This is our first episode. We will discuss the importance of Aim (or purpose) and the craft cocktail recipe - The Gold Rush. This podcast episode features Whiskey Maker - Doug Hall and Whiskey Drinker - Tripp Babbitt.

Show Notes

[00:00:04] Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy

[00:00:59] Distillery - It All Starts with the Aim

[00:03:25] After Aim - Meaningful Uniqueness

[00:05:17] Whiskey with and without an "E"

[00:05:40] Proof and Percent Alcohol

[00:06:06] Tribes

[00:06:29] Bourbon Does Not Have to be Made in Kentucky

[00:09:10] Craft Cocktail Recipe

[00:09:30] The Gold Rush

[00:10:48] The Gold Rush - Step 1

[00:11:16] Step 2

[00:11:24] Step 3

[00:11:28] Step 4

[00:12:01] Step 5

 

 

Transcript

Tripp: [00:00:04] This is the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy podcasts where we're going to take you behind the scenes on what it takes to build a whiskey distillery business. The Eureka! Ranch team led by Doug Hall are creating a craft whisky company like has never been done before

 

Tripp: [00:00:26] Doug. I'm really looking forward to this Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy because I think it's going to be a whole lot of fun. You have the Driving Eureka! book and the Innovation Engineering system within it centers are a lot around practicing what you preach. So so in doing this you've created this whiskey distillery.

 

Tripp: [00:00:51] Share with me a little bit about how you've applied and what you're doing with the whiskey distillery.

 

Doug: [00:00:59] The beginning of anything whether it's a whiskey distillery or a new business or a new nonprofit or anything that you're gonna do it starts with the aim which is a famous thing that Dr. Deming if Kevin Cahill of the Deming Institute when he spoke at our conference at the Eureka! ranch he spoke for 45 minutes about aim.

 

Doug: [00:01:20] You really need to have the purpose why are you doing this. And it's got it. It can't be to get rich forget it. It's never gonna happen. You've got to have something that really becomes your rallying point as to what you're going to do. And ours is built around two things. It's built around a premise that everybody deserves their own whiskey and that there is a great power in enabling local entrepreneurs around the world. And so our business is going to be unique in that we're using we have a time compression technology that allows us to make whiskey very very quickly in 40 minutes we can make amazing luxury spirits but that nobody cares about that. What we're doing is enabling you so that every individual can make their own whiskey every bar every restaurant every wedding can have it. And instead of us building an empire we're gonna do it through partnering with local distilleries and breweries and entrepreneurs who want to start their own whiskey company all over the planet. And so I believe that the future is local. And I get a lot of excitement out of enabling that entrepreneurial spirit and the joy that I feel when I've made my own whiskey and I share my whiskey with people. It rocks man it rocks and I want to bring that same joy to everybody. You don't need to get Jimmy and Johnny in a Johnny Walker and Jimmy Beam's whiskey anymore. You can have your own whiskey and I think everybody deserves their own whiskey. Whatever you're trying to do whether it's a whiskey distillery or something else you have to figure out first why are you doing it what's the aim. What are you trying to do. What's the thing that's going to generate your excitement. And and that's really the beginning for for any thing that you're gonna create.

 

Tripp: [00:03:12] So one of the things that you talk about in measuring new products that are coming out is this concept of meaningful uniqueness. And so how does that play in this Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy business.

 

Doug: [00:03:25] Once you've got your aim now your question is is you gonna have to develop this idea and you're going to have to take it to whoever are your customers and make sure that they see it as meaningful unique that it makes a difference in their lives and in our case what we did is we took people through a personal whiskey experience called The artisan whiskey experience where you taste wheat corn rye in Bali Old World New World and craft style so twelve whiskeys then you put together your own and we teach you we take you through a process. So it's not hard to do. You can do this and you find the one you like. And then we ask as you people a week later after we gave them a bottle they get the bottle the next day and we check to see what did they think of it. And in our testing we use zero to 10 scale and meaningful and uniqueness and we wait them five is the corporate norm. Six is good. Seven is outstanding. We got an eight point nine the highest score ever in nearly 40 years of testing that I've ever seen on an after use product. And people say Yeah they liked it because it was theirs. I said DA that was the whole idea. So the second thing after you've got your aim you've got to quantify that you're things right and we're gonna talk about that a lot in this podcast of ways to do this but you got to make sure that you're not delusional that your idea is is real and the people can do it. And that's got to be something that's going to be never ending by the way it's going to be never ending work to keep making that bigger and bolder and more meaningfully unique.

 

Tripp: [00:04:56] Ok. Very good.

 

Tripp: [00:04:57] And so just maybe a little fun thing but but something from my perspective which is I would not consider myself an expert on whiskey at all. You know I know the difference. Let's say you know I know scotch now. You know probably five years ago I probably didn't. That scotches is made in Scotland.

 

Tripp: [00:05:17] There is also this difference between whiskey with an E and whiskey without maybe you can talk about that a little bit but then also what's the difference between you know is there is there a major difference between us a Scotch versus an American whiskey and is there you know and how does bourbon fit in there is that a whole separate family. These are all things that I think are basic questions.

 

Doug: [00:05:40] Yeah. So real simple whiskey is spirits of 40 percent alcohol or 80 proof that are made from grains wheat corn rye barley and others. Rum is spirits made from sugar cane Brandy is spirits made from a fruit based oftentimes wine and tequila is spirits made from a Garvey.

 

Doug: [00:06:06] Ok so so they're all spirits and whiskey is like the higher name. And then from that you've got territories or I say sometimes tribes if it's made in Scotland according to Scotland's rules it's scotch if it's made in America according to bourbon rules. It's bourbon. No it doesn't have to be made in Kentucky.

 

Doug: [00:06:29] Kentucky likes to say that really. OK. All right. If it's a lady in whiskey it's made it. Let me give you that. You think he was. Yeah. Oh yeah I got you.

 

Doug: [00:06:41] And if it's if it's Irish whiskey it's made and if it's Japanese whiskey it's made OK so those are just some things what's happened in the industry is there's been a lot of a breakup into tribes of I'm this and I'm that our Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy custom whiskey logo uses the e we put parentheses around it to be agnostic to it. Because in Scotland they spell it without any in the USA spell it with any in Ireland. I mean it's all different. And the minute you say that it says what you're going to what tribe you're going to be part of. And we just don't care. I'm talking about grain based Wood aged spirits that can taste amazing that are this ultimate thing to sit with friends and enjoy in amazing cocktails which is sacrilegious to some but it make you know what can a cocktail. I mean why the freak bother. I mean forensics can't taste anything whiskey on the other hand in the varieties of whisky make amazing depth to cocktails and just take them up a notch or enjoy it on the rocks or or enjoy it neat and and so that's what we are is we're open to all of those things and that gets to the second part of one of these decisions you have to make at the front is what once you defined your aim the next thing you're going to have to do is to set some boundaries on it and now those boundaries will shift but you've got to decide are you going to be a distiller or are you going to be a blender.

 

Doug: [00:08:11] Most whisky that you get in the world is distilled in different places and people put it together that that's the case for more brands than you would imagine they'd do that. And there's nothing wrong with that. OK. Your crafting a product input and putting that together at the distillery. They have a whole bunch of barrels and somebody puts them together that's no different whether they come from the same place or for places that you put together. You're still the whiskey maker. You've got to decide are you going to be local or are you going to try to be national. I mean you've got to set some sense of boundaries around it to give you a little bit of discipline or else you'll be bending forever. You don't have to keep them there. You can change them. But setting up your aim and the boundaries strategic and tactical. We're to spend a maximum of X amount of money you know etc. You got to set some of those and with that you can start to get going.

 

Tripp: [00:09:10] Well let's move on to the next segment now we've reached a lighter portion of this podcast where Doug picks a particular cocktail that he wants to feature. And so Doug wants to tell us a little bit about not only this week's cocktail but a little bit about the thinking in this segment.

 

Doug: [00:09:30] Yeah. So for each of these podcasts and in the newsletter we share a cocktail and cocktails are experiencing a massive resurgence and some of them are historic such as this one which came from New York's Lower East Side at a bar called Milk and Honey and it's a it's a modern more complex twist on a whiskey sour which which is a which is a classic drink. And so we're gonna share. Each week we're gonna share with you a new cocktail don't stress you look at the show notes you can get the recipe there so you don't have to write it down while you're driving. And so we've got that there and there'll be some of them will be simple and some of them will be more complex but the world needs more cocktails I think because it's five o'clock somewhere. So the Gold Rush I learned about it actually because in the competition. So we go into a lot of competitions with our Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy whiskey and we've we we've been very fortunate. They they've been extremely nice to us because our products are musically unique and so we get very very high ratings. Most recently the cocktail for testing whiskeys was the Gold Rush and I go Geez I am being No.1 Gold rushes. So I contacted the competition and they gave me the recipe and then we've played with it and got it to where we want it. And so this is how you make it.

 

Doug: [00:10:48] First thing I have to do is you don't have to make up what's called honey water and this is kind of cool because there's so many craft honeys of so many different taste characters. It's kind of endless permutations you can do but. You basically mix a 50/50 blend of honey and water. OK so take a half cup of each and put them together. Stir that up sometimes you have to heat it a little bit for it to go into solution but it doesn't take much. And then I keep it in the fridge. And so it's what I've got it.

 

Doug: [00:11:16] So then to make the cocktail you take a glass. I usually will use like a rocks glass put some ice in it.

 

Doug: [00:11:24] Add three quarters of an ounce of the honey water.

 

Doug: [00:11:28] Three quarters of an ounce of fresh lemon juice and that's key. Don't be using the bottled stuff. I've tried. It doesn't work. You got to use fresh lemon juice. Okay. Don't be messing with me I'll come get you if you start to use that bottled reconstituted crap. This is craft spirit. You use fresh juices. That's what killed the cocktail scene quite frankly in America where corporations use crap. They used to make it from real stuff. They went to crap and people stopped drinking them. So cocktails are living today because of fresh ingredients. So fresh lemon juice.

 

[00:12:01] And then two ounces of whiskey. Now I use our relativity American whiskey which is available in the Boston area. I would suggest that you go find a whiskey you can use a bourbon but find a local craft spirit that you like. I'm just I'm gonna support the craft world because that's that's that's what we're into. But find a craft one that you like and then stir it about a dozen times or so and then enjoy it. Now if you want sometimes depending upon where you are. I'm just gonna bring this up right now because there's a tendency for cocktails to get bigger and bigger. And I said two ounces of whiskey which is how I drink it. In truth a shot is an ounce and a half but the industry has moved to two ounces and sometimes even higher creating more whiskey forward cocktails. So you've got to find out on all the recipes we do. Do you like it in an ounce and half do you like it. Two ounces.

 

Doug: [00:12:57] We're also working on session cocktails which are gonna be three quarters to one ounce. So basically kind of like half cocktails that were there we're putting together you just got to get the mouth feel up in that and to go do it. So that's all it is. And it's refreshing. I think you're going to find it an amazing people that don't like whiskey. Love this cocktail it's a great way to bring friends in and you never think of whiskey as refreshing but there's something about the honey water plus the lemon and the whiskey they together create this a chord that is just absolutely amazing. I mean if you showed up at the Eureka! ranch at our distillery and you walked in and you say certainly whatever you want it's much more often than not it's going to be that I'm going to the cocktail that I'm going to make you will be Gold Rush.

 

Tripp: [00:13:50] Ok. Very cool. That's interesting.

 

Tripp: [00:13:54] I to try that to mix something together and then see how that how that tastes and be sure to use all the fresh ingredients of course. All right. Well that could make that entire first episode. Doug I if we get claps and cheers or something for completing our first one.

 

Doug: [00:14:13] Yeah. This is fun. This is this is gonna be a ton of fun. It's an adventure of a journey having done some radio shows and that over time. It's just wonderful. It's wonderful. It's gonna be a neat thing and I really love the idea of being able to take the thoughts and go deeper on them because while I love writing I hate the fact that the world is becoming so tiny in the amount of words you can do.

 

Doug: [00:14:40] So this is just a wonderful forum I think to bringing it up and thank you for your your questions to help. You're forcing me to think and it's always a good day when you think well you always make me think so.

 

Tripp: [00:14:53] Back at ya. Yeah. Very good. Well that concludes this episode 1

 

Tripp: [00:15:06] Have you ever thought about owning your own craft whiskey business. Well subscribe to the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy  because in the early 2019. We'll be offering opportunities to start your own business whether you are an aspiring entrepreneur curious about innovation or just like a good story. The Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy podcast will take you behind the scenes to learn the good bad and the ugly about what it takes to create whiskey and the craft space. Which is growing at a crazy rate. Lessons learned can be applied broadly.