Off Profile - A Highly Spirited Conversation

We sat down with Ari Klafter at Thornton Distillery to talk about what it actually takes to make whiskey worth waiting for.

Ari walks us through Thornton's American single malt program, from choosing specialty malts and distilling off-grain to harvesting Illinois peat along the Mississippi River. We get into whiskey terroir, why grain flavor deserves more attention, whether consumers actually support the craft producers they claim to love, and how barrel selection can completely change a spirit.

We also explore Thornton's evolving solera cask, upcoming experiments with unusual barrels and a potential cigar blend.

And because this is Off Profile, we somehow end up discussing a Prohibition-era gun discovered in the distillery, a questionable World Cup analogy, and what happens when you record a podcast underneath a dripping well.

A highly spirited conversation about whiskey, patience, experimentation, and a little bit of chaos.

What goes into making great whiskey, and what happens when an experiment goes completely wrong?

We sit down with Brett Connors, the Whiskey Wizard of Castle & Key Distillery, to talk about his journey from giving distillery tours to blending whiskey and developing some of the distillery's most interesting releases.

We get into the reality of making whiskey, from throwing away their earliest distillate to experimenting with unusual finishing casks, including a rye that went from tasting like Robitussin to Cherry Cola.

Brett also shares the story behind Roots of Ruin Gin, why Castle & Key's unique warehouses produce such different flavor profiles, and how blending for other brands helped shape his approach to making whiskey.

We cover:

• How Brett got started at Castle & Key and became a blender

• Why a distillery's first barrel isn't necessarily its best

• The experiments behind Castle & Key's finished whiskeys

• How Roots of Ruin Gin was created

• Why warehouse conditions can completely change a whiskey

• The challenges of creating whiskey that's both delicious and commercially viable

• Why Brett believes Castle & Key's rye is its best whiskey

A conversation about experimentation, learning from failures, and the work that goes into making the spirits we love.

Off Profile: A Highly Spirited Conversation.

#OffProfile #CastleAndKey #BrettConnors #Whiskey #Bourbon

Angela D’Orazio has spent most of her career exploring what happens when you push whisky a little further.

Before becoming Master Blender at Compass Box, Angela spent nearly two decades helping build Mackmyra and working in an environment that gave her enormous freedom to experiment. That included everything from green tea to an AI-assisted whisky project with Microsoft.

We talk about what it was like leaving that world for Scotch, why she initially felt like an imposter at Compass Box, and what she wants to bring to a company already known for challenging convention.

Angela takes us through blending, transparency, Scotch regulations, building flavor profiles years into the future, nearly 50,000 casks moving into a new Compass Box warehouse, and the balance between science, consistency and leaving some mystery in whisky.

We also get into her friendship and work with Nancy Fraley, slow reduction and élevage, introducing bourbon drinkers to Scotch, unusual collaborations, and whether enough data could eventually create an AI version of Angela herself.

Or, as we eventually decided to call her: Darth Angela.

Drew Black built Circle City Whiskey from the perspective of a whiskey enthusiast first.

Before Circle City, Drew ran a large Indianapolis whiskey club focused on barrel selections. That eventually led to private-label releases, a launch that briefly outsold Tito's at one of Indiana's largest liquor chains, and ultimately the idea of bringing the Scotch independent bottler model to American whiskey.

We talk about why sourcing became a dirty word in American whiskey, why Drew believes great whiskey at a fair price matters more than where the still is located, and how Circle City approaches transparency without inventing a heritage story.

Drew also breaks down how he learned to blend, the months-long process behind the Robusto Blend, his 50/50 Club concept, why he loves working with MGP, how too much information can sometimes work against consumers, and the strange role mystery and lore play in whiskey.

We finish with Drew's long-term vision for Circle City, including why he has zero intention of distilling and why he's building the company specifically for whiskey nerds rather than casual drinkers.

For our first Off Profile conversation, we sat down with Jacob Rippetoe of Dark Arts Whiskey. We were still figuring out exactly what we wanted this podcast to be, so this one turned into a pretty loose, wide-ranging whiskey conversation.

Jacob takes us through his path from Castle & Key to Journeyman, where he helped finish building a distillery and get production running, before eventually joining Dark Arts.

We get into blending, finishing, sourcing, what makes MGP so consistently good, how Jacob learned to blend from Brett Connors, and why the whiskey going into a finishing barrel matters just as much as the barrel itself.

We also talk about Dark Arts getting into distilling, experimenting with gin and botanicals, dusty whiskey, ideal ages for bourbon and rye, and where American independent bottlers go from here.

It is a little rough around the edges, but that is kind of the point. This was conversation number one.