168. A Trip to Iron Clad Distillery

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

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Hey, this is Big Chief and you're listening to the Bourbon Road. And yes, once again, true to our word, we are back on the Bourbon Road. I have traveled to Virginia, to Newport News, Virginia, down by the Newport News shipbuilding facility. one of the largest shipbuilding facilities in the world, Shipyards. And I'm at Ironclad Distillery, famous for the Monitor and Merrimack battle that happened right near here. I'm with Stephen King and Kara King, and Owen couldn't be here with me today. He had to fly to Oregon. But welcome to the Bourbon Road and thanks for having us in. Thanks for coming.

Welcome to Newport News.

One of the most stunning distilleries I've been in, whenever I think of ironclad, I'm telling you people, this is it right here. It is over a hundred years old. They are truly making some whiskey here in this building. It is just amazing. And I've actually been down here. There's a nice little restaurant right down the street from here called the train station. Served some amazing fish. A lot of shipyard workers go there. Do you guys go there?

Well, they actually kind of, they're only open on Friday nights now. So we are obviously here working. So we haven't been there actually yet, which is embarrassing to say.

Well, it's, it's good food. Well, back in the day it was, I don't know what it is today, but well, let's get straight to the whiskey. As our listeners know, we like to say, what do you got for us first?

So we're starting off with our small batch bourbon. This is our four grain bourbon and our flagship. We've never changed the mash bill on this to the day when Owen came up with the mash bill. It's been the same throughout. So it's, again, that's four grain bourbon. It's 70% corn, 10% wheat, 10% rye, and 10% malted barley.

Let's nose this thing. And what's the age on this?

So this is we age this 16 to 19 months in 15 gallon barrels. We're trying to get more age on it. But this is yes, we started with 15 gallon barrels just because, as you all know, we I mean, from day one, we've made our own bourbon. And that was the easier way to get it on the shelf quicker. But we are building is perfect for aging, because as you mentioned, it's over 100 years old. The temperature It fluctuates greatly because it's an old building. So the winters here are really cold or really mild, and the summers are super hot. So these barrels really get stuff going inside of them.

And the doors don't seal very well.

Yeah.

So it does get cold in here.

Oh, very. Well, it was also a dry goods warehouse, so it was meant to be cold in here.

I'm getting a little bit of crisp apple on this, a little bit of cherry, just a tad bit of that oak, a little vanilla, a little tobacco, and a little leather. I know that's the standard, that's some standard bourbon notes, which is a good thing, right?

Some people have said grapefruit.

I don't get no, maybe that's that crisp apple I'm getting. It's got a great nose to it, for sure.

Yeah.

I was trying to see if I get anything else from it. Now this has a darker amber color for 19 months, but you're aging it in smaller barrels right now.

Yeah. So the smaller the barrel, I'm sure everybody knows, the larger the liquid to surface ratio. So the bourbon inside has a better chance to get in and out of those oak staves and really pull that color and the flavor of the barrel and parts.

Well, let's taste this thing. Cheers. I get that kind of caramel corn or that kettle corn you would have at a fair off of this. Just that beautiful note. I love it. Really viscous on this, oily. Coats the mouth. It's got some spice to it. It's working down. I wouldn't call it so much pop. Usually I would say pop rocks, you know, the candy. You get a little bit of black pepper spice on this one.

Well, what's interesting about where our building sits is we are on the James River, as you know. So we are on brackish salt water. So that air from the river constantly blows, as he mentioned, the doors don't seal perfectly to this building. So that brackish air is getting into all our aging rooms and imparting flavor. So there is a bit of a salty salinity that's like, it's that terroir that it's true to this place.

Now, as soon as you said that, I started getting that salted caramel taste to it, which is good. This has got that nice, not overpowering sweetness, but just that little bit of sweetness, almost like a burnt salted caramel to me. I like it, that toasted from the barrel moving in and out. Very beautiful expression for a bourbon. Now, what's this bottle run for?

So it's a, I mean, it's distributed in 750s. We have it here in 375s. For 750, it's 68, 29. And here at the distillery and in Virginia, it's 39, 69.

38, 69, sorry. That's a good price for a, I think for a craft distillery. When I compare it to what, some of the giants out there, Old Forester and let's say Woodford Reserve, both owned by the same company, by Brown Foreman. They both have their double, double, double. And Old Forester just came out with their 117 series. It's $50 for a 750. So if you're looking at price wise listeners, that's pretty good. You're cheaper than they are with your smaller bottle.

And our bottles come with a little secret too, a little added bonus. So we try and tell the ironclad story throughout everything we do. So on our bottle, if you peel the label back, it's actually got the blueprint of the first ironclad ship the USS monitored behind it on our small badge bourbon.

No, it doesn't.

Yes. So you get a little history with your whiskey, as I like to say.

Well, when Owen sent me some bottles, I kept thinking, man, there's glue on there. Bottles is not sticky. I'm trying to keep for photos. I'm trying to push it back. I'm like, what is wrong with this thing? I've never peeled it back. I guess I'd have to peel it back and check it out. So let's get into Ironclad distillery. It's pretty obvious the reason why you're named Ironclad because of the Monitored Merriman battle here, the Monitor being Uh, the winner of that battle with a turret, right? No, they didn't win. There was a draw, a draw. I mean, they, we won a civil war, so hey, but the turret itself is pretty famous. It is the modern, it was the first modern warship.

They caught a little cheese box because it looked like, yeah, the turret little stick stuck out of the water and it looked like a funny little ship. But yeah, so that was the first time two ironclad ships engaged. And we would have had a front row seat had this building existed back in 1862. But they, yeah, they dueled for a couple of hours and neither could, you know, penetrate each other's armor. So they just went their separate ways and the Navy never built a ship out of wood again.

Well, hey, luckily for us that, you know, some good stuff did come out of the Civil War stuff and innovations and stuff. But your distillery itself, what year did you guys found the distillery? 2014. 2014. Been making some bourbon ever since then.

Yep.

And how long did it take you guys to get your first bourbon out the door?

Because 2016, we released our first small batch.

As soon as we got our license, we made a little bit of bourbon, like four or five kegs worth, barrels worth. And then we just stopped and waited for nine months for it to mature, at least to the point where we'd have an idea what the flavor was like. And after nine months, we We liked it and we gave it to a bunch of friends and pretty much everybody we gave it to thought it was worth continuing on. So then we cranked up the production to where we were making five gallons a week of distillate, which takes a long time to fill a 15 gallon barrel. And we did that for almost three years. And after about a year and a half, we had enough to be able to go to the Virginia ABC and get on the shelves in the ABC stores. They gave us 40 stores to put our product in. And within less than two years, we were in every store in the state.

But we started with six 26 gallon stills.

Wow.

I mean, yeah. So every day we were running them and you'd end up with, if you're lucky, 10 gallons a week.

And you've worked up your way up from that. Now, what size of steel do you guys run a day?

So now we have a thousand gallon mash ton and four 500 gallon fermenters and a 500 gallon combination still with a scotch bonnet on the still and a four plate column. as a secondary distillation, but it's an 18-inch column and so it's extremely efficient. We can make a lot of bourbon in a hurry.

And you have the space here to store it too in this building. It's three stories, right?

30,000 square feet, yeah.

And you're not even close to touching its capacity. Not even close. You took me up there and it smells so good in here. I love that smell. And we talked about, I've been in distilleries that you go in there and you don't have that smell. It's super clean. And you're like, what's going on here? When I walk in here, actually when I drove up, I got out of my truck and I was like, oh, it smells so delicious here. I love that smell, right? It's just beautiful to me. So you start the distillery. How was that starting a distillery in Virginia with their control limits here?

Well, it took us six months just to get our federal license. But in Virginia, it's something of a rubber stamp that once you have your federal license, you can get state license. So there really wasn't any issues regarding getting started in Virginia. And frankly, I mean, people that would start a distillery in a non-controlled state I think are at a disadvantage to being in a controlled state. Because in our case, Virginia ABC was more than willing and anxious to take on Virginia-based companies to put their product in their shelves. If you didn't have that advantage of having a controlled state, you'd have to find distributors right off the bat. And if you're a little guy, It's, I think it's going to be really difficult to find anybody who's going to take you on.

And there's no giants here to compete with, right?

Well, A Smith Bowman.

Yeah, they're really not a giant. I mean, part of the giant. They are part of the giant stuff, but I would beg to differ that you're making just as much whiskey as they are.

Well, there's a lot of, there's a lot of distilleries have been here for a long lot. I mean, longer than you'd think. I mean, they've been here maybe 10 plus years that have been, you know, forging the path for the rest of us that they really changed some stuff in their favor to, you know, relax some ABC laws. Cause everything is leftover from prohibition. If you ask the ABC, why does this law exist?

They say, I don't know. And you're really truly an outward lucky to have you on. You're truly speaking from experience. Cause what's one of your other jobs?

I'm also the vice president of the Virginia Distillers Association. So yeah, it's really fun because I get to talk to a lot of distillers and get their background and really see behind the scenes of how all this works. And it's very interesting.

So we actually visited Tim Smith yesterday and we asked him kind of some of the same questions. How was it getting started in Kentucky? And he was, he was doing it legally for a long time, but now he's, he's went legal and stuff, but let's go ahead and get to the second port. Cause I've done, I've done drink that one. It was that good.

So the second pour we have is one of our cask finished series. This is a really popular one and distributed pretty widely now on the East Coast. This is our sweeter creations maple syrup cask finished bourbon. So this is we take our fully aged bourbon and well first we take our used barrels and we send them to a maple syrup or a sugar maker in upstate New York in Waddington, New York. He's basically on the border of Canada and he has 60,000 plus maple syrup types up there. So he takes he comes all the way down here picks up our used barrels takes him all the way back and then fills them up with his maple syrup which is he's got premium stuff. It's really, really, really good. And then he ages it. He does it. He's starting to do it Solera style. He's moving it from barrel to barrel. So it gets just more and more flavor. And then he brings them all the way back after he's done. And then we fill take our full aged bourbon and put it back inside the barrel. So this is not a maple whiskey. This is not going to be cloyingly sweet. It just picks up whatever the barrel absorbed of the maple syrup. It's just subtly sweet and it's got those nice maple syrup notes. It's almost like all those buttery baked goods notes. It's very popular. And if you're on the, if you like the sweeter bourbons, this is, it's really, really good. It's also really good as a, we call it a breakfast old fashioned. I'm just making old fashioned with this and it's really good.

It's never too soon to drink a cocktail in the morning.

Put a little bacon on there. So your proteins included.

I get a little bit of that maple in there. Not a whole lot. Like you said, it's subtle. Just your standard bourbon notes. Your other one, I still get that crisp apple for some reason. I haven't had any apple lately, but beautiful note. Well, I say cheers. Let me, let me sip on this thing. There's that maple right there. It's the tongue with some sweetness. Even more viscous. Now what's the proof on this one? 95. 95 proof. Perfect proof for this. That spice hits the tongue. Now there's some pop rocks in this one. So maybe the extra time in the barrel is adding that little bit of just oak to it, the spice. Maybe that maple a little bit, I think.

Yeah.

Very crisp. I like that.

Yeah. Well, this guy is crazy. So he'll drive from Waddington, New York down here, drop off barrels, get back in the car and drive right back up.

That's a long drive. 22 hours all together. 22 hours straight in a probably a box truck.

So this is a well-traveled whiskey.

Well, I assume it is. Now do you guys get some of that, that maple syrup?

Yes. And it's liquid gold. I mean, it is just, I'm not a big maple syrup fan because I don't like sweet, but, uh, that I, it is, he's won multiple awards at every maple syrup convention, festival, whatever they are.

Have you ever poured that into a, into like a Manhattan or an old fashioned? Now, both of you, I'm assuming were whiskey drinkers before the distillery.

So we believe in our family that everybody has a bourbon gene in their DNA. It either turns on or it doesn't, and ours definitely lit up. My grandmother was a big bourbon fan. A shame to admit it was old crow was her go-to. So if you're looking for old crow in the liquor store, look on the bottom shelf and then lift it up, it's underneath there. That's like, ouchie. How cheap it is, but yeah, we named her still after her, Ruth. She is the originator of the bourbon gene and we are all carriers.

Well, she probably got to drink Old Crow back in the 60s though when it was really good. That was some good bourbon. Really good bourbon. Even today when people find it, they call it great bourbon and stuff. I still use it for cooking today. The stuff off that bottom shelf where you got to pick it up and find another bourbon. some great bourbon. Do you remember your first sip of bourbon, even though your dad's here? I do.

No, he was present for it. Well, because they ingrain in you that you're not supposed to like brown liquors when you're a girl. But I was at a wedding in Kentucky in Louisville and we went to Woodford Reserve and I started it at Little Sip of Woodford.

I'm surprised you remember that.

So it started a little sip and then it went, it was an open bar for the wedding.

For the wedding. How old were you then?

I was probably 24, 25.

So a little bit later, later in life, drinking some whiskey and stuff. And I don't know who told you that, that brown water is not for women, but because it definitely is. I know a whole bunch of women that love some whiskey. We want everybody to drink whiskey, right? And cocktails, whatever you drink it in. I like to drink it in the morning and I call it a man mimosa. pour a shot of bourbon in my mimosa. It's pretty damn good. Now Stephen, what about you? You remember your first sip of bourbon or sip of whiskey back in the day?

Leftover glasses that my mom left on the table. That was my first introduction. Old crow, how old were you? Teens.

Sneaking a little sniff, huh? Then you just kind of grew to love it.

No, actually, I then eventually gravitated towards scotches. I think more so from thinking that it was a little more sophisticated than bourbons. And after a while, I would try some bourbons. And I think, boy, these are so smooth. And compared to scotch, why am I drinking scotch? This is really tasty. So I converted over from Scotch back to bourbon and never looked back.

I'm going to say this maple expression right here, it is just lingering on my palate. Very, very long finish on this. This to me is the perfect dessert whiskey to sit down in the evening after dinner like some true gentlemen or ladies and sit back and relax by fire with my dog Woodrow and just enjoy life. There'd probably be nothing better out there. That's living, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Now I can see you drinking Scotch because I peeked in the distillery and there's two Jaguars sitting in this building, vintage Jaguars. So I could see a Jaguar driver drinking some Scotch whiskey, but I also can see how anybody converts themselves from Scotch to bourbon because bourbon is just so much better. to be earthen scotch, because scotch is just used bourbon really when it comes down to it, right?

It's also cheaper to drink bourbon.

Yeah, I mean, it is. It's definitely good.

They're getting pricey, those scotches.

They are. It takes a lot longer to age their whiskey over there and stuff. Well, so I've tried two of your expressions. We've learned a little bit about the distillery, about the building, about your family, that your grandmother, she loved some Old Crow whiskey. There's nothing wrong with that. Have you ever went back and tried Old Crow either one of you today?

Yeah. It's not something I really wanted to. revisit.

Yeah, it's not a, it's definitely not what it was. And we always talk about how to revive that brand. But you know, there's brands like you that are coming out and showing us that that classic style of bourbon making can be done right in small amounts and being put out there. And on our second half, we will try to more expressions. We'll dig into the, the, We'll dig into the Virginia Distillers Association and what that's all about in the future. Steven, you got to leave us for a prior engagement, but we appreciate you being on the Bourbon Road and sharing your whiskey with us, sharing your knowledge with us. We love that you guys have converted this building in and your passion for Bourbon, America's spirit here in Virginia. And we praise you for that. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, listener stick with us. We'll be right back.

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All right, listeners, we are back and we're with Kara King from Ironclad Distillery. We're here in the distillery. And Kara, she went and poured me another pour that we're going to try to vary. And I'm really excited about it. I was walking around looking at all the stuff on the shelves and I saw this and I was like, I wonder how that tastes. But Kara, so your dad had to take off, but what's the third expression you got for us?

So this one is our, this is our double cask finish. This is our, we call it Missouri toasted oak cask bourbon. And so this one, what we do is we, obviously we age our bourbon in our regular 15 gallon barrels. And then we move it into lightly toasted barrels, and it's crazy how it changes the flavor. It actually weirdly makes it sweeter, and it's got these nice toasted marshmallow creme brulee notes. It's really good and super popular.

Well, this is actually the bourbon that we reviewed. And this has your standard mash bill, like you said. It's aged in 15 gallon charred barrels, right? It was aged 14 to 16 months, and then five more months, right? We got caramel, chocolate, and fig on this. And then I had over toasted marshmallow. It was very prominent on this. And then on the palate, we had a wave of sweetness. with over-toasted rye toast, chocolates, marshmallow, and figs come out with buttercream and just a light spice on the back end. And then we said it had a medium finish with a slight Kentucky hug. Let's see if this still holds up. Well, this is a different batch, so let's see if it holds up. This is a different batch. Oh, man. Yes, I'm still getting that.

Yeah. But I really just get the marshmallow on the nose. I don't know.

I still get that little bit of a kind of Fig Newton on this. Well, let's taste this. Cheers. Getting a couple of chocolate notes on that. That fig is still, that Fig Newton is still coming out. That creaminess, it's coating the mouth. That toasted marshmallow though. Who doesn't like a toasted bourbon? I mean, that is just wonderful. And that's why we kind of fell in love with you guys. And we were lucky enough that you guys shipped us a bottle of that, that I didn't know that the sticker on the back of it actually.

Well, this one doesn't. It's only on our small batch. On your small batch. Yeah, that does something. Yeah.

I just think this is an amazing little bourbon right here. Who came up with the idea of the toasted?

It's Owen, my brother. He's the one that is the brains behind all of bourbons. He's one of those fanatics. He's on every bourbon group and listens to your podcast religiously. And yeah, when he gets into something, he gets really nerdy about it. So he's a bourbon nerd. And I don't know if you saw in our distillery, we have what we call a library. And it's all the empty bottles of stuff we've tried. And it doesn't even, I mean, there's still more in our liquor cabinets at home, but our livers have taken a punishment. But you got to know what bourbon you liked in order to make it. So, yeah.

So, besides your bourbon, which one's your favorite expression out of all yours?

Our flagship, the small batch, is my favorite. I like how the rye comes through in that and it stands up in a cocktail really nicely. That's my jam.

What's your favorite cocktail?

I'm a Sazerac lover, actually. And I know that that's supposed to be rye to be true to the original or actually to be, I guess, brand your cognac for the original original. But I'm a Sazerac through and through is my all time favorite cocktail. And this stands up really nicely in it. I mean, because that rye does come through and really makes it really, really delicious.

Well, this is really good right here. Now, if you were going to drink another bourbon, that might be sacrilegious, but before you started the distillery, what would you drink?

I actually was an old granddad Baldwin von fan.

There's nothing wrong with that right there. That is a great bourbon. to introduce anybody to whiskey, that cinnamon spice to it and stuff.

It's really good. And then I found out about ancient, ancient age, not ancient age, ancient, ancient age. And I got really into that for a while, but yeah, now it's ironclad all the way.

And what about your brother?

Oh, he does it. I mean, I think Four Roses is the single barrels as really his favorite, but he's all over the place on that.

All over the place. Yeah.

I mean, if he can, you know, ABC here in Virginia does lotteries and we've won a few gems, but yeah, he gets his hands on rare bottles and nicely shares sometimes.

I like that, that you're not afraid to say other distilleries names out there. And I'm assuming that being vice president of Virginia Distillers Association, that you get to try some other whiskeys too.

Well, so right now in Virginia, we have over 75 DSPs, but we make everything. I mean, there's people that make liqueurs. People make absinthe here. I mean, there's really some great wit rye whiskies. There's some great bourbons. We really just span the gamut. So it's really, it's kind of fun to, you know, when we all get together to share what everybody's making and you get some great gins, really great rums. So yeah, we've got it all here.

Now, how often do you guys meet?

Well, with the pandemic, not very often. But we used to have a members meeting once a year, and it was a lot of fun. And we do some tastings and stuff, and everybody goes around to everybody's booth and just talks about what's new, what's next. It's a great community.

And do you lobby the state of Virginia to change some rules and stuff?

We do, yeah. And we've changed a whole lot. But yeah, it's just, again, as I mentioned, the laws are sometimes just antiquated from prohibition. They've been just left over. So it doesn't make any sense why they exist. But yeah, we've moved a lot forward. Strength in numbers has changed a lot.

No, let's get back to Ironclad. Let's get back while I'm here. How many states are you guys currently in right now?

Yeah. So we are distributed now in about six states and growing.

And what about online sales?

So they just for the pandemic changed a lot. We are allowed to ship within Virginia, but only within Virginia.

Are you guys trying to push that to where you can ship outside of Virginia?

I think every distillery in the nation is trying to push to be able to ship across the nation. But it's federal laws. You just have to be patient and keep pushing.

Well, if you're a lawmaker out there, you're working for the state of Virginia, you're listening to this, I employ you to let them ship outside the state of Virginia and show them what Virginia is making. Other people want to drink it too, besides coming here. I mean, if you come here, and you can sell liquor inside your distillery though.

Yeah, yeah. Well, so you basically essentially become an ABC store. Yeah, but we have all our expressions here for sale. And then if you're in Virginia, we can ship to you anywhere here.

Now, our fourth expression here, is this something new right here?

This is. This is releasing this Saturday, actually. This has been four years in the making. It's our bottled and bond. And I actually probably distilled some of this back in the day on our 26 gallon stills. So this is obviously 100 proof. Uh, aged four years, we've got more aging. We'll take it to five if we can. Um, so this is, uh, again, the same mashbell as our small batch. It's the four grain. Just, uh, this one's aged in 53 gallon barrels too.

This has got a little bit sweeter note on it to me. Some floral notes there coming out. I'd love that. Um,

I haven't actually really gotten to sit with this one for a little bit, so we're doing this together.

This has got some rose nose to it. That kettle corn sweetness is still coming out. I would expect that in a four year. Now, these are smaller barrels right here.

This is 53 gallon barrels. This is aged. 53 gallon barrels. Yeah. It's been sitting there for four years. I walked by it every day thinking, you know, a couple more years, a couple more years, and here we are. I can't believe four years.

You ever smack it and say, come on now.

I mean, you gotta, you know, sometimes dip in there and see how it's going. But yeah.

And you, you've did that a couple of times and did you keep thinking, man, this is ready now?

No, I mean, well, yeah. I mean, every time you think, but then you think, no, maybe just a little longer, maybe just a little longer, maybe just a little longer.

So that's a beautiful nose. Well, let me, I'm gonna sip on us. Cheers. Wow. That's really good.

I really get the caramel.

That caramel sweeteners, that pop, this has got some pop rocks to it. And maybe that rye sitting there, that oak spice is coming out a little bit more. A bigger barrel, this has got a little bit lighter color to it. You would expect that with a larger barrel. a little bit more time. It's going to take some time and stuff. I could tell the difference in the two though. That's a definitely big difference. And I'm sure that's a nervous thing for you guys was going from that small barrel to the big barrel.

Yeah. I mean, this is, we started putting filling that barrel, I mean, almost within the first couple of months that we started distilling. So yeah, it was, it was a hail Mary.

Now, that salted caramel, though, is still there, which is nice. Even though it's brackish water up here, I still think you get that salt in the air a lot. Yeah, you do. We're just below the James River Bridge here.

We sit right where the river meets the bay, the Chesapeake Bay, so it really is getting into that salty ... You still get that brackish, that tidal surge, right? I used to tell people that it was like drinking the James River and everybody said, you need to really stop saying that. It's not good.

Nobody wants to drink the James River. Probably because there's a nuclear ship right up river here. And then there's a place called the Ghost Fleet a couple of miles up river. A lot of people don't know about that. There's all these World War II and nuclear power ships that are just sitting out there at anchor. Not saying it's leaking into the James River, but no. Well, this was a great sipping whiskey right here. I applaud you for going with a bottle and buying. I know that's tough for a small distillery to sit there and just got that liquid assets, just sitting there and waiting on it, waiting on it, waiting on it, waiting on it. And you guys didn't make a vodka. You didn't make a gin. You stuck true to your promise to each other, right?

Yeah, well, I mean, from day one, we all agreed that we were only going to make bourbon. We were going to do one thing well and just really focus on just just bourbon and really try and make the best that we can possibly do and not be distracted by, you know, other clears and or rums or things of that nature. So, yeah, it's been great until your brother comes along and says, oh, by the way, I'm making a rye.

So you're going to make a rye whiskey.

He made it. He distilled it. It's aging. But we are working on a rye whiskey coming out in obviously two years. And we're calling it betrayal because he betrayed me.

Did he make it and then tell you or did you know he was going to make it?

He kind of snuck it in. They like to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

Did your dad do that or just your brother?

That's what their modus operandi is. Tell Kara later. I spent the last seven years marketing that we may only make bourbon. We'll only ever make bourbon. Here we are making a rye. I think there's a good story in that too. I actually prefer rye whiskeys. I'm starting to get into them because I like that higher proof and that nice pop that rye has.

Yeah, it's got that pop rock to it. It is a nice balance with rye whiskeys, different than a rye bourbon. I like them too. I'm not a rye guy though. I'll stick with it. You guys are actually going to come out with a high-wheated bourbon

Yeah, we've got a high wheat aging wheat. We released a small batch of it that was just kind of like our experimental batch and went over really well. So that mash bill is 70% corn, 20% wheat, and 10% barley. And that's probably going to be the end of the year when that comes out. And that'll be kind of our, you know, everyday go-to bourbon that's going to be on the cheaper I mean, less expensive.

What do you think that'll run, just taking a stab at it?

I think we're going to probably do like high 30s, low 40s for 750.

And the Bourbon Road is going to be the first social media to review that, right?

Yes, yes. Of course.

I'm going to hold you to it. Of course, yeah. I'm going to hold Owen to that, too. His sister promised, and you can't betray the promise to Big Chief.

He'll betray it. He's really good at it.

Well, you guys have just laid out some great whiskey here. What an amazing story you guys have taken in your local history here and making a distillery out of it, ironclad. I really love it. For a final expression here, you pulled out something special.

I did. This is our coffee, Vesselcraft Coffee Cask Finish bourbon. This one is the same process as our maple syrup cask finish. We just give our used barrels to a local coffee roastery. She puts her fully roasted beans in the barrel and leaves them in there for two weeks. That's it. Maybe three max. empties them out, which is not so easy because you know how big a bunghole is and you're trying to get all those beans out of there. But she gives us the barrel back and then we put our fully aged bourbon back inside. And it is insane how much coffee flavor that because all the oils from those beans is getting in those oak staves. And yeah, this one's sweet. We decided to bottle it at cask strength just because we didn't want to lose any of that coffee flavor. So it's this is the perfect like after dinner, grab a cigar, add the fire pit, bring your dog. You can really sit with that one for a while.

So I'm nosing this and you definitely get the coffee on the nose just just a tad bit. Yeah, that coffee is just coming out. And maybe is that the oils in the coffee?

Because she puts her fully roasted beans instead of the green beans. She would actually get more flavors probably if she put the green beans in. But yeah, it's the oils from the beans. I mean, it's just three weeks that that barrel just takes on all that flavor. It's really crazy. Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

Well, let's taste this. I say cheers.

Yeah, cheers.

Wow. That's got a nuttiness to it. It's definitely coffee. I'm surprised how much coffee is in that. Shockingly good. A little bit of smokiness to that. More smoky. Maybe that's that coffee that's added to the smokiness. But it also, I could see pouring just a little bit of cream in this instead of drinking coffee. Or put it in your coffee in the morning and don't tell anybody. This is just excellent. And I could see instead of having a brandy or something after dinner, having this right here, it is very good. Like you said, sitting by the fire pit, just kicking your feet up pet the dog and saying, I love life. What a great way to enjoy life. So Kara, where can our listeners find you guys on social media?

So we are on Facebook, it's at Ironclad Distillery, Instagram at Ironclad Distillery, and Twitter at Ironclad Bourbon.

And what about, what can somebody expect if they come in here for a tour?

So our tasting room is, I mean, we've designed it so that it feels like an old, you know, that beckons back to the old hotel lobbies and you should, I mean, women should feel comfortable in here as much as men do. We work with a mixologist that is a awesome, really talented award-winning mixologist and he comes up with these awesome cocktails that our bourbon really stands up in so you can do a cocktail or you can get a tasting flight, taste any of our bourbons, we've got them all here, and then kick back and what we like to say is nothing pairs better with bourbon than a good story. So either sit at the bar, we'll tell you a few, or you can just bring your friends and your family and kick back, relax, and tell a great story or two, just hang out.

Yeah, this place is filled with big couches, leather chairs, tables, you name it. They've got a gigantic

Freight elevator?

Freight elevator. It's just in this field full of some whiskey barrels. It is very quaint in here. And I know she got a big garage door that probably opens up in the summertime. Yeah. Very beautiful distillery right downtown. Don't be scared to drive down here. Pay them a visit.

Yeah.

Come shop here, buy some whiskey here, and it probably helps you guys out.

Yeah.

Like we like to always say, rising tides raise all ships and you get to see shipbuilding. There's some giant, they're called fast sea lift ships or row on row off ships down here.

The enterprise is actually being decommissioned right down the street so you can see an old aircraft carrier. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, how much better does it get? And you get to see some history in the ironclads. They got a lot of that in here. They have a whole wall dedicated to that from the Maritime Museum here in Newport, Virginia. Come down here, check it out, buy some whiskey from here. I guarantee you, you would not be disappointed. Come check them out. Well, Kara, thank you so much for having us in to your distillery. I can take home some bottles of some of your special stuff, some of your cast drink stuff with me to enjoy by the fire with my dog Woodrow. We really appreciate it.

Well, thank you, Mike. We appreciate you guys coming all the way down here.

So, if you're listening to this right now, what you want to do is scroll on up there, hit that subscribe button, right? That'll tell you the Bourbon Road has an episode coming out today for you to listen to. Scroll on down, hit that five star review. That way we can get into places like Ironclad Distillery and do interviews and stuff. Write us a nice review. If you want to leave it one star, go ahead and leave it one star, but tell us what we need to do better. That way we can be honest and We'll try to correct it, but we want that five-star. So you can find us on Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Hopefully nothing else comes out, because I don't think we can do it. No Snapchat or anything like that. On Facebook, we have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. 1,700 people strong and growing every day. Three questions to get in there. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon and do you agree to play nice? Because we don't tolerate any rudeness. We want everybody to rise up, raise up. If you want to post some Jim Beam in there, we want them to be able to post that, talk about that. If they're excited about that, hey, this is their first bourbon. That's what they can afford. Let them post it. No hating there. We just don't talk about social issues in there or religion or politics. None of that stuff in the bourbon road. Come on in there and join us. It's like old friends. We have distillers in there. We have a bourbon culture of musicians, writers, you name it. Everybody's in there just having a great time, sharing birthdays and celebrations, life's events. So check it out. We do two shows a week. We do a review on Mondays, usually of craft distilleries like Ironclad will take and kind of pick apart their whiskey, let you know where you can find it, how much it'll cost you. And our tasting notes on it, that way you can go out there and purchase some of it. On Wednesdays, we do our long show like today's show. We go into distillery, have a guest on, shoot the bull with them. You know how we like to do it with us bourbon bullshitters. We are not experts. We go out there and see the experts like Kara here. We'll go out there and see them do that. On our website, the bourbonroad.com, you can find our articles and our reviews on there. You can also find our gear on there, our bourbon bullshitter t-shirt, our glasses, the Bourbon Road Glen Carons from Distillery Products. Check those out. You can buy them. Um, if you want to reach us on there, there's a way you can comment to us. Um, you can only re also reach us on Instagram. Jim is Jason and 63. I'm one big chief and we'll see you on down the bourbon road.

It's time