Latest / WashCo Insider / Glenn Green

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Glenn Green · WashCo Insider

• speaker-0: Welcome back to the Washco Insider. Today we're heading into the heart of downtown Washington to talk about a business that's putting its own spin on one of our region's oldest traditions. Washington County has a long history with whiskey and moonshine dating all the way back to the Whiskey Rebellion. But our guest today is bringing that tradition into the modern era with a little science, a lot of creativity, and some pretty interesting flavors. From traditional moonshine and whiskey to fruit brandies, flavored spirits, and their popular mousse shakes, Bones Distillery has built a unique experience right on West Maiden Street. Joining us is the owner and operator of Bones Distillery, Army veteran, entrepreneur, and self-described business biochemist Glenn Green. We'll hear from Glenn when we come back. Thanks so much for joining us today. I appreciate it. I'm always a last minute kind of guy. this episode's gonna air next week, but been looking forward to talking to you. speaker-1: Chase. And Ryan. speaker-0: Yeah, for for those that haven't had a chance to meet you yet, tell us a little bit about yourself. Did you grow up here? And you know, let's start from the beginning. Sure. speaker-1: Yeah, no, I actually grew up in Pennsylvania, but it was actually outside Erie, a little town called Northeast. speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: That's where if you w yeah, I'm I'm sure you guys know Welches. Yeah. All the wineries in the area. I'm very familiar with the alcohol side of things, but usually from the winery side. Taking that and t putting a twist on it into the into the spirits is different direction. But yeah, I'm not necessarily from Washington, but close by. speaker-0: So your website describes you as a business biochemist, as I mentioned in the intro. you've got a wild background. I mean, from biodiesel chemistry, analytical chemistry, construction, auto mechanics, you served in the army, in the Pennsylvania National Guard. I mean, that's a heck of a resume. Thanks. Right. so how did how did all of that lead you to distilling? speaker-1: Well, if you think of the chemistry side of things, right out of college, if you will, I joined Hero BX used to be Lake Erie Biofuels. And as part of the team building it, designing it, working with a sixty-five foot distillation column that's twenty five foot in diameter with five sections. And when you're working with a ten foot little distillation column that's only twelve inches in diameter, it's a little bit easier. So distillation is the one of the fundamentals of chemistry in in industrial biochemistry. You you're going through all the fundamentals to a T. So distillation's been right there with me since college. speaker-0: That's incredible. And and I hope it looks like I understand what you're saying. I don't. But I'm gonna try to look like I do. so looking back, was opening your own business something that was kind of always on the radar, maybe always on the bucket list? Was it something that you had kind of aspired to? speaker-1: I wouldn't say always, but once you help to build a big, huge production facility like Kiro BX, and then you get into similarly, you know, designing, building and running a medical marijuana facility in Syracuse, and then start working on nutraceutical pharmaceutical testing labs, design build turnkey to be able to hand them over to the owners. you get to the point where yeah, you kinda want to work on something for yourself instead of just getting a paycheck building designing things for somebody else. So working well not working, but my wife and I having discussions about this. We we were deciding whether we wanted to open something on in her fields or my fields and just turned out in the end of the day going my direction. Got speaker-0: And what was her field to begin with? speaker-1: four masters in nursing. Okay. So we were gonna open something up with her nurse practitioner side of things. but we were working together with some physicians in the area and things didn't work out in the end. sad scenario, but then we just kinda changed gears and and went mine. It was a little bit easier to be honest. speaker-0: Yeah, I've I've always imagined that opening up a business with with my wife or, with family members I think would be a pretty cool experience. Absolutely is. was that a surprise to the rest of your family? Did they always see that entrepreneurial spirit in you? speaker-1: I think they always saw it, yeah. They're probably waiting for it. speaker-0: So now the building that you're in on West Maiden Street, before you were in there, Liberty Pole Spirits got their start there. But if we rewind the clock even further, tell us about the company that kind of started in there, a monument company or tombstone, if you speaker-1: Yeah, Simon White's sons. It's actually still plastered on the outside of the building. So their production facility back in the early nineteen hundreds is in Claysville and they actually pioneered the satellite locations for retail stores. Okay. So they're they didn't have a sales department or sales floor at the production facility in Claysville. and like I said, they pioneered it. So there was another one in was it Steubenville and then one in Washington and a couple of other locations. So it was one of their retail stores. So you see this big huge gantry system in the back that we have still use to this day with a trap door. speaker-0: What a unique tie in to the brand Bones Distillery. Absolutely. Very neat. you know, as you were starting to think about and and when did the I guess the vision for the distillery start and as you were thinking about that, what kind of led you towards Washington County, specifically downtown Washington? speaker-1: Sure, actually during COVID. w I put in a little extra sanitation station in my garage, washer dryer sanitation for all of my groceries that I would bring home. I'd strip down right there and the last thing for me was a shot of something very high proof. And then getting something high proof through the wine and spirit stores became hard to do. So everybody was just looking at me, make your own. So I did at home and it was pretty good. Then I talked to a couple of friends that have been doing at home for a couple of generations. Sure. And got some ideas. They we worked together and then Doing it scale from there was actually really not very that not very difficult. I looked at a couple different locations. I actually started in West Virginia. I was looking for a place in Tridelphia. Okay. Cabela's area, which fit the same persona. so not finding a location in West Virginia for about a year switched me over to looking up Route 19. That was a location over there. It used to be, I don't know if I'm allowed to say names, but it used to Happy Pappy's Pizza. Okay. There's a little building there. I was working on a contract there for a couple of months and then literally the day I was going to sign it to sign the the the lease for the agreement, 'cause I already had the T T B paperwork already done there, Pennsylvania Lake Control Board already did their inspections there. It was it was all pretty much said and done, just needed to sign the line on the lease and and go, they pulled out. So I filled up the gas tank, it was diesel in my truck and just drove around, drove around, drove around, find a to find a new place. And luckily enough I ran into the building that Liberty Pole Spirits used to be in. So then I c I called Jim the owner, talked I left a message, he called me back and we talked about the building a little bit and then he came down, he showed me the building inside now, gave me the tour, gave me the rundown, and to be honest, four days later, signed the lease for that location and I was in. speaker-0: What a cool transition too. I know everyone was was happy for for Jim and for Ellen to to be able to grow out of that space and and create something newer and bigger, but at the same time they were kind of like, we don't want to lose them out of downtown Washington. And then the transition for you to come in and take that space is pretty neat. Yes. So you've made this decision, you've got this vision, you've found a location. What does it take from that point then forward to create a a functioning distillery? speaker-1: you gotta look at all the legality side of things working with the T T B, the Alcohol and Tobacco Taxation Bureau, you gotta work with the PLCB, you gotta work with the the local municipality for everything, make sure that you're you're following all the rules and regulations and then general business. You gotta find the right point of sale system that's gonna work for you. Are you just gonna be a distillery? Are you gonna be a distillery with retail? Are you gonna have a an actual cocktail bar? What what are you gonna do? You have to you have to build the business around what your plan is. So Business plan. Put together a nice big long business plan, financial plan. and I had it depending on what I could financially get. My business plan and my financial plan was all dependent on what chunk of change I was gonna have to work with. So once it got to that point it just followed my plan. speaker-0: there's a lot of steps in there and I'm sure some of it was laborious and and rough. But what parts of that process did you really lean into and really enjoy? speaker-1: Well, given the background with the mechanics and I've done construction, I've done all kinds of things. So it was all hands on for me. And you bring in the family, you bring in the friends, and I gutted the building, started from scratch. I did actual brickwork on the f the foundation of the building myself, you know, brought in my scaffolding, redid the ceilings in most of the rooms, you know, I reground the entire floor to actually smoothen it up, painted everything including the floor. So from Ground up I I refinished that entire building myself. So that's just me. And then I designed my still, my big still named Moose. I designed it, had it built to my specifications because I didn't want to burn my grain when I put it in there. I wanted to be able to distill it a certain way. Sure. And it does. Works great. speaker-0: So i in that process, what was one of the I guess, more challenging obstacles that you face? Is it the permitting, is it the whole governmental process of it all? speaker-1: Not really. The longest thing and most challenging thing was I guess you could call it on the permitting side, but it's really not. It's has to do with the labels. Bottle labels. You have to get every recipe approved. And you have to start with the recipes before you can go into the labels. Okay. Because when you give the the T T B the Alcohol and Tobacco Taxation Bureau, when you give them your recipe, then they end up telling you as a result of your recipe what you have to put on your bottle for information to disclose. You does it have yellow die number five and things like that? So you have to wait that month long process of your recipe per recipe. And I'm at I think ninety-three recipes at this point. And then you can do your labels and get your labels sent off, and then the T T B has to approve that too a couple weeks later. So it's months for one label. And I started right out right out of the gate with fifteen different products. So that was a very time consuming process that I did not anticipate. Almost had to Move my grand opening. speaker-0: my goodness. So you've got the location, you've got the still, you're producing product. For those who haven't been to Bones Distillery, walk us through the front door and through the rest of the building and explain the the the experience, the different rooms and kind of what they could expect to see when they came to see you. speaker-1: Sure. Outside, you're seeing a nice big brick building, couple benches outside for those who might want to go outside and puff on a cigarette or something, or a vape. That's considered smoking. You walk inside, it's a nice retail lounge. And when we say lounge, yes, there's literally a couch and comfy chairs to sit in. there's a TV going with music playing, so you can you can sit and chill and relax if I do acoustic music, which through 2026 I've done live music every Friday. That's gonna be off to your left next to the refrigerator with my creams in it. T-shirts and your shot glasses, all the different retail items, because it's the retail lounge. You walk pa walk down the hallway, you got his and her restrooms, and then the the wall of what's going on. It's flyers of either the live music, the events that we're gonna be a part of, or even some of the other local establishments if they ask me to put something up for them. Off to the left, you got your tasting and cocktail bar. And I mean you wanna come in, have some some tastings of everything. I mean, we walk you through the the bottle menus, walk you through the cocktail menus. And like I said, you come in and the cocktail menus every season, complete new cocktail menu. There's sometimes forty, fifty different flavors of cocktails on there and it's all different one hundred percent every every season. So four times a year. speaker-0: Listen, I know it's hard to picture a place when you're just hearing about it. Go down there for yourself. I'm telling you, when you walk in, it's a vibe, right? That cocktail room, very cool. It's a great place to spend an afternoon. I'm not kidding you. You you really do have to see it for yourself. Now, you were mentioning to Ryan, you were talking a little about moonshine before we started and I kinda caught the tail end of that. Sure. I don't know what the difference is between This spirit and that spirit. T tell us about moonshine and maybe some of the misnomers that are out there. speaker-1: Yeah, the biggest thing is the fact that most people think moonshine's an actual classification of alcohol. Moonshine's not. You the classifications being vodka, rum, whiskey, gin, tequila. moonshine is n not only not on that list of classifications of alcohol, it's not even in there and a footnote. So when you're thinking of the word moonshine, think of it as a nickname or s speaker-0: Slang. Yep. speaker-1: If you look at the back of any legal bottle of moonshine you've ever purchased, it'll say what the actual spirits was in it, whether it's a grain neutral spirit, which Neutral Spirit cut to proof is vodka. So those are all vodka based products. and it sometimes they'd use the acronym GNS, which is Neutral Spirit. but the the moonshine could be a whiskey, it could be a tequila, it could be anything. Whatever the actual alcohol is it is in it, you can ask the person you're buying it from and they they have to tell you what's in it. Okay. And it it literally is on the bottle. speaker-0: Well, obviously your your background in chemistry has given you a leg up. how how have you seen that be beneficial in in your business today and and how maybe others that are getting started I'm assuming would have a bit of a struggle in learning the basics. You had that background. What was that? speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. from starters from your fermentation process, whether it's a mash in process, fermentation process, I'm watching it chemically as opposed to what other people might do. They're watching what the bubble formation might look like or something, and I'm watching pH. they're they're watching how the grain is falling and I'm watching temperature. You know, I'm I'm doing it more scientifically. And then I'm actually throwing test methodology at it, whether it's an ASTM or an OS. AOCS test method. I'm I'm doing an actual test method to put a parameter to it. When then you get into your distillation process. And I'm watching the distillation based upon the actual alcohol concentration in each reflux section of my still, as opposed to some people just run it at a certain temperature for a certain period of time and they get their cuts and they c they're tasting them and putting them together. It's a very pure product that I'm producing to the point where even just my straight vodka, my generic vodka. I only have one base vodka, and when it's cut down to eighty proof. I even sent it off the Wine and Spirits store, and after their testing, they put it on the top shelf next to Belvidere for $24.99. It's seven times distilled, three times filtered, and that's just my base generic vodka. I to be honest, it's hard for me to make something that's lesser quality than what it is. speaker-0: Sure. So where does the line between art and science meld for you? I mean, how are you developing, coming up with new flavors and and how do you balance that? speaker-1: That's actually what I was gonna say, where my line is is going from that distillation process into the product development of the flavors. Cause then what type of flavors? That's what you would call the food chemistry now. So I'm finding the flavors of a food or a candy. And then I'm taking that food or candy and I'm breaking it down and I'm finding the flavor that they either they purchased from the exact same company that they purchased the flavor from and I'm adding it to mine, or I'm extrapolating it out and and recreating it to that flavor profile. speaker-0: I know when when we came down, you gave us a tour, you had a batch, maybe it was mousse pie that you were cooking in the back, and just like the aromatics. I have a bottle at home and you know, even if I'm not in the mood for a drink, I might walk by and just pop it open and take a sniff. You know, it just smells great. speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: So again, we talked about the biggest misconception of of moonshine. but are they is it labeled moonshine? Do you use how do you use that term in your business? speaker-1: Well, I'm actually removing most of the term moonshine in my business as s as slowly as I financially can, I should say. the word moonshine, if you put it on your label, it's I mean you could call it Steve. Yeah. Yeah. speaker-0: It's not a tip. speaker-1: That's why like I made up that word moose pie yeah as a product name. Okay. I mean, yeah, I could call it Moose Pie Moonshine. It that does not change it at all. It's just a slang. Exclaim. speaker-0: So your product lineup has included everything from traditional spirits to flavors like cotton candy, root beer, bubblegum, banana brandy. where do you come up with these individual ideas? speaker-1: I do do a lot of doo doo. I do a lot of searching for top sellers across the United States and globally and I try to bring them to Washington sometimes. you go with the banana brandy. we had an opportunity of five hundred and forty pounds of bananas for a very expensive cost. Yeah. You make banana brandy. Either speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: that or how much banana bread can you eat, you know. Same speaker-0: Yeah, make a when the sun shines, right? speaker-1: thing with peaches. We now have peach brandy on the shelf. speaker-0: Okay. What's the what's maybe one of the strangest flavor profiles that you've experimented with that either was wildly successful or you're like, yeah, this just didn't work. speaker-1: Well, it's funny you ask that, 'cause my favorite is my mousse meister. Have you speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: ever heard of Jaegermeister? Uh-huh. Yeah. Well, black licorice. Yeah. So my mousemeister, jelly belly, black jelly beans. Uh-huh. I buy the flavor that Jelly Belly buys from the flavor manufacturer that Jelly Belly buys from. And it's completely sugar free. It's an eighty proof black licorice flavored rum. That's completely sugar free. No alternative sweeteners. Which is the same way with most of my products. No sugar, no alternative sweeteners. speaker-0: Well so speaking of what what have you found to be your top selling speaker-1: Product. That would be the mousse pie. Yeah. The mousse pie. It's we get in to the apple pie, pumpkin pie flavor profiles combined. It's actually just a rum that I infuse with twelve different herb spices and fruits and I only sweeten it with apple juice. Okay. To be honest, the kiss method, keep it simple, stupid. Yeah. Yeah. It is very simplistic. As long as you get the right flavors, the right herbs and spices, put together. You gotta make sure either you grind the spice or leave it whole to get that right flavor. speaker-0: This is not the first time we've talked about your moose pie on this podcast. We had Nate Mass on here a couple of months ago and we were talking about it back then. But I don't know this, but I I would imagine that people probably think that owning a distillery is about hanging out, talking to your customers, and that's what it is, but I'm sure it's not. Tell me about like what is what is a typical day for Glenn? speaker-1: Well, ha owning a distillery is more like a guarantee that you're gonna see your family less. A guarantee that you're not gonna have any money in your pocket for a long time, and then you're hanging around alcohol most of the day that you can't drink. So you take it out on the people that walk through the door. But yeah, you meet a lot of new people, a lot of great people. I haven't met anybody yet that I dislike walking through that door. Yeah. It's been such a blessing. my wife in the background helping me with all the flavor profiles and naming things. She came up with not only ninety percent of the the names on the list, but of course the moose, right? Melon Moose, Moonshine and Spirits is my entire rum brand. I mean, when she came up with that, we just we blew it up in the distillery for moose. But yeah, it it really is the bartender scenario at the end of the day. is is a whole different experience that I'm not used to because I've been the chemist in the lab or, you know, director of technology in an office and now all of a sudden I'm the I'm the face of it. Yeah. Sitting in front of people having the discussions about this. But I'll tell you most of the people here in Washington like the way that I answer questions from a technical basis. They ask me about the products and I give this ten minute thing that drops their jaw as opposed to just, yeah, we mix these two things together and it look it looks like this. No. It's little bit different. speaker-0: It's funny you say that because I was thinking back to when we were down there with you and we're sitting in the cocktail room and you know, we've we've been through this science which neither Ryan nor I understood but was very interested in. and we were talking about kinda like what was next for you on the social side and I I I remember encouraging you, like, you're the face of this thing, start making this videos and get it out there and we've seen a lot of that from you and I I think it's exciting. Now, you've been recognized by the observer reporters best of the best. What is you know, what does that mean to you? speaker-1: Well, not only do you have a nice plaque on the wall that says you got first place or you were voted first place at the best of the best. So then you realize, even if somebody's not coming through the door that day, they prefer your alcohol, they prefer your spirits, they prefer your the your atmosphere, you as a person, they prefer your conversation over the other places that they've, had the potential to vote on. it's a very humbling experience, that's for sure. and it even if even if you have a week where you feel depressed and then the first person to walk through the door, it doesn't matter 'cause you know that when the majority of people voted for you as as their favorite anyways, so the town likes you. So it it always helps you to break the rut. No matter what. That's speaker-0: That's for sure. Now do you remember the first bottle that you sold? speaker-1: Yeah, I do. It was a nerve wracking moment 'cause is the point of sale system gonna work? Yeah. Are they gonna like it? that type of thing. But we we've already done tastings before selling the bottle. Okay. Try it before you buy it and tastings free. So we knew that they were they were happy with what they were purchasing. but you know, is the seal gonna stay on the bottle? Is the label gonna stay on the bottle for longevity? You know, have all those questions because it's a brand new thing. But it all worked out. speaker-0: When you look back at everything that it took to get you to where you are today, is there a moment that sticks out in your mind that you're most proud of? speaker-1: I would say coming out with mousse pie that one single product has kept my lights on thus far. Yeah. I I can't even statistically give you the best number 'cause it changes weekly, but I it's like four cases of mousse pie sold to two bottles of anything else at the point. It just flies. speaker-0: Wow. Well, i if you live in Washington County, about the Whiskey Rebellion, about the Whiskey Rebellion Festival. that just down the street from Glen's Place, you have the Bradford House Museum, you have the Whiskey Rebellion Education and Visitor Center. how much has that history played into what you guys do today? I know you're obviously very involved in a lot of different events that happen downtown and around the region, but how does that story impact you today? speaker-1: Sure. Washington County in general already knows the whiskey rebellion. They they know that that backstory, to be honest, better than I do. So whiskey has to be a part of what you do here. You have to make whiskey. back in seventeen ninety four was w seventeen ninety one and seventeen ninety four, during the whiskey rebellion, whiskey was clear. That white dog they call it, you know. the aging in a new charred oak barrel didn't even start until the early eighteen hundreds and didn't be did not become normal practice till mid eighteen hundreds. So I have two whiskies on my menu at any time that are white whiskies, a corn and a rye. Okay. 100 proof, 120 proof. So they get to try that, which is what w what they traditionally had back in the the late seventeen hundreds. And then every once in a while I'll come out with just a small batch and I'll leave that to the big whiskey people, you know, especially Liberty Pole. Heist out in Burgess Towns getting really into the the aging of the whiskeys that McLaughlin's is really good whiskey. So let them focus on that stuff and I'll I'll go with the the history. But it's nice to have that conversation with people about the whiskey rebellion when they're there. I get a lot of travelers come through. I mean, another blessing is when people Google distilleries in our area. For some reason, mine comes right to the top. I don't pay extra for that. Thank you, whoever voted for me, whoever put reviews on Google for me. but Then they come through and they ask me, why why is there whiskey in this area? What what's the whole thing? A lot of the travelers don't even know that that whiskey rebellion even existed, so I give them the backstory. Two two hours away. speaker-0: Yeah, it's inextricably tied to the distilling business in Washington County and and western Pennsylvania for that matter. Yep. speaker-1: you get a chance to tell them about the Bradford house, if it's you know, on a Friday and they're staying for the weekend, you get try to go to up get to go up to the museum, check things out. Yeah. speaker-0: So w we talked about you've got live music on Fridays, y I think you've done some workshops maybe. Mm-hmm. involved in a lot of events. You've got one coming up this Saturday. Can you tell us about Nightmare on Main Street? speaker-1: Night Mayor on Main Street, downtown Washington Bar Crawl. We got myself there at Bones Distillery, Jose's, the Main Street brew house, Mayor's Inn and President's Pub. So we're gonna have a hay wagon that takes people back and forth. It's just gonna be a continuous loop all night long during the Bar Crawl from six to nine PM. Registration starts at five thirty in the back parking lot of Bones Distillery. Come down you can buy tickets at the door, doesn't matter, but we already have a hundred pre sold tickets. That's great. So it's gonna be a great event, regardless. You speaker-0: I think he had a t shirt too. speaker-1: do. Part of your ticket, it's only a twenty dollar pre sale ticket. You get a t shirt. that's over ten bucks just on its own, So you get a t shirt. the cutoff to get your t shirt at the day of the event has already passed, but I will get you your t shirt next week, regardless, even if you buy a ticket at the door. I'm not gonna stiff anybody. So yeah, you get your T shirt, you get your wristband, every participating location's gonna have some complimentary hors d'oeuvre or snack on location. So every ticket holder gets to take advantage of different discounts or specials that the the locations are doing and the hay ride. So it's a nice nice time. The kids are gonna do the Halloween trick or treat in the morning. Yep. speaker-0: Yep, twelve to two, I think. speaker-1: And then in the afternoon it kinda switches gears, the adults come out. we didn't w there's trick or treating going on. And this on the thirty first. We didn't want to do it on the thirty first. So we're a week ahead of time. This is the first time in seven years that trick or trick-or-treating is actually thirty first is on Saturday. So it's gonna be a great Saturday on the thirty first. We'll just leave that to the kids. The parents take their kids out, grandparents take the grandkids out. So we're doing the twenty fourth. speaker-0: Sounds like a blast to It'll be fun. So now that you've been kind of a a part of the downtown Washington community, you've seen it evolve and you know, as it evolves, what are what are your impressions of that evolution of downtown Washington and what would you like to see in the future? speaker-1: I would like to see more events both daytime and nighttime like this, where you have in the springtime, you know, the downtown bunny hop and we used to have Washington goes Irish. Let's do both, you know. So that's that's where this downtown events committee comes into play. So we have a a couple business owners. it's growing. And the business owners are getting together and and formulating events like this. This is actually my first lead on an event. Okay. if this turns out, obviously I'll do some more. So speaker-0: Now, this is gonna sound like an interview question, but what do you see down the road for bonus distillery next three to five years? What do you hope to see? speaker-1: Well, I keep changing something here and there, whether it's cocktails, different products, bottles, whatever. So I just started the whole ready to drink cocktails. I actually have three of those in the bottle menu now. Okay. I have a bunch of flavors. I think I have fifteen flavors, but I only came out with three. speaker-0: Bottles, cans? Both. Bottles. speaker-1: Actually I started bottom speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: so there's a strawberry lemonade called Sun Chaser. There's a tropical flavored, it's called s I'm sorry, strawberry lemonade is called Southbound. Yeah, these are my wife names everything, so I gotta catch up. She's got these down. the tropical is called Sun Chaser, and then there's a cucumber melon called Daydrifter. And surprisingly enough, cucumber melon's my top seller. It's speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: very refreshing. So I have in three hundred and seventy film s three hundred and seventy five mil bottles, and then I have in twelve ounce cans. speaker-0: Now are there what a great like new product line for you to be opening up. Are there are there other new products that you have kind of coming on the horizon that you're able to tell us about or you're working on any collaborations or anything? speaker-1: There's always collaborations. But to go into the next steps, this gives me an opportunity to get into certain beer distributors. I'm gonna be talking with Capellis and trying to get in on the shelves and Capelli's with the cans of the ready to drink cocktails. So I'm working down my my process to make a little bit cheaper, you know. and then that the wine and spirit stores, it's slow going there. So working on a different angle. With the ready to drink cocktails and the potential beer distributors. that I think that's my next step. And then I may be looking for another location to branch out and you know, with a limited distillery license in Pennsylvania, we're actually allowed six locations total. You're allowed speaker-0: I didn't know that you're speaker-1: your location for the distillery in five satellite locations, only one distillery, but you're allowed five satellite locations of retail store and or bar. speaker-0: Nice, right? Interesting. Yep. And your your liquor license covers that. speaker-1: my existing liquor license. It's just a different location with a different location manager. Yeah, it's actually pretty simple. So speaker-0: I won't mention it here, but I've got some thoughts for ya. speaker-1: Great. speaker-0: So for those who haven't been to Bones Distillery, what is one thing that you just wish they knew about you? About the place? speaker-1: When you come in, eventually come in, you'll notice the passion not just for myself, but from all the customers, from the other people who may volunteer from me, for my wife, towards what we do because of how good, how clean, how pure the alcohol actually is. I have a lot of my customers that come come back next week, two weeks later, and they're just dumbfounded on how they didn't get a headache with how much they drank. certain certain things like that. They didn't get stupid because of what they drank. There's there's a lot of difference. my tequila, it's not a tequila, it's a blue agave spirit. I'm not in Mexico, so it's not a tequila, it's not classified as a tequila. One speaker-0: does it have to be made in Mexico to be speaker-1: of the legal five regions of Mexico to be classified as a tequila. So it's a blue agave spirit. it's called banjo blue. It's in the category or my it's in my brands, my brand called Peekaboo Parrot Spirit. speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: Banjo that's on there is one of our parrots at home. We actually have four parrots. And banjo blue. was sent off to the National Beverage Institute, came back silver medal. It's the only thing I've ever sent out for a competition. So right off the bat, silver medal nationally. That's amazing. speaker-0: As we start to wrap up here, I've got a couple of rapid fire questions for you, just quick, easy ones. Sure. I would imagine you've had customers ask for flavors. think about this. What is the craziest flavor someone has ever asked you to try to make? speaker-1: It's always in the fall. They always come out with pecan this, pecan that. Right? There's bacon make bacon maple pecan. Bacon in an alcohol to me is that is that answer. It's that's it's the craziest thing. I like I love bacon. Yeah. I love bacon. Who doesn't? But yep. I mean, back in the day when I was a kid, my mom got me this package at Christmas with bacon seasoning, b bacon scented pillowcase and all this stuff. So, you know, I've messed with the bacon things a lot, but bacon in a drink, I mean I've pulled bacon out of a nice big cocktail. Yeah. But bacon speaker-0: That's where you draw though. speaker-1: maple. pecan, uhhuh. Whiskey or rum or whatever. Yeah, that's no thanks. speaker-0: No, you don't strike me as the kind of guy that makes mistakes, but has there ever been anything that came up when you were trying to develop a new flavor profile or something like in the distilling process, like where you just lost your attention for a quick second? speaker-1: Yeah. I I've had to put things down the drain, that's for sure. Yes. I've had Monday, this past Monday, I started filling up my still to run corn. Yep. Is it corn whiskey? Yeah. I started filling it up, turned around, I'm like, what is that sound? I turned around and my valve was open on the bottom of the still and it was going right onto the floor. Yeah, there was probably I'd say two quarts of just corn mash on the ground. I mean that's a simple one. Yeah. and then you get into the other side of things where in the bar, I have a a lot of friends that come in and sit down and try different things. So the the I'm not allowed to say the F word, but screw around and find out. Yeah. So we do that a lot, but especially my bud my buddy Rich. And I love it when I try a concoction. Mm-hmm. I'm always doing new menu, right? New menu every season, and that's a lot of new cocktails. It's not just four new ones, three new ones, it's thirty new ones. So We have a a lot of the screw around and find out and a lot of the time. Nope, nope, nope, not that one, nope. Mm mm. I can't I can't even finish that one. It's funny to watch the face of the speaker-0: that's Well speaker-1: disgusting drink. speaker-0: I think I know the answer to this next question because I already asked it in a different way. But let's just say if you could only make one bones distillery product for the rest of your life, would it be moose pie or would it be something else? Would it be the licorice? speaker-1: no, it would just be my straight plain eighty proof vodka speaker-0: Okay. speaker-1: with Moose Pie in the background. Yeah. speaker-0: Well, Glenn, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. for those of you at home, just remember this Saturday, bring the kids to downtown Washington for trick-or-treating from twelve to two, and then Nightmare on Main Street. You can still get your tickets at the door, is from six to nine, hop on a hayride, right around five, six different locations. Five. It's gonna be a fun evening. We'll see you next week on the Washco Insider.