This is our 15th episode of the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy. We will discuss using data in making whisk(e)y and the craft cocktail recipe - The Bourbon Milk Punch. This podcast episode features Whiskey Maker - Doug Hall and Whiskey Drinker - Tripp Babbitt.

 

Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy Show Notes

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

[00:00:27] New Data - New Learnings

[00:00:44] A Test - 18 Cocktails and 14 Whisk(e)ys

[00:01:08] Start with a Hypothesis

[00:02:43] Red Wine and White Wine Drinkers Have Different Tastes in Whisk(e)y

[00:03:52] 18% of People Drank Whisk(e)y in Last 12 Months

[00:04:51] Only 3.6% of Whisk(e)y Drinkers Drink It Neat (Straight)

[00:08:23] The Bourbon Milk Punch

[00:08:29] Step 1

[00:08:33] Step 2

[00:08:37] Step 3

[00:08:40] Step 4

[00:08:41] Step 5

[00:11:04] American Craft Spirits Association

 

 

Transcript

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

 

Tripp: [00:00:27] New data new learning to run this theme of data. And so this is your practical application of using data in the whisk(e)y business so that you can demonstrate actually how this stuff works. So what are you learning here.

 

Doug: [00:00:44] So last weekend we ran a huge test of whisk(e)ys and whisk(e)y cocktails. We had a huge group of people. They tasted them and we went to I don't know was 18 cocktails 12 14 whiskeys. Some people did both some people did wine and we did micro test states sent samples and so that they weren't drunk.

 

Doug: [00:01:08] We already took care of that. And and so we ran the tests and it's interesting going into the test because you know you have hypotheses of what's going to work and what didn't. And we found some cool stuff some things confirmed and some challenged some others and some have opened graded open questions that we don't know about. Okay so we found that our four core whiskeys actually appealed to different groups of consumers. And so there's a very different profile for the people that like whether it's the Edrington set of Relativity Noble Oak and Noble Oak rye. And and the smoke product or it's our Riverboat collection. Is this a very different profile to those and that so that was cool to learn.

 

Tripp: [00:01:56] So those are those four offerings then that you just mentioned is that broken out. Does it happen to break out by barley wheat rye and.

 

Doug: [00:02:09] Well there's differences in them but the big point is this it's these different people. So what happens is it's the light to new whisk(e)y drinkers like the Relativity product massively more in the end and the Noble Oak product really appeals much more to those who want richness and and and so a way to think about it is. And I'll talk about this in a minute which is red versus white wine.

 

Doug: [00:02:43] You know in a simple sense Relativity appeals more to white wine drinkers Noble Oak appeals more to red wine drinkers. The the rye product appeals more to IPA drinkers the stronger. I mean it's just very fascinating to see the dimensions and we've got more analysis to do what we're putting together a three dimensional profile we're running now t tests across them I'm putting the other profile but they are distinct and in fact the the way I say that they appeal to different groups is we took the appeal of the four and we ran what's called a correlation matrix where you compare them against each other. And the appeal of each product doesn't correlate with any other product so the people in general who like one are different than the people are like another and that's what it tells us that so. Well I mean what we're saying is is that they're different. And so that means they bring different customers in.

 

Tripp: [00:03:42] So when to be fair to say that they're kind of separating themselves into groups like you in your example of red wine versus a white wine drinker you try and different groups from there.

 

Doug: [00:03:52] Yeah there's psychographic to it and that cocktail trendsetter and different things like that. And we're putting together these profiles for them. But the neat thing is I mean it's like if relativity no below co correlated you know as the person who like one also like the other and who didn't like it like the other then you'd say well one of these products isn't needed because it's the same customer but they don't. None of the four correlate with each other. They're all different. And so these are different markets so we know this is a good business decision to have for products. You always look at it and you know do I really need those forms and when I can get rid of. No no. There are four different groups of consumers. The second thing we confirmed is while only 18 percent of people in the U.S.. And this is from a gargantuan study. OK so this is real data. Don't say it's not true. It's the fact. Only 18 percent of people in America in the last twelve months drank whisk(e)y 18 percent.

 

Tripp: [00:04:48] Is that any whisk(e)y whether it's Neat or mixed.

 

Doug: [00:04:51] It was. Anyway anyway. Okay. Mm hmm. Oh by the way 18 percent drink whisk(e)y 20 percent of those drink it. Neat. So that would be three point six percent of the American population trick. Let's just be specific there. Get over yourself. 90 percent have a whisk(e)y cocktail they love. So we had a bright group of people people that didn't drink whisk(e)y. And what we found is there is a cocktail that works for 90 percent plus and you know whisk(e)y puts a depth in cocktails that you don't get from gin or vodka and that kind of stuff.

 

Tripp: [00:05:28] Ok just for clarification is that 90 percent the 90 percent of the 18 percent or 90 percent of.

 

Doug: [00:05:33] The 100 percent.

 

Tripp: [00:05:35] OK. OK.

 

Doug: [00:05:39] And we were also surprised that and we've got to dig deeper into this. But there's a cocktail called the Sazerac which I don't think we've done yet.

 

Tripp: [00:05:47] Yes we have. Yeah we did.

 

Doug: [00:05:49] OK well Sazerac is a top I got to make a list of all the cocktails.

 

Tripp: [00:05:53] We need to put a cookbook together.

 

Doug: [00:05:56] And I know to do that I should start to put them pull them out but the Sazerac is a new orleans classic It's a very boozy cocktail but it's got a really good balance to it and against other boozy cocktails where they dropped off the Sazerac had a much broader appeal than I thought. And so it made me think that we've got to think deeper you know we can't just stereotype and say a boozy cocktail where there isn't you know it's not like a highball with a lot of liquid in it or something that's not going to appeal to non whisk(e)y drinkers.

 

Doug: [00:06:27] It is possible to get them but you've got to have more balance to it. And this there's a balance that's in the size right and some people like the liquor store. Some people don't. Which is a different issue but there is there is more potential for cocktails than we understand.

 

Doug: [00:06:42] So we have to think about now surprise. And that was a surprise. Another surprise is that so we have this dream to create this whisk(e)y wizard that guides people to the right whisk(e)y and cocktail and you know that we would add some people at the ranch to saying this is never going to work. I mean it's this way. It can't work. But we found that some things you'd expect like frequency of whisk(e)y drinking preference for Scotch versus bourbon. Very different profiles of the products that people drink and things like that. And then we found some things that I would not expect the red wine versus white wine that I talked about that literally sent you I mean literally the four products I talked about. You're going from white wine to deep red wine. All right. You know the big carbon ace. I mean it's almost like I can ask you what wine you like or what kind of beer you like. And I can tell you of my four whiskeys which one you should try it is spooky. It's the same thing with whisk(e)y trendsetter. We asked people Are you asked for ideas and advice on cocktails. And sure enough that will point you towards different ones. Do you like hot and spicy food that's going to point you to certain cocktails. I mean interestingly hot and spicy food.

 

Doug: [00:07:59] There's a there's a famous Cocktail in New Orleans and again in New Orleans great drinking city. Brennan's brandy milk punch and the team the Brain Brew crew did a twist on this where they did a bourbon milk punch but when you use half and half. Which I'm going to talk about in a minute. Well let's talk about.

 

Doug: [00:08:23] The Bourbon Milk Punch where we replace the brandy with bourbon and.

 

Doug: [00:08:29] And so we'll take an ounce and a half of Noble Oak bourbon.

 

Doug: [00:08:33] Two and a half ounces of half and half the cream.

 

Doug: [00:08:37] An ounce of cream of coconut.

 

Doug: [00:08:40] Shake it.

 

Doug: [00:08:41] And then put some shaved chocolate on the top of it. You know just great some some chocolate bar into the top of it and and so you know the bourbon milk punch brandy milk punch is classically simple serve in vanilla and place a simple syrup and vanilla. We use cream of coconut. In fact Lydia Carson of the Ranch actually invented this thing that we were doing and and it and it's amazing. And people who like hot and spicy loved this cocktail right now I'm thinking they need the cream to cool down the heat or something. But you know and I would never guess that I would guess that people that were like hot and spicy would like the smoked whisk(e)y I would guess that.

 

Doug: [00:09:26] But I would never have guessed a bourbon punch and it was also the number one cocktail with non whisk(e)y drinkers. And I would never have gotten there. They loved it. In fact during the tasting what happened is we happened to make up an extra batch of it. And and as we're going around we had this big room of people I don't know 70 80 90 people are not like that. And so we're serving them glasses out at the bar we're making this stuff up. And I went by the tables and I like three of the tables I said you got any more that one you got any more that one. And I went out and I guys got him. Oh yeah. We made an extra batch. I bring it in and they literally passed it tabled or it was popular. It's it is killer and I would tell you craft distillers out there make the Brain Brew bourbon milk punch make the bourbon make punch try it try it tonight if you do nothing else. I don't care if you hate hate whisk(e)y. Get yourself a nice craft bourbon.

 

Doug: [00:10:24] I'll always going to support the craft guys or get our Noble Oak bourbon which comes from a craft company in partnership with Edrington get the Noble Oak and some half and half cream of coconut and rock on man.

 

Tripp: [00:10:37] I mean it's kind of it's a laugh to try that one too. I'm just. Just a note. It was episode 9 or newsletter 9 that the Sazerac recipe was talked about. So folks want to go back to that. They can go back to Episode 9 and listen to the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy segment or they can listen to the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy podcasts and get it from there. One of the two.

 

Doug: [00:11:04] I also when I mentioned to folks I know there's a lot of folks in the craft industry or there's people that are thinking about creating their own whisk(e)y. We will be in Minneapolis for the Craft Spirits Association is having its annual conference in there. It's called American Craft Spirits Association ACSA. It's a six annual conference for distillers and that's in Minneapolis the 10th 11th and 12th of February. Oh wow. And we'll be there. The Brain Brew Crew will be there in Minneapolis. We've got a we've got a booth there and we'll be talking to folks. And if you'd like to connect love to have you come by. That's 10th 11th and 12th. The ACA ACA as a stylish conference in the Hyatt Regency regency in Minneapolis.

 

Tripp: [00:11:58] Ok. We'll be sure to put a link out there to that in the show notes then too. Very good. Well this was interesting. We went in to quote things I'm sure we're going to revisit some of these things on data as we go into future newsletters and and episodes of the podcast. But no I do go we got we got a little of everything there we got the oh the issues associated with the data the fact that it's out there and now we also got using the data you know applying it to the to the whisk(e)y. So very good.

 

Doug: [00:12:39] Excellent well the whole year the whole year we're going to be focused on data. That's my focus. OK. Let's get smarter

 

Tripp: [00:12:50] Have you ever thought about owning your own craft whisk(e)y business. Well subscribe to the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy because in 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 podcasts will take you behind the scenes to learn the good bad and the ugly about what it takes to create whisk(e)y and the craft space. Which is growing at a crazy rate. Lessons learned can be applied broadly.