Changing Laws and Making History: The Story Behind Chattanooga Whiskey (BRC S3 E11)

# AI Transcript: Chattanooga Whiskey

Kerry:
Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, whatever time it is you are catching the show today. Today on the show, I have Chattanooga Whiskey with Tim, who is one of the founding fathers of the company. So Tim, nice to have you on the show. Thank you so much for being here.

Tim:
Thank you for having me.

Kerry:
We always start off with a question being, what is your whiskey journey? Like when you were a wee little lad, did you ever see yourself going into this kind of an industry and making whiskey? And how did that all come to be?

Tim:
Yeah, my my whiskey journey wasn't a whiskey journey at all, really. It was it was, you know, I was born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I finished high school here. I went to college at Auburn University in South Alabama. Met my wife down there and we we married and moved back to Chattanooga. Started our lives here. I went to go work with my father. for seven years. And my wife and I bought a house in downtown Chattanooga, and it was in the Southside Historic District, which was before it was revitalized. And so through the revitalization of the Southside, I was commuting you know, 45, 50 minutes down to work with my dad. I wasn't, I was not passionate about that. I was not passionate about working. I loved working with him. I was not passionate about the product. What was the product, if you don't mind? It was a retail point of purchase displays. Oh, okay. And the manufacturing was cool. So we've always been in manufacturing, which I'm very proud of, you know, manufacturing, you know, an American-made product. And that was awesome. But I wanted to do something in downtown Chattanooga. My wife and I had committed our lives to downtown. We commit our lives to, you know, the resurgence and the revitalization. And when my when a friend of mine and I discovered the history of whiskey in Chattanooga pre prohibition in October of 2011, we discovered kind of uncovered this a really deep, rich history from 1866 to 1915. We were shocked that no one had brought that back. And that was to me, that was the door busted open to this opportunity to as a part of the revitalization, to bring whiskey back to Chattanooga for the first time in 100 years. And that's and so we started a Facebook page and overnight we had hundreds and then thousands of people following us and asking us questions. And we quickly engaged with the community and we just realized that we have to do this. And it was illegal to distill, which is why no one had brought it back. And it just took two guys, two people, that were passionate enough and desperate enough to take the laws on head first. And that became the beginning of the journey.

Kerry:
Wow. OK, so the laws that you changed, were they state laws, federal laws, both? I mean, how did that, what kind of laws were they that were preventing you from?

Tim:
Well, we thought they were county laws. And so we wanted it. We wanted them to be county laws because that would be easier. That would be easier. There was a bill, the first bill post prohibition to to pass or post the repeal anyways, to allow a distillation back into multiple counties into Tennessee beyond the obvious Jack Daniels and George Dickel was the 2009 bill. And that's really and Hamilton County, which is Chattanooga, Tennessee. And the majority of the 95 counties in Tennessee, which include several of the largest counties in Tennessee, it was left out of the 09 bill. They were left out. And it was, and so- And that was for federal or for state? That was for state. Okay. For bringing distilling of spirits back to Chattanooga, or back to Tennessee. And so we were hoping that our county would just opt us. We were thinking that we could opt into the 2009 bill. Then after several months, the state attorney general ruled against that and said that we had to essentially change the law again. And so we formed House Bill 102 and Senate Bill 129 to fight the law. And that took until May of 2013. To pass and it was a struggle to get there, but we got there and we opened up the majority of the 95 counties of Tennessee it it really completely changed the face of distilling in Tennessee where we now have a Tennessee Distillers Guild and we have a Tennessee whiskey trail with more than 50 distilling licenses in it and But of course, our mission was to distill authentically and make an authentic product in downtown Chattanooga again for the first time in 100 years. And we accomplished that mission in 2015 when we built the Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Distillery on Market Street.

Kerry:
Experimental.

Tim:
Yep.

Kerry:
That sounds fun. Yep. So how many expressions do you have to date? Have you made to date? And how many are currently on the market?

Tim:
So Chattanooga Whiskey is, I would say, arguably the most innovative bourbon and American whiskey producer in America. We have the the experimental distillery is the only standalone experimental distillery, whiskey distillery in the United States. And and then, of course, we went on to build another distillery, a scale recipes up, which I'll talk about momentarily. But but the experimental distillery, we we are now pushing 500. experimental barrels since 2015 over the last nine years. Oh, wow. That's hundreds of different recipes and utilizing hundreds of different specialty malted grains, multiple dozen types of yeast, barrel finishes, different toast, different chars. We've done a lot there and we've released and then we've scaled up more than 30 of those recipes to our downtown riverfront location, which produces 2000 barrels a year. Experimental produces 50 barrels a year. We've released We're over 100 releases now. And this is we exclusively do Chattanooga whiskey. We don't contract distill. You know, we are with exception of holding on to some of our original whiskey that we sourced from MGP and that we we use in our founders as a part of our history as a part of our past and history and story around our founders. Everything else is 100 percent. I mean, ninety nine point nine nine nine percent of what we do is authentically produced. out of one of our two distilleries. And so, yeah, we've we've done a lot. Now, the bulk of what we do is 91 and 111, the two products you have today. And and of course, we have if you look at a shelf set in our 16 states of distribution, you'll probably see 91, 111, 99 rye bottled in bond.

Kerry:
Wait, you have a rye and you didn't send it to me?

Tim:
I'm sorry. Well, you know, actually the rye is only, uh, it's a pretty small percentage of our overall, of our overall production and what's out there. And so is bottled and bond. I mean, bottled and bond, we have two vintages every year, fall and spring. They're limited. These are fairly limited releases. Barrel finishing series is a, is a limited release. Founders is a limited release. Single barrels are a limited release. So 91 and 111 are, are some art. They're the, you know, The bread and butter. Yes, the bread and butter. The staples. Yes, exactly. But yeah, I mean, we our our innovation, our releases through American, you know, with utilizing the production process to create American whiskey is prolific. And and that's something we take a lot of pride in. We won best craft producer both nationwide and then went on to win worldwide through Whiskey Magazine Icons of Whiskey last year. Feel like that's something that we earned. And really, our mission is to be the most highly regarded whiskey from the state of Tennessee.

Kerry:
That's awesome. So you're one of the founding fathers. And then on a day-to-day basis, what part of the process are you in charge of these days?

Tim:
That's a good question. I mean, I would say that I'm most involved in vision, which I would say spend more time with sales and marketing than anything on that. But I spent a lot of time in product, but only from a visionary perspective with my chief product officer, founding distiller, Grant McCracken, and then head distiller, Tiana Saul. And then we have a distilling team of 15, all are amazing and specialize in different aspects of the production process. Like, for example, I mean, we have multiple distillers that focus on research and development. And so when it comes to recipe development, that's not going to be me when it comes to distilling. That's not going to be me. But when it comes to does this fit in with with the vision of Chattanooga Whiskey and where exactly does it fit? I'm a part of those conversations, but I am not I'm not the producer. I'm not the mastermind behind these products. I'm I say the mastermind in terms of the recipe development, the infusions I have. I'm fortunate to have the best distilling team in the world. And I put 100% of my trust into everything that they do. And frankly, out of more than 100 releases, they've never let me down. Every product we've ever made, I think is amazing. And so for me, it's really just about like, how do we grow and how do we tell our story and how do we make people aware of who we are and where we've come from?

Kerry:
That is awesome. So do you at the Experimental Distillery, do you guys have tours or do you have tours at either one or both?

Tim:
Yeah, actually, we only do tours at the Experimental Distillery seven days a week, noon till eight o'clock. or 11 to eight, we we see 50 plus 1000 people a year come from all over the world. And all 50 states. It's a great experience is one of the one on TripAdvisor. It's it's routinely ranked in top one or two experiences in Chattanooga, which is a billion plus dollar tourist town Chattanooga. I don't know a lot of people I feel like know about Chattanooga because of the outdoors and maybe the choo-choo or whatever. But the city's done a really great job of facilitating tourism. And we are, I think, a unique and important part of that. We do not allow people to tour through the Riverfront Distillery, which is which is a shame because we've operated it for seven years and haven't started tours there yet. But that's because we haven't found a good reason to interrupt the production process over there yet. But I'm working on that. I'm trying to get tours started at Riverfront so people can come in with a package deal. They can see both locations.

Kerry:
How far away are the properties from each other?

Tim:
One mile. Yeah, yeah, they're literally like on one. So the historic district south side actually near where I live is is experimental. And then and then a mile away on Riverfront is Riverfront is what we call the Riverfront distillery.

Kerry:
And is it actually like right next to the river? Like, can you get water out of the pool?

Tim:
I mean, out of the window, it would it would be riverfront if if condominiums were built in between us and the in the river. We have it's it's which is which is great. I mean, the development down there is awesome. We yeah, we're I would say we're probably two to 300 yards off the river, probably 300 yards off the river.

Kerry:
You have the two distilleries. One does experimental. And the other one, I'm assuming, does primarily all the 91 and 111 type. It does. And then we've scaled up a bunch of recipes.

Tim:
So 91 and 111 make, I'd say, 75% of what we produce over there. And the other 25% is comprised of 30 plus other recipes. OK. And how many states are you in right now? 16 all southeast, south, midwest.

Kerry:
Oh, good. That's great. And then do you have any plans to tackle all 50 or as many as you can?

Tim:
We don't have near term plans for that. And I don't even know, I guess maybe long term, but I just right now, we were selling 100% of our capacity. And then we grew our capacity. And we still feel like in the next couple of years, we can sell 100% of our capacity in the South, Southeast, Midwest territory. So as long as we can continue to drive deep and into our existing markets, then I don't have plans to expand.

Kerry:
OK. And are you in any other countries or just the U.S.? Just the U.S. Wow. OK. That's crazy. OK, so I'm assuming you came up with the idea of Chattanooga whiskey because you're in Chattanooga and you're very passionate about Chattanooga.

Tim:
Yeah, we were there. But, you know, there's more than 30 brands that were here pre-prohibition. And so we considered choosing one of those to to revive. But we felt like Chattanooga was the only way to go because obviously we love the name. We love the town and it encompassed everything that was once here before. So that's why we went with that direction.

Kerry:
I love it. So tell me a little bit about the bottle design. I love the labels. They're classy. They've got a lot of information on them, but yet they don't look like they have a lot of information on them.

Tim:
I really appreciate that. And that's definitely one of my passions, of course, our creative director. Rich Abercrombie is has he's been our creative director for 11 years since the very almost since the very beginning. He helped me with the Vote Whiskey campaign. And and then, you know, he was it was I've just loved working with him on on how we tell our story in a package. And one of the things that we we try to do, we're very intentional about making sure that we are connecting with our past. in, in what in every design. So we want, you know, as we try to progress and evolve and, and innovate, we just want to make sure we're not leaving necessary traditional elements and connections to our past behind. So 91-111, and that bottle design came from a we actually evolved the mold that was from our original bottle that was 1816 that we used to change that we when we sourced from M.G.P. and changed century old laws. So finally, and in 2017, when we came out with our first aged distillate, we had worked for for more than a year on creating a bottle that was that's, you know, that was authentically us and from Chattanooga. We wanted to utilize large embossing because that embossing was was something that was pretty pro. So we wanted to bring that back. We wanted to boldly state that it was made in Chattanooga, Tennessee, because of the fight where we had just come from, where it wasn't made in Chattanooga, Tennessee, for a number of years. And then we've evolved the label itself several times. So on 1816 Chattanooga Whiskey was not stacked. So then we decided to stack it. And then And so we've kept the original font. The font actually used to have a shadow behind it, a drop shadow, but we dropped the shadow because we wanted it to read a little cleaner, be a little clearer, a little more modern in that regard. And then the And then, you know, the angled label actually came from our first bottle and bond. That was not our first 91 label. Our first 91 label was actually more symmetrical. And then Rich designed this bottle and bond label with the angled, we call it the hug. We call that label the hug, like it's hugging the bottle, you know? It looks like that, yeah. And so he created the hug in the bottle and bond release. And when that came out, I was like, Oh my God, like this is this is the future of of Chattanooga whiskey. This is the future of our label. And we ended up evolving the the first 91 and 111 in 99 rye labels and barrel finishing series labels into the hug. And and I just I love the layering. I love the city kind of in the background. It stands off the shelf a lot, a lot more. It still has this kind of like pre pro feel to it, but yet it's still like sleek and modern. So, yeah, that's that's some of my some of my details.

Kerry:
Very cool. I think it's time we we open up this bad boy and take a sip. Sounds good. All right. OK, so out of all the expressions you have on the market right now, what is your favorite?

Tim:
I mean, 91 is my go to because of its versatility. If I want to make a cocktail, if I want to sip it neat, if I want to sip it on the rocks, if I want to sip it in the winter or sip it in the summer, 91 is just a super approachable product. 111 would be after that. I mean, I love our bottle and bonds. I love our founders. I mean, it's like. asking me to choose my favorite kid. I have two kids, by the way, and I absolutely I absolutely can choose my favorite kid on a given day. It's not always the same kid. It goes back and forth. And that's that's kind of how I approach my whiskey.

Kerry:
So tell me a little bit about the Mash Bill on this guy.

Tim:
So when we established the experimental distillery, Grant McCracken, our founding distiller, came from a prominent brewery and he was the head brewer and head of research and development there. And he brought this concept of specialty malts into bourbon and he wanted to explore that at the experimental distillery. And so that's what we did. And in that process from 2015 to 2017, which we've still continued on, you know, this many years later. we established our own straight bourbon whiskey and American whiskey concept called Tennessee High Malt. So every recipe we produce is greater than 25% in specialty malted grains. We selected the 91st barrel to scale up to Riverfront to become our flagship and replace MGP. which is a four-grain, three-malt, celery barrel-finished, small-batch bourbon. It has non-GMO yellow corn, malted rye, caramel malted barley, and honey malted barley. And 111, by the way, shares the same recipe as 91. But it's the those are the only two labels that actually share the same recipe. Every other recipe is different. But every recipe is a minimum of 25 percent in specialty malted grains. So our whole mission was really to become the dark chocolate versus every other bourbon's milk chocolate. We we are in love with these roasted and toasted grains and the flavor profiles and the richness and complexity that you can get out of them. And so, you know, we incorporated that into all of our recipes, even some single malts, some rye malts, like our rye is not just a rye, a raw rye, it's a rye malt. And and, you know, in 91 is a straight bourbon whiskey, but it is a high malt straight bourbon whiskey. Yeah. And it's designed to be kind of roasty and toasty, but still be straight bourbon whiskey and still be approachable at 91 proof like like I can see myself at a campfire with this doing s'mores. Nice. Yeah.

Kerry:
Well, with like a dark chocolate bar instead of a milk chocolate bar.

Tim:
So you beat me to it, but that's how I describe 91 and 111, is like 91 is more like when you bite into the s'more, you're getting some of those exterior notes, you know, the honey graham cracker and maybe a little bit of marshmallow, a little bit of chocolate, but the 111 is when you sink your teeth into the middle of the s'more and you start getting those richer notes. There's that toasted marshmallow and in that dark chocolate instead of a milk chocolate. Absolutely. That is That's 91 and 111.

Kerry:
That's awesome. That's really good I love that you have the malted rye the caramel malted barley and the honey malted barley as part of the recipe like that I've not seen anybody use like Caramel malted anything or honey malted anything. So that's pretty interesting It's good. And, uh, it's good for summer because like camping and s'mores and, you know, like it's, it feels like the right time to be drinking it. All right. I'm going to try the, uh, the one 11 now. Actually, I should probably pour a little bit more of the 91 so I can taste them together. And I noticed the, the label is similar, but it's got a nice golden, Is that to like show the honey maybe or caramel?

Tim:
So my creative director and I used to always sing the song silver and gold, silver and gold. And so and everybody always uses everybody always kind of seems to use like lots of reds and greens and oranges and stuff like that. And so we really wanted 91 to be silver and gold to be able to. And in the rich, the gold really. Was it was black, it was black and silver, and then we moved it to gold to introduce color to it and give it kind of like a. Almost like a dark chocolate candy wrapper, you know, like you're opening up a dark chocolate candy wrapper, so that's kind of where that came from.

Kerry:
Well, they are similar on the nose, but I do get a lot more pep in the, uh, in the one 11. Yep.

Tim:
All right. Let's see. It's one 11 per roof. It's unfiltered. So you're going to get some char sediment by design. Yeah. The viscosity of it is, uh, is quite different.

Kerry:
It's going to be much have good legs, but the one 11 looks a little bit, a little stickier.

Tim:
Yeah. Much more fuller bodied. And, um, richer overall, has kind of like a buttery mouthfeel where it coats your palate. Mm hmm. Differently than the 91 does.

Kerry:
Oh, yeah, that's now this one I would I would definitely drink neat this one.

Tim:
Yeah.

Kerry:
If I had to put in a cocktail, I would. But I don't think I could put the. The 111 on, I mean, I guess a kid, but why ruin it?

Tim:
It would that cocktail just might it might bite you before you get to the second one.

Kerry:
Right. Exactly. So what are your plans for the immediate future for the company?

Tim:
To keep doing what we're doing, to raise awareness, to own Tennessee as the best craft whiskey from Tennessee. And I think that means that there's a lot of opportunity to grow. Right now, I think every bourbon brand is battling a slower market than they have in years past. And I just think that we have a lot of potential to meet our new production capacity since we increased it over the last several years and continue to tell our story. I mean, I think it's one of the best bourbon stories in modern day out there. And so that's the focus. I'm not focused on anything else.

Kerry:
Okay. Have you noticed and I've noticed this from my side, you know, we would do a lot of virtual tastings over the pandemic And before that that it was like we had in-person events all the time And I've noticed since the lockdown has been done and people went back to work like I thought okay the in-person events are gonna come back and they really like the events are there but People aren't really going to them and unless people are going to the the virtual and I'm I'm assuming it's because everyone's back to work and has to, you know, do the daily grind. But I also think, like, well, how could they have had time to go to the to the in-person events before the pandemic? And so I don't know. This whole pandemic thing is just like shifted everything in in everyday life. And I noticed that since the lockdown is over, it's been less.

Tim:
Yeah, not even that. I mean, I feel like. Yeah, absolutely. I think everything is just kind of muted. if that makes sense. I think a lot of people are just exhausted and kind of recovering from the exhaustion. And inflation is part of the exhaustion as well. And they're adapting to they're adapting to being exhausted of, you know, inflation and a number of other things. And I think that's, I think it thinks some things went rampant, right during the pandemic. So like, I think there was a point in time where, of course, you know, everyone was was fearful, but tried to make the best of it. And out of that came these these virtual tastings, which went nuts and everybody spent so much time doing virtual tastings and so much time buying bourbon and so much time on their computers that nobody really wants to do virtual tastings anymore and then But it wasn't like everybody simultaneously was just like, OK, we can go back out and drink again. I think everybody's just it's just been like a trickle effect. You know what I mean? And so I think that I think we're just experiencing the trickle effect. I know on premise is back. I mean, I know bars and restaurants are doing quite well, but. You know, even being a bartender before the pandemic versus being a bartender after the pandemic, those are two completely different things. I think the the attraction to being a bartender isn't what it once was, you know, I mean. And so, you know, I don't know. I think everybody I think we're just in a major kind of emotional adjustment period right now. And and I think slowly but surely some good things will come out of it.

Kerry:
Yeah. Now, speaking of the pandemic, did you guys partake in the making of hand sanitizer?

Tim:
We did. We partnered. Actually, we have a small little distillery here, another distillery in Chattanooga called Gate 11. The owner's a great guy. He runs Vodka and we do not we only run whiskey so we cannot actually make hand sanitizer We cannot get to a grain neutral spirit because our stills are not designed to run that high so So we partnered with him because of our Because of our marketing channels our local marketing channels being the you know being the bigger guy we We partnered with him collaborated on getting hand sanitizer out. We donated 100% of the proceeds and we raised a lot of money and we gave that and we supported a really good cause and I'm very proud of that.

Kerry:
Okay, well, it's been a pleasure talking to you, Tim, and getting to know more about Chattanooga whiskey. I hope to see some in California soon. So get it out here. That'd be fantastic. But good news for you. We are about to launch this show on Comcast in the Big South. So more people in the South being Tennessee and Kentucky and Alabama and Virginia, South Carolina. I think there's a couple more. We'll get to see this and hopefully run out to the store and buy your stuff.

Tim:
Oh, awesome. Love it. Yeah, that's great to hear.

Kerry:
Yeah. Well, thanks again for being on the show. Hang on for just one second. Don't hang up. And we'll be right back with World of Wheezy, where Louise, Chef Louise Leonard will tell us what she wants to do with your whiskey.

Tim:
All right. Cool.