226. Few Bottled in Bond Bourbon Whiskey

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, you still got some time before Christmas this week. Will you get it yet? Probably not. But if you want to buy your friends a nice Christmas gift, a nice gift to start their new year with, how about some bourbon aged maple syrup? That's right. Our good friends up at seldom seen farms in Ohio is pouring his maple syrup. into bourbon barrels, leaving it aged there for six to nine months. And then what we like to do is pour in our cocktails. Some simple syrup. Get rid of that. Use that maple syrup that's been aged in bourbon barrels for six to nine months from seldom seen farms making the perfect cocktail. Now you can pour it on pancakes like this fat guy likes to do. You can pour on waffles. You can pour it on chicken and biscuits. That's a great way to go. But it'll have that bourbon taste to it. Kind of like grown-up maple syrup. It's 100% from his farm. 2,000 trees. So check out seldom seen maple dot com. Pick up a couple of his bottles of bourbon aged maple syrup for your friends, for yourself. Hell, you can even send Big Chief a bottle. Hey, this is Big Chief from the Bourbon Road and Jim's not able to be here today. He's down in Florida catching some fish with his fly rod. He's enjoying himself down there. I'm sure he's got a cocktail in his hand right now because it's about four o'clock. It's not five o'clock down there, I don't think. But Jim is fishing. So today we are sitting down. We're on the Internet. I hate this because we're not in person, but we got the founder, the owner, the man, the myth, the legend. He calls himself the janitor because he sweeps up all the messes that everybody else is making. But we have Paul on. Paul, how are you doing today, man?

All right. Doing good. I gotta tell you, I'm a little hungry after listening to that, uh, bourbon bourbon maple syrup. I got, I gotta get me some of that, but, uh, I'm doing pretty good today overall.

Yeah. Aged in bourbon barrels, um, chicken and waffles right now. That's about that time of the day to eat some chicken and waffles and pour that on there.

I could destroy some chicken and waffles right now.

that grown-up maple syrup. Now, Paul, I didn't say your last name because I, even though you told me how to say it, how do I say your last name? I knew I was going to tear it up.

That's all good, man. Last name is Holetko. So just, it looks scary because he got all these consonants, but it's really not so bad. Uh, my wife always threatened to buy me a vowel for our wedding present, but, uh, I said, how do you, what, what, what, uh, ethnicity is that?

Uh, it's check. Czech Republic. I was going to say German, I thought, but you never can tell. You can't tell these days. People from all walks of life. So we're here to talk about your whiskey. Um, you have few, um, and we actually got the bottled and bonded drink today, straight bourbon whiskey, 100 proof. I'm assuming this is over four years old because it is bottled and bond, right? You're out of Evanston, Illinois. Now where's Evanston, Evanston at?

So we're just, uh, just immediately North of Chicago. So if you picture Chicago, the Northern border of Chicago is the Southern border of Evanston.

So you not stone throw from Wisconsin up there.

Yeah. It's about maybe 40 minutes to Wisconsin. Uh, like we've seen Kenosha area, probably 45 ish. And then we're right on the lake, so you can just take the highway up and you're there in 45 minutes. We're probably hour 15 from Milwaukee. And I made it to the Blackhawks game last night during rush hour traffic in about 35 minutes.

I love Chicago. I love that area up there. It gets a bad rap sometimes in the news, but I broke a little ice up into there on a Coast Guard icebreaker back in the day. And we used to deliver Christmas trees to folks down in Chicago. We'd cut down about 2000 of them from the tip of the mitt and haul them down there on a Christmas tree ship.

Nice. of part of history.

So I feel like I got a link to you now.

Yeah. Chicago is a great place to be, man. It's a great city. It's got, uh, everything you want in a big city with a little bit less of the stuff you don't than a lot of other places. And you get a great lifestyle, uh, at a, at least vaguely reasonable price.

So a few on the bottle. Let's talk about the bottle for a second, because it is striking the label that you have on here. There's a statue on here. It's not the Statue of Liberty. What is that statue?

So the statue is actually inspired by the statue that was kind of the defining image of the 1893 World's Fair here in Chicago, which was kind of a turning point in Chicago history. And so all of the iconography and all of our bottles is based on that World's Fair. And so we kind of lead with, you know, the defining image, which was the Statue of the Republic. It's like you say, it's not the Statue of Liberty because, you know, it's not, uh, but it was the size of the Statue of Liberty, but made out of paper mache. And so it's a long, long, long gone. It doesn't exist anymore. Although there is a replica on the near south side, uh, that some people see.

Nobody takes a few bottle over there to that replica and takes photos. Oh, I do. Yeah. So let's, let's get into the history of few word. When did you start?

So a few has been in the business now for about 10 and a half years at this point. We celebrated our 10th birthday in August. And as a grain to glass distillery, we always have, always will, made every drop of whiskey we sell ourselves. So we hit the market relatively early with gin, as well as effectively unaged whiskey. But we'd been making whiskey for a while before opening. So we were able to launch our whiskey products relatively quickly. But, uh, yeah, we're about 10 and a half years old, uh, making whiskey, the old fashioned way by scratch. And, uh, we don't source anything.

So I'm assuming that you would have to, uh, do you try to buy everything from Illinois? Like Southern Illinois, all your grains and stuff, or?

Yeah, we get everything from as close to home as we can get it. Um, it used to be, we got everything from within about 150 miles. That's, that's not really true anymore. Uh, Right now, we really focus on the quality of grades that we can get and make sure that they hit our specs and our quality. We're in Chicago, so getting good quality grain is kind of like being in Kentucky. It's harder to buy bad quality grain than good. So we're in the grain belt. We can get great quality grain. So we get everything from as close to home as we can get it, so long as it hits our quality needs. But we get corn from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan. We get our rye from you know, kind of Minnesota, Wisconsin, maybe a little bit out of like Ontario or Alberta, depending on where it's coming from. You know, everything's as close to home as we can find the best quality grain.

That's nice to know that you guys started that way. Um, and you started with clear liquids. You got to keep the lights on, right? Some, some, you gotta pay the bill some way to get to four years.

Before we started recording, you were talking about other distilleries where maybe daddy bought the distillery for somebody. I did not. It's always been a solid struggle for us to build up because I started without money. but I've also always wanted to do things the way I want to do them. You can even see the poster behind me where it says, you know, many know the way, but few follow it. And that's true. Everybody knows how to make whiskey grain to glass and let it age and do it, but not everybody does. But we do.

Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to sit there and wait on it too, right? I'm sure it was hard to wait to get this to bottom and bond.

It's definitely, it's always a difficult challenge. You know, you spend all your money upfront and you have to sit on it for years until the whiskey is ready. But such is life. That's how it goes. And I didn't get into this business to make money. I got into it to make whiskey. And that's the price of doing what you want to do. If you want to make whiskey, you're going to have to do it. You got to make whiskey.

I'll let all of our listeners know Paul is a common man. He's before we came on, uh, he was already logged in to stream yard, um, and then kind of backstage, but I get to see what's going on back there and I get to hear what's going on back there. He's in there just jamming out some, I'd say some old school rock, probably, uh, some seventies rock, um, on like a jam station on Sirius XM. And, uh, so that, to me, that shows you're just a common guy. There's no classical music playing. There's no Rolls Royce probably parked in your garage or anything.

No, no, no, no, no. Uh, actually just outside of the computer screen is my band practice space where I've got all my guitar. I've got my guitar and my amp and you know, we get up, um, It's, you know, we were talking about, uh, other distilleries and yeah, I'm just a dorky suburban dad and I happen to make whiskey for a living.

Um, well, let's talk about the whiskey for a second. Um, and so I can, cause it's killing me not to sip on this glass yet.

Cause I've been trying to wait. That's what it's for. It's whiskey. It's not for looking at what you put in your mouth.

Heck yeah. So what's your match bill on this?

So 70, 20, 10. So 70 corn, 20 rye, 10 malt. We use a Belgian beer yeast for the ferment. And I think that Belgian beer yeast is what helps give it a lot of that spice flavor. Kind of that black and white pepper, especially that coriander that you'll get in there. A lot of that cinnamon spice is coming out of that yeast. And it's something we're really proud of.

And what's a bottle of this supposed to go for in a store?

I'm seeing it as low as 40 around Chicago land, but MSRP is, I think, 50.

All right. Nice. I mean, for a craft whiskey, that's about the right price. You should see a hundred proof. That's not bad right there. I'm glad that I don't see it at like 86 or 90 proof or even 80. Um, and you kept it at a hundred. Um, of course for a bottle on bond, it has to be a hundred proof. It has to be aged four years. Um, I love it. Let me know as a sucker. I'm getting a little bit of custard on that, like a, creamy. I could get the oak. Me and Jim always say there's a candy at like Tractor Supply or a farm feed store called whorehounds and I get a little bit of that whorehound in there. A little bit of smoke.

Yeah, char three barrels.

Yeah, I like that. That's really beautiful. It is what a bourbon should be. You know, I don't like to give off those notes of oak and leather tobacco. Um, you know, whore hound candy resonates with me. If I, if I smell that, that that's what I'm going to get. Or hound candy is like that root beer candy almost, but a little bit more medicinal. Oh, Paul, cheers.

No cheers, man. Now you're making me thirsty. I got to grab my, I got to grab an open bottle here.

definitely get that black pepper that you were talking about that spice right on the tip of the tongue some really dark cherries on that if you've ever been up to the up of michigan they're known for their cherries up there yeah they got some dark cherries up there um perfect with that that oak is coming through

It's funny to talk about cherries like we always talk about the house style at few spirits because you've got a couple different whiskies out there. But to me kind of our house style is cinnamon like the real cassia cinnamon and tart cherries. Our bourbon tends to focus a little bit more on that spice and our rye tends to focus a little bit more on the cherries. But that's definitely what we're going for is that cherry note.

I actually get you talk about cinnamon, but not the bun itself, but cinnamon has that that I don't know what it is glaze on top of it stirred in with cinnamon. And I get that that creaminess with that cinnamon mixed in gives me that little bit of spice. Really, really beautiful. Everything's kind of carrying over from those. And I think that's a really nice thing whenever you know something and the palette matches up perfectly with it. You guys did an excellent job with us right here doing that. That tells a story. Not everybody can do that. Sometimes the nose will fool you. And you know, you might get off putting nose and then you drink the bourbon and you're like, wow, this is really good. Or the nose is so wonderful and you're expecting this just beautiful bourbon. And then you drink it and you're like, wow, that's kind of a letdown. Well, this right here, the nose matches perfectly with a palette across the board. Really, really nice. Thanks. So Paul, where's your, what's your background in? What got you before you did bourbon, before you started making whiskey, started a distillery, what did you do?

What I really like to do is create and make stuff. Um, you were telling you, I've got my guitars here. I used to be a pro guitar player. Um, I owned and ran a record label for a hot minute, uh, built custom guitar effects, pedals, uh, made beer at home. Um, Creativity is what gets me excited and gets me out of bed in the morning. I don't do very well with structure. I have a very material issue with any sort of authority. I don't do well with authority. It just doesn't go very well for me and ends up with everybody being unhappy. But making stuff is what gets me excited and so making whiskey is just kind of a little bit of a like a natural outgrowth of that because I don't see a huge difference between making music and you're recording music and pressing it onto a little vinyl record or making whiskey and putting it in a bottle. Yes, the techniques are different. They're different arts, but they're both fundamentally artistic endeavors that allow the artists to express themselves in a way that is true to who that person is whether you're making music or painting or sculpture or a podcast or whiskey in a bottle. It's that creativity that is the exciting part so you wanted before was always try to make and create. And then my grandfather died, which was sadly something that happens to almost all of us. But prior to World War II, his family had owned a major brewery and was now the Czech Republic, again, the Czech heritage. 1939, I presume everybody's aware, but Nazis invaded and they confiscated the brewery and murdered the whole family in the camps. And although my grandfather survived, he spent the rest of his life trying to get the brewery back, but never did. when he passed, it struck that all of that history is gone forever unless I do something about it. So I was able to kind of take this creative compulsion, for lack of a better word, and focus it in on beverage, alcohol, and try to do it in a way that wasn't in the shadow of a brewery and to do it in a way that is positive and, again, creative. And theoretically, someday my grandpa will be able to look up and be proud of me.

I'm sure he is. I mean, anybody that's creativity has made something of their life and you obviously have, right? You made a bourbon brand, you made a whiskey brand, a spirits brand. And I always wonder that I, you know, you wonder what your grandparents, what your father thinks of you as a man or even a woman. Did I. live up to their expectations of what their child or grandchild would be. I'd say he'd probably smiling down from heaven right now, looking down at your stuff and saying, wow, you know, I know my grandpa, I know my grandpa, he's not looking down.

He's looking up, but, um, you don't get to pick your family, man. Uh, that said, you know, you only get four grandparents. And they're people just like you are. And we've all got our flaws. I'm cursed. I've probably got more flaws than the average guy. But yeah, we're all deeply flawed people. And it's just kind of what you do with it's what you do with what you're good at and how you can be true to who you are. And that's kind of what I just try to do. I try to be true to who I am and have that integrity in the way you conduct your life. You know, how you deal with other people have that integrity, but be true to who you are. And like, I want to be creative, I want to make. And so I do like, you know, you could like what I make, or you could not like what I make, I'm still going to make it. And there are, there are a few people out there that are going to enjoy it. And I don't need everybody to like what I do. I only need a few people to like what I do. And that's okay.

Well, you're you see your whiskey on some TV shows, on some movies. It's always fun. It's prop pieces, I guess, really. Or it might be what that actor likes to drink and says, hey, that, you know, they're like, hey, what if we're going to bring a whiskey in? What do you want to have you drinking or something? And I remember a couple shows seeing a few on it and I'm like, man, there's a few right there. You know what? You're a podcaster about whiskey, about bourbon. That's one of the first things that's usually going to catch your eye. Like me and my wife watching Yellowstone the other night. You would think every chance they got, they would have a Yellowstone whiskey. That's not the case because they have several different whiskies on that show. Several different beers on that show would be a big hit. truthful, but they always catch my eye. You know, I'm like, Oh, there's bullet, uh, there's Blanton's, uh, they have the Yellowstone on there. There's Coors lighter, there's Coors original, you know, there's little squat bottles, Coors bottles. They're always drinking those. Um, so I'm sure for you as a distillery owner, it's nice to see your bottles on those shows though.

It's always fun. A friend of mine caught a glimpse of it, one of my favorite shows, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. It was super fun that I got to see my bottle on It's Always Sunny. the same time there's one of my other favorite shows I had to turn them down. They came asking for a release to use my bottle on one of my favorite shows and I had to say no because they wanted to put it in the hands of a alcoholic. Nope, can't do that. And then a movie came at me a couple years ago, wanted to have, I swear to God, they wanted to feature my bottle in the hands of a 747 pilot who's currently flying the 747. Like, you know, guys, you can't have my bottle in the hands of somebody flying a passenger jet.

Yeah, it's good that transparency, the least are asking you and telling you, Hey, this is what we want to do with your brand. Um, I would like to see your brand on Chicago PD or on, um, Chicago fire, Chicago, anything, anything about Chicago, right? Um, it seems like, and if anybody's out there listening that produces one of those shows that gets, uh, pieces for those shows, Hey, why not have a Chicago brand on a Chicago show, right?

There's a Netflix show called The Easy that we were all over a couple years ago, and that was fun, but including one particular episode where, let's just say that there are multiple people, none of whom are wearing clothes. And about the only thing you can see other than flesh is a bottle of few.

I'm like, yes, this is awesome. You done one in life right there, right?

That was, that was fun. Like, Oh, you guys use the bottle. Well, well played.

So when you started out, did you start out thinking, man, I'm going to make some bourbon whiskey? Have you, have you been drinking bourbon whiskey for awhile?

Yeah. I mean, I definitely have been drinking bourbon whiskey since I was 21, at least, um, they were going to admit to having drinking before that. But yeah, I mean, I really enjoy whiskey because well, it's delicious. And again, like, you know, we all have our flaws. One of my flaws is I tend to be a little bit compulsive. If I'm drinking beers, I'm probably going to get pretty annihilated because I just sit in pound beers drinking whiskey. I can just sit and drink whiskey all night and I never, I just, I don't really get too far.

Well, the thing is, especially if you sip on a meat, right? Um, without any ice or anything, um, it's not going to allow you to just guzzle it down, right? It's the whiskey is going to control you or, or it's going to control you a couple of different ways. If you do, uh, overconsuming it, um, you're probably not going to have a good next day or if you, if it might tell you, Hey, I'm going to let you sit me in a slow pace here and, uh, enjoy me for the evening and like a good companion should and, uh, It'll be a nice night for you and you'll have a good next day. Um, that's what I like about whiskey. I don't feel bloated. I'm not drinking pound and beers, just a pound beers. Um, cause I'm just like you, uh, I can drink a plethora of beers, but then I have to pee like 20 or 30 times. So, um, whiskey doesn't do that. Um, it's a, it's a nice, uh, conversation drink too.

Yeah. It's whiskey is just magical beverage and I love drinking it. I love being a part of the industry. Um, yeah, I love other people that make whiskey. Like, you know, we're all friends. Yeah. You were talking about it earlier. Alex is awesome. I can't say enough great things about Alex. Like what a great business where you can sit and talk about your so-called competitors and you're like, I'm not their competitive. That's my friends.

Yeah. I mean, what a great person she is. And, uh, the, the lineage she pretty much has, uh, and then you talk to her, she's like, I knew at 13 years old that I was going to make whiskey. Um, that's pretty bad ass, but I also love that. Whiskey is so connected. Even in podcasting or social media and stuff, we're a small, I always call it the bourbon community. We're a very small and knit group of people that are like-minded, that love to talk about whiskey, love to drink it, love to promote it, want more people to know about it and stuff.

Paul, do you remember your first sips of whiskey?

Do you remember what brand you was drinking back then?

I sure do. Um, uh, first, first sips of whiskey were maker's mark. Uh, which is a hell of a whiskey to start with, man. That's a great pour. Um, like all they do is Excel. Well, for makers markets, they make great whiskey. They make it well. They keep on making it day after day. It kind of pisses me off. Um, I wish they sucked. But they don't make great stuff.

Well, they make great stuff. Yeah. But you're, you're, you're right there with them though, right? You're, you're, you, you didn't happen overnight for maker's mark. Everybody needs to get that straight. Um, and I try to tell as many people as possible with craft distilleries, it's not going to happen overnight. And some of the distilleries like yourself, you're 10 years, you're coming of age, right? You're, You're coming of age and the whiskey is starting to hit that like, Hey, we're about to do something really cool here. Uh, or we're doing something really cool and you need to pay attention. Um, cause your whiskey is just as old as some of the maker's mark stuff.

Um, we're doing great stuff here at few spirits and that's not taking away anything from maker's mark. I mean, maker's mark is great. You'll fill in the blank for roses. Will it, you know, it doesn't matter. They're making great stuff. Uh, So that's what I always say is like, you know, that's the thing about the whiskey business is my competitors make good stuff. I can't sit here and say otherwise. Otherwise I'm stupid. If I made beer, I could sit here and say, ah, what are you going to do? Drink Budweiser? Well, I'm not going to drink Budweiser, but you know, sitting here like, what are you going to do? Drink Maker's Mark? Hell yeah. You're going to drink Maker's Mark. It's great stuff.

Well, I'm a weeded bourbon nut. So yeah, I'm a drink.

Um, I can't say that. I mean, I can, but I'd stupid. Um, that's my always thing is that if you're making whiskey, you gotta match that quality and you have to be different. And so I think that we have the same quality as maker's Mark, um, which I think is a high burden again, but we don't taste the same. And that's the joy. You might like makers mark better than mine. I hope you don't. But if you do, cool, man, that's that's how it goes. And maybe your friend likes you better than makers mark or sub in four roses. You get a group of 10 whiskey nuts together, they're going to have 10 different favorite whiskeys, and they're all correct.

Well, we get asked all the time, what's your favorite whiskey? And as I look at my desk here, um, there's, cause I had to clean up for Christmas, uh, cause we have guests coming over. Um, I have probably 40 bottles of bourbon just surrounded this, uh, this laptop and I don't really know at this point that I have a favorite whiskey anymore. I still am the Weedy King of Kentucky and I still love my weeded bourbon, but you know, I love to drink some rice. I love to drink rye whiskey. I love some, I'm starting on the. enjoy some single moths that are American single moths at that. Um, I just enjoy everything. And that's kind of the podcasting or if you're doing a YouTube channel or if you're doing an Instagram or tick tock and you have one of those pages and you're drinking all these whiskies, it's, it is hard to have a favorite, you know, do I have a, uh, every day or if I didn't have any other whiskies, it would be well or every day. Um, Obviously behind me, you see bottles stashed up there. They're all throughout the house stashed, but I enjoy other whiskeys and brands like you, like few allow me to experience different things. It's like a cake almost or going into a Italian cookie shop. They'll have 50 different cookies in there and you're like, Oh, which one can I taste? And my wife's always like, Oh, let's just get a couple of each. Well, that's what whiskey allows us to do is to taste all these great things that are coming out of America. Coming out of Illinois is few. Um, and you're doing more things than just, just bourbon whiskey, right?

Yeah, our business is really built up on bourbon as well as rye whiskey and then trying to be creative. You know, we make our bourbon, we make our rye, we got the bottle the bond bourbon out now, we got bottle the bond rye coming out next year, if we can get glass. we're always doing our best, but we also try to be a little bit creative and innovative. So like we've got a product out there where we bring our bourbon to bottle strength with cold brew coffee. We call it the cold cut bourbon. We've got another one where we bring our rye whiskey to bottle strength with cold extracted oolong tea called the immortal rye. And we're trying to bring new and different flavors into whiskey A, to give people different flavors for when they're in different moods, but also to help bring people into the world of whiskey. Whiskey can unfortunately be a little bit intimidating to novices. I think it's really nice to kind of try to extend, you know, that hand across the chasm to give people something they might be a little bit more familiar with. Oh, it's bourbon with coffee? I drink coffee every day. Maybe I'll like that. They try it. They like it. Now maybe they go out and maybe they try another bottle from Few or maybe they go and try a Weller and they try something else. And you're bringing people into this community of whiskey, just like you were saying, Because the bigger the community, the more awesome you'll share whiskey. It's whiskey for sharing. It brings people together. It's your friends. It's your family. It's your good times. It's your bad times. And you're sharing this over a glass of whiskey with people. That's what whiskey is for.

On the second half listeners, we're going to get into what few has just released in the last couple of months and what they're going to release on the future. Cause I know that Paul's got some hidden little secrets that he's going to let all our listeners know about. We'll be right back. So listeners, I know you have heard about seldom seen farms and their bourbon barrel, A's maple syrup. You're gonna love this stuff. You'd like making cocktails, two ounces of bourbon, one ounce of this bourbon barrel aged maple syrup. some bitters and you got yourself an old fashioned. It doesn't get any easier than that right there. So check that out. They also got some of their regular half pint maple syrup. They've got some bourbon maple candles. They've got some maple cotton candy. You can also buy their regular maple syrup in big giant quart jars, kind of the old style whiskey jug style right there. They got some gift packages and stuff. They also sell some buttermilk pancake mix. Just in case you don't have the right pancake mix, you can get that. You can also buy 12 bottles of this at a time. If you're really into it or if you have a store, reach out to seldom seen farms. Talk to Kevin, tell him the bourbon Rhodes sent you. You visit their website, seldom seen maple.com order now probably just a little bit too late for Christmas, but I'm sure as soon as he can get it out the door, he'll get it out. Kevin taps into 2000 trees on his farm up in northeast Ohio. A true farmer, true craftsman. How could you not love it? He puts his maple syrup into bourbon barrels. Places like New Riff, places like Leapers Fork down in Tennessee are working with him. Check him out today. We'd appreciate it. Alright listeners, we are back with few. I know you've seen their whiskey on the shelf. They got several different products out there. They got some gin. They got some rye. They got their bottled and bond now. Um, really throwback labels on their little squatty bottle. Um, not square so much, but squatty, I would call it, um, pretty, pretty beautiful labels. Uh, I'd say like 1930 ish, 1920s. And we got Paul on with us today. So Paul, what's coming down the pike for a few.

Yeah, with a few, I think we're going to continue doing what we do, which is making and creating. We've got some cool stuff that we just released, including that bottom of the bottom bourbon. We've got a bottom of the bottom rye coming out next year. If and when we can get glass. If you're hearing stories about supply chain issues, they're real. So we were supposed to release bottom of the bottom rye at the same time as the bourbon. can't. So we're hoping to be able to get enough supplies to release that in the coming year. We've also got a really cool collaboration whiskey coming out with another rock band. We've worked with several rock bands in the past, but coming up this spring, hopefully, again, if we can get bottles, we've got a collaboration with the band called the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club coming out. something we're real excited about because it's a really, really cool whiskey. And we're doing stuff that I haven't really seen done very often before with them. And so I think that's going to be a really, really fun and exciting project that I can't wait to have out on the marketplace. Now we're getting ready to start blending it. We're going to start blending it next week. I think we'll be able to get a blended inside of three or four months. I'll have to wait and see how it's coming down with the proof and so on, but we think it's gonna be nice and quick and maybe only three months. That's an exciting one and then after that we'll have to kind of wait and see how things are going. We've got a fun product coming out just for the Chicago market working with a very, very famous Chicago chef, shall we say? um which would be really fun we're gonna wait and announce that one when the time comes uh but that's that's gonna be really fun and i think an awful lot of people in the whiskey world are gonna kind of give me a little of a stink eye over like what are you doing uh but people in chicago didn't be like oh that's awesome uh so this is for us this isn't for you this is for us man this is for chicago

We got some people listeners that also drink gin and you also have a barrel gin, right? It's been aged in a bourbon barrel.

Yeah, it's aged in a mixture of new and used bourbon and used rye. So three different kinds of barrels in there, but yeah, it's a really fun gin. And it's the perfect gin for the whiskey drinker, because as much as we all try, we can't live by whiskey alone. Sometimes you got to cross over into other categories. And so we're sitting there waiting for you with the barrel-aged gin.

You got some other gins too, right? You got an American gin and a breakfast gin. What's a breakfast gin?

Well, the breakfast gin is the most important gin of the day. I mean, that's just, that's just how it is. Uh, it's what I'm, it's what my mama taught me. I don't know about your mama, but, uh, you know, it just, it's that fantastic gin to kind of, you know, you kind of wake up and you take the edge off. It goes amazing with pancakes. I even use that bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup that we're talking about with that barrel-aged, with the breakfast gin on your pancakes. It'd be just fantastic. But it's just a gin. It's nice. It's very herbal. We use Earl Grey tea as one of the main botanicals. And I think it's just really nice because it's not so super dry as a lot of people get turned off. When you're in the gin business, you're trying to talk to people about gin, you'll always hear about that one time when they were 17 in their friend's basement, and they had a handle of this or that brand. And if it's a girl that you're talking to, their friend had to hold their hair back. If it's a guy you're talking to, other bad stuff happened where It's always the same story, but people are growing up now and you can go back and you can drink a real gin. You can drink a real drink and it doesn't have to be whiskey. You can do other stuff too. But gin is a pretty small part of what we do at this point. But we really like making gin for that same reason we're talking about earlier, that creativity. Whiskey has a lot of rules about what you can and what you can't do. Gin really doesn't have a lot of rules, so you can kind of do whatever the hell you want. Making gin and If it's good you got something great if it's not good you don't do it again but you can have an idea for a gin product. And you can have it on the market inside of three months whereas you can come with an idea for whiskey product and maybe you can have it on the market place in like five or six years maybe.

Now you guys did some special releases. You did a 10th anniversary bourbon that was only available in Illinois, right?

It's about, it's getting ready to hit our DTC site at by few spirits.com. Uh, but, uh, you know, we're sitting here in mid December and I've been saying it's about to hit the DTC sites since August. So I have no idea when it's going to hit the DTC site. Sorry.

And you also have, we was talking about, you also have a single malt whiskey of your own.

Yeah. We love making single malt. It's something that a lot of the big boys really... Can they do it? Yes, but they haven't in the past. And it's a cool opportunity to bring something new into the conversation of what whiskey is and what whiskey can be. Everybody thinks single malt equals scotch. That's just not true. Single malt is just a malt whiskey distilled at a single distillery. We're a single distillery. We can make malt whiskey. So therefore it's single malt. And I think, you know, American single malt distillers making products that are competitively differentiated from scotch is a great thing because not everybody likes scotch the exact same way. Not everybody likes bourbon. Not everybody likes rye. There is a whiskey for everybody. And if bourbon is not for you, try a few single malt. It's okay.

The thing I noticed that you don't have on your website anyways is you only have the really the only finished bourbon that you're doing right now is your I guess it would be your cold cut. Is that what it's called?

I wouldn't call it a finished bourbon. We call it part of our cut series because we use non-traditional liquids to cut with. So normally when you make whiskey, you use water to bring things down to bottle strength. With the cold cut, we use cold brew coffee. And, uh, it's that same, it's that same bourbon that's in the, uh, you know, the bottle of bonds, the same bourbon that's in our core bourbon. Uh, but instead of using water, we use cold brew coffee cause I like coffee.

Now see if you put that maple syrup in that there's your breakfast drink.

That would be freaking delicious. Uh, the cold cup bourbon is not super sweet, but she, so you add in that, uh, You had a little bit of syrup. Mm hmm. Yeah, that's how you start your day.

That's a bourbon drinker's coffee. Yes, sir. Maple syrup in a glass with your pancakes. You get the creaminess. You get everything you want in life right there as a bourbon. That's a beautiful thing right there. So Paul, I'm trying to get you out something that's coming out. I know you got something up your sleeve besides the rock and roll stuff that's fixing to come out. How many states are you in right now?

So we're currently available in all 50 states in about 36 countries. Uh, so pretty much wherever your listeners are in the world, you can, and few spirits, uh, some places it's a little bit easier to find than others choice day. Uh, but you can get it pretty much everywhere. And if your local doesn't have it, just feel free to ask for it. Uh, since it is available to your store, whether they carry it or not. And if they want to bring it in, you can always try by few spirits.com and we'll ship it right to your front door, right to our front door. right to the front door. You don't get easier than that. And I think if you buy three bottles, shipping's a pain in the butt because it's super expensive. But if you buy three bottles, I think we take, we pay for the shipping.

That's even better. If you're paying for the shipping net, is that worldwide or just for the U S just for the U S. And I think it's only, I think it's like 46 states.

They can't ship everywhere. Sure. Um, obviously that's our business. No, like Pennsylvania is not one of them. And then it might be, maybe ask, might be Alaska and Hawaii just cause it costs. I'm not, I, I forget. I should probably learn that better, but, uh, I'm just a janitor, not a, not the big sales guy.

Well, hey, at least you're honest. We talked about that a little bit. You're honest that you're just the regular guy and stuff. And I like that. I'd rather talk to some of this regular somebody that's, you know, you pull up in front of the distillery and you do see a Rolls Royce out there and that's who you're talking to. It's much nicer to talk to somebody that actually knows every part of that distillery, every inch of it is in love with bourbon, you know? When you talk to somebody that's not in love with bourbon, it really does show. And I can tell you, you love your whiskey, you love your bourbon. You're proud of it. It's a baby, right? It's like those teenage kids you got.

I love my kids more than I love my whiskey, but I do love my whiskey. Yeah, you had to make sure you got that right.

Where can our listeners find you guys on social media?

You can find us all over all your social media is at few spirits. Um, so at few spirits of Instagram, a few spirits on the tech talks, uh, slash few spirits on the Facebooks, uh, Twitter at few spirits. Although we don't do a whole lot on Twitter cause I'm old. Um, so. is what it is. We did just get a new social media person and they're kind of they're pushing on a lot more stuff out there, which has been kind of fun to watch. Because, like I said, I'm too old for that shit. But yeah, run few spirits.com or on the web. So you can find out recipes and learn more about the brand that few spirits.com. And then to purchase, you can link right over to buy few spirits.com from there.

And if our listeners in the Chicago area, is your distillery open for tours?

Absolutely. You can book tours on the website as well, or also just email info at fewspirits.com. We'll get you set up with our tour team, and they'll take great care of you as best we can. We run cocktail nights, Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights. You can stop in, have a couple drinks, relax a little bit, take a load off. We're just right down an alley, and we're about 100 yards from the L as well as the Metro, right in the kind of southeast corner of Evanston. It's about 25 minutes from the loop. easy to get to either via Uber or public transit.

So that's what I'm talking about. And do you guys have food there also?

Uh, we don't have food, uh, but, uh, we do have the ability to bring whatever you want to in. Uh, there's a killer shop right across the streets. It's got great burgers and euros. Uh, there's a great Mexican place around the corner that's got amazing tacos. Uh, you can get a delivery pizza, whatever you want. You know, we please bring in whatever food you want. We just don't have a kitchen.

So what's the what's the pizza place there that they can order? Because everybody's got to have some deep dish Chicago style pizza, right?

Yeah, so you can get pizza delivered from Melnati's, which is my personal favorite. You can get your Giordano's delivered if that's your jam. Uh, there's a great new place in town called Kent Tuchio's, which is like a, uh, it's like an independent, uh, pizza guy who just makes killer pizza. Uh, there's a Detroit pizza place down the street called firehouse grill. They'll deliver you a pizza, really nice, uh, really good stuff there. Um, It's a college town, so you can get whatever you want delivered. You got it. You got your ties, your sushi's, buffalo wings, because who doesn't like a good buffalo wing? You got it all. We just don't have a kitchen, man.

Well, hey, at least you're allowing people to bring food in. You're giving tours. Now, what about a single barrel program? Does FU offer a single barrel program if somebody wants to buy a barrel of whiskey?

We sure do. We've got single barrel programs that run nationally as well as here in Illinois. Uh, we don't tend to stock them at the distillery itself. So if you just want a single barrel bottle, you got to go to a Benny's or any number of our retail partners. Uh, but, uh, you can also apply if I had single barrels, wherever you are happened to be in the world. Like, you know, down in Kentucky, uh, liquor barn currently has, I think, four single barrels from us.

So if the bourbon road wanted to buy entire barrels, a single barrel,

Come on up. Come on up. We can get a local distributor with samples. You can come right up and do the sampling right here. Yeah, we love that kind of stuff.

Well, Paul, I appreciate you sharing your whiskey with us. A few is very delicious. The bottle and bond is everything it should be in a whiskey with that peppery cinnamon creamy note to it. I loved it. I super appreciate you coming on, telling our listeners about your brand, about your history, about your background. We hope that everybody comes up to your town Eat some deep dish of pizza in your distillery and leaves there with cases and cases of your bourbon and your gin.

Come on by everybody. We don't bite. We just make whiskey. It's okay.

All right, listeners, you know where you can find us at. You can find us on TikTok. I posted a couple of posts the last couple of days. Check those out. Give us a follow on there. We're on Instagram, Facebook. We're on Twitter, YouTube. Main place you can find us though is on facebook we have a private facebook group in there called the bourbon roadies 2500 people strong and growing every day of like-minded people free rules you gotta follow are you 21 do you live bourbon yes everybody loves bourbon come on now and do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness in there meaning that if you drink from the very bottom of the shelf to the very top um We want you to be able to post those photos out there without anybody beating up about it. We just want to celebrate life, celebrate promotions, celebrate anniversaries, you name it. That's what we want to do. It's a celebration of whiskey and that's what we're going to do in there. If you don't like doing that, there's plenty of other groups out there for you. You can also check out our website where we have our reviews of whiskeys. We also have our swag in there. You know, our famous bourbon bullshit or t-shirt. You can buy that in there. We'd appreciate you buying our swag, our glasses, our hats. our cups. That stuff helps us get down the bourbon road. It helps fill our tanks with gas. You know, those gas prices are rising right now. So we'd appreciate your support and you get something out of it. You get that bourbon bullshitter t-shirt that you can wear up to a few distillery and give them a good laugh. Cause they're going to know that you don't take yourself too seriously. So check that out. We do two shows a week. We do our bourbon review on Mondays, usually have a craft distillery 15 to 20 minutes. It'll get you to work. And on Wednesday, we have great guests on like few whiskey and Paul 30 minutes to work 30 minutes back, man, you're going to be de-stressed by the time you're done listening to us because you're going to be ready for a pour of this few whiskey. So check those shows out, but to make sure you don't miss those shows, we need you to scroll on up, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign on your app. That'll make sure that you get to listen to those two shows. If you know what I'm about to tell you, scroll on down. Hit that five star review because you know what's going to happen if you don't. I'm going to release the big bad booty daddy of bourbon. He's going to come over to your house with a bottle of this few whiskey. By the end of the night, you're going to give us a five star review. I guarantee. But seriously, those five star reviews help us to get great guests on like Paul and few whiskey. It allows us to do great reviews. It just, it really does open up doors for us. So we appreciate that. Like I said, the best way to reach out to us is obviously on Instagram. You can send both of us an email. Jim is at jim at the bourbon road. I'm Mike at the bourbon road, but the best way would be on Instagram, DMing us. He is json and 63. I'm big bourbon chief and you know what we always like to say. We'll see you on down the bourbon road.