245. Garrison Brothers Distillery

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

Hey, this is Big Chief from the Bourbon Road. And you know what? This Texas trip is just getting more amazing by the minute. Before we get started with our episode today, you know what you need to go check out is seldom seen maple dot com. This is a small maple farm up in Ohio where they're aging maple syrup in bourbon barrels for six to nine months, extracting that bourbon out of the barrel and putting inside that maple syrup. That way you can pour it in your cocktail. Or if you're a fat guy like me, you can pour it on your waffles or pancakes or chicken waffles like I like. So check them out today. Seldom see maple dot com. All right, listeners, so, you know, I'm on the road for a couple of days in Texas and a red chariot of mine, it found its way down to high Texas and I'm at Garrison Brothers Distillery and we got their master distiller sitting in a big old leather chair with me today, Donis Todd. You're the man, the myth, the legend out here, right? Well, I don't know if I take it that far, but I'm Donnis.

That's almost like a Greek god name. Well, it was the seventies. My mom says that was the best decade ever. So she hung that handle on me.

That's a, that's a great name. First, I want to say thank you for your service. You served in the air force. We really appreciate our veterans out there.

Well, I appreciate your service and thank you. Yeah, but we're here to drink whiskey though, right?

We are. We are. So let's get straight to that whiskey. We've had this on the show before, but tell me what we're drinking first here.

Yeah, we're going to start off with Garrison Brothers Texas straight bourbon whiskey, our small batch. Small batch is the backbone. It's the workhorse of Garrison Brothers and it's really how it all starts for me. every day that our entire lineup is all based off of my small batch bourbon. And the reason is because I still hand select every single barrel. Almost every day I'm out in the barns tasting barrels and I'm looking for 50 to 55 barrels to marry together to support small batch bourbon. It is a vintage strategy. We're getting you and I are enjoying some of the 2022. This is batch 2022-4. I'll make around 100 batches this year. I picked 50 to 55 barrels every time we got a clipboard full of POs. So hope you enjoy it. What did you say the mash bill was again? The mash bill for everything that we're going to enjoy is 74% corn, 15% wheat, 11% barley malt. All the grains are right here from Texas. We actually have relationships with the farmers that grow the grains for us. And our corn is all white corn.

Any special wheat there?

So we use a two row red soft winter wheat, which, you know, a lot of distillers do. The reason it's special to me is I know the folks that grow it. I know the sacrifices they make and it means something that it's, you know, it's grown by people that I know. I, I, I'm going to do better with it because I'm not buying it off of commodities market. I'm buying it folks that I get a Christmas card from.

Yeah. Real farmers out there trying to make a real living, right? That's right. Just regular old Americans. You got to kind of love that steel that we still have that in America today.

Yeah, you know, it just, it means something to me. It means something to Garrison Brothers that, you know, we have a relationship, uh, with, with the folks that are involved with our, with our business. And we truly believe that, yeah, this is beautiful, enjoyable liquid in the glass, but it's really just a result of amazing friendships that we've built over the last couple of decades. Now, can you explain to our listeners what two row means? Yeah. So, I mean, it's just the actual grain. When you're looking at it, there's different strands of, you know, there's all different types of trees and there's all different types of wheat and different types of mazes. So we use a two row. So, you know, if you could visualize or, you know, picture in your mind the head of the wheat, there's two rows of seeds there.

Man, when I'm nosin' this, I get that. You ever been to Cabela's and they have that kettle corn up there just cookin' and you can smell that? Almost like a burnt toffee. It smells so beautiful. I've drank this several times before. That's no surprise. You know, it's weeded. So I absolutely love it. But the nose on this is just fantastic. A little bit of smokiness there I could get from like maybe maybe that campfire smoke s'mores and stuff. But that kettle corn cooking, that's my biggest thing with it. Yep.

It's a pretty heavy mash mill at 74%. That is a pretty heavy corn ratio, but those corn oils, it really comes through. You get that warm butter, that caramel, that popcorn. It's really coming through there. That 15% wheat, I'm a big weeder myself. I love the sweetness that it brings not only as you knows it, but to the front of your palate. And, you know, it really holds it all together right through the middle of the palate. And then our Texas heat here, just amazing extraction from our custom barrels that are toasted and then charred. Great white American oak that's yard seasoned, you know, for anywhere from 24 to 36 months. And then you do a really heavy toast on that and then you char it. And at the molecular level, we've really changed that white American oak. And then our intense Texas heat, we get to enjoy that extraction. So hope you hope you enjoy it. Cheers. Cheers.

That's just yumminess in a glass right there that you're right about that corn. It does have that sweet corn taste cheese to make this corn. It's like almost a corn pudding. And I kind of get that out of that cheese package you take. I guess it's a sweet corn. I don't know what that is. Cream corn. And you pour it in that mixed almost little cornmeal and it kind of spoons out. But I get that right there. I'm not supposed to eat that anymore as an older guy, but it's still good. I don't care who you are. That, that caramel corn, I was talking about cracker jacks, any of that it's in that glass right there.

You know, and that's just something that I just love about Bourbon, about Garrison Brothers Bourbon is what I call positive associations. So you just had three or four of them just from a nose and a taste. of a bourbon that's just made in high Texas. And there's something special about that. Those positive associations just puts you back at a different time and you get to draw on those experiences when you're having a new experience. And that's pretty powerful.

Well, to be honest, Donnis, this is not my first experience with the, with Gears and Brothers because I've emptied several bottles of it before. You guys have always been kind to the bourbon road. Dan and Blake your your PR guy, man They've always been great and it's nice to finally come out here and see what it's all about You know, I'm a Texas boy. So I get the Texas dry heat And we're here in the kind of winter time and everything is that's the dry time really here but in the Texas heat though, I could see those barrels just cooking and

Yeah, this week is a perfect example. We had a low of 17. The wind was blowing. They said it felt like five. It felt miserable to me. I didn't need a number on it. And this Friday, it's going to be 70 degrees. So in a week period, we went from something that feels like five and it was 17 to 70 degrees. So that's an amazing cycle inside the 25,000 barrels that we have aging here on the ranch.

A lot of people, you know, try to compare ages of different regions. And I always say that's unfair, right? It would be like comparing a Scotch to a bourbon. The two ages and stuff, right? Because what's it take to make a good Scotch? 18, 30 years to make a Kentucky bourbon. Jimmy Russell would say eight to twelve for a Texas whiskey. What would you be your age on that?

Yeah, I'd have to add some variables in there. You know, I have to add, are we talking about my 15 gallon barrels or are we talking about my 53 gallon barrels? Because we get into that surface ratio. So, you know, at that 15 gallon barrel, I'm, you know, I love it at four years old. I hate them at eight. It tastes like a soggy toothpick, wet grass. I'm not into that stuff. I'm into the sweet corn. beautiful caramel, vanilla, chocolate sauce, long lingering depth. I'm not into soggy toothpicks and wet grass.

You're not on chewing on somebody's shoe, so.

No, I'm just not into it. Yeah, I don't think anybody's that. My 53 gallon barrels, I... I want them to be in there a little longer. So for here, it depends on the barrel size that we're talking about. And I agree. I don't think it's fair to say, oh, four years in Texas is one year in Kentucky or one month in Scotland. The big picture, that doesn't really matter. We're here to make the best bourbon we can in the environment that we get to make it in, the people we're blessed to make it with, with the raw ingredients available to us. we set out to make the best bourbon we can, and we try to make better bourbon every day. So sour mash, sweet mash, which one is it? This is sweet mash. I have no setback.

And so sweet mash, the great Dr. Pat Heist would always say for our listeners out there, our new listeners that just come on, because everybody's heard me say this before, is that sweet mash, what that'll do for a whiskey, it doesn't give you that great burn in your chest that a lot of people are scared of, right?

So sweet mash and sour mash have different flavor profiles on different palates without a doubt. And for me on my palate, the reason that I'm a big sweet mash person is it is more enjoyable from front to back. And that long lingering finish is more enjoyable for my palate than if I make a mash using setback or sour mash. If I'm taking some of those wet distillers grain, a percentage of them and adding it to that next batch to let it ferment, the esters change in that fermentation cycle and it comes through the distillate and then it ends up in the barrel and it ends up in my glass. And for my palate, it's just not as enjoyable. And like I've said a couple of times, you know, I'm here to make the best bourbon I can, try to make better bourbon every day. and Sweet Mash was our recipe to accomplish that goal. We didn't have a hundred plus years of, there's some cool taglines out there. Hey, a little bit of our very first batch from 18 blah, blah, blah is in this batch. We didn't have that. We started 15 years ago. We didn't have the a batch. We didn't need to do setback. With today's technology, all stainless steel, the ability to keep everything sanitized and clean and monitor our pH, we just didn't need it. And it's more enjoyable on my palate if it's a sweet base. mash.

Yeah, I dig sweet mashes. Everything has its place, I think. But I think for a sweet mash, more people would enjoy it if they're a new whiskey drinker. And I would always try to steer them that way and say, hey, this might be a bourbon. that you want to try if your new whiskey drinker is not so hard on your palate, right? Where this still has a little bit of spice to it, that white pepper spice that I like, not overpowering to you, where it doesn't kill that sweetness out, if you get what I'm saying.

Yeah, without a doubt. And I'm on your side. All I make is sweet mash, so I want everyone drinking sweet mash. But I do agree with you that it is a little more enjoyable for most palates and that, you know, this isn't, you know, weeded bourbons are typically a little sweeter on the front. But, you know, for Garrison Brothers, you know, it's still really important to know that you have a bourbon in your hand, uh, on the nose and on the palate. So yeah, there's some spice in there, maybe not the Texas spice that were, uh, that people may associate with, with Texas, but there's definitely the white pepper, you know, uh, so, you know, those floral notes can be spicy on some sensitive palates and even a cinnamon can be spicy on certain palates.

Well, heck, what's the next whiskey yet for us?

So we're going to take a step to one of my newest releases, which is Guadalupe. And as I'm out there in the barns tasting barrels to support small batch bourbon, I come across barrels that on my palate have a lot of pork characteristics. They have that raspberry, that cinnamon, that chocolate sauce, that caramel, things that I enjoy in a port. And why not highlight those? Why not bring those a little closer to the front of the palette so more folks can enjoy it and have those great positive associations. So Guadalupe is a beautiful four to six year old bourbon that I finished for a couple of years in port barrels that I source to highlight what I'm putting in there. I'm not introducing anything new. I'm only using that second barrel to highlight what I already taste so more pallets can enjoy it. I didn't want it to get a little dirty, a little earthy, so I kept it at 107 proof. Didn't add water to it after it left that port barrel. It keeps it really fresh and it's really enjoyable.

I'm geeking out just a little bit right now because we've had several listeners try to give me a bottle of this. And I had this trip in mind and I was like, man, maybe I'll get to drink it. What down there? So I said, I'm going to wait. I'm going to wait. I've seen everybody talk about it. I've seen everybody review it. It has hit the rounds, right? Yeah. That's whiskey nerds love it. Um, but I haven't personally got tasted. So I'm pretty excited about this right here.

All right. I'm excited too. You know, it never gets old being someone's first. So salute.

Cheers. That same nose, but just a little bit more there that that floral notes are coming out in this. Maybe you know that you probably around the same age as us and that potpourri that was big in the eighties, early nineties and stuff. I get that in this glass a little bit.

Yeah, so do I for sure. The floral really sets the stage for your palette. You're going to see that transition and it it's so well balanced from the nose to the finish. And that's really important when you're finishing bourbons, you know, when you're, when you're going to, manipulate that bourbon and by infusion or by a second barrel, the balance is so important that it doesn't get broken up. And I think Guadalupe is just really balanced from what you get on the nose to that long lingering finish.

Cheers.

Cheers.

All those same characteristics, a little bit more leathery, a little bit more drying on that back end, maybe coming from that port finish.

Yeah, the port's going to just crisp it up a little bit for sure.

I like it. Not so much spice on that though as you would have on your regular Garrison Brothers.

Correct. So when I'm out there tasting those barrels for the small batch bourbon within a vintage, within a year, I'm being very consistent in the barrels that I'm selecting and marrying together to keep all the bottles we released that year within small batch all the same. And when I'm doing that, so if I come across those barrels that doesn't have that, white pepper that you, you spoke of on the, on the small batch, but it does have, you know, some of those poor characteristics. So those barrels didn't go into small batch. They ended up being dumped and then finished in a wet poor barrel.

Awesome. I mean, I absolutely love this. I can see why everybody else loves it. Great, great proof on this at a hundred and seven. Um, I think whiskey drinkers like me are looking for that, that little higher proof. Uh, we're American whiskey drinkers are not accustomed anymore to that a 90, right? Uh, we're always looking for that. I hate to say this, but one on one or higher. Yeah.

Well, you know, and, uh, that really excites me as, you know, a craftsman is that the flavor always should overpower the proof. If it's ever the other way, was a mistake. So everything we're going to taste from 94 proof all the way up to 131 proof cowboy, the flavor overpowers the proof. And as bourbon drinkers experience more and more of that, they're going to seek higher and higher proofs because there's so much flavor and the water's not changing it. You're actually getting to experience what the distiller got to experience right when it came from the barrel. So you're literally standing in the barn with me because I haven't altered it. I haven't watered it down. I haven't filtered it. I haven't changed it. And I can't have you all in my barn with me. So this is the next best thing is that representation of right out of the barrel. Why did you go with this color of wax right here? So it pops on the back bar. We have what we call the Garrison Brothers rainbow, and we're very, very proud of our lineup. But every single release, every new product has its own color wax. And that copper color was just, it just makes me feel like I'm in the still house. It just kind of those colors, how beautiful that, that bourbon is, how dark and rich it is. And then with that copper just pops and you know, we spend a lot of time standing around big copper stills.

So it, to me, um, it's a little bit of burnt orange there, that Texas sunset, um, super beautiful. If you've ever seen a long horn, this color right here, Super pops. I love it. I love the color. Obviously your bottles are some of the most beautiful bottles in America with the civil work on there, the banding and stuff. I just, I really dig it. You can't get much better than these right here. I just, man, I'm in awe just driving out here. You know, we're me and my brother skipping along down highway 281 doing about 90 miles an hour. We're kind of running down memory lane and being him because we grew up running these roads and hoping we don't bump into any of our kids or something we don't know about out there. But driving up here to the distillery, I was just simply amazed. You guys are like the makers mark of Texas out here. You're not near the city. You're out on a ranch. Two different aspects of distilleries, right? So the Maker's Mark of Texas, that's what I'm telling you.

That's an amazing statement. That's a hell of a compliment. Dan Garrison, our founder, who you've had a chance to spend some time with, he crawled all over Maker's Mark years and years ago. You know, about 20 years ago, he crawled all over it. And, you know, he walked away from the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and said, I can do this in Texas. And, you know, I've heard him say it a thousand times before we before we even got started was that, you know, I want to do Maker's Mark, we're just going to have to be a little smaller. You know, so for you to make that comment means a ton to us because it's been our founder's vision. And, you know, it takes a lot more than just a vision, but you have to have that vision. And, you know, you've got to follow that with passion and dollars.

So, well, you go in there, you know, show up here and we go into your bottling room and very special to be to see your fans, your people that drink your whiskey, want to come in and help you out just to have that connection with you. They're volunteers, really.

Yes, sir. All of Garrison Brothers bottles are all hand-dipped by volunteers two days of what we call work. And, you know, so every two days we get 20 to 25 new volunteers here to help us bottle our bourbon. These are avid fans. No matter where I go, people come up to me and say they know exactly the bottle range number they got the bottle, what skew it was. They are avid fans. We kind of get our hooks in them after they come and spend two days with us.

Yeah, a lot of veterans in there too. I walked in there and a lot of them are thanking me for my service and stuff. How would one of our listeners go about getting on that deal right there?

Hey, just jump on the Garrison Brothers website, garrisonbros.com, and scroll on down to the bottom where you can sign up to be a future Texas bourbon bottler. And we make you sign your life away, a couple warnings, and we ask if you really want to come hang out with a couple of rednecks and bottle bourbon. If you check yes, you go into the pool, a future bottlers and if we have a generator that randomly selects about 500 people, you know, monthly and you answer the email and you're signed up. You're allowed to sign yourself and one other person up. We ask for two days and we feed you breakfast and lunch. And after your two days, we give you a little go bag to enjoy on the way home or when you get home.

Oh, and I'm imagining they get to sip on something while they're here.

We definitely do that. After they're done bottling? No, no, not after. Forget that. So we get started about nine o'clock in the morning after some, you know, some type of breakfast casserole or some breakfast tacos, whatever the chefs put together for us. So a little after nine, we'll get started and we start right off with a quality control shot to my knowledge. I've been making Dan and Charlie's bourbon for him for a little over 15 years. To my knowledge, I haven't released any bad bourbon and I don't want to start. So about every 30 minutes, I have all the volunteers do a quality control shot just to make sure I don't ever release any bad bourbon. So, you know, little, little taste every 30 minutes just ensures that it's good quality Texas straight bourbon whiskey that most pilots are going to enjoy. I would be covered in wax.

It would be a horror scene right there. I'd be burning up from that wax and stuff, but it was amazing to see them doing that. If you've ever seen the movie Elf and all the little elves in there working, they're just the happiest little elves and they're just dipping bourbon bottles, just going to town on it. I love to see that. I love to see other whiskey drinkers with that passion that I have. And it shows that you guys are very compassionate about the people that are drinking your whiskey and giving back to that community of whiskey nerds out there.

For sure. We have this amazing platform and we get to use it in many different ways. I have so many positive takeaways from having the opportunity to make bourbon for Dan and Charlie, but something that I never even dreamed of, I never thought of, it never crossed my mind. But some of the most positive takeaways have happened around that bottling table. It's just amazing the people that I've had an opportunity to bottle bourbon with and get to know. And I mean, from from astronauts to, you know, to homemakers and everything in between, it's really been amazing.

That's that's pretty amazing. Before we before we finish up this first half and we got a second half with some amazing stuff going to happen here at this table. Big guys kind of like what we're about to do. But, you know, I want to kind of go from where did you go? You were in the Air Force, right? And how long did you serve?

I spent 10 years in the United States Air Force. A lot of people, that's a career, right? Yeah, I was just right at that spot where I had to make that decision. My grandfather always was tinkering with stills. I grew up around stills. I always had the passion that I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I just had to find the right fit. I come from a big military family. and joined the United States Air Force. I don't regret a minute of it. It was a great decade of my life, but it's the sacrifices that the families have to make for all of our men and women who serve our country really gets overlooked and I'm a big old guy, but I'm really not that tough. And when my little boy, Cal, was begging me not to leave and when I was going to be back, it was time for me to follow my true passion, which was to make bourbon. And I seeked Dan and Charlie Garrison out and they didn't know it, that they were going to hire me. It took me a little bit to convince them, but I literally just showed up on their doorstep and told them who I was and told them I was going to make their bourbon for them. And it happened just like that. It took about six months of me, uh, kind of freelancing and harassing Dan, but, uh, he says I tricked them. I say he finally came around to his senses, but, uh, we still have that same argument 15 years later. So well, I'd say he made a damn wise decision. You're on my side.

I like it right now. Dan, I know you're going to listen to this. We should, you should double Donnis's pay is what you should do. Uh, he deserves it. Uh, maybe give a little bit to Blake for setting all this up, but,

There we go. Sounds good to me.

Yeah. It's a win-win is what I call that. I like win-wins. As long as I get to still drink your whiskey. I mean, I guess that's what well, listeners on the second half, we're going to come back. We're going to drink a third, a third bourbon that you guys have, and then we'll drink a cocktail. And there's this little bitty barbecue joint down the road from you guys. I think there's some of that in the room. I can smell it. Oh yeah, we're going to tear that up. We'll go eat some barbecue and we're going to pair that with a cocktail from here at Garrison Brothers. So stick with us. We'll be right back. Listeners, you know what I love? I love making it old fashioned. But instead of using simple syrup, I like to use maple syrup. And the best kind of maple syrup you can use is from seldom seen farms up in Ohio. It's a six to nine months in bourbon barrels. It takes that flavor out of there, meshes with that maple syrup. It is just some goodness in a bottle and stuff. They were actually the two thousand twenty one grand champion of the Maple Festival, you're not going to get much better than that. They got all other kinds of products. You can order it by the case of 12 bottles. That's how I roll. You know, I eat a lot of pancakes, eat a lot of waffles, eat a lot of chicken and waffles. We make a lot of cocktails, and that's what me and Jim like to use in our cocktails. They've got some cotton candy that they spin out of this. They also have some bourbon maple candles. You can get all kinds of stuff at their website. Hell, they even sell some buttermilk pancake mix to go along with that maple syrup. So check them out. It's seldom seen maple dot com. Tell them the Bourbon Road sent you. This is a family owned and operated maple farm. He's in that season right now where he's extracting that maple. sap out of those trees. He's got about 2,500 of them. He takes them into his big old cookhouse there, cooks it down, bottles it up and sends it out to us. It doesn't get much better than that. Like I said, family owned and operated up in Ohio, seldom seen maple dot com. All right, listeners, we are back and it's about to go down right here in this little room. So, Donnis, we got a whiskey in our glass. What do we got right here?

All right. We're getting ready to enjoy some Garrison Brothers Texas straight bourbon whiskey, Cowboy Bourbon. And Cowboy Bourbon is a cast strength, unfiltered, expression. This is the seventh vintage that I put together, which is our 2021 Cowboy 131 proof. And what Cowboy bourbon is, is when I'm out there in the barns tasting barrels to support small batch bourbon, I come across what I call my piggy banks. Remember when you're a little kid, you wanted to figure out how much money you had, you grab your piggy bank and shake it. By now you all figured out I never really grew up. I'm still shaking stuff to figure out how much I got. So when I'm out there tasting the barrels for a small batch bourbon, I come across barrels that are almost completely empty. And I tagged those as my piggy banks and I don't taste them right then and there. I don't know if you've ever licked a Kool-Aid packet, but when I was a young child, I did. I love orange Kool-Aid and I love my mom's orange Kool-Aid. About eight or nine years old, I looked over on the green Femica countertop and I saw the aluminum foil ripped open and I saw those orange sparkles. And by now you figured out I'm not real bright, but I was like, hmm, I love orange Kool-Aid. It must've came from that. That has to be amazing. And I licked the damn Kool-Aid packet. It about ruined orange Kool-Aid for me. And my cowboy bourbon barrels are just like that, those piggy banks. Right then and there, I got a job to do. It's a really good job, but I got to find 50 to 55 barrels to marry together to produce small batch bourbon. And everyone's always waiting on me to put more bourbon together for a small batch. We're truly blessed. So I don't taste those piggybacks right then. I just round them all up, put them over in the corner, and then wait a couple of more years and start tasting my way through those. And all those flavors that should be dispersed over 15 gallons or 30 gallons or 53 gallons are concentrated, condensed down to one or two gallons. I marry all those piggy banks together and I don't do anything else. It goes into a bottle, into your glass. So this is as close as you're ever going to get with taste and barrels right out in the barrel barn with me. And even though it flirts with hazmat up there in those 130, 140 proof range, I still firmly believe that the flavor overpowers the proof. And this is just going to be delicious with what we're getting ready to dig into. Well,

First, your package, you must have had that rich kind of Kool-Aid, because ours doesn't have no sugar in it. I don't know if you've ever tasted Kool-Aid without sugar before. It's not the best taste and stuff in the world.

I set a damn near ruined orange Kool-Aid for me. Yeah, it blew my palate out. It was so intense, and it was not what I was thinking. Yeah, that gallon that my mom made with the two cups of sugar added to it and the good old well water, that's what made it real good. It wasn't those orange sparkles on that aluminum foil. Did it make you feel like you were going to go to space? Oh, man. Yeah. I don't know where I was headed, but I knew, uh, no, I wasn't, I didn't do it twice.

Let's just say that. I think we both been there before for sure. Yes. Well, already nosing this thing is just, it's like walking into a candy store, right? Um, Oh, buttered toffee right there. Um, I could go, go on and on about the, the complexities of the, just the nose of this, um, you know, cooking caramel, It's just so much of that just cooking sweetness and stuff. Walking into a cinnamon bun store, right? It's all there.

Yeah, it has a real sticky bun, not only aroma, but on your palate.

Yeah, that cinnamon's in there a little bit. Mitch is in here, my little brother. He's been on a podcast before. He's about to tear up some barbecue over here. But we'll drink this first, the cowboy. I got the s'mores on there that, you know, that graham cracker toasted.

It doesn't drink 131 though to me. And, and that's, that's what I want to hear. I love hearing the toasted marshmallow and sticky bun and cinnamon bomb. Those are fun. Those are good, positive associations for people. But the, big takeaway for me is the flavor overpowers the proof. And when you know that Guadalupe at 107 or the Balmora at 115 or cowboy up there 130, 140 proof, when people consistently say, well, it doesn't drink like that. then your flavor overpowers your proof and you know you're doing it right.

Now you new listeners out there just started drinking whiskey, just started listening to us. I do not believe this is a whiskey for a brand new whiskey drinker. You get a year into it, two years into it. I think this is probably that range you might be able to handle. You kind of got to work your way to this because a lot of people would drink this and be like, Oh my God, this just took my britches off. But if you've been drinking for whiskey for a couple of years and you want to try something that's very exceptional, This is it right here, the cowboy. And it will pair perfectly with because of the sweetness with some beef, right? With some ranch style beans we're about to eat up. But such a beautiful expression of whiskey, Donnas. I just, I got to compliment you on this. I would put this right here. And I don't think I've ever had the cowboy before. I'd put this right up there in my top five of weeded bourbons all time right here.

Well, thank you. It's really special to us. Cowboy bourbon really put us on the map and we're truly blessed that we get to make bourbon every day. the cowboy, I don't make a bunch of it, you know, and, but like you said, it's not a starter bourbon. You know, this is someone who knows the proper way to nose bourbon and taste bourbon and has had an opportunity to enjoy a lot of different bourbons and that their palate has really grown over, you know, that experience of tasting different bourbons. This, you know, if cowboy was the first bourbon you ever had, you may not ever have bourbon again, but if it's, something that you worked yourself up to, it's probably the last one you'll ever want. And I tell folks all the time, I meet people every day that have a bad bourbon story. And every day, I'm giving people a good bourbon story. And that doesn't get old.

I would tell you, my listeners out there, our listeners, that if you can't get your hands on a bottle of Pappy or one of those special weeded bourbons out there, seek out a craft distillery. Seek out Gerson Brothers. Seek out a bottle of this right here. And you might just be surprised that'll blow the doors off some of that stuff. And that's come from me that loves Weller foolproof, what loves Weller. I love Baker's Mark, their bottle finish, you know, their cast drink finishes and stuff like that. But this right here is just heavenly, heavenly. The Weedy King of Kentucky has put a stamp on this right here. All right, for sure. Well, you know, Blake, drove down the road. It's it's almost an hour drive over to a little bitty place called the Salt Lake. It's a little bit famous right here in Texas, right? Yeah.

If, if, if you like barbecue and, uh, you want true, some true Texas barbecue, you need to find your way to the Salt Lake.

Now, when you think of barbecue, Donest, um, you're, you're from Ohio, right? From Ohio, but you've been down here for quite a bit of time right now, right? I have. Um, and you think Texas barbecue, what's the two meats that you usually think of?

So if I'm going to, as you can see, no one else can, I'm definitely not the two meat plate guy. I'm more of the three or four meat plate guy. But if I was only going to do a two meat plate, I've kind of eyeballed the place a little bit. I don't usually go in anywhere I'm going to eat. I'm not going in blind. I'm pretty serious about what my grub. But no matter what, I'm getting the brisket. That's the benchmark. I'm putting everybody's brisket. you know, against my brisket. That's what we do. And, uh, that second meat is going to be a little bit of research I've done or eyeballing the place. Uh, but typically you're going to be sausage, you know, uh, is, uh, you know, the, the German heritage here, uh, in the Texas Hill country, you know, the, the, they make some amazing sausage because they, they, they, they process that, uh, you know, maybe the pig or the cow or the divinus and the deer, and that these folks make their own sausage. And, you know, and that's just a whole other level from where I grew up is, you know, most of these folks that are serving you sausage, they're literally making the sausage. And I almost always go with a brisket and a sausage.

And a lot of people don't realize here in Texas that right down the road here, there's two famous towns. Um, as we're driving in, me and my little brother are talking about it. And I actually asked Blake about this. There's Luke in Bach, Texas. It's to me, it's world famous. And then me and him were talking about it. I was like, maybe not everybody knows that song has heard of it. Maybe that's not famous to them. Maybe it's just us that it's famous for, right?

Yeah. You know, Not disagreeing. I'm sure there's a lot of people that maybe never heard the song and don't know anything about Lucanbach, Texas, but you go over there on a Saturday, you think the whole world knows about it. You know, thousands of cars a day go through there. I mean, it's it and it's in the middle of nowhere. It is it's not much, but it's Lucanbach.

I got to say, there's actually three famous places right in this area. And really for now, high Texas put on a map by you guys. But Fredericksburg was one of the largest German settlements in America when it was founded. A lot of people don't know that, and that's how Texas got its sausage making. You know, you go to Texas barbecue and you'll see sausage, right? You'll see it everywhere. Some people think that's a little weird. They're like, barbecue and sausage, you know, don't really go together. But that's kind of how Kielbasa is, that's kind of how it came about and stuff is Fredericksburg, Texas. And then you got Johnson City, obviously is famous for LBJ, right? Lyndon B. Johnson, his wife, Lady Bird. And then, yeah, I forgot about it. I mean, we're talking about Fredericksburg, but one of the greatest things to us as military veterans is Admiral Nimitz is from Fredericksburg, Texas. That's right. Pretty great American right there. Yeah. So a little road trip down Texas history there for you and why this area is so special. A lot of wine here too though, so good Lord. I don't know how many winers there are, but let's get to this brisket right here. But first, Blake made us some cocktails, or somebody made us cocktails. You heard their bartenders, Blake's saying, made the cocktails for us. What kind of cocktail is this?

So we call this a John Daly. It's good old Texas straight bourbon whiskey, small batch, so our 94 proof, what we started our afternoon off with. And it's got equal parts of iced tea and lemonade. So, you know, almost everyone's heard, you know, now I gotta be careful saying that because I think everyone knows a Luchenbach, but about everyone's heard of an Arnold Palmer, which is iced tea and lemonade. And so we took an Arnold Palmer. we put bourbon in it and it made us think of John Daly because he usually had bourbon inside him. So we call it a John Daly because it's an honored Palmer with some good old bourbon in it.

I mean, if I drink this all day long, I could drive the golf ball 500 yards too.

Yeah. I'm thinking you could probably already hit it 354 hundred. You're a pretty big old boy. So we get you fueled with some John Daly's. I think you're flirting with driving the par fives.

I'm going to pick up some new wives along the way. So we right in front of us from the Salt Lake, like I said, if you haven't been there, you got to go. They got an amazing looking pit when you go in there where all the meat is resting and stuff and open fire briskets laying out there, sausage hanging. It's an amazing site, amazing smells. It's a BYOB, so you can come to Gears and Brothers, grab some whiskey, and you can walk in that place and pour your own whiskey, right?

That's right. And it never gets old. We do it about once a week, so it's BYOB. And you're right, that pit just takes you back. It's probably one of the most photographed barbecue pits in the world. What always makes me happy is every time I see one of those posts on social media, there's a 15-gallon whiskey barrel sitting there that they knock the top out of that they keep their mop in, what they're keeping all those ribs sauced with. And that's a used Garrison Brothers barrel. Years and years ago, the Salt Lake aged some of their traditional barbecue sauce in some of our barrels, and then they turned them into decor around, and so it's always fun to see that barrel. Amazing.

I know for a fact they have lemonade, they have sweet tea over there, so you can make your own John Daly with your whiskey from Garrison Brothers that you came here and picked up. So that's something that you want to do. We gave you all that right there in one little Texas road trip. There's some great little Airbnbs around here, some VRBOs, air, whatever bed and breakfasts you can stay at. But we're going to tear this up for a minute to give us a break. So, listener, we just, like, I don't know if you could say sucked down or inhaled some brisket, some sausage, some German potato salad that has no mustard in it or no mayonnaise, some ranch style beans as I like to call them. Is that what you'd call them too, ranch style beans? Yes, sir. Man, we were talking the other day, I could have just eaten either a can of ranch style beans.

Yeah, I'm sure all three of us have done it.

That's high living right there.

That's right. And I bet all three of us have done it right out of the can.

Yeah, that's the only way to do it actually. In the middle of the night, about two o'clock in the morning, that's the way I like to do it. Um, but we, we finished, we drained our cocktails. I did anyways. Uh, and it's a dangerous car. I noticed you drained yours too. Oh yeah. They don't last long. Yeah. We're sitting here telling the stories about your bottlers and stuff and some dancing that's going on out there. Uh,

Yeah, that John Dahlia sneak up on you. It's equal parts iced tea, lemonade, and bourbon. It's an easy drinker, so it'll have you dancing in no time.

Well, it paired perfectly with barbecue. Sweet tea and barbecue go together anyways. You know, we had brisket from Salt Lake, sausage from Salt Lake, beans and potato salad. Um, no bread needed on this. It was served on a, it looks like a giant pecan log to me. Um, which is even more amazing. Uh, drinking this John Daley made with your guys's bourbon, uh, iced tea and lemonade. What a day, what a day it's been out here. Your team is phenomenal. Um, I love it. What's a gear some brothers got coming down the pike does there anything special coming down the pike?

There is, I've been, I've been working the last decade or so on, uh, on some different finishing, uh, and our honeydew bourbon, which is, uh, barrels that on my palette have a natural wildflower floral subtle honey notes. We turn it into our honeydew bourbon. I infused the, that bourbon with Burleson's Texas organic wildflower honey, and we bottle it at 80 proof. So when it's still at cast strength after the infusion I've been taking that bourbon and filling cognac barrels and letting those cognac barrels with that cast-strength honeydew rest out in barrel barn pavo and It is the next thing coming down the pike. It is a it's a mouthful. It is a honey infused cast-strength cognac finished bourbon and And it is worth trying to fight saying all that because it is special. Good Lord. Um, I think we should go.

I think we should. Uh, I see Mitch over there just shaking. He's sucking down as John Daley. Yeah. He getting his cup ready. Yeah. He's getting his cup ready. Uh, we'll go do that stuff. Uh, I just can't wait for that stuff. Those, those, as you guys like to say, those busy little Texas bees, um, that have been, uh, sucking down some blue bonnet flowers. Um, if people don't know their listeners out there, blue bonnet flower is the Texas flower. a little more Texas history for you. That's right. Making that honey for that bourbon. And this is going to be a special one. And you said cast strength, right? It is. Oh, man.

Yeah, it is cast strength. Not to beat a dead horse, but it's something special when you can elevate that alcohol content, but the flavor really masks it. It's fun to release those high-proof releases and people are blown away. It never gets old when people say, oh, it doesn't drink like that.

Well, Donnis, I really appreciate you letting us come to Gerson Brothers. You treated us so amazingly. I always talk about that as My experience coming to the distillery is how I think a tourist would get come in a whiskey drinker. I get to actually look out the window here and I see people on tour and they're just finished their tours up. I don't know if they drank a lot of bourbon on tour, but all I see out there is smiles. That's a good thing. So thank you so much. Blake, thank you. Me and Mitch can't thank you enough for letting us come in. I know Jim has missed out on his Texas trip and he's probably regretting it, but I'm going to make him some John Daly when we get back and put a big old smile on his face and he'll be saying thank you too. Where can we find Garrison Brothers at on social media online?

Yeah. So the, you know, start with the, uh, start with the garrison brothers website, which is, uh, uh, garrison bros.com. And of course, you know, uh, Blake works really, really hard to have, uh, you know, a constant flow of great Facebook and Instagram and Twitter stuff. So, but, uh, I would start at garrison bros.com.

All right, we'll get our listeners to check you guys out. Follow you on Instagram. Follow you on all your social media. I don't know if you guys are on TikTok. They got you dancing through the barrel house. That'd be pretty amazing.

Yeah, I don't know. That's the guy to that, you know. As you probably already figured out, you know, that's, that's not me. I spent a lot of times in the barns and I do dance. Uh, but, uh, you know, that, that next step that's up to Blake.

I climbed on a Buffalo yesterday. So if I can do that, you can do almost anything. Oh yeah. Um, people probably wonder how I got up there, but I just hop right on up there. well once again thank you listeners you can find us on tiktok instagram facebook youtube oh man did i miss anything i'm trying to think we're not on twitch or anything like that the main place you can find us is on facebook we got a private facebook group called the bourbon roadies check it out 2500 people strong and growing every day three rules to get in there are you 21 do you like bourbon i can't imagine anybody not loving bourbon and do you agree to play nice because as we've said before if you drink from the very bottom of that shelf to the very top of it We want you to be inclusive in there. Be nice. If you want to celebrate a birth, a death of a family member that loved whiskey and say, hey, raise a glass of this person's life, we want you to do that. If you're retiring, if you are getting promoted, whatever it is, we want to be a celebration of life. Celebration with whiskey, that's what we're all about. Um, before we go any further, um, garrison brothers through the bourbon road, we're going to do a whole big old, um, bottle of their garrison brothers whiskey with a t-shirt and a glass. Um, what you got to do is noon time as you got to follow the You got to follow Garrison Brothers. You got to follow the Bourbon Road. And what you have to do is tell me the famous admiral from this town right here, from this area. Tell me that famous admiral's name on Instagram, on our post. his entire name, his rank, his first name and his last name. Um, and you'll win that giveaway from us through garrison brothers. Thank you guys for giving us that bottle. Um, we do two shows a week. We do our review and then we do our long show with great people like Donnis from garrison brothers. Um, but the way to figure out how that shows coming out is you need to scroll on up to that app. Hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. That'll let you know that show's coming out. The next thing we need you to do is scroll on down. Hit that five star review. Leave us some comments. Those comments, those reviews help us get into distilleries. It gets great whiskeys in our hands. It lets us give you great content. You know what's going to happen if you don't, right? The big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come knocking on your door. He's going to have arms full of this Garrison Brothers whiskey. We're going to drink all night long. By the end of the night, you're going to be pushing that five star review. You're going to be typing away with some comments. But seriously, those five star reviews get us in these doors and we really appreciate them. So it'll help us out. We want you to check out our website, TheBurbanRoad.com. We got our swag on there. The Burban Bullshitter T-shirt. I'm actually wearing one right now. You want this shirt right here. We also have our Bourbon Road shirt on there. We have some flask. We have some Glen Carons. We got all kinds of stuff. We'd appreciate you buy that. We are a veteran owned and operated business, a podcast. That's what gets us down the Bourbon Road. That's what allowed me to come to Texas and drink whiskey. So we'd appreciate that purchase. We also have our articles on there. I'll be writing a great article about this right here, the Salt Lick and a recipe for the John daily drink. So you want to check that out. Um, best way to reach out to us is probably our emails. He's Jim at the bourbon road. I'm Mike at the bourbon road. We'd appreciate that. Our website, you can contact us on there. If you've got a story in your backyard, you want us to check out or a whiskey you want us to review, send us a little note. We'll check it out. We'll get in their doors, but probably the best way to find us is a go ahead and hit up our DMS on Instagram. He's Jay Shannon 63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief and we'll see you on Down the Bourbon Road.