271. Laws Whiskey House Bonded Bourbon and Rye

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 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 it 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 seldom see maple dot com. Pick up some stuff from there today. We'd appreciate it.

Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. This is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we've got some great guests in the house coming in from out west from Colorado, from Denver, Colorado. Who do we have with us?

Well, we got Law's Whiskey House. We got James and Sam. I'm kind of a little jealous of them, Jim. They both rocking these gigantic mustaches, almost like they just rode out of the mountains, trapping some beavers or something. I am just loving it. I mean, and I'm sure we're going to love their whiskey. We've definitely had their whiskey before, but they sent us some pretty just badass bottles, a eight-year-old bourbon and a seven-year-old rye that we're going to get to drink. I'm excited. Anything that says bottled in bond, right?

Yeah, absolutely. First, we'll welcome you guys to the show. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you for having us. Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for the compliments. And we would like to get straight to that whiskey. What do you say, Mike?

Let's do it. Tell us all about this four grain, if you would.

Sure. So the four-grain whiskey, the expression that we have here today is our newest release. It's an eight-year bottled and bond four-grain. This is our flagship whiskey here. And one of the goals that Al Laws, our founder, always had was to make a really high quality bourbon whiskey using all four of the American mother grains. So those grains being corn, We ride and barley all those ingredients coming from right here in Colorado grown in really unique climate.

So I tell you what the nose is, is it, it's kind of complex. There's a lot going on there, Mike. It's rich. And I want to talk about the color too, kind of a deep red Amber kind of a red issue to it. You don't always get that.

Yeah, I think, you know, one of the unique things about being located here in Denver is the unique climate that we're making whiskey, but also aging the whiskey in. And James, our barrel manager, can definitely speak to that, but we pick up a lot of color for sure.

Yeah, we're located at a mile high above sea level here. It's a fairly dry climate. We get a lot of temperature swings. We get barometric pressure swings on a daily basis sometimes. So, that works the whiskey in and out of the wood as it's aging, especially with the temperature and pressure changes.

Now, humidity or lack of humidity plays a big part, I would imagine.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Out here in the West, it's not uncommon to get down into the teens or even single digits for humidity during the wintertime. It gets pretty dry. In the rack house here, I haven't checked today, we're probably around 30% right now. In the summer, middle of summer, it'll probably get up into the 40s, percentage of humidity and then in the winter down into low teens. So, you know, with that low humidity, we get a lot of evaporation of water, as opposed to like if you're in a really humid climate like in Scotland. So evaporation of water equals proofing up in the barrel. So most of our whiskey enters the barrel 110, 115 kind of depends on the product. And it'll pick up, you know, five to 10 proof points in its lifetime as it has ages.

Just a super beautiful whiskey already. Um, you know, you guys put on the label, black tea, honey, orange peel, baked plums, Jim stewed plums, plums and coffee cake. I can't say that that's more spot on. There is a little bit of drying there, like a red wine dry, but I like that with this whiskey, especially for a four grain. A lot of companies out there ain't doing four grains, but I got to say hats off to you guys for doing it, going your own way out there in the mountains. What about you, Jim?

Yeah. So I'm still on the nose. You've already tasted it, but so I'm getting, I'm getting kind of like an herbal tea, a little bit of a fruit. Um, and stone fruit is definitely, it's kind of a lighter fruit, but I love what the oak's doing. And there's a little bit of earthiness there, but it's, it's very light and I don't think it's at a heavy earthiness, but I like it.

Yeah, something we focus on here is being grained forward because we're using heirloom varietals of grain from small family farms here that are grown for big flavor and not for big yield. So we're definitely grained forward. And we always wanted to develop a mash bill that would allow for each grain to impart some flavors throughout the process. And I think you can pick up on some of those subtle notes from each of the four grains that we're using.

You know, in the wintertime, I like to drink this spiced orange tea with honey in it. Maybe a splash of bourbon every once in a while. But that is in this bottle right here. No doubt. I'm telling you, I love it. Eight years. Was it tough to wait that eight years?

Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, every time we select barrels for our batches. We might have, say, 100 barrels to pick from, narrow it down to 60, 70 barrels. Then we know that we were holding stuff back for further aging to go into future batches of bottled and bond bourbon or rye or whatever it is. This particular batch, I believe... Are you tasting the 6S? Is that what's on the label there?

Yeah, 6S.

So 6S, that's a batch size of 18 barrels. Total maturation time is eight years and nine months. So a little bit closer to nine years, actually. We had to split all of our eight-year bourbon into two batches because they came from two distilling seasons of that year. So we have a spring and a fall. So you're tasting spring.

So that's what the S is for the spring then.

Yep. Yeah.

And it's got a little bit more age on it. One extra summer, of course, as opposed to the fall release. One extra summer.

I think it's fair to say when your whiskey reaches eight years old, you're all grown up. You're no longer a young distillery. You're a well-aged distillery. You've got a little bit of gray hair now. Your whiskies are extra aged.

Yeah, we're really having a lot. We're having fun tasting through our older stuff. I mean, we love our the three and four year stuff that goes into our batch products. But you know, eight plus years up to 10, now we're over 10 years old as a company. It's really fun seeing the direction that our older stuff is going. Um, so it's been really cool.

Let's, let's talk about laws, uh, whiskey house and how it all got started.

Yeah, so Laws Whiskey House was founded in 2011 by Al and Marian Laws. Of course, starting a whiskey distillery takes a huge investment, time, money, and labor. Al and Marian didn't want to just launch into this huge project without a real solid understanding of what they were doing. So Al hired on who he considers his mentor, retired master distiller, Bill Friel, formerly of Barton's distillery. Bill probably has 40 something years of distilling experience. And he hit it off with Bill and convinced him to come out to Colorado and help him design the plant and set up the original all the equipment and the mash bills. So we kind of all jokingly refer to Bill as our Yoda around here. He would never answer any of Al's questions without another question. You know, how do you think it's going to turn out? But Al and Marianne always wanted to create a great American whiskey distillery and add to the kind of rich fabric of American whiskey. We use all traditional methods. We didn't sell anything for three years. We just laid down products. Of course, in the beginning, it was just Al and Marianne in here making whiskey. Al still had his day job. until he, you know, maybe a year in and 100 barrels or so laid down that he started to bring on some staff, really ramp up. But everything we do is based on the no shortcuts philosophy. So we're using traditional methods all the way through the processing. So for us, that starts with the grain that we buy, and we're buying from small family farms that grow grain here in Colorado in some really unique conditions, environment, and that produces a really grain-forward flavor.

That's kind of that high desert out there, right? Is that Denver's considered high desert? So you could have those heats, um, around 90 degrees, even in the summer or winter time. And then, you know, at nighttime it gets snow and by noon time the snow's gone.

Yeah. And James can tell you a little bit about Alamosa where our rye, wheat and barley is coming from.

Yeah, so we work closely with Colorado Malting Company, which is owned by the Cody family down in Alamosa, Colorado. So southwest part of the state, not too far from New Mexico. Like you're saying, it's a high desert. It sits in a big valley that's actually ancient prehistoric lake bed. really unique climate. They get big temperature swings throughout the growing season. Hot days and cool nights, it's actually really favorable to growing these particular grains. Similar to growing coastal wine grapes, things like that, the hot days and cool nights really favor growing, particularly the rye, which we'll taste in a little bit here. But yeah, the really intense sunlight, the soil is actually would be considered probably poor quality for a lot of other crops, but it works really well for these grains. It's maybe not the highest yield, but really high in flavor. Some of the products that they make, the wheat and the rye in particular are pretty high protein, but that translates to a lot of flavor for us. Um, and so, and also we work with, uh, the whiskey sisters supply out in Eastern Colorado. That's close to the Kansas border. That climate is a little more suited to growing corn. So they supply all of our corn.

And that, that family farm, uh, run by the two sisters, Felicia and Stephanie has been in the family for over a hundred years.

Wow. That's a lot of time working a farm.

Yeah, just, I just think it's so neat whenever you talk about, and we've talked about this several times, the different climates that whiskey can be made in, where you guys are like high desert, and then you have Texas, kind of plateau desert out there, most places where the whiskey's being made. And then you come here to Kentucky and just everything's super green and limestone waters and stuff is running everywhere. But it's so dynamic in American whiskey compared to Scotland, where almost all the Scottish whiskeys are almost the same, you know? Or Irish whiskey is Irish whiskey. Well, in America, we got Colorado whiskey, we got Texas whiskey, we got Kentucky whiskey, we got Tennessee whiskey. It's just neat to see those dynamics because America is so big, you know?

Yeah, and we've always focused on that terroir. It's something that's getting talked a lot more about in the whisky making world.

And it's a huge contributor to what we do here. Yeah, for us, it's more than just a marketing term. From day one, we've always had a dedication to the farmers who grow our grain, the people who make the whiskey, the people who buy our whiskey. It's really being tied to a sense of place that's super important for us and our product. And we really believe that you can taste it in our product. Like you're saying, it's a regional style of whiskey. And maybe we're still trying to figure out what that is for Colorado whiskey. But I think we're on the right path.

Now I would say that a good number of our listeners probably understand the term terroir, but maybe not all of them. So why don't we just take a minute and talk about what does terroir mean and how it applies to whiskey.

Yeah, so for us, that, of course, is going to start with the grain. So just like James just talked about, it's those heirloom varietals that only grow in these certain regions and, of course, the environmental impact of the grain in those regions. So environment, varietal of grain. And then in our environment, we use traditional open-air fermentation vessels. So it's open. to the environment little ecosystem that we have in the distillery, wild yeast and bacteria. Those things are going to go into the ferments and create nuanced flavors that you couldn't replicate if you made it anywhere else. And then, of course, the barrel aging conditions that we also briefly touched on. So all of those factors are part of what we call the terroir of our whiskey.

Now, earlier when you were talking about grains, you said these species. So are you using specific species of all your grains?

Yeah, we use. So Cody, Cody Family Farms, they grow the wheat rye and barley that we use. The barley is an heirloom variety derived originally from Europe. It's a two row pie and flavor. It's great for making whiskey, great for making beer. They can malt it any which way you want. We just get it just as a pale malt. A lot of flavor though. For the rye, it's a variety called San Luis Valley rye. The actual grain is called San Luis Valley rye. And that's what's on our bottle as well because we really pay homage to the grain itself with all our whiskeys, but especially with that. It's... Nobody really knows where it came from. It's an heirloom variety as well. It's likely cross-bred from multiple European strains over the centuries as settlers came from Europe and settled in the San Luis Valley. Really high in flavor, high in protein, very well suited for making whiskey. We don't really know of anyone else growing that grain and they're certainly the only suppliers of that grain and we're the sole We're buying it all. Everything they grow, we're taking it. Flavorful grain is integral into our flavor of our whiskey. The third of those grains is centennial white wheat that they grow. It's a spring wheat. It's a soft spring wheat. So they don't plant it in the fall, just like you would with a rye. It's not a hard winter wheat like you would grow for baking bread. Again, this is really suited to making whiskey and beer as well.

But some of these varietals, specifically the barley, the family saved from extinction because people weren't growing this because it doesn't yield as much as some of these commodity grains being grown now for mass production. But it produces this really rich flavor and they just couldn't let it go.

Now our listeners might check out your website and some of those grains you're talking about, like your Centennial straight wheat, that would be something they could pick up at a limited release, right?

Yeah, we actually just released our bonded five-year Centennial wheat whiskey. That's something we make just once a year in smaller numbers than our bourbon and rye, but it's pretty readily available for first season or so. But it's really unique because most people aren't too familiar with 100% wheat whiskey. There's not a lot on the market. And it really just showcases the grain as is.

And you also got a, I noticed a straight malt whiskey.

Yeah, so we do that with all of the four grains in the four grain bourbon. We wanted to release them in their pure form. 100% malt, 100% wheat, 100% rye. We do have a corn whiskey too. So that everyone can taste what the grains taste like and try to go back to the bourbon and pick out some of these flavors that we're talking about.

The third one I would mention that I'm kind of kicking myself. I didn't ask for some of this. And I know Jim loves these too. You guys have a straight bourbon whiskey finished in a honey cast. That's a hundred proof.

Wow. Oh yeah. Yep. That became a really popular release for us. We work with an apiary up in Northern Colorado in Longmont. It's called B Squared is the company. So what they do is they age whiskey... Or sorry, they age honey in our barrels, bottle up the honey, we sell some of that in our tasting room, but then we get the barrels back from them. So we just trade them And unfortunately, they only have space for a couple barrels at a time. Otherwise, I would take as many as I can get. It's a really popular product. So I'll send them a couple bourbon barrels, take back a couple bourbon barrels that are lined with honey. And so they'll take a 2.5 to maybe 3 or 4 year old whiskey, put it in those barrels for an additional 6 to 12 months, and it picks up that honey flavor. So no You know, no artificial flavoring, no propylene glycol, none of that stuff. It's just, just the residual honey out of the barrel and laws bourbon.

Wow. It's just that natural buzzing goodness, right?

Yeah. Yeah, it is very natural. There are bits of honeycomb in there. There are bits of insect there. You get some all kinds of stuff in there, you know. Not in the bottle. Not in the bottle. No, in the barrel. That's all filtered out. But it is delicious and it sells really fast. But it's nice because it's a pretty limited release and it gets people to come down to the tasting room.

How did we not get a bottle of that, Jim?

I don't know, Mike. You're the one who talked to him. What'd you do? I know.

I really don't like when a distillery takes their honey whiskey and proofs it down so low, you know, it's 40 or 50 proof. And you're like, what, what is this? Yeah. Why can't they make it a hundred or more or even castrate? I'm glad to see that you guys keep it, keep it at a hundred proof.

Well, our target audience are whiskey geeks and people who love whiskey. So, um, we can't send you a bottle cause we don't have any. And I don't think anyone here is willing to give it up out of their personal stash.

Maybe next time around. Yeah. Well, maybe we'll just take a trip out there and we can, we can get something in. Yeah. Some great whiskey. I can't wait to try this ride. I know Jim is just, I'm surprised he already doesn't have his glass filled. He's sipping on it and stuff.

Well, I tell you what, I really enjoyed that bourbon though. There's, uh, there's no looking back. I'm going to pour me another one after the show's over. I know we got to move on to the right here in just a bit, but I'll be drinking a little bit more of that bourbon after the show's over. That's really good stuff. Well, listeners stay with us for the second half.

I know these two guys with the big old mustaches, they got a special giveaway that you're not going to want to miss. Um, so stay with us. 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 Salem Seam 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 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 seldom seen maple.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 it 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 is going to be there. Awesome. And at Garrison Brothers in Texas, if you think you love some maple syrup, make sure you go to Garrison Brothers and pick up a bottle from them also. Kevin appreciated, 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, do a good work. Yeah, gotta love it. Well, make sure you check out his site. Like Jim said, seldom seen maple.com. Pick up a bottle today.

All right, listeners, we are back. We've got Sam and James in from Law's Whiskey House. In the first half, we had their amazing eight-year bonded four-grain bourbon whiskey. I have to say, guys, well done. That's an amazing sipping whiskey, and it's just the right age, I think. I think it's reached that point where Mike, don't they say eight to 12 years is the heart of bourbon aging?

That's what Jimmy Russell says in the fees. I don't think the man's lying. He knows a few things about bourbon, I think.

Yeah. I'll take his word for it. Yeah, but we are in Colorado, so, um, we're still trying to find that sweet spot.

Yeah. So do you feel like your, your whiskey is in Colorado age faster or slower than Kentucky?

Um, I don't know. That's a good question. I, um, I kind of try and stay away from age and stick more to maturation. The distinction being that you can have some young whiskeys that are really stellar and some old whiskeys that aren't that just tastes like almost like new make, you know what I mean? It's a good question because I don't really know that much about Kentucky whiskey, to be honest with you. But I think for us, we see a really nice curve when it goes between maybe three, four years on the young end. then up to 8-10 years, we get that really nice balance where the grain balances out with the barrel flavor. And it just works so nicely. We don't really know what it's going to taste like at 10-12 years or plus. But it works really well for us. 7, 8, 9, 10 years.

I would say we pick up a lot of color early on. No, that's doesn't mean maturation. But we do age in 100% full size barrels. We've never aged in anything smaller than that. But like James said, we've been around just about 11 years now. And we're still pleasantly surprised as we're tasting this stuff as it gets older. And we originally released a four year bonded that we moved to six years. And now this is the newest release at eight years. And, uh, we have a chunk of this warehouse that James and I are sitting in now that is held back for older products.

So heck, let's get straight into this, uh, rye whiskey that you guys sent. Now you said this is a Sam Luis Valley straight rye whiskey. Uh, which is a, you can, you're the guys that only ones with it, right? That's right.

And we are making rye whiskey now with 100% rye, which poses a lot of challenges. This bottle that you have here, back then we were using 5% malted barley, that 95.5 recipe not to be confused with some of the more common 95.5 recipes of rye out there. We, of course, have never sourced anything. Every drop we've ever put out was made right here in Denver at our distillery. But that being said, it's the unique San Luis Valley rye grown in those unique conditions. And making rye with such a high percentage of rye in the Nashville is kind of a pain in the ass. You know, it's labor love here. Little sticky, right? Oh, it's very sticky. Um, and you pump it over to the fermentation tanks. It traps all that CO2 in there and just carries all the mash up and out of the fermenter with it. Um, you come in in the morning shift 6 AM and you just kind of hear plop, plop, plop, and you know, it's going to be a tough morning.

Is that where you want to get back in your car? Just drive the other way.

Yeah. But instead you get the pressure washer out and you start cleaning the sides of the fermenter and all the floors.

Well, the nose on this is definitely that 95 five. Like you said, there's no doubt on there. That sweetness that I'm not a big guy like Jim, but I've come to just hold these close to my heart, especially really good ones. The seven years old. I mean, that's a little bit older of a ride.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a good age on a Ryan. And honestly, the Mike, the nose on this is, is tremendous. It's a 95 five. It's got a, it's got a candy sweetness to it.

Yeah, I think one of the unique characters of this heirloom rye is that it's not just that big spice that you expect with rye. I mean, it has the spice, but there's a lot of balance here through the palate. It's got enough body and sweetness to round it out. It has some of those same orange notes, black currant, some fruit notes on the front end that really round out the whole body of the whiskey.

I wish I knew what black currants smelled like because it sounds like such a great tasting note.

I think raisins. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay.

I think this has that like fruit cake, that, that Christmas fruit cake, um, nose to it. Um, maybe in like a German, uh, I don't remember what that German cake is with raisins and stuff. And you only get it one type of type. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, that's what I'm getting on this. Man, super beautiful. Oily, too. You know, it's hard to tell that in those, but I'm getting that. Well, hey, cheers, guys.

Thanks. Cheers. Yeah, that oiliness really carries through in a lot of our products. The rye definitely brings that. As Sam was talking about, it's a little bit more difficult to process in the distillery, but it means that holds up really well in the barrel for us as it matures. And kind of surprisingly, or at least to us, There's a really wide range of age that the rye tastes good. You can drink it as young as 2 years and as old as 10 years. We got some of our older stuff at 10 years now. Our youngest rye product is actually an on-premise release only. We call it Original Rye. It comes in a liter bottle. It's at 90 proof. It's designed to be a well rye. And that's 2 years old and it tastes excellent. It's kind of surprising, like two years, wow, this tastes great. It's got body, it's got flavor, aroma, it's really well rounded out. But then all the way up to seven years, it's just that on steroids.

I used to drink, I know you guys drank this before, a little bit of Jäger Meister with a little bit of Red Bull called a Jägerbomb.

Never heard of it.

I get the Jägerbomb in this right here. Yeah, a lot of botanicals. Yeah. Super rich and stuff. That mixture, not so much as the black licorice or the Red Bull, but that mixture together. Very beautiful. Oily, like you said, sweetness. It is, this thing is powerful too. I think it drinks a little bit over that 100 proof. What do you think, Jim?

Yeah, I think it does too. I think you nailed it when you were talking about that German spice cake, that Christmas cake. I'm getting the black currant now that you mentioned it. It's a little like a raisin. So I'm kind of getting that.

That's kind of like, you know, some people will call it squab. You know, it's pigeon, right? So black currant raisin sounds a little better.

Okay. Sounds fancy.

A little bit of a little bit of root beer in there too.

Like a Sassafras. Yeah. That's what I was saying about that liquorice, that Sassafras tea, that, you know, that just that rich candy, heck, maybe even a little bit of whore hound, Jim. Yeah. Love them whore hounds. Both of them look like what the heck is these two jokers talking about?

That's a great ride guys. That's a really, really good ride. So, um, it is definitely different than anything I've had before. It's got its own profile. That's a unique, and I'm, I'm, I'm going to go with you and say it's that, it's that ride variety that you use. Uh, it's probably a lot of, uh, the careful handling that you employ in preparation.

But, uh, it's definitely, it's, it's a favorite amongst the village here at laws whiskey. Cause it's the most unique thing we make. Um, but it's a big flavorful whiskey and, um, you re it really grows on you.

Yeah. I think this is one of those whiskies, uh, that you could just sit with for awhile and you would continue to peel back the engine. You know, you still, you find more flavors, more notes in it over time. And it's nice. Does it differ a lot from your a hundred percent now?

I'd say a little bit. I mean, you get a little more nuttiness on the with the 5% malted barley. That's probably the main difference. We don't have anything at seven years. That's the 100% rye of Asheville, but we're getting there. And the rye is made up of 50% rye and 50% malted.

And those two different preparations of the grain provide different flavors. In this one, there's malted rye? Yep. So the rye component, which is 95%, is made up of 50-50, malted to raw. The malted rye gives much more of a biscuit note. It's sweet. It's got a toasted rye note to it, like a buttered piece of toasted rye bread.

That's that German stolen. I'm think I'm getting in there.

And raw grain of course, provides a little bit more of a grassy and doughy note to whiskey in general.

Well, you guys are spot on and I'm sure you've got some other expressions up your sleeve that you, that you're dying to release. Could you tell us anything that might be coming out to the public?

Just of the rye or anything in general? Anything. Anything. We've always got a few, what we call the experiential series. We just laid down two barrels today of Curacao barrel finished wheat whiskey. That's been a... We've released that twice before in the past. That's a ton of fun. The wheat whiskey is already pretty orangey, but the Curacao barrel brings a lot of that. Obviously, big orange sweetness. We actually made the Curacao in-house here. Sam made that, which I'm sure he could tell you all about that process. But funny how the Curacao barrels are a little harder to procure on the barrel market. So we just decided to start making our own. And in the process, we get our own Curacao barrels out of that.

Yeah, I would just say that we're always trying to learn something and get better. So the team of The whole production team, everyone here we call the village. If anyone wants to learn something or gain some experience doing something a little bit differently, we bring it in and we try it out. We talk about it, we test it, and then we wait a long time and eventually we taste it. But we have a lot of stuff from yeast experiments to barrel experiments to different parts in the processing process that we do. So we're always experimenting and you know, we like to think that we're making our best whiskey today and tomorrow we're going to make some better whiskey.

So sure. Sure. I would imagine that curacao is one of those barrel finishes you have to be a bit careful with because it could be overpowering if you're not careful.

Yeah, you could. It definitely could be that. We can always sort of blend it out with some neutral non-curacao barrel stuff. But yeah, it can be pretty strong. We got a handful of wine barrel finishes for both bourbon and rye. One of our big releases is the Konak finished bourbon. And that has become a full process for us now in the last maybe three years or so. So we take a two to three year old four grain bourbon, we put it in We put it in the barrels for a year. And those barrels being the first used cognac cast from France. That's right. Yeah. And so we'll let it sit there for a year or so. We'll harvest those into a fooder and then let it sit for about another year or so. Overall, it has about four to five years of age on it.

And for those who don't know, a fooder being a giant oak vessel used for aging in the cognac process, part of that blending solera process that they do there.

Oh, okay. So this would be something much larger than 53 gallon.

Oh yeah. Yep. This is a 60 hectoliter vessel. So it's about 1,600 gallons. Uh, and this particular vessel was in service for over 50 years in France. Um, it came to us in really great condition. Um, and it's just been a process of maintenance and keeping it full ever since then. So it's been a lot of fun.

So as long as you keep the whiskey and oak, you're still aging.

Yeah, that's right.

So it's just one heck of a big barrel.

And you guys can imagine the smell of that shipping container when we open that up being shipped from France with this giant cognac footer and many cognac barrels, armagnac barrels, carousel barrels being shipped to us. It's amazing.

I bet it was a beautiful aroma. You know, I'm glad you guys are experimenting like that. You know, we were talking to Chris Morris last week and he was giving a compliment to craft distilleries and how much innovation is coming out of craft so much so that it's hard for them to keep up. I'm talking about Brown Form, a giant in the business. The other thing I'd like to point out to our listeners, that if you think that Kraft Acillaries whiskey is still too young, you know, proof in point is these two whiskies we got in front of us, the seven-year-old Rye and an eight-year-old Berman coming out of Law's Whiskey House, you need to get your hands on some right now, I'm telling you. You're missing out if you're not.

So for our listeners who may not be familiar with your brand, after listening to this show, they're going to know a little bit more, but where can they find your whiskies? What states are you guys in?

So we're all over Colorado, of course. We're also in California, Illinois, Texas, Maryland, Washington, D.C., New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Florida.

And then we are in select states. We have a partner who ships whiskey to your door in states that have laws that allow it. Of course, some states don't allow that, but you can find those states, additional states on our website at lawswithchaos.com.

Okay, good. So, and you're always expanding into more, I would assume your production grows with every year?

Yeah, the last couple of years, we have gone through some pretty huge expansion projects, essentially gutting the buildings updating all the infrastructure, so power, electric, heating and cooling. And we shut down for five months the first time and then two months a year later, and we have been able to triple the output of our distillery. So we've added a new 2000 gallon bend on pot still for stripping new cooker, new fermentation tanks, new blending tanks, you know, all the equipment that keeps everything running. It's been just a huge undertaking undertaking the last couple of years.

It's been a really fun process to watch that happen. I mean, Sam and I started here a while ago and we were putting out probably 80 barrels a month on the high end. And now what's our most recent production?

Yeah, we're, we're making 160 barrels a month, but we have the capacity to make about 300 barrels a month now.

Oh, good. Good for you guys. That's great. That's, that's really awesome. That allows you to build up those inventories. So years down the road, you've got that, you've got that extra aged whiskey. So you can still meet current market demand and you can put a little back for, uh, For the more discerning folks, right?

Now, of course, every distillery knows that space gets a little tight. Yeah. Oh yeah.

Sure. So your, your, your distilleries right downtown Denver, pretty close to downtown.

Yeah. We're pretty close to downtown. We're right off South Broadway. Maybe about a couple of miles out of, out of downtown.

So somebody could get an Uber if they're visiting Denver, come to your distillery and you guys are open from Wednesday to Sunday.

Yeah, and we do tours. I think you can book online. At least that was the protocol during COVID. I don't know if that still is the case. Yeah. Yep. Great tour. It's very educational, really heavy on kind of the whole process of making whiskey. And of course there's a tasting at the end. So.

And what's your last tour of the day?

So our last tour is going to be at six o'clock and we close at seven o'clock.

So you can sit there and drink whiskey for an hour after that tour, right?

You can. And, you know, we have a pretty small tasting room in our distillery, um, because our focus has always been the production of spirits, but, um, we have some exciting news that we are going to be building a two-story tasting room, visitor center with a rooftop deck, um, hopefully breaking ground pretty soon here.

And this is all pretty important because, I mean, whiskey is happening in Colorado. I mean, it's really happening at Colorado. It's one of the states that's a standout in the whiskey world in general. Do you guys know how many distilleries are in Colorado now?

There's, there's over 10 in Denver now. So I would assume there's probably over 60 distillers in Colorado, but you know, we're very fond of some of our peers and we're very proud of the Colorado whiskey that's coming out. And we're just happy to be a part of that and represent Colorado in the whiskey industry.

Yeah. We're always happy to see people doing well in the industry, especially from Colorado.

Well, so if you're a whiskey nerd and you've been wanting to get to Colorado, There's plenty of places to visit. Oh yeah. Go to laws first and then from there branch out.

Absolutely. Yeah. In Denver alone, you could, you could spend a day.

That's great. Now for whiskey houses out there, whiskey group, or, uh, just a, just an individual and they want to buy a barrel of laws whiskey. Do you guys have a single barrel program?

Yes, we do. Anybody who wants to come down, you can email info at lawswhiskeyhouse.com. We'll put you in touch with the right people. And you'll be eventually talking to me. So we have groups of people. Most often, it's groups. Companies that want to come buy barrels, they can give it out to their clients, things like that. Or individual buyers as well or group of friends will go in on a barrel together. If you select a barrel, you get to put it up in our ricks. We have our own special little wooden rick section that's just for those privately owned barrels. You can age it as long as you want. So it's a lot of fun. It's a really special thing.

So how does the distribution of single barrels work to the end consumer in Colorado? Is that something that goes through your gift shop? Is that something that goes through a local retailer? How does that work in Colorado?

So for someone who... Like a private barrel owner, is that what you're asking? Yes. Yeah. If you're local, you can just come pick it up. We would package it and you could come pick it up and just pay through our tasting room. But if it's out of state, you might be going through a liquor store or distributor.

Right. Got it. Okay. Yeah. We just reached that point in Kentucky ourselves or individuals or organizations can buy barrels direct from the distillery and our distillers are quite happy about that. So, uh, you guys have been able to do that for a while now. That's, that's, that's pretty awesome.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun doing barrel tastings and bringing groups down to do that.

So listeners, listen up real close. Sam and James were great enough to give us two bottles of whiskey to do a giveaway this week with a little bit of swag. They gave us a bottle of this eight-year-old bourbon and a bottle of this seven-year-old rye, plus that swag. And we want you to help Blas out for the entire day. on Instagram for this release. We want you to put hashtag Law's Whiskey House. That'll get you to enter from the time we put the post up until 10 o'clock at night. 10 o'clock at night, we'll decide who's going to win that by a randomizer. We'll put that up. But if you really want some good whiskey for listening to this podcast for loving Law's Whiskey House, play along with us and we'll see if we can get you some bottles. What do you say guys?

Good luck, everybody. Thanks for listening. Yeah, you won't be disappointed.

Now, Mike, are they hashtagging in our post or just anywhere?

On our post in the comments below the post, obviously, put hashtag lost whiskey house or get you in or get you playing. Obviously, you have to be 21 years of age and you have to reside in the United States of America and we'll get this whiskey in your hands. You gotta play to win this whiskey though.

You can't get the giveaway if you don't play.

If you just look at the post and put a smiley face, if you don't hashtag laws whiskey house, Hey, tough luck. We appreciate the smiley face though. Yes, we do. All right, Starsky and Hutch. Oh, I mean, Sam and James, we appreciate you two coming on the show. You messed me up with those mustaches. I just keep thinking back to Starsky and Hutch, telling my age a little bit there, but we can't thank you two enough for coming on and spending the evening with Jim and I. Sharing your whiskey with us, you know us whiskey nerds, we'd love. Uh, when somebody else sent us some whiskey to share, um, we really do appreciate you. Right, Jim.

That's absolutely true. And, uh, we would like to give you just a moment here to let everybody know where they can find you guys on the internet, your website, uh, your handles on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, whatever it is.

Yeah. You can find us at laws, whiskey house.com and at laws whiskey on Instagram.

Awesome. We'll be looking for you there and we certainly appreciate you being on the show. And Mike, where can people find us on the internet?

Well, you know, you can find us on Twitter. You can find us on YouTube. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok too. You might see some videos, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon drinking some whiskey straight from a barrel on there. Check all those places out. But one of the main places you can find us is on our private Facebook group, the bourbon roadies. To get in there, you got to be 21. You got to like bourbon. Hell, who don't like bourbon? Right. And you got to agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness. We just want everybody to play nice in there. Whether you drink from the very bottom of the shelf, like 10 high, like I started out with, or that pappy that Jim likes to drink and hide from me. We want you to just play along. So come in our group, hang out with us, share your whiskey. No selling whiskey in there though. So don't be doing that because we'll cut you off the knees real quick.

Well, we do two shows every week. Every Monday we do a craft distillery episode where we highlight a craft distillery doing good work. We'll have one of their expressions on. We'll shine the light on them a little bit, let you know whether or not you ought to add their whiskey to your bar. But every Wednesday we do a long version, a one hour broadcast, 30 minutes each half. Uh, you know, we kind of get you to work and get you home like today with laws whiskey house We'd love to have you listen to both of those shows every week and mike. How can they be sure not to miss a single one?

You know what? I'm gonna say you need to scroll on up hit that check sign that plus sign that subscribe sign That'll let you know. Hey, these two jokers just had a show release Then we want you to scroll on down on that app hit that five star review Leave us some comments because you know what's gonna happen. If you don't come on now, you know what i'm about to say the big bad booty daddy a bourbon will come rolling over to your house with some bottles of this laws whiskey in his hand you guys will drink all night long by the end of the night you're going to leave us that five star review leave us some comments i guarantee but seriously if you leave us that five star review you'll leave us those comments to still receive that they open their doors to us they send us this great whiskey like this laws uh four grain bourbon This law is rye, both bottled and bond. We really appreciate it.

We'd love to hear from you. If you've got a distillery in your hometown that's doing good work and you'd like to shine a little light on, let us know about it. If you've got a guest who you think could be just right for the show, let us know. You can go on our website. We've got a contact us page. You can always send us an email. I'm Jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's Mike at the bourbonroad.com. But like we always say, probably the best way is to hit up our DMS on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief. And we'll see you down. The Bourbon Road.

You are the greatest danger.