36. Big Chief's Southern Bourbon Adventure Part 1

And then we went over to Bill Street and we listened to Big Don, Valentine, and his three-piece chicken and biscuit band, I think is what it's called, in one of those little juke joints there on Bill Street.

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.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomecenter.com. Hey y'all, welcome back to another episode of The Bourbon Road. My name is Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is a deconstruction of your last week of your life, right? Because you spent some time on the road.

Yeah, I went down to see my son in Barksdale Air Force Base and kind of made a little southern distillery tour out of the whole thing. Now, how many miles did you do on this trip?

2,200 miles on my truck. 2,200 miles did Vivian do some of the driving? She did.

She did pretty good. Everybody don't know Vivian's my wife. She tagged along, obviously, to go see our son. But she was a true champ. Went in every distillery with me, took photos. It was a good trip for us. Thirty-three hours in that pickup together. Thirty-three hours in a truck together for a married couple.

That'll make your break yet. How in the world did you convince her to stop at six distilleries?

I think after 20 years, she knows me pretty well. When I have something said in my mind, I'm probably going to do it anyways. We had a good time out of it. It was kind of set up to where we didn't have nothing to do at the time or it was just on our way. It was a good trip. It was six distilleries all together. It was going to turn out to be five and then we threw in an extra one in there and then the mix. You know, it was just a good trip.

Yeah.

10 day trip, you know, and mainly the focus was to go down to New Orleans, have a couple of days down there in New Orleans on Bourbon street for our listeners, you know, and then head over and see our son.

Yeah. A lot of good restaurants too, I guess.

Oh my gosh. We, we ate like Kings and Queens.

Yeah. So, I guess our plan here is to take these six distilleries, and of course you've got interviews at each of these six distilleries. And so we're going to try and break this up into a two-part episode. A Christmas present for our listeners. Yeah, part one and part two of Mike's southern road trip, I guess. But yeah, you brought back a lot of whiskey. Some of these distilleries were generous enough to say, I know Jim couldn't be on the trip with you, so take him a bottle back. That was nice. But I get to taste some of it with you and we get to talk about it. So in this particular episode, we're going to visit three different distilleries.

We're going to talk about Old Dominic, rich grain distillery, and 7-3 distillery down in New Orleans. And while we're doing that, we're going to sip on a little bit of the rich grain distillery high rye bourbon.

And this is not because this is a preferred pour or anything. It's just you and I need to pick one to sip on during the show. And this was just one we had handy.

Yeah, trust me, Jim, every bourbon that I drank or every whiskey I drank on this trip was, you know, everybody's putting their love into it. And if it wasn't ready yet, when it is ready, it's going to be some good juice. Yeah.

Well, tell me about what we've got in our glass right now. What are we drinking on?

So right now, we're drinking on Rich Green Distillery's high rye bourbon. And he takes this and he'll sell it by itself, but he also takes and blends it with their weeded bourbon, which I love. And then you got this bottle right here. And his standard bourbon is a four grain.

So give me the specifics on it. What's the match bill on this?

So it's 66% corn, 17% barley, and 17% rye.

So not a real high rye. I mean, normally you think of a high rye. You think of something with greater than 20% to 25% in it.

Yeah. In my mind, I'm always thinking like over that 30% like a Willet or something. Something super high and super spicy. But it is a rye bourbon.

And what's the proof on it? It's 90 proof in the age. I want to say that he, these are two year olds. Okay. So this is a young bourbon, uh, and it is a rye bourbon, but you know, it's got a 17% barley in it too. That's a pretty high barley content.

Yeah. And you can, you can, it's coming through the notes of that barley is definitely comes through.

Let's check it out. Yeah. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah, I can get it on the nose. Definitely. That is a, uh, That's very, uh, Scotch-like because it's definitely not peated. Of course.

I told you it's like old Maysville to me is it's got that qualities of it. And, um, is it malted, malted right too? You know, is that what's coming through?

It's definitely a malt whiskey, uh, feel to it. Yeah, that's why I'm wondering, you know, they need that barley and that malted barley in there and everybody adds that. But sometimes you get a little bit of malted rye in there too. And it kind of reminds me of that Maysville a lot. You're right. I mean, it's got that floral, sweet, peachy up front to it. Oh yeah. But you can definitely pick up that malt. Yeah, I would say it leans towards the kind of malt whiskey class. Definitely a bourbon. It's 60, what'd you say, 61%? 60% corn. 66% corn, yeah.

And maybe the corn is hidden. To me, it's hidden a little bit in there, but you can taste it. It's got that sweetness to it and still got that pepper on the back end for a ride, you know?

So the nose on this is very delicate. Oh, it's definitely a younger juice. Oh yeah. You pick that up right away. I think it'll definitely mellow out as it gets a little bit older. I'm not getting a lot of oak on it, a little bit, but it is a little drying on the back of the palate, I thought. And I do, the fruit I pick up on, it's more of a kind of a peach or pear kind of, you know, like delicate fruit. Sure. I think it's good. Now this is, this is something that I could enjoy sipping on, understanding its age, but I know it's not your thing, Mike.

Well, that's that's why you got the bottle. Well, I mean, it's really sweet, though. I mean, it's very sweet up front. And usually when we mean you do that, we if it's something's high weed, I usually get the bottle. And if we get a bottle and if it's a high rye, usually you get the bottle. We don't have to argue about it. That's that's a nice thing about both of us liking different stuff, I guess.

Well, also, you know, we can appreciate something. So when I just sort of put something like this on the table in front of us. You know, it's in my wheelhouse. You know, I can appreciate this. So yeah, it's good. Yeah. I know you prefer to have the wheats and me a little bit more spiciness.

Yeah.

It's got a little spiciness on the back end.

Yeah. That was our second distillery. The first distillery, me and Viv, you know, we got, I'd worked a 12 hour shift and then I slept a couple hours and she, I know she was eager to go. I knew she, she really, we both wanted to go on this trip. You know, some trips are like, ah, you know, I could probably skip this, but we really wanted to go on this trip. So I got up and, uh, I wouldn't tell anybody to go try to do what I did, but I did. We got up and we drove straight to Memphis, Tennessee from here. It's about a five and a half hour, six hour drive and, uh, stopped at a liquor store on the way and got myself a, uh, couple little finds that I that I unicorns that I like to define. I found a T.W. Samuel's blended whiskey, which I'd never seen before here in Kentucky. And then I got a single barrel of 1792 down there. Um, we went out that night and ate a place called flying fish. It's a cafe, Texas catfish house there in Memphis. And, uh, then we went over to bill street and we listened to Don big Don Valentine and his three piece chicken and biscuit band. I think it's what it's called. Uh, and one of those little, and one of the little juke joints there on bill street. Um, and when I tell people about bill street and got to go to Memphis, me and Vivian like to go into the smallest place possible there with brick walls and a little stage and. Somebody's up there, just with his guitar, just belting away. And they were having a good time. And they asked us, hey, do you got some songs you'd like for us to sing? And I like Otis Redding. I really do like Otis Redding. And I told him I'd like to hear some Otis Redding. And man, they belted it out. He didn't know too much of it, but his dad was there and his dad knew Otis Redding and I appreciated that, that his dad was like, heck, I'll sing that. So he got up there and sang for me. Next morning we got up and went over to Old Dominic Distillery right off of Bill Street. First distillery on the trip. First one. Yeah. Met with Alex Castle there. She is the master distiller now. Um, it's surprising things about her. She's right, right from here in Kentucky and down the road from me and you, she was from Baghdad.

Oh, OK. Yeah, not too far away. No, that's here in Shelby County. Yeah.

And she was the distillery supervisor over at Wild Turkey. Wow. OK.

So she knows what she's doing. She definitely knows what she's doing.

Yeah. She was the first female master distiller, head distiller in Tennessee. And now there's three women master distiller in Tennessee. But she showed me around their distillery. Pretty cool distillery. They got a gigantic sign you can't miss on the top of the roof that says Old Dominic with this giant rooster. And the neat thing is there's another great place in Memphis to eat is Gus's world famous fried chicken. And they're right across the street. She told me that's the chicken district. So, you know, I'd say, hey, if you're in Memphis, Tennessee, and you're waiting for Beale Street to liven up, you know, go on down there to the distillery, get yourself some fried chicken, drink some whiskey, drink some bourbon. It's pretty good.

So you did an interview while you were there. Yeah. Let's hear it.

Let's do it.

All right.

Hey, this is Big G from the Bourbon Road, and we're here at Old Dominic Distillery in Memphis, Tennessee. And I'm with Alex, the master distiller. Are you the only female master distiller in Tennessee?

I was the first female head distiller in the state, but now there are, I believe, three of us that have the title of master distiller.

That's awesome. Tell the progression from the 1800s to today.

Huge, huge progression, especially in Tennessee. It all happened within the last less than five years.

So let's get straight to the whiskey. What do you got for me today?

So this is a tasting of our two-year-old Tennessee whiskey. So we started producing our state-produced whiskey back in December of 2016, filled the first barrel February of 2017. And so this is one of those barrels. And we like to have it on the tasting. We don't sell it, but we like to have it on the tasting so that when people come by, they can see exactly what it is we're doing.

And it, where's, is this your guys' stuff? This is, you're making this right here. Okay. Let's, let's taste it.

Cheers. Cheers.

Young, but still it's a, you can tell it's a Ding Shiro whiskey.

It's, it's getting there.

I put that right up against some other Tennessee whiskeys out there.

I appreciate that.

So, uh, when was the, when was the distillery founded?

So the brand itself was founded back in 1866 by our founder, Domenico. Unfortunately, it did not survive prohibition, but the family business continued through it. And finally, back in, I believe, 2013, the current president, Chris Canale Jr., decided to bring that brand back and start up what is now Old Dominic Distillery.

And you guys, what do you produce here today?

Today, we now produce two different vodkas. We have a flavored bourbon, as well as three whiskey mash fills, and also about to do a gin.

And then you have a bourbon that's contracted out, contracted to steel. Yes.

So we decided back in 2014 that we needed some juice for our flavored bourbon. And so we took our recipe, our yeast, and our barrels up to Indiana, where everybody knows, and had them produce our first round of whiskey.

There's nothing wrong with that, I think. You've got to keep the lights on somehow, right? You do.

You've got to pay the bills. You've got to be able to pay for the equipment that's out there.

And then you'll be whiskey-poured. Now, what kind of steels do you have here?

So we've got two different systems, but everything was produced by Vendome in Louisville. So we have what we call our whiskey system, which is a 26 foot tall column and a small 60 gallon doubler. And then we also have our gin system, which is a 250 gallon pot still that is also paired with a 22 foot tall column.

Seems like bin domes everywhere these days. I think they make like 98% of the steals in America.

I'm not surprised. They're the best. They're easy to work with, but they're also incredibly gifted at what they do.

And they're also beautiful pieces of art when you really look at a steel, right?

Oh, they're stunning. All that copper.

Yeah. They're beautiful. You can't go wrong with that. Our friend Gina over there, she'll buy all that copper and stuff. So it's always nice to see a friend. Her product is actually here in the steel.

Oh, she probably can't go anywhere without seeing something that she actually helped buy and make.

So I noticed that And then accelerate, you guys use a charcoal filter for this as a Tennessee whiskey.

We do.

And how did you guys decide, let's call it Tennessee whiskey. How'd you guys decide that? Just because we're in Tennessee or?

That's really what it was is we knew we wanted what you would consider a traditional bourbon, but also being based in Tennessee, we wanted something that we could actually call Tennessee whiskey. And per state definitions, you have to put it through that sugar maple charcoal.

Yeah. So what, we're right here in your distillery. We're probably, Two or 300 yards from a Mississippi river, right? And we're probably about a block from bill street.

Yes. Perfect location.

And what fits better to bill street than some Tennessee whiskey and some, uh, just a distillery hand in hand.

I can just walk the cases down to the bars.

Yeah. Are you in most of those bars there?

Yes. Yes.

And which states are you currently located in?

So we are Olive, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, Georgia, New York, California, Wyoming. I feel like I'm missing a couple others there.

You can't get across the river to Arkansas?

Oh, we are in Arkansas. That's the other one I forgot. We keep adding states so quickly. I can't keep up with all of them. And we've got plans to go into, I believe it's seven or eight more markets next year.

All right. That's pretty awesome. And what about future projects? Are you guys planning on different products to put out there?

Right now, our main focus really is getting ready for our state produced whiskey to be released. So we're looking at either late 2021 or early 2022 for that. So we're just focused on figuring out what that looks like.

All right. So you brought me a, you got me a second pour here. What's that second pour?

That's actually just more of the two year old Tennessee whiskey.

You look like you need it more. Well, it is like nine 30 in the morning. And we were out on Beale Street last night. But let me try this. I think she saw it. She's like, this guy's named Big Chief. He can handle it.

You do. You look like you need two pours. It's fine.

Well, Alex, I want to say thanks for letting us come in here and talk to you real quick and being part of this episode. And we really appreciate it. Where can our listeners find you on social media?

So you can find The Distillery on Facebook and Instagram at Old Dominic Distillery. And you can also actually follow me at Memphis Distiller on Instagram.

All right, so listeners, if you're down in Memphis, Tennessee and you're down on Beale Street and you're looking to kill some time in the middle of the day when everything's not happening there on Beale Street, come on down to the distillery. Look for Alex. Bye.

I'm always floating around somewhere.

buy some of their products for people that don't drink bourbon. They've got other products out there. We won't name those, but they do got some bourbon. Stop on the bourbon road and get yourself some of this old Dominic whiskey. You won't be disappointed. And I'll see you down the bourbon road.

Well, Mike, that was a great interview. I really enjoyed it. She sounds like she really knows her stuff.

She does, and they're going to go places, I think, and they'll definitely be on a map there in Tennessee.

So as our listeners are visiting Tennessee on their weekend getaways, that's a good place to go to.

Oh, no, there's no doubt. If you want to hear some blues music, eat some great food, and a great distillery right on the Mississippi River, how much better can you get than that?

So who's next on our list here? You were moving on down the road, right?

So it was me and Vivian jumped in the truck and, you know, I had another interview set up. So we drove another three hours down the road towards New Orleans and we stopped right outside of Jackson, Mississippi at a small town of Canton, Mississippi. known for Brother Wow that was filmed there. And I think about 10 other movies have been filmed there. Just a quaint southern little town with a square and a beautiful courthouse.

I guess if you saw a picture of that courthouse and a square, a lot of people would recognize that from the movies, right? I think they would. Yeah. So rich grain distilleries there. And that's what we're drinking today.

We are David, David rich, their master distiller. He invited us in. He didn't have a lot of time for us that day. Uh, he had a charity event he was going to and you know, he's helping out his community. So how could I say, Hey, I need more time from you. I was, I was glad to the time we got from him. I loved it.

All right. Well, let's listen to your interview with rich grain. All right.

Hey, this is Big Chief from the Bourbon Road and you know we headed all down I-55 from Memphis and we made it to Canton, Mississippi and we're in Rich Grain Distilling here and I'm with David Rich, the founder, master distiller, owner. You're everything, right?

Sure, that's right.

So, David, what do we got for me today, man?

So, we're Rich Grain Distilling. We're definitely a craft distillery, real small company. Right now, we just distribute in the state of Mississippi. And kind of what makes our product special or unique and of interest to the listeners today is we make the first bourbon ever made in Mississippi. We make a few different recipes. We have a weeded mash bill. We also have a high rye mash bill. So we make a few different bourbons and we're going to sample those and kind of talk about them.

Prohibition didn't really end in Mississippi until 1966.

That's correct. Yeah, Mississippi was actually the first state in the country to enact prohibition and the very last state to repeal it. Mississippi actually enacted prohibition in 1908, well before federal prohibition. And then in 1966, Mississippi repealed it. But even at that point, they didn't make alcohol legal everywhere. They made it a local option. So it's up to each individual county on whether they want to allow alcohol sales or not. As it stands, there are 82 counties in the state of Mississippi. 59 of them are wet. 23 are still dry. We're in a wet county, obviously having a distillery here. So there's still a good portion of the state that's dry. So Mississippi has kind of a unique history. We are one of five active distilleries in the state. There's five distilleries in Mississippi. We're all pretty small. And we opened about four years ago, 2015. and what makes us unique is we make the first bourbon made in the state.

And that's what our listeners are excited about, right? So you don't source any of your products, you make it all in-house?

That's correct, yeah. When I started, I got into this business just as an enthusiast, like a lot of the listeners probably are, love to try and taste different whiskies. And my previous background was as a mechanical engineer, so I like to tinker and make and decided It'd be a fun thing to open a distillery and make it myself. So that's what I did. Built all my production equipment. I've got two different stills. I have a 300 gallon pot batch still and also have a continuous stripping column. We double distill our whiskey. We mash, ferment the still on the grain. We double distill our whiskey in a batch process. And like I said, we make two different mash bills, one with 17% rye, one with 17% wheat. We age those separately. We then take barrels of each, combine them together and bottle it that way. Our barrels, we use a combination of different size barrels. We have some that are 15 gallons, some that are 30 gallons, some that are 53. They all have a number three char. They age different amounts of time. Our barrel house is not climate controlled, so it goes through all the different seasonal fluctuations here in Mississippi. And I'd say definitely our really humid climate and hot weather down here plays a role in aging that may be different than some other locations.

So you put us out a couple of samples here. So you got a white liquor here.

Yeah. So I poured five samples here. We make a lot of different things. Our flagship product is our bourbon, but we also make some rums. I do some vodkas and some other things, contract distilled for some other companies. So what I've poured is a white rum, a spiced rum, and then three different bourbons. The first bourbon is gonna be the high rye mashbill.

That one right there. So that is 66% corn, 17% barley, and 17% rye.

So you should be able to taste the rye in that one. It should have a good black pepper spiciness to it. It sure does.

It's got a sweet caramel taste to it. Almost marshmallows, I'd say, but caramel. But that spice is definitely there. That burn is there.

So yeah, this one of all of our bourbons, I would steer people, if you're making old fashions or cocktails, that would be the one I would pick. The next bourbon that we have on the tasting is our 17% wheat mash bill. 66% corn, 17% barley, and then 17% wheat. So this one should be softer, sweeter, more in stylistically wise, closer to like a maker's mark type of thing.

So those people that say they don't drink? weeded bourbons, but they'll drink Pappy's. This is what they're going to be drinking.

Yeah, that's right. That's right.

I think this is a good starter bourbon for someone.

Exactly. Yeah. If people aren't, you know, big bourbon drinkers, I'd probably steer them to that one first before they graduated to something else.

I see some, maybe some persimmons in that, maybe a little bit. Great taste to it. Still got that sweetness to it.

And then the final one is basically just barrels of those two combined together. Yeah, it's a different age bottling run to another. We kind of do seasonal releases where we'll take a handful of barrels that we think are ready, combine them together and do that bottling run. And then we'll do like a Christmas release, a summer release, spring release, that type of thing.

Kind of the traditional bourbon releases back in the day was that they would do a fall and they would do a spring, right? That's traditional. And what's the age statement on these?

So these, the three that you've tried are two year versions, and these came out of 15 gallon barrels. Like I said, we have some other stuff that's aging longer in some different size barrels. We got some in thirties, we got some in 53s, and those will come off at different times.

So future production, are you going to go with some older bourbons down the road?

Oh, yeah. I mean, our deal is we started four years ago. The first two years we were in business, we weren't selling any bourbon. We were just doing our unage spirits or rums and that type of thing until we had gotten some inventory built up and then released our first bourbon. But our deal, we're just trying to grow and meet the demand here locally in Mississippi and then kind of expand. our footprint from there.

So you're not outside of the state of Mississippi, but hopefully eventually that's where you're going to get to.

Yeah, I'd say so. Our next states probably to go after this would be Louisiana and Tennessee, probably New Orleans and Memphis markets.

But for our listeners, you do ship.

Yeah, we will ship. If you live in a state where it's allowed to be shipped in, you can go to our website www.rich distilling with an ing.com. Find an email address there, phone number there, contact us and we'll take an order. We can get you set up and ship you some.

And I noticed you got some like gift set boxes of all three of sorts that people want to get some different varieties that could get a different variety.

So, you know, you're a collector. There's a lot of people I know who we've sold a lot of stuff over the phone, people that way, people who are trying to get a bourbon made in every single state, you know, for example. Well, we're pretty much it for Mississippi for your collection. We do have a little three bottle gift set that has our high rye mashville, our weeded mashville, and then the bourbon that's a combination of both.

All right. So what, uh, where can our listeners find you on social media?

Uh, we are Facebook, Instagram, uh, at rich grain distilling co on both of those. Um, we've got a website, www.rich distilling.com and, uh, I don't tweet.

So, um, If people don't know, it wasn't a movie.

They've filmed a lot of movies here. Cannes is located basically smack dab right in the center, middle of Mississippi, right in the middle of the state along basically the Illinois Central Railroad kind of coming right down the middle of the state and along I-55. So about halfway from Memphis to New Orleans is where we're located.

So a great place to stop off on a trip and grab some food and grab some bourbon.

Yeah. And so we've got this, you know, sort of picturesque Southern town square that has been a backdrop for a lot of movies. They filmed Matthew McConaughey movie here, A Time to Kill. That was based on the John Grisham book. They filmed A Brother Were Art Thou with George Clooney. That's the Coen brothers and that's one of my favorites. So they filmed a lot of movies here. And right now we're kind of gearing up for Christmas. The square is really decorated with all the Christmas lights and a lot of people from the central Mississippi area come to Canton for Christmas.

Well, that's awesome. I appreciate you sitting down with us today and let us stop by real quick on our road trip here, and especially getting to you out there as a craft seller, somebody that doesn't source their stuff, somebody that's putting that pride and effort into their craft. You are the American dream of what people think, I think, anyways. I appreciate that. And we appreciate you putting out a great product. I think all three of your whiskeys While they're still young, I think they taste great and they've got a lot of potential and I can't wait to see what you do in the future.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that.

Hey, once again, it's Big Chief and I'll see you on down at Bourbon Road.

Well, Mike, that was a great interview. It sounds like you're doing it good in the South, huh?

Yeah, they're finally on the map with some bourbon in Mississippi. You know, a neat thing about Mississippi is they are the last state to repeal prohibition, which was in 1966.

Oh boy, did they have a long dry spell.

And then they still had Dry Counties after that. So, you know, they're still trying to catch up to everyone else. And that kind of shocked me a little bit, but it didn't because I knew why we were in a Bible Belt.

Yeah.

You know?

Well, Mike, let's go ahead and take a break now and we'll keep sipping on this rich grain. And when we get back, you can tell us about the third stop on your trip. All right, let's do it. We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Loghead's Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Loghead's Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building handcrafted rustic furniture. Family owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The Logheads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled wood crafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rotten termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at LogHeadsHomeCenter.com. And while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at LogHeads Home Center. Okay, well we were back and Mike, where did you go after Rich Grant?

Well, we jumped back in that red pickup and we headed on down to Bourbon Road, headed down to New Orleans and me and Viv, you know, we really wanted to go to New Orleans this time. Viv had never been to New Orleans.

So you took the Bourbon Road to Bourbon Street.

Pretty much. She changed her hotel reservations on us. Usually we stay in a Marriott or Hilton or something like that. She felt like she wanted to stay down in the French Quarter. She gave me the directions. She didn't tell me anything about it. We pulled down into the French Quarter. And I was like, oh man, here we go Pulled in the hotel and I was shocked stayed at the hotel st. Marie, which is just is a half a block off of Bourbon Street right there in the French French Quarter and Man, I did I love it. So if you're in you're going New Orleans hotel st. Marie there in the French Quarter it is renovated. It has balconies that overlook the street there, like just any hotel in the French Quarter has. And it has balconies out the rooms, into their gardens and stuff. They have a pool, valet parking there. They got a little nice bar and restaurant attached to there, which we'll talk about later on in the next and part two of this. But yeah, went down to Bourbon Street and had a good time. So did you go to Felix's and eat some oysters? We didn't go to Felix's. We went to Acme Oyster House and we had some oysters there. We went to the Gumbo shop. had some atoufe, some gumbo, some jambalaya. My niece actually lives in Hammond, Louisiana, which is just north of New Orleans. And she came down and met us. And, you know, we went up and down Bill Street or not Bill Street, Bourbon Street a couple of times. And you can't you can't go wrong on Bourbon Street. There's if you're a bourbon drinker, you got to go to you got to go to Bourbon Street.

Yeah. So Cafe Dumont, right?

Yeah. And the next morning we got up and went over to Cafe du Monde before our interview and had a beignet and I had some of the chicory coffee they have there and something else. Yeah. I was more in love with the coffee myself than the beignets. The beignets to me, I don't know. I was kind of disappointed. It was a fried donut with a whole bunch of, I'd say they put a pound of powdered sugar on there.

It's just something you do when you're down there, you know, but that coffee is special. It is.

And I think that place has been open continuously since 1862. I mean, that says something. But that coffee to me was like legit. I'm a history buff, and I kind of know why they did the chicory and stuff. Soldiers were drinking. Coffee was at a shortage, so they added that chicory. It kind of had that same flavor profile, so they added it to it. And those guys just started drinking it.

So tell us about where you went.

So, after we finished with Cafe DuMont, we went over to 73 Distilling there in New Orleans. It's two or three blocks off the French Quarter, and we took an Uber over there. And 73 is for, there's 73 neighborhoods in New Orleans. Oh, is that what it's from? That's what it's all about. I didn't know that there were 73 neighborhoods. And another interesting thing about the distillery is every one of their products is named for a neighborhood there.

Oh, really? Okay.

Yeah. So their bourbon, their bourbon they're going to be coming out with in 2020 is going to be called Bywater Bourbon. I didn't, I don't know if I really liked that, but it ties in with the neighborhood theme. So, yeah. And we met with the Eric Morningstar there, their head distiller. Great guy. Showed us around their distillery. Their bourbon isn't being bottled yet, but he went ahead and got all whiskey thief out and stole some whiskey from the barrel for us and we sat down at their bar and we sampled it. All right. Sounds good.

Well, Mike, I'm looking forward to hearing this interview. Let's listen. Let's listen to it.

Hey, this is Big Chief, and we're moved on down to Bourbon Road today, and we're in New Orleans, Louisiana, right downtown, and we're at 73 Distilling, and I'm here with Eric Morningstar, their head distiller. Eric, thanks for having us in.

Yeah, no problem. Thanks for stopping by.

Yeah, we love this kind of stuff, stopping by craft distilleries and just a road trip for me and my wife, getting on down the road. Jim's back in Kentucky doing his thing, recording some other people, but I always want to stop by distilleries, especially craft distilleries, and get your name out there, get your product out there, let our listeners know, hey, if they're in New Orleans, there's actually a distillery here that's making some bourbon that you're fixing to release in January, right?

Well, not quite. The first barrels will hit two years in January. I think it's coming along really, really well, but I'm very cagey about actually putting an actual release date on there until we actually release it. So when it's ready, it's ready. It's an objective thing. It's like art. You don't know it's done or exactly when you're finished until actually it is.

So you actually took us back there. You took the bung out of the barrel, got the whiskey thief and got us a couple of glasses here and poured us some of the whiskey. And I'm excited because it's a weeded bourbon. As our listeners know, old big chief's a sissy and he likes that weeded bourbon, but I'm excited to taste it. So if you would tell me a little bit of something about it.

Yeah, so I'll go through the whole process. So the bourbon, like you said, is a weeded bourbon actually using I went full wheat on it, so it's actually, obviously it's bourbon, so it's corn, but instead of using traditional barley malt, we used a malted wheat. So it's extra, extra weedy. But it's aged in traditional 53-gallon barrels. We're not going the small format route. I think it just yields a better product. It just yields a more traditional product that people expect that flavor from bourbon. It takes extra time. We're in Louisiana. Things age a little quicker because of the heat and the humidity. It's more receptive, so you can see it's got a pretty dark color. This is actually a couple months shy of two years, so it's not quite a straight bourbon. It's still got that caramel though. Oh yeah, it's very, very dark and that comes from, like I said, primarily heat. They're also lower char level, so you're going to get not quite as much of that smoke and that caramel. It's going to be a little fruitier. It definitely looks beautiful. It's starting to get that nice whiskey color to it and stuff.

I've seen older whiskeys in Kentucky that don't even have that nice caramel color to it. Let's taste it. Cheers.

Definitely sweet.

Definitely sweet. It's still a little bit young, I think. I understand that, that you're probably watching it quite closely.

Oh yeah, quite closely. I mean, it's always nice when people come in, you get to take it out and try it. But it's a lower entry proof, so it's not traditional. We're not putting it at the max, which is 126. We're dropping it down closer to sort of a pre-prohibition proof, where it's around 100 proof entry proof into the barrel, which just kind of bounces it out. and you kind of get a little more, like I said, more of the fruit notes. You're pulling evenly from the barrel in terms of water-soluble compounds and alcohol-soluble compounds. So it ends up with sort of a little bit of a heavier mouthfeel. And also we're going to be adding less water when we actually take it down to bottle proof. So we're going to maintain more of that flavor. You're getting that more pure whiskey.

Are you going to proof it down to 92?

I think on the website we just picked a number. So when the time comes and we're ready to go and we get rid of that, you know, the graininess is completely gone because I feel like there's still a hint of the corn in there which is is the first sign that we've reached the tipping point where we're going to consider releasing it is when that corn really just settles down. Now the name of this is going to be Bywater.

That's correct. And so the name of the distillery is 73, which is for 73 neighborhoods. Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct. Yeah. So we've got a pretty old city down here and there's a lot of history and there's a lot of There's a lot of pride that people take in their neighborhoods, and the neighborhoods really, really mean a lot, and what part of Siren Baton you're from, if you're from uptown, or if you're from further downtown, which is where the Bywater is, or if you're in mid-city. There's all these little enclaves, and they all have their own different cultures, historically and currently. the owner has an affinity for alliteration, so Bywater Bourbon kind of fits together. Well, there's a few other ones that we have. It fits that profile. But, you know, the Bywater was a major in a port, basically. So it was where the railroads came up to the river. So all the goods coming down the river would then be loaded onto rail cars and be moved, you know. So that's pretty fitting because a lot of bourbon came down that river, right?

So Bowater is a neighborhood right on the Mississippi River and bourbon somewhat got its fame from being delivered down to New Orleans for people to drink and being shipped out to the world from up in Kentucky down to the Ohio. Sometimes from the Kentucky River to the Ohio down to Mississippi. and so forth, so that's a little bit of history.

Yeah, it is one of the claims on where the name came from was obviously New Orleans and Bourbon Street and the connection with the French and the Spanish, the House of Bourbon. Since we're in New Orleans, we'll claim it and say it's ours.

I think that's not nice that you guys are gonna have bourbon. You do have some other spirits for people that don't like bourbon. What else do you have?

Yeah, we have a full range of spirits. We have a vodka gin. We have an unaged rice whiskey, which is sort of our moonshine. We have a barrel reserve gin. So we're aging our gin in brand new oak barrels, the same barrels that we're using to age our bourbon in. So it gives it a really nice color, sort of gives us, you know, kind of turn some of those gin notes into some more Christmas, some more kind of all-spice notes that are really kind of fun. We also have our experimental line that we're calling Treme Alchemy, which is the neighborhood that we're in, which is sort of the birthplace of jazz and sort of the parts of culture that makes New Orleans, New Orleans. And so we're kind of embracing some of that spirit of experimentation. And we actually released a couple experimental rice whiskeys. So Louisiana is one of the few states that actually produces rice. That'd be like their native grain here. Yeah, it isn't quite native, but we're one of the few states that have their fusillades, historically, since the 1700s. So we thought we'd take that and and turn that into a whiskey and playing around with it. Like I said, it isn't like a bourbon where you've got a lot of rules that you have to follow. It has to be a certain percentage of corn. You have to engage it in new American oak barrels. We can kind of do whatever we want with it. If you've got some used whiskey barrels, used rye barrels, different types of whiskies. And it's just been fun to play around with. And that's available only in our tasting room. So it's limited release, one or two barrels at a time, whatever we have. Then we also have our other whiskey, which was designed to get us out before we had the in-house Abe Spirits, is our Irish Channel Whiskey, which is named after the Irish Channel neighborhood. which is a little further uptown, and to embrace the history of the city, it's kind of a nice concept where we're actually importing Irish whiskey. The Irish Channel had a lot of Irish immigrants, that's the name, and we're blending that with an American corn whiskey, and then it's getting finished in a 25-year-old or several 25-year-old cognac casks. relatively quick turnaround, you know, it isn't, you know, we don't have to wait two plus years for it to age, but it's about a six month process to make. So it's, it's definitely, you know, making it, making it difficult on ourselves rather than just sourcing a product and turning it around.

But you had to keep the light, you got to keep lights on and get the doors open. Yeah. You have to have some products to sell and there's nothing wrong with that.

And having an aged product is important. I think, you know, when people come in, You know, there's obviously a good group of people that want something aged. They want a brown spirit. And that was the way around it. And it's an amazing spirit. It's really been fun to make. And that one's won, I mean, a lot of our spirits have won awards, but that one won best in show, best in class at the American Distilling Institute awards. last year.

Now you're not native to New Orleans though right?

No I'm not. I'm from the north so I'm originally from Detroit area. My family's connected with the automotive industry and Eventually made my way up north, started working for a smaller distillery even further in the north around the Traverse City area. And that was sort of where I found my calling, so to speak. And eventually got connected with, through friends, another distillery in Detroit where I was able to work with Dave Pickerel from Makers Mark fame, who's passed away this past year, unfortunately. And he was your mentor? And he was our mentor at 2 James in Detroit there. And we eventually, my wife and I, decided to make a move. We were pregnant. We realized that our time was short. We were like, well, if we're gonna do something, do something crazy, we gotta do it now. And the opportunity arose to come down here and start this place from scratch, pretty much.

How'd that conversation come about? Like, they just call you up and say, hey.

No, actually, we were just looking around on a couple different job posting sites, industry sites. And the listing for this popped up and we were like, interesting let's just let's just check it out and see what happens and one thing led to another and we're about seven months pregnant let's do it that's a scary thing yeah you move down let's move to New Orleans yeah become a distiller

Well, definitely to me, I could tell you're a distiller because, you know, you're not, not to say you're a dirty looking guy, but you look like you've been working.

So to me that means you're, you know, you can show up front door in a pair of a suit and tie. No, no, no. It's definitely, definitely not, definitely not the style. This is my, my distiller's tuxedo, you know, dirty shirt with some jeans. But I know it's, I like, I like that aspect of the work. I like, I like getting my hands dirty. People always ask about my background and I don't have a chemistry background. I have an arts background and I definitely come from the perspective of an artist. I like the creative process. I just like process in general. And I think there's something magical about barrel aging in spirits is that there's something a little mysterious. I mean, we know how it works, but there's no guarantee what you're going to get on the other side after the barrel aging is finished or we decide that it's finished. Some barrels are very, very different than others. And like I said, there's little choices that can be made along the way. I think whiskey making or you're distilling spirits, that is art.

It's an art form. Even a baker is an artist. How close can you get to being a baker than being a distiller? You're using the same brain. It's still somewhat of a science, but there's an art to it. Being able to taste that whiskey when it comes out of the barrel and saying, hey, is it ready? Is it not ready? What's the taste on it? How's that mouth feel? How's the nose? Because you don't want something that that smells like dirt. You want something that smells pleasing to your nose and then it's pleasing to your palate. That's definitely your whiskey right here. It's still sweet. It might be the second sweetest weed bourbon I've had.

Well, yeah, good and bad, depends on your perspective. No, I mean, you know, we're like, you know, obviously we're in New Orleans and in general, I'd say the city has a sweet tooth, you know, there's, you know, we got... That's what we stopped down by Cafe Du Monde and had some beignets and some of their hickory or chicory coffee this morning.

out comes these beignets and they just coat it in powdered sugar.

It's at least at least a quarter pound of powdered sugar. Yeah. So we're definitely trying to do the New Orleans thing.

So whenever you in the future, you know, this is your first bourbon and it's a weeded bourbon. What other bourbons or whiskeys are you going to put out?

Yeah. I mean, I definitely, I definitely have a kind of inclination to, to produce a rye. I mean, I think it kind of, It fits with the history of the city and the cocktail culture of Sazerac, which is a rye-based cocktail, or historically cognac-based, but it eventually became a rye-based cocktail. So I'd like to experiment. not to say experiment, I've made a lot of rye, but I'm in the past. But I definitely like to change it up and have a nice counterpoint to this very rich, sweet bourbon, a weeded bourbon and have something that's got some more spice to it. Yeah, I think most companies, most distillers are going to have their, well, not everybody has a weeded bourbon and I got a commedia for

for having a weeded bourbon or your owner. You know, to me, whenever you have a weeded bourbon, you have a rye bourbon and then you have a rye whiskey. It seems like you've you've hit all three good areas. You're all three types of whiskey drinkers. It seems to me you're even with rice, the rice whiskey. And I told you before, I think to me, when I think of rice whiskey, I think of like Korea or Vietnam or Japan is what I think.

So when we thought about making the rice whisky, we definitely, you know, it's not just 100% rice. There's a good amount of malted barley in there and that kind of gives it more of a sort of an American flair, you know, a more traditional, what we think of traditional American whisky. Having that malt in there really, really kind of rounds it out so it isn't just pure rice. That said, there's a lot of rice in there. It does lend itself to some interesting cocktails. There's actually a local company that's using some of their bitters. They're actually promoting a brandy milk punch variation, except with the rice whiskey, which is kind of fun because of the rice that cereal grain really comes through and plays well with the milk. Where can our listeners find you on social media? Yeah, you can definitely go to our website. It's 73distilling.com, all spelled out. S-E-V-E-N-T-H-R-E-D-I-S-T-L-I-N-G.com. But we're on Instagram and Facebook pretty regularly. We post quite a bit about what we're doing. And obviously when the bourbon is ready and we're going to release it, We'll make sure we let everybody know. And we're slowly expanding into different markets and different states right now. We're in Louisiana. We've got some little inroads in the Chicago area, D.C. So we're slowly making our way out into the world.

Well, I think thank you for letting us come in today and sit down with you and open it up. You're still ready for some whiskey from a barrel. I mean, I think that's like the most awesome, the most traditional way to get some whiskey right there is from a barrel. We appreciate it. Looking forward to seeing some of your products out there. Hopefully our listeners that you know you're down in New Orleans, stop by here, grab some whiskey. They got a nice tasting room bar back here with their other products and stuff. It's not that far down from the French Quarter. Great places to stay. They have a great gift shop here that you can get some Glen Carons at, get some of their whiskey. They got t-shirts and stuff to say, hey, I was at 73 Distilling. And I'll see you on down at Bourbon Road. Our next stop will be in Texas, so that's the next time you'll hear from us.

I think it's been a while since I was in New Orleans. Sounds like you guys had a really good time down there. And, uh, I might like to try some of their Irish whiskey. You know, I've, I've got a little bit of a affinity towards Irish. I like it a lot.

Yeah. They, I guess until they're bourbons ready, you know, that's what they have to offer people is, is their Irish channel, which, which is another neighborhood there. Um, Irish whiskey, it's an Irish American blended whiskey. Um, but. I still think people should go over there and see them. It's a nice break from Bourbon Street. You know, if you're walking around the French Quarter in the morning, there's not a whole lot going on on Bourbon Street. Sure.

Yeah. Yeah. So we've gotten through three of your distilleries of a six distillery tour. So we're halfway through. This is probably the goodest place as any for us to go ahead and call it an episode. Yeah. And part A, I guess. And then we come back next week. We'll have three more distilleries.

Well, it was only supposed to be two. And I just happened to run into a guy in our bar in our hotel and me and him started talking and, um, everybody should listen to that. Cause you're going to get to hear about an American hero. Yeah. Um, something you don't hear every day or, um, just, To me, the gift of gab opens doors. So I think people want to listen in and hear the ending of this entire story.

All right. Well, Mike, let's keep sipping on our rich, gray, and high rye here, and we'll shut her down, and we'll see everybody next week. All right. All right. We do appreciate all of our listeners, and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show, and if so, we would appreciate it if you'd subscribe and rate us a five star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop on all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions. And if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.