232. Dry Fly Distilling with Terry Nichols

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.

This episode is brought to you by seldom seen farms bourbon aged maple syrup out of Ohio. Six to nine months in a bourbon barrel. Jim, where can they find it at?

You can find it on seldomseenmaple.com. Get you some.

Everybody, this is Big Chief and you're listening to the Bourbon Road Podcast. We've got a pretty special guest today, but before we start, Jim couldn't be here today. He's a busy, busy man, so we'll look forward to see him on the next episode. But with no further ado, from Mount West, We got Terry Nichols, the jack of all trades, the master of none from dry fly to stilling in Spokane, Washington. Terry, welcome to the Bourbon Road podcast.

Thanks, Mike. I'm glad to be here.

So it got you on air today. We got some of your whiskies in hand. We actually got a whole bunch of your whiskey in hand. I was surprised when the boxes showed up. There was actually two different packages of like six bottles. I was like, man, these people do it right, right here. Terry is a, that's a true gentleman right there. Shared your whiskey with us across the nation. I'm pretty excited to drink some of it because I haven't had it before. We actually reviewed your straight wheat whiskey. That was actually our first bourbon review ever or whiskey review. I remember I got a bottle of it. I think it was a liquor barn and you had said that Kentucky's not distributed in Kentucky anymore, but we're excited to get you back here in the heartland of America. Well, Terry, before we drink the whiskey, tell me about dry fly to stealing. How did it start?

It really started with a fly fishing trip over in Montana, outside of Bozeman on the Gallatin River. And Don Poffenroft and Kent Pleshman were out there. One worked for a food manufacturer and Kent, he worked for Cisco Systems, a food distributor, and they were on sort of corporate junket and they were drinking vodka and lamenting how they hated their corporate lifestyles. And they decided that they wanted to start a distillery on that trip. And so they came back to Washington and tried to apply for a license to start a distillery. And the state said, well, nobody's distilled here since prohibition. So there is no license type for a craft distiller. So they packaged up a bill with a local senator named Chris Moore at the time, and they took it to Olympia. First attempt passed and the next session they came back and reintroduced the bill. And this time they included a provision that you had to use a 90% Washington grown ingredients in your manufacturing process. And of course that brought all of the legislators that represent agricultural districts on board. And the law was signed into law and dry fly became the first distiller in Washington state since prohibition. That was back in 2007.

I mean, you guys were like some of the first there, right? You were there in the thick of the battle trying to get kind of whiskey relaunched in America.

Yeah, there's no doubt. I mean, we were the first in Washington. Now there's, I think, 125 in Washington, I saw on the count. And then, of course, across the country, we were one of about 25 small distillers. And now there's over 2,250, I believe, across the country. So really early on in what turned out to be a pretty big movement, a pretty big explosion of entrepreneurs, seeking to pursue their dreams.

Well let's talk about this first whiskey we got and I know I'm gonna mess this name up but tell me the first whiskey we got.

whiskey is a it's a dry fly. First and only really we were the first distillery to make whiskey from a grain called triticale. And triticale is a hybrid grain and it was first hybrid in Scotland and in Germany, late 1800s. And it was a hybrid of wheat and rye and As the story goes, they were trying to combine the hardiness and disease-resistant qualities of rye with the yield potential of wheat. And so what you end up with is a whiskey that is soft and gentle like wheat, but it has a spicy character that you might otherwise associate with rye. So it really is typically some of the best characteristics of each of the parents, if you will.

So what is that grain typically used for?

Historically, it's been used really as feed grain. And so it was a really popular feed for livestock. It's fairly high in starch.

Yeah, I was going to say Triticale kind of brings me back to childhood. And my uncle owned a dairy farm and he would cut that and make it into this stuff called silage. And we had these giant pits. where you mix that grain or that grass into that mix of feed and stuff. And it kind of rots and the cows eat it and stuff. But that kind of takes me back. I would never thought I'd be drinking a whiskey made of that.

Yeah, it's definitely unique. There's not a lot of rye grown in Washington and wheat farmers tend to dislike rye because it's invasive if it gets into a wheat field and they have a really tough time getting away from it. So there are blocks of rye grown in the state, but usually it's grown in small acreage and away from wheat farms. So this was sort of our de facto spicy whiskey.

So, what's the match bill on this? Is it 100%?

Yeah, 100% true to Cayley.

And there's no, what's the word I'm looking for? It's not malted or anything, is it?

No, absolutely not. We get the Triticale in from a farmer, Mitch Engel at the Wasoda farm, which is about 30 miles south of us. And he grows a particular clone of Triticale clone 99 for us. And he brings it to us in super stacks and we hammer mill it and make whiskey out of it.

Well, let's nose this thing and taste it. All right. Yeah, definitely a distinct nose on this. The reason I was asking if it's malted, because I kind of get that malt from this for some reason. Sweet, little bit of spice in there. Really, really fruit forward florals are in there. Man, I can't wait to taste this. I say cheers.

Cheers.

Pow! Jim would say this has that Pop Rocks candy taste to it, because it is just popping off in the mouth. It has got some spice to it. Not overly spicy, sweet spice though. Almost like a Caribbean jerk chicken spice to it. It's got that sweetness to it, but that nice spice that you want.

Yeah. And it's, you know, at the distillery, it's a very popular whiskey for making old fashions in Manhattan's out of, and just kind of strikes that happy medium between our wheat whiskey and, and if we had a rye, what our rye might be like.

So that's very beautiful whiskey, something definitely different to drink. Um, what's something like that running on shelf?

Uh, we try and be 39.99 on Triticale across the country.

that's making it super affordable for somebody to drink a craft whiskey, right?

Yeah, I think you have to be. I mean, it's, you know, the markets, it's tough out there. And I think, you know, early on, even dry fly, I think was priced a little bit on the high side of where it should have been for the market. And we've made some adjustments over the years. And what we really want to do is deliver somebody a great whiskey that's at an affordable price point. And so We try and go $39.99 across the board if we can on all of our 90 proof whiskeys. So that's kind of our sweet spot for us price-wise.

And your bottles really, they kind of pop, right? Each one has a different color. Is there a reason why each one has a different color to it?

Just to make them distinct from one another more than anything.

Yeah, but you got that fly on there. The, the lines wrapped all the way around. Um, and the line actually comes from, there's a little guy on a boat on the back of the bottle, isn't there?

Yeah.

I mean, whoever designed this bottle, the design of it, I couldn't love it more. It's not, it's got the printed on label. I like that because the bottle, you know, sometimes whiskey will drip down the sides and it'll get on that label. And then it's, it doesn't look all that good, right? Not all that pleasing, but you guys have always had that printed on label.

The packaging is tremendous. We use a proprietary glass mold and just the attention to detail in it has just been fantastic. We're pretty happy with the packaging. We cleaned it up a little bit over the years and made it a little bit more simple and elegant. Some of the early bottles were They were fun. They had a lot of like sayings and jokes and things on the backside, but they were a little bit busy. And so over the years they've been cleaned up to make kind of more of a premium clean presentation, I guess.

Well, it's definitely a beautiful bottle to set on your shelf and stuff. Perfect for me because I got giant hands to grab that bottle. Some people might not like the bottle at all because it is kind of that stag junior bottle, but it is its own unique design. It's got a little fish on the top. I quite like that. You guys want with a rubber stopper. But what really matters is the whiskey inside and that's, you know, when it boils down to it, that's all that matters. You could put it in a wooden bucket and if it tastes good, really when it boils down to it, that's what you care about, right?

Yeah. I mean, packaging is about getting the bottle into somebody's hands and into the cart and through the register and hopefully they take it home. And then when they pop it open, hopefully we win hearts and minds with what's inside the bottle. That's really kind of the plan. Yeah.

Cause you're that salesman, right? You want to make sure it sells. And if you have an ugly package, how hard is it to sell something?

Yeah, that's where it starts. I mean, they always say, you know, kind of the first sip you take is with your eyes. And so if you can't, if somebody isn't drawn to your packaging enough to take a look at it and hopefully buy it, then whatever you put in the bottle is never going to reach their lips and have a chance to make that impression that brings them back for more. And ultimately what we're trying to do here is build a brand and have repeat customers and fans that enjoy the product.

That's kind of like my wife. I mean, I was the perfect package at the time when she met me. I was packaged just right. I dressed nice. I made sure I carried myself nice. Now she's hooked on me. She keeps coming back for more. I don't know why 22 years later, she's still with me and stuff. I ain't that put together package anymore.

But you're well-aged.

Well aged, I'm getting there. As you can see from my facial hair, it's getting some silver in it. Well, Terry, the next whiskey you got for me is some of your straight wheat whiskey that's been aged in a port barrel, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to pour myself a little sample of that as well. And that's really been, it's a smaller production item for us, but it's gotten some really great critical acclaim. I think wine enthusiasts gave us a 96 point rating on this and I think the tasting panel gave us a 96 on this and it's won a lot of double gold medals and things. We don't make huge quantities of it. And pork barrels are very difficult to find on a local basis. We try and use Washington wineries where we can. There just isn't that much pork made in Washington state. So whenever pork barrels come available, we grab them up as quick as we can. Because it's really been a well-received product. And it's fun. There's starting to be more and more pork barrel finishes out there. I think when we started making this, there was not quite as many. definitely a standout product for us.

So is this that same price around $40 for you guys?

Yeah, some of it depends on the state. I try and keep it at $39.99 as well if I can. Some places it creeps up to $44.99 and that can have to do with, you know, taxes in the state and other things that make it a little more challenging for us. But we try and go $39.99 wherever we can.

That's still that nice price point stuff where somebody can buy a craft whiskey. It's always hard to buy something that's craft. That's a hundred, $200 when you don't, you know, the age is not there yet. you know, the lineage isn't there. So you're a little bit worried about, Hey, am I going to pay overpay for this whiskey? But you're keeping it. Somebody still that's a whiskey nerd like me can go and grab a bottle and take that chance, roll those dice and say, Hey, this is a pretty looking bottle. They probably put some pretty good whiskey in it. I'm going to go ahead and roll the dice on this one.

Yeah, I think that you're right. You know, one thing about the craft distilling industry, obviously, it's a lot younger than, you know, your larger distillers from Kentucky or Tennessee. And, you know, they have a lot of older stocks of whiskey, and we're envious of those older stocks of whiskey. But we're also realists, I don't think you can come out and have a three-year-old whiskey on the shelf and ask $60, $70, $80 for it. I just don't think that it's warranted, quite frankly. I mean, we're proud of what we put in the bottle, but we're also realists about what the price-value relationship there is. And I think that one way you build a brand in this industry is you need to over-deliver quality versus price, so that when somebody buys your product, They take it home and they enjoy it and they go, wow, that was a really good value. I really feel like I got a good deal on that. And that's what will bring them back, repeat customers and help you, you know, in the long-term build a loyal following out there.

Yeah. And you guys obviously have a probably a really nice loyal following in the Spokane area, in the Washington state area, because you've been there for so long. And I'm sure on the West coast, you're well known out there, right?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, still the Northwest is our, probably 60% of our business is here in the Northwest. And that includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. So all good markets for us, definitely well known and well received here. And we're in 40 states now overall. So we are kind of spreading our wings and trying to get to 50 here by the end of the year if I can. We just built a new distillery. We have our capacities up 4X, our proof gallon capacity. We're at 80,000 proof gallons now. Our old facility was 20,000 and we have the capability to expand that facility to 150,000 proof gallons pretty easily. So a couple of the objectives when we built the new distillery this last year was just one, to have more capacity to lay down whiskey. At our other place, we could make about one and a half barrels of distillate a day to lay away. And in this facility, we'll be able to make up to 10 barrels of whiskey a day. So it's a huge increase for us. We also added capacity for our canned cocktails and more clear spirits as well. But really, the main objective is to be able to make and put away whiskey for the long haul. And we'd really like to be able to sit on the whiskey longer. I mean, right now we've got three year age statements. We had gotten to four and we were looking at five and then sales really started picking up and we started pulling inventory out of the barrel warehouse faster than we were putting it down. And so that's another reason for the new facility is so that we can get ahead of that and hopefully push the core products to five year offerings. That's really where we want to be ultimately. and then, you know, keep reserves beyond that so that we can have, you know, tenure releases out there as well. So, kind of some exciting times for us, but whiskey's been a challenge. It's been hard to, you know, it's been hard to hold on to stuff as long as we would like, I guess.

Yeah, I could see that. It's almost like being a fortune teller too, right? You got to kind of figure out, Hey, what's that feature going to be like? Do I lay down too much whiskey? And then have to pinch pennies later on down the road and maybe try to sell some of that stock off. Well, heck, we've been talking for a minute. Let's try this port. Very soft on the nose with what I would think out of a port. A lot of floral notes, which you would think you would get. No, not a whole lot of spice there. Maybe it softens that out. I say cheers.

Yeah, cheers. Definitely a soft whiskey. I think it has some kind of fruit components on it, like dark dried fruits, a little bit of that on it. Very smooth whiskey, easy to drink.

Yeah, not a whole lot of spice there. little bit of sweetness, little bit of drying from that wine barrel, you know, from that port barrel. Little bit of hug going on there, though. I did get I just got that that hug came down that Spokane, Washington hug. Now, you guys Spokane, when people think of Washington state, most people think rainforest coastline. They think it's wet, wet, wet out there. But Spokane, is it Spokane more of a drier city?

Yeah, absolutely. So most people think of Washington and Seattle sort of synonymously, but we're about 270 miles east of Seattle. And really the center part of the state is a high desert. And that's where a lot of the agricultural activity takes place. That's where a lot of dry land farming exists, where we get our soft white winter wheat, where we get our Triticale and our corn. Uh, so we're a much drier, drier, uh, side of the state than Seattle is. So, uh, you guys got a little different, a lot of potatoes there. No, that's a little bit to the east of us, Idaho. They're more known for the potatoes, although we do grow a fair amount. It's a little known fact that I think Washington actually produces more french fries than any other state in the nation. So we do grow a lot of potatoes down around the Tri-Cities in what we call the Fertile Crescent here of Washington state. But Idaho is known for potatoes more than we are. We're known for wine more than they are and craft beer and distilling.

Well, that's a really beautiful expression. I think that's that gateway whiskey we're always looking for for new whiskey drinkers. Something that's not going to shock their palate and say overwhelm them and give them that whiskey breath that you think of. that whiskey bite into whiskey. If you're a wine drinker, you're looking for something different, I would say this is something to check out, especially because it is a wheat whiskey, and then you put it into a port barrel. It even softens that wheat whiskey, which wheat whiskey isn't really a hard whiskey to drink, right? Not a lot of spice there already.

Yeah, it's pretty soft to begin with. And so I think the port barrels just add another layer of complexity and add some interesting notes to it.

Yeah, I like that. Well, Terry, we're up on our break. We're going to take a short break. Listeners, when we come back, Terry's got Two, two whiskeys here. And guess what? One of them is a bourbon. We are a bourbon podcast. Terry did send us a bourbon to sip on. And then we got a cast drink, which I'm super excited about drinking this one. I haven't tasted it yet, Terry, but I'm thinking it's going to be pretty special.

Yeah, it's my favorite. So hopefully you'll like it.

Listeners, we'll be right back. So Jim, you know what's good to have with cocktails? You're going to tell me. Bourbon barrel aged maple syrup from our good friends up in Ohio at seldom seen farms. I know you like to make those old fashions all the time.

I do. I do. Listen, it's so easy, guys. You just take a half ounce of this maple syrup, bourbon aged maple syrup. You put two ounces of bourbon in there, a couple of shakes of your favorite bitters over ice. You could put a little bit of orange peel in there if you want to, but man, what a fan. Fantastic old-fashioned.

Now you don't have to pour it in an old-fashioned. You can have it on chicken and biscuits. You can have it on pancakes. You can have it on waffles. I mean, you can pour it just about on anything. But Kevin Holly up there, this is his time of the season to start taking that sap out of those trees. I've seen several posts where he's got all of his lines going right now. So he's up there making it. Once he gets it, he cooks it down. makes the maple syrup, and then he puts it in those barrels. He's working with New Riff. He's working with our good friends down there at Leapers Fork. Several other distilleries around the country are starting to reach out to him because his stuff is magic in a bottle. So make sure you grab this. You said they can buy it in a case, right?

Yeah, you can get them 12 in a case. You can also get them as part of gift sets as well, like candles and things like that. So definitely worth a visit to the website, seldomseenmaple.com. Check out everything they have to offer. They support the bourbon road to take care of the sponsors. Yeah. We're back to our episode.

All right. Listen, we are back. We got dry flight of stilling. Terry Nichols, our guest, like I said before, he is the jack of all trades, the master of none. Uh, Terry, you got a bourbon with us and it's actually called bourbon one on one. Why don't you tell me about that?

That's right, bourbon 101, 101 proof, the traditional distillers cut, and we're just one better than the 100 proof stuff that's out there. This whiskey is actually Traditionally, 55% corn, 45% triticale. And as I alluded to earlier, we've been depleting our whiskey stocks a little faster than we would like. So this whiskey is actually not 100% art distillate. So this has some MGP blended in it. It has a 79% corn, 21% rye. base from MGP and then it's blended with some dry fly whiskey, some bourbon here from our own stocks. And that's sort of a temporary solution to the problem I was alluding to earlier about us taking whiskey out of the inventory faster than putting it down. So hopefully here in the next couple of years, we'll switch back to 100% dry fly distillate in that bottle. But I just want to be completely transparent on that, that it's not 100% our creation at this moment.

Well, I know our listeners appreciate that anytime that somebody is so open up about their distillate or about their whiskey and saying, hey, this is what we did. This is why we did it. There's nothing wrong with that. Honesty is great. And when a distillery doesn't try to hide stuff like that because somebody starts digging, right? And then that secret comes out.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, the whiskey is tasting amazing. And quite honestly, MGP makes a pretty damn good product. And so, you know, I know that a lot of distilleries source whiskey from MGP, and some are transparent about it and some aren't. The juice is good and it's been a short term solution to our longer term issue that facilitated us building the new distillery, which is to make more of our own distillate.

Well, heck, I say let's try it. I've already nosed it. It does smell like a bourbon. It's got those caramel notes of those oaks and stuff, but I actually do maybe get a little bit of that floral note. And maybe that's from that triticalia. Maybe that's where it's coming from. little bit of sweet grass for some reason from that. You know, when I was, if you ever took a piece of, uh, you're walking through a field and pick up a piece of grass and chewed on it and you get that sweetness from it. Um, that's what I'm getting in the nose of this. Cheers to you. Cheers. Wow. That proof right there is perfect for this. And I look at the legs in the glass, definitely got some long lingering legs. mouth coating creamy got that sweetness that I'm looking for in a bourbon but it also has that little bit of kick to it that little bit of spice that I'm looking for that white pepper not overpowering but enough to let you know hey I'm a bourbon I'm a bourbon whiskey I'm gonna make you feel good

Yeah, I like it. And, you know, at 101 proof, it certainly doesn't drink like that. It's pretty, pretty soft and rich and, and easy on the palate.

I'm getting a little bit of drying on the back end on that finish. Um, really beautiful though. And I like to see you guys, like you said, you're very transparent. Um, that mixture, that blending, that art of blending and stuff, cause that can go South real fast, right? If you don't do it right.

Absolutely. I mean, when we first started doing it, it took a little while to get the recipe just right with blending some because you take two things that are individually taste pretty good on their own. And sometimes when you blend them together in certain proportions, it doesn't end up being, you know, greater than the sum of the parts, as they say. And so there is an art to finding that exact proportions where things just come together and produce a whiskey that is harmonious and truly does become greater than some of its parts. I think Patrick Donovan, our head distiller, is really a master at that and something we're doing in the interim. Here in a couple of years, we'll be back into doing 100 percent dry fly whiskey, which I honestly really prefer. And I do prefer it at four or five years old. And so we want to be able to buy ourselves a little time so that we can continue to age what's in our warehouses so that it's ready for market here and we can go out with a four or five year product.

Well, I mean, like you said, the transparency of you guys is just pretty amazing on the back of your bottle. It says distilled in Washington state and Indiana. They're letting everybody know listeners that that's where it's distilled. When I look at your bottle here, there's a saying on the back and I really love it. It says fly fishing is the sport of thinkers, dreamers and whiskey lovers. Um, nobody's quoted that just says it's overheard on the spring Creek. Um, what a great saying.

Yeah, some of the bottles are pretty fun. We've got some great sayings on them. Some of the single barrel offerings that we put out there have a really good paragraph on the back about kind of a parallel between catching that one fish that you talk about for a long time and, and that that bottle is that fish. And, uh, we put that on some of our single barrel offerings that are really, really, uh, truly special.

Yeah. I see the next bottle here. It says a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work. Well, hell, who would agree with that right there? Um, Most kids wouldn't say that because you take your kid fishing and they're like, is it time to go yet? No. And I can see why when I was younger, when I would go fishing, my stepdad, we would go crappie fishing. We would just be yanking them things in just like left and right. And you could catch a stringer of like 50 crappie in a day. And it was great. Um, so the, whenever everybody else says, um, fishing boring or something like that, I'm like, what are you talking about? You know, I grew up as a kid catching fish left and right and stuff. And when I took my kids fishing, um, I just thought great memories with them and they both loved it. You know, you'd take them to a pay lake or like the stock pond or something like that. And they make sure that your kid catches a fish because that's the worst thing that could ever happen to you is your kid not catch a fish and they're bored with fishing. Um, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't tell anybody to take your kid fly fishing.

Yeah. Well, that would be a, that'd be a hard way to go to start out with, but definitely catching is a lot more fun than fishing, I guess. But, uh, we were out last year, uh, on Lake Roosevelt here and, uh, I set him up on the back of the boat and we were trolling along and, and I was, uh, he hadn't caught really fish ever in his life. And I was like, Oh, Please, please, please, let this be the day. And I was watching that poll and it got bent over and he caught about a 13 inch rainbow trout. And I've never seen him so excited. And I know he'll remember that day for the rest of his life. And that's just the best thing in the world right there.

Yeah, I'll tell a little story about my kids. I took my kids fishing at this lake on a military reservation in Virginia. And I played a place called Cheetah Man X and they have these, these lakes there, but they're not stocked. They just have, they're stocked. They got fish in there, but I took both my kids fishing and my son's over there. He's, he's, you know, cast now and he, he just kind of learned how to do that. My daughter, she has her little, uh, pink, you know, Barbie fishing pole with a bobber and she cast it out there. And man, she caught a nice, nice largemouth bass on that thing. And he got so upset about that. Cause the fish he caught was a little bitty. He was like, why can't I catch a fish that big? And I just thought that was the greatest is one of the greatest memories with my kids. The competitive spirit and my kids fishing and stuff and her, she was so little, she might not even remember it. But they both had such a great day that day. And I'd say as a parent, you know, if you're not taking your kids outdoors, and enjoying outdoors with them, you're missing them. It'll be some great memories. And I'm sure you've got some memories like that yourself.

Yeah, my talks are going nuts again. I absolutely, I can remember the first kind of big fish I ever caught with my dad, just out on a little rowboat, a little lake called Silver Lake here. I'll remember that moment till the day I die.

Well, Terry, we got, we got one last whiskey from you and it's your straight wheat whiskey that's cast straight. Um, and like I said before, we reviewed your wheat whiskey. Uh, and I think it was 90 proof is what we reviewed it at. Um, we thought it was a very excellent, gateway whiskey for people to try wheat whiskies. There's not a whole lot of those out there. They are coming on when more people are coming on, but this is a cast strength. And I'm super excited because me and Jim always say, man, you know what that tastes better as cask strength. So I'm excited to taste this one. So tell us about your, your wheat whiskey.

Obviously, on the east side of the state, we're in wheat country. We've had publications that wrote articles about us over the years. They called us the wheat-obsessed distillery. We were one of the first to do a true 100% wheat whiskey. Some of the other wheat whiskies out there, bourbon recipes flipped upside down where wheat's predominant and they have corn and and barley in there. This is 100% soft white winter wheat grown on a farm 30 miles south of here in a place called Rosalia, Washington. And really, wheat's really been our primary go-to grain here at the distillery. And this particular bottling is one of my favorites. And I think it offers some of the greatest bang for the buck in the marketplace. We put whiskey into the barrel at 120 proof here. And we're in a very dry, arid climate on this side of the state. go through the years of aging, we have a lot of loss in terms of water and it really brings the proof up. So we end up, some of these wheat whiskies that we pull out of the barrel house will be 137, 138, 139 proof when we pull them out. And for this offering, we proof it back down its original barrel strength at 120. So we always have a cast-strength offering that's out there. Of course, we do a lot of single barrel picks and other things where the customer wants it bottled at barrel strength. And you'll find some of those out there in a lot of states. And those are really, really interesting, great, great products. And hopefully, we'll be able to share some more of those with you. I know we talked about it a little bit earlier, off show, so to speak. And I definitely want to send some of those offerings to you so you have a chance to experience some of the dry flight goodness of wheat whiskey at 139 Prufer thereabouts.

Man, that sounds delicious. Everybody knows that the Weedy King in Kentucky loves whiskey, Weedy bourbon, just anything with a weed in it. I'm excited to try that. So let's give this sucker a nose. Man, that is like opening a box of fruity pebbles to me right there. Uh, just all those flavors of fruit coming out of floral notes, just rushing forward. I almost get a hint of honeysuckle on that. Some honey. I actually drank some honey tea last night, so maybe I'm getting a little bit of that. A little bit of citrus notes on there.

Citrus, dried apricot maybe.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, cheers. Let's let's taste this sucker. Hmm. So good. So good.

Yeah, I really do like that.

Now, Terry, you might have said what the price on this would be on the ship. What do these run?

The cast strength is basically $49.99 is the price we try and hit market at across the country.

Great price point, by the way. Great price point.

Yeah. You know, it's $10 premium on a regular wheat whiskey. You jump from 90 to 120 proof. And I think you really, I think there's a lot of value there and a lot of enjoyment to be had for, uh, for 50 bucks on that bottle.

Well, when you think $50 for a cast strength, right. Um, and it's a wheat whiskey. Um, when I think of a weeded bourbon, that's high, high proof. I'm thinking of probably, um, maker's mark. cast strength, 46 cast strength, or even their regular cast strength. And those run right around $65. So you're beating them by $15. So well worth the money on this joker right here. Good Lord, is it good? All day long, this is set by the fire, by a campfire. Tell lies about the fish you caught for the day. Cause everybody's got one of those, right?

Absolutely.

But yeah, just a beautiful expression. I definitely could see this after a long day fishing. Take those waders off. You've been fighting a kernel a little bit. Maybe you got out there too far into the river. want to relax. Older guys like me get a little bit of arthritis. This is that perfect arthritis medicine right here. Make those bones stop hurting so much. On the back of this bottle, I've been pondering this question for a minute now. It says, listen to the sound of the river and you will get a trout. I don't know about that one. I don't know about that. What's that mean? Do you know?

You know, that would be from my partner, Don Poffenroth, and I'm not, he's the more avid fly fisherman of the two. And I think that it is some sort of a, sort of, what am I trying to say here? I don't know, some sort of an indication that you should, you know, read the river, you know, become one with the river, listen to the river, and you'll know where to cast your fly kind of message.

Yeah, I could get that. You know, we were talking about it and the photo I took of this has Jim's fly reel in the photo. So what about we give away some whiskey, Terry?

Let's do it.

So what do you, what would you guys be willing to give away if somebody can guess the brand of Jim's reel?

Well, we'd have to give away cast strength, I would think.

Oh, that'd be beautiful. Would you guys be able to throw in a t-shirt and a hat for them too?

Yeah, absolutely. I think we'd love to have some people flying the colors out there, so to speak. So we just got in a bunch of brand new hats that are awesome and we got some great t-shirts and we'll send out a care package and that included Glen Cairn glass in there just for good measure so you can enjoy the whiskey properly.

Man, that would be amazing. So listeners, make sure you're paying attention to this. The first person to tell me what Jim's reel is, the brand of it, in the photo on today's post, we'll get that care package from Dry Fly Whiskey from Terry himself. Make sure you let me know. I'll get your address out to Terry. He is a man of his word. I'll tell you that because he shipped me a whole bunch of whiskey, bunch of flyers, a bunch of stickers that I love. I love stickers and stuff. Uh, dry flight doesn't make a t-shirt big chief size. Um, but tell me what you got.

What is big chief size?

We'll talk about that off air.

Cause unless you're bigger than three X, I can probably get you covered.

So Terry man, thanks for coming on today. We really appreciate you taking a trip down the Bourbon road with us. Where can our listeners, where can they find dry fly and where can they find Terry out on social media?

Well, you can find us at Dry Fly Distilling on Instagram or Facebook. Those are the two social media platforms that we're most active on. By far, if you want to reach out for me directly, just email me at terry at dryflydistilling.com. And I'd love to hear from you guys. And if you're looking for our products out there, then we can generally help steer you towards the right place, depending on where you're at in the country. And we'd love to do so.

So listeners, you know, we have two shows a week. We got our whiskey review that we do on Mondays on craft distilleries, 15 or 20 minutes. It will get you to work. And then on Wednesdays, we have our long show, 30 minutes there, 30 minutes back. We give you great guests like Terry Nichols from dry fly whiskey, but you know all about what expressions they have. So to make sure you don't miss an episode, Go on up on that app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. That app will tell you, Hey, these two jokers got an episode today. What we really need to do, though, is scroll on down, hit that five star review because you know it'll happen if you don't. I'm going to grab my friend, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon. We're going to come over your house with all four bottles of this dry fly whiskey. Man, it's going to be a great night. By the end of the night, you're going to hit that five star review. Guarantee. But seriously, what we really need you to do is give us that five-star review that opens up doors to us, gives us great guests, gives you great content to listen to throughout the week. We would really appreciate it. Make sure you check out our website. You can find our swag on there, our bourbon bullshitter t-shirt, our Glen Caron. We got some other swag on there, hats, some Glen Carons. We have a decanter on there. We got a flask, a coffee cup if you like to put the whiskey in your coffee like we do. Make sure you check out that. We also have some reviews on there that our buddy Adam Boothby helps put them up. You can also check out our articles. I'll be writing a great article about dry fly, whiskey, and kind of fly fishing and my thoughts of what fly fishing really is and my memories of fly fishing. Maybe catching a lure in my ear. those great memories of fishing. So make sure you check out that. Always you can reach out to us. Jim is at Jim at the Bourbon Road on our emails. I'm Mike at the Bourbon Road. Probably the best way to reach out to us, though, is our DMs on Instagram. He's jshanna63. I'm one big chief. And you know what we like to say? We'll see you on down the Bourbon Road.