263. R6 Distillery with Rob Rubens

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 and you're listening to The Bourbon Road. You know what I love to pour in my old fashions? Is a little maple syrup. Can't be just any maple syrup. It has to be from seldom seen farms up in Ohio. He takes bourbon barrels, pours his syrup in there, and ages it for six to nine months making for some delicious just some delicious syrup that you could pour on pancakes you could pour on waffles chicken waffles like this fat guy likes but seriously you want to make a delicious cocktail with some maple syrup and not that old simple syrup check out seldomseenmaple.com pick up some stuff from there today we'd appreciate it Hey, this is Big Chief from the Bourbon Road, and we got a special guest on with us today. But hey, listeners out there, if you could say a prayer for Jim's family, Jim's away with some family this week. I'd like everybody to say a prayer for him and his family. But let's get to the whiskey. I've got out of California, the first legal distillery are six. I got the founder with me, Rob Rubens. He's got a cap on Rob. Welcome to the bourbon road, man.

And Mike, thanks for having me.

So, you know, we've been trying to get this nailed down for a while, probably like you tried to nail down opening up your distillery in California. It probably didn't happen overnight, right?

Yeah, good luck on dates with anytime you have to work with the government.

Hey, I, me and Jim fully understand that. Um, we've lived our lives in the government, it seems like, but you, you sent us some of your whiskey. We already did a review of your single malt, which we just loved. I couldn't say enough good things about it. Listeners out there, if you've listened to that review, you need to find a bottle of it. We did mess up on the price because we found it on sale, but make sure you check that out. Great American single malt up and coming, but today we're going to sample your rye and your bourbon. So let's get straight to the whiskey because our listeners expect that. What's the first one we got in our glass?

We got the R6 straight bourbon whiskey. And that one is what I like to call our gateway whiskey or gateway bourbon because it's about the simplest mash bill you can do with a corn, a rye and a barley. It's considered a high rye. So 75% yellow corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley. So you're going to get some, some different notes off the ride and happy to talk through any of the tasting notes or however you like to dive into this whiskey.

Well, let's, let's nose it and give it a taste. Yeah. So this is a two year old. Is that correct? Two or old two years older.

Yeah, and we're starting to get some stuff that's getting closer to the three, four, or even five-year mark. So this has some stuff that's up there closer to the four-year mark, but just based on supply and demand, we can't promise it's always going to be a four-year whiskey. So that's why we have the statement on the bottle that says at least two.

Now tell all of our listeners, you're in El Segundo, California. Where's that at?

It's right next to the LAX airport. And this way to put it, what's the average temp year round? It really varies. I would say average is probably in the low seventies, but I mean, we fluctuate in our warehouse anywhere from high forties to over a hundred. So it has an interesting incubation for the heat there and the coolness. So we actually, contrary to popular belief with El Segundo having, you know, ultra moderate climate, we do have a good amount of temp fluctuation in our warehouse there.

Yeah, you probably have those nice, cool desert nights, right? And then that heat in the daytime.

Yeah. And I mean, gosh, even whether it's a weird thing that I can't explain, but even last week or two weeks ago is 103 degrees. And then the next week it was like 50 degrees every day straight. So we do get those odd fluctuations that does a lot of the magic that folks, you know, two only happening in Kentucky and Tennessee. So we'll beg to differ on that point.

I don't think that's true. I think each region has its own weather system that plays with the bourbon. I always try to say that, you know, Colorado's got its high desert whiskey out there. Texas has something magical going on down there. You know, you got some stuff out in Washington state, Oregon area, you know, more of a rainforest. setting. So I would maybe think you guys could age whiskey a little faster in California or Southern California where you're at than they could here in Kentucky or Tennessee.

Yeah, we found, you know, the sweet spot on the minimum for us is really no less than two years to really get the nuances that we're going for. And in most of our whiskeys across the board, and a lot of folks will say that's, well, that's still young. And I guess it's all about perspective. But You know, we've done admittedly you go through trial and error and we've done some really young releases along the way and you just get certain flavors that aren't fully developed or different bunk. That's great. Once matured, but comes through pretty strong and might be even off putting at the, at the front end of the maturation process.

On this, I get that, that corn sweetness. Uh, It's definitely there. I get a little bit of spice on there because it is a high rye that you said 21%. Correct. Yeah. Um, not a whole lot of that malt. You know, you're in that low malted barley. Um, you know, um, I think it's got a nice, beautiful nose on it. Maybe a little cotton candy in there. That's a little bit of sweetness, not too much, but just enough.

Yeah. I've got just a small amount of, um, like caramel or toffee or cotton candy. I think the power suggestion is very powerful. Somebody picks up some things like, Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Now I'm getting that.

Yeah. Maybe a little citrus on there from like an orange, uh, orange zest. Um, maybe, um, just a little tad bit there. Nice, nice nose on this. Well, heck, Rob, let's, let's taste this thing. Let's cheers. Wow. Jim would say this is Pop Rocks. It's got that sweetness to it. That spice is attacking my palate right away. almost like a like a sweet tart with some spice to it. It wants that tartness, wants to take over, but the sweetness is not letting it. But the spices there, a little bit of Kentucky hug there going on or California hug. Yeah. Yeah. Very beautiful bourbon. I like it. Now, R6, let's roll through R6. What's R6 stand for?

Yeah, thanks for the notes on that end. R6 is about a family story. So my great-grandfather and his five brothers, a total of six Rubens brothers, took their vision and turned it into something tangible, which was a theater company back in Chicago in the 1920s. So six Rubens brothers built the Rubens Rialto Theater in 1926. And that was their entrepreneurship. And every generation subsequent to that, my grandfather and my father did something different in the spirit of taking whatever their vision was and making it tangible, making it reality. So for me, it was Gosh, I wanted to get out of the button-up corporate world and do something that was more tangible than leaving electronic deliverables behind that got scratched after we left. It was the fusion of passion for craft spirits and market opportunity seemed okay at the time. I made the jump. So our six is, you know, about a family story to take, take your dream and make it reality. Go chase it. Even, uh, even if it seems hard fetched or crazy.

Now, are any of those six men still alive today?

No, unfortunately they, I wasn't able to meet any of them. They all died before I was born.

Now what's your, what's your parents think about this?

My mom, I don't know if she ever could describe to you what I did at my last job. And then when I was going to jump off the deep end for this thing, my father cautioned, he said, Yeah, I think you should go interview for some more jobs at Deloitte and other places like that just to have those backup plans that to amuse him. I went ahead and did those things. But Yeah. I would say, I think they're both proud of where, where it is now. And they know that a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into it.

Yeah. I mean, you can tell you, you really do take some pride in, and, um, and what you do, uh, probably a lot of pride in that name. Uh, when it first came out and naming it after six men that took pride in what they did. Um, that's, that's a beautiful thing. Your bottle shape is that kind of short squatty. Was there a reason why you guys went with that short squatty bottle like this?

When we first started, we had the bottle that I think everybody, every small distillery starts with. It's called a Nordic bottle or Paco, or there's just so many different names for the same thing. But it was that kind of round, short, cylindrical, very ubiquitous 750 ml bottle that you see out there. The Stagg Jr. Yeah. And when we were able to afford something that was a little bit nicer into our liking, this one jumped out at me. And again, just kind of like happenstance, like the name came to me while I was driving at night for the distillery. But the bottle also has some unique features to it that are similar to the Rubens Theater, the Rialto Theater back in Chicago, Joliet. and it's got kind of that contour or ornateness to it that's not found in every tall cylindrical bottle.

Yeah, I like it. Um, I always liked these bottles, um, but I'm a bigger guy and I can grab hold of it. Now yours is a narrow bottle. Um, so I think that bartenders will like that. Then, you know, when you grab ahold of a stag junior bottle, that bottle you were talking about, it's so big that most bartenders can't get their hand around it. It'd be like almost palm in a basketball. Um, but this is a nice bottle. Um, Thinking about this bourbon right here, it's got this sweet smokiness, almost like a smoked chocolate to it to me. There's some little bit of peanut brittle in there. I like that that, you know, peanut brittle, if you break it apart, it's kind of that caramel with peanuts in it, I guess. Beautiful bourbon for as young as it is. I always tell people to caution or caution people about the age of bourbons because or any whiskey, because different regions can have something certainly different with the age. So I always tell people, look away from that age. Just look away.

Yeah, I think that's fair advice and price point too because price point, in my opinion, has a lot to do with public perception of value versus what's actually in the bottle. They don't always correlate.

Yeah, that's, I mean, there's some, there's some 15 to $20 bourbons in Kentucky that are absolute steals. But people would look down on them. And when we tell people over in the liquor store and they say, what would you get? And I point out these and they're like, are you kidding me? And I'm like, I am not kidding you. You know, JW damp $17 for that right there. You're getting an excellent bourbon and some people just can't believe it. Now what's the price point on your R6 bourbon?

It depends where you go because stores can set their own price, but it's anywhere from $39.99 to $44.99.

Nice price for a craft whiskey. And I'm assuming that's what you're calling yourself as a craft distillery right now. How many barrels are you guys putting out? I'll say a month.

Um, It all varies. We've got a few hundred barrels laid down right now and the goal is to augment that over time as we go, of course, without lynching yourself by the cash strings that are required to lay whiskey down. It's quite literally like an investment, but it can go sideways real fast if you get ahead of yourself on it. Inc. a deal for a much larger production plant in Long Beach that we're finalizing the city approval zone. So we're super excited to get that going, but that'll help with the augmentation of the whiskey production that you were asking about.

So is all the grain coming out of California for these or do you guys have to source outside of California for grains?

The best we can, we try and keep it all in California. So most of our raw cereal products, so the unmalted stuff like the corn, the rye, even some of the raw barleys will come from up in Northern California. And then some of the specialty stuff that's very unique and only comes from certain places. some of the grains that we used in the single malt that you talked about earlier, some of those even come from Europe. We're like the brewer supply group, the big brokerage that supplies most places with their grain. But most of whatever we can do, we want to support California in terms of the grain, which isn't always the cheapest thing to do, but it's definitely what we've set out to help support.

Yeah, I would have never thought that you said LAX, you're right next to the airport. I would have never thought that there would have been a distillery right there next to the airport. If people haven't, our listeners haven't flown out of LAX or into LAX, it's a monstrous airport. It's like flying into Chicago or Houston.

It's just a monster.

But I would have never thought it not. I did hear the airplane, one of the airplanes taking off.

Yeah, it's, it's definitely I mean, really, what was I trying to say here? Yeah, producing in a place like LA County is definitely not the cheapest place, you know, where you could set up a tour, you know, number of distilleries and really envy some of those guys sometimes I'm like, man, to be able to do what you guys do at the place point you do. It would be so nice, but you know, it is what it is. We're very blessed to be where we are and be able to do what we're doing.

Yeah. A beautiful, you know, something beautiful is coming out of there. Uh, you know, it's beautiful whiskey yet you've been producing now. How did you go somewhere else and say, okay, I'm gonna learn from some, some masters at doing this, or did you just start cooking your own mash?

A little bit of all of the above. This started out, a friend of a friend taught me how to balcony brew, which is like kind of garage brewing, but on a balcony. And that was the first immersion into it. And then when I really decided I was going to do this thing, I looked for places that would train you or let you go work for free. So I found a place up in Spokane that let me pay them so that I could come up and work for them. And it worked out great. We've got a friendship that came out of it with Dom, the owner of Dry Fly up there. And great experience and learned a lot up there. And I said both because you still are going to screw up and do all the wrong expensive on the job training mistakes that I think just about everybody is going to make. So did a bunch of that kind of learning too.

Well, you know, people make mistakes and you learn from that. Right. And usually you probably won't go back and make those same mistakes. So far in your whiskies, I haven't found a mistake that you've made because your single malt just blew our minds. Chocolate coffee, whiskey had was just it's out of this world to me.

Well, thank you.

Probably. as I speak right now, probably hands down the best American single malt I've had to date.

Oh, wow. Thank you. And that's saying a lot. That's saying a lot. Thank you.

I've had some other great ones, but that one, it'll stick out in my mind of, okay, damn, people need to check these out and stop drinking scotch. Make American whiskey.

I know we're here to talk about bourbon, but do you mind if I digress on that for 30 or 60 seconds? Yeah, go ahead, man. That one was a really happy accident, the single malt, where I was talking about mistakes that came to fruition on it. It was a no flavors added, all malts obviously, but I had a peated coffee malt wash that had finished fermenting and then one that was a peated chocolate And on the day of distillation, I said, screw it, man. I don't feel like doing two runs. I threw the two together and ran it together and threw it in barrels. And that's what came out of it. And it was really interesting when we first tasted them like that. I think there might be something to it. And yeah, that one definitely took some time to get better with age because it had some really off flavor stuff going on that completely went away as it matured. But happy mistake, basically.

Well, I bet you are happy that the mistake worked out and, you know, don't I wish all my mistakes would have worked out. Sometimes they do. You know, I would never met my wife of a mistake of going out at night when I was probably not need to be out. I was done for the night, but a buddy was like one more place. And I was like, all right, I'd never met her. I'd have never met her if I'd have made that mistake. So I guess I could. I better not tell her that I said that's a mistake.

Definitely wasn't.

But beautiful things do come out of mistakes like your whiskey on that single malt listeners. I'm telling you, it's fantastic. This bourbon whiskey right here. And yes, bourbon can come from other places besides Kentucky. I'm sure people ask you that all the time in California, right?

Mm hmm. Yeah, we have no shortage of that when we had our tours open to the public. And that would come up almost every tour to say, well, I can't call it bourbon, you know, like a statement of fact. And I said, well, no, you, you can. In fact, we do. And in fact, you're allowed to, and it's actually federally approved the label. And, you know, it's kind of just check the code of federal regulations if you want some nighttime reading, but yeah, it can come from anywhere in the United States, really.

Yeah, that's always a neat conversation to have with the, with somebody and they'll, they'll try to argue that point, um, with some vigor. But the fact is the Coda fed regulation says, Hey, this is what bourbon is. And it's, it's, it isn't America's native spirit. It's not just Kentucky's native spirit is America's native spirit. And I love to see that so much celebrated, um, I just got back from the Dominican Republic and I was shocked. I was shocked at how many people just have to stay in for American whiskey. There was a lot of Europeans there. They were like, oh, Scotch, Scotch, Scotch, Scotch. And I was like, I guarantee you. I could introduce you to some American whiskey and they will blow your mind on what whiskey is. And they were like, bourbon is so sweet. I've had some sweet bourbons, but I've had some great bourbons that aren't sweet, that are really high rye. or some American single moths that aren't sweet at all. They're very peaty. They're they got that smoke to them. And they're like, that's just you're just trying to recreate scotch. I was like, actually, they're not. They're very beautiful. And Scotch, most Scotch is aged in bourbon barrels anyway.

So this is true.

Some people don't want to admit that, but that's what it's all about. So you start up a distillery. How long does it take you to start getting stuff out of the state of California?

You mean like distribution was? Yeah. We focused on our backyard, which is still where our focus is as a fairly young craft distillery. But I think it was after about three or so years where we got distribution outside of California and It's pretty intentionally so. We just didn't want to stretch ourselves too thin, too fast on it. And California is such a huge state. You really could easily max out a little distillery and just go crazy in your home state if you wanted to.

Well, on the second half, Rob, we'll get into your rye. We'll get into the future of R6, what you got planned to take over the whiskey world. So listeners, stick with us. We'll be right back. Man, Jim, you know what I've really been enjoying lately? Oh, you're going to tell me. some of that seldom seen farms maple syrup that's been aged in bourbon barrels. It is absolutely delicious. Not only in a cocktail, but you can cook with it, right?

You can, you absolutely can. Now Mike, Kevin just sent me a new shipment. So I got a little bit more and I've been making some beef jerky lately. Really? Yeah. Now I know you're the meat master, but I tried my hand at it. I said, you know, I want to make some beef jerky and I've got a pretty decent beef jerky recipe and it's got a little bit of soy sauce, a little bit of Worcestershire, a little bit of, you know, onion powder, garlic powder, those kinds of things. But I always put brown sugar in it. Well, this time Kevin sent me a bottle of his granulated maple sugar. Wow. And I decided that I was going to substitute the maple sugar for the brown sugar. Oh, game changer. Let me tell you. Total game changer. Total game changer. Some of the best beef jerky you've ever had. So I'm going to make another batch here in about a week and I'll be sure to get you some.

Man, that sounds delicious. Vivian took and we just got an air fryer like most people got these days, right? And she took and soaked fresh pineapple in that maple syrup and then put it in the air fryer and it kind of crisp up a little bit. Oh, sounds good. It was just magically delicious. And people probably wonder why we love it so much. Kevin competed in the Maple Festival last year, 2021, and he was named grand champion. That's saying something.

So Stalemstein Farms. grand champion of the 2021 Maple Syrup Festival.

Yeah. Wow. That's saying something. Yeah. You're going up against some heavy hitters in maple syrup. And I know we're talking about just the syrup, but you know, that's something to be proud of. Hats off to you, Kevin. for winning that. Kevin's also competing in a couple other competitions. Make sure you check out his website. Check out his social media on Instagram and Facebook. You won't be disappointed. If you want to buy something from him, where can they go, Jim?

You can go to seldomseenmaple.com. and kevin and his crew they've got a great website very easy to navigate they've got all their products on there you can buy their maple syrup by the bottle you can buy by the case uh you can buy that sugar oh my goodness mike that stuff is so good and they've got some other gift sets there too so you definitely want to check it out

Well, he's also going to be in some distilleries pretty shortly here. Some distilleries that I love and I know you love. He's going to be down Leapers Fork. You could find a syrup down there aged in their barrels. Trudy Oak down in Dripping Springs, Texas. I was just out there. His syrup's going to be there. Awesome. And at Garrison Brothers in Texas. If you think you love some maple syrup, make sure you go into Garrison Brothers and pick up a bottle from them also. Kevin, I appreciate it. I know he loves people. You're supporting a local farmer, a local product, a small family. This is no factory place that's putting out maple syrup, right, Jim? This is a good man doing good work. Yeah, gotta love it. Well, make sure you check out his site. Like Jim said, seldom seen maple dot com. Pick up a bottle today. All right, listeners, we are back with Rob Rubens from R6 Distillery in El Segundo, California. Rob, what's in our second glass here?

Mike, we've got the straight rye whiskey in the second glass here. And this one is a combo of three different mash bills that we put together to get this rye. And, um, if you haven't caught this already from, from us, we were pretty deliberate in everything that we do. Doesn't mean that some stuff isn't, uh, happy accidents, but this one, when we put the combo together, we really fell in love with it. And this is what has become our, our rye.

So do you know the mashbills from those three, three different whiskies?

Oh boy. That's a good question. Um, thinking on this, one of them is a 95% rye and another one is a 51% rye. And the third one, I cannot recall off the top of my head.

Is it three barrels? Are you blending three barrels at a time? Is that what you're doing or?

It's actually four barrels at a time, but we doubled up on one of the mash bowls because we like that one. I tell people when you put flavors together, it's not always a linear expectation of like you add more of this and then you get more of that because the nuances play differently when you scale up or down. So we have two of one barrel in there and then two other unique barrels that were mixed in with this one.

No, I forgot to point out in the first half that the bourbon whiskey is 86 proof and this rye whiskey is 86 proof, right? Correct. And the youngest of these rye barrels, uh, I noticed aged at least four years old. Correct. Well, that's, that's beautiful on a rye. That's like money where you want to be at stuff. Heckless knows this thing. Not as much character on the nose as I would think with this. Um, I do get that, that flower sweetness with this, those spring tulips, the spring Danny lines, uh, maybe some fresh cut grass as Jim would always say, fresh cut grass. That's a good smell. I think it's a horrible smell because I know I've got to go to work. Yeah. Maybe a little bit of a sweet tea with lemon. That citrus is there for me. Maybe even a key lime pie. I get a little bit of that.

The citrus, I find correlates pretty strongly to rye characteristics, which is what comes out in the bourbon too, since it is the high rye. But I get the citrus on this one as well. Well heck, cheers Rob. Cheers.

Wow. Me and my brother were just talking about cereal notes, and I always get cereal notes with bourbon, but not a lot with the rye whiskey. But he had posted a photo the other day of some sugar smackums, and I get that sugar smackums on this right here. Um, all day with this, um, that honey is there, that honey Christmas, maybe with a little bit of orange, maybe hot Tati in the winter time here. Um, little bit of burn there, that hug that I'm looking for. Not overpowering. Um, very, very beautiful ride. What's the price point on this one, Rob?

This one believe retails between, uh, 59 and 64.

Wow. Now, why did you go with 86 proof? Is there a reason for that?

A couple of reasons. I kind of tend to nerd out on different articles that come my way about the molecular composition of whiskey and how water does different interesting things to when you add or subtract. And this specific number we found both through subjective and objective, so like tasting panels versus black and white paper and research, that that was kind of a sweet spot for us with our whiskeys in terms of the fat content and the mixture with the water that we added. And the evaporation that you get when you're nosing it or and then the overall taste and heat to it. So I've got a pretty neat article on that that I'm happy to share with you too and the folks in the podcast. But that was one of the main reasons. And then 86 just had a special meeting to me too because it's birth year. So it kind of all worked out for better for fun.

Hey, if it works for you, you're the guy that has to love it, right? At the end of the day, the guy that's making it has to love it. If you don't love your own product, then what are you doing? You know, so I say cheers to you. You know, you stuck with it. Your birth year, you born in 86. What a great year. I think I got my driver's license that year.

The year that Contact Disc came out and kids aren't even going to know what a CD is anymore.

Well, I can remember that because I don't remember the exact year that Nirvana CD came out. But I think me and my brother were riding in a truck and we bought the Beastie Boys. Licensed to ill. Yeah. I think it was 86. I could be wrong. But that was a very memorable moment. I remember putting that in the CD player in my dad's new truck and he immediately pushed a jack.

Why?

He's like, what is that? What is it?

This is horrible.

And I was like, yeah, well, It's a, and he probably still say the same thing today is he didn't like it, but license to deal, license to ill 1986. I knew it. I knew. Yep. Yep.

I was thinking about back checking it, but I felt, I felt I just let it go. But that's pretty spot on.

I think it was licensed to ill three is something like that. Um, was the year that came out. Um, But what a great, a great with airplane, um, is the, is the cover of the tail of the airplane, um, was the album that I'm talking about.

I have that CD. I should remember that. And I think that's a, Oh yeah.

1986, uh, in my favorite song off that, that, uh, record, um, was, uh, it's going to surprise everybody. The brass monkey. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, that song, you know, that song, but you weren't even born that year.

Oh yeah. Beastie boys were still hot when I was, uh, junior high and becoming headless. And so that's kids still listen that rage against machine. Uh, after that's when sublime and Bradley accidentally killed himself and then they formed long beached up all stars. So all that good music that was coming out in the nineties then too.

Yeah, last time I was able to see the BC boys, I'm trying to think of what year that was. I want to say it was 1996, the Tibetan Freedom Festival was the concert I went to. There was a giant lightning strike there at that concert. Yeah, that was some memorable times where the Beastie Boys had me and my little brother being in the hill country of Texas trying to rap, which we can't, we can't do. Um, and probably driving my parents insane. Um, and just listening to this.

Sorry. That's a real thing. I guess as far as concern at concerts, I didn't realize with, uh, storms, you know, growing up in the Midwest, like you get thunderstorms all the time, but I was at a concert out what used to be mixed field now, northerly Island in Chicago. And it was a Dave concert and they said thunderstorms coming in and they have the entire stage broken down in like three minutes and they were out.

Um, yeah, they'll, they'll, they'll shut it down real fast for sure.

Yeah. The lightning strike thing.

So, yeah, I just remember going to that concert and just some great people playing at that for a great cause. And, um, you know, just, uh, just a fun time before really, before my daughter was born, um, to go up there and listen to that and enjoy some music. She was born in October of that year. And, uh, I don't, maybe that she was already born. I'm trying to think. Maybe she was two years old and I was a single guy. I was trying to think how I got up there. Um, I think it was 88, 19, 1998. Yeah. Well back to your whiskey. Um, man, this spectacular whiskey, the sweetness that most people would think that for 86 proof that spice carries, carries on here. I like that. Not overly sweet, but sweet enough to drink by itself. I would say when people start putting rye into cocktails, I'm like, man, the cocktail sweet as it is already doesn't need a rye whiskey with it. That's why I like to drink mine, no bourbon. You don't have that sweetness going on. So we drank your rye, we drank your bourbon, we drank your single malt. What else does R6 have out there?

Oh man, we've got a lot of cool stuff. The one I think that I'm most excited about now, we did something called the R6 Brews Collaboration. And we partnered with a number of different breweries. And what the intent of this thing, this series is to create a custom mash but with a brewery. This is kind of like the long lead in we're not just blending whiskeys together. So we custom mash but with a brewery. Brew it at the brewery, bring it over to R6, distill it, age it, and then when we're ready to release the whiskey, then we brew the beer again, the same or very similar match bill, and release the two together so folks can see how similar beer and whiskey really are, essentially just literally distilled and aged versus just brewed and packaged. And so we just wrapped one up with Honolulu Beer Works a few months ago, Microphone out in Chicago, Bottle Logic down south, Almanac up north, Lost Abbey, just to name several of them. But that's, I think, one of the most fun things that we've been able to do because we want to incorporate some passion with the business and keeping the lights on.

I noticed that you also had a, which not a lot of people out there have this, but I noticed that you have a, uh, blue corn, uh, bourbon.

Oh yeah. My, my stepchild. Uh, I forgot about that one, that one. Oh man.

Yeah. Is that something different that you guys are going to get away from or?

No, I, uh, that was actually the first whiskey we ever did. And it's probably my favorite. It's so rich though. I can usually only have about a glass or so of it. Um, but it is my, it's definitely my favorite cause I'm, I'm very proud of that one. That's a Southern green whiskey. It's our most complex thing we do. Yeah. Um, we're just currently out of stock on that. We're planning on doing a release again in the summer, probably July or August of the blue corn. But that's, um, if I had to brag about one, that's one that we're very proud of.

Yeah. Dang. Why didn't we get one of those?

Yeah. Well, let's, let's touch base again in a couple of months when we're getting close to pulling that for bottles, but that's, that's a fun one.

You do some other stuff. You do some vodka. You, you do a, uh, I noticed you do a Manhattan, a bottle of Manhattan out there for people. I haven't seen a whole bunch of, I've seen bottled, uh, old fashions, not a whole lot of Manhattan's out there.

Yeah. That one actually won a double gold at San Francisco. Um, That's, uh, we're, we're, we're proud of that one too. So it's, uh, the ready to drink cocktail thing was just really blown up. And so if you could put something that's quality and just all together, so people don't have to go out and get all these different mixers or ingredients that they're not going to use for a while after they open and our stuff's going to go bad. You know, that, that trend is just red hot.

And you guys also sent us some of your West Coast mule, which my wife just devoured. I was like, I came home one day. I think we got a, they come in a four pack, right? Yeah. I came home one day. She had had a tough three days at work. She's a nurse. Uh, and, uh, so I come home from work. It was our day off and she's sitting on the front porch and all I see is four empty cans sitting there. Hey, um, what, what are you, what are you doing? And she's like, I smell these in the fridge and I drank them.

That's impressive.

She's like, they're really good. And I was like, those were for the podcast. But hey, bless her heart. She had a rough day and your West Coast meals helped her relax a little bit.

I'd like to meet her. She can handle her liquor. That's a 10.1% per can. So that's a mighty fine job.

Yeah. That's her man. She, if she gets here at home and she, uh, she gets to relax a little bit and she needed it. And, um, I really appreciated you guys send us those.

Um, yeah, those are all your products. Can people come into your distillery and visit you guys?

Right now, the tasting room is not open for the moment, but you can still swing by the distillery Monday through Friday from nine to five and grab a bottle or some cans to go. We're doing to-go sales. And we can ship anywhere in the state of California. And we have some other online platforms for folks not in the state of California. But yeah.

What's the online keg and bottle is one of your guys' distributors for you?

Yeah, Keg and Bottle, Mission, Hi Low, I believe is the name of the other one. And shoot, if you ever just want to shoot us an email too, we can try to find, you know, whoever's got it in your local state or area, which is special events within us at r6distillery.com.

Awesome. Awesome, man. Well, heck, we talked about doing a giveaway with you guys. So you got something pretty special for one lucky listener, right?

We do, yeah. We're going to do a bottle of bourbon, a bottle of rye, and then a select distillery gets to pick ultra limited release bottle of whiskey as well from the R6 Brews collaboration.

And you'll store in one of those sweet hats you have on right now too.

Of course we will.

Yeah. Cause you want people rocking that on Instagram. Um, so listeners, what you gotta do, what you gotta do is you gotta let us know, um, where exactly is the distillery located at? Um, I'm talking, um, they're next to something really big. Tell us at six PM. Eastern Standard Time on the release date of this on Instagram in the comments. Make sure you follow R6. Make sure you follow the Bourbon Road and we'll pick that one lucky winner out of that. So this ain't to the first person that posts that. That's when his drawing's up. I will pick it at 10 o'clock Eastern Standard Time from everybody that puts in for it. I think that'll be a fair, a four-hour shot at it for everybody. Tell me where they're located at. Make sure you give old R6 a follow. Rob, where can all of our listeners find you guys on social media?

Yep, super simple. Just R6 Distillery. We got it on Instagram, on Facebook, and our website. And that's our handle on all of them.

Yeah, man. So a great giveaway, some great whiskey. Um, you guys, your brother's a veteran. So we got to say you guys are veteran owned and operated too. He's part of your business, right? He is. Yeah. Hey, is he the ugly guy that you're the good looking guy and he's the ugly one. So he doesn't get, get to get on podcasts.

They gave me the, uh, the ugly face and made me the face of the business. I don't know what was wrong with them. I guess that's why I'm on the podcast is just just the audio part, right?

Yeah, that's that's that's why I'm on a podcast. I saw a TV show that's about to air and I had an opportunity to be that host on there or to try out for a host. And I guess he just didn't like my face, like my voice, but not my face. Rob, man, I can't thank you enough for coming on the Bourbon Road podcast. I gotta say hats off to you for being a successful distillery out in California. I look forward to working with you guys in the future. See what else you guys come out with. The one thing I didn't notice you didn't have was a weeded bourbon.

We do not. We did a, we did a wheat whiskey a while ago and that, that was pretty fun. I think we've got some more on barrels. I'd have to look, but we don't have a weeded bourbon.

Man, breaking a man's heart, breaking the Weedy King of Kentucky's heart. But listeners, check out R6, check out Rob. We want you to go out there and support craft distilleries, support artists and distilleries. You never can tell what you're going to find. There's definitely some magic in a bottle coming out of R6. I can tell you that. Rob, I can't wait to try that blue corn whiskey. Um, I think it'll be really special. I'm going to have to find my wife some more of these, uh, West coast mules, uh, so she can relax on the front porch. Um, but you know what we always like to say, Rob, we'll see you on down the bourbon road, man.

Mike and Jim, thank you so much. We'll keep Jim's family and our prayers over here. Appreciate you guys.

Yes, sir. So you can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. We also have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. You want to check that out. You got to do three things to enter. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? Hell yes. Everybody likes bourbon. And do you agree to play nice because our listeners, they might reach for that bottom shelf bottle. They might reach for the very top. But wherever you reach on that bourbon shelf, we want you to come in our group and have a great experience. So no rudeness in there. We don't do sales in there. We don't do religion. We don't do politics or social issues. We stick straight to the whiskey. So if you could do that, we'd appreciate it. You know, we like to say if you want to keep listening to our two shows. Yes, we have two shows a week. We got a craft distillery Monday where we take a whiskey from a craft distillery and we'll give it a review. Sometimes a big distillery will put in there, but mainly craft distilleries. And that's about a 15 to 20 minute show. And then on Wednesdays, we have our long show like Rob Rubin here from our sixth distillery out in California. Yeah, if you want to keep listening to those shows, go on up to the top of your app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe button. That'll let you know that, hey, these two jokers got a show that's just been released.

And we need you to scroll on down, hit that five star review.

Leave some comments. You know what will happen if you don't. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon will come to your front door carrying a bottle of this R6 in each hand, a bottle of bourbon and some rye. Heck, he might even have some of their single malt in a backpack. We'll drink that all night long. By the end of the night, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to have you leaving us a five star review with some comments, I guarantee. No, seriously, those those reviews, those comments, they open up doors to distilleries. They get people knocking on our door. So we'd really appreciate if you do that. We're very approachable here at the Bourbon Road. You can reach out to Jim and me on our website. Yes, we have a website. It's got swag on there. We want you to check that swag out. We want you to check our articles out. We want you to check out our reviews. We would really appreciate that. You can reach out to us on that website. There's a place you can leave some comments. You can also reach out to us on our emails. I'm Mike at the Bourbon Road. He's Jim at the Bourbon Road. But like we always say, the best place you can reach us at is probably on our Instagram accounts. He's Jason at 63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief and we'll see you on down the Bourbon Road.

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