First Stop, Las Vegas! (S3 E18)

# AI Transcript: S3 E18 

Kerry:
It is 5 o'clock somewhere and you've tuned in to Season 3, Episode 18 of BRC. For those of you who'd like to watch this episode, I highly recommend it. You can view Season 3 on our website, YouTube, Spotify, WhiskeyNetwork.net, and Zencastr. This has been a very busy production season here at First Reel Entertainment, and I owe the BRC audience several on-location, in-person interviews and events coverage. So for most of what's left of the season, I'll be bringing you my whiskey sojourns from the beginning of the winter until now. I'm Keri Moynihan, and today we'll go back in time to February, where I attended my first WSWA conference in Las Vegas and spoke with founder and CEO of iBourbon, Trip Whitbeck, and founder and CEO of Vaughan Payne Spirits, Steve Allen. Then later in the show, I'll catch up with Sean Scully of Clonachilty Irish Whiskey in today's Whiskey Whereabouts. So kick off your shoes, pour yourself a dram, and join me for this episode of Barrel Room Chronicles.

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Kerry:
So Trip, we're here at the WSWA. Thank you.

Tripp:
We're, we're locating ourselves.

Kerry:
Yes, we are. Um, it's good to be here. It's good to see you. Uh, this is my, my first time at the event.

Tripp:
How about you? This is my second one. They had one eight or nine months ago. Um, so we're, I think going to get back on a year cadence now, like every January, February ish. But, uh, yeah, just eight or nine months ago I was in Orlando and, uh, with this same setup.

Kerry:
That's fantastic. Jonathan, our sister podcast over there, he was at that one also and there was a bunch of fun people. We got Guy Fieri and Christy Brinkley and one of the Utah Housewives.

Tripp:
It was a very celebrated WSWA, I believe, in the sense that Jason Momoa was a keynote speaker and there were a bunch of drag queens from, I think, RuPaul's Drag Race selling their vodka. There was also, gosh, who else was it? It was, oh, Nelly. Nelly performed.

Kerry:
Oh, that's fantastic. Well, let's talk about this year. Yeah. at the Las Vegas location. We're at Las Vegas this year. And you are in charge of this iBourbon. So tell me about iBourbon. What was the concept? How did you come up with it? These bottles are gorgeous. We'll get into that. But what was the beginning

Tripp:
Well, I mean, when you say I'm in charge of, yeah, I mean, it's just me. I am the only employee. I'm the only person on the payroll. So it's just me. I quit my job for almost five years ago to do this full time in April of 2019. Little did I know that very, very shortly thereafter we would be launched into an international pandemic. But yeah, I'd always been interested in flavors and fragrances and sort of the alchemy that comes with putting corn, barley, rye, and water into some charred wood and, you know, waiting a little while and out comes this. So I didn't personally have 15 years or so to grow my own corn and and harvest it and wait. And so I actually sourced the barrels. This is a blend. I bourbon is a blend of 13 year old, six year old and five year old bourbons.

Kerry:
Oh, wow. That's that's a good range right there.

Tripp:
Yeah. Well, I mean, I the brand story when I quit my job, my idea was a bourbon for everyone. I've got it on my little table skirt on the other side there. That's one of my first trademarks, actually, right up there with it's yours. which is written in triplicate around my.

Kerry:
Oh, that's cool. We'll have to get some B roll of that.

Tripp:
Yes. So yeah, it's yours. It's a bourbon for everyone. The idea is basically if you're a connoisseur, you'll love it neat. But if you're new to bourbon or you just want something that you're not going to be embarrassed to put on with some ginger ale or in your favorite whiskey cocktail, it's accessible enough for that. I mean, it's got the backbone of 13 years old. It's got a good hefty punch of that. So it'll satisfy. Boy, I'm loving this.

Kerry:
We got the forklift going on. It's a it's a workday. They're all setting up here and he's like set up early. So we're good.

Tripp:
Yeah, this is this is live to tape. This is this is what happens. But yeah, so the idea was a bourbon for everyone. And so I set about to craft that I knew I didn't have millions of dollars to spend on advertising. So one of the first things I did while I was looking for barrels to source and taste was actually to start designing my bottle.

Kerry:
Your bottle is fantastically beautiful. But before we talk about the bottle, let's talk about, if you're allowed to talk about, I mean, you'll have to ask your boss, are you allowed to talk about where you source your whiskeys from?

Tripp:
Well, my boss is me, so yes. No, I sourced it from a couple of places in Tennessee.

Kerry:
Okay, great. And so when you started doing this, where did you imagine, before the pandemic, where did you imagine you would be by 2024?

Tripp:
I mean, I wish I had more brick and mortar distribution. I'm in eight or nine states, brick and mortar, most of them east, almost all of them east of the Mississippi, most of them, well, all of them east of Texas and Oklahoma. But in terms of the reception, it's been exactly what I would have wanted. I just actually heard last week that, I don't know if you know Jim Murray's Whiskey Bible, which was the first whiskey book I ever got when I was in law school, actually. He gave me a 90.5.

Kerry:
Wait a minute, law school, you were a lawyer and you left lawyering to make whiskey?

Tripp:
I'm a recovering lawyer, yep.

Kerry:
That totally makes sense. I'm with you. Okay, let's go back to the Bible now.

Tripp:
Well, no. I mean, I, just to give you a sense of my career, I was a lawyer in real estate development, real estate collapsed in 2007, eight. So my big international law firm closed up shop that office and I was the only associate. So I got a nice buyout package and I left, I became a political operative, uh, then a corporate salesman for 10 or 12 years. And, but I always wanted to do this. So I quit that in 2019. So that's my very, very circuitous route to whiskey.

Kerry:
Uh, that's a, that's a very interesting path to get to where you are.

Tripp:
Yeah, not a lot of people do it that way. So I basically, I practiced law for eight months. But I'm still a lawyer, I'm still licensed in Virginia and DC. I haven't practiced in over 15 years, but it's a damn useful degree to have. And I have to say, I've actually used it a bunch of times in this endeavor, but that's for another story.

Kerry:
I bet you have. So before we continue talking, how about we taste a little bit of this and we'll sip and talk.

Tripp:
Yes, well one of the fun things when I designed the bottle is I also wanted to make it very bartender friendly. So you see the interlocking, it's a nice hold.

Kerry:
It is a nice hold, like you can, it's got a good grip.

Tripp:
Cheers. Cheers. Welcome to iBourbon. Say it again. Welcome to iBourbon.

Kerry:
I will take my welcome and I will drink it.

Tripp:
We have a nice alarm clock going.

Kerry:
We took a brief pause to ask the worker on the scissor lift if he could disable his alarm. Thankfully, he was just about done. OK, back to business here. So, yes, so it's iBourbon. Are you going to make any other expressions? And is it all going to be bourbon? Probably, since it's iBourbon. And then what was the, what was, how did you come up with the name?

Tripp:
So again, the concept is a bourbon for everyone. My first iteration was going to be bourbon. I like bourbon. It's the great American spirit. Ultimately, if I had my druthers, if I'm looking ideally down the road, I'd love to have a whole suite of eye products, whether it be iGin, iRum, iRye, all with the same brand story, which is special enough that if you're a connoisseur, you'll love it neat or in, you know, in a specific iteration, like if you're a martini drinker, you'll love your gin, you know, that martini for the gin for that martini. But if you're new to gin or you're new to bourbon, you're still going to love it in a whiskey cocktail or on the rocks, that sort of a thing. So ultimately, yeah, I'd love to have them. This is a I can tell you how we designed the bottle, but this is a trademark bottle. It's one of the few trademark bottles that I'm aware of. Maybe it was during the pandemic that the that trademark patent office decided that they just wanted to get me off their desk. But I apparently am one of the two or three percent of bottles that they ever approve for full protection. So ultimately what I'd like to do is have, you know, see how it says bourbon and you can see the eye through it. It's a debossed eye and it says bourbon embossed on the bottom. Ultimately I'd like to have, you know, the gin will be here, the rum will be here, the so forth.

Kerry:
And the same bottle design for all?

Tripp:
Yep, so I mean that's part of the idea was that as I was saying I mean I know I'm dashing all over the place here but I didn't have millions of dollars to spend on advertising or marketing and I can tell you for sure that one of the things that I that I've done in my own spirits drinking journey I guess I'd say I hate the word journey but I'll go with it.

Kerry:
We say journey on the show all the time.

Tripp:
I've bought many a thing for no other reason than I like the bottle and it looks snazzy. And if I hate it, at least I like the bottle. So the idea was get people to stop in the aisle. Nobody, unless they've read one of my reviews, you know, 90 points from Whiskey Advocate, what have you, best bourbon in Las Vegas, Global Spirits Awards a year or so ago. Congratulations. Thank you. Here we are in Las Vegas. Back in action. Unless they've read one of those, they're not necessarily going to be walking into their liquor store going, you know, where's I bourbon? Um, so I got to get them to stop in the aisle, got to get them to go, well, this is something interesting. Uh, I'll give it a shot. No pun intended. And you know, it's also designed to be really, really nifty for on premise. Um, so a bar will like to have this, you know, backlit that sort of thing.

Kerry:
Yeah. I was going to say this would look great on one of those lit little uprised

Tripp:
Yep. And also, quite frankly, I was thinking of the gifting idea. My sales spike to a great deal in November and December because it looks snazzy to bring to a party.

Kerry:
And then when they taste it, they'll come back for more.

Tripp:
Well, that's the idea. I mean, you got to make something that's still, the juice still has to be good at the end of the day. As compelling as the bottle may be, and as much as I invested in the bottle, spent seven months designing it, it was a labor of love. But, you know, at the end of the day, the juice still has to be amazing.

Kerry:
That's true. Now, do you blend it yourself or do you have that blended in Tennessee?

Tripp:
No, I have done everything myself. I actually got these little apothecary bottles. I met a guy named John Hudson. Shout out to John Hudson. John Hudson. Also known as Huddy. Huddy. And he's in Kentucky. And he sent me these little apothecary bottles of bourbons from everywhere from New York to Florida. I tried everything, Kentucky, Indiana, New York, Florida, everywhere. Loved this 13-year-old bourbon I found from Tennessee. Sourced a bunch of that. In other words, bought dozens of barrels of that. And then I wanted to be able to call it straight bourbon. This is something I didn't know as a fairly new guy to this business, but in order to be called straight bourbon, it all has to be from the same state.

Kerry:
Yes, it does have to do that.

Tripp:
I set about to say, OK, well, I like drinking campfires, which 13-year-old bourbon is. It's kind of like drinking a campfire. But if I'm doing a bourbon for everyone, I need to cut it with some younger juice. And so I set about to find something in the five, six-year-old range, something still old enough that it's hefty, and also old enough that I wouldn't have to put an age statement on it. As soon as you get to the four-year-old range, you have to put an age statement, and then I'd be adjusting my bottle every time. So I found some five and some six from Tennessee as well. Shout out to Huddie again. And on my couch in Arlington, Virginia, I sat there with these little apothecary bottles, a water dropper, alcohol hygrometer, came up with what I thought was the right ratio. and then send it off actually to a chemist, the good people at Flavorman. And they're not paying me for this. I know your podcast has a very large reach, but this is the... Jeremy Deaver, by the way, since I'm shouting out... Shout out to Jeremy Deaver. Yes, he's my operations guy. He's put me in touch with all these... Everyone knows everyone I've discovered in this business. Oh yeah, for sure, for sure.

Kerry:
I saw you were coming to this, but then I also saw that you were already on Scotchy Bourbon Boys. I was already on Scotchy Bourbon Boys, so I got that connection. They were my first podcast. I love them, I love them.

Tripp:
Yeah, they were lovely. And they liked my bourbon, which was also nice. And so, yeah, so I sat there on my couch and over the course of about three weeks, I blended it. And it was, you know, your palate goes bad pretty quickly. You know, you want to make sure that you're getting the new palate taste and taste buds, I guess. So every night I could only maybe do one or two iterations. But Flavor Man sent me back about a dozen things marked A, B, C, D, E, F, G, you know. They didn't tell me what the blends were. I didn't know this either that apparently to be at proof it has to be exactly 70 degrees Fahrenheit. So I didn't trust necessarily that my thermostat was exactly 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Um, but yeah, so I, I, you know, I needed to make sure that I was right before I did 17,000 bottles of this stuff. Uh, and so wouldn't, you know, ironically, the one, the letter of the alphabet that I really liked the best in terms of ABCD was actually iteration I. So it was sort of a kismet moment.

Kerry:
That's awesome. Now I know your real name is not trip. So where did trip come from?

Tripp:
I'm the third. Um, so it's, uh, it's a, it's a from birth.

Kerry:
Our, our camera guy here is also the third.

Tripp:
Are you actually a, oh, you're a fourth. Fourth, sorry, I lied. Actually, I am, not to pull the curtain back too far, I'm actually the fourth, but there was an error where my great-grandfather died and my grandfather dropped his junior, and then that's the same thing with our cameraman there.

Kerry:
So how did you pick Tripp?

Tripp:
Triple, triplet.

Kerry:
Oh, got it, got it. I like that, I like that.

Tripp:
You've never known anyone named Trey? Yeah. You're also usually a third. But I've always been called Tripp. I mean, when your name is Brainerd, Brainerd Hunt Whitbeck III. That name is, as my mother would say, heavy furniture.

Kerry:
You forgot the Esquire at the end.

Tripp:
Yeah, Brainerd Hunt Whitbeck III Esquire.

Kerry:
That's, but it's very, that's like fancy. Like it sounds very distinguished.

Tripp:
It looks good on a business card. A little pretentious, but it looks good on a business card. But yeah, you know, I mean, if I'm going to be Southern sounding, even though I'm from New York City, you know, if I'm going to have a bourbon line, may as well have a Roman numeral.

Kerry:
So you currently reside in Virginia?

Tripp:
Yes, I came down to Virginia for law school, never left, practiced law there, was my political operative self in Northern Virginia, did corporate sales in Northern Virginia, and yeah, blended this in Northern Virginia on my couch.

Kerry:
Okay, so what's the five-year plan? Oh yes, what is the I? Yes, what is the I?

Tripp:
Well, it was funny. When I first started this thing, there was so much that I didn't know. as in most things, I suppose. One of them was that my ideal bottle design was physically impossible at scale. I had this image for a capital I shaped bottle, like a pitcher, like you'd grab the center column and you'd pour. And shout out to Jimmy Owens at Liquor Bottles International, but he actually sent me a very nice, oh good, this guy's moving again, how happy. He actually sent me a video right at the beginning and said, you know, I'd love to work with you, but we can't do that, you know, for 17,000. Like if we had 400 of them, you know, maybe we could do that, you know, at a Murano glass factory or something, but it's not going to be at scale. So anyway, I quickly had to reinterpret what I wanted to do in terms of the bottle design. And so basically we came, I started thinking, okay, what names do I like? I wanted something that sounded universal. So I had this idea for a capital I, so I was riffing on I names. My first thought was iconic. I thought, well, that's something that grown people would like and young people would like to be. And then I discovered that there's actually an Iconic Wines as well as an Iconic Brands that's on the Fortune 500, which I didn't know. So again, I had to go back to the drawing board and I started riffing with a woman named Dara Kanbar. Shout out. Yes, who runs the company that does the bottling for me in Bardstown, Kentucky. And I just was all these different I words. And then I just said, you know, dammit, what about just I bourbon? And she said, well, I kind of like that more than anything that you've done or come up with since. So iBourbon was born. Again, the idea of a bourbon for everyone. What do you do? iBourbon. So the idea is if bourbon is your thing, or even if it's not your thing, you bourbon.

Kerry:
That sounds fantastic. And your five-year plan, are you trying to get into all 50 states or as many as you can? Or are you international yet? What's the plan there?

Tripp:
You flatter me. No, I mean, ideally, sure, I'd love to have as much of a footprint as I can. But that's an incredibly difficult road to hoe, especially with control states, and I happen to live in one. And some of these non-control states also make it difficult. We're actually at the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association, which is kind of, you know, this is that business. So a lot of that is difficult. I mean, I've gotten in eight or nine states, which I'm very proud of. Ultimately, I'd like to be in as many as want to carry me. I've had people help me out on this, and they've said, you know, would you want to be in this state? And I say, well, do they want me? Sure, of course. I want to go anywhere anyone wants me. Full disclosure, I also sell on my website.

Kerry:
Most people do and when they can yeah, it's all about where you can ship though So but that's very negative actually at the WSWA to be talking about direct-to-consumer But yeah, well it is what it is, you know a pandemic changed a lot of things and you know with it with the three-tier system in this country, it's like really hard and you know i did a whole all last season was in ireland most last season and i talked to a lot of people missing and we try to go to states and it's like ridiculous to get into and i said yet welcome to america it's just well what's that what's disappointing to me about the i mean specifically the control state situation is it just feels very anti-entrepreneurial very much yet i mean if i wanted to be the foremost

Tripp:
purveyor of Slovakian liqueurs in my now home state of Virginia, I couldn't. I sort of describe it as the Sears catalog approach. You can buy a gajillion things if you're a liquor store owner, but everything that you can buy is only in the Sears catalog. And if it's not in the Sears catalog, you can't have it. Yeah. And so, you know, basically you're limited. You can't be entrepreneurial. You can't have that very different take and maybe have your store be the one that has the ridiculous amount of Sulawakian liqueurs. But, you know, some liquor stores have more stuff than others in Virginia, but I'm working on it. I'm currently in the special order phase of my Virginia journey.

Kerry:
Oh, that's good. That's something.

Tripp:
I'm not clickable yet on their website. I'm told that will be the next thing. You have to actually actively go into the store and ask for me with a control number by name. And then eventually I'll be clickable, which is the second hurdle. And then after that, I can put in for a presentation in Richmond and, you know, as a Virginia brand, I hope they'd be so inclined. But yeah, five year plan, as much of a footprint as I can. Ultimately, maybe at the end of five years, maybe it'll be time for it to try iGin to add to the SKU. Gin is an interesting play because it's mostly an operations play. You know, I have a vision for how I would want to craft that botanical blend. And so I, you know, but that really I have to establish iBourbon before I'm going to start doing that.

Kerry:
Copy that, okay. All right, let's go with your favorite war story.

Tripp:
Well, there are a lot of things that have, that I'm glad turned out the way that they did, but I didn't necessarily know would turn out the way that they did. Now, one of them was when I first started this, I was approached by two, I was given the names, I suppose, of two different glass makers, one of which made their glass in China. one of which made their glass in Slovenia. Now, I didn't know at the time that we were about to have COVID, which had a very China-centric issue, all to say. And so I was very glad that I went with the food grade quality in Slovenia and didn't actually pick. I mean, it was not even on my mind that COVID would be around when I signed on with good old Jimmy Owens in Kentucky. So that was interesting. The second interesting thing, though, is the cork closure, which I'm very proud of. So this actually, I wanted to have, presentation is very important to me, so I wanted to have the decanter look. I didn't want to have to pay for glass and also have all that breakage, so it's clear acrylic. Now, what I didn't realize was that basically every single closure, and you can go around and look here at WSWA, that is acrylic with a natural cork from Portugal, in this case, is opaque. And the reason they're opaque is because usually with the acrylic stoppers, they have to have these teeth to hold in the natural cork, these little fine teeth. That would look terrible. on a decanter type stopper and so actually Portugal over three or four months this took seven months Portugal three or four months they figured out sort of a proprietary way to create an adhesive and a glue and you know we have no bubbling we have none of that so it actually works out quite well but that's my favorite sort of thing where I was unyielding, I guess I would say, in terms of the quality. And I just said, well, we have to make it work. I mean, it's a very silly thing. Not a lot of people care that much.

Kerry:
It's not silly. It's your product. You want things to look the way they need to look.

Tripp:
Well, it's my baby. And this week or these next few days, one of the phrases that I used a lot when I was in Orlando last year at this was, do you want to try my baby? Sounds a little strange, but my other most popular one, which actually has gotten me several states to sign up directly, was I blended it on my couch.

Kerry:
Well, that's fantastic. Trip, we wish you the very best and good luck this week at the conference, and I will catch up with you in the future and see how you're doing. Thank you so much. Steve Allen, how are you?

Steve :
I'm doing great today. How are you doing?

Kerry:
I'm good. I just walked by this booth yesterday and I thought this is the most gorgeous booth here. Well, at the time, I don't, I haven't finished walking through today when people are finished, but still so far. And there's some of my favorite colors. I love purple, blue, the whole thing. So tell me, you have this beautiful whiskey. It's got a gorgeous bottle. Um, how long have you been in, uh, production and what was the impetus and what was the idea behind this? And how did you say, I want to make whiskey for a living?

Steve :
So, interesting story. I'd always wanted to do a consumer-based product. I'd worked in the tech industry for a long time. Went boating with my adult daughters and watched them kind of drink stupid. Got me thinking about the alcohol industry. Went and looked it up and at the time bourbon was the fastest growing market. I'm like, I've got five daughters, they'll never drink bourbon. And I woke up the next day and it's like, Well, if I made a bourbon product that they liked, that'd be a whole new market. So that was kind of the start of the whole process of thinking about getting into the industry. So we started shipping the product two years ago. It's Von Payne Black. It's a black currant infused bourbon base. And it gives it a very unique, slightly tart, sweet finish. So it makes it extra smooth. It is 90 proof. Comes in the decanter style bottle with the cool gargoyle.

Kerry:
That is a very cool gargoyle.

Steve :
And the gargoyle is actually the pour spout. So you remove the little red tab and it literally pours right out of the mouth.

Kerry:
That's really cool. And then what year did you start the company and do you make it yourself or do you source it and then finish it? How does it all work?

Steve :
So technically the company started in 2019. So it took us about three years working through COVID to just develop the product, customize the bottles, get the gargoyles, all that put together. And then we launched in January of 2022. And we did start as sourcing. So it's sourced as an MGP bourbon. It's aged three years or more. And we bought a big stock of it to start the supply, and that's what we've been going with so far.

Kerry:
And then, I'm assuming you add the flavoring yourself?

Steve :
Yeah. So we have a bottler in Newport, Ritchie. We're a Florida-based company, and we found somebody that was willing to work with a small brand just getting started, but had the capacity for large volumes. So they actually had an automated line, and we had some big visions. So the automated line has come in handy because we're exploding out there.

Kerry:
And you are in Clearwater, Florida, is where you're based.

Steve :
We're based in Clearwater, Florida, our business, and we're currently selling in, I believe, eight different states now. That's pretty good. If you're interested, it is available online to order at vonpayne.com and come to the next year's show, we'll make sure that we're able to pour.

Kerry:
Okay, and I hear you guys are participating in the brand battle this afternoon.

Steve :
Well, we're not the finalists, so we did participate in the brand battle, but we didn't make the final cut.

Kerry:
Got it. I haven't seen the Brown Battle, so I don't really know how it goes, but I'm kind of excited to see how it works.

Steve :
So they have a couple of rounds before the finals, and all the finalists are up there today.

Kerry:
Fantastic. Well, good luck to you with this. Oh, before we go, what's the price point for retail?

Steve :
So retail's somewhere between $60 and $65. That's fantastic.

Kerry:
And then do you know the eight states off the top of your head?

Steve :
I don't, but I can come close. So we're in Florida, Tennessee, Kansas, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Texas. And that rounds it out, I think.

Kerry:
OK, great. Well, thank you so much, Steve. It was wonderful getting to meet you. And I'll have to stop by one of those states and grab one of these bottles for me.

Steve :
Pleasure, Carrie. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Kerry:
Don't touch that device. We'll be right back with Whiskey Whereabouts.

Rosi:
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Kerry:
Well, hello. Today on Whiskey Whereabouts, we have Sean Scully. So, Sean, it's been a while since I've gotten to talk to you. I know you are still up in Oregon and your family is still over in Klonokilte working at the distillery and that you are heading up the processes here in the States. But I saw some new releases coming out that I talked about with your dad, actually, when we interviewed him at the distillery. So I wanted to catch up with you since you're in the same time zone as me. And see if you could tell me a little bit about the new releases and what's new for ClimaKilti right now.

Sean:
Yeah, definitely. First off, thanks for having me on, Kerry. It's always a pleasure. Yeah, so we're at a very exciting point in our business right now where we've actually just launched the first distilled of our own. So it's our single pot still whiskey. And yeah, we've been working towards this point from day one. You know, we started the study in 2019. And we've been patiently waiting for this time to come. And yeah, here we are. We have our first juice in the market and it's been received unbelievably well. So we're absolutely delighted.

Kerry:
Awesome. So, um, I don't have a bottle yet, but, um, I know that you just set up this fantastic, uh, discount code for the BRC listeners. Um, so I'm going to order one today, but, um, since I don't have it with me, I do have a different bottle that I have kept as a souvenir after we finished it. Um, but I did want to know if you have some tasting notes on this, on this new pot still.

Sean:
Honestly, possible. Yeah, I do. You know, it's a it's a really interesting whiskey. So like, some of your listeners may be aware of, you know, who we are, through different avenues, but also through interviews you've done with members of our business before myself. But basically, the The story behind it really is it encapsulates our whole brand story. So our plan from day one with our distillery was to showcase our family farm in the south of Ireland. So we have my own family farm on the coast of Clonaculty, which we've proudly farmed for nine generations, 350 years. So, yeah, the plan from day one was to grow good barley and make good whiskey from it. So we have to be patient. And this idea of the distillery came about in 2012. Like I said, we opened our distillery in 2019, started distilling then, and we finally launched a whisky very recently. So the whisky itself is single pot still whisky, so it's made from malted and unmalted barley. The unmalted barley comes from our farm on the coast and also from some neighboring farms within like a 10-mile radius of the distillery in Llanelli. We like to keep things hyper-local from a sustainability standpoint, so that's very important to us. The malted barley is sourced from the Malting Company of Ireland in Cork, so it's just up the road as well. We just don't have a malting floor, so we don't do it ourselves. But everything is distilled in our distillery in Clonaculty and then brought back out to the coast where we have our Atlantic Ocean warehouse. And it's mature there. So again, the whole idea was to encapsulate that maritime environment and have that maritime environment actually influence the whisky. It does influence the barley as it grows. And obviously, it influences the soil in which the barley grows in. But it also influences the whisky as it's maturing in those casks. you know, obviously you're going to have angel's share and that, you know, vacant space has to be replaced by air. It's not just, you know, it's not just a black hole or anything. Somebody has to go in there. So that sea salt laid in there will fill the cask and will actually influence the whiskey as it's maturing over time. So we hope to come back to your question about tasting notes. We hope that there is a maritime influence in this whiskey. And I do think it's at present, but I guess your listeners will have to try for themselves. Yeah, it's it's mostly on the on the finish of the whiskey. It's almost like a sea salt caramel. Oh, yeah. Other than that, I guess. I get Kiwi notes on the nose and on the palate. It's very interesting. Okay. And then a very distinct note I've I've, I came across myself and then I actually saw someone talk about on social media just about two days ago, was the taste notes of Jaffa cakes. I don't know if you've ever had Jaffa cakes at all.

Kerry:
No, what is that?

Sean:
So that's, um, so it's like a, an Irish or British, like, like chocolate kind of biscuits almost. So it's, it's like a kind of like a vanilla sponge, and then marmalade jam, and chocolate covered in chocolate. And they're really good.

Kerry:
I mean, sounds delicious.

Sean:
Yeah. So there I mean, I haven't had them in years. But as a kid growing up, just eat a lot of them. And that was a very distinct tasting note that I got on palette with this single pot still. But to round things off, it's ex-Burma matured, as well as being matured in Amontillado sherry and Oloroso sherry.

Kerry:
How many years in each are you allowed to say?

Sean:
It's a five-year-old whiskey. This batch one is. And then we recast into the Amontillado and Oloroso sherry casks for one year each.

Kerry:
So it's five plus one or four plus one?

Sean:
Well, so it's kind of complicated. So some of the single pasta would have spent the whole five years in ex-bourbon casks, and some would have been four years ex-bourbon and then transferred into either R or the sherry casks. And then everything is then blended together afterwards.

Kerry:
Awesome. Okay. And then what's the percentage of unmalted barley to malted barley in this?

Sean:
So we're at about 60% unmalted to 40% malted. And yeah, we've decided not to include any other grains. We could include up to 5% other grains per the Irish whiskey technical file, but we're just going straight up with the malted and unmalted barley.

Kerry:
That is really cool. OK, and you also have another expression that is coming in the next few days or so. So tell me, what is that one all about?

Sean:
Yeah, so that's our galley head Irish whiskey. So for those that might be familiar with, you know, our brand imagery, I suppose, and you know, our, our picturesque, you know, family farm on the coastline, it's at the foot of the Gallyhead Lighthouse. So that's the Gallyhead Peninsula, and the Gallyhead Lighthouse sits at the end of the peninsula. It was actually the strongest man-made light in the world in the late 1800s, only for about a year or two until another lighthouse was built, but for a small area in Ireland that's It's kind of cool little fact.

Kerry:
But yeah, so the coastline there is pretty rugged and a lot of pieces sticking out. So that's really like it needs a big light.

Sean:
Exactly. Yeah. It was put there for a reason. It's very necessary.

Kerry:
But now does anyone did your family have to run the lighthouse back in the day?

Sean:
No, no. The lighthouse was within one family for a long, long time. But now it's, I think it's automated right now. So no one, there's no lighthouse keeper.

Kerry:
And then how many, how many acres of that land were you using for, well, for each of these whiskeys, for the, for the barley?

Sean:
Jeez, how many acres are we growing barley? Probably about, 20 or so, I'd say. I don't have that number exactly at the head. I know our dairy farm is like 350 acres, so the barley farm is a smaller proportion of it. Like I said earlier, it's a decent-sized farm, but we do have to source barley from neighboring farmers as well. They're all certified farmers doing it in a very, you know, economic or environmentally positive farming in a very environmentally positive manner. So we're happy to have those partners.

Kerry:
That's great. Okay, so then what's the difference between the galley head and the pot still?

Sean:
So the Galleyhead is an entry-level whiskey. So our pot still, bringing a single pot still, it's premium whiskey creme de la creme of Irish whiskey styles. That's going to be retailing around the States at $49.95, which we're very proud to get such a high quality whiskey to the market at that price point. But this Galleyhead whiskey is going to be an entry-level product. So we've had different Galleyhead expressions on sale in Europe and in Ireland for a period. time but this is a completely new SKU and yeah it's gonna be retailing at $29.95 and it should be landing in the States and on our online shop in the next maybe two to three weeks time. So it's fully expert matured. It's heavy corn based whiskey on the corn component here. But we also blend in our own single pot still whiskey into this. So it wouldn't be the most common thing to have single pot still blended into entry level whiskey. But we decided it's well worth that just to kind of boost the viscosity of the whiskey in the mouthfeel and add that extra complexity to the product.

Kerry:
So what's the, what's the mash bill makeup on that then?

Sean:
So it's about, um, nine, it's like 90% corn, uh, and then 10%, uh, single pot still.

Kerry:
So it's, so it's kind of like an urban pot still.

Sean:
Yeah. Yeah, no, it's, it's really nice. I only actually tried it for the first time. Um, it was past weekend and it's exactly what you want for the entry level products. You know, it's, it's very approachable, easy drinking. and has a flexibility for drinking neat or putting in a mixed drink or cocktail as well.

Kerry:
Now, is this particular SKU just for the U.S. or are you putting the SKU out to a bunch of different places?

Sean:
This SKU will be, yeah, it's going to be probably heading further fields in Europe, but predominantly it was designed and curated for the U.S. It might go into some further field markets also.

Kerry:
Okay. And then to date, how many current SKUs do you have out on the market worldwide or do you know?

Sean:
Oh God, that's a good question. Um, we we've been guilty of releasing lots and lots of whiskey, uh, for better or for worse over the last couple of years. Um, Jesus, I don't know. You know, we're, we're, we're well known for our barrel picks and stuff like that. That's lots of SKUs in there. So we have plenty of barrels.

Kerry:
Private barrel select this one.

Sean:
Yeah. There you go. That's, that's polished off. So it must've been good. Um, So, yeah, you'll find our biopics all over the US and then we were known for our brewery collaborations as well in the US, as you know. So that's plenty of SKUs there. But, you know, we're trying to kind of get a bit more narrow now that we've reached the point of actually having our own product in the market and kind of redefining what our core whiskey lineup is. So it's kind of slowly navigating towards being, you know, a three SKU core lineup. And we're creating a tiered price system as well. So you'll start off with your galley head whiskey with a new release at $29.95. And then we're going to retain our port cap, sorry, our double oak finish, which has been one of our core SKUs over the past, you know, five, six, seven, eight years. And that's going to be at $39.95. So that actually saw a price reduction recently, which is, you know, it's a very good whiskey for that price point. And then now we have our single pot still whiskey at the top of that list at $49.95. So we're very excited to have that product mix and see where that takes us. Yeah, like I said, you know, we have our single pot so whiskey right now, which was the biggest, the biggest milestone we've ever hit. You know, from when we opened our distillery day one, this day seemed light years away. But it's crazy how fast time flies. We're already there. So we're excited to get the lick with the lips and hear more reactions about how people think it is.

Kerry:
Have you entered either of these two in any competitions yet?

Sean:
We haven't, not yet, but I do believe that we might be sending a single pot still off first and judging soonish.

Kerry:
Well, that's cool. Well, you'll have to let us know if it starts winning awards and we can update the folks. Sean, well, it was great getting to catch up with you, and I'm really excited to try these two new expressions. And next time I'm in Oregon, I will look you up. And next time I'm in Ireland, I'll see if you're there too, because you could be in either place.

Sean:
100%. Yeah, thanks, Kerry. Like I said, always a pleasure being on your show, and looking forward to the next time.

Kerry:
To shop for your bottle of Klonik Hilti's new releases, visit klonikhiltidistillery.com and enter discount code BRC10 at the checkout. That does it for today's show. To read notes on this episode or learn more about our guests, please visit barrelroomchronicles.com. Want to interact with the show or have questions for our guests? Then ask them on our socials or send us an email. Or better yet, leave us a voicemail on our website. If you like what you heard, please rate and subscribe to the podcast. If you really liked it and you want to show your support, buy us a whiskey through our Ko-fi site at ko-fi.com slash BRC or become an exclusive member of the Barrel Room Parlor. If you work in the whiskey or spirits industry or just have a deep passion for whiskey and want to share your spirits journey, register to be a guest through our website. Last but not least, please enjoy your spirits responsibly. Thanks for joining me. Until next time, so long.

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