you have available.

SPEAKER_08 31:42

We touched on that earlier. I I think there's still some people, obviously, with after the bourbon craze that are that are bottle chasing and whatever else. But I think there's more and more people that are searching out for this craft aspect, and it is so obvious. I mean, it it is artistry in a bottle, as is what it is. And I I think people are really starting to realize there's such an appreciation for this. You guys encapsulate that 100%. And there's you're not gonna get that with the big names, you're just not. And again, going back to what you were saying, your friends with these other distilleries, you you guys aren't working against each other, you're working with each other. What an interesting market commodity, whatever you want to call it, that that does that kind of a thing. You don't see that nowadays. Even uh even people that paint pictures wouldn't say that. You guys are doing that, and you're doing it in a venue that works with that, and it only adds to the legitimacy of your guys' brand.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Last time I was here, we talked about uh David from Still 630. He's a legend.

SPEAKER_05 32:53

He's a legend, yeah. He makes good whiskey too. He does.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

So uh Chris was not able to be a part of that. Steve and I went to go interview him, and when we went to go interview him, a couple days before that, Penelope got sold. And I remember talking to Dave and bringing that up, and he was just frustrated beyond belief. And the frustration for him was the integrity aspect, the the the the heart, the soul, the blood, sweat, and tears going into the craft whiskey world, and and seeing him and you guys together, I'm like, you guys fit perfect. Like you have that same passion, that same love for what you do, and then you put so much into this, and you see someone that doesn't have that same integrity, doesn't have that same passion, doesn't have that same drive, that gets sold for billions, and you're like, Well, why not that I want to sell, but why not me? What what am I missing? And uh that was that was a big and it was a good question, a good conversation that we had with them. And I say that to say that you we see these craft distilleries popping up that really care, and we see these bourbon hunters, and they don't really collide together, but the ones that go after the craft distilleries are the ones that are like, I see what you're doing. Yeah, I see what you're doing, and I appreciate every aspect. I may not love Chris may not love American single malts, but he appreciates the aspect of creating that American single. He loves one.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

It's it's this, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

On record, he loves one. We did an entire American single malt series in order to find one and craft over to everyone. Yes.

SPEAKER_07 34:33

Steve's gonna go home and write in his diary, like Chris likes an American single malt.

SPEAKER_05 34:39

Yeah, it's it's funny to say that uh Rob um I think has a really good way of kind of describing it. Like when you look at Kentucky, you know, whiskey, it's a very it's a sliver of what American whiskey can be. And so one thing that we've been excited about is just like you can find a niche in doing something that is not that little sliver. And if you do it well, for everyone that was like into whiskey maybe 20 years ago, before like it got really hard like to get stuff, they're like looking for something what's interesting, what's cool out there. And man, if you can do this outside of that Kentucky sliver, but do it very well, what a cool world to live in that's really rewarding. And you get to, you know, meet people who are really into it, and and and it's a cool opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

I like meeting the women who like whiskey. I they like it more for the emotional aspect. This reminds me of my father. This reminds me of something in their lives. And there's been I've had a a chance to drink with some of the finest women I've ever met who have a much more substantial knowledge and have taught me a lot about whiskey, but I think it's undercutting the the whiskey industry if you leave out the fact that there are amazing women who understand and love it as well.

SPEAKER_08 35:53

That's that's yeah, one of my favorite things is uh my wife is not a big drinker, but she will try a sip of something that I'm drinking just to kind of get the idea of like, okay, what are you experiencing right now? And even if she's not like a big drinker, she appreciates the flavor. And I'll explain to her what I'm getting and she'll say what she's getting. And and like you said, a lot of times it's tied to emotion. But I think that that's what whiskey is, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:21

Well, whiskey is so connected to wine with the ter terror in that you know it depends on the region, how the wine tastes, and it's the same with whiskey, how the whiskey tastes depends on the region. So I agree with you that I think I I will I started out learning whiskey by sharing gym's just to see what he was experiencing. And now the two of us are like, tonight we could use a whiskey. We never say that with other spirits, right? It's so weird about whiskey that you that you do that.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Yeah, when we were uh we mentioned before, like whiskey has this ability to take you back to some sort of a memory, right? Yeah, absolutely. It's not even necessarily a drinking memory, it's just a memory of some sort. And so, like, I I lost my father over the summer here, and it was like an unexpected sort of thing, and he wasn't a drinker at all, and so but we we spent a lot of time outdoors and a lot of camping and all that stuff, so all the time I'll taste whiskeys and it'll like bring me back to drinking memory or something like that, and it's just this amazing emotional feeling that you can get out of whiskey. Yeah, oh totally, totally.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

You know, talking about David and you know Penelope, you know, the MDPs and and God bless them. I mean, they're they're doing wonderful things with whiskey, but but they have access, you know, especially guys like Penelope to so many more barrels. They have the ability to kind of get volume plays, right? That'll never be us. I mean, you know, we've never sourced a drop of whiskey. So, like, that's that's not even on our radar to kind of have that sort of event happen for us. But um, yeah, you know, God bless them.

SPEAKER_03 38:01

On that front, uh, you know, crafted whiskeys, we've we've talked to a lot of them, and all of them have different ways that they got started. And whiskey has this fortunate and unfortunate aspect of time that means that source people. So, like when you get started in a whiskey company, like you can't sell anything for you know a couple years, or you know, depending on however long it's you're gonna take it. Now you tell me. So, uh, so with that, you guys chose not to source from the get-go. What did you guys do to get started in order to start those first few years?

SPEAKER_05 38:36

To me, it's one of the things I think I'm most proud of, to be honest. And we haven't seen a lot of people do it. And maybe Rob, you chime in. Um, but we it was all small barrels, so five-gallon barrels, this the surface area to volume ratio on the five-gallon barrel, it's a lot smaller. So our first stuff batches, they were three months old. And honestly, looking back at it, like I think we were idiots. Like, we literally put on the front label age for a minimum of three months. Like that was on the front label.

SPEAKER_07 39:00

Uh we were honest.

SPEAKER_05 39:04

And again, brutal hands burned. But but uh, you know, Rob kind of alluded a little bit too. Like, we learned a lot from that process, and and then we went half of the whiskey in five-gallon barrels, half into 10-gallon barrels, and the 10-gallon barrels started sitting for six months. Uh, and then uh half into 10, half into 15-gallon barrels, and some of those 15-gallon barrels started sitting for a year, and you're starting to learn a little bit of it. I still remember me and Rob were you know, we were doing a tails cut at one point, and like things we were like, I think we need a little bit more of these fatty acids and these oils to get into the barrel to to oxidize out to esterify. And we're like, I think we need to go a little bit heavier into our heart's cut. And I remember we were stirring the tank and we're like, we might be updating our resumes in like a year. Like maybe this sucks, right? But but made a whole a big jump of the of that new distillate into the barrels, but but and then 15-gallon barrels of 25 and 25 to 30 and 30 to 53. And so our way of doing it, rather than putting it all into big barrels and sort and and making vodka and gin in the meantime till it ages, was just to always do whiskey, and it just progressively got older as the barrel size got bigger.

SPEAKER_08 40:09

That is pretty cool. Like it's such a leap of faith, right? And and and I think that that's the thing that you're starting to see with with people that drink whiskey, is there's this shift from what I consider to be quality is from these big, massive companies to what I see quality as these people that are hand-touching these products. And uh, me being a pipe smoker, that's one of those things. You know, there's a lot of tobacco blends that are massively produced that are the big names. And there are a lot of pipe companies where you buy a pipe, and again, it's it's machine piped or whatever, machine-made pipes. You know, as a pipe smoker, eventually you get to a point where you're like, no, I'd rather have somebody hand carve a pipe that spent time on and it's one of a kind. And and this has so much more value to me. And same thing with a small batch pipeline. This was meticulously made. To me, that's quality, right? And that's exactly what you guys are kind of doing. And you're starting to do it with more volume. Like, wow. Like, you know what I mean? So, like, I think people are starting to see that shift of okay, what I see was quality from these big companies that are massively producing something with really very little, sometimes very little work and ethic and everything else. That I'm starting to shift towards this, like, these guys are really, really innovating and they're really putting their heart and soul into this. What what you just described to me is everything about what quality is. And you don't get that with these big, massive, produced companies.

SPEAKER_05 41:40

Well, I think it's a cool part about that is there's been a lot of really successful craft guys that have started up with um the consultants, and there's some really talented consultants, and and they know what they're doing, and they set you up. We didn't, we didn't have we didn't do that, and that's either good or bad, um, right? It comma, it doesn't matter. But I think what's cool about it is that it's very much uniquely ours, right? It's it's uh it's you know, hey, we didn't we didn't like this particular flavor, we adjusted this and we tweaked it. It wasn't just like here's a set of rules to to play by. And uh, and so and I I think we're very happy with where it's ended up. Yeah, uh, and it's cool now, especially knowing that it's entirely our process, it's not someone else's set of rules.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

I I gotta tell you a story I haven't told you guys yet. So a couple months ago, a guy came in and asked for me. And I went to talk to him, and he said, Do you remember when you first started at the old place? There was an event space next door. There was a wedding going on, and it must have been our second or third run. We were sitting on the floor with that whiskey that we had taken out of the still, and we had a big funnel into one of those little barrels, and we were scooping it.

SPEAKER_10 42:48

And this is with ladled crazy.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

So, this wedding party, we were ladling it into barrels, and this wedding party came over, and we were just like, hey, we're trying to do everything we can to drum up business, right? This wedding party came over and they stood there and they watched us. And apparently, I do not remember that part of it, but apparently we gave them some. And the guy said to me, I just want to tell you that I have followed you over these last 10 years. You still have the same flavor. It's always the same flavor. It just gets more and more complex. And he goes, I feel like I'm part owner of your business. I think he was maybe trying to get a free bottle, and I gave him one. But but he was saying that it really over time I've watched. It's not that you guys needed to update your resume. It's that we really have grown with the product and that there are some loyal customers out there, apparently, who've watched us and are fully in in invested in us as well.

SPEAKER_08 43:45

You you can't feign that personal touch.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

No, it was wild because I I still remember that wedding vividly. The bride's down there laughing and we're scoping it into that's the best, though.

SPEAKER_08 43:55

I you can't you can't you can't fake that.

SPEAKER_05 43:56

You can't remember the one that Rob said father of the father of the bride.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

I love that. I love those memories. And we we talk about uniqueness, right? For you guys. You guys have two unique grains within your bourbon. One within the bourbon, one within the rye. Coming from Ohio, I'd say they're unique. So you got the bloody butcher corn, which we've talked to Jeff the Creed in depth about that. They they grow it themselves. And what I've been told is it's a pain in the ass. So you guys have it. You guys use it. And then you also have Monaco Halo rye, if I'm pronouncing it right, which I've also been told is um pain in the ass. Yeah, exactly. So why? With you guys trying to grow, you guys trying to be unique, uniquely you, why those two grains?

SPEAKER_04 44:42

I I mean you hit it on uniquely us, right? Um bloody, I I'll take bloody butcher, you guys can do monagahala, but but when when we were starting, um Ellen and you know it always comes back to Ellen.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

So I'm not gonna I'm like, we gotta have different grain chills we can't use agony.

SPEAKER_04 44:59

We did some research and we actually tracked down a fairly, and I'm not gonna name the family name, but a fairly notorious moonshining family in the area. And we went to talk to one of the you know descendants and said, if you were gonna make a legal, you know, whiskey, what would you use? And he said, Bloody butcher corn 100%. And you know, I've heard Jeff the Creed, um, and I love their story that like they would grow number two yellow dents, and they would grow bloody butcher, and the deer would eat the bloody butcher, right? And and you know, I mean that that that in a nutshell that describes why we use bloody butcher. It it's delicious, right? Even the deer know it. So all right.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

The farmer used to come and cry, I tried so hard to grow you something.

SPEAKER_07 45:49

Yeah, very telling.

SPEAKER_09 45:54

The stocks are super tall, yields low per anywhere, they get blown over and wings.

SPEAKER_08 45:58

And every year you go, I gotta raise some ice, I gotta raise some price. It's a pain that much of a pain in the ass. It's it's a good product. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:06

Yeah. But but you know, it it it was a a staple of the American diet in in the 19th century, right? You know, uh bloody butcher corn is just very flavorful, and and you know, I like to talk about, you know, a lot of bourbons talk about rye or wheat being their flavoring grains, right? Bloody butcher corn is our flavoring grain. You know, we use wheat or rye as, you know, kind of an augmentation grain, right? Wheat softens it up a little bit, but you know, we get a ton of flavor from the bloody butcher corn.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

It's red. As the um moonshiner described to me, it's the red that that's it comes from phosphorus. And when the yeast eat the phosphorus, they they give you a much more earthy whiskey.

SPEAKER_00 46:53

So then monongahala, right? Is it monogahela or how do you pronounce it? Monongahala. Monongahela. Monongahala. Monongahila. We've been pronouncing it with a long time.

SPEAKER_10 47:06

Monongahela.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

You got something in your three. The M rye, you know, something like that. We've been butchering it. We've been butchering it. There we go.

SPEAKER_09 47:15

Yeah, exactly. Pittsburgh you call it the Mon. The Mon Rye.

SPEAKER_05 47:22

The Mon. Um, but I so I'd say that's more of the style of rye whiskey. Um, you know, the varietal of rye that is grown for us is what we call danko rye. And the the style itself is very interesting, though. So our big thing, you have MGP rye, 95.5 on a column still, great rye. And then you have a Kentucky style rye, which they they don't really love rye because it's gummy, it it's hard to work with. So they try to put as much corn as they possibly can in, right? So you have your Kentucky rice that are 51% rye, bare minimum amount of rye, and then a lot of corn. Both also delicious, too, right? Traditional Pennsylvania or mononga hala style rye generally had no corn in the mash bill. So when when they were making whiskey, and you kind of have two eras, you have your colonial mononga halerai, which is more our brand, and then you have your industrial age mononga halerai. So pre-prohibition, there was a lot of whiskey being drank out of uh Pennsylvania, arguably more than Kentucky, right? I mean, it was this was kind of a home of American whiskey for a long time. Industrial age mononga halerae like to use heated warehouses and three chamber stills, and then old mononga halerae, you potentially would throw in whatever the heck you had, which is why we think our our kind of style with the 13% wheat is a neat kind of nod to our our colonial style. So, but but essentially, whenever the real kind of down and dirty version of manonga hailer rye is it's a no-corn mash bill with a little bit higher malt. Should be, in our opinion, distilled batch, so no column stills, which we are massive advocates for for pot stills, and and so batch distilled, no corn rye uh with a little bit higher malt content, 15, 20.

SPEAKER_04 49:07

So before we started recording, I I told these guys Sam Kamlenick's favorite advertisement from Industrial Age Prohibition, pre-prohibition rye. Our rye whiskey is made with no drugs, corn, or other poisons.

SPEAKER_01 49:25

I love the fact that you guys just nerd, uh, as Mary would say, nerd it out about whiskey. So the wife loves the fact that someone asked me a question about a bottle and I will go on for 30 minutes about why, why it is what it is, and it's amazing. You gotta do this, gotta do that, and it's so different from this, and so different from that. So you guys just, I mean, you nerd it out in there completely, and I love that. But I say that because we've got five bottles sitting on this table right now, not a single one of them are the same. Oh no, right? Not a single one of them are the same, and yet all of them tell a different story, have the same quality, and are amazing. Like you, you guys, five different bottles, and they have the same quality and share a different story all at the same time. Like it's insane. That's that's it's not thank you. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's a high compliment.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

We appreciate that. So I want to ask the four of you because there are so many bottles that you guys have done over the past however many years that you guys and and lots of finishings, lots of different ries and bourbons. What is the bottle that you are most either we can say favorite, but favorite and most proud of, the one you the one you really like, or the or the one you have the best story for. If you had to pick your favorite.

SPEAKER_04 50:41

Each one of us will have a different bottle.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

I think, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 50:43

So for me, I've I've I've kind of I like to watch people and as they've come in, as each each member of the family has come in, they've all looked for a specific bottle. Yeah, that's I've noticed the same thing. All four of them have picked different bottles. That's been so much. I'm curious to see what all their answers are. That was actually gonna be my next question. Is you know, like what's the bottle that you reach for first? Or what's the bottle that you're like that that's gonna take me to great, great, uh fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 51:10

Ellen, do you want to start? Because we know what you're gonna pick.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

Yeah, this I've got the smoky jacket here. Although that's not, there are I I'm saying that is my favorite. It's pita bourbon. I will go for pita bourbon every chance I get. And I find that hard to believe being a um if as a person who likes scotch, the corn part of this surprises me how much I enjoy that flavor. But any of our single barrel pita bourbons are delicious.

SPEAKER_04 51:37

So that was a single barrel pita bourbon.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

That's the only one I just tasted of.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

Yeah, just the nose.

SPEAKER_03 51:43

So we don't say that's a heavy pita. You you brought that off the shelf, and that's the one you drank, and and you gave me a glass right away. And I was drinking the pita rye, and I really enjoyed the pita rye. But when you gave me the pita bourbon, it does add a bit of a sweetness to it, but that smoke is still really much alive and well. And it's got a lot of things. Does it add and that's the thing? It's just it stays with you.

SPEAKER_09 52:10

And that particular single barrel is probably one of the smokier ones we've done. Why it got single barrel, which is it's uh well done.

SPEAKER_01 52:17

It's crazy because uh we've talked about so big Scotch lovers, we've talked about there's different regions within Scotland, and you get different styles of peat within each one. And I love, absolutely love, and always talk about the peated rye. In fact, the day after my wife and I visited you guys, I bought a bottle and Chris and I opened the bottle and finished it in a couple hours. It didn't take long, like an hour and a half. Yeah, it was like this LaFroig Logovan, like it was this weird combination with rye. It was wonderful, it was amazing. It's everything I wanted. Now, this peted bourbon, it's it's like going from it's going from LaFroig logoveline to like Highland part. It's going to a completely different uh peat. I totally agree with the Highland part. Yeah, it it's it's a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

I have to tell you the story behind the Peter bourbon, just real quick, is that um the night that Jim was thinking about considering opening a distillery, I may have said you don't make good enough whiskey to open a distillery. I may have said that. And he went and got this peated malted barley from Scotland and mixed it with his bourbon from a beer store and mixed it with his corn mash. And um, to this day, it will be that you guys better drink this at my funeral because to me, this was what um what got us started.

SPEAKER_10 53:45

We stopped the line. All right, we got the line. All right, we got to it. We all went to bed. We guys are on the article.

SPEAKER_02 53:53

This is I like the push too long. It's a sentimental whiskey for me.

SPEAKER_07 53:58

He's the more logical brother, not the not the humor one. Yeah, he'll make sure he was like, We've got this. Mom said, Mom said, ask for forgiveness.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

But the Peter bourbon is sentimental.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

I never thought that you could, with an American whiskey or American bourbon, right? Yeah, I never thought you could change that that profile like you could within Scotch. And it's it's it's crazy that you can, isn't it? Yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_09 54:26

As long as 51% of your mouth builds that corner, that rye. It's crazy because we'll grind off this smoked malt and smell is very much present in the cooker, it's very much present throughout fermentation. You put it in the stills, it sticks even through distillation and then ages four years into that. So it's yeah, it's cool.

SPEAKER_08 54:45

It's aromatic, like a English tobacco. Yeah, 100%. That smells fantastic.

SPEAKER_09 54:50

Yeah, it's a flavor addition that sticks around. So yeah, you gotta run your laundry a lot whenever you're making.

SPEAKER_07 54:56

Or or not. If you like the smell, don't you?

SPEAKER_04 55:00

Or not because he wears the same shirt on right. Yeah, this is quite something. Jim, how about you? So my favorite um is actually our, and I don't think we have a bottle on the table, is the I I do love the single malt, but my my favorite release that we do over and over is uh high-ri bourbon.

SPEAKER_05 55:23

So that's what we pulled this one.

SPEAKER_04 55:26

Oh, yeah, this was a just a from the immersion tour. So our our take on this high-ribourbon, we from day one, we've made a wheat of bourbon. And and I talked to you guys earlier about why we like wheat, soft, approachable. But you know, as as Rob and Kevin's, you know, talked about, we're we're a proud Pennsylvania rye distillery. And you know, we started thinking about okay, these Kentucky rye, they're 51% rye, they're barely legal rye whiskeys and a lot of corn. So why don't we flip that over and do a barely legal bourbon? So, so we started doing this 51% bloody butcher corn, 40% rye. So it's almost a boo-ry, right? And to this day, that is my favorite recipe we make. And and we're we're about six months away from having that as kind of a regular product on our portfolio. The the the when we started really like realizing how good it was three and a half years ago, we started making more of it. We've released some four-year-old single barrels. We have one on the table now, but but I love that. It's it's like it's a Pennsylvania bourbon. Right? It's it's a bourbon, but man, the rye influence is is there. And it's coming up to that age where it's just ready.

SPEAKER_09 56:46

Yeah, that's that's fantastic. I'll get a little nerdy. Mine is a couple single barrels of rye whiskey, of course. So with these pot stills, we're able to put out some like really rich, viscous whiskies, lots of oils. Um, and whenever those oil, whenever those oxidize out over four years at you know, an open air rick house, right? Like getting the oak out of the barrel to us is a little bit easier than getting all the oxygen in there to actually esterify some of these oils. So having a couple of these rye whiskies that get up there towards that four to five, six-year-old range, highly esterified but still pot stilled viscous, those are those are my favorite ones. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 57:24

Like one thing that like stands out the most is like with when you're playing in those different areas, you're playing in the areas that you love, right? The areas that you're passionate about. And and that shows through with your guys' whiskey, but I feel like more than a lot of other distillers across you know, across across America for sure. And then that like you can tell that this is an area you want to be in. And even you know, even you said the boys were like, this is ready, this is ready, and it's you know, four years and 11 months, um three days short of it. Yeah, let's wait another month and call it a five-year, you know, whiskey. It was literally, it was that it was that that was short stack, and it was like three days. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, let it go. They're excited. Yeah, exactly. They're excited, but when you're playing with something that you love and that you're passionate about, and like that's what you love, you that's gonna bleed through to the consumer. That's gonna bleed through to people who buy from you.

SPEAKER_04 58:22

So, one of the things that I heard at an early distilling conference we went to is make what you like because if you fail, you may have to drink it all. I love it.

SPEAKER_06 58:33

That's a pretty good point. And we talked to, we were at the you know, the craft distillers festival, yeah, yeah. And we talked to a couple of distillers and we were talking about they're like, Well, you know, we like this is what we like, you know, and it and it's five of us guys, we're all friends, and this is the stuff that we like. So it's nice to hear feedback from other people that you like it too, yeah, because now we kind of know we feel like we're on the right track. And I think the biggest point is like not trying to appeal to something that you're not, right? Being authentic, and that's that comes back to that authenticity. It's being who you like who you are and playing in that space that you want to be in, and I think people will find you there.

SPEAKER_04 59:12

So we've seen that, right? Um we're we're trying to kind of raise brand awareness a little bit. We're sending out samples, and I've noticed that sending out samples to content creators that play in the B-TAC, Kentucky column distilled whiskey, versus guys like you that are like open to craft, like our products get so much more positive feedback from you know, from guys that are willing to, you know, think outside the box, right? You know, you're you're not only gonna look for a BTAC or a weller or something, right?

SPEAKER_01 59:49

And I I think it's less uh we we keep talking about parsing out you know the the hunters versus the the lovers, right? Yeah, I think it also comes down to why we started the podcast was and around whiskey was the why behind the what. Why do you guys do what you do? Because sitting here go uh going through the tour with you guys, I'm I am 100% bought into why you guys do what you do. You guys are a family that care about each other, you care about the product, you guys give each other shit sometimes about like, oh, it's already not ready, and you fight about that. But at the end of the day, you guys sit together and say, This is what we want, and this is what we're gonna do. And we we a hundred percent say we agree with this, this is what we love. I I found that the the craft lovers buy into the why. They they fall in love with that idea of what you're doing, they fall in love with the idea of who you are. And then and then they go, what you're selling, it matches why you're doing it. And because of that, I can I now have memories, right? I now have those memories of of tasting this and going, oh man, I'm I'm now brought back to my grandparents at the at the barmer, at the farm, at these different moments, right? I am brought back to those memories because I bought into what you're doing and I love what you're doing.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:07

That's exactly why. So years ago, when when Nick and I came together and started the club, uh the whiskey chasers club, it was because we uh enjoyed a whiskey together that made so much more than the drinking, the flavor, there was everything, every aspect that went into it. We said we've we've we want to share this with people. So we we started this club, and born out of that club with like-minded individuals, Steve was like, Let's do this podcast, and and we can talk about how we feel about this stuff, right? And when we started this years ago, and it's gotten to this point where that's exactly what it is. What you're talking about is why we got into why we love whiskey. It's not the actual drink itself, it's it's it's it's what it brings out in us, and that is exactly what you guys are doing. And it it's it's it's it it gives me like chills, honestly, to we've done interviews with other companies and stuff, and I've always said, like, well, I have this favorite and this favorite, but I I I I hate to say it.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:17

Let's go! I hate to say it.

SPEAKER_08 1:02:19

But like I've gone, like, I you guys have such a place in my heart at this point that you guys embody everything that we sought out to create with the club and the podcast. And when I talk about whiskey, and my wife kind of rolls her eyes and stuff, but at the it she knows like that this is something that I care about because of all the things that it brings out in me and in the conversations I have with other people, yeah, and and it's the whole experience, and you guys embody that 100%. Like you guys have become like my favorite.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:51

Like I like I just before we get too far into that though, Kevin.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:57

Yeah, we have not heard your favorites, and I'm just saying I'm right in my will.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:02

Yeah, well, so I will I agree with that.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:04

The the your whole point is great.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:08

That was awesome. I was enjoying that. And uh and uh man, that's a hard question. I mean, I feel like a cop-out answer, but I love the foolproof. I feel like, especially it's the only one we put a batch number on for like our like uh non-single barrel product, and and with the name, the old manga halo, you know, foolproof behind it. I feel like there was so much like um, I don't know, I uh there's like there's like pressure behind it. The name is important, the history of PA Rye is important. So we we put a lot into it. And every time we blend these and we batch number it, like it's a very big ordeal. And I feel like I'm like I I enjoy it a lot, and batches can be like subtly different, and and so but 100 A proof rye, like I feel like I generally almost always find myself going for that one.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

Funny thing is, that's the one that we had on the podcast. Yeah, yeah. That's the one that again I I experienced here and I bought here, and I kept to myself until we did the podcast, which was pretty recent. I kind of got yelled at by these two guys. Like, why were you keeping the secret? Like, what is going on right now? And then they tried the toasted. Oh yeah, yeah. And they said, What the hell is happening? Like, why? Why why? What is going on? Why did you keep this?

SPEAKER_09 1:04:17

Well, not to be not to tease you at all, but the um along the same lines of the toasted is it kind of sparked an urge to maybe start doing some double oaking of whiskeys, which is which is very similar to toasted barrels, but with a little more of that charred sweet marshmallow. And I think there's double oaks uh that are they're weed of bourbons and they're ready to roll probably in a month. Yes, please.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:39

So on that, on that, I want to I want to kind of like so we got a chance to try some stuff that you guys are about to come out with. Yeah, talk to us a little bit about like some of the things that you guys are about to release, which I will say I think all of us can agree were fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:55

We might roll a barrel out without them knowing. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:58

We always tell people if you can if you can pick them up, you can take them. I might see the truth.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:03

Don't say some of these guys look strong. I mean, he looks strong. Is that four of us? Can we all four look about the door? How does that work? Everybody's standby.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:15

So years ago, we we decided like, you know, Black Friday is great and small business Saturday is great, and those are wonderful days for small businesses to you know introduce products. But you know, we kind of always said, man, I would rather like sell whiskey on Wednesday before Thanksgiving so people can take it to Thanksgiving dinner and drink it and enjoy like you're talking about. So because whiskey is meant to be enjoyed, right? So so we came up with the idea of doing single barrel releases on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Well, I wasn't always triple same, but but it's it's evolved into a triple single barrel.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:58

But one year there were three barrels. That were perfect. We couldn't decide. We released them, but people loved it. They bought all three. And they take it to Thanksgiving and they care. Who decides who likes what? And you sit accordingly at the table. Yeah, what a great night. This year.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:12

We we always, I think, try to do a theme. So this year's triple single barrel is finished whiskies. So we have some fantastic finished whiskeys that we're going to release the day before.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:26

Rye whiskey finished in uh Tawny Port, our shout-out to Midwinter Sightram. Yeah, really solid. Perfect for winter time. A uh a rye whiskey finished in a local meetery barrel, which is awesome. That's Chef Alex's favorite. Yeah, that one's my favorite as well. He really likes that. And then uh a mesquite rye finished in uh in a uh uh cigar blend. We can do that all year round cigar blends.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:51

I have to say that I I was not excited about mesquite in that in that barrel because I wanted the Peter Bourbon to go with that barrel.

SPEAKER_09 1:06:58

That's plenty of time. But I will say the believers, the first thing you've ever heard of.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:04

Oh my gosh, that was really shine.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

So, you know, if you're really uh shaky about trying that one, trust me. It's really good. It turned out mesquite's worth.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:14

Yeah. Well, we thought that that day is such a fun day. It is like a the community aspect, it's fun, all kind of all being together. We look we like the thought of it. The the three came about, honestly, because we thought it'd be fun to have like a couple options. So maybe someone likes Pete, maybe someone doesn't. So if you want to come out, try, and you get to at least try three. You know, don't get all three. Find the one that you like. And so it's kind of been a fun tradition. Chef now makes like burgers that pair with each of the uh the so I'll have like three different burger options. My suggestion will be to buy all three.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:44

For sure. Yeah. Well, wonderful. I I just want to really thank everybody for letting us come out and like uh hosting us and giving us a fantastic warm welcome. I mean, we we have been able to go through the Rick House, go down, taste it stuff from the from the barrels, like a fantastic welcome to us. And so I really, really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_08 1:08:05

We've done this a number of times. This was yeah really something special.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:09

It it really was. Uh we will have all of your social links and all that kind of stuff listed on the down the show notes. We'll have all of that. We have these finishing barrels that are coming out around Thanksgiving. So make sure to get out if you get a chance. Um, can can people buy things online or are they only available at the distillery?

SPEAKER_04 1:08:25

So we we ship all of our portfolio to Pennsylvania. We do have a limited portfolio that ships to outside of PA, mainly our Rye, kind of our Rye-centric. Now, but soon to be in Ohio. We're in Ohio, there's a chance that you guys are. There's a chance you're getting into Ohio. Yeah, we so we we have just been approved as a business in Ohio. Yeah, so you know, we are trying to get into the OHLQ, probably no earlier than April of next year. But you know, we're working on it. It's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:01

But that's because we've had customers who've come here, traveled from Ohio and asked for us.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:05

Yes, like why why the heck is this not in Ohio?

SPEAKER_03 1:09:08

That's exactly what they say. Yes, and uh, but make the trip to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is a cool little city. We we uh we just spent some time there while we were while we were here on this trip. It's a cool little area, so for sure get out here and just check it out.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:21

Great cocktails, great food.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:22

Yeah, but if if you can't, then yeah, hopefully we'll be in Ohio soon. But yeah, thank you, thank you guys so much for for thank you. Thank you guys so much. Thank you for blasting it.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:34

Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:40

Thank you for listening to the podcast. If you want more great content and other perks, be sure to support the show by clicking the link in the show notes. We can be reached on our website, whiskeychaserspod.com, with any ideas for the show. Thanks again.