196. Four Roses with Master Distiller Brent Elliot

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.

Hey listeners, this is big chief from the bourbon road and man, what a special episode we have for you today. We mentioned it on Monday that we're going to be here. Um, but we are at four roses in Norrisburg, Kentucky. And guess who I have with me? I got their master distiller, the master mind Kentucky's own from Owensboro, Kentucky, Brent Elliott. Brent, welcome to the Bourbon Road, man.

Hi, thanks for having me.

Yeah. So, man, we are in here in your lab right now. This is kind of your backbone. You're a chemist, right?

That's right. That's my background.

You're a UK guy.

I graduated UK, you know, grew up in Kentucky, lived here most of my life. I was actually outside of Kentucky, living in Tennessee when the opportunity to work for Roses popped up. So, I was really happy to get back here and doubly happy to be working in this industry.

Now they don't serve any mutton here, but from where you're from, they have mutton.

Mutton, yeah. You can get burgoo here. There's burgoo's big in Lawrenceburg. There's a burgoo festival coming up. Yeah.

Big old sign there, burgoo festival and stuff.

If I want good mutton, I have to go back to Owensboro.

Well, there are a couple of great barbecue joints there, right? That are like world famous presidents go and eat there.

Moonlight, Old Hickory, Old South, we've got our share of famous barbecue restaurants. I remember when I was growing up, I thought we were the barbecue capital of the world. And I remember I was on a road trip, I was really young, I guess we must have been going through Memphis. or some other barbecue capital of the world, which I guess if you're looking globally, probably is more recognized than Owensboro. I remember being upset about it. I was like, what are they doing saying they're the barbecue capital of the world? And then, you know, years later, I'm like, oh, yeah, Memphis might be a little more well-known for barbecue than Owensboro, but still in my heart, it is the epicenter of barbecue, of mutton.

Well, we came here for your bourbon, most certainly, right? And to hear your story, hear Four Roses' story, but we always like to get first straight to the whiskey. You already got us a glass poured. What do you got poured for us right now?

This is our Four Roses bourbon. This is Probably the easiest one to find globally. This is big in Japan, Europe, of course, here in the U.S. It's 80 proof. It is made up of all 10 of our recipes, which I'll probably get into here in a bit. But so this one, it's really special, especially This time of year, I think it's very crisp, easy to drink. If ever a bourbon was refreshing, I think this is it. Because it has all 10 recipes, it's very complex. It's nuanced. It's a floral, herbal, spice, fruit, and just, again, very easy to drink.

I can get it all in the nose. Everything you just mentioned, I get a little bit of honeysuckle in this is a country boy. A little bit of caramel in there. That sweetness is coming through. Like you said, today was a nice, crisp, almost fall like this morning when I woke up because we only live like 25 miles from here. So nice John over here. Right. Nice. I think it was 58 out this morning. Yeah. Perfect for that right here.

Perfect bourbon weather.

Well, cheers. Let's let's taste this thing.

Cheers.

That's what a bourbon is supposed to taste like right there.

That's very nice.

So this is where the brand kind of cut its teeth, right?

Yeah, this has been on the shelves longer than any of the others. This, and kind of going back to the 10 recipes again, this is where sort of the DNA for how we operate started. And the 10 recipes originally were used to create a consistency in this product and in some other Seagram's products, but in particular this one because it used all the recipes. And it was from that foundation of the 10 recipes for consistency that we sort of built on that and started creating other products, but using these recipes in a different way to create different flavor profiles by selecting different recipes, different combinations, different proportions, and that sort of thing. But this is where it all started. And this has been around for a long, long time. Really, here in the U.S. market, the first time we started to branch out was 2004 with the single barrel, and then 2006, small batch, 2019, small batch select, and we'll get to taste through all these, and I'll sort of explain as we walk through those.

So, some of our listeners are probably new to bourbon. Why the Four Roses name?

Oh, I always forget to talk about that. That's the legend of Four Roses. That actually goes back to our founder, Paul Jones Jr. He lived in Atlanta. He was selling whiskey down there. He was a whiskey merchant and rectifier. He had to move up to Kentucky because prohibition hit down that area of the country before it hit nationwide. So he had to pack up and move to Kentucky. And that's where he trademarked the name in 1888. And he named it Four Roses because he had been smitten by a lovely Southern belle. He'd proposed marriage to her. And she said, if my answer is yes, I will come to the grand ball this Saturday evening wearing a corsage of four red roses. And of course, she did. And so he named his bourbon Four Roses. Wow. Nice romantic story. Yeah.

And the distillery here is also, it kind of has that Spanish theme look, right? It doesn't set really, it's a beautiful place, but you wouldn't expect it in Kentucky.

No, you wouldn't. It's absolutely beautiful and it is absolutely out of place. It would be more at home in Southern California than here in the bluegrass.

What was the reason behind that?

No, we still don't know. It was built in 1910. And when it was built, it was originally a different company altogether. It wasn't associated with Seagrams or Four Roses in any way. Originally, it was Old Prentice. But in the mid-40s, Seagram's acquired this location just a few years after they acquired the brand. And then shortly after that, this facility started producing bourbon that went into Seagram's products, including Four Roses Bourbon. Of course, now it is strictly Four Roses. It is the Four Roses distillery, and it has been for many years now.

And you're right by a water source. The Salt River is right here, right?

Yes. Uh-huh. Runs right along the property here.

No wonder they built a distillery right next to a water source.

Yeah. And there have been distilleries here for years and years. There are ruins of old distilleries across the street.

All around this area, even across the Bluegrass Parkway over there is the old distillery, one of the first in Kentucky. It's amazing the history that Lawrenceburg brings to the bourbon industry and all the greats that have lived here or in Lawrenceburg or around Lawrenceburg. Four Roses coming back really to the States and being a major player in the bourbon industry. It's just to me, it's amazing and helped us bring us into this bourbon boom we're in right now.

Yeah, we came back at just the right time.

And you're you're really with that. You've been here for 16 years and you've helped bring this brand back.

Yeah, I've seen it go from when it came back in, which was about 2002, when I started in 2005, we were only in the state of Kentucky. And we'd been out of the United States as a bourbon since the 50s. So we were really starting from scratch. Actually, we were starting somewhat in a hole when we came back because when Four Roads was taken off the US market, there was a lot of equity in the brand. Everyone knew Four Roses, but the consumer's tastes were changing. So Seagrams had the idea to keep the name, but put a blended whiskey in the bottle. So all the bourbon went overseas. All the Four Roses straight bourbon whiskey was sold in Japan and Europe from the late 50s all the way up until, well, we still sell it there, but it was exclusive to those markets. And then in 2002, when Kieren came in and purchased the company from Seagrams, they brought it back. The problem was that blended whiskey had earned a pretty bad reputation. Even for a blended whiskey, it wasn't the best blended whiskey. It was sort of a B blend. It was a bottom shelf kind of spirit. So when we first came back, that's what people associated Four Roses with. They'd forgotten about the bourbon from the 30s, 40s, 50s that was one of the top selling bourbons in the US. What they associated that with was that blended whiskey. So when we came back, it was an uphill battle. And I think now most people understand that it's not a blended whiskey and it's a totally different product. But I'll still occasionally meet someone that that's what they remember it as. But the first couple of years back, that's what everyone thought. No one was interested because they thought it was that blended whiskey.

And that that's probably a tough thing to see is being here working. You're like, man, I just can't get over this hump. But eventually you guys did get over that hump. And that part of your recipes is that right over that hump offering something a little special for For your consumers out there, they know your recipes by heart almost. They know what each one of them brings to the table. They know their favorite one. Heck, I even brought up a super Four Roses family today, and that's all he could talk about coming over here was, oh, this recipe and this recipe and this recipe and this recipe. And I was like, okay, okay.

And yeah, the recipes, that was something that when I started, that was sort of internal. We didn't know if anyone was interested or not. But as the enthusiasm for bourbon grew, as the curiosity surrounding the industry grew, people started asking more and more questions. And we realized that people really wanted to know. And that evolved into, you know, sort of communicating the differences of our brands via the recipes that are used. And then such things as like the private barrel program where we have all 10 recipes available as single barrels out in the market. So that's just how far it's gone. You know, 20 years ago, Everyone, probably any distillery might have had three or four offerings and that was enough. There wasn't that pull from the market. There wasn't that curiosity. And it's a totally different story now. So much so that it's perfect for us because those 10 recipes are uniqueness. That's something we're so proud of. And to have the consumer want to see that, you know, enthusiastic about it, it's just the market's perfect for, obviously. The bourbon boom, the bourbon consumer, it's never been better.

And you guys are so transparent about it, right? You're telling people your mashbill, you're telling the yeast, you're telling everything about those bottles that are coming out. And to me, the transparency on some of the people are like, this is a non-disclosed mashbill. We can't tell you about it. We can't tell you about our yeast. We can't tell you about our little secret we have, what makes our whiskey so good. You're a chemist. You know, there's guys that could come in here and take a sample off a tree, probably, and, you know, re-manufacture your use if they wanted to.

Oh yeah, our verminers are open top. We take the tourists through there. Somebody could put their finger in and wipe a little bit on their jeans, go back and isolate that yeast, grow it up. That wouldn't be hard. But the thing is they couldn't reproduce four roses and they could have that yeast strain, but there's so many other variables that go into it. The water, the the equipment that we have, the fermentation profiles, the mashing, the grains, the source of the grains, the distillation proof. I can go on and on. Master distiller, right?

Master distiller.

That too. Different people operating stills, fermenters. There's so much that goes into what comes out of the barrel ultimately. I mean, so much so that we can't even control it. We can use the same yeast strain, same water, same grains, same proportions. And when it comes out of the barrel, no two barrels are alike. And that's just considering differences in the barrel. But there are little variables, little things that contribute to the final product at every step of the process.

So let's get back to this whiskey right here. This is something one of your consumers would really typically go into a bar. They could either drink it like we're drinking it straight up neat on the rocks, or they could use it as a mixer in an old fashioned. They could use it as a Manhattan or they can is probably most people that go into a bar and that are drinking whiskey, drink it with Coke or ginger real.

Yeah, this is, and unfortunately because this one is 80 proof and a lower price point, people just assume this is the one used for cocktails. And it is great for cocktails, but I like this one neat. I think it's fantastic on its own just because it's 80 proof and it's a lower price point doesn't mean it doesn't, it isn't good enough or complex or rich enough to be enjoyed on its own. But the other ones, same thing, the other ones are also used, small batch in particular, a lot for old fashions, other cocktails, single barrel, same thing. A lot of people use the single barrel for Manhattans. But the way I see them, any of them can be used for a cocktail or neat or on the rocks. It just depends on if you're making a cocktail, what kind of cocktail you're making, because the same flavor differences that you get from these, you know, just straight or on the rocks, those same flavors are going to contribute differently to a cocktail and might do better in For example, I think the small batch is fantastic in old fashion, like I said. And you can see that on bar menus. It seems like more often than not, when Four Roses is being used in the cocktails, small batch will be more towards the mild or maybe slightly sweeter cocktails. And the single barrel might be with some of the more bitter or stronger cocktails, like a Manhattan. And I think a lot of that has to do with That flavor profile, the small batch is a little bit fruitier, maybe a little softer. The single barrel has a little more structure with that extra bit of rye. And it really, they all stand up on cocktails, but in particular, the single barrel with that extra rye does a great job.

Well, speaking of the small batch, is that what we're going to drink next?

That sure is. Yeah. Well, typically when I do tastings, I like to step up and proof. It's much easier than starting with the barrel strength and working down to 80. Sure. Yeah. So this is, I kind of touched on this. But in 2006, we were still only in the Kentucky market. But I guess we're all pretty excited about what we're doing here. So we decided it was time to expand our portfolio. And we did that with this product. And again, this is the first time that we went back to the 10 recipes and decided we could start bringing them together in different combinations to create something new, something unique and different for the consumers. And so this is a combination of four of our recipes. It's both match bills, the high rye, which is 35% rye, 60% corn, 5% malted barley. And half of the E match bill, which is 75% corn, 20% rye, 5% malted barley. And you can see both of those are high in rye, very high. But I'll refer to the B as high rye and the E as low rye. So it's half high rye, half low rye. And then it utilizes the K strain. That's the yeast strain that creates the nice spicy flavors through the fermentation. and the O strain, which creates a lot of rich, deep fruity flavors through fermentation. So this is a, well, go ahead and taste it, but I'll see what you think.

No, this has a little bit more kick to it. A little bit more Oak on it.

Mm hmm.

Some dark to me, almost not a burnt caramel, um, but that almost burnt sugar smell you get off a, uh, caramel corn or a kettle corn when they're cooking it. You know, if you've been there, you smell that, um, a little bit of vanilla on there, but heck, I say cheer. Let's taste this thing. some dark fruits on there. Some that caramel was just is kicking in, right? Yeah. It's super good. Little bit of oak there. Not as much spice, I don't think on this one. Just like a little bit of white pepper. Uh huh. Not a whole lot on

Yeah, what's interesting about this, I heard you say a few times, you know, caramel and the oak. And I don't think I mentioned the age of the four roses bourbon, but it's typically a combination of five and six years, never younger than five. So with this one, we are stepping up in age. So you will see more of those barrel characteristics, the vanilla, the caramels, the oak, because this is a combination of six and seven year old barrels. But yeah, that fruit, the dark fruit you're seeing, that's from that O yeast strain. And that strain, that's only in this formula. It's OESO and OBSO, but combined those are in this at 30%. So the majority of this is the K strain. But I see the same thing. I get the spice, but it's almost a counterbalance. It's nice and smooth. It's on the finish there. But really what defines this for me is that rich, dark fruit that you get on the nose and on the palate. And it has a lot of viscosity. It's got a nice mouth feel. It's a great long finish.

It might have just a little bit, I said white pepper, as it sits there on my palate. Just maybe a little bit of cinnamon, I guess, because cinnamon usually will sit on your palate a little bit longer.

Yeah, I get that in the finish sometimes. Like, I won't see it up front.

Very beautiful. You know, I, I, I can't lie. I got several of these bottles and then a single bear. We'll talk about that on the second half. I got a whole bunch of beautiful whiskey. Now what, what made four roses really decide to go from just the four roses bourbon to saying, Hey, we want a small batch. We want a single barrel. Was you here at that time?

I was not here for Single Barrel, that was 2004. Now we did have a Single Barrel in Europe at that time and we had tried, Seagrams had tried a few other versions of Single Barrel, but that was the Single Barrel that you see today, that was introduced to the U.S. market in 2004. And I think that was Again, it's a little curious looking back because we were only in Kentucky selling not much whiskey at all. And still, as a company, we were so confident in what we had as far as the quality and the ability to create these different products that we were adding line extensions before we even had really much of a consumer base. So we added single barrel, we're selling just a few thousand cases. Then two years later, we wanted to do small batch. We were only in Kentucky. We were barely scratching the surface in the Kentucky market. Other states had no idea that we were even back as a bourbon, yet we're building our portfolio. And I think that just The idea then was just we were excited about what we had, and we had the inventory, and we knew we were going to start going into the other states. So I guess just building that portfolio before we branched out and really started investing in the US market.

I think I remember coming, driving through Kentucky and I was stationed up in Michigan and driving through here and stopping at a liquor store. And that was that 2003, 2004. And I remember seeing four roses and my wife's like, that's a super beautiful bottle. Let's grab that. I was like, I'm not going to buy it just because the bottle's beautiful. I want to take some of the liquor store owners like, Hey, sir, you know, if you want to try this. And, um, I said, yeah. So he pulled some out and we tasted, I was like, this is pretty good right here. So we picked a bottle up back then. Now I wish I still had that bottle today. Um, it's long gone. Yeah. But that was my first experience like just driving to Kentucky on our way home and from leave and picking up some bourbon. And I guess I might've been one of the first people outside of Kentucky to get that.

Probably. So yeah, if it was in that time period, yeah, you're in the small group that Outside I was in Tennessee and I'd not even and I'd kind of heard of the brand because I'd seen the warehouses before But I'd never seen four rows on the shelf. I had no idea of You know the quality or the story or anything until I applied for this job and I was just you know 30 minutes across the state line and So yeah, my first experience was 2005 and it was because I saw I An ad is like or a posting on monster.com or somewhere for the job that I ultimately end up taking here working the lab and when I took the job or when I came up to interview I Bought a bottle on my way and that was the first time I held a bottle for roses or ever taste It was the night before my interview Did you take it back to friends back in Tennessee and say hey you got to try this or oh, yeah I remember I actually That following weekend, I had a bachelor party. It wasn't mine, but a friend of mine, we had a houseboat over in Eastern Tennessee on one of the lakes over there, and I took a bottle. And that was, I didn't take the job immediately. It took a few weeks of really thinking long and hard about it. And I think that was part of it. You know, I took the bottle, shared it, talked, you know, everyone loved it. And I loved it. I knew the first, that was a single barrel. The night before the interview, when I tried it for the first time, I was like, I know this product is here. The quality is here. This is fantastic. I just need to see the distillery meet the people and see what the plan is moving forward. And everything was perfect. Everyone was great. Of course, no one knew where the brand was going. They told me the plan was to try to branch out and grow the U.S. business. This was 2005. This was before the bourbon boom. The industry was totally different then. It did take me a few weeks to accept the position because it was a big leap. I was living in Tennessee. I had a good job. My wife had a job. We'd just gotten married. I just bought a house. So we thought we were, you know, our lives were kind of coming, you know, everything was coming together down there. And then I decided, well, we came up here and took a tour of Woodford Reserve. And I thought, you know, this is what I'd like to do. That was on a Saturday. The next day I found that job and it all happened kind of fast. I was like, this is what I want to do. I'm tired of. you know, working at a job that I don't believe in, that, you know, I can't get excited about every day. And I was like, this is something that I could truly love. So I chose, you know, love over convenience and money because I took a big pay cut. My wife came up here, she was unemployed all of a sudden. So it was, it was a big move, sort of a big gamble, but, you know, wouldn't trade it for the world now. It was a great decision.

Yeah, how could you not love coming to work here, right? You drive up, if your windows are down, you're going to smell that mash cooking, right? Smells wonderful. If anybody lives by distillery or lives by brewery, you know what I'm talking about. It's just, it is a wonderful smell to smell. And then getting to come in here and we're in the lab here and I would say you probably have a cabinet full up there of, I'd say three or four hundred bottles in that cabinet. That's probably about right. Some pretty magical bottles that I can just go and have set, not even of your own stuff. I mean, there's some magical bottles in there. You were showing us some stuff from Japan, but you also have other distilleries in there. And you're not the first distiller I've ever seen do that. Most distilleries do have other brands stuff in there. If you're just drinking your same stuff all the time, do you feel like you're just going to kill your palate? You can taste other and see what other people are enjoying, right?

Yeah, I keep it in there for a few different reasons. That is one of them. Especially, it is sort of calibrate my palate and the sensory team's palate. Because yeah, if you're tasting four rows all day, you kind of lose perspective of the total range of flavors. But if you have a variety of different bourbons in there, or even other spirits, it's good for training your palate, keeping you grounded and calibrated. A lot of it's just interesting. I enjoy going through and trying the competitors, different expressions, new expressions. And so when I have time, I'll occasionally come in here and pull a few bottles and just keep myself familiar with everything that's out there.

That sounds like a horrible job.

Good stuff, yeah.

And you get a whole bunch of new makeup there too, or white dog, I guess people would call it, or really, you know, people, it's not really moonshine, but it is moonshine really when it boils down to it. It's just really good moonshine. Yeah. Really, really. Somebody knows what he's doing is making some, some clear whiskey up there. It hasn't been aged yet. It hasn't really become bourbon yet. Correct. What's the purpose of that? Just kind of taste and see how your guys' smash bills are cooking.

Yeah, exactly. Quality control is huge. Consistency is the most important thing to strive for. And so every day when a batch comes off the still, it's going to be one of the 10 recipes. And before we even put it in the barrel, it has to pass through the sensory team. So the sensory team has to have something, though, to compare it to. So that's what those are up there. Those are standards of each of the 10 recipes. So every day when a batch comes off, it's set up, cut to 20% alongside the standard, and then the team will give it a rating. Every individual will come through. It's a four-point scale. Four being that it matches the standard perfectly. Three could be there's some minor deviation. And if there's a three, we get the team together and we start troubleshooting. 99 times out of 100, the three will just a blip, maybe a little bit of graininess, just something maybe slightly off. Then it comes back. no harm, no, you know, it's a dead end. But if it's a two or a one, then it's all hands on deck. There's something going on. And in most cases, if that happens, well, if it happens and it's a rejected batch, we don't put it in the barrel. And we're not shy about that. There's a batch that comes off and we think it would be a waste of all that wood to put it in the barrel because it's not going to come out of the other end any better. We don't put it in wood. We'll ship it off to Louisville. There's a company that will redistill it and use it for industrial ethanol. And we'll just cut our losses and move on to the next slide. And that does happen. It's not very often, but every few years we might have a batch or two. And when that happens, I think just about every time since I've been here, it's been a result of must or mold. It's bad grain.

Now, do you guys do a sour mash here? Yeah, we do. So everything's a sour mash and stuff. And you're saying you bring in every time you've had a bad batch, that musty taste to it. Um, you know, it's probably the grain itself.

Yeah. And we test every load that comes in. We test in six spots. We have a big grain thief that will test different locations in the truck and different depths in the truck. So it's a pretty thorough sampling. But with something like mold, it doesn't take a lot to go a long way. So if there's just a pocket that maybe had gotten wet, at some point along the line and it's developed some mold that could ruin a whole batch and we wouldn't pick it up necessarily in the grain sampling because it could be just one patch that's you know off to the side or in the corner of the truck so we wouldn't find it until it comes off the still. But the problem with that is that mustiness, that doesn't age out. It'll stay in the barrel. A lot of different minor deviations from the standard, especially graininess or if it's a little heavy, most times that will age out and you'll never know that that was the original character of the distillate, but muster mold, you would. And you brought up a good point with backset. If that happens, So when we start up at the beginning of the season, we shut down and start up once a year, ideally. But if that happens and we have a musty batch, then we know that that must is going to be in the grain, and it's going to be going through that back set. So we stop immediately, we throw that back set out, and start over from scratch. Because we don't want to use that either. If it created must in that original batch, then if we take it and put some of that into the next batch, we're just going to perpetuate that character, that defect.

Well, that's some insight that most listeners probably wouldn't get going on a distillery tour. So if you go into a distillery listeners and you get that funky taste of a new distillery, a craft distillery, they might not have learned that, or they might have accepted a bad grade load and not rejected that batch.

Yeah, if you get that musty, that dank flavor, that's what it is. It comes from the grain.

And I get what you're saying, growing up on a ranch and a farm, you could go in the silo and sometimes you could have a whole silo almost full of corn that you could just almost pour out in a bag and just fall out. But sometimes it'll get a little patch, it'll get wet. You know, almost that mold will clump it together. It'll be like a brick of corn. Yeah.

That's our enemy right there.

I can imagine if that guy had some whiskey, it's not going to taste good at all.

Yeah. And fortunately, like I said, it happens. I'd say in the last five or six years, things only happened once. And that was actually, it was a problem. We had a leak in one of the silos. And fortunately, like I said, when we start to veer off track, we're very reactive to that. And we found it within a day when we stopped production because it was coming through, we couldn't figure it out. So we stopped, found the leak, fixed it, cleaned out the silos, started over fresh.

And it probably wasn't a big leak at all, right?

No, it doesn't take much. It doesn't take much. That's the problem with it. A little bit goes a long way when you're talking about those kinds of flavors.

Well, back to this small batch, I got to say, one of my favorite bourbons of all time right here, and that's saying a lot from me because I'm a weeded bourbon guy. That's probably a bad word at Four Roses. No, I like weeded bourbons. I love variety. Well, heck, since you said that, when's Four Roses going to come out with a weeded bourbon then?

It's a great question. I'm not going to never say never, but, you know, no plans.

No, you guys are like wild turkey. You have your thing. You do it good. You put out great rye bourbons. And to me, that that's your thing. And I understand that. I always like to joke with every distillery that doesn't do a weeded bourbon.

Yeah, well, it's funny. I don't get asked that a lot. I get asked when we're going to do a rye whiskey about every other day. But

We did bourbon occasionally. That would have been my co-host. He probably would have said, hey, when are you going to come out with a rye whiskey? But you guys do your thing. You've got a high rye bourbon, so that's good. Well, Brent, we'll take a short break. Listeners, hang with us. If you got to work, this is your 30 minutes to work. Make sure you push play when you get back in that car to drive home. We'll be right back. All right, we're back with Brent Elliott. We're at Four Roses. We're having a great time here. He's got a table full of bourbon for us. Brent, so this next bourbon you pulled out, absolutely stunning bottle of bourbon, right? What do you got for us?

This is our 100 proof, our standard single barrel. This is, you keep talking about the recipes, this is always the same recipe. It's the B mash bill, which again is 35% rye with the V yeast strain, which creates all the delicate and fruity flavors. To me, it's like apricot, green apple, maybe a little bit of pear. So this is just fantastic. It's 100 proof. To me, I get a lot of, well, I hate to put ideas in your head, but I get a lot of that rye, both on the nose and the palate. The fact this is about as high of rye bourbon as you're going to get, it's not lost on the nose or the taste. You can immediately see that.

I get the spice on the nose, but I do get that fruit, not a dark fruit, maybe a peach or a nectarine on the nose. And I'd still get that caramel. It's just busted through. But hey, you guys are already drinking. I'm going to drink. Cheers.

And we're stepping up an age here too. This is at least seven years. So you're going to get more of those barrel notes also.

This is pretty delicious, folks. I'm telling you, the fruit is there, but that caramel, the sugar is there. Not a whole lot of spice, though. I guess the higher rye you go, you kind of get away from that spice and you get more into that fruity flavor, right?

Yeah, and rye is a tricky one. A lot of people refer to it as spice. And I do see it's a rye type spice. But a lot of times when I'm talking about spice in these, I'm talking about the spice that you get from RK yeast strain also. And that's where you get more of the nutmeg, the allspice, more of those baking spices. So when I'm tasting rye, it's one of those flavors that If someone doesn't know what it is, you can't describe it. Rye and whiskey tastes like rye and whiskey and nothing else tastes like it. So, and that's the flavor I get. And this is reminiscent of, you could tell me if I were, you know, drinking this blindly and I weren't as familiar with it as I am, you said this is a, It's a low rye rye whiskey, you know, 55, 60% rye. I could totally believe that, especially with this particular sample we have right here. You know, there's always a little bit of difference because there's a single barrel, but this particular barrel we're tasting right here, that rye is just so dominant for me.

I love this. This is super tasty and stuff. My story about this right here is I brought my good buddy, Steve Johnson. He's a retired Coast Guard chief with me and stuffed it because he was a four rows of super nut. When I retired in 2016 from the Coast Guard, most people bring you gifts and stuff. And Steve knew I loved bourbon. So he shows up with a four rows of single barrel. It was a pit too from somewhere. I don't remember where from and he's like, where can I stick this at? He was over at my house and I said we'll stick it in a liquor cabinet and he opens up the liquor cabinet and he was like, You already got a bunch of these in here. And I said, yeah, I got, I got a couple of them back then. I didn't have that big of a collection though of, of bourbon. Um, I probably had 30, maybe 40 bottles back then. And most people probably say that's a big collection of bourbon. But since the podcast started, I've well surpassed, um, just a tad bit.

Well, French benefit, right? Yeah, it is. Trying these different samples.

Well, the good thing about that is I get to share whiskey and bourbon with great people that I've met across the country, our listeners. We try to share some of those samples with great listeners. With great respect comes great benefits, you know, sometimes. And we'll try to share that with them and let them get that same experience that we get. That backside story of some of the great whiskey we get. This right here, I could drink that all day long right there. It's not overpowering. A hundred proof is a great proof.

Yeah, it doesn't drink like a hundred proof. It's just so smooth.

So when you're every day, you know, you're drinking a lot of whiskey, but when you're at home, you're on vacation. What, what, what does Brent drink?

You know, I, uh, I kind of mix it up. You know, I had to say that I'm always on the clock because when I'm enjoying a whiskey at home or, you know, outside of work, I'm not, I'm not being critical and breaking it down and, um, But I do always like to try to keep variety, whether it's within the Four Roses family, which typically if I'm drinking bourbon, it's going to be a Four Roses unless I'm at someone's house that wants me to try something or have guests over. Sometimes I'll do tastings at home and pull out some competitors as well as our stuff. Not to say you know this is ours is better, but you know here's the difference You know this is what you know a 90 proof six-year-old tastes like this is what another competitors with less rye or wheat or whatever tastes like So I'm always drinking a Different one. I don't have one I go to consistently, but I will say I Do here in the last you know two years probably more often than not I'm doing the small batch select And probably just because that's new edition, it's something different and I really, really like it.

And you almost have an unlimited supply of it.

Pretty close. Here in the lab I do. Here in the lab, yeah.

Hey, I need you to fill this bottle back up for me real fast. This right here, the more I sip on it, when I was a kid, I used to eat Malto meal cereal and I get a little bit of that taking me back as a kid of Malto meal cereal. I don't know if you know what I'm talking about. I don't know, but almost like that. It's almost like a cream of wheat. Okay. But malt oatmeal has that malted flavors in it. Okay. And I get a little bit of that in there, that sweetness, just taking me back as a kid. And that's what drinking whiskey is supposed to be, right? That memory sensory. It is for me. I

There are times where I will smell something in a sample, and it evokes a memory, but I can't put my finger on what it is. I smelled this at this place, or it reminds me of this, but I can't you know, eventually I'm like, Oh yeah, it's, it's this, it was an obvious aroma, but yeah, I think memory is so tightly bound to, to smell and taste that, you know, that sometimes comes first before the actual, what it is I'm, I think I'm smelling. It's interesting.

So let's talk about some stuff that's going on here. When we drove up, there is construction going on everywhere and you guys got something big that's being built here.

It seems like the last five years, it's been a lot of construction, but we finished the distillery expansion. That was finished well over a year ago. That's behind us, both here and at the warehousing and bottling facility, so we can meet the demand. That's really what it was for, because we just didn't have the capacity. We do for now, but we know looking forward at this rate, we'd start running out of whiskey. So we had to expand. We doubled the size of the distillery. We've added warehouses. We're going to continue to add warehouses. We built a new bottling facility a few years back. But what you're seeing now is our new visitor center. So we've outgrown the current space. And so at the end of this year, we will complete the brand new visitor center. It's going to be huge. It's going to be incredible. It's 14,000 square feet. That's just the indoor space. There's a lot more space outdoors, multiple tasting rooms. Yeah, come see it. It's going to be fantastic.

Well, hopefully we'll get an invite. The Bourbon Road will get an invite to the grand opening.

This is your invitation right here. All right.

I'll come busting through the door like a big chief. Who wouldn't want to do that? So what's going to happen to the old visitor center?

We haven't decided yet. We're just focusing on that space right now. But it could be event space. We'll have something for it, whether it's office space, event space. We just don't know yet.

don't know yet. So you guys are all around the world. You're, you're pushing you, you're in every state now. Yes. Um, firmly planted. Is there any new plans for a new release or anything coming down the pipe for you guys or?

In 2019, when we came out with the Select, that was the first new permanent release since 06. Even now, that's not in all 50 states. I think at the end of this year, we'll be in about 30 states. We're still in the phase of introducing that. We put a lot of thought into that one. That's exactly what we needed. Our focus is really on that, getting that into more people's hands. So there is no plan for anything like a permanent release. But what we are doing actually this month is the limited edition small batch. Same thing we do every year, which is super exciting. It's limited. It's always 14,000, 15,000 bottles, 10 plus year old batches blended together, barrel strength, nonchill filtered. And I actually have a sample here today for us to try.

Oh man. Now you guys did that release last year and this year, you did it a little bit different in the past before this road coming into four roses would just be slam packed full of cars all the way down.

Yeah. People would start camping out coming from all over. I know you're talking Ohio. I would usually come in on those days and sign bottles as people would come camp out from night before, be out here for hours. And so I'd typically be a Saturday during bourbon festival and come in and sign bottles and seem like about half the people I talked to are from Ohio.

So, and, but now it's a lottery system online and people will be notified by email that they've been selected.

Yes, I urge you to go onto our website and sign up for the lottery.

And they get selected. So there's no cars parked out here lined up anymore. Correct. Take it away from that because of the pandemic and stuff. You worry about people's safety.

Exactly.

Yeah. Also relieves stress off that road, I think.

It does, yeah. It kind of got out of hand in the last couple of years. It was a shame too because we only had so many bottles. We'd have X number of bottles, but X plus 200 people would show up and they'd wait in line for however long and then find out that the guy in front of them got the last bottle. It wasn't a perfect system and still it works and it works. It's a system that's used at a lot of releases at different liquor stores and outlets. But this is controlled. We have the ability to go ahead and do the lottery in plenty of time. If you're chosen, you get a particular time slot. So it's very fair. It moves much more efficiently and smoothly this way.

And it's, it's kind of good for people that have a regular day job that can't wait. That's true. Yeah. In a long line, they actually have that ability to physically get their hands on the, on a bottle. Not only that, it probably gets rid of some of the bottle flippers that do it too.

It does. Yeah. I think that's one of the benefits of doing it this way. I'd say there are a lot of benefits to it. I think it's a much better way to do it. The only downside is if the lottery doesn't know how badly you want to bottle. If it's the line system, the line system knows how badly you want to bottle because you'll be one of the first ones there. That's really the only downside I see. It happens all the time. When you're trying to manage a product that's this highly sought after, we're always looking for the fairest and best way to do it. It's fair for everyone. And there's never a perfect way. It's always make some people happy and upset others. So we're just trying to, we're always evolving. If you look at how we do anything, we're always sort of changing that to try to do it the best way we can, the fairest and best way possible.

Now we're drinking single barrel and you guys have a single barrel program, right? Where a club, a group, a store can come in and buy a barrel.

Yes, speaking of not being able to make everyone happy all the time, that's a good example of that because that program has become so popular that we can't really meet that demand. And we're doing about 55 barrels a month. We haven't decreased that at all. But so many more stores, so many more groups, so many more people want the opportunity to buy these barrels. that we're having to allocate it. We are having to allocate it. Retailers that maybe used to get a lot of barrels are getting fewer. Retailers that used to get a barrel every year might only get one every other year. But that's all, again, it's out of fairness because for every retailer that has gotten a barrel for the last five years, there's another retailer that is probably the same in every other way, except they have not gotten a barrel in any of those years. So we have to look at each one of those situations in each state, each market, and try to be fair as to how we allocate these barrels and give everyone an opportunity. We want to still show appreciation to the people who've been supporting us all these years and do our best to continue to get them barrels. There are a lot of people out there that have never had that opportunity. So it's tough. It's really tough to try to allocate these fairly and keep everyone happy. But the fact is the program is strong. It just takes off. You mentioned earlier about sharing Bourbons and the good people that enjoy Bourbon and it's all about friendship. It's really weird. I wonder all the time and I get asked a lot. I know a lot of people wonder why Bourbon you know, why now? Why did it take off the way it did? And I think a big piece of that really is the kind of people that are drawn to it and it kind of feeds on itself because the people that I meet every day that are really enthusiastic about bourbon, they tend to be a certain kind of person and they're giving, they want to share, they like the camaraderie, they like friendship, and bourbon is a reason they get together. And I think that's a big part of this private barrel program because it's something for people to share, to talk about, to collect. And it's really kind of grown from that. I talk to people sometimes that it's amazing what people in these groups will do. They'll get all 10 recipes and then take it upon themselves to throw it out into little bitty like medicine bottles and ship them all over the country to their friends. And it's all about sharing. You won't find. What else do people do that with?

I don't know. I'm always surprised when I get something in the mail and I have all these little sample bottles. I would never be able to drink all that.

It's people just saying, because I like you, I want to share this experience with you. I want you to taste and enjoy what I'm enjoying. It's a very positive thing.

I think it is. It helps build that burst. urban boom, right? It's building our community of like-minded people that also are very, very giving, not only to their friends, but to charities and, you know, how many bottles. That's another piece of it. Yeah. You were just talking about that, sending a gift basket and how I'm sure that Four Roses gets asked all the time, can you help with this charity, that charity? And I know I've seen bottles of your guys that came straight from you. that go to charities to help out a good cause.

It's amazing. It almost feels like you're cheating. You throw a bourbon gift basket in there. people will pay a disproportionate amount of money. If you have a good cause and just a bottle of bourbon, it's just amazing.

I mean, I saw just an empty barrel, maybe some residue left inside of it, probably a little bit. You probably get a bottle out of there if you really tried. Just that barrel, I think, went for $5,000 at auction. Uh, and it was for a good cause and I love seeing stuff like that. I love seeing bourbon being used for good. Um, it makes you have a good feeling. I'm sure as a, as a master distiller, that's a good feeling.

Oh, it's fantastic. I did an event last week. Um, it was a Norton healthcare in Louisville for the children's hospital. They auctioned off a barrel, the barrel selection, 35 or $37,000. One barrel.

That's a lot of money.

Yeah. It's probably, you know, 150 bottles. Yeah. See, that's exactly it. It's not, it's not about the bourbon. It's more about the charity because the people want to give, but it's just, more of a reason to give. It's a fun way to give, to get something back and you've got a story, you've got the bottles. Again, it's amazing the synergy you get when you take charities and bourbon. And again, I think it's because going back to the kind of people that enjoy bourbon, they're good people. They care about charities. They want to do good and they want to do it with their friends. They want to enjoy bourbon at the same time. So it's a weird concoction. It comes together and it's just perfect. You know, charities and bourbon.

So you're talking about going to that and doing that, that, that auction at Norton's children's. Um, you're out in the community a lot and you got, there's some big events cause it's bourbon heritage month. So pretty much, I think it's early two months. There's so many festivals and stuff that go on in September and October in Kentucky. Um, I'm guessing that you're going to be at the granddaddy of them, all the bourbon festival down in barstown.

Oh yeah, just a few weeks now. I'm looking forward to that one. They're going to revamp it a little bit this year. Last year was totally different, all virtual. This year they're changing things up a little bit. I'm excited to see the new format and I'm super excited about it. I think it's September 16th through 19th. They're in Bardstown. So yeah, I urge anyone that has some free time to come out. It's always great.

Yeah, you don't have tickets already. People are reselling those tickets right now that plans have changed. So it's sold out. Everything is sold out. But if you need tickets, I'm thinking you could still get some tickets. Hey, the big chief with his wife is going to be down there. You'll come see the bourbon road guys. We'll probably try to get Brent on again and talk to him again with a couple of other master distillers, because there'll be a couple of master distillers down there, right?

Should be. Yeah. Usually we have, um, you know, all the events around Bardstown, every distillery has individual events. So everyone's around, you know, yeah. You'll see a lot of people in the industry all weekend long.

Yeah. And then we got bourbon on the banks that we're going to be at right down the road. Are you going to be there? I'll be there. I think the Friday of it, I think I'm out of town that weekend, but I'll be there Friday for something. VIP auctions.

Yeah. I've got a lot of events. I sort of take them as they come, but I think that sounds right. I think it's a Friday night, a VIP auction that I'll be at.

So we're talking about bourbon on the banks, Frankfurt, Kentucky. It is the 22nd is that VIP auction tickets for that are a hundred dollars. You can go to the bourbon on the banks.org and you can check that out. Um, it's a lot of money, but you'll get to rub elbows with some of the industry grades there. Like Mr. Brent Elliott here. Um, you'll get to bid on some very, very limited, uh, bottles. So, uh, check that out. Now, Brent, you're pouring us another pour. What's this of?

This is the small batch select that I was just talking about. Have you had this one before? I have. Well, I was kind of hoping you hadn't, so it'd be a surprise. But I'm glad that you have had it.

I haven't had this bottle, though. Now, have you had this before, Steve? He said. OK.

Yeah, we're all very proud of this one. This one, like I said, it came out in 2019. First year, it was just five different markets. At the end of this year, it should be about 30, so we'll be all over the country here in the next year or two. But this one really was to fill in a gap. Not that we had a huge gap, we started looking at our portfolio. We looked at the modern consumer and realized that we probably needed something that was higher proof and non-chill filtered that consumers could get anywhere. Now, you can get that with the private selections, but they're not easy to find. So that was the idea. We went 104 proof, non-chill filtered. And because it's the same, it's a small batch bottle, it's a small batch concept, it's the same thing. Bringing different recipes together in a different combination or unique combination to create something totally different. And this is, Both mashbills, the high rye and the low rye, in three different yeast strains. It's the V, which is the delicate fruity strain that's the same ones in the single barrel, the F, which creates a minty kind of herbal characteristic, and the K, which is spicy. So together, they create something really unique, like almost berry-like type fruitiness. Really, I shouldn't be giving you a taste. I want to hear you first. I'll just, I'll say this. It's really good and has a great finish. What do you think Mike?

I do get some dark fruit on there. Um, and maybe that whole mixture together is why I'm getting that dark fruit. So delicate fruit, but I get a little bit something different on there. A lot of those baking spices are coming through that. I can't put my, my nose on it. Um, there's something in there. I'm smelling it's a little bit different, not as many caramels, a little bit less caramel on this one. Maybe that vanilla is kicking through. Let me hit, let's taste this thing. Cheers. As you guys are cheers. still not as much it's not that pop in the mouth you know with uh too much spice for me uh-huh and i think that's why for a weeded bourbon drinker You know, that's why Fort Rose is so beautiful is because it's not going to have that pow to it. Doors kind of kicking the tongue. It's not going to be that whiskey burn. You're not going to get that giant Kentucky hug. Even though this is a sour mash, you're still, it's, it's nice. It's nice flowing. Um, I just, you know, it's a nice, even bourbon on all of your expressions.

Yeah. And this one, especially it's 104 proof, but I think what you're saying here is it's so smooth, almost velvety. It's you're not getting that kick and getting a little bit more cinnamon spice, I think with this one.

Um, remember back in the day, and I know you, you probably write up this alley, um, cinnamon toothpicks you could use to get. Oh yeah. That's what you get. And that nice, beautiful cinnamon.

Yeah, I get a lot of that on the finish. Yeah, absolutely.

Almost like a cinnamon candy, too, that you could get and drink on. That's a very beautiful expression. I love it. It's easy to love a Four Roses bourbon. Hands down, across the board, there's not a bad expression from your lowest expression, which a lot of people probably overlook to the top of the line, right? I mean, that's why people line up down the road Well, this is a great one, but what we're really interested in is you're new and you got that we're talking about the lottery system, right?

That's right. The 2021 Limbs Tradition small batch and got a sample right here. So let me see that glass and I'll pour for you. So this, you know, I mentioned the small batch concept. That's exactly what this is. We do this every year and it's another way to showcase just how unique we can be by bringing these different recipes together in different combinations. This year it's four different batches and four different recipes. So it is an OESV, which is the low rye mash pill with the dulcet fruity yeast, a 16-year-old batch of that. And that's in here at 58%. And we have an OBSV 16 years old at 13%. an OESK 12-year-old at 23% and then at the smallest percentage but maybe creating a lot more impact than the percentage would indicate an OBSQ at 14 years old. And that cue, that is our floral yeast rain that at younger ages really comes across with a rose petal, potpourri type aroma. But as it starts to age a little bit more, it gets more candied and sort of a unique fruit. And at 6% and at 14 years old, I think that's just enough to really give the nuanced fruit that I think defines this bourbon here.

Man, once you said rose petals, especially like a potpourri, like dried rose petals, I get that in that nose. Some dark caramels, definitely some oak in there. Yeah, there's. And this is a lot darker, even a little bit darker than your single barrel. It's in the setting in the bottle.

Yeah, and this is, again, it's non-chill filtered barrel strength. So really, we dump those barrels, run it through a rough filter just to get the char out. There's no chill filtration at all. We just get the floaters out there, the actual solid piece of char, put it in the bottle, proof it, and write the proof on the bottle. That is what it is. And it's 114.2, actually, for this one.

114.2. So it's still not extremely high. What? Cheers. Cheers. That thing is a mouth coating. Yes. Um, caramel bomb there really just went off in my mouth. It just is, um, all there with that dark fruit. Um, for her 14 proof, it doesn't drink like that. I would have thought this would have been in that a hundred range and maybe that's cause it's so oily. Uh, no spikes, no kick. It is, man, I'd almost call this a summer sipper. No, I'd say this is beautiful for the weather we're having a day. Good Lord, this is good.

Yeah, for me, I don't get, you know, at 114 you'd expect some burn. I don't get burned from that, but I do get intensity. All those flavors, especially when they first hit my palate, it's like they're also intense or bright or robust that takes a second for them to kind of unfold. But once they start unfolding on my palate, I get all those layers. You know, a lot of those things you mentioned, the oak, the caramel, I almost get like a berry-like fruit, and it kind of evolves into a little bit of spice on the finish, some more of those oak tones. Someone yesterday was saying cigar box, and I like that, sort of that cigar box type aroma that sort of comes through on the finish along with, I say chocolate, I mean hints of cocoa.

This thing is just layer after layer after layer. You could just keep going to the, you'd first said candied and man, the candy I would get on this right here, a little bit of root beer or sassafras on this, like hard rock.

I wouldn't have, hadn't seen that before, but now you mentioned I see right there mid pallet, I get a little bit of that sassafras into that.

I mean, that's kind of old school sassafras. When you say that, I was talking to a girl the other day and she didn't know what a sassafras was or even it was a tree or that it was poisonous. But when I said that to her, I said, this is what I get in this sassafras. And she was like, what is that? Yeah. And, uh, I explained the whole thing to her and she was like, wow, I didn't think people actually did that would go to a tree and dig a hole and dig out some root, chop it off and make tea out of it. I was like, yeah, that's a little bit of old school there. Back in the day when you're too poor to have anything else you had to make your own tea out of roots that.

You had on the property. Yeah. Yeah. There was nothing wrong with that. Um, it still was beautiful.

Uh, man, listeners, if you are not in the lottery, you want a chance. Now's your chance today. If you got a pause right now and you want to get your hands on this, um, you want to do it right now.

And I want to say you go to the website, go to Bourbons, and it'll show all the different Bourbons we have. Click on limited editions, then click on the 2021, and then the link will come up. I had to have the marketing team show me that, because I got on, I was like, I can't find this. Someone had asked me, and I was trying to walk them through it, and I was like, it's not on here. It's on there, trust me. It just made you walk forward a little. All of your listeners, I'm sure, are more computer savvy than I am, so they'd have no problem. If anyone does do what I just said, I should get you there.

Might ask the big chief and he never can tell. I might have that link saved already where you don't have to go through all those. There you go. Like I shared with the most people I knew personally. Get in for it. I think Brent, that's it's an awesome idea. You guys did was a lottery. You don't have people out here set through the rain or you're not blocking people's driveways, which I'm sure the neighbors here don't appreciate too much.

They've been pretty good. I haven't really heard any complaints, but I think, you know, the main thing was the social distancing. Yeah. You know, last year and now again, you know, it's again this year, but last year that was, you know, the first time we tried that, it worked well. So, you know, with the epidemic still. The pandemic is still the front and center of our concerns. Safety is the big goal here. We don't want to stray from that. So that's why we're going to continue it this year.

Your gift shop still open. You got to wear a mask in the gift shop, right? And walking around the grounds and on the tours and all your employees are. So you're open for business for people to come visit. Yeah.

If you are going to come visit, I would check our website if you're going to come out because we have the two facilities. I believe the warehouse and bottling gift shop is temporarily closed and here we are open currently Wednesday through Sunday. So you should probably check before you come out. But yeah, we are. still giving tours. And the distillery actually starts up next week. So the tours will now go back into the distillery. This tour is still great. You get to walk around the grounds. You still do the tasting. You still learn the history. But right now when we're shut down, there's always a lot of maintenance and construction going on. So the distillery is off limits. But once we start back up, that'll be open again.

Well, Brent, man, we can't thank you enough for coming on the bourbon road and sharing your bourbon with us. Such a unique experience that we get to experience coming in the back door and a great experience for our listeners to hear some of the backstories, hear some of the of the. insight into how your whiskey gets made. We really appreciate it.

Well, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for coming out and having me on.

Yeah. Anytime I look forward to seeing you at the bourbon festival and at bourbon on the links for the VIP auction there. And I will guarantee you that I will definitely be here for your grand opening of your new visitor center. Um, when usually what I'm talking about listeners is they'll bring the press in and they'll do a media event. So I'm looking forward to that. so once again cheers thanks for sharing your whiskey with us listeners you can find us on almost all social media you can find us on tiktok instagram youtube facebook um heck i don't even know what else is out there we also have a private facebook group called the bourbon roadies 2300 strong You want to check that out. Three rules you got to answer. Are you a 21? Do you like bourbon? Do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness in there. So we'd like you to do that. We also have our website, the bourbon road.com. You can find our reviews. and my articles on there i write about every show usually not about the show itself usually it's about just what i'm thinking about that day a little bit of history just some thoughts i put down you can also find our swag on there the bourbon bullshitter t-shirt you want to grab one of those you can find our glasses on there from Distillery Products, you want to grab one of those. Great company up there. If you're a small company, a small distillery, a bourbon group that wants to order some glasses, get a hold of me. I'll get you in contact with Distillery Products and you can order yourself some glasses at a great price. what we would like you to do so you'll keep listening to us go up and scroll up hit that subscribe button that'll tell you hey these two jokers got another episode coming out we do two episodes a week a review and this long show with great guests like Brent Elliott from Four Roses make sure you hit that subscribe button then what I need you to do you know what I'm going to ask you to do is scroll on down hit that five star review because you know what happens if you don't the big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come to your house I'm going to bring some of this four roses bourbon with us we're going to drink it all night by the end of the night you're going to leave us a five star review I will guarantee so do that for us We appreciate everything you do for us. It helps us open those doors when you leave us those reviews. If you want to get ahold of us, the best way to do that is by Instagram. You can find Jim at jshannon63 on Instagram. I'm one big chief and we'll see you on down the bourbon

so