Whiskey, War, and Winning Recipes Inside Old Soldier Distillery (BRC S3 E6)

#AI Transcript: Old Soldier transcript

Kerry:
Gentlemen, hello. It's wonderful to be here.

Joe:
Hello.

Kerry:
So we're at in Washington State, which is I'm loving the weather because I'm in L.A. and it's way too hot.

Joe:
Oh, yes.

Kerry:
And I'm here at the old soldier distillery, not salt. See, I can't even say it. I can't exactly. Tongue tied. I don't know why. I can't even start drinking it. Anyway, I'm here with the old soldier himself. Andrew, tell me why you. Well, Andrew and Joe. And let's let's hear your whiskey journey from the beginning. You were a soldier. Oh my. And now you're a distiller. Tell me how that came to be.

Andrew:
My great-great-grandfather was a quartermaster sergeant in the Civil War. Wow. Part of his job was providing rations for the troops. And in the first Delaware, that was three ounces of 130 proof every day. Wow. Yeah. And then they'd give him a rifle and tell him to charge. Liquid courage there. Yeah. Whiskey and guns. Yeah. Don't try this at home. We're professionals. That's right. So that's a long time ago, but we make an 1860 style whiskey like he made. Wow. So we don't filter it. We don't color it. We do nothing to it that wouldn't have been done in the 1860s. I may or may not have been the largest distiller in Saudi Arabia during the desert storm, but I would never necessarily admit to that. Um, but the, the army said we couldn't bring alcohol in theater, but they didn't say we couldn't make it there.

Kerry:
Wow.

Andrew:
Um, so some of what we did over there was for morale purposes. And, uh, so when we left there and came back here, uh, I retired in 2010. And, um, basically my wife said I was grumpy for not having something to do and I needed to go get a job. And so decided we'd go and make grandpa style whiskey. And, uh, that was in 2016. I think it was. And, uh, so we've been working here ever since making our whiskeys and bourbons and, uh, a couple of flavored products because the new age is a little different. Yeah. And, uh, this guy over here. Um, sold me my first bottles. He was working in a, uh, auction warehouse. And, uh, we had some damaged freight that I bought from him and we hit it off as friends. And I told him a long time ago, I said, can't afford you, but I want a guy like you to work for me.

Joe:
And, uh, nine years later, it became 89 years. Yeah. Something like that. So after pandemic, uh, I hadn't seen Andy in two or three years even, and I was like, I'll check on the distillery. How are they doing down there? And so I just kind of came in here. I think it was like a Friday. And I was like, Hey, you know, how's it going? What's going on? And Andy goes, I was going to put together a team. Actually, I have these six positions. I need people that can do, can you do any of those? And I looked at it and I said, I'll do one through five. And so that's what I do here. It's one through five. Six is well, six is social media. It was technically his daughters do the social media kind of that was six. And I was like, I've never done that stuff, but now I'm kind of doing that stuff.

Kerry:
So yeah, I need to do better at that stuff. Yes, we do too.

Joe:
I imagine with podcasts, it's much more important, but it's, it's advertising regardless. So yeah, it's a lot of work too. It really is like, it doesn't seem like that much, but there's a lot that goes on.

Kerry:
Yeah. Okay. So you started working here then what year?

Joe:
Uh, so may of this year will be two years that I've been doing this and I had no whiskey experience or distillery experience or anything like that beforehand. So everything has been taught in this distillery and, you know, by Andy.

Andrew:
So pretty intense, of course.

Kerry:
Yeah. And when you were doing moonshine overseas, did anyone teach you how to do it or you were self-taught yourself?

Andrew:
Well, remember I told you about my great great grandfather. Yes. My great grandfather may have been involved in Scranton, Pennsylvania and prohibition. And my great-uncle was still alive when I was a young man. I carried a few bags of grain in my day.

Kerry:
I see, okay.

Andrew:
So long history. Yeah, my wife sometimes tells me if they cut me I'll bleed bourbon. Could be. Really sucks if the cops pull you over.

Kerry:
Yes. Well, that's when you just flash your fancy stuff at your cat.

Joe:
That's right. Now I can carry it.

Kerry:
Yeah. On me. He was telling me earlier, for those of you at home, that he has this... Agent's license. Agent's license. So when he gets pulled over with an open bottle, he just flashes his little license.

Andrew:
So good to go. Well, we got to do tastings and we can't tape it up each time to go from restaurant to restaurant.

Kerry:
No, same thing. You run out of tape.

Andrew:
Yeah. Yeah. And shot glasses.

Kerry:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's fun. Maybe I should. No, I would be too dangerous. Okay. So, um, what has been your favorite process? Uh, when you said, okay, when your wife said, go do something fun, what did you immediately say?

Andrew:
I know what I'm going to do. Yeah, actually, um, or you're going to do a moonshine at home. And you said, well, my wife wandered downstairs where the girls' bedrooms were, all the girls had gone to college and, She has a really good sense of smell and she came and she goes, do you smell something yeasty? And I said, no. And so she starts sniffing around and she opens up my daughter's closet and there's two 55 gallon Huffy totes just fermenting away. And so that's how she found out about what I was thinking about doing. Um, well research. Yeah. Cause you wouldn't do anything illegal. But, um, yeah, so that's how I started playing again. And I do have, we own a cottage that my family's owned since 1898. No, it's in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. And, uh, so there's a lot of interesting little tidbits from his history. I actually have his Civil War belt buckle over here, which I think is kind of cool. Um, but so it kind of. I'd love to take credit for what we do, but I really can't because there's someone who's gone before. And, uh, so I tell people we, we follow grandpa's lead and no, I think we do pretty good. We've certainly got a few awards to prove it.

Kerry:
That's great. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about where you've taken the distillery since you opened it to now, how many expressions you have and mobile, sorry, how many expressions you have and how long has it been? What was the process it took to get the place open to here?

Andrew:
Well, and the federal government doesn't want people getting into this business license wise. They make it kind of difficult. It takes anywhere from about eight months to a year to get your license.

Kerry:
But before you can apply... Which is really good aging time that's wasted.

Andrew:
Yes. And not only that, before you apply, you have to have your equipment. You have to have it set up. You have to pay rent on everything. And you're looking at a year before you'll get your federal permit. And once you get that, then you need to apply to the state and you do it all over again for another year. So it took about two years to get us set up. We found a facility. We have some lovely landlords. And when we were looking at places, I said to him, I said, how do you feel about the distillery in your building? And she was very funny. She goes, as long as it's not a pot shop. Yeah. OK, that works. That's cute. So I know people can't see it, but the whole facility when we came in here was just a bunch of pillars and an open space. So we built the walls, put in the windows, brought in our facility, did the electrical work ourselves. This is all paid for by myself and my partner, who has since retired. And we used our military pensions to do it. Wow. So you have to name it with a soldier in the name. Absolutely. And I tell people all the time, I said, you might see some used stuff in our shop, but we're probably the only distiller you'll ever meet that has zero debt. And that worked out really well. So for the first two years, we couldn't make a drop. Right. And then the next two years, we had to wait for the very first product to come out. So we bought these little itty bitty five liter barrels. OK. And so we had this rack, a little five liter barrels because it ages quicker. Right. Just so we'd get something available.

Kerry:
And, uh, do you still have that rack?

Andrew:
Uh, no, but what's funny is we have bottle number two over there. Okay. We opened bottle number one a little while ago and my partner and I, and we tried it and he looked at me, he goes, man, we sucked. So it's hard. Yeah. Yeah. And we talked earlier about clear alcohols. Cause most distilleries will do a bourbon and a gin, et cetera. We never did that. We always just did whiskey and bourbon.

Kerry:
It's amazing that you were able to afford that because everyone's like, well, you know, once you get your permits and stuff, then you got to wait three years for the firm to insure. So in the meantime, we did GSL.

Andrew:
And that's kind of the basic program for most distillers. But like I said, we both had our pensions and We were very lucky. And of course, I told you earlier, brilliant wife with lousy taste in men. So she, she covered a lot of the debts while I was trying to make this thing start. Fantastic.

Kerry:
Yeah.

Andrew:
Let me say, well, she's put up with me for 33 years, you know, but you know, the good part about that is, is it's on film. So now she knows I praised her. This is good. This is good. Yeah.

Kerry:
Everybody on social media bump it up. Yeah. So Joe, what made you decide you wanted to come in and go from a place that sold bottles... So I wasn't even working at the auction when I came here.

Joe:
I've spent the last decade basically slaving away in the warehousing industry. I've had a couple of really good employers, but no really good jobs, if that makes sense. Usually it's the bosses hampered by their bosses.

Kerry:
around we find a great job and then it's got a bad... Right exactly. So you had some good bosses.

Joe:
Yeah I've had some some great bosses that were limited by their bosses more than anything else and so when I get to the point in an industry where I'm like there's nothing else for me here it's time to move on. after eight years of warehousing, you get kind of tired of it. But I'm really good with logistics. And so here we've got all kinds of little things to track, 150 barrels, the age of everything we've got, the grains, the water, all that stuff. And so that's what I'm really good at, spreadsheets. One through five. One through five, that's right. I believe one was tracking that stuff because that was his partner, Rodney, used to do our taxes and the spreadsheets and all that stuff.

Kerry:
So he doesn't do anything anymore?

Joe:
No, he does not do anything. He's retired, retired.

Kerry:
When I happened to come in... Okay, so you were working in warehouses for eight years?

Joe:
Yes, so I've never worked for Amazon, but I have a good idea of what it feels like, is what I usually tell people. Nice. Or if you've bought a Samsung appliance in the last five years, I might have touched it, that kind of thing too. I learned how to take large quantities of stuff and categorize it, organize it, be able to track it without having it be a huge problem for everybody involved. And so with this place, it was a fantastic fit because it's a very small operation, which means there's not a whole lot going on with it. But at the same time, the stuff we have is very important. And because it's just Andy and I, the way we do things is how we want to do things. And I can't count how many jobs I've had where the biggest thorn is that the person who made the process isn't the one that does the process. Here, we make our own process. Every step of the way is, well, let's do it this way. Let's try it this way this time. Let's see if this is different. Let's see what happens. because maybe it'll be interesting. And so we get to do that. Like, because we're such a small operation, we're not structured. We've got to do this. We've got to worry about this. We've got to worry about that. It's much more, like, relaxed and free form as far as all that goes. And so for me personally, what, like, excels for me here is that Andy knows I'm capable, knows, hey, I need this done. Joe, can you do that? Can you look at this? Come back with me some feedback and we'll tackle the problem together, you know? I joke that the only thing I don't do is make final decisions, but Andy usually chimes in, but you weigh in on them. And it's very true.

Andrew:
Like, yeah, I, Joe and I spend a lot of time talking about how to do things, not necessarily the production process, but a better way to do it. And, uh, when I was in the military, I always looked at it as much more of a collegial effort. So I think it worked out really well for Joe because he doesn't feel like he's a cog in a wheel. Is that fair?

Joe:
No, that's really accurate. Yes. When I know that I'm just an expense on a spreadsheet somewhere, it's like, yeah, here, that would never be the case.

Kerry:
That's great. So how many expressions have you made since you started the story?

Andrew:
Well, we've made a lot, but some of them didn't work out very well. We do five right now. We do a raw whiskey, which interestingly enough, women buy more than men, which I found really interesting. That's cool. We do a traditional whiskey. We do a bourbon, which are both 1860 style, like my grandfather made. And then we make something called bourbon Santos, which is, it's billed as a raisin bourbon. It's so much more than that. It starts like a bourbon, it ends like a port, and it finishes figs and raisins and citrus nuts.

Kerry:
So how do you make that or are you not allowed to say? Not allowed to say.

Andrew:
Well, I'm the one that determined because I developed it, but we do not talk about how we make it. And then we make a butterscotch whiskey, which is, it's a dessert in a glass. And so those are the ones we're currently making. We're working on a black pepper bourbon. We're looking into a mulled bourbon for the holidays. That's single malt. Yeah, we just started doing our single malt. Well, a little bit later, we'll do on top the bum and you can smell it. It's going to be phenomenal. Has nice peach notes to it. Oh, really? Nice. And then we actually have a friend of ours, a company called Nero's Brewing. They called us up one day and said, hey, we got a thousand gallons of beer we don't know what to do with. Do you want it? Yeah. So why did they want to get rid of their beer? Well, because it was a summer beer that they did and their distributor said, hey, I can't move any more of the summer beer right now. And so they needed to use the tank. And we took it and we distilled it into whiskey. So it's a five-malt whiskey. And that's not a regular thing, but next Christmas is going to be a great party down at the brewery. You should come back for it. Great. Sounds good. Yeah. And we're going to have Nero's beer and Nero's whiskey. That's awesome. So we're working on a couple of things, but right now we do those five expressions.

Kerry:
Okay. And then, so everything basically is a bourbon except for this new cinnamon roll. Or starts as a bourbon mash. They're all whiskey.

Andrew:
okay they're just it's the same mash except the single malt that that is a correct statement yeah yeah because you know all bourbons are whiskeys but not all whiskeys are bourbons so um but everything we're doing right now so many people don't know that really people like no i thought you liked whiskey not bourbon bourbon is a whiskey i thought you liked scotch not whiskey and i scotch is whiskey too We have a, we do have one other thing we're working on that I'm already authorized to make is a, we're working on an apple schnapps, but it's not the lollipop liquor schnapps like you get here in the States. It's 70 proof. Wow. And it's the way my grandmother made it in Germany. So.

Kerry:
And all the grandparents.

Andrew:
A lot of people would like to play with alcohol in my family. It's a little weird, but I'll take it.

Kerry:
Yeah. Oh, So when are you starting that project? It's actually fermenting now.

Andrew:
Nice. And I've made it before, but it was a test batch. This is going to be a second test batch and then we'll go into production next year when the apples are fresh.

Kerry:
Fantastic. And do you get the apples here in Washington?

Andrew:
We do. We like to work with Tree Top, which is the farmer's co-op out of Selma? Yeah, I think it's Washington. Because they do a three blend of apples that are really good. And just as a side note, if you want to try a really good drink, get some hard cider, 16 ounces of hard cider, and put a shot of whiskey into it like you would an old boilermaker. Okay. It's phenomenal. Really good. It's good.

Kerry:
All right. So let's, um, tell me what you think the five-year plan is for this place.

Andrew:
Keep the lights on. Um, we, uh, I'm 60 in January. Um, and I eventually, when I'm ready to, uh, take more time, I think Joe's going to wind up stepping up and his, uh, his wife went through six then.

Joe:
I'll have to use seven as well.

Andrew:
So yeah, but I think he's going to recruit his wife to come in here and work with him because she's a hardworking kid. I like her a lot. So and for me, I just get to come in occasionally and do tours and come up with new drinks and generally be annoying. But he's used to it.

Joe:
I want to get a big picture that's the founder's picture, you know, him in a black suit for no reason.

Kerry:
So where can people find your whiskies if they want to purchase?

Andrew:
Well, we work here, but we also are in Total Wine on the I-5 corridor in Washington. We just registered for Florida. Right. And so hopefully we'll have 28 Total Wines in Florida if they accept us in all their stores. And then the next target would be Texas and then California. Just kind of do the rim and then we'll shoot cross country. Nice. From there. So it really is a question of developing a business that supports that kind of shipping and marketing. My partner and I used to joke with each other and say, you know, sooner or later we're going to have to treat this like a business. And so Joe's been really instrumental in that. I don't want to say too much nice about Joe. We can go right to his head.

Joe:
I'm sitting right here. So yeah.

Kerry:
Yeah. Okay. So now we have this beautiful array of booze in front of us and these wonderful stoppers. Tell me a little bit about the stoppers as well. Actually, which one was the first one you did and what's part of your core line?

Andrew:
Well, initially we made grandpa style whiskey, which are these three. Okay. So this is what you would get if you were a private in the first Delaware in the Civil War. Okay. Cause it was, they didn't have time to age it. So it was raw whiskey. This is not moonshine. Moonshine is a state of mind. It's not a product. Right. Um, moonshine is anything that's fermentable that you can ferment and make alcohol out of would be classified as moonshine. And it was done at nighttime.

Kerry:
So it's this new make.

Andrew:
Yeah. Well, not only that is they knew federal officers didn't want to work when they wanted to be home with their families at night. So by making it at nighttime, by the light of the moon, it became moonshine. Interesting. So this is just a white whiskey, unaged, straight from the still before we put it in the barrel. Okay. And then later on when he had time, the whiskey and the bourbon. were just aged products. And what's really cool, if you want to see it, matter of fact, Joe, you want to grab that Prohibition bottle? My wife, I don't know where she finds this stuff, but she got me a bottle from Prohibition. And back during Prohibition, whiskey was considered medicine. So if you notice it says old granddad finest medicinal. Yep. Okay. Well, back in the day, there were doctors just like there are some doctors today that would for fee prescribe you certain medications. You know, oxycodone was a big deal back recently. And back then whiskey was right. So since they didn't have like the ability to look up whether or not you had a prescription, the doctors very, very thoughtfully put glue on the back of the prescription labels. Oh, wow. And that's a prescription from Prohibition for the guy who owned this bottle. And it says three ounces a day. Wow. So he could walk around with this in his pocket during Prohibition, and he wouldn't get in trouble. And this is actually an original from Prohibition. That's really cool.

Kerry:
Isn't that fun? I'm going to get a close up of that in a little bit. OK. Nice. OK, so. Burbon and whiskey switched. You think so? Yeah, they are.

Joe:
Oh, we match. That's why. Okay. They're backwards from up there.

Kerry:
Okay. Yeah. All right. So did he make the whiskey first? I'm assuming he made the whiskey first before the bourbon.

Andrew:
Yes. Yes. The white whiskey was what he made when he was a quartermaster sergeant.

Kerry:
Did he have a distillery after the war?

Andrew:
No, but he was a physician. So physicians a lot of times made their own medicinal brews. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, but he didn't have a company for it. He probably did it just in his right in his bar.

Kerry:
Let's taste this white whiskey.

Andrew:
OK, so interestingly enough, most of the time when you see in the movies Moonshine, there's always somebody going, it's smooth. Couldn't be further from the truth for a raw whiskey. Right. So this is not a proof, but you're going to get corn and butter. Ooh, really? That butter heat, it almost has the same flavor as, um, like a jelly belly, popcorn jelly belly.

Kerry:
Oh, like, I do smell the jelly belly, the butter jelly belly, the butter popcorn jelly bean.

Andrew:
I'm not supposed to, I'm not supposed to taste this. So, uh, just pretend it's, well, I'm working.

Kerry:
He's on the clock, but that's your job though. So, you know, this,

Andrew:
And it's not going to... a little heat.

Kerry:
It's a little hot, but all those flavors there. That's really good to make. Isn't that fun? And you sell the white whiskey, right?

Andrew:
We do. And like I was telling you earlier, we sell more of that to ladies than we do to men. That's really good. Yeah. Now, what's fun about that, too, is if you make pie crusts, little known fact back in the day, the women used to use clear whiskey to make their pie crust. Instead of what? Well, when you make a crust, you put water into it, but you want as little water as possible to make the pie flaky. Okay. Well, with this at 50%, by the time it goes in the oven, it's already lost 50% of its liquid. Okay. And it makes the pie crust flakier. Interesting. That and my grandmother liked it a little on the side.

Kerry:
Yeah, there you go.

Andrew:
Did I tell you my parents were really strict? I wasn't allowed to drink until I was 13. It's terrible. It's 13. It was. It's hard.

Kerry:
My parents, you know, they said, I think 21 is good. Huh? Mm-hmm. But I won't.

Joe:
Well.

Kerry:
Although, can I read the home? Yes, you do. Of course you did. I was at least 18 before I tried to be at least legal somewhere.

Andrew:
That's right. Not in California. Well, I was allowed to drink when they passed the law saying it would be 21 again. And in New York state, they upped it at the end of each year. But my birthday's two weeks after it would up each year. So I had to buy December 30th my stock to get me through January 17th. That's terrible. Well, the next one you're going to try is that same product at 120 proof after it's been aged for several years in an American white barrel. This particular batch is three years, nine months. Okay. And It's going to be bourbon. Yeah, and it's nicely oaked and you'll get vanillas and caramels and maybe a little cherry on the side. And I pick up, some people pick up a little cinnamon.

Kerry:
You can't really smell it as much. My nose will burn. Oh, that's very nice. That's very smooth. Probably that's why I can't smell it. It's not hitting my nostril. Pow. And this is your great-great-grandfather's recipe? Mm-hmm. The mash fillets? Mm-hmm. And the type of barrels?

Andrew:
Well, the hard part is there's not a lot of white oak in Pennsylvania anymore. Right. So we get our barrels made on the northern tier in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Up north you have harsher winters and you have different nutrients in the soil, so the flavor profile in the wood. is very different than, say, if you got something from the Georgia area. And since the winters are harsher, the pores and the grain is tighter. So it takes a little longer for the transfer of flavors from the wood to the breadcrumb. So we try and we stick to the northern tier because Pennsylvania has some pretty harsh winters. Yeah. And we wanted to try and replicate that as much as possible. Perfect.

Kerry:
Well, it's very tasty. Well, thank you. OK, let's let's try Great Granddad's Dirt.

Andrew:
The next thing will be our traditional whiskey. We tell everybody all the time, it's unfiltered. It's a natural whiskey. It's the way it was made in the 1860s.

Kerry:
So it'll have a little cloudiness.

Andrew:
Yes. And it's a little cloudy and people tend to buy with their eyes. That's a marketing thing. Yeah. But I tell people all the time, if you don't want cloudy whiskey, the liquor stores mile and a half down the road, you can buy whatever you like. Yeah.

Kerry:
But you know, I mean, if you're a little inexact for the regular buyers, the cloudiness is a flavor profile. It is. So when you clear it out to make it prettier, you also take away the flavor.

Andrew:
Absolutely. Yes, ma'am. You know, I love that you know that.

Kerry:
I better. I shouldn't be going to the shop. I know.

Joe:
I actually had somebody on the tour last weekend that commented, I love the mouth feel because you guys don't filter it. Yeah. She said it's such a richer flavor in your mouth. And I was like, yeah, that's part of why we do it.

Kerry:
You know, when you do a small pickle size like this, you can't tell it's cloudy. Nope. Oh, wow.

Andrew:
Nicely clean, just kind of a springtime to it.

Kerry:
Yeah. And it's definitely got, I mean, that's that extra punch of flavor from the non-chill filter. That's, oh, that's beautiful. OK, so then these two over here would be the ones that you've come up with.

Andrew:
That's great-great-grandson's addition to the line. I did these so my wife would drink some whiskey. OK. You know, it's amazing how many of my bottles disappear at home when my daughters went back to college. Um, my wife is, is not a whiskey drinker. So when we went to a marketing convention time and somebody asked her, which of those products do you like? She said, I don't know. It's like, honey, come here, honey. This is a marketing thing, you know? So I decided that the best thing to do. would be to make something that she liked and she has a book club and they all know me and they're ruthless about telling me what I do right and wrong. So I would make her something and send it with her to the book club and the ladies would tear it up or say they liked it and then I'd try again and they're my tasting group. It's great.

Kerry:
And it's appropriate that you have women do it because, you know, originally whiskey was made by women. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was done in the home and it was, they were, you know, like, yeah. Whiskey was originally mostly done by women and then later became the man's drink. And then the men started doing it, you know, with prohibition and the, and the moonshine and, and all that. But like in the original days, it was something that they would do. Did with Mike, if they had leftover products that they needed to not spoil, what were they going to do with it? So they would distill it.

Andrew:
So they wouldn't be wasting, but they, well, you shouldn't waste good food. I tell my wife, I drink my vegetables every day. There you go. So there's two originally I made the butterscotch for first and then I made Santos, but we're going to do it in reverse order. So Santos is actually a gold medal winner and a best-in-class winner.

Kerry:
Is that the one the trophy showed me? That's the one. Joe, would you hand us that trophy and put that up here?

Andrew:
Yeah, the gold that we won was the John Barley Corn Society of Whiskey Writers and Critics. And this is actually something we're really fond of.

Kerry:
All right, John Barleycorn. Now is that his name, John Barley?

Andrew:
No, John Barleycorn is actually an old song. Okay. That talks about whiskey distilling and it's pretty popular. It was a Scottish. Slick and elegant.

Kerry:
Not slick, slick.

Andrew:
Slick and elegant. That's actually their, the critics write up of it. That's great.

Kerry:
Slick and elegant. This works. Yeah. I've never heard of port citrus and floral notes.

Andrew:
Yeah. I've never, ever heard somebody, a critic say things that nice about anything. I was tickled in my back teeth.

Kerry:
Well, I'm glad it was slick, not sick.

Andrew:
Yeah. Me too.

Kerry:
Like that'd be okay, I guess.

Andrew:
So that's a big deal for us. That's an international competition and it's pretty, uh, pretty well documented as being some of the best, uh, whiskey critics in the country do the sampling. And we've got, What do we got, about 11 awards between these five? I think so, yes. And we're just, like I said, we're tickled. So that's for this product that you're going to try here. And this is actually one of our best sellers. It's Joe's personal favorite. It is, absolutely.

Kerry:
And so it's got a raisin flavor.

Andrew:
Sort of.

Kerry:
Sort of. You can't tell me the mash bill?

Joe:
No, no, it's the same mash bill. I can tell you that actually.

Kerry:
Everything is the same. So the finishing is different.

Andrew:
Yeah, maybe sort of.

Kerry:
Well, it has to be. It can't be the same mash bill and not have unless you're going to spike the tub.

Andrew:
We have a really good relationship with Harry Potter.

Kerry:
OK, so he just came up with this one. Yeah, swings that are. I got my cousin's kids bonds when they came to Harry Potter. You ever been to Universal? You've been a certain wand. You've eventually made the wands work. Oh, nice. Oh, that's fun.

Andrew:
So this is bourbon Santos and it's just, it's just really gentle. I really liked it.

Kerry:
It's got a really great color to it.

Joe:
For me, this was the first time I had a bourbon and I was like, I could just sip this. This is, it's got that little bit of sweetness comes through and it's just like, this is good all by itself.

Kerry:
Definitely has a little raisin on the aftertaste.

Andrew:
You get figs, you get raisins, you get fruits, you get citrus and it just keeps coming.

Kerry:
It's a good time of year for this.

Andrew:
And probably the next one. It's actually pretty good warm too. Oh, I bet. You know, you put it in a brandy snicker.

Kerry:
Yeah, I can see this as like a muddled scent thing.

Andrew:
We do a drink called a dirty soldier.

None:
Okay.

Andrew:
Which is... Dirty old soldier? What's really funny, I called it a muddy soldier, and my wife and her book club are like, Anna, it's got to be a dirty soldier. I said, why? Women don't want to walk in and order a muddy soldier. They want a dirty soldier. Somebody else, ma'am.

Kerry:
I like this book club. I don't even read books.

Andrew:
I'm telling you what. Come on up. I'll introduce you to the girls. They're really funny.

Kerry:
So you can't tell me what kind of wood this is?

Andrew:
Well, basically, I mean, it is a bourbon, first and foremost. And then we have a process that we apply to it to turn it into Santos. But it is absolutely aged as a straight bourbon first. And then we do our magic. Unfortunately, you cannot patent a flavor. So you have to either just be very close lipped about what you do. to provide, to make it so somebody can't do the same thing. Witness all the cinnamon whiskeys that are out there now. Right. Because once somebody gets hold of it.

Kerry:
So what made you call it Santos?

Andrew:
Well, my wife and I went back to Greece for our 25th anniversary, brought our girls, and there is a winery on the island of Santorini, which means Santa. And they make a late kind of harvest grape wine that they then age for 10 years and oak barrels in the cliffs. It's very good. It's more it's rather like an ice wine.

Kerry:
Okay.

Andrew:
Um, really liked it. But it was bloody expensive. It's like $90 for 500 milliliters. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I bought 10 bottles. Oh, my. Yeah, that was a rough day. With the boss. Yeah. But when we ran out of it, I was complaining because you can't buy it in the States. And I really enjoyed it. And my wife being the brilliant lady that she is, she said, Well, you're a distiller, go figure out how to make something that reminds you of this product. And then you'll never and I just looked at her and I said, Yes, ma'am. Do And so we went into the lab and came up with Santos. So it took about 18 months to do it.

Kerry:
Yeah, Santorini is beautiful. Isn't it gorgeous? Back in 2000. Yeah.

Joe:
I just love that it's one of those atolls that used to be a volcano.

Andrew:
Yeah. Boom. Yeah. And Santos, therefore, is saint in Greek and in Spanish. Right. So it just made sense to name it after what I was looking for.

Kerry:
Great. Okay, let's try this, uh, butterscotch. Uh, this is dessert in a body.

Andrew:
Okay. The butterscotch was the first thing I made for her because I know she really likes butterscotch. Her grandpa used to give her one of these originals as a kid. Okay. And, uh, so now she can actually say, I like this and that.

Kerry:
Great. Yeah. And I can see this too. Um, I can definitely see it like there's like a, as you were saying, hot, but I can see it as a hot toddy with, uh, with a dash of cinnamon on top.

Andrew:
I actually use it to cook. Oh yeah. I'll take, I'll take, uh, red onions, shrimps, I'll slice them up really thin and saute them with some garlic and then add two shots of this and a couple of pork cutlets.

Kerry:
Isn't that fantastic?

Andrew:
100% candy.

Kerry:
It's, uh, it does taste like liquid candy for sure.

Joe:
35% alcohol somehow.

Andrew:
Did I tell you, we brief all the women of childbearing age to be careful because it's been blamed for eight pregnancies so far. That's fantastic. I had a lady come down, put her hands on her hips and yell at me. I'm so mad at you. I said, what did I do? She says, I'm pregnant. I looked at her and said, I didn't touch her. I don't remember that. Hashtag on me. But, uh, we started keeping score. There's a little chalkboard over there with hash. And, uh, we tell the young ladies if they get pregnant because they drank too much of this, they come down, put their very own hash Mac on the board. And when the baby's born, we get to take pictures and they get a free bottle of butter. That's great. Yeah.

Kerry:
I love it. It's a lot of fun. Have any of them been born yet?

Joe:
Yeah. So number five and six are twins. He came down the stairs. We're here to make our marks on the chalkboard. And I said, I'm sorry, did you say marks? And she goes, yeah, we're having twins. So congratulations. Right. Yeah. And about three months ago, I believe we had them down here and Andy's got a little photos of them. Tiny, tiny little babies. My goodness.

Andrew:
Yeah. A little boy and a little girl fraternities.

Kerry:
Oh no. Those are the, those are the ones that most recently.

Joe:
I was going to say those are the recent marks.

Andrew:
Yeah. And the other girls and boys have been down individually. Number three has not shown up. So I think they were transferred. Yeah. I think they were transferred. They're a military couple. Yeah. But, uh, it's fun because I think, I was told one time that babies are the opinion that the world must go on. That's a good saying. Yeah. And we have a lot of fun with it. And the girls think it's hilarious. We tell them we're cheaper than IVF.

Joe:
So I always get a kick out of both sides of the couple. Sometimes the guy, no, we won't, we don't want that. Or we do want that. And sometimes the girl, the same thing we do want that or no, no, keep that away. It just depends on the couple.

Kerry:
Tell me about these bottle toppers. So these, um, your bottle toppers.

Andrew:
Well, this is from a company called Menagerie wine pours, and they recently came out with a whiskey, um, with a group of whiskey, uh, wine pourers. So they have the little stopper so that cause with a bottle of wine, they don't have that because you use the whole bottle. This allows you to keep it on the bottle. And, um, these are stainless steel. They're, uh, they're about $38 on the internet. If you buy them, uh, through their website, et cetera. But we have a wholesale agreement with them and we saw them for actually a little less, but, um, They're really handy. They're so much better than those little plastic guys, you know, and they do some really neat designs. We have eagles, we have rams, all different kinds of critters. I really like the Welsh dragon that we have there.

Kerry:
It's a good shape. Yeah.

Andrew:
Yeah. And, uh, they're really handy and they're, they're very nice and they kind of dress up your bottles, you know? Yeah. Um, yeah. So we're real fond of those. We, we actually sell quite a few of those because people like them so much. and faster. Yeah. And, uh, actually, um, the, uh, festival of trees, one of the trees has our, our racehorse, uh, uh, whiskey pour on there and that, uh, it fits in really well because it's just, it's an elegant little addition to your whiskey collection.

Kerry:
All right. So, um, one of the main reasons that I, well, the reason I found out about you guys is because you're, um, contributing to this charity that, uh, my cousin is working on. and heard that there's a Christmas tree thing going on and there's some whiskey and bourbon and Kentucky themed and they came to you. So tell me, what do you know about this charity and what have you helped out with?

Andrew:
Well, Festival of Trees is a fundraiser for Mary Bridge Children's and they decorate each department or each group of people that volunteer, they decorate a tree, they have a lot of fun things with it. It's almost like Christmas in a little confined space before Christmas that some of the generous people in Tacoma will bid unreal amounts of money on to support the hospital. Amusingly enough, your cousin and my wife work together. That's right. And my wife is an ID doc over there and So Joy, your cousin, and my wife had a conversation and my wife said, you know, my husband owns a distillery. And so obviously we're all in because, I mean, my wife's a pediatrician and I love kids. You know, my daughter's laughing at me. I can't walk by a baby without checking them out. You know, it was so great.

Kerry:
Well, you know, anytime kids.

Andrew:
Yeah. So, um, this, this thing goes on every single year. It's a big deal and they do beautiful, beautiful, beautiful trees. Um, and they sell for a lot of money. Um, so my wife said, Hey, would you be interested? And I said, of course it's, you know, it's for a really good cause. And, um, so what does the, when does the money go to? Well, it goes towards Mary bridge children's and some of their research and operations, I think. Um, and, uh, people come from all over. the Western Washington area to tour, look at all the trees. There's like 30 of them usually. And the program is just such a neat way to get into the festive spirit. So we went through and said, okay, they wanted to do a derby theme tree for, you know, so bourbon, of course, is very high in the Kentucky Derby. Yeah. And so we thought that maybe instead of a Kentucky whiskey, we'd enter a Pennsylvania bourbon because, you know, we got to have a little of the heritage. Yeah. Little, little less time. So we we donated some bourbon and some glasses in our whiskey pour. We have a racehorse whiskey pour that they really like. And because it's all to a good cause, you know, makes points with my wife too. I got it, you know?

Kerry:
Yeah. I know the, um, the charity action that's going on this week. So we will see how much, uh, our, your wife and my cousin's tree goes for, um, hopefully it will be locked and we can help the kids out.

Andrew:
Yeah. It would be really neat. You know, it's, uh, anybody that might bid on the tree, open wallet surgery guys. Okay.

Kerry:
Let's well, thank you very much. My pleasure. Um, if you could give away any more secrets about, How you make these. He's sitting right there. I am. Sorry. Next time we'll come along. Right. Anyway, thank you, gentlemen. It's been a great time. I love the tour. It was great to be here. I love tasting all the stuff and I wish you guys the best of luck in your growth.

Andrew:
Thank you very much. Thank you. It was a lot of fun. They're going to say cut.

Joe:
There you go.