Latest / The Noble Dram / The Noble Dram | Hell Bendt with Ryan & Natasha DeHart (Season 2 | Ep. 21)

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The Noble Dram | Hell Bendt with Ryan & Natasha DeHart (Season 2 | Ep. 21) · The Noble Dram

• 0:00
  Aaron: Last week we explored a craft distillery on the other side of the pond in Scotland.
• 0:05
  Gavin: This week we were hellbent on finding one in our own backyard.
• 0:40
  Aaron: So after doing a little digital, I found a cool little craft distillery in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
• 0:46
  Aaron: So we jumped in the car and we headed north as fast as we could.
• 0:49
  Gavin: That distillery is bent distilling co.
• 0:52
  Gavin: Absolutely amazing distillery in Louisville, Texas.
• 0:57
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 0:57
  Aaron: So first thing we did when we arrived is we said we wanted to see this operation.
• 1:01
  Aaron: So we toured the facility, seeing the stills, the fermentation tanks, the barrels, even the bottling lineup.
• 1:08
  Gavin: We had so much fun.
• 1:09
  Gavin: Ryan, one of the co-owners, sat down with us and gave a brief history of how they got to where they are today.
• 1:15
  Gavin: Check it out.
• 1:17
  Ryan DeHart: So Ryan D.
• 1:17
  Ryan DeHart: Hart, Ventisilling Company, uh, co-founder here with my wife Natasha.
• 1:22
  Ryan DeHart: Um, we are uh based in Louisville, Texas, started in 2012.
• 1:28
  Ryan DeHart: Uh we are uh we maker of Texas whiskies.
• 1:32
  Ryan DeHart: We make a variety of different whiskey styles, everything from obviously bourbon whiskey, white whiskey, wheat whiskey, malt whiskey.
• 1:40
  Ryan DeHart: Um one thing that uh how we got started in 2012, we was started as a hobby initially.
• 1:47
  Ryan DeHart: We uh were living in Munich, Germany for two years uh and got really hooked on the Munich beer culture.
• 1:56
  Ryan DeHart: Uh that then transitioned to uh a career here in Texas.
• 2:01
  Ryan DeHart: Uh but we missed that whole German beer culture, beer German beer scene.
• 2:06
  Ryan DeHart: Uh at the time uh craft beer and eventually craft whiskey was just getting started here in Texas.
• 2:14
  Ryan DeHart: And so uh we said, hey, why don't we give our since we couldn't find the beers that we were looking for uh that we enjoyed so much in Germany, why don't we start trying to make ourselves?
• 2:25
  Ryan DeHart: And so uh we did a little staycation and uh did some homebrewing, and uh obviously the initial results were always a little sketchy, but we uh we got better and better over time.
• 2:38
  Ryan DeHart: And uh eventually I uh ran into an old marine buddy of mine uh who was making rum out of his garage, and he had learned the crafts being a marine and station in Central Africa Republica, and so brought that rum making to Charleston and then eventually to Texas.
• 2:57
  Ryan DeHart: And so we said uh we were making beer, he was making rum.
• 3:00
  Ryan DeHart: We said, uh, well, we we have all the ingredients now to make some pretty good whiskey.
• 3:04
  Ryan DeHart: And so uh we we took our our passions and hobbies and uh rented a little 3,000 square foot uh warehouse in here in Louisville and started making whiskey.
• 3:17
  Ryan DeHart: And uh it turned out that we yeah, we that we we it's not super complicated.
• 3:22
  Ryan DeHart: The initial stills that we made, uh which we passed on the way in, uh were homemade stills, so everything was kind of you know bootstrapped and uh just uh uh made as as one hobbyist would.
• 3:37
  Ryan DeHart: Uh and eventually we got to a point where uh the whiskey was good enough.
• 3:42
  Ryan DeHart: We said, hey, there might be something here that we uh can actually make into a full-fledged business.
• 3:47
  Ryan DeHart: So we started the distillery, uh, it was Witherspoon Distillery uh originally, uh named after uh the uh Marine buddy of mine.
• 3:56
  Ryan DeHart: And uh we changed the name uh back in 2019 to Bent Distilling.
• 4:02
  Ryan DeHart: Uh after the other two co-founders we ended up uh buying out.
• 4:06
  Ryan DeHart: They uh unfortunately what you learn in the craft distilling space is that uh it takes a while to make some money in this space.
• 4:16
  Ryan DeHart: And so if you don't have any external income, uh then you you'll you'll you'll you'll soon find yourself in a difficult space.
• 4:23
  Ryan DeHart: And so uh we decided to keep the my Natasha and I decided to keep the business running and uh and and growing.
• 4:30
  Ryan DeHart: And so we did that in 2019.
• 4:33
  Ryan DeHart: We bought out the other founders, and now we're uh uh with the idea at the time that we would uh really focus on blended whiskeys.
• 4:45
  Ryan DeHart: Uh we saw the future of craft whiskey uh in the art of the blend.
• 4:50
  Ryan DeHart: And so we uh folks decided to really double down on blended solid blended whiskeys.
• 4:58
  Ryan DeHart: Um uh we already had this big portfolio of uh of whiskey mash bills that we had been putting back over the years.
• 5:08
  Ryan DeHart: Um and ultimately the goal of that was to try to create something unique, something elevated out of uh from each individual whiskey.
• 5:18
  Ryan DeHart: And so uh Vince, the name is a play on the word straight.
• 5:23
  Ryan DeHart: We had to throw in an extra letter there for trademark purposes, but ultimately uh that's where that's where we find ourselves today, now here 10 years later, uh making great blended whiskey.
• 5:34
  Ryan DeHart: We we still have unblended, great, very good unblended whiskeys, which is our unbent line.
• 5:39
  Ryan DeHart: But uh yeah, we're um we're we're now we're we've released our our flagship, bent number five, and we'll be releasing bent black here uh later this year.
• 5:50
  Ryan DeHart: So things to look forward to if I'm bent to selling.
• 5:56
  Aaron: So visiting a distillery is tons of fun, seeing how it's made, but nothing, I mean nothing, is better than tasting the whiskey.
• 6:04
  Gavin: To that end, on our first pour, we had a really special guest with us, Natasha, the master blender and co-owner of Bent.
• 6:11
  Gavin: So come check it out as we try Bent number five.
• 6:16
  Gavin: First and foremost, we got some wonderful whiskeys in our hands.
• 6:20
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 6:20
  Aaron: So I think the other part we need to point out is that Natasha has joined us.
• 6:25
  Gavin: Yes.
• 6:25
  Gavin: Yes, welcome, Natasha.
• 6:27
  Natasha DeHart: Thank you, thank you.
• 6:28
  Aaron: So I'm already smelling.
• 6:30
  Aaron: Yeah, sorry.
• 6:31
  Aaron: Get to get in, right?
• 6:32
  Aaron: All right, so before we delve into a couple questions, just give us a rundown of number five.
• 6:40
  Natasha DeHart: Okay, so number five is uh is a blend that's been pulled from five of our signature whiskies.
• 6:47
  Natasha DeHart: Uh it is a blend of bourbon, wheat, malt, rye, and light whiskey, which you guys are gonna dig into two of those in a minute.
• 6:57
  Natasha DeHart: Um we a few years back in about 2017, we we really enjoyed Scottish blends um and Canadian blends, and all these all these other countries had these amazing um blending standards, and they were pulling from the best whiskeys that they could find, and they were making these um amazing um whiskey blends.
• 7:24
  Natasha DeHart: And in the US, the the word blend in whiskey had become a bit bastardized.
• 7:30
  Natasha DeHart: And um in this country it's allowed that you can include up to 80% GNS or neutral grain spirit, basically high-proof vodka in any whiskey blend, um, and still call it a blended whiskey.
• 7:45
  Natasha DeHart: And our belief was just because you can doesn't mean you should.
• 7:48
  Natasha DeHart: So um it's a good it's a good rule.
• 7:51
  Natasha DeHart: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:53
  Ryan DeHart: Um, it's because most people, uh especially whiskey drinkers, aren't interested in a whiskey-flavored vodka, right?
• 7:59
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, essentially that's what you're what you're offering there.
• 8:01
  Ryan DeHart: And it's typically a bottom shelf product that the the big distilleries can make extremely cheap.
• 8:06
  Ryan DeHart: And um, and yeah, that's why you know that there just wasn't a a a strong history in the United States for good whiskey blending, and that's where we thought we could actually play a part, and that's where craft we saw could play a big part, right?
• 8:19
  Ryan DeHart: Not only in in making you know unique mash bills, maybe in a unique method, but also then, you know, post-maturation, bringing some of these unique flavor profiles together to create something new and elevated.
• 8:31
  Natasha DeHart: Yeah, so we had this basically a spice rack of all of these fantastic whiskies.
• 8:37
  Natasha DeHart: Um, and just kind of about a decade ago started playing around with them and pulling them very much like you do when you're cooking.
• 8:44
  Natasha DeHart: That you've got um some really soft malt notes and you've got a little bit of spice from the rye, and you can use um light whiskey to kind of balance everything and pull it together.
• 8:56
  Natasha DeHart: You've got the the bourbon that's the the whole American oaky strong notes.
• 9:02
  Natasha DeHart: So you've got all of these fantastic whiskeys, and once you pull them together in in different ratios, you can really come up with something unique and creative that no one's ever tried before.
• 9:12
  Natasha DeHart: So go ahead.
• 9:14
  Aaron: So a normal bottling is somewhat of a blend, but typically a blend from a single recipe.
• 9:21
  Natasha DeHart: It would be considered a marrying of barrels.
• 9:25
  Aaron: So if you're not defined as blend.
• 9:28
  Natasha DeHart: Not defined as a blend necessarily.
• 9:30
  Aaron: There are some fairly large producers that do some blending of various recipes.
• 9:36
  Aaron: Right.
• 9:36
  Aaron: But they never really label it as a blend.
• 9:41
  Natasha DeHart: If it's a blending of different recipes, I would think um as the word blend has become less bastardized, that they would start to discuss more of the blending techniques behind that.
• 9:52
  Natasha DeHart: If it's different recipes, if it's the same recipe, different barrels, not necessarily you're not going to find them.
• 9:58
  Ryan DeHart: Well, and then you're also so when you think about a lot of the major brands, uh, they have a very specific flavor profile that they're going after, right?
• 10:06
  Ryan DeHart: And so to hit that specific flavor profile in any given season, you might have to pull from different barrels from different seasons, you know, or even slightly different mash bills to get the consistency of the product that you're after.
• 10:18
  Ryan DeHart: And so ultimately, I think that's really they're not trying to create unique flavors, they're trying to create consistency with their blends.
• 10:26
  Gavin: Gotcha.
• 10:27
  Gavin: So when we talk about blending or the art of blending, how do you come into your day?
• 10:34
  Gavin: Like what like what's your mindset coming in as an art, like an artist coming in and they're gonna get their paint brushes out, they're gonna get set up and they're easel or whatever.
• 10:44
  Gavin: Like what's your what's your take on coming into that?
• 10:47
  Natasha DeHart: So on a day that I would be planning to just blend all day, I will have weeks of planning going up to that.
• 10:55
  Natasha DeHart: So it's looking at barrels and different ages and different lots and pulling samples in advance.
• 11:02
  Natasha DeHart: So you're going to have to try through a whole bunch of barrels before you figure out I want that one for this blend.
• 11:08
  Natasha DeHart: So it's not just a show up and start working, very much like you're talking about your paintbrushes, you've got all of your um your ingredients ready.
• 11:16
  Natasha DeHart: I would say in cooking, it's it's mise and plots, like when you get the whole table ready.
• 11:21
  Natasha DeHart: So that process by itself takes weeks.
• 11:24
  Natasha DeHart: Um, and that's if you're just preparing for one blend.
• 11:27
  Natasha DeHart: In general, you're always doing this.
• 11:30
  Aaron: Is all of that done with your palate, or is there computer analysis?
• 11:36
  Natasha DeHart: All of it is it both?
• 11:37
  Natasha DeHart: It's both.
• 11:38
  Natasha DeHart: Um, I would say not as much computer analysis, but we do we track all of our barrels.
• 11:44
  Natasha DeHart: We know the exact age, the exact mash bills, and I can look at essentially a spreadsheet where I'm looking at this lot, and here's my notes from the last time we tasted it, and that was on this date.
• 11:57
  Natasha DeHart: And I can kind of go through and see this was ready, this was not.
• 12:01
  Natasha DeHart: Um, and even when we're tasting through um barrels, I'll make notes about I think that this barrel would be best for, and we have a list of products.
• 12:11
  Natasha DeHart: So we have like bourbon will go in a bunch of different directions for us.
• 12:15
  Natasha DeHart: So we've got bourbon that goes into bourbon cream, we have bourbon that goes into old fashioned, our straight bourbon, our single barrel releases, our fill your own, um cast strength, um, and bent.
• 12:27
  Natasha DeHart: So we've got a bunch of different directions, and all of those different uh flavor notes will get noted as we're going through them.
• 12:35
  Natasha DeHart: And it's like, I think this one might be just right for bent in about a year.
• 12:38
  Natasha DeHart: And I think this one might be just right in six months for old fashioned.
• 12:41
  Natasha DeHart: So it's just uh a lot of different options for different uh flavor profiles.
• 12:47
  Aaron: How often on average, how often would you say you open a barrel and taste?
• 12:53
  Aaron: Is it six months?
• 12:55
  Natasha DeHart: Uh every barrel?
• 12:56
  Natasha DeHart: Not every barrel.
• 12:57
  Natasha DeHart: Lots.
• 12:58
  Ryan DeHart: We weren't working with lots.
• 12:59
  Ryan DeHart: So typically we we we work in lots of around 20 barrels is a typical lot for us.
• 13:04
  Ryan DeHart: Okay.
• 13:04
  Ryan DeHart: Um and so yeah, we would uh, and that's all basically from the same week of production.
• 13:09
  Ryan DeHart: And uh and so yeah, we would, you know, in in general, those there could be some differences with a barrel that's maybe at the top of the brick versus the bottom.
• 13:17
  Ryan DeHart: And so sometimes we'll we'll uh and we we try to deviate the lots accordingly so that we can, you know, still realize some variance there.
• 13:26
  Ryan DeHart: But uh, but yeah, in general, I it's it's too difficult.
• 13:29
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, with now we're sitting on 4,000 barrels, so it would be a lot of it'd be full-time.
• 13:34
  Aaron: Several full-time jobs just to keep up with.
• 13:37
  Aaron: If you need somebody, let me know.
• 13:38
  Natasha DeHart: We have a lot of volunteers.
• 13:39
  Natasha DeHart: We'll put you on the wait list though.
• 13:41
  Gavin: Yes, please add me there too.
• 13:43
  Gavin: Um, so leading up to that, like that morning, uh, do you do like certain like power palate cleansers or like I don't have coffee, which is is not good for mood.
• 13:54
  Natasha DeHart: Um and it it's basically a table full of bottles.
• 14:00
  Natasha DeHart: So um I've seen in other distilleries that they have all these cute little things, and I'm like, uh I don't have that.
• 14:06
  Natasha DeHart: It's it's these bottles, and they're usually I I ask for less than 200 milliliters.
• 14:12
  Natasha DeHart: So we'll either have the 200 mil bottle, like hip flash style bottles, or I'll have these that that have, you know, a quarterful.
• 14:18
  Natasha DeHart: Um, just to sample through.
• 14:20
  Natasha DeHart: And we're just really looking for a, I mean, I'm looking for a glass that works.
• 14:25
  Natasha DeHart: Um, and from there, if we feel like we've got a few options, then we'll pull more from the same barrels.
• 14:30
  Natasha DeHart: Um, and we'll make an actual batch where we have a couple bottles and then we'll sample through all of it with our team.
• 14:37
  Natasha DeHart: Um but in general, uh we're we know what the flavor profiles of each of these whiskies need to be.
• 14:44
  Natasha DeHart: So when we're doing a batch of bent, we know what everyone needs to taste like.
• 14:50
  Natasha DeHart: And it's not necessarily that you have to go through that entire process every time now that we've got this blend already made.
• 14:56
  Aaron: Makes sense.
• 14:57
  Aaron: Makes sense.
• 14:58
  Aaron: So when we talked about this and we knew we were gonna have you on, um, I specifically asked that we don't formally critique this one because I don't want to look stupid on camera in front of the expert.
• 15:12
  Aaron: Too late.
• 15:13
  Aaron: Uh button.
• 15:14
  Aaron: You would never I will say this is very tasty.
• 15:17
  Aaron: Well, thank you.
• 15:18
  Aaron: You are making reference to the five different whiskies that go into it, and sitting through the nose and the palate, like you can pick up on little notes of all of them, right?
• 15:29
  Aaron: Um sometimes when I cook and you mix five ingredients together, you just get garlic when it's done.
• 15:34
  Aaron: That's all you think.
• 15:36
  Aaron: So just because you blend it together doesn't mean it it carries that subtle nuance on that.
• 15:40
  Aaron: This has done a very nice job at that.
• 15:42
  Natasha DeHart: Well, one of the things that we were wanting to do was create a whiskey that is approachable for whiskey and non-wiske lovers.
• 15:50
  Natasha DeHart: Um, this one for me, just for a frame of reference, when we would go out before we were distillers and there was a lengthy whiskey menu, my go-to was like a stag junior.
• 16:06
  Natasha DeHart: So it was just like 135, like let's let's blow it.
• 16:11
  Natasha DeHart: And I would sip on it for an entire meal.
• 16:13
  Natasha DeHart: That was just kind of my jam.
• 16:15
  Natasha DeHart: So having something that's 83 proof for me is what I call my weekday whiskey.
• 16:22
  Natasha DeHart: It's my when I'm when I'm cooking dinner for the kids, I'll have a sip of this next to me.
• 16:28
  Natasha DeHart: Um, it's very approachable.
• 16:30
  Natasha DeHart: You can put it in ginger beer and not feel bad about it.
• 16:33
  Natasha DeHart: Um, I would probably freak out if I saw somebody putting like one of our specialty finished cast strength bourbons in ginger beer.
• 16:41
  Natasha DeHart: I would try not to because I I don't judge.
• 16:43
  Natasha DeHart: If anyone wants to blend with a mixer, it's fine.
• 16:47
  Natasha DeHart: You can do whatever you want.
• 16:48
  Natasha DeHart: But um, this one is the approachable, do not feel guilty about it.
• 16:52
  Natasha DeHart: I drink it neat, but you can put a rock in it.
• 16:55
  Natasha DeHart: You can put it in, put it in your ginger beer and make a Texas mule.
• 16:59
  Natasha DeHart: Um, and it's it it crosses over into kind of the vodka and gin crowd, too.
• 17:05
  Natasha DeHart: So it does make it more of an open market where you don't have to feel like you have to order 135-proof bourbon to fit in.
• 17:14
  Aaron: I it it's very nicely balanced.
• 17:18
  Aaron: It's kind of I would think of this as a Tuesday sipper, right?
• 17:21
  Aaron: I think it's a good way to word it.
• 17:23
  Aaron: Um it has a youthfulness to it, but not the sharp edge that youthfulness sometimes has.
• 17:30
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 17:31
  Aaron: Um, it's got that lighter note.
• 17:33
  Aaron: It's a very tasty one.
• 17:34
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 17:35
  Aaron: Um, no numbers.
• 17:36
  Aaron: Would you say that's a good one?
• 17:37
  Gavin: Well, no, well, like age-wise, do we is there uh an average age to this?
• 17:41
  Natasha DeHart: So I think we're at um for the most most recent blend, we're almost to four years on all of the whiskeys.
• 17:49
  Natasha DeHart: Okay.
• 17:49
  Natasha DeHart: So we're for sure on this bottle.
• 17:52
  Natasha DeHart: I would have to look at uh between three and a half and four and a half.
• 17:54
  Natasha DeHart: I was just gonna say it's over three and probably under five.
• 17:58
  Gavin: Okay, perfect.
• 17:59
  Gavin: I I really enjoy that.
• 18:00
  Gavin: I've actually owned one of these bottles.
• 18:02
  Gavin: Um, so shameless plug.
• 18:04
  Gavin: I have been to Bent uh before several years ago.
• 18:08
  Gavin: It looks a little different than the last time I was here.
• 18:10
  Gavin: Um, but I do enjoy this.
• 18:12
  Gavin: I've had it.
• 18:13
  Gavin: Um, I think for me, I got, I'm I'm not giving it a score, but uh on the on the nose and the palate, I think it carried through.
• 18:22
  Gavin: There was this dusty hay note that I got.
• 18:25
  Gavin: And I really enjoy that.
• 18:27
  Aaron: Yeah, I I I think for me there was a real heavy underlying like light honey flavor.
• 18:33
  Aaron: Um, so there was a sweetness to it.
• 18:35
  Aaron: Like I'll say hints of vanilla, but not heavy vanilla.
• 18:39
  Aaron: Um yeah, I this one's worth having.
• 18:44
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 18:44
  Aaron: I don't know, I don't know how much, I don't know how much you guys charge for this one, but it's worth every penny.
• 18:49
  Natasha DeHart: Uh $29.99.
• 18:51
  Natasha DeHart: So we keep it under $30 because we want it to be approachable.
• 18:55
  Gavin: Yeah.
• 18:55
  Gavin: That is that is very approachable.
• 18:57
  Gavin: Um, you know, there's we've done a couple shows where we've talked the best bang for the buck, and we've given each other challenges of going and finding a bottle under $25, $30.
• 19:09
  Gavin: I sometimes that's really hard to find something drinkable at $25.
• 19:13
  Gavin: It can be.
• 19:14
  Gavin: Yes.
• 19:14
  Gavin: Um, or you're me and I fibbed a little because it was on sale.
• 19:19
  Gavin: Got it, got a deal.
• 19:20
  Gavin: So got a really nice bottle for the price point.
• 19:24
  Gavin: So I like to break the rules a little bit.
• 19:26
  Gavin: So well, Natasha, thank you so much for telling us.
• 19:30
  Aaron: Absolutely.
• 19:30
  Aaron: Um, we're gonna step into bottle number two.
• 19:35
  Gavin: As we all know, running a small business means you have to wear many hats.
• 19:39
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 19:40
  Aaron: One of Natasha's other hats is a mom.
• 19:43
  Aaron: She had to step away, take care of the kids for a minute, but Ryan stuck around with us.
• 19:48
  Gavin: So, with that, why don't you stick around while we try something brand new?
• 19:53
  Aaron: All right, my favorite part of every episode: somebody else pours me whiskey.
• 19:58
  Aaron: So let's do official tasting number one.
• 20:01
  Aaron: All right.
• 20:02
  Aaron: The bent light.
• 20:04
  Ryan DeHart: Unbent white whiskey.
• 20:05
  Aaron: Unbent, sorry, unbent light whiskey.
• 20:07
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 20:08
  Aaron: How dare you! This is exciting.
• 20:11
  Aaron: We've never had a light whiskey on a show before.
• 20:14
  Aaron: That's right.
• 20:15
  Aaron: Um, well, we tease a teased a little bit because there's light whiskey in in the number five.
• 20:22
  Aaron: But this is the first time just a pure light whiskey.
• 20:25
  Aaron: Yes.
• 20:26
  Ryan DeHart: Well, do you and even better, you guys will be the first two people to taste our unbent light whiskey.
• 20:33
  Ryan DeHart: We have yet to release it.
• 20:34
  Ryan DeHart: Holy shit, nice it is coming out.
• 20:36
  Ryan DeHart: I'm gonna put a big start month.
• 20:38
  Ryan DeHart: So yeah, you this was bottled actually this morning.
• 20:41
  Ryan DeHart: What?
• 20:42
  Ryan DeHart: Uh just for the show.
• 20:43
  Ryan DeHart: And so yeah, we'll uh we'll let you guys get our our first experience.
• 20:47
  Gavin: Well, Ryan, yeah, well, you do the honors then.
• 20:49
  Gavin: I I feel like I could not open the bottle.
• 20:52
  Gavin: All right, I bet you could have.
• 20:53
  Aaron: I bet you could have.
• 20:54
  Aaron: I think if you tried, I think you could have gotten it.
• 20:57
  Gavin: Probably could have.
• 20:57
  Gavin: All right, so I'm gonna take some notes here.
• 20:59
  Gavin: We're whiskey.
• 21:02
  Aaron: As you pour, tell us a little bit about the specs on the bot this bottle.
• 21:07
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah, so this is uh so an American light whiskey.
• 21:10
  Ryan DeHart: So category-wise, uh American light whiskey is it's getting it's actually gaining a little bit of prominence.
• 21:16
  Ryan DeHart: It came into being in the 1970s, um, when Canadian whiskey was beating the shit out of bourbon whiskey.
• 21:27
  Ryan DeHart: Um bourbon was just uh your your old granddad's drink.
• 21:32
  Ryan DeHart: And you know, back in the 70s, you know, everybody was moving more towards lighter spirits.
• 21:36
  Ryan DeHart: Vodka was coming very much into its own.
• 21:39
  Ryan DeHart: And uh and then Canadian whiskey, which uh is uh a lighter whiskey that's typically aged in X bourbon cask, uh was was gaining a ton of traction.
• 21:51
  Ryan DeHart: And so uh American light whiskey was our US response to uh the this Canadian attack on.
• 21:59
  Ryan DeHart: On our whiskey.
• 22:01
  Ryan DeHart: And so the rules for making American light whiskey is that it has to be distilled over 160 proof.
• 22:08
  Ryan DeHart: All right.
• 22:09
  Ryan DeHart: So all other American whiskey styles have to be distilled under 160 proof.
• 22:13
  Ryan DeHart: So it's between 160 and 190.
• 22:16
  Ryan DeHart: So that you get that's the range that you can work with post coming off the stills.
• 22:20
  Ryan DeHart: And that it has to age in used oak containers.
• 22:26
  Ryan DeHart: So not new, whereas all other American spirit profiles go into new American, new oak.
• 22:32
  Ryan DeHart: Gotcha.
• 22:32
  Ryan DeHart: So those are the two categories.
• 22:34
  Ryan DeHart: So as you can tell, light whiskey, it also has a lighter, lighter appearance.
• 22:38
  Ryan DeHart: What uh historically, what it's what uh has been the mash bill by some of the bigger producers like MGP is that um instead of using, say, a vodka for uh either a blend or for an RTD, for example, and just still call it whiskey, uh, they've used American light whiskey.
• 22:58
  Ryan DeHart: And uh those that mash bill is typically 99% corn and 1% malt.
• 23:03
  Ryan DeHart: Right?
• 23:04
  Ryan DeHart: So it's basically 100% corn for all practical purposes and then aged an experiment cask.
• 23:09
  Ryan DeHart: Uh so it doesn't, you know, it that type of mash bill is not going to have be incredibly flavorful unless it ages for a really long time and you get all the the nuances from the oak barrel, right?
• 23:20
  Aaron: All all of those rules help to soften all of the flavors, right?
• 23:25
  Aaron: Running higher proof means less grain profile makes it through.
• 23:29
  Aaron: That's right.
• 23:30
  Aaron: Used barrel means the barrel doesn't impart as much flavor.
• 23:33
  Aaron: That's right.
• 23:33
  Aaron: I would imagine that much corn and then nothing else in the process does not impart a great deal of flavors.
• 23:41
  Aaron: It turns out really neutral.
• 23:43
  Ryan DeHart: Right.
• 23:43
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 23:44
  Ryan DeHart: And so you you, in fact, uh, you know, now that light whiskey is having a bit of a uh a second uh daylight right now, uh, you know, Pinel P, which MGP is behind, uh, has come out with some extended ages.
• 23:57
  Ryan DeHart: You're looking at some, there's like some 18 and 20-year uh light whiskeys now that are on the market.
• 24:02
  Ryan DeHart: And in and much like a Scotch, you kind of need that extra aging time if you're working with you know a very basic mash bill.
• 24:11
  Ryan DeHart: Uh we obviously weren't going at it from a cost perspective.
• 24:14
  Ryan DeHart: So the the the big boys did it from a you know traditionally made light whiskey from from a cost perspective to try to make it as cheap as possible.
• 24:22
  Ryan DeHart: Um we took it at a different approach, is in obviously we're we're a craft distillery, we want to bring out as much flavor profile, but still stays true to the style.
• 24:31
  Ryan DeHart: And so we use our traditional bourbon mash bill uh in this particular light whiskey.
• 24:37
  Ryan DeHart: So it's the exact same bourbon mash bill, which is 70% corn, 18% El Bon rye, and 12% malted barley.
• 24:45
  Ryan DeHart: So you'll notice one of the things that that we are are somewhat known for is that across all of our American whiskey profiles, the minimum amount of malt that we'll have in any of our uh whiskeys is 12%.
• 24:56
  Ryan DeHart: And the reason for that is that you that's pretty much the minimum amount that you need to get a full conversion of your sugars uh during the cook process.
• 25:06
  Ryan DeHart: Right.
• 25:06
  Ryan DeHart: So as opposed to then have short of that, then you're essentially having to add exogenous enzymes uh to the mash to get your full conversion.
• 25:16
  Ryan DeHart: Gotcha.
• 25:17
  Gavin: So being that we are in Texas, does the Texas heat help the process of uh light whiskey?
• 25:29
  Ryan DeHart: At all?
• 25:29
  Ryan DeHart: Um uh for sure, yes.
• 25:32
  Ryan DeHart: Um it helps and it hurts from a manufacturer's perspective because um we uh aggressively age all the, not only light whiskey, but really all the barrels here, um, such that you know a barrel like this is uh a six and a half year age American light whiskey.
• 25:50
  Ryan DeHart: Uh when we harvested this particular barrel, it was half full, right?
• 25:54
  Ryan DeHart: So that's that's pretty standard for most of ours, is we end up having excessive loss because we have so many aging days here in Texas.
• 26:02
  Ryan DeHart: And uh even in winter time, uh, you know, getting a 10 to 20 degree uh temperature differential in the Rick House is is commonplace.
• 26:11
  Ryan DeHart: So yeah, we were able to use the the really the full year, calendar year to age whiskeys.
• 26:17
  Ryan DeHart: So we don't need quite the same time that you might in other places, which is helpful.
• 26:22
  Ryan DeHart: But again, you also then have some of the extreme both lows and highs that lead to leakage and evaporation.
• 26:29
  Ryan DeHart: And so those are that's part of the balancing acts that we face here in Texas.
• 26:33
  Aaron: So light whiskeys became popular when traditional whiskeys, bourbons, became unpopular, is part of the thought process in producing light whiskeys now because you're see we're seeing regular bourbons um somewhat decline and their I don't know if I don't know if it's it's a broad sense of popularity or maybe the quite crazy fanatics aren't quite as crazy and fanatical as they used to be.
• 27:08
  Aaron: Is this a is this where you see the market trending back towards a light whiskey?
• 27:16
  Ryan DeHart: Um yeah, I think when you look at the you know the demographics, I think when you also look at things like RTDs now are becoming much more popular.
• 27:24
  Ryan DeHart: Um, you know, flavors in general are very popular uh even within American whiskey style.
• 27:30
  Ryan DeHart: So uh I I think you're seeing um look, nothing nothing stays hot forever, right?
• 27:36
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, these are just just normal cyclical trends that I think have been going on for for for since since whiskey's been a thing.
• 27:45
  Ryan DeHart: Um so yeah, I definitely think that um whereas what's interesting about light whiskey though is that we created the category in the 70s, but it never caught on here in the United States.
• 27:57
  Ryan DeHart: It was still a Canadian thing, it was still an Irish whiskey thing, right?
• 28:00
  Ryan DeHart: It was never a big American light whiskey.
• 28:04
  Ryan DeHart: Most consumers would still don't know what that category is, right?
• 28:07
  Ryan DeHart: So I think it's it's actually now here we are, what, 60 years later, 40, you know, 50 to 60 years later, and it's just now finally catching on.
• 28:16
  Ryan DeHart: And I think you're starting to get some people, it's starting to gain some attention, partly because it is, yeah, it's different.
• 28:22
  Ryan DeHart: It didn't it's the one American whiskey style that can't go into a new oak barrel like all the others.
• 28:29
  Ryan DeHart: So that's by its very nature is going to impart a vastly different flavor profile.
• 28:34
  Gavin: And and so if it doesn't go into a new barrel, are you reusing your own old barrels?
• 28:44
  Ryan DeHart: That's right.
• 28:44
  Ryan DeHart: Yep.
• 28:45
  Ryan DeHart: Yep.
• 28:45
  Ryan DeHart: And so yeah, essentially we'll we'll we'll uh well, you know, we we we we tried to plan our production around dumping bourbon, so then then they go into really fresh bourbon barrels that are still really wet.
• 28:56
  Ryan DeHart: So it's you know, some of that bourbon's still playing apart uh and influencing the flavor of our light whiskey.
• 29:01
  Aaron: Aaron Powell Is Is there whether it's a trend or is there a thought process to using non-bourbon barrels when aging light whiskey, kind of mimicking or kind of piggyback on what tends to happen in the Scotch world where you use other spirits to somewhat flavor?
• 29:20
  Ryan DeHart: I I I uh I can only imagine that that is going to be where it goes next.
• 29:25
  Ryan DeHart: Right?
• 29:25
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 29:26
  Ryan DeHart: I think that you're you're I think I think that's I got ahead.
• 29:29
  Ryan DeHart: Save that question from future.
• 29:32
  Ryan DeHart: I don't think I haven't seen any like either finished barrels, uh, you know, that the guy's me.
• 29:37
  Ryan DeHart: But yeah, I I think that that's absolutely uh and would as you can already tell from this spirit, I think that it's um you know it it's a it it it it's a it's the very prominent within Bed Five, and then we add the nuance and the and the flavors from the other whiskeys to give it its character, and this is it all by itself, you know, just standing strong.
• 29:56
  Ryan DeHart: And I think that you can definitely um you know get more flavor, if that's what you're after, uh, from doing secondary agings on these.
• 30:05
  Aaron: I it I'm trying to think of the best way.
• 30:08
  Aaron: If you've never had light whiskey, like how do you verbally describe what's in the glass?
• 30:13
  Aaron: Yeah, and and I keep coming up with ways I might describe it, but it feels like I'm being insulting because and I'm not, right?
• 30:22
  Aaron: Um, it does remind you of bourbon, but like the bourbon that would be in the glass after the ice has melted a bit, right?
• 30:30
  Aaron: And it started to be watered down, but it still has proof, right?
• 30:34
  Aaron: The flavors are very soft, and it it reminds me of the second half of a glass of bourbon on ice, but the proof isn't gone because of the water, right?
• 30:46
  Aaron: But the flavors have been kind of stretched out.
• 30:48
  Aaron: I I maybe that's not the best way to describe it, like it, but it it that's where my head went as we sat here sipping it.
• 30:55
  Ryan DeHart: For me, it's it's the grains get the starting role now.
• 30:58
  Ryan DeHart: So whereas in a in a heavily aged bourbon, the barrel plays the biggest role in in the flavor for spirit profile.
• 31:05
  Ryan DeHart: Here, this is where you really let the spirits, the the grains shine through more than anything.
• 31:10
  Ryan DeHart: And yeah.
• 31:11
  Gavin: When I've approached a light whiskey, I've done it in tastings where there's other like I'm tasting bourbons before I get to that, right?
• 31:20
  Gavin: And I've may have had two or three pours, and then I go into this, and then I excuse me, then I feel like it's you can't almost do that.
• 31:30
  Gavin: Like you really got to think of it as of its own thing, its own entity almost, right?
• 31:35
  Gavin: Because it is different.
• 31:36
  Gavin: Um, and I don't think that it is fair to compare it to a you know, a bourbon that is you know, just punch in the face.
• 31:45
  Gavin: Like it is, it is different, and you kind of have to what I'd compare it to is more of a Canadian whiskey.
• 31:50
  Ryan DeHart: Like that, I mean, I think that's a great the uh the best parallel uh in terms of style-wise is you know, pick any Canadian whiskey or and to some extent Irish whiskey as well.
• 32:01
  Aaron: Yeah, that that was where my head was is that that kind of triple distilled, very soft.
• 32:07
  Aaron: Um a lot of the Irish ones I have, there's a little more floral note to it, and this I think goes more to that grain.
• 32:15
  Aaron: Um and like there's a corn sweetness to it, like you can recognize that the corn that's in there.
• 32:22
  Aaron: Um it's tasty, but I'm with you.
• 32:26
  Aaron: I I think it is really unfair to say this is a whiskey like other whiskies, because this is not a bourbon, this is not a rye, um, this is certainly not a malted whiskey.
• 32:40
  Aaron: Like it is distinctly different than the others.
• 32:44
  Gavin: Yeah.
• 32:44
  Gavin: I do do we want to talk about what we gave?
• 32:47
  Gavin: Okay, yeah.
• 32:48
  Gavin: So on this, I felt like we kind of got ahead, and then I was like, oh shoot, I should have saved some of that.
• 32:52
  Gavin: I gave away all my stuff.
• 32:53
  Gavin: Oh, you gave it, yeah.
• 32:54
  Gavin: Um for me, I think there was a chocolate-ish note, like uh uh on the nose.
• 33:01
  Gavin: Um and then right.
• 33:04
  Gavin: Um like MM's milk chocolate kind of chocolate.
• 33:08
  Gavin: Yeah, like there's there's something there, a chocolatey note, um slight caramel.
• 33:15
  Gavin: Um let's see, let me go back to my notes here.
• 33:19
  Gavin: I I picked up sweetness on the nose.
• 33:21
  Gavin: I I did uh slight uh tootsie roll.
• 33:25
  Gavin: So maybe that's that chocolate.
• 33:26
  Gavin: You know how a Tootsie roll is not like a punch in the face.
• 33:28
  Gavin: Not real chocolate?
• 33:30
  Gavin: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:30
  Gavin: It's kind of got that a little bit of a tootsie roll in it.
• 33:35
  Aaron: For me, like I get this real distinct mashed corn kind of aroma, right?
• 33:41
  Aaron: Um a little bit like a box of cornflakes.
• 33:46
  Aaron: Oh, yeah.
• 33:47
  Aaron: That kind of aroma that comes from a new box of cereal.
• 33:50
  Aaron: Um, not frosted.
• 33:52
  Aaron: It's not that sugary.
• 33:54
  Aaron: Um, but yeah, I I distinctly get reminds me of growing up at the edge of town, right?
• 34:01
  Aaron: We I was as close to a country kid as you could get, but without being censored, right?
• 34:06
  Aaron: Um yeah, the fields around us were growing corn.
• 34:09
  Aaron: I this this absolutely reminds me of the smell of a warm late summer day when the corn is ripe and ready to be harvested.
• 34:17
  Aaron: I get that all over the nose.
• 34:19
  Aaron: Right on.
• 34:21
  Gavin: Um, on the do we get it right?
• 34:23
  Gavin: Yeah, yeah.
• 34:25
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, I think all those are good.
• 34:27
  Ryan DeHart: It's not a huge nose, right?
• 34:28
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, it's it's it's it's true to its style.
• 34:30
  Ryan DeHart: I think it it is, it's it's subtle, it's more subtle, right?
• 34:33
  Ryan DeHart: So you have to really kind of go deep to pick out some of the nuances there.
• 34:36
  Ryan DeHart: I get a little bit of some bright fruit as well, but it's it's all very subtle.
• 34:41
  Aaron: Yeah, the first two words I wrote down were soft and faint.
• 34:44
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 34:44
  Aaron: Right?
• 34:45
  Aaron: Like, and then and then you then you got to the descriptors, but everything you're talking about isn't big bold.
• 34:49
  Aaron: There's nothing punching you in the face with the rest.
• 34:52
  Aaron: I I absolutely see where if you were not a big whiskey drinker, this has the opportunity to be a smooth transition into the flavors of whiskey without some of the big harsh boldness that some people are put off when they first sit down with a whiskey.
• 35:13
  Aaron: Right.
• 35:14
  Gavin: Yeah.
• 35:15
  Ryan DeHart: In American whiskey, yeah.
• 35:16
  Gavin: And one of the things we actually didn't talk about for this bottle is it is a bottled and bond, right?
• 35:20
  Gavin: That's right.
• 35:21
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 35:21
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 35:22
  Ryan DeHart: So all of our unbent series are all bottled and bonds, with which has really it's really the highest standard of American whiskey, and that it has to be a minimum of four years from a single distillery uh and made in a single season, right?
• 35:34
  Ryan DeHart: So you can't take barrels from multiple seasons to bone it together, uh, and bottle it at 100 proof, finally.
• 35:40
  Ryan DeHart: So that's the other one.
• 35:41
  Aaron: We were discussing this morning um before we got here that we've always heard bottled and bond in reference to bourbon.
• 35:48
  Aaron: And then when we were looking at the notes of what we were gonna cover, I was like, well, wait a second.
• 35:54
  Aaron: This isn't bourbon, right?
• 35:56
  Aaron: But still bottled and bond.
• 35:58
  Aaron: And then we so we went back and started looking at the rules of bottled bond.
• 36:01
  Aaron: Like nowhere in there does it say bourbon.
• 36:03
  Aaron: Yeah, it's just it has to do with the aging process.
• 36:06
  Aaron: Yeah, yeah.
• 36:07
  Aaron: It's the only place you ever saw that term used, though, right?
• 36:11
  Aaron: Right, was in the bourbon world.
• 36:12
  Aaron: And so we could just kind of instinctively put those two together.
• 36:15
  Aaron: And we were wrong.
• 36:17
  Aaron: Yeah, I'm not gonna say it very often, but we were wrong.
• 36:21
  Aaron: Uh your wife now has that on record.
• 36:24
  Aaron: Trust me, she doesn't need a video proof of it.
• 36:27
  Aaron: She believes this a lot.
• 36:29
  Gavin: All right, on the palette, what are you getting?
• 36:31
  Gavin: Um, on the palette, I think um it's soft and then like right on the front palette, and I think on the mid palette, that's where the spice I felt like showed up.
• 36:41
  Gavin: And that proof really rolled through.
• 36:45
  Aaron: Yeah, to me, the nose mimics the palate, right?
• 36:51
  Aaron: Um it is as soon as you finish that sip, and that's when the flavors start to change, right?
• 36:59
  Aaron: And we can have this debate over whether or not that's a palate or finish, right?
• 37:02
  Aaron: Like how how far after you take your sip before you you switch from one to the other.
• 37:07
  Aaron: But yeah, I'm with you.
• 37:08
  Aaron: This there is a spiciness.
• 37:10
  Aaron: You can you can get a bit of that rye kind of spice um right at right at the end of the palate.
• 37:16
  Aaron: But swirling around your mouth, it's soft, light, all the same words before, soft, faint, light, like all still apply.
• 37:24
  Aaron: Um that being said, you can you can feel the hundred proof.
• 37:32
  Aaron: Right?
• 37:33
  Aaron: It has it has a tingle on the tongue.
• 37:35
  Aaron: As much as it it tastes light, it tastes light in its level of flavors, not in its proof punch.
• 37:45
  Aaron: Right.
• 37:45
  Aaron: Um, it's a it's a little bit perplexing on the palate because you're just not expecting proof with that light of flavor.
• 37:53
  Aaron: I actually really like that though.
• 37:56
  Aaron: Yeah, no, it's far more enjoyable.
• 37:57
  Aaron: I did this to me, like this.
• 38:01
  Aaron: We talked about the number five being a Tuesday sipper.
• 38:04
  Aaron: Like this to me feels like the bottle that could be in the fridge or in the freezer that you just pour, you want it cold, right?
• 38:12
  Aaron: Because it's a light, like this feels like a summer drink.
• 38:14
  Aaron: Right?
• 38:15
  Aaron: This is this is not cold day out around the fire pit in the back for me.
• 38:19
  Aaron: Um, but the idea that you could pour this and it be cold and maintain a high proof.
• 38:26
  Aaron: You didn't have to add ice and water it down to get that flavor profile.
• 38:31
  Aaron: I uh that that's an interesting twist that I that I really enjoy.
• 38:35
  Gavin: I don't think we've um we've had Canadian on a show and um obviously some Irish, but this one, I think to me, um packs that proof still within it that just I I'm really enjoying it.
• 38:50
  Gavin: Like it's it's again, I think your analogy of um you know putting an ice cube in it.
• 38:57
  Gavin: This is you don't need the ice cube, just a little chill in the fridge.
• 39:01
  Gavin: Yeah, I I do like that idea.
• 39:03
  Aaron: Or finally get my wife's bottle of vodka out of the way and I can put a bottle of whiskey in the all right.
• 39:10
  Aaron: Um what about the finish?
• 39:13
  Aaron: All right, did you want to add anything for the palate?
• 39:16
  Ryan DeHart: No, I think you guys covered it well.
• 39:17
  Ryan DeHart: I think, yeah, you can so what I what I think differentiates this particular light whiskey, uh, as you guys noted, is that there is that subtle spice in the mid palette and into the that that goes to the finish that balances the initial sweetness from the corn.
• 39:33
  Ryan DeHart: And that's, you know, again, that's just a traditional bourbon mash bill, right?
• 39:36
  Ryan DeHart: That I think other light whiskeys you probably won't be able to have that same type of uh flavor profile because they don't have that same mash bill.
• 39:45
  Ryan DeHart: I think that's where the rye really actually comes to the show and and and makes its presence known.
• 39:49
  Ryan DeHart: And and I like that.
• 39:50
  Ryan DeHart: I like the yin and yang of sweet and spicy.
• 39:54
  Ryan DeHart: I think the balance that those two provide together ultimately makes, you know, for a really well-rounded whiskey.
• 40:00
  Aaron: You you said the allowable range coming off the still is 160 to 190.
• 40:05
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah, that's what's 190.
• 40:06
  Aaron: Is is this tend to run five?
• 40:08
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 40:09
  Aaron: Does this tend to run closer to the bottom of that scale?
• 40:10
  Aaron: That's right.
• 40:11
  Aaron: Yeah, that's right.
• 40:12
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 40:12
  Aaron: My fear would be is if you're running off the still at 190, you're broadcast.
• 40:17
  Aaron: There's yeah, there's no there's no real flavor, right?
• 40:20
  Aaron: Right, yeah.
• 40:20
  Aaron: Um, and and we're picking up enough of the grains that it felt like it had to break lower than that.
• 40:25
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 40:25
  Gavin: Yeah, that's good.
• 40:26
  Gavin: That's a good catch.
• 40:27
  Gavin: Finish?
• 40:27
  Gavin: Finish, yeah.
• 40:28
  Gavin: I think uh if it it we'll we can debate, we have started debating on where the palette ends and the finish begins.
• 40:36
  Gavin: Um get somebody who knows to come in and tell us.
• 40:39
  Gavin: Like where where on the spectrum are you?
• 40:42
  Gavin: Um I I I think the um the palette just goes right into the finish.
• 40:48
  Gavin: I think it the spice lingers a bit.
• 40:52
  Gavin: I think it I would call it maybe like a medium finish, that it's not it's just not rolling hill, but it is there, and then it just slowly tapers.
• 41:01
  Aaron: See, I I'm I'm gonna disagree.
• 41:03
  Aaron: This the finish to me was the most surprising part of the glass, right?
• 41:07
  Aaron: With a name like Light Whiskey, you expected light flavors.
• 41:10
  Aaron: I expected you to finish the sip and it disappeared, but it didn't.
• 41:16
  Aaron: The finish actually ran much longer.
• 41:18
  Aaron: Even still, like I can pick up those notes.
• 41:20
  Aaron: They're not big bold notes, they never were, right?
• 41:23
  Aaron: But even several seconds after finishing a glass, like as you're like, you can pick up a little bit of that corn sweetness still.
• 41:32
  Aaron: There's a little bit of that rye spice.
• 41:33
  Aaron: Um the finish is much longer than I expected it to be.
• 41:37
  Aaron: In the grand scheme of whiskeys, it's probably not the longest finish.
• 41:41
  Aaron: I'm not saying that, but I expected very short, very faint, very soft.
• 41:46
  Aaron: Like that's what I expected, and it was noticeably longer than that.
• 41:50
  Aaron: Um, and so yeah, that the biggest surprise for me on the glass was the finish, more than more than the initial flavor.
• 41:57
  Aaron: Because I think the initial flavor was right where I kind of expected it to be.
• 42:01
  Aaron: That's on the nose and anything else, yeah.
• 42:03
  Aaron: Yeah, the finish, the finish was surprising to me.
• 42:05
  Aaron: I like that.
• 42:06
  Aaron: All right.
• 42:07
  Aaron: Well, did we miss anything there?
• 42:08
  Aaron: No, I think you guys need to.
• 42:10
  Aaron: He's like, no, you missed all of the flavors on the finish.
• 42:14
  Gavin: Um, all right, we ready to put a number to it?
• 42:16
  Gavin: Yeah, I hold up, but I've got to write my number down.
• 42:18
  Gavin: This this one's Kevin will cheat.
• 42:20
  Gavin: This one's this one's different because we we've never had one on the show.
• 42:23
  Aaron: So here's what I'm gonna say.
• 42:25
  Aaron: I think, like we do when we talk about numbers from Scotch and numbers from bourbon, not necessarily correlating that an 85 Scotch and an 85 bourbon are the same.
• 42:40
  Aaron: Correct, right?
• 42:40
  Aaron: Those are different.
• 42:41
  Aaron: I kind of think this needs to be its own scale too.
• 42:45
  Aaron: I like where you're at, though.
• 42:47
  Aaron: That like is this benchmarked against Canadian, which is a very similar profile.
• 42:51
  Aaron: We did we did the Canada episode.
• 42:53
  Aaron: This reminds me a lot of both of the whiskeys we tried that time.
• 42:58
  Aaron: Um like I it hints to that for sure.
• 43:00
  Aaron: So I I'm going to say rate it as a light whiskey, not as a scale of all whiskeys.
• 43:08
  Gavin: Agreed.
• 43:08
  Aaron: So that's why I'm opening it.
• 43:09
  Gavin: Yep, I like that.
• 43:10
  Gavin: All right.
• 43:11
  Gavin: It's like I gotta hide it over here.
• 43:15
  Aaron: No, you don't.
• 43:15
  Aaron: I can't, I can't see it.
• 43:16
  Aaron: I've already I'm done.
• 43:18
  Aaron: You want me to take my number then?
• 43:20
  Aaron: Yeah, I'm saying you gotta write it down so I know you're not cheating.
• 43:24
  Aaron: It'll just he just adds one to whatever I give it.
• 43:27
  Aaron: Um all right, my number is in 85.
• 43:30
  Gavin: Okay.
• 43:31
  Aaron: And I'm gonna say why the 80s is that range is it's nice to have a bottle.
• 43:37
  Aaron: Compared to in the in the reference of Canada, I like what's going on in this.
• 43:45
  Aaron: I think it's got a little bit more going on.
• 43:47
  Aaron: I'll say it's a little more complex, even if it's light, than what we were typically getting out of Canadian whiskeys.
• 43:55
  Aaron: And for that reason, it goes up a little bit.
• 43:57
  Aaron: I don't have.
• 43:59
  Aaron: A big enough repertoire of light whiskies to know like what is the greatest light whiskey and what is like so I'm putting it right in the middle of we're thilling in a bottle.
• 44:11
  Gavin: I am very close to that.
• 44:13
  Gavin: I'm uh I'm one number under shy.
• 44:16
  Gavin: I did an 84, and it is a bottle that I want on my shelf.
• 44:20
  Gavin: I think it's absolutely amazing.
• 44:22
  Gavin: Um I think that the suggestion of putting this in the fridge is gonna catch people off guard out there, but I think that's no, no, there will be somebody who loses their mind.
• 44:34
  Aaron: Yeah, that's gonna I'm proposing you keep a whiskey in the fridge.
• 44:37
  Aaron: Like that if if you were in Scotland, you'd just leave this in the stream.
• 44:42
  Gavin: Yeah.
• 44:43
  Aaron: Or the cold water.
• 44:44
  Gavin: On the beach, whatever.
• 44:45
  Gavin: Like, I'm to me, um like I have so many whiskies that are like you only drink them at certain times of the year.
• 44:53
  Gavin: Like, well, actually, that's probably a lie for us.
• 44:56
  Gavin: But um for most people, for most people, I would say, you know, like you get a big PD scotch.
• 45:02
  Gavin: Um, it's hard to drink on a summer hot day in Houston.
• 45:06
  Aaron: A day like today, sitting outside would be brutal trying to sit down.
• 45:11
  Aaron: A peated scotch would be rough today.
• 45:14
  Gavin: But this to me, um, it would be something that I'd want to go sip outside in a hot summer day.
• 45:20
  Gavin: And if it was chilled, just all the more perfect.
• 45:24
  Gavin: So all the more.
• 45:25
  Gavin: This was absolutely wonderful.
• 45:27
  Ryan DeHart: I so well, and if you wanted to add a dash of ginger beer, cola, or it's not that pretentious, right?
• 45:36
  Ryan DeHart: I think that that could be also if you to the extent that you wanted something else, right?
• 45:40
  Ryan DeHart: More flavor, like it this is a a a good baseline to then potentially complement with a cherry, with you know, something else that that could also then take it to the next level and uh you know mold to your palate.
• 45:54
  Ryan DeHart: I like that.
• 45:55
  Aaron: This would definitely go into different cocktails than you would use a bigger boulder rye.
• 46:02
  Aaron: Right.
• 46:02
  Aaron: Right.
• 46:03
  Aaron: Um I I I my fear would be is if you put this in a glass with a bunch of bitters and sugar, you wouldn't taste any of the whiskey anymore, right?
• 46:12
  Aaron: Um this needs to be mixed with site softer, lighter goods, right?
• 46:17
  Aaron: That kind of stuff.
• 46:19
  Gavin: Um this and seven upper sprite, I think would be phenomenal.
• 46:22
  Gavin: You just love Sprite.
• 46:25
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 46:25
  Aaron: So not available yet, but in the near future, when somebody could swing by and pick up a bottle, how much will one of these run?
• 46:34
  Ryan DeHart: Uh so our unvent line, it's uh six, it's sixty dollars, fifty-nine dollars for the seven fifties.
• 46:40
  Ryan DeHart: Okay, yep.
• 46:41
  Ryan DeHart: And we haven't, we're we're just about to release these three seven fives, which will I'm sure will be right around 30 bucks.
• 46:47
  Aaron: Wow, awesome.
• 46:48
  Gavin: Thank that's perfect.
• 46:49
  Gavin: Yep.
• 46:49
  Gavin: I'm in.
• 46:50
  Gavin: All right, let's open it up.
• 46:52
  Gavin: Let's let's drink one more.
• 46:53
  Gavin: All right.
• 46:54
  Gavin: I like it.
• 46:55
  Gavin: Nothing makes us more sad than knowing that you don't get a chance to sit down and taste these wonderful whiskeys.
• 47:03
  Gavin: It is sad.
• 47:06
  Aaron: But I have a solution.
• 47:07
  Aaron: What's that?
• 47:08
  Aaron: One lucky winner will get the chance to have the unbent bottled in bond collection.
• 47:16
  Aaron: That's a bottle of the bourbon, wheat whiskey, rye whiskey, and their straight malt whiskey.
• 47:25
  Gavin: So if you're interested, go check out our Facebook and Instagram accounts at the Noble Dram.
• 47:32
  Aaron: And with any luck, you could be sipping delicious whiskeys alongside us.
• 47:37
  Gavin: Welcome back, everyone.
• 47:38
  Gavin: You know, Aaron's favorite time of every show is when somebody pours him the second pour.
• 47:46
  Gavin: Tonight, or today, we're tasting a third pour, and that is the unbent malt.
• 47:55
  Aaron: And I didn't have to pour any of them.
• 47:57
  Aaron: This has been a great day.
• 47:58
  Aaron: This has been a great day.
• 47:59
  Aaron: All right, tell us a little bit about this one, Ryan.
• 48:02
  Ryan DeHart: So, unbent, this is a bottled and bond straight malt whiskey.
• 48:07
  Ryan DeHart: Um, it's an American style of whiskey that by category has to have at least 51% malted barley.
• 48:15
  Ryan DeHart: Um and uh this particular whiskey, Nashville, is a 60% two-row malted barley, 40% soft winter red wheat.
• 48:26
  Ryan DeHart: Uh so the wheat provides a lot of the creaminess and mouthfeel that you'll get to it, and then you get a lot of the great flavor from the malt, the malted barley.
• 48:35
  Ryan DeHart: Uh American malt whiskey's been on the books as a category uh for American whiskey for many, many years.
• 48:41
  Ryan DeHart: It also has to age in a new white, sorry, a new oak, charred oak barrel, um uh as the other classic American whiskey styles do.
• 48:51
  Ryan DeHart: Uh, just in the last two years, though, we now have a new American single malt whiskey, which is where we're part of the commission that that lobbied for that effort.
• 49:00
  Ryan DeHart: Um and as a result, now we have a new category of American single malt whiskey, of which this is not.
• 49:06
  Ryan DeHart: This is the older style, the American malt whiskey.
• 49:10
  Ryan DeHart: Um, and we can talk about the the differentiation with American single malts if you guys like, but yeah, uh this is the the old school that's aged in New Oak, and uh just uh the requirement is only a minimum of 51%.
• 49:24
  Aaron: Similar to how rye whiskey is at least 51%.
• 49:26
  Aaron: That's right.
• 49:29
  Gavin: General concept.
• 49:30
  Gavin: There is a problem though, and that is we don't have a pour yet.
• 49:34
  Gavin: We need a pour we need a pour.
• 49:37
  Aaron: As you talked, I was like, I'd love to take a sip of that.
• 49:40
  Aaron: I mean, then I then I went and ran my mouth about how I wasn't pouring any of them, and I was like, I could help, but I've already said I wasn't, and I don't want to be a liar.
• 49:49
  Ryan DeHart: So this particular whiskey was actually the very first whiskey that we ever made.
• 49:53
  Ryan DeHart: Oh really?
• 49:54
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah, so it's our very first one, and we continue it to this day.
• 49:58
  Ryan DeHart: It's uh it's just a it's a great pour.
• 50:00
  Ryan DeHart: Uh, we've had many fan favorites over the years, it's had different names over the years.
• 50:04
  Ryan DeHart: We first released it as uh Cross Timbers malt whiskey.
• 50:08
  Ryan DeHart: Um and and uh we had it as a Witherspoon malt whiskey for a little a short period of time and now uh unbent malt whiskey.
• 50:16
  Ryan DeHart: So this is uh it's bottom and bond, so it's of course it's underproof, uh, you know, single season, obviously single distillery.
• 50:22
  Ryan DeHart: Uh we already talked about the mash bill.
• 50:24
  Ryan DeHart: Uh right right now the age is is averaging right around seven to eight years on all these perfect bottlenebond beds.
• 50:33
  Gavin: Um all of the grains that go into this.
• 50:37
  Gavin: It's just two.
• 50:38
  Gavin: It's just two.
• 50:39
  Gavin: Yeah.
• 50:39
  Gavin: Is it two types?
• 50:41
  Aaron: There's more than two grains.
• 50:44
  Ryan DeHart: It's a lot of grain to make it.
• 50:46
  Ryan DeHart: Just one at a time.
• 50:48
  Gavin: Fermenting single grain.
• 50:50
  Gavin: It's a whole new.
• 50:51
  Gavin: I mean, they're really milking it to get everything out of that grain that they can.
• 50:55
  Gavin: Um so uh where are those grown?
• 50:58
  Gavin: Where are the grains?
• 51:00
  Ryan DeHart: So uh this whiskey at eight years old now was just at the the point of which we we were able to merge to 100% Texas grains.
• 51:09
  Ryan DeHart: So of course, over the last eight years, 100% Texas grains we tried to source as locally as possible.
• 51:15
  Ryan DeHart: Um uh a fun little fact is that uh just just kind of north in this North Texas area uh was the largest wheat producing section of the entire country at the turn of the pre-prior century.
• 51:29
  Ryan DeHart: So, you know, turn of the 19th century, we we uh produced more wheat in North Texas than just about anywhere else in the country.
• 51:37
  Aaron: They're fine words.
• 51:38
  Aaron: Yeah, like Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, all right here.
• 51:43
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah, it's uh huge wheat producers, obviously.
• 51:46
  Ryan DeHart: With uh we're we're now in North Texas where it's uh a lot of urban sprawl and and just land development in general.
• 51:53
  Ryan DeHart: Uh and as a result, that farmland has been cannibalized a bit, but uh, we're still fortunate enough to work now with you know six and seventh generation farmers here in Denton County.
• 52:04
  Ryan DeHart: So we this is that's the more Louisville, Texas.
• 52:07
  Ryan DeHart: We reside in Denton County.
• 52:08
  Ryan DeHart: Uh so this the wheat that is in this uh particular whiskey uh is from just 20 miles from here, which is great.
• 52:16
  Gavin: That is awesome.
• 52:17
  Gavin: So it kind of brings up a whole nother thing that we haven't talked about yet.
• 52:22
  Aaron: I I think I think it is important to know because we've done episodes on American single malts and not being a single malt, right?
• 52:31
  Aaron: Single malt being just a single grain.
• 52:34
  Aaron: Um, because this has weed in it, it is a malt whiskey.
• 52:37
  Aaron: Um, there is a distinction.
• 52:39
  Aaron: You mentioned several times specifically the barrel, because there's a difference in rule on barrel, too, correct?
• 52:45
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 52:45
  Ryan DeHart: Well, so there is uh with the new American single malts designation, uh they don't specify that it has to go into a new oak barrel.
• 52:56
  Ryan DeHart: So much you know, classic Scotch single malts, which is really where the category kind of spurned from originally.
• 53:04
  Ryan DeHart: Uh they're famous for using X bourbon, vast majority, but also Sherry, you name it, right?
• 53:11
  Ryan DeHart: They they've they they're they're famous for basically using uh wood that had previously been used to mature other spirits.
• 53:19
  Ryan DeHart: Um uh and so uh the the part of the discussion when we were were were working with the American Sigma Wall Commission to uh define the category was you know, traditionally all American spirits, you know, outside of light whiskey that we talked about has to go into new oak.
• 53:37
  Ryan DeHart: And that's one of the primary differentiators of American whiskey compared to whiskies from other parts of the world, is that uh you know, that the the that oak really imparts uh a ton of flavor, color, you name it, and to the the to the the quality of the whiskey, which gives it that tiroir of American whiskey.
• 53:57
  Ryan DeHart: And so when we were creating this new single malt American single malt category, the tradition, at least the heritage of it, uh historically uses used cooperage.
• 54:09
  Ryan DeHart: And so, you know, if we wanted to ultimately what what what we we were, and I'm really happy where we were able to lay the line, it's we just made it open, where you could either use new oak or used oak, or really any oak, right?
• 54:23
  Ryan DeHart: You don't even have to use American oak, right?
• 54:25
  Ryan DeHart: You can use really any type of uh wood that you'd like to mature American single malt whiskey.
• 54:30
  Ryan DeHart: So it we we specify that it has to be aged in oak or aged in wood, I think, is actually the the requirements.
• 54:37
  Ryan DeHart: But other than that, um we we that there is no other specifications on American single malt.
• 54:42
  Aaron: Is there a plan to also produce a single malt in the future?
• 54:49
  Ryan DeHart: We have lots of single malt aging now, yeah.
• 54:51
  Ryan DeHart: So uh and and really the only differentiation for us, uh because you know, we were while we were working on this, this this category just was created in the last two years.
• 55:01
  Ryan DeHart: So uh we've we've been laying back what would what would now fall and qualify as American single malt, we started making eight years ago.
• 55:08
  Ryan DeHart: So we haven't released it yet.
• 55:10
  Ryan DeHart: Uh we were still uh we're just with the our our classic uh straight malt whiskey.
• 55:16
  Ryan DeHart: But we yeah, we do have plans to reach uh to release uh uh single malt whiskies as well.
• 55:21
  Ryan DeHart: The vast majority of which are for at least from our distillery will be from new uh new oak, new American oak.
• 55:28
  Ryan DeHart: Because we again we weren't really sure where that was gonna land, and we said, all right, well, we'll play it safe.
• 55:32
  Ryan DeHart: And and we and we we, you know, my personal preference, as you guys could tell from the light whiskey, right?
• 55:39
  Ryan DeHart: The the barrel does do so much of the work in terms of the end flavor and profile of the whiskey.
• 55:44
  Ryan DeHart: And so um, you know, we're in Texas, right?
• 55:47
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, we we like bold things here in Texas, and so we said, okay, it makes sense for us to do new oak.
• 55:52
  Ryan DeHart: Uh, not to say that doing it in used oak is is is something less than, I think it's just gonna be something different, and and uh, and and we fully support, you know, other distilleries doing it their own way.
• 56:05
  Ryan DeHart: Um, but yeah, we decided to do new oak for all of ours.
• 56:08
  Ryan DeHart: And we've done everything from um we we've worked with several several different craft malt houses uh that produce a variety of different toasted malted barleys.
• 56:22
  Ryan DeHart: And so we've we've done smoke malts, which are really interesting, uh, where they cold smoke the malt after it's already been dried.
• 56:30
  Ryan DeHart: We've actually worked with uh a great company, Colorado Malting Company, out of Alamos, Colorado, where they were the we basically put out a call to the Kraft Malt Guild saying, look, we really would like to have a smoked green malt, which is essentially how they create the barley, the the malts in Scotland, right?
• 56:52
  Ryan DeHart: They use peat to dry out uh the green malt, which gives that really classic smoky character to it.
• 56:59
  Ryan DeHart: What we learned through trial and tribulation is that doing a cold smoke after it's already been dried doesn't give you a lot of the smoky character that you get when it when it's when it's still wet, when that smoke can really embed itself into the malt.
• 57:13
  Aaron: Yeah, and same thing happens when you're cooking brisket, right?
• 57:16
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 57:16
  Aaron: You want that surface wet so that smoke clings.
• 57:19
  Aaron: But once it dries out, it just doesn't really take on any more smoke.
• 57:23
  Gavin: So a couple things you mentioned.
• 57:25
  Gavin: One terroir and two Texas.
• 57:29
  Gavin: So here we go.
• 57:31
  Gavin: I want to talk a little bit about, you know, we've mentioned we are in Texas, um, specifically in Louisville, Texas, right?
• 57:39
  Gavin: That's right.
• 57:40
  Gavin: Right?
• 57:40
  Gavin: Not Louisville.
• 57:41
  Gavin: Or Louisville.
• 57:43
  Gavin: Or Louisville.
• 57:44
  Gavin: We're in Louisville.
• 57:46
  Gavin: Um, so can you talk a little bit about just your perspective of being a craft distiller in Texas and how you feel about the category.
• 58:03
  Gavin: Well, I say the category, not that there is one, but should there be a category, right?
• 58:09
  Gavin: We have um in Scotch, where there's specific regions, right?
• 58:15
  Gavin: Um, we've talked about that quite a bit on the show.
• 58:18
  Gavin: For American whiskey, we're very um conditioned to um Kentucky style whiskey, Tennessee whiskey, Indiana, and obviously all these other states, we all make whiskey, but there's not really a defined characteristic necessarily.
• 58:40
  Gavin: Texas, actually, a lot of people have a stigma a little bit about Texas whiskey.
• 58:46
  Gavin: Yeah.
• 58:46
  Gavin: Because it's it's a hot, humid climate.
• 58:50
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 58:51
  Aaron: Maybe the first question is do you feel there is an unfair stigma about Texas whiskey when you travel across the country?
• 59:03
  Ryan DeHart: The fact that there people are even we're part of the conversation now.
• 59:07
  Ryan DeHart: So so it's granted, if you we we wouldn't be having this conversation 15 years ago, right?
• 59:12
  Ryan DeHart: Because it did the category almost didn't exist, right?
• 59:14
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, it was just you know, we're that young, right?
• 59:16
  Ryan DeHart: And I so I think that that's that's a big part of it, is that um we're we're it we're we're just in the early stages in in terms of I mean, yeah, we're 20 years now into this project, but but in the whiskey scale, that's nothing, right?
• 59:30
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, we're we're still babies.
• 59:31
  Ryan DeHart: So I think that the fact that we're part of the conversation, even is is uh flattering to be honest.
• 59:37
  Ryan DeHart: Um we got in in 2012 now, uh when when there was already you know three or four whiskey distilleries.
• 59:44
  Ryan DeHart: So we're uh whether we're I don't know, when there were four or five or so that that came along in 2012.
• 59:49
  Ryan DeHart: Um and yeah, well, we I'll I'll tell you, when we started, like you couldn't, we couldn't even find local distiller quality grains here in Texas.
• 1:00:00
  Ryan DeHart: Right?
• 1:00:00
  Ryan DeHart: So all the grains that farmers grow around here were all high in protein that were great for cattle feed, but that didn't not make great whiskey.
• 1:00:08
  Ryan DeHart: And so it took a lot of work and discussions and partnerships before we actually could grow local grains even that would be suitable for great whiskey.
• 1:00:19
  Ryan DeHart: But all along that was very important for us.
• 1:00:21
  Ryan DeHart: We're not, I mean, yeah, so we yeah, we early when we first started, we imported our grains because that's all we could get.
• 1:00:27
  Ryan DeHart: But we knew that if if we you know we we whiskey should be about a place.
• 1:00:32
  Ryan DeHart: It should be, it should come from someplace.
• 1:00:34
  Ryan DeHart: And we're not trying to just copy what other people are doing in other places.
• 1:00:38
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, what what's the point of that really?
• 1:00:40
  Ryan DeHart: It's it's I mean, it's flattery, I guess.
• 1:00:43
  Ryan DeHart: But I I it for us it didn't make sense because we wanted to create something new, unique, that had that that could stood by stand by itself.
• 1:00:51
  Ryan DeHart: And uh and to do that, then that meant obviously, you know, making whiskey here locally, aging it here, uh, and you as many of the components that we can possibly get as locally to the distillery.
• 1:01:04
  Ryan DeHart: That if you think back, you know, how does Kentucky do it, how does Indiana do it?
• 1:01:08
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, those industries have been there for many years.
• 1:01:10
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, they those those industries have been there before there was even, you know, cars and and trucks and stuff, right?
• 1:01:15
  Ryan DeHart: So by their very nature, they had to be in these rural communities close to farms, right?
• 1:01:19
  Ryan DeHart: Close to where where everything could be easily, you know, uh uh contained and and and and um and brought to market.
• 1:01:28
  Ryan DeHart: So um, yeah, I I think that's what makes those great whiskies is you know a lot of that heritage and a lot of that connection to local agriculture.
• 1:01:38
  Ryan DeHart: Here in Texas, we we do, I think, benefit drastically from because we have we have all the the key ingredients, right?
• 1:01:45
  Ryan DeHart: We have great agriculture here.
• 1:01:46
  Ryan DeHart: Um we, you know, we we can grow just about every single grain here that that you would want to put into a whiskey.
• 1:01:53
  Ryan DeHart: Um and those are only getting better now that the industry is really growing up and now there's more demand.
• 1:01:58
  Ryan DeHart: And and so that's that's been fantastic.
• 1:02:02
  Ryan DeHart: Uh we we've we've got the climate.
• 1:02:04
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, so one of the great things about Texas, we talked to touched on it a little earlier, is like we got we we 365 days of aging here.
• 1:02:11
  Ryan DeHart: You know, it's not all that's that there's some detriments to that because we end up seeing more losses, but um but yeah, no, I think that in one of the things that we just did to our Rick House now is we added on a climate-controlled section of the Rick House so that we could do extended aging and so we can have a 10, 15, 20 year whiskey at some point in our view.
• 1:02:31
  Ryan DeHart: Just slow it down a little bit because if you're too fast, then you know you're you're gonna end up with nothing, right?
• 1:02:38
  Aaron: Well, and uh I have not historically been a big Texas whiskey fan, and I think a lot of that was because of that learning curve of how does how does whiskey age differently here in our climate than it does in other places.
• 1:02:55
  Aaron: I I often found either it was too youthful, that it didn't have enough time to round out the edges and soften a little bit, or ended up significantly over oaked because you'd left it in an oak barrel for long enough to round out the edges, but now there was way too much oak.
• 1:03:16
  Aaron: So the idea of slowing, how do you how do you regulate the oak impact?
• 1:03:20
  Aaron: I think for me, the other difference I distinctly see newer Texas whiskies being far more enjoyable for me than some of the older stuff.
• 1:03:34
  Aaron: And I think part of that's just the the natural course.
• 1:03:38
  Aaron: We've been now through the cycle and gotten to an end product and then has have had the opportunity to go back and adjust and run that lumination.
• 1:03:48
  Aaron: I mean, that's it's not a short thing.
• 1:03:52
  Aaron: Whiskey production is not a get rich quick scheme, yeah, right?
• 1:03:55
  Aaron: Um, so yeah, I I'll say for me, the idea that Texas is its own thing is a bit of a double-edged sword.
• 1:04:07
  Aaron: As a person who didn't start in Texas and has come to Texas, Texas thinks everything is Texas, right?
• 1:04:13
  Aaron: And part of what I love about the state is that level of pride in who they are.
• 1:04:19
  Aaron: Sometimes I think that's a little misplaced.
• 1:04:22
  Aaron: That yes, we were behind the eight ball when it came to whiskey production.
• 1:04:27
  Aaron: We had to learn, we've clearly closed that gap against those that had a whole lot more experience.
• 1:04:33
  Aaron: And it's been fun to see um what first felt like everybody tasted the same.
• 1:04:39
  Aaron: We're now seeing is very distinct even within Texas, that different products from the different distilleries are not the same.
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:04:49
  Aaron: And so I I've had to somewhat backpedal a little bit on my stance on Texas whiskeys to say, well, there's some distilleries that I really enjoy, and some distilleries I'll probably stay away from.
• 1:04:58
  Aaron: And I'm beginning to learn now, it has less to do with the place and more how they're how they're making their whiskey or how they're aging.
• 1:05:08
  Aaron: So it's a different dynamic.
• 1:05:10
  Gavin: It's it's it's almost like what we were talking about with this guy right here.
• 1:05:16
  Gavin: Is it's almost unfair to level it to Kentucky or Indiana, because just like you said, they have been doing it for 130, 150, 160 years, right?
• 1:05:31
  Gavin: They've learned through that process and they've dialed in based on their location, their geography, and all of those things.
• 1:05:37
  Gavin: As you said, we're probably a little bit behind A-ball, but like doing Texas, Texas whiskey, like I as some of you may know, like I my whiskey journey started in Scotch.
• 1:05:49
  Gavin: So then when I started coming into American whiskeys and bourbons and stuff like that, was really started in the Texas, right?
• 1:05:56
  Gavin: Because that's where I live.
• 1:05:58
  Gavin: So For me, like I started drinking more Texas whiskeys.
• 1:06:04
  Gavin: Because I could go to the distilleries, right?
• 1:06:07
  Gavin: Like on a Texas is large, right?
• 1:06:10
  Gavin: So it takes four hours to get from where we live to here.
• 1:06:14
  Gavin: But still, like being able to make that four-hour drive to go to a distillery, like I'll do that.
• 1:06:20
  Aaron: Well, you go back, you go back in the Texas distilleries we visited 10 years ago.
• 1:06:26
  Aaron: You walked in, they had a really young, under two-year-aged bottle.
• 1:06:32
  Aaron: They had their really big, proud four-year bottle.
• 1:06:36
  Aaron: And then they offered it in barrel-proof.
• 1:06:39
  Aaron: That was what you got.
• 1:06:41
  Aaron: It was one recipe bottled three different ways.
• 1:06:44
  Aaron: And now, I mean, just today, the three we've had this afternoon are lights out, completely different from each other, right?
• 1:06:55
  Aaron: The light whiskey completely different than the blend, which is almost night and day from the malt whiskey, right?
• 1:07:04
  Aaron: Um, and so what you begin to see is this isn't this distillery produces one thing.
• 1:07:10
  Aaron: This produ this distillery produces a bunch of things, and each one has a place and a spot that fits.
• 1:07:16
  Aaron: You were mentioning like you can't really put light whiskey in the conversation with bourbon because they're not the same.
• 1:07:25
  Aaron: They really aren't.
• 1:07:27
  Aaron: Um the other part for me is I think a lot of times in the beginning, there wasn't people who grew up making Texas whiskey.
• 1:07:37
  Aaron: There were people who grew up making whiskey somewhere else that came to Texas to try to figure out how to do it.
• 1:07:42
  Aaron: And when you took that recipe and tried to cook, if anybody has ever made barbecue, using somebody else's smoker the first time is an absolute disaster because it doesn't do what you thought it would do, like you're used to.
• 1:07:55
  Aaron: Same thing with regards to the climate.
• 1:07:58
  Aaron: Um, you I hadn't even considered the fact that nobody grows distilling style grains in an area that doesn't have distilleries, right?
• 1:08:07
  Aaron: That you say it, it makes perfect sense.
• 1:08:09
  Aaron: It's just not a thought process.
• 1:08:10
  Aaron: Um, we can grow grains, like it's here, but to your point, yeah.
• 1:08:15
  Aaron: Even even a guy who lived in and around farming community, like the default thought is corn is corn or wheat is wheat, right?
• 1:08:25
  Aaron: Like, no, there's a whole bunch of different varieties, and each one has different contents.
• 1:08:29
  Aaron: And it's a it's another dynamic that part of what held the whiskey industry back was that the agricultural industry wasn't quite in step with them.
• 1:08:39
  Aaron: So that it's an all of that you can see in the quality of production that is from where it was 10, 15 years ago to today.
• 1:08:48
  Aaron: Yeah, it's a completely different angle.
• 1:08:50
  Aaron: And I I will say if you go in saying, I want to try Texas whiskey and I want it to taste just like I get out of Tennessee, I think, I think you're going in with the wrong mentality.
• 1:09:02
  Aaron: Yeah, right.
• 1:09:03
  Aaron: Like you want it to be different.
• 1:09:05
  Aaron: Um, because if not, why why make it in Texas?
• 1:09:08
  Aaron: Why do it?
• 1:09:10
  Aaron: If somebody else, if you're just gonna make what somebody else already makes, what's the point in doing it?
• 1:09:15
  Gavin: Yeah, like you mentioned um a couple weeks ago, variety is the spice of life, right?
• 1:09:21
  Gavin: And I think when when you think about whiskey and wanting to learn different types, different styles, different expressions, different regions, like you have to come in with an open mind that this whiskey may not taste like a Kentucky whiskey.
• 1:09:38
  Gavin: And that's okay.
• 1:09:39
  Gavin: Like it's it's not trying to be that.
• 1:09:41
  Gavin: It's it's what I like about it.
• 1:09:43
  Aaron: Exactly.
• 1:09:44
  Aaron: Right?
• 1:09:44
  Aaron: The more when your collection is two or three bottles, you kind of have a thought process of what you want them to taste like, and they all kind of taste the same.
• 1:09:53
  Aaron: But as your collection begins to grow, you begin to enjoy the subtle nuance from one bottle to the next, right?
• 1:09:58
  Aaron: Whether it's from the same distillery, different, different distilleries, different regions, all of that kind of stuff.
• 1:10:05
  Aaron: Um, like that that that's where the fun is.
• 1:10:08
  Gavin: Yeah.
• 1:10:09
  Gavin: So if you haven't gone down and watched Aaron's selection, collection or collection selection, go watch that episode because it dives into that same scenario.
• 1:10:19
  Gavin: Like you want, if you're if you're wanting to really dive in and learn more about whiskey, it is the fun part about it.
• 1:10:26
  Gavin: Not only is it the slow down, let's have a drink, let's let's you know conversate, all of those things, but it's learning and having a passion to explore and try something different and being open to it.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:10:39
  Aaron: So to that, I'm curious your take.
• 1:10:43
  Aaron: As a guy who makes whiskey, I assume, like anybody else, you're like you have flavors that you like and things that you're not a big fan of.
• 1:10:53
  Aaron: Like when you get to chance to sit and sip, you guys offer bourbons, you don't rise, malted, blended, like where does your palate tend to want to go?
• 1:11:04
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, just like you, it's it, you know, how hot is it outside?
• 1:11:09
  Ryan DeHart: What type of day did I have?
• 1:11:11
  Ryan DeHart: Uh, you know, are we celebrating something?
• 1:11:13
  Ryan DeHart: You know, uh, I think that you know, I go with the seasons, I go with um um you know, you know, I the the the beauty of you know being a whiskey distillery is that you can basically you know kind of run the gamut and and and make a little bit of everything.
• 1:11:28
  Ryan DeHart: And um the curiosity, right?
• 1:11:32
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, so I mean we're in it for the passion of making whiskey.
• 1:11:35
  Ryan DeHart: We we're in it because we we love the the product that's inside the bottle.
• 1:11:39
  Ryan DeHart: And that curiosity just leads us down these endless rabbit holes to say, well, what about what about, you know, and what you know, new mask bill.
• 1:11:48
  Ryan DeHart: So we try to look at all the different variables that go into making a great whiskey and then say, you know, what things can we control?
• 1:11:56
  Ryan DeHart: What things can we, you know, what uh how can we how can we tweak this to get something new, unique, different that uh can take the product to the next level.
• 1:12:05
  Ryan DeHart: That's what the quest is always how how do we make it better?
• 1:12:08
  Ryan DeHart: How do we make it something you know unique and how do we elevate it?
• 1:12:13
  Aaron: All right.
• 1:12:13
  Aaron: So I think it is important for us to start talking about what's in the glass because you got to hear a lot about it, but you didn't hear what it tasted like.
• 1:12:22
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 1:12:23
  Aaron: So it's so this is the the the tough part is normally one of us pours and the other one has to go first.
• 1:12:29
  Aaron: But since you've poured all of them, I'm gonna make Gavin go first again.
• 1:12:35
  Gavin: All right.
• 1:12:36
  Gavin: The nose.
• 1:12:37
  Gavin: I think on this, when I first snuck snuck my nose in, uh, there was a strong cereal note that I got right off the bat.
• 1:12:47
  Gavin: Um almost a like if you crossed Wheaties and Cheerios, like in the same batch.
• 1:13:00
  Gavin: I've never had it, but I can just imagine a Wheaties and a Cheerios together.
• 1:13:07
  Aaron: My problem is on the nose, like the smell of like rich leather is by far and away the most prominent.
• 1:13:15
  Aaron: Hold on, hold on, you want to smell?
• 1:13:16
  Aaron: I but one of the things that always happens is you you put your nose in a glass and you get one thing, then you take a sip and go back and nose the glass, and it's totally different.
• 1:13:28
  Aaron: Um, once I took the sip, all I can smell is fruits.
• 1:13:31
  Aaron: Like it is dark cherry, dark plum.
• 1:13:36
  Aaron: Like the the really fancy Luxardo cherries you get in your old fashions.
• 1:13:40
  Aaron: Yeah, like that.
• 1:13:42
  Aaron: That's exactly what I smell.
• 1:13:44
  Aaron: Um we were off, not the fact that I don't know as if I would have said cereal notes.
• 1:13:49
  Aaron: I think they're I'm not saying they're not there, they're just not anywhere as close to as prominent as the other aromas to me.
• 1:13:55
  Aaron: Like I almost think of like there's like a if they made fruity Cheerios.
• 1:14:02
  Aaron: Fruit Loops.
• 1:14:04
  Aaron: No, Fruit Loops are different, they're too sugary, they're too sugary, right?
• 1:14:07
  Aaron: Like you need like, um, do you remember wildberry kicks?
• 1:14:11
  Aaron: Uh yeah, I do.
• 1:14:12
  Aaron: Yeah, that's more along because those weren't sugar coated as much.
• 1:14:16
  Aaron: But yeah.
• 1:14:17
  Aaron: Like it, like a dark raspberry kind of thing going on.
• 1:14:21
  Aaron: I can see that blackberry, like very dark fruits.
• 1:14:25
  Gavin: I can see the raspberry almost like in a cheesecake.
• 1:14:28
  Gavin: And then you got that graham cracker crust.
• 1:14:31
  Gavin: So you get a bit of that kind of grainy note from that, and then you get the sweetness and then the fruitiness.
• 1:14:38
  Gavin: I feel like we've agreed.
• 1:14:41
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 1:14:42
  Aaron: Now's when you tell us what wrong.
• 1:14:45
  Ryan DeHart: I I get a ton of the the dark fruits.
• 1:14:47
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 1:14:48
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, the cherry is the most prominent, I think, that that really comes through.
• 1:14:51
  Ryan DeHart: And then it is for me.
• 1:14:52
  Ryan DeHart: Um, you get a little bit of the barrel char that's kind of in the background as well, which is nice.
• 1:14:57
  Ryan DeHart: Um, but yeah, the the the the fruit flavors that come out that are really what kind of makes this one fun, I think.
• 1:15:06
  Aaron: One of the things I've really enjoyed about doing this, right?
• 1:15:08
  Aaron: Every episode, we get to the end, and our tasting aroma finish notes always contain the same things, but they are rarely at the same time.
• 1:15:21
  Aaron: Yep.
• 1:15:22
  Aaron: But he gets on the nose, and I was like, nope, that's on the palate, or vice versa.
• 1:15:26
  Aaron: Um, or he'll talk about something on the finish, and I'm like, nope, that's I get that on the nose, but I don't get that on the finish.
• 1:15:32
  Aaron: And it's funny, everything you guys said is on my list, but not on the nose, right?
• 1:15:39
  Aaron: Like you mentioned the barrel char.
• 1:15:42
  Aaron: Like I wrote down charred sugar notes, right?
• 1:15:45
  Aaron: But on the finish to me, more than on the nose.
• 1:15:48
  Aaron: So I find that intriguing that we all end up with the same info, but if I you pick it up at different times.
• 1:15:55
  Aaron: If I was if I was your marketing person, I wouldn't put nose, palette, and finish.
• 1:16:00
  Aaron: I would just put here's the tasting things, because you're gonna get it.
• 1:16:03
  Aaron: We don't know when exactly.
• 1:16:06
  Gavin: And to that end, it's like everybody's different.
• 1:16:10
  Gavin: And who decides, and this is something that we've long debated, we mentioned it earlier, where the um palette ends and the finish begins.
• 1:16:20
  Aaron: Like that is a debate we've had, and it is much easier to draw the distinction between the nose and the palate.
• 1:16:27
  Aaron: Yes, like that.
• 1:16:28
  Gavin: That that that one feels obvious, it's separate, right?
• 1:16:31
  Aaron: There's a separation one of the green.
• 1:16:33
  Aaron: Oh, now I got a little bit of palate on that one.
• 1:16:37
  Aaron: That's so horrible.
• 1:16:42
  Aaron: Could you imagine?
• 1:16:43
  Aaron: That would burn proof up the nostrils.
• 1:16:45
  Aaron: Oh Lord.
• 1:16:46
  Aaron: Next level of experience.
• 1:16:48
  Aaron: Hey, you gotta really blunt.
• 1:16:51
  Aaron: You gotta really want the aromas.
• 1:16:53
  Aaron: All right, on on the palate, where do you stand on this one?
• 1:16:56
  Gavin: Um, I got the cherry note like all over on the palate.
• 1:17:00
  Gavin: Like almost cough syrupy cherry, like really dark.
• 1:17:04
  Gavin: I was gonna say there's a viscousness to this, an oiliness that I love about whiskey, right?
• 1:17:12
  Gavin: Like that is the that is one of the differences, I think.
• 1:17:15
  Gavin: Not not all whiskeys have that.
• 1:17:17
  Gavin: No, no, no, no.
• 1:17:18
  Gavin: But that's what I that's that's what that's what I one of the things I love about whiskey is when it is that.
• 1:17:23
  Gavin: I like the viscosity of it.
• 1:17:26
  Gavin: Um, and not all whiskeys have that.
• 1:17:28
  Gavin: Um, and to go back to this guy right here.
• 1:17:33
  Aaron: You gotta you gotta say what it is for the people who are listening on Spotify.
• 1:17:36
  Gavin: The light whiskey.
• 1:17:36
  Aaron: Gavin likes to point.
• 1:17:38
  Gavin: It doesn't work for people driving.
• 1:17:39
  Gavin: So on the light whiskey, um I don't I didn't get any viscosity or any thickness to it, right?
• 1:17:45
  Gavin: And I don't I it's the same thing with Canadian whiskeys and Irish whiskeys.
• 1:17:50
  Gavin: I don't get that all the time.
• 1:17:51
  Aaron: I I I think part of big bold flavors makes your brain think thicker, more viscous, right?
• 1:18:00
  Aaron: Like I'm I think in the light whiskey, I think there was a little bit of an oiliness to it.
• 1:18:06
  Aaron: It wasn't as pronounced, but I I think when you get those real rich, dark flavors, like when when you taste it and you think the Luxardo cherry, all I can think of is the juice that they're floating in that literally pours like maple syrup.
• 1:18:22
  Aaron: It is so thick, right?
• 1:18:24
  Aaron: Everything about that says viscous, right?
• 1:18:26
  Aaron: And oily.
• 1:18:27
  Aaron: So I think I think there's a lot of convincing yourself of things that happens when we drink whiskey that may or may not actually be in the glass, but we we want them to be in such our brain puts them there.
• 1:18:40
  Ryan DeHart: One thing I definitely think you can say is that just based on the color, that there's uh more tannins in something, a new aged oak, a new oak barrel, right?
• 1:18:49
  Ryan DeHart: And so I think that the tannins can beyond adding just color, right?
• 1:18:54
  Ryan DeHart: I think they also can provide some of that texture and mouthfeel as well that uh that that you're mentioning now that's is there, but to less extent in say like a light whiskey.
• 1:19:05
  Aaron: Sometimes though, your tannins give you that kind of tart bitterness, and I don't get that here.
• 1:19:12
  Aaron: No, as dark as it is, I expected more of that.
• 1:19:16
  Aaron: Um yeah, especially when you move into the finish.
• 1:19:20
  Aaron: The finish actually a lot of times the finish will turn after a period of time, and you'll get something completely different like this carries that sweet charred sugar, the top of your crme brulee, right?
• 1:19:33
  Aaron: Kind of thing.
• 1:19:34
  Gavin: Um yeah, I on this for the finish, I put that it was long, and then it to me to relate it, it was like a sweet tart.
• 1:19:43
  Gavin: It was almost like a sweet tart uh finish to it.
• 1:19:47
  Gavin: You think it turns that kind of tartness though?
• 1:19:50
  Gavin: It sweet tarts to me are that tart.
• 1:19:52
  Gavin: Like it's in the name.
• 1:19:55
  Gavin: Yeah, but it's not just we're on the same page, not, but it's not a tart, it's a um maybe my palate's off because we had tarts last night.
• 1:20:05
  Gavin: Maybe you don't know what tart means.
• 1:20:08
  Aaron: That's what I'm hearing.
• 1:20:10
  Aaron: Maybe not.
• 1:20:11
  Aaron: I no, I this one, she's a saucy little tart.
• 1:20:15
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 1:20:15
  Aaron: That's my nickname for my wife.
• 1:20:19
  Aaron: So now it's gonna sound like I've been talking about her.
• 1:20:22
  Aaron: Um I mean, this is lights out delicious.
• 1:20:28
  Aaron: I know we're not putting a number to it yet because I haven't written mine down, and Gavin doesn't know what to write down his until he sees mine.
• 1:20:35
  Aaron: Um this doesn't taste like Texas whiskey.
• 1:20:40
  Aaron: That conversation we were having earlier.
• 1:20:43
  Aaron: What is Texas whiskey?
• 1:20:44
  Aaron: And do you think it's a fairly like the things I think of when I close my eyes and think about Texas whiskey is this is none of those things.
• 1:20:51
  Aaron: This has a hint of scotch in its flavor, but um I say that it's got a maltiness and it's got that fruit.
• 1:21:01
  Aaron: But the fruit here doesn't taste like sherry or pork.
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, all the wine barrels.
• 1:21:10
  Aaron: It's a fruit in the grain, not a fruit in the fruit.
• 1:21:13
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 1:21:15
  Ryan DeHart: I yeah, so and we use a specific malt yeast, a malt whiskey yeast for this whiskey that helps with some of that fruity ester production that then carries through distillation and ultimately to the final product.
• 1:21:31
  Ryan DeHart: So we use different yeast for different products, and we selected a specific yeast for this product to really highlight some of those great characters.
• 1:21:40
  Aaron: Does your fermentation time differ significantly between your different whiskey productions?
• 1:21:48
  Ryan DeHart: No, no, they're all right around three and a half days.
• 1:21:51
  Ryan DeHart: Okay.
• 1:21:51
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 1:21:52
  Ryan DeHart: I I if we're yeah, we we we make other things beyond beyond whiskey, and and those are, you know, those can be three or four weeks, obviously.
• 1:22:00
  Ryan DeHart: But yeah, yeah, no, for whiskey, it's it's almost all unilaterally, right?
• 1:22:04
  Ryan DeHart: And we do all grain on whiskey, even our malt whiskeys, we don't separate the you know, the husk from we um from the wort, we we we do grain on distillations um and fermentation, so it's they're all very consistent, yeah.
• 1:22:18
  Gavin: Time.
• 1:22:19
  Gavin: Um time for number.
• 1:22:21
  Gavin: Yeah, time for number.
• 1:22:22
  Gavin: I mean, I'm gonna ask you what your number is.
• 1:22:23
  Gavin: No, last time I went first.
• 1:22:25
  Gavin: No, no, you're not gonna get me twice.
• 1:22:27
  Gavin: All right.
• 1:22:29
  Gavin: I am sitting at a bold 90 on this guy.
• 1:22:34
  Aaron: That I don't think that's as bold as 90 wants to feel like.
• 1:22:38
  Aaron: But no, I mean that's excellent.
• 1:22:40
  Aaron: That that's an absolute have on the shelf for me.
• 1:22:43
  Gavin: I've had this on the shelf and I love it.
• 1:22:44
  Gavin: And uh I need another one.
• 1:22:46
  Gavin: So um any anytime you cry a little bit when the bottle goes empty, that that that's that's up there, right?
• 1:22:52
  Gavin: So, I mean, we've been talking about Texas whiskeys.
• 1:22:55
  Gavin: This is one that um when the bottle was empty, I was really sad.
• 1:23:01
  Gavin: And I'm still a little sad.
• 1:23:03
  Aaron: I so I agree with you.
• 1:23:06
  Aaron: Uh, I'm at an 87.
• 1:23:08
  Aaron: Um, I think this is absolutely in the would it be nice to have a bottle?
• 1:23:13
  Aaron: No, like I I need a bottle, like this is up at that upper end.
• 1:23:17
  Aaron: Um I'll say what really helped me in this one.
• 1:23:22
  Aaron: This is scored because it is not like any other whiskey I can think of in my collection, right?
• 1:23:29
  Aaron: Or my selection.
• 1:23:30
  Aaron: Selection as we decide as we decided.
• 1:23:33
  Aaron: Um it has some of the similar notes of other whiskeys, but yet still different from those other whiskeys.
• 1:23:44
  Aaron: So um it's not really it's not really scotch, it's not really single malt, it's definitely not bourbon, right?
• 1:23:50
  Aaron: Like it it's something different, and and part of the beauty of a collection is having things that are different.
• 1:23:57
  Aaron: So this was excellent.
• 1:23:58
  Aaron: Now, you you were we were mentioning price earlier.
• 1:24:01
  Aaron: You said 59 bucks for a big boy bottle.
• 1:24:05
  Aaron: Yep.
• 1:24:05
  Aaron: Um, so before before we finish, if somebody is sitting at home and they watch this and they are so enamored by our eloquent descriptions of how tasty they are, where is bent and unbent products available?
• 1:24:26
  Ryan DeHart: So we are available, uh, we're distributed throughout Texas.
• 1:24:29
  Ryan DeHart: So you can find us in Specs, Total Wine, all the major chains, uh, a handful of independents.
• 1:24:35
  Ryan DeHart: Uh, and then if you're outside of Texas, you can also find us on bentcellinco.com.
• 1:24:40
  Ryan DeHart: So we have a Flaviar site, which goes through three-tier system, and uh we our our website just basically hosts the page and then it goes out to a local Texas retailer that will then ship the model to almost every state in the country.
• 1:24:54
  Ryan DeHart: There's four or five states that I think that they're not able to ship to.
• 1:24:58
  Ryan DeHart: But for the most part, you can, you know, if you're watching from anywhere, you can buy it on website.
• 1:25:03
  Aaron: So on the shelf anywhere in Texas, online, pretty much anywhere in the U.S.
• 1:25:07
  Aaron: That's right.
• 1:25:08
  Gavin: That's awesome.
• 1:25:09
  Gavin: I have one more question for you.
• 1:25:12
  Gavin: Yeah.
• 1:25:12
  Gavin: So when you're not drinking unbent or bent products, oh no.
• 1:25:18
  Gavin: What are you drinking?
• 1:25:20
  Ryan DeHart: If I'm not drinking my own stuff, what do I drink?
• 1:25:23
  Ryan DeHart: Um, usually that's um when we're out and wherever we're out doesn't have it.
• 1:25:28
  Ryan DeHart: Um I tend to uh you know uh migrate a lot towards some of the Sazerac portfolio.
• 1:25:35
  Ryan DeHart: Um I'm I love Weller.
• 1:25:37
  Ryan DeHart: Weller's got a great brand.
• 1:25:39
  Ryan DeHart: Um and you know, as Natasha mentioned previously, the stag is also a family favorite of ours.
• 1:25:47
  Ryan DeHart: Uh when you can get your hands on it.
• 1:25:48
  Aaron: Um not always willing to sell for it, but collectively as a consuming community, we want to hate Buffalo Trace.
• 1:25:56
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 1:25:57
  Aaron: We want to because of all of the things that make them difficult to deal with, but yet they keep pumping out good stuff.
• 1:26:03
  Aaron: And so you can't.
• 1:26:04
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah.
• 1:26:04
  Ryan DeHart: Um yeah, I get you.
• 1:26:05
  Ryan DeHart: I mean, before and I will say before we even got into sealing, my my go-to was Beam Black.
• 1:26:11
  Ryan DeHart: And that was, you know, this was prior to 2012, but this is when they had like an eight-year age statement on Jim Beam.
• 1:26:18
  Ryan DeHart: And yeah, I mean, it was just it was a great bottle.
• 1:26:21
  Ryan DeHart: I think now it's down to seven years uh last time I checked.
• 1:26:24
  Ryan DeHart: So they've kind of modified it a bit, and it's obviously more expensive than it was eight years ago.
• 1:26:29
  Ryan DeHart: But uh, but yeah, at the time, I mean you could get a handle for 40 bucks and if for an eight-year bourbon, it was uh you know high quality pour, I thought.
• 1:26:37
  Aaron: I I understand as a producer, this is not something you're excited for, but I long for the days of $40 handles of good bourbon.
• 1:26:46
  Aaron: Yeah, um, for sure.
• 1:26:48
  Aaron: All right.
• 1:26:49
  Aaron: So if you found yourself in the Louisville area and wanted to swing by, what are the details on that as well?
• 1:27:01
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah, so the distillery, so we have two different experiences uh here at the distillery.
• 1:27:06
  Ryan DeHart: We have a brand new restaurant called Ethel Jane's Bent Whiskey Kitchen, uh, which I think you guys might have.
• 1:27:13
  Ryan DeHart: If we had lunch there, it was beautiful.
• 1:27:14
  Ryan DeHart: Delicious.
• 1:27:15
  Ryan DeHart: Yeah, so we we do everything fresh every day: soups, sandwiches, uh, all it's a limited menu, but everything's done fresh and seasonally.
• 1:27:24
  Ryan DeHart: Uh so uh, as well as our cocktail bar that migrated from the distillery to Ethel Jane.
• 1:27:30
  Ryan DeHart: So it's a small space on Main Street, two blocks from the distillery.
• 1:27:34
  Ryan DeHart: Uh that's open right now uh from Monday to Saturday.
• 1:27:39
  Ryan DeHart: So we're only closed on Sundays there from 11 to 10.
• 1:27:42
  Ryan DeHart: And uh here at the distillery, we run tours uh twice a week.
• 1:27:46
  Ryan DeHart: We do it on Fridays and Saturdays.
• 1:27:48
  Ryan DeHart: Uh we do three to four tours.
• 1:27:50
  Ryan DeHart: Uh so you can sign up at biddenstillenco.com and uh and and get a ticket for that.
• 1:27:56
  Aaron: Yeah.
• 1:27:56
  Aaron: If you find yourself in the area, stop by.
• 1:27:58
  Aaron: It is well worth or driving through because the price of admission.
• 1:28:01
  Gavin: The first time I ever came here, I was literally driving from Houston, Oklahoma, and just had to stop at a whiskey distillery.
• 1:28:08
  Aaron: Yeah, it's an interesting business model, a drive-through distillery tour.
• 1:28:12
  Aaron: I don't know what the law would say, but that's great.
• 1:28:16
  Aaron: That's great.
• 1:28:17
  Aaron: It was a fun experience for sure.
• 1:28:18
  Aaron: Well, Ryan, we want to thank you very much for your hospitality.
• 1:28:21
  Aaron: We've enjoyed this immensely.
• 1:28:22
  Aaron: So thank you very much.
• 1:28:23
  Aaron: My pleasure to everyone out there.
• 1:28:25
  Aaron: Till next week.
• 1:28:26
  Aaron: Cheers.
• 1:28:26
  Aaron: And Slang Java.
• 1:28:27
  Aaron: We want to thank you, our noble listener, for joining us.
• 1:28:35
  Aaron: We believe each whiskey has a story, and so do you.
• 1:28:37
  Aaron: So give us your thoughts by leaving a comment.
• 1:28:39
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• 1:28:42
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• 1:28:44
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• 1:28:51
  Gavin: And if you find watching us difficult, you can always listen to each episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
• 1:28:56
  Gavin: As always, be noble and enjoy your journey responsibly.